Hi, can someone clarify the amount of rear travel? It’s a 40mm shock? Thanks.

Pembrokeshire beach, New Year’s Day 2022:

I was told about not testing within 90 days by the local track and trace team. But looking on the web, all I can find is this, for 90 day guidance in relation to adult care homes.

90 day guidance

Having raynauds, this is one area of decompression and re-energisation that I’m happy to avoid. I admire those of you who can immerse yourself in these water temperatures.

I have courted with the idea and acknowledge that it is a process of adaptation. I am an open water swimmer, and whilst I have ventured down to 15C in a wetsuit, any lower would take extremely fine, incremental and very long term adjustments, likely (I’m guessing) much slower than those without raynauds or other circulation issues. So I’m not ruling it out, and I don’t discount the benefits to those who can withstand the training and the cold. But for me, there are other less stressful ways, such as meditation or yoga, to achieve desired results.

Please add me too.

Friday afternoon thrash around some mossy part of the FoD before there was talk of high winds and closing the forest.

So I was training all year for trail marathons, building up to it with a Lake District half marathon in June, followed by a 30 mile trail ultra in the Brecon Beacons end of July, then an mtb/kayak/trail adventure race first weekend of September. So felt quite fit. Started to feel really stressed, couldn’t figure out how to basic stuff at work, was wondering what was going on. That fuelled anxiety and stress at this ‘out of the blue’ brain fog. Seriously considered quitting job and industry as I lost all confidence. Got signed off with stress, assuming it was work-related. Then started to feel snotty and head-aches every night and couldn’t sleep more than a few hours. Kept checking for Covid symptoms but nothing unanimous and LTFs showing -ve. Then, four days after being signed off and feeling really rotten, noticed – but almost imperceptible – intermittent smell of something moudly socks. Like a basset hound I went off round the house trying to figure out where the smell was coming from (clean clothes on!). Then thought maybe it was C19, and lo, LTF popped up +ve in the way as mentioned above, sample barely touched the testing thingy and both bars were clearly showing.

Lost smell and taste that day (before I’d even got to the PCR centre). Lit an incense stick and couldn’t smell it at all. Food and drink tasted neutral. Although interestingly, the sugar/spice/bitter receptors on my tongue were still working, just not that actual taste of something. That was weird. Gave up eating anything tasty but also found that I could eat masses of chocolate because the overall taste wasn’t making me ill. All food tasted and felt like mush. A friend said the smell of diesel made him feel sick, although I didn’t have that experience.

Struggled to walk up a 100 metre hill I was previously doing multiple running reps up and down, just a few weeks previously. Chest felt really tight and had no stamina. Heart rate was mental. Normally 145ish on the running, but shot up to 185 (running max is 183!) so stopped running by then. Couldn’t do zwift at all, ‘cos legs were screaming and hr maxing out.

Tested -ve about five days later, smell and taste returned around two weeks later. Gradually building up fitness. Can just about handle a half hour zwift training session or a 5km easy flat run.

So yeah. That was just with one jab though. Had the second two weeks after recovering from C19.

I started the wrong way round. Stayed that way hoping that Zwift would sort itself out when the race started, but alas not. Instead I was pulled round in a long arc and by the time I was facing the right way, you lot had put ten seconds into me and there was no chance of catching you. Got bored of riding on my own, so dropped out. Then I did a turbo calibration and discovered the resistance was too loose anyway, which might explain why I wasn’t catching anyone. And that was my first race attempt since COVID six weeks ago and I still have a tight chest, so maybe it was a good thing to drop out. See you next time.

href=”https://www.gararock.com

Good mobility needed as it’s rugged and steep to get to the beach cove and coastal path. But if they just want to kick back and relax, this place is worth it for the views alone (and a feeling of being on location in a Bond movie).

Thanks folks. Been zwifting for years and got my ftp to the point I was snapping the ankles of B group end of this March. But after a break and back into it only recently. I could barely hang on to C group. This was my first STW zwift ride and thanks to JimW and one other we rode in group. I burned my matches at 0.4m, lost my steam and JimW jumped ahead. Absolutely knackered!

Apologies, couldn’t get back in time.

Same stock issues for me. Recently ordered a Petzl headtorch battery from the website, then it was cancelled a few weeks later; went to store, ordered via manager; this was then cancelled due to no stock; went back to store, different manager there, called the warehouse, who said they didn’t have any stock despite the website and in-store account showing they did have stock.

I hope you get your stuff.

When clicking on the six dots button on the top right, the top part of the black bar that appears on the left of the screen is partly obscured by the blue banner. IPhone SE (so might be something to do with the smaller screen?).

This is in addition to the point raised earlier about obscuring the text on the left-hand side.

Otherwise, a fresh looking, less clunky appearance.

Screenshot

Edit: after posting, my browser redirects to the previous page of comments not the latest page (on this thread with multiple pages).

Decided to have a go at a race longer than 21 miles, so signed up for the 14.45 63 miler. Fired up zwift. It needed to update. I find I always need to restart the laptop after an update, so I did that. Then the endless light blue screen of death: fill up water bottle, do this, so that etc. Finally ‘ride on’. Then logged in and sent to Innsbruck for my last location. Then zwift needed to go to the desert so changed worlds. Then hung while changing worlds. Restarted zwift. Then turbo wouldn’t pair. So switched off companion and turbo paired on ble (even though it’s ant+ and my dongle is ant+ and it’s been fine). Finally get into the race by which time everyone was gone. Switched to a different event. Did 15 miles, lost interest so climbed off. Bah!

Like this?

Roof tiles are rattling and clattering disconcertingly loudly here in the Stroud Alps. The wind is gusting quite enthusiastically.

It sounds like you’re zones are wrong, I don’t know how long the race was but it is highly unlikely (more like impossible) you would spend that long in z5!

It was only nine miles. I’ll have a look at the settings. I had a lingering lurgy so going to wait till I’ve recovered, then test again.

On the suggestion from here (Link) I did my first zwift race with an hrm, that being TdZ stage 7 yesterday.

According to the zwift analysis, I spent most my time in z5, with a little bit in z4. Seems like I’m riding too hard? My race average was 6bpm under my max hr. However, I was riding hard having moved up to C because my last two stages were UCG on ZP. I placed 88/194 in zwift, but 22nd on ZP.

No riding but instead hiking in the Brecons with some other mtbers, all taking a break from pushing bikes through mud.

What’s the HRM of choice here, that will connect either direct to my iPhone and Zwift companion or to the Bluetooth on the laptop?

I don’t need a watch as I’ve got a Polar FT4 which is only compatible with the specific Polar protocol on the HRM strap.

Tour de Zwift stage 3 race at 19.40 this evening was a bit of a work-out. According to zp, the top 18 finishers were all group B and out of the top 25, all were group B except for three A’s 🤔.

Wasn’t much fun at the lower end of C group as I was almost spat out the back within the first mile. Managed to claw back from 98ish to 89th overall, mainly through my supreme ability to climb, but overall a bit dull with no one around to race against.

The old one had a forum feel about it. You would get some interesting conversations going on around whatever was being sold or wanted. The new one doesn’t seem to get those; it’s just a dry buying and selling platform. It has lost its STWness where it felt like meeting up in the market square for a natter and grabbing a bargain. Part of knowing there was a chat is you could see how many replies there were, and if there were a few, you could stop by and gawk or get involved. Maybe you can do that on the new one but I haven’t seen it.

Got Gloucester half marathon on Sunday. Entered it straight after a half I did in October, hoping it would motivate me to keep up my running fitness through winter.

Nope. Haven’t done anything other than other things that interest me during winter, being zwift and indoor swimming. Will go along anyway and see if I can get round.

Anyone else doing it?

Cycle on the side of the cycle path relative to the side of the road that is driven on. Drive on the left hand side of the road? Ergo, cycle on the left-hand side of the cycle path.

Wearing all black cycling kit does not make it easier to spot a cyclist on the road, in the low sunlight, with no bike lights.

eMtbs are a worthy inclusion for specific areas of training.

Currently following the Gravel Grinder ‘training’ plan to keep me fitter than fatter over winter. In week 3 of 12, and seems like it’s a workout every day which is a little tedious. Need my recovery days more than ever, but could do with a gap of two days from time to time.

Thanks for those who give me kudos. Weeksy, just one question: have you got zwift and your turbo next to your office desk??

If we all do our bit we can do a lot more than our respective governements. If you start to do things it will influence people around you too. I’ve been inspired by others and hope to inspire.

+1.

Changed jobs a few months ago, turning a 40 minute (each way) car commute into a 10 minute bike commute. (Although I now endure car emissions 😷.) Yes I still have a carbon footprint, but a considerably smaller one. I hope that sharing this positive change with friends and strangers is enough to influence or inspire others to make some positive change for the greater good.

Oat milk for me (Oatly) due to low dairy tolerance. Good for taste and also seems to have the lowest environmental impact compared to the nut, soya and rice milks. The program on where our food comes from, did an episode on almond milk that is worth watching if you can find it. Just read that Provitamil is an oat milk produced in the UK, which would good for keeping freight miles down.

We had a 2012 ecoboost turbo 1.0. Main issue was the engine overheating and so the coolant was used up rather quickly and suddenly. This resulted in loss of power, so we limped to a garage, topped up the coolant and drove away with no further issues. The engine temperature light didn’t come on, but the engine warning light did, but then cleared.

Notice the massive fish mouth grill? One line of thinking was to deal with the cooling process that hadn’t been properly worked out on the previous 2009-2013 1.0 turbo charge model.

“The OP seems to know the cost of everthing and the value of nothing!”

As I said, I don’t have an issue with the labour charge as I was paying for that experience applied through the labour charge.

I was questioning whether I should be charged for the individual items as single items, or whether the lbs could be using bulk buy.

If £50 is the going rate, then fair enough, I got a good deal. My question was more to do with whether a customer should be charged for excessive wastage and whether or not workshops normally buy in bulk.

CFH, shortbread, I wrote a long post to give the necessary background to assist those who provided a considered response. Sorry for wasting five minutes of your day …

I went today with junior_d. Shame to be indoors as it was a nice day. First time since going many years ago when MBUK was the best magazine around and Jo Burt drew a little picture of mint sauce and coleman the cow for me.

Was disappointed there were no bike stunts (but I knew that before I bought the tickets; still, what’s a bike show with no bike stunts?). The £10,000 Titici marathon xc with the 8mm top tube and carbon linkage was the standout bike for me, closely followed by the 3D cut frame with no down-tube with anodised cherry-red finish over the joints and built-in lights; the custom sparkly purple Marina; the original Yeti Arc; and the retrobike stand hidden in the corner. Also the Titici brand ambassador is Dave Hemming so that gave it some old-skool MBUK-kudos.

The Ribble stand was impressive, particularly the sparkly paint jobs. Lots of gold SRAM Eagle on a lot of bikes and so it felt like SRAM has won the day on that (even though Shimano has a more prominent stand). Noted the Shand fat-bike, but other than Surly I didn’t spot any other notable fat-bike stands, which was a shame.

Lots of boiled sugary sweets for junior (don’t really get that at a cycle show. Should be more healthy stuff) and lots of energy flapjack samples to graze on. Which was nice. Best deals seemed to be the Oxford bike company and a few samples hidden away near the ebike demo area. Also observed that a lot of saddle companies were there but other than Sella, there seemed to be no way of testing them.

I’ve lived in Cheltenham, Gloucester, Cirencester and now Stroud for the last seven years, so I feel Stroud works for us. Really disagree with 5thElephant’s comment, unless it was tongue-in-cheek.

You say ‘Stroud’, but as I soon learned, what most people mean is the Stroud valleys (as mentioned above), because it’s a collection of villages, some of which have merged.

Stroud town centre has lots of mini roundabouts that tend to be where the congestion forms. Worth considering if your route is going through the town. If you’re west of the town, then you could cut north-west through Stonehouse, or sit bumper to bumper on the A419 all the way to the M5.

Exploring Staunton Woods yesterday evening, which was nice. Then on the road today exploring the lanes between Chepstow/Magor/Newport and a detour to the coast. And then my saddle bolt snapped and I had an hour road ride requiring a combination of standing up or sitting on the top tube, whilst trying not to accidentally impale my posterior.

Ok, thanks. That narrows the stories theme down a bit.

In the context of this, what’s a JRA? (I used to work in a bike shop; I don’t work there anymore).

They ended up back at Fairford. Maybe it was a quick dash across the pond to get some Hershey’s.

If it’s possible to remotely lock it and send a message, it should be possible to change the ringing volume.

I like the idea of phone tracking, but not that Apple are therefore tracking me to add more data to their big data.

Presumably passenger door or window open in order for photo to be taken. No proof that the sausages are being cooked at that point. There is no danger.

Thanks for posting. Ticket purchased. Prob won’t do an overnighter but curious about where you’ll go. Camping on the common with the cows??

Hi folks, thanks for all your comments 😀 It’s opened up a whole new world of research. I get that off-the-shelf ebikes will usually be better, but my question was specifically for conversions.

Tja has been the only one to rise to the challenge of posting his/her conversion. Anyone else willing to post their conversion pics? Geex, I couldn’t make out whether you have done a conversion, so if not, maybe post your off-the-shelf ebike pic for scrutiny and comparison?

In terms of what bikes, it’s a 10 year old Ridley road bike with carbon stays (a thought: would carbon stays be affected by torsional twisting from the motor?). The mtb is a Trek Remedy 7, with the specific question being converting that type of frame design.