No garage available, wouldn’t trust a shed, so they live in the hall. Road and mountain bike one wheel off, commuter always ready to roll.

Edit: Trying again to get pic to show.

Reedit: Nope, I give up.

They’re bikes stored indoors. You’ll have to use your imagination. Or scroll back up and look at those earlier photos again.

Reading the posts has inspired me to think about thinking about signing up to boxing classes, but not (quite yet) tempted me to sign up to have a Bear try to punch me. I’m quite scrawny.

Oooh, excellente. Bought.

Would the OnePlus 2 be a contender for spec/price? They’re buyable invite-free for Black Friday.

I bought a Moov Now, paid for it months ago on a Kickstarter type thing, and just received it a few weeks ago. I guess it’s meant to be a sports band in that it tells you how active you have been and how badly I sleep. But what it also does is coach you while you’re running (or cycling but I haven’t used that bit yet) or talks you through a circuit training or boxing routine.

It’s quite smart, was rudely cheap ($40), is waterproof enough to swim with, but does need you to be carrying your phone with you (not while swimming) to hear its instructions.

I did read a few weeks back the theory that Luke had gone to the Dark Side (they have cookies, etc) at the end of the last trilogy. It just made me think they would try to prise in the “no, I am your father” line to what’s-her-name. Obviously if she’s not Luke’s then I don’t need to say I have a bad feeling about this.

Hmmm, the text in your post didn’t rhyme. Not sure if that means you’re human, a spammer, a chatbot, or neither.

Ummm, but I don’t know about the dogs.

Oh, and welcome!

I have one of the Edinburgh Bicycle Co-op’s Courier’s from many years ago before they switched to 700 wheels, and it’s been fine for a daily commuter/pub bike. Ugly as sin with full-length guards so I have no fears about leaving it locked up in the city centre while at work.

It came fitted with a pretty useless wee thing to stop the chain falling off, which didn’t work. Swapped that for an N-Gear Jump Stop (no idea if they’re still available) and never had it happen again.

I do most years (last year was the exception) as family live so far away that I’d have to stay there for days. And there’s a limit to the amount of hours I can put up with all the Christmas bickering.

Normally I start the day off as healthy me, Parkrunning or biking. Then by afternoon I become slob me, sat in front of the TV with a good bottle of whisky, a meal of what I want to eat, mince pies and a pack of fags. Looking forward to it.

It was a dark and stormy night. I was sat at home watching the telly wondering:
a. do I still need to turn the TV off in case lightning hits the aerial?
b. did I ever have to turn the TV off in case lightning hit the aerial, or was that bullpoo just to get us to turn the TV off?

(But it didn’t bug me for long as I just Googled it.)

I prefer flat pedals, even on the road bike.
I own three (well, four really) bikes but don’t own a single pair of cycling socks.
I can stop eating Pringles.
I’ve developed quite a penchant for smooth peanut butter (definitely prefer it to crunchy when combined with banana).
I have my laptop sitting on the desk and the desktop sitting underneath the desk.

Ooooh, was it me?

Mr Binners, I’ve sent an email to the address in your profile just in case it is.

Not that I don’t like to talk about all the things I do for charity, but I did do my donation yesterday using my eBay way – straight in with the top buck and wait and hope.

I like that. £50.

Another long-time Forza fan here. Finally got around to sitting through the two-and-a-bit hour endurance race at Daytona in this one at the weekend.

Quite a few bugs in this one though. I’ve never received that free Ford GT despite doing the demo, I’ve not been awarded a couple of achievements or badges, that sort of thing. Today’s update might sort them out.

Have any of you managed to beat Romain Grosjean’s time in the F1 Renault?

Have you seen the DC Rainmaker website? He reviews GPS doodahs, and often has photos of them on his girlfriends (wife’s?) wrist as well as his own for size comparisons. It can be a rather daunting site at first as there’s so many, but he does a recommendations list of the highlights. And then the reviews themselves are very in-depth.

As the internet claims Ernest put it?

If you don’t get out of breath it’s not a sport, it’s a pastime.

Or as Ernest put it, “There are only three sports: bullfighting, motor racing, and mountaineering; all the rest are merely games.”

I will confess to have ran around the blue trails at Pollok Park in Glasgow. It’s not FC, I did still question whether I should be there at all, I ran the trails in reverse so that I could quickly jump out the way of any MTB’ers that turned up (maybe I only did it at the right time of day as despite doing it a dozen or so times I have only met two folk), and even so the nagging feeling that it was a small fraction of the park for MTBs I may as well leave it to them and so eventually changed to use other bit of the park instead.

Being in Scotland I wanted to vote None of the above, free access to all and all that. But being honest I would object (silently and behind a cheery “hello” of course) if I met up with ramblers so voted for them.

That is truly shit news. Thoughts with you.

Is there any flights betwixt Cardiff and Prestwick? Train station literally across the road from that airport, 45 minute train (with reduced fare if you show flight thing) into Glasgow city centre.

Thank you all! Excellent advice as always. I shall email them today to let them know I’m flicking them the vickie’s.

This is probably as good a place as any to ask this – are those ear and nose hair strimmers any good? Was thinking of getting one for a mate for his mid-forties birthday as a jokey gift, but if they’re any good I’ll get one for myself too.

What hit it home was visiting the doctor.

Late-30s, got piles, went to the doc, got prescription for cream, sent home.
Early-40s, got piles, went to the doc, got told he would like to send me for a colonoscopy to check for bowel cancer.

WHOOOAAAAA, WHAAT?? I felt I hadn’t changed/aged at all during those visits, but yet it seems just in passing a random number of days of life I am now declared to be at risk of whole new list of things. Old people things. So no, I only occasionally feel my age, I still look younger than I am, and I can still keep up with my teenage nephew over distance running. But it’s little things that make me realise I am old. How I always have an anecdote of experience to delight youngsters whatever the situation, that teachers and doctors look far too young to be old enough, how I remember the originals of today’s remixes and remakes, and the fact I have a pair of jeans in the cupboard that have been in, gone out and come back into fashion.

So did you go into work?

Did you go into work with “good morning!”s and feigning no knowledge of the text?

Did you go into work with “good morning!”s and a box of doughnuts, feigning no knowledge of the text?

Or did you go into work with a poo in a box of doughnuts for the boss?

My third laptop (I have one for work, one for gaming and one for lazy websurfing) is taking a long time to upgrade to Windows 10.

Bugger. I don’t like getting old.

Thanks for the replies though guys!

I will admit my original post was done with the cheeky slant of casting ridicule at anglers and the funny things some of them must wear (fully aware they could be doing the same about grown-ups passing time by playing on bikes while wearing ballet tights and plastic hats), but thank you Mr Yunki, that was an interesting wee insight into that world.

I do like this place. I learns me stuff.

WWAsWas – I had previously called myself emotionally retarded (while recounting how I cried at the bit in the Superman film, the old Christoper Reeve version, when Louis Lane gets buried in her car while Superman is busy saving a village from being drowned), to then be told I “can’t use the ‘R’ word”.

I was now going on comment on a photo of myself taken at a recent run, pointing out how my happy, smiley face looks more like that of an escaped lunatic, but thought best to check first.

I tried a TomTom multisport watch, similar but without the HRM bit, so will just comment on my experience with the rest. It was bought primarily for running and occasional bike rides.

Pluses are that it was very fast at getting a satellite lock, much faster than the Garmin 15 I’ve since settled on. Good clear screen that you can set what metrics you want to see, big easy button to scroll through any others you may be curious about. It was really good having bike or run options rather than just running. And it was really good that you can race your previous runs/rides.

But the minuses are that it didn’t seem to track my position as well as the Garmin. After I upload to Strava it always showed me as being a few metres to the left of the roads/paths I was on. Weird. And it didn’t sync with my phone – gen 1 Moto G running lollipop – so check your phone first if that’s an important/cool thing for you.

You can tell it the pace/speed you want to run at. It then beeps to tell you if you are faster, slower, or at the set pace. You might find this useful. With me this meant it was beeping every few seconds which was bloody irritating so I had to turn it off after two minutes.

And if you’re a Stravaist, be aware you cannot “upload file” from the watch direct to Strava, you need to either sync it through a phone or through the TomTom software on a computer. the TomTom sports website that it uploads your activities to is utterly pointless, but thankfully you can easily sync this to other sites Strava, Runkeeper, etc.

For me, it was the TomTom’s mis-tracking that made me choose the Garmin. Maybe the one I tried was dodgy. Other than that issue I would have been very happy with it.

Not alarming adverting, but cool that you can buy a statue to commemorate one of our top-five favourite moderators!

I was looking/hoping for a review by someone who’s got one. The best I can find is chat on Fetcheveryone…
http://www.fetcheveryone.com/forum__57942__1__a_budget_gps_watch_from_aldi_for_5999_yes_5999

Or maybe the manual can answer your particular query…
https://www.cranesportsconnect.com/manual.php

There are a few tricks that work FOR ME if I want to run faster. Bear in mind I am not a fast runner, most comfortable plodding along averaging 5:30/km, so maybe these work for slow runners rather than those who already speedier.

1. I speed up if I run purely on my tip-toes. Generally I’m a foot-slapper.
2. Or I can lean forward a bit.
3. Or I can move my arms straight forward/back rather than let them swing diagonally across my body as they tend to do.
4. Or sometimes when I consciously swing my arms faster it seems my legs then try to catch up.

But yeah, cadence rather than stride length. Good luck!

I just bought a Forerunner 15 this week to replace a dead 110. Have used it a couple of times.

The good points are that it does do the basic stuff that I was wanting and that you are asking for, is affordable and not too bulky.

One mildly annoying thing (which may not be annoying if you’ve not used a 110 for years) is that where the 110 showed three things on the screen, i.e. time, distance and either pace or speed, the 15 only shows two. There are two screens you scroll through so technically you can show four metrics (you choose what you want to see on each screen) but until I get used to that it’s going to annoy me.

Other than that it is as slow as the 110 in getting satellite lock, say about 20-30 seconds. Once it has it does seem to track very well. Certainly a lot slower locking but better tracking than a TomTom I tried. It has a ‘virtual pacer’ where you set a target pace and it beeps to alert you when you’re above, below or at that pace. I had to turn that off after a minute of it constantly annoyingly beeping for attention. And it has an activity tracker that gives you a number of steps to take a day but I haven’t used that yet.

It’s not a mountain bike, but it is the bike that got me back into cycling over 10 years ago and has taken me many, many miles since. Bought as a commuter, I also off-roaded on it (until I bought an MTB), did 70+ mile day-trips on it and toured on it (until I bought a road bike). It’s still my commuter and my ride-to-the-shops bike. If I could only own one bike I think this would still be it.

A cheap BSO that I commuted on.
Replaced that in 2004 with a EBC Courier.
A cheap Dawes MTB.
Replaced that with a 2007 On One 456.
A cheap cant-remember-what road bike.
Replaced that with a 2009 Specialized Allez.
And had a Singlecross too. Sold that.

So had 7 in total and still have 3. And looking at that list it seems I had quite a buying phase in the mid-to-late naughties but have completely dried up since.

I once dreamt I had woken up in my parents living room. What’s going on? How did I get here? I’d better get out. But then couldn’t open the glass door they have in their living room no matter how hard I forced it.

I then woke up and realised I was trying to open the window of my 2nd floor flat.

So I suppose the relief is not so much that it was only a dream (it has freaked me out a bit since) but that I was unable to open the door/window.

500 lumen 3-in-1 Cree LED Flashlight Torch with Head Strap and Bike Mount, down from £31 to £9 on Amazon
http://www.amazon.co.uk/EasyAcc-500lm-Flashlight-Torch-Adjustable/dp/B00HEWYNTQ?tag=georiot-giz-21&ie=UTF8

Quick vote. If as a mountain biker on a signposted mountain bike trail you met a trail runnerer also using the same trail, would you rather the runner:
a. was running the opposite direction to the signposted route (in order to watch out for cyclists coming towards them in order to get out the way); or
b. was running in the same direction as you (meaning you have more time to watch for them, adjust speed etc while hoping the runner eventually looks behind to notice you’re there)?

I ask this as I have also started to do more off-road running, also currently just around my local park rather than proper hills. There are a few grassy, muddy, rocky, slidey paths, but it also has some signed mountain bike trails. At the moment when I venture onto these trails I have been going for choice ‘a’ feeling as I’m the one out of place I’m the one that wants to be getting out the way.

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outside pedal forward

What’s that about then?

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