Unfortunately not. I have been in Hay-on-Wye for the last 10 days, partly for the book festival but I also took my bike and have enjoyed some fantastic riding in the borders - I can highly recommend the area. David, I see you are in Penwortham. If you haven't already, you might want to have a look at Broadgate Cycles in Kingsfold as well. They have expanded fairly recently and have a decent range of bikes. I am 59 and also 15 stone (was 17 stone in January!) and I have improved significantly just by getting a decent bike and getting out more often. The loss of two stone has also made a noticeable difference although some of that was helped by the cycling. I have a Hewitt Cheviot tourer, so somewhat heavier than a £1K road bike will be and also lower geared but have upped my average riding speed from 10mph to 12-13mph. Should a tourer be a possibility for you and you can stretch to a little bit more budget then I cannot recommend Paul Hewitt too highly and he's only in Leyland. Even if you don't want one of his bikes his bike measurement service is £50 very well spent - he will find your perfect riding position. The service is free if you buy one of his bikes.

Sierra Maestra at Band on the Wall last night were terrific. Possibly the best son band in the world and the place where Juan de Marcos learned his trade. Band on the Wall is one of my favourite venues. Just the right size, easy to get to, sensibly priced drinks and you can park virtually outside the front door for nothing. If you go early and take their meal deal (2 courses for £10) you get offered free tickets for an upcoming gig. Last night we got freebies for Balkan Beat Box in May, a band I was planning to pay and see anyway.

Tom - get her to Northcote - you know she's worth it.

Went to Northcote last night for the first time in a couple of years - as excellent as ever. The place was packed.

Was it better than Le Quartier Francais in Franschhoek Tris? We failed to get in when we there last weekend and had to settle for two other decent meals. We did have a fantastic meal at a B&B in Hermanus last Thursday - £20 for three perfect courses and £15 for close to the best bottle of wine on the list, but that's South Africa for you. The B&B was probably the best place I've ever stayed in as well, for just over £100 for the night.

I'm afraid I can't keep up with you guys. I plod along at 10/12mph despite my nice Paul Hewitt tourer. Just ride for fun really, with no ambitions to race or to greatly increase my speed. i would like to ride with others but I seem to be caught between club rides for which I'm too slow and other fun rides which aren't long or fast enough.

Me too. I have twice made the mistake of buying a cheap folder for our boat, only to see them not be up to a bit of towpath work.

Well he was on my highlights list. He was in fine form and I think justified my decision to stay and see him rather than go to see Raghu Dixit, who I had been trying to see all weekend.

As RTH says all it will need will be some TLC and a bit of expenditure to make it a fine bike. If it was hand built 30 years ago and hasn't been ridden much it will be better than many quite expensive new bikes on the market. Unless you know what you're doing I'd suggest taking it to a good bike shop and asking them to tell you both what you need to do (like the tyres) and what would be nice to do and then make a judgement. If you've not ridden for a bit I'd get it roadworthy and take it out for a few short rides to see how you like it. Then I'll see you on a ride to Glastonbury in 2013!

Thanks to the people who sponsored us. We successfully arrived in Glastonbury last Wednesday, to be met by Michael Eavis and a TV crew! They were doing a story on Glastonbury's environmental initiatives for the local news and were looking for some cyclists just as we arrived.

Just back from Glastonbury for the sixth time - as wonderful and weird as ever. I never get to see a huge number of bands on account of working 4 hours a day and having people to meet, beers to drink etc but these were my highlights: - Fleet Foxes - faultless, having got the sound right which blighted their set two years ago Elbow - Guy Garvey knows how to perfectly catch the Glastonbury mood, probably because he actually stays on site and comes when he's not performing B B King - still the master Stornoway Asian Dub Foundation John Cooper Clarke Gretchen Peters, Suzy Boguss and Matraca Berg Bellowhead Plus a usual array of enjoyable bands that I heard snippets of but have no idea who they are, some fine comedy and a whole range of very odd things, most of which I have desire to see again but my life is fuller for having seen once.

As some people know, I am cycling from London to Glastonbury with my son an a friend in aid of WaterAid, starting on this Sunday. If anyone would like to sponsor us please follow this link - thanks. http://www.justgiving.com/PiltonPeloton.

Paul, Thanks - yes I did. We are booked on the Wednesday cycle ride from Bristol to the festival - by which time we will have cycled from London to Bistol over three leisurely days. Am in the Highlands at the moment, writing this courtesy of the wi-fi in the B&B in Ullapool. Had an absolutely fantastic ride yesterday on a hired bike from Shieldaig around the coast to Applecross.

No problem Colin. I appreciate that without having seen the other posts mine looked a bit odd. I absolutely agree about OS maps. I'm off walking the south west coast path later this week and I keep picking up the maps to have another look at where I'm going. The map won't be out of my hand for the whole walk. If I have the appropriate map for a bike ride I'll often stick it in the pannier just so that I can look at the route when I stop for a coffee and cake. The Garmin has all the benefits that I and others have outlined above but I still incur its wrath occasionally by deciding on the spur of the moment to go a different way. After a minute or so beeping to tell me that I'm off course it stops sulking and recalculates the route. On the other hand I don't think I will invest what is a lot of money to buy all the OS maps if I'm doing a long ride in a new area.

Interesting. I don't know the Clitheroe operation. The Brasserie in Preston reopened on Friday after being shut for a few years (the Olive Press downstairs stayed open and is still there) and we went on Saturday. It was excellent. There were 5 of us and we went at 6 and wanted to be out by 7.30 to get to something in Chorley at 8. We managed comfortably to have three courses with wine, pre-dinner drinks and coffee in time. We have eaten there frequently from when it first opened and on Saturday it was as good as it ever was. Classic brasserie fare. We picked from the top end of the menu with wine, cocktails and coffee and the bill came in under £30 a head. Clearly there are plenty of places you can eat cheaper but not many where you can eat at anything like this standard. Northcote and Longridge excepted (and they are both quite a bit more expensive) it was as good as it gets in these parts.

Sounds like a fantastic weekend Paul. I heard Mark Beaumont at the Kendal Mountain Festival a couple of years ago and it was well worth it. Melrose is also a fantastic place for a cycling break. It's a beautiful small town and there will be plenty of choice for fine rides up and down the Tweed valley. My wife's parents are from Galashiels just up the road so I know the area quite well. From Edinburgh I would try and avoid the two main routes to Melrose - the A7 and A68 will both have a lot of fast moving traffic. There are some alternatives if you're happy to lengthen your ride a bit. Coming home the B road from Hawick through Newcastleton is quite quiet and should be a fine ride and alternative to the A7.

Colin, My comment about the Garmin was in response to a request from Paul as to how I had found it on the holiday thread - I made a new one to stop it going off topic and answered Paul's question there. In truth if I had been buying I would not have spent as much as was spent on the Edge, but I would want some form of computer. It just shows how much my loved ones love me! But as Paul says, the real boon of a GPS is that you can record all your rides on sites like Garmin Connect and Runkeeper. This must be invaluable if you are interested in training and improving your performance. I'm not really but it's still nice to see where you've been and have all the data recorded. As Paul also says being out and not knowing where to go can be a real problem. It's not just about getting lost, although that is a problem. It's also when you might know where you are roughly but not know the best way back on a bike. Getting towards the end of a long day you might not know the best way back without leading yourself to a big climb that your body isn't really up for. Also route plotting from a website on to the Garmin allows you to plan really nice rides using recommended cycle routes, actively seeking out climbs or not as the mood takes you. As much as I love a proper map (I won't entertain sat nav in the car), they are not terribly convenient on a bike.

The discussion Paul and I were having on the holiday thread was straying seriously off topic so I thought I would get a new thread going in case anyone else out there was interested in cycling. It seems to be exceedingly trendy at the moment. It's an Edge 800. I had similar problems to you but that's what the boys are for. Son No1 (the new born cyclist) sorted it all for me. It is particularly good when you have plotted a route on one of the many websites (eg bikehike) and downloaded it to the GPS, as it's then pretty tricky to take a wrong turn - the machine beeps at you as soon as you stray more than 50' from the route. Alex also got me an OS map card to try - it was good but my problem is that I need to wear prescription glasses when riding which are no good for watching the small screen so any detail is wasted on me. He got the card as part of a package when he bought his own Edge 800 - it was £30 more in the package when the standalone rrp is £199. As I didn't want it he flogged it on Ebay for £125. Good tip if you want to have another go.

We asked the club at the meeting in December but that was just after the takeover and as you will know things have been a bit hectic within the club since then. We reminded them last night and they promised that they will get to looking at some appropriate memorial. No idea as yet what this would look like.

I'm flattered Paul! I was going to say that you need to book if you're going to the Cornerhouse but I see it's on locally from tomorrow. I would avoid the Cornerhouse for this because it was in the smallest screen (3), which is not much bigger than my front room and it was packed on Tuesday night.

Good though The Kings Speech is (and it is very good), I'm just back from seeing Blue Valentine, which I think surpasses it. Again like Colin's comment above, there are no explosions, car chases, robots shooting each other - just two ordinary people falling into and out of love. Some others who I know have seen it have found some scenes almost too painful to watch. I didn't really feel that but there is real emotion there.

We will be there on the Tuesday rather than Saturday. Saturday is Fulham away which is the perfect excuse for a weekend at the first born's flat in the East End. We will also more likely be in Pizza Express than Cafe Rouge! Agree with you on the Lowry - excellent venue, which I will be frequenting this Friday for the opening night of Richard Thompson's tour.

We had a table for 16 at Thyme booked for last Saturday which we only booked on Wednesday. On Friday tea time we got a call to say that they has ceased trading on that day. Luckily the Pines stepped into the breach with a fine meal in a private room to boot.

I didn't know there was opera on but I know the Cornerhouse in Manchester has a live feed of the musical Fela from the National this Thursday which is a similar idea. You need to get down to see Opera North at the Lowry Paul, if you have not already done. Next visit is in the first week of March and I think we will be seeing Carmen. Saw The King's Speech last night - excellent.

In that case tha needs to get out more lad.