I am only next to the M25 and the arsenal training ground so I guess those are tricky landmarks

Well the team pretty obviously can’t find it either!

Got to Hong Kong airport one evening to be told business was oversold would you consider moving to economy. Not really but then they mentioned compensation. I enquired as to how much and they gave me a figure in Hong Kong dollars which didn’t mean much to me so I asked for it in Sterling. £2,400 sir in cash in your hand. So I sat in the lounge researching what bike for £2,400 but sadly as usual not everyone turned up for the flight so I stayed in business.

Rigid specific 29er with belt drive and Rohloff in carbon.
Oh and you better get an elf to pick it as I’m on the short side.

Thanks sam

It’s a bloody mountain bike you shouldn’t be able to see the tape for mud! 🙂

Sheep shit is even better as it doesn’t wash off in the rain.

Humax it is, thanks.

Thanks, i’ll look at the humax, if it crashes less than my Sky box it’ll still be an improvement.

Does your mixer have XLR inputs with phantom power?

I have a winter mountain bike, it’s been well used this year especially in the summer.

since when has any one, ever, based a properly informed opinion on what MBUK says?

I bought a Marin East Peak in 1998 partly based on their group test, that turned out to be a good decision. It was also the last time I bought a bike magazine. I still have it somewhere.

For a commuter I’d want something I could run a UN55 in.

I went for the C456 partly because of the bb on the whippet as I didn’t want to buy a new chainset. It’s still a light frame and more versatile than the whippet. I run mine as an xc machine with 100mm forks with a slackset and it’s great.

Its quite common if you may be required to wear BA

My dad had a fireman who refused to shave his beard despite the need to use BA. My dad gave him the chance to do a full test in the smoke chamber which he passed with no problems at all. So he was told he could keep his beard and he went home and shaved it off. I guess he just didn’t like rules.

Console yourself that it’s only a mental image and not a memory.

Can’t take my eyes of that artexing!

I use one as an xc bike with 100mm forks and it seems at least as comfortable as my 853 frame. When I first rode it I kept checking the rear tyre thinking I had a slow puncture.

What’s the difference between UN-54 and UN-55?

1

I think it’s just the metal non drive side cup on the 55 as opposed to plastic on the 54.

If weight is an issue then bling otherwise it’s obvious, my current UN54 is at least 3 years old on an all year round off road commuter.

If I’m on my own then I’ll usually take a walk, find a restaurant and read. The kindle is a godsend as it saves having to use spare cutlery to prop the book open. Most of the time I’m abroad so I really enjoying just walking around taking in the atmosphere. I keep gym stuff and swimming trunks in my suitcase as well. Quite often though there is no real downtime and we are just working or eating or sleeping in the hotel.

Before everything went on demand I also had a useful collection of cables, adapters and a tuner to break into the Pay TV. 🙂

An Overburys pioneer

I nearly bought one of those. I managed to persuade a couple of friends while on a camping trip that we should take a not insubstantial diversion to go and look at them in the shop but when we arrived on a Wednesday we discovered the shop closed on Wednesdays. So they never got my money and I spent the entire budget for the bike on a Roberts White Spider frame.

For me the most wanted would still be the Muddy Fox range from 1984/5 that I used to go in and look at in the Muddy Fox shop in central London

What happened to the good old days when you bought a bike cause you liked the colour

When I bought my first mountain bike I had a choice between a Ridgeback with a very nice 531 frame and a Rockhopper. The Ridgeback was a light metallic green and the Rockhopper was red. So not really a choice at all.

Don’t worry, she gets them out next week.

Makes note to watch on HD.

I’d also think about the option to run the frame with hub gears as an option for the future. I ride such a contraption through the winter and it’s hard to beat, it gets covered in mud twice a day on the commute and barley ever needs cleaning, just the removal of excess mud when it becomes too heavy to move.

Think mike and mrs Brodie need to pick up where they left off in episode 1

It does seem a remarkably long time since we’ve seen her breasts.

Neutral density filters is what you are thinking of.

That’s very nice Alex but I thought there was a court order in place banning you from hiding in bushes and poking your lens out.

I ride more miles on my rigid 26″ bike than my hardtail. I tried a 29″ wheel on it over the summer and was very impressed. I went back to the 26″ wheel for the winter as it has a dynamo hub and the grounds a lot softer. It has persuaded me that I’d like a rigid 29er and the Niner carbon with it’s ebb and available in small sizes is top of the list, well equally top with an Enigma custom steel build.

he said he needed to park there to unload his stuff. which to my mind was going to be bloody difficult for him since he’d parked nose on to the building and would be unloading his stuff into the road

Erm have you ever backed a Luton up to a wall and then tried to unload a carpet?

@spchandler I know, but it only has to last until we move house!

Future STW post: Some **** bodged our bathroom how do I fix it!

I’ve owned a handbuilt custom fillet braked frame, it cost £400 in 1987 and no it was no better than the frame on my Boardman I bought a couple of years ago. Would I buy another if I had the money – tomorrow.

You can get acoustically neutral ones, I know a couple of sound engineers who wear them when mixing bands. They have the ones that are moulded to your ears, expensive but very good as far as I recall they got them done at Specsavers. Details here[/url]

Have you read Lila too?

Yes binners, also a long time ago now, I think the real reason I haven’t re read Zen is that I might look back at the younger me and think what a **** but you have persuaded me that I should re read it, so once I finish Cannery Row I’ll download it.

I’ve never re-read Zen or the Grapes of Wrath because I don’t believe they could ever have the same effect second time around. I was 18 or 19 when I read them and nearly 30 years later I feel I don’t want to risk disappointment. Having read a lot more of Steinbeck since I know it’s a ridiculous thought but it’s there anyway.

Yeah – the one and only book I have read and when I got to the end I was left in such a state – a perfect (if that’s what you can call it) ending.

I finished it on the number 73 bus and I had an almost irresistible urge to stand up and read it out loud to the whole bus. I rather wish now that I had.

Richard’s Bicycle Book

+2 I wish i knew who has my copy of it.

I always use water based for white as it doesn’t yellow, I use the Crown quick drying and it’s proved hard wearing. The only issue I’ve had is that conventional knotting will eventually show through so I now use a blocking primer. Also use synthetic brushes not bristle.

Scribing is the proper way to do it because it allows for the corner not being square, which it won’t be but as one board is already fitted I don’t see how that will work. Cut the mitre to join behind the pipes at 60 deg not 45. And most importantly remember that no one but you is going to be on their hands and knees and checking it from 6 inches away. 🙂

The normal knotting doesn’t always work if your top coat is water based. I use Ronseal knot blocker primer now which seems to work. You can also use aluminium oxide primer I believe.

fully aware of the fact that your finger was just up stranger’s anus.

Can you really regard someone a stranger once you’ve passed the sphincter? I mean dogs are friends for life with just a sniff.