Like it. Might even do the same…

I gave him some tips* when I saw him at the Dauphine and he was fine there, I’m still waiting for the call from Team Sky.

* We yelled “BIG RING IT TO MORZINE!!!!” when we saw him crest the Joux Plan. He followed that advice and he did very well.

http://www.bigringriding.com has plenty

I recognise a lot of those above from there, but no-one seems to give the link :-/

Three worked a few weeks ago when Fi and I were there – indoors and out. We were just in town centre, didn’t go out to Nevis Range.

The cafe above Nevissport has free wifi too.

French autoroute speed limit is enforced with little or no margin. Have set them off at less than (indicated) 10km over limit. But they don’t pursue uk plates, it seems. I am not sure I would have wanted to actually be stopped in the last car as five trips racked up a few…

The fixed cameras are well signposted with a big radar picture, reminder (“rappel”) and speed limit signs. The mobile ones less obvious. Set up on a tripod or even attached to the boot lid of a gendarme car.

Oh and beware Belgians.

Just found this wirh a search – any knee based progress gents?

I had first go on a static bike this week after over three months of inaction, I had a bit of a tumble on ice in Feb and snapped my patellar tendon. Pop. Ow. ****. The full job – mountain rescue and ambulance, gas and air, A&E.

Diagnosed straight away by x-ray (even I could see my patella shouldn’t be half way up my femur) and operated on the following morning. Reasonably well into rehab now but it’s been a slow process to get movement and strength back. Basically learning to move a leg and working up to learnkng to walk again. I have a new respect for toddlers.

Hoping to get some decent static bike stuff over the next fortnight and aiming to be on a real one by end of May.

C1 to the Alps? For real? Can you even fit a bike in one???

You can now get a telepeage thing from here:

https://www.saneftolling.co.uk/

Of course she is, but I’m almost certainly more annoying more often.

hels – Member

Livingston is a hell on earth with tons of cheap identikit housing. I worked there for 6 months once, terrible place. Far too many roundabouts for a start. No high street, a shopping mall with a council benefits office. Most people that live there are either living off the state or employed by it. And the car park at ASDA was rammed full on a tuesday lunchtime once when I (er literally) looked down on it from the building next door. Not a good sign.

Yep, it does have its downsides but “Hell On Earth” is a bit strong! The north side of Livi has better train service, the south side is nicer IMO. The centre is pretty mingling but we do have a Pizza Express (albeit in the shopping centre). :-)

I’m not sure I would want to live much further out for a daily commute into Edinburgh city centre; IMO 30 mins actually on the train is about a reasonable limit as by the time you get too and from stations at each end you can easily double that. Also remember rush hour commute can easily be double a “normal” driving time. And Scotrail are a bit of a shambles for commuter trains – usually once a week something will go wrong on our line with long delays or cancellations.

giant_scum – Member
As much as it pains me to say this, how about South Livingston (Muiriston area), Mid Calder, East Calder.
I live in Bathgate loads of houses for sale out our way mostly in the Wester Inch area, builders still building new houses and undercutting people selling elsewhere on the estate!
Torphichen is a really good place to live but trying to get a house there nigh on impossible.

Good luck and no matter where you move to the good biking places are never far that far away.

Yes, south side of Livi isn’t too bad. It’s devoid of soul or any “centre” but it has its compensations. The biking from the door is good (both road and offroad), public transport into Edinburgh is OK (though there are big gaps in the evening on the train) and it is pretty cheap. If you get to the stage of serious looking drop me an email if you want to know anything specific.

Usually get about 40-45 on mine without bikes, about 35 with 2 bikes on roof. And that’s with driving a bit slower. (Passat TDi 170)

Saw Charles and Camilla near Loch Muick a while back.

Friends interrupted the Duke of Edinburgh’s shooting party on Lochnagar,

Yep, fine ( Scandal 29er).

Spanish night tonight here. Some Rias Baxias Albariño (Burgans, from Oddbins before they went pop).

Then a bottle of Marques de la Contraviessa CabSauv (a holiday wine, but pretty good in its own right – from the mountains below the Sierra Nevada).

Then a tiny glass of Noë Pedro Ximinez sherry for the digestion. From Majestic, if your local still has any left – they only stock it occasionally.

I love wine almost as much as I love bikes. FACT

I haven’t binned any of mine. 1 to 71 in a big pile on the bookcase, 72 not finished yet.

Who was that hoarder bloke from Life Of Grime?

As others have said, doubt you will get 3 bikes in any car with seats up, let alone all the other stuff…Mondeo is clearly bigger in absolute space and useful space than A6.

Went to measure up some cars last weekend – might be useful to you

Audi A4 (11 plate so current model; the previous one is much, much smaller)
– boot floor with seats up – 97 wide by 103 deep by 70 high; full height 55cm forward from sill
– seats down 170 long by max 120ish wide between doors; height at least 70 for most of length, seats don’t go completely flat

Audi A6 (this was an 11 plate so the very last of the previous shape)
– Boot floor area with seats up – 104 wide by 114 deep; height approx 70; full height starts 40 forward from boot sill.
– seats down 180 sill to end of seat backs; max width approx 130; seats don’t fold completely flat, height approx 70 for full length of boot

Mondeo (brand new car)
– seats down boot floor basically a rectangle 175 long by 110 wide by 80 high
– didn’t measure width between doors on Mondeo, nor length of boot with seats up
– seats go completely flat, no real slope at rear window)

Passat (previous shape – 07 plate – but the newer ones are really just a minor facelift)
– seats up 100 wide (didn’t measure length) x 78 high
– seats down 125 between doors x 175 long – at least 75 high for length of car; no real slope at rear window.

Octavia was visibly smaller than Passat so didn’t bother measuring. Superb will be similar to Passat as IIRC it’s the same platform/ bodyshell.

I need to look at E-class and maybe V70s soon.

I carry my photo driving licence and a card with my gf’s phone number on it, plus a bank card and a few quid in a jimmi wallet. Should add a note re penicillin allergy too, that’s quite important really.

This is based on my experience of doing NoFuss10s solo.

– Commuting is a bit rubbish unless you challenge yourself a bit, didnt seem to make much difference to fitness, plus and I found it quite tiring when trying to train and work hard during the day. Could you drop down to 2 days bit maybe do something more constructive? E.g. Easy in and intervals on the way home one day, and moderate in and a longer, hillier route home the other one. The lighter nights are coming and off-road should be drying out as well.

– Getting a good number of long riders under your belt is key – not necessarily 7 hours, bu a few 5 hours (when you ride pretty much non-stop for that time) will do confidence a lot of good. I sort of worked up to the duration on the road and then took it off-road, doing long loops from home or going to GT and riding the three way marked routes.

– trying to do laps didn’t work for me, tried doing an hour loop from home but got bored. Outside the event scenario I just found it a bit dull and demotivating and too easy to stop “for a wee break” and tha was me. Boom.

– have an outline plan and some goals (e.g. “do 4 hours non-stop by end of April, 5 by end of may”. I found doing something too prescriptive didn’t work but I did write down what I did in a bit of detail and made sure I did 6 or 7 of my 8 planned sessions

– talk to work about a bit of flexibility – e,g, can you start at 10 or finish at 4 one day a week, found that gave me what felt like a huge amount of extra time

– make yourself ride in shit weather once or twice, you never knw what it’s going to do on the day and if you know you can hack it, you’ll get a mental boost.

Hope that helps, it’s not science but worked for me – generally top 1/3 in the 10s I did which is good for a fat lad.

Yes, had a bit more of a play and you can definitely do that. Basically pics on iPhone that go up onto the iCloud, then appear in the Photostream. Then use iPhoto to pull them out the Photostream and build a journal, which is a sort of scrapbook thing, but turns into a slideshow. It’s quite good, I think.

Just to be clear, journals can include photos, other stuff like text, maps etc.

I reckon it will be good once I get the gang of it. You can control the order things go in and make sideshows etc – I’m still really just mucking about with it.

Also iPhoto wont work on a 3GS, biff that’s not reall clear from description on the store unless they have amended if.

You can use Journals to do this, but you are sort of stuck with the albums from your PC.

I am still playing with it but pretty impressed so far; can take pics on iPhone, they appear on iPad then I can edit them and upload to Flickr really neatly. works well with the camera attachment for iPad as well.

the repair strips that plug holes from the outside are great for trail side repairs.

Surely those will only fix the sort of punctures sealant ought to do? Can’t be any good for the sort of tyre tears which are the only times I’ve ever had to use a tube in the last 10 years.

These things? http://www.evanscycles.com/products/genuine-innovations/tubeless-tyre-repair-kit-ec028981

They plug bigger holes than sealant alone, and if your sealant is a bit old they do the job as well. Also had a bit of luck on small pinches with them that sealant doesn’t seem to do much for.

The worst thing about tubeless is that if you do get a puncture that wont seal, it takes ages to check for and remove all the thorns and shit in the tyre before you can put a tube in…

Well that’s it until Saturday’s Milan – San Remo – what am I going to watch mid-afternoon now???

Next week, Tour of Catalonia – bring it on!!!

Yes, and needed it about once or twice a year on average; either big cuts or pinch flats (yes, you can if you clatter the wheel into a square edge hard enough) 8O.

If you don’t already have a packet, the repair strips that plug holes from the outside are great for trail side repairs.

Well Alasdair, it is true that I saw Lance pushing his bike up there a couple of years back in pre-season training…..

Talking of Carnwath – the Apple Pie Bakery……..

That was the notorious North Face of the col wasn’t it? (HC)

APB is good but a bit unreliable wrt published opening hours…

A really good effort from Wiggins; he won it in the two time trials – and maybe a bit of luck in getting in the right break on stage 2 when the peleton was broken up by crosswinds. That, and a great effort from Team Sky the rest of the week to keep him in good condition and manage the race to keep Wiggins in yellow and ensure no-one could challenge him on the mountainous stages. Been a great race to watch unfold over the week and a bit.

All eyes to Italy now…

I generally head Into the wind low down and only use the A70 when going upwind if I can help it.

Try Currie – Riccarton Mains road – across A71 and down towards Gogaburnr; take a left just before the railway bridge then up past Suntrap, right just after you cross the M8 and down via Gogarstane to Ratho. From Ratho head for Newbridge then quiet roads past Cliftonhall into East Calder; up towards Kirknewton and right before the level crossing towards Leyden then back in the A70 and maybe the back roads through Balerno, or from KN along the back of Dalmahoy, Thats probably abou 15-20 miles.

Further afield there are loads of quiet, well surfaced roads between Livingston, Shotts, Carstairs and Carnwath.

Main “obstacle” is Livingston which isn’t very bike friendly. From Lizzie Bryce roundabout you can take the A71 W for about 500m then come off at the first exit and loop through Murieston and Bellsquarry, or you could go through Mid Calder and over the Almond under the flyover and past the new council HQ and Livingston Village and pick up the B-road parallel to the A71 towards West Calder and Stoneyburn.

Lots of good road riding to be had onc you learn to manage the wind…

Paris-nice is on British Eurosport 2 at 1300; Wiggins is off at 1325 for what should be about a 20 min run.

then T-A immediately after that.

Of your list, prob just the octavia. The rest are too “lifestyle”.

I have a Passat which will take a bike whole, but it’s easier to whip the front wheel out and slide it in flat.

The “bike hidden in boot with seats up” is as much about load space shape as capacity. Cant do it with an MTB with Passat, but previous Focus would take two in the boot without seats up despite being a much smaller car.

We got a bath in the back of the Focus, but the Psssat will take 4 bikes, 3 weeks of kit and 100+ bottles of wine. It’s about priorities innit! (and still pull a ton twenty on the AutorouteBahn)

Well, Paris-Nice goes to a race of truth up a mountain. I know what I’m doing tomorrow afternoon. Watching men bury themselves in a tunnel of hurt. Oh yeah!

Jens Voight doesn’t get in a break. He just puts the hammer down until there’s only two people left in the peloton. :D

I went for a Pure Avanti Flow after not-exactly-in-depth research. Seemed to get good reviews and sounds OK to me.

Right – Italy next, come on Eurosport!

I started this yesterday so can’t edit but have asked mods to put spoiler warning in.

GO Jensie,

Paris-Nice looking good today. Man, I want to go on holiday!

Jens Voigt is in a break too.

Yes, for Samoens we started with the map from the Tourist office plus the blue IGN map which gives you a better idea of terrain, gradient and whether it’s a path, vehicle track or road. We carried both maps as the waymarking is a bit vague in places. The red, blue and black gradings are as much effort as technical difficulty; some of the most enjoyable trails were marked blue while there is plenty of “black” forest roads.

Over the week we rode most of the stuff accessible from the Joux Plan, Samoens1600 and Morillon access roads below about 1500m (the town is about 700m or so). Generally aimed to climb 500-600m then loose a chunk of height, climb a bit more, loose more height so it was more than one big up and down.

Just flicked through my pics and really, really want to go back. Now.

Moraine isn’t great out of season – very little open, we struggled to get lunch there last October midweek. You’ll be doing a lot of climbing on road and forest road for not a lot of reward IME.

You could look elsewhere in the Alps – Samoens in the next valley is ace, went there at end of October and while all the ups were self-propelled we had some of the best riding I’ve ever done. Samoens is a proper town too so most bars, shops and some restaurants remain open. We were probably climbing 1000+ metres a day but for that getting 70-80% singletrack descents.

The tarentaise is another possibIlity – around Bourg St Maurice – Bike Village, White Room and Trailaddiction run in that part of the world. You might even be able to line up some out of season guiding with them.

Or you might be better in southern Spain.

I have a Liquigas jersey as they, like me, ride Cannondales and it’s bright green so good for visibility. Oh, and a Highroad one someone bough me as a present. Don’t see what’s wrong with it really.

People riding jerseys they haven’t earned is different – thinking replica leaders jerseys and national/ world champions. That’s very wrong.

Same for the NHS – if it had been a ring-fenced investment fund it would have billions in it.

Yes, but not enough billions. That’s why almost all private sector final salary pension schemes, who actually have to account for their future liabilities on a sensible basis, are closed to new entrants or closed altogether. As are the majority of public sector schemes (e.g. post office) that are required to be funded. They are simply too expensive to be sustainable.

GrahamS – Member
So its pointless arguing really as jealousy is not a logical emotion and therefore it TJ cannot be defeated with a logical argument.
FTFY.

WORD.

I haven’t read this since page two and am sadly not surprised that the argument is still lumbering on.

Njee/ MrP – did they do a 952 in 960 colours then? I need to dig out some old pics I think….

Edit: this lists only RR for 960 as you say… http://mombat.org/Shimano.htm#2003