Any question answered...

Is a 1" carbon steerer + 1/8" shim + 1 1/8" stem acceptable or likely to end in disaster?

But which one?

The one that hasn't broken yet.

Im doing it tom on the Alan, seems to be a-ok

Does stuck seatpost count as broken?

I'll call it fixed seatpost and pretend it's OK.

Depending on how deep it is, one less lug to worry about.

Is a 1" carbon steerer + 1/8" shim + 1 1/8" stem acceptable or likely to end in disaster?

You'll be fine.

Does anybody have any Top Tips (tm) for loosening up my shoulders / posture on mah bike? People have always told me that I'm too tense. I've been this way for as long as I remember and I'm no longer able to recognise tension for what it is until I realise I'm riding along as though as my arms and shoulders are made out of tungsten and my armpits are practically above my ears. It's especially bad after a long descent when I've been leaning on the brakes as I'm naturally more tense then, but forget to loosen up again afterwards. Even if I make a conscious effort to relax it kind of feels like I'm tensing my shoulders in the other direction, trying to pull them downwards instead of upwards. I've apparently lost all sense of what's comfortable and correct for my own body.

Plz halp.

Is a 1" carbon steerer + 1/8" shim + 1 1/8" stem acceptable or likely to end in disaster?

I hope not, I've been riding with that for about 18 months.

Does anybody have any Top Tips (tm) for loosening up my shoulders / posture on mah bike? People have always told me that I'm too tense. I've been this way for as long as I remember and I'm no longer able to recognise tension for what it is until I realise I'm riding along as though as my arms and shoulders are made out of tungsten and my armpits are practically above my ears. It's especially bad after a long descent when I've been leaning on the brakes as I'm naturally more tense then, but forget to loosen up again afterwards. Even if I make a conscious effort to relax it kind of feels like I'm tensing my shoulders in the other direction, trying to pull them downwards instead of upwards. I've apparently lost all sense of what's comfortable and correct for my own body.

Plz halp.

valium.

Is a 1" carbon steerer + 1/8" shim + 1 1/8" stem acceptable or likely to end in disaster?

100% fine. You're supposed to position the slit in the shim towards the front of the bike, i.e. on the opposite side of the steerer to the stem bolts, but apart from that: nothing to worry about.

Plz halp.

I've taken to glancing at my shadow since I realised I do the same. It gives you visual clues to stop and I feel like I do it much less than I used to...

apparently lost all sense of what's comfortable and correct for my own body.

Plz halp.

Ride your bike no handed, as often as possible. Including turning around corners.

You will learn that steering and bike control is all about gentle leaning, not wrestling your handlebars.

Your bike size and position may also be forcing you to be like this.

You will learn that steering and bike control is all about gentle leaning

No! Don't lean!

Does anybody have any Top Tips (tm) for loosening up my shoulders / posture on mah bike? People have always told me that I'm too tense. I've been this way for as long as I remember and I'm no longer able to recognise tension for what it is until I realise I'm riding along as though as my arms and shoulders are made out of tungsten and my armpits are practically above my ears. It's especially bad after a long descent when I've been leaning on the brakes as I'm naturally more tense then, but forget to loosen up again afterwards. Even if I make a conscious effort to relax it kind of feels like I'm tensing my shoulders in the other direction, trying to pull them downwards instead of upwards. I've apparently lost all sense of what's comfortable and correct for my own body.

Plz halp.

Top tip, which you've already found and been interested in, here:

https://www.lfgss.com/post3297328.html

'Shoulder blades down' will soon become as familiar a refrain to you as it is to me. :)

Yeah, that was one of the things I was thinking of with the yoga, you're right.

No-handed tip is interesting. The steering on my Langster is a bit twitchy so I'm maybe compensating for its greater responsiveness with my death grip. I've had a bike fitting so I'm not too worried about that but maybe it's not totally perfect yet.

Cheers, chaps

yes the yoga helps. having been riding bikes since I was little, I never connected it with my general posture which is with my shoulders up around me ears (music teachers, tai chi and others commented on it over the years) but I wonder if my terrible cycling posture partly caused that. yoga with Rebecca was a bit of a revelation. my posture is still terrible, but not quite so much.

yoga, pilates or other core exercises

they will help you use your torso to support your weight

your fit may need adjusting if you have too much weight on your hands. do the core work and flexibility stuff first and see how you get on before spending more money on a follow up bike fit as it may not be needed.

also mountain biking may help, you have to be more relaxed to deal with the twists and turns, death grip makes it very hard to respond to the trail, it also limits the feedback you can feel through the handlebars, so you have to develop a more relaxed riding style so you can feel a bit more of what is going. additionally i discovered that fighting the terrain tends to make things more difficult, relaxing and point of focus makes for much easier steering and control

Play polo, you'll be too busy being drunk and swinging a mallet around to get tense, or just ride drunk all the time.

One of the things the fitter said was that i've got good posture, but he hasn't seen me sagging after 4 or 5 hours in the saddle when fatigue makes it harder to maintain form. Yoga def seems to be the way to go to start off with, though. More so than being drunk all the time, which is probably more likely to cause crashing into things and needing slings and casts and metal supports, etc etc.

Even with yoga, your posture will probably be shit at the end of a long, hard ride, but it'll keep you on the straight and narrow for longer, and make you feel better.

That no handed riding advice is good, it forces you to engage core muscles. I was told to do it by an osteopath years ago, and do it as much as I can. Also, try swinging your arms in synch with your pedalling, a bit like running.
I had a neck pain issue, it has completely vanished now, that is all I ever did to address it!

There isn't one grease to rule them all. Go to a motor factor and get a half kilo tin each of Copper grease for things which don't move and Molybdenum Disulphide for things that do. £10 investment which will last a lifetime.

Good tip. Why then does the Dura Ace [ame="http://www.amazon.co.uk/SHIMANO-Dura-Ace-Grease-Tub-500g/dp/B0038TER9K/ref=sr_1_fkmr1_3?s=sports&ie=UTF8&qid=1358119721&sr=1-3-fkmr1"]'Special Grease' [/ame]cost £80 for the same amount?

Thank you MrKawasaki, lord of all things retro MTB, looks like mine and horatio's 1st guesses were good.

Yoga???