I’m enjoying riding my old roadie at the moment.

Not TdF / Olympics influenced – more to do with weather and light evening commuting.

Was very tempted to buy a new De Rosa, but my old steel bike is a litle bit special 8)

ETA – I have to say, that riding the road bike has really boosted my fitness 😀

No – retro refers to something that is new that is built to look old. This is just old.

Don’t tell them that on retrobikes 🙄

He’ll need to ditch those ^^ overshoes…

😳

mach 1 uphill on road

Quite apt given your username

27.2 is a fairly common size.

Aye, it is…

… but the previous post on the same bike was shimmed. Memory is getting hazy, but IIRC the problem was I didn’t need a common size – hence why I acquired the Icon.

Any other possible sizes in the 27-28mm range?

On road – 45mph Giant Anthem, B3247, Cornwall
Off-road – 43.6mph Skyline airfield section, Airborne Lucky Strike

My matches..

– Hugues Dubosqc, French swimmer
– Ross Hutchins, British tennis player

Another with wider feet and a long term liking for Scarpa. Have been to some prety uncompromising places with my various Scarpa boots and they have been very good.

Best fit rules, though.

There is a time of life relevance to pets

Pre-kids, wasn’t bothered. had pets when I was a kid, but had no need of them as a single / couple.

But, having kids of your own changes perspective on these things…

Seems to be a bit of a trail centre thng…?
Afan used to be like this – lots of over-biked bike tourists from along the M4.

No idea if it still is – only live half an hour away but haven’t ridden there for years…

For anyone who has been trying to get hold of Sidi SRS inserts…

Back in stock

I have just ordered some from SidiCafe

Was this bit supposed to be G4S

Even had the dambusters !!!

Jeremy Hunt – and the end of a bell!! 😳

Just been shown a Durex one – even funnier

Class!

Is this genuine, or a photoshop?

20 is good – if only for keeping drivers to 30.

Not keen on the speed bumps that tend to get rolled out with most 20s…

💡

We are talking about the 1980’s not the 1880’s.

Not sure you are old enough to remember life then.

Blimey. Either I was brought up in a peculiar, backward part of society (ok, it was Cornwall 😉 ), or there are a lot of young people / poor memories on here…

This website endlessly debates “Thatcher’s legacy*”. Politics aside, that debate is fundamentally about taking large parts of the working population out of old fashioned labour intensive industries. Whether skilled trades, semi skilled or manual labourers, a significantly higher number of the population were working in more “active” jobs in 1982 than in 2012 – I would have thought that would be self-explanatory.

I’m not talking about digging canals by hand a la 1800s, but working at a lathe, clambering around a ship welding, carrying hods of bricks up ladders, stacking small sized hay / straw bales…

Is all this OT – well no, because if the old 2500 cals/day for men advice reflects the above “industrial” working lifestyle, then it’s likely too much for the greater proportion of sedentary jobs that ocupy the 2012 employment market

* and, no, I’m not blaming Thatcher for the obesity epidemic…

… oh, hang on, convenient – it does seem to have started from the late 80s onwards. Maybe taking lots of folks out of active jobs and putting them on the dole was the trigger 😕

Gone for a 12-25 HG cassette. £17 on CRC. Should give me a bit more room at both nds of the range, of course, a the cos of slightly bigger gaps.

The Athena chain set is very much part of th look of the bike, so wouldn’t want to change…
The new cassette is cheap enough to give a try. Can alway swap back!

Thanks for all the suggestions

TINAS – no rose tinted spectacles about it: my father’s / uncle’s / grandfather’s generations worked themselves into early ill health / coffins. Not just through poor working conditions and industrial diseases, but through hard, wet, cold graft.

I just saw the end of that way of working, and didn’t want it for me!

Now, I suspect you’re just trolling – but my top of the head recollections were certainly valid for where I grew up. The mothers in the 1 car families walked to the shops. Kids walked to school – cant remember the distance for free school bus, suspect it was 3 miles? We lived 1.5 miles and no free bus. No school run mums, that’s for sure. Anyone dropping kids off at the time the school crossing patrol was operating got a ticket.

Shopping for the week? Housewives shopped daily, and walked the groceries home….

I’m sorry, but for most folks, life was more active 30 years ago!

We are actually are more active now than 30 years ago in the west.

Really? I know things like gym membership and mtbing 😉 will have greater levels of participation, but…

So, its 1982, “off the top of my head”
– I don’t remember that many 2 car families
– I do remember lots of stay at home housewives – walking (or public transporting?) to the shops / schools
– driving to the supermarket was (almost?) unheard of
– School run was something you did when you were late
– Schools had playing fields
– As kids we spent a huge amount of time outside, running around
– Many, many more people were physically active in their workplace, far fewer “desk jobs”
– As a teenager, I did a lot of casual jobs on farms and building sites – most of the “manual labour graft” in those jobs appear to have been replaced by natty little (labour cost saving) gadgets

Ton’s post on page 2 doesn’t make any sense now… ?

Was that racially dubious???

I think Paige from Gunsmoke could persuade me to put my hand in my pocket…

jeeezuz **** h christ – is the gun in that picture cocked???

I don’t understand all the confusion with weight loss or gain.

Calories taken in – calories used = calories left over (or defecit)

If I go out on my bike and burn 1000 calories and then eat a pizza and drink 4 beers (about 2000 calories), that will be me about 1000 calories up for the day.

Surely the guidance is just exercise in conjunction with a healthy balanced diet?

Simples.

Nothing simples about it.

The concept is – the reality is not.

The level of argument on here over this subject – ie a group of “active” or sport minded people, shows that there is nothing so simple that everyone can agree upon.

If we can’t gauge (or agree) on the “calories burnt” part, with our HRMs, use of diet / sports nutrition websites / advice etc, how the hell are Joe Public going to?

Likewise with calories consumed – the large number of TV programmes on diet and food marketing show that food companies go out of their way to market high fat and high sugar foods, with little regard to clear communication…

Traffic lights anyone?

Of course it is racist – as above ^, not overt, but in the intent… 🙄

IIRC, North Wales Police got in a bit of bother a few years ago re racism. One phrase that got a lot of attention was (again IIRC)

Being born in a stable does not make you a horse

Read literally there is no racist content – but we all know that that is not the case, don’t we???

Brains burn cals as well…

I will often start work early – 0400 – 0430. Tea with sugar, toast and marmalade are esential to kick the brain into activity

Looks like a Shimano HG50 12-25 or SRAM PG850 12-26.

Cheap as chips on CRC as well 😀

lazybike – I agree if you mean relaxation to US standards.

GrahamS – my mother’s perception of motorbike safety is not based on accident stats. It is based on kids she taught who were killed shortly after school. There were quite a high number in the early 80s – one of my own year group was decapitated shortly after leaving school.

However, she is blind to the fact that a similar number were killed in their teens joyriding, or generally discking around in cars.

I brought up this risk comparison to illustrate our very poor perception when comparing risks. We don’t use official stats, we respond on an emotional level.

Gun and gun crime carry a very high “emotional response”

That’s what the SAMs* are for…

* secret anti-mamil missile – with appologies to the extra M

(though I don’t know what rkk01’s referring to)

Motorcycles / cars are a very good example of irrational risk perception

Swimming pools / guns probably not!

wasn’t sure whether he was joking tbh

I’m pretty sure I read it as meant… I took up the “aside”

Not sure if 30,000 firearms deaths a year is that minimal, even in a large country like the US.

As has been outlined on this thread – US is totally incomparable to the UK, which was my reference point.

US gun laws are totally abhorrent. I think I have made my views on US gun ownership perfectly clear in my posts above.

Regarding DD’s comments comparing to cars – very interesting…

Cars represent a very real risk – of injury or death, to users, and to innocent bystanders. But as a society we are familiar, no blase, about these risks and the outcomes from them.

I wouldn’t compare cars to guns. But I did compare cars to motor bikes a few months ago, on here and in discussions offline.

My mother is concerned about ideas of buying a motorbike. As a former teacher she can recall the former pupils who died in their teens riding motorbikes – but had no response for my riposte – how many of the same peer group had been killed in cars…?

Where they had died at the wheel of a car, it was not the car’s fault – they were a young tearaway, a bad ‘un, mad, etc.

Where they died on a motorcycle the (ir)rational brain used a totally diffrent logic – they were killed BY THE BIKE – complete disconnect between the type of transport and their own behaviours.

We have a blind spot to risks that we are familiar with – especially those that are broadly accepted by society at large

Why do pro-gun people have to resort to such idiotic arguments?

It’s all about risk communication. Not very helpful, but what people do in the face of an irrational fear.

I work in an industry where it is very tempting to equate very low (but on occasions, potentially serious) risk to the risks of smoking. This is a mistake. As a scientist, you beleive that you are engaging people on a level you understand. In reality you are patronising and questioning their own lifestyle choices!

So, yes, someone ^ has pointed out that swimming pools present a greater actual risk than guns… That doesn’t diminish the fear of guns, no matter how small the real risk is. The best way is to demonstrate utterly responsible ownership. This however, is totally undermined by a very, very small number of tragic cases that receive high media profile

Relaxed gun laws bad +1

I’m afraid you’re going to have to explain that totally unqualified statement…

FWIW, I agree in respect of “relaxed gun laws” in the US mould – both the types of weapons and reasons for holding them are inappropriate in a civilised society.

andyl – Under UK law, anyone should be able to apply for, and be granted, a shotgun certificate. The onus is on the Chief Constable to ascertain who is unsuitable, not who is suitable…

Unfortunately, many Police Forces (and individual officers) have taken it upon themselves to go beyond the letter of the law and apply their own interpretation to it. In these circumstances, they are acting outside of the law, and when challenged have had to retract.

To legally own a shotgun / obtain a shotgun certificate, you need to show that you can keep the gun / ammunition as stipulated under law – ie securely, not have a criminal record and not have a medical condition that would / should preclude you from having a certificate granted.

Different matter for firearms certificate (FAC)

I’ve actually thought (post Hungerford) UK gun laws are too tight.

It’s a power trip. US culture is a lot more macho than here.

Agreed, based on my experience of the US.

BUT, can’t imagine a worse ethic to combine with firearms.

I was brought up just outside Inverness where most of my family were either farmers, ghillies or game keepers working on the local farms & estates. For them all, guns were literally tools of the trade.

I’ve owned my own shotguns / rifles since I was legally old enough to own them. They’re all frequently used….for the odd bit of clay pigeon shooting but mostly to kill pests / game, the game always ends up in a freezer and eaten.

The guns are all under lock and key with all the ammunition separately stored in another locked cabinet….and I’m the only one who knows where the keys are.

I go to extreme lengths to ensure my kids are never in contact with them unless they’re out with me shooting.

I know I’m being anal but I’ve known too many people who’ve had genuine accidents with guns and either lost their lives or been seriously injured

This 100% – brought up with and have owned guns. Nothing unusual out in the countryside. To be treated with utmost respect, but no reason for the hysterics that can arise from those who are not familiar

Guns were originally designed to kill….why the fascination? What is the big attraction in owning them?

I can understand the fascination. As a bike rider, there are bikes I’d like to own – the appeal in the functionality, engineering, craftsmanship etc. Same with guns, to a degree. There are a number of quite old guns in the family – punt gun with a 1″ bore (25mm), some old breach loaders and a gun by a famous name gunsmith with a damascus barrel. The craftsmanship is pure artistry.

I do draw a clear distinction though, bewtween these sort of “hunting” guns (be it shotguns or hunting rifles) and the sort of weapons that are popular in the US. The bulk of them, incl the handgun above ^, are designed to kill and maim people. I cannot comprehend a licensing / legal system that allows a private individual to bear anti-personnel weapons…

… uttertly insane.