Cycling Thread - All Peddlers and Pedallers welcome.

[VivaLeBeaver]

Have started a new thread as the other one is very nearly full.

It is amazing Puffy, I actually think I feel safer on my horse - people pass wide and slow rather than fast and close when you are on a horse!

My usual roads are fine enough, small country lanes, a lot of roads where two cars have to squeeze past each other.

I don't get that at all... Why not offer the same courtesy do a cyclist! Just coz a bike won't rear and bolt... They should still slow down. Makes me so cross!

What the drivers do not realise Puffy, is that I am much more likely to fall off my bike than my horse! , seriously, downhill speeds round bends with gravel on country lanes are not good for me. DH has threatened to loosen my brakes if I don't stop using them on said downhill bends.

Am going on a group ride tomorrow - 40 miles - a lot for me as I rarely exceed 25-30 in one day - expect to be horizontal for a while when I get back, unfortunately I have got my big monthly work meeting in the evening.

Must report that my derriere has shrunk by 3 inches since I started riding more, could have been June or maybe even July. All good stuff - more chocolate, smaller hips.

fab stuff, liking the inch loss + chocolate combination!

I've just been up our local big rock, really chuffed as I've never made it up most of the technical climbs before (big rocky steps up and roots) and today I did! It took me bloody ages as I've lost lots of bike fitness over the summer hols, but I'm so chuffed as that's the first time I've managed that particular stretch of technical climb without walking a few bits.
I just wish I could get my iron levels up though, I'm so far behind my friends on long climbing stretches, it takes me nearly twice as long as them to do the same bit of ride :(
And I forgot my phone, so no strava times

Good luck on the group ride, by the way!

Do you mean blood iron levels puffy? I am anaemic most of the time and in addition have pernicious anaemia so have B12 injections regularly - no advice really as my diet is full of the stuff. I now use Floradix rather than prescription meds, same results, easier on my stomach and I haven't had to have an IV infusion since I switched to it 3 years ago.

Picture of health I am .

Thanks for the good wishes, DH is coming and said I can do it easily, I just don't realise it .

I wish my arse would shrink! Well done, Lavendersun, I end up so hungry I eat twice the calories to compensate.

Are you riding far enough out? If it's not safe for a car to overtake you, ride in the center of your lane so that you compel them to give you the same space they would if you were on your horse. Especially on bends.

There was actually an advertising campaign in Scotland - 'See cyclist. Think Horse' which was controversially banned by the ASA who objected to the lack of helmet and (national standard recommended) cycling postition before the ban was overturned and the ad reinstated.

I know too much geeky cycling stuff.

I do ride out Chops - years of riding lively horses taught me to ride in a 'defensive' for want of a better word position on the road. In fact I felt that a couple of the cars were slightly miffed because they couldn't squeeze past me tbh.

The roads are so full of potholes with an uneven camber/lots of gravel piled at the edges round here that if you didn't ride out by 2ft you wouldn't last too long.

One of the fast movers was only a foot away from me, no exaggeration, a big white 4 x 4, that was the car where I thought the driver probably had no clue as to how wide it was - will probably only ride that particular road again when I am with DH.

I have lots of choice and can stay off the big roads, even into town, just that I rode from school and not from home, I will just drive home next time and ride from here on the smaller roads.

Funny, my appetite has decreased since I upped my exercise - I was always really fit but lost it when I wasn't very well almost three years ago. Hopefully the new old Lavender will return and my old clothes will fit.

I'd call it 'assertive' and try 3.5 foot - the 'magic meter' :P

Some drivers just are twunts though :( No matter how 'assertive' I am I'm often shocked how close they drive to us when we have 7/8 kids with us and especially when just out with my twins. I had a right twat cut me off from my twins on the ride home from school yesterday. It doesnt bother me when I'm out on my own but I do hate them intimidating the kids.

I do wish my appetite would decrease! Though tbh in my case it's my love of a glass or three of wine which doesn't help!

I'm sad too. I won a triathlon place for Sunday but I've already accepted private bookings so i can't go! I need to start making more time for racing again.

Ooh lavendersun that's so good to know... About your iron, I mean. I'm due to have an iron transfusion. But really don't want one as I react so badly to the tablets. I've been taking floradix for a while, but I'm quite sporadic with it (for instance today I have managed zero instead of the planned 3 doses!!) and I definitely feel so much better when I take it.
Am pending further investigations as to why I keep getting so anaemic, they thought for a while it was a leaky hepatic hemangioma but that's been shown to be ok at the mo
Anyway! I shall just keep peddling on! I'm hoping to get out again for a sneaky ride on Friday, weather permitting

Thanks Chops, I would probably only ride 3.5 foot in if I had DD in front of me on one of the busy roads - we sort of make a sandwich, DH, DD and then me sticking out at the rear. Obviously (hopefully anyway) I would be wider on my horse!!

We have got to take DD on a fast bendy A road tomorrow - it is the last 500 yards home from school. We only do it occasionally when we are both at home - we are trying to keep her going distance wise which is harder when she is at school - for our French weekend .

puffy Floradix works but you actually have to ingest it , seriously, my haemoglobin was < 9 on a regular basis, hence the IVs. Since I gave up on the prescription tablets (tried them all) which made me feel very very nauseous, constipated, permanent stomach ache, etc., it is very respectable, sometimes I manage 11 . Lifelong anaemia here though so if I can keep it near 11 everyone is happy.

Do you know why your iron levels are so bad lavender?

My periods are heavy but I don't think they're heavy enough for my iron levels to be on the floor all the time.. Coeliac bloods were negative, but I know there's quite a high rate of false negatives. Sis has Crohns and I have had IBS for years, so I suspect I have absorption issues.

I'm fingers crossed going out again tomorrow night before it gets dark, up our local rock again.. Mountain biking through the winter is fairly sporadic with working so much, we usually manage one morning a week if the weather is ok... I feel like I haven't had my fill this year, as I was off my bike for a few months :( we've been to three trail centres recently, but it's all been about the kids ,- I haven't done any really decent riding, so am feeling a bit frustrated at the mo

Yikes at taking dd on a bendy road! I get so worried taking my pair on pavements, never mind roads!

I have always struggled puffy - since teenage years, I was (and still am at times) a fainter - all very period drama like.

I have always been thin ish, although I have gained weight over the last three years. I don't think that helps though, low end of BMI, very heavy periods and now in my 40s, fibroids.

Pernicious anaemia is a mal absorption issue but no specific cause ever found for the iron deficiency, had lots of investigations over the years but I gather that your iron levels naturally drop in your 40s/50s so if mine don't I might be considered relatively normal for a change .

We skipped the CTC ride yesterday as DH had been away for two weeks, just went on our own. Just about to leave for the 7 miles to school before we all ride home together. Lovely day for a change.

Keep slurping the Floradix puffy.

We are out of control here in the Lavender household.

In the last 12 hours we seem to have agreed to buy a touring tandem, just negotiating price (!) so that we can get more miles out of DD on holidays and bought this beauty as DD's next bike. We were thinking of an isla lluath but would have to add gears - this has everything - might have to store it for a year til it fits. Stunning, I would like it for myself but am 5'8!

www.ebay.co.uk/itm/41cm-Orbit-Mercury-ladies-touring-bike-26-wheels-21-speed-/291557500022?ssPageName=ADME:B:BOC:GB:1123

I feel a bit of a fraud jumping in, you all seem like proper cyclists . I've just bought a bike, it's a cheapy from decathlon, and I'm very excited! I'm also very fat, and am hoping cycling might help my weight loss (2.5st down so far).

I'm feeling like a proper cyclist today toomanybuttons - I'm covered in bruises, pedals strikes and cuts from falling off my bike far too many times yesterday! It was a fab fun ride though

I'm not proper too, stared doing more because my horse is semi retired. Love the fact that it is more inclusive family wise. Am aching after four rides four days running this week though.

We have done it, bought a 2008 Galaxy tandem , subject to seller not backing out. We tried add on a tandem in the shop building DH's new bike yesterday - she is at the smallest end of the sizing and we need to swap the cranks for the thorn two hole ones for her comfort for now - but she will have grown by next summer when we will use it loads. It has front and back racks so with me on my bike we will be able to carry lots of stuff and do B&B trips comfortably.

We will be putting five bikes on eBay this afternoon to make room! Leaving us with 6 incl tandem - a good clear out!

Wow, a tandem! I've only tried riding one once, it was a bti on the small side and very hard to ride. A friend of mine races them, I'm in awe of her.

I've not had any time to do any proper riding for myself as I've been so busy teaching others. Bikeability for 34 kids and 7 learn to balance and ride sessions. I am knackered! Looking busy next week too, though I'm hoping to keep sunday free for a day off.

I'd love a tandem, can't see dh going for it though as I reckon he must be 3 stone lighter than me. He would reckon I'd sit on the back not stoking enough while he dragged me about!

Lavender - what you selling on ebay?????

Well, our seller was flaky (suspected as much), so we have bought a new one!

Chops, our local CTC group is full of people who brought their kids up on tandems - bad influence. With the stem and crank adjustments DD fits the big one which means .... Mr and Mrs Lavender could use it in the future , like when I am ancient. Not likely though really as DH's bike is a million times more swish so he isn't likely to want to go somewhere on a tandem when we can do distance without it.

We saw DH's mtm in progress yesterday - absolutely stunning, he was thrilled.

eBay sales will include a mans trek hybrid and my trek t30, a tag along, an old cannondale MTB and DD's 20" Ridgeback cherry (that she outgrew in 9 months). DH is 6'2 with long legs, mine is a 21" frame I think so fairly big in size terms.

Oh, and another one - a Verenti Kilmeston , I swear they are multiplying in the barn.

If I had a barn, I'd be dangerous! I really need to find a way to protect the 4-5 I have sitting in the garden now over winter. They are just kids bikes for training purposes, but I need to wrap them up somehow.

A Verenti Kilmeston! I'd love something like that for work. I find my hybrid so sluggish after a spin on my road bike. Not really practical though. :(

21" too big for me, shame I'd have been interested in the Trek.