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I'm sure this has been covered but I can't seem to find it...

Any advice for cyclists in central London without access to a car? I've got a couple of friends keen to get into TTing and they are struggling to find accessible courses. I'm in London West which extends out past Oxford, and London North gets up beyond Cambridge so many of the courses won't work for them. Any suggestions appreciated!

Whatever happened to the pilot London Dynamo Richmond Park TTs? I thought the intention was to develop into an annual series of races?

Same frame, possibly. Same owner, possibly.
Same build, no.

Aye maybe... I was sure I had seen that exact photo before but I couldn't find it in my browser history. You certainly posted the same fame (different build) before but it looks like I may stand corrected.

I hate to mention it but I just saw that bike about 5 mins ago somewhere back in the 600 somethings. Pretty cool though.

Loads of orienteering around these parts, theres a fair few of those 'stations?' around the trail I run. Season has'nt started yet though, and I'm avoiding starting new hobbies in case the family disown me.

Theres a weird round wooden hut at 2000 meters above sea level, not far from me, that serves as the finishing spot for a mad mountain run. I'm pretty sure it starts near sea level. Cant seem to find a link for it.

Fjordtilfjell is good for those that want to run a constant 7% gradient, for 21 km, mainly on tarmac. I usually ride it on the fixed gear though.

There's a very popular event called Birkebeinet. Which started as a cross country ski event, then became popular as a MTB event in the summer, after which a running event also followed. I'd like to do the triple (singlespeeding the MTB event). The new Ultrarun event they're holding, at 73km, will be a killer. Its heavy running in the Norwegian mountains. Steep climbs, technical decents, tough stoney sections, and loads of energy saping soft stuff. I love it ;)
http://www.birkebeiner.no/English/Lopet/UltraBirken/

There are also some cool tri events. I fecking hate swimming more than 1 km though.
http://www.nxtri.com/
YouTube - Mind over Matter - Norseman 2010

I entered Norseman 2010 but didn't get a spot in the lottery. Then a few months later, after I had a place at IMCH and had arranged to go to a friend's wedding on that day, they emailed me saying a spot had become available if I wanted it!! I was super gutted that I couldn't take up the place... Racing norseman is definitely one of my two top goals in tri, it looks awesome!

Search fail.

Yonks ago, somewhere on this forum people were having a really good discussion on optimal tyre pressure for racing (i.e. fastest pressure). From what I remember the gist was that harder is not always faster (there was a point at which you could increase RR by over inflating) and there was a table that gave the optimal PSI for a given weight of rider. I've read what Sheldon has to say on the matter but I remember this table being more useful.

Can anyone recall the thread/article or know what I'm talking about? Much appreciated.

*Edit: while I'm at it wasn't there a table of RR's for different tyres?

It looks awesome with Wiggins on top giving it some gas

http://static.lfgss.com/attachments/37354d1300041027-death-spray-flying-tiger-track-01.jpg

Sort of brings these to mind... but uglier and not as fast.

and

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_qPvz8Ik4yA4/TJwuSR2zh9I/AAAAAAAAAB0/Rk9VZYu5tiA/s1600/P1010148.JPG (big pic)

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-12664422

Interesting idea, I've seen that nylon printing before, but as strong as steel? somehow I doubt it but willing to be proved wrong.

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/69473395

garmin data from yesterday, fitness levels evident from heart rate, got the water of life half on march 20th, much tougher course to go fast on, but going to shoot for 1.38 assuming i can be arsed to train...

Mental strength course... I can't imagine anything worse than running laps of Dorney - at least its flat! I'm sure I've mentioned it but I had a coach who used to make do 180-210km rides on a 30km circuit going past my front door every lap. He wanted to give me every possible opportunity to give up and go home - his rational(?e) being that if I could keep going after 5, 6 or 7 hours of whizzing past my bed and a nice warm shower, then I'd have no problem in races. Out and back courses are easy - if you stop you don't get home.

All interesting stuff and evidence of how different approaches work for different people - if it ain't broke don't fix it!

You can be sure to see me and my barefeet hopping onto every passing bandwagon along with about every other triathlete... Carbon TT bling, GPS watches, swim paddles and fins and long training miles! :)

(not that I have anything informative to say, but) We can save the training miles debate for a months time when I'll be back from Sabah. Not sure how much opportunity for training there'll be in the mangroves but I'm taking my Vibrams and my old Saucony trainers just in case. (I'm taking the Saucony's over my newtons because they are more versatile - my newtons are good for running only and depending on where I'll be working trainers may be better than heavy boots in the swamps).

Tried to keep an eye on gait today, I think I tend to come down more on my forefoot than my heel.

I'm not sure though if this is true- i.e. I do not know how much impact on the heel is normal.

I guess according to the barefoot philosophy, the way to tell this would be to visit a nice patch of grass and try actually running barefoot. You will find that if you are heel striking too much you will very quickly bruise your heel. Most people seem to convert very quickly to a forefoot gait when actually running barefoot. The caveat is that if you are used to traditional shod running, many of the muscles used in barefoot running may be under developed - too much too soon is the commonest cause of injuries associated with barefoot.

Ditto. In that i haven't spent oodles of cash on foot gloves when normal trainers have suited me fine to date...

This, I think, makes you very fortunate however tells us nothing about whether or not barefoot/forefoot running is or isn't a good thing. Your existing running shoes may be heavily built up and padded or they may be minimally padded racing flats. You may be a natural fore/midfoot striker, or you might be an habitual heel striker. You may be naturally blessed with a strong resistance to running injuries, you might have done everything in your power to otherwise mitigate potential injuries, or you might just have been very lucky. Your normal trainers may have be fine for the occasional weekend jog round the park or you might be training 100miles a week.

For me, I ran in "conventional" buit up trainers with no trouble as part of my training for rowing and latterly Sprint and olympic distance triathlons. It wasn't until I started training and racing long distance triathlons that I started getting injured. I have no categorical proof that my shoes caused my injures and there are many potential confounding factors. But, my injuries are consistent with this hypothesis. Since I changed to a forefoot strike and incorporated barefoot running into my training I have been injury free. While this does not prove cause and effect I do believe that the two are related. This also doesn't mean that I won't get injured in the future but, at least for me, barefoot running seems to work.

p.s. disclaimer that the research contained in that link was funded by Vibrams... however the results of the research sounded legitimate to me, IIRC the stats looked ok and the interpretation seemed plausible. Plus I'm assuming that having come out of Harvard and got the front page of Nature that cleverer minds than mine have run it through the mill too.

p.p.s. "barefoot runnimg" doesn't necessarily mean running with no shoes on. The term has also become synonymous with running in minimal footwear such as VIbram 5 fingers or vivo barefoot. Due to the lack of padding (in particular around the heel) minimal footwear necessitate a similar gait to running without shoes. To a lesser extent, some people have begun to group fore/mid foot striking in with barefoot running too. Anyway, no need to worry about the soles of your feet getting dirty.

barefoot running- a load of the latest marketing bollocks or genuine freedom?-
discuss.
(other than the beach places I run would shred your feet in minutes so I aint buying it)

Genuine freedom.

For those that haven't read it http://www.barefootrunning.fas.harvard.edu/ is a good read and I broadly speaking buy into the rational behind the philosophy. I don't have time to go into my experience now but for what its worth, I have a generally sporty background (mainly rowing) and have done bits and bobs of running for ages, always in professionally fitted "conventional" running shoes. In the last 3 years I started training for Marathon distance running and spent the first year and a half wracked with injuries (stress fractures and buggered ITB). Since switching to a mid/forefoot strike, and incorporating barefoot running (vibram 5 fingers) into my training I have been both injury free and faster.

It definitely seems to work for me. More over, the philosophy of "less is more" and not trying to engineer a solution to a problem strikes a chord with me.

+1 Genuine Freedom.

Is this still going on at this time of year? I've never played but my housemate and I were thinking of coming down next week. Is it possible to borrow a mallet (and possibly a bike- Not sure I've got appropriate gearing)?

Sorry, feel like a massive arse about this... work got super hectic this week so I wasn't able to commit to any of the times. Also I go away on Wednesday but maybe I'll manage to swing by in a month when I'm back.

What is your background. Are you a reformed couch potato and this was your first attempt or is it the result of years of dedication and hard training? If so what training have you done.

Look how far the police saddle is... (s)he is almost sitting in front of the BB.

Look at the size of Cancellara's legs in comparison to the schleks... he makes them look like children!

Go Spartacus!

I saw one in plain white (I think with subtle-ish italian highlights) and it was pure porn. The stickers are ugly, the down-tube is apparently more aero. Still other brands haven't bothered with it so maybe its not such a big deal in the wind tunnel.

I think those wheels are generic open mould though - seen others very similar under a range of brands.

Anyway - very nice in pure white. I'd ride it.

I didn't start in Oxford but this area is nice to explore.

If you look on a map, Witney, Chipping Norton and Burford form a triangle in the middle of which are lots of nice small roads and picturesque villages.

Based on that logic, and looking at the downward arrows on the fork, and upward arrows on the seatpost, this frame is aerodynamically designed for mad backflipz.

me... Was just reading this article in the Jakarta post.

To politically and financially back up REDD+ development and implementation in this country, a letter of intent (LoI) was signed by the Indonesian and Norwegian governments in Oslo in late May last year.
The LoI came with a pledged provision of US$1 billion for Indonesia. This could be considered as the biggest single support any country has given Indonesia to date in the area of environmental management and climate change, and a significant initial step toward saving Indonesia’s peatlands and natural forests.

My first thought was "Whats so funny about a letter of intent?"... too much time on the interwebz.

This is exactly why I have a Fast Forward wheel... I didn't want some stupid backwards wheel!

I almost choked at the end!!

Aye I used the Rafael and English as examples of (IMO) attractive designs. In the world of tri everyone rides treks, cervelos, Planet x, Cannondale, Scott, Q-roo, Fuji etc. (myself included). It's just a shame they are so garishly designed.

That Meridia is awful, almost as bad as the green (ultegra) CD0.1!

I just posted in my Tri club forum how most modern Tri/TT bikes are anti. Technological marvels, yes, but the garish paint jobs are more often than not horrible.

Do they really need to write TREK 7 times?? It's one of the most distinctive and anticipated bikes around - we know what it is!

On the plus side, the decals on the Bontrager front wheel are infinitely better than the old Aeolus decals.

I still want one though.