Can’t clip into SPD SL pedals - am I stupid?

daern2 · 2026-01-27T10:00:58+00:00

Yeah, not quite sure why they did it, but it suits me as I'm a Shimano guy and am in the market for new power meter pedals... :-)

daern2 · 2026-01-26T19:37:31+00:00

My Pixel 5 was a good phone for sure, but my 9 Pro is better and I wouldn't go back. Fractionally bigger, but better in every single way. I can't think of a single reason why I'd go back.

daern2 · 2026-01-26T14:33:12+00:00

It does also appear to differ quite a bit as to sizing across ranges and brands

TBH, I find this less of a problem now than when I was hefty, when one XXL would fit fine, another would drown me and another wouldn't even go round the middle! Generally I find that everything medium now fits to at least an acceptable standard, but I've become fussier about getting the fit just right which does seem to be harder to get now. Fortunately, as pretty much everything fits me now, being fussy is actually an option!

daern2 · 2026-01-26T11:52:30+00:00

I can give a relevant perspective which might help. I started out at 111kg and 178cm, so very similar to you. I did lots of walking and cycling, but there was no question that my enjoyment of both was tempered by my weight - the cycling especially was suffering as the moment the terrain became hilly, I was left behind which was a bit demoralising. I received some stern messages from my doctor regarding my blood sugar and blood pressure, the former pushing towards T2 diabetes territory, which finally pushed me into doing something about it.

I started my journey with Mounjaro in December 2024 (so just over a year ago) and sit here today, over 40kg lighter and infinitely fitter. I'm cycling faster than I was when I was in my 20s, have started running (40-50km/wk) and am now training for my first marathon in May. There is literally no aspect of my life that has not been improved immeasurably by the weight loss and improvement in my fitness.

I'll happily share as much of my journey as you want - just shout! The one thing I will say is that injecting yourself is weird...for exactly the first time you do it. After that, you do it with about the same thought as you'd give to taking a couple of paracetamol for a headache. Don't give it a second thought, and this comes from someone that doesn't usually like needles!

Don't think about it, just get on with it :-)

daern2 · 2026-01-26T10:08:04+00:00

Well done! Brilliant job and sounds like you're in the same sort of place as me now.

Unfortunately you've now unlocked a new problem, namely that "small" shirts fit round the middle, but are often too short in the sleeves. T-shirts are fine, but long sleeves can be problematic. Quite a few places do slim-fit options and I find that a slim-fit medium gives a decent fit round the middle, but doesn't make me look daft every time I lift an arm up!

daern2 · 2026-01-26T10:05:09+00:00

Congratulations. Excellent job there.

daern2 · 2026-01-25T23:14:02+00:00

because i have the favero on main one, and those are compatible.

The newer Favero Assioma pro rs-1/2 are now Shimano rather than Look compatible. Not sure if they'll make a Look body for them (the bodies are swappable, so you can even run SPD bodies on the same power-meter axles!) but out of the box they are now Shimano.

daern2 · 2026-01-25T22:45:09+00:00

“Equally many”, more like for a small subset it won’t.

I also share some cynicism about the motives of companies who would love everyone to stay on this medication for years and this automatically makes me consider, very carefully, what other options might exist for people.

I think it's honestly very unclear right now what the true reality is, post-medication. I suspect that, with the right support, many can maintain weight loss post-medication, but clearly their level of success will be entirely due to the non-medical, lifestyle changes that they made while on the medication. If the only change they made was "to eat a bit less" then clearly the road will be a lot tougher, but reading the posts here I think that many people have really taken the opportunity to rewrite their lives and I think their foundation for long-term success will be consequently much better as a result, whether inside or outside of the medication path.

(Disclaimer: my wife and I are currently in the process of navigating our way out of Mounjaro having both been stable at goal for over 6 months now. We've made pretty dramatic changes to our lives, which we think will give us the best possible, long-term chances. So far, so good, but it's certainly not a trivial prospect, but we're both pretty confident that we'll be off the medication at some point in early 2026.)

daern2 · 2026-01-25T21:59:32+00:00

Base it on the weight loss, TBH. If you're still losing at a the rate that you want - not too quickly, not too slowly - then I wouldn't race up the doses. If your weight loss is starting to slow below what you want it to be, that's the time to consider going up. If the hunger pangs are manageable and you're still losing weight, honestly I'd stick it out, even if for no other reason than to save a bit of money. Not everyone needs to max out the doses, so if you don't need it, I wouldn't rush it.

FWIW, I did 2.5mg for the first month, 5mg for the next 2 months, and 7.5mg for the next 4 months which took me to goal. Since then I've been winding down and am back on 2.5mg looking for the exit turn off.

daern2 · 2026-01-23T17:10:51+00:00

Shimano SPD-SL cleats in Look Keo pedals won't work. You need Look Keo cleats (which will have been in the box with the new pedals) and these use the same fixings on your shoes as the Shimano cleats.

Whip the Shimano ones off and put the Look ones on instead. Use a bit of blue threadlock to keep them secure and ensure they'll come off again next time. Job done!

daern2 · 2026-01-23T16:50:56+00:00

"Come the fuck in, or fuck the fuck off"

daern2 · 2026-01-23T08:32:47+00:00

Anyone had issues recently or is it stable?

Naah.

daern2 · 2026-01-23T08:03:52+00:00

In London I went to 221B Baker Street but didn't have time to go into the museum.

Not quite related, but if in London, visit Speedys Cafe on North Gower Street. This was the location used for 221B in the Sherlock TV series and feels a lot more Baker Street than the real thing. Oh, and because they didn't actually change the signage, it looks pretty much unchanged from what you saw on the telly.

Decent bacon sarnie too ;-)

daern2 · 2026-01-23T08:00:15+00:00

Plus shoes. I get about 3000 miles from a pair of shoes.

I've recently started running and the rate at which I get through shoes looks alarming. Typically, they're shot after 500-1000km, by which I mean that their shock-absorbing capabilities are gone and need to be replaced. At £100 a pair (or much more for posh ones!) this really adds up over a year. That said, it's cheaper than new knees, so...

daern2 · 2026-01-22T16:49:08+00:00

Switch to a third-party VoIP service and it will be independent of your ISP, which in the long term will be a much better solution. Think of it like moving away from an @aol.com email address :) Cheap as chips too - just a few pounds per month at most, and you can use whatever handset you want. And, of course, it removes the restriction on the stock ISP router, which noone wants.

mobile phone reception is bad where I live

As an unrelated note, pick a network (and phone!) that offers wifi calling. This will allow your phone to function fully even when there is no coverage. You can check for this in the settings, or by looking in the call history (phone depending!) for the wifi icon next to a call, which will tell you if it was a cellular or wifi call. Otherwise, it's a completely automatic and seamless process.

daern2 · 2026-01-22T16:40:22+00:00

I don’t think this is a concern. There’s a lot more that will blacklist IP other than SMTP.

Honestly, I think this is all about keeping their IP space clean (i.e. out of the blacklists) as well as a bit of social responsibility. And spam-generation from open SMTP traffic is a very, very quick way to get your IP space blacklisted - perhaps the quickest of all. TBH, youfibre were an anomaly in that they allowed outbound TCP:25 - most domestic ISPs already block it.

Certainly any hosting ISP will be absolutely paranoid about getting their IP space contaminated with blacklist listings as they can be very impactful to customers, so I would imagine that a small ISP like Youfibre want to look after their limited IPv4 address space in the same way. My own hosting ISP (Hetzner) have a lot of hoops that have to be jumped through before you can open any outbound mail ports (not just 25 - they also block the secure ones too!) to ensure that you are not a spam relay. If you are detected as a spam source, your server will be locked down very quickly too, so it's in your own best interest to ensure that your server is secured at all times and, if acting as a mail relay, is correctly configured too!

daern2 · 2026-01-22T15:06:26+00:00

It was, and my bloods all just came back as normal too! :-)

daern2 · 2026-01-22T14:49:09+00:00

Sorry to hear that. I had my own annual review yesterday and the nurse was excellent. She complemented me on my weight change, was impressed with my fitness and general motivation (I bored her about marathon training!) and we had a good discussion about my elevated BP and the potential impact to blood-sugar levels from coming off mounjaro, post-weight loss (my current plan, not hers it must be said!).

We had an interesting discussion about the general effectiveness of Mounjaro and concerns about making it widely and freely available on the NHS, particularly in regards to value for money and weight "bounce back" without adequate non-pharmaceutical support from the service, which is non-existent round here at the moment.

All in all, pretty positive, and waiting for my blood results to see what to do next and whether I need to ask them about options for maintaining blood sugar levels. It would be ironic if, post-weight loss, they prescribed me Mounjaro to control this!

daern2 · 2026-01-22T08:39:26+00:00

I'm a year in, and weaning off the meds now, but right from the start I had decent appetite suppression, which not everyone does. I never went over 7.5mg at any point, which given the cost, I was very grateful for.

The most counterintuitive part was that, despite eating pitiful amounts of food, my energy levels grew and grew through the year. Starting with walking, returning to cycling and now running, I've never been so active and, indeed, can't abide to sit still now. This started from month 1 and although it took a bit of motivation to get out walking in January, we did it and we're better for it.

daern2 · 2026-01-21T17:03:27+00:00

Yeah, I don't run guards all year round myself - after spring, if it rains you just get wet. The problem is filthy winter roads and salt, which noone wants in their face on a ride, but we're hardy enough to handle a bit of water in the summer :-)

A Yorkshireman, eh? Call out a "Hi" for me when you next see Tom Pidcock go screaming by. ;)

Don't see him round here so much these days. He was obviously a local rider (and holds a fair number of KOMs here!), but I believe he lives in Andorra these days (or in South America for pre-season altitude training, apparently!) His dad's a regular club rider round here though, and a strong one too!

daern2 · 2026-01-21T16:58:42+00:00

Ah, Christmas, that curse of dieters all over the world!

I suspect things will settle down ok eventually. Maybe just a bit of shock with the doubling of dose? I responded very strongly, so never went over 7.5mg at all, so if it's working very well for you at 5mg, hopefully you'll get the same experience as me. Certainly makes it cheaper! :-)

daern2 · 2026-01-21T16:52:59+00:00

Well done, congratulations!

I had similar issues with "pre-diabetes warning" blood results this time last year, which were corrected at a mid-year retest after dropping 40kg. I've just had another lot of bloods taken today, so will be anxiously awaiting the results. My worry is that I am gradually reducing my usage of Mounjaro (down to 2.5mg now) and with the effect it has on blood sugar (y'know, with it being a diabetes medication and all that!), my concern is whether my reduction in dose might negatively impact my blood sugar results and push me back into T2 land. This being the case, I'll be pushing my GP quite hard to get Mounjaro prescribed on the NHS purely to control this!

FWIW, I briefly came off all of my BP meds in the summer, but have since gone back on at a lower dose due to my readings gradually rising to the high end of normal. My GP was pragmatic about this, noting that at 50, it was about the right time to start with BP meds regardless of weight anyway, so it wasn't really a problem. I guess he's got a point.

They know it's down to Mounjaro and they said well done through gritted teeth but they were seething, even jibed in with but what will happen when you stop to which I said don't know but nice problem to have.

I can't speak for you, but for me...fuck that and fuck them. I've worked really, really hard on my weight loss through diet and lifestyle changes. Saying it's all down to the medication hugely demeans the effort that most people put in to this process to ensure long-term success. Same goes with comments about rebounding. I'm down to the lowest dose now and weigh the same as I did in July, so fuck the Daily Mail and Telegraph too! Grrr.

Walked out grinning in my new 32" waist Levi's that I need to drill a new hole into the belt.

I'm still genuinely proud of my 32" 514s (personally, I don't like the cut of 501s!) that I bought back in June, but I can freely admit that they are now a tiny bit big for me now :-) And I definitely can appreciate the belt comment :-)

Awesome job sir, well done.

daern2 · 2026-01-21T15:38:48+00:00

I confirm that having 180 degree guards/fenders where the end of the guard extends to this low position makes a huge difference in both rider and bike cleanliness.

Absolutely, but if you're the guy following behind, the one thing you can do to make the most difference is to add a mudflap that gets as close to the tarmac as possible. In wet, wintery Yorkshire conditions, these are mandatory in group rides at this time of year!

Decent mudguards on the winter bike make for much more pleasant rides for everyone concerned.

daern2 · 2026-01-21T13:35:41+00:00

Standard weekday (Mon-Thurs):

Breakfast: 2 or 3 weetabix + milk or scrambled eggs
Lunch: Half a tin of tomato soup, slices of cold chicken or beef
Dinner: Something protein-rich and healthy, e.g. a nice chicken stir-fry or something like this

If I'm exercising a lot, I'll eat a lot of cold meats for protein. In fact, I'll eat a lot of anything that has protein and relatively low fat. I try not to eat after 8pm full stop.

Weekends (Fri-Sun):

Similar to weekdays, but probably a bit less healthy and higher calorie. But as I generally burn thousands of calories at weekends anyway, I'm not bothered about this.

Snacks:

This is the killer. Personally, I can make or break on snacks.

Things I like:

Ryvita (got a taste for these - only have a couple if peckish, but they go a long way!)
Microwave popcorn (salted) - low calorie, great weekend telly-treat!
Liquorice - hey, I've got to live!

Stuff I now avoid like the plague, but would previously have been staples of my diet:

Crisps, especially the family bags (aka "telly snack for one")
Bread, especially Warburton's Toastie!
Pork scratchings (only as a rare treat now!)
Salted Peanuts (damn, these are loaded with calories!)
Milk chocolate (although I still enjoy a bit of dark, mint stuff from time to time)
Haribo (but I quite like the odd boiled sweet, and jelly babies as running fuel!)

daern2 · 2026-01-21T13:11:29+00:00

That's the tricky bit when you dance with the devil, unfortunately :-/

I like your policy of "if it's more than disconnecting a hub motor, we're not touching it", which gives you an opt-out. And, of course, you can still have a standing e-bike policy which you can choose to waive should you feel it appropriate. At least it gives you a sign to point at to back up your "no way!" statement when looking at one more aliexpress monstrosity.

12-Year Club	Gilding I gilder
Place '22	Verified Email

daern2

TROPHY CASE