There aren’t any… or at least there didn’t used to be.

Just reading about the CORE show, and noticed one of the aftermarket companies is doing an adaptor for the 705/ 305 to allow it to fit all the whizzy bar mounts made for the 800 and others.

Don’t forget Leigh Woods (across the road).

I prefer it to AC, but that’s probably because I ride retro.

Ignoring all the clanky, rusty, single speed, flat bar affairs I rode as a kid, my first proper road bike is the one I built about 6 months ago; A 1999 Raleigh 853 (same as the R700, but only sold as a frameset).

I have several.

First was the interview in a hotel, where the receptionists failed to let the interviewers know I was there. I kept walking up to reception and they kept telling me they would let me know when the interviewers wanted to see me. After an hour and a quarter a chap walked into the room and called my name, I walked up to introduce myself and he said, that they have been waiting over an hour for me! I did get offered the job, but turned it down.

Another was in another hotel, which is diabolically difficult for parking. I made it into reception about 30 seconds late and the first thing the interviewer said was YOU’RE LATE, I turned that one down as well, the bloke was a complete knob!

Finally, there was the second interview for a large company, with the HR Director, who I had met at the first interview and also the Sales Director.

It wasn’t apparent straight away, but I slowly realised the Sales Director was pissed, this was confirmed later in the interview when he went to sleep!

I got the job.

The chainset on the 2012 model is mostly Ultegra, the 2013 model has a right mish mash of parts.

Which one do you prefer?

It addressed efficiencies and increased productivity, but now its turned into a mechanism to bully staff and force people toward the exit.

You must be a secondary school teacher working in an Academy.

Your dad does not need a new bike.

Just get that 20 year old ‘retro classic’ out, give it a clean, a service, some new cables and tyres and he’ll be ready to go.

Is it very obvious that I ride retro’s?

Go on, you can tell me.

Not had any problems in the 6 months I’ve run this:

Yeah, never mind the hundreds of drivers following you who have not been able to see your brake lights of indicators.

I am another who does not know why Halfords take such a beating round here.

At least they employ young people, that’s more than a lot of companies will do

If you are going to work HR into the mix, then you need to do a bit of reading, as age, weight, fitness level etc all have a bearing and your work should be designed to take your max heart rate into account. For instance, if I were to only see 90 to 100 bpm during interval work, I would effectively be doing nothing, as I typically warm up at 135.

As a comparison, I am 54, my son is 25, our resting, working and maximum heart rates are completely different, so a programme designed for me would have him hardly breaking a sweat.

Spinning is good to have for road riding, but again it is down to the individual to work out just how fast you want to spin, and it also takes time to train yourself. In addition, spinning fast, say over 100 to 120 is really hard on a turbo and I end up flailing around like a mad thing when I try it.

Don’t forget warm up and warm down.

Just to add, I had never used a turbo until this summer, when I dislocated my right shoulder in a fall. During my month off the bike, I turbo trained every other day, and although it sometimes felt like a chore, overall I enjoyed it and I’m sure it helped me maintain a degree of fitness until I was allowed to ride again.

No snow in North Somerset (nr Bristol) yet, but it’s getting colder and the winds getting stronger.

I’ve just had a look at my account, and I think the follow suggestions are just companies that the site has picked up, based on your profile.

I have a lot of construction companies and manufacturers in mine, not too much of a surprise, as I work for a manufacturing company in the construction industry.

Stop wearing trainers all the time, and buy some shoes?

Turbo trainer.

Rode an mtb last weekend. Riding an mtb this weekend and every other day in between I ride my road bike.

Not sure I see where the problem is, as has been said: It’s all bikes, it’s all good.

I enjoyed his book, but I don’t like his tweets.

Handmade by Virgins from Lancashire apparently

I refuse to buy anything made using child labour.

Utterly pointless reporting it with no reg.

Well I just did it online anyway, so neeeaahhh!

eop; Thanks for your concern, but, like all the other ‘near death’ experiences I have almost every time I ride my road bike, I shrugged it off.

I’ll e-mail the local Police, but I am also going to keep an eye open for this guy, as older people tend to be creatures of habit.

I think the thing that concerns me the most is that this guy (and many others) give absolutely no thought to the consequences of their actions. What would it have done for both of our Christmases if I had not slowed, or been sharp enough to have seen what the old scrote was up to? What would have happened if he had crushed me?

I am sure that as far as he is concerned the sanctimonious pratt has succeeded in showing me what’s for and is feeling very satisfied with himself. Much like the guy flashing his headlamps, these people appoint themselves arbiters of the road and all other road users are supposed to comply with their demands. Trucks, busses, other cars etc are pretty hard to bully, but a cyclist is an easy target, and so we cop the lot of their unjustified frustrations that everybody else ‘doing it all wrong’.

Hence the reason to find Mr Nodding – Dog, as I’d rather like to leave a brief note to that effect (along with the fact I have reported him to the Police) under his windscreen wiper.

MTB’s
Roberts White Spider – 1990
Roberts D.O.G.S.B.O.L.O.X – 1992
Bigfoot – 1992/3
GT Zaskar LE – 1994 – Owned from new (frameset)
Yates Diabolo – 1995
Rourke 853 – 1995
GT STS-2 – 1997 – Owned from new
Yates 853 – 2002

Road
Concorde Astore – 198?
Raleigh 853 – 1999

After over 20 years of mtb’s only, I have recently added a road bike to my stable and I cannot believe how bad the roads around North Somerset are.

Last week I rode out onto the Somerset levels, mile after mile of smoooooth tarmac, then into Burnham on Sea, where it appears every road has been dug up multiple times, and then patched. It was such a bone shaking experience, I am never going back again.

My cure to this cyclists hell. Get the Local Authority engineers to ride road bikes, I bet surfaces would improve then.

Glad you survived OP.

I ride horses as well as bikes and without a shadow of doubt the older drivers (60 plus) are the most impatient and dangerous.

I have never had a face to face like that, which is just as well, as with 30 years of Martial Arts training under my belt (see what I did there?), the poor driver could suffer a nasty slip without me leaving a mark on him… your Honour.

I’m a recent road bike owner, with 20 years of mtb riding behind me.

If you want one, get one.

As for comments about road riding being boring, these are clearly from wind up merchants and people who have never ridden on the road. In my experience road riding is not boring, it’s TIRING, but not boring.

I only ride retro bikes, so I don’t know what suspension is.

I’m in awe.

It’s been mentioned once, but find the Travel Plan Officers in your Local Authority. With funding all but withdrawn from schools, the travel planners are now looking at commercial organisations, and may well have some funding. At the very least they will be able to help you put a case together.

Genesis Equilibrium is the one I’m looking at.

Consider the Minoura RDA850 (or the modern equivalent). It drives onto the rim of the back wheel, not the tyre.

This means you don’t wear out your back tyre and at the same time cover the room in black rubber dust. It is adjustable, so it also means you can use it on a variety of bikes.

We were up on Dartmoor yesterday, right on the finish line for the 3rd KOM section.

Atmosphere was great and a brilliantly organised event.

Only slight downer was the local ‘bobbly’ telling the people from Skoda that ‘they had no right to be there’ and that ‘they were on private land without permission’. WFT! Could he not spot the tens of thousands of people either side of the road? Probably not through his ‘Dartmoor is for walkers’ tunnel vision.

My feeling is that if you’re close enough to go and watch, do it.

This site has not been updated in a while, but there are some good looking routes.

Home

Not been to Afan so I can’t make comment, but I just wanted to say (as a horse and bike rider) that horses, just like bikes, are not allowed to use footpaths.

As a separate comment, I would NEVER take my horse on a bike trail, even if shared access was permitted, as it’s not fair to the horse to get the fright of it’s life when a bike (or tiger as far as he’s concerned) suddenly appears at high speed in front or behind us, it is also not fair on cyclists, who are not expecting to suddenly find a horse in the middle of the trail.

Another shout for the Topeak Road Morph. Has a gauge and will put 100psi in road tyres without too much effort.

Just wait a few years, and he’ll out climb, out descend, out last and out shine you in every aspect of cycling. You won’t think it’s so cool then.

Actually, yes you will.

I taught my son to ride over 20 years ago and he is now a dedicated cyclist… couldn’t ask for more really.

Don’t think anyone’s said that Froome dopes

Maybe I should have said ‘implied’ .

Perhaps I’m reading it wrong, but there are some pretty clear indications that people think Chris Froome has progressed way too fast in the past few years.

So some of you are saying Froome dopes… which means Wiggo must dope and Cav and pretty much the whole Sky team, due to the commercial pressures put on them.

As we all know the Sky team is run by the same people that run the GB track team, so it follows that they must all dope as well, and the dope they are using must be amazing, as not one of them tested positive after winning medals at the Olympics a couple of weeks ago.

Either that, or all of that lottery funding is actually producing results…. nah, that can’t be it.

I have only recently taken an interest in road cycling, so I can’t comment on the relative performances, but having just finished reading David Millar’s book, I do not believe all riders are anywhere near clean… yet.

I think it is way too early in Vuelta to point any fingers, there is an awful lot of climbing still to come.

I did the same thing on Sunday, and my clavicle is now sticking up a long way.

I have just got back from seeing the specialist, and he said just gentle exercises and use my arm as normally as possible for the next four weeks. However, they may operate in the meantime.

Not keen on either option really, but I don’t really have a choice.

Going to get the turbo trainer set up, I cannot sit on my ever growing behind for the next four weeks!

Let me think what I miss about London….. NOTHING.

I have never been a city kind of a person, I just had the misfortune to be born in one.

Did you see all those idiots at the Olympics last week? Most of them were on hardtails, they were all in Lycra, and some of them even had bars ends.. don’t they know anything about riding off road?

Well, I watched 20 minutes of the first show, which was dreadful, and I watched the whole show last night, which I thought was entertaining. So I shall stick with it and see what it develops into.

Was I the only one who spotted the erm… larger sized couple sitting right behind the presenter? I fancy that someone in the team has a sense of humour.