http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natasha_Richardson

But I am sure there are hundreds of people who fall over and don’t die. Just like on a bike.

I protect my head cause it earns me my money.

Dom

IT’S ON!

Does he kneed on your knee? If so this is a good thing, he is showing how happy he is to be adopted by you :)

+ 1 Yossarian

I didn’t realise quite how polarised one can become in a debate in this forum!!!

If you’re happy and you are running do whatever you want.

Can someone please explain to me why using a cushioned trainer (irrelevent of cost) is BETTER and therefore MORE ADVISABLE than learning to run without shoes?

ron – I’d personally go with some barefoot ones…… I don’t really know what else to say, barefoot all the way!

When the shop gives you your feedback ask them why whatever they say is a problem / positive. Get them to explain themselves with reasoned argument. Don’t take what they say on face value.

Legs are a beautifully engineered system of springs of levers, in my opinion anything that reduces your ability to use them in that way is not a good thing.

I have to admit I haven’t been running at all over the last week :( But if the snow comes back whilst I am in Newbury at the end of this week then I’ll be doing a couple of runs then.

How much running did you do in them? I dropped down to doing about 10 minutes at a time when I first got them, I am now running about half an hour or so outdoors and a bit longer on the treadmill. But that depends on how fast I set the thing going.

I’d like to point out that I stop when my calves adn feet start to hurt. I’ve been injured enough over the last 11 years that I have learnt to listen to my body and not push it.

The down side is that I don’t often get the all over workout lungburn feeling I used to get when I used to do longer runs. Just feet and lower leg ache.

I have these: http://www.vibramfivefingers.com/

When I bought these I had spent somewhere up to 3 – 400 quid over a period of 6 years on trainers ranging from around £20 to well over £120 a pop. These were just another attempt to avoid shin splints, the only one that worked.

Damn.

I’ve been drawn in.

nohands – HAHA!

To be fair the “bare foot” shoes are horrendously expensive! I paid over a hundred quid for mine for some reason.

However you don’t need them, it depends how hardy you are, I am a southern softie and I like my tootsies!

We had this discussion a while ago.

Here is a link to the thread: http://www.singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/any-runners-on-here-why-do-my-legs-hurt

I’m not going to get involved in another internet debate, I stand by what I said on the thread and will merely say if you are new to running then start out minimalist because you’ll be starting from scratch anyway. So starting slowly won’t be anything other than what you should be doing anyway.

If you are not and you are prone to injury (Which it sounds like you might be, why else are you getting your running assessed?) reign it in start slowly, with every step think about how your foot is striking the ground. Consider the forces your body is experiencing with every foot strike and whether the route of transmission of those forces through your body is the best.

Dom

Hmmmmm….

SO far without Fork, bars, grips, headset or stem I am well over budget :(

Looks like halfrauds is the likely bet, I’ll have a look and see what the local LBS’ have in store, would much prefer to support them than the frauds!!!! Cheers guys!

kaesae – I look forward to seeing what you come up with!

I’ve not been hugely impressed with what I have found full build so far, mostly due to the range of gears… Most are 21 speed, 11 – 28, don’t know about the Careera though it doesn’t say.

Unless gear range isn’t that important!

Maybe this is true….

I’ve been having a look at the Halfords bikes compared to similar priced bikes on CRC and Wiggle.

They seem to come out favourably, although this Ghost from CRC seems lighter…

Hmmm, thought it might be a bit of an ask.

I’m concerned with the running gear/forks going tits up after a few weeks of use and replacement parts being required.

Bike radar here I come!!

Unfortunately ideally it’d be a full build for around £250.

I’m taking him around some shops to have a look at stuff next weekend hopefully so he can see the sort of thing he can get for that price. Trouble is I can’t imagine any shop selling that sort of price band allowing us to demo it off road!!!!!!!

I’ll see what ebay has to offer.

I am gutted,

Was away for the weekend, expecting to finish on Saturday evening, when I got home last night I found I had sailed right past the finish line into South Africa :( :( :(

19454th

RUBBISH! Must do better next time!!!!! Bring on the 12th December!

To be fair,

The OP is right in some respect. The way that composites break is from the back face.

ie, if you took a plate and smacked it with a hammer, you would see all the damage on the side opposite to the hammer strike. The damage would be almost unnoticeable from the stricken side, unless the gel coat (the superficial vanity layer) cracked.

However the amount of energy (size of the impact) to cause this type of laminate failure is possibly (depends on layup etc) going to be far more than that required to produce a superficial dent in the aluminium. The difference is, metal structures deform prior to failure, composites don’t. They just break.

Because they are in layers, unless all the layers break giving you an obvious crack then the failed layers may go completely unnoticed until final failure.

I hope that makes sense, I tried to keep it concise!

I recently bought a x bike for my commute to work, took it out for a spin with my normal riding buddies last week, and was slightly slower down the hilly bits (off road), was no slower on the off road technical up hills or flat bits but was soo much more comfy when we got lost and ended up cycling 5 miles back on the road.

Not entirely sure when my MTB will next get ridden!

37cm…. God I’m bored at work!

Edit: 15″ for those who don’t work in IS Units.

Hi Onzadog,

I got involved in a debate on here a while back about the pro’s and con’s of running without anything on your feet.

Read the following information if you are interested.

http://www.barefootrunning.fas.harvard.edu/

It may or may not help you, but it’s worth considering if you are a complete running Newbie IMO. I am sure the guys who have put this lot together know far more about it than anyone on here. I don’t know of anyone who is trying to disprove these guys, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t anyone.

Dom

Nice!

What length forks are they?

Did anyone else think Martin Brundle was going to get killed by the King of Spain’s security?

I was sponsored by the MOD all the way through Uni.

I spent my summers working with various different groups of people all signed up. When it came to it I just couldn’t fight for what we live for now.

I couldn’t have led men who felt un-appreciated by society, I just couldn’t be involved in a system which expected these guys to give their lives for this country but took away everything that used to be considered a perk, I couldn’t lead them knowing that at the end of the day if the chips were down they would be left out in the cold by the politicians.

I have a huge amount of respect for those who signed up, I have friends serving in all 3 forces, but I am not a guy who will tow the line. The system is rotten from within (IMO) I have no time for policy makers, I have no time for the guys who are forcing efficiency savings onto our front line troops, or any of our front line services.

I think I did the right thing, but will always support those on the front line without question.

CrotchRocket – it made me smile :D

To me All mountain means a bike which is comfortable/capable of doing everything you would expect to do on a mountain bike. It just won’t be as accomplished at any one task as a bike specifically built for that sort of riding.

To me it means 150+ travel in a form which’ll climb like a mountain goat and be so good down hills that I can’t keep up!

I thought it was an impossible task, but having ridden a Nicolai Helius AM at the beginning of last month my interpretation is definitely a reality!

Doug, where did you get that image from?

I’ve properly ballsed this up :(

Still hopefully I’ll be better next time.

Massive Error,

Thought I’d try and pick up the stuff at the south, then realised I would effectively have to go below Africa and sail back up.

Balls.

Oh well, I guess I’ll be having fun tacking through the wind for the next few days.

AAAAAAAAAAARGH

Lost nearly 2000 places :(

I guess that’s what happens when you spend most of the day drinking :(

Drink Sailing guys – it’s not cool!!!!

Looks like a cross bike would clean up on that course.

Ask your missus,

If she’s anything like mine she won’t notice the change.

Sell the ones you’ll get more money for!

Can you go tuberless with that rim Stu?!

Doh. Getting hammered last night really did not help me. Although I do think I mostly got away with it!

When i woke up at 8 with groggy head,i was gutted. Then i found out i couldnt watch it live on my ps3 iplayer xperience cant use the big tv cause my mates sleepin in my lounge would kill me…

Balls i thought im gonna have to wait until this arvo when i want to be riding,balls and crap i thought.

And then i found the thread. Thank you naofreak for an amusing start,cheers pook for the vid, and thanks to the rest of you for making me feel like i’m there whilst playing ps3 games :-)

Shoe horning my engine back into me car, hopefully with a new clutch installed.

Contacting Genesis for some paint… scratched the paintwork on my Croix de fer… I’ve only had it since bloody Wednesday!!!!

Just joined, although accidentally started the solar one first!!!!

That’s what I bought my croix de fer for, although we have pretty good lockers at work so I am happy to commute in style! :D

+1 for Labour screwing up uni for everyone who needs to go to uni to get the qualification they need to do the job they want.

The stupid thing is that I don’t think that the students end up enjoy going to uni because if you now don’t have a first plus extra curricular bits on your CV you’ll never get an interview (that might have been possibly over the top).

Bring back elitism, bring back the opportunities for people who don’t have the mental ability to get a degree and get people earning money sooner!!!!

oh and we could probably allow teachers to teach whilst we’re at it rather than enforcing endless targets on them.

I haven’t actually weighted my croix de fer (Only had it since 5pm today :D) but according to the web it comes in at 26lbs. That is light to me though so I am happy.

So I bought the Croix de fer. It was the only one I could get a ride on and I knew if I got the one on the 30 day test ride from wiggle it would all go wrong!!!

Took it out for the first proper (if short) ride tonight. Luckily I am very impressed. Need to fiddle around with the handle bar position to find the optimum. But I am now content, its so much easier to hold speed than on my mountain bike which I seem to fight the whole way on the flat.

Hopefully gonna get some big miles in over the next few months beyond my normal commute to work.