I had applied 100% deet before the ride as I knew I’d be in the undergrowth as I was shooting some video.

Yep, I note that this week is supported by Mosiguard. Insect repellants do seem to give some protection but not 100%. In fact it makes them more likely to crawl somewhere you haven’t sprayed before they bite – potentially making them more difficult to spot (metion on the website about someone finding one in a belly button and amongst hair etc.

Other than the bullseye mark how and above how would you know you had it?

More info on symptoms and diagnosis here:

http://www.bada-uk.org/homesection/about/diseases/tick-bornebacteria.php

Sealed bids next?

Anyhow, back on topic- how high is the hedge? what is the park used for? does it have gates and are these locked (i.e. at night?). Oh and is the property (or less likely the park) listed? Or in a conservation area?

In any event, no it’s unlikely you can legally create a private access to a public park, by doing so you cease to make your use ‘public’ and you are therefore committing trespass.

Secondly the hedge may well be yours but you can be damn sure either you or the Council will have a covenant or condition in your deeds requiring you to maintain it (i.e. make sure no-one can get access from the park to you or vice-versa).

Finally, as you suspected, in certain circumstances you could be required to obtain planning permission (dependant upon height of the hedge / access and proximity to the public highway). Also Listed Building Consent (which would not be granted) if the property is Listed (the listing will include ‘the curtilage’ as well as the buildings).

pedalhead – Member
super day, perfect weather for a lovely bimble around the Cotswolds. Good to meet you peteimpreza! That hill was a bugger wasn’t it? Made it up on my singlespeed apart from a wet bit where I couldn’t get any grip. Nearly killed me mind.

I hope you weren’t the bugger who fell in front of me and ruined my rhythm 🙂

Yep, the ‘killer loop’ around Snowshill really was a killer loop – I see a few just cut it off.

Big up to MidlandTrailQuestGraham – with green bike to match green socks and the couple on the blue Orbit tandem.

100km in 6.02 with sandle sore, heatstroke, punctures, bruised kidneys and sore back.

Great route and great organisation as always – thanks to all the Winchcombe and Cheltenham guys. My imagination or more off-road than normal this time?

Bicycle helmet tests for most standards use one wet sample, immersed for at least four hours before the wet test. So you know that the helmet can be immersed in water and still perform. But do not leave it immersed for long periods of time, since the materials will absorb some water, and that may affect the adhesives used in construction. In addition, foam saturated in water usually gives a harder landing on flat surfaces.

Never use solvents or harsh cleaning materials on your helmet, since some of them may attack the foam or the shell and weaken the helmet. Gasoline, for example, dissolves EPS foam so well that in some developing countries the resulting gunk is used as glue.

Never put your helmet in a washing machine, dryer, microwave or dishwasher to clean it!

If you are concerned that someone who has worn your helmet may have had head lice, put the helmet in a plastic bag for two weeks until any nits left behind have hatched and died. (See our page on lice for more solutions).

So it seems you’re more or less likely to have killed off the lice? 😀

honnnnnk!

Still not sure whether to go for the CX or the HT..

Will depend who’s riding and who’s skiving. (After being chuffed about getting entries half of the Bath lot are now off on Stag wk ends).

Plus I’ve only got three proper wheels on the car at the mo (plus skinny space saver) so am not supposed to do more than 40mph up the motorway!

The IAM has being doing some research with the aforementioned Young Marmalade and has just issued a press release on this very subject.

Young drivers are often bought old wrecks, couple that with their inability to drive and you help keep up the “car crashes the biggest single killer of males under 25” stat

Their advice is basically summed up as Get them the best car you can

So that’ll be the same farmers who resisted the implementation of the EU Waste Directive for years and years?

The same farmers quite happy to dump rusting machinery, unidentifiable sharp implements, broken barbed wire, the smoking remains of plastic sheeting, tins of half-used paint and nasty chemicals chemicals etc etc..

Not followed through to a conclusion but a more useful one relating to Virgin here:

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.php?p=33177335

Even before reading that I’d have said do not ‘deliberately’ damage the cable, it could lead to them pursuing you for a claim of criminal damage and will certainly harm your claim against them.

As already said, take lots of pictures and make a detailed note of what you did when (who you spoke to, what they said etc).

From the link:

The revolutionary manufacturing process is known as Additive Layer Manufacturing (or ALM) and it allows single products to be grown from a fine powder of metal (such as titanium, stainless steel or aluminium), nylon or carbon-reinforced plastics from a centre located next to Airbus’ site at Filton. Similar in concept to 3D printing, the bike design is perfected using computer-aided design and then constructed by using a powerful laser-sintering process which adds successive, thin layers of the chosen structural material until a solid, fully-formed bike emerges.

Details of the technology in the accompanying press release:

http://www.eads.com/eads/int/en/news/press.8d764849-d439-475b-93b3-3cc9a7d2ba20.70472f39-dd6f-4428-a792-91d82cb9791b.html

Interesting, 😉

Not a Charge badged version of this I hope:

Bath is good too, dunno about the riding mind.

The riding is not bad either 8)

Plenty on the doorstep (if you know where to look) and easy access to Wales, Quantocks, Mendips, Cotswolds, Salisbury Plan, Longleat and the Deverills.

And 4 Great bike shops (or should that be 3 great ones and another one? :lol:)

Pricey in comparison to Bristol of course (but you get what you pay for 😉

Would you consider second hand? (Esp if you’re looking for steel – most will be ally these days)

And you’re going to be pushed to get something reasonable for less than about £400

Think it’s going to be a case of shopping around to see if you can get a deal on last years model.

This from Evans looks a good deal, £550 reduced to £375, carbon fork (steel steerer)

http://www.evanscycles.com/products/pinnacle/sentinal-10-2010-road-bike-ec021917

“Pagan Cyclist”

It’s a rubbish trail anyway. I never ride there. Nobody does. Especially with all those rocks and roots all over the place. Who would want to?

Nor me llama 😆

awh – Member
The Avon Wildlife Trust’s website suggests getting to Brown’s Folly by bike but the warden didn’t like me pointing this out when he found me sitting with my bike looking at the view!

It all seams very stupid, the impact of bikes is much less than all the clearance work that they do. It’s heavily managed to promote certain species they want to encourage, not a completely natural habitat. I’m amazed there isn’t a bridleway, the stone from the mines must have been quite heavy, you might want a horse to help! Rant over.

You said it awh, we’ve (not) been riding there for 20 years. About 15 years ago they bought it, drove a bl00dy great big logging track through the middle and took out all the commercial timber (management plan my a**se). A few years later they have this idea to re-introduce sheep grazing and erect a horrible nasty modern fine wire mesh fence around the central area, not to restrict access you understand, to keep the sheep in. The sheep lasted a year or two. The fence is still there.

We have approached them about an access arrangement. “Absolutely no way” was the answer, instead extra “no biking” signs 👿

Transapp – looking forward to seeing you out sometime 🙂

Some dodgy looking characters at the back! 🙂

If anyone who’s done some trail work on the south side of Bath is on this forum, I say GOOD WORK

8)

Re Browns, please be ultra sensitive, you’ve probably seen, the owners, a Wildlife Trust have taken to felling trees across the trail and making other ‘modifications’ to discourage use by bikers. Please steer clear at weekends 😀

Plenty more to be found. There’s a group of us who ride Weds nights, 6.30pm from Widcombe if anyone fancies joining us. Another group ‘The Others’ 😉 also, from 7pm different meet place each week.

Really depends on the loop – fancy mapping it for us?

Is it out and back or a loop? Any junctions / TLs / roundabouts?

22:10 my fastest 10. Harder than going under the hour for a 25.

sc-xc – Member

I found the actual members to be pious, condescending and petty

Errrr, I think you’ll find that surfmat was a big wheel at the old IAM.

SurfMat wasn’t and one of the things that used to bait me the most was his assertion that his comments were in line with those of the IAM.

Re ‘pious, condescending and petty’ – yes there are a few but they are a minority in my experience.

Re the IAM being a ‘motoring’ organisation – it’s not. It’s a road safety charity, the UK’s largest.

And the IAM is pro-helmet, anti-compulsion. It recently published an ‘Advanced Cycling’ book written by John Franklin (author of the Bikeability bible ‘Cyclecraft’.

85kg here and same kind of riding, I have never broken a standard SRAM chain and I didn’t break a hollow-pin – tbh I noticed no difference (in strength, shifting performance, wear etc), it just weighed a bit (a tiny bit) less (I think I compared the two and it was less than 20 grams!!!)

Sorry to hear that. Always worthwhile reporting to the police. Any CCTV?

And here too:

http://www.stolenbristolbikes.com/

Age?

Budget?

Compare and contrast:

A mate’s Light and Motion Arc packed up this week, he called them, answer “they don’t support that model any more”! 👿

Can’t believe no one has shoved this up yet!

yossarian – Member
Great thread evoking great memories, I grew up in rural Oxfordshire and my village was a regular meet up point for people heading off to parties up in the hills and at abandoned aerodromes.

Ahh, the nights we spent driving around having heard the buzz about something going down, small groups meeting up in lay-bys, petrol stations, motorway services and Little Chef car parks.

Someone get’s the word on the location. We head down to this hooge aircraft hangar and find 4 local coppers trying to stop by then at least a thousand ravers from getting in. The sound system cranks up, several k, the opening strains of Charly, we all charge forward push down the perimeter fence and are in! Rave on!

molgrips – Member

The ultimate ‘value’ (proven) is that drivers who have passed the advanced test have an accident record seven times lower than the average

Misleading statistic alert!

Correlation does not necessarily mean a causal link! Have you learned nothing from STW?

It’s mostly older people taking the IAM, isn’t it? Aren’t most accidents caused by young men? Boy racers aren’t going to join the IAM are they? All those things if true would completely mess up the stats.

Statistics FAIL.

Is there anything the IAM teach that you wouldn’t pick up by thinking about your driving over the years?molgrips – Member

The ultimate ‘value’ (proven) is that drivers who have passed the advanced test have an accident record seven times lower than the average

Misleading statistic alert!

Correlation does not necessarily mean a causal link! Have you learned nothing from STW?

It’s mostly older people taking the IAM, isn’t it? Aren’t most accidents caused by young men? Boy racers aren’t going to join the IAM are they? All those things if true would completely mess up the stats.

Statistics FAIL.

Is there anything the IAM teach that you wouldn’t pick up by thinking about your driving over the years?

Independent analysis (ok sponsored by the IAM :-)) has shown that whatever your age, sex or accident record you statistically will have a much lower accident record after passing the test (and be a better driver)!

I have taught people of all ages, as I said from 19 year olds to 65 year olds. Ok statistically young male drivers cause more crashes than anyone else but they still only account for 20%, the other 80% have plenty to learn. In my experience middle aged, high mileage drivers (who think they are the best drivers) often have most to learn.

@Cougar, yep I gather your ‘I’d rather go to the pub’ comment was aimed more at the social side of the IAM, as I said that’s not our main aim..

If anyone is in the Bristol / Bath area and fancies a drive I’d be more than willing to.

An alternative to the IAM, the ADUK forum is setting up a ‘driver network too:

Defensive & Advanced Driving Courses

As promised:

Formation Merlin:

How many?

And to the guy who asked if I had thought of the IAM test – yes I have, I would do it but I don’t see the value quite as much as you do – I already follow most of their techniques intuitively, so much so that the one mentioned earlier asked if I had been involved myself.

Cougar – Member

Interesting you should say that. I looked into the various advanced driving options a good few years ago, and it struck me as odd then that it seemed to be some sort of social club. I had a mental image of a roomful of middle-aged blokes wearing donkey jackets, standing around eating vol-au-vents and talking at length about what great drivers they all were.

Well, perhaps not, but it seemed an odd thing to base a social structure around. Like, a riding club get together and go out for rides; an advanced drivers’ club get together and, what, drive in a superior manner with each other?

I decided, on the whole, that I’d rather go to the pub.

Everyone I know who’s done the test has got something from it, granted some more than others. The ultimate ‘value’ (proven) is that drivers who have passed the advanced test have an accident record seven times lower than the average.

Isn’t it amazing how many people (men mostly) think they are already good drivers thank you and have nothing to learn? Cougar’s “I’d rather go to the pub” comment sums it up!

Driving is the most dangerous activity most of us will ever undertake yet most people aren’t prepared to admit they could be better at it and do something about it.

The IAM has over 100,000 members. I joined when I was 21, my most recent Associates have been 19 and 23 (both passed btw). True some local groups organise socials – my group does – you don’t have to go to them.

Re the comment about not indicating on a roundabout – once again, take a specific skill out of context and you can read what you like into it. What we teach is that you should always consider whether or not someone could benefit and signal where appropriate. (In contrast to your ‘average’ driver who will signal all the time, even when it can be misconstrued, or not at all..)

Don’t knock the IAM til you’ve tried it.

(In fairness to Rospa and the commercial providers out there, I should point out there are plenty of other people providing driver training)

Can’t post link from work (will do later) but spent 4 months working at RNAS Yeovilton in 2009 including whist they were practising for the Fly 100 celebrations, some amazing shots of the Black Cats and all the others flying ‘stunts’ and in formation 😆

Plus I can now identify every helicopter and engine variant just from hearing that first engine note several miles off!

Interesting thread.

Coffeeking, you mention having driven with IAM passengers.. have you considered taking the test?

(and everyone else who’s commented who hasn’t!) remarkable value at £139..

The IAM

I’ve not looked at the pics but see SBZ has and would be inclined to agree with his comments.

The most important question before any overtake these days is what have I to gain, what have I to lose?

Closing differential speeds mean there’s less opportunity, not always overcome by ‘more powerful’ cars.

That said I’ve possibly got some sympathy, I’ve seen numerous drivers take offence at completely safe and reasonable overtakes.

Not today, but yesterday, first trip over a brand new short-cut bridge (Bristol):

Hopefully it’ll have sunk in by now.. mobile phone use has become the fourth highest contributing factor in collision stats.

You’d hope it wasbleeding obvious – however good a driver you think you are using a phone means you’re distracted from the job at hand ( driving ) you won’t register potential hazards (a cyclist for example?) nor will you react as quickly. TRL research has shown you are four times more likely to be involved in a crash if using your mobile phone.

Re the insurance. There’s no excuse, it’s one of those things that needs to be done once a year. Amazing how many people claim they missed the renewal. Another interesting fact, uninsured drivers are five times more likely to be committing another offence (like using a mobile phone for example). You were lucky the vehicle was not seized (impounded) (standard policy in my force)” minimum £150 recovery fee.

A final tip 😉 the police national computer (linked to automatic number plate recognition camera’s) takes it’s info from the Motor Insurers Database. It’s always worthwhile checking the vehicle is shown as insured on that (no cost), and, if you are driving another vehicle or on trade or other cover, keep a copy of the policy details with you:

http://www.askmid.com/

http://www.askmid.com/

Hey, nonk sorry to hear that, road to recovery starts here and all that. 🙂

It’s covered in the links above but it’s always worthwhile re-stating that that your chances of contracting it are also greatly reduced if you remove the tick the right way and promptly.

http://www.lymediseaseaction.org.uk/information/tick_removal.htm

DON’T squeeze it, burn it, or use vaseline or any other ‘chemical’. It will die and disgorge it’s contents back into your blood stream. Remove them using the purpose made tool or tweezers, pulling firmly but gently with a twisting motion.

On the doorstep

Frontpage

Just put my 20,000th mile on this:

15ish miles each way. 3 days a week winter, 4 or 5 in the summer, plus club runs in the Winter

What sort of food are you after?

You’ll gather we’re spoilt for choice. The above are all good recs.
Except The George. We’re boycotting them – they refused to serve us once for ‘being muddy’ and another time refused us 3 bowls of chips (to accompany the 12 pints we’d ordered!!)

Mix of urban and unlit rural here:

Holy Hangrenade, one row flashing, one steady

Smart Looner 2 x 1 watt on ‘pulse’ (visible from 1 mile plus)

Electron 6 led on the back of the lid

aracer – Member

being a good driver is 90% attitude, 10% skill.

So a driver with a 10% worse attitude is better than one with half the skill level? Rubbish. Observing properly is a skill. Anticipating is a skill. Being able to select an appropriate speed is a skill. Being able to handle a car under emergency braking is a skill. All directly related to driving well and safely – skill isn’t just about being able to drive fast around corners.

Meanwhile attitude isn’t just about knowing your limitations. Driving within your ability. Not getting angry at other drivers. Not being aggressive. None of which are related to knowing that you need training – I mean some of those people don’t actually desperately need any training at all to be good, safe drivers. Being self-aware does actually also allow you to be correct when you think you’re doing things right. Hence why Trolling’s first post is BS.

Attitude = State of mind. All those things you’ve listed (obs, anticipation, speed etc) as ‘skills’ start with state of mind (attitude)

Read this (And Shandy):

buzz-lightyear – Member
Or since you have a licence already, you could try the Institute of Advanced Motoring. Instruction is free and you will eventually achieve quite a high standard of driving. That you are back at novice level presently, should not be a problem.

Agree entirely with SBZ, being a good driver is 90% attitude, 10% skill.

The IAM would be pleased to have you. Cost is £139 (incl Book) and membership. As many hours free advice on the road as you need to help build your confidence and improve your driving. No obligation to take the test at the end if you don’t want to. (Although passing will qualify you for preferential insurance terms).

http://www.iam.org.uk/vmchk/car_driver_membership_programmes/car_skill_for_life_for_drivers/flypage.tpl.html

Another CD63 SE KI Signature still going strong here 🙂

And an Arcam Alpha 5 in the shed!

I’ve tried using the PC, Ipod and CD63 as the source through the same amp (Arcam Aplha 8) and speakers and the CD player sounds better – if only as you haven’t got the (admittedly quiet) ‘hum’ of the PC in the background.