Echo exactly what Higs said. Keep fighting.

And combining both of those, if you're cooking with chilli's, be sure to properly and fully wash your hands before trying to remove your contact lenses.

a) Yes
b) No
c) I live in the wrong country. And I haven't been on a bike for nearly a month and a half (on doctors orders). But mainly because I have a date on Saturday with an attractive young(ish) dentist (first glimmer of romance I've had this year so I ain't missing it. Oh, and she's loaded!)

Robert Smith? added the question mark to his surname to stop people confusing him with Robert Smith, lead singer of The Cure.

Could he not have just called himself "Professor Robert Smith"? Mad.

Like others I have no advice to offer, except that a diagnosis is the first step to working on the cure.

Will be thinking of you.

Not annoying habits:
– feeding me
– cleaning up after me
– wearing few bits of skimpy clothing
– sleeping with me
(We were married)

Annoying habits:
– sleeping with a few others too
(Then we split up)

The question that's bothered me since childhood is how much was that doggy in the window? (You know, the one with the waggly tail.)

Well if nothing else it's just proved that old saying that there's plenty of folks worse off than myself. Best wishes to you all.

So here's to us getting the curable cured and living with what's left behind.

Had blood test yesterday afternoon at doctors surgery. Within two hours he was on the phone telling me to get my butt down to the local A&E where they were now waiting to give me a transfusion.

I told him there was some mistake as I was out on my bike. He said stop, don't exert, I could pass out at any moment. Call a taxi or a friend to collect me and take straight to hospital.

A big thumbs up to all the medic-types for the speed of it all, but if there's sympathy getting spread around, then I'm sure you'd appreaciate how that ruined what should have been a nice, sunny, Friday-afternoon-off-work ride.

OP – if you’re prefering to avoid the trip to the doctor then give the iron/vit c tablets a fortnight to get you back up to where your iron should be.

And also do what mrsflash says, that’s all good stuff there. Liver, if you can eat it, is also very high in iron. And look for ‘fortified’ brekkie cereals. I found Somerfield’s own brand rice crispies had a much higher iron content than Kellog’s.

What the doc can do really quite easily is ensure it is iron-deficiency anemia (there are a few varieties of anemia) and track down and tackle the underlying cause. They’ll also give you sometihng else to help with the usual side-effect of iron tablets – constipation.

Pull down yout lower eyelids and have a peek at the colour inside. They should be red. If they’re pale then it’s a sign of anemia.

Disclaimer: I am not a doctor. I don’t even like them! But when I mentioned my tendency to fall over due to lightheadedness to my sister, this was how she diagnosed me. The inside of my eyelids were white.

When I was looking for a road bike around this price I ended up with one of the Edinburgh Bicycles bikes. It’s an okay bike considerng the price, certainly got me out doing more road miles than I had ever considering doing before. But I did then find a 2nd-hand Trek that was cheaper, better specc’d and lighter.

So, ermmm, yeah, don’t discount 2nd hand.

I think you might want to change r for “How often you tell them how rare/nichey your bike is”.

It’s unlikely they’d know. Or care. And as they don’t care, the more often you tell them then the more annoyed they get.

Oh, and you need to sort out your m and n too.

I did warn you it was a numpty Q. The ponderings sprouted from previous chat on here about using a double rather than a triple-ring setup, claiming you can still get a good useable spread of gears.

I have always been in the habit of always using the middle front ring unless I’m already in the biggest/smallest cog at the back and want another jump. Once past that need, the first gear change is going back to the middle ring. (That may be a weird habit, but it’s been habit for a long time.)

With a double ring, I can imagine myself forever feeling the want to flip the front shifter much more than I do at the moment, halving the cogs at the back between the two rings. That just didn’t sound a similar range of gears, nor a step towards simpler running, to me.

But do you not think the replies make good sense for pants too?

1. Around 7 years.

2. Never. Or a half if we can count pedestrian interactions rather than vehicular ones. A wee old woman stepped off in front of me. Braked to avoid her and both bike and I somersaulted over the bars. I went to A&E the next day to be told that yes, I had dislocated my shoulder.

3. 5. Two ped incidents (the one above, the other was closer to being a case of assault), a bus overtook and pushed me onto the pavement, and the other two were when they pulled out, realised I was going faster than they expected, and stopped right in my path. Both very minor bumps in the end with no damage done. But hey, those new Renault’s are bouncy!

An Australian girl joined the Glasgow company I worked for. Turned out she was bridesmaid for the daughter of the guy who drove my mother to hospital to give birth to me. Probably not a proper dictionary-definition coincidence, but was definitely a weird thing to discover.

Is it too late for me to join in?

Me, on the right.

And as I have no riding ones, these are a (thankfully low-res) look at my post-ride, muddy and bloody legs.

BoardinBob, I saw a silver Rockhopper this morning but that was heading into Glasgow city centre on Eglington Street. Not you?

I’m also Shawlands to city centre, but I just take the direct route. Kilmarnock Road, Pollokshaws Road, Eglington Street, Bridge Street, Hope Street, West George Street. Currently on a rigid hybrid (black de-decaled frame, slick 26″ wheels, flat bar, crud catchers, 1×8). May shortly switch to the green Singlecross. More standard is the attire of black shorts, yellow jacket and orange rucksack.

You’re not alone in being driven mad by them. Lacking any degree of mechanical dexterity or patience I never got the hang of them. It got so bad that it led me to go 1×8, and now I’m even experimenting with singlespeed. It may be the lazy bugger’s way out but it works for me.