If you’re currently running 32 largest a 36 will make roughly the same difference as changing down one gear anywhere else on the cassette whilst you’re riding. 40T will be about the same again. Do you think being able to shift down two more gears would make enough of a difference?

Praxis Works now manufacture a 10 speed cassette with evenly spaced ratios and 40T largest cog. It’s £100 mind but that’s less than you’ll get an 11 spd for.
If you’re regularly finding 22:34 (lowest 9spd ratio) hard to turn then it may be that the small fortune you could spend on new gearing won’t make a lot of difference and electric assist might be more helpful.
Is the ‘health condition’ likely to be resolved in the foreseeable future?

Here’s some Purbeck footage I shot at Fatbike Day last year. Not the same route but hopefully enough of a taster to put you in the right mood.

I spent most of my working life in debt for one thing or another, mostly motorbikes but since I cleared the last loan (conservatory) last year I’ve felt no temptation to borrow again.

@Cinnamon Girl. Inspired by your photo I drove to Wilton to ride out last Tuesday (the windy one) and got to Snail Creep before turning back.
Strava here if you’re interested.
I’ll be heading out that way again on Tuesday with my son and a friend. Can you recommend anywhere near Snail Creep for a light lunch?

2015-03-31 15.42.47 by perfectbalancecycles[/url], on Flickr

I’m not sure about Guy Martin. From what I’ve seen he appears to work best solo and having read his book I think he’d hate the exposure. Does like fast cars though.

No

50:18 with 26×1.5 = 69.5 inches on my commuter. I’ve also done London to Brighton and home to Southampton and the Dunwich Dynamo on it plus 280 miles in 3 days in the South of France.

Just feels right.

Just grey and gloomy here in Hampshire. I’ll just have to make do with memories of ’99 down at Portland Bill.

50 now and various little aches and pains are telling me I shuld ease off and mix my activities more but when it comes down to having an hour or two to myself very little appeals as much as jumping on a bike.

Last autumn I did my first XC race in the over 50s category and was genuinely surprised by how competitive they all were. Having had regular top ten results in the over 40s I thought a podium position might be realistic. I finished 12th.
Also found out that my cousin put in a 3:07 marathon on his 50th birthday.

EDIT: But I still won’t be fitting gears to my XC bikes for some time yet.

People may not be buying higher end 26ers but judging by the bikes that come into my shop for servicing and repairs (and this thread) a lot of people are still riding them. In my experience the majority of people who’ve spent over £1000 on a bike expect to keep it for 5 or 10 years, maybe more, and stop looking at what’s new once they’ve made their purchase.

I resisted singlespeed for a bit when most of my mates converted for the winter but 7 years in it seems odd to ride off road any other way and I now own 4 of them if you count the commuter. Twentyfour12, Mayhem, Dusk til Dawn, I’ve done them all SS and can’t see that my results would have been any better with gears.

If I want to ride geared off road I can swap the wheel, mech and shifter from my full-suss (which only ever gets used for uplift days). But that’s only happened once so far and I soon wondered why I bothered.

It all depends on the length of the climb, the gradient, what gears you’ve got and how far you’ve already ridden.
In short, do whatever feels most comfortable or productive depending on your priority at that particular moment. On a familiar climb try taking it a gear higher than normal if you’re looking to improve your time.

When I rode up Mont Ventoux from Malaucene last summer my lowest gear of 39:25 gave me no option but to get out of the saddle on the steeper sections but for the rest of the hour and three quarters I was seated as much as possible.

I once had a bloke trying to sell me investments over the phone ask me if I was saying ‘no’ because he was black then call me a racist and slam the phone down.

Next time my son persuades me to take him to Sports Direct I think I’ll have a look for a whistle.

Very pleased with mine, no more muddy arse or backpack, even in the worst slop. Much better than a Crud rear. Mine was supplied with frame protection tape. I think that’s standard now.

Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

I reckon the show could work with a guest presenter, at least for the remaining three shows of this series. They could make a bit of a feature about how much better life is without him. It could even be the shot in the arm that (some say) the show needs.

Wifey reminded me of the Have I Got News For You episode that Roy Hattersley failed to show up for. They replaced him with a tub of lard.

Last Of The Summer Wine carried on with several changes to the three core characters without losing it’s way. As long as they choose the right replacement Top Gear could carry on for some time yet.

Did anyone pick up on Nicholas Hoult saying something about remembering “what Riccardo told me” just before his lap?
Could Riccardo be the Stig?
Riccardo Patrese?

I still don’t get the need to wear ‘baggies’ on the road

Through most of the winter one or two layers of lycra just aren’t enough to keep your knob from freezing on long rides.

Phone and a few quid in pockets. Spare tube, pump and water bottle on the bike. Any more than that and you’re ‘touring’, in which case baggies are perfectly acceptable.

Adventure Graduate
Alloy frame, 1 or 3 speed, £220/£270, black or cream.
Recently discontinued but you may find one still available somewhere.

I sold a few but without the colour coded guards found them harder to shift than the heavier and more expensive ‘full dress’ traditionals.

IHN – Member
Ventoux. Ace up, Ace down.

+1 on that

Far prefer to do long climbs on the road and descents off road. Maybe I need a butler to meet me top and bottom with a change of bike?

Found a photo of the FF29 B+ at Core Bike. Not the best photo I’m afraid but I’d have it over the Genesis any day. It just looked so much more compact.

[/url]FF29 B+ by perfectbalancecycles[/url], on Flickr[/img]

Good luck Keith. Hope the family are coping.

Can the Strava Bods please find a way of taking into account the current ground conditions and thus recognising valiant efforts through the current slopfest that many trails now are.

Not convinced myself I’m afraid.
The STW blurb on that bike describes it as ‘long and low’ and ‘slack angled’. If you’re going to have a long bike then why not use the space to fit the biggest wheels you can ie 29+.
Slack angled implies the intention of rattling down steep, rough trails as fast as possible. If that was going to form a significant part of my riding I’d ride a bike with at least front suspension.
At Core Bike I saw a Kinesis FF29 fitted with 650B+ wheels and rigid fork. That looked superb, compact and just the tool for ripping up rooty singletrack.

727th with 11 KOMs, more than half of them NOT segments I’ve created myself!

@Mark88. Crab and West Woods are good. Did you find the singletrack round the perimeter of West Wood?
It’s not just the gloop in QECP it’s all the off camber roots and chalk that makes it horrible in the wet.

For Jambalayer here are links to a couple of my Strava routes for the area:

One
Two

@Mark88 There’s a Newforce club ride ride starting from the John O’Gaunt pub at Horsebridge (6 miles west of Winchester) this Thursday at 6:30. Approx 25 miles in 3 hours

joat – Member
Without a paddle. Friends I watched it with were laughing, which only added to my bemusement.

I’ve seen that one on TV a couple of times and quite enjoyed it.

Morzine for the PDS weekend as a friend has a house nearby.
Middle aged blokes leave their families for a few days to ride bikes and drink beer shocker.

The bike I ride to work most days is 9 years old.
My Surly 1×1, which is my most ridden off-roader is 8 years old.

I made up some neoprene (wet suit material) cuffs about 6 inches long several years ago which have been absolutely brilliant at stopping water running into my boots.

Freehub on my RS20 has lasted 7 years so far and all seems fine. But I do have other bikes to ride on wet days.

Never seen anyone wear pads for XC down here.

I thought Gravity was pretty awful. At least we only watched it on DVD so I could go off and do something more interesting, the washing up if I remember correctly.

Big sloppy ride in the rain last night down here in the New Forest. The sandy soil rarely gets sticky and it was a lot of fun in a trialsy sort of way. Wet rooty climbs, ploughing through the sloppy descents, slaloming round the deepest puddles. The only downer is that it’ll take a couple of days for my boots to dry out.

Commit to a bigger project. If you haven’t bought a house yet and you have the means to do so then that should be your first priority. In the meantime put spare money somewhere it’s a little harder to access. Premium bonds are my favourite, once they’re bought the money is gone from my current account and no longer subject to temptation.

Stop buying bling for the bike and spend your money on top riding kit, then going out in even the crappiest weather can be a smugfest.