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Ringo

George wrote:
Ringo wrote:hey guys

how many years do you have to be out of competition before your handicap gets reset?
I suggest: more years than Ringo's been out of competition, but fewer than I've been out of competition.

Thats what I feared

Ringo

hey guys

how many years do you have to be out of competition before your handicap gets reset?

Ringo

Are the shrewsbury circuit races still going?

They were always a good early season test for your legs on a safe-ish circuit.

Ringo

cheers guys.

i definitely want ones which will allow me to see on unlit roads.

those ones that ed recommends might be perfect. as you say, if i'm going to be using them most days throughout the winter then i don't want cheap ones.

and cheers for the advice on reflective clothing.

Ringo

cheers.

well speeds haven't got back to me and Ben at Venture has given me a very rough estimate. think i might try to pop in over the weekend and speak in a bit more detail.

Ringo

my new job is quite a nice commuter distance and so i'm toying with the idea of riding into work and back 2 or 3 days a week.

just wondering if anyone could recommend a set of good/cheapish lights.

what do you guys use on your bikes and would you recommend them?

cheers.

Ringo

cheers guys

e-mailed a couple of local bike shops to get them to quote me a rough price. to be honest, if speeds get back to me and say they can do it i'll probably just go there cause i can drop it off and pick it up in my lunch hour.

Ringo

just wanted to get some rough ball park quotes of how much it will cost me to get some work done on my turbo bike so i can decide whether to do it myself or not. basically the bike is a wreck and completely un road-worthy (doesn't even have brakes and the stem has rusted to a point where i can't tur...

Ringo

yeah, that's the one i've got.

i've found it a bit temperamental at times. maybe i just had a dodgy one.

i think for what i need though that's my best option. just wondering if anyone had any others that they had used and could recommend.

Ringo

does anyone have any recommendations for a cheapish rear wheel mounted bike computer.

need it for my turbo trainer so front wheel computers are useless.

cheers

Ringo

cheers john

like i said, it's only my Turbo bike so I don't really mind about the quality of the cables or other equipment. as long as my gears change i'll be happy.

Ringo

cheers guys.

Ringo

hey guys. i'm just getting back into riding my bike after a year off and need to change the gear cables on my turbo bike. couple of quick questions. 1. My turbo bike has a cheap shimano tiagra groupset. will i have to use shimano cables or are any cables compatible? 2. if i can use any cable, can an...

Ringo

i suppose thinking about it now it does make more sense that the problem is with the wheel and not the bb. i suppose that because it started as soon as i stopped pedaling i just thought it must have something to do with the crankset or bb. hopefully a bit of well place grease should sort the problem...

Ringo

yeah, was thinking about doing that later when my dad gets back from work. prob do it on the rollers as going on the turbo would require me to change the wheel. come to think of it, the wheel in question was in speeds the other week because the cones kept coming loose and the back wheel kept wobblin...

Ringo

yeah, i'm not the most technically gifted when it comes to bikes. just wanted to know if it was something simple i could do myself or if it was better to just take it straight to the bike shop for closer inspection.

Ringo

hello. my bottom bracket seems to have developed a high pitch squeal similar to that of some brakes being applied hard whenever i free wheel at high speed. i haven't riden it for a couple of weeks so i'm hoping it might have just gotten a bit stiff. however, i rode it on saturday on the speeds bash ...

Ringo

it's just all about marketing. if a woman is looking around for cycling shoes then she is more likely to go for ones that are being labelled as being made for her. especially for an entry level female cyclist (which is probably were the most money is to be made in the cycling shoe industry). other t...

Ringo

i agree with george. all rain jackets work to a degree. however, if you get caught in a storm then at some point all rain jackets will leak somewhere. also, if it's too rain proof you end up just as wet through sweat then you do from the rain.

Ringo

the only problem i see with george's suggestion is the lack of grip which isn't a good thing when your riding in a bunch of 60 odd blokes. Ringo, I don't actually use the ones with the rubbery blips on them. I use plain ones inside track mitts. The grip comes from the track mitts that you wear over...

Ringo

actually, george's do have grip. sorry george, that picture you added didn't work last night and the pictures that you linked to weren't very clear. they might be a good and cheap solution. only thing is they'd have to be a tight fit to fit under my mits. i'll have a look round and see what i can fi...

Ringo

the only problem i see with george's suggestion is the lack of grip which isn't a good thing when your riding in a bunch of 60 odd blokes.

Ringo

just looking around for a pair of long fingered gloves to get me through the early months of racing this year. ideally i'd just want a pair of normal mits with extended fingers but can't seem to find any. what i need is something that is light, doesn't restrict the use of my fingers and also does a ...

Ringo

spider wrote:Don't try to look up the language in A Clockwork Orange; it was invented just for the book.

i know, but the copy i have has a kind of dictionary in the back which translates all the words. so reading it would involve flicking to the back every couple of lines to understand what was happening.

Ringo

thanks guys, definitely some food for thought. to kill a mocking bird and brave new world are already on my list and, while i was sorting out my room a few weeks back, i found my old copy of "of mice and men" by steinbeck from school so i'll probably give that a read. also found my dads old copy of ...

Ringo

does anybody read anything other then cycling books? just descovered a love of reading after never really reading anything since i left school. after catching a bit of the film adaptation of lolita a few months back and remembering that the book was supposed to be quite good i decided to give it a g...

Ringo

i thought the reason that panda bears were dying out was because the world supply of bamboo is running out. surely a bike made out of bamboo is only going to add to the problem and make it very un-ecological. unless you give the bike to the panda's once you've finished with it

Ringo

getting cables out can be harder then it seems. when i changed all the cables on my winter bike a few months ago it took my dad holding the bike down and me pulling with a set of plyers to get it out. the frayed wire got stuck at every point possible and then when we tried to cut the frayed bit off ...

Ringo

you should see the sharks teeth on my turbo bike

Ringo

i use dhb ones and never had a problem with them. probably a lot cheaper then other brands as well.

http://www.wiggle.co.uk/p/cycle/7/dhb_H ... 360038387/

Ringo

i think the yellow bits just because it's the tour and it matches the team kit. hincapie used to wear similar huge glasses. not sure if they have any real function. unless ,like the cricket players put sun screen under their eyes, it's to prevent glare?

Ringo

i often wonder whether or not taking a pain killer before a tt would have any effect during the race? just a theory of course, i'd never actually do it.

anyone ever tried it?

Ringo

cheers. yeah, i saw that islabikes site the other day. i think another problem with that age is it is coming up to prime growth spurt age. i'll let her know about the site.

thanks again.

Ringo

one of my girlfriends work-mates daughters does triathalons. she's only 10. at the moment she's using a bulky MTB but wants to get a proper road bike without spending a fortune. do childrens road bikes actually exist? or is it simply a case of buying a really small frame?

cheers

Ringo

funny you should mention this. i've been in my back garden with my camera all morning trying to sort out my position. wasn't happy with how it looked from the photo's on saturday. i brought a shorther stem and i've lowered my bars and saddle a bit. gonna go out for a spin this afternoon i think. yea...

Ringo

just ride with them when you go out training to get used to the position. it's an un-natural body position so it takes a while for your muscles to get used to it. the first time i rode with my straight bars i couldn't bend my wrist the next day. after a couple of times the muscles got used to it and...

Ringo

try to get a pic or video of your position. most people take years perfecting their tt position. LA was always using wind tunnels to experiment and perfect his position, right up to his last tour victory. no-one gets it right first time. it's just a case of trying it, seeing how it feels and how you...

Ringo

and getting your position right. the mistake most people make when sticking on tri-bars is they keep their seat and handle bars in the same place. look at most tt bikes and the bars are much lower then the saddle to allow the back to be flatter and lower and the saddle is often further forward and s...

Ringo

just look around on the various websites. it's best to pay a bit more and get the lighter ones as the heavy cheaper ones add too much weight to the front of your bike and completely change the handling and general balance of the bike.

Ringo

cheers, i figured it out in the end. like i said, i knew how to do it last year. it's just been that long i'd forgot what i did. i had to put the chain on my small chainring and biggest gear and then strech the chain over my casette so it would slide in under the rear mech. i was trying to do it the...

Ringo

don't know if its just mental fatigue because of all my recent uni work but i'm having some real trouble inserting the rear wheel on my tt bike as it has rear facing drop-outs. i really don't see any way it could possibly go in. but i managed it last year fine, just can't remember how i did it now. ...

Ringo

but shorts can rub even if they fit perfectly. if salt crystals start to form then even the best fitting kit won't help you. When the salt crystals start to form in my shorts, I usually reckon it's time I washed them. *scanning for sarcasm* :lol: you obviously don't sweat much then George. sweat cr...

Ringo

but shorts can rub even if they fit perfectly. if salt crystals start to form then even the best fitting kit won't help you.

Ringo

well i think there are too many variables to make a accurate estimate. depends on type of blocks, rims, weather conditions, distance of rides, how fast you ride, how much you break.

i'm sure some mathematician could work it out with one of those massive formula's that no-one but him understands.

Ringo

i don't usually have a problem when i'm out on the road, but when i'm on the turbo i usually use johnson's baby lotion. just spread it over your problem area and it will reduce friction and chaffing. it's also alot cheaper then the proper cycling stuff and does the same job.

Ringo

it's one of those things were you get what you pay for i think. or at least thats how i find it. i normaly go for the cheap option and have to replace them every couple of months or so.

Ringo

mavic aksium. can't go wrong really. been using them for last few years and never had a problem with em.

Ringo

todays castille y leon if anyone is interested.

http://www.justin.tv/satis

i've got it in the corner of my screen while i work on my uni essays

Ringo

You would have thought that he would at least have made the wheels round. well it is Didi the Devil :roll: To be fair though, to make wheels perfectly round at that size and in the materials he was using would probably take quite a bit of engineering know how. they would have to be perfect to suppo...

Ringo

This sticky is set up so people can post links to various live streams on the internet.

Here are 2 for right now:

http://fr.justin.tv/hoarau_tvhd
Dwars door Vlaanderen

http://www.justin.tv/satis
Castilla y Leon

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another technical recommendation :)

Rough estimates for mechanics

rear mounted computers

Gear Cables

squealing bottom bracket

long fingered racing gloves.

childrens bikes.

inserting back wheel with rear facing drop-outs

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