googling “cyclist palsy exercises” will lead you to tips and videos that have helped me in the past

“……are flared bars just a personal preference that work for some?”

this

if you don’t like them (this goes for any handlebar) change them

most single-speed bikes for short flat commutes have drum brakes as they’re better sealed against the weather

yes

Oakley

Second the Vosges, lumpy enough to be fun without being Alpine ‘Epic’ and amazingly quiet

Pretty much anywhere in Northern France will be good for ‘just riding around’ as most motorised traffic sticks to the main roads to get anywhere fast, you won’t be ticking off any famous named climbs or whatever if that’s what you want

Another option would be a to nip over the border to Belgium, tackle the famous cobbles and begs of Flanders, take in a bit of culture and beer in Bruges or Ghent. or head further south and do the more challenging climbs of the Ardennes. Again, super quiet roads and motorists will give way to you :-0

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Am I out of date…I thought CX bikes had restrictions on tyre width and disk brakes etc.

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you’re very out of date, disc brakes are allowed in all levels of competition, and there’s a 33mm max tyre width rule only if you’re racing UCI sanctioned events

it’ll be fine, people race on all sorts of everything at CX races

it might not be as light or nippy as a dedicated race CX bike, but you can use them as excuses

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OP, are you talking mtb or road here? Makes a bit of a difference as you’re more likely to have to eat on the hoof if the latter, which changes suggestions a bit.

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i eat exactly the same things whether i’m on or off road, i know you’re *supposed* to scoff a handful of Haribo every time you stop for a gate when mountainbiking though :-)

just take proper food with you, the cycling world wasn’t fainting by the side of the road with hunger for the 100 years or so before gels turned up, they’re just a over-priced and convenient way of getting a fluid and energy mix inside you whilst making you feel like you’re a proper athlete

energy/muesli bars fit easily into a back pocket (pick any one that you like the look/taste/dietary quirk/ethics of), make a sandwich, take a pork pie, or a banana, some trail mix, a bag of peanuts and M&Ms, if you’re feeling creative look at sites like Feed Zone Portables. it’s all just calories and energy in differing formats, find the one that suits you and crack on.

it’s amazing to me that in 2018 we’re still effectively using a road bike solution for FS frames that makes this possible or indeed why were still using cable outers and hoses that do such a great impression of a file in little to no time.

wireless gears (a road bike thing) are available now, if you wanted to develop a braking system that didn’t require wires or hoses of any kind you could probably make a lot of money

“Wife would but don’t want her doing all that driving.”

why not, is it the 1950’s?

used tramuntanatours.com in Port Soller a month or so back and would use them again

good quality Treks with Di2 if you want and fast, friendly efficient service. didn’t complain when we gave a bike back that someone had mangled their chain with a numpty push-the-buttons-at-two-rpm-and-maximum-torque gear change

dizziness and nausea are signs of heat exhaustion/heatstroke, which 8 hours exercising in today’s heat could easily bring on

how much did you drink? it probably wasn’t enough no matter how much you drank. actually, it definitely wasn’t enough

another vote for Goldtec hubs here, had a rear one on my SS/Fixed CX bike for over ten years and it’s seen some crap, if it’s had a bearing change i can’t remember

only in black or silver though, you could lace them with red nipples if you wanted that 1998 look, in a snowflake pattern

depends on the crash, the vast majority of them are small scale shunts or scrapes along the floor. they’ll be given a good going over and fix/replaced as necessary

look closely at any Pro bike and they’re covered in scuffs and scratches, they’re tools for a job, not showroom fresh precious exotica

single-sided SPD Touring pedal (i can walk and chew gum at the same time so i can deal with single-sided pedals) and stiff-soled XC shoe just as good as a specific road pedal

the extra platform that the pedal provides makes all the difference, eliminating the ‘yaw’ you can get with normal double-sided mtb spds

The Griffin Inn, Fletching has a great view of the South Downs from the back garden

i use 38/18 too which i’ve found a good gear for both mucking about and racing over the years, your mileage/legs/fitness may vary

it can be easier to change a chainring than a screw-on freehwheel :-)

i think it’s a well-written article and explains why audax events have got popular in the wake of sportive overload

i rode the same event last year, didn’t get bored

They look mighty fine

No they don’t

i didn’t want to say

as cyclistm say, turning south at Devils Dyke or Ditchling Beacon gives you the easy road routes to get into Brighton, although if you keep going you can head towards Lewes which is a quick train journey into Brighton and even turn into Brighton from Kingston Ridge

or if you want to get back home on the South Coast line turning right at the river Adur and riding the Downslink to Shoreham-by-Sea station would be another option

I can’t imagine anything more hateful than a clock staring at me in the face for the entirety of the ride

I’d say that shows a lack of imagination.

i’d say that shows a lack of trail focus skills

what slowmogirl said, taking advice from strangers off the internet is like picking solutions from a large hat, blindfolded, with both hands tied behind your back

go and see a sports physio that will identify the problem that’s specific TO YOU and prescribe some exercises/stretches/footbeds tailored FOR YOU

take the seatpost out and see if there’s a hole from the seat-stay into the seat-tube, if there is it’s probably bit enough to fall through

or do as the others have said, i had a similar problem and splodged some contact adhesive through a hole and shook the frame about until the rattly offender caught the glue and stuck

the Ritchey Swiss Cross you reference there is definitely an old school CX bike, it even has cantilevers ;-)

they’re a lovely bike to ride and you’ll have no trouble treating that as a fatter-tyred road bike and more than capable of tackling some off-road (although not as capable as a modern disc-braked fat-tyred gravel bike), it will be quite racey though (it’s a CX race bike) which might be an issue with your need for a more upright position

to muddy the waters a little further you needn’t even look at CX bikes, there are plenty of – for a better term – adventure road bikes that compared to racier road bikes have higher front ends, slightly more relaxed angles and room for fatter tyres, the Specialized Diverge being quite a good example of the breed

some of them might be described as trendy touring bikes, some of them might nudge into gravel bike territory, the whole area is a little fuzzy edged

the likes of Nox Sox and Fassa will sell you pedal covers, or you could just use a bit of old rag and a toe-strap

meh, i can easily pick up a Selle Italia SLR C59 for £400, one of these Rapha ones will look good on the winter bike though

barrelling down a trail in the Surrey Hills a while back (not racing a friend, honest), bunyyhopping the rain guley that zig-zagged across the trail with increasing boinginess until i got one wrong…

felt the tyre compress

felt the spokes compress

felt the forks compress

felt the stem compress

felt the bars compress

felt the compress

felt all of them uncompress at the same time and fling me and the bike upwards and sideways in one go, had long enough in the air to look at the tree i was going to hit and know it was going to hurt, bounced hard off that tree and into another one and then into the ground to sit in the foetal position for a while making weird noises whilst doing a body systems check

many many things on the bike were bent, i somehow got away with very minor cuts and bruises, i can still see that tree in my mind

either that of fishtailing a road bike between a 4×4 and a flatbed truck going down Ditchling Beacon, or several more…

that’s a Siberian Hamster

(younger people of the forum ask a 40 year old)

are you sure it’s the seatpost that’s creaking in the frame?

put some grease on the seatpost as that’s standard procedure, then put some copper-slip or grease on the threads of the seatclamp and even a bit on the frame where the clamp wraps round

i’m disappointed no-one’s mentioned the Sugababes yet

if you like the pump but don’t like its endlessly amusing ability to remove valve cores (yes, i’ve experienced this as well, many times, even with the black button pressure release thing, and heard too many tales. i’ve bought another make of pump) then you can get replacement hoses, one end will be the fun-and-games screw-on type, the other avoids the issue by simply slipping over the top of a Presta valve, costs about £10

(check the hose on your existing pump, they usually come with one Presta and one Schrader end, but it *might* have one Presta screw-on and one press-on end)

no

Jeff Jones modifies cassettes to fit onto singlespeed hubs, if you had the machines and skills you could do something similar yourself

Reynolds just make complete wheelsets and as a general rule you can’t get rims as spares

Upgrade Bikes distribute them in the UK so it might be worth giving them a ring to see what they’ve got out the back

what brakes have you got, some of them (especially the hydraulic ones) have very long hoods which can make a big difference, even on bikes that would otherwise fit perfectly

get used to riding in the drops if you can, you’ll have far much more control of the bike, and an easier pull on the brakes

as above, Jamis have been around ages, well known in the USA where their bikes have regularly won magazine awards

not so well known in the UK and as such not a ‘name’ that people will buy so you can often pick up a bargain

because women generally have wider sit bones and different “bits” ladies saddles tend to be designed wider in the rear and shorter in the nose for comfort

like all saddles that are very much a personal choice it doesn’t mean a women’s saddle will only be comfortable for women, or that all women will find them suitable. i’ve known quite a few males that happily ride a “ladies” saddle and enough women that ride “mens” saddles

yellowjersey.co.uk will insure your bike for racing, although the old adage “Don’t race what you can’t replace” comes to mind here, especially with regard to crits

you’re being unreasonable

you’ve paid someone for their time and to use tools that you don’t have, they have done the job to the best of their ability and more importantly they have not compromised the integrity of the frame, which you would have been a bit annoyed at if they had done so and it had failed at a later date, despite them giving you the result you specifically asked for