The 'McPath'

[Apache]

I wear baggys on the bike. I'm so hard that my arse doesn't feel the saddle anymore. (Look at my saddle)

Mav, go through the pain, or alternatively, get a better saddle. I went through 3 before I found the make / style that suits me.

Funnily enough, if you wander round Spain or France, you barely see a rider who *isn't* dressed in attire that could be seen from space. We're a bit more reserved in the UK, especially in cross country mountain biking circles. Baggys and loose T's or hoodies are the order of the day - unless you're a downhiller then you (necessarily) look like Evel Knievel!

[flounderbout]

Look again at the photo, look hard at the saddle.
Look at my hands. I'm holding tickets, to that thing she likes. Now the tickets are diamonds. I'm on a horse.

[Koi]

Look again at the photo, look hard at the saddle. Without the proper cycling shorts my backside wouldn't last 2 miles. Also they stop chaffing, and believe it or not increase speed!

Cool gonna get some and wear them in the truck, see how it performs then......

[Maverick]

Oh please, not the stupid lycra shorts, Whats wrong with wearing normal trousers and good old bicycle clips.
What is it with us Brits. Why is possible to see people riding bikes all over the world dressed in their normal streetclothes appropriate for the weather conditions, but here we seem to think that driving a bicycle requires a uniform designed to make the rider look like a prat.

Look again at the photo, look hard at the saddle. Without the proper cycling shorts my backside wouldn't last 2 miles. Also they stop chaffing, and believe it or not increase speed!

Apache regarding the Tyres, my original route had 3/4 mile of gravel track at the end which cut of the last hill. When I first got this bike on the second day I blow the rear innertube, using the cycle route I got two punctures in one week (and that's running 110psi in the Tyres). So now most of my riding is done on the main road, with as little as possible on the bumpy back roads (those Tyres have no give so you feel every grain that goes under them, hence the shorts).

[Bogus]

. I've even manned up and got all the gear including body hugging cycle shorts.

Oh please, not the stupid lycra shorts, Whats wrong with wearing normal trousers and good old bicycle clips.
What is it with us Brits. Why is possible to see people riding bikes all over the world dressed in their normal streetclothes appropriate for the weather conditions, but here we seem to think that driving a bicycle requires a uniform designed to make the rider look like a prat.

[Apache]

Yep, skinny, hard tyres make all the difference. A road bike would survive my commute for a couple of days tops

[Maverick]

Yep it is a Giro de Italia. got it for £200 because I found I was over pedeling the mountain bike in all but the steepest hill, and my ave speed jumped from 12mph to 16 just by changing bike. I've even manned up and got all the gear including body hugging cycle shorts.

Must go make myself look like an idiot now, got to get ready to leave for work!

[Apache]

Is that a 'Giro de Italia'? Great value bikes them.

This is my commuter / fun bike. Wheels soon to be upgraded to Crank Bros. in the pic below. It's my primary transport these days, so why not eh? Will stick slicks on my old wheels and use them on the road when the weather's cack.

[Maverick]

I thougherly agree about the people with tree truck arms and legs. I could never let myself get like that.



This is my current commuter vehicle, and I've got the 8 mile journey down to 25 minutes now (with four killer hills). But my BMI is 33, and it's not fat.

Technically if the NHS refushed to treat obese people (like keeps getting talked about) they would refuse me treatment.

I remember last year a school sent home a letter to a parent warning them that their six year old was overweight. She visually wasn't and the parents couldn't understand it because she was active.

Yes deal with the lazy feckers who roll everywhere, but leave the inocents alone, and stop telling what to eat (that last bit was to the do gooders not the persons on this forum).

It just gets my goat!

[Apache]

Perhaps we should just boil them all down to make soap...

Some of the lazy feckers I see on a daily basis would make you dirtier if you used soap made from them!

[flounderbout]

"it is also true that as a population we are increasingly fat, bmi or no bmi. Largely because we increasingly eat sh1t."

Theres some truth in this, but I think its more to do with the fact that we move less. Kids dont walk to school, Kids dont play outside, they dont have jobs as delivery boys and girls, they do naff all during school holidays. As a nation we quite simply move less under our own steam.
In the 50s and 60s we were not eating so much fast and processed food as a nation, but in our house, although it was all home cooking, the cuts of meat were usually cheaper and fatty, the frying pan was well used, and there was none of this fancy schmancy extra virgin olive oil and low fat spreads either. It was butter or marg ( Stork or Echo) or something just as fatty. Lard or dripping. I think movement is the key, theres just not enough of it going on.

I completely agree. If you get enough exercise you can get away with eating most things. And food does not begin to provide a complete answer (contrary to the impression in my previous post). But people just don't get any exercise, let alone the amount most of us used to get as kids.

Don't know what the answer is to getting people off their fat asses. It is fine when you have parents who get their kids out and about like Apache, but most of them (parents and children alike) are just glued to Jeremy Kyle. It is pretty depressing. Perhaps we should just boil them all down to make soap...

[Apache]

Our kids walk to school. Our kids walk with us for recreation, and the lad is a MTB enthusiast. We limit the amount of sh*t they eat by providing lunches for them rather than just throwing cash at them. I cycle to work rather than using the truck to do the laughably short 7 - 8 mile round trip.

Obesity is avoidable, just as it's always been. There's just a larger percentage of idle feckers who just choose the easiest route to bringing up kids / getting to work / going to the shops - 'it's the teacher's / government's / council's fault' you see.

[Bogus]

"it is also true that as a population we are increasingly fat, bmi or no bmi. Largely because we increasingly eat sh1t."

Theres some truth in this, but I think its more to do with the fact that we move less. Kids dont walk to school, Kids dont play outside, they dont have jobs as delivery boys and girls, they do naff all during school holidays. As a nation we quite simply move less under our own steam.
In the 50s and 60s we were not eating so much fast and processed food as a nation, but in our house, although it was all home cooking, the cuts of meat were usually cheaper and fatty, the frying pan was well used, and there was none of this fancy schmancy extra virgin olive oil and low fat spreads either. It was butter or marg ( Stork or Echo) or something just as fatty. Lard or dripping. I think movement is the key, theres just not enough of it going on.

[flounderbout]

It is true that a few very heavily muscled athletes etc qualify as obese using bmi. It is also true that bmi is a very inflexible mechanism for measuring body type.
However it is also true that as a population we are increasingly fat, bmi or no bmi. Largely because we increasingly eat sh1t. And when I see obese parents dragging grossly obese children around burger joints, it ####es me off. Parents can choose, but children can't. It is not expensive to feed children healthier food (quite the contrary). But it requires some effort, which apparently some people aren't prepared to give even af the risk of their children's health.
All that is nothing to do with promoting unnatural and unhealthy body images in the way that the fashion industry does. It is not about telling kids they are fat, it is about trying to make sure that fewer of them are.
On the other hand, I agree it is not the governments place to police it. Although stopping selling off school playing fields might be a start.

[Maverick]

This obesity thing really has my goat at the moment (and it's not just because according to the BMI indicator I'm obese).

Did you know that most professional athletes are obese according to BMI.
According to my height I should be just under 11 stone (I'm 15 at present) but do to my bone structure (stocky is the best term) at 11 stone I would look like a bag of bones, and probably be unwell.

The more we pressure people, the more we are going to have eating disorders, and people assamed of themselves. Yes most people today need more exercise, but most of the cut this, cut that food is stupid. Everything in moderation.

Did you know that if you exercise regularly you should increase your salt intake, or that your brain uses cholestoral.

Arrrggghhhh, nanny state!