Do you remember Mr Watson, Mr McCabe or Mr Derry?

no, never been good at remembering names especially that long ago. can’t even remember the name of the bloke who taught me plastering and he was the member of staff i spent most time with.

Northallerton as i was under 21, think thats shut down now but it was like a holiday camp in comparison. got out of there with a trade as well which i’m still using now.

not watched but i spent a week in there in 1990, was a right dump, 23 hours a day locked up, a bucket for a toilet, meals in the cell and cockroaches and rats running around everywhere. although those conditions would act as more of a deterant than the cushy place i got sent after that.

7.28 on this vid i’ve just found, it’ll look a bit different at the moment with the bracken up. also if you want to head back to ambleside you turn left at the end where he goes right.

yeah the alcock tarn descent is better. as soon as the path levels out you need to be looking out for the path, its not very obvious at first.

the direction you where going those ramps would be good fun, just most people would be going the other way heading for sticks and they’re horrible that direction. just been up this evening for a quick ride, up from grasmere and down birkside for the first time, enjoyed that descent.

used a slaughter DH casing for ard rock last year and never noticed it being hard work or slow between stages, the butcher DH i had been using through the previous winter was though. moved of the DH tyres now and seem to be getting good results with a michelin wildrock, much tougher than exo or grid tyres.

myopic, cheers for that but not really what we’re after. plus my experience of those sort of places is they don’t like you just bedding down in the back of a normal van and you end up paying quite a bit for facilities you don’t need.

looking like it will be one of the car parks, may need to get there early friday to get all 3 vans together.

anyone know any good spots to park up for sleeping in the van? handy for peebles.

for vallelujah we ended up on the car park just over a bridge next to the river, was handy but just wondering if there is anywhere better

given up on maxxis on the rear and now using a michelin wild rock r, seems to be working well and much tougher sidewalls

you said it was a solid wall behind so i’m assuming its been dot and dabbed over so easiest to just stick some plasterboard in with plaster, if its deep several layers with plaster between.

mate of mine did it in 6 hours 50m, don’t think i’ll be trying to keep up with him when he gets back out on the mtb.

ndthornton, if your on about where i think you are thats because a lot of people where taking the wrong line down the right hand side, left hand side lined you up much better. i normally love that stage and do well on it but sunday must have hugged about 6 trees on it. not the best of days with a couple of crashes and plenty of other mishaps. was a very tough weekend. the ground being so wet from all the rain we’ve had here spoilt it a bit.

as i live here most of my riding is in the lakes. exo are ok on the front but i’ve given up on them on the rear. spesh grid’s are no better. had a year of running spesh dh casings and no flats, raced with a exo minion in grizedale a few weeks ago and flatted in a stage which reminded me why i went to the dh tyres. trying a michelin wild rockr at the moment as a middle ground and seems ok so far.

must have felt horrible at 35psi, i usually run about 27/28

there is a send message option on the facebook page.

thats all i did but with a hope bb. been fine for about 12 months, just had it in bits to change the bb bearings.

it is a good descent from the top of fairfield then down by alcock tarn. you can also push up nab scar to do the alcock tarn descent if you’re wanting a short ride or to fit in with something else.

rich – i don’t mind the sweden bridge way, fair bit of pushing but you also get a short but nice rocky descent in the middle

my strava reproted 22 miles and about 4000ft climbing each day.

we weren’t seeded but did pretty much stick to our stage start times. there isn’t that much spare time to be had to avoid penalties if your riding seeded although we didn’t rush transistions as neither of us are quite as fit as normal yet.

agree on the back to back days riding, my first 2 day event i found it really hard to get going on the second day but once you’ve done a few it gets easier. june will be tough with it being a 3 dayer.

nobeer – i find it harder work to push, much prefer to gently peddle up unless it gets really steep. apart from the short climbs towards 1 and 2 at vallelujah where it was wet and muddy i rode it all and don’t think i saw anyone else pushing anywhere else

lowey/rich how does going up that side compare with what we normally do which is up sweden bridge to the top then across to fairfield?

never had any that old but i usually keep a bit of old plaster in the hope it’ll go of quick for any really small patching jobs, problem is you never know how it will go. have had it where i couldn’t even get a trowel full out of the bucket.

old plasterer once told me peeing in it will send it quicker but never fancied trying that one.

lowey, is the descent like your pic all the way down. might be worth trying as an alternative to get from high street to the top of nan bield. although i do like the direct route, is that one worth the hike back up nan bield?

good right up mate.

was my first time up there, stages where that good i didn’t even mind the fireroad sprints(not that much of a sprint in my case).

got my usual race finish posistion of about mid pack. booked on the other tweedlove enduro’s and really looking forward to them after this one.

first time there at the weekend racing the vallelujah, great weekend with some really good stages. hope they dont loose to many as want to get back up there at some time. think it mentioned in the race notes about being the last enduro possibly to use one section.

highlights i think are on channel 5, wednesday i think i set it to record on. i have bt sport but cant record that.

fitting carpets should be the very last job in a room, always has been on any job i’ve been on. makes sense to get all potentially messy jobs done first. any decent carpet fitter will have no problem fitting with the door on unless it needs trimming and even then its only a matter of unscrewing the door.

i’m about 10 minutes away and there’s only a dusting on the ground here, cold wind though. probably going to drive up to grizedale later for a sheltered ride seeing as the PMBA at gisburn has been cancelled.

looks good but clashes with the PMBA at graythwaite

are the newer ones not as good as the older ones then? we still have a DC07 which still works ok.

just bought a camelback repack. 1.5L bladder and enough space for a few tools/phone etc. might struggle with the map though.

only turned up today though so haven’t tried it yet but hoping it will be better than carrying around a vertually empty mule apart from the bladder.

will pair it with a bottle on the frame for big rides.

air can service cured my monarch plus when it sucked down half way into its travel. it happened shortly after i had done a service on it so redid it following instructions a bit more carefully and its been fine since.

be carefull removing the air can sleeve as letting the air out the valve wont release air trapped in the negative chamber. think i put a rag through the mounting eyelet. went with a bit of a bang when i removed the sleeve.

service manuals are on the rockshox site

cable froze up on my transfer on tuesday night resulting in always being at the wrong height. cable tied the seat rails to the frame so at least it stayed down and was ok for the descents. had to push up a few steep snowy climbs that would normally of ridden but managed to complete the ride.

staveley only got a few inches, no problem getting there by mid morning today, think biketreks staff must of fancied a day off although the roads where queued up first thing this morning. couldn’t get to my job but it was up a long steep drive up kentmere.

would be good conditions for a ride tomorrow if you can manage to keep warm which might be tricky.

probably the right thing to do, brother in law lives near there and says its really bad at the moment.

only downside is only a week between new date and vallelujah

you can get a mushroom to drop into the pot which vents it or knock the pot of and cap it using mortar and some slate laid flat to forms vents. cover the slates with mortar higher in the middle to provide a little fall and make sure the mortar slopes up under the vents to prevent water  getting into the flue.

inside block up the fireplace leaving a hole about 6/7″ long and 4″ high, plaster up and then stick a 9″ x 6″ plaster vent over the hole. could use a plastic vent but i think the plaster ones look better and can be painted wall colour.

you don’t pay NI contirbutions monthly anymore, its all worked out yearly and added onto the tax payment.

liquid screeds need to have the correct adhesive used on them as well, but they are great to tile onto, i’ve never tiled over sand/cement floors as level.

i’ll be using sand/cement when i do mine as i can then screed it myself saving quite a lot but if i was having to pay for the screeding whichever i used it would be a liquid screed.

liquid screeds can go down thinner than sand/cement as well.

recently had a problem removing my rear maxle, only just managed to get it out with my hand and discovered it was bent and starting to crack at the start of the threads.

i had noticed the last time i had refitted it it was a bit stiff to get in so i just greased it up a bit. will be having a proper look if i ever find it stiff again.

yeah that’ll work, i usually use gripfill for thin coat beads if theres nothing to nail to. used to mix up a bit of skimming but its much easyer to glue them on.

no need to pva but i would use galvanised clout nails to fix it as wouldn’t of thought staples would be galvanised. nails also make it easyer to pull it nice and tight by fixing them at a slight angle.

if its more than just covering a wooden lintel may be worth packing it slightly of the wood to really allow the plaster to get hold of the mesh

had our honeymoon in a quiteish place west of chania, liked it that much we wment back the next year. it wasn’t a big resort kind of area which suited us as it was relaxing do nothing holidays but we did hire a car for 3 days both times and explore the mountains/south coast a bit which was well worth doing.