A year and a half when I bought a frame off the classifieds 😛
Disappeared for a while but I came back…funnily enough when I was avoiding revision!

First time was on the way back from practising with them on a quiet bit of industrial estate road, thought I had the hang of it. Almost got to my street but there was a bit of a traffic jam…over I went…broke my light as well!

2nd time was in the woods, I was going very slowly, front wheel got a bit stuck in a little dip as I didn’t have any momentum, fell over into half bramble and half muddy puddles! No one noticed the extra mud when I emerged thankfully!

Nothing than worse than trying to pull your foot off, failing and then falling with nothing you can do about it, especially if there are people watching!

I’ve been swapping between flats and spds ever since and still can’t decide which I prefer!

I have a Saris Bones 3, can get 3 bikes on but certain full sus designs are a real pain to get on.

It is very stable once on though, and once its been set up its really quick to get on (especially if you leave the top straps at the same length when taking on/off)

Northern Spain is good, I’ve been on a fair few holidays based in a a town called Estartit, always been enough of a breeze to keep it at that nice warm level but not so that you’re roasting.

Although we’re going to La Rochelle (France) this year for something different – from what we’ve read / heard it looks like it should be good there- lots of sunshine, but being an atlantic coastal area not ridiculously warm!

My photobox one was very good, and they do your first one free (well they did when I joined) so you only pay the £3.99 postage

final boss = MATLAB 😡

+1 !

Yay, I won the stem! That means I can finally give my borrowed stem back to my friend!
Cheers!

Thoroughly enjoying the live draw 😀

Its alright, I’m going home on Friday so I expect it’ll be raining lots in Northants once I’m back! 🙁

Seems to work well, especially on elbows. Stings like a swarm of these 😛

I’m still running on an iPhone 3G! My contract comes to an end in october, as much as I love it I’m seriously considering going back to somthing a bit more old school (and an awful lot cheaper!), although if the iPhone 5 comes out just in time I may well be very tempted!

+1 abus granite, I used to use a cable as well (through wheels) but decided the granite was a big enough deterrent and didn’t want to draw to much attention to my bike!

Becky, I don’t know what to say. I’m so sorry.

Don’t now how I could have missed it. Its just not good enough!

What did I miss?

Anything I can find, I’ve noticed that I’m also very hungry for several days after riding (even if I haven’t been riding *that* hard), currently trying to resist temptation to eat more otherwise I’m going to get fat!

Some of the Iceni frames are pretty cheap if you can find one, the sizing seems to work out quite big though (and aren’t women’s specific).

Otherwise I guess your best bet is to have a hunt around for a 2010 model? Or just someone with a nice sale on.

You just imagine the look of terror on his face as he falls over and sees the car coming, and then falls over as soon as he gets up!

Potentially a bit dodgy, has had an account for over a year but not used it to buy or sell anything?
If you don’t mind the hassle of dealing with pay pal and stuff if it goes wrong then you have nothing to lose?

Colwick nature reserve appears to be the same places a Skylarks Nature reserve 😛

No I don’t ride with any groups, just a couple of mates sometimes. Normally ride on my own (and definitely don’t get out enough!). I’m heading home for the summer as of Friday, but I don’t mind company so if you want a ride and I’m about drop me an e-mail 😛

+1

I used to like him, although as a Brit, driving for a team who’s engines are at least in part built in my village, I still support him as a driver.

Don’t mind if he wasn’t to complain about other drivers and stuff, but he’s obviously been told to say he didn’t mean it…

The photos look a lot like a ride I did a few weeks back, you weren’t doing a chunk of the Erewash valley trail/Attenborough Nature Reserve were you?

Rode along the canal path from Castle Marina, round Attenborough Nature Reserve and then back on the Trent Valley path along the river. If the weather not too bad I might ride over to the Skylark Nature reserve at Holme Pierre Point tomorrow…

Yeah, thankfully that’s further away than it looks (although if I hadn’t been met by the no cycling sign I would have gone right past it!). Its the Ratcliffe-on-Soar power station.

Thankfully all the nice things I saw today made up for it (although I kinda like power stations…)

Lots of rain yesterday, but there’s not a cloud in the sky now, and the pavement is almost dry…off out for a long ride down the canal shortly…

A 24″ would be way to small if she’s 5’3″

What about a small inbred frame? Frame might not be exactly the right style, but you could build it up in such a way that it fits the bill 🙂

Oh, and sacrifice whichever one you ride the least!

I don’t have one…but surely the reddest bikes around?

Must be this years colour! Or maybe its just that red bikes go faster!

After much pondering and deliberation, if the weather is reasonable tomorrow I’ll go for a nice ride down the side of the canal, just see how far I can get…at least 15 miles is doable but then it goes under the M1 so hopefully I can get through too!

I know it goes into maintenance and I have paid to park there every time I’ve been (twice one the bike, and once with the parents for a walk), but £4 is quite a lot!

note that if yer going this saturday there’s a car rally on- I think a fair amount of trails may be shut for a fair part of the day…

aw 🙁 weather looks half decent tomorrow (although I expect trails will be damp after today!), and having said that I don’t want to ride there I’ve been thinking about it all day…want to do it now just to see if I can- might ride up to watch the rally 😛

Apparently officially a drought at home (northants) currently sitting inside looking out at the secon big thunderstorm + heavy rain spell of the week! no drought here…

(hoping its not too wet for a ride tomorrow though!)

yes. but if you can only afford £1.42 a day for food then what are you doing wasting time on a mtb forum when you could sell the computer, cancel the internet and have more money to buy food (or look for a better paying job)

As a student I made the choice that having access to the internet is important, we live in a shared house so its about £10 a month each (I paid in a lump sum at the beginning of the year) which covers broadband and tv, yes we didn’t need such an expensive package but I don’t drink and don’t enjoying clubbing and spending evenings online or in front of the tv most nights is a lot cheaper than going out on the town!

I also decided that it was important to continue with mountain biking whilst at uni, and I wanted to do some races as well so that takes a lot out of my budget.

I’m happy to spend 7 months of the year (home for most of the holidays) living off pasta / rice / mince / veg / cheap cereal/ basics stuff for lunch etc. because it means I can still do the things I want to, £10 is what I budget myself a week but sometimes I go under that, and quite often my spending on the car and the bike is under budget so I do have more than £10 some weeks.

Some people, maybe even with a family, only have that much to spend on food because that really is all they have left after paying bills and stuff, and I’m glad that’s not the situation I’m in. An old computer can be picked up very cheap, and there are a lot of deals out there to get internet for just a few £s a month and I would say these days having access to the net is almost vital, and its not going to make much of a difference to the budget to stop that.

Oh, a despite prices going up if you lived off sainsburys basics noodles (which someone in the same corridor as me did for a term last year)…assuming 6 packets a day…that’s £4.20 a week…

I had a cheap lidls one for a while, that really was rubbish. Then bought a cheap Giant one, the control tower 3 I think (so not the cheapest one which is the control tower 4). Been faultless in the 2 years that I’ve had it.

Yep – pasta and rice are very cheap – combine with mince and various vegetables are you can eat very cheaply.

Doesn’t seem to have done me any harm for the last year and a bit so I assume I get enough nutrients!

I feed myself for about £10 a week, and I eat quite a lot, that’s with sainsbury basics stuff thats half decent, plus some normal sainsburys stuff and some real brands!

Just as well that’s all it costs to eat as rent + utilities + car is getting very expensive!

Friday…this time next week I’ll be picking up exam results, then driving home for a long summer of riding! 😀

So envious of you for being there! and some really good shots there 🙂

I’m about to have some cheese and crumpets, but that’s at home 😛

At the “office” tends to be something like flapjack, and a sandwich or leftovers

😮 thank you! this might keep me amused for a while 😛

I bought some walking boots from them, got home to find out the box they’d given me didn’t have a matching pair in, but they had charged my as if it was the cheaper pair (about a fiver less) even though it was the more expensive ones that I wanted.

Drove all the way back and they got me the right shoes and despite me pointing out that I had just had to drive back and it was their mistake they wouldn’t let me take the shoes without paying the extra!

But, for many things (i.e. cheap clothes to wear whilst doing sports) they are very good!

Tell them they have a method for valid payment and should just cash the cheque?

Put this on the photo’s with good timing thread, but I’ll post it on here to because it took me a lot of attempts to get one before the drop had fallen out of shot!

Was originally aiming to get a drop taking up a lot more of the shot, but I quite like how this turned out

Damn going to uni that starts in the middle of September and not October like a lot of them. I’d be jumping at this otherwise!