I used to be really into my time trialling. I used to be on the A35 dual carriageway very often.

This is the popular local course https://www.strava.com/segments/6913378 It’s a downhill run, into a roundabout, and then across a dodgy slip on/off. It’s popular as it’s blumin quick!

It’s utter lunacy, in pursuit of a PB.

I came to my senses, I no longer TT or ride DCs.

Cheers guys.

@lunge at this stage, I could only dream! You guys are all very impressive

Hi!

I’m just starting week 4 of a couch to 5k plan (8 weeks). So far really enjoying adding something different alongside my cycling.

I did try and get into running 2017, really really loved it but was very injury prone. Suffered with ITB issues and knees. I recently looked back through my running activities on Strava and realised what a idiot I’d been, just did way too much/too hard too soon.

This time around I’m going to try and reign it right back, despite being fit from lots of cycling, I’m starting very easy. Respecting the legs!

I am feeling a bit tight and sore, think through using the different muscles, most notably glute medius (I think).

My plan is to be able to do the parkrun regularly, just for a bit of fun. I did do it once in 2017, it was great.

Great article! Makes me want to ride RIGHT NOW!

I’m not unfit. But I just started running too. Main reason, I really love running. Plus it’s very time efficient for family life. You can just nip out for a 30 min run around the block, and feel great.

I did run before, but did the classic too much too soon. Bike cardio fitness is dangerous, you can just go run for an hour no problem, then boom you’re injured. I had loads of issues with my knees so stopped it, and kept to the bike.

This time around I’m doing the coach to 5k. It’s very gentle progress, jog/walking. But I’m really determined to crack it this time and be able to run injury free!

I have to say, roadies do clothing and shoes much better than MTB. Granted It’s all a bit ridiculous and tight (embarrassing), but it works excellently through all the seasons. Multiple layers, arm and leg warmers than you can take off, gilets, jersey with useful pockets etc. WIDE choice of footwear, overshoes that work well etc. And in the summer, light and cool lycra. Maybe because road cycling is so much older…?

There is 100% a gap in the market for good waterproof flat MTB shoes, that dry fast!

I lick mine. Urrghh I’m gross 😆

Anytime I get into a “near miss” I try to analyse it and incorporate the lessons into future riding

@tjagain yep, I do this too. You get those REALLY close misses, and you thank your lucky stars! And certainly make a mental note of where not to be in the road/position/where to watch etc.

Anyone have a link to the law/code regarding filtering/passing (on the right?)

I’ve 100% seen the Police respond on fb comments stating cyclist are fully entitled to filter, and it’s not breaking the law.

Also, this article discusses motobikes, but cyclists are afforded full use of the road too, so same applies.

Filtering on your motorbike: What’s the law?

Text here..

In 2006, a judge ruled in the case of Davis vs Shrogin that, “a filtering motorcyclist passing stationary or very slow-moving traffic could not be to blame if a collision occurred if the rider had no chance to take avoiding action.”

Checking the Highway Code, under Rules for Motorcyclists, Rule 88 states, ‘Manoeuvering. You should be aware of what is behind and to the sides before maneuvering. Look behind you; use mirrors if they are fitted. When in traffic queues look out for pedestrians crossing between vehicles and vehicles emerging from junctions or changing lanes. Position yourself so that drivers in front can see you in their mirrors. Additionally, when filtering in slow-moving traffic, take care and keep your speed low.’

Then in Rule 160, where the advice is aimed more at other vehicle drivers, it clarifies this with, ‘Once moving, you should be aware of other road users, especially cycles and motorcycles who may be filtering through the traffic. These are more difficult to see than larger vehicles and their riders are particularly vulnerable…’

So, it’s clear that the Highway Code has specific provisions that cover filtering.
It means, the next time a car or van driver gets a little antsy on the subject, you can respectfully shove their, “Shouldn’t even have been riding there, mate!” back down their throats with a “Highway Code, Rules 88 and 160. Mate.”
You are allowed to filter, and other road users (including yourself, remember) should be aware of motorcycles filtering.

I notice if an acorn or stone hits my car. I’m amazed they didn’t notice the man and bike hitting them! And then continue driving up into that person’s driveway 😣

Jeaasuuss!! WTAF! Horrific!

But aside from having the share the planet with these zombies, yep always filter down the middle.

I got “doored” couple months back whilst rolling up the inside of stationary traffic, but it was a f…ing cycle lane. Builders mate decided to jump out in traffic, flung door, wham. My fault of course, being as I’m fair game (a cyclist).

Me and the wife use Google maps location sharing – https://support.google.com/maps/answer/7326816?co=GENIE.Platform%3DAndroid&hl=en

It’s more so she can see where I am when I cycle alone off road at night (she worries, of course)

It works all the time, you don’t need to remember to turn it on. Which in my case is great. I did use WhatsApp location sharing previously, but you have to start it when you set off, which I often forgot to do.

I improved mine a lot with compressionless cables, and some kevlar pads from PlanetX. The pads are amazing for two quid!

@sharkattack Those Five Ten Gore Tex boots look great ^^ or the mid version (Five Ten Trailcross Mid GTX).

The shoe/low version also seems to have done away with the chunky padded ankle/tonge. That in itself is a good improvement fot wet stuff. Current Freeriders take days to dry.

Think I’ll save a bit and wait for those to come out.

ould you set them up with pads further from disc, to benefit from more clearance?

Yes. Brake power is reduced a bit, but you can tune to your preference.

I’m suprised nobody has produced a better wet weather flat shoe. Kind of like the Fizik/Northwave winter boots, with the top closures and decent fabrics, but for flat pedals.

Funny enough, another vote for Hutchinson Fusion 5 11storm here. Bought 28mm, as they were cheap, and I plan to set them up tubleless when I can be bothered. Currently with tubes in, in the wet they feel excellent. I was on Contis before.

I bought them as they were on a cracking offer on Evans, and the odd review I could find was very good.

There’s a recap under trailers for El Camino.

I went the long way around, and have nearly finished binge watching all 5 seasons all over again. It’s fanatstic, I forgot most of it.

It does make laugh when people talk about the quality of interiors. You’d swear they want a Rolls Royce to drive the two miles to work. Oh, we must have leather seats to do the weekly shop on Saturday. 😂

Mine looked good for less than a month. Now it’s encrusted with wotsits, crisps and other unknown sticky stuff, and always dirty! I give up trying to have nice things with kids

We’ve got the Dacia Sandero Stepway 0.9 TCe. Had it 3 years from new, and it’s been great. Feels cheap, but honest.

It’s the 0.9 turbo petrol, surprisingly good power for such a small engine.

I haven’t ridden a FS.. if i don’t ride one i won’t miss one right?

That’s me! TBH I can’t afford the funds for an FS currently. My mate has offered me a go on his a few times. I don’t want to ride it incase I realise I relly need one. Love my hardtail to bits!

Oh hang on, WTF is Mycoprotien?

Yep, it’s pretty weird stuff. You can very easily be an unhealthy vegan.

Thanks, I will take a look. Do love a bit of tofu! Shame my kids won’t eat it!

Did you prepare it yourself? If so how?

The other Tofu brand I’ve tried at home is Caldron, which seems to be much wetter and less firm. I squish it between kitchen paper for a while. But the Tofoo branded stuff if still way better imo, straight out the packet good to go.

Inside the Tofoo box they have little recipie cards for you to collect. We did do their teriyaki recipie, which was very good! Some recipies here: https://tofoo.co.uk/recipes?category=naked

I just bought a new road bike, a 2019 Spesh Tarmac Disc. Comes with threaded BSA BB! Whoop!

My hardtail is also threaded BB. Threaded is the future. F… pressfit

Asda have a new range of tinned vegan things; 3 bean chilli, sweet potato and coconut curry, jack fruit somethign-or-other. One of these tins, with a micorwave rice makes an amazing office lunch! way better than limp ham sandwiches. (obvs yes you need a microwave in the office…and office friends that don’t mind the smell)

Gaz Oakley, amazing stuff. We’ve done his chickpea curry loads of times. Easy quick and tasty. But he has a lot of extrevagant stuff too.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCF-ACPYNN0oXD4ihS5mbbmw

Matt Pritchard, again youtube (not sure if his proper channel is still there now he’s on the BBC)
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCsTNEhZlO8lM4RUAqc4YkYg

If you buy tofu, only buy Tofoo! (https://tofoo.co.uk). I’ve tried other tofu and can see why people don’t like tofu! But this Tofoo stuff is great, much firmer and cooks great. Cube it, dust in cornflower, whack it in a hot wok with a bit of oil for a few mins until stlightly golden on all sides (easy to over cook it). Then add it to things you’d normally add chicken to. In a curry or a stir fry it’s cracking! Better than chicken. The crispy cornflower exterior soaks up the flavours.

I hate Quorn. It’s weird, and gives me tremendous wind!

There’s stacks of lazy junk options now, most soya based.

Sainsbury’s is the place to go if you’re feeling lazy. Loads of vegan options off the shelf/freezer.

Ive wondered if some people might be susceptible to an unconscious bias when using a single sided meter.

Yep I’ve wondered the same, and think it might be true. I used to do a lot more on the turbo, when I was racing. And would hit it hard! And then race with the same PM outside. So would focus a lot on this magical number. So yeah could well be that you’re subconsciously doing whatever possible to get this number up.

My Direto feels good, smooth, not noticibly on/off. It’s a bit noisier than I’d like – a slight beep, beeeep, beep, beeeep from the stepping motor, but the fan I use more/less drowns that out once I’m up and running hot

Regarding FTP, it reports about 20-30w lower than my 4iiii left only PM. But this can be due to left/right imbalances to some extent (maybe I’m a bit wonky). So If I cared about Zwift numbers for racing that’s a bit annoying, but I don’t. I just do intervals if I go on it, so the actual FTP doesn’t matter.

On the whole, I like the device though.

Oh OK. I’m suprised people use it for lube. I use it for a quick degrease, loosen the muck before washing. But might try it sometime though!

Are people serious about using GT-85??! That’s not a lube, is it?

I am skeptical..

I was too! But proved myself wrong, it was very good shifting after a little bit of straightening.

I went through the same thing as you, changed cables, lots of fiddling and grumbling. Rear mech was old, so chucked a new one on anyway. Eventually came to thinking it might be the hanger.

Bought the x-tools one. Sorted!

Great tool to have in the shed if you own a few bikes, the hangers will get bent now and again.

With the poor old Queen repeatedly getting dragged into things.

I was wondering, is she Leave/Remain??!

I’m not really into pelotons or lycra, but old style explorating and the joy of traditional cycling which I began doing as a kid originally as a way to get away

I really agree with @Malver Rider actually.

I’ve kind of “evolved” (or improved as a person), I’ve found a love for SOLO. It’s fantastic.

I used to be quite an active part of my roadie club, even on the committee! And you speaking of a pelotons of Lycra makes me cringe a little now. I did join then recently, and mid ride just had to peel off.

Solo riding is fantastic. Being alone with my own thoughts, just being me. Stopping for a picture whenever. Stopping at a random village shop for a chunk of homemade cake. No strict plan of where I’m going. Going fast or as slow as I please (mostly, slower now tbh). Brilliant.

(Same goes for MTB too, I’ll either go with a small select group of mates, or totally happy going solo.)

Don’t ride A roads! Or busy roads in general! No fun in that for anyone.

I love road cycling, on those lovely quiet back country lanes. We just head out of town on the quickest route poss to get away from the traffic. Once into the countryside, road cycling is really amazing. Smooth and fast. Cover large distances, taking in lovely villages and scenery. Really really love it

Local councils need to make cycling infrastructure MUCH MUCH better and safer, and actually plan it out logically. Yeah it’s been said a thousand times already. But it’s true. And not happening!

To say I love cycling is an understatement. I do think about bikes most of the time. But I do hate cycling my bike to work now. I’ve been commuting by bike for 8 years, and am truly sick of it. As a very experienced and capable cyclist, I am nearly squished too often. But I let it go and get on with my day. You are never going to convince someone who is normally 99% inactive, and unfit and not cycled for years, to go and play with the traffic like we do.

There’s often bad accidents involving squished cyclists on the same route I use. You see it shared on social media. And you also see the responses from the general public. That response in the comments section is more terrifying. Really! You’ve got zero chance of convincing anyone out of their cars when they see all this lot.

It’s not a major city, it’s just a seaside town – Bournemouth. But it’s utter gridlock carnage in rush-hour traffic, and the cycling infrastructure is terrible and dangerously (un)planned.

If we’re to have any chance of encouraging people to cycle short journeys. They HAVE to build proper, segregated/separated cycle lanes. Lanes that don’t just stop randomly 20ft from the horrendous roundabout where all the poor cyclists are getting squished and reported in the local press. I often wonder, do the idiots who plan these partial lanes ever ride a bike, or give a #### at all.

I’m on the verge of embarking in bangernomics, and getting myself a little crap car to commute in I’m that sick of it. Trying to resist it. But if nobody else cares….

People who drop litter. What do they think happens to the rubbish?!?!

Nah it’s fine mate, just chuck it there where you’re walking!!!

Amazes me.

You can invoke Windows startup repair by forcing it to fail to start (turn it on/ forcing it off) 3 times in a row. From there you might be able to do system restore to a prevous date.

If you get no joy with that, Windows 10 is pretty easy to reinstall. Download the official tool here, to a USB drive (at least 8gb), and it’ll do all the work for you. (tip, run the downloaded tool from the USB drive, it works better)

https://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/software-download/windows10

Wasn’t the phrase first used in Fight Club?

The first rule of …