well it had to happen 1 day

Today a mere 27. 11.5 mile loop in and out of marsden... Great ride!

 

Lee,

I've said it before and I'll say it on a public forum, you've not let anybody down and certainly not me. The move went very well in the end and there were plenty of helpling hands (the removal guy drafted in 2 more people to help out with the packing and loading of stuff into the van from the old place). It was hectic as hell on Friday, left the unpacking yesterday evening to attend a party/BBQ and today am finally able to set the hi-fi back up after clearing the stack of boxes that was baracadng all the hi-fi boxes in at the back of the living room. Just having lunch now and then it'll be time to unbox and wire it all back together. :banana:

Hope the pain from the collar bones is easing mate.

 

Trust me - Leon and I have been out on a couple of rides and he's pretty quick...

The hill he mentions is evil - there's a footpath at the top that cuts into the estate, and I always dismount and use that as the road is very steep and a blind S bend, with no central line markings, and cars coming up QUICKLY. The bottom where the gravel was is a pale coloured tarmac so gravel won't show up. Nasty.

It's made me think a bit (odd thing was I was tweaking my rig when I got the text from Leon - adjusting my saddle so I could get better power-to-weight/torgue for higher speeds - d'oh!). I always wear a helmet too - you'd be a "helmet" not to.

I guess now's probably not the best time to say I got 39.5 mph out of my bike once during rush hour - and then got told when I got to work that the area I was in has a 20mph limit... Ooops. Not clever. That was 2 years ago mind you. When I was even more dumb and immature than I am now

Get well soon Lee - I'll see ya tomorrow night dude - any preferences for DVDs to bring over?

 

Oh yeah - forgot - remember (Henryt will!) 1986 and a certain blue racer Junior House had? The brakes were the wrong way round, and I hit the front one rather than the back one, and went up (not over) the handlebars, then landed on the crossbar - on my nuts.

I crawled into the dayroom, blubbering and talking like Jimmy Somerville on helium. I had to be carried to surgery (everyone was laughing 'cos I was coughing and spluttering and EVERYTHING!) and I was black and blue from right round the top of my butt groove to above my todger for a fortnight.

Luckily a) I was 11, and pre-pubescant and b) I don't want kids - he he. I've never been right since that to be honest...

 

Back in my skateboarding days I had allsorts of knocks the worse being when I hit a small stone going down a hill pretty dam fast. I came out okay really, my face was a mess, my nose was well flattened and my eyes came up like Mike Tyson had set about me. However the most painful was the damage to my front teeth, luckily we had a good dentist who managed to patch em up and I only needed one false one at the front. Its great how easily we heal when we're young!

 

am I missing something on the speed-downhill-thing? - all you do is sit there and gravity accelerates you to a speed faster than you can pedal on your largest chainring. A 10 year old could do it!

?

 

The faster you accelerate yourself to begin with, the higher your terminal speed (along with aerodynamic positioning, etc). Then there's simply the skill of not falling off at 40....

 

hi harry

thanks 4 that m8, i am glad it went ok. hope i can come round and c it soon.

Dom, nothing to watch dvd's on m8, its all in the bl00dy loft d'oh.

bottleneck. issac, i'd say its harder to go down hill slowly, though i will b from now on! 40mph is sueside imho, you come off at that speed and your road kill for sure. i found though going downhill with the brakes on makes the bike behave stangly, it can 'snake' or pull to 1 side, never had a bike that didn't do something strange when braking downhill, on the flat its fine.

full body armer from now on i think.

saw consultant this morning signed off for 2 weeks then back to doc for checkup, back in 4 weeks for physio, not allowed back on the bike for at least 2 months, gutted.

they say its a clean break, the bones are lined up fine so should heel straight, as long as i don;t mess about with it, phew.

 

Wasn't there a guy in the Tour last year who broke his collar bone in the first few days then carried on thro' the mountains? Can't remember if he completed or not...

Anyway, wishing you a speedy recovery -

and hoping the roads have dried out by the time I get back on the bike to go home. No rain for weeks then some drizzly showers just to make it slippy. Looks like the sun's out now though

 

Oh arse! Oh well, tea and sympathy then eh?

Nah - 39.5 on East Wonford Hill was scarey, but not that bad. having to do an emergency stop so I didn't jump the lights was heinous - my bike appears to behave very well when you whack the brakes on when on downhill runs - hitting Thornepark Rise at 25, then having to brake sharply on the middle part on the blind bends, my bike seems to hold the road like an Austin 1800 "landcrab" of old - but I don't want to tempt fate eh!?

GOOD NEWS re the collar bone though - nicely! Bummer about the 2 month wait for the bike - by September 18th it's almost time to pack back up and get the bus again!

 

My record's still 55mph on a road bike... Quite exciting with 19mm slicks!
And I had to pedal like crazy to get to that speed, plus have a 54 front chain ring..

You see them at over 60mph on the Tour, once they get to the mountains - well scary!

 

ya bring plenty of that!

you do have a more mosdern bike than me, cos i am too much of a cheapskate to buy a new one, your bike is scary the handlebars are so short one slight move and your off in a different direction.

ya that is what worries me the longer i stay off the bike, the longer my confidence will take to recover, the way i feel now i would have no problem getting back on the bike, just hope i will feel the same in 2 months time, but then after 2 months of exeters crappy public transport system i don't think i'll have much problem actually i might walk it, only takes an extra 10 mins.

get this, i am signed off for 2 weeks but my boss still asked if i can attend a training course next week, it was put to me like "it would be in your interest to attend", is that a threat or what? i ask you? really don't want to have to start seeking legal advice, na doc signed me off cos i wanted a holiday, geezz.

 

Tell them to f*** off - you're not insured under their terms if you're signed off sick. H&S would have a fit if they thought your boss was giving you grief.

A sicknote is a sicknote ffs!