Hmm, not really interested in a gravel bike ATM. I’d rather stick to the road bike for local riding and do some ‘proper’ mountain biking on the odd day, even if that requires driving further.

Will be based near Hinxton, so the Peaks is more like a 3 hour drive. The Chilterns are significantly closer, so was hoping there may be something there. I know there’s Aston Hill (Wendover) – is there anything a bit less DH-y around there?

Surrey hills are a reasonable option – where should I be looking around there?

Sorry for your loss fella.

If your bikes linkage design is linear, a progressive spring will ramp up as it goes through travel so it doesn’t bottom out all the time

I get that. I just don’t see why that is better than an air shock which is naturally progressive (and can be tuned to be more/less progressive to some degree).

New progressive springs from cane creek are going to open up the coil options now.

What’s the advantage of a progressive coil spring over an air shock?

Oil/fat is a pretty essential part of your diet, why are you trying to eliminate it?

It’s not about removing fat from the diet. A large proportion of my calories still come from fat. It’s about focussing on nutrient-dense foods.

I’ve only skim-read that article but I haven’t read so much quackery in one place for some time. Isn’t Klaper the bloke who was telling people that his diets would cure cancer or am I thinking of someone else? I’ll bet good money he’s got a few books to sell in any case.

Agreed. I meant to link to just the chart, which (despite its source) gives a good overview of the distinction between diets.

Eg, most people would say orange juice is good for you but it’s basically just sugared water, you might as well drink Irn Bru. But is steak mince inherently worse than steak because it’s been processed into little bits?

Except at least orange juice contains vitamins and fibre vs. sugared water. And no, I don’t consider minced steak to be any worse than steak.

Quick question, if you don’t mind? How would you define “processed” (and non-) in this context?

Bad choice of words on my part. Maybe minimally-processed would have been a better description. Dairy, as you rightly point out, is fairly heavily processed but again the (my) general rule would be the less processing the better. So milk is better than butter/cheese, a pork fillet is better than bacon/sausages, etc.

Of course, butchering and packaging is a ‘process’ but it’s not changing the nutritional quality of the product, which is what we’re really talking about here. A carrot doesn’t stop being a whole-food if it comes in a plastic bag, for example.

This chart gives a good summary of the differences between vegan, plant-based, and plant-based whole-food diets. Personally, I’m vegan but also try to limit oils and highly-processed foods. Removing oil from my diet is the part that I find the hardest, but I try to use as little as possible.

I gained weight on a plant based diet.

I’m happy to be corrected, but I’m guessing that this was just “plant-based” and not “whole-food plant-based”, the later of which being what The Game Changers is promoting (although the distinction could definitely be made clearer in the film). Replacing processed meat with processed vegan food isn’t going to bring many benefits, nor is including loads of plant-based oils in your diet.

Another documentary worth a watch is ‘Diet Fiction’. This is focussed on the health aspects of a plant-based whole-food diet. It’s more balanced than some, acknowledging that there’s nothing wrong with incorporating a small amount of non-processed meat and dairy in your diet. It is also much clearer than many documentaries in making the distinction between veganism and a following a whole-food plant-based diet. Many of the experts interviewed will be familiar to anyone who has watched a number of these documentaries (and the narrator/director/filmmaker is the same as ‘Food Choices’) – it’s up to you and your own research as to whether or not you think they are trustworthy or just promoting their own agenda.

Gibbous moon

Northwave winter boots fit my wide size 12s perfectly.

Should i look beyond a brand x ascend?

Nope!

I’m not a Jamie Oliver fan, but just made his Aubergine Kuzi (as made for Joanna Lumley on the Friday Night Feast series) and it’s bloody gorgeous. I substituted soya yoghurt to make it vegan.

Recipe

This vegan tagine is a really good winter warmer. Dead easy to make and proper tasty.

Delicious Magazine Vegetable Tagine

Sportful Hot Pack range might fit the bill, apart from maybe the “not the thinnest” criteria. I’ve got the Ultralight version which is super thin, so not sure how thin the standard version is. I’m very happy with mine, but it’s used for warmer times of year. I hate the cold and it’s full thermal gear for me during the winter.

I could just hire a car and drive from heated hotel to heated hotel, but where’s the fun, where’s the adventure in that?

In the things you do in between your comfortable nights’ sleep.

That looks like it could be good fun on an XC bike. Definitely starting to look more appealing than road riding, especially as I’ve been spoilt by road riding in Mallorca for the last couple of family holidays.

By coastal track, do you mean the Cami de Cavalles?

they’re sympathetic, speak good English

That would rule out the possibility of it genuinely being my bank.

Troy Lee Designs XC have been my go to for years now.

Edit:

Post deleted because I’m in a bad mood this morning and it was pointlessly snarky. Sorry, as you were!

I’m currently binge watching The Staircase. Brilliant courtroom documentary with twist after twist. Don’t scroll down the list of episodes though as there’s a bit of a spoiler.

Cable nipple can actually be attached to either end. By default you use the supplied barrel clamp to clamp the cable at the lever end, but you can also use this at the post end (as was the case with the original levers) if you need the nipple to be at lever end.

Mine has been faultless for the 2 years I’ve had it. Just bought another as I wanted more drop. The new lever has addressed my only slight gripe about the original, which was that the cable clamped at the dropper end. Wouldn’t hesitate to recommend.

Welsh Enduro series is my local one, but I guess unless I want/can ride the stuff they race at Afan I’d be out of my depth.

Are you confusing the Welsh Gravity Enduro series with the Welsh Enduro series? Welsh Enduro series is based in North Wales. Two rounds left this year. The next one is in a few weeks at a new venue, but the September round is at Gwydir Mawr (formerly known as the Marin trail centre), and is very much your standard trail centre riding with nothing particularly gnar.

Welsh Enduro Series is pretty laid back. There’s a fair range of abilities there and everyone seems to get on just fine. You select a start time at sign on at the beginning of the day (first come first served), so can ride with your mates if you wish. Marshalls are good about allowing suitable time gaps – if you think you’ll be slow then warn the rider behind to leave a big gap, if you think you’ll catch the rider in front then leave a big gap yourself. No transition time limits, so if you find yourself caught up in a group of riders that you think you’ll get in the way of then you can just hang back between stages. Venues are mixed – I found Foel Gasnach very challenging and Dyfi almost as bad (partially due to trail conditions), but there are trail centre based rounds which have little/no off-piste (Llandegla and Gwydir Mawr this year).

What’s a nonce bike?

I don’t use my car to go to work I take the Segway normally as it’s pretty local to me

Bloody Segway riders, tearing up the pavement, pushing past pedestrians. Segways are just for lazy idiots, unless they’re disabled and then I might give them a pass.

Did my first century a few months after properly getting into road cycling in 2015 and not just using the road bike for commuting. Took 6h50 for a hilly Peak District route and nearly killed me. Have done many centuries since. Two years later I did my first (and so far only) double in 12h50 for 210 miles. Currently loving the mountain bike too much to use rare free days for long distance road riding.

I’ve only got good things to say about my Camelbak Skyline LR 10, which I use for Endoooro races as well as general trail riding.

I use the Lifeline with Control Valve. I’ve had no problems with it and have had no issues with leakage of partially used canisters that have been put back into the tool roll in my Camelbak.

Linky

You have to be careful if using it with valves that have removable valve cores (as with any other screw-on inflator) as it can freeze on and unscrew the core when you remove it. It also doesn’t screw on to my Schwalbe Procore valves which don’t have the normal valve stem threads. Neither of these are really a problem though as I’ve had no issues with leakage by just pressing the head firmly onto the valve and not screwing it on. Alternatively, you just have to wait a few seconds for the valve to thaw before unscrewing.

I’m waiting for Shawshark Redemption.

GPS error, wind, trail conditions, and various other things all make Strava positions a bit arbitrary anyway. Use it to compare against yourself ( which is still flawed for the above reasons). If you want to really see where you stack up against others then enter a race.

Cheers Tim. Definitely a different kettle of fish to Foel, certainly playing to my strengths more. Hope the first ride back went well and you’re healing up.

Another round of the Welsh Enduro Series done. Conditions were perfect and the trails at Llandegla running fast. 32nd out of 74 in Masters was a big improvement over the previous 2 rounds for me but I have to admit to being a little disappointed. My runs were all good for me, maybe lost a handful of seconds through little errors but nothing significant so it’s a little disheartening to be 54 seconds down on the Masters winner. Still, I’ll be in Vets next year so maybe it’s not so bad – would have been 23rd of 55 Vets, but still 45 seconds off the winner. Despite the slight disappointment, another great day out. Looking forwards to Round 4.

You sound like the sort of ungrateful arse that joins a forum only to complain about something despite having no previous posting history and then leaves again when they don’t like the answer.

I’d use the Puig Major rather than Sa Calobra – much easier climb to consistently pace on and less chance of being affected by buses / cars. HR is going to be affected by a whole bunch of things, including temperature, so perhaps Mallorca is not the best place. I’d just enjoy the riding out there and not worry about testing. HR is never going to be a particularly accurate way of training (although it is workable and I’ve done a season of training based on HR before and achieved good results), so a ballpark figure achieved at home (indoors or outdoors) is as good as any. You can then adjust intensity of your workouts based on RPE.

Tarw Du and MBR if you want to avoid shortcuts. Otherwise, Tarw Du and then the Beast but taking shortcuts to avoid Big Doug and the fireroad loop at the top (although this probably adds up to a bit more than just the Beast). However, given you’ve ridden the Beast loads, and the MBR is just the shorter version then maybe just do double Tarw Du.

Maxle Stealth or other non-QR version.

PM me…

DrP

(Ha…of course not really!! Wouldn’t that be terrible!!)

YGM

Is Carlos route compatible with the MBLA policy on footpaths?

Posted 3 hours ago

All totally legit guvnor.

“horrible flagging mud feats” = horrible claggy mud fests!