Never to old to learn from the Jedi.

Are you sure it’s only sprained – if it’s not improved after nearly a week?

I thought I’d sprained mine – very bruised, lots of swelling but I could just about walk on it and over several days it improved. After 5 days I went to A&E and the Xray showed I had a broken fibula! Same as that american sprinter who finished half an Olympic 400m relay race after breaking his.

So a quick visit to A&E may by an idea unless the swelling is almost gone.

What does help swelling is:
1) Keep off it as much as poss
2) Lie down with your leg up higher than your heart.
3) Ice – a bag of frozen peas is perfect here.
4) Ibuprofen (not paracetamol)
5) Firmly bandaged

Good luck.

Any tips/suggestions for St Gervais/Megeve/Chamonix area starting on Saturday?

Rooney, see a similar question earlier today.

PSI – Forum topic

As JoeG implies, you can use lower pressures on tubless becasue there are no worries about pinch flats.

As others have said, it depends on your riding style.

At Low pressures down to, or even below, the minimum on your tyre you tend to get more grip in slippery conditions but you become more likely to get pinch flats.

At high pressures up to the maximum on your tyre you get lower rolling resistance so less effort to ride, but loose out on grip.

Other issues are:
– Your weight. I’m about 75kg and tend to run with tubes at about 30psi, which just avoids pinch flats. In theory somebody of 150kg would need around 60psi on the same tyres.
– Tyre width. Wider tyres need slightly less air pressure.
– Front pressure can be a few psi lower, to help with steering and because it takes less weight than the rear.

Personally I try to run tyres as soft as I can when it’s slippery – especially important for steep climbs where grip is the limiting factor – and maybe 10psi higher when the ground is firm and dry. You’ll have to experiment with what works best for your local conditions.

Thanks for all your feedback. It sounds even worse than the Surrey Hills at the moment, so I think I’ll take the advice to head over to the Ashton Court /Leigh Woods area.

That is a work of art in steel!

Just back from Leith Hill. Plenty of puddles in the usual places, but some lovely sections on the sandy tracks. Much more fun than the road today.

It’s needed on 1st class roads (Motorways) and 2nd class roads (Expressways). In Geneva it’s not difficult to find you have got yourself onto a motorway without specifically intending to.

You will arrive on the Swiss side, unless you arrive on a french domestic flight, so it is more convenient for international travelers to collect the car from the Swiss side. There is also the advantage that the car will be allowed to drive on Swiss roads – for non Swiss cars you must buy a vignette, unless there is already one in your hire car. But there is nothing to stop you going to the French side to collect a car if you can get a really good price on it.

Check costs on one of the comparison websites and see if a rental company on either side has a special deal. This time I am renting with Hertz because they have a very good deal for people who pay with Amex, and even better if you tell them it is Amex Centurion!

Rode the MTB over to Peaslake and the trails round Ranmore, Holmbury and Winterfold were great where they were frozen.

But the off camber tarmac and ice nearly made me stack it on the road climbing out of Peaslake. I wouldn’t like to have been out on skinny tyres today.

It’s such a good bike there’s not really much to change, except perhaps fitting your choice of tyres. Tubeless was important to me, but it came tubeless anyway.

I have added a nice colour matched Salsa flip lock seat clamp (unfortunately I have not been impressed by the Hope ones). I have toyed with the idea of 1×10 but still not quite 100% convinced. Personally I don’t have any need for a dropped seatpost, but I am not the most gnarly downhiller.

Basically, you’ll be getting a brilliant bike so get out and ride it.

What are ground conditions like in the West Sheffield/Peaks area at the moment? I am visiting daughters in Sheffield and am hoping to be allowed out for a couple of hours Sunday morning.

In fact anybody have a recommended XC route in the Hathersage/Hope or Castleton areas for a couple of hours?

Moles night rides meeting point is probably about 20mins up A24 cycle path then A246 from Dorking. One of the regulars cycles from Dorking. More often than not they head south so you’ll often be able to peel off near the end at Denbies or Westcott and be back in Dorking in 10mins.

Moles’ Weds night rides start at 730pm and normally finish around 10pm or so. The meeting point in Bookham is less than 15mins from Epsom and is just 5mins back to M25 junc9.

As a quick update – I’ve had the boot off for nearly 4 weeks now.

First 2 weeks werey very still, and painful around the toes if I did too much walking, so was advised to wear the boot part time. I did a bit of riding on the turbo trainer, but had to take it easy or else the whole lower leg would swell up.

Since then its improved a lot from some physio and just walking around on it. The last 2 weeks I’ve quickly gone from being able to do 20 mins on the turbo trainer with flat pedals to happily getting out on the road and even easy off road for 90 mins with SPDs – all with just a few aches and slight swelling.

I can see where I’ve lost fitness over the last 8 weeks, such as about 25% extra on my times up Box Hill – but now I can see myself getting out and making some improvements.

So I’ll try and get in some more road work over the next week or two before returning to the more technical trails.

As IRC suggests, a worn cassette is the likely cause. As the cassette and the chain both wear they often continue to work OK together for quite a while. But the drive train will then not work well when either of them has been replaced.

Looking at a cassette is not a definitive guide to if it is worn.

My mate Derek said his wife Val made a lot of money out selling pins at night. Apparently it’s very lucrative, the pin selling trade.

8O

I am 6’0″ and a 20″ feels perfect to me, I tried an 18″ and it a bit cramped in comparison.

The only way for you to find out is to try both sizes.

Where was it Peter? I often find fly tipping on the NDW when I ride into Guildford.

Personally, I would like to partially disembowel flytippers and leave them scrabbling around on the ground enduring a slow painful death surrounded by their own filth – partially from the tipping and partly from their semi eviscerated colons.

Have I been brooding about this in too much detail?

Simple descent down a fire road – luckily(?) my daughter was there to record the result.

Thanks for the comments, all.

It is apparently a sprial fracture an inch or so above the ankle (just the fib, not the tib). It seems to be heeling pretty well at the mo – now 2 weeks since the original break and I can comfortably get around in the air boot with just 1 crutch – makes life a lot easier being able to carry things.

Whilst I take the ariboot off for a bath and to change trousers, I never flex my foot – I am always worried that may affect the break.

Is that why there were so many Kingston Wheelers out around the Holmbury and Leith area on Sunday?

Elaine Anne,
I have had the same problem with my O5 since I got it new a year ago. At one point it would sound like it was being hit with a hammer on every serious climb.

The LBS tried a few things:
– Better rear QR, nipped up tight – no effect
– Tighten up the crank arm bolts – no effect
– Remove and grease the outside of the BB

Although not so bad since that last fix, the creek is still a bit irritating, but I am trying to learn to rise above it, Zen like, as the price I must pay in this imperfect world of suffering for an otherwise fantastic bike.

I was in the spectators’ enclosure 2/3rds the way up the Zig Zag. The view wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t brilliant unless you got there early enough to sit right on the verge by the road. And although the road was up hill, they still didn’t take long to go past. Perhaps it will be better in the real event when the effect of the first half dozen laps begins to have an impact.

The enclosure wasn’t full – when we got there the man counting had let in 867, and by the time of the race I would be surprised if it had doubled. He told me the max capacity was 4000, so it was probably less than half full. When we went into Box Hill at the bottom of the Zig Zag there was somebody giving out spare green bands – all of which is a bit of a farce in view of how scarce they have been!

I was in the Glasto crowd for the Kaiser Chiefs, and they predicted a riot. Not sure if it happened or not, but it was fun.

I’d agree an 18″ sounds right for you – on a five. After trying an 18 and a 20 I went for the 20 – I am exactly 6′ and prefer a longer bike than some others I ride with. I don’t know if sizing on the ST4 is the same or not.

+1 for Orange John’s comments on it being a great bike. But at £2k to £3k+ new I wouldn’t call it the Ford Mondeo – perhaps more an upmarket BMW or Audi . . .?

I recently switched to Lloyds TSB. The online banking works very well, and without a widget.

Quackwatch say “Chondroitin appears to be useless. Whether glucosamine is useful is conflicting, but the best-designed studies are negative.”
http://www.quackwatch.org/01QuackeryRelatedTopics/DSH/glucosamine.html

A review of many trials quotes in the NHS Direct says neither have a real benefit:
http://www.crd.york.ac.uk/CMS2Web/ShowRecord.asp?LinkFrom=OAI&ID=12010006398

But +1 for visiting the physio. 20 years ago I had worsening knee pain which the doctor put down to “knees starting to wear out”. I went to the physio who diagnosed the knee cap wasn’t follwoing the proper track and gave me some exercises. 3 months later the pain was gone and it hasn’t been a problem despite thousands of miles on the bike since. I have a friend with the same sort of story for his hips.

There’s very little riding of interest on any of the Surrey Hills and North Downs to be honest.

Shirley, you jest.

I would go with your doctor’s advice – for most people Allopurinol works very effectively at preventing gout and generally without side effects. And that has been my experience of taking it daily for 30 years.

There are a number of “natural” remedies talked about, such as cherries, but I have never found any clinical evidence they worked. For every person who has a story about how it worked for them, how many tried the the supposed remedy and found no effect.

We are lucky that for such a painful and ultimately disabling disease, we have a magic pill that controls it so easily and effectively.