There’s a suggestion that the South Pennine Walk and Ride Festival coordinate a couple of days of trail maintenance in the area as part of the Festival – 7-22 September, with the excellent Bill Brady.

The idea is to get out and fix trails properly before the gravel-it-over brigade get to them.

Could be a very nice weekend for anyone who wants to come along – a day of riding and a day of digging!

I have emailed Katie Kinsella direct as I have a business in Hebden and we value all our customers! Will also raise it with cafe owners as they sell lots of cake to cyclists.

Nope. I am. Found my weekend lamb-sitter last night. So all is well!

I bought a copy of Tour when I was over there – really enjoyed it but it’s more CX / adventure biking. Featured a mad off-road race in Germany which I would love to do but appears to have been a one-off.
http://www.tour-magazin.de

Nice! :D

We’ve all been worrying. :D

Done it!

OK, so why were you letting the side down and putting it in the lift? Everyone knows that the only way to get a bike into an office is to nonchalantly sling it over your shoulder and saunter up the stairs. Noone bats an eyelid…

Good luck though!

I’m 5’8″ and I tend to go for medium frame sizes and like lighter bikes (I don’t have the power to weight to bike ratios of a bloke). Despite this the Gyro (I think a couple of pounds heavier than the bike I usually ride) went faster both up and down moderately lumpy hills. It even went faster than my CX bike up one hill. I was a bit non-plussed tbh.

Looked ok last time I passed it.

I noticed the same thing about the Gyro. I wupped my own QOMs by a couple of km/h without even trying on a couple of local routes and was surprised. I was borrowing the bike and have not really been that interested in 29ers (after all, as a lady, I only ever ride side saddle anyway) as they feel a bit big. I may be a (grudging) convert – the Gyro’s the first one I’ve felt comfortable on.

Took my Jake the Snake to Spain wearing slicks and he handled 500km of super road riding with aplomb. Back in Calderdale in knobblies he chews his way through Pennine bridleway equally cheerily. If I was buying new now though I would get discs.

Sounds great but unlikely I’ll have finished lamb duties by 6pm.

Any chance to do the Blue Pig should be taken though – whilst the road is closed it’s a great run down from Heptonstall without having to dodge the traffic between the two sections.

Hey! Let’s not forget that this another totally sexist bike industry initiative.

Girls need smaller frames. Those flipping big wheels don’t fit into smaller frames without looking proper comedy. I call paternalistic conspiracy to keep girls off the trails.

:wink:

Get some physio quick – I piled onto my shoulder in a CX race and had similar symptoms. It got a lot better on its own but then just wouldn’t improve more than 80%. I had some physio and wished I’d just got it at the start rather than waiting. Oh and don’t sleep on that side – it really helps.

46 – get the full suss and the skills course before you get any older!

I remember being 15 and going to a party thrown by my Dad’s research assistants (i.e. young post grads). As a 15 year old I was hugely flattered to be asked by a nice-looking man ‘which university did you go to?’. The responsible adults in the room pounced on the bloke in question and ensured that he didn’t get into trouble – and neither did I.

The difference between normal people and all the cases coming out of the woodwork – as I see it – is that there weren’t enough responsible adults saying ‘no, you can’t do that’ to the media idols and letting the culture slide into tacit acceptance and blind eyes being turned so that it seemed like a perk of the job.

At 15, wondering about the adult world and nearly getting into quite a few scrapes, I was lucky that men didn’t take advantage and there were people looking out for me. Things could have turned out badly but I’m glad they didn’t. It’s better not to have your faith in humanity smashed at an early age.

Oh, and Rolf Harris and Jimmy Savile both made my skin crawl. For what it’s worth. I just didn’t watch their programmes!

Sssshh. Some of us are working. :evil:

I will be sitting sobbing gently in my shop that I am working whilst everyone else is out having a fab time riding the very excellent course.
You lucky things.
Sniff.

Walsden! It’s on the Manchester side of Todmorden with its own station which is 28 minutes to Manchester Vic. It’s also 15 mins to get onto the M62 if you drive. And 22 miles to Manchester if you’re an uber commuter on the bike.

Prettier than Littleborough. House prices better value than Hebden. Trails just as good out of the door. Not cliquey or oppressive. And if you really want the Hebden experience you can go there for a latte. And leave.

Pop round if you want to go out for a spin on our trails.

*and whatever you do, don’t go for Bacup*

Get discs! They make sense. They can actually stop the bike. And you will wear out rims with cantis if you do anything gritty.

Genesis Vapour / On One Dirty Disco?

Get some physio for that hip – the sooner the better. It’ll be really helpful and it should be added to your claim.

Hope it is sorted soon :-)

Cheers for that :D

+1 for the Borrowdale Bash – a real gem of an afternoon’s ride, it’s just got a bit of pretty much everything from super tech, fun tech climbing to flat out screaming joy.

I’ve got these sheep…

I fancy it…. whether I’ll make the start with lambing is another matter…

Nearly! The Blue Pig was already fine by last weekend. London Road fine. Where were you thinking?
There’s still the odd bit in odd places – the bigger drifts are taking a while to clear but more melted today. Bit breezy out though.

I have just got a pair of Vivobarefoots and love wearing them. I’ve only done the prescribed short runs to get used to them so far – but it’s a really nice feeling being able to connect with the ground. Am working up to doing the usual 10km Wednesday night club run in them and then we’ll know…

BABY WILD BOAR
the cuteometer has blown…

Personally, I don’t really fancy a wife so I’ve got one with a cable.

(I’m a girl)

There’s an unnatural glow in the air and no flakes of the white stuff have fallen. How much this will affect the snow on the ground is difficult to know.

I farm up at the Mankinholes end of London Road and the deal seems to be that the fields are fine but the snow was blown onto any path, track or road and if just left to melt seems to be doing that really slowly. I’ll be giving riding a go tomorrow but expect it to be variable.

Here in Hebden Bridge there is a hush as we hide our eyes from its penetrating gaze. People are transfixed. There is wonder and terror in their faces. We know not what to do.

I used to be normal, and cycled to work in London. Occasionally it would annoy me that my chiffon trousers got caught in my spokes. But it was always the easiest way to get to work! If I didn’t want to get sweaty, I just slowed down. And I found that wearing lycra micro mini skirts were easily the best things for avoiding bloomers in the spokes.

Out of London, cycling between two towns daily needs a lot more attitude. Drivers are 80% great and 20% rubbish. But that’s a big number of rubbish experiences every morning! I completely understand why you wouldn’t be cycling along with small child in trailer round here (as my super-normal brother’s wife does in Germany). I wear proper gear as there seems to be more weather (although it also needs more organisation) and so including my make-up, spare clothes, laptop, extra cycling lunch, my cycle to work bag often weighs more than my bike. I have come to the conclusion that I have stopped being normal.

Some drivers just don’t realise. I have politely knocked on a window at lights and told a driver he was a bit close and had a really polite ‘sorry, I have only just got this car, I didn’t realise’ reply and then the biggest berth ever when the driver passed me. It’s not always the case but it really cheered me up after nearly jumping out of my skin when he passed me the first time.

The other thing they never realise is that you avoid puddles in case of hidden potholes (you do, don’t you?) not because of some sissy aversion to getting wet.

Love the tow rope idea! I got better pretty quick and can smash out a decent climb these days. But I remember being coaxed up hills and being taught to spin.

The Ibis is a borrow – luckily I’m 5’8″ so ‘borrowing’* the BF’s lesser used bikes is possible. *for this type of borrow you need to surround the bike with barbed wire and perfect that look for just in case it’s suggested that you might like to give it back.

In all seriousness, if I did have to buy my own bike now (after a couple of years of riding) I would probably get a hard tail for cheap/lightness as the confidence the Ibis has given me doesn’t depart if I have a go on one.

Don’t worry Solo… I’m in (in principle… I don’t actually need to lose weight & need some carbs for my cycling commute/sheep chucking lifestyle) but I point others in this direction with its ‘it works’ reports and the emphasis on change of eating habits and particularly not eating out of packets.

I’m enjoying the reports btw Ton. It’s nice to hear how things can get better over the long term and stay that way. There are always reports about diets not working and weight going back on but I worry that they’re very defeatist and put people who need to change what they’re eating off.

Get it as light as possible! We’re lighter than blokes to start off with (in the main) (and less powerful) so we need lighter bikes to even up the weight to bike ratio and not to be left trailing on the way up!

Feeling rubbish up hill was quite off putting when I started. Once I had that sorted, I got into going downhill faster. Now I like both.

I have got an Ibis to play with (I *need* it, ok?). :D

The idiet works because you need vitamins, minerals, protein and fat for your body to function. Carbs are basically extra fuel. If you don’t do lots of exercise, the other essentials are sufficient fuel. If you train you need more fuel. The idiet provides simple and good rules for upgrading your eating quality and cutting out rubbish ’empty’ calories.

If you are not particularly active the it is a great way to lose weight. My mum has got her blood pressure and weight back under control by following the basic rules. If you are training or doing lots of exercise you might need to look at something more complicated – Racing Weight by Matt Fitzgerald is a good book. It is about improving the quality of your diet and eating in line with your training. There are carbs in there but timed to fit with what you need and when.

Well done Ton.

Just over 200 mainly on the cx on and off road. Not great – a week off because I got a bad back *standing around*. That’ll teach me! :-)

Old!! I didn’t *start* mountain biking until I was 5 years older than you are now… love the fact that I’m learning new stuff all the time and do the odd race now and again. If you’ve done it before then you’re super lucky and it’ll all come back in spades.

Really sorry we’re down south as far as you’re concerned (Calderdale) otherwise you’d be welcome to come out with us. Just go for a spin, then another….