From the title it sounded like you’d found a bit of finger on the trail and were looking for the owner!

Apart from swapping levers around perhaps play with the lever position so you can gain better purchase and adjust for less reach?

Swapping levers does sound like a good idea, just be careful of endos until you get used to it

Be aware it’s very addictive.

I now find that before a ride i check strava for segments i can include.

Nailing your first KOM is great tho 🙂

sitting in the corner means I have nowhere to let one go, as they’ll know its me. my only option is silent crop dusting

Scruff – I’ll let you know tomorrow.

There was an event a couple of weeks ago, which the local councillor and the BMX club attended. I am presuming it was an official opening, so it should be complete and open to public use.

If not i’ll get a good look at it anyway.

I must admit, i am a little worried about looking like a silly 33 year old who should know better.

It’s a new track recently built in Tamworth, so i reckon it’ll still be quite busty with enthusiastic locals, and hopefully a few other beginners.

I’ll look out for other “Old enough to know better” types and see if i can ride with them.

helped me loads.

mainly comes in handy if you lose momentum on a rocky section and stall.

I bought an old onza raptor for £50 and just practiced on a local skate park. felt a bit silly at first, being a 30 year old man, but the local kids weren’t fazed and were keen to show me da skillz

trials riding is a good upper body work out too!

slower riders should always make way for faster riders, within reason. its the best way for everyone to enjoy trails at their own pace.

for a few seconds of inconvenience both can carry on at their own pace.

if faster riders always had to give the slower riders a head start, there would be a que at the start of every bit of single track. I know English people love a good que, but can you imagine a busy trail centre, the indignant tutting would be deafening!

gnarr boy is a bit of a plonker, but bumble bee at fault imo

g shocks are great, but I find mine a bit to big and despite being strapped tightly to my wrist it bounces around and gets annoying.

I’m now looking at getting one of the smaller timex ironman models for about £30 from argos.

just reading it now. I like the dry daft humour, really enjoying it.

but like tootall says I couldnt purchase it for my kindle via my Android phone.

You didn’t specify what variety of zombie, shambler or sprinter?

I mean a vampire could leisurely rip the heads off hundreds of shamblers, but a couple of sprinters (ala 28 days later) and i think the vampires in trouble.

when another rider on the trails goes “blimey mate your brave riding that”

Happened a couple of weeks ago when I was on my 1991 trek. Although I think the splatter paint job alone firmly puts it in the ‘retro’ bracket

walk the stairs and film it. then post it on here, and we can all decide the best lines for you to take for maximum gnar.

reminds me of a thread ages ago describing a drop off into a playground someone couldn’t work out how to do. there were diagrams and everything.

it can work the otherway too.

turn up to a group ride on a rigid ss and there is an expectation that you will be a good rider.

that can be embarrassing when, like me, your very average.

I organised a Christmas event once and got a bloke from work to be Santa.

A few of his classics were

Santa “What would you like Christmas”
Little girl “Can i have a bike please”
Santa “Hmmm i don’t have any bikes, but i do know quite a few”

Little boy walks in with an Aston villa shirt on
Santa “Right you can bugger off”

Little girl walks in and is very shy
Mother (looking apologetic) “Don’t you want to sit on Santa’s lap?”
Santa “Oh don’t worry, your mum can sit on my lap instead”

It was a miracle we didn’t have any complaints, but it was nothing compared to when we got him to be the easter bunny!

We live inbetween ‘The racist photographer’ and ‘porsche man and horse girl’

over the road is ‘dog lady’ and ‘The halloween mentalists’

check the local tip on a Sunday afternoon, I got an old Carlton for a few quid from mine.

took the dish out the back wheel, screwed on a freewheel and its the most maintenance free bike I own.

Cheers fellas, just looking at a selection of ball joint removers now!

They range from £160 for a fancy looking set of jaws to a few quid for a big 2 pronged fork – I know which one it will be!

Thanks for the advice, Mallet will be most upset!

“Ok, lets blue sky this” used to be my favourite, until i recently heard…

“Make sure you dovetail with the audit team”

+1 for loft insulation.

Hot, sweaty, itchy job – in fact just like some girls i know 😳

What an utter bell end, the cyclist i mean not the copper.

Thanks for the advice guys, some really good tips.

I’ll leave it a while and try again at the weekend. My friend is planning to get a seat for his 2yr old so i’ll see if he wants to take them out together and that might encourage her.

Cheers

I have only done one ‘proper’ xc race, and that was the midlands xc at cannock.

The nerves were pretty bad but disapeared once the race got going. I made two big mistakes though.

Firstly i didn’t take an alternative tyre choice and ended up racing on dry packed trails on Mitchellin XC mud tyres. It was very sketchy to say the least.

But the biggest mistake was not enough liquid. I only had one small bottle in a bottle cage, used it up on the first lap and then got so badly dehydrated that i was seeing flashing lights.

It took all of my will power not to drop out but i finally limped over the line 38th out of 48.

I was very dissapointed in myself and sorely regretted not being more prepared.

Nice, i wonder if they do a tshirt with that on!

Suffered with my rotator cuff when doing loads of swimming (training for a triathlon). Bad technique and over training was the cause.

I’ve been lifting weights since January, to improve the strength of the muscles around it. And as my strength has improved my shoulder has improved.

I pretty much do a normal weights programme that works my whole upper body. monday chest/shoulders, wednesday legs/core and friday is back/biceps

I then do my riding on the other days.

I’ve not done any specific exercies, but when my shoulder is better i intend to start doing some specific ones to strengthen the actual rotator cuff itself.

I run 52:20, not sure how thats compares to people running 42 teeth rings.

It’s ideal for my commute, few moderate hills but mainly flat for 12 miles each way. does get a bit tough if there’s a head wind though.

when i first went ss i ran 52:16, i very nearly blew my knees up just getting to work. Infact i was dreading the return commute so much i got my wife to pick me up.

Id been trying to finish with a long term girlfriend who just wouldn’t leave me alone, so i told her I thought I might be gay. (i’m not btw) instead of finally leaving me alone she decided it would be for the best if she stuck around to help me through it.

Not my brightest moment

Thanks for the advice guys, i reckon i’ll go for it and see how it rides.

Messiah – broken forks 😯 what sort of riding did you do with them?

My first thought was replace them, but they are bright green and i doubt i’ll find anything new (or made after the 90s)to replace them with.

Best get down the gym then. The strength required for the 27th push up, may be the difference between 1st and 2nd place on that sprint to the finish line!

My physio said that if a fit healthy male can’t do 27 push-ups he is probably lacking upper body strength.

slight thread hijack…..

Is it possible to make decent gains in size whilst still riding my bike 3-4 times a week?

Is it as simple as making sure i’m getting enough calories (including protein) onboard?

After being in kind of the same situation (being reunited with my dad after he did some pretty awful stuff)

My advice would be not to bother trying to dredge through memories as the good and bad ones often go hand in hand.

Instead concentrate on now and do stuff together. He probably remembers the bad things too, and may just want to move on.

Not wanting to sound too trite, but it’s surprising how refreshing a fresh start really can be.

You’ll never get a full sus frame in there.

Bridgework? as in construction or some new traing method i’ve not heard of?

If you don’t mind me asking, do you do specific training or just ride alot?

Are those legs shaven?

no wonder your so fast 🙂

24 minutes! **** me

I didn’t time myself this morning, but it was probably double that!

Is Snakey an elite racer?

mrmichealwright – I appreciate that google isn’t the fountain of all knowledge, but you’d think there would be something somewhere?

And if not why? surely if the figures stackup making such reports widely available would have the positive effect of spreading the message?

Oh yeah, any idea where i can get these academic papers?

What i mean by capitalist society, is basically that men are more motivated by money. They chase promotions more, go for higher paying job sectors such as finance or banking and are generally more aggresive and vocal.

I’m not suggesting that men actaully deserve to be paid more just that they know, and have the tools, to earn more money.

Check her car licence, if she got it pre 1998 (i think) it should have category P, in which case she can ride a 50cc without L plates, but will need to do a CBT to ride a 125cc.

If she doesn't have categroy P then she will need a CBT even for a 50cc