We had that same rack for my wife’s old style Micra. It eventually took the paint off the top and bottom of the boot. It’s also lethal to cars that have wee spoiler thingys at the top of the boot, (sorry Shazz).

We’ve got a roof rack now.

C.

Am I being a bit thick here? Is the thing supposed to drop by itself? I press the remote then push the saddle down with my bum. I don’t think mine drops automatically when the lever is pushed and mine is only a few months old and has seen very little use. :oops: :?:

Cumbernauld, wins every time.

I was at that Alice in Chains gig as well Arrpee ;-)

Love the place. Think the craziest gig I was at there was possibly L7? Although the one I enjoyed the most was probably the Saw Doctors.

Really love this as well, where the old flea market used to be on the way to the Barra’s. It’s a brilliant walk down memory lane as you play spot the gigs.

Beagy

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The times I’ve used them, the sale had an ending on date and the items were dispatched soon after. Could it be that your sale hasn’t ended yet?

It must be related to my Orange P7 with it’s Octalink BB and crank arms! I’ve used a length of pipe to increase the leverage on the bolts that hold the non-drive side crank arm on, only for it to unwind a few rides later. Thankfully, it has a habit of doing so near pubs.

I use hire bikes for my daily commute to work in central Glasgow, (Next Bikes), and the upkeep on them can be very ropey. Seized bearings, dodgy brakes and rattly headsets are common. However, I’m always aware that I’m riding a big lump of pishbike. Glad to hear your okay, and that nothing untowards happened. Give it a good shake and a bounce next time before getting on! :-P

Research Technician in a molecular biology lab.

I started working as a TIG welder when I left school at 16, but hated every minute of it until in my early 20’s I went back to college, then university to do a degree in Ecology. My undergrad project supervisor gave me my first tech job in his lab and over the last 20 years I’ve moved labs and retrained a few times till I’m now working in a lab that’s doing cutting edge research into the genetic makeup of blood borne parasites causing diseases such as Malaria, African Sleeping Sickness and Leishmaniasis.

My actual work is now centered around extracting DNA / RNA from the parasites at different points in their life cycles, then processing the material so that it can be sequenced to see what proteins they are creating and expressing in the hope that this knowledge can lead to new treatments.

We also use the parasites to model how DNA replication starts, progresses and halts in cells. studying the various protein complexes that come together and interact during this process. A lot of our work focuses on the BRCA-1 and 2 genes and the mutations that can lead them to fail as tumor suppressants.

Can you guess that I love my job? The pay is appalling and I have a 2hr commute each way, but I get up in the morning and I find myself excited about the day ahead. I don’t think you can beat that. I also get the privilege of working with some of the finest young scientist you’ve ever seen as they work through their Phd projects.

Sorry for the trade lingo!

C; :-)

Thanks folks, I want to keep the original bar etc. and just replace the quill stem, but now I’ve got a better idea of what I’m looking for.

Cheers!

C.

You’d be much better to take your MTB. Straight out the door you’ve got some of the finest natural off-road riding central Scotland has to offer. North – Third for technical, Dumyat- Hermitage Woods-Mine Woods – Kippenrait – Bridge of Allan Brewery for a fine couple of hours and a perfect pint afterwards. Ben Cleuch- Andrew Gannel for one of the best descents or again Ben Cleuch and eastwards towards Dollar for a day long ride without dipping below 2000ft till nearly the very end!

C.

My wife and I got married there by Elvis in 2002 (and returned to renew our vows in 2012) and the next morning took a helicopter flight (Sundance Helicopter Tours who are still running), down to the Grand Canyon for a champagne breakfast. That was awesome and well worth the money.

The piano bar in New York New York is well worth visiting at night, as is the Grand Square in the Venetian (lovely string quartets play there).

Circus Circus has a purpose built theatre for the Cirque du Solei, that’s wicked.

Don’t know if it’s still there, but in 2012 the Luxor had an amazing Titanic exhibition running, with mockups of cabins and a 10 tonne section of the hull on display…just checked, still there!

We had fun doing the CSI experience in the MGM hotel. Best bit was when my wife, who watches every murder show on the telly, queried why we were trying to figure out the calibre of some bullets and I had to take her back to the murder scene and help her count the ‘odd’ number of ‘eyeholes’ in the victim’s skull.

Last time we were there I also booked a guided MTB trip around Red Rock Canyon. Nice hire bike, an Ellesworth as I recall, fabulous scenery, just watch out for the frikken Chipmunks….they’re everywhere!

Fun show we did, because we missed it first time round at the Excalibur (where we’ve stayed both times), was the medieval joust and banquet. Excellent stuff and Merlin was well impressed when he discovered we were Scots.

Other than that, most of our time there was spent gawping at stuff and drinking slushy cocktails…oooh, Dick’s Last Resort! A bar in the Excaliber, brilliant place for a great laugh, good live music and food. Really funny place, they go all out to insult and embarrass the patrons. Google it, it was cracking good fun!

The 40th Anniversary issue is a bunch of self contained stories. With a mix of characters old and new. :-)

I enjoyed it.

C. :-)

I nipped out to the shops at lunchtime and bought the 40th anniversary issue. The Judge Dredd story was good, really dark tale with lovely artwork. A brief flick through the other pages confirms what someone earlier said about the comic being aimed at a more mature reader than I would have thought….unless as a kid, I just didn’t see or get the references!

I can actually see myself getting back into this on a weekly basis.

:-)

I actually remember standing in the local newsagents and asking my mum if she’d buy me Prog 1. (it had a red space flyer sellotaped to the front).

That was my love of comic books born right there. Do you remember the V.C.’s? I might have cried a wee bit when they were all but wiped out, although in my defence, I think I was only 9 or 10 at the time.

Still have my 1981 Judge Dredd annual, and still pick it up for a read every so often. Gawd, 40 years.

Y’know, I’m kinda thinking of nipping to the shops at lunchtime and maybe buying myself a copy.

C. :-)

I had a red Tomahawk, and the Chopper that replaced it was a thing of beauty. Black with holographic decals (flames coming out of the exhaust decal on the chain guard), I loved that bike.

Aaah, I seem to be thinking of something different. Those are more like bum-bags you guys are talking about, whilst I was thinking of rucksacks where the design places everything lower on the back. Think it’s something like a Camelbak Skyline I was thinking of.

Still interested to hear if anyone with lower back issues has tried one of that style and whether it gives any relief. Most of my rides tend to be 2-6hrs in length so I need to be self sufficient with a fairly big pack.

C. :-)

I’m kinda interested in one of these designs as well. I’m struggling with a fair amount of lower back pain whilst riding and wondered if lowering the centre of gravity on the backpack would help.

Anyone with similar issues tried this?

C. :-)

I’m 6ft 1in and around 115kg, so rather on the chunky side of things. I’ve got a Boardman CX Sport bike for riding on the road. It’s a bit like a rufty-tufty road bike. Stronger built frame and wheels etc.

For off-road, as the fokls here say, any hard-tail, (no suspension at the back), should give you a good laugh nowadays. You don’t have to spend a lot of money to get good giggles.

I’d have a look at the Boardman range again for a good intro. No need to fill your garage with the full range from Orange like some folks… :oops:

I get that message popping up for a few seconds quite frequently. Just assumed it was my telly box having a brain fug (I get them quite a lot myself actually), as the channel usually comes on after a few seconds delay.

C.

I quite welcome the reduction in the number of issues. I used to love it when the quarterly issue dropped through my letterbox. The time between issues just made it all the sweeter when the next mag arrived. The last year or so though, I’ve seen me finding the mag a month or more after it arrived, still in its wrapper under a pile of other stuff. There was even a couple of times when I seriously contemplated cancelling my subscription!

So yeah, less is better in my opinion. It’ll hopefully bring back the heady days of wondering if that thump on the front door mat was my lovely new bike magazine….rather than yet another whopper of a credit card bill!

C. :-)

Yep, don’t make the mistake I did and try to fit a tubeless kit in tubeless ready wheels and tyres. There was a great deal of sweary-shoutyness, followed by a long period of embarrassed silence when someone on here pointed out my rather obvious mistake. :oops:

Would still check the rim tape though on the new wheels. Mine came ‘tubeless ready’ but the rim tape had been applied by some drunken loon wearing boxing gloves.

C.

Splodged a tablespoon of simmering steak ‘n’ ale gravy over my hand whilst cooking New Year’s day dinner, (I may have been slightly pished at the time). Ran it under the cold water tap for a good 15-20 minutes….which really hurt! It took about a week to blister and peel and was really sore. Once all the skin started peeling I used moisturising stuff which cooled it down and eased the burny itch. Still a wee bit itchy and sore now, but I can hardly see the burn now!

Hope you get better soon!

Ordered a couple of glasses for me and my riding buddy. We do drink a lot of Jennings ale when we’re down for our annual Lakes tour in the summertime. Really appreciate you taking the time to post that up Mr Whyte. Happy holidays!

C. :-)

Awesome! I’m having one of those. My mate and I were drinking from them when we were down in the Lakes back in October, but neither of us were daring enough to pop he empty glass in our bags.

Brilliant find, cheers!

C.

Doc Savage: The Man of Bronze, with Ron Ely. Truly magnificent movie. The scene where he gives a speech to his mates as they board a plane and their light applause builds up to a stadium roar with brass bands playing…Awesome movie, but my mates all laugh at me for liking it.

Bullshot Crummond. What’s not to like a bout a hero who escapes from being encased in concrete in a room slowly filling with water by imitating the mating calls of a giant sea squid? Epic movie, but my mates all laugh at me for liking it.

Water. The best of eighties British comedy. Michael Caine and Billy Connolly leading a revolution to free the island of Cascara from UK rule. An unsung classic movie, but my mates all laugh at me for liking it.

C.

p.s. I’m thinking of upgrading my mates, should I Boost them?

Upgraded from a 2009 Orange 5 to a 2016 Orange Four. So everything is new to me. Geometry, wheel size, stem size, handlebar…..freaking huge handlebar, 1×10 gearing and dropper post. Loving every minute I get on her, (she’s called Thelma), but five months on and I’m still struggling with under steering…that what you call it when turning into things too sharply?…and trying to fit between trees!

Best bike I’ve had ever, and a double treat as I scared the utter shite out of myself at the start of the year with a bad snowboarding accident injuring my spine. Now, I really do feel that every minute on that new bike is a winner!

C. xx

For us, going to Bansko, the cost breaks down to

£250pp Easyjet flight Manchester to Sofia (that included my snowboard)

£30pp return airport transfer (Sofia – Bansko) with Steve and Wendy’s Earlybirds Transfers

£60pp 6 day rental of a two bedroom apartment in the Demianitza apartment block just down from the gondola that takes you up the mountain, from Alexander Rentals

£130 for the 6 day ski pass, which we get at a discounted rate from Steve and Wendy. They also do cheap equipment hire if needed.

So that’s £470pp for the actual holiday, and I usually take another £200 for spending which is more than enough to eat out for breakfast, lunch and dinner, plus evening booze to top up the booze that I usually drink throughout the day!*

I reckon I usually spend around £650 in total for my week away in Bansko, and I never came home disappointed…well, maybe just a wee bit that last time, but I did get to come home in an eight seater Lear jet!

Drop me an email if you want any more info, or contact details for the folk we’ve used.

C.

*I crashed first thing in the morning on the last day of the holiday, hadn’t even had time for my breakfast pint!

Satellites have loads of reflective surfaces that can catch the sunlight. Google “Iridium Flares” for more info.

I see them all the time through Dobby, my Newtonian telescope.

:-)

My three friends and I have gone to Bansko for the last 7 years and had a wonderful time of it. We rented an apartment through Alexander rentals that was a 5 minute walk from the main Gondola and cost 60 euros each for the week.

We’re all very much a bunch of ‘get up at the crack of dawn and get the fresh snow’ folks, so we never encountered the queue for the gondola that seems to plague reviews about Bansko.

The mountain is fully serviced by chairs, I can only think of two small runs that have tows on them, and all of the chairs are fast and modern affairs.

The food on the mountain provided by the places owned by the operating company Ulen is very basic and bland, but if you know where to look…just ask folk…there are lots of little places hidden away that offer great food and drink at unbelievable prices.

In the town, it’s the same deal. You can spend as much or as little as you like on good quality food. The Loghouse is my favourite. Can’t think of the amount of times I’ve argued with the waitress over the bill, as I’ve been convinced she’d forgotten to add the drinks to the final tally, its been so cheap.

The mountain itself is small, but has great off piste, through the trees stuff for snowboards and skierists alike. Out of the seven winters, we’ve had three weeks of awesome powder and one week where the snow was a bit thin and ropey. I reckon it’s brilliant for beginners and intermediate level folk on a tight budget.

However, I had a bad snowboard accident this February and although the treatment I received in the resort was first class, once I was transferred away from the resort, the fact I was in a poor eastern European country quickly became apparent. Even when my insurance company managed to get me transferred to a private clinic, prior to flying me home in an air ambulance, it was still very rough.

So I’d thoroughly recommend Bulgaria, and Bansko in particular, if you are looking to go on a budget snowsport holiday. As long as you go fully aware that it is a budget destination and the reasons why it’s a budget destination.

C.

Go for it!

I’m stuck in the deepest ‘can’t be arsed to ride’ doldrums at the moment, but absolutely love every minute on the bike when I actually convince myself to go out. At the moment (pre, 2hr bus commute home), I’m planning on going out for a solo on the MTB tonight. Was going to head towards Stirling, but my wife has warned me that there’s a dead deer spread across a significant part of the back road that I normally take, so if I go out, think it’ll be Carron Valley’s man made trails for me.

I’ll go out if you go out. How about that?

C. :-)

Secret Santa got me a £5 version of this last year.

http://www.iwantoneofthose.com/gift-games/play-that-tune/10844088.html

It’s utterly brilliant fun, the carnage it’s caused at parties makes it worth 10x the price in my opinion.

C.

I tend to use my tablet just for watching the odd movie when travelling, and a bit of web browsing. Although I did just find a fabulously accurate recreation of Elite (Alite), which now has me gaming a bit on the thing. My trusty old Hudl died on me earlier in the year and I eventually went for this….

http://www.techradar.com/reviews/pc-mac/tablets/chuwi-hi10-windows-tablet-1315022/review

A Chuwi Hi10. It’s a 10in dual boot (Android or Win10), tablet with an Intel quad processor. I got it with an optional plug in keyboard, (which I use pretty much most of the time as it’s a very handy stand). The addition of the keyboard gives the tablet extra USB ports and maybe even an HDMI port, although I’m not 100% sure on that!

For £150, I’ve been well impressed

C.

I’ve got a blue one in the loft. Gimme a shout if you’re in the Stirlingshire area. ;-)

C.

That must be from the previous weekend. I started up there on Saturday, climbing through Hermitage Woods where the ground was frozen rock solid. Popped out onto the road for the final wee climb up onto Dumyat itself and was met by a warm breeze. The difference in temperatures above and below the inversion was amazing. However, it did mean that the lower slopes of Dumyat were a mudbath. I ended up turning at the midway boggy bit and heading down Witches Craig, as I didn’t want to cut up the track any worse than it already was.

I’d hoped for frozen conditions like there were in that lovely photo, but alas no. It’s a place that’s best left for dry days, or rock hard frozen

That exact phrase followed me through primary school in the mid 70’s until it was changed to ‘Lacks focus and coordination’ at High School.

I survived.

C.

Funnily enough, for bonfire night, we bought tickets to sail on ‘The Sir Walter Scott’, a wee pleasure steamer that pootles around Loch Katrine. Before the rather good fireworks display, the main entertainment was laid on by ‘Callander’s very own Shakin’ Stevens impersonator! Didn’t really listen to him, because we were in the bar drinking very reasonably priced single malts but I do remember he did belt out Green Door at one point. ;-)

So Shakin Stevens must be a legend if he’s got his own impersonator….or is it just an indictment of the central Trossachs?

:P

I saw Jeff Lynne in concert with Ry Cooder at the SECC in the early 90’s. All was going well until Jeff stood up and walked across the stage to get another guitar. That’s when we all say that he was wearing these magnificent, purple satin flares.

There was a sudden silence, then from the back of the auditorium came a solitary cry of “Haw Jeff! Whaure’d ye get they troosers?”

The place errupted, and I honestly thought he was going to storm off in the huff.

:-)

I think you really need to have a very short exposure time, I actually have to fit a filter to the lens of my camera to reduce the glare from the moon when taking a shot.(I may have cheated a wee bit as this is a webcam fitted to the eyepiece of my telescope.)

I’ve moved from a 90mm stem and 640mm bar on my old Orange Five to a 30mm stem and 770-80mm? Renthal setup on my new Orange Four and I’m absolutely loving the confidence this setup is giving me.

Still getting used to it mind you. Most rides I’m clipping trees and last weekend I did get a fair old clang out of a metal bollard as I rode across old Stirling bridge….that woke me up!

Go for it, what’s the worst that can happen?

C.

p.s. If you’re wondering, my hand’s feeling a whole lot better from that time in August when I completely misjudged the distance between the rocks on one side and the tree on the other as we wheeched down the Lairig Ghru. Hardly hurts at all now! You’ll be fine, trust me! :twisted:

Welcome to Timesulin

Not sure if these are just for disposable pens, but it seems a great idea.

Just checked and it’s only for disposables, doesn’t work with cartridge refill pens. Sorry :-(