another vote for the Feedback Sports, bought two decades ago when it was Wrench Force and in daily kitchen workshop use since then, need to get some new £15 clamp jaws as the original ones have perished, tsk

Most people think that aero bars are about speed but for long distance rides like yours they’re more useful for a different hand position, a bit of comfort as your elbows take the strain for a while, and being able to go the same speed but for less effort, so for those benefits i can recommend them

don’t go for the long ones that stretch you out and put your body in a position it might not be used to but aim for the stubbier ones that put your hands about level with the ends of your brake levers, i have some Profile Design T2 DL bars that have seen me well across several countries so those Dedas should be fine

I absolutely get what you’re saying and it sounds bleeding obvious (esp the final quote), but my personal risk assessment doesn’t bear it out – There’s very few places where I can *see* that far ahead and behind, so what appears dead quiet now, may well be full of angry entitled prick in a Range Rover in a minute’s time (even at the speed limit, that would put him a mile away when I started)

Your fear of what *might* happen far far exceeds what is actually going to happen and is getting in the way of what you want to happen, it – will – be fine

Practice. Hmmm. This is something I’m ****ing terrible at. I REALLY struggle to get my head around “wasting time” practicing riding my bike, when I could be, actually, y’know, doing it for real. See also my inability to do wheelies. Yes I know its a problem…

you should be able to do that at any time, even when descending, it’s really not that hard, honest.

Its not the actual physical doing it – especially on road (although my gammy shoulder dislikes getting stuff out of jersey pockets). Its the dealing with all the other ****s I’m having to share the space with. There’s no way I’m riding at 30+mph on a UK road, without having my fingers within instant reach of a brake lever. I’ve had too many near misses to voluntarily put myself in a situation where I can’t react immediately to other road users random actions.

Incorporate this practise into a ride then, it’s really very easily done, if you can’t find a couple of miles of quiet road to do this then you really need to rethink your routes :-)

“Argue for your limitations, and sure enough they’re yours”

If you feel this is getting in the way of your riding long distances then you need to practise it, as much as you would working on your fitness or whatever.

I’m not much good at riding hands free either so have gone on rides with the specific intention of trying it on quiet flat roads and a little bit at a time, there’s definitely a knack to it, look ahead, use your core, if you can walk and chew gum at the same time you can ride hands free.

Same with taking a bottle out, you should be able to do that at any time, even when descending, it’s really not that hard, honest. Practise that when you feel safe. And reaching into a pocket or frame bag for snacks shouldn’t be such an issue unless you have severe coordination problems elsewhere in your life.

At the risk of sounding condescending none of these things are particularly tricky, it’s just doing them again and again in a safe space (even an empty car park to begin with if necessary) until they become second nature.

The breathing and eating thing, I think you need to find a workaround for that, but if stopping and eating is quicker and less panic ridden than doing it on the move just do that, it’s not a race is it?

large stainless steel house numbers

(usually on a freshly greyed house)

Those square tubes will make some people happy

cheer yourself up by wearing a brighter colour

hi Lee (waves),
you’ve done the hard bit by deciding that you’re going to do this thing, the rest is, um, easy

as it’s you i can recommend the book i wrote on this very subject, there aren’t any training plans in there, i’ve never followed one and there are entire other books on the subject from people that know what they’re talking about if you want to go down this path, but there is just solid practical advice about building up to longer and day on day rides from some of the most experienced riders out there, the pictures are nice too

ride your bike more, distance is not necessarily relevant but it’s good to get some significantly longer rides under your belt to see how both your body and head deal with both the time and distance on the bike

ride your bike day after day, again distance not necessarily relevant but it’s good to get your body used to getting on a bike for day 3/4/5 when it’s tired and might be used to sitting on a sofa

fit riding your bike into every spare moment of your daily life, find excuses to ride to places, and back, friends that lived 200+kms away were very handy for this sort of thing but we can’t do that now

find all the clothes and bike bits that make this comfortable

Portland Design Works “Full Metal Fenders” or the cheaper Kinesis “Fend Off” tributes

Whatever’s on offer from the Nakd, Eat Natural, Graze shelf

totally normal

walked along hedgerows and tip-toed along planks to get through, even when there are men working i’ve asked if i can squeeze past and they’ve been more than happy to let me through. only been turned round once when they were chopping large bits of tree down

johnhe

First time I’ve heard of the Zefal. Will it really stay put on a mountain bike, bombing down a rough trail?

yup
had mine on road, cx, gravel and mountainbikes, get a Zefal pump strap for double security

HPX

bombproof pumps, have them in various sizes to fit a history of bikes. often lent to people with mini-pumps when i’m bored of waiting

i can’t think of any other manufacturers that have joined in the fad and made a bib long with pockets

as above jersey pockets are very handy or wear your cargo bib shorts with leg warmers, or under/over a chamois free bib long

have you tried asking?

the Restrap Saddle Pack comes in at about 4 litres and will be a lot more sturdy than the Alpkit

try an outdoors/ski shop where you can get a ski strap much the same as a Voile?

done about a year on some Challenge Gravel Grinders over some decidedly inappropriate terrain with one puncture and one tyre burp

you’re paying £16 for a totally different, bigger, more complex style of bung, but the first one will be fine

yup

it’s saved me a fortune on suspension bikes

attach an airbag to the canister, win/win

it says here that the Dura Ace 9000 uses a 110mm pitch circle diameter so you can fit a 36 ring on there

you’ll need to check that your front mech can cope with it though

first thing to check is that a 36 ring will fit on your chainset, a 53/39 combination might mean it’s a non-compact spider so a smaller 36 bolt pattern won’t fit

play about with where the grips are till it feels comfortable, chop

you’re the one riding the bike, not anyone else, or fashion

i have one of these on a ‘road’ bike that has seen it’s fair share of gravel, shit roads and general disregard to riding surface, it’s absolutely fine

the OP is justified in being concerned, there have been a few reports recently of burglars making a zwift getaway

try the fish

K
Member

It may be a better way of dealing with the issue than looking for an equipment upgrade solution.

you must be new here

i have Challenge 700 x 42 tyres on mine and looking at rear clearance a 45 looks to be a fair maximum

idiotdogbrain
Member

Quite like my Morvelo R.A.D. shorts.

whole these are a quite good non-baggy baggy short their Overland shorts are far more slim fit and can easily be worn off the bike without looking like a Rad Dad

jayx2a
Member

South Downs is flat and smooth!!

you must live in a different part of the South Downs to me then ;-)

if you’re familiar with the ways of Maxxis then the Ardent Race/Ikon combo will be perfect, the Bontrager XR3/XR1 would also be a good combo, or the Specialized Ground Control/Renegade

arcing
Member

I caught the rip-off version Channel 4 have put out, and turned off when I found out they do the same type of restoration job, but just to sell on. Lost all of it’s attraction.

if you mean Money For Nothing that was around well before the Repair Shop, and where the “knob in the flat cap” cut his televisual restoration teeth

if you can see the bearings there will be a number printed on the seal, that’s the bearing size

i ordered some bearings off these guys last week and they got to me in a couple of days

tie dental floss to the end of the old cable, thread out, tie to new cable, thread back through

hand rub a bit of Fairy Liquid/Vanish Soap into it (Assos washing liquid is the best for this really), wash again

if the old bung fits your new forks internally it’ll be fine, i’ve regularly swapped carbon fork bungs around

i’ve got some Hope road hubs, they’re far more noticeable than the DTs, somewhere between them and a Chris King in terms of high pitched bee buzzzzzzz

i’ve seen plenty of riders of the ‘younger generation’ on bikes out for spin in groups

well mainly sat around drinking beer in the woods and smoking herbal cigarettes…

when checking your established builder make sure the frame is made by them and not just shipped in and finished by them, if that’s important to you
the quality of a far-east Ti frame is more than equal to anything hand-made anywhere else (they will all be hand-made), for a price, the era and perception of the cheap low-quality eastern factory frame has long gone, the construction there can be very good, which is why some boutique brands use them for certain models

like most bike frames the material they’re made from matters less, just that they use that material well and done so will exhibit their trademark feel, however the geometry and handling are more important and you can get very very good Ti, steel, alloy and carbon gravel bikes
if you’re planning on using it for bikepacking adventures then material matters a little less again for ‘feel’ and a strong and stable platform for weighty bags is more desirable over a long day where you don’t want a nervous and/or flexy machine

buy the one that gives you the tingle