scaredypants that’ll be the one, I’m fairly sure

LOL @Cider, MB’s not that! bad, he just likes the wet bits more than you

Sorry I can’t help with any local recommendations but have a look into the Party wall act

cheers, really good watch

I must make a trip over there sometime to ride the new stuff.

Just wish the New Forest lot could be a bit more forward thinking, it’s not the same a QECP but some lessons could be learnt. If only the powers that be could see it.

I and I’m sure others appreciate the efforts of 40mpg and the rest of the group(s) which try to fight our corner for access.

but the articles and responses on the Echo’s site whenever anything about cycling comes up just makes me feel it’s pointless arguing or even trying with the Bigoted Nimbys! just keep quite there’ll be far less frothing.

We know we do little damage compared to other groups who can merrily enjoy the forest. So lets just try to be discrete and carry on enjoying it.

fingers crossed it changes one day and people who’re actually willing to look forward and listen to balanced evidence will one day have their say. It’ll take a while though I’m sure.

Cheers WCA

I’ve wanted to come for a few years it’s just clashed every year with the Three Peaks Yacht race and then this year with the obvious, maybe next year.

I don’t think it’s a big problem either and see very little evidence of MTBing about, although I know we’re out there.

There are a vocal few who seem to have the ear of the media and insist on whipping it up every now and again. I can’t remember the exact quote but one from the Echo recently was painting a picture of cyclist in general (MTB and road) as silent assassins murdering horses & ramblers. utter nonsense!

There are way way more Roadies about, certainly in the village I live in. We seem to be on a really popular roadie route. We get hundreds a week in groups of varying sizes past our place. no issues at all that I’ve seen and we’ve got loads of stables locally so lots of horse riders through the village too.

Fingers crossed baby29er doesn’t arrive on his due date, it’s the same weekend as the BBB, the New Forest Rattler’s on so we’ve got 1000 riders due past our driveway. I’m sure we’d get out soon enough anyway fingers crossed. I think some notice for residents of these events would be helpful though. I only knew about it when a mate mentioned it to me. I know it won’t change anything but people might like to know

reclamation yards might have some, I recently weighed a load of mine in as scrap some of which could have been cleaned up and used 😳

I’d have loved to have kept it but would have cost more time & money to sort, both of which are in short supply at the moment. House needs finishing quick smart baby29er’s due in 10 weeks.

looks interesting I’ll keep an eye on that for when it comes down my way

as said above dogs off of leads in the heathland areas is way more of a threat to the birds than we’ll ever be. btw I am a dog lover too as well as a mountain biker and a resident in the forest.

I’ve encountered a forestry commission guy while in a group before
He likened our activity to “dragging and anchor across the great barrier reef” we bit our tongues (nearly clean off 👿 ), stayed polite, altered our route while in sight and carried on using the well used by cheeky path 0.5K round the corner

I’ve met a few snooty horse riders who’ve muttered away to themselves sometimes on actual cycle routes sometimes not. Same reaction either way, on the road too.

Just last week passed a few local farmers who were out in the middle of the forest with an old tractor and trailer chopping up a couple of fallen trees (they must have commoning rights) they were surprisingly polite and just asked me to take care as I dipped under a bit of the tree. I was expecting an earful.

the fines thing is possible but I very much doubt it’s ever happened or likely to. Still not worth going out of our way to wind people up

Ground nesting birds are only on the heathland and bogs. If your sensible and stick away from those then cheeky trails in the woods are “ok”. You’ll never win with a commoner though MTBers are the devil incarnate to most of them and reasoning is pointless.

and in reality when I do go on to heathland I don’t bash across open heath I’m on a well used path, be it a foot path or pony trail. I too find it hard to understand how me passing a nest on a bike is going to disturb a bird any more than a pony, walker, or a horse and rider natural/wild/unnatural/other. During the more sensitive months stay clear though, there’s plenty of other stuff about.

I’m sure none of us want to see the forest and it’s wildlife damaged

Not wanting the AC on in the office at 26 degrees heat all bloody summer, or in fact at any time.

Riding to work in any weather or even worse running to work

wearing short all year regardless of the weather as above

Croatia!

We had a great few weeks there a few years ago, would love to go back again.
Scenery – check! bucket loads the mountains the coast and islands
Hiking – check! plenty & Mountain biking, rafting etc etc
City/Culture – check! Dubrovnik is beautiful
Great food – check! very Italian influenced, loved the cured means and cheeses…..

not too pricey either.

We stayed on Korcula but visited Dubrovnik and the mainland from there on day trips.

double post

Sainsburys were good a few months back when I moved
inc. good bike cover

one of my mates is a landscape gardener and was saying it’s getting very popular. His pearls of wisdom were:

It’s worth spending a few quid extra for a good quality one, as they’re much more realistic with several tones of green in them.

The other thing he said was never have a join so 4meters wide max.
Any joins just stand out and look really awful.

+1 For the Mountain Equipment one’s

mine have been used and abused all over the show and have held up well

tbh I wouldn’t be surprised if they were all made in the same factory (could well be wrong though)

[edit]I should add the built in dry compartment is brilliant!! It’s been so useful when I’ve been away doing stage races and have wet/stinky/filthy kit building up over a week[/edit]

scandal not an inbred but 29er and an uno, mines a square taper shimano un55 133 jobie as far as I can remember

HTH

John lewis, they’ll price match other stores (not internet only, but can be found online if they have a physical store anywhere in the country) then they include a 5 year guarantee for free.

WeirdNumber if it’s a site share then yep agreed shouldn’t be any difference to anybody but in a lot of instances they won’t be so yes there may be another in the area but! some locations will now be further from the next site so get a degradation in service.

I was on T Mobile and moved house, the TMobile signal map showed “good” signal in my area however I couldn’t even connect to to the network at all

I spent hours on the phone over a few weeks and tried every combination of sim in 3 different phones and jumped through every hoop imaginable and they still wouldn’t release me from my contract even after getting through to one of technical guys who said looking at his site maps he “wouldn’t expect me to get any signal at all!” and that yes the map on the web site was frankly “wrong for my area”. had to pay £200 near to get out of it and they refused to update their misleading maps. If their maps said it was rubbish then fine I moved after starting the contract fair enough but no signal is a long way from “Good”.

I’ve got a friend who works for them and mentioned something about them planing to switch off 200-300 mast this year in a cost saving exercise.

Image Resizer Powertoy Clone For Windows 7 / Vista

VAT on bikes
VAT on cars

Some Cars don’t even pay VED (Prius Insight etc…) and they are still burning fossil fuels

how on earth could they tax cycling?

DrP has a very good point
mmmmmmmm….BACON… 😆
Thread closed 😉

I don’t mind the Peru type thing IF!! they’re paying their costs and all! donations go to the charity. I am not paying for your holiday!

I did similar a few years back with the Himalayan 100 Mile Stage Race. All! of the £3K went to the hospice I was raising for. It was a holiday and something I wanted to do. It was not the ordeal that some people make out their trek up Kilimanjaro/machu picchu to be, it’s your holiday/life experience.

What’s your current 10k time?
a sub 3hr marathon’s on my to do list, I like running though

Not furniture but I was looking for a pasta machine the other day £20 in Argos then £30 in John Lewis and even worse was a “Branded” one in John Lewis for £70. First two look exactly the same the third is only differentiated by a tiny wooden handle instead of a plastic one and a swanky cardboard box for an extra £50. I like John Lewis (and Ikea) but Really!!! 😯

garmin geko’s are cheap and simple

Not tried ’em but have heard of them from Americans at a few races, I think Gu as a brand is quite big there.

They sound very much like Cliff Shot blocks (also american I think) but better availability in the UK than GU. They’re just like a slightly softer version of old fashioned jelly blocks, tbh not far off the consistency of jelly babies but 4 times the price for what I’m not sure.

No real science behind my suggestions but I like to mix in regular-ish savoury foods in addition to the sweet and energy stuff, especially on even even longer events. Takes a while and a bit of persisting to get your stomach used to them though.

Some of the things that work for me are crushed up crisps, peperami, sandwiches, baby bell etc. I can eat must stuff on the go nowadays without stomach problems. Means I can eat whatever at aid stations if there’s anything going. +1 idave on going with plenty to get you through it though.

Jeeez! how tall is TooTall?
sorry fella just looks odd to me
or are those 24inch wheel on there or something

for a proper chilled out day with stunning views try a day at the botanical gardens kirstenbosch, it’s on the back of Table mountain, just get a taxi. I’d take a pick nick if we were to go again. I’m not exactly Monty what’s is face of gardeners world but we loved it there nice after a busy busy few weeks travelling.

+1 sunset cruise from the V&A

harry’s pancakes next to the swing bridge on the V&A great for a late dessert/breakfast or even a whole meal

ostrich neck poikie (a type of pot/type of stew) at cape point was lovely

Stellenbosch for nice day out and some wine

Enjoy! I’m very envious, no hols this year 🙁

I got a Topeak Super Tourist disc and some classic Ortlieb panniers for my Genisis CDF for my daily 14 mile commute.

I’ve been very pleased with them so far 4 months now. I do the shopping on my way home some days and I’ve had some serious weight in there on bumpy country roads with no problems. tough work up hills and feels really odd when you try and climb out of the saddle with the weight but normal commuting kit and it’s almost unnoticeable

HTH

ahh cool cheers Al’ looks might I might be ok with the little towel one that the Mrs wanted

There’s a bay window in one of our rooms with a fairly low window sill, we can get a 5000BTU ally rad that fits perfectly but could only get 3200BTU from a double steel jobbie so would have needed an extra rad in the room else where or an expensive custom bay one

oh good point though I did have a small steel towel rad for the downstairs toilet, I’d best change that for an ally one too so we’re 100% ally then

yeah there are loads of funky shaped ally ones which look very much like that’s what they’re trying to achieve e.g.

Stoner yeah we’ll be ordering 4 very similar to those

I think I’ll put the order in tomorrow from these guys
http://www.traderadiators.com/

cheers for all of the helpful answers

😆 and 🙄 at the rest

it’ll be a hell of a lot easier for me to fit them on my own

Now that’s sounds more convincing cheers

I did sized up everything we needed last night and did a price comparison last night between steel and ally

result was £1035 for steel and £1350 for ally

steel ones seem way way cheaper than ally for the conventional shape ones (Long and low) but a bit more expensive for upright ones.

We decided to go for about 50/50 between uprights and more conventional shaped ones so the price difference isn’t as big. If you went for all conventional shaped ones throughout the price difference would be much much bigger

The final decision was ally! 8) This has been approved by Mrs 29er 😆

Hmmm two extra good qualities, no negative but still not 100% sure they’re worth the extra wonga on what is a tight budget.

undecided 😕

ok cheers I’ll drop you a line in about a month