I don’t think you can use boosters with Giffgaff, even though they make use of the O2 network.

I have a Vodafone booster and it has worked perfectly. Gone from just about getting a signal if I stand by a front window to full signal throughout the house.

CO2 leaks through the tube much more quickly than air does.

Really? CO2 is a larger molecule than O2 and N2, so I think the reverse is the case.

Round the Surrey Hills every ride gets a comment or two – usually a good chance for a chat if it’s a tea stop.

I highly recommend doing a half day bike tour of the Pest side of the city, I think we used Budabike and they did tours starting outside the St Stephens Cathedral.

It is flat, it is quite slow because you have a mixed group, but it is a fantastic way to be in the city, get to lots of places in just a few hours and get some fantastic personal insights from the tour guides. And with the current political turmoil in Hungary it is particularly interesting to hear an insiders personal view of recent and more distant history.

Once you have done the tour it will give you lots of places you want to go back to on foot and see again at your leisure. Itt might sound a lame thing to do, but now I make going on a bike tour a top priority for any major city I visit, following my good experience on this a few years ago.

Bit surprised at ddog’s comment. The rider in red on the left did seem to just pull out onto the A24 right in front of the lorry. Whether he looked over his shoulder or not before doing something daft is not very relevant.

All the other riders seemed OK.

It’s a Bontrager Jackalope hub. But the tool only goes in about 1mm so looks like I’ll need a new one.

SPDs on everything for convenience and full interchangeability of shoes.

Max HR? Working this out accurately hurts! The generic formulae (220 – age, etc) can be way out. Yes – as a 56 year old who hits upper 170s/180 on a hard climb, I agree.

Very roughly Power ~ 2 x HR – 80, but HR lags behind effort when not at steady-state. Very roughly – otherwise you could never do a few minutes at 350W+

There is also thermal effects. – My body temperature has a BIG effect on my HR. At the start of the ride around 150+ HR is a big effort, once I am fully warmed up later in the ride the same effort will be 170+ HR.

I find HR is good for pushing hard on intervals (within 60-90sec you can see just how hard you are pushing), taking it easy on recovery in between, and also pacing on longer fast sections so you keep a sustainable but hard pace. This is especially helpful on exercise bikes.

HK has some fun trails which I rode on a hired bike – look at the HKMBA web site.

@loddrik

the people are an acquired taste in my experience

– perhaps you are too.

gave it a couple of years and came back to Liverpool, best thing I could have done

– I think we can agree on that.

It is mountain bike heaven. Apparently other places in the UK are also good, but for sheer number and variety of trails it’s perfect.

Or do I need to hop in the car over to Peaslake to join the Santa Cruz riding quiche eaters.

– no, Leith, Holmbury Peaslake and Pitch are a great ride from Headley.

Since I got a Trek Farley 8 6 months ago I take it on every off road ride I do because it’s such great fun. It takes a bit of time to “wind up” so you don’t get the sudden uphill acceleratlon you can get on a light carbon hard tail, but on technical steppy climbs it’s even better than a regular bike. And downhill it’s perfect.

Get one.

Sounds like you’ld enjoy Summer Lightning which goes east from Leith Hill tower and most of the way down to Westcott – it’s fast and flows and pretty well marked.

Leith Hill tower is easy to find – if you can go up more, you haven’t got there yet.

jam bo – thanks for the reply.

How do I import it?

If I use the Basecamp option: File/Import into my collection, it only seems to recognise a limited range of file types, such as fit, gdb, gpx . . . but not img or zip.

Like AndrewBF I am stumped at Step 3 – Double click on the map file you downloaded in step 1 and it will run the Garmin Mapmanager program and install the map file you downloaded from talkytoaster onto your computer.

I looked at jam bo’s comment, but the only obvious file “lower down” for PCs is: “Mapsets For Use With PC ONLY (MapSource or BaseCamp)” This downloads a 558MB zip file full of img files.

Talkytoaster’s website provides absolutely no suggestions at this stage.

Can anybody who has done this help? I am using Windows 7.

+1 for the tall boy and knee pads.

I think elbow pads are overkill round here, but if you come off at speed it’s easy to bang a knee badly and be out of action.

Yes, segments work only in the direction they were initially recorded. One bit of track might have two different segments on it, one downhill and one uphill.

Is DrP dead yet?

The LBS is probably Nirvana in Westcott. They sell a map of a 35mile loop, but it is very much an XC route. As the LBS said, most of the trails are informal and not shown on maps. But you can find plenty on Strava.

I am 6′ and ride a 19.5″Superfly. It feels perfect for me and I find a size smaller just a little cramped – although no problems for leg length with a well adjusted seat hight.

Off road around The Surrey Hills, 1000ft climbing per 10 miles is pretty typical.

I would pay for Strava if they would provide the simple feature of be able to upload photos from my computer to link to a ride.

Their current system only accepts photos from Instagram. So a photo on my camera must be put on the computer, emailed to my iPad, saved on the iPad, then uploaded into Instagram – all in a 30mins or so window after ride. Lots of people have posted on the Strava forums asking for better photo upload features, but Strava say it’s not on their list of planned developments.

As it is, I find the functionality for HR analysis perfectly good, I can only see the point of premium if you have power measurement.

+1 what the Welsh guy said. And for more difficult cases leaving the tyre inflated with a tube to the max pressure overnight, to really get in stretched into the right shape.

Thanks for your replies, doesn’t sound too good at the moment.

+1 for the above: 1 x 10 is the way to go. Loose that front grannie and you may the bike lighter and less to go wrong.

I am currently running bikes with 1 x 10 and a 2 x 10, and so often I forget to even use the fron shifter on the 2 x 10 at all.

For off road and on road commuting I just bung mine in a rucksack, protected only by a few clothes. So it can get broken if I have a major off, but it can get broken if I drop it, or if the hard disc jsut has a bad day.

The only downside is that sometimes it leaves a bit of a back ache at the end of the day. I guess if you are going to do it continually a pannier’s the best bet.

I use 1×10 in the Surrey Hills. Don’t laugh – a typical ride is 2500- 3000ft of climbing some of which is at the limits of what the tyres will grip.

1 x 10 works fine even without a 42T ring, as others have said it depends on your legs. If you are happy with 3 x10 you will probably be fine with a few less geas at the top and bottom end – just give it a go. Look at it another way, it’s like single speed, but much much easier.

Not OPEC, but Saudi pushing the oil price down. That’s half the problem. The other half is the western sanctions. They might struggle through either in isolation but both together are giving them a hard time.

Why are the Saudis pushing the oil price down? Who knows, there are plenty of good theories, including to punish Russia for supporting Syria.

Age 55 and RHR about 45.

Nice early start before 8. Frosty down in Surrey, but not cold enough to freeze the mud. Luckily it was cold enough to justify a quick tea stop on Box Hill.

But the real horror is . . . . there are no cakes on the counter in the Peaslake shop. No bannabread, carrot cake or flapjacks.

They are now keeping them in the fridge beyond the till. Phew.

I emailed Mudhugger and they didn’t offer me a refund. They did say they were aware of the problem and I could give them more money for a bit to stick on the end to make it work properly.

I didn’t bother, but I know somebody who did and he still was not impressed.

I tried the Mudhugger rear and although I love the concept, and the looks, it just doesn’t work effectively.

I ended up using this one – not perfect but pretty effective:
http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/sks-x-blade-ii-rear-mudguard/rp-prod104736

I had the same experience as you Tony G. And it’s muddy out riding with the Moles!

I would always recommend seeing a sports physio for these problems – they can usually decide pretty qucikly if there is a problem they can fix and if they are wrong they are unlikely to casue any harm.

I got one a few month’s ago and I am really enjoying it. Climbs well but still plenty stable on the downhills.

Only one problem, a bit of unrest in the bike she – my other mountain bikes have hardly been out since I got it and they are not happy.

Sorry to hijack the thread, but what would people say is best for wet roots?

Or least bad, anyway?

My Superfly has SIDs but I can assure you it is very stable geometry, not at all twitchy.

By yourself or with the other half?

I got a Trek Superfly a couple of months ago. I’m loving it and having ridden anything else off road since.