Cycling UK Forum

Richard of York wrote: ↑25 Mar 2022, 12:00pm To a Buddhist, any bell is empty of inherent existence in and of itself and only exists interdependently - the mineral miners, the lorry drivers, designer, earth's processes that formed the metals and so on. I think it would be helpful if folks meditated on the nature of the bell next time they go out on the bike, cycling mindfully.

Serious question: do you reckon cycling is a good exercise to let you practice mindfulness (compared with other exercises)? It's just that my best cycling pal and I went to mindfulness classes but although I tried for over a year (yeah I know, you're not supposed to try...) I couldn't get into it. Then again, maybe that just confirms that it was something I needed to learn. I thought perhaps it was the sitting still doing nothing that didn't work for me (although I know that's a contradiction in itself) and wondered if I'd get on better practising mindfulness when cycling, i.e. cycling mindfully.

Curiously, I always got on better at the mindfulness classes if I'd cycled there compared to when my pal picked me up in his car, but that's a different thing.

The Dutch racing cyclist Annemiek van Vleuten quite recently did a 400K training ride around the Netherlands on her time trial bike in just over 11 hours @ 36 km/h (22 mph) with only 900 metres of 'climbing' - 900 metres in 400K...

In recent years the Dutch national road race cycling championships as well as other cycle races have featured the VAMberg or Col du VAM...

Since 18 October 2018, the Netherlands has gained a mountain. The Col du VAM, the mountain in Drenthe, is about 37 metres high. After the climb, with a rise between 8 and 13% you have a fantastic view of the surroundings. You can even see all the way to Germany.

On top of the VAM mountain is the De Blinkerd information centre, where you can delve into the environment and its origins. The mountain is mainly used by cyclists. It is, in fact, a beautiful mountain for training purposes. There are three bicycle lanes including a cobblestone lane. The VAM mountain is known for cycling events such as the Ronde van Drenthe. It is not only a real gain for cyclists, there are also walking routes.

The mountain is near the town of Wijster and the top is the highest spot in the province of Drenthe. It is an artificial hill that was created as a landfill site for the waste processing company VAM. The top of the VAM mountain is now still at 56 metres above sea level. It will take a while but, in 2020, there will be an extra layer of sand on top of the mountain: het Dak van Drenthe (the Roof of Drenthe). It's all about the experience. Just think of it, cycling with a view over the whole of Drenthe.

https://www.hofvansaksen.com/nieuws/the ... to-drenthe

I believe it's just the bottom right hand corner of NL that has anything approaching actual hills - the province of Limburg.

MrsHJ wrote: ↑23 Mar 2022, 7:44pm Is it worth mentioning that you mean the Netherlands as Holland is a part of the country, not the whole thing.

You're right - there was an official decree about that a couple of years ago from the Dutch parliament - it's the Netherlands, not Holland - Holland is just the two provinces up the west of the Netherlands. It's not like calling the UK England, though - I've heard Dutchies whose home town isn't in Holland still referring to their country as Holland, but strictly speaking it isn't (they also refer to themselves as Dutchies, btw - it's not any kind of offensive term).

The Dutch Government has decided to ditch all use of the term “Holland” to reference the name of their country. The Netherlands, the country’s official name, will now be used in all promotional materials. The clear branding decision ends decades of confusion and has been agreed by a range of stakeholders including central government, tourism board and business leaders.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/davidnikel ... 71367a1748

I'm afraid one my favourite jokes is an Irish joke: Irishman's running down the road with a big duck under his arm, duck's going, "QUACK QUACK QUACK!", Irishman's saying, "AH'M GAWN' AS QUACK AS AH CAN!"

reohn2 wrote: ↑23 Mar 2022, 2:23pm On a very dark night lashing down with rain,a man and his wife are tucked up in bed cozy and warm about to nod off to sleep when there suddenly comes banging on the front door.
They both look at one another,the lady says "you better go down and see who it is"
So dutifully the chap puts on his jeans and t shirt and goes down,opens the door to a man soaked to the skin who says "please help me I need a push!".
The chap says "what do you think I am the RAC,f*** off and don't come knocking on my door again!" and slams the door in his face.
He then returns to bed where his wife say "who was it?"
He says "some idiot wanting a push,I told him to get lost I'm not a breakdown service"
His wife says "well that's not very nice,remember a couple of years ago when we had a puncture in the car and a man stopped and helped because you didn't know how to change the wheel? Well I think you should return the favour and go and help that man outside who needs your help"
So reluctantly the chap puts his jeans and t shirt on again,goes down stairs into the pitch black night and shouts into the blackness "WHERE'S THE MAN WHO NEEDS A PUSH?"
A voice out of the darkness shouts back "OVER HERE,I'M ON THE SWING"

Believe it or not, that's essentially a true story about Tommy Steele - I remember hearing it in a documentary about him donkey's years ago. He tended to get a bit hyper at nights and pretty much did what the joke describes - knocked on someone's door, asked for a push and turned out to be out in the garden on the swing. Whether he'd heard the joke first and was just having a laugh or whether the joke's about him I wouldn't know, but it did actually happen.

Whatever you do, try one adjustment at a time or you'll never learn what fixed it. IME it's been the pedals not tightened up enough to the crank.

Here you go - this is how you do it.

simonineaston wrote: ↑22 Mar 2022, 11:29am The following has just occured to me. Given that language use is in a constant state of development and change, across a wide range of users of differing ages, education and class, disapproval of problematic uses is probably just the disapprover giving vent to their various prejudices!

To suggest that disapproving of Fox News is prejudice would be an inappropriate use of the word prejudice. But come on - 'pummel' - seriously?!

This just did my head in - a Fox News chyron: PUTIN'S FORCES CONTINUE TO PUMMEL UKRAINIAN CITIES...


Aw yeah, that's what they're doing - pummelling - pummel, pummel, pummel...

If you can think of a less appropriate word to use when people and their homes and cities are getting blown to bits, go ahead. Pummel... Sheesh.

There's doubtless some shade to it (unless whoever wrote it is just clueless) - Fox's angle won't be to condemn Putin's actions, just not to endorse them; their real thrust will be to condemn Biden and his administration for... whatever.

Same as with Mick's pal who's had a stroke, you'd obviously never laugh at anyone with a speech impediment, but I used to work with a fellow who was known as 'Whit, Tam?'.

He didn't have a stammer as such, he just lacked confidence in his speech - the first time he spoke, the words would come out in a jumble, in fact they weren't really words at all - it was like he'd panicked. Then you'd say, "Whit, Tam?" and he'd speak perfectly normally.

Mick F wrote: ↑20 Mar 2022, 5:40pm Weather (wind) warnings for days .................. no real strong winds here .....................but the last couple of days it's been blowing a hooligan, but no wind warnings at all!

Glorious sunshine and clear blue skies, but chilly in that there wind.

Yesterday evening was weird in Ayrshire - it had been a beautiful day and fairly calm, then a big wind got up in the evening, still without a cloud in the sky. I'd meant to cycle to the shops during the day but was doing other stuff so I went in the evening - absolutely flew down, which is unusual - 'down' to the town is west so I'm almost always downhill except into the prevailing wind, so it must have been an easterly wind last night. It was a hard slog home, though - uphill, laden - against a fierce headwind. Wind's away again today though.

Psamathe wrote: ↑19 Mar 2022, 7:52pm Johnson, who now considers himself one of the world's great statesmen

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2022/mar/19/pms-comparison-of-ukraine-resistance-to-uk-brexit-vote-criticised-as-crass wrote:Fury greets Johnson’s claim Ukraine fight is like Brexit

Yet to me most of the time he's just spouting the blindingly obvious and trying to tell the rest of the world what they should do (despite them already doing it, unlike the UK dragging its feet).

Ian

Needs to drink more brandy and talk less tosh.

Here's an idea for giving SUVs a real (re)purpose in life - far more appropriate than how they're currently used...

Just saw this on Reddit

Jdsk wrote: ↑18 Mar 2022, 3:09pm ... have another look at the products mentioned! : - )

June 1969.

Jonathan

PS: I'll come back on the etymology of no-one else does...

Oh, right - didn't read through it - so, nothing new under the sun, then! It must have been a photocopy of an old 'edict'.

Tbh, mind you (you'll just have to take my word for this), when Ford introduced the Cosworth DFV engine in 1967, Jim Clark and Graham Hill tended to qualify 1st and 2nd, as they did at Zandvoort for the Dutch Grand Prix that year, the engine's first race, but I couldn't find a photo of them running 1-2 (Hill's Lotus broke in the race), so I went for Andretti/Peterson instead. Anyway, maybe 1967 was when the Loti/Lotuses question first arose (or not).

And did anyone spot my not-so-deliberate mistake concerning Lotus names beginning with 'El' - Eclat... So maybe it was just the letter 'e'. Or not, even.

mattheus - I didn't know there was an Elan valley in Wales (which I know will make me sound pig-ignorant to anyone who's Welsh!) but with Spa's saddles being called after Yorkshire dales you wonder if there might be some connection there (or not). I just meant what the word elan means, though - quite appropriate for that style of bike.

And I knew the Elise was called after someone's daughter, but I think it was still partly because it began with the letter 'e' (but not necessarily 'el'!).