The Retirement Thread

[ColinJ]

My fixed is on a 42x17 65 inch gear, I'd find a 72 inch gear hard work and would be walking the hills, I find those hills hard work on my geared bike.

I do find hills hard in my 72" gear but I chose that gear for spinning along at 32 kph/20 mph on our flattish valley roads. I don't have a super-high cadence so a lower gear would limit my top speed a bit too much.

My geared bikes have very low bottom gears - approximately 25". I can get up 10% climbs in that gear without too much bother as long as I take my time. 15% is hard work. 20+% feels really hard - there are quite a few of those steep b*st*rds round here and I have to be careful not to hurt myself too much on them because my heart rhythm can get messed up and that is neither pleasant nor sensible!

I do enjoy hearing you mention all those places that you pass through on your rides, those used to be my local roads too, back in my student days. A Christmas highlight was always the Boxing Day Cross on Kenilworth Common.

I would have liked to have watched one of those races. I was born at home near Kenilworth Common and used to play there as a small child, back in the days when parents thought nothing of allowing a 5 or 6 year old to wander off unaccompanied with his friends to places like the common. I remember watching steam trains go by on the adjacent railway line.

I have just applied for my state pension online. Quick and easy to do. Hopefully o won't have any of the problems that others have had when applying. Roll on March

I don't know if it bothers you, but apparently you can opt to have your pension paid weekly rather than every 4 weeks. I couldn't see any advantage in the less frequent/larger payments so I have sent a letter to the pensions people requesting that my payments be once a week. Details HERE.

 

[BoldonLad]

Remove her right to the remotes for one night for each mince pie now missing.

@PaulSB might be brave, but, he is not THAT brave.

 

[BoldonLad]

I do find hills hard in my 72" gear but I chose that gear for spinning along at 32 kph/20 mph on our flattish valley roads. I don't have a super-high cadence so a lower gear would limit my top speed a bit too much.

My geared bikes have very low bottom gears - approximately 25". I can get up 10% climbs in that gear without too much bother as long as I take my time. 15% is hard work. 20+% feels really hard - there are quite a few of those steep b*st*rds round here and I have to be careful not to hurt myself too much on them because my heart rhythm can get messed up and that is neither pleasant nor sensible!


I would have liked to have watched one of those races. I was born at home near Kenilworth Common and used to play there as a small child, back in the days when parents thought nothing of allowing a 5 or 6 year old to wander off unaccompanied with his friends to places like the common. I remember watching steam trains go by on the adjacent railway line.


I don't know if it bothers you, but apparently you can opt to have your pension paid weekly rather than every 4 weeks. I couldn't see any advantage in the less frequent/larger payments so I have sent a letter to the pensions people requesting that my payments be once a week. Details HERE.

On advantage (IMHO) of being paid state pension 4 weekly, is, you get 13 payments per year. If you operate your finances monthly, as I do, you get an “extra” payment (which I like to use to “treat” myself).

 

[welsh dragon]

I do find hills hard in my 72" gear but I chose that gear for spinning along at 32 kph/20 mph on our flattish valley roads. I don't have a super-high cadence so a lower gear would limit my top speed a bit too much.

My geared bikes have very low bottom gears - approximately 25". I can get up 10% climbs in that gear without too much bother as long as I take my time. 15% is hard work. 20+% feels really hard - there are quite a few of those steep b*st*rds round here and I have to be careful not to hurt myself too much on them because my heart rhythm can get messed up and that is neither pleasant nor sensible!


I would have liked to have watched one of those races. I was born at home near Kenilworth Common and used to play there as a small child, back in the days when parents thought nothing of allowing a 5 or 6 year old to wander off unaccompanied with his friends to places like the common. I remember watching steam trains go by on the adjacent railway line.


I don't know if it bothers you, but apparently you can opt to have your pension paid weekly rather than every 4 weeks. I couldn't see any advantage in the less frequent/larger payments so I have sent a letter to the pensions people requesting that my payments be once a week. Details HERE.

I'm not bothered how I am paid, so I opted for monthly

Thanks anyway

 

[welsh dragon]

On advantage (IMHO) of being paid state pension 4 weekly, is, you get 13 payments per year. If you operate your finances monthly, as I do, you get an “extra” payment (which I like to use to “treat” myself).

I hadn't thought of that

 

[BoldonLad]

I'm not bothered how I am paid, so I opted for monthly

Thanks anyway

Ahh! A woman of means, just what I always wanted

 

[ColinJ]

I'm still thinking 'poor**'! I have to do so much juggling to pay my bills that often a couple of weeks would be the difference between being able to pay and not.

Once I become a 'wealthy**' pensioner, payment frequency probably won't seem important to me either.



** relative terms... Having hardly anything left over after bills paid vs bills paid and £60-80/week left over to spend on fun things!

 

[Deleted member 1258]

I do find hills hard in my 72" gear but I chose that gear for spinning along at 32 kph/20 mph on our flattish valley roads. I don't have a super-high cadence so a lower gear would limit my top speed a bit too much.

My geared bikes have very low bottom gears - approximately 25". I can get up 10% climbs in that gear without too much bother as long as I take my time. 15% is hard work. 20+% feels really hard - there are quite a few of those steep b*st*rds round here and I have to be careful not to hurt myself too much on them because my heart rhythm can get messed up and that is neither pleasant nor sensible!


I would have liked to have watched one of those races. I was born at home near Kenilworth Common and used to play there as a small child, back in the days when parents thought nothing of allowing a 5 or 6 year old to wander off unaccompanied with his friends to places like the common. I remember watching steam trains go by on the adjacent railway line.


I don't know if it bothers you, but apparently you can opt to have your pension paid weekly rather than every 4 weeks. I couldn't see any advantage in the less frequent/larger payments so I have sent a letter to the pensions people requesting that my payments be once a week. Details HERE.

42x17 gives me a 65.5 gear, a cadence of 77 at 15mph, 103 at 20mph, 129 at 25 and 154 at 30mph.

https://www.machars.net/bikecalc.htm

I can roll along happily at around 15 to 20mph on that gear on flattish ground and on a descent start spinning out around 30mph, though sometimes I'll cap my speed at 25mph.

 

[classic33]

Conversely, I couldn’t take to Android. Nothing against Samsung though. The living room telly is Samsung and I love it.

You'll have taped over both the inbuilt camera and microphone, watching and listening to you.

 

[classic33]

Well looks as though Christmas is cancelled here. Eldest boy's partner has a positive LFT result, I've tested LFT positive at lunchtime and so we are both now waiting for PCR results. I'll be astonished if they are negative. I have no symptoms, she has a cough.

My main concern is for my granddaughter who I gave breakfast, changed and played with for two hours this morning. I should have had the brains to test before I collected her.

Easy be wise after the event.
Hopefully the tests come back negative.

 

[ColinJ]

42x17 gives me a 65.5 gear, a cadence of 77 at 15mph, 103 at 20mph, 129 at 25 and 154 at 30mph.

https://www.machars.net/bikecalc.htm

I can roll along happily at around 15 to 20mph on that gear on flattish ground and on a descent start spinning out around 30mph, though sometimes I'll cap my speed at 25mph.

I prefer 80-100 rpm, with 90 rpm being ideal for me. I can manage short bursts of 110-ish rpm but that feels too 'spinny' on singlespeed. It constantly feels like the drivetrain is running away from me. I imagine it feels better on fixed because it can't do that?

 

[welsh dragon]

Ahh! A woman of means, just what I always wanted

All of my bills are paid monthly or in the case of insurances one off annual payments so monthly is fine for me.

 

[Dave7]

@PaulSB I really hope everything works out right for you and yours.

 

[Deleted member 1258]

I prefer 80-100 rpm, with 90 rpm being ideal for me. I can manage short bursts of 110-ish rpm but that feels too 'spinny' on singlespeed. It constantly feels like the drivetrain is running away from me. I imagine it feels better on fixed because it can't do that?

I find it starts feeling like its running away from me once its getting up around 150rpm on the fixed, unless I've got a tailwind, then that sensation, its running away from me can appear at a much lower cadence.

 

[Tenkaykev]

`

I hadn't thought of that

Yes, this is my " Bonus " month, paid on the 1st and the 29th 👍 I could buy another Brompton, I haven't got a yellow one yet ( are 5 Brommies too many? ). 🤔😉