miketually,

I think it's all in the accent, Arthur said in a Scottish accent sounds strong and kingly. Arfer said in english estuary sounds like an old dodgy second hand car dealer

I went to school with the name Arthur and moving down to England with a Scottish accent wasn't overly fun, especially as you are then called Arfer. Moving schools aged 13 and having to keep telling new people, especially girls was not fun, it took ages for them to believe you weren't taking the p1ss and when they realised it was true they just laughed. At 16 I left school and used my middle name (Scott), which is nice and ordinary. Maybe a more confident person would have been ok with it, but I really feel it held me back.

I will think long and hard before naming any future children.BTW I think Luca is ok, everybody will call him Luke anyway.

elaine,
you should have been much clearer in your op, at no point did you mention the dog was growling or being aggressive. I sympathise with your situation and as before I can only recommend you persevere with socialisation. Meet up with friendly dogs you are comfortable with and let nature take it's course. Your dog may be frightened at first, but you have to let go or your own anxiety will transfer to your pooch. Over time your dog will realise she is not in constant danger, otherwise you are both doomed to walking in dog free zones, which is almost impossible.

I am now a dog lover, although I used to be afraid of them. My dog is not allowed to approach dogless people, not that she bothers to, but she is allowed to approach other off lead dogs.

The shining has already been re-made in the nineties, pretty pants as I remember.

My Demo 8 is overkill for my local woods, but if I cycle the four miles there and back I think I have earned that right. Standing all the way as seat post is far too short to sit and pedal.

Given the choice I prefer to be overbiked.

There have been many awful fashions and most of us have been guilty at one time or another, but the girly jeans, poo pants look really bugs me.
As if tight jeans weren't bad enough already!

Mk1 alpine.

Nope, but used a talas r before the lyrik and no contest. 07 mind.

Lyrik u-turn coil on mine, very pleased with the combo and I know I would miss the lack of adjustability without it. It is so much easier on climbs at 115mm, general messing at 130mm, then wind them out for long descents.
Loads of tuning adjustments too.

Last touch!

Nice pooch richc, lets lay this thread to rest and have a large dog pics one instead. I will have to sort my charger out before I can post the grey pig though.

+1 richc,

you can never have 100% trust in what your dog will do, I just do my best to try and anticipate situations and be ready to act quickly if need be. Like my dog I'm not infallable, but between us it is working.

What dog do you have by the way? It sounds rather large!

I don't think anyone can dispute that a dog jumping up, chasing, barking, growling, nipping, biting is unacceptable. The grey area is how close to you is deemed too close.

More often than not people I pass want to stroke my dog, this makes it difficult for her to know what she is meant to be doing, even though she goes to training most weeks. Do I say hello to these people or not?

I make a point of evaluating anybody coming towards us, any young children will have her brought to heel. Excited children and I will keep hold of her until they pass. Smiling cooing faces and I leave her be.
Dogs body language is so easy to read and I suppose I spend lot's of our walking time watching it. If she focuses on a jogger for example I whistle, she looks at me and fogets the jogger and gets back to sniffing.

As has been mentioned before it is deeply embarrassing if your dog misbehaves.

Good work on all of those 'classi' builds, that enduro brings back great memories, but scary how time flies!

+1 ditch_jockey, it amazes me that some dog owners know so little about them and their needs.

My dog was socialized with everything I could think of between the ages of 8 and 20 weeks, I missed hovercrafts though.. oops.

Dogs should not be bothering anybody full stop, but.. we all live in a world where people do have dogs, so it is better for everyone to have an understanding of them.

A few years ago I was quite scared of dogs, I always have been and so has my sister (I'm 36 now.)Due to my wife's persistance I now own a dog and it has completely changed my perception of them. Situations which once would have had me in terror I actually enjoy. My sister is still terrified of dogs and consequently so is my three year old niece. Another niece has since been born, will the cycle of fear continue I wonder?

Looking back at dog related events which spawned my fear I realise none of them were ever trying to attack me. Nowadays I come into contact with more dogs than I could count, I never fear for my safety, but am always on the look out for dogs that may be aggressive toward mine. You can see and understand a dogs intentions by it's body language and from a fair distance.

Nothing to be nervous about, it should be one of the best days of your life, enjoy.

Some people are idiots, some dog owners are idiots, but don't tar us all with the same brush.

I was there on a blue and white Demo 8, had a comedy off on the left hand hip, but a fantastic sunny, dry day's riding!

If a horse is approaching whilst I'm cycling I will pull over and allow it to pass.

If dogs are approaching or I am catching up to them I will slow to a bimble and pass. Never had a problem, everyone should be sensible and curteous in public places.

I didn't like or understand dogs until I got my own a year ago (Neopolitan mastiff x American Bulldog.)She is the friendliest dog I have met, something people always comment on, she is great off the lead and doesn't chase children, cyclist's or jogger's. But.. like a small child
or anyone for that matter, if a cyclist comes flying towards her she may not know whether to move right or left. Just be sensible and there will rarely be a problem.

If my dog did anything like the OP described she would be dealt with severly and days of roaming free would be over.Dogs must be under control.

I have both the humvee and the singletrack 3/4 trousers and use them for my commute aswell as off-road. If it rains the humvee's get pretty soggy and take a while to dry, whereas the singletrack's are fairly water repellent. In a heavy downpour they will eventually succumb, but they dry quickly and I find them very comfortable. I would buy them again.

Does anyone know what condition the play area is in at the moment?

I definitely think lighter is better, within reason, but I wont sacrifice strength and stiffness. Hence my xc/trail bike is Dialled Alpine. It is light where it can be, but I wouldn't change my lyriks for revs or even pikes and I'm keeping my gravity dropper thank you very much.

Rider weight is definitely a consideration.

Apart from the chain potentially falling off without a chain guide I prefer the nice quiet ride a chain guide gives. Can't stand the rattle and crash of standard systems on rough ground. Hence my lg1 guide with little bits of velcro here and there to keep it as silent as possible.

711 on my commuter – gt zum and my dialled alpine. 750 flats on my demo, still deciding if I want to trim them or not, but have hardly ridden it since November.

I think 711 is a very nice width for most things and have no desire to go narrower.

351 commuting, around 60 off road, 8 miles on road on my DH bike nearly killed me, stood up all the way!

I have both and prefer the singletrack, they just feel tougher and better quality. As previously mentioned the inner short in the humvees is a little snug compared to the outer short. Both are pretty good though. I actually like the inner shorts, but the leg grippers are a tad tight on my big legs.

If I didn't go to the gym and train with weights I would look like a pair of big legs, kind of T Rex like. Besides, I don't think many people dislike a strong athletic balanced physique.

Clink,

I have to disagree, my 5.10's have done plenty of muddy push up's for Inners DH tracks, Aston hill etc and the grip goes from ok on mud to fantastic on rocks. I also used them gorge scrambling on my stag do, climbing up wet slimy rocks,tree's etc. So.. I would recommend either 5.10 hi or some lightweight walking boots.

Depends if you want coil or air? How importsnt is weight? I have used older talas and coil lyriks and really prefer the lyrik, however the newer talas are meant to be much better. Coils for me though.

Gravity dropper, tubeless

Fitness is definitely the key, I can do pretty much all climb's, but I don't have enough gas left to attack the descent's the way I would like.
Oh well, I had better get fitter then.

miketually- I have a big bike and have spent most of the last six years only riding DH,4X and 'Freeride'. So pushing up or uplift/ski lift. I recently decided to get 'back to my roots' with more uppy downy stuff.

I did W2 on Sunday for the first time, I managed it ok, but I wasn't smiling. My short stem doesn't help, but I don't want to change it. I guess it will get easier the more I do. For some reason I don't even remember the Whyte's climb, I was probably gritting my teeth and wishing I had a granny ring.

Not confirmed yet, but I am 90% going.

I was pretty confident I would be running an x-firm spring as per Domain's, but on reading hora's pike spring rate conundrum it's got me thinking.

Obviously the answer is to try them and see, but I don't want to pay out for a spring I don't need.

I think the newer LG1 should fit. I had the same problem on my sx and my Demo. I ended up just shaving off part of the boomerang.

A blackspire is cheap and will go straight on.

The road is an ok film, but pretty bleak. I'm glad I watched it, but I wouldn't actually recommend it to anyone else and I love the genre.

Several friends have raved about Avatar and slated the book of Eli.

Drac,

fair point, I suppose I never paid any attention to the hundreds of dogs not trying to hump mine. The bad ones just stick in your mind.

elaine,

good luck with your whippet, don't give up on trying to socialize him, but only nice calm dog's obviously. In the words of Cesar Milan 'calm assertive'.