I’ve said it before: I think Clyde Muirsheil needs some trails. The area south of population centres (Greenock) would, surely, be hugely welcome and big benefit to locals and ‘tourists’ alike.

Its got a lot of perfectly sized hills that are crying out for trails.

Definitely – I sometimes take a wee spin up to Windy Hill or Misty Law for an hour or so & every time it annoys me to ride back down the road (even if it is at warp speed), not necessarily proper trailcentre runs but something rideable off road at least…

A guy i used to work with had a 12″ meatball monstrosity every single day, used to come back into the office & stank the place out – the sauce was usually dripping out the bottom of the bag – rest of his diet was similarly unhealthy & he proudly proclaimed to enjoy 4 large shites per day. I believed him.

Didn’t put me off though – 12″ Italian BMT on the oatmeal bread with everything except cucumber and extra spicy sauce here please, not had one for ages – next week i’m right in about one when i’m back in work.

If you don’t have a nipple driver (yet) – just use a normal small screwdriver & rest your opposite thumbnail on the last thread on the spoke as you tighten, when the nipple pushes your finger away move on to the next one – after that tighten them all a half turn at a time until they start to come up to tension, they should get pretty close by doing this – after every round check for wobbles & deal with them as soon as they arise, check the dish by eye as you go too & don’t wait until it’s super tight to try dish the rim over a bit.

I was up in Aberfoyle at the weekend – forgot just how nice it is around there & there’s plenty of riding / paddling on offer, not too far west of Stirling – still plenty of tourists about but seems an equal mix of blue-rinse mafia / walkers / cyclists / kayakers

The daylight issue is a real one & shouldn’t be discounted – maybe not so bad if you can pick & chose when you go out but i’m just outside of Glasgow & even here it’s been dark when I leave for work & getting dark when I get back for the last week or two… if you get a few bad weekends in a row it can get a bit frustrating

Paisley freight are probably ok for cheaper bikes – in my experience the £25 cost went up to £50-something to include adequate insurance, then once they had collected the bike & sent it on to the sorting hub decided the box was apparently 3cm outside the 160cm limit & they couldn’t deliver it after all & would dispose of it (not return it to me, bin it…) unless I paid another £15 in which case it was all fine & they could deliver it after all… their feedback seems to be a 50/50 split of great/horrendous – wouldn’t send anything of value again, next time i’ll pony up & go with Parcelforce. Have also read reviews of the box they supply being refused by their own couriers (subcontracted) as it’s too big… YMMV.

As per previous replies, defo try a light cap under the helmet for starters – wicks sweat away from the pads before it starts dripping into your eyes, I am a sweaty animal & this pretty much solves it for me. As soon as I stop at traffic lights i’m pretty much blinded by condensation, turning your head slightly to try & direct a breeze into the lenses helps a bit but for me this is the real pain in the arse when wearing specs riding… oh, and monsoon rain… and snow… and mud…

There’s plenty of arseholes on good salaries. Plenty of good folks on benefits too unfortunately.

Entirely – a lazy generalisation on my part, the type I’m referring to are the ones completely ripping the arse out of it, co-habiting couples with kids but claiming they live individually & sub-letting the “spare” accommodation to their mates who treat it like a 24hr rave cave or using it as a drop for smack heads etc etc… but yeah, on the face of it there’s no material difference between them & the walloper in the big house at the end of the street that’s turned his back garden into a 30 capacity boozer with a 50″ tv and a bastard hot tub & has all his walloper mates round until 4am all weekend

Not 100%, there’s quite a few pubs in my town who run a tight ship, won’t serve anyone who’s had enough, no groups of folk etc – It’s them I’d feel sorry for really, landlords who are genuinely trying hard.

What it probably would do is increase the number of house parties and illegal gatherings.

That’s exactly it – the folk who DGAF will behave irresponsibly whether the pubs – again, responsible or not – are open or not. Even bringing in hefty fines for flouting restrictions won’t deter the worst offenders as it’s had to fine a house full of career benefits claimants going mental on cheap vodka if there’s nary a salary between them to pay it…

It’s exactly this sort of thing that will keep the virus spreading back into areas that have started to see positive improvement re. transmission rates – drives me mental, I’ve been out for lunch a couple of times & it’s been run really well, the pubs near me are open again & have been sticking to the plan with limited numbers / distancing etc. but ultimately all it takes is a couple of idiots to set us back another couple of months.

I was listening to a radio phone in just after big Nic made comments about young folk needing to toe the line & there were loads of people phoning in (including Joan F**king Burnie, from France…) to defend the rights of young people to behave like young people & how it wasn’t all their fault… few calls later a bouncer came on & set them straight, saying after a few double vodkas all sense of social responsibility goes out the window and the place is a free for all & he had colleagues all over the central belt and beyond saying exactly the same thing, and that’s before the pubs empty & it’s 20 folk back to someone’s house for a party then back into work a day later… it’s exactly this sort of behaviour that’s driving a resurgence in areas that had very low rates of infection & sadly I can see pubs being closed again sooner than later

Cheers all, some food for thought there!

As I feared it looks like there would need to be a much bigger pot of cash to keep anyone completely happy – judging by recent suggestions the budget (which is looking pretty miserly now!) must facilitate a full upgrade to the kids’ playpark, a concrete skate park a’la Kelvingrove, bike track, an outdoor covered area for the bored teenagers to smoke grass & drink cheap lager hang around in & one of those outdoor gyms…

Local councillor is a good one – might send my 3 year old round the existing bike obstacle-course wearing my go pro (the all-weather coating has now worn down to a beautiful polished-marble like finish…) & film the resulting tears / snotters for use as leverage, probably the best way to get anything done.

Cheers all!

Cheers will have a look – have seen a couple of the velosolutions ones which are nice, but i’m presuming will be on the spendier side of things, just wondering what other options there are

J

This is a nice route – did the Trossachs ton a few years ago & it took in all of that if I remember right, keep meaning to get back up that way – loads of nice routes out past Arrochar towards Stirling

Yeah there’s a lot of water up there at times – every time I do Misty Law I remember why I haven’t done it for a while – next time I do it i’m jumping in a stream at the bottom to get it over with!

@nobeerinthefridge aye just give me a shout – last time i was up there was on a hardtail & it was fine, not as smooth as the mine track but a gravel bike with decent width tyres should be grand, the access road to Gryffe reservoir & onto Loch Thom I spotted on Strava on someone else’s ride & asked about it – passable with care on a road bike apparently

J

Alrighty there – yeah as Nobeer says you can almost get there off-road from the cyclepath into Lochwinnoch via Muirshiel Park, unfortunately the mine track turns into a walking (trudging?) path once past the mine that’s not the most pleasant on 2 feet at times never mind 2 wheels, however you can take the other Muirshiel path which goes over the old grouse moor & along a farm road then drops you out at the B788 (via Gateside road) – about a mile from there is an access road just after Auchenfoyle that takes you up to the Gryffe Reservoir & onto Loch Thom.

I’ve done various bits of this route on different bikes but never linked it all up like this – looks not bad now I think of it!

John

Here you go https://www.wiggle.co.uk/prime-pro-disc-road-rim

Re-badged Alex Rims ATD01 – 19mm internal / 24mm external for £17, stated 410g but another 10% on top of that would still be good for the price, noticed these the other day & bought a pair for a lighter commuting setup – thinking Novatec D411 & Pillar 1420 spokes, should come in about 1500g, Wiggle / CRC seem to use them on a couple of their Prime wheel builds in a similar build

J

From the BBC article – what’s he on about?

Speaking outside court after his acquittal, Mr Salmond told journalists: “As many of you will know, there is certain evidence I would have like to have seen led in this trial but for a variety of reasons we were not able to do so.

“At some point, that information, that facts and that evidence will see the light of day.”

In that Guardian link, his QC seems to be hinting at some conspiracy or other too…

Gordon Jackson QC, Salmond’s advocate, rejected Prentice’s claims in his final address to the jury. He said there were no direct witnesses to the alleged assaults, and that inconsistencies and contradictions repeatedly cropped up in the testimonies and evidence. And, he alleged, there were signs some of the charges were orchestrated.

“This comes out of a political bubble with no real independent support of any kind. I said already it smelt and I don’t apologise for that one bit,” he said. “It’s the same pattern all of the time. All the time – I can’t say that strongly enough – it is the same pattern over and over and over again. It’s scary.”

So – is he a phantom groper & did the accusers over-egg the pudding to the extent inconsistencies appeared & the case went tits up, or is it all a big orchestrated conspiracy against him?

Strange – they’re usually in stock everywhere, BikeInn are showing stock here but nowhere UK based by the looks of it…

I have them on a couple of bikes – lovely stems but the every now & again i’ll hit a pothole & the bars will slip which drives me mad… and those 3mm bolt heads are a pain in the arse too. Other than that i’m a big fan :)

That sounds about right re. cam bearing size, I ended up just soaking mine in wd40 for a bit & cleaning them up as best I could, they were actually not bad once rebuilt – the thrust bearing balls will come out of the race if you’re not careful so keep an eye on that when giving them a rub with blue roll or whatever, I never did find replacements for those but i’m sure I found the cam bearing dimensions somewhere & a shade under 3mm sounds right.

Noted for future use.

It works the opposite way too describing someone of rather more “robust stature” – 10lbs of shit in a 5lb bag, can’t remember where I heard it

On the camera front – i’ve looked at a few & read loads of reviews where the lower resolution / sensitivity ones sometimes have trouble picking up reg plates, gopro session models seem to get good reviews for helmet mounting, or the hero “black” models seem to have the best spec – second hand can be had for ~£100

Know good to switch mobile to video sharpish, ensure cloud back up is on (on 4g too) and video him losing it.

I had something similar recently – i’m definitely not the most pugilistic but the other guy looked like 3lbs of shit in a 5lb bag, I could have quite comfortably slapped him down the road but nevertheless I decided to film the exchange instead & let his employers (happened at my place of work) and the old bill sort it out. And i’m glad I did – it’s far better to avoid any sort of fisticuffs if you can possibly do it, even if you’re perfectly capable of handing out a sound thrashing.

Point of note on the above – a recording device appearing can have a negative impact on an already angry person’s state of mind, mr angry in my case started immediately flinging fresh air haymakers – one managed to actually knock my phone out of my hand which he then had a few stomps upon – before having another few swings at me while I backed away laughing at the whole debacle. Luckily my phone had landed camera side up & recorded the whole thing so he’s currently going through disciplinary procedures & waiting for a chap at the door from the local constabulary. I ultimately had to buy a new phone which was a pain, don’t know if i’ll ever get that money back but the new one has an angry bastard-proof case on it.

Now looking to invest in a gopro as some arse who lives close to me almost wiped me out this morning which would have been slightly difficult to film with a mobile phone.

I don’t really want to film every mile I ride but it’s looking like a matter of time before I end up bouncing down the road so it’s looking more necessary.

Kettlebells are excellent for a good all-over workout & core conditioning – I do 2 x 45min (fairly intense – i’m burst by the end of it) classes per week & feel I get more out of that than 45 mins with free weights in the gym & a better cardio workout. This is in a fully stocked kettlebell studio though, I can pick up 2 x 24kg bells for presses or 2 x 32s for deadlifts or something else for squats or whatever else I need, so I would need to think carefully about what exercises I wanted to do in order to replicate the same range at home with 2 or 3 bells – obviously you can work with single bells instead of doubles but you get the idea.

Best advice if you’re keen on kettlebells is to go to a few classes to make sure your technique is good before you start flinging them around at home – you might find if you buy a couple you’ll need to add heavier ones in a couple of months & the proper competition ones aren’t cheap – they are nicer to use though – once you get a feel for it then have a bash at home, there’s loads of kb programmes on youtube etc.

I briefly considered doing the same – getitng a couple to use at home instead of going to the gym but after thinking about it I realized there’s no way I would work as hard as I do in an instructor led class & as the routine is out of your hands it’s constantly varied, whatever you end up doing good luck!

Sounds interesting, Fairlie moor? I go over there on the road bike every now & again and often wondered if theres any trails up there – was a guy new to the area asking about MTB trails on a local FB page & I messaged him about some of the stuff around the village, he sounded keen so might be another one interested!

Close @squirrelking but @Nobeerinthefridge takes the soggy cigar, my missus bought me an inflatable kayak for Chrimbo – it might get more use than I bargained at this rate

Few natural routes around but yeah Old Kilpatrick has a bit more to offer & is pretty close still – there’s potential in the area with being so rural (& hilly) but some of the natural paths are a bit of a slog (i’m looking at you Misty Law – makes 12 miles seem like 30) there’s some DH-ish tracks at Kelburne now I think but never been over to check them out, also keep meaning to head over to Dunoon for a day – time is at a premium now with a 3 year old so mostly stick to road these days…

J

As others have said – Strathaven as a Glasgow-ish option is good for road riding & you’re fairly central with decent links to get further afield – it’s also home to the Strathaven 50 charity ride which has the best home baking selection you will ever see at the various church halls along the way, last year I ate so much I finished a 70 mile ride with the worst indigestion I have ever experienced, which takes some doing.

I’m out the other direction, halfway between Glasgow & the actual West Coast, nice & rural but still 30mins to central by train, loads of natural walking & riding (great road routes, but no real gnarr nearby though), watersports (not that kind) & nice country pubs full of dogs & the occasional sheep. Sure it’s under 4 foot of water at the moment but still…

Continuing the fast Volvo estate thread derail – I always wondered how much was spent on this one, probably not half a million quid but if I had serious cash to throw at cars i’d rather go the wild custom route

Just here to put in a PSA for these shorts: https://www.rapha.cc/gb/en/shop/limited-edition-transfer-shorts/product/LES01XXUBC

Wow. Even Lachy Morton looks confused as to how they could possibly cost £250! Still, they are at least ‘breathable’. Quite possibly because they have a hole at the bottom of each leg. They also have two ‘hand pockets’ – thanks for the clarification. I was going to stick another appendage in one of them.

I’m sure it’s items like these that get Rapha derided on here. Fair enough.

Seems cheap when you look at the Byborre website (not for the easily infuriated)

Couple of years ago I got my old commuter powdercoated, was terrified what would be lying in the bb / chainstay junction but it was actually pretty fresh looking inside for something that had been run into the ground for about 5 years of west of Scotland winters & I only really ever cleaned it by riding through puddles, was stored indoors though which might help a bit. I had a sram bb on it though – so combining that with the general neglect meant the bb was replaced frequently so that area always got a good clean out, any trapped moisture probably worked it’s way through the bb back out again…

I picked up this stuff (out of curiosity more than genuine fear of my bike disintegrating) cheap spray wax & bunged a load in the tubes before building it up again – comes out thin enough to stick a straw on the nozzle & blast it right into the tube junctions, dries quite hard but still flexible if that makes sense – only cost £3 so better than nothing as framesaver was about £20

@schrickvr6

Not that model but I picked up the large Yoyo a while back for not much more & it’s been great – plenty of physical connections which is useful – connected to the tv via HDMI ARC & also has a 3.5mm stereo input & an optical too, check ebay for refurb/open box deals on those – I was going to get a pair of the smaller ones but got a good deal on the big one. Run ours via Google home & it set up in a flash, found every device on the network automatically & linked them all, we stream to it from android phones / imac etc. and it’s been perfect.

Looks interesting, I like the engineering concept – not entirely sure they’ll find many roadies willing to shell out £9k on a bike that weighs 8.5kg & only comes in M or L though

many moons ago on holiday with a bunch of mates in Ibiza, one of them ended up with quite a bout of food poisoning – he’d burned through about 4 bog rolls in 1 day & was in there shouting for more, we were having a beer on the balcony & being terrible people no one offered to help, all went quiet then he strode past a couple of minutes later, completely bollock naked & without stopping or saying a word he launched a damp, heavily skidmarked hand towel into the air, it arched high over the busy street below and landed perfectly draped across the railing of a first floor balcony – the room must have been empty as it stayed there for a few days & became a tourist attraction.

Another vote for the Link / Link+ – they’re very bright & very noticeable, plus whatever you look at gets lit up like a Christmas tree. Not just a “be seen” helmet light either – on full power it’s as bright as a decent bike mounted setup & will light up the road pretty well too. Not the cheapest but i’d much rather spend £50 or so on a Link than £25/£30 on some of the others out there.

No pics unfortunately, but a friend of mine rigged up an impressive 12v setup using the leds usually fitted to emergency vehicles & some custom wiring & brackets – they were bright, even with a diffuser you could see it was him half a mile up the road – he was behind me on the way home one night, I could see my silhouette projected on a building about 50m in front, wasn’t a cheap setup by the time he’d put it all together with the 12v pack etc. but Jesus it was bright.

Cheap hardtails are not just for Christmas winter! :)

I recently picked up an olde Genesis High Latitude 29er to try & get back into off road stuff more – had converted to full on roadie as it’s kinder to my knees but couldn’t resist another cheap-ish hardtail for knocking about on in the cooler months – terribly unfashionable, steel frame, 2×10, 80mm travel forks – the original tyres were shafted so i popped some cheap Mavic Crossride(?) 2.35″ flavour on there, loads of room – probably fit bigger depending on profile

Also – this thread needs more pictures

Those long femurs and narrower hips make quite a bit of difference! Male Puberty is the best Anabolic ever!

As a 40 year old hobbit with womanly hips I can only look forward to these performance enhancing benefits when they decide to appear :D

do you really believe your first paragraph? Look at the photo’s. That surely is evidence this athlete has not produced muscle mass by training alone. In fact I’d go as far as suggesting Rachel does not need to train as much as her opposition in order to win. This is someone who was born a male, went through puberty as a male, trained and raced as a male.

As I said, i’m not questioning whether in her current biological capacity she has benefited from the presence of testosterone during her formative years, she undoubtedly has & I actually agree with everything you’re saying.

My (slightly convoluted) point was – if she had been born with an XY genotype & trained to the very limit of her theoretical capacity, would she be able to replicate the same form she has now? That’s what we can’t say for certain. You even say she probably doesn’t need to train as much as her opposition – what if she was born a woman & did – would she still be winning? Get what I was meaning?

Yet I’m sure you are aware there’s a very strong probability.

Which is all there really is for a lot of evidence-based decisions that get made.

Of course there’s a very, very, “strong” probability, just playing devil’s advocate

@mcj78 what a crock of nonsense.

Well that’s a exceedingly well thought out & reasoned argument – not even sure what it refers to, so perhaps if you enlighten me i’ll do my best to clarify things for you

Yeah, posture aside – there’s no absolute proof that had she been born a woman she would not have the same physiological attributes she currently possesses. It is likely that exposure to testosterone has given her a developmental benefit re. muscle mass, but it’s impossible to prove that couldn’t have been achieved on training alone.

On the genetics slant – Robert Forsteman apparently has a genetic condition which leads to an increase of muscle mass, hence his legs are of terrifying proportions, but he doesn’t always romp it – suppose there’s a cut off where excess muscle mass stops being a clear benefit

Mumsnet claiming this photo says it all

Maybe resting posture should be the determinant?

I got knocked off in similar circumstances a year or so ago – bike wan’t badly damaged & I only had a few scrapes & bruises so I decided to go through the driver’s insurance myself. Turned into a massive pain in the tits to even get recompensed for the small repairs the bike needed & I wish I had involved a lawyer to handle it despite the low value of the claim – might be worth contacting BC to see if they would be able to help once you re-new your membership. There are a good few cycling specific legal firms around these days, you might be able to claim legal fees back from the other party but I don’t know – i’d certainly be contacting them in the first instance for advice, especially if you’re having to replace a non standard bike.

Also an idea to get to A&E and get checked out just in case – there could be some inflammation setting in that you won’t notice right away, if you go legal they’ll advise this too.

Best of luck!

It’s a complicated subject – there definitely needs to be more discussion at the top level, the topic of additional categories for trans athletes might be a touchy one though, as it’s effectively segregating them from their “sex” class in sporting events, intersex athletes too, but I don’t see where the “fair” split could be…

Even with testosterone limits to bring trans athletes back on par with non-trans competitors isn’t really evening things out, a quote from Rachel McKinnon highlighted that her body hadn’t produced testosterone for over 10 years… problem there is it’s hard to negate any performance advantage of increased levels of testosterone during the 20-odd years of her physiological development prior to that.

Whichever way they divvy up the classes someone’s going to be disadvantaged