I recently ‘took up’ road riding and bought a second-hand 2014 Giant Defy 1 from the STW classifieds. It had barely done 200 miles and in fantastic condition. Cost me £400 posted. If you can maybe look for something similar second-hand? I’ve always been a die-hard mountain biker but I’m absolutely loving riding the Defy.

Following on from this – how many of you title your ride with an excuse as to why the ride wasn’t very fast or impressive? I have quite a few Strava friends who do this. eg “Head wind all the way round ride” or “Wish this head cold would do one”

Bigfoot are doing an intro ride around Cranham for two hours on Saturday morning. You’re welcome to tag along but if you’re anywhere even half fit you will probably find it a little slow going. Will be on some great single track though.There aren’t any other rides up yet for this weekend mainly because the weather is looking so pants. I’ll dig out a few gpx’s tomorrow and send across

Lead group in the cycling part of the Olympic triathlon are averaging 42.6 kph at the moment, if anyone’s interested

What you on about Alex it’s been pretty much dry since the end of April! However its not looking ‘a bit damp’ so much as monsoon unfortunately so the lovely dusty FoD trail period will be over – temporarily hopefully!

I get the point you are trying to make IHN but I think your analogy is spurious. You don’t need to have personal or professional experience etc (maybe a little bit of academic) to know the definition of the term ‘racist’ is all I’m saying.

We are all entitled to our opinions on whether something is racist or not, regardless of our age, location or ethnicity

I’d say racist – no, clumsy – maybe.

Chippy in Podsmead, Gloucester would deep fry pretty much any food you took in. All kinds of chocolate including creme eggs. Then they did pizza slices and if you were feeling exceptionally lardy – deep fried chips. Obviously chips are deep fried anyway, but in this case they coated them in batter first and the result was an enormous modge of battery chips.

KFC. My guiltiest pleasure. Especially after a long ride, I just crave all that fat and salt.

Ya mama’s glasses are so thick she can look into a map and see people waving at her

Does Strava allow segment names that long?

The beauty of the LTc is that it is fast, nimble and pedals superbly, while still being capable of getting seriously rowdy and is massively tough and stiff. I really miss mine.

EDIT: please do it justice though and put forks on with at least 34mm legs!

I was getting a bit annoyed with Chris Hoy last night to be fair. Oh you used to do a bit of cycling did you? You never mentioned it.

Maybe you are burning the candle at both ends a little – sleep is the key to recovery not miraculous foodstuffs.

How much sleep are you getting?

Wrapping something in cling film

I hear you. I’ve actually got a bit of buyers remorse now as the 36s aren’t that much better than the Pikes. But I really didn’t want to miss out on a month of summer riding, especially as I had no idea how long it would actually be until I got them back.

Ah takes me back to riding my Raleigh Pursuit racer in the mid 80s. In fact I still have it, might take it for a spin at the weekend :-)

Same issue with a Pike RCT3 from Alltricks. They were pretty good to deal with actually, and I had my Pikes back in just under 4 weeks. They replaced the complete upper assembly and serviced the lowers fully. In the meantime I wasn’t going to be without my MTB during a rare dry dusty trail period so I got carried away and bought some Fox 36s on 0% and sold the Pikes when they came back.

benp1 see my latest post a few above yours.

Exactly Sir HC, strength, stamina and skillz all at the same time. Oh and its bl88dy great fun too :-)

Thanks for the suggestions so far.

pdf – just caught the end of the handlebar on a tree and after that not really sure apart from the pedal smashing into the back of my leg.

If you have a decent pump track somewhere near head there and ride it fast, pedalling every corner. Train there regularly and increase your distance bit by bit. You only need 20 – 30 minutes at a time to really make a difference. This is awesome training for building up stamina for long descents. If you have a BMX or jump type bike even better.

Thanks Trimix. I’ve washed the stantions clean after every ride so far and lubed with Fork Juice. I guess this doesn’t help though during a ride as that fine dust is constantly getting dragged up and down. Damn these dry dusty FoD trails ;-)

Sounds like it could be this. Especially as every ride has been dry and dusty since I fitted them. I’ve got some Juice Lube stuff, I’ll try that technique on the link above and also store the bike upside down and see if it improves. Thanks guys

Great place to stay for off-piste riding – can you follow gpx files?

Thanks docrobster that’s very useful information. As luck would have it I take the clopidogrel before breakfast and the Omeprazole after tea. Although the Omeprazole is taken at the same time as my atorvastatin, wonder if it affects those? I’m going to see my GP this week for clarification I think considering the Clopidigrel and atorvastatin are to reduce the chances of another stroke!

DrP is there an issue you’re aware of with taking Clopidigrel and Omeprazole together? I’ve been doing this for nearly a year, no Doctors or consultants so far have said there’s a problem

It’s a little bit odd as you are basically stood in a strangers comfort zone with your knob out. Maybe some people just make nervous conversation? I prefer total silence apart from a ‘nice one mate’ if the guy next to me farts.

Also you could ‘pull’ him up on the old ‘more than two shakes is a w8nk’. Masturbating in the workplace is a serious offence

We’ve only got two in a row in our gents at work. The problem is they are so close together that you have to properly rub shoulders with the guy next to you. There is a 12ft long wall and they put the urinals about 6 inches apart.

You’re all wrong. Its nearest the door first, then furthest from the door, then trap 1, trap 2 etc until all traps are full. Then, and only then do you use the middle urinal. And if its a nightclub and everyone’s drunk you have to factor in sinks and bins, and then it gets properly complicated.

They certainly did a good job of repairing and servicing my CCDB Air but unfortunately they forgot to put the travel o-ring back on! Other than that great service and communications

Yes! If ever there was a ringing endorsement to eat more pizza :D

I opened this thread in the vain hope that it wasn’t a joke – two evil substances simultaneously on the decline – maybe something good was to come of Brexit. I knew it was too good to be true. :(

It pales in comparison to the early seasons no doubt. That said I still watch it and am looking forward to seeing who got battered by Negan. I know who it was in the comics, but I wonder if they will follow it?

I can’t think of anything worse to fuel me for a ride than a full english. It’d be repeating on me the entire ride, even if I ate it 2 or 3 hours before. I make sure I eat well the night before including a snack before bed. Then 4 or 5 weetabix with full fat milk about two hours before the ride and a banana.

Jimmy Tourettes version of Angel above is genius, the first time I’ve ever purposely listened to that song all the way through. Much better than Robbie Williams original.

417 definitely needs more trails for a full days uplift riding. As the nights are light we tend to go up after work, just pay the entry fee and do a bit of everything – couple of runs each of the red and black, session the 4x and have races down the dual slalom. This works well for a 2.5 to 3 hour session and with our club discount is only £3.

Updated for anyone interested, been through a lot of the above suggestions and enjoyed some, thanks for the replies.

Have some of my own recently discovered suggestions for others to try:

Misery Index
Decapitated
Byzantine
Diskreet
The Prophecy

King Bee – Back By Dope Demand, on repeat :-)