Woburn would be great (I take my 9yr old daughter) but hard to do if you don’t know your way around. You also need a day permit if you are a law abiding type (I have annual pass). A web trawl should provide lots of gpx for routes there if you can use that technology…

Re. gear selection for photos – it’s in “the rules” for roadies. I presume applies across disciplines? If so you may be fined.

😉

I’d suggest you install wiring for speakers – if you don’t want stands etc. the main issue is rear surround speakers. You can get those very small and wall mount them on brackets. Easiest way is to get a speaker package – lots of systems from Cambridge, Monitor, KEF, B&W et. al.

I’d head over to AVFORUMS – it’s like STW for home video types. More info. there than you will ever need…

I treat them the same on my bike as I do in my car. Stop unless they are defective.

I do dismount and walk the bike across the pedestrian crossing at a cross roads then remount and carry on from the other side. Seems a legal way of keeping going?

Bare grey primer. Decals in marker pen.

+1 for knee-jerk off-switch reaction. Mrs F loves it. It takes all sorts.

I have never been riding by mistake. It was always deliberate.

I have my toes pointing down and sort of push backwards into the pedals bracing against my hands which are pushing forwards on the handlebars. You can grip the pedals sufficiently that you can lift the bike and hold it, but I am only doing tiny bunny hops. I found something on Youtube about it, but no doubt there are other better techniques. I will follow this to see what else gets suggested…

Yep – it’s been just about as bad as anything I have seen in winter. Rode a couple of weeks ago and as above pedals hitting the ground at bottom of the stroke making it near unrideable. Cracked some weeks ago and put my mud tyres back on (though t.b.f. that was followed by that nice week we had so I’m claiming the credit for that).

Off soon for a quick pre-weekend bimble. Let’s see what’s out there today…

You want to spend a penny at On-One? I’m sure if you are really in trouble they’ll let you use the staff toilet.

Boom tish.

Segregation of cars and bikes.

Needs money and political will, but to me is the only long term solution. And by segregation, I do not mean some paint on a road to show where you will be when you get hit. I mean actual separate infrastructure.

I live near Milton Keynes, which has a proper separate cycling network. It’s genius. Friends who live there can let their teenage kids go anywhere by bike without having to worry about them being safe on the roads. To me all the other things are great (educating drivers and cyclists etc.) but putting people on bikes in the same space as a ton of metal travelling at 60mph is never going to be safe no matter how much we try to educate. It’s one of reasons I ride an MTB most of the time – I don’t trust roads.

Oops – double post

Did Sanchez have a puncture? Why wouldn’t they ride tubeless?

Have never watched cycling on TV in my life. I am hooked. Go Wiggo!

May even go for a road ride tonight – it’ll be wall to wall MAMILs for sure…

I read it with no particular expectations – borrowed it from Mrs Fopster and we do not normally share a taste (she refuses to even try a Raymond Chandler – a hanging offence in my view).

I thought it was great. Quite unusual, and the mix of styles inherent in the the story (trying to avoid spoilers) was very convincingly done, I thought.

Would imagine it would be very hard to make it into a film but full marks to anyone crazy enough to give it a go!

After a big off (failure to bail in time contributed to injuries) I switched to flats. I suspect they are all very similar versus each other – the big difference is that they are not SPDs (stating the obvious I know, but what I mean is that if you make the switch you have done the big difference – the rest is just details).

FWIW I went with Superstar Nanos with through pins which are great though the paint has come off due to pedal strikes on rocks etc. Shoe wise I started using some cheap old trainers and now have Shimano flats (AM45s?). They are better but it is not not night and day – as I said once you are on flats the rest is smaller incremental change or so it seems to me.

I have even managed to do a very small bunny-hop…

Sounds like you may have already passed rock bottom. Good luck for the journey ahead – hope it leads to good places. Go for a ride today – its a lovely day no matter what else you have going on.

Day after thoughts. Patchy. Brilliant in parts. Occasionally strangely moving. And funny. I think he pulled it off. Only really wrong step for me was Macca but see why he did it.

Can’t imagine what non Brits will have made of it, though. That was weapons grade weirdness at times and references will be way off piste. Good luck to the rest of the world getting their heads around it!

Well done Sir Danny. A shoe in, surely?

Dpreview.com is the place to ask this one. Good luck.

I didn’t bother replacing them. Will I die? I do hope not – i’ll miss the Olympics.

🙄

I like that whole “different colour valve caps” idea. Would work well to prevent me getting the wheels on the wrong ends. Genius!

The whole ABS/packed snow thing is mainly for places with lots of snow and few cars – e.g. Scandinavia etc.

On loose snow a locked wheel can build up a small “wedge” of snow in front of it that aids deceleration. In those conditions ABS reduces braking.

But in this country, for drivers of all ability up to professionals, these electronic aids help. That’s why they are all slowly being mandated.

I was told food poisoning takes much longer than that to have an effect – if true more likely it was lunch. Worth a google if you are interested…

I was very careful when I first rode with SPDs and had no mistakes. Imagine how smug I felt. And then…

After a few confident weeks on SPDs set out on a nice weekend ride on a lovely morning. Coming to a T junction there was a family with a toddler and another in a pram waiting to cross the road. Full of the joys of spring I waved at them to cross the road and came to a graceful halt. And of course, I was thinking about letting them cross and not about my clips, so on stopping performed a graceful flop sideways. The one in the pram laughed loudest…

Three cheers for time machine – far too stupid to know what I’m doing so an idiot proof auto backup is a wonderful thing. No offsite though – may get around to that with this prompt…

ESP isn’t just a safety feature but can also cut down on wear and tear on the vehicle when it cuts power stopping excessive tyre spin and transmission abuse.

I think people are confusing traction control with ESP. Not the same thing at all. A lot of the references here to “the light coming on” sound like TC rather than ESP…

Just saying.

I would not have a car without it. Have had some professional experience in the industry over the years and the chassis test engineers didn’t turn it off in their own cars – ever (OK – they did on a track, but not on the road). And that’s people who do eight wheel drifts with a double axle caravan hanging off the back of a car so not too shabby behind the wheel.

Bare earth or it’s not a cave. And then in line with sparkyrhinos suggestion, a thin layer of enemy scalps to finish.

Own up now. Stop reading this post and do it now. Any delay looks bad and as many have already said it WILL be spotted sooner or later. Sit tight and you could end up unemployed…

In the late 90’s I bought a Trek full susser to ride around London because I thought it looked cool and it was 1/3rd of normal price.

A few years later a neighbour who had seen me riding it said he was going for a bike ride at the weekend and did I want to come?

Had a great time. Been riding ever since. The Trek is long gone – it was not only rubbish but far too small- but it did the job for quite a while. I still ride with the friend who got me started. Never did thank him – must do that!

Just got a “M” in the mail this morning. Quite a close fit but not too roadie. I normally get “M” so stick with what you normally get seems like a good plan…

This is worth a read:

http://sheldonbrown.com/deakins/lowgears.html

Just been in this situation myself. Bought a cheap 8 speed MTB cassette and chain off t’interweb. Worked OK except that even with B screw reversed the road mech wasn’t quite able to cope with 32T rear. So – birthday gift from deal old mum was a cheap 8/9 speed MTB rear mech to fix once and for all. Think it was 50 quid all in for chain, cassette and mech but all quite low grade stuff.

You may manage with your existing mech so could be cheaper…

Might be a good time to look into insurance costs for the other two. Once bitten and all that.

Hope you have a better time ahead. Sun’s out at least…

@martinxyv

Like the stuff Del TFH did with Heiroglyphics:

Track was on the excellent DJ Kicks series album that Stereo MCs did. Speaking of whom, debut 33 45 78 was pretty decent…

@ DezB
Some good stuff around today but for anyone around at the time I think the early 90s years were Hip Hops golden age. We’ll not see the like again.
-1
So say people who lose interest in music..

Don’t agree! Still as interested as ever, and still finding new things to get excited about just as much as ever. John Peel was always my hero – he was still more adventurous in his 60s than most of his younger colleagues. BUT…

Hip Hop to me simply doesn’t move with the pace that it did. It has become more formulaic that when it first started and everything was new by definition. Of course there is still good stuff around but it doesn’t have the same “wow, where did that come from” impact it did (to me anyway)

So – on to new things. Other genres have gone through or are going through their own equivalent purple period after Hip Hop did, whether it be Drum n Bass or whatever. The most exciting stuff to me is always the new stuff. Can’t wait to hear what comes next!

A few albums worth a go if you don’t already know them:

Public Enemy – It takes a nation of millions to hold us back
Tribe Called Quest – Low end theory
Jungle Brothers – Done by the forces of nature
The Pharcyde – Bizarre ride II the Pharcyde
Beastie Boys – Licensed to Ill

Some good stuff around today but for anyone around at the time I think the early 90s years were Hip Hops golden age. We’ll not see the like again. I remember when all this was just fields.

Got to go – time for my nap.

@thewrongtrousers – you broke the carbon shark fin? Blimey. I must not be trying hard enough – like honourablegeorge have scratched mine but can’t imagine what you’d need to do to break one. Good effort! And rear mech is in 100% tip top shape so I agree, maybe the fin does do something…

Just back. A bit predictable. Far too long. But very good despite that. Worth seeing IMO

Depends on the kid. Have not let my kids see previous one on DVD – would do their heads in but they are quite girly. I’d say if in doubt, probably not…