I was in the first wave – 6am. Started pretty fast and was maintaining a 24mph average up until the half way point. Kind of knew I was pushing it a little, but counted on the tailwind on the return leg to help me along.

That proved to be a mistake as the return leg also seemed to be a headwind and full of false flats and undulating climbs. Was fine in the groups on the flats and downhills but by mile 70 I found it more and more difficult to maintain any speed on the “climbs”. 5 miles later I was just dropping out of the back of the groups.

Ended up doing the last 15 miles completely solo – legs had gone and didn’t even attempt to jump into some of the groups that passed me. Finished in 4:35 in the end (which was only 8 minutes slower than my best Surrey time), so maybe I shouldn’t have been beating myself up too much.

Didn’t really enjoy the route – felt Surrey is a lot better – much better scenery and a much better approach into London at the end.

And as for the hairpins on the route? WTF?

Thanks for the response. Actually meant to update this post for info.

Tried calling again yesterday morning and Darren answered. Looks like they have some technical issues with receiving emails in particular.

The delay is with receiving the tyres I ordered with the wheels – the new GP5000s are arriving slowly apparently.

Should ship next week – and yes, they are flat out busy!

I have an aquaracer on a late bond nato. It looks far better than the metal strap it came with originally.

Account -> Preferences -> Fancy Editor

Thanks!

Ah, thanks – I’ll take a look.

In my pic posting frustration I ommitted the watch detail. 1977 Seiko Panda. Managed to find one in great condition and with original seiko parts. I have the seiko strap as well, but am allergic to metal watch straps so the Nato is on for now (which i think works well – better than the original metal strap to be honest). I also have a nice dark brown leather from finwatchstraps on the way.

Should be a nice investment – have always regretted hovering over the Buy It Now button with one of these around 5 years ago, before the prices started going crazy.

Website crashed! OK, take two…

I miss the ‘preview’ button…

Always useless at posting pictures on here, so bear with me.

I’ve found myself buying a few n+1s over lockdown. This turned up today…

Ah, imgur have stopped supplying the direct link. Will update in a bit.

Maybe I’m just sensitive as a dog owner, but when I read these threads I always imagine the stw reaction if the populace on here were to stumble on a cyclist thread full of these stereo types and generalisations on a dog walking forum, or mumsnet.

Yes, it’s shit that there are bad experiences, but some of you need to re-read your posts before clicking ‘submit’.

I get pretty decent results from my charcoal webber and pizza stone.

Thanks everyone. From the video and the descriptions I worked out that the 13 pin plug was mis-aligned, so had to take the outer bit off. Lots of faffing and the adapter seems to be on now. Think it’s all good – will try putting it on the car tomorrow.

I hate posting pics on here. I think they’re working now!

Watched up until the bit where the fat guy was saying “what’s the difference between this and a pushbike” before accelerating to over 20mph without pedalling.

Complete bell-ends.

Thanks everyone. After lots of thinking I went for the Buzzrack Eazzy 3. I bought an Abus Iven 8210 with the savings for a little extra piece of mind should we have to stop on a long journey and the car can’t be in plain sight for a little extra piece of mind.

Tempted by the Buzzrack Eazzy 3. My only doubts about it are:

I see the frame is attached using a ratchet strap rather than a clamp – is there a greater risk of the frame getting scratched and marked with that type?

Security – it seems to rely on a steel cable that can be locked on? I’m obviously not going to leave the bikes on there indefinitely, but I’m thinking of service stations, car parks etc. I would think that a steel cable would be fairly easy to get through?

Thanks everyone. Loads of options and advice there. Time to do yet more research.

Been riding ultegra disks for the best part of 4 years on my road bike. I’ve experienced a lot less rubbing on that than on my mtbs.

@shooterman – sorry to hear that – it’s not a nice experience.
From my perspective, it really was mostly in my head. I was actually performing very well, but had convinced myself it wasn’t the case. I also suffered with memory issues – I’d go into town or to the supermarket and then not remember why – it is obvious now that I was in shock, but things like that added to my insecurity.
Good luck with it – and look to counselling if possible.

I started a new job soon after my brother’s suicide in 2018.
I suffered with crippling anxiety and real imposter syndrome. Was sure I wasn’t pulling my weight and felt out of my depth.
Took me a while to get through it.

Dog owners are like parents. They think their little pooch is not being a problem to anyone, when in fact it’s making other people have to stop, move, slow down and in many cases make people fearful that they might get bitten.

I’d say that dog owners have the same blind spots as parents do.

Bloody cyclists eh? Jumping red lights, riding on the pavements, always making sweeping statements, stereo typing groups of people…

The things I have learned on here so far:

The only mtb trails in the uk are in trail centres

Taking a dog out with you on a bike is a fashion statement.

The uk ground is too hard for a dog’s paws and making it run on this near tarmac like surface is actually cruel.

Mountain bikers have neck problems and would be unable to tell if their dog had stopped for a dump on the trail. As a result, dog poo is a common obstacle on trails – like tree roots and rocks used to be once.

A dog is only necessary if used to protect you from a bear. But riding a bike in bear territory it’s absolutely necessary and fine to do.

I really do feel I’ve stumbled into some parallel universe daily mail comments page.

Is this thread specifically about trail centres? The OP didn’t mention centres, yet all the anti dog brigade seem obsessed with them?

Not all mtb trails are at centres!

I don’t think your horse would fit through those little gates you often get at trail centres.

Can’t disagree with any of that

I wouldn’t want a dog of mine running for the amount of time I usually ride on the kind of terrain I like to ride, I’d imagine it’s pretty hard on their paws and quite cruel.

Surely, you’d adjust your time, speed and terrain for the dog??

We’ve wanted a dog for years, but only recently have our circumstances been so we could adequately manage one. We now have a 3 month old border collie pup. One of the main considerations when it came to breed was one that could be trained to run with my wife and come out on the bike with me. Will be training him towards both these objectives over the next year to 18 months. We wanted a dig with the fitness and intelligence to do this well.

Trail dogs make me happy. If I had doubts about him I wouldn’t do it though – disk brakes and dogs wouldn’t mix well.

Just need the thing to stop trying to herd me everywhere like a sheep 😀

This is hardly a new fad though – I’ve seen people doing this for years over on the Surrey hills.

Ivan – you do know where he learned to ride don’t you? I think he’s probably fairly experienced in how to handle dangerous animals.

“tax fraud” LOL

Thanks all – really helpful

Obviously too late now, but always raise a dispute as soon as you have any issues

Well and truly learned my lesson on that.

I have a fair amount of black gear I wear on the road. All of it, however has reflective trim or decals. As a car driver, I find moving reflective trim more easy to notice in the dark.

As well as lights, obviously.

That looks like the BBT-59.2 simondbarnes mentioned above (but cheaper typically). I bought the BBT-59.2. Thanks anyway.

Thanks simondbarnes – that’s great.

I’m pretty sure I did but did wonder about the way I turned it the first time.

But yes – am definitely turning it the right way now – well I would be if I had a tool or adapter (not made of cheese) that fitted it.

Have just found a video that confirms the Dura Ace are slightly different size to Ultegra/105 (why would they do that???) – the tool I bought will only fit Dura Ace.

We’re halfway through a 2 week break in the south of France. Keeping an eye on the r rate as the uk rules may extend to returning from France soon.

Wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world as we can both work quite happily from home – just tough on the kids.

Ironically we’ve been pretty well isolated here in a private villa, and driving ourselves around.

Masks are obligatory in most shops and are mainly being worn well- only a few are around the chin. Went to Marseillan yesterday though, which seemed to be full of French people who didn’t want to follow any rules.

I have things the wrong way round. My all year round commuter bike (Genesis Equilibrium) has rim brakes – TRP-RG957s. My nice bike, which only really sees the summer months (Canyon ultimate) has disk brakes.

Tbe genesis gets ridden in all conditions – rain, sleet and the small amount of snow we might get in London. The TRPs are actually excellent – so no you don’t NEED disks, but if I was buying a bike, I doubt I’d be looking at rim brakes. Disks are better, they modulate more effectively and make a lot more sense. I’ve had some high speed scares with cars turning across me on the canyon and managed to avoid crashing – I don’t think I would have avoided the crash with rim brakes.

So this is based on abilities, behaviour, technical, strengths and experience?

The kind of things any interviewer would be looking for in any normal job interview, and should have been doing for years now?

Haven’t they just reinvented the wheel? And put it on a wheel shaped diagram?

I have tubeless 5000s on both bikes. My genesis has ksyriums and they are a bitch to fit on there. They will fit on, but you will curse doing it.

Used to have cosmic pros on the other bike and could fit the 5000s with no tools.

The mavic yksion tubeless tyres were also good – and the hutchison (I forget which model) fit well on mavics.

Yeah, TSB confirmed pretty much that. Said it might take a little longer for me to get the cash than normal, but will be fine.

Thanks tony11 – that sounds good. I’ll give TSB a ring and confirm that with them.

Thanks – will look it up

Make sure that Sigma don’t destroy the wheel and offer you crash replacement, if you still want Mavic to examine it.

Had a nightmare with Sigma recently on a Mavic wheel and this happened. To be fair they were ok at resolving once I complained but I had lost the option for Mavic to look at a rim failure that (to my knowledge) had never been knocked and had certainly never had a puncture.