Is there really one correct answer to this?

There’s a bike shop near me that for some undefinable reason I don’t particularly like, I don’t know why but … However, it’s convenient and I’ve been in for small sundry items: cable anti-rub patches, that sort of thing and they’ve just gone “no charge so long as you come in again and buy something” which to be honest I have done and continue to do so.

Bricks and mortar shops have quite a lot of fixed overheads that have to be paid for somehow and those costs can’t be paid for simply by once a month someone walking in and buying a £3K bike. If I went to the above shop with a wheel out of true and asked them to fix it then that takes time so if they don’t charge me for that time then they need to recoup it by charging someone else a little bit more.

Do I “showroom” (try stuff in the shop then buy online?), very, very occasionally but equally if I see an item on the web let’s say for £100 and the shop has it for £110 then I’ll often just get it from the shop as I may have to take a bit of time off work or other hassle to take delivery of it from the web store so it’s swings and roundabouts.

Getting a shop to do something for you rather than doing it yourself? Well if you work out what your time is worth it might be surprising: take your annual salary (or wage) and round to the nearest thousand; divide by a thousand then divide that figure by two. This gives you your approximate hourly rate. So if you are on the national average salary of £26K your hourly rate is £13/hr. It’s up to you to decide if what the LBS charges for a job is worth it in your particular case.

Bi-carbonate of soda is reasonably effective for absorbing smells.

Personally I’ve never been a fan of Goretex shoes/boots as water gets in but can’t get out.

If everything is totally soaked then remove insoles, laces (if they use laces), get as much air in to them as possible. Modern leather shoes/boots usually have manufacturer specific coatings or are impregnated with some solution to “improve” water resistance and the like but regardless of this you need to dry them slowly. With the current fine and hot weather simply leaving them outside (if you have somewhere secure to do so) for up to 48 hours will sort them out. Obviously this means that if you want to ride during that time you need a spare set of shoes.

Perhaps it’s up to us all to keep rights of way clear. If we each did a metre or two when out riding then things would be a bit better. It does depend on how many people use a particular path though – if there’s just one person a week going along it then it’s going to get overgrown no matter what.

Might be interesting justifying carrying a scythe to the local plod! 🙂

Ah, forgot about Claife Heights, though I’d avoid it on weekends due to the Beatrix Potter crowd.

another set of rides would be the bridleways to the south of Garburn Pass and SE of kentmere – Stavely – Green Quarter – Longsleddale – Sadgill – Kentmere Hall – up on to Applethwaite Common then down the three rivers. Generally steady gradients (a bit of a push up from Sadgill though)

Edit – just seen where you are based so the above is at the opposite corner of the Lakes! Yes the Vertibrate guide

You don’t say where you’ll be based but if in the south then there are some good rides on the Blawith Fells to the south of Torver and also further east in the Winster valley. Get the VB guide to the Lakes, it has these in.

Do you have access to a shower at work? I find a rucksack creates a lot more sweat when riding to work than using panniers or a saddlebag.

As others have said, look at some sort of rack pack. This http://www.carradice.co.uk/index.php?page_id=product&under=type&product_id=57 should be able to take a laptop (providing it isn’t a huge thing). Yeah it looks naff but it’s for commuting 🙂

A walk around Buttermere (the lake not the village) would be pleasant and not as busy as further east. Good pubs in the village as well. You could extend it by going up to Scale Force (tallest waterfall in the Lakes) as well.

Mountain biker in poor handling skills shock!! 🙂

It’s small town/reasonably rural round me so perhaps folk aren’t as bad. Depending on my route to work I go through between 14 and 30 sets of traffic lights and/or pedestrian crossings both morning and night. In the last year I’ve seen three cyclists RLJ and can’t remember if I’ve seen any motor vehicles RLJ.

You are permitted to go through amber lights if you are so close when they change to amber that stopping would likely cause an accident.

It seems to be standard practice for cars to jump red lights now. I find this a bit irritating that cyclists get all the stick for this.

Is this London village you are talking about? See very little RLJing by anyone up here in the north. The most common traffic light misdemeanors are: encroaching on the advanced stop zone and not indicating left.

As a sweeping generalisation, the beaches on the south of the Lleyn are close to the road and busy, those on the north are a bit of a walk (maybe ten minutes) and quiet.

Worth going up to the ancient hill fort on yr Eifl which is on the north easternmost point of the peninsular near Trefor.

Looks like Tiernan Locke Ebayed his kit earlier in the year.

You can get EPO on the cheap off ebay now? Cool! 🙂

A lot depends on how you view and use credit. Being somewhat old-skool I might buy something on my credit card but pay it off in full when the statement arrives thus using the 0% interest period to my advantage having gained all of 0.5% / 12 interest on the sum in the meantime.

Credit is also useful for helping with short term cash-flow especially if a genuine emergency crops up: relative who lives abroad dies and you need to buy plane tickets get to the funeral sort of scenario.

Where credit is bad is using it to fund a lifestyle that you can’t sustain. Unfortunately a lot of people use it this way and even more unfortunately a lot of businesses rely on people doing this.

Rules #9 & #5 apply.

No, it could mean that your cardio-vascular system is more efficient or that your arteries aren’t furred up as much as the other person.

While measuring your heart rate has many useful uses (a significantly raised RHR before you get up can indicate the approach of some form of illness or over training – for example), comparing it to those of your mates isn’t one of them.

Two ways of knowing when you are getting fitter:

1. You do a set exercise (Richpips’ loop for example) in a better time whilst keeping the same heart rate or in the same time but with a lower heart rate.

2. After a set exercise your heart rate returns to normal quicker.

Here’s a rad suggestion:

Head up in the evening after the daytime ban finishes, bivvy on or near the summit of Snowdon, then in the morning ride down. Take as much or as little bivvy kit as you feel comfortable with.

Miserable cyclists = miserable people ….simples

Fixed that for you 🙂

I’m 24hours behind the highlights as I’m putting the kids to bed when it’s on ITV4

There’s ITV4+1 you know 🙂

If not treated it can affect your liver.

I’ve had it, not nice. Flagyl treats it effectively (five day course from memory) but avoid alcohol whilst taking it and for a few days afterwards unless you want the hangover from hell 🙂

Good: The atmosphere, the closed roads, the event. Seeing lots of kids on bikes.

Bad: jobsworth policeman shutting the road 2 hours before the caravan (dunno why)

Ugly: my hangover.

So you spend several sessions trying to “clean and jerk” the front end off the ground, all the while fighting your own body weight? Not the best way to learn other than learning that’s not the way to do it.

If you managed it fine first session then good on you but not everyone can/does and having someone point out what you are doing wrong in a friendly manner is no bad thing. Plus it’s their money and if they want to take lessons who are you or I to tell them not to.

I find it tragic that people think you need to see a coach to learn how to manual. For many reasons.

Why?

The technique is somewhat counter-intuitive and to my mind usually described in the wrong terms, i.e. push vs pull on the handlebars when it is really a shifting of your centre of gravity in relation to that of the bike’s. Your CofG has to be over or slightly behind the rear axle in order for the front end of the bike to rise up, if it’s in front then no matter how hard you push or pull on the bars the front wheel will drop back pretty quickly. So while people describe the action as “pushing on the handlebars” as if that is the main action that isn’t really what’s happening.

No, the road shuts to all traffic from just before the caravan to when the last car goes through (or when the cops say it’s open)

I’d imagine that you’ll be allowed to cross from one side of the road to the other though.

Roads (the route itself) close at 6am to motor vehicles and half an hour before the caravan comes through for bikes and will reopen once the last of the press, support cars etc come through – I think there’s some sort of official “That’s it folks” car.

The big problem is the parking restrictions for many of the roads leading on to the route – there’s lots of signs saying you’ll get towed. In some cases the closures extend several miles. There’s an official road traffic order link that lists them – it’s a PDF

Start off steady, eat regularly and often.

One thing not mentioned so far is that going on one of the courses isn’t a “do and forget”, if you re-offend within three years then you can’t be offered the course again and the previous offence (which you weren’t punished for) is taken in to consideration. It’s a bit like being on probation for three years.

hora:

on the speed awareness course I attended there was a range of attitudes from the “I’m only here to avoid the points” to “I don’t need to be told how to drive” but by the end everyone was much more positive, even the Jeremy Clarkson type persona.

I was probably in the “avoid the points” category but I felt as if I learnt a lot, mostly the techniques demonstrated are about helping you avoiding breaking the law in future.

Since you’ve already reported it, his details will (should?) have been recorded so that if he does the same/similar again then he’s effectively “got previous” and the police will take this in to account.

I’ve been on a speed awareness course and I’d agree that it was far more useful long term than the “slap on the wrist” that a fine and points would have been. Like most, I’d not had any remotely formal training since passing my driving test many years ago.

I’d be inclined to let it go. He’s admitted he was in the wrong and, as you say, shown contrition so the incident will hopefully serve as a wake up call. Maybe suggest to the police that they might suggest he voluntarily attends a course. I don’t know if you can do such a thing though, it may only be for naughty boys.

I work on an oil rig..

What you want is a very fat bike 🙂

I’ve got a bike. You can ride it if you like.
It’s got a basket, a bell that rings and
Things to make it look good.

Perhaps best sung in the original manner.

May I ask politely…. why ? … Is the caravan that good? what is it all about ??

The roads will be closed to all traffic around 30mins prior to the caravan arriving. I’ve no idea how good or otherwise the caravan is as I’ve never seen it before.

For the bike:
1 inner tube
1 pair tyre levers
1 multi tool
1 set patches
1 CO2 cartridge and pump

For me:
shirt
shreddies
socks
keys
phone
wallet
food for dinner time
waterproof
(winter/wet weather) oversocks

Roads are shut to motor vehicles very early (think 6am or similar) but open to cyclists until about half an hour before the publicity caravan comes through, this is usually about 2 hours before the riders.

Note that not only is the actual route closed but there are parking restrictions on many roads close to the route so you may have to park some distance away.

Can’t stand milk (or milk based drinks).

I just get whatever fluid down my neck ASAP usually either water, tea or a 50/50 mix of supermarket orange juice and water. Food wise it’s anything that’s in the fridge/cupboards and isn’t high in sugar.

I see that the nearest Waitrose will be six miles away though. Can anyone advise what we should do if we need any smoked paprika or organic manchego in an emergency?

It’s Ilkley – Waitrose didn’t come up to the required standard 🙂

There’s a Booths which may deign to serve you.

A lot of the camp sites seem to be doing three night stays – Thurs – Sat, so it’s possible that many of the spectators will already be in place if you can only travel on Friday evening. Probably won’t make any difference mind 🙂

hat sticky grass stuff (that sticks to clothes when you throw it at people, like all mature grown ups do…)

I’ve always called it “stickybuds” but its correct name is cleavers – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galium_aparine

Strange isn’t it how “better” means different things to different folks: did Minton Batch and thought “Is that it?” Hardly any different to many a section of trail. Cut Gate is good but I wouldn’t say it’s as good as Bowderdale.

To those who reckon Bowderdale isn’t particularly good – what English section of trail do you think is better? We’ll leave Scotland and Wales out of this for the moment.