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Cycling log - random events in the day of a cyclist II

stevec67 said:
Well done. 250W is a lot. I'm not sure I could sustain that for 20 min, and I'm well. As regards weight, get well first. Once well, 10kg will take 4-5 months to get off, without having to try too hard and having a day off once a week to have a few drinks, a cake, whatever.
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Thanks. I reckon I am well as I am going to get. I still have the occasional wobbly moment but otherwise feel good.

The tumour was in my cerebellum. On the last scan there was still a rather alarming gap where brain matter used to be. After the op I had problems with brain fluid leaking into my spinal column, this caused awful cyatica. In investigating that we found I have 3 collapsed lumbar discs, which explained the back pain I've had for a few years.

The operation also left me with a weakened neck and loss of muscle mass on the LHS. This meant I struggled to ride anything but my MTB. Riding in the shed I have been able to build up ability to hold road bike position. My neck is still a little stiff, making looking over my shoulder difficult. I don't think I would be confident cutting it up in commuter traffic anymore.

Whilst not malignant, there is a risk of the tumour returning so I am having a MRI head scan and retinas checked every year for the rest of my life.

The consultant would not speculate whether the tumour has affected my metabolism. The fact that I am a greedy git doing a lot less exercise than I used to hints rather heavily at the reason for weight gain. I just need to cut down on the puddings, biscuits and toast.
 
Thumbs up on your efforts Ibbots, I know I could do a 12 week programme and achieve similar improvements but too much in life from season to season to sustain it and either work, DIY, family life or other projects renders it practically impossible compared with younger years and fewer commitments then. It’s why I try and maintain a routine of 2 walks a week with a mate for 4 to 6 miles then one or two short fat burn turbo train rides and one decent road or gravel ride and work harder at the weight management. Which I agree is hard when you love food or snacking, it’s analogous to being an alcoholic staying off the fizz.
 
Well done on the rehab, amazing how determined you can be when there is a strong motivation. I remember hobbling through the snow in the garden to do a turbo session in the garage after my first hip op.
 
Lovely day here in the north. I haven't been out on the road bike for months. My wife's health issues have made it more difficult to find the time to get out as much as I would like.

In the past few months I've mainly been riding my Tern HSD S8i, which has hub gears, shopping and doing errands. Remembering to keep pedaling when changing gear today was an issue. The Tern's disc brakes are reassuringly effective. The rim brakes on my old Raleigh need a bit more of a heave.
 
Well done on plugging away, it’s all we can do sometimes. Prep, wedding, honeymoon then the beginning of weeks of adjustment cut my free time down drastically but managed to get both early morning walks with my mate last week which really do help, then on Saturday my first outing with Dittons Velo club which went better than I expected. Turns out it’s 9 miles from home to the meet point so the nominal 30 mile ride was 40 overall when I peeled off towards the end, legs cramping a bit but didn’t flatten me for the rest of the day nor yesterday. 40 miles isn’t much for some but plenty for others of us particularly in our sunset years of riding or when we can’t get out and ride say 3 times a week.
 
Winter is a time to just enjoy riding your bike with friends with not a thought about goals or fitness. Just getting out is ‘winning’. I’ve just started back up on the club evening rides & am really enjoying them.

Weather has been mild of late, we even sat outside a cafe on the Saturday run.
 
I'm on a short break, with my wife, in the Lot area in southern France - very lovely and we have the solo road bikes so we're getting out most days when it's dry for a couple of hours. The usual amazing quiet beautiful French roads we seem to find wherever we plonk ourselves in this brilliant country.

Anyway... when we ride I'm always faster so I ride ahead for a few miles and then at some point turn and head back to meet my wife - usually with some encouraging greeting before turning again to carry one. Yesterday I was cycling back into the low winter sunlight, saw a bike approaching (a little sooner than I expected) and I put my thumb up and shouted 'Well Done Babes!' to the oncoming rider who was actually a bloke and not my wife at all.
 
I've clocked up nearly 700 miles on my Whyte E-150 now and my verdict is that it's great. Just massive fun!
Took me a while to get the suspension dialed-in because the "expert" in the shop misled me into thinking the compression damping for the forks was some sort of lockout. Once this was sorted the handling was transformed. I can't believe how responsive the bike is given its huge wheels and tyres and the geometry... the tyres weigh 1.2Kg each :eek:.

Had some trouble with the Bosch motor overrun in the early days, kept overshooting corners, but got the hang of it now. Need to stop pedalling earlier and use the back brake sometimes.

I can now ride all my favourite tracks in the "wrong" direction. Climbing like a nutter is great fun and a surprisingly good workout, it needs more upper body effort, but that's no bad thing.

I still ride the legacy bikes but if I had to keep only one, I know without a shadow of a doubt, which one it would be.
The funny thing is that my Giant Anthem feels almost weightless now (until it points up hill), but my gravel bike feels the same weight as it always did. How does that work?



We can all dream...

 
I took the plunge & bought a new winter bike, Caad13 disc. It’s nice enough, eye wateringly expensive for an aluminium bike.

Not sure I really like discs, that horrible noise they make when wet. Drives me nuts. Came with a ‘fender bridge’ to fit guards but some fixing parts missing so am currently on borrowed time with my riding buddies.
 
I got out yesterday with a mate, 60 miles around Selby. Great at first in spite of a punishing wind. The odd shower was tolerable. By the end it was driving rain and hail and really, really unpleasant.
 
No riding here for what feels like an eternity (probably just over 2 weeks). 2 feet of snow, followed by a week of temperatures never getting above freezing, then a day of freezing rain, which deposited around an inch of ice onto every surface, then another cold weekend (-15C yesterday morning). Apparently we'll get to around 5C with no precipitation later this week - can't wait !! The spin bike in the basement is getting very boring.

Lovely scenery in that video S-man ! The climb up the stream reminded me of a path up the Long Mynd in Shropshire that I used to ride 25 years ago (would love to go back).
 
That stream is probably in the Yorkshire Dales, it's not far from Haworth station in the opening scene and about 40 minutes from Leeds, where both S Man and I live. There's a reason why I live there!
 
I suspect the slate bit is Wales.

sean99 said:
Lovely scenery in that video S-man ! The climb up the stream reminded me of a path up the Long Mynd in Shropshire that I used to ride 25 years ago (would love to go back).
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Long time since I've ridden "Long Minge". I suspect it would be good on the E-bike!
 
Woodface said:
I took the plunge & bought a new winter bike, Caad13 disc. It’s nice enough, eye wateringly expensive for an aluminium bike.

Not sure I really like discs, that horrible noise they make when wet. Drives me nuts. Came with a ‘fender bridge’ to fit guards but some fixing parts missing so am currently on borrowed time with my riding buddies.
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Surprised by the brake noise. My gravel bike has Shimano GRX discs and they are nigh on silent. Unlike the SRAM Codes on the Whyte, noisy, blunt and less predictable than the XT brakes on the Anthem. Still good, but Shimano are great.
 
S-Man said:
Surprised by the brake noise. My gravel bike has Shimano GRX discs and they are nigh on silent. Unlike the SRAM Codes on the Whyte, noisy, blunt and less predictable than the XT brakes on the Anthem. Still good, but Shimano are great.
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It seems to be a feature of road disc brakes. My mountain bike never seemed to do it. One the water is skimmed off they are fine but it’s bloody annoying.
 
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