All round workhorse

Long summer sunday rides

If you think Swinley is SE of London then you might find it is much closer to you than you think 🙄

I thought Greenwich was the only royal park in SE London? Don't know about bikes routes though?

I would be tempted just to change the cassette to a 9 speed roadie cassette so your gear ratios are much closer together?

I got my comeuppance yesterday when I ran over two dogs going around Richmond Park.

I wasn't going particularly fast (~15mph) and the dog's owners, both runners going around the park in the opposite direction were encouraging the dogs to race each other so in the end they just ran straight into my front wheel head on and I didn't have a chance to avoid them.

Not sure why in such incidents the cyclist always seems to come off worse and badly bruised whereas the dogs seem completely oblivious that they have just been hit by a man and bike which must weigh 4 or 5 times what they do.

Perhaps not an option for all but I have recently moved to a "temporary" 90% contract – providing me with every other Friday off work.

I can't say I am using it particularly productively – not really riding any more, not doing any voluntary work, not writing a book etc – but it does seem to making a difference in terms of the time I seem to have for myself and reducing my stress levels.

Yet to be seen whether I will really miss/need the extra money – but I find it hard to believe I will ever go back to working full time

You will need to know the box dimensions from the seller. Most companies have limits (e.g. senditnow.com) others like Parcel2go.com and Interparcel.com charge you extra (say an extra £10). If you can meet senditnow.coms size limits then its good value at about £12 and includes £150 insurance cover. Standard cover on most couriers seems to be only £50 and is pretty expensive to increase to any reasonable amount – perhaps not an issue on a 1991 bike!

Also it is nigh on heresy to take a photo of a road bike in anything but big ring at front and little sprocket at the back – its just not right 😆

Is it an all carbon fork? I thought some forks (Easton IIRC) recommended a max of 50mm of spacers. I assume this is a temporary measure until you have sorted the correct fit.

Never flown trans-atlantic with CO but flew regularly on them between New York and Houston for what seemed like every damn week for a few years when based in the States.

They seemed efficient and their service was friendly rather than surly which was my recollection of the handful of time I have flown with AA.

Their overbooking management was pretty poor but I suspect this is just the americans' approach to manage what are in effect just shuttle buses between major US cities.

IIRC you would be a lot better off eating almonds and brazil nuts – also not quite as more-ish as cashews.

Depression may be a possibility?

Thanks – I seem to have overlooked the obvious places.

If you are on the non-drive side looking through the frame to the inside of the cranks then to loosen them turn it clockwise. Assuming bike is the right way up

BuGGer this post is not going to be good for my bank balance 😆

I think Hadge's Merlin is just about the most stunning bike I have ever seen

If they are decent chaps they will refund you in full once you have returned the goods. It will be your responsibility to return the said items – and if they are really nice they will refund you your postage costs.

Or they may just ignore your emails and we can have a name and shame campaign which is far more fun for us but obviously not so great for you 😆

RichPenny – I was mightily impressed with my demo of the Naim Uniti albeit through a pair of £3000 speakers to replace my aging Naim set-up – although a hefty price tag of £2k.

Perhaps I am just a bleeding heart liberal but I thought the young guy Kieran got a pretty raw deal – pins in his spine, drugged up like Jacko and likely to be in wheelchair long before he reaches middle age.

Strikes me as a pretty short sighted view from our beloved Government and I would bet the performance measures take no account of churn with people leaving the benefits system now only to be back in it within 12 months.

Does it even matter within reason? Rode my last hardtail for well over a year knowing it was a few degrees out just never got around to tweaking it

Always – I reckon 9 perhaps 9.5 times out of 10 I get confirmation from a buyer.

No experiences – his name pops up a lot on bikeradar as "elephan"

Kinesis MaxLight XC is the most compliant Aluminum frame I have ever ridden – cheap as chips to. I was somewhat surprised by its springy ride.

I am increasingly coming round to the view that the sportive geometry versus the racing geometry is all a bit of a a marketing man's wet dream encouraging people to own two or more bikes

There seem to be brands that have models clearly positioned on one or other camps (Spesh, Felt, Cervelo). For example the Felt F series has very short HTs whereas as other companies like TIME and Colnago seem to be offering full on race frames with HTs of the similar length to the Spesh and Cervelo Roubaix and RS respectively which are marketed as sportive frames.

More and more I find myself drawn to Trek and its philosophy of Pro and Performance fit based around the characteristics of the rider rather than the intended use of the frame itself.

I would go to a bike shop where they offer a proper bike fitting and then based on that look only at those manufacturers where their geometries and sizings are a natural fit to your body.

I found Parcel2go fine until things went wrong and they damaged a bike in transit -at which point they reneged on their insurance. I was told it could take their insurers 3 months to assess my claim and then a further 3 months on appeal.

I now use senditnow. No problems so far.

Colnago EPS or a Trek Madone 6.9 customised via their Project One initiative. Neither are very likely though

I was interested in the lower end carbon scott scales. I think in 2009 they were the 35, 30 and 20.

Well I just typed "2010 Whyte 19 631" into google and the last link on the first page was "Exercising safely during pregnancy" so unless this is Whyte's take on a WSD then some links would be useful 🙄

OK – but I still can't see a picture of one that I may be able to afford 🙁

Yes but size small only – the later model with less obvious decals is still going at £299 – but I am watching it.

Probably not really what you had in mind – but it does say Whyte 19 on it 😆

All I got was the basic ESRC grant which was about £3.5k pa when I did it – that was close on 20 years ago though

Bontrager make some in 60 and 80mm valves but they are quite expensive ie close on £6.

slowjo – Member
Pretty large… I ride a 21" mtb.

I'll have a look at Terry Dolan sounds good.

OK unable to help

S/h – what size are you after?

Those shifters look to be in entirely the wrong position?

WTF is going on with the headset and spacers – looks like the steerer has couplings ❗

You are not alone.

I have also had three this year (no swine flu yet). Mine thankfully remained viral so no anti-biotics. I took a course of oral steroids which quickly resolved the effects of the first one – but docs were very reluctant to give me further courses within a matter of weeks.

I doubled up on my steroid inhaler for a couple of weeks and that did the trick. Fingers crossed I seem to have been OK for perhaps the last 6-8 weeks

My problem seemed to be the viral infections triggering asthmatic episodes rather then just hacking and coughing for eternity.

I don't normally suffer and never used to think twice about colds etc exacerbating my asthma until this year

Yes – that's what I sold you for your Massi 2 years ago and you didn't require the mechs 😆

Can I also join this club – I am almost embarrassed to go out on my race bikes at the moment now as I have lost so much fitness from being off the bike and off work for 3 months earlier in the year with severe Depression and to add insult to injury I have now put on a load of weight due to the meds.

It seems now that I am regularly overtaken by people on hybrids – last week I thought it was a fluke when some stunning girl overtook me on her hybrid but then I looked at her amazing athletic legs and thought OK fair do-s, ces't la vie etc but this morning it could well have been the postman.

LB I think you really need to speaking with your GP about either trying a different medication or how best to taper off the Dosulepin. There is some very good advice above (bar one)

It looks as if you have not been on ADs for very long only 8 months – so you may need to simply face up too the fact that it may be that it is just too early to come off them especially if the underlying issues giving rise to the depression/anxiety has not resolved itself. This is not to say you will need to be on them for the rest of your life.

I am no expert but if the underlying problem is dealing with your austic son then that may respond well to CBT or other psychological interventions. It would certainly provide a therapist a clear handle from which to work with you. May be worth raising this with your GP.

There are many other types of anti-depressent drugs and the more modern SSRIs(Citalopram etc)and SNRIs (Venlafaxine) are marketed heavily for the treatment of anxiety. In theory they have fewer side effects or at least are portrayed to be better tolerated than the older try-cyclics (like Dosulepin). They are not necessarily any more effective – but are much safer in overdose.

Good luck
Gary