US is a bad example – the situation over there is nuts.

If you want a good example of an armed, responsible, populace, look at Switzerland

If it is Athena it will probably be 53/39, first you can’t fit a smaller inner ring than a 39 on the 135bcd, and secondly athena was never released as a compact until they reintroduced it as a 11spd groupo.

I stand corrected – it is Athena 53/39. The stamped “39” on the inner ring was a bit manky and I misread as 33 😳

If it is Athena it will probably be 53/39, first you can’t fit a smaller inner ring than a 39 on the 135bcd, and secondly athena was never released as a compact until they reintroduced it as a 11spd groupo.

I stand corrected – it is Athena 53/39. The stamped “39” on the inner ring was a bit manky and I misread as 33 😳

The rear block is different than I remembered as well. 13-23

So my lowest climbing ratio is even higher than I previously thought 😯

Didn’t “get” mountain bikes when they first came out – slow, heavy and expensive… and nowhere to ride them off road (well in Cornwall there wasnt)

Mainly into outdoor sports – hiking, shooting, boats

Enjoyed riding road bikes – but strongly dislike rules, clubs and organisation

Almost all road riding at that time was centred on clubs (may still be for all I know)

GF wanted to ride, so we decided to get a Gary Fisher Tassajarra. Fit was good for her on-road, and good for me off-road. Within a few years we’d both upgraded to Marin FRS sussers 😀

Why still mtb? – it’s down to the do your own thing ethos. As soon as someone starts telling me what I should be doing, or that it needs to be Wednesday nights, with Jo Bloogs and john Smith, I loose interest

Tax implications as well, if payments not properly “wholly and necessarily”* incurred on work

* or whatever the wording is / was

Flag it up immediately

Saw that A400M at Fairford a few years ago. Very impressive for a fat biffa

You’re either wearing the wrong goggles or not riding/ski-ing hard enough!

Not sure about that – almost opposite I’d say. I tend to ski the same as riding – until my heart and lungs can’t keep up with my legs. Almost always get very, very hot when skiing.

Coldest I’ve skiied at was -40C at the top of Punta Helbronner – that was a bit nippy and the goggles were much appreciated. But most of the time I find goggles are just too hot. I almost always carry them in case the weather turns.

Anyway – back to mtb.

Nobody tried the fast jackets?

We are riding to raise money for Ty Hafan in September – childrens’ hospice in Cardiff.

Ty Hafan[/url]

skis + helmet + sunnies = fail…

Don’t listen to the fashion police. Goggles are awful for spring skiing if the weather is nice

Yes, it is a big jump, but the rear ratios are quite close.

The bike was built 15+ years ago, when I was living in Exeter. Most of my rides were long flat sections in the Exe valley with shorter steeper links across into adjacent valleys (eg Exeter – Bickleigh – Crediton – Exeter) IIRC the thinking was to have high ratios for the valley sections and then quite a lot lower chainring for the steeper bits. It was an off the shelf chainset though…

Re the cassette, might have lost count on the big sprocket – might be a 24 😉

I think its 11-22 and 53-33 at the moment.

Chainset is a very nice Campag Athena which suits the look of the bike. Rear end and shifters etc are all Shimano 105

Sunglasses for skiing = Risers + bar-ends…

Was quite partial to risers and bar ends – back in the day. Nice variety of grip positions, particularly as where I lived at the time included lots of on-road links 😉

Anyhow – back to the skiing…

I really do not see the point in wearing gogs unless the weather is grotty, even with a helmet.

and goggles on the terrace at lunchtime = fail

Fast estates – what’s not to like

SmurfMat – and his 330d touring 😉

By road – 22km, normally about 50 mins
Off-road – 20km, 55-60 mins

90kg rider weight, about 300m climbing

Thinking about it, even without a new wheel, 8 to 9 would need too much new kit – cassette, chainset, sti levers etc

(excuse for new bike 😉 )

Might see if I have a spare 8sp mtb cassette and see if that fits.

The alternative – get used to honking the bike up the steep local climbs

48 minute commute today – estimated at 540 cals using Garmin 500 (the figure I have used) and 780 cals using MFP (ignored)

But at it’s simplest, power = work done / time

All of those other factors – gradient, wind resistance etc would influence the amount of rider effort, and be reflected in the rider’s heart rate?

ETA, getting OT…
Some exercises MFP seems to over-estimate calories, others it seems to under-estimate. Anything with a HRM input would be a better estimate, but again, provided the inputs are properly set up

Ta

Surely:

To be accurate they’d need heart rate, gradient, bike & cargo weight, rolling resistance (muddy path vs smoooth tarmac) etc etc

plus rider weight and duration?

Surely, all the other factors are accounted for by changes in heart rate???

ETA – rider weight makes a huge difference to calorie estimates, even with (esp with?) a HRM.

As my weight has dropped, my estimated calorie burn has really dropped away.

In the gym 15min cardio at 140-150 bpm gave estimated 300 kal burn at 95 kg. Same at a revised 90kg gives about 270-280 cals

Don’t bother if < hour

Never a big fan of the MkV, I thought the quality feel took a turn for the worse, over a Mk4

Really?
IMHO MkV GTi is a really nice car. Was disappointed when the MkVI came out TBH, but it has grown on me. Traditional wisdom says that MkIII and Mk IV were the let downs in the series…

Owned a MkV GTi, very, very nice car. Suitable for pretty much anything. Not too posh for the supermarket / school run, wouldn’t look out of place in the car park of a swish country house hotel. Polished, accomplished, refined.

Only “problem”, was that the “fun” part of the tacho was almost always above the legal speed limit.

That’s were our current Abarth 500 trumps the Golf time and time again. It is an absolute hoot to drive at any speed.

Ouch – not cheap, but much better than the unit flipping off the bars…

tonyg – any issues with data continuity?

Just seen this story http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/olympics/18977404 – now I really don’t give a stuff about most of the opening ceremony, but please no.

Really, Beckham, what a travesty.

Like I said, Liz.

Why bother with the upkeep of a ceremonial family, and then not use them for ceremonies?

Me too set at sedentary even though I am not sat at a desk ever. (carpet fitter)
allows me 1370 cals plus any winnings from exercise.

Blwdy hell – how come it sets such a low estimate? Is your goal date set for very close in the future, or weekly loss set above 1 lb per week?

And don’t forget that you use calories just sitting around, so the number of ‘extra’ calories you burn through exercise is going to be less than the number of calories quoted by this kind of app.

That’s kind of the point I was making above…

Unles doing hard physical work, set your personal settings to “sedentary”. That way, the app calcs a low cal burn for “just sitting around”, and the cals burnt doing exercise (or eaten to fuel exercise) are outside of the general baseline intake / cal burn.

FWIW I started off at 15st, set to 1 lb per week loss, sedentary job, estimated a daily allowance of 1890 kcals.

For additional cal burn through exercise I tend to adjust the MFP estimates by using my own kcal estimate from the bike computer or gym eqpt.

All of the estimates (and they ARE estimates) seem to have balanced out fairly well.

Been using since beginning of May and have lost about 1 stone, and at a fairly consistent rate.

I think it is very important to set your personal data very honestly. Mine is set as “sedentary”. TBH, unless engaged in manual work, the old 2,500 kcals per day for men is OTT.

What daily allowance does MFP give?

Ski Sunday as a format – bit of competitive round up, some leisure / recreational, some techniques, all in a lightweight magazine type show.

Has to be the audience – just a matter of connecting with them

Haven’t been to that part of Brittany.

Further south around Quimper, Carnac, La Trinite sur Mer is nice – possibly not as spectacular coastline???

Further south again (in the old Departement of south Brittany) Pornic is worth a visit, as is Ile de Normoutier

Giulietta QV…? supposedly quite civilised on the motorway, if not the best on the twisties.

For smaller and more fun – try an Abarth 500. More fun than the Golf GTi, by a long, long, long way

I look forward to seeing you in the lead group at the Olympics road race, powering up it in the big ring on the 8th lap.

No, you’re mistaken, not me 😉

It’s a road race, it can all be on the flat as far as I’m concerned. Just surprised with the way it was being pitched on the show… 🙄

Ohh,

and what’s with the Box Hill place? Are they seriously calling that a road “climb”, flippin heck, I know we have taken the proverbial about the Essex “mountains” for the mtb, but that was hilarious….

I know they had to keep it light hearted, brief and were sort of aiming for a kind of Top Gear/5th Gear/Gadget-ish type show but with bikes vibe

Interesting observation. Gadget show actually do cycling stuff with real passion and display pretty good levels of fiutness and cycling geekery – but pull it off in an entertaining manner.

Ideal presenter combo???

Jason Bradbury* for cheery eccentric geekery
Chris Boardman for stoi, grounded, cycling gravitas…

* and no, don’t suggest pollyanna whats er face

Liz?

De Rosa R838 Athena 2012

Only prob is that they all come up a small sizes

Doh! – I did say clueless…..

So, a 54cm is quite large….

I’ve been wondering why I can’t find any 59-60cm versions

Anyone tried one of these?

De Rosa R838 Athena 2012

Only prob is that they all come up a small sizes 🙁

That ‘Dale looks nicely proportioned. Not keen on the lime green and white paint job though. Do Canondale do road bikes in the gorgeous blue colour that they used to use on their top end race hardtails?

Good ime, but that may not be a warranty issue.

Hmmmm

I do hope so. I expect more than one event from a pair of forks….

That Lapierre looks good. Quite long – makes the proportions look right