Map to find the Triangle in Horsforth:

Clicky Linky

The cost isn’t the point. Went to Whistler again last autumn and decided the Switchblade was useless so bought a full face.

661 helmet cost about £50 and was stunningly good – light fits like a glove, not too hot even in the warm weather of Canada.

The guys at Ticket2RideBC thought it was impressive and one of them had the carbon version of the same helmet – compared to other (more expensive) full face they were using it was much lighter and whilst the carbon one was very light there wasn’t that much difference in it – ceratinly not worth the £100 difference unless you are a serrious downhill racer.

I rode every day for two weeks and it didn’t get uncomfortable once – and I don’t normally like full face.

On the wet days I wore a set fo goggles which fitted easily in the face hole and on dry I wore normal sunglasses and they fitted OK with the helmet as well.

Can’t praise it highly enough!

Oh and I headbutted a few trees/rocks/etc. in the course of the two weeks and I was fine and carried on riding (the switchblade would have broken and embedded sharp plastic chin guard in my face!)

Singlespeed.

Ridden a very wet and muddy Eastnor too many times to do it again this year! Most of those the only people still with bike wheels and pedals turning were the singlespeed guys. They’re bikes have less bits with nooks and cranies to get mud stuck in so they don’t clog as fast.

Thin tyres and preferably ones with very wide spaced knobs so that they have half a chance to shed the mud.

Oh and a set of mud guards are essential – but only if you can get ones with huge clearance (the ones that attach to the seatpost at the back are good) as otherwise they just help clog the wheels.

One rider espeically stands out in my memory of past MMs in the rain… a singlespeeder with a lefty fork up front! No cloging on his bike and he just churned away and kept riding all event long!

One last thing… don’t bother packing any hope, you abandon it anyway after a lap or two! ;o)

The size of holes in the filter bit of the mask are miles bigger than a carbon monoxide (CO) molecule (for scale think grain of rice getting in through a set of triple garage doors)

A big percentage of the air you breath in and out is CO2 (and is therefore larger than CO molecules) you’d be scrubbing the air intake down to just the Oxygen (although this is a similar size to CO) and Nitrogen.

So ultimately no mask will ever stop CO

A mask might remove some of the larger particulate carbon (soot in other words) from the air but as people above have said, they aren’t great and its easier to just avoid big busses and lorries.

Badger

oh well could have been worse – they could have trashed a real yacht rather than this glorified pastic fantastic speedboat.

If it ain’g got sails it’s not a yacht.

Australians are activity sports mad so there has to be somewhere over there thats doing this sort of holiday and easter would be early autumn there so the temps are cooling off a bit. Barrier reef area? Diving as well as the windsurfing etc?

Not sure about MTB but there has to be something?

Oh and we used to own it so the visa thing isn’t an issue apply online for an electronic travel authority pay the small fee and bobs your uncle.

The other option is NZ there is definatly MTB there and lots of water sports.
And since the earthquake hit Christchurch I’d be willing to guess that people are avoiding buying holidays throughout NZ despite the fact that the rest of the country is fine. Might be some decent deals – just will have to be early this year not late as the Rugby world cup is there later in the year.

Badger

Thanks for the advice everyone. I’ve decided on the following:

Synology DS211J 2 bay NAS box
2x 2Tb Seagate SATA 3 drives

And when I’ve fitted the new kitchen I’m buying a WIFI/DAB/Internet radio (Squeezebox is top so far) that I can stream my Itunes collection to and/or listen to cuban music whilst cooking in the kitchen or whilst tinkering in my shed!

I didn’t realise the NAS box would talk to the radio etc as well and as a radio for the kitchen was planned anyway this is a really useful way of integrating it all.

Many thanks for the help

Badger

Hmm some really useful food for thought.

Like the USB external backup solution added on to the NAS

Will be spending the evening reading about FreeNAS etc.

I know have a point from which to start considering everything I’ve read.

Many Thanks

ian

And the irony is that the infamous photo was of a tyre with a TUBE in it not a tubless system!

So never beleive what you read….

:o)

hustler

Thanks. It is me! I dropped the “The” when STW was hacked a while back and we all had to re-register

Admiralable – Oi! we’ll have none of that! 😉

Badger

Think we might do one of the Dartmoor rides from issue 49 on Tuesday or thursday this week.

fatmuthahubbard

Sorry, old email in profile.

I’ve updated it now.

Badger

Got issue 49 now by signing up for the premium membership print and digital for myself (Have issue 49 at home and had forgotten it had the Dartmoor routes in it!)

Many Thanks for the suggestions and the reminder about issue 49.

I’ll have a look and run the options past my friend.

Also had Haldon forest suggested to me as there is a ride center there – although I’m told that all but the one route are all family orientated style tracks and not really the sort of mtb we’d be after.

Fatmuthahubbard: Not sure what we are all doing tommorrow (its like herding cats trying to get all 14 of us to decide what we are doing) so drop me an email if you are still going and I’ll try to get a pass out!

Many Thanks again,

Badger

sorry just realised my comments are kinda useless given that I forgot to say what my raquet is! (Doh!)

Its a Wilson Pro Staff Hyper Head (unstrung weight of about 140g) – but I don’t think they sell this one any more – but Wilson seem to be good racquets.

I went along to my local equivalent of sports direct and tried all the reduced ones – got a £100 racquet for about £35 and its great – turned down a better deal (more expensive raquet for less) as it felt weird to me.

But I’d been playing with a basic cheapo one borrowed from a mate for a few weeks so I had a vague idea of how its meant to feel to start with.

The raquet I bought is great – lots of control but tight enough to get some pace on the ball – bounces off walls, floors, other players etc. fine and is still in one piece.

1992 Raleigh – no idea which one.

Felt like it was made of cast iron, the ride feel was hard (you felt every tiny bit of grit on the road or trail as a punch in the arse from the saddle!

Gears worked as if possessed – i.e. they did whatever the hell they liked when they liked!

awful awful thing – and for some mad reason I sold my light weight thin tubed steel classic road bike to get this monstrosity. Didn’t off-road much on it as my body could only take that much abuse occasionally!

It got hit by a car when chained up outside a pub in my final year at uni and was replaced by a Marin Pine Mountain which was a lovelly bike.

Time or Crank Bros

both work on a similar principle and therefore both provide a lot more float than SPDs. SPDs have very little float and this forces your knee to follow a particularly pedalstroke path that its not used to or not comfortable – thats what causes the pain (and will eventually cause injury).
There’s nowt wrong with SPDs as long as you get them set up to suit your bio-mechanics perfectly – but getting cleats 100% in the right place is a bit of a dark art – in fact if you get them set up perfectly they can help knees etc. as they stop you changing the angles that your knees working at…. but thats only really an issue if you’re riding vast distances etc. for us mere mortals its just easier to use a pedal with lots of float and let comfort/pain naturally get it set up right.

5lab…

going this year? The bike park closes for the winter on October 12th!

Extended play (the bike park being open til 8pm) finnished at the begining of September and as of a week ago monday only the lower lift (Fitsimmons express) is open during the week as the Gondola and the Garbanzo lift are all closed being prepared for the start of the winter ski season so you can’t get into the upper half of the bike park only the lower trails.

Badger

Got back from Whistler on Sunday.

2nd trip with Ticket2RideBC.

Not tried Bear Back but have met a few riders with them – seem OK

The bike park is great – but make sure you hire a DH bike, a full face and some body armour to do it justice.

The XC trails are stunning even in the rain which we had in the first week I was out there this year.

Whistler valley trails, Squamish XC stuff and Pemberton valley trails are all excellent XC stuff.

You might also want to consider staying a bit on Vancouver Island – great trails again and the opportunity to see Orca whales, Dolphins etc on the trip over there from Vancouver.

I’ve done the float Plane trip in the chilcotin mountians – amazing riding, but you will need a guide (Grizzlies, Cougars etc).
Also done the heli-drop with Ticket2RideBC onto Rainbow mountain – again a guide needed as its a bit exposed. You really should use a downhill or big travel hardcore freeride bike on that one as even a fairly good trails bike will struggle.

I’d suggest two weeks at least as the jet-lagg will kill you off otherwise.

Canadian Affair (google it) is the cheapest place I’ve found for flights as well.

Hope that helps

Badger

Hi I use Geosetter – free and very effective with lots of functionality.

There is also a program called GPSBabel that can convert one type of GPS output file into another – very useful.

Badger

Many Thanks everyone.

Very useful links – especially the german gocycle one.

xxcycle have them but only in 31.6 unfortunately.

Thanks again

Badger

"whats the worse that could happen"

Doesn't work for me as I have far to good an imagination and my brain supplies worryingly graphic suggestions, which then distracts me and almost garantees I'll be hugging a tree or a rock in the next 10sec!

In aviation there is a saying:

"its better to be on the ground wishing you were in the air than in the air wishing you were on the ground"

Since I'll be spending the next two weeks in a bike park someplace foreign learning to jump I think this could apply as well! 😉

Also:

A big rock is not an obstacle, its a smooth grippy bit of trail to ride over!

Drink a pint of concrete and harden the **** up!

OH and can you get CK hubs in 24 hole drilling? (I could reuse my Crossmax SL rims – which are still round as a perfectly round thing!)

A nice pale ale golden brown colour.

Then the decals should be semitransparent white bubbles that get more dense the closer they get to the top tube.

White saddle and white bars…. litterally a pint on wheels!

Errr…

Actually it is

Map of Greater Manchester from Papillon Graphics' Virtual Encyclopedia of Greater Manchester website:

Oh and by the way…. the idea of pure races was also very well accepted in English academia during the 1920s etc. not just in germany. We're no superior in that regard…. who do you think was the first country in the modern world to use concentration camps and ethnic cleansing? That would the be British – does that make you as bad as the Germans of the 1930s and 40s? Of course not!

Selectivism in historical outlook is a dangerous thing.

Soulwood

That "someone" was me.

And as you will read from my post above I am not defending extreme islam… but rather critiquing all extremism, including the EDL AND Islam.

Why must people assume its a zero sum equation. Just because I don't support one side doesn't make me an adherent of the opposite extreme – the world doesn't work that way.

Now read what I ACTUALLY wrote rather than assume what you think I wrote!

Yes extremists of both sides have similar arguments…. extremism usually does use the same forumlaic methods because the most fundamental method of gaining support for a small group view is to delineate yourselves as superior to others and create a percieved threat to coalese your group together. So creating a "them" and an "us" usually means defining yourselves in terms of "purity" of either race, belief, or purpose by disparaging the views of a "dangerous" group of others. So its not suprising that extreme islam and extreme nationalism are similar in their biggoted views.

Oh and I am well aware that 70 years ago the great grandparents of some people who now practice islam collaborated with the Germans …. but then so did a lot of French, Italian, Turkish, North African, Swiss and yes also British people to name but a few. Does that make those of us that live today the same? No. Just as it doesn't make all modern day Germans the same as their fellow germans of 3 generations ago.
Why? Because we are not stereotypes, we have free will to make our own judgements and to decide right from wrong for ourselves as individuals…. ask any philosopher or theologian…. ironically most religions identify this as what makes us human and different and usually assign this as proof of a divine influence in our creation.

Religions are fundamentally tollerant and peaceful… but they also ahve power over peoples thoughts and thats advantagous to those wishing to be powerful and control others…. and its here we depart from religion and belief and into dogma, violence, identity politics and tribalism.

The most religious thing you can do is be tolerant of others even those you don't like…. ask a christian what "do unto others" really means or a muslim or a jew or a seikh or a zorastrian, they all have the same principle.

I just choose to take the religion out of it and be tolerant (not because I hate religion but because I can't believe) hence the liberalism.

So stop falsly representing me as some appologist for extreme islam as I am not.

Weeter

Badger, I've just re-read your post, it reads like typical left wing propaganda and I'm not buying it.

Eh? Not sure where you got that from…

I am left wing…. I'm a Liberal Democrat. I believe in liberal democracy and the rights that entails.

That includes the right to say and think what you like no matter how abhorent as long as you don't forcibly impose your views on others ….. so I'd never dream of telling you what to think. I may try to persuade you of the benefits of my argument with reason and evidence just as much as I will listen to yours.

I'm not a UAF supporter, although I do support Hope not Hate as I find the BNP and EDL's arguments to be utterly unfounded and based usually on a very twisted view of history (The very definition of "British" or "English" is a farce to start with) as well as corrosive and about as far from my views as possible.

I don't agree that the BNP or EDL should be banned as I think they're views should be demonstrated to be the bollocks they are. However, I think anyone who commits violence in the name of such views (or any other views for that matter) should be arrested and put before the courts to try their case before a jury of their fellow citizens (thats a liberal principle as well by the way – radical leftism I know, but it's been a foundation principle of this country since 15th June 1215!)

So my post said I thought the EDL were extremists, I think thats fairly well supported by the evidence they provide on their website.

I said the EDL are racist on the basis they target non-white (particularly asian) people for violence. Again the evidence for this is the many arrests documents of EDL supporters violently attacking randomn people in the streets, the vast majority of whom are not white skinned but were selected (according to those attacked) because of the colour of their skin not because of any outward signs that they were muslim (how do you tell someone is muslim unless they happen to be carrying a Korran?)

I said the EDL were homophobic and anti-semitic, again I think this is a matter of record from their leadership with statements attacking (and advocating violence towards) gays and jews.

I DID NOT say that extremist islam was defensible, in fact I find that as abhorent as I do the EDL, BNP and other Fanatics/extremists.

A wise man once defined a fanatic: "A fanatic is one who can't change his mind and won't change the subject.” Extremism is just the addition of violence to fanaticism.

So I can't see how my post was "typical left wing propaganda" as it was for the most part my opinion based on the evidence I have seen or read.

You're "not buying it" OK don't, thats your perogative, but you entered the debate so I assumed you were interested in a discussion not just a way to splurge your views onto a screen.

You still haven't responded to the question about if you agree with the EDL's description of islam as a "cancer." or if you support the EDL. If you do thats again your perogative, just as it's mine to argue against what I see as abhorent, bigotted and socially corrosive views.

pacemaker

Yeah there was plenty of dust in haiti – thats what you get for chopping down all your trees and burning them – wind soil errosion and soil that resembles talcum powder.

The rainy season starting there now is cutting down on the dust now… but causing mudslips, landslides and water based soil errosion.

So all in all a bit of a **** place.

Weester

Yeah but eh EDL aren't just about extremism – they define extremism as "being muslim" and they are racist as well as islamaphobic as they carry out violence against asians irrespective of religion based on their skin colour – thats a race not a religion prejudice.

Theya re also violently homophobic and anti-semitic and advocate violence towards anyone who isn't "pure English"

Whilst I agree the UAF aren't exactly doing the anti-racism movement much good, that doesn't make the EDL any better than the violent racist nazis that they are.

http://www.StoptheBNP.org.uk have a "hope not hate" campaign and are a much better example of the anti-fascist movement.

Hang on just a thought…. as far as I know this is a none issue because:

The police need a search warrant to search you beyond a "weapons frisk" during a stop? The stop should only be performed if they have good reason to believe you are in the act of carrying out an criminal offence or on your way to do so (they need just cause though) and having a past criminal record or because they don't like bikers are not just causes.

During a stop:
They can frisk the outside of your clothing but not inside anything. If they feel something they believe to be a weapon they can ask you to remove it to look but they can't search for anything else or remove anything else from your pockets. They can't search inisde any bags etc. only outer clothing.
Also if I remember rightly even if you are arrested they can't ask you to remove any clothing (beyond an outer coat, gloves, scarf or hat) especially if a person of the opposite sex is present and they then must do the search "out of public view"

Beyond this they can only ask your permission to search you/your possessions and it is a voluntary thing and they have to say what they are looking for and you can legally say NO. If you say NO they can't do anything unless they arrest you for a legitimate reason – which you can then sue them for wrongful arrest if they don't prove their reason to be valid.

Anything else is an illegal search and any evidence found is inadmissible in any case they try to bring (and again you can sue them for breach of your civil rights in carrying out an illegal search)

The only exception to this is if they can justifiable claim you are in the act of preparing or carrying out terrorism in which case they can almost do what they like (yeah its crap). Its a really dodgy loophole as I have had police claim that taking a photo of a building (and definately of a police officer) is covered under this, (it's not) and that they have the right to make me show them the photo (they don't). If they foricbly remove the camera from you they are assaulting you / stealing from you and if they delete anything from the card then they are committing criminal damage (my photos are art works and therefore valuable). Its a big issue with photographers at the moment and its not easy to argue with a bobby in such situations especially as the law is intentionally very vague.

Anyway back to the subject….

So
1. carry your leatherman deep in your backpack.
2. have a good reason for carrying it.
3. ALWAYS say no to a request from a police officer to search your bag etc.
4. Don't do anything worth being arrested for.

And you'll have no issues with the leatherman and the police.

I was carrying my leatherman (blast with locking blade) on my belt (in its pouch) yesterday whilst working with a load of coppers (looked at a suspicious hole in the ground which turned out to be …er… a hole in the ground!)

Not a flicker from the bobbies and no questions about it. Don't think they are really that bothered about a leatherman – anyone going to the trouble of paying that much for a leatherman is most likely to have a good reason for carrying the thing.

I suspect its the people carrying a stanley knife or a kitchen knife* on the streets that they tend to be a tad more concerned about.

*unless of course you're a cheese eating picnic type – but they're gona breathalyse you later anyway as whats the point of the cheese without the red wine?

Thanks guys, I'll look into both those suggestions.

Badger

Well if they put the saddle at the right angle and cut the steerer down to a proper fit it would be another none descript crossbike – perfectly OK nout to cream your pants over but OK.

But as it is it looks like a 1/2 trained monkey has been let loose with the spanners.

The law says your front light must be attached to the bike.

Most police wouldn't dream of stopping someone for having a helmet light only…. but I know of a policeman in Brighouse who has a particuarly hatred of cyclists and takes great enjoyment from stopping them for the most ridiculasly small infringement of laws you'd not even known about and helmet mounted lights is his current favourite.

So if your getting something powerful to do both road and off-road (which is my setup) make sure you have a basic cheap as chips front light strapped to the bars and then your legal.

Also applies if you get in an accident – light on the bars kills off any argument a sharp lawyer/insurance comp might try to use to wiggle out of it.

Otherwise I'd recommend the holy handgrenade rear light from cateye or the one of the mars range by topeak – very bright and work well.

(my set up is a mars3 rear light a basic (c.£8) 3 led bar light and a hope vision 2 on my helmet as the basic setup but with a red flashing LED light on my helmet and another in my backpack cover when the weather is particuarly bad)

Oh and I've also got one of these which matches my NightVision jacket:

Got mine on wiggle – bit of a pain to find but just type in "Respro" which is the maker – they also make iron on (think they call it "pressure sensitive") reflective stuff for fabric so if your jackets silver reflective bits are getting a bit old you can easily add some new stuff to be seen at night.

Badger

Taka

I'm not going to get out of work tonight early enough to get to Oxenhope as well.

I know thats a bit crap but workds crazy busy at the moment.

We're meeting up in the car park near fanny's pub in Saltaire about 7:30 so if you can get there you're very welcome to join us – the more the merrier.

Sorry

Badger

The comedy jockstrap stops you getting arrested for indecent exposure and put on the sex offenders register. Which if they are real mates they'll at least have considered in advance of stripping you of your clothes and abandoning you somewhere in public!

What about a double act?
2 and 4? do they get on well? would they do straight man and funny man? They could make a poit of "as X couldn't make it, we're the releif team….."

And as a bonus on the stag do you have two mates one either side of you to help carry you home paralytic (or to a randomn lampost in an unknown location with some handcuffs and a commedy jockstrp for you to wear… if thats their style!)

;o)

Here is the link:

http://timecapsuledead.org/