The fastest I remember was 53mph measured on one of those old cycle computers, on road (steep hill off the back of qecp towards buriton) when I was a kid. Nowadays 50kmh is my limit (on and off road).

Good luck! Back visiting my folks on the South Downs and wishing I had a bike (and didn’t have a bloody thigh strain), looks like perfect riding conditions today

When I got my one-up, they were posting out free 16t cogs as well which made one -up the obvious choice IMO.

Be running flawlessly since September using sram cassette/mech/shifter. I notice the jump between 36 and 42 but otherwise good

We have this. F-ing annoying. There’re little pellets which smell rank to them and seem to work, but you have to put more out after heavy rain.

Also curry plants smell strongly and keep them away.

When you get too old to care about sunburn and heatstroke! I know I look like an idiot in one, but I also know I act like an idiot when I have too much sun and get grumpy!! More practical than other hats for active outdoors use in summer I reckon. Not sure I’d wear one in February though

Hmm, I’ve got the xc ones on a build from JRA and think they are excellent. True as can be after 6 months of riding in pretty rocky terrain averaging 100km a week. Tubeless was effortless with schwalbe tyres, first time I’ve tried tubeless too. Maybe they have qc issues as I’d heartily recommend the xc version.

Yeah I was keen to try these but they were really narrow, to get them wide enough had to go up a size and then there was significant heel lift. I normally find shoes too wide as well

I won’t lie I do like to see myself moving up the table but I am a competitive person by nature,rather than times segments I usually work off the whole ride,segments just make it fun

Likewise, while I enjoy seeing the different segments, the thing I’m most interested in is my average speed over the ride. I’ve definitely noticed that going up over the last year since I started cycling again and using strava.

A better question would be why the f… people think its wrong to be proud of a strava time. You put in effort and you improve, whats not to be proud of?

I’ve got KOM on quite a few climbs by me and I’ve been dead chuffed everytime I’ve got one as I have done quasi training (hill reps when I can be bothered etc) this winter and it shows the pre-dawn riding is worth it!

Agree its nothing like racing, I’m within the top 10-20 on a fair few climbing sections at afan next to names I recognise from the elite/expert categories of xc racing but yet I get absolutely smashed in sports cat when it comes to real racing.

Take all the bikes that have the spec you want (obviously this isn’t going to be exact, but close enough)
Add up the values of all the bikes in your sample
Divide by the number of bikes in your sample

You have your ‘average’, the ones that don’t fit within a couple of standard deviations either way are ‘a bargain’ or ‘overpriced’

or the bargain ones have a naff frame

I’ve always thought those seats are crazy too, but I agree probably the backpack is not any worse – in fact I’d go so far as to say it may be better. If you do loose control and fall of it makes sense to me that you’d be less likely to hurt the baby if it was attached securely to your back rather than the bike: if you come off, the bike will definitely fall over and the baby strapped to a seat will topple with the bike and almost certainly hit it’s head; if its attached to your back you’ll probably end up on your hands and knees and the baby may not hit anything.

Don’t think I’d do either though…

Pie wise steak and cheese is the best.

Dough nuts are undoubtedly the finest sweet baked good, but they don’t seem to be as good as when I was a youngster, the skin isn’t wrinkly enough and so you don’t get as good a coating of sugar.

I would vote in.

Let us never forget they paid for a big chunk of Bike Park Wales too!

And a lot more in Wales beside. The amount of funding parts of Wales and other rural areas get from the EU would never be matched by a UK government.

Election results have been rigged since they set out the electoral wards. I have nothing against snp, and a lot against ukip, but I heard snp got 1.5 mill votes, ukip 3.5 mill and yet ukip have 1 seat and snp 50+

Our constituency was taken from labour to the Tories by 25 votes, that would be easy to fiddle!

Hoping the yougov poll is on the money!

Two jerseys, two bibs, socks, gloves, overshoes, arm and leg warmers, rain jacket, etc… Then there’s training kit.

This is why I have been doing so badly at racing, I have one pair of bib shorts, one jersey, and a smelly old fleece to keep me warm before the start.. even worse, I sometimes train in a normal t-shirt if my jersey is dirty!

And arguably, as the vast majority of cyclists don’t cycle naked, clothing isn’t a race specific expenditure.

18 months interest free finance at £50 per month to buy my bike, save that in petrol by no longer driving to work everyday.

When that credit agreement runs out I will probably get another interest free one to upgrade the forks.

I particularly like the fact that he needs £500 on clothes. Is this to fit in with roadie haute couture?

However, I’ll show this to the wife before I buy a new groupset!

edit. vinnyeh – £500 on clothes is low? I get that roadie clothing is super tight and so a bit more expensive but presuably you just need one pair of shorts, a top and the knowledge of how to use a washing machine??

First post from a lurker

I race in xc style Lycra with a camelbak and a bell super trail helmet. Yes it’s not xc-cool and I probably look a bit odd but I’ve only got one helmet and I’m used to riding with a camelbak so why change? So to the op, I reckon if you are more used to a camelbak you may as well use one.

I’m regularly lapped as I’m slow and sport gets set off 30s behind the elites and experts in the races I do and people have always been courteous in asking to pass