Thing is, head injuries seem to be really nasty – much nastier than a broken arm or cracked rib.

Friend of mine came off _with_ a crash helmet and landed on his head. Four months on and he's riding once a month where before he was out several times a week.

1. Sort out your knees (see umpteen previous threads on this and other forums). FWIW, I fixed mine by getting the angle of the cleats right.

2. Buy a rain coat.

3. Go out for a ride. It'll be nasty for the first mile or so, but then you'll get all hot and sweaty and want to take your coat off again.

4. Take off your coat. Enjoy!

In "Tony Doyle" "competitiveTriathlete" should be "competitive triathlete".

A bit later on in the same section, "Including the RTTC…" should be part of the previous sentence.

+1 on location.
Pricing?

Good luck with it!

Jealous!

Would you mind sharing the name of this bank?

Really hard work. How anyone could do that solo I have no idea.

Riding my final lap at 7am and seeing the sun coming thru the trees was a real highlight.

+1. And seeing Venus high up in the morning sky was nice.

12 hours. Started around dusk last night; finished just after dawn this morning. Near Thetford. Male pair.

D2D

I thought we'd seen and heard the last of that horrid little man.

Does this mean I'll have to avoid Radio 4 for the next 5 years again?

I've got an On-One carbon fork. Weight is around 900g. There's no weight limit, and it seems pretty indestructible – I think my wrists will break before it does. Would definitely buy again.

Men's pairs. But the person I was going to go with has broken his collarbone 🙁

I'm taking my son instead, and we'll just pootle around enjoying the scenery!

Surely the only way to really find out is to have a race!

Get as many riders as possible, with as many steel/aluminium framed bikes as possible. Ride round a set course, and then, at the end of the lap, everyone swaps bike. Repeat until no-one can stand up anymore.

Then, finally, we will all know whether that "steel is real" thing is true, or just marketing hype.

Make sure you claim for odd little expenses like having your moat cleaned.

Give up cycling. Watch day-time TV instead.

yep, sounds like so many altercations I've had in the past. You come away just feeling angry and frustrated which is one of the reasons I stopped doing it

+1

Being right doesn't stop you being assaulted, as I found out a long time ago. The police were only too happy to get involved as they knew the chap, but even so, it's just not worth it.

Treat motorists in the same way you would treat any other large unpredictable animal. If a deer ran out in front of you in the forest, you wouldn't rush after it and try to remonstrate with it.

Will the money be spent wisely?

I could be wrong about this, but is that an 18t sprocket from an old cassette? Don't the ss sprockets normally come with longer teeth? I think you might be pretty much doomed if it is. See point 5 on here:

http://www.surlybikes.com/spew3.html

and also here: [EDIT]

http://www.sheldonbrown.com/singlespeed.html

I had a Surly tensioner, and it worked fine pushing down (as yours does), until after a lot of use the spring bent, after which it was never quite the same again. I then bought one of these:

http://www.on-one-shop.co.uk/acatalog/Online_Catalogue_Slot_Dropout_Inbred_27.html

A friend of mine used to religiously clean his lovely new bike. No matter how muddy the previous ride had been, he would always show up for the next ride with it gleaming like new.

First the bottom bracket went. It turns out you don't need to polish the inside of the BB shell after each ride.

Then the hub on the rear wheel went, about 20 miles from home, and made the most excruciating noise I have ever heard from a bike. It seems you don't need to strip down and relube the bearings after each ride, and if you are going to, you should really count the ball bearings back in.

The final straw was when the 9 month old headset bearings rusted to bits from being sprayed down each week.

Personally, this is just one more reason to have a rigid SS.

I've just been reading the legislation itself.

Vulnerable Groups Act

This seems even scarier than the newspapers have been hyping.

Here's one thing that jumped out.

A care provider has a legal responsibility to inform the Vetting and Barring people if someone puts a child at risk of harm. And they get to go to jail and pay a fine if they don't.

Well, quite a few things put children at risk of harm. I've taken scouts around Thetford Forest – that puts them at risk of harm (sharp pointy trees, big holes in the ground, etc). So I'd need to be reported for that.

On Sunday I was helping in the kitchen at church. One of the children there is very autistic, but really likes helping in the kitchen. I keep trying to keep him out (hot liquids, etc) but other parents (including his) have a different (and equally valid) view that he should be allowed in to help – it's something he enjoys doing.

So – I have to report any adults who let him into the kitchen. And If I don't, then I get to be prosecuted.

Is single-speed niche anymore? If it's not, is there actually any point?

Well, I'm a Scout helper (i.e. I show up at Scouts and do basic crowd control; occasionally I go on bike rides with scouts).

I'm probably going to give up doing this once it comes into force (November next year?).

I'm not a lawyer, so I can't read through the legislation to work out all the things that might happen to me and then go to bed and sleep peacefully. So I think it best to avoid it as much as possible.

I've used two blocks of wood and a club hammer. I've done this twice now.

Sounds brutal and clumsy, but it actually works like a charm.

You need an assistant to hold the frame, and something solid (concrete) as a base. If you use something flimsy then it doesn't work nearly as well.

Your assistant holds the frame. Put the blocks of wood in the obvious places. Hit with hammer reasonably hard (but you don't need to go mad). Check by eye that the headset is aligned (it won't be to start out). Adjust next hammer blow accordingly. Repeat until headset is inserted.

Phew. Thetford's lovely, but there's only so many bomb holes you can go down in a day…

Can someone tell me what this means? I was thinking of going for a ride around Ladybower in the next few weeks – living in Cambridgeshire there aren't that many hills.

Am I going to find it's been spoiled since last time I went? Am I just going to spend the whole day feeling annoyed?

Should I just go to Thetford Forest instead 🙁

Thanks

Well, just got back. It was a blast.

I'm not going to get into a rigid SS/FS comparison as that is an empty and hollow debate. But it was a lot of fun, and almost all of CyB was rideable on that bike, albeit a bit slower and a bit more sketchy than on an FS. And you need lots of malt loaf.

This was several hours into the event, with plenty of open countryside a bit further on.

I was on a 100 mile sponsored enduro a few months ago. Arrived at a water stop next to a farm shop half way through a very heated argument between the farmer and three MTB riders.

One of the riders had decided he needed to relieve himself (No 2) and had just got on with his business there and then, in plain view, by the side of the trail opposite the farm shop. This was about 200 yards from a whole row of portaloos provided by the charity organizing the event.

The farmer had provided him with a spade, but the riders seemed to be disgusted that he'd had the temerity to object to such a natural and necessary process.

To be honest, I felt ashamed to be riding a bike.

Isn't this whole traffic light debate caused by HM Government?

Until very recently they wouldn't let councils setup "green wave" traffic lights as cars (and bikes) stopping less often at red lights would have reduced the revenue from tax on petrol:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7998182.stm

Thanks for all the advice! It's now decision time – heading off tomorrow morning…

I think taking both bikes isn't going to happen – I also have to find room in the car for my darling wife and children (and their bikes). And the daftest dog in the world. He *won't* be going on the trails.

Having just had a quick look on youtube, at least The Beast looks eminently doable.

If it's all completely miserable then I'll start by buying the fattest tyre I can find. If that doesn't work I can always hire a bike, or just go to the beach.

If you find yourself stuck behind some annoyingly niche fat old bloke on a bright red On-One Inbred picking his way painfully and slowly down the hill, you'll know I made the wrong choice.

I used a Surly Singleator for about 6 months, and for those first six months it was great.

Then the spring bent.

On the last lap of the Thetford Summer Series.

I fiddled around with it trying to convince myself that I could make it work somehow, but I finally gave in to the inevitable and bought myself a new frame with proper drop-outs (On-One Inbred).

Don't buy a tensioner.

They are marketed to suck you in to the dark, addictive world of single-speeding. It seems like such a simple change at first; what harm can it do just to lose a few gears? It's only later, when you find yourself craving steep hills, or fast twisty single track, that you realise there's no going back, that you're hooked, with no possibility of cure or remission.

Your friends, who at first were so admiring of your "cool" single speed bike, now shun you, afraid of what you have become. You no longer to talk to your family, except to mutter about "chainline" or "drop outs". Your stunning FS sits disconsolately in a corner of the garage gathering dust, abandoned and forgotten, loved only by mice.

Just say no.

Bribe him with chocolate.

If that's not enough, you could try offering him a titanium single-speed instead.

Aldi sell some very cheap cycling clothes periodically. Some is junk, but some is OK. Just don't expect to win any prizes for best dressed cyclist at the next race you go to.