Absolutely. My Nanna passed away in October and although I’m extremely happy this Christmas, she’s very much in my thoughts. Merry Christmas to everyone! :)

Redthunder – whereabouts are you in Chepstow?!

Gaudi’s La Pedrera, Barcelona. Taken on a Panasonic FT-2.

Taken whilst on exercise 2 weeks ago during that cold snap. The lake had frozen all the way across. Panasonic FT-2.

My friend’s springer. Sony A57.

Not that this will help that much but I was looking at the 600d and 650d as well as the 3100 but went for a Sony A57 SLT instead – absolutely rammed full of features and at 12fps it’s great for sport, wildlife etc. Got a great deal on it too – body, 18-55mm lense, UV & polarizing filter, memory card & large Hama bag for £500. Plus, if you’ve got access to any old Monolta AF lenses, it works well with them – I’ve got a selection of 20-30 year old lenses and the photos are amazing. HTH.

Get into Salt, just outside Stafford past the university. I can’t remember its name but the pub there is great (and generally pretty rammed so ring ahead if you want to eat there). Tis very good.

I ride a 2010 Heckler and can honestly say that the rear end on mine is stiff as hell. Speaking to someone who shall remain nameless but a while ago, trying to get details out of him about the 2013 Heckler, I asked about a maxle rear end and he said there was no point as the stiffness gains were absolutely marginal. If it aint broke, don’t fix it.

(And yes, I’m braced for the ‘Of course he said that, he works for them you idiot!’ comments!)

Traversing a steep hill along a rocky piece of single track, you had to track stand, turn right 90 degrees downhill and then brakes off roll straight down a steep 10ft bank through a foot wide gap in a tree trunk before turning 90 degrees left back onto traversing the slope. (complicated description I know…). Basically, on the first turn, my front wheel got trapped in some rocks and I did an over the bars straight and fell head first down drop. I somehow failed to get my arms out to break the fall and my head fitted nicely in the gap in the tree trunks with shoulders absorbing most of the impact against the wood. There was potential for a double broken collar bone and head injuries but managed to get away with just some bruising and a cracked helmet. I don’t ride that track any more!

AAARRRRGGGGGHHHHH!! Meant to say it’s on Safari.

It’s important to remember that the Armed Forces are apolitical and serve the Queen, not Parliament. Remembrance Day isn’t about glorifying or legitimising any conflict – all those who have seen it first hand know how dirty and horrendous it is. Today’s about remembering those who have selflessly offered themselves to serve and protect this country.

Fair point Grum and not unreasonable. Remembrance Day is about remembering those who have given their lives in conflict and that means predominantly the Armed Forces. But it would be callous to disregard the contribution of civilians.

Me too, suited and booted, to remember friends and colleagues who haven’t come back, those who have been injured, those who are currently deployed, and those who will deploy in the future. And importantly, to remember the families of those who serve.

Ill be wearing my poppy and Regimental tie with immense pride. I hope everyone else will too.

Cool. Looks like I’ll be buying some fox fluid tomorrow.

Noticed that the lock out wasn’t working either until I wound the rebound fully in a bounced a few times which resulted in some sucking and gurgling sounds from the internals (the forks, not mine). Seems to have fixed the lock out issue. No idea about the original problem.

Meant to say that the oil looked green rather than blue. I’m thinking that’s not great news…

I’ve said it before and I’ve said it again, they’re the nicest, most hospitable blokes alive but for crying out loud, don’t pi$$ them off!

Dawson – having bodged one in the past, if you iron the plastic before bending under the arch of the fork, it loses its square shape and fits much better. A 2 pinter is better than a 4.

Oh crikey! I had to pull out at the last minute, part of me still wants to be there, the other part is very relieved! Good luck to you all!

I told you not to read on if you were squeamish! I’d throughly recommend it though – the only painful bit was the injection which was nothing compared to the ingrown nail itself. You can’t actually feel anything they’re doing to your toe so my top tip is don’t watch.

Oh, and get someone to drive you there and back. I hadn’t thought of that and had to drive about 6 miles unable to properly feel the accelerator. That was interesting….

+1 for the dental floss. It’s waxed so should resist rotting for a long time.

I soldiered on with one recently for a few weeks which was mega painful until I went to a chiropodist who did a partial nail avulsion which didn’t work. Then I decided to get it done properly…stop reading now if you’re squeamish…

A tourniquet was applied followed by anaesthetic injections into the big toe. Once it was numb, the chiropodist inserted what looked like a small lollipop stick under the nail to separate it from the nail bed, all the way down to under the cuticle, about 5mm from the edge of the infected side. Then, out came the pliers and the chiropodist put a vertical incision as far down the nail towards the cuticle as possible. Then she pushed a scalpel down the remainder of the attached nail until it went under the cuticle and the blade disappeared into my toe. Then she twisted the offending nail out, cleaned the wound and dressed it.

I’m quite a big bloke and work in a job where being squeamish is not helpful but watching all of this being down to part of my body I couldn’t feel just made my head swim.”I think you had better lie down dear, you look like death.” On the plus side, it only throbbed a bit once the anaesthetic wore off and after a week or so it was so much better, I was so relieved! The nail is VERY slowly growing back but it should be a few more months yet.

Don’t try to do it yourself as I can almost guarantee you won’t fix it. Get it done properly and you won’t regret it.

If you’re punch yourself in the nuts and it hurts, try pushing someone else in the nuts. If that hurts, there’s definitely something wrong.

You’re hand’s broken.

I just googled black lace weaver spider and got an image match. Sinister looking bar steward…

ROPER TO THE FORUM PLEASE!

Too late. It got launched out of my window as soon as the photo was taken…there was no way I was leaving it to escape into my room!

Eurgh, I’ve just noticed the horrendous reflection on the side of the plastic bottle it was in!

Push to add drama

Btw, I ride in Bristol a lot of the time too. Kona retro ride’s a great idea!

I’m slowly gathering the bits and pieces for mine. It’s soon to go to Argos for a disc mount addition. THe top guides are going to be taken off with cable guides added to under the top tube, then powder coated with new stickers. Forks will be shortened to 100mm. This started as a hack bike for my sister but it’s developing into a proper project!

What’s wrong with red trousers? I think they would look remarkably smart, especially since they would match the lining of my tweed jacket.

The post above reminded of this story from early last year. 1 Gurkha vs 40 robbers. Brilliant.

Gurkhas, the Nepalese elite soldiers in the service of Britain and some of its former colonies, sometimes fight with their traditional kukri knives. One retired Gurkha was carrying his knife when a train in India that he was riding was robbed by forty men.

The band of about 40 robbers, some of whom were travelling as passengers, stopped the train in the Chittaranjan jungles in West Bengal around midnight. Shrestha– who had boarded the train at Ranchi in Jharkhand, the place of his posting–was in seat no. 47 in coach AC3.

“They started snatching jewelry, cell phones, cash, laptops and other belongings from the passengers,” Shrestha recalled. The soldier had somehow remained a silent spectator amidst the melee, but not for long. He had had enough when the robbers stripped an 18-year-old girl sitting next to him and tried to rape her right in front of her parents. He then took out his khukuri and took on the robbers.

“The girl cried for help, saying ´You are a soldier, please save a sister´,” Shrestha recalled. “I prevented her from being raped, thinking of her as my own sister,” he added. He took one of the robbers under control and then started to attack the others. He said the rest of the robbers fled after he killed three of them with his khukuri and injured eight others.

“Fighting the enemy in battle is my duty as a soldier; taking on the dacoits in the train was my duty as a human being,” said the Indian army nayak.

Oh yeah, I have GOT to get myself one of those Gurkha lego figures!

I must admit, he shall remain nameless mainly because, in my rage, I forgot his name. In any case, he picked the wrong set of people to wind up as one of the guys had just returned from Afghan where his guys had literally saved his life and wasn’t having anything bad said against them!

You know what? Ive got a big old smile on my face right now due to your comments above about Nepalese people. I was in Nepal last year with the Gurkhas when an MP who shall remain nameless came out to get an idea of what Nepal was like so he could advise with more authority or some other b@llocks. We almost ended in a full blown confrontation as he effectively said that everyone in Aldershot hated Gurkhas because there was too many of them in the area. However, if the comments above are anything to go by, it seems that there’s quite a bit of support for my blokes and their families. Mega.

AYO GURKHALI!!!

That’s brilliant! HA HA HA!

Anyone mind if I through in my tuppence? Here’s my 1997 Cindercone owned from new that’s been in my garage since about 2000. I’ve taken the brake bosses off and this week will get Argos to weld on a disc mount followed by powder coating by another company in original colour and stickers from Gil_M. Fox Float RL’s will be reduced to 100mm and all the other bits and pieces to be used are hanging about in the garage (the current stem’s from a road bike and for illustration purposes only).

I remember it being great to ride and I imagine that with non-knackered kit and brakes that work it’ll be awesome. This was meant to be a hack about bike but it’s developed into a proper restoration project!

Aha, progress! There’s a 3 stamped onto the lower mount of the calliper. So that’s a 180 front and 160 rear.

THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!!

cinnamon_girl – Member
Without lowering the tone, are you telling me that in the middle of an exercise, they put their hand up and ask to be excused?

Seriously?

Seriously. As mentioned above, you’re not allowed to dig on a number of these areas so portaloos are essential.

And contrary to what some people who have no idea what they are talking about above seem to think, the areas are in constant usage and an exercise area dotted with poo holes is not a good place to train. That said, no doubt Variflex will be along in a minute to tell us to man up and crawl through it like the dog eggs which seem to be everywhere.

Oooh, this could be interesting: come June, it looks like I might be one of the people politely asking you to kindly remove yourself from the middle of my exercise in the Pirbright area!

And if it’s a nice one, I might have to confiscate your bike back to my garage as well!

I had this once after crashing off a jump and bending a steel railed saddle with my right nadger. In typical scared 12 year old fashion, I ignored it until it went away. A few years later, I then had a biology lesson about “self checking” and found a lump which on investigation, was scar tissue from the aforementioned accident which had ruptured a ball. That’s still my most painful crash to date.

Good luck with finding out what it is!