Fair enough. He took his bike over it for sure.

No question TJ, but you’d have some whipper snapper like this

Nice story – anymore?

doubting the veracity of the rest of it before you blinked an eye if you’re not careful, which I hasten to add I don’t.

One of the less extreme areas of Blacksail pass

My dad rode a flat barred single speed 29r over black sale pass in the 50s

No disrespect TJ, but I’ll bet you a very large amount of money that he didn’t. Pretty sure that no one ever is going to ride a single speed over Black Sail pass. They might carry it up some of the way and push it the rest, and ride it down, but ride the pass?? I don’t think so.

I’ve said it’s a combination of things that makes theirs the first “mountainbike” – triples along with custom made frames seem to be key, no one is saying anyone else did either.

What is a triple??

Regarding frames, take a look at the early “MTB” frames, I don’t think you will find that they are recognisable as an MTB frame as we now know it.

The present day MTB is no more like the original products made by Specialized than what I used to build is. Basically all they did is beef up a road bike a bit and call it a mountain bike. The major innovation that liberated the concept is in my book the adaptation of the hydraulic disc brake to a pedal cycle. Thats quite recent in the history of the concept.

What was a big innovation was making the pirate offraod scene into a legit thing for “respectable people” to do.

Explain that one for me jedi. I would like to know your reasoning behind that train of thought

The “they marketed it not invented it” train of thought is 100% correct.

Personally, I first started off road cycling in the 1960’s. The premise then was that you built a bike from bits purloined from anywhere you could get them. Generally a robust steel frame, with the biggest heaviest wheels you could wedge into the frame. If you found a “trade bike” (one with a whapping great basket on the front) you were in clover because the rear wheel was mega. Quite often we would use components from various light motor bikes and mobylettes to beef the thing up further. For example I had a set of swinging arm suspension forks off an old military motorbike that worked well albeit as heavy as sin. Usually we’d operate with a rear brake only, single speed with a 48 tooth single chain ring at the front and a 24 tooth rear freewheel. As stated elsewhere knobblies were about, but we actually bought ours second hand from the cycle speedway boys. Can’t remember the name of the brand though. We just followed on from the older lads and hooned about wherever we could with our cow horns, sometimes canadian bend (think mary bar stylee) and later on ape hanger bars.

We no more invented it than the yanks did. They commercialised it, we didn’t. Different thing altogether. Actually had British Cycling been a bit less up themselves in those days and opened their eyes to the fact that everywhere you went there were scrotes like me roaring about off road, we probably could have claimed the invention and also the commercial success that followed on, but we were too rough and ready for the guys at the top to take any notice. HUGE mistake!!

Personally I don’t have any view on this until more detail is available. However having said that I didn’t vote for Call me Dave, I wouldn’t trust him or his cronies under any circumstances and I can’t think of any single thing that would be good for him and his ilk that I’m likely to be happy about.

We shall see.

The search for a suitable repalcement for halogen/carbon filament has been going on for some time and is accelerating almost daily. There are two basic ways to go in respect of downlights, one towards low energy lamps which can go straight into GU10 fittings albeit they do stick out a bit. In the past the criticism of these has been they take time to warm up, they don’t give out as much light, they flicker and they have a horrible light which makes you look like a corpse. Check out Megaman branded lamps, they are now very good and are rapidly increasing their downlight market share.

The other area is LED’s. Generally these will be complete new fittings, and will stiff you in the region of £70- £80 plus vat per unit for a reasonable quality product. They are now highly effective and pretty much as good as halogens in every way except energy consumed, where they are substantially cheaper to run, like 16 or 17 times cheaper.

Personally I’d sit on my hands for a few months, as I would expect all of the prices to come down as bigger volumes get made/sold. The Lighting market os very competitive, and when the ball starts rolling you will be amamzed how fast prices will change.

(In the biz)

Dancing would be inapprorpriate, but a quiet moment of reflection while humming the tune to Ding Dong the witch is dead?? Well possibly.

In the last 50 years how many times have we used aircraft carriers in anger? In the last 50 years how many times have we used nuclear weapons in anger?

Obvious that we need to keep one an ditch the other IMHO

However………

Anyone else got a feeling of déjà vu ????

Personally I think its incumbent on the politicians to motivate the electorate to turn out to vote for them. I also think that it should not be assumed that the non voters voted for the governing party as is the case at the moment. Therefore each MP’s vote should only count for as many votes as they actually received when elected. i.e. poorly motivated electorate = difficult to legislate, which is in my view democratic.

So where do i lie in all this?
I class myself as ideally a Marxist, yet i know it can never work in this world, so vote Conservative as the best working alternative

LOL what an utter load of cobblers.

An interesting article. I suspect for our society to work well elements of both sides have to succeed, but the general situation needs to be one of balance. We have suffered badly from the pendulum swing in this country, others have suffered from the pendulum being stuck on either side. (As indeed we did to some degree under both Thatcher and Blair.)

why not have a bin at the end of every couple of sections?

Why not just make it legal to kick the living crap out of anyone you see dropping litter, and to then turn their happy tackle into a baccy pouch for sale as a branded trail souvenir at the trail shop? Much more likely to succeed IMHO

Yes, but shes not offering to give any back, merely to withdraw something that leaves the dosh in her pocket. i.e. no benefit to anyone other than queeny. Thats the point

The point that I found interesting is how would the removal of an altruistic gesture like a staff Christmas party, apparently paid for out of her own pocket have any bearing whatsoever on the economy. Its not a government cut where there is a straight line relationship between expenditure and debt. It was her money to spend as she chose prior to the decision, and it remains her money to spend as she choses after the decision. How it is possible to to relate that to some sort of personal sacrifice to the greater and common good of the state is totally beyond me. At best this is reducing personal expenditure at the cost of others before Osborne get to her IMHO.

I have to say a Xmas meal with all the trimmings, gut full of ale , fumble with the office bike at the Brickmakers Arms followed by a kebab and an upchuck in the High Street never cost £83 for any of my lot, or for that matter £42 per annum as it happens.

Personally I think SFB’s behaviour here and eleshwere demonstrates quite clearly why his assertion to have “fixed himself” is self evidently incorrect. that however, is merely my opinion. (Please apply all the usual caveats…. non insulting, non confrontational ya di ya di ya )

Nope, I’m just saying that a smart local fella was saying that India would not necessarily be a wonderful place full of sweetness and light had the British Raj not occurred, and thats not really something that had occurred to me as such.

The Gandhi thing is quite interesting. Its difficult to argue with a lot of what he said, however on on of my many trips to India I was chatting to a very thoughtful academic about the impact of the British Raj and how emabaressed I felt to be British in that context. After a pause he turned to me and said don’t be so ridiculous, can you imagine what a mess we would be in now had it not been for the Raj, you only have to look as far as Afgahnistan to see the truth of that. That was several years before the current troubles there. I thought about that a lot for a long time, and the truth is that India as such never actually existed as a state prior to the Raj, it was a series of kingdoms riven with all sorts of intrigue and infighting, almost perpetually at war, and generally not the most pleasant place for the average fella in the street to be.

I’m not saying he was right, but it does put some of what Gandhi said into a slightly different perspective.

Blimey !

Rephrase : For The rest is bollocks READ: The rest of what I have posted is bollocks

Better now?

Regarding the CBT thing, I’m really glad you have had your road to Damascus moment with your book. Don’t kid yourself that you are fixed, and beware of the fact that one of the factors in depression is this pendulum swing from one position to another. It does not mean you are “fixed”. That is the entire point. I’m off now as I have a life and being on the end of an SFB Troll doesn’t feature too highly in whats important in it, fun though it might be.

cheers for the chat

Bye

Just had a quick scan through here, and yikes this is really getting silly now.

SO for the record :
1) I totally disassociate myself with the silly tags at the top of this thread, even if I knew how to do that I wouldn’t.
2) The tory voter thing I was seeing an attitudinal link between SFB’s simplistic outlook toward dealing with depression and the current tory attitiude to the feckless poor/deficit/cuts. Simon chose not to respond so I chose not to pursue it
3) I am not in any way having a go at Simon, simply pointing out that “Ifixed myself in two weeks” is akin to the MTFU etc attitudes to depression, which are neither helpful or possible as solutions.

The rest is bollocks.

one being that I never claimed to have been cured

sorry I obviously misunderstood the word “fixed” in the context of

suffered it for 30 odd years and fixed myself in 2 weeks

Are we rationed to one thought at a time ?

Nope that was the precise point that you had in fact been thinking about it for some time, necessitating two seperate posts rather than a considered and collated one, thus the comment “touched a nerve?. However on reflection maybe that wouldn’t be a bad idea though limiting you to the one 😉

& Finally

@ Elfinsafety

Trivialise Depression/MI? How has he done that?

By patronising the OP and the rest of us with this crepe

I suffered it for 30 odd years and fixed myself in 2 weeks after reading “Feeling Good” by David Burns. Best £5 I ever spent

As you yourself actually pointed out in criticism of my earlier post

In many cases, this will unfortunately be a lifetime process. So be it. Much of the time it’s about managing a condition sufficiently so that you can operate ‘normally’.

Unfortunately I suspect you probably haven’t read what I’d posted before your post. So you might find that’s pretty much what I originally said here:-

Personally I’ve recently completed CBT and am still taking the “happy pills” and have honestly never been better in my life. I cannot however claim to be cured/fixed, merely in a more manageable place, In fact I’d go as far to say that I’m not even sure that a cure is possible. So I’d love to hear more about sfb’s road to Damascus moment.

And that in essence is the point. Pontificating about fixing oneself in 2 weeks is entirely unhelpful to genuine sufferers or even to self deluding souls who believe that they can actually suffer from depression AND deal with it on a DIY basis in two weeks. Simon is at his own admission full of contrary views and generally irritating, and is in all likelihood something of a troll by nature. This however is just irresponsible and not worthy of his acclaimed intellect IMHO. There are a great number of people wrestling with depression who inhabit this forum, there are few if any who will receive anything more useful than additional upset and pain through SFB’s post. Therefore I object strongly to it. Fair enough??

Personally I’d quite like to see someone from the feckless poor being appointed to reveiw the taxation of the wealthy….. in the big society surely this would be an entirely reasonable thing, using the gentry to judge how the less well off should be treated and conversely the less well off how the wealthy get taxed. Should be able to sort that deficit out really quickly that way eh??

re-reading the “Touch a nerve ? ” comment, it does appear to be vindictive but also hilariously far off the mark. I do wonder what it was supposed to achieve …

Not at all, just wondered why you chose to answer the same point twice in a matter of a few moments, thus quoting both answers and following it with that simple question…. i.e. did that particular point touch a nerve? Pretty much precisely what I said. Not vindicitive nor assualting anyones psyche, and I wouldn’t mind an answer to it too.

believe that you can “cure” a condition like depression in two weeks through reading a self help book. You can’t!

I said “fixed”. I’m still the same person but happier. I still have the same bad thoughts pop into my head a dozen times a day, but I ridicule them like Prof. Lupin in Harry Potter, and they disappear. I still have occasional brief reactive relapses when circumstances make it harder to dismiss the thoughts, but they’re soon overcome.

simonfbarnes – Member

No doubt there will be people who now actually believe that you can “cure” a condition like depression in two weeks through reading a self help book.

ya think ? I must say everything else I’ve ever posted on this forum has been greeted with universal (usually misplaced) scepticism, and on those few occasions when someone finds themselves agreeing with me they always express resentment! What’s different this time ? I suggest you treat your fellow forum members with less contempt and allow them to decide for themselves.

Touch a nerve ?

And he’s broached a difficult subject in an open and honest manner

Actually thats not quite correct, what he’s done is trivialised a wide spread and severe social problem that is far too frequently swept under the carpet and dealt with by the use of phrases such as “MTFU”, “get a grip” or “sort yourself out”, often by the very people to whom you should be able to look to for help. The fact of his original statement is either he wasn’t a sufferer, or alternatively and much more likely, he’s just moved himself into a new phase of the same condition which is largely personified by denial. In so doing he’s simply undermining countless other people who might think that he had the faintest idea what he is talking about. No doubt there will be people who now actually believe that you can “cure” a condition like depression in two weeks through reading a self help book. You can’t!

Berm Bandit – Member
SFB. Refresh my memory, you are a Tory voter right?

Err hello …… anyone there?? 😯

SFB. Refresh my memory, you are a Tory voter right?

Too many people round here are reading Bravo two Zero stylee novels frankly!

A dangerous business without superhuman powers = high liklihood of things going wrong from time to time regardless of national sterotypes and lack of real information about what actually went on. No other sensible conclusion possible frankly.

Having suffered from depression and anxiety pretty much all my life, so the best part of 50 odd years, I’m quite interested to understand this comment by the ubiquitous sfb

simonfbarnes – Member
I suffered it for 30 odd years and fixed myself in 2 weeks after reading “Feeling Good” by David Burns. Best £5 I ever spent

Personally I’ve recently completed CBT and am still taking the “happy pills” and have honestly never been better in my life. I cannot however claim to be cured/fixed, merely in a more manageable place, In fact I’d go as far to say that I’m not even sure that a cure is possible. So I’d love to hear more about sfb’s road to Damascus moment.

For the record, and out of respect to the OP my issues stem from both parents suffering from deep depression, which in turn lead to parental neglect and what would now be considered as abuse. This really came to a head for me in the 90’s when in short order I lost both parents, my job three times in pretty horrendous circumstances during a 5 year spell, which all then led to alcohol abuse, and a personal meltdown of fairly epic proportions. Like I said I am now much better than at any point in my personal history, so I would advise that sometimes you need to crash and burn to enable a resurrection to take place, and that there is definitely light in that tunnel somewhere if you allow it to seep in.

You have consistently and repeatedly told us how an evil TORY government would immediately slash and burn public services since well before the election… well, its still not happened

Small but significant point of order here: I believe that the government did pretty much immediately announce cuts of between 25 and 40% in public spending upon their non-election. The actual detail of which is not being announced until the October spending review which is yet to happen. Accordingly I think it is fair to say that TJ is right whilst at the same time your assertion that its still not happened is simultaneoulsy right, self evident and frankly superfluous to any discussion on the subject. 😉

Question for the TJ lobby….. How do you decide when you are going to stack? Personally I've been doing this stuff for years and still manage to do it from time to time without any sort of pre-planning. So how is it you know when to wear a lid or not?? Obviously I'm doing something wrong and would love to reach this zen like plateau of man/machine/trail oneness.

Not sure what you want from this. If its ideas for a business you're not going to get people giving out their carefully thought out plans online for free. If its encouragement to do it, then perhaps you might want to rethink your committment to the concept of being self employed.

General advice: In essence you are unlikely to get rich working for someone else. Having said that you are unlikely to be bankrupt either.

Religion is about the imposition of a set of rules on the unruly. Easiest to do it as a club whereby if you're in good stuff happens and if you're out you are socially, politically and economically excluded. Fantastic in its simplicity and very frightening how so many fall for it and seem to need it even now.

Personally my beliefs are mine and mine alone. One of them is that anyone who endeavours to inform me of or persuade me that their beliefs have more validity than mine is automatically by that token someone to be avoided.

My first night ride was some local bridleways as a complete newb with a couple of mates who weren’t. I only had some crappy road type light thing on the bars. All went well right up to the point where the BW suddenly dropped down through a hedge from one field into then next. This being the point when I realised that I needed better lights to ride off road. Basically, although unaware of it I’d been riding in their light. They disappeared from view and so did the trail. This was followed by the sensation of flying sans bike…….. As with parachuting its not the fall that gets you it’s the sudden stop at the end that does the damage. So one rib later that was me off the bike for 6 weeks.

Mind you the pluses obviously outweighed the minuses and so a lasting friendship with the night was born of that experience.

Had one flogging some sort of home improvement the other day. So there he is on the step pushing away at the door bell right next to the no Door step salesman notice, so I get to the door with wet tile adhesive all over me and off he goes into his spiel. To which I respond no thanks chap, I'm not interested….. to which he retorts whys that?, so not wishing to prolong the conversation I say becuase I've got no money (not especially untrue). So he's away again with well you don't even know the price yet……..

So cutting a long story short if you see a little fella with a handful of tattered leaflets staggering about with a trickle of blood from one ear, and his hair sticking straight out to the back, could I just ask that you don't use the words "which bit of I'm not interested did you not understand?" As you may find that it will cause distress, quivering and possibly tears………. the **** halfwit!

Whilke on the subject of intrusions of this nature, am I alone in thinking about having my land line disconnected, as the only incoming calls we ever receive are around about 5:30 – 6:30 and invariably start off in the same way as the OP, but with an Indian accent??

Free world – Free choice

Personally they are a total turn off, and I don't anticipate that improving with age…… (yours or mine)

Still, as long as the foxes were saved eh ?

Wrong thread you need the bull fighting one for that argument.

As a died in the wool and not very wealthy Labour voter I can assure you that NuLabour were a big dissapointment after years of Tory misrule.

Obviously better off with this lot then?

Great writing. And absolutely true. However, if you want it to actually kill a man then you're more twisted than is probably healthy. In the same way that everyone secretly likes F1 for the crashes – but if you're watching it to see people die, you have crossed the line into psychopathy.

To be honest what I want isn't repeatable on here…. and it does go on for quite a while about …ahem ….. ladies bits….however, whatever else it doesn't actually include bull fighting at all. However, I am in the opinion that if one chooses a punch up with a very large beast as a way of proving ones virility it does one no credit to a) have help, and b) avoid the potential negative conclusion, it simply shows one to be a bit of a cock. So I'm in favour of the bull having back-up from its mates too, and a no holds barred approach to it all. i.e .matador can kill bull, bull can kill matador. Proper man stuff…. me, I'm a wimp and I'll be in the stands with a sangria discussing what I really want with the senioritas……..

Could I just add that I was thinking what an inspired and clear thinking gentleman you are……. well right up to the word "However" that was.

Ah, the Boggis, Bunce and Bean lobby I see….

Is it only me that’s thinking WTF ????

Amazing how the Germans chose not to shoot the cameraman either….. if I didn't know better I might have thought it had been staged…..

No issue with Piper Bill, but personally I choose RIP Geoff Bacon

In the fact that if you keep rooting for the bull once it's gored a human and has him unconscious and bleeding on the sand… then there is something seriously wrong with your sense of human compassion.

But surely thats the point? Its dangerous and the heroic chappy on the ground is proving his manliness by laughing in the face of danger. I think its incumbent on all bull fighting officiandos to rigourously defend the bulls right to stick one up the odd matadors arris so as to preserve this age old and honoured art form in the correct social context. Or to put it another way hurrah for the bull

Really? Why not shoot the feckers then?

Quick thoughts that have always bothered me in the pro-fox hunting pest control argument….
1) How do foxes manage to break into factory farms… I'm out there with Darwin, but have they managed to evolve into picking locks now?? The little perishers eh??

2) When I go out riding the biggest single pest I see are rabbits, now I might be wrong, but don't foxes predate on rabbits? If so surely it would make more farming sense to protect or in fact encourage the proliferation of the fox?

and so forth