Happy birthday.

You have ten days.
Pick somewhere you’d like to go with an airport, this is point A.
Decide how far you can ride in a day.
Multiply that distance by 11 and you have distance x miles.
Find another airport x miles from A, this is point B.
Buy a ticket to B and a ticket back from A.
Somewhere between B and A you’ll find yourself.

Or you’ll dump the bike, catch a bus and remain forever bitter and twisted about what might have been.

The picture of a man on a bike and the picture of a man walking didn’t raise any questions in your mind?

Next time I meet a woman riding our local cycle path I’ll be sure to tell her she doesn’t belong there and should find her own path.

Ride singlespeed and/or rigid forked for a good upper body workout. My arms and shoulders feel far less used when I ride my road bike.

Mildred. As far as I’m aware Slime is not intended by it’s manufacturer to be used as a tubeless sealant.

In my experience slime performs no worse or better than tubeless with sealant but is less faffy and expensive to replace when it is overwhelmed.

We’ve been using Slime tubes (pre-filled) for the last four winters and they’ve cut puncture stops from one or two a week between ten or so of us to one or two a season. Even when they are overwhelmed the green gunk is easier to wash off than tubeless jizz.

Schwalbe tubes have removable presta cores if you want to make up a lighter alternative with less gunk. I’ve done that with good results.
Don’t bother with Slime-lites, they use a thinner tube with less gunk, cost more and really don’t work very well.

+1 for Neilson.
The rides are mainly local to the resort, of 1,2, 3 hours duration with maybe an epic ride once a week. If you’re at a coastal resort you’ll also get the watersports tuition included in the price.

SSEC for me.

Chris King it is then. I bought mine because I’m worth it.

We’ve had bad experiences of Hope SS hubs down here. Sandy soil and water gets into the pawls VERY quickly.
Chris King SS hubs work and last well but are obviously costly.
For a cheap option try a DMR SS hub with a screw on freewheel, not necessarily any longer lasting than your existing set up but very cheap and easy to service. White Industries freewheels are well recommended but a bit pricier.

I should imagine that the journalistic budget for that piece was closer to “get it done this afternoon, you can use the internet and phone as much as you like” rather than “go buy yourself a nice bike, rent a van for as long as you need and make sure you’ve tried several menu options or rooms in all the establishments you recommend”.

Glad to see the New Forest in there!! Some very uninteresting gravel tracks is all you are legally allowed to ride….

The cheeky stuff’s far better though and there are several pubs that do look after us very well.

The New Forest’s at number 9 and the recommended eatery is the Montague Arms in Beaulieu. They have their stndards there. Last time we went in there we saw three lads in their early twenties asked to leave for asking (politely) why such a popular drink as cider wasn’t sold there. We haven’t been back since.

+1 for Orangista. I’ve had to strip and re-lubricate plenty of older Shimano shifters for customers because the grease has turned to glue with age.

Very happy with my Ayup (narrow beam, helmet mounted).
When you order it’s well worth getting a few spare bike and helmet mounts to keep your options open in the future. eg I keep a bike mount on my road bike for summer evening rides.

Have you seen how busy Cairngorm gets on the 3 days of decent snow every year?

Imagine if the trail centres were the only place we could ride and they were only open 3 days a year. It’d be a nightmare. If you compare like for like I’d expect mountain biking to be far popular than skiing already. I know plenty of people who own serious bikes but hardly any who have bought their own skis.

I’ve got fully rigid 26er and 29ers similarly specced.
The 29er feels bigger, more cumbersome and slower to accelerate but smoother through the back end and more stable. It doesn’t feel any smoother through the front end than the 26er but that could be due to the difference between carbon and steel forks, maybe?

There’s one narrow rooty gap between a tree and fence locally that I’ve got a 75% success rate at cleaning on the 26er. I’ve yet to fail it on the 29er.

I’ve got the bikes I want but a new and lightly pimped VW T5 would be nice.

The A38 between Minehead and Barnstaple springs to mind as the most severe road route I can think of in the South of the UK.

Tesco’s make the creamiest porridge in my experience.

IanMunro – Member
I find her strangely attractive.

I’m glad someone else said it first, but yes, I can see that too.

We rode without lights in the snow last month. There was no moon but the lights of the nearest big town reflected off the thick clouds to illuminate the open ground in a strange pinky orange way.

Selling peaches on the beach — in 1977 when The Stranglers were topping the charts!
Paper rounds.
Helping customers on and off boats at a boating lake.
Selling ice creams on the beach. Commission based resulting in £100-130 a week in the 1983 summer holiday as an 18 year old.

We had some cracking summers the years I was doing those jobs and I don’t think any employment I’ve had as an adult has come close to being as enjoyable. I’ve never had such a good sun tan again either.

Can man (or woman) survive on one bike alone?

Of course not, metal and rubber have zero nutritional value……….

Sorry, someone had to.

Seriously, no. I’m on 5 at the moment:
1) Rigid SS for winter
2) Summer hardtail, also SS because I got used to riding SS on the winter bike.
3) Bouncy bike, 140mm both ends and used a handful of times a year at trail centres, mainly in the dry so not likely to wear out expensive parts too soon.
4) Road bike for summer blasts down the beach and back.
5) Commuter and winter training bike – MTB on slicks, SS but higher ratio than the off-roaders.

Ah, so that’s who Beth Ditto is……………
I think I’ll wait a bit longer before I start my lunch now.

It all depends on how fit you are to start with and how you’re body reacts to training. 1:40 sounds a bit optimistic if you’re regularly going at 9 minute mile pace in training. Also, there is a huge difference between running 13.1 miles and running 5.68 miles.

Get out and do a 10mile plus run as soon as you can and that will give you a good pointer as to what to expect in the half marathon.

I picked up a pair of Nema shorts at the Mayyhem a couple of years ago and they’re compatible with my desire to get a tan on my thighs whilst riding.

I’m rather liking the new Triumph Tiger 800

But for the foreseeable future I’ll be making do with one of these. Mine’s rather less shiny than this one

I built one (rigid singlespeed) and reached the following conclusions:

1) They roll nicely on rooty ground but not as well as a full suss 26er race bike
2) Anyone who says a 29 inch front wheel is like having a 80mm fork on a 26 inch wheel is WRONG
3) They don’t feel as lively accelerating out of corners as 26ers
4) They’re harder to wheelie than 26ers
5) Big wheel plus steep head angle gives a very nice blend of agility and stability on flowing singletrack
6) They feel more stable than 26ers on some trialsy sections
7) A £800 singlespeed 29er won’t be a better bike than a £2.5k Ti bike (also singlespeed at the moment)

I want to love my 29er but somehow just don’t.

More than 900 lumens is unfair to the people riding with you unless you’ve got the legs to stay at the front all night.
Also, if you’re shining too much light on the rider in front or any close objects the glare back will dull your night vision leaving it harder to see detail at the edges of your beam.

Lemmy on the Girlie Show sometime in the early nineties talking to Sarah Cox:
“I may be f***ing old, but you missed some great parties”

One of my favourite quotes ever.

Can the next Singletrack Poll be ‘What Is Your Opinion Of Lazlo after reading this thread?’

Saint
Ass kicker
Reasonable but rude
Numpty
Total cock
Being strung up by the balls is too good for him

Sounds like you could see a big improvement from doing a bit of everything:

Time in the water, to just get used to swimming the distance at high effort.

Coached swimming, improve your technique and efficiency in the water.

Weights, to improve your strength and power.

You are using single ring specific chain ring bolts aren’t you?

ISIS bottom brackets are well known for only lasting a couple of rides.

Mudguards front and rear for claggy riding and wash the bike when wet. Silicon spray helps but don’t get it anywhere near the discs.

I’ve been running a Conti sport contact 1.6 on the rear for a couple of years. Puncture resistance, wet grip and speed are good but the ride rattles my bones.

Note, tyres without tread throw up a lot less spray on wet roads and wet grip seems to be more down to rubber compound than tread pattern in my experience.

Schwalbe Kojak?

I’d recommend staying in the suburbs, that way you’ll get a taste of ‘normal’ Japanese life. I stayed 5 nights in a business hotel in the Koiwa district that let some of it’s rooms through the hostelling international network. Each night I ate in a small cafe bar close by and was made very welcome by the owner and regulars there. Rail links to the city centre were excellent at all times of the day.

I spent a week there in 98, cracking place.
Public transport is amazingly good so if you want to get out of town it’s quite easy. Narita town, near Narita Airport, has a very impressive temple complex.
If you can extend your stopover DO IT. There’s way too much there for just 24 hours.

So what did you go for in the end? did she like them? Have you shown her this thread since

Balcony style bra in ivory satin finish with dark lace across the top of the cups and matching knicks. They passed the test of having been worn at the first opportunity and again since so I’ll chalk that one up as another success.
Tried to find pics on the M&S website but they’re not there so maybe just a seasonal line?

I’ve mentioned this thread in conversation but she has no desire to read all through it.

Any spring loaded tensioner should do. When built it’d probably be worth unbolting or depressurising the shock to check the tensioner through the full range of suss travel.

still nose landing everything big time

Try upping the rebound damping at the rear.