Postierich – no, you are still 32nd – just on row 33 of the spreadsheet.

135 in Men’s Fun Solo. I was very happy with my 31st!

Peeing down is good – I can’t be arsed to replace my mud X’s with the dry weather tyres.

Pretty sure Matt from Torq told me that the stuff he sells will generally be fine after the best before, as there is so little fat there isn’t much to actually go off.

No idea for the technical term for mine, but it popped out forwards (impact from the back). Nice man in Cirencester minor injuries put it back about an hour later.

I was back on a turbo trainer in 2 weeks (wearing a sling), riding gentle on the road after about 5, off road in 12, mountain mayhem in 13, 12 hour solo at 24/12 in 18. It’s been about 14 months now and there’s no real difference between the dislocated and non-dislocated shoulders.

Get to a physio as soon as you can – I had a private appointment before the NHS one. Do your exercises when they tell you. Get a cute physio like my NHS one. When I dislocated mine lots of people posted lots of interesting advice about other medical/manipulation methods that had worked well for them – I think Brant was one who had some experience of it.

I kept doing the exercises for about a year after, only stopped as my gym going has been replaced by more bike riding. Strengthening the area around the joint is crucial.

Davy banned for inventing the safe miners’ lamp.

Mine here:

Dislocated MTB

I’ve been OK with the BB, ceramic ones. Seconded on the crankset problems though, very light but I don’t trust mine any more.

Oh, hi jacksta!

Thanks folks, toe clips or those other things sound like something to try. If i die i’ll be back to get you.

27 Yards of Dental Floss, Half Man Half Biscuit. Was listening to them in the car late last night.

Lyrics[/url]

Depeche Mode videos on YouTube.

Yup, you need to load up on carbs beforehand for a couple of days, then the limiting factor in the race will be the amount that your stomach can process. Have too much and you’ll get stomach cramps/nausea (drink plain water to help ease this).

I find I go well on 1 litre of 6% energy drink per hour (~60g of carbs), or a bar (~50g carbs) every 45 mins or so, with water+electrolytes. Useful having other stuff in reserve if you get bored, plus you’ll probably fancy some real food for a 24.

No, mine is the best custom East Peak. It’s so custom it now has a Rift Zone frame.

Aplomb, except for on football commentaries.

I liked it too – best for ages. I guess it appeals as long enduros are my kind of thing, so I could really empathise with some of the stories. The story about the snowy/winter race has really stuck in my mind – the advice at the end along the lines of “if you are hungry/thirsty, deal with it now – it won’t go away” is my new mantra.

That is my favourite Elise – love the type 49 colour scheme. Even though I promised I’d sell my existing Lotus (Elan) as I barely use it, I’d think very hard about getting a type 49 if I found one for sale.

Couple of friends one mine grew up in Speke. One of them still lives there (hey, maybe you could stay at his? Opposite an RC church!). Scary place. My friend (who has managed to escape) drove us through there a couple of years ago in his almost new Evo VIII, showing us his favourite burnt out shops and boarded up houses. He’d taken some little back road to get near there, and even though he was going fairly rapidly we suddenly found a police car behind us, just as we slowed down at the edge of Speke itself.

We cruised around at 28mph, indicating at every junction, still with this traffic car about 20 metres behind. After 5 minutes or so, when the police obviously had checked it wasn’t stolen and was sure we weren’t panicing in any way, he let us go.

I’m still not sure if he was suspicious of us or if he was acting as an escort so we didn’t get car-jacked.

That somehow just looks “right”. Don’t know why, just does. Love the double top tube thing, very distinctive.

She claims to, but in my experience, a bloke does it all for her the day before, then she turns up in a big car with a strange man (who is wearing one brown glove), and proceeds to shovel two small spade fulls of earth on the tree. She then tells all the world that she planted it, and has a brass plaque installed by the tree.

Faker.

It’s the age of the slides, they aren’t that brilliant to start with. Scans come out at about 2.1 megapixels.

Thanks for all the advice – and I’ve saved some of the adjusted ones (and the Warhol one) to compare with my attempts.

Here’s one of me helping the Queen plant a tree. I’ve got the cool blue parka and flares on.

Yes, it has something similar – Enhance – Adjust Lighting – Levels, lets you select R G or B and turn it up. THe adjust colour curves in elements doesn’t seem to allow a specific colour to be chosen. I think I might buy a book – any recommendations?

Thanks for the tips actually – I’m a total novice with PS elements. So, curves, bit more red. I’ll have a go! I’ve only used the auto-correct stuff really.

That’s my Dad’s Austin Healy Sprite MkIII, from when he was stationed in Aden in the 60’s.

Example Picture (tidied up a little)

Yeah, I’ve got a very similar one, different colour but Epson and button layout looks the same. It has a plastic frame that you put either film or slides in (different slots), which then lays on the glass. The white background on the inside of the lid is removable, and it reveals a slot that reflects the light down through the slides/film.

Works OK, software detects what you are scanning and can do several frames in one go – four slides at a time and probably one film strip. Puts them into separate files.

Quality is reasonable, make sure glass and slides are clean!

I’ll upload some of the scans (which have been tidied in photoshop – they were 40 year old slides) to flickr and post an example.

I found a 20% off code for Cotswold Outdoor – B2091 or FJ71. Can’t remember which one I used, worked 3 days ago. They might have something.

I use mine for all online shopping – still using it just the same, though I also pay it off every month.

Used to subscribe to WMB but cancelled as I was bored of them rehashing the same stuff (“Your best summer ever!”) every year.

Still subscribe to Car, but getting bored of it too.
Get second hand copies of Evo, generally a good read.
Occasionally by Procycling.

I’m working my way through all 144 episodes of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, got them for Christmas. On to Series 2 now, long long way to go…

Before that – South Park the Movie, Simpsons Movie, Team America, Ghostbusters. I also find music DVDs are good – Audioslave in Cuba also has mountain biking in it!

Ah, that’ll be it. But they’d rebranded them as blueberry or something. But I knew, oh yes, I knew. That zincy tang with a hint of cobalt.

Ditto on the choc raisin ones too. Others taste of metal and chemicals.

Keb Mo at the Jazz Cafe.
Joe Bonamassa and Eric Bibb were both good at Cornbury too.

It depends on your situation – I’m now comfortable with what I earn, pays bills and allows bikes to be bought when I need them. I’ve got over the newer/faster car thing, and our “new” TV is 5 years old and we got it free off friends who’d bought a big flat screen one. So for me, I value my time way more than the money – to make a real difference to my lifestyle I’d have to earn double.

Best thing about my job is that it’s 5 mins from home, and while I work the hours needed to get the job done it’s rarely more than 40 a week, and even more rarely a couple at weekends.

From what you’ve described, keep the saturdays for riding, unless you really really need the money.

I had 2.0 Mud X front and rear. No grip problems, just skill and power problems!

Most common bike there last year was Rocky Mountain ETSX-Team – couple of friends did it (and they were on RMs too). There is lots of carrying too though.

My Saturdays (if I’m not riding, like today):

– Up earlyish, grind coffee, make coffee, drink coffee.
– Breakfast
– Bike/drive to town for paper, whatever, bimble round shops, chat in bike shop
– Home, read paper (more coffee?), listen to new CDs I’ve probably bought
– Clean/maintain bikes, more music on
– Nice lunch at some point
– Listen to football on 5 live, bit of a tidy up
– Cook something complicated for tea
– G/f arrives home and my "me" time is at an end…

It’s all go you know!

Power meters give more instant feedback about what you are doing – with heart rate you can ease off for a bit before it reacts, or it takes a while to catch up when you increase your effort. Generally I find training with power (on a turbo) more intense, as if I’m easing off I know within a second or so.

General concept of training with power is similar though, although there are some books that use different ways of working out training plans based on expended power in a session.

So to answer your question – yes, more accurate and detailed, but not cheap – depends how serious you are. I know a few people who use powertaps now.

Need: Stronger rotator cuffs
Want: Stronger legs

My gf’s cousin (a professional tractor and various other kinds of farming style vehicle driver) is going on an all-expenses paid trip to the Claas factory in Germany, which coincidently I used to live about 100 metres away from!

Yup, masters. Mainly because it’s in the morning – I did a couple in open last year. I’m hoping for lower mid-table obscurity.