Ah ha.

no no, Pink Floyd 😉

IGMC

a little bit of drum 'n' bass for you, mellow it is

LTJ Bukem

I wanted to suggest the Orb – Little Fluffy Clouds too but it's a tad too early

yes. But where did they get their sample of 'regular' (not average) cyclists from?

Now we're farming!

I'd like to see where they took their sample from. It states "Regular cyclists – those who cycle at least once a week – are also disproportionately likely to read broadsheet newspapers, be well educated, have a household income of at least £50,000 per year and shop at Waitrose"

That household income is well above average, even for London. I should imagine a great majority of us started riding in our teens. Perhaps riding bikes makes you affluent 😉 Must pedal harder.

Not sure about this but I thought Waitrose was predominantly based in the south east. Seems to me another article in the Guardian can't see further than the island of London.

The report costs £1500 so I doubt there will be many going through the finer details.

I didn't mean that. Damn spell checker 😳

The word I am looking for I am so beyond spelling correctly that I can't find it, or it doesn't exist. I'll go for purposefully instead.

I agree Digby, I have just found on those days when my I leave my boarding abilities at home if I continencely start using my shoulders first my turning eases up a bit.

definitely don't go for a Ride Yukon if you're struggling on the turns. I find keeping your shoulders parallel with lead shoulder pointing where you want to go really helps with the turns. Initiate shoulders before legs.

some of those cars have to be worth more than 2 grand, I can't understand why people felt the need to get rid of them through that scheme in the first place.

Willard – when in Banff take a trip to the town beforehand, Canmore. The Source is an excellent snowboard/mountain bike shop, it's where I got mine.

radio 1 after 7pm is ace, and I have a beard! Not everything is my cup of tea but there is always a track that makes me scuttle off to the music shop. This week is DJ Shadow's Def Surrounds Us and Distant Relatives in session.

Ride the Lightening then Master of Puppets for me. The first five are all good albums though

same went I went swavis, both times 🙁

I'm 196cm and have a 169cm Ride Yukon (bought in Canada – half the price of over here at the time). Anyway, as Shandy above says – not really an all rounder. It is very stiff and very very fast. It scares the crap out of me to be honest. Fun though. If you want to play about go for something with more flex – I always wanted a Gnu Wide Carbon Beam (don't know if they still do them) but they always got the best reviews as a fun all rounder for the larger footed soul. Only problem was they were very hard to get hold of – I never found one even in Canada.

'If they let the Darkies in they'll rape our women and take our jobs and murder our swans and eat them and all our children will end up speaking only in Urdu!'

hee hee, I must take after my grandmother after all 😉

I share your sentiments about vehicles in the city centre Elfinsafety. I was just thinking aloud I suppose, based on the actions of the many self important cyclists about (Clerkenwell in particular).

I like you make use of sunday mornings for a spot of quiet city centre sight seeing. It is ace. Evenings after rush hour (but before the pubs close) is good too.

I have no idea why people can't understand this: it is the motor vehicles that are dangerous, not the cyclists or pedestrians. The accident statistics bear this out.

some motor vehicles are driven very sensibly. Some bicycles are cycled very dangerously. Some people do not pay enough attention when walking.

When London centre is totally given over to the bicycle it will be total carnage. At least the vehicles keep us in check a bit. No cars will equal a no-holds-barred cycle free for all. I reckon we'll see more 'cycling' related accidents and a lot more of this

could be fun

What is really winding me up at the moment is the feckers who do stop at lights but then push their way to the front. These people are generally the slowest away and cause all those cyclists waiting patiently to try and overtake again. I did try asking a very nice looking lady on a dutch style bike why she felt the need to push her way to the front, the answer being '…..you arrogant pr**k'. I wish it didn't wind me up – I have managed to take most other goings-on as just life cycling round London but pushing in….it's just not cricket.

best hubs I ever had were XT Parallax from 1995. I have never needed to open them up, they are still perfect (admittedly not ridden much anymore). Since then I have not got on with Shimano so well, the rear in particular.

I work at Birkbeck College, London Uni. It specialises in this so everything is mostly evening taught or distance learning – similar to Open Uiversity. The majority of our students are working too – some are successful with uni, some not.

I did one once in Bahrain. It's quite good fun. Someone sets a trail with blobs of flour. The trail is full of deadends. So, the fast ones run along and find the good trail and the slow ones have the benefit of seeing where the fast ones make the mistakes. Designed well it should allow everyone to finish at roughly the same time. The one I did there was none of this gung-ho type attitude mentioned above. Just a big bunch of people going for a run and finishing with a beer and bbq (and sheesha pipe in Bahrain courtesy of the locals). Seems to be a big ex-pat thing.

i use mine a lot as the speedo has a habit of getting stuck

Look Mum No Hands on Old Street in London do some good pies

stopped here on saturday. The pies are indeed very good, the sausage and mash one in particular. Good selection of beer too.

i was going to say that there needs some capers thebunk but then I noticed them top left. Where do you get capers that size?

I had to fish an old man out of the canal somewhere near Kings Cross after he did what you did by all accounts. He past me quite quick, quite pi**ed too I think. 10 seconds later hear this mighty splash followed by cackling, he didn't make the corner to go under the bridge. Ran back and got him and the bike out. The only thing he could say was "at least my wife can't accuse me of net getting her wet when I get home". Beautiful.

two pink, one brown. Interesting.

I thought it was a great program. It's also made me want to ride the Ventoux, (not on speed mind, or in race conditions) the way it plays with you psychologically made it look a good challenge.

Patricia Arquette was brilliant in True Romance too.
Not that women count, of course

oh she certainly does 😀

along with Christopher Walken, Dennis Hopper in True Romance.

don't tell me you are as quick as he was as well as being blessed with the Jedi skills. That's just scary 😯 Think I'd best come up and get some tips soon…

that's the one

of course. Matt (lots of hair – very quick – can't remember surname) used to come out with us quite a lot…

happy days, who for Jedi?

anyone off here used to ride with Tarts on Bikes ever?

karinofine – my sentiments exactly. Round Datchworth, Bramfield and Mardeley is where I started my mountain biking.

Rocky Mountain the bombhole you mention I think is Back Lane. It's where I have played around on a bike since about 10 years old. In the last couple of months though someone has opened it up to offroaders – it's now a complete mess. Made me want to weep when I saw the mess they'd caused.

My favourite piece of singletrack around there is from Harmer Green to Oaklands, it follows the railway for a bit.

Think I'll be up for a visit soon.

Tell me, were they true to Holmes' 'Social Dawinism' ethos; the idea that he is intellectually and morally superior by evolution and the criminal classes are not to be blamed so much for their misgivings as for their evolutionary/intellectual inadequacy? I wonder how well the idea that there is an intellectually superior class would really go down today.

seemed to me that this was the jist of the story last night, the cabbie playing to Sherlock's intellectual superiority.

Yeah, there were holes like Watson not tracking him quicker but all in all a very good watch. Funny too.

i have a layback one and it is great, makes long rides much more pleasant. I can feel it flex sometimes which is a little disconcerting but that's what's it meant to do. It is a pain to get the saddle in but once it is in it's worth it. The only other minor niggle is it has a tendency to creak. But overall I'm very happy with it.

apparently there is another Mad Max film due which doesn't fill with me with joy. The first was ace, the second was ok. Should have left it there.

these are the rules

Silly Commuting Race – The Rules

The Game:
Dropping / Pulling anyone higher in the Food Chain Number makes you stronger and more attractive to burds*. Getting dropped / trying to keep up with anyone lower means your soul hires a kudos remover to lower your self worth. If you scalp someone you have to maintain or extend your lead for such a time as to have the dude you passed admit to themself "I was done". Nipping by, then running into a side road / hiding in traffic won't wash, Be honest with yourself. *Not strictly true

Rules:
1/ No Dangerous Manoeuvres (Don’t be a danger to any other road users or yourself) Falling off causes pain to you and others around you, don’t do it! (oh and you loose yer points)
2/ Don’t ride like a c0ck, we’re all just trying to get somewhere!
3/ No passing at Lights/Junction/Crossings, if you do, it doesn’t count
4/ All passing on open road ONLY. Filtering in traffic is null and void (you know whether you’ve dropped someone fairly, and haven’t turned off straight afterwards)
5/ Pavement passes, either you or the target is void
6/ Show no pain, unless, like me your face is just like that

FOOD CHAIN NUMBERS:
1. Scooters
2. Roadies with shaved legs – like girls *
3. Proper rapid Single speed (real men, messengers, tarty shiny fixies) *
4. Roadies with hairy legs – like men *
5. Faux Single Speeds (fakengers, dirty/functional bikes, silly egg beater gear) *
6. Touring Bikes (Mud Guards) *
7. "Fast Hybrids" *
8. MTBs on Skinnies *
9. MTBs on Nobbies
10. Bromptons / collapsing bikes
11. MTB full sus on Nobbies
12. Shoppers
13. Shoppers wicker baskets
14. Electric bikes
* Pedal Adjustment +1
• ONLY FCN 2-5 gain points for overtaking the same FCN and Higher Chainers
• Recumbents, Tandems and Segways are worth +2 points as a rare bonus
• Sinclair C5 +20 points as a hens teeth bonus

FCN Adjusters:

CLOTHING:
None:+3
Non-Cycling: +2
Baggies: +1
Lycra: 0
Team Kit: -1
TDF Jersey: -2

BAGGAGE:
Panniers: +1
Back Pack/Courier: 0
Nothing: -1

HEAD GEAR:
Face Mask +1
Helmets/Nothing/Sunglasses: 0
Bike Caps / Wrap arounds: -1

ACCESSORIES:
Herman's Safety Wing" (orange plastic lolly-pop): +2
Trailer:+2
Beard: +1
Child seat (each): +1
Power meter: -1
Aerobars: -1
Coloured tyres -1

PEDALS (If you can identify) FCN2-8 see note above:
Flats: +1
Toe Clips: 0
Evidently Clipless/spds (cycling shoes): -1

Courtesy of…..

The Distillers and Pennywise seem to have been missed, more punky than poppy but that's not a bad thing

why adverts now!

Go Schleck.