I read this one on my trek to EBC and it was a bit of an eye opener.

“Where once climbers like Sir Edmund Hilary enjoyed noble and brave reputations, in the 21st century the criminal element has turned Everest into a place where beatings, thefts, drugs, prostitution, threats and abandonment reign”

I think the stories of guided commercial ‘climbers’ obsessed with the summit (or perhaps more specifically the bragging rights) stepping over the dying during an ascent should be distinguished from a group of pro climbers in a life or death decision on the way down.

Reminds me of something…

Funnily enough I am in the Daily Mail today in a feature on mortgages and house buying. We’ve made provision for the end of our fixed term but definitely thought it was a good time to buy given good deals that were around and wouldn’t be for long(proved right I think).

http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/mortgageshome/article-2143091/New-mortgage-rates-rise-lenders-seek-shore-battered-finaances.html

I found fairly forgettable personally. Just a boring long slog and a quick fast descent.

White paper bag. Too many jars and tubs to choose from. The solution was to get the shopkeeper to choose….

Has he got the MIPS

It’s used by the same people that say “do you have any bandwith” when they mean “do you have any time”

When my mate suggested that surely if everyone was outside the box, that meant that outside the box was the norm and actually thinking inside the box was then more creative

Ah, I’ve heard this one used in a meeting. And the answer back was “in that case ensure you are thinking inside a different box from the one you are currently outside”

at which point I felt tempted to say “but that means we’re still outside the original box so perhaps we’re still not where we want to be” but I chose instead to choke myself to death with a whiteboard marker.

I think there are obvioulsy some posters here who also work for US owned IT companies (like me) who have to put up with the worst examples of this.

I find “yourself / myself” is used by junior sales people who are usually calling me to see if I want to switch mobile providers or buy insurance e.g. “I was just wondering if I could talk to yourself about how we could bring some benefit to yourself”…click.

Here’s a new challenge… Bullsh*t Powerpoint pictures used to introduce/enhance concepts being discussed. What is this one obviously telling us?

20 seconds of my life I’ll never get back…

As we’re a little off topic already I was having a shower in a very downmarket Moscow hotel when the old cleaning lady simply walked in to the bathroom and began cleaning with not a care in the world that someone was there, butt naked covered in soap. She looked very unhappy when I asked to wait until I’d finished.

And RIP Dick Clark who presided over this wonderful tv moment

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-17763412

Predictable and of no consequence whatsoever. A bit like dear old Johnny himself nowadays.

I long for the days when seeing him on TV was a rare treat and you watched with a sense of dread/hope that any minute the interviewer was going to say the wrong thing and all hell would break loose.

My old boss used to think it was the most amusing thing to let rip the most ear splitting trouser coughs in an office full of people he didn’t know. Was never sure what to say so just tried to ignore him…

My driving instructor taught me that sidelights were never to be used. Headlights only. It must have resonated as I have not once in 22 years of driving ever used my sidelights. I recall his biggest issue was the fact that when it got dark people would forget to switch on headlights as the dashboard illumination was the same. This theory seems correct in my experience.

Have we done fog lights when its raining yet?

Not a fan of Pikea myself either. The stuff we bought just fell apart after a year or so. Likewise Argos, Homebase, DFS etc. Cardboard tat. We moved over to JL, worth the extra.

I saw them @ the Newcastle Mayfair

I remember the day Strummer died I met a bloke in the pub who had seem them in Newcastle (oh dear I must have bored the pants of him extracting his views on his night out 25 years prior)…

Stone Roses at Spike Island May 1990. When they (finally) came on stage I nearly died of excitement, the atmosphere was incredible. “The time is now” Mr Brown bellowed over and over, it certainly was.

I bow down to anyone who saw The Clash in 77 or 78. They trump anyone else 8)

Best: I think the Stone Roses at Spike Island just for the spectacle of it (rather than the acoustics) and as a 17 year old stone roses nut who had got the bus down from Aberdeen it was pretty amazing. Jah Wobble supporting too (with Gary Clail)
Other than that Curve at The Astoria in 1991 blew me away (standing 2 ft from Toni Halliday was pretty mind blowing in itself).

Worst: Blur at Glastonbury 1994. Got so bored with it all I crowd surfed out and went off to another stage.

Fully paid up member of the Audi owning Surrey Hills collective living in Kingston Upon Thames :lol:

Not sure what’s wrong with people talking about improving their houses. Unless of course they were talking at a volume deliberately aimed at ensuring others around can hear them. Then death is a viable option.

You want to commute on a train from Surrey into London then you can hear lots of conversations that might prompt homicide/suicide. This morning I heard a man asking his friend round for a drink “Sure, you can use my mooring at the bottom of the garden unless you’ve gone and bought that 50 footer you were looking at” and the other day “I hear David’s bought his granddaughter an Aston for passing her driving test”…

I let her past…

Very unremarkable. Forgotten most of it already. Rampart much better.

Its singletrackworld, what more do you expect?

Exactly. If you post a vid up basically saying “impressive huh?” then you’re in for criticism on everything from your riding style to your choice of stem bolts.

I think up ways to find time to ride more which seems like sure fire winners until they are thwarted within a day or two.

I use Hiscox. Cover up to £4k per bike I think. Great customer service too.

Some great advice on here.

My rule is that you will go faster if you slow down less (stay with me…!). That equates to smoothness. And smoothness comes from the following (as examples):

Looking ahead changes your perception of speed. If you look down things will appear fast so your mind will react to that perceived speed e.g. you will touch the brakes. If you look up things will appear slower so you will brake less. This is on top of the benefits of reading the trail and setting the bike up for what’s next.

Everyone can just muller it flat out but its the corners and choice of lines when things aren’t just a smooth straight path that will give you speed overall. In addition position on the bike (e.g. pedal position and weight distribution) and inputs (e.g. leaning the bike, pumping, bunnyhopping, manualling) all help keep the bike at speed.

There is a certain amount of sense in the death grip mentality too. There’s a great vid on youtube about how to get faster. The guy very convincingly just tells you to resist the temptation to brake and see what happens. It really works.

Small one at Swinley, 2006

This is commonly asked question and I think the answer is so simple. Yield to the faster rider. I always yield if a faster rider comes up behind me. I don’t want to spoil their run. I expect others to yield for me and they usually do. It’s just manners. Lots of “thank yous” are shouted and often at the bottom friendly banter exchanged. Just don’t pass when its not safe even if they do yield as causing a crash is not on.

Hanging back don’t often work as you soon catch them up again or you wait so long that others come flying past you and you sit there all day ‘waiting for a clear run’.

The ultimate solution of course is to ride when its quiet of course.

“why would need more than one bike” I get a lot. Once to howls of derisive laughter in a pub as about 5 colleagues were in hearty agreement that surely one bike is all you would ever need.

And from newbie riders “my wheel is flat (puncture)” and “my tyre isn’t working properly (wheel out of true)”

I once witnessed a bloke having a meltdown after taking his son into my old LBS (RIP) and storming up to the counter to complain about how much the bikes cost. The assistant rather cooly replied “the toy shop is four doors down mate”.

Fiona Phillips!! I am genuinely fascinated by how appalling she is on both TV and Radio. Please, someone who appreciates her tell me why, I’m keen to learn….

6 Music is the ONLY station. It just plays good music all day long. Everything from bluegrass to punk to indie to soul. It’s all top notch.

Sean Keavney is bloody annoying though…

Liza Tarbuck is great on the radio I think but there you go. Richard Madeley is truly appalling.

I ride the Surrey Hills 2-3 times a week and there isn’t much of it I don’t know. Got the time to go a bit further away :D

My week off is to move house (Friday is the day) so a day is all I can spare! FOD seems to be tempting me most right now. I haven’t got time to map read and get lost so needs to be somewhere ready made i.e. trail centre.

Cheers for all suggestions.

if this thread fairly represents the general attitude of surrey hills riders…

A new low. Using a disagreement by two people on a thread to try to deliberately offend several thousand other mountain bikers.

Best close this thread and let’s just all wish the rider well.

This is the best deliverance vid if we’re going down that road….

It’s not that hard

All these trails are has easy or has hard as you want to make them. If you launch Deliverance by pre-jumping down the first section it’s pretty hard. It can be quite tricky on night rides too. Etc…

It’s about riding within the limits of your ability not about whether a trail is easy or hard or whatever.

I did it on Sunday and was a bit underwhelmed I have to say. It was OK. The descent straight down Caer Caradoc in the afternoon was much more fun.

Minton Batch:

Caradoc:

Shropshire on Sunday

Big groups of riders are a pain anywhere. Especially (as is often the case) when they seem not to realise they are in a big group and just p*ss everyone else off by generally farting around and resolutely refusing to yield. Happening a lot on Leith Hill of late.

I go to Swinley at 0800 on a Saturday and it’s nice and quiet (shown by the low number of other riders (and ambulances) you can see in my video ^^)