I did a carb free diet in November. Lost a stone in two weeks.

I’m not particularly fat at 6’2″ and my sister still calls me skinny but I hit 14 st which was my heaviest ever.

I dropped back down to 13 stone which is more my fighting weight.

first week

second week

st66 – Member
Boat from Westminster to Greenwich

A Rib boat trip is more fun IMHO

stand outside a football/any sports ground on match day and you will see the same complex algorithms/supply and demand (delete as appropriate) at work.

tickets, tickets, anybody got any tickets?

Midday and the ticket tout has tickets and a high demand, you want a ticket with a face value of £50? that’s a ton to you mate.

as it gets closer and closer to kick off he varies the prices to ensure that he isn’t left with any.

3-15pm for a match that kicked off 15 minutes ago? The ticket costs a tenner or thereabouts cos the tout is desperate to make something/anything on the ticket (and yes I know you can’t get on a plane that left 15 minutes ago but the concept is the same).

I’ve had my Capra AL1 12 months and ridden 1,000 km on it according to Strava and it’s great.

Light enough and comfortable enough to ride all day (ridden London to Brighton off road on it twice now, 110km each time) but burly enough to cope with a week in the alps last July (DH trails all week, got another trip this year).

It’s day to day normal riding is around the surrey hills trail centre which it’s perfect for.

I haven’t ridden the Canyon but I’ve seen them, slightly different frame design with exactly the same finishing kit as the capra if i remember i.e. Pikes up front and SRAM groupset, brakes etc.

I don’t think you will be disappointed in either.

supply and demand, it’s not complex it’s basic economics

I suffer from this too particularly in the cold.

I have wondered if it’s the SPD/shoe combo as SPD’s don’t spread the load out on the foot as much as some other pedals do. Perhaps try some Look Keo pedals instead and see if that helps?

I also find that it happens a lot more on my Bianchi which is a very unforgiving alu frame (think old school Klein Attitude MTB type stiffness) versus my spesh Allez which is still alu but with the zertz inserts a much more comfortable ride.

EDIT: which may mean that it’s a combination of cold and the road vibration being absorbed by my foot (the right foot is always worse) leading to the numbness.

I’ve been commuting into the city for 33 years by car, train and lately bicycle from Epsom. The secret is to stay chilled. Don’t get upset, arsey or angry with other people, train staff etc.

– Do the trains get rammed at peak hours, or are things reasonably civilised?

Yes they get rammed but getting on at Leatherhead it’s quiet and you are more than likely to get a seat. Up to you if you want to give it up to a lady/OAP etc. or pretend to be asleep in the corner. The main thing is that you don’t need to change trains anyway e.g. Clapham Junction is chaos in the morning and you can avoid the underground which is where your problems start

– How much is a season ticket going to set me back? Google is your friend

– Any particular areas that you would recommend for a first time buyer?

As above, lots of great areas around there, Epsom, Ashtead, Leatherhead, Boxhill, Dorking proper etc. etc.

The riding is of course awesome, welcome to the Surrey Hills trail centre.

The question you need to be asking yourself is why aren’t I cycle commuting?

It’s only 19 miles. I do 18 from Epsom to Canary Wharf and there’s loads of guys I know/encounter on the roads/Strava flyby that are doing a similar route.

Rockape63 – Member
Its certainly going to be an interesting season next year.

1. Pep arrives
2. Some new Chelski stooge arrives
3. Moany arrives
4. Will LCFC prove to etc.etc.

This and others all go to back up a great observation I read once that the beauty of football is that the season comes to an end and then it starts all over again.

It’s great!

perhaps just say sorry I was in the zone? Unless you are one of those blokes who doesn’t acknowledge other riders in which case he’s got you in one ;)

Notter – Member
It’s the idiots who wave your clasped hands up and down for ages that get my goat, why?, I mean WHY???

you need to Google Mr Shake Hands Man of Banzai fame.

I have a firm handshake, it’s a man thing. Can’t stand a limp handshake, it tells you a lot about the other person.

And then looking for rides for ginger mums

errr…this bit needs man-splaining

I dislike this stuff because it gets in the way of clear, effective communication

Nobody told me we had a communication problem…

Everything now has an ‘MBR’ in my office.

No it’s not a glossy magazine prone to big up Specialized but an acronym for the monthly business review which broadly appears to mean let’s look at stuff and see how it’s going.

what you saw was an example of poor and inconsiderate cycling, yet somehow that gives all other cyclists a bad name, you are tarring me (and yourself) with that brush despite me never having met or associated with those people in any way, the only thing we share is a mode of transport and a hobby. But do you tar yourself and all your family and friends with the brush you use on drunk drivers or people speeding, or people who drive inconsiderately? bet you don’t… why does a bad cyclist ‘give us all a bad name’ when a bad driver does not?

Agreed, or to put it another way as I often do when for example a taxi driver comments to me on other riders who have just jumped the set of lights we are waiting at “just cos we both ride bikes doesn’t mean we are friends.”

thegreatape – Member
No, that’s just what daily Greggs visits does to you.

Is that as in ‘give us this day our daily Greggs’?

apparently he can also do some Mint Sauce key rings/head tube badges…

you say you can view rides on phone? Go onto phone and strava app and then profile and edit. it will tell you what email address you registered with on there.

or alternatively forget about Strava and carry on riding and enjoying riding as you did in those naive, sepia-tinted pre-Strava days.

No one enjoys cold, wet shoes in the morning

I hate the feel of cold, wet shoes in the morning; feels like misery

It’s the mountains, the weather is variable. But it’s also mid-France in July so the weather is generally good.

I’ve been there a few times:

2005 – it had rained the week before us but no rain our week and bone dry trails, temp was in the high 20’s
2006 – thunderstorms in the evenings but bone dry trails all week, temp was in the high 20’s
2014 – dry trails for one day then rained for a week and trails were unrideable, temp was in the mid-teens
2015 – bone dry all week, uncomfortably hot in body armour and full facer reaching 42 degrees for extended periods

you pays yer money and you takes yer choice.

Take a light rain jacket and plenty of clothes. if they don’t get wet they will stink of sweat so you need multiple shorts, tops etc.

‘Shimano’ stickers on bike frames?

Admittedly they were usually only seen on lower end bikes but even these seem to have disappeared now

I like to think I’m funny too but as above probably not as funny as I think. I can be very quick though and a vaguely funny remark can be appreciated if it is delivered instantly.

Not particularly my funniest line but one that was totally off the cuff and sticks in my mind was when Janet in the office said ‘why is this photocopier humming?’.

Instantly I responded ‘cos it doesn’t know the words’. She cracked up and I was quite proud of it.

The zoo/elephant line is a great one.

pretty sure you can get to the Isle of Man without a passport

I rode there yesterday. it wasn’t scary

c’mon Dave, spill the beanz

Hopefully you have got the message by now but just to add my two penn’orth, this isn’t something you undertake lightly.

If you haven’t done enough/any training i would be looking to back out ASAFP.

you aren’t letting anyone down, especially if you give them notice i.e. tell them today.

What would be letting them down would be to cry off the night before or turn up half-cocked and ride like a dummy for an hour or two before quitting

those roadside caravans/burger vans

No one else has yet so do I got to be the one to say it?

I’m assuming you aren’t wearing your grundies/ boxers under your bib shorts?

no-one ever had on their gravestone “I wish I had spent more time at work”

deadlydarcy – Member

<snip>
It’ll be interesting to see them in the UCL next year. </snip>

I agree. I would love to see them play Barcelona.

Barca would probably score a hatful but can you imagine the likes of Vardy etc. running at Pique and that standing joke that Barca have played on the rest of Europe all season that is Mascherano as centre-half?

They wouldn’t be able to cope with the pace and power.

It could easily finish something like 7-6 and I’m not gonna guess which way.

(Chelsea season ticket holder, great to see us stick it to the Spurs last night, 26 years)

and shortly after that it becomes sentient?

I (along with a few others on here I reckon) work in Canary Wharf which is just down the road from Beckton Gasworks which is of course where they filmed….
.
.
.
.
.
…..
…the second half of Full Metal Jacket when it was converted into a look-alike of Hue City

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beckton_Gas_Works

hoke – Member
You’re just not very fit.

Ride more. much much more.

Pretty much what he says.

I think certain people can be more susceptible to cramp than other but basically it happens when you aren’t fit.

A good riding buddy of mine suffers badly from cramp but he only ever cramps up when he’s unfit through not riding enough.

When he’s fit we can knock out a 100-miler without a hint of cramp. When he’s not been riding he cramps like a good ‘un.

mine is the same OP i.e. 18 miles each way.

you need to build up to it.

https://www.strava.com/activities/537201874