Cycle or die?

[Deleted member 4366]

Utterly correct, which is why in 10 weeks of doing swimming I've weighed in this morning and lost one and a half stone.....

I think you can lose more weight by not swimming. I lost 3 1/2 stone since Xmas by not swimming.

 

[Deleted member 4366]

I ride 40km on an unpowered bike for the first time in about 30 years the day before yesterday and surprised to have no real pain.

Keep it up. The hills are terrible at first, but if you stick with it, they become easier and easier. I've just been out for a 40 miler, which finishes with a 5 mile climb that gets steeper and steeper. I can remember struggling up that hill on my first electric bike, but today I was chatting to a young guy on an MTB, who does that climb every day on his way back from work. I was able to talk normally all the way up without even puffing. The more you stick at it, the easier it gets, even for a 65 year old.

One thing that does help is to lower the gearing a bit. I always had a 39T inner ring, but I changed the rear cassette from 25T to 32T bottom gear. That made a massive difference on the steep hills.

 

[anotherkiwi]

I had to push up two hills (ramps) that looked to be about 15%. Only a short distance but 26:30 wasn't low enough. And the Marathon Racer on the rear wasn't able to get traction on the one with gravel surface. I think I might ride analogic for a while so will fit an 11-34 cassette (the rear mech can handle it) and Big Bens all round. Oh and I found a place that isn't wide enough on the super Atlantic bike highway thingy. No problem for me to lift over but a fully loaded touring trike would be another story... Or even mine with 6 kg of battery and motor wouldn't be much fun.

 

[Tugwell Gibson]

A pint is in the region of 120 calories. More for Guinness.
Edited:
Google consensus seems to have it at about 180 a pint of normal beer. That might explain a few pounds that could be considered unnecessary.

Guiness is lower calories than Stella or kroneburg or bud etc. . I know. I've checked lol