The wife had a really bad cycle accident when someone on a road group ride came off right in front of her going downhill at speed. She had nowhere to go and went over the top.

She landed badly – small bleed to her brain; broken collar bone; fractured cheek bone; 3 broken ribs & 2 broken fingers.

She had a good helmet too a Lazer Z1.

This happened 9 months ago & although all of her physical injuries healed after about 3 months – she unfortunately has Post Concussion Syndrome – which was unknown to me & is a real life changer. Her activities are very limited now as it tires her out & overloads her brain. Watching TV, going into supermarkets of any busy places causes her to have stress in her head.

It can apparently last for months or even years. There seems no logic as to who can get it. She may never cycle again.

Needless to say my new helmet is the new Giro MIPS helmet. As someone said – you never know if you need it – until you need it!

You can of course do external Di2 cabling that is stuck to the frame in a type of sheaf & have an external battery too. Not as neat though.

Take as much weight off your bike as possible – carry an emergency tube / co2 / pump etc & leave the saddle bag behind. For 15mi you probably don’t need a drunk too – which can save weight. Wear your closest fitting kit too & consider the conditions. Deep profile wheels & high winds are not a good combination!

I completely forgot about the badge. Thanks for reminding me as I shall expect one soon….

Just got a newer Audi A4 – ours was a 1.9TDi 130 -so similar engine. It had 210k on the clock & was still going well but for the automatic gearbox which was failing & a repair was uneconomical.

I’ve just pulled the trigger on a Witter ZX503 – New from EBay. I’ve got a bracket fixed one on my T5 where the bikes ‘hang on’ but have just bought a car with a removable tow bar. The Atera ones seem highly recommended – but what swung the Witter for me was that it also tilts & when not in usd can be folded up vertically & driven on the back of the car still with the lighting board folded to show to the rear. I’m hoping it will be as good as an Atera or Thule & it’s Btitish……….

I’ve started getting this too on this site only – iPad user too. It’s a pain as when it reloads you have to start from the top of the feed again…..

All done – just needed 65mi to-day to complete – but did 71 to be on the safe side. 317mi / 511km now done & ordered my roundel – shame they don’t do a decent jersey (rather than a T shirt) with one on but I probably couldn’t afford it anyway – being Rapha!

I started a big late – although I ambitiously signed up for the 500 some time ago. Playing catch-up I’ve knocked off an 82mi, 52mi & 60mi in the last 3 days. A long ride home into a headwind was a pain today. 246mi now done & a 50+ mile club run planned for tomorrow – with Monday as a contingency. It’s been a challenge to fit it in – & the mild weather has certainly helped – but the end is in sight now!

I recently had to replace a set of oven door springs as the door was not closing snugly & left a 5mm gap at the top. The springs are sprung loaded & distort over time. They cost £50 each, & were easy to fit & solved the problem. This may not be your problem – but worth checking.

Thanks Daffy – just used it & got 10% – about £15 – off a Rotor chainset.

Ray Winston lived a couple of streets away from me but we never saw him playing out on the streets like us other East London urchins. I believe he moved off to Kent when he was about 14yrs old. It amuses me when he is so ‘East End’ now………

8,461mi from me so far this year – mainly road miles but some gravel on the CX bike & in the last month some virtual miles in races on Zwift. I am retired so have more time than most.

Quite apart from keeping yourself a bit drier with mudguards the most important part of the ‘etiquette’ is to have rear mudguards that don’t throw a load of wet shitty grit into the face of the clubmember riding behind you. Even ‘full’ mudguards often have to be extended a bit as they can still throw up crap at speed.

Yes should work if it’s Bluetooth. I have a Wahoo gen1 & works well. Look into the Tacx handlebar frame for the iPad & I find it works best if the iPad has a mains supply as mine seems to deplete v quickly running Zwift.

It does take a fair bit of pumping on the brake lever to get the brake fluid through. Pump the lever several times to build up pressure & open bleed nipple with bleed tube in jar of fluid (or non return valve) – close nipple. Ensure resovoir is topped up & repeat. You my need to do this several times & should work if you system is all connected properly.

I too just rode for a while & took great pleasure in riding hard & chasing others down & overtaking them & others me – unfortunately.

I then started doing some of the races to make me work much harder – & it works pretty well. You need to work out your category – I started in C & then realised I’m really at the bottom of B – so I have to work even harder to race those in my Cat.

Zwiftpower.com is a must, as others have said, although I struggle to understand all the abbreviations / colours etc . And there doesn’t seem to be a manual anywhere & the forum is limited…..

I’ve got 2 different versions of the ‘Bikemate’ rear lights from ALDi (the long rectangular ones & the fatter one with painted ends) and they have both recently failed. Unfortunately last time ALDI did their cycle kit they didn’t have any of the lights online or in store – otherwise I would have bought a ‘spare’ set for future use. They were brilliant lights & were used about 3 times a week for 3-4 hour rides. Left flashing on low it has lasted over 15hrs.

As they are copies of the Nebula Moon light I’ve just searched for one of those but they seem to be out of stock in all the main on-line retailers.

if anyone has a spare ALDI rear light I would be interested.

I was in a similar situation with a gravel bike I bought recently – a Kinesis with 1×10 & TRP mechanical discs – which weren’t great.

I looked into a full upgrade with Hydraulic shifters (used off eBay) bit they don’t seem to do 10speed ones & I didn’t really need to upgrade to 11speed.

My solution was to go for a set of Hope V-Twin hydraulic brakes. They have a set of resovours set under the stem which are operated by short cables & then run hydraulic hoses down to the calliper. I like Hope & have them on all my MTBs. They are easy to bleed & pretty much fit & forget – & work really well.

The set cost £100 used off eBay (some come up a bit more /less) & mine are in Ex condition. I’m currently selling my TRP mechanical calliper on eBay & hope to get back £60-£70 ish. Your TRP Hydros will fetch a bit more.

I do have TRP Hydros on a road bike & they are pretty good too so apart from replacing lengths of cable with hydro hoses you might not see too much improvement.

I’ve had a fairly flat sided bike bag & a Bike Box Alan on top of it in my Audi A4 estate with the rear seats down. They fitted well with room to slide a large case on its side in too behind the front seats. Placing 2 BB Alan’s on top of each other (would have to be on sides because of roof height restriction) may be tricky as the wheel side is not particularly flat. Some packing might help…..

As Jolly Green Giant says – Google OTT MTB. Been out with them a few times & you wont be disappointed.

I bought a used one last year to use with my 3yr old granddaughter. I must admit it hasn’t been used much yet. I mainly have carbon road & MTBs but did set up a rigid MTB with an ally frame & seat-post to use with it. A full suss – would make it bob too much. They are great things & my granddaughter loved it – but as said – they are long & you need to take care in tight bends; & holding the bike up while embarking / disembarking is a challleng. A centre stand for the Weehoo (if they do one) or for the bike would help.

6.0ft – 74.5kg – 32” waist & 63yrs = 22.1 BMI.

Am I fit? Well since switching from the MTB to the road bike I have been doing an average of 200 miles a week. So reasonably……

There was an issue – I assume that caused the problem – but what I did was to delete my browser (internet Explorer / Chrome / Firefox / etc) history & click on the link or google the page to log-in to Garmin Connect again. Good luck!

All sorted – many thanks dissonance – clearing the cache / browser history in each device sorted things out.

Yes – the app seems to be working – bit not the web based version. Still blank for me……

I have  Kickr mk1 running 10speed. It’s well reported (Kickr FB support) that the supplied cassette is a pretty basic one – probably much lower spec than your usual one. But – you may also need to adjust the barrel adjusters to get the indexing spot on. With practice you should be able to do this in moments when you swap between turbo & bike.

I have hope hydraulics on my MTB bikes & would prefer full hydros but on my Trek Domane 4.3 Disc I have the Trp-hyRd’s and they are very good. I thought about upgrading to all hydro – but couldn’t really justify it.

If you already have the discs & calliper mounts then I’d be looking on fleabay for a set of Trp-hyRd callipers which would be pretty cheap as others will upgrade from these to hydro.

I can’t help with MTB holidays – but if you want road then Stuart Hall Cycling is excellent. I went there last April with my club & it was so good I returned in November. Returning with the club again this April.

Many people return – often on their own – year after year. Different levels of group rides are led each day & the commeradere is brilliant. You all stay in the same hotel & soon pal up with others who were on your day rides for evening meals.

The roads are fast & smooth & drivers incredibly courteous – it’s a real road cycling Mecca. They do bike hire & It’s reasonably priced too.

I used to use an iPad & HDMI adapter that also had a mains feed for the IPad as it runs down a bit on Zwift which fed to a large screen TV. Unfortunately the adapter (genuine Apple @ £45ish) has failed & has become intermittent powering the TV and delivering the signal on the HDMI.

So I’ve just bought an Apple 4K tv which does the job brilliantly. You might need to use the Zwift phone app too as a Bluetooth bridge as the TV only has 2 spare Bluetooth inputs – depending on how many you need for your trainer / cadence / heart rate monitor etc..

63 – gave up MTB-ing (mainly singletracking) a few years ago & doing about 200mi a week on the road. Just shy of 9000mi last year. Working on keeping up with the young (er) ones……

I have an original Garmin HR strap which is of the semi- rigid plastic type with an elastic strap on the back which is getting a bit baggy now & adjusted as tight as it will go. I recently bought a ‘spare’ one ‘as new’ off eBay for about £5 plus postage = bargain. I do also have a Wahoo Tickr HR strap which is Ant+ and BT – but I do like the robustness of the old Garmin ones.

Hi Jam-bo – I know but want the comprehensive set of data the Garmin Edge collects & the analysis in Connect. I also use the unit to display my power, av power etc etc – which gives a broader range of data than that displayed on the Zwift screen & is easier to read.

No. I use an iPad to run Zwift which uploads to Strava. I have Bluetooth / Ant+ sensors (HR & Cadence) & the Turbo puts out BT & Ant+. The iPad picks up the BT. I also use my Garmin Edge 1000 in Turbo / indoor trainer mode & have the screen set up for power etc. This picks up the Ant+ & records the ride separately. The Garmin uploads to the Garmin Connect website & will also feed into Strava. As I now have 2 Strava feeds (one from the iPad via Strava & one from Garmin Connect) I delete the Garmin one and keep the Garmin ride on Garmin Connect with all my other outdoor rides. In ‘Reports’ there is some good analysis on the Garmin site.

Try 2 – posting is misbehaving….

I use Zwift & have the account. The wife uses it occasionally & we have seen the option of having 2 users use the same IP address etc – but that sounds like 2 subscriptions!

We both use Zwift with our Garmins, in parallel. I delete her ride off my Strava when it uploads. Her Garmin uploads to her Garmin Connect which feeds the ride into her Strava.

I get a duplicate ride on Strava & delete out the one that is fed from my Garmin. I keep the Garmin version on Garmin Connect which keeps a record of all my ride activity together & gives me much better analysis.

The downside is that she rides with my profile settings – but that a little price to pay than a 2nd subscription to Zwift – particularly as it has just gone up to £12 ish……

I use Zwift & have the account. The wife uses it occasionally & we have seen the option of having 2 users use the same IP address etc – but that sounds like 2 subscriptions

Just wear a dark Harrington jacket – Much more subtle & not stolen by the right wing….. I do like the ‘bomber’ jacket tho.

I used to ride with an informal group who met regularly on a Sunday morning – usually 5 or 6 of us out of a potential 15 or so. I just posted up on – Bikeradar.com – MTB Forum – Routes, Rides & Holidays – MTB Rides – and other locals joined us.

You can do a search there for rides local to you or put in a request for others in the area. Also googling MTB groups in the local area often brings up nearby groups you didn’t know were there.

I always think bike shops should advertise local groups – but don’t seem to.

Good luck finding a group.

I’ve been using black industrial rubber gloves for several years – with the hand cut off & worn with the cut side uppermost snug on my leg & the wider part over the neoprene cuff of my boots. It’s a bit hit & miss getting a pair that fit well but they are pretty cheap on eBay. I even have a pair that were long armed ones & wear them for very
muddy off-road rides as they come up to just below my knees.

Kelvin Hopkins came into our secondary school in Luton for various functions as our local MP – luckily he didn’t try anything as our kids would have had him (MP or not) as they were pretty lairy……