My Raleigh Titanium is now about 16 years old and still going strong (fair enough it is a road frame), maybe someone should tell it it should have died 11 years ago!!

Yes!!

2 tickets for Mens XC mountain biking through British Cycling!

http://www.wiggle.co.uk/vittoria-rubino-clincher-tyre/

Cheap, last a long time, pretty grippy and don’t cut at the sight of rain and a bit of gravel like most of the conti tyres do!

Been using them for winter training and commuting for the last few years. Usually last at least 6 months.

Thanks Swiss! lol!

I think the bar pic’s are on my camera at home, I do have grazed buttock pic’s here if any of you are that way inclined! 😉

By the way, I did mean half way through the diameter of the bars and not as in half way through to the stem!!

Not sure which is worse though, roadie crash or mtb crash? Most of my mtb ones have ended up on soft soil or undergrowth. Wouldn’t like a face / tree interface though!

Not a bad slide whatever the distance!

Working on the handlebar pic!

182 meters? A quick search suggests that a car travelling at 70mph would take 92m to stop. Now I am aware that these distances very from car to car. It does make your claim seem somewhat unbelievable.

If you can find a way to measure these distances, then you could probably work it out for me!

And if you have road rash serious enough to be worthy of attention, would you not put a bandage on it?

It’s a bit hard to bandage your buttocks up to be honest! Best left to the fresh air if you can

As a roadie who rides a bit of MTB, I am one of the few who rides muddy trails with hairless legs.

Makes cleaning the mud and all the scratches you get from MTB’ing a lot easier as well!

200 yards? that’s a pretty specific distance. those are either fishing yards or a story that surely should be shared.

The road had 100 yard markings! 😉

The incident I was thinking of as an example there was whilst riding the Goodwood Surrey League crits. We were on the last lap, approaching the last corner in the wet, when some spanner didn’t like that fact that he was badly positioned at the back of the bunch and decided to have a punch up. This brought half the bunch down, which in turn made me slide from the inside of the track to the outside and onto the grass. It was so long it ground half way through my handlebars!!

Not sure if it’s worse sliding along for ages on smooth tarmac, or for a shorter time on that really rough stuff – really slows you down that does!

the reason professional cyclists have shaved legs (and almost al professional athletes) is not to do with aero, hygene of cuts etc. It is because the must be massaged after races (competitions for other athletes) to aid recovery.

The reason enthusiasts do it is purely to look more ‘pro’

If you’ve ever had to clean out your legs and stick plasters over them after sliding 200 yeards along gravel, you’d realise that massage isn’t the only reason we do it!

personalised bikes are for tarts-mtfu!

Things might get better when the summer starts when this drought ends and the weather gets better!

No offence but she sounds a bit stroppy and prone to tantrums…Think I’d rather ride on my own…

Lol!

Can you come here and tell her that! 😉

I loved Caroline Alexander so much I did a painting of her for my A-level art course! 😳 Still hanging in my mum and dads hallway!

Found an old cycling weekly from 92 and was weird to see a whole race report for an XC race with pic’s of Tim Gould, David Baker, Chris Young and Caroline.

Sounds like most of the ladies here are fairly active already, and so doing a sport that’s a bit different is really and issue to you.

I might try and leave the bike then so it’s more easy to use. Although the only time she’ll use a bike on her own is to ride into town to do shopping on her shopping bike.

ebay her, and get another one in a similar size

That likes mountain biking?? 😀

What bike, size, how much do you want etc???

Only wondering out loud to be honest! I’d get nothing for it 2nd hand really I should think

Well quick update. We’re 7/8 months into her having the new bike and……

……What a waste of money! 🙁

After her not riding the bike for months as she wont go out on it if it’s below 10ºc, I went to all the effort to take both the bikes on holiday a couple of weeks ago when we went to Cornwall. We had two or three days when the weather was surprisingly good.

I thought it would be really nice to ride the 2 miles to the ferry to Rock, to cross over to Padstow for fish and chips the first day we had some nice weather. After explaining my plan for a lovely day out all I got was ‘where we going??’ ‘It’s not going to be too far is it??’ ‘Which way we going?’ in an irratated tone.

We set off anyway, 2 miles along the coast by the sea, beautiful scenery, riding on the beach in the spray in the hot sun! Stop, and it’s ‘Can’t we put a basket on this (mountain bike) so I can carry stuff! (handbag, coat, bodywarmer etc etc!)’ I give up!

Now wondering if I should ebay it!

Similar thing happened in Derby!

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1333537/Nine-men-Derby-jailed-grooming-100-sex.html

If sending is the only problem, try sending it using this site

https://www.wetransfer.com/

British owned new company!

http://www.vulpine.cc/

Er, is it really that bad!

Yes I want to have a go at surfing and looks the weather for it!

I’ll not bother with the double then. Still curious about the tubeless though. Do I just need the Stans No Tubes standard kit for a set of Alex XC 44 rims?

Cheers, perhaps the double is not worth the cost to change then. Is the advantage just the weight saving?

Don’t get sucked into thinking you have to have an state of the art expensive bike to do road!

I won my first race (always the bridesmaid!) last year on my 16 year old raleigh dyna-tec titanium! Although I had updated most of the parts since then!

Keep the MTB and upgrade gradually.

Thought it was interesting, but I think it would be hard to stick to his training, it’s VERY focused and hard to put in to practice if you wanted to ‘just ride your bike’ as well.

Makes a refreshing change from all the tech bo**ocks you hear everyone else talk

If its winter then I take a decent mini pump (nothing worse than those useless toy ones) spare tube, spoke key, multi tool and tyre levers. If its a summer ride, the same less the multi tool

Also take my wallet and snacks just incase!

I presume it would be 92mm as that’s the nearest, presuming I measured 90mm wrong! They all seem like road chain rings though! The tiagra one would be ok as it’s only a tenner, don’t really want to spend any more than that!

You used to need 12 points. But back then you only got points down to 6th place

That was kind of my thought – at present, poploc is on or off. With a gripshift, you could, depending on the cable pull, tune the compression damping.

Is that how they work though? Aren’t they either ON or OFF? Are all shocks and forks progressive like that?

@xiphon

That’s because they don’t print it!

30% adverts? Exactly the reason I don’t buy magazines anymore.

Every 1 in 3 pages, both the reader AND the advertiser are paying for…

What do you think the adverts pay for! Without adverts there would be no magazine! Or at the very least the cover price would have to go up a lot!

Sancho, The more expensive Sparks have a ‘traction’ mode and a fully locked mode, but not sure if the lever and shocks are completly different?

If she really wants to ‘drive’ a car, how about hiring one of the Caterhams from here and choosing a track http://bookatrack.com

I’m not a big fan of these ‘experience’ days as you only get to drive the car like a granny!

Re. Snobbery about rainbow stripes.

My road bike (a Specialized, oh the shame) has rainbow stripes as part of the paintwork. Presumably because the year I bought it Cancellara was TT world champ and he rode a Spech.

Do people now think I’m an arrogant arse for riding this bike despite never having actually won the world champs?

Yes

We get quite a few guys in full Sky kit out in Surrey because a lot of people who work for Sky get supplied with team kit. Think they get it if they’re riding the Marmott etc.

You don’t seem to get so many people riding in trade kit anymore because you can get cycle specific no branded clothing, where as years ago you could only get replica team kit or club kit to ride in.

Seeing people in trade kit doesnt bother me, as long as it matches 😉 But I really don’t like seeing people riding in World Champs kit as it should only be worn by someone who has earned it! It’s a bit like wearing football kit and carrying a replica world cup around with you!

just got a cyclo cross bike as well and am confused as to what to wear

You have to wear a longsleeve skinsuit, it’s the law!

Met him when I rode the London to Paris a couple of years ago. Massive guy – and awesome to ride with him when he lead us out for a mile for one of the sprints! Seemed a nice bloke as well. Just wish I’d knew more about him then as I’d have liked to have chatted about Roubaix etc.

Also rode with Greg & Leo Mansall who ride with him now as well.

As we’re talking about LED’s and science!

What was the breakthrough that allowed LED’s to be so much more powerfull? Years ago they were only just powerfull enough to light up a rear light, but now they can be used on cars!

Sick of seeing the red light jumping **** on the way into London & back. A lot of them even have headphones on and just ride on straight through them.

Even had a guy I followed for most my journey, watching him RLJ at every set of lights, have a go at me for stopping at pedestrian crossing with a red light! Apparently he’s been doing it for 30 years so thats ok though!