Harry_the_Spider – Member

Ferrals… steer clear of the home made cake for a while.

She went out to buy cake making ingredients yesterday 8O 8O

you can escape to europe with just a photo driving license right?

I may also be on the hit – list:
My wife turned to me on the weekend and said she was worried she was getting a bit of a belly. I don’t like lying to her so said. “yes, you are, but if you go to the gym or go running more you’ll loose it soon enough.”

Apparently the honesty bit of having a healthy relationship should be taken with a pinch of salt :?

Having said I don’t like the look of the giants, that blue and orange is mint!

Massive thread hi-jack and highly tangential, but something I was wondering about, say you knocked a significant amount of weight off your bike, 1.5kg for example, could you run a bigger front chainring and climbing not be any harder?

Fwiw I agree with kerleys count the grams and the kilos look after themselves philosophy

I’ve been looking at cx bikes too, like the cannondale but as another suggestion I am highly taken by the ridley x-bow range (not that I’ve even ridden round a carpark on one just drooled over them) one is 899 the other about £1300

Edit: I know nothing about road or xc though so purely going on aesthetics :lol: I think the giant is rank!

If, in the spirit of the Tour de France, we can pop over the channel, there is nothing quite like fresh croissants, eaten in warm early morning french sunshine and washed down with strong balck coffee.

To be honest any properly bakery/patisserie made baked good is a marvel, a testament to human endeavour and intellect far surpassing such brick-a-brack as the Mona Lisa or Hamlet :lol:

Blade is worth riding. Bits are good, bits are ‘meh’ in my opinion but it does have a whole range of styles of trail. The final traverse/climb to ‘the rock’ is a bvgger on a hardtail, too rocky to really lay the power down. I find Blade more of a work out for its length than the others.

The wall is my favourite by a long way. Feels like its bedding in to be quite natural in a lot of sections

yum-yums are disgusting. It shows how low the once great bakeries of this green and pleasant land have come that a yum-yum should be considered good. Its a travesty of a cheap approximation to a doughnut. Real bakery doughnuts with a crsipy skin, real sugar and decent jam in cannot be beaten.

Or of course a pasty. Two particularly great pasties spring to mind: Philps pasties in Hayle for a bone fide cornish variety; or the pasties available from Ewenny post office, south wales, for a range of flavours. Steak and stilton being a personal favourite.

I predict that most of the crowd in to watch it are tory voters.

And care nothing for tennis.

Federer probably, but only as I’m in a pessimistic mood.

I liked the base colour better! The mauvy pink reminds me of those love heart sweets!

But whatever floats your boat…

The difference in BMX and skating is the culture is to session stuff as there is normally a good set of stairs in one place, a nice ledge in an other, or you are in a skate-park.

The culture of mtb for a long time was to get out and ride for miles, so is less conducive to session ing something, unless you go to some dirt jumps. I’ve pretty disciplined on fitness training but I never think to session things to improve my technical skills, I probably should though.

If someone wants to do a skills course good on them. Better that than call the air ambulance.

Nice one both to you and your lad.

I’m almost always disheartened after racing as there is always something you could have done better (unless you win of course!)

The thing I find useful is looking at the roots and rain website for percentages off the winning time, so long as that keeps going down I’m chuffed!

a cyclo-cross bike, I was thinking of getting a cheap second hand one for commuting on and off-road, decided cx commute will be the way to go and now I want to spend a grand on a shiny new one :-(

A new patio (next summers project)

Cheers.

When I get an hrm i’ll prob also get a holder for the phone for proper training rides, but for general use will be nice just to sling it in the bag. I struggle to have a feeling for what zones i’m in so will be good to start to get a feel for that over general rides. I quite often end up thinking “I could probably push harder” but then struggle to do so even though my heart rate doesnt seem through the roof – maybe i’m just lazy!

i had no problems whatsoever with the schwalbe tubeless easy tyres, just slipped them on set them in the middle and pumped up with a track pump, didn’t even need soapy water. I did try an old conti x-king though and there was no-way in hell it was going on!

I also have trace XC’s (27.5) and like them. Using schwalbe tubeless easy tyres i found getting them set up a doddle. No spoke issues and still good and true after 8 months of riding, no dings even running at sub 20psi rear. I only weigh 9 stone though.

Anyone using a Bluetooth le hrm with an iPhone kept in a pack on their back? I normally put my phone in the top pocket of my camelbak and reading the strava info it suggests Bluetooth signals don’t pass through the body well?

Cheers, can’t seem to get it on ebook, but as you can get it second hand for a penny I am going to give it a go :-)

epicyclo – Member

Sounds like you have inadvertently invented the “Furious Fred”

maybe I should try to sell the design to Schwalbe, there must be some performance benefit of the embedded brambles, I’ll propose it as the ‘Thorny Theobald’

nice shots!

Cheers both, I hadn’t realized that about carcass deformation.

I’ve pretty much come to the conclusion the new tyre is a better option, better safe than sorry and all that. It’ll will be interesting to see if I notice any difference. I think I’ll certainly notice increased braking, had got used to accepting very reduced effect of the rear brake (set loads of sphincter clenching PBs because of it :-) )

Doesn’t exactly have the prestige of an EWS round

Can anyone do the EWS then? Not that I have any interest or sufficient ability to do it, but given that you need UCI points to enter a world cup XC (and presumably DH?) you’d have though there would be some kind of filter?

Not sure whether the xking is as fast as a ralph but I prefer everything else about it, personally. Specialized Captain’s a good one, definitely slower than a ralph but quite a lot more grippy especially in the damp

X-king is more like a ron I think?

I switched from x-king rear to ralph rear and felt the ralph faster and no less grippy – but I switched to tubeless at the same time

honourablegeorge – Member

Buy Schwalbe from German sites. CHeaper than anything else

But don’t at the moment – massive postal strike, ordered a couple of tyres for next weekend about a week or so ago and they are still sitting in Germany. ended up just ordering from nextdaytyres.co.uk, order 4pm friday, email to say posted 4.15, arrived 10am Sat :-)

bensales

Faaaaaaark, onza porcupines were the bees knees when I used to ride a lot. In fact I only pulled a pair off my old bike last summer.

It would be great if they did do the full lap in real time, i do find the shortened previews a bit frustrating

For some of the A-cycling winter xc series preview videos from the beginning of the year, there was a little graphic on the side that gave you speed and also I think gradient. If they could include something like that as well it would be amazing!

wrecker – Member

I like the last bit least, I always find big bermy sections a bit like you are just on a rollercoaster holding on for the ride.

? The last bit is the rockiest bit. A few step downs etc. I’m not a fan of smooth “new school” stuff

is it? shows how little I remember when I’m riding, I rode it twice one night earlier this week and already I’m forgetting the section order :oops:

keep meaning to do the blue scar time trial, last time i rode it was before xmas when i was just recovering from IT band issues and I still got my PB so want to see how I get on fit

even for a pretty cr@p rider I think the aerodynamics is noticeable, especially on fire-road grunts. factor in a head wind and it definitely makes a difference. My bike has saddle only a cm or so above bars and if I’m hammering along a fire-road, i feel a hell of a lot less resistance if i drop my elbows and get into a more aero tuck.

I have also heard you can lay down more power in a tucked position

They need to do THIS at every round I reckon!

They normally do don’t they? but I can’t find one for Lenzerhiede.

Turf Locks near exeter would be a good spot if you’re prepared to stroll for 20mins each way. depends how much time you have. cracking spot if the weather is good. big garden for the kids to run around in.

this.

Exeter much nicer than Taunton imo.

If you are concerned about your child and dust/hair etc consider an Airedale Terrier. My folks had one as my mum was asthmatic and they are basically hypoallergenic! I think most short wiry coat dogs are though.
Very intelligent dogs and theirs had a great temperament with humans, occasionally a bit snappy with other dogs though. Never played frisbee with it, but it loved catching balls. Needs a decent amount of excersize too.

If I ever had a dog myself I’d get one. Though recently I’ve met a couple of Hungarian wirehaired vizsla’s which seem really nice, and sound to be an ideal family dog.

nice one guys. kind of re-affirmed my thoguhts. I don’t take things on and off very often so will probably skip lock-ons this time round. I’ll have mostly worn them out by the time it starts raining heavily again in autumn anyway!

[cue the wettest summer in living memory]

Yeah I enjoy the claudio previews. like the way he starts talking abotu ecologists, and then just decides he needs to speed up!

Is the XC course preview up anywhere? I looked for it but couldnt find it. Always seems to be loads of hype/build up to the DH but nowt for the XC, would be good if they posted a few photos of training at least

wrecker – Member

How much has changed?

About 80% I reckon. The best bits are gone. All very tame and smooth now (except the very last bit which is actually rather good).

see i never rode the old, but I like it especially sidewinder and deadsheep gully. I like the last bit least, I always find big bermy sections a bit like you are just on a rollercoaster holding on for the ride.

Agree better than B.S. For a warm up I quite often ride up to the blue scar turn off but rather than continue all the way to the top of penhydd, i cut across to sidewinder.

Taunton isnt great. What sort of lunch do you want, we had good pub food in a pub called the Farmers Arms just off the motorway on the opposite side to Taunton, probably just as quick as getting into Taunton though.

re. stuff for kids, my next door neighbours just been down with his four year old and raved about Dairyland (from the kids perspective not his!)

Massively mediocre rider, cheers, that’s What I did initially, but I spin out at times, guess I’ll give a 36t a go and if it’s to hard go back to 34t.

Cheers both. Adsh, you are probably right, my legs are caning this eve after last nights effort (although that is partly the mozzies) so will aim for shorter high intensity on sun and weds, plus a ride on thurs

1 by 10 for me at the moment. I will probably go xt 1by11 as I basically need to replace my entire groupset and it’s cheaper to do that than buy a cassette and an expander. I love the simplicity, the lack of cleaning caked mud from around the front derailleur and the weight saving.

For an 11-42 range do people typically sacrifice the high or low gears? I’m currently running a 34t front (27.5 wheel) but thinking of going 36t when I replace chainring.

o-t-b, sadly not, its more a case of one freak good result and not everyone having done all the rounds.

However your probably right, anticipation is making me over think things and I should stick with past routine

edit: plans to eliminate competition are noted! :lol: :lol:

Mountain bike only, bar the commute but even that is 2/3rds off road and done on a mtb.

I prefer riding natural stuff from the front door, but also enjoy trail centres. Good for when its been wet or just a change of scenery

I am planning on getting a cheap cx bike to speed up the commute but have no interest in ‘real’ road riding.