Totally agree with the earlier by geronimo and poterclough posts.Robin Cook was a man of principle Clare Short is a greedy career politician ( another mortgage cheat btw) with an axe to grind because she felt she never got the posts or recognition she deserved.She felt so strongly that it took her 3 months to resign!!! I am not pro war blair or anyone else just dislike hypocrits like her . " I was jeered at and told to be quiet " Yes but you still didn't feel strongly enough to resign did you." I felt marginalised" read I didnt get a big job or made to feel important. 😈
Tk2 probably the best off the shelf audax/training frame you can buy ( reasonabe weight, rides well and lovely quality finish), ordinary T is good too.
I have a friend who knows jez green ( one of his fitness coaches) quite well, I think he went to loughborough with him. And by all accounts he's actually very down to earth and very good company socially quite the opposite to the way he often comes across and as the media like to portray him. Sadly it makes much better copy to paint him as your stereotypical dour English hating Scot.
If you are going to ride from Glasgow to London I would really consider a bike that you can fit mudgaurds to and not race blades because they're shit. Some of the bikes recommended are great but not ideal for what you intend to do, they are bikes for racing not very long steady rides in the great British weather. Go for comfort and practicality. An audax/light tourer would be far better from a proper decent bike shop imo.
6ft6" and best part of 18 stone. Let's face it you're never were gonna be cut out as a grimpeur. Just keep riding and your fitness will improve it's simple but in no way easy ( training on the road is particularly good for improving cardio fitness). If a climb keeps defeating you try to attempt to get further up it before stopping than you did last time breaking it down to acheivable goals.
I wouldn't worry about it. You will get characters on here who will tell you they have the resting heart rate of indurain but probably half the fitness you have.
As far as I understand it regularly recording resting hr on first waking gives you an early indication of things like illness or over training. I suspect for most average riders resting hr is a bit like max hr is of no use when comparing fitness with others.
If your desperate for a columbus steel frame go ask some of the builders I mentioneed earlier Chas roberts builds mtb frames so does Brian rourke and Burls.
Sorry I must have missed the mtb reference in your opening thread I only saw you mention your old road bike 😆 People talk about lots of things on here not just mtb.
Most road frame builders working in steel use or will use columbus tubing if you ask them too. Chas Roberts,Bob Jackson, Brian Rourke, Steve Goff ,Woodrup ,Burls to name just a few. So not that niche really.
Thanks for the blog link stoner it was a good read. I hadn't thought about doing the route backwards. As for route Pete I really don't know although my current feeling is that I would prefer to do it walking rather than biking.