Very perceptive padded brain Elf. Although my goal is ambidextrocity.

I'd give my right arm to be ambidextrous.

I seem to remember that the makers of Arthur's catfood really struggled to find a left-handed cat to replace the original Arthur after he died.

He had to eat catfood out of a tin with his paw… Incidently, they ripped his teeth out so he would eat like that!

Not that I'm arsed, I frickin hate cats.

On a similar vein, we discussed some time ago forcing left hookers to do things right handed on a stammering thread – my aunt has a bad stammer as a result of being forced to right with her right hand at school.

So if you're left handed, you should think very hard before trying to play right handed. You might learn to play virtuoso guitar, but you'll sing like Gareth Gates.

Apparently, most polar bears are left handed, so it might be worth asking this question on a polar bear forum.

She started it! 😉

I suspect she's sexually frustrated. It would make perfect sense…

FoxyChick/Angela = The kind of woman who carries a rape alarm purely to boost her own ego.

Oh dear, Angela's on the blob again. 🙄

I wouldn't waste your time. Life's too short to learn to play guitar at the best of times, but you south paws apparently live on average 9 years less than right handed people.

Find a more productive use of your limited time with us.

This is my RoadRat, CXP33s on XT disc hubs, mini monos, Dura-Ace mechs, FSA Carbon cranks, post and stem, Bonty flat carbon bars with Spesh carbon barends. The Spesh Toupé has been replaced with a Charge Spoon.
Lovely bike.

I've got ham but I'm… Not a hamster…

Watch your back Flowers, there's a new wordsmith on the block. ;o)

Follow up: The Drac/Oliver method gets a big thumbs up from me. Absolutely delish… I'll definitely be doing them again…

Water that lawn, weed and jetwash the patio and me might be in a position to talk.

(lovely looking piece by the way)

I'm thinking Pinot Noir or Cabernet Sauvignon… I'll test ride both tonight and bring the one that doesn't give me a headache tomorrow…

Great advice BigDummy! :o)

You also missed making a post for no other reason than to bestow your approval upon another forum member's advice or experiences.

Is this fame or infamy?

Infamy. In a Kenneth Williams style.

This looks like the perfect opportunity to roll out a ridiculously smutty pun based on Bristolbiker's "three-shanks-on-a-bed-of-mash"…

:o#

What time do you want me Tinker? I'll pick up a nice red… ;o)

Right, they're slowly braising in a Jamie Oliver/Drac-inspired sauce of apple juice, raisins and tomatoes with chilli and paprika.

Roll on 7 o'clock!

:o)

That one looks awesome Drac!!! Cheers…

Apology accepted. You're still an idiot though. ;o)

Jamie Oliver does a similar version with butter and white wine. It's good, but I'm after that really sweet sticky sauce that you get in gastro pubs – I'm thinking chopped tomatoes, red wine, brown sugar and balsamic.

Might just have to freestyle it… ;o)

he's one of the only people on here who will apologise AND admit he's wrong.

I'd be delight to… Except I'm never wrong. I thought I was once but I was just mistaken. 😉

You've got it very wrong, you idiot.

Racist?

I liken this forum to a pub: There are the regular stalwarts propping up the bar; less regular but familiar faces, like myself; and transient drifters that come and go.

The analogy continues when it comes to how one interacts with other people on here. An outright insult will result in a metaphorical bloody nose, whilst most banter is taken in the way it's intended – particularly by the regulars who know what to expect and dish it back out in spades.

However, the proverbial 'fly in the woodpile' is TandemJermey. Because frankly, his sort wouldn't last five minutes in a pub! If he did, he'd be the odious boor sitting by the glass collection point so he could preach his drivel at the bar staff and others not priveleged enough to be able to tell him to **** off.

Perhaps this explains why he has so much time to spend on here.

druidh – Member
Ooh shibboleth you are such a he-man. Can I have your autograph?

Of course you can Dullard. I might add that it was accidental, I didn't mean to break it, but 1970s British engineering had other ideas.

I'm with Twinklydave, having recently started taking the girlfriend out on road rides, I'm appalled at how many motorists deliberately buzz us.

I'm an experienced roadie, so I tend to ride quite considerately when alone, but I appreciate that an inexperienced cyclist like my other half might slow cars down too much, but risking hitting her is disgraceful. So I now ride in a defensive position behind her and in the middle of the carriageway forcing cars to wait until it is absolutely safe before they can pass.

I need 8 hrs a day… And another 7 at night.

(IGMC)

I got buzzed by a chap in a Landrover twice. First time on a wide open road so I knew he'd done it for sport, and I gestured that the cause of his myopia might be masturbation-related. I was tempted to do something when I saw him parked up outside a chippy but I rode on.

Then he did it again further up the road. I caught up with him stuck in a long line of traffic at lights, and after a bit of mental arithmetic to check he'd be there for long enough, I rode up the inside and batted his mirror.

The whole thing smashed! Does this mean I get 7 years bad luck? It was worth it to see him standing on the bonnet of his Landy screaming at me!

You upset someone who posted on here about being upset.

Quelle surprise. He does have a tendency to wield his pop psychological advice in a way reminiscent of an Afghan child who's mischievously picked up his father's rocket-propelled grenade launcher.

Hmmm… Tyres or tubs for a horse in the Pyrenees?

If the horse isn't absolutely bomb-proof, it should never be anywhere near a public road!

I have this arguement with my old man who drives carriage horses. He claims that horses have a 'common law right' to use roads, but having seen the damage they can do when they spook, I think they should be illegal.

He had one horse that would go apeshit whenever it saw an umbrella, even if it was 200 yards away! Another always tried to jump over 'SLOW' sings on the road. And he had another that dropped dead and blocked a busy main road for 3 hours while they tried to shift the bloody thing!

I tell ya, don't get me started. Ban the lot. They moan about us using roads and paths "as a race track", at least I'm 100% in control of my bike – it doesn't have a mind of it's own and do random things whenever it sees a crisp packet on the flippin floor!

TCR is Giant's name for compact geometry. It was a pretty new concept in 98 and is still very much en vogue.
The old TCR2s had some pretty dated standards on them – square taper BBs etc, but the frame geometry is fine.

There's been plenty of development in components though – entry level 10speed groups and wheelsets are amazing in comparison to even middle range stuff from 10 years ago.

I think they're a different cleat… Why not just try using Time MTB pedals on the road bike? I know a lot of people that use MTB Spuds because they prefer the 2-sided design, and I've used egg beaters on my commuter roadbike so I can wear a trainer style shoe.

There are no hard and fast rules, but if you want to get a bit more into road biking, you'd notice a big difference when you step up to a road-specific rigid shoe and wide-platform road pedals.

Edit – most road shoes have fitting holes for a 2-point mtb style cleat but MTB shoes don't accomodate the 3-point standard for roady cleats.

Road pedals tend ot be single sided, lighter and have a far more positive action. They can be a bit trickier to get in and out of, but you don't need to do it as often.

A lot of people use MTB style pedals on roadbikes though, especially for touring etc where the smaller cleats make walking easier.

I do find road pedals tend to give a much more stable, rigid pedalling platform though.

roadie_in_denial – Member
Low maintenance…get a single speed. Road components are manufactured to be light rather than long-lasting so if you want to get away with minimal maintenance, single speed is the way to go. Or hub gears perhaps, depending on what kind of road bike you're looking at. That said, there are some products around that are harder-wearing than most road bits…Stronglight HardCoat chainrings for example.

This is rubbish. I've never worn chainrings out on a roadbike, and sprockets wear far less that mtb sprockets due to lack of mud. Add to that that you're far less likely to crash a road bike, so once set up properly, road bikes are virtually zero maintenance other than cleaning and lubing.

Most of my road bike components become obsolete before they wear out, and they get pleny of miles.

All the brands you mention are worth looking at, my only advice would be to go carbon. The difference in terms of comfort and lateral stifness over alternatives is unbelievable. I'd never go back to ally or steel.

Get a geared bike, and if you want to t**t about with single speed, just don't change gears. The beauty of this approach is that you'll have 20 different ratios to choose from should the first one be inappropriate. Which it will… 95% of the time.

With a geared singlespeed bike, you can change your singlespeed while you're actually riding, so you can choose a lower gear to climb hills, or vice versa, without having to swap sprockets or chainrings in the workshop. With a bit of practice, you'll be changing ratios several times a ride!

Seriously, riding a roadbike is more about pedalling rythm. Gears allow you to pedal at a comfortable cadence which makes you quicker, more efficient and you'll enjoy it more. And before any niche-knobs say "oooh, I'm leave professional cyclists to eat my dust on my luddite machine", have you ever seen a single speed used on Le Tour? No.

So to summarise, stop being an attention seeker, grow up and buy a bike with gears.

;o)

Just go with it Jon, honestly, it's fine… Nothing to be ashamed of… Embrace the Sayer!

Do you think you can get past it? Will you always be listening out for her saying another guy's name when you're making love? Will you be able to put it out of your mind that she might be thinking about someone else?

Sorry to put it in such blunt terms, but unless you can hand-on-heart say you can put it behind you, you're gonna have to move on.

Be careful of that amazing heart-break sex. It's a sure fire way to cloud your judgement.

If you are going to sort this out, I'd suggest a bit of time apart so you can both get your heads straight – it's too easy to just drift back into life as it was prior to this incident without addressing the issues and causes.

TandemJeremy – Member
I'm rudefred!

Nah, paddedfred was never that much of a ****.