Some good riding up on Ranmore (which is quick to get to) as well as Box and the more traditional Leith. A couple of hours would see you up Ranmore, do a few trails up there, down again, over at Westcott and up towards Leith Hill Tower, and then back again down Summer Lightning…

PM me your e-mail address and I’ll send you a strava link that takes in Ranmore, plus much more on my feed which will do Leith…

Round my way it would probably be Box Hill.

But I did some maths and it would involve 63 ascents and 350km of riding – 175km of uphill…
Not gunna get that done in a day am I…

Suppose I could do the steep bit at the bottom of Dorking-Coldharbour… 100 ascents, 180km…

Do you log your rides on Strava?
Could use that to work out an average amount of rides you do in a month, then multiply that out by the hire cost?

I ride with a few of the guys who have koms around the Surrey Hills.
Can confirm they are very quick!
I have the fitness up the hills, but they have ‘flow’ and just pump through things and leave me for dead!

I have one of these

Excellent thing, though it likes warm oil, much quicker to suck up.
I set it off then go round check the tyres, remove the old filter and other servicey things while it does its business.

I needed to take the sump plug out last time I did an oil change and there was very little oil left in there, just a dribble.

Also bought the vagcom interface so I can link the laptop up and reset the SRI. That was £150 or so, but I figured that a garage charges £100+, parts cost about £50 so it’ll be 3 services and its paid for itself. Plus all the other diagnostics/changes you can make with it…

For those that are planning to do their own oil changes, or do so, how do you get round the service interval programmed into the ecu?

Just got back a couple of days ago, no recommendations on bars as the Mrs doesn’t drink but in terms of shows, we saw ‘It Shoulda Been You’. It’s a new one, and we took a risk on it as we’d not read anything about it. Would highly recommend, very funny. Don’t read anything other than ‘official’ pages for it so you don’t ruin the plot..! [/url]
Other than that we just did tourist things as it was the first time there…
As far as tickets go, we queued at Times Square. The people at the very front had been there since 2, we arrived about 2.30, by 3 when the booth opened the queue was very long. We got seen about 3.20 so 50 minutes queuing.

I had a set of the bluetooth aftershokz.

Really liked them for running and for wearing about the house. Quite strange to be having a conversation, but still have music. Even more so when you put your fingers in your ears and the music carries on, but clearer!

But, out on the road bike I couldn’t get over the amount of wind noise. Meant I had to have them at full whack, which meant when I slowed down it was too loud. It’s an excellent idea and I liked not having wires, but I ended up sending them back…
The mountain bike was better as the average speeds were lower.

I’ve now gone back to a single left ear bud on a low to moderate volume so I can hear what’s around me.

The gf always gives up cakes, chocolate and sweets. She already doesn’t drink or smoke.
It’s a stressful time in the house!

I give up with her, but don’t usually eat much of that anyway so it’s not too hard. So I make it harder by giving other things up. I drink a little, so give that up.
This year I’ve decided to give up wherever possible added sugar.
Not to the point of checking ingredients, but just obviously sugary things like coke, lemonade, puddings…

Don’t know how I’ll fare or feel in a month…

Have only got a couple of bikes, so one is suspended above the other by a standard bike hook.
Then this – Shed Shackle – secures them to the wall with a couple of heavy duty chains and locks… Seems pretty secure. They’re not getting the unit off the wall without a massive amount of grief and noise…

Could you use a garden fork to put loads of holes in the lawn, fill those with coarse sand to stop them collapsing, then the water will flow into those and soak away rather than wash over the top of the lawn?

Lawn aeriation

I had a phone call a few weeks back from a number local to me.
I asked where they were calling from as I wasn’t aware of any call centres in my town.
Turns out they were miles away and have software that works out where your home is and spoofs a local landline number.

Apparently it increases the pickup rate!!!

Cello’s doing rock…

I did the Ballbuster as well this weekend… And I’m walking like I did it too… But in my nice purple hoodie, so I don’t care!

Def need to work on my transition times as well as the run after ride. I hammered past loads on the bike, despite cramps, but they all passed me by once I started on the final run.

Will do the next one with a little more preparation…

I did the Tough Mudder last week as well… Good laugh, sun came out just as we were crossing the line which was ideal to keep us warm as we supped ginger beer and watched people get electrocuted and fall in the mud…

Don’t understand people that throw away their shoes though. Are they really that bad? I do a bit of trail running, mainly over and through what I ride a bike on and each time I do my shoes are in a similar state to Saturday afternoon…

As people have said. It’s a bit of a jog/walk (there were a lot of people walking) until you get to an obstacle, then you struggle and laugh through it with everyone else, then jog/walk on. Only issue with walking is keeping your body temp up for the water/ice events…

Worrying bit for me (amongst all of it which is worrying really) is the part about non labelling of GMOs.
In the US their labelling isn’t anywhere near as stringent as in the EU. We’ve fought for years against GM stuff, and this will allow US companies to change the way we label foods so we don’t know what’s in them.

Plus all the rest of it!

Glad this is now starting to get attention, even if it’s through social media rather than real media (though the Guardian has run a few stories on it).

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/dec/02/transatlantic-free-trade-deal-regulation-by-lawyers-eu-us

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/nov/04/us-trade-deal-full-frontal-assault-on-democracy

Where are you?

Can recommend All Biked Up in the Surrey Hills.

Did a course on jumping that took us from a little one and worked up as confidence grew.

This was based out of Peaslake.

Had an ipad so could show you in slow mo where you were going wrong to help visualise how you should change position etc.

Out yesterday over that way and was hitting all the jumps up there with a confidence that I didn’t have before…

UKMKIVS – Same engine as the mk4 golf, so that’s the forum to be on!

http://uk-mkivs.net/forum/28-mkiv-mk4-golf-bora/

They’ve helped with loads of stuff with my golf…

If you’re around Dorking, Surrey, I’ve got vagcom…

Sounds like a vacuum pipe come loose or a stuck actuator.
Would imagine your turbo is variable, so the ecu detects engine speed, and hence volume/speed of exhaust gas and either closes or opens vanes on the turbo to get more or less pressure to turn. Like a sailor opening up more sail.
If there’s no pressure to the actuator to move the vanes they’ll be stuck in off.
Once the speed of the exhaust reaches a certain point it’ll turn the turbo no matter what and you’ll get boost. The ecu at this point would have fully closed the vanes anyway.
So def check pipes. Try pulling them off and sucking them (engine off) and it should just hold on to your tongue. If it lets go, then there’s a leak.