What a load of pish

Really? I seem to remember a lot of forum dwellers vowing never to spend money with the company after Brent basically told a customer that he couldn’t give a monkey’s toss about a just-out-of-warranty frame failure on a model that was beset with problems.

Maybe my memory plays tricks…

Jamie – brilliant! :D

I reckon this sq225917 character is just Brent using a different log-in.

He’s realised that he irreparably damaged the brand with previous forum posts so they’ve cooked up this “Brant Quits/Squiggle is the Online Saviour of On-One” routine…

I have a family of Tawny Owls that have just fledged in my wood – I spend my nights standing out there “talking” to them. Last night, one landed on a branch right next to my head – didn’t hear a thing until it screeched in my ear! Can’t show any photos due to the low light, but this video always cheers me up…

Loads of good road riding but apart from Gisburn, you’ll struggle to find any “Offroad Light” riding. Some fantastic fell rides over Dunsop and Beattrix Fells from Parrock Head or there’s the old road up Salter Fell which you can ride right up to Hornby (if you like riding up metalled fell tracks).

Definitely the wrong saddle for the job. I’m a huge fan of the Bel Air – I’ve got them on all my MTBs. Don’t get on with WTBs but Spoons are OK.

But non of the above will work on a roadbike. I use Prologo Nago Evos on the road bikes and they’re wonderful.

Completely different shape to an MTB saddle – I like a “hammocky” saddle offroad but you roll your pelvis forward and sit in a completely different way on a road bike.

My bikes all have names… They are, after all, my surrogate children.

Except my best road bike which is known as The Porn Star… I suppose she’d have to fill the wife role… Not that I’d marry a porn star…

I also have Hilda (a Blur named after my grandmother), Dolly the Dolan winter bike, The Tough Lad (my crit race bike), The Rat (a road rat), The Soul (erm, a Soul) and The Dingle (a rigid single speed).

Shirley that’s fairly normal, no?

How dare they use a sponsorship deal to promote a bloody lovely car!

How dare they exploit the associated speed of the time trial event in such a gratuitous and desperate bid to bestow those qualities on a fast and sporty car.

Scoundrels!

I was in the car, and he still took some catching.

I watched him riding my local Oakenclough race where they climb a nasty little hill called Delph Lane 5 times. He still has the KOM up that hill and he did it in his big ring every time!!!

I read he’s a fan of 200 mile training rides… Wonder what his background is and how he came to try cycling over other sports…

As an aside, I remember watching UK pro Dave Clarke riding in a crit in Preston City Centre a few years ago. A guy standing next to me said “There’s something you don’t see every day…”

“What’s that?” I asked.

“A black man riding a bike whilst the Police just stand and watch!”

Mildly amusing if slightly close to the bone, but probably quite a telling indictment of the number of black riders…

Again, it’s a noble cause and a heartwarming story, but it’s a diversion from what I originally asked, specifically, why black people from the developed countries don’t become cyclists.

To be honest, I wonder at the motivation of people those sort of projects: are they truly interested in developing the sport, or are they more interested in mining a rich vein of natural physiological talent as a quick route to success?

I wonder whether it’s down to the fact that cycling isn’t promoted in schools and talented athletes are shepherded towards athletics, football, rugby etc – sports that are easily catered for in schools.

Again, drawing on my own experience, I wasn’t good at track/field/team sports as a child. So perhaps I was drawn to cycling (as a sport rather than just mucking about on my BMX) because it was something a bit different.

I was reading about Alex Dowsett in Michael Hutchinson’s book recently – he was picked out as a potential future star at school and had his talent cultivated. Perhaps if the school sports system allowed for this across the board, there would be a more racial split more consistent with society in general…

Your friend needs to pay more attention

And you need to read more than the first line of a post!

Is Gène riding for Europecar this year too? If so, apologies, that’s 2 riders so a far more significant 1% of the peloton. ;)

So if there’s ‘no reason’ and ‘no hurdles’, then why aren’t theri more blackand Asian people in cycling?

That’s exactly the question I’m asking Stoffel! I’m sure somewhere there must be a black kid, riding round on a hand-me-down road bike, seeing guys riding at warp speed on time trial bikes and thinking “I want to do that!”.

So what hurdles are stopping him going and asking a marshal how you go about having a go? That’s what I did as a 14 year old after I inadvertently turned onto a race route just ahead of a local Cat3/4 race and got cheered round a corner by a throng of onlookers!

Andyfla: I understand what you meant, but the only reason for that perception is the fact that the pro peloton in 99.5% white…

Possibly because cycling is a perceived as a “white” sport ?

I’m not sure about you, but personally I don’t judge sports on colour! There’s no reason why cycling should preclude black cyclists, but there’s clearly a dearth of participants.

I suppose I’m looking at my experience of cycling: white, working class background, no family history of cycling (or any sporting interest for that matter), spent every waking hour riding every bike I could get my hands on and sought out a club in my mid teens.

There would have been no hurdles preventing me from following that course had I been black, and I see enough black kids riding round on BMXs and mountain bikes in exactly the same way I did as a youngster…

I’d go for a gentle recovery ride: Low gears, flat roads, slow speed.

More chance of injury when you have the DOMs, your body will try and find “cheat moves” to avoid the soreness.

Like a lot African sporting success there’s a clear relationship between income and ability to devote the time to compete.

Lovely story, but the question is more about why the black populations of France, Belgium, Italy, Spain, UK etc aren’t represented in the pro peloton…

The story about the Rwandan cyclist could transfer to any sport.

Cycling is ‘basically’ a European sport.
Europe is ‘basically’ a ‘white’ continent.

You could apply that logic to most sports – most of which have a population-proportionate representation by black people.

The vast majority of black footballers in European or UK teams are European, for example…

You will have to find something else to do to occupy your time, like tiddly winks, as cycling means you will have to get out of the house and speak to people in real life, like njee.

Counting down the clock… Unfortunately my business dictates that I must be available to my clients during office hours. Although they all seem to have buggered off to enjoy the heatwave so I’m enjoying watching the Tour de France and arguing with imbeciles on the internet. ;)

I’d go and ride one of my 6-grand bikes, but my legs are shredded from trying to beat people like Njee in a club time trial last night. 8)

#shouldawornlycra

I don’t think I am “Known to you” I’m not that good !

I meant were you a former member returning after an enforced sabbatical, not if you were famous! :roll:

Scruff, if I had a body like him, I’d go out dressed like that! :D

I don’t care if he surfs or not, I wish he’d stop putting a space in front of his punctuation marks.

There’s a finite numbers of spaces on the internets Discodick, when they’re gone, they’re gone!

Is Discodick “known to us” njee?

There’s no doubting that some blokes actually like wearing it and there are some that probably think they look good in it but I just can’t see the allure ! That’s just my thick northern narrow minded viewpoint at all things road related not my lack of understanding why a bloke wants to hobble round in cleats whilst wincing tapping at his smart phone with what looks like a banana lodged down the front of his shorts ?

Ah, I think we’ve got to the bottom of why you don’t wear Lycra yourself Discodick!

Close-fitting clothing is vastly more comfortable. Technical fabric touching the skin wicks heat and moisture away to such an extent that it can feel cooler than being naked.

The only reason MTBers wear baggies is fashion. I wear Lycra for mountain biking and it has many benefits. One of the worst accidents I’ve seen recently was when a lad I was riding with got his baggy short leg snagged on his handlebar on some very technical north shore!

Hmm curious, what could be the difference between summer and autumn winds when it comes to unsettling a bike?

Summer breeze… Makes me feel fine… Blowing through the Khamsins on my Hind*…

(*I don’t own Khamsins or a Hind, but then, the Isley Brothers didn’t have any jasmine growing in their minds either… Artistic licence, innit)

Alberto to the forum!

Why does almost every roadbike thread descend into smug mountain bikers assuming all roadies are all-the-gear-no-idea wannabes?

The majority of roadies I know ride in club or team colours, so many of them wear translucent rain capes.

Whilst watching the TdF in Yorkshire, I was approached by 3 separate people who asked if I knew such-and-such, or if I raced at such-and-such etc because they saw my team colours.

We don’t all wear “all-the-gear” because we’re wannabes, we wear it because we’re proud to represent clubs and teams, and it’s brilliant to meet complete strangers who know our fellow riders.

People should stop being so judgmental and be glad that people are enjoying our sport.

Fantastic. They’d have sent down a deadweight first to get the right landing spot? Well you’d hope so!

Seriously Hora? You think this is genuine??

My shaven havens seem to make me very popular with horse flies… :x

You’d be a bit of a bellend to wear it over just bibs! Translucent jackets are good for wearing over team kit in races…

I’m so going to ask the girlfriend if she wants a free ticket to Boomtown tonight… :P

I have a pair (bought as a ‘gift’). They languished in the bottom of a wardrobe for a couple of years while I waited for someone I disliked enough to “re-gift” them to.

Then I took them camping, and they’re the perfect “tent slippers” for slipping on whilst you nip for a slash in the middle of the night.

They’ve now become my everyday outdoor slippers – I wear them for my morning constitutional walk around the grounds.

Wouldn’t be seen dead wearing them in public though…

I got as far as grabbed the rigid SS and nodded off…

Hopefully we’ll be seeing more of the delightful Marion Rousse… How can a girl with only one face be so pretty?? :P

Aaron Horkey- wow. Thank you. Really like that. Is that Art nouveau? Very nice. Will see if I can buy a print.

There’s a big scene in the US for reimagined film posters. Horkey is the movement’s poster boy (excuse the pun). He has a very distinctive, meticulously graphic style with a lot of recurring elements – I think he’s a little troubled!

Expresso Beans is the best place to find out about his work and stuff by artists working in that field such as Laurent Durieux and Ken Taylor.

Horkey’s prints are often released at fairly sensible prices (if you can get them) but go for silly money on the second hand market. Well worth tracking down though, especially if, like me, you’re a fan of graphic arts and silk screen printing.

Glad you liked! :D

Thank you RealMan, I’m genuinely chuffed with that award. Do I get a special jersey? :D

A word of warning though it can get quite additive and hard to know where to stop.

You stop when you get to the eyebrows. Or when you find yourself knee-deep in pubes looking like one of these:

The aero news from Specialized is good news for us shavers, but for me, it’s about gravel rash healing, looking good, and easy clean-up after wet or muddy rides.

A quick wipe of baby oil before a mountain bike ride and crap just wipes off. Means you can look clean in the pub afterwards!

How much more aero would Tony Martin be if he tucked his bottom lip in?

I’m a big fan of Aaron Horkey, I have a “Sigur Ros St Paul” print that I bought last year. I can waste hours looking at the detail. Hisfilm posters like “Two Towers” and “There Will Be Blood” are worth a look too…

Sigur Ros Gig Poster:

I’m also a big fan of “Craola”, aka Greg Simpkins. This is The Notetaker…

You could always do a day trip to Morecambe Bay…

(Riding is awesome, Mary Townley Loop crosses the area, you can link up some good sections with rides around Todmorden, Mytholmroid etc)

I think it’s just ground through on the tarmac. If he was doing 40+mph, and as reports suggest, he left 60yd skidmarks, that would explain the shoe damage.

Makes you realise what the outcome might have been had it been his knee or elbow touching the tarmac! 8O

That shoe!!

I know…. I reckon his little toots got a little toasty in there! Reports that they were “medium to well done” are of course, completely unfounded. :wink: