I have enjoyed the last two Mayhem’s, but my ride of the year has got to be the Isle of Mull Cyclosportive that I did in June.

Superb organisation, weather, route, and scenery.

Mind you, knowing the island as well as I do, if it had been wet and raining (as so easily it could), then it would have been a tough old ride.

Another horse rider here.

Once again the driver failed to stop. Really?

This is yet another sad reflection of our society.

RIP

Compensation?

Hmmm, good plan, that’ll teach them, what with their over efficiency and having stock in the warehouse.

The most amazing thing was that Yodel delivered it (in a box the size of an aircraft carrier) on time and undamaged.

I have Spoons, Fluxes and Primes and I like them all.

The Flux does have a softer feel or more padding, not sure which but it is a comfy saddle.

The Spoon is the the same shape and design really, I have ridden a HONC, two Mayhems and the recent 60k MADORC all on my Roberts complete with its Spoon (saddle that is, not the cutlery) and comfort has not been an issue, although it is noticeably firmer. At least it feels that way to my delicate derrière.

The Prime is my current fave road saddle. I did a weeks riding in Scotland in June on my Rourke and Prime (shame it doesn’t have a Spoon) and had no saddle issues whatsoever. I also did a 100k sportive later in the summer, as well as all the usual day to day riding and I’m just about to put a Prime on my KTM training bike.

I’m a 42 in normal shoes / trainers and 42 in Fizik shoes, I have two pairs and have ridden thousands of k in them.

Shimano I’m a 43, Sidi I’m a 43.5

This guy makes custom made cycling bags at a pretty sensible price.

Mack Workshop

I’m with the other Zen practitioners, but that is as much to do with the 35,000 business miles I drive every year as my cycling. I see so many bad drivers while in a car, that I simply don’t take it personally.

Mind, I’m not beyond taking advantage of a situation when on a bike; so while overtaking a slow queue of traffic the other night, when a guy in a car I was overtaking began to accelerate (I assume to stop me doing… erm, something) I too accelerated, he matched me, I sped up. The game ended abruptly when I overtook the car in front of him and he did an emergency stop.

Well it made me laugh anyway, what a great game, cheered up the whole ride.

Rule 66 of the Highway Code, states, amongst other things.

“Never ride more than two abreast, and ride in single file on narrow or busy roads and when riding round bends”

So where do think they are going with their current staffing policy?…. mate of mine has just started working for them(as a stop gap)..Cytech 2 qualified at £6.81 p/h!..he says the place is a joke,contracts for 16/20 hrs with flexibility demanded,i.e the next step up from zero hours contracts,and no fulltime customer facing staff being hired …is that going to attract good staff who want to take the brand forward?.The answer to that is clearly no…so much for the much vaunted relaunch.

That’s been the case for a long time. My son worked part time at Halfords when he was at Uni, six or seven years ago. Just after he left the local branch got rid of a mechanic who was both an excellent mechanic and well qualified. I’m not sure what that says about their staffing policy, but then I know nothing about the staff in Evans or for that matter any number of other bike shops.

I do like this new range of bikes and were I to buy one, which I would happily do if it fitted my needs, then the first thing I would do on getting it home would be a bottom to top check, the same as I did when I bought a KTM from the nearest dealer to me.

Maybe I shouldn’t have to, but for the sake of half an hour with a spanner and a couple of allen keys, it’s not really a hardship.

I saw a guy being treated at the side of one of the road sections, but the parameds looked to be dealing with cuts, rather than a broken collarbone.

There was some evidence on the short (?) route that people had been stupid, I saw three of the red tape markers that had been ripped in half.

It was a good event, but it would have been nice to know before setting off that the 40k route was actually 60k. Add a few for missing a sign (possibly removed because quite a few others missed it) and I totalled 66k.

Any photo’s anywhere?

I’ve already got mine… kind of a bump.

Shame you can’t make it, as the weather should be perfect.

I’m over 25 years old, I don’t have a beard and I prefer to wear trousers that fit and socks with my shoes; so I’m obviously not the target demographic.

Worth giving First Great Western a ring to find out which trains have bike storage.

I did this recently for a ride and booked a space which turned out to be unnecessary. That said, the storage was full within a couple of stations and I was on a 8.00 am train on a Sunday.

Not tried clamping the cup in an engineers vice and rotating the frame then.

Sorry if this is a step too far, but you have remembered that it’s a left hand thread.

I’ve got one of these. Pocket Pouch.

I’ve ridden in wet condition all day and even fallen off in a stream (we’ve all done it) and the phone, money, car keys etc are all kept dry.

Look at the route profile of the sportive(s) you are planning to ride and try to reproduce something close on your training rides. Time is irrelevant, there will always be people faster and slower than you.

I have both Spoon’s and Flux and there is no real difference in shape, but I think the Flux has slightly better padding.

This kind of behavior is absolutely unforgivable… unless accompanied with the scream STRAAAVAAAA!

I should try it in the 98 section of Retrobike, there are guys over there who are really into San Andreas and other earlier DH bikes.

More likely it rushed out of the undergrowth and crashed into the bike, as their eyesight is not too good.

So, to those who appear to hate all companies, what they make and everything they stand for; given the opportunity to press a great big “kill them, kill them all, now!” button, that wipes all ‘money grabbing companies’ off the face of the earth.

What are you going to ride?
Where are you going to get it?
And what will you be wearing while you ride?

Red, white and blue you say.

Alternatively, there is always just a nice metallic blue.

Or just plain black.

But where oh where oh where is the cyclists Hi-Viz.

Cyclists, they bring it upon themselves they really do.

This guy makes custom bag for that very purpose.

The Breakaway

Roadie content: I am constantly on the lookout for a Dave Lloyd Concept90 frame and forks.

I also have a hankering for a Shand Stoater in some form.

Moon Comet, front and back… I luv em.

I have no idea, but when ridden well they certainly take the wind out of the sails of other riders.

Why only yesterday while taking part in a 60 mile sportive, I was just on the point of cresting a decent climb, having used all 22 of my gears, when I was overtaken by a young guy on a very neat looking ss. This was bad enough but he then stopped to wait for his mates, at which point I noticed he was neither breathing hard nor sweating, both of which I was doing profusely.

I struggled on, muttering dark oaths.

+1 for the Madison Prime.

I don’t think your diet is helping the situation and I would suggest a bit of reading around the types of food you need for the amount of work you are doing.

That said, my super fit 26 year old son regularly takes a nap when he gets back from pretty much any ride over 40 miles.

Me, I stuff my face with cake and coffee, then have a boiling hot bath or shower.

Posted for the second time in as many weeks, but…

Not too far from Oban, at the bottom of Glen More on the Isle of Mull, early June.

I’ve also got Endura neoprene overboots and they are excellent. My feet actually get hot / sweat in the things they are so warm

I have not tried them with any of my mtb shoes, but I’m sure they would fit over them no trouble.

I’m planning on putting my entry in this week, I’m just waiting for my son to make up his mind….. Could be a long wait then.

The Isle of Mull.

I’ve got a right old mish mash of kit. Some dhb, as I really like the (pre Honda) Wiggle team bib shorts, which they don’t make any more. Also a big Pearl Izumi fan, as the quality and fit are excellent.

No Rapha, it’s a bit hipster / celeb for my tastes.

Ramblers walking five abreast and three deep; tutting at you for not having a bell.

I saw some horses way off and they were turning off the road in the opposite direction to where I was going, so I gave them loads of space and even stopped, waiting for them to go. They still spooked when one saw me.

In the interest of balance.

I was riding my horse along a narrow road that leads to both a bridleway, and a fast road descent (that I ride my road bike down), when several road bikes came down the hill at high speed straight towards me. My horse did not react at all, and the bikes passed safely to my right.

Darn it! I go away on business for couple of days, and someone starts a thread on my favourite hobby horse.

I have a 1999 Raleigh 853 road bike and as I decided last year I should move into the present century, I tried to find a Raleigh Militis, with a view to buying one. Many calls on many dealers and e-mails to both Raleigh CS and the local sales manager failed to find a Militis in the whole of the South West and Wales.

2014 and I decide I REALLY am going to buy a carbon road bike, and the list included a Raleigh. Looking at the web site, the number of road bike dealers had changed as had their locations, then, before I started to visit, the Welsh cycle show came along and Raleigh were going to be there, EXCELLENT!

They weren’t.

I now own and am extremely happy with my KTM Revalator.

I’ve done the kiss blowing thing before, it’s brilliant fun.

I was in a car leaving the M5 and due to the time of day, there was a queue leaving the motorway, I was slightly caught out by the length of the queue, so needed to spot a gap.

Gap spotted, I pulled in behind a white estate car, at which point the driver looked in his mirror and went nuts! No idea why, but he was flailing around and shouting a lot of abuse at me while staring in his rear view mirror.

A few yards on the exit split into two lanes and I wanted to turn left while 90% was turning right, including Mr Heartattack. I drew alongside, he wound down his window and was red in the face and screaming… so naturally I blew him a kiss, and drove off.

Ohh, what fun we had.

As for giving blank looks, I’m deaf in my right ear and wear a hearing aid, if a car goes past and someone shouts (rare, but it does happen), I can’t make out what was said, so they all get a slightly bemused grin.