A warm welcome to the 20th Century

Keep up at the back there we're in the 21st Century now! 🙂

I "filed" some old Record Pedals (clips and straps) a few weeks ago as I was never going to use them and I couldn't give them away. They'd have been nice on that.

While we are talking about old TdeF things. I was round my folk's house yesterday and I grabbed the Sunday paper (Indy I think) for a quick read. There was this small section about a rider in the 1913 Tour who broke his handlebars on the Col de Tourmalet. Under the rules you were responsible for your own repairs and no outside help was allowed so he walked 10km down to the nearest blacksmith and repaired the handlebars himself. He carried on to finish the stage only to be penalised by 10 minutes because the blacksmith's daughter had worked the bellows on the forge! Bonkers!

Keep 'em coming, livened up my Friday morning nicely. 🙂

A second post-mortem will be carried out on Moat today to see if a police Taser could have made him shoot himself involuntarily.

Who cares?

You know, I really hate people who have a Pegasus…. I turn green with envy every time and my wallet gets twitchy. 😉

My Swift is in 1×9 configuration at present and I had all sorts of trouble with the chain dropping and jamming in the chain device. Easy fix with a SS chainring, it stays put all the time now!

There are only two mtbs I have never regretted buying, one is my SC Superlight and the other my Swift. Cracking bikes and they all look ace!

Wasn't there one called The Purgatory a few years back?

sorry Poppa – 6ft 4ins

I don't think we are the target market for Flake really… I thought it was all about selling it to girlies who get off on chocolate a lot more than blokes… or so I am told. Adverts selling fantasy, wish fulfilment etc with a nod to blokes watching women doing suggestive stuff to keep them interested but sell them chocolate? Nah.

I got a Boardman Team Carbon which I think has similar geometry to the Team. Great bike, handles well, good groupset for the money and it is fast.

Niggles…. bar tape too thin, Bars too narrow for me (not an unusual problem). Easy things to remedy and not unusual on an off the peg bike.

When I trundle along and do the odd TT with the local road club they spend more time looking at my bike than all the Colnagos and Pinarellos which are 10 a penny. They just can't believe what you get for £ik.

Having said that, it is a great bike but if it doesn't fit you it'll be pants.

Size wise I ride the XL.

tomato custard… hmmmm yuk!

More of a rhetorical question really but hey! 🙂

So why couldn't I find that ? 😳

Local builders merchants…. done that , been there.

I like London… just where it is.I only go there under duress but there again, I find Cambridge a bit too big and busy so I have got no hope!

( Moves stalk of grass from one side of mouth to the other)

No, it is home contents insurance (sorry for late reply Admiralable.)

I was out for a ride with a guy who had just taken delivery of a nee Planet X. OK it was over £1k cos he had specced sexy wheels and an upgraded groupset but it looked the dog's nads. It was light, and it was fast and had I not bought a new road bike last year I would be sorely tempted.

LOLs at users of uncalibrated torque wrenches…

Generating angst for a whole new bunch of cyclists! 🙂

Thanks…. I don't pay much attention to the calorie counting anyway but I always wondered what it was!

have you tried parking on motorway bridges and quietly talking to yourself,

😛

Insurance company. A client has asked and I don't know how to advise him.

It seems he had the misfortune to be caught with some weed in the 1980s. Street value was apparently about 2p so the magistrate gave him a conditional discharge and told him not to be naughty again!!!!

Are you going to recommend Minty Arse Lard as a lube?

hora, you are a braver man than !. This man deserves a medal!!!!

They were using lots of Muse tracks but I don't know without listening tonight if it is what you are referring to.

If its for general riding SLX, if racing XT or XTR

This is often said but how is plus or minus 40g going to impact on your racing ability? One muddy section and it won't matter if you are running XTR or Deore (from a weight POV).

Given that most of us are going to be also rans in any race we enter, weight is largely irrelevant. If there were other aspects such as poor shifting, fragile chainrings etc then I'd be inclined to agree. If, everything else being equal) there is little operational/functional difference between the two then it all becomes subjective… surely.

When I was a few years younger than I am now (ahem) I had my eyes well and truly opened when I went out for a ride with a guy who had been offered a ride with Cannondale Volvo (GB). I had my blinged out XC bike, XT, XTR all over it, sexy wheels, super lightweight tyres the works. It was a bit muddy and sloppy but nothing too bad. He turned upp on a £150 Univega with slicks on it. It was his uncle's bike and he had just come back for the weekend (with his riding kit, shoes and a pair of pedals.) Anyway, my race head buddies and I went out full of confidence htat we would make a good show up against the elite rider.

Sadly, we didn't see much of him, had it been dusty we would have been eating his dust all day. He would wait at the end of the singletrack while we were red lining it, then cruise along the fire roads at (our) TT pace. Anyway, after a few hours of torture he got distracted by a pit full of jump bikes. He then proceeded to show them up too. (Don't get me wrong, he wasn't showing off – he was just several classes above everyone else… and a really nice bloke with it.)

My point being, he showed me quite graphically, that it is the man/woman on the bike not the bike or its equipment.

If we want XT or XTR or whatever, that is up to us but ,functionally, why pay more for the bling bits?

Revolver Soul – Alabama 3!

Which XTR is it? What is wrong with it?

Mr P

It is an Octalink HT1 – I need to replace the BB and chainrings. The BB will cost me £55 and the rings maybe 25 to 40 each. The SLX comes in cheaper and I'll have a choice of bearings when the Shimano ones die.

I can't seem to get much life out of the BBs. If I am lucky I'll get 1,000 miles out of one but in reality I'm changing BB twice a year.

That's what I don't get about these so called 4x4s. They look like off road cars (almost, if you squint into the sun and through the corner of your eye), then they put low profile tyres on them.

I was following one big mother of a 4×4 after a winter ride when it came to a sudden halt, blocking the road. I got out after a bit and went to see what was up. There was a large puddle in the road and the poor dear in it wasn't sure she could get through. It must have been all of 3 or 4 inches deep so I can see why she was worried!

I persuaded her it would be fine and she crawled through. (BTW we are talking Suffolk here…. no chance of big floods which would swallow a bus, or even a mini) so I wasn't being too careless with her truck/car thing.

Nothing wrong with the cars in principle, just some of the numpties that drive them!

If he had booted it out of the bus surely his lid would have zipped out like a scalded cat instead of tumbling? At the end of the day who cares? As others have said, if you haven't got that desire to win you are just going to be an also ran.

FWIW (and it ain't worth a lot) I am officially not insulted, disappointed or even mildly peeved that he was upset.

Why is no one talking about how well Geraint Thomas is doing instead?

Sky seem to be doing ok so far.

I ended up with the SLX. Just took delivery today and it looks fine.

Time to take the old XTR one off and decide what to do with it.

No pix on this thread yet but I'd have said a Galaxy from your description.

Just a thought chaps.

When I was studying Eng Lit my lecturer commented of Thomas Hardy "He treats his characters like ants in a nest, he pokes them with a stick, sees how they react, occasionally gives them another prod if it all looks like it is getting dull, stands back and repeats until he has had enough". Well, the OP has had very little stirring to do here, he made a comment almost custom designed to get STW folk going and then, when it started to slow down, gave it another little nudge and now he is on his third page!

Have you all been had (in a manner of speaking?)

They could put up signs, camo netting and all sorts…. Achtung Dogging!! with a skull and crossbones! If you ventured further then if you got an eyeful that's your problem! 😯

Guys, didn't the OP say he wanted bookshelf speakers ideally?

I love the sound of Celestions but I'm not sure those ones would fit on a bookshelf!

IIRC the speakers Denon sell with their all in one jobby – radio, cd (can't think of numbers sorry) come with rebadged Missions. They would fit a bookshelf, sound reasonable and should be within budget.

Many years ago, when I was much younger and fitter, I was struggling to continue playing rugby following a series of head injuries (I kept waking up in hospital or at the side of the pitch) so I decided a gentler form of recreation was in order. At one time I was quite useful in goal so I popped along to the local footie club (in one of the lower leagues – I have no idea what it would be called now). I approached the coach, explained that I wanted to keep fit etc, told him about my injuries and asked whether I could join in their training sessions. He said I could join in straight away but they were moving into a phase of training that had been adopted from the (then) first division clubs and it might be a bit tough. I could join in but no one would worry if I couldn't keep up.

The "boys" were kicking balls about in a random sort of fashion so I went to get changed and ran out onto the pitch just in time to start. We ran around the pitch a few times, did a few sprints, stretches, press ups etc (not necessarily in that order) and 20 minutes later it was over. We then moved on to a quick game which was obviously a skills session and that was it. I wasn't even warmed up. I thought it may have been a gentle session to prepare for a much tougher regime but it wasn't.

I simply went back to training with the rugby club in the end.

While that may have little reflection on what they do today in the premiership etc, I guess a fair amount of gym time is involved. Maybe playing a lot of games makes you fit enough after all, don't people say the best way to prepare for (bike) races is to race?

I was rather implying that countryfolk* of either persuasion were partial to it…

Sweeping generalisation methinks! 🙂

I suppose the urban comparison is cruising pet shops on the off chance a hamster wants a quick shag! 😉

BB probably hasn't replied cos he's working in China atm and he's probably been censored by Google!

I'm with tron really, if people want to shag complete strangers that's up to them but keep it to yourselves.

Oh I know you city types are more permissive and all that but it is quite unpleasant.

What's it like in China Senor Bandito?

My sister was made redundant a little while ago. She edited a magazine which was making money but they decided it was time to make some cuts… and she was one of them. A far less experienced and therefore cheaper person to employ, was "promoted" in her place… and then went straight onto maternity leave. She didn't even sit down at her desk for one day! Anyway, she (big sis) went for an interview at the Job Centre the other day, to be told by a young girl that her job skills as an editor were transferrable and she had a job for her as an assistant cleaner at a bookies. When asked how 30 years in journalism exactly qualified her for this post the girl broke down in tears. The stress of the job apparently. Anyway, the offer was politely declined and I think she is starting a new business. No idea what the girl at the job centre is up to.

One way or another, it must be tough for everyone waiting to find out if they have a job or not. Fingers crossed guys. I'd say treat it as an opportunity but it isn't really is it? 🙁

Gave up in 1984! 🙂

I hate the way (when you are out on your road bike) you can smell smoker's cars as they pass.

(There you are, got road riding and anti smoking into one sentence!) 😉

There should be a function on your gps to save rides in History under training (I think) then they appear in courses. It is a bit difficult without my Garmin in front of me but I'm sure someone else will be along soon to help.

🙂