That and the ramp! Nothing bad will come of that combination 😀

Had a cracking weekend! Decorating yesterday, our bedroom now looks lovely, followed by a BBQ round a friends house! Today I raced my first ever enduro (QECP) and I had loads of fun and didn’t end up in A&E! Finally my wife has just suggested take out rather than starting to cook so late!

Simple small things but bliss for me!

Only had one discussion with a van driver this year! Narrow road and he thought I should be in the mud/verge rather than in the Tarmac! I tried to be witty and intelligent, but wasn’t 🙁 I think I got some pedant points for correcting him about road tax actually being ved, but then lost them all by telling him to f*** off!

I don’t think I have been punishment passed, but I do reckon people who don’t cycle have very little perception of what it is like to be overtaken when in a bike, so they feel attacked when a cyclist comes up angrily suggesting they were trying to hurt them! Then again some car drives are arseholes!

Big thanks to lunge for these threads! They really do add to my annual tour experience, they make me sound way more knowledgeable when discussing the tour with my mates 😉

I like Froome, this year he has shown a level of aggression and opportunism that I didn’t know he had! As for how British he is, I was born in Africa but hold a uk passport so if he isn’t British then I am
F***** 🙂

I don’t reckon this stage is about winning the tour, but the fight for the podium is going to be epic!

We use the naughty step, we use it sparingly, and I think it is useful because it breaks children out of the behaviour they are following which is getting them in trouble! Also because it gives you and them a couple of moments of space to calm down! Anyone who says their children can’t wind them up beyond belief is a lier 🙂

For the record I am a teacher, my wife lectures child development and psychology to degree level, but when it comes to our own children we still reckon we just about muddle through and make loads of mistakes 🙂 All that matters is that overall your children feel loved and valued……. Easier said than done after 3yrs broken sleep at 3am

I am riding my Mtb more and more!

I started cycle commuting last September, and I think because I am doing 2hrs road riding 3 or 4 days a week the last thing I want to do is ride on the road again! Much happier playing on my Mtb! I tried a couple of sportives this year, I really like chatting to my mates as we rode and the off road sections (tour of the Black Country) but I couldn’t shake the feeling that I was on my way to work 😉

My family all love watching the XCO races on red bull, but I have to admit we end up shouting at the tv more curing the DH segments!

I have found the XC circuit to be really good at encouraging childrens racing, with on site coaching, medals for the children and adapted circuits! Hopefully that will pay dividends in years to come, despite BC’s woeful support!

My son (6) races XC and loves it, however after watching lots of DH with him on red bull he has just been bought a set of ramps to play on 😀

I think I will wait a couple of months and watch it when it is on netflix! Certainly not a film I would go out of my way to watch. I can’t remember many remakes I have seen which i thought were better than the original! I have no doubt there are some, but I have a crap memory 😀

I work in aldershot, I assume £20 would go a long way Binners 🙂

😆

There seems to be a pleasant undertone to these types of thread. If you don’t go with the crowd and buy rounds/split evens you are penny pinching/spreadsheet lover!

As I said above, I am happy to split with close friends, but work colleagues etc can get stuffed! The loud boorish types who drink far too much can get uppity but they are generally just moaning because they actually have to pay for what they have consumed!

I spend my money wisely, to me that means I have more money to spend on things that are really important, like my family! £50 for a night out does not equal the fun I can have with my children with £30, and then only spend £20 on my night out! That is always the way that sum goes in my head!

Not sure why you are so irked by my choices Binners!

I have known my circle of friends for a long time, and thankfully all of us trust each other well enough, that we can be honest when strapped for cash (or saving up for things) and so no one takes offence.

As for wild nights out, not sure what your definition is there. In my 20’s I used to do that, but as I grew up I found that at the weekend I want to enjoy my time with my wife and children, not nursing a hangover and a depleted bank account!

ALl I did in my post was to state my experience and choice! Clearly if you are happy to subsidise the drinking/food costs of others you may well have a large collection of people happy to go out for the evening with you.

I will happily split the bill with a couple of our close friends, but beyond that, not anymore! My wife and I have been on the receiving end of having to pay out way more than we ate/drank to subsidise the people that suggested splitting and then drank/ate loads!

I find making things clear at the start of the evening avoids any potential problems later on! It is the same with buying rounds, I used to be fine with it, when i went out drinking regularly with the same group of friends, but now I am much happier just buying my own drinks when I want them.

Mine are both totally emotive!

Orange, the first Mtb I became aware of was the original clockwork, and I have wanted one ever since!! I recently got a 26″ Five second hand and it is as fun as I hoped it would be! I genuinely love the bike 🙂
Cotic: first time I saw one I wanted one! Currently saving up for a Solaris 🙂

Cotic and bird seem to be v popular choices!!

Not working for me either!

Was going to look at a van for bike/dog/family duties the day after the vote. When leave won we called the dealership and cancelled the appointment! No way in hell am I going to take on any debt for the next few years until we have a bit more clarity about what is going to happen!

We are lucky in that our only debt is our mortgage, but all of our spare cash is now going into savings/overpayments!

I cycle commute to work, and was thinking of getting a nice hub dynamo lighting set up, but that £300 has suddenly become much harder for me to let go of!

Good luck for this weekend! I was looking at the timings to see if I could give you a shout of support at qecp, but by my reckoning I will be well in bed by the time you are rolling past!

Dovebike, I know someone who is doing a SDW-double this weekend! You don’t ride a fatbike by any chance do you?

I have gone the other, and switched to flats. After an incident on my commuter where the cleat came unscrewed so the pedal couldn’t detach I have thrown them in the bin!

I am possibly 1min slower on my 1hr commute so it just didn’t make a difference for me! I realised that the main reason I was using clipless was because I ride in lycra and thought I would look stupid with flat pedals……I have now learnt that when commuting to NGAF and nobody cares!

<—– fully incompetent 😀

Cheers, that is reassuring!!!!!!

cheers all!

I reckon I am going to stick to blues with maybe a foray onto a red as my last run 😀 I want to enjoy myself, and slowly build up to more technical things! It is still going to be there next year once my skills have developed somewhat!

I have signed up for this (as well as QECP on the 24th). I put in for open after emailing the organiser and explaining that I am a slow middle aged MTB’er who is fairly unfit and talentless 😀

I also self seeded 5 on the 1-5 scale of how fast/slow are you option! I fully expect to be the last competitor off for each stage….hopefully no one will see me walking anything vaguely technical.

After being really really unfit for the last 7 years, I am enjoying getting out and racing, even if I am firmly at the back of the pack! At least with this unlike XC racing I can bimble back up the hills, although I do enjoy the mass start aspect of XC!

48km of pedalling in a day does have me a little scared though! I might need to work on my fitness some more!

Phil and Paul have been getting worse and worse! I think they started to believe their own press and had become a parody of themselves!! I started watching the tour in the 80’s with Phil but it was definitely time for a change! David is getting better and I really enjoy the interplay between him and Ned!

I am sure the raphaistas are crying into their espresso about a change but it was needed!

This!

Steve’n’seagulls!

I don’t have showers at work, I use that muc off dry shower stuff (not brilliant and you smell of coconut) and baby wipes! I second the advice above of not racing in, and easing off in the last 5-10mins!

That PB article is interesting! I have discovered my bike is a single pivot design! Now I can be on the lookout for all the things I have never noticed whilst out just riding it 🙂

I am a very ordinary rider, so happy to accept I would have to be shown (repeatedly) what is meant by pedal Bob and brake jack! It would seem in this case ignorance is bliss 😉

Any suggestions for cheaper and better? Always after those two!

Try flats?

I had issues with sore knees but since swapping everything seems better!

However my longest road rides are only 2hrs! I am possibly doing a half ironman next year and quite possibly will do that on flats as well!

There is no magic formula!!

I am a teacher, and my wife is a former nanny / nursery nurse turned degree lecturer in Child development psychology, so you would think we would have a least some idea of what we were doing!!

Turns out we were clueless and despite everyone giving advice, eventually we just had to accept that we would find a way, and they would sleep through. Although I did get close to punching a smug mum and dad who told me their child has slept through from 2 months (after we were on 12 months of sleep deprivation).

You don’t see many teenagers with sleep problems, so everyone must figure out a way eventually 😀 As brutal as it sounds, just accept you will make mistakes, you are not going to have much sleep!

I am still slightly proud that my daughter will happily fall asleep when I am cuddling her, but not when my wife is……….I know it is a petty thing, but you take what you can as a dad, I am also bent round her little finger and I accept this!

We are going to look at one next week! My wife is sold on the idea after seeing a friend fit four bikes, children and adults into a van with no bother! There would also be room for the dog!

It won’t be a VW as that is beyond our budget, but looking at the Vauxhall equivalent!

I think if I was serious about marginal gains I might need to shave my legs and not wear baggy shorts!

Many thanks for all the advice, I am sorry if I phrased my post badly, it wasn’t so much which was better (I am now aware that is a can of worms) just if other peeps rode flats for that sort of distance and if they did how it was!

Cheers all,

I’ll be putting them on tonight and give it a go!

I recently changed to flats because I realised every time I rode something vaguely technical or steep I would have one foot in lipped as insurance! I don’t think I am any slower but do find it more comfortable! So much so I am thinking of putting flats on my commuter bike (13 mile each way!)

Ok, definitely in the minority, but I really disliked TG with clarkson et al, but I am enjoying this! To my suprise Leblanc is making it for me 😀

I have just bought a 26″ orange five, it is great 😀 Loads of cheap deals around on parts, so I am starting to buy multiple parts so I have a stock if ever they do start to become rarer!

I have gone the other way, just bought a 2011 Orange 5 so it is 26″ or nothing for me! No idea if it is ‘poppy’ or ‘brings the trail alive’ but parts are fairly cheap, and second hand wheels are cheap as chips 😀

Cheers all,

Will send him a reply about meeting at neutral ground 😀

After looking for ages, and seeing nothing that was either the right size or in my price range, I picked up an Orange five at the weekend, second hand, 2011 with 26″ wheels and a triple! Admittedly it is ‘retro’ but I don’t care, it is great fun to ride!

I have a 13 mile commute each way my set up is:

Pinnacle Lithium (flat barred/ deore hydros and gear)

I swapped it to 1*10 as I worked out exactly what gears I need and I didn’t need the weight or faff of a double at the front.

Mudguards, even if it isn’t raining there is still usually damp and crap on the country roads I use.

Pannier rack with ortilob pannier bags (a total must!!!)

My clothing is lidl long bib tights which are windproof, cheap as chips and I will be getting more when then pop up again!

Marathon + 28mm tyres with gloop filled inner tubes, after one puncture in the rain I will take a bit of energy loss for the reliability of them!

I might get bar ends as I would like a couple of extra hand positions