Done, the tandem deaths were awful and I was amazed after the list of sustained criminality came out that the driver wasn’t already inside.

Had my worst ever yesterday oddly enough – 70km in to a ride along the south downs and about 10km from home, couldn’t climb any more, was confused and lightheaded. Ended up sat on the floor having flung my helmet in disgust. Took a good ten minutes and a gel I found in the back of my bag to get me up again – not sure what my plan was otherwise!

In retrospect (and after a ton of food) it was a combination of bad fuelling/lack of fuel and a mechanical at about 15km which prevented me using the full range of gears so I wasted energy climbing the hills. I had nothing left at the end and really struggled home, more gels/bars next time methinks.

I wondered what was up when I noticed they were getting premium brands in on the webstore. Tbh my experience of halfords is no better or worse than my LBS having bought bikes at both.

Cycle Republic (in york) was a good effort from Halfords – got some massive bargains when it closed but was sad to see it go.

I’ve managed to get some of the drones to start repeating the phrase ‘delivery narrative’

As others have said its a big airport with a fair bit to do – the mini-Rijksmuseum is good and I’ve never found it too hard to waste 2-3 hours at Schiphol even when ‘slumming’ it.

Has bean’s annual subscription is awesome. The descriptions (and the accompanying video blog) can be a little over the top but they are frequently not far off if you use a decent grinder and machine.

The new Canadian Affair/Transat economy cabin is excellent and a big step up on their old offer – inflight entertainment system is top notch, of course its partly down to luck if you get it but I’ve been on new model flights twice from gatwick in the last six months

Started to go grey at fifteen here, father was similar.

You probably won’t die although if you start referring to yourself as ‘the silver fox’ you may get slapped.

Thomson elite seatpost just turned up :)

They can itch due to interactions with medicine and cosmetics, OH finds certain brands of hair dye cause hers to become raised and itchy

Signed and shared

As above seem to last better than sock guy, jury still out on if they last like defeet but they are holding up well after close to a year

Another happy Nexus 4 user here, works nicely out of the box and lets you mess about if you feel up to it.

good to see – used to like howies but had a couple of bad experiences with kit in recent years and stopped looking at them. Good to hear they may be back on form

First Album – Nine Inch Nails – Pretty Hate Machine
Most recent album – F777 – Deadlocked

Just remembered, need to bottle my latest coffee IPA…

On the cold break above I brew all-grain using wine making kit (so micro batch) and tend to use the sink combined with ice packs to get a rapid chill, only works for small batches however.

Having seen that vizzit site and being an occasional visitor to the areas i’m considering a mail or two to their advertiser wightlink highlighting the campaign to drive tourism away. Given both WL and Red Funnel market to cyclists that may get some traction

I did a teleconference once from a jacuzzi, kept cutting the sound so I could run the jets, to be fair i was on holiday and was only calling in as a favour

Cowbells are pure evil, I used to like them at races but now the girlfriend has developed the cruel practice of waiting until I’m dying on the turbo then sneaking up and ringing one behind my head

Was in a northern bike shop last weekend, buying some new lights, guy behind the counter produces a promotional copy of this while the card reader whirred away, shows me the cover and says ‘don’t think we’re going to be selling this, we’ve got bloody great hills and bloody awful coffee’ – made me smile

Big fan of Nuun but use a fair bit of high5 as I always seem to have freebies

As with Tomaso above I called a local specialized pro dealer and they sourced the part for about a tenner iirc.

Screwfix etc for Bolle glasses, not perfect but very cheap. TK Maxx have had some ZeroRH+ riding glasses through for £15 recently if you fancy getting your roadie look on.

Seat Clamp Bolt, snapped – did ride on but standing up has its limits when you’re out on a long day, had a fairly long walk home as a result.

I got a pair of these in blue when visiting start up in newcastle at christmas (also got a Scott Goretex Active Shell jacket for £49!) – the liners are white lyrca and very very thin, I use them on the turbo but even concealed from the public eye they make me feel like a pervert.

I do think a lot of the problem is down to our attitudes to physical exercise/wellbeing in the UK. Men who carry out a physical hobby much beyond their twenties are generally seen as a bit odd (unless its a kickabout followed by 10 pints) and people find it odd when you choose to ride into work in winter rather than take the car as they don’t seem to be able to square the idea that someone would choose to put up with the discomfort in return for other benefits.

I suspect its considerably worse for women as a significant proportion of society seem to think that once you reach a certain age/have kids/settle down you should slump into an inactive middle age – most of the mums I know have essentially jacked in all activity since having kids and actively bitch/moan about the few who still run or cycle.When my OH did a mtb skills course last year loads of our friends commented to the effect of ‘you should slow down’ and ‘you’ll only hurt yourself’, fortunately she didn’t and she hasn’t :)

Sections of it are down Bournemouth way iirc

20/20 to begin with, then graduated through cider and blastaways. Also a fair bit of snakebite and black.

Then I discovered gin and it all got better

Happily on 26″ for the moment although did give a 29’r a go recently and quite enjoyed it – nothing too special but a little different. what I am getting sick of however is going into bikeshops to look for bits and being assailed by the shopfloor staff who want to evangelise about bigger wheels and persuade me that rather than buying that 26 inch mud tyre I should buy a whole new bike which will magically roll faster, float over rocks and wipe itself clean at the end of the ride.*

29’r marketing is probably the most overhyped nonsense in a field pretty full of overhyped nonsense, it makes the claimed year on year increases in ‘lateral stiffness’ and ‘small bump compliance’ seem reasonable.

Do quite fancy an inbred 29″ in teal however :)

* Not all bike shops of course – just some recent annoying experiences

Agreed, took to the turbo today as I can’t face a ride through the Somme followed by cleaning the bike and myself. Plus with the state of the trails round here it would be pretty selfish to ride.

Eyewear Outlet – worth checking their store in Portsmouth if you are nearby as well – often have bigger discounts – think my £35 Eyepatches and £50 ‘Science’ Fuel Cells are my biggest bargains from there

They are pretty poor in my experience – a step up from the real rubbish entry level bikes come with but not a big step up from another dart, Not sure what else you would get for £20 even second hand however.

Slightly depends on model year as well, iirc some dart 3’s had magnesium lowers, they could be worth the cash if money is really tight.

Marin is fun imo, its not a ‘trail centre trail’, I enjoyed myself most on a short travel hardtail, only saw one other rider the last time.

The beercan mentioned above is lovely although its fame has increased the second hand price a little.

Just wanted to say thanks again for the PSA – saddle arrived and have just removed the Test label with a touch of nail varnish remover (acetone) and kitchen roll, all good

Whale, not entirely by choice, business trip to Japan where I had impressed by my willingness to try anything put in front of me. Felt guilty upon discovering what it was.

Nice choice on the rogue, I’m currently enjoying a Bristol Beer Factory Ultimate Raspberry (one of the ’12 stouts of christmas’ they do each year) but will be moving on to something north american later

Edit: actually going to be having a Tiny Rebel Chocoholic next, partly because its awesome and partly because its distressingly close to its best before date

Sizing is a bit of a giggle but my hummvees have done five years of regular use and mt500 shorts are similarly still going after four years. Haven’t tried the jackets or jerseys however.

while I’m not a fan of telling people exactly what to do i really do feel we need to challenge some of the cultural attitudes we have in the UK towards exercise – far too many people seem to view physical fitness as a ‘niche’ thing and find it actively weird if you do a sport/hobby that involves effort. Even walking to work is seen as a bit odd if its more than 5 minutes or raining. I had hoped the Olympics would have some effect here (and to be fair it does seem to have pushed some people from ‘interested’ to ‘participating’ in sport) but most of my co-workers and a depressing number of my friends seem to see athletes as a different type of celebrity to be liked/disliked on the basis of their tv appearances.

Turbo tyre plus some matting underneath (I use a cheap set of foam floor protectors from a sports store) tends to lower the noise/vibration.