Ooooh, I’m thinking along the exact same lines! I’m just a beginner. Had a week at Stubai in Austria last year and just got back from a week in Val d’Isere on Saturday, so I’m still all excited and pumped up about skiing. I’ve been looking at boots online and was thinking of wandering down to Ski and Boardroom in Partick (near my workplace), as they’re advertising Rossignol Alias 90’s in my size and price bracket…as well as the fact they appear to be marketed at the ‘larger rider’ who might perhaps have chunkier calves than most folk. :-( Just not sure what to look for, as both times I’ve had hire boots for any length of time I’ve ended up in agony with the damn things while my mates go on about their’s as if they’re dancing slippers!

What about Alain Baxter’s place in Stirling? I couldn’t see much online, but it looks like he does a bespoke fitting service and has boots in stock, albeit, the boots he has on his website all seem to be high end boots for nippy / whizzy riders.

Let me know how you get on anyway…if you don’t mind!

C.

Cheers for all the advice guys. I went ahead and booked the lessons in advance.with Evo 2. I went skiing (after Xscape lessons), with my mates in Stubai last year, and ended up in a worse state at the end than I was at the start! So I’m really keen to get proper lessons on the slopes this time, and I really wanted to get on with the lessons on my first day so Evolution 2 ticked all the boxes.

Thanks again!

C.

Cheers for that Mahalo! I did look at the Progression guys but from what I can see they run their lessons Mon-Fri. We’re arriving on the Saturday and will be on the slopes the next day. So I’m either looking for Sun-Thur or Sun-Fri lessons. My lack of confidence on the planks means that I’d really prefer to start my lessons on the first snow morning and Evolution 2 are one of the only ones that I found online who start lessons on a Sunday. I’m leaning towards booking my lessons before I go, just to be on the safe side, but then the Scotsman in me would hate to turn up at the place and find out I could have gotten lessons at half the price if I’d been a bit more patient! Decisions, decisions….argh!

Hey folks, quick question!

Getting excited about my trip to Val d’Isere next Saturday. Now, I need to book beginner ski lessons. Would you recommend booking them now, whilst I’m over here? I’m looking at a company called Evolution 2. Or would I get a better deal if I wait till I’m there?

I just checked on my android mobile, and there, everything is bright, clear and nicely laid out. I like it! However, on my desktop, running chrome, the posts look good, and I like the font that I’m currently replying with, but the list of thread titles is way to faint.

If the glitches send some of the more immature, argumentative bell-ends off to annoy others, then surely that’s a good thing? Maybe folk just need to chill out and wait till the job is finished? If you want some perspective, I’d happily show you around our lab…except you’d struggle to get access as the security door at the front of the building hasn’t worked properly since it was installed 14yrs ago. As a security door it’s awesome…cause no gets in the building…really annoying though! Still, one day….maybe, just maybe?

Last bladder I got was a 2l Karrimor job from the sports shop that sells all the cheap trainers. I appreciate it’s not that trendy, but it does the job.

https://www.jjbsports.com/karrimor-hydration-bladder-787045?colcode=78704502

Cheers for all the advice guys. I think the emergency 999 text service is what I was thinking of. As I said at the start, the chap is a very experienced climber and hillwalker who knows how to handle himself in the hills. He did however have a major hip operation a few years back and it plays mind games with him a wee bit. I’d mentioned that I thought there was a rescue txt or phone service you can sign up to that possibly has better coverage than normal, and said I’d try and find out about it as he’s not the most techy person. Cheers all!

“Scuse me while I kiss this fly”….is all I’ve ever heard since I saw Cheech and Chong’s Next Movie in 1980.

Sorry, not sure what ‘other room’ you’re talking about that a diver could swim into Richard. The times I’ve poked around there, the only thing I’ve noticed is the arched entrance to what I’d say was a horizontal shaft, mostly buried in goo and debris at the bottom of the pool and blocked with bars. I obviously need to have a read up on stuff. Any links? I’ve got a two and a half hour bus commute home at the moment because of roadworks in Cumbernauld for the next 10 fracking weeks (been rewatching Galactica), so I have a lot of time to brows on my phone!

RE: Torwood Greeny-Bluey Pool. I’d have to go with the dogleg air shaft theory as well Dick, sorry. On a bright sunny day, when the light is shining into the pool you can see a horizontal shaft with vertical bars covering the entrance, down near the bottom of the pool on the western side. To be honest though, I’ve never really researched it. Just admired it and thought, “That’ll be a mining airshaft”. My dad worked in t’mine over in Longannet and he reckoned the shafts extended way under the Forth, from Fife to Stirlingshire. Bloody Fifers, always trying to sneak in, eh?

I’d love to believe it was something exotic. Didn’t someone once propose it was a bathhouse or something? But the fact that Plean Coal mine was barely a mile away from the shaft kinda gives a big nod in favour of it being an airshaft.

Finally, just to be fair, there’s always the Hyperspace Caverns theory? Could it be a gateway to another dimension?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/2061393.stm

Occam’s razor dude! ;-)

I’ve actually got to think about it whenever I need to write Technician. I really want to spell it ‘Technitian’.

Craig – Lab Technician

Ride On, from Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap. Just perfect, my favourite AC/DC song ever.

https://vimeo.com/171244261

Hope the link works!

Shite, sorry. That link didn’t do what I thought it would do, and I couldn’t check because the preview is broken and now I can’t edit because the edit is broken….poop!

Don’t know if it’s the same thing that everyone else is linking to, but the Sturmey Archer 2 speed hub on my Jaspa might do the trick? It’s a kickback hub with a combined coaster brake. A wee bit getting used to but very simple, and well sealed from the elements.

https://photos.google.com/photo/AF1QipNQvvRfgt9U7dNQSrVWVMonk9lHhP4znBaAQx8L

+1 for Mr Smith’s view. I loved riding with my local club until it all got a bit cliquey and politicy. So I left! Funnily enough, after a few years I’ve rejoined this new year, but I’m not interested in riding with them….I just really like the kit and always feel a bit funny wearing it but not being a member. I actually went out on a couple of ‘club runs’ last summer (was tricked into it by a mate), and realised, like Mr Smith said, that a lot of club riding involves riding with folk you wouldn’t want to sit down and have a pint with. Not for me, but I do like their kit! :-)

Aracer – I still haven’t gotten over the day my best mate and I lost trying to load Flight Simulator onto my ZX81. Time and time again we tried, hours we were at it, until finally the screen lit up and said ‘Hit any Key to Continue”. Well my mate thought it would be a brilliant jape to heartily slap the (flat) keyboard in a triumphant manner. On a ZX81, with a 16K rampack….even though he knew that a sneeze in the same room would wobble the rampack enough to crash the system.

That was 1982, I reached out to him recently to maybe try and rekindle our friendship, although how can you trust a man that does that?

It would seem I’ve only created 32 threads. This only dates back 8 years though and I’ve been here since the Gofar days, so we should probably chuck in another 10-20 threads, just to be on the safe side! In the same time I’ve replied to 547 post through, so that’s a bit more impressive! :-)

I quite fancy having a pop at this in the spring.

http://www.5ferrychallenge.com/the-challenge.html

The friend that I do most of my roadie riding with is incredibly fit on a bike, so the thought of trying to do this loop with her is a bit frightening. Hopefully it’s scary enough to get me off my fat arse, and on the bike again once the snow and ice clears up a bit.

Yep, with me it was “I have a sore tummy”, and my mum would say, “Ok, I’ll just get the milk of magnesia. That’ll sort you out!” The threat of that foul stuff pretty much cured me in an instant. :P

I’d second what Rusty said about the oven temperature. I got my Orange 5 powder coated by a local firm that mostly do car bits. I only had it back for a couple of weeks before the frame cracked at the top tube / seat tube weld. Might be coincidence, might be that they cooked the aluminium till the welds were brittle. If I were to do it again, I’d go for a firm that has a track record of working on bikes.

I thought exactly the same as Spooner…because I forgot to take the transport bolts out of ours. Jeepers, it was terrifying!

I work in Glasgow, thankfully I don’t stay there! I took lessons at the snowdome, hence my ability, albeit rather ropey, to link my turns.

After years of snowboarding, I have a near pathological dislike for the Scottish ‘resorts’. I appreciate the tows are much easier on skis than on a snowboard, but Grrr… all the same.

Yeah Chris, my mates picked the resort and I didn’t really appreciate what I was signing up for. Still got quite a good deal, although I don’t think I’ll be drinking or eating as much as I usually do when on holiday! I reckon I could stretch to £200 for a bunch of lessons though. Not much more though as that’ll be a fairly substantial chunk of my spending money when I’m away! :P

Hey folks,

Any recommendations for a good ski school / instructor based in Val d’Isere / La Daille? I can just about link my turns but am still a bit snow-ploughy on blue runs. Hoping that if I took morning lessons it would maybe let me get out on a few runs with my mates towards the end of the week when we’re there.

I’m on a very, very tight budget though, so be gentle with me.

C.

Dragster, by MB.

I’ve still got this at home. Might ‘drag’ it out the cupboard (see what I did there), and have a couple of games with Mrs Beagleboy tonight.

Hmmm… after re-reading that, maybe I should clarify what Dragster actually was.

+1 for Shimano winter boots. A complete revelation when I got my first pair. Warm toastie and dry feet throughout the winter.

This old girl is a rebuild project that’s been at the back of my garage for quite a few years now. She’s a 2000 / 2001 era Patriot. I really just need to get the money together for a new drive chain and she’ll be up and running again.

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Absolutely amazing bike. The confidence inspiring feeling of being in the bike rather than on it, is one that I’ve never really been able to replicate, even on the more modern and whooptastic Orange’s like the Five, or my current Four.

Dang! Got the Wookie home planet wrong.

The Heritage 100 desktop Dobsonian is a good shout if you want to go for an entry level scope. I think it won a ‘Sky at Night’ best buy award. The bigger Dobsonians (that’s the style of the base, the Scope is actually a Newtonian Reflector), give you a huge amount of telescope for your money.

This is Dobby, my Skywatcher 200 Newtonian Reflector on a Dobson mount.

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The beer bottle is there for…erm …scale.

Brand new, it was £260 from Jessops and is an amazing piece of kit. It’s big though. It has a 200mm mirror at the bottom of the tube which itself is 1200mm long. It’s also heavy, although the base and tube do come apart.

I quickly learned to star hop using the small viewfinder scope on the top to find an easily recognisable star in the sky, then work over to the area I was interested in by kind of ‘joining the dots’.

The views of the planets can be stunning. The icecaps of Mars, or watching the shadow of Europa crossing the clouds of Jupiter are highlights that spring to mind. With that, remember you won’t be seeing the stuff you see on telly or magazines. Galaxies are fuzzy grey blobs, because our eyes can’t pick up the faint colour from them, even through a telescope. You need highly sensitive cameras, on long exposures to see that sort of detail!

Still, with a cheap camera phone holder mounted in front of the eyepiece, you can still get some nice shots. Here’s a couple to give you an idea of what you might be able to see.

This is through a 20mm eyepiece, so the magnification on my scope is around x48

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Pop in a 10mm eyepiece, bumping the magnification on my scope up to around x120 and you get this…

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I’m looking forward to clear skies tonight, a bottle of wine, and hopefully a nice display from the Geminid meteors. Probably going to be chuffing cold though!

Oooh, I see it now! It just wasn’t where I expected it to be. Thanks Perchy!

From where I’m sitting, I can’t see anyone’s P.

If it doesn’t go away after trying the above stuff, it might be worth chatting to the quack.

My wife is plagued by sinus infections and has been reduced to tears with it in the past. Doc has often had to prescribe antibiotics to clear up the mess.

What’s a ute?

“…a intense burn”? Really? :roll:

I don’t want to sound mean, but is this a wind up? Is this some sort of poem generating software?

Most of the trips are in the order of 15 minutes

:roll:

I’ve been mountain biking for around 25yrs now, but only converted to tubeless around 18 months ago and I’d say the difference is phenomenal. I’m a hefty lad (around 110 kg), and with tubes in I need to run pretty high pressures to avoid pinch flats. With the tubeless system, I can drop the pressure down to around 25 psi and the improved traction over rocks and roots is simply grin inducing.

Haven’t had a single puncture (touch wood, touch wood), in that time either. Stick with it!

C.

p.s. Mind you, I always carry a spare tube….just in case!

The one that really grates on me is people typing messages in their ‘local dialect’. There’s a couple of Facebook mountain biking groups that I follow where everyone on it seems to be characters straight out of ‘The Broon’s or Oor Wullie’, judging by the messages they type.

“Ach, hoots mon! Thae Minion tyres get fair mucket in the dreich weather”

That’s not how I was taught to read or write in school, and I’m from Bonnybridge. Write it out properly, and if you can’t spell it, google it!

:evil:

http://www.coolcasc.co.uk/

I’ve got the Triceratops one. It’s awesome!

Sky at Night magazine has a two page centre fold map of the night sky every month. Pretty much covers everything you’ll be able to see in the sky if it wasn’t for the clouds and my neighbours with their ‘Heathrow runway’ security lights. :evil:

My winter bike’s a 26’er Orange P7 hardtail. My main bike’s an Orange 4.

Up until I knackered my back, the P7 was my main bike for winter night riding. It’s easier to maintain, I don’t wince at every stroke of the pedal when grinding through winter gloop, and crucially, it has bottle cage mounts for my hipflask. A vitally important bit of kit when winter night riding. Solo, it gives me the Dutch courage to face the Things In The Night. On group rides, it gives me a remarkable performance boost. I can’t really explain it, but all I know is that when I’m out with a group of riders on my P7, and I’ve got a hipflask full of single malt displayed on my bike, all of a sudden I find myself riding in the middle of the pack, rather than tailing off the end as I would on my full susser.

Essentially though, if the weather and ground conditions are good, I’ll bring out the expensive full susser. If it’s minging out, and my back can cope with it, the old P7 comes out to play.

I’m slowly (it’s a money thing), rebuilding my 2001 Patriot. Love that bike and hope to have it running for the spring.