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Never too early / too much is never enough - i'm hitting sainos at lunchtime

If the brakes are howling I'd probably give the rotors a run through the dishwasher then a good rub with emery paper & just replace the pads. Always found road bike discs more susceptible to contamination (greasy road dust?) and as they're porous it tends to seep into them, you might get lucky with a good sand down but for the sake of a tenner or so for a cheap pair of organic pads I'd be looking at that

Can't remember exactly what the lower cup configuration is on these, think it's inset - the cup & bearing sit inside the head tube & it's a nice smooth transition between the ht & fork crown.

The bearing race should just drop out as you remove the forks, replace with a new one and you're good to go for a tenner or so. There are a few similar bearings with slightly different contact angles so just make sure it's the exact same code.

Looks good - are you keeping it as is or are there plans afoot?

Could only find this rubbish photo with 33mm rubber - doesn't show clearance but these were comfortable & there was still room for slightly bigger. 35mm should be fine, possibly dependent on rim / tyre combo

https://www.lfgss.com/comments/16360763/

Yeah that's a solid buy - they're still selling the Croix de Fer 931 frameset for £2.5k

On paper 931 is similar in properties to 853 but with the benefit of being stainless, I found it quite firm but really smooth (was a xs frame so maybe slightly stiffer than a XL with similar tubing profiles)

Enjoy!

Did you get it with a cheeky offer?

I had one a few years ago, wish I'd kept it as it was pretty much all the commuting / road bike I really needed - would have taken a pop on that one had it been a foot smaller

I actually do need to start pressing again - delts have been a bit twingey when I'm benching - even with lighter weights, weird

That's a fair target alright - although looking back at my ohp numbers i've done a few reps at 62kg before, from memory that involved a fair push with the legs to get it moving though, so not sure that counts. Bench and squat should be achievable, but I haven't trained deadlifts for a couple of years & best I had then was ~140kg, still - food for thought!

Nice work on the dl / squats - that's impressive!

Aye, couple of days into the second week it was game over - I had weighed myself on the body composition scales before I went to see how much i'd put on, came back 3kg down & the rest has came off since then as I really wasn't eating properly until a week or so ago, 5kg off in 5 weeks is pretty wild so i'm determined to keep most of that off.

Some will go back on in water weight as glycogen is restored & i've started taking creatine again but i'll be keeping an eye on my fat mass / % over the next few months - been maintaining a slight defecit recently but with ~1.5g protein / kg it should be enough to keep going in the right direction.

Gonna aim for 140kg on the squat too - 3x3 at 120kg felt fine yesterday with no belt or knee wraps, (was previously doing 130) so i'll start creeping that up too... in hindsight I could have probably hit that and a 100kg bench in April/May but i'm wary of injuries, would rather have it comfortably than risk any setbacks

Anything is better than nothing - some things you just need to let heal properly then work back in gradually & try not to lose interest completely, keep in there!

I'm partial to a standard issue 3 egg omelette myself, would probably do them most days if I worked from home - i know what you mean about the absence of the afternoon dip, always associated that with carb heavy meals.

Toying with the idea of going tomorrow morning too - did bench / squat / row & a few set of pull-ups today so not sure how much use a few random sets of accessories would be the day after a fairly heavy one or if I'll have tired out enough of the main muscle groups today for it to be any benefit

Putting an update here as a statement of intent to get my numbers back up - around May-ish I started getting back on the bike more which impacted some of my lifting progress, I put that down to insufficient rest between activities and carried on with lighter weights / more reps to maintain a bit of form with the intention of losing a bit of weight over summer...

My (all inclusive) summer holiday helped massively with the weight loss, I caught some wild food poisoning bug resulting in my guts (and many, many bathrooms) being wrecked over the last 6 weeks. Once I started eating normally* again, I decided to track my calories / food intake to try & make sure I was getting enough calories, and work out what upset my guts.

Having lost 5kg in as many weeks I was determined to keep most of that off, so I kept tracking calories to keep the motivation up & make sure i'm getting enough protein now i'm back training again - roughly aiming for 1.5g protein / kg bw... turns out i'm usually quite a bit off that, and likewise was probably nowhere near that when I was lifting heavier / cycling more, but at least I know that now & can try and increase my intake to see how it effects recovery & general progress.

Still determined i'll bench 100kg this year - this morning I (just) managed 3x3 at 80kg so there's plenty of work to do, but hopefully it'll come back eventually (strangely, my squats are still pretty good)

*still can't stomach anything too rich / greasy and one or two pints of weak cooking lager is my limit- so my diet is probably much healthier now...

Onwards & upwards

Big ol' 931 Equilibrium disc for £850, versatile bikes with clearance for 35c +

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/305731953528?

Had to be done

Possibly a bit of a pita to get it completely to your spec but the old Genesis High Latitudes are an option - might be a few cheap ones knocking around & if you're up for chopping out the dropouts & adding extra braze-ons you'd have something very similar to that ^ for not a lot of cash.

Get some Leather Nun into the rotation - that'll liven it up a bit

Those Mistral padleboards are great for the price - even in Decathlon a basic pump & paddle will cost ~£70

Assume it's not safe to listen to with a 4yo in the car?

Oh Jesus no - it's obscene, might not be for everyone but I found it hilarious, it's done in the style of a period bodice-ripper but with modern filthy talk

Since this came out my internal monologue has been voiced by Bobby Fingers

Can I artificially raise the stand-over height of my bike, so I can be sure to bash my nutsack in without altering the rest of the bike's geometry?

I think the twin top tube with strategically positioned cross member is specifically designed to tear your nutsack clean off, but i'm splitting hairs here (so will that top tube though)

Yeah, that was on my mind - the rims are nothing special so if there's no obvious improvement to be gained from upgrading consumable parts i'll run them into the ground then build a new pair with something like that at the centre - also spotted these low flange numbers on aliexpress for £30, quite decent deviews too

Anyone seen any bargains for 650b rims (32h disc) around? Have a spare set of 700c wheels for my commuter & toying with the idea of rebuilding as 650b's to squeeze in bigger tyres (have loads of width, but not height due to guards...)

Also - having a nightmare getting the hub cones on my 2017 Genesis Flyer perfectly adjusted, there's always either very slight play detectable at the rim or it's overtightened, the hubs (Joytech A165DSE/A166DSE) are possibly not built to the same tolerances as a DA 7600, but they look nice enough & i'd happily replace the cones / bearings with something not made from cheese to improve them a bit - anyone any ideas?

I'm in a similar boat - on the upside, skateboards you barely ride are cheaper than the bike equivalent & easier to hide away.

I've ended up with a couple of surf skates & resigned myself to a life of cruising round the skateparks when they're empty, having a lovely time of it & having no intention of leaving the ground.

One of my mates (also 45) has recently gone all in on the street / park stuff and is doing pretty well with it - although recently suffered a proper shinbastard which caused an existential crisis & a limp for a week

Not quite sure tbh - they're a couple of grand so definitely more at the medical / research end of the scale than the sort of thing you'd find at a gym etc. (this one lives in a sports science lab).

For general use some of the cheap ones are reportedly pretty consistent, if not very accurate - I was looking at a couple recently just to try and track a general thiccaliciousness trend.