The Retirement Thread

[ColinJ]

While out I noticed the wee lassie I had in the office when I first came here*** out exercising a pony. That was her first proper job after leaving school aged 17. Ye gods that makes her about 65 now. Where has the time gone?

I met my 'bubble pal' when she was just turned 17. She is going to turn 60 in May! Yes - where does the time go?





*** That makes you a 'settler' too!

Villagers in Heptonstall (a settlement on the hill above Hebden Bridge, with buildings dating back to at least the 1500s) were rumoured to consider anyone whose family didn't have at least 3 or 4 generations born in the village to be 'offcumdens' - their version of 'settlers'!

 

[gavroche]

@Drago just to let you know Prof Alice Roberts is on BBC2 at 21.00 tonight. Enjoy but don't get too excited.

 

[Paulus]

I met my 'bubble pal' when she was just turned 17. She is going to turn 60 in May! Yes - where does the time go?





*** That makes you a 'settler' too!

Villagers in Heptonstall (a settlement on the hill above Hebden Bridge, with buildings dating back to at least the 1500s) were rumoured to consider anyone whose family didn't have at least 3 or 4 generations born in the village to be 'offcumdens' - their version of 'settlers'!

That's a long time in the bubble

 

[BoldonLad]

Youngest daughter has just returned my elastic £20. I call it "my elastic £20" because it bounces between my account and hers.

Each month, the conversation goes something like this:

... about two weeks after pay day
Daughter: Dad, can I lend £20?
Me: The word is borrow
Daughter: OK, OK, can I borrow £20
Me: It is in your account now
.... shortly after payday....
Daughter: Dad, I have put that £20 in your account
Me: OK, thank you
....... go to "two weeks after pay day, above, and, repeat......

actually, I am being unfair, sometimes, there is a slight variation.... the £20 request is replaced with £50 request....

 

[PaulSB]

@monkers I took delivery of my new bike in mid December after spending six months pondering many possibilities. It takes me a very long time to make the decision. I looked at Tifosi for weeks and weeks** and was sorely tempted but in the end I wasn't convinced it was the right bike for me. I would advise you to read around a lot on this one. I bought a Kinesis Tripster ATR-V3 Titanium (2021 model), it was @Mo1959 who inspired me to look at titanium. I hadn't considered it at all until the day she mentioned she was buying a titanium bike. I don't know the R2 other than from the Kinesis website, it looks to be a beautiful machine. I can tell you I am absolutely delighted with the overall quality of my Kinesis. Superb design, very well made, comfortable and beautiful to look at. I can recommend Kinesis as a brand without hesitation.

On the gearing, brakes, tubeless thing I'm not technical enough to provide the supporting detail but would my experience is this. The Kinesis is 50/34 - 34/12 with 35mm tubeless winter tyres. To my surprise now I have got used to the bike I can comfortably knock out 19/20mph on the flat, above this and I'm working hard ( I wouldn't be on my Cervelo). For winter this gearing is letting me climb better than expected and I'm grabbing a few PBs.

I have 28mm tubeless on my summer Cervelo and on the Kinesis. The only issue I've experienced is the valves can get gummed up. The solution myself and a friend have come up with for both of us is contrary to the popular view. Most cyclists store bikes running tubeless with the valve at the top. It's our belief this creates the problem of valves gumming up. We store with valves at the bottom. The theory is this. Parked at the top sealant can flow down the tyre wall in to the valve while when parked at the bottom any sealant near the valve will be draining down and away from the valve. We've also found sticky valves are a bigger problem in winter. Why? We don't ride so often. In summer I would ride 3/4 times a week which means checking the pressure every ride and so letting air in and out of the valve regularly. In winter it can be only once a week so the valve has more chance to gum up. I pop in to the garage every other day and blip the valves to let a little air out. This approach has solved the problem for both of us.

On discs v rims personally I won't go back to rim brakes. Do discs stop quicker than rims? I'm not sure. Any time I've needed an emergency stop with either system it's worked!!! Where I feel there is a real benefit is discs allow me to "feather" the brakes more easily and scrub just a little speed off when I need it. I've never been very good at this with rim brakes. I feel more confident on a disc braked bike which I feel makes my riding smoother and more efficient.

** I actually ordered one and then cancelled.

 

[gavroche]

Youngest daughter has just returned my elastic £20. I call it "my elastic £20" because it bounces between my account and hers.

Each month, the conversation goes something like this:

... about two weeks after pay day
Daughter: Dad, can I lend £20?
Me: The word is borrow
Daughter: OK, OK, can I borrow £20
Me: It is in your account now
.... shortly after payday....
Daughter: Dad, I have put that £20 in your account
Me: OK, thank you
....... go to "two weeks after pay day, above, and, repeat......

actually, I am being unfair, sometimes, there is a slight variation.... the £20 request is replaced with £50 request....

I know the feeling, I have a grandson like that. I offered to teach him how to budget but it falls on deaf ears.

 

[Tenkaykev]

@Drago just to let you know Prof Alice Roberts is on BBC2 at 21.00 tonight. Enjoy but don't get too excited.

Mrs Tenkay tells me she was on a radio programme or Podcast that she listened to recently and came across as a lovely person and a bit of a Polymath. She was Doctor Alice and is now Professor Alice. Apparently when she was at school she had to choose between Science and Art for her A levels and wanted to do both. The Art teacher let her do the Art lessons in her lunch breaks. She was talking about anatomy, and how in Leonardo's time doctors had to be good at anatomical drawing, if attending a dissection there were obviously no photo's or text books. Her skill at draring stood her in good stead when she had to do anatomy herself when studying to become a doctor of Medicine.

 

[ColinJ]

That's a long time in the bubble

We had other things on our minds back then!

Ok, if you prefer it - 'my long-term pal, currently in a bubble support arrangement with me'...

 

[dickyknees]

Had some fresh air after my Covid vaccination.
Porthdafarch beach. The tide was exceptionally low.

 

[numbnuts]

After replacing the said cache in the early hours and feeling annoyed that it got stolen I get an email just now, it makes it all worth while

Yayyy!!! I found it. TFTC

with a photo

For the people that don't know, the nut has a magnet at one end and the threaded part is drilled out and inside is a log for you to sign

 

[monkers]

@monkers I took delivery of my new bike in mid December after spending six months pondering many possibilities. It takes me a very long time to make the decision. I looked at Tifosi for weeks and weeks** and was sorely tempted but in the end I wasn't convinced it was the right bike for me. I would advise you to read around a lot on this one. I bought a Kinesis Tripster ATR-V3 Titanium (2021 model), it was @Mo1959 who inspired me to look at titanium. I hadn't considered it at all until the day she mentioned she was buying a titanium bike. I don't know the R2 other than from the Kinesis website, it looks to be a beautiful machine. I can tell you I am absolutely delighted with the overall quality of my Kinesis. Superb design, very well made, comfortable and beautiful to look at. I can recommend Kinesis as a brand without hesitation.

On the gearing, brakes, tubeless thing I'm not technical enough to provide the supporting detail but would my experience is this. The Kinesis is 50/34 - 34/12 with 35mm tubeless winter tyres. To my surprise now I have got used to the bike I can comfortably knock out 19/20mph on the flat, above this and I'm working hard ( I wouldn't be on my Cervelo). For winter this gearing is letting me climb better than expected and I'm grabbing a few PBs.

I have 28mm tubeless on my summer Cervelo and on the Kinesis. The only issue I've experienced is the valves can get gummed up. The solution myself and a friend have come up with for both of us is contrary to the popular view. Most cyclists store bikes running tubeless with the valve at the top. It's our belief this creates the problem of valves gumming up. We store with valves at the bottom. The theory is this. Parked at the top sealant can flow down the tyre wall in to the valve while when parked at the bottom any sealant near the valve will be draining down and away from the valve. We've also found sticky valves are a bigger problem in winter. Why? We don't ride so often. In summer I would ride 3/4 times a week which means checking the pressure every ride and so letting air in and out of the valve regularly. In winter it can be only once a week so the valve has more chance to gum up. I pop in to the garage every other day and blip the valves to let a little air out. This approach has solved the problem for both of us.

On discs v rims personally I won't go back to rim brakes. Do discs stop quicker than rims? I'm not sure. Any time I've needed an emergency stop with either system it's worked!!! Where I feel there is a real benefit is discs allow me to "feather" the brakes more easily and scrub just a little speed off when I need it. I've never been very good at this with rim brakes. I feel more confident on a disc braked bike which I feel makes my riding smoother and more efficient.

** I actually ordered one and then cancelled.

Thanks Paul, that's a useful read. I bought a titanium frame back in about 1971 and built it up with mostly campag & tubs and sprints - gosh I loved that thing, wish I still had it!

Unlike Chris Froome, I won't be descending any Alpine passes. He says that disc brakes overheat in those conditions. It's not that I'm resistant to owning a disc brake bike. For a winter bike, for the terrain and riding on, and the speeds I can muster, disc brakes are a good option for their wet weather performance, but I wouldn't swap my Emonda with its rim brakes for a disc brake version (they only make them with discs now) because I want to keep that for a summer bike and I'd like to keep the weight down. The industry though is mis selling telling customers that rim brakes are an obsolete design, that discs are better under all condition - that much isn't true. I'd prefer that people are given the truth rather than always steered to the more expensive option. But that's just me.

We had bad experiences with tubeless set up within two days of ownership and the problems kept coming with the back wheel. Then the bike suffered a front wheel collapse. This was covered under warranty and the technician at the dealership checked over the back wheel and tyre set up while it was there. On several occassions the tyres just let go very suddenly while the bike was standing in the lounge with the tyre blowing off the rim. They were too much hassle and we lost all confidence. The bike now has proper clincher wheels and tyres and all the better for it in our opinion.

I'd put the Emonda on tubs and sprints in a heartbeat, and that's an alternative spending plan if I don't buy a winter bike this year. Plan B might overtake Plan A.

I'll keep you informed.

 

[oldwheels]

I met my 'bubble pal' when she was just turned 17. She is going to turn 60 in May! Yes - where does the time go?





*** That makes you a 'settler' too!

Villagers in Heptonstall (a settlement on the hill above Hebden Bridge, with buildings dating back to at least the 1500s) were rumoured to consider anyone whose family didn't have at least 3 or 4 generations born in the village to be 'offcumdens' - their version of 'settlers'!

I came here to work at a proper job.
Settlers typically are retired but expect to live off B&B or some sort of crafty tearoom type thing.
Those who come here to work and mix with the local community I have no problem with as they contribute to local society. I know quite a lot of people from other parts [ better not say England] who I regard as friends and many others now sadly dead who were interesting and useful members of society and were welcome here.
The problem now is that outsiders have turned Mull into a wildlife theme park for their own satisfaction and destroyed a lot of what existed here before they arrived.

 

[welsh dragon]

WELL Mr WD hasn't started to complain about his arm yet, or any other symptom they said he might have.

My 2 youngest grandsons had their Covid19 jab today as well.

 

[ColinJ]

I came here to work at a proper job.
Settlers typically are retired but expect to live off B&B or some sort of crafty tearoom type thing.
Those who come here to work and mix with the local community I have no problem with as they contribute to local society. I know quite a lot of people from other parts [ better not say England] who I regard as friends and many others now sadly dead who were interesting and useful members of society and were welcome here.
The problem now is that outsiders have turned Mull into a wildlife theme park for their own satisfaction and destroyed a lot of what existed here before they arrived.

Yes, same here for me in Yorkshire. I came here to work in the mid-1980s. About half the people I worked with had done the same; the rest were local or local-ish (Leeds, Halifax, Bolton, Bury, Manchester etc.).

 

[Juan Kog]

There are certain people on this thread who really annoy me , in fact I feel a flounce coming on . PaulSB bragging he only needs 6 months to decide on a new bike , me it’s 2 years and still looking . monkers in 1971 I thought titanium was the metal that held Barry Sheene together , not something you made bicycle frames out of .