Sounds great. Love a bit of pedally

We’re going to Swinley next weekend. Never been there yet. I’m an ex roadie, and told I’ll like it for that reason?!

Sweetspot is a very narrrow/precise zone. It’s top end of tempo (Z3), just into threshold (Z4). Without a power meter you’ll not really know.

Tempo (Z3) is a larger zone. Going off heart rate monitor (or even percieved effort), tempo is easier to follow instead of SST

I felt like (although, admittedly didn’t give it enough time), that the bike had much more momentum fixed. So if someone just pulled out, which they do a lot, I couldn’t react/slow down as fast as with a freewheel.

On country lanes, I would think it’s lovely though.

I ride a SS road bike through town on my commute. I feel riding it fixed rather than SS through traffic is dangerous. Guys that love the fixed feeling, are you on quiet routes??

DHB Aeron are excellent. They’ve recently been revised. Chamois is best I’ve used.

I live here, well Bournemouth actually and up the road in the poor bit. But still, love the place.

There is a big rich poor divide in the area. I can’t understand how the housing market functions here at all tbh. House prices way beyond the local wages.

But, on a Sunday morning I roll down the hill to Sandbanks, meet my mates, hop of the chain ferry and go ride my bike over the stunning Purbecks! When I’m up on those beautiful hills looking at the those views I feel very fortunate indeed.

Poole/Bmouth is an amazing place to live. We have easy access to miles of very clean beaches, a vibrant town (Bournemouth more so), the Jurassic coast. The beautiful New Forest national park is 20mins from my house by road bike. Love it all.

But I agree, I don’t understand how Sandbanks peninsula is supposedly the 4th most expensive place. Probably complete BS

Not ParcelForce!

Took them 10 days to deliver some I sold, I paid for 48hr delivery. They lost it, and found it in another depot. AVOID.

So how do veggies get round wine? Most of it is not veggie

Most beers are now though

^ this is pretty much me now. I just genuinely prefer the veggie options now. But might have meat as we’re out with friends or whatever..

We’ve got a good collection of veggie/vegan cookbooks too. Also some great sources for inspiration on YouTube. Matt Pritchard’s Dirty Vegan Channel is funny. And Gaz Oakley is really good

It is a little “strange” how people classify fish, as not really animals. And I’ve actually spoken to some people that don’t consider chicken to really be meat!! WTAF. Mind blowing

Vegetarian is easy! Vegan is more of a challenge, but a good positive challenge (Life’s boring if it’s easy)

I followed a vegetarian diet, felt pretty crap, too much cheese/dairy I think! Lasted couple months.

A year later I went vegan, lasted 7/8 months, and found the whole thing tremendously positive. The community around food/recipes ideas are amazing. And I felt fanatstic, lots of energy.

I am not vegan now, I kind of failed when my wife was very ill over Christmas, super stressed etc..

I’m still 90% plant based though. Will go back to it soon.

But the period being vegan taught me a lot about food, nutrition, what we need, what can be done. Learned to use lots of new foods in new ways.

Tofoo (not just any old tofu), is amazing.

I dice it, coat in cornflower, then fry in a big wok (don’t over cook, just till light pale colour). Goes all crispy. Then lob this lovely crispiness into something with sauce; stir-fry, currys etc. The crispy bits soak up all the flavour. It has fantastic texture. Super healthy. Great value, aprrox £2. IMO it’s way better than chicken.

https://tofoo.co.uk/about-tofoo

I’ve got that Boardman one too.

Yeah I think it’s the draft effect/mini recoveries. You can’t ride too hard, so long as you finish the duration. Go as hard as you can possibly go, whilst still completing the 30 (20) minutes.

A local option might be turn up to your local club 10 mile time trial. That was my most frequent measure of FTP. You’ll prob be somewhere in the 20-25 minute region. But it’s proper balls out.

And definitely use chest HRM, not watch. The watch will be inaccurate. I’ve got both. Watch is rubbish, well good enough for recording a casual ride, but not good enough for testing.

https://www.joefrielsblog.com/2011/04/determining-your-lthr.html

Sa Calobra will be perfect!

Approx 30mins is good for a heart rate threshold test, taking the last 20mins. Depending on your predicted time up that climb, you could use some more of the start as a warm up. Then really go for it. (When I was fitter 2 years ago, I was just under 36 mins up there)

I know my threshold HR, and last time I did that climb I stuck at threshold and it worked a treat.

It’s very motivational also, if you let your mates lead off 2 mins ahead, and try and catch them. You’ll just about see them around the bends up ahead, so keeps you pushing as hard as you can.

I’m a roadie coming over to MTB too! Not quite as many years under my belt as you, but I did take it all way too seriously!

Actually it was this time last year something in my head switched, I sold my TT bike and bought a hardtail!

One of the best things I’ve done! So much fun! I do still take the road bike out once/twice a week for a tear up. But have so much more fun dicking about on the MTB, away from the cars.

I had a budget of approx. £1k, partly as I didn’t want to commit too much, as I had never actually MTBd – as a kid I never did it, unlike most. I bought a Vitus Sentier VRS, it’s 27.5 (plus capable), slx etc. Nice.

I use the hardtail everywhere my mates take there full sussers. All the local stuff. Take it up the road to Tidworth. I’ve taken it away to Cwmcarn and Afan. I’m not into the jumps either! but happy with rough stuff, rocky descents, drops etc. Hardtail does it all, you just take a bit of beating. Although I will upgrade to a full suss in the next year probably.

I had a few mates that MTBd a bit. But I decided to join my local club also, and have learned a lot from them. Thoroughly recommend finding a local MTB club.

I’ve got 38mm on my CAADX. Panaracer Comet Hardpack, got them on special from PlanetX. They’re really good

I took the Vagabond with me and ride around the Isle of Purbeck a few times. I’ve ridden there before on the MTB but managed to explore just as much on the Genesis.

It’s all doable. Just more fun on the downhills on the MTB!!

Yep and having lived in New Forest for last 20 years I have probably ridden on most of them. That seems to be the thing whenever a gravel bike thread pops up, some people think they are not useful in the UK but that is simply because they don’t have any gravel roads in their location so assume nobody else does.
I don’t live anywhere near a trail centre so unfortunately never go to them but I don’t question the need for bikes that are good for trail centres.

I was a hardcore roadie until recent. I have a road bike, CX and a hardtail. I bought the CX in between the road bike and buying the HT. I barely used the CX, but..just recently I haver found a bit of love for it actually. It’s a very different ride to the road bike fast ride or the hardtail fun in the woods. More of an adventure/explore/bimble/relax and destress

I’m local too, North Bournemouth, so the NF is rideable from my door. I ride the roads in New Forest very regularly, it’s a really lovely place to ride, get out early on the weekend and it’s bliss. But I have to admit, I have never gravelled there!!

This thread has inspired me to get on it, I’m gonna head out there. Anyone got any good gravel route suggestions. Although, I do quite like getting lost!

Re. no trail centre, we do have Tidworth just up the road – it’s only 1hr in the car, which isn’t too bad. Was there last Sunday, cracking fun.

So, that’s Wales, Scotland and northern England that have plenty of suitable tracks, and I’m sure there must be one or two further south.

The New Forest has loads of gravel routes

Kicking myself I didn’t enter (just like I kicked myslef for not entering last year!)!

It’s all local to me, but does sound like a right laugh.

Good timing.

We’re currently looking to move, 30 miles up the road to Salisbury, so the wife can be walking distance to her Mum (actually my idea).

Currently we own an ex local authority 1950s semi. It’s not the most attractive. But solid, and big! Big gardens f/r too. It backs on to big playing fields. Space wasn’t such as issue a few decades ago? I bought it as it was good value.

We went to look at some of the new builds (the development is half done, so people living in a building site, where the end of the road is just sand/gravel and diggers). My wife loves these, they are all shiny and new, and have ensuites etc.

I hated them thoroughly, escp in contrast to our current old house (tbf I knew I would).

They are typically small and thin. Very very overlooked, no privacy. Postage stamp garden. They do have garages, but stupidly, not next to the house. Lots of odd decision with the planning and design. We did look at a similar existing development adjacent to this new one, which is prob couple decades old. The cars parked everywhere did stand out to me.

An old house, with a bit of life in it for me every time.

a radical suggestion but don’t knock it til you’ve tried it… Beans on Houmous on Toast

Yep, this. With mushrooms on. TBH what doesn’t go well with houmous!?

On wholemeal toast, then fried mushrooms ontop of the beans on the toast

CX bike is probably the only option for do it all. Jack of all, master of none (even a 29er HT is better at cyclocross!).

Minimal costs, switch tyres to slicks for road rides. Racks and stuff for commuting/shopping.

CX/Gravel is the most versitile bike. Just not the best on road, or off road

Fabric Scoop

My rim brakes on alu rims stop me faster than anything! I have a Supersix with SRAM Rival.

You need to splash out on Swissstop pads – the blue ones. They are really night and day. At least twice as good as any other pads I’ve used. The compound is amazing, No black muck too.

I easily lock the rear wheel with light pull on the lever, and can stop the bike extremely quickly, prob quicker than the MTB.

But I only use the roadie in dry. If it’s wet I’ll MTB/Zwift. I commute on a CAADX with discs daily.

If you’re using the road bike just when it’s dry, for fun/pleasure, get rim. Lighter, and more bike for you money (older models heavily discounted). If you’re using it all weathers because you HAVE TO (ie. the commuters), then disc makes sense.

https://www.wiggle.co.uk/swissstop-flash-pro-bxp-alloy-rim-brake-pads/?lang=en&curr=GBP&dest=1&sku=5360661138&kpid=5360661138&utm_source=google&utm_term=&utm_campaign=Shopping+-+All+Products&utm_medium=base&utm_content=mckv|sig7ILTwm_dc|mcrid|295292317327|mkw||mmt||mrd|5360661138uk|mslid||&mkwid=sig7ILTwm_dc&pcrid=295292317327&prd=5360661138uk&pgrid=58852352866&ptaid=pla-522781330985&gclid=CjwKCAjw2cTmBRAVEiwA8YMgzew2ubb4xPj3F4fYOx0unLRPYaEQXTltMxELenVEc_wzE3WL0-KixxoCFKgQAvD_BwE

One bike is very appealing from a maintenance point of view. Massive PIA maintaining a few bikes, they all always need something doing, despite them all getting used less individually.

Big Dog does sound good. If it has frame bosses for rack, I can get rid of the gravel commuter too!

I ordered one for front and rear of the bike (just wanted to convert away from stealth, and be able to remove wheels with tools).

Front, fits great, no problems. The rear spec is all correct for length etc. but wrong thread pitch!! Which I didn’t know until I’ve wripped open the packaging damn it.

The bike (Vitus Sentier) had a captive nut in the frame. I’m assuming this nut is 1.5mm thread pitch rather than the 1.75mm Brandx thread. Stupid me for assuming they would have used same thread on front/rear of the same bloody bike. I’m guessing this nut specific to the frame, so will have to look for a 1.5mm pitch boost thru axle.

For the hard workouts – definitely increase the carbs! You cannot do threshold work unless carbed up. Well you can, but you won’t be able to hit as higher power for as long. More carbs = higher quality (harder) workout = higher net calories burned. More watts is more calories required, more powerful guys burn more calories – win win. I like to eat something like a big bowl of porridge or a sweet potato 2hrs prior (usually mid afternoon), let it digest and get absorbed etc. Some people smash a couple of gels 20mins before though (yuk).

Post workout, I try and time the workout to coincide with dinner time, so just eat a big proper meal. Not a fan of shakes.

If you want to maintain current mass, you will probably want to increase portions. It’s what I have to do too. I don’t want to lose weight, just want to be fit. You will feel so much better overall if you are eating more (good food) whilst doing all this work.

I use a Tanita scale, to check in on current weight, fat, muscle mass once every 2/4 weeks. So you can see what’s working regarding diet. You can see if you are gain too much fat, or conversely if you are gaining more muscle mass.

I’m not doing mine all that tight at all, just kind of nipping it up. The material is poor

I might get one for my Rebas. I hate the Maxle sleath, which is already beginning to wear/round slightly.

Mine is option 7, boost.

Would this work?

https://www.chainreactioncycles.com/brand-x-twist-lever-thru-axle/rp-prod176625

I did try, but they’re still really dirty! Rather just bin ’em and get some fresh ones in there.

Will it take 140mm fork and 650b+?

I used to wear those for time trialing. They’re a bloody nightmare to get on, and tear very easily.

TBH they won’t last if you walk on anything remotely rough (gravel/stone etc). They have cut outs for road shoes, so they don’t make contact with the ground.

Depends on the bike…

Road bike, I feel free like a bird! The thing is so efficient, fast. The tarmac passes under you fast, corners like it’s on rails.

MTB, I feel like a teenager again. It’s amazing. Liberating me from all the grown up sh!t. Just messing about, no worries.

I get home from a road ride, having enjoyed it, a good tear up with my mates (trying to drop them of course), maybe hit some Strava or power PBs, but I’m really tired, and I eat everything.

I get home from MTB ride, and I have this weird warm fuzzy glow. I feel bit tired, but really happy. And I eat everything.