I see a future where there will be butchers, grocers, hardware shops etc on the local main rd, people will work close by their homes and walk to work. There will be a community spirit as people will have time to chat to their neighbours on the walk to work or down the shops

Hooray for the great human short-sightedness!

Progress has been so successful that things were actually better the way they used to be in the 70’s.

We’ve raped the Earth’s natural resources just to end up wishing we were back where we started.

Humans. How stupid are they.

😈

(And if you want to wittter on about that being naughty, then bog off.)

That’ll reduce the number of posts on this thread by 99%.

I’ve only ever coasted about a mile, down the hill from my house.

Probably saves a thimble of petrol each time.

By the year 2060 I will have saved a whole tank of petrol, by which time there will be no oil left anyway, so saving a little bit here and there is pretty pointless seeing as it’s going to run out anyway at some point.

I should probably spend more effort finding ways to not need a petrol engine.

The problem with only doing 3 minutes of exercise a week, it would take me 13 weeks to get to work every day.

I’m currently doing about 500 minutes exercise a week.

Based on the latest rocket science, I assume 497 minutes of that is of absolutely zero benfit to me whatsoever.

So, in a nutshell, doing just a little bit of exercise is better than doing no exercise?

Wow.

Who would have believed that.

Nobel Prize anyone?

Although if you’re one of the non-responding 20% you might actually need to put some effort in to getting fitter. Heaven forbid.

I don’t think I know any properly rich people.

I know people who, despite the broken economy and the whole world going wrong, don’t need to worry about money or make any lifestyle changes. I guess they’re just ‘well-off’ rather than ‘rich’.

I suspect it’s the people who are motivated by getting/being rich are the ones who are highlighted in the survey as being the ‘sociopaths’.

Some people are rich but remain humble and generally ‘nice’.

When I cycle to work I see, at a guess, 3 other cyclists, 20 pedestrians, 50 people on buses and 500 cars.
Fuel is far too cheap.

Possibly.

Although a lot of people have made choices on where to live in relation to their work and family/friends based on the ability to run a car. (as a balance, there are also people who are just downright bl$$dy bone-idle).

There will be people who have no alternative but to drive, other than moving house or finding a different job.

Fortunately for me I can cycle to work (it’s a choice, but wouldn’t be too big a deal if it was a necessity). However, to get to work on public transport takes around 2 hours on various combinations of bus, train & walking. I only live 11.5 miles from my office.

Society will need to move back to living a more ‘local’ life in the face of running a car becoming unaffordable.

Goodness knows how, or if, that’ll ever work.

As an aside, my wife thinks it’s acceptable to drive our 5yo son the 1 mile to school 😕 This kind of mentality isn’t helping anyone(fortunately she can’t drive. yet.)

^ just a thought … should the Govt subsidise business mileage?

Why is no one making more of a fuss?

Hooray for the Great British Apathy!!!

15p off a litre at morrisons if you spend over £60

Ah, thanks for reminding me about that! For my car (60 litre tank), that would save me £9, although in reality I never run it dry so it’s more like 50/55 litres … still a 7 or 8 £ saving … although I usually get my shopping delivered as I find physically going to the store ends up costing me extra due to the “ooh, that looks nice..” syndrome, so I suspect shopping at Morrisons for cheaper fuel wouldn’t actually save me anything 🙂

Cheers guys, they look pretty decent for a mere £13

I thought any system of measurement on the internet had to involve double decker buses as the comparative unit?

No, things must be related as “areas the size of Wales”-es

Or the silhouette of a man next to a double-decker bus next to the Eiffel Tower next to a Boeing 747 (plan view) next to a Blue Whale (standing on it’s tail) next to the Saturn V rocket … and so on

er, Lydon’s touring with PiL and Sid’s dead… (I can’t be bothered to look it up) have they really?

Apparently they have…

Don’t rule out body-weight exercises like sit-ups/crunches, pull-ups, chin-ups and press-ups … I find these, done correctly, build good strength without too much additional bulk.

Plus, you only need minimal space/equipment.

As an aside – at the World Rally Championships, one of the major sponsors is Propecia. It’s sold as a hair loss treatment. It contains a drug called Finasteride. It works by lowering testosterone…

Any bloke who’s cares too much about his hair(/appearance) probably doesn’t need his testosterone lowering any further

I believe you can, you’ll need the Float air-spring assembly and negative negative spring.

Are trail closures/diversions at CyB posted on a website anywhere?

Not all physios are the same.

Is this similar to “99% of lawyers give the other 1% a bad name”?

I don’t understand the point of hair.

All it seems to do is force us all to spend waste x minutes every day keeping it clean and tidy.

It’s like living with some kind of parasite.

I’d be grateful to be bald.

emsz – it should be.

I don’t totally trust men who spend too much time on their appearance, they’ve clearly got their prioroties all wrong 🙂

Provided you’re not naked in public and you don’t smell then what more needs to be done …

can a AAA rated washer save me the extra I would have to spend?

Probably not. But if you want to help preserve baby foxes …

Took our 5yo son to watch the latest Muppets movie on half term.

Utter pants.

In all our opinions.

He lost interest half way through.

Apparently my two nephews (5 & 7) enjoyed it though. There’s no accounting for taste I suppose. 😉

Life is crap, but not if you work at a bank

Oi, stop mixing up ‘bankers’ with ‘people who happen to work for a bank’!

Firstly,

What about all the folk made redundant by banks?

And B) I work for a bank. The last few years pay rises have been a pretty low %age, way behind inflation. I got a bonus of a couple of thousand last year. First bonus for a long time.

traffic light showing a picture of a bike and have this one go off say 30 seconds before the main green light.

In cities, I think this could work very well. If you can also get motorists/motorbikes to keep ASL’s clear.

30 seconds may be too much – it’s quite a long time if you sit and count it. 15 seconds perhaps.

often you will be filtering down the stationary traffic and the lights will change just as your reaching about to reach front

Hence why it’s not always a good idea to filter past large vehicles.

Just because you can, and there’s an ASL, doesn’t mean it’s a good idea.

[jealous] Git ! [/jealous]

There was a similar(ish) thread about cheap booze & alcohol-related issues on here last week, i.e. some people choose to get drunk & it’s nobody’s business but their own (despite the wider social impact).

It’s the same with lifestyles leadig to obesity.

Some people are ‘happy’ (?) being an unhealthy weight and living a lifestyle that is very likely to result in reduced quality ogf life, health problems and in extreme cases early death.

These people might say “leave me alone, it’s my choice”, regardless of any advice and education about what they’re doing to themselves … at which point the decision needs to be made: do we leave them to it and just deal with the consequences, or do we try and help them by forcing a lifestyle change through legislation?

As an aside, I think it’s unhelpful to reduce ‘people’ issues down to how much tax it costs. I don’t think putting a price tag on people makes them feel valued as a person.

The only problem with the ‘theory’ that all fat people are fat due to the crap they eat and the lack of exercise is that its probably not actually true.

Yes, it is a more complex issue than just bad diet and lack of exercise in some cases. But these two elements are key factors in the majority of cases.

My belief is that it’s the lifestyle changes post WW2 that have generally made everyone less active, by design or by choice, plus the increase in processed and ‘junk’ foods.

As an example, when I was growing up in the late70’s/early 80’s I walked or got the bus everywhere with my mum, there was no dishwasher, no microwave, no laptop, no Wii/Playstation, TV was limited, we played outside at almost every opportunity, all meals were home-made from fresh stuff … overall we were far more active and ate ‘proper’ food … and the key thing: my parents made sure I had a good diet and didn’t just sit around on my ar$e watching TV – they encouraged me to get outside and do stuff, took me cycling, hiking, cricket/football in the park etc etc …

I’m wondering if people actually know what Fog lights are?

There are many many people who don’t even know what indicators are, so I don’t expect they’re particularly clued up on much else in their car.

Although I exepct they’re experts with the really really important driver aids like the radio & iPod connectivity 🙄

I just need to stick it out until 4, then I’m on the bike to commute home … probably via a convoluted route to make the most of the good weather … shame I can’t get out to some trails today. hey-ho.

Be interested in any tips for reducing fatigue if anyone’s got any?

If you’re riding Sat and/or Sun, then Mon/Tue/Wed commute & Mon evening ride I think you’re going to feel fatigued no matter what.

The best you can do to help yourself is a eat/drink properly & get good nights sleep.

And rest, i.e. a couple of days a week off the bike.

If you use the same sliders, stanchions etc across your range how do you distinguish your cheapo end from your premier?

I don’t think Fox’s 32/36mm split was anything to do with quality, just designed for a different purpose – i.e. 32mm for general trail riding, 36mm & longer travel for more aggressive ‘all-mountain’ type stuff …

they want a record of it so they can A) name and shame on YouTube and B) report it to the police or RoadSafe where appropriate

I fully understand and support B)

But I just don’t get A) – why post it on YouTube? What good’s that going to do, other than if you’re a bit of an attention whore?

a few days a week now its getting lighter but it would be a hilly 14 miles and i’ll no doubt be a sweaty wreck by the time I arrive. Any tips on decent bags to hold a change of clothes etc welcomed ?

If you don’t have the option of leaving clothes & shower-related paraphanalia at work then I’d definitely recommend panniers.

Once you add up the weight of towel, shower gel/shampoo/deodorant, trousers, shirt, underwear, shoes, lunch, emergency spares … it can get quite hefty for a backpack.

14 hilly miles will take you around an hour (?) … so that’s 28 miles & maybe 2 hours a day riding … I’d say 3 days a week would be sensible without wearing yourself into the ground, and only 2 consecutive days (i.e. Mon/Tue/Thu, Mon/Wed/Fri).

My commute is about 11 flat-ish miles if I go the most direct route, and I have a locker at work where I keep clothes, towel, shower gel bla bla (I bring clean stuff on days I use the car) … I use a CamelBak (breakfast/lunch/emergency spares) as it’s not too heavy …

I find I can do the commute 5 days a week but I’m pretty tired after the 4th day, so usually do 3 or 4 days a week so that I’m not so wrecked that I’m totally useless to my wife & kids when I get home 🙂

Having said that, I have a habit of treating each commute like some sort of personal time trial which means I’m tiring myself out more than is necessary.

There are alot of these videos where the cyclist is antagonistic in the way that they ride or their reactions. Chasing down cars and swerving, shouting at drivers etc. Even if they are in the right it is crazy to agravate a potentially violent situation.

Considering the volume of ‘incidents’ that certain individuals upload to YouTube, I am convinced that some (I said some) cyclists unneccesarily allow situations to develop, where most normal people would just take a more evasive riding style … I’m sure I could create issues if I was absolutely hell-bent on bloody-mindedly asserting my right to be on the road at all costs just to make a point.

“I’d rather be right than alive” is a term that springs to mind after seeing some head cam footages.

However, it is encouraging that motorists are being prosecuted for dangerous driving or public disorder offences due to head-cam evidence.

Basically, you just have to be much more organised.

I’ve found this is the key to getting more time out on the bike – reduce pre-ride faffing to an absolute minimum!

Make sure your bike and all associated kit is ready at the drop of a hat, so that anytime you get a free hour you can quickly change & be out the door … without wasting time running around the house trying to find your shoes, gloves, helmet etc

Briadband speed increase is free, the package cost increase is for other reasons.

Probably.

Or, it’s just massively cynical marketing.

Fine parents for dropping children off at school in a vehicle (unless there’s a good reason – I’m talking of people like my neighbour who drives her able bodied brats 2 streets away twice a day in her 4×4)

It would have been easier just to say “Fine idiots” …

After a few months off the bike, due to a period of illness followed by a period of laziness 🙂

I started cycling to work … having a specific purpose to a ride (i.e. getting to work, saving money on petrol), rather than ‘just going for a ride’, gave me that extra bit of motivation to get back in the saddle.

As the weather gets warmer (and in theory drier) I’ll be motivated to extend my commute, and/or start planning some MTB rides on weekends.

Anything that improves road safety and saves lives is a positive move.

HGV’s with ‘cyclist protection’ as a driver aid is great, but I hope it doesn’t mean cyclists lower their guard and effectively place all the responsibility on the HGV driver.

Cyclists should also learn not to undertake HGV’s, and be particularly aware of the dangers at junctions & in ASL’s. This includes not moving up the inside of traffic to get to an ASL just because it’s there. Sometimes it’s better to wait behind a large vehicle.

There are also too many people riding around who have little road sense, and just don’t appreciate or understand how to behave in traffic.

Education is key, for drivers and cyclists, but I don’t know how you guarantee cyclist education seeing as anyone can just buy a bike a ride it on the roads with no ‘test’ … making info available is the best you can do, maybe at point of sale, but even so most people who ride on the roads will just learn from experience.

I think lowering the voting age to 16 would be fair enough.

As has been mentioned already, people can leave school and get a job at this age so I think that’s justification enough to entitle them to having their opinions recognised.

If you’re on an official probationary period I’d have thought your employer would be lining up a review to talk about your performance & your aspirations etc …

I’ve just started Week 5. I think. Or it might be Week 4. Can’t remember what it said.

Anyway.

I’m not too fussed about being able to do 100, more interested in the programme just to use as a structured routine.

I’ve been doing elevated press-ups (feet on the sofa), and also with 5kg additional weight on my back.

I’m generally managing to maintain a pattern of 1 second push up, 2 seconds back down.

At the last exhaustion test thingy I got to 45 before collapsing in a heap.

I’m aiming for a little bulking up alongside the strength/fitness.

Seems to be having an effect.