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Will homeopathy make you a fitter, faster, healthier cyclist?
Fri, Jul 21, 2017 22:07
Do homeopathic remedies have a place in your cycling armoury?
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John wrote about bikes and cycling for over 30 years since discovering that people were mug enough to pay him for it rather than expecting him to do an honest day’s work.
He was heavily involved in the mountain bike boom of the late 1980s as a racer, team manager and race promoter, and that led to writing for Mountain Biking UK magazine shortly after its inception. He got the gig by phoning up the editor and telling him the magazine was rubbish and he could do better. Rather than telling him to get lost, MBUK editor Tym Manley called John’s bluff and the rest is history.
He worked on MTB Pro magazine and was editor of Maximum Mountain Bike and Australian Mountain Bike magazines, before switching to the web in 2000 to work for CyclingNews.com. Along with road.cc founder Tony Farrelly, John was on the launch team for BikeRadar.com and subsequently became editor in chief of Future Publishing’s group of cycling magazines and websites, including Cycling Plus, MBUK, What Mountain Bike and Procycling.
John also wrote for Cyclist magazine, edited the BikeMagic website and was founding editor of TotalWomensCycling.com before handing over to someone far more representative of the site’s main audience. He joined road.cc in 2013.
John died from cancer in 2025, changing his name to John Abbott Valentine in the months before his death.
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Surreyrider 14 minutes ago
Don't get this bike or Trek's thinking. It looks like a last gen Canyon Endurace. But while most brands are adding in frame storage, they've removed it. And a bike that already had 'endurance' geometry now has riser bars and not very well hidden cables.
Surreyrider 17 minutes ago
@tomlew Doesn't seem to have one.
Rendel Harris 51 minutes ago
A blue Gresham Flyer was my first bike too, handed down from my big sister in about 1972. I can't recall much about the handling or feel but I remember we put it through an awful lot of torture in terms of riding off road, doing jumps on it etc so it must have been pretty solidly built!
chrisonabike 57 minutes ago
"But isn't this just the same as if people used their own bikes?" No, not just because it's a company dumping them in public space as opposed to people storing them at home much of the time. People are much more motivated to care about their own property. I also suspect that people owning bikes involves less moving them around via motorised transport than cycle hire schemes (though a study would help!) How to fix the "public space problem"? In NL where they have problems of success they've planning rules that require provision of cycle parking in new- builds. They build giant bicycle-stables in city centres and at public transport hubs. And there is a national "last mile" non-dockless rental scheme that's well integrated with that public transport (OV Fiets).
chrisonabike 1 hour ago
OTOH "less harm" because bikes - but wouldn't it be better not to have the issue at all?
chrisonabike 1 hour ago
It's almost as if a company intent on sucking up money at the expense of some public good was being given a pass on account of the mode of transport they were involved with... Now I'm wondering if we've seen this before?
Rendel Harris 2 hours ago
Sorry to go against your tone of "it's just annoying a few SUV owners" Ryan, but that sort of Lime bike parking is incredibly antisocial and selfish. It's not just blocking "a few SUVs", it's blocking other cyclists and making roads impassable for people with mobility problems. Imagine if you walk with a frame and need to use your car to get to work and you come out of your house to find you can't get to your car and if you could you wouldn't be able to get it out anyway. There's no excuse for it. Sure, it wouldn't do any harm to have more spaces for parking, that doesn't make it OK to just park where you want because there aren't enough. If there are no litter bins, is it OK just to throw your litter on the floor or should you hang on to it until you find one? We really do need to get away from the concept of defending Lime bikes and the way they are frequently incredibly badly parked and ridden just because they're bikes.
kingleo 2 hours ago
Cars have number plates, but it does not stop drivers from killing and injuring thousands of people every year.
Jack Sexty 2 hours ago
Indeed, we had it confirmed by the CPS that it was death by careless driving.
lemonenema 3 hours ago
"they can restore a heavily used Monarch to its former glory." Yes until parts are no Ionger available because it will have been 'updated' or discontinued in a couple of years time. Would have been good to have a few specs in the article, weight, width, length, profile, colours. I've had many saddles and can't say I've ever had a creaking one, it might turn out to be a very good saddle, but the replacement parts is a bit of a fad imo.
19 thoughts on “Will homeopathy make you a fitter, faster, healthier cyclist?”
It might … the placebo
It might … the placebo effect does work on some people some of the time … the precise treatment doesn’t matter … its belief that produces the required effect. Just don’t count on it working as success cannot be predicted or guaranteed. For a stronger effect you could always try a hay fever remedy.
Yes. As pointed out above, if
Yes. As pointed out above, if the complaint is psychosomatic in origin homeopathy has as much chance of working as anything else. A positive attitude and belief that something can and will be cured / improved also correlates well with improvement. So, homeopathy may have a place, but so might your horoscope
But if you believe in
But if you believe in homeopathy and you use it to enhance performance, then even though there is no medication as such to detect in a test, surely you are still morally guilty of a doping offence?
Mungecrundle wrote:
The same thing could be said about eating a banana, or an ‘energy’ bar…
caaad10 wrote:
The same thing could be said about eating a banana, or an ‘energy’ bar…— Mungecrundle
I don’t recall any person detected as a drug cheat claiming they took a bunch of pills because they were hungry.
Mungecrundle wrote:
Presumably then you will receive a homeopathic ban? Banned from one in 10^20 events.
Mungecrundle wrote:
This is along the lines of a question my daughter asked today
“If a dog farts in the woods and there’s no-one there, does it still smell?”
madcarew wrote:
This is along the lines of a question my daughter asked today
“If a dog farts in the woods and there’s no-one there, does it still smell?”— Mungecrundle
I prefer Steven Wright’s:
“If a man says something in the woods and there are no women there, is he still wrong?”
Homeopathy
Q. What do you call alternative medicine that works?
A. Medicine
Short, sharp and to the point
Short, sharp and to the point. Well put.
How are they going to test
How are they going to test for homeopathic doping? I bet they’d get loads of false positives.
Regarding the placebo affect, there must be a cheaper way of taking placebos than the high priced homeopathic “products” (water).
hawkinspeter wrote:
No, if it’s too cheap it won’t work as well … we have a tendency to believe something is better the more it costs.
nbrus wrote:
Sounds like titanium bits for bikes.
Even though homeopathy is
Even though homeopathy is pure quackery and completely useless, if a rider uses it in an attempt to improve performance, they can be banned.
6.3. Athletes’ health care providers should act in accordance with the latest recognised medical knowledge and, when available, evidence-based medicine.
DavidC wrote:
Does this also apply to swimmers? If a swimmer deliberately ingests some sea-water then they’re essentially taking every single homeopathic remedy at once including the banned substances.
I drink Homeopathic Lager
I drink Homeopathic Lager when riding my bike.
Leviathan wrote:
Really? I just don’t like the taste of Aussie lager, but if you like it…
Merely dressing up in skin
Merely dressing up in skin tight lycra, often explicitly trying to look like other grown fit men who dress in skin tight lycra, then following them around all day getting sweaty whilst looking at their arses does NOT in ANY WAY imply that cycllists are homeos….
The theory of homeopathy says
The theory of homeopathy says that the more a substance is diluted, the more effective it becomes. How come it doesn’t work for alcohol then ?