Merry Christmas from road.cc Santa and his pedal powered elves!

@chrisonabike It'll get a lot more unfit if we don't change our ways. This vote was nothing more than councillors worrying about losing votes. We need to change our ways urgently, for the sake of our health and our survival as well as for economic reasons. In short, the UK needs some tough love. Burnham needs to have the moral courage to force local authorities to make these changes in the same way as the Dutch did in 1973. The then Dutch PM's words are still relevant today:- "The world from before the oil crisis will not return. We will have to adjust to a permanent shift in our way of life and our economic management." We need to change, like it or not.

@60somethingcyclist yes, and a fair amount of that is 3 miles or less, and there are even lots of "one mile or under". But... with any aging and increasingly unfit (in many ways) population 3 miles there and then back seems a big deal. Particularly since the mental model is still "drive or walk" for most. Of course use of "cycles" helps ameliorate several of these issues. But it's a change not only in thought but in "how society works" (where you're expected to get to, carrying what) AND usually the built environment (with high- value items like those shops, schools and hospitals we've increasingly centralised.

@Destroyer666 Silca occupy the super-premium market. Muc-Off, while upmarket, is definitely lower tier. Yes, chemical engineering and R&D are expensive. Still, Muc-Off products simply are not that good compared to many other brands, hence my BS comment earlier.

If you go check the prices for similar stuff made by what I consider the number one in this field, Silca, Muc-Off's is notably cheaper. And you get a brush. Cheap these cleaners still are not But either we are getting ripped off by more companies than just Muc-Off, or the chemicals, research, etc that factor in making these things actually cost more than many seem to understand.

I really wonder how a company as bullshit-loaded as Muc-Off has made it into the mainstream.

"wider pavements" Motorists never complain about wider pavements, do they? smh

trying to sell an expensive product to do an unnecessary thing......cleaning a chain of factory lubricant, fine.....between waxing completely unnecessary...misleading product name, jumping on waxing now its gone more mainstream

Twenty-two quid? Thank heavens it also cleans oil based lubricants!

@froze "Really better wheels are only really necessary if you’re doing some sort of competition riding, otherwise who cares if you save a few watts?" It's also helped me re-kindle a bit of joy and expectation in outdoor riding - my local rides were getting stale, and I was Zwifting more often than going out; new wheels has given me a new reason to go out and ride my loops... a new bike would do the same, but cost a lot more! "The more important thing for just daily riding is whether the wheels can hold up to pounding on the streets, hitting potholes, cracked streets, surviving long rides on chip and seal etc, which is why I don’t have any race type of wheels." I chose the "all-road" variety for just this reason; along with no maximum weight limit - I'm a little over 100kg plus cheap (ie, relatively heavy) bike. Race wheels they are not. Noticeably better than the alloy ones that came on my bike? Yes. "People who don’t race need to use some common sense and not try to impress some wealthy lawyer or engineer riding buddy, save your money and pay off debts instead…I know, that’s not fun, but it is wise." No mortgage, no credit card balance, savings growing, pension up-to-date, car bought/owned outright, phone bought/owned outright, etc etc And I pretty much always ride on my own - the only person who sees my bike regularly is my wife and she cares less than zero about it! A good idea to find out about your audience before dispensing advice ;) I do try to avoid buying unnamed Chinese stuff though, for absolutely all the reasons you've listed, plus environmental concerns and worker H&S/rights/etc concerns, too.

You get seal where you are? You don't know you're born!