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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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chrisonabike 7 minutes ago
Seems like there's way too much "tech" here (braking distribution?) ... ... but of course the target market seems to be folks who are looking to replace part of "car" and certainly aren't fussed about getting into bike mechanics, so perhaps the more of this the better? Anyway, slightly surprised this is (apparently) popular in what is AFAICS a pretty crowded market; Cube probably setting the pace * with their "little big longtail" bikes, which many others seem to have borrowed from. * I'd bet that this isn't a new idea but they seem to have very good designs, albeit heavy on the tech themselves (ABS was it?)
chrisonabike 21 minutes ago
@mark1212123 Or even "what are our transport needs, what do we think we'll need in the future, what other important properties may impact that" etc. The latter might be not paying millions to keep repairing public infra, resilience (eg. less reliance on products from "difficult" regions, less impermeable surfaces which cause rapid run-off), local "places" and businesses, public safety, health... And on that perhaps encouraging people (and especially children) to get out more for both physical and mental health, which would suggest we need places where people find it feels safe and pleasant for young and old to be moving outside, where you can hear others speak, where you're not breathing in particulates or stopping and waiting for a minute every time you go to the other side of the street... Motor vehicles are space inefficient and also take over spaces - hence the urban "geometry problem". FWIW while it's hard to imagine in the UK that conversation has happened elsewhere. In places like eg. Amsterdam ("Amsterdam makes space" - a plan removing thousands of on-street parking spaces and narrowing roads - which people have voted for!), Utrecht (removing the inner ring road etc), perhaps Paris...
chrisonabike 35 minutes ago
@mark1212123 Well, yes, in that there are more people now than say 1990, and (I think) more of them drive... ...but also it just so happens that some road users are more equal than others, allotted a couple of living-rooms' worth of space. Plus as private motor vehicles get bigger and people are not all piling in one mini anymore they're getting even more space. And also those "small roads" were often "streets" not long back. We've kept the "through-access" available even though they weren't designed for it and they can't easily be expanded for that. And/or the "smallness" of the road is because there are actually three or four lanes of motor vehicles - one or two are all the parked cars we can't "see" when we think "narrow street"...
Xenophon2 48 minutes ago
@Rian_constant : I have the exact same issue with a totally different light: the Lupine SL Grano. Has a cutoff to avoid blinding oncoming traffic and also throws out a carpet of light. It’s ok 80% of the time but my commute takes me through a couple of pitch dark stretches where it’s simply not enough, certainly not riding at road speeds around 30-33 kmph average. It’s great in every other respect but that’s simply something that needs fixing. I’m willing to pay but want to be certain that it works and I’ve seen too many long exposure beam shots that appear to show unrealistic levels of illumination.
Steve K 54 minutes ago
Mark's a great bloke. He and I have done similar football related cycling challenges (mine around Crystal Palace) and we met when he cycled to Palace a few years ago. I'm gutted for him.
Chris RideFar 1 hour ago
I'd call it more of a pick-up truck than an SUV, but I expect they want to market it more to people who are trying to replace their SUV rather than a pickup. I own a longtail e-cargo bike that I'm very happy with and would never want a front loader. It's going to be tricky to make the rear suspension work well and not compromise other aspects. Not something that I would trust to a kickstarter project.
wtjs 1 hour ago
@Peterjbdk Even the Government’s Road Safety Strategy says that – Vision Zero... The January 2026 Road Safety Strategy says lots of things- almost none of the important ones are even taken seriously by the government itself, which is why they're 'consulting' on them for long enough that the document is sunk without trace in a sea of digital dust. The police will sabotage anything they don't like, which includes anything to the benefit of cycling and cyclists- how much more evident that they won't lift a finger can it be when Essex and Kent police collude to refuse to even look at close-passing videos when there has been no collision NO MATTER HOW CLOSE. This is 'get yourself KSI'd and we'll see what we can do': Vision Zero?! Sod That for a Lark is the police vision. Pretty much the whole 'strategy' is complete fiction, with no expectation that anything will change if drivers wouldn't like it. As for the 'consultations' on whether driving without MOT or insurance, or with illegal/ fake plates are genuinely a bad thing deserving more than joke punishment...?! Lancashire Police were informed regularly, with photos, for over a year that HN21 VXB was without MOT or VED. I've put many of the photos on here. The police refused to respond after PC Mike Duff of Garstang Neighbourhood Policing Team told me back in January 26 not to tell him about such 'alleged offences' because he didn't have time to look into them. It was only when I sent the Bent Coppers this without comment, taken at the driver's house, that they got worried and suddenly something changed:
mdavidford 1 hour ago
I'd rather adopt the habit of staying the hell away altogether in the very busy Christmas shopping season.
mdavidford 2 hours ago
[Leaving aside the quibble over possession vs use] Why not 'illegal e-motorbike'? That's accurate and specific.
TimPedaller 2 hours ago
I think cyclists and e-bike riders should dismount in the pedestrian area. And everyone, perhaps, adopt the habit of walking on their left hand side of the paths or footways. Especially in the (very busy) Christmas shopping season.
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 ?