Aldi are our core (have been for ~4 years) but must mention BM Bargains and Poundland both offer some surprising value on a few items. If you can get to one easily pop in and see if you find anything on your list (no fresh stuff). 6 soft loo rolls for £1 is hard to beat.
Using an investment to repay a mortgage isn’t necessarily a bad idea but investing in something that someone cold calls you about almost always is.
+1
I haven’t done it myself, but ‘Social Lending’ looks worthwhile investigating. No investment speak mumbo jumbo, just a return %, length of payback, risk etc.
eXotics on eBay come in 39, 42.5, 44.5 and a 29er length Axle to crown.
The best product I’ve found is £136 carbon bladed number on bikediscount.de, 40cm. These are all to fit my 1&1/8th not 1″ sorry.
Love a good crank thread. I heard wiggo uses different crank legth for climb stages (long) to time trial (shorter)?
Agree with Ahwiles and other: “gears for leverage, crank length for ‘fit’.”
Don’t forget another property of crank length – saddle-arse clearance when descending a trail. I’ve moved from 170/175 to 180 on all my bikes, perception of benefits in order:
1) Lower saddle height / less drop to bars / more comfortable
2) Saddle clearance (ride a xc hardtail with 27.2 sp…but a dropper negates this)
3) Efficiency of stroke / range of motion as crank closer to 20% of leg length.
6’2″ with 35″ inside leg
Another 6’2″ dwarf here but my 6’6″ mate rides a large stanton HT with 150mm forks, riser bars but a regular stem, the saddle drop is less than 10cm.
OP How have you determined your saddle height? Started with .885 of your inside leg? I’ve reduced the drop on my bikes through 180mm cranks (5mm lower), cleats at the back of the slots (5mm ish), raising the front and using an fit calculator – note it takes a few weeks to adapt to each 5-10mm of change. Hope that helps.
Interestingly Nino Shurter seems to have a very modest drop, I’d say 6cm…
6 weeks, eughpf. Doing a fell race next week seems beyond hope?
Woken up with improved muscles and increased soreness. Not concerned about spleen as impact was on right not left and urine normal.
111 said to go see the GP today so that’s the plan, some tranquiliseresque drugs could be good to bring forward driving / lifting mini digger again.
Thanks all. Haven’t got the nastier symptoms listed. Yet. Breathing is ok really, though I expect to be wincing tomorrow. The scan for vertebra fractures sounds wise but I don’t expect any, the worst part area is just below the shoulder blade and round to the side.
Have made it from sofa to loo to bed whic was sketchy as back and ab muscles were close to cramping.
Will send Mrs D to get diclofenac tomorrow on the way t a&e
Apologies for posting from my non-sweet tooth armchair, but I find this fascinating from both a nutritional and psychological POV.
Nutrition – I believe your recommended daily max is 90g of sugar (Carbs ‘of which sugars’ on labelling). This is not a target, there’s no physical health downside to avoiding all sugar (but keep eating complex carbs) that I’m aware of.
The way people talk of will power is usually ambiguous, with respect, this thread’s contributors included. Will power is temporary, you want a longer lasting fix.
The last thread and many of the useful contributions are giving you ideas to try which may be wholly successful however I highly recommend this book, watch the video first perhaps, to enlighten you on why you have a conflict/battle in your head that needs to overcome. It also gives you ways to change your behaviour to what you want it to be (i.e sensible snacking).
Warm downs are overlooked, I find a few lunges and squats immediately after a hard ride do a lot to make the legs fresher for the next day.
Your stats sound more like energy system issue though. Feel a bit ropey on Tuesday? A donut and a banana before you set off on day 2 could make a big difference.
I’ve been looking at cross bikes recently as have a similar desire for a bike that can do mostly road and a bit of off road.
The planet x Viner strada Bianca, currently full carbon frameset for £1k, has been tempting me. I think the main difference of a gravel bike to road or cx is longer chainstays and slacker head angle – longer wheel base. Note it has a 142mm rear hub like new mtbs.
“Why wouldn’t you just run a 29er mtb frame with slicks?”
You could. I do this for my commuter. I guess the reason not to is if you want drop bars you need a shorter top tube than a mtb, so there is enough stem to slow the steering.
Interesting thread, I’m surprised similar travel bikes get used happily be some. 5 years of owning just hardtails and mainly riding the 29er scandal now with 120mm trace.
My dream fs 29er shortlist is quite refined, only 140mm+ and 67.5 or slacker tempt me, e.g. ibis Ripley. To be distinct
I use a 29er Mtb with 32mm ish tyres. I had drops on it when I did a 30 mile commute but now I do 7 miles across urban area – much prefer riser bar for last second stop-go decisions crossing roads. Road bikes are for long rides with few interruptions IMO
Krypton,
There’s a whole other sport (and probably more i don’t know about) where you have a much better chance of podium glory on your MTB:
The terrain can get surprisingly technical in some regions (I do welsh ones but I bet the Peaks are good for MTBO). You need to think on your feet which adds another, rewarding/frustrating, dimension.
I’m racing the Gorrick XC this weekend and expect to be bottom 1/4 of the Sport field but my motivation is knowing just getting to top 1/2 would probably make me equal to some of the best MTBO riders…
Decathlon do running vests, I like mine.
I also really liked a Haglofs bum/waist bag but lost it :-(
…It was much better designed to sit still (even with 500ml bottle etc in) than an inov8 bumbag i’ve got.
Don’t know how much one cup is but Eddie hall eats 150g (dry) Porridge to kick off the day. I’m up to about 125g (5 x sachet equivalent) and tend to put 1 Milk 4 water, bit of butter and pinch of salt (700 cals). You need a big container to avoid a messy microwave…think salad bowl. I’ve always been 3-3,500 cals a day, try to not eat too much crap but also always on a budget.
Regarding eating too much the problem might be the chimp knows you have a calorie debt and feels ‘everyhthing’ must be consumed to plug it. Chimp Paradox
I’ve had bouts of spasm in the last few years, perhaps not as bad, but seemingly brought on by a combination of cycling and other things.
I’m less vulnerable to it now due to one main factor – changed bike set up. I recommend competitivecyclist.com or a local bike fit – moving the saddle down and forwards and the bars up has worked for me.
I’m also reading ‘Becoming a Supple Leopard’ which I believe is an excellent guide to understanding why we get injured and preventing injury.
Re the bio monitoring – we have an Angel Care, its a sensor pad under the mattress which has an alarm should it not detect movement for 10 seconds or so. Works well, even at 6lb baby weight the sensor could pick up breathing, no false alarms. You can turn down the sound transfer so snuffling is removed. They aren’t cheap…13 months still using.
Ok thanks all – I’ll reverse it, rotate correctly and give it a whirl. I think superstar only introduced oval very recently, I was about to splash an Absolute Black.
Increased stamp duty will encourage Buy2Let’ers to buy in the cheapest areas (up north) as it will be more tax efficient to buy say 2 x £50k houses than 1x £100k? This could put upwards pressure on house prices and downwards pressure on rents in these areas?
Sounds like you need biopace http://www.sheldonbrown.com/biopace.html
“Bouncing in the saddle generally results from difficulty with changes in leg direction, not speed in the middle of the stroke. Thus, as Biopace makes it easier on your knees, it also can help you spin faster without bouncing! ”
Remember standard Road cranksets and standard MTB cranksets have different Q-factors, lots of people seem to ride both without a problem. I found myself to be an exception to this as narrow road cranksets caused knee irritation. IIRC the difference is 17mm e.g. Shimano R – Shimano M.
Just ordered the Zenphone2 to UK, dealbest.com…can’t comment on whether its as good as its spec or delivery time as it hasn’t arrived yet. £155 inc accelerated shipping.
How old is he? If he’s under 18 then a frame too small for you sounds risky. I was 5″8′ when I was 15 and dad got me a bike ‘with room to grow’ (18″ frame) as he was 5’10”. Two years later I was 6’2″…
competitivecylist.com’s fit calculator can tell you your ideal top tube.
Re Quantitative Easing – I used to be very skeptical about QE and increasing debt until I heard Martin Wolf speak at Hay festival. He said the maturity of UK and similar economies means that private investment in infrastructure won’t happen on any large scale anymore, no one is building new factories etc; the government should use it’s ability to borrow at really really low rates to make infrastructure investments. I also recall the ‘economic recovery’ (which George likes to talk about) is based on the same private-debt driver which lead to the credit crunch, we (policy makers) need to find a different structure of economic growth. http://www.ft.com/comment/columnists/martin-wolf
With physical challenges its having belief in yourself and then determination not to give up when it gets tougher than its ever been before. Kudos to you Drac for doing that with your 100km walk.
All these sorts of challenges stay with you and doing your first one is the one which takes bravery, as the saying goes the hardest part is getting to the start line. The toughness is all relative to your experience/conditioning vs the challenge in question.
I did ToughGuy in 2010 and have been a challenge-junky since, I’d recommend both parenting and Adventure Racing to any STWers as hugely rewarding challenges. http://www.itera.ie/
I would spend more on wheels tyres and suspension before cranks, those have benefits you can feel.
I believe in the arguments for 20% crank to leg sizing for optimum pedal efficiency, but dont forget you get more saddle clearance with longer cranks which might be a reason not to switch down 165.
Scumbags! I had a protracted battle for a similar thing, be sure to ask for recording of the call to be sent to you, they only keep them for 60 days.
Keep at them, persistence got me a decent portion of money back then switched to Giffgaff, highly recommend them after a year or so.
My kenda karma 29er 1.9 was great on the rear, 610g. It died recently after 3 years and well over 1,000 miles. Volume was ok, very nearly as big as a 2.2 conti.
Slightly sideways question but has anyone ever cut holes in their under tray to make it possible to do an oil change with the tray still in place? Should be possible with the nut-style filer housing… or would said cheap plastic get torn up by aero forces? It would be great to be able to speed up oil changes as I need to do em every 5 months or so
Mostly the same car AFAIK – 2007 TDCI Estate Mk3 143-184k
DMF went at 160k, I recall 120-180k is typical on Mk3 could it really be half as long on Mk4?
The Mk4 is bigger overall and has a 70L tank instead of 58L Mk 3, so range better but weight means economy slightly down.
I’m able to get 600miles on a tank mostly motorway @80mph (5.8litres/62 miles).
I swapped 18″s for steel 16″s, around 4% fuel economy gain and only £75 a tyre (Goodyear)
