Thought this was going to be a random thread about Conor Niland!

Thinking of getting Mercian to build me a 29er based on a Cielo geometry. May come to my senses….

I got this wrong which might in part be down to the fact me and her mother split up when MissB was 6.

She had worked for a few years in chippy before going to Liverpool (from York) for uni. I paid her accommodation, fees, utilities, new laptop and sent her I think £140 per month on top first two years. She was telling me she could not afford to eat! (No idea what her mother contributed and she had loans). Didn’t like to ask what she did with it all!

Eventually I started getting Sainsbury’s to deliver her grub which she chose and I paid for and sent her a lot less money.

Difficult balance but I think you are thinking along the right lines.

I have been building up my Craft stuff over the last few years, couple of base layers summer and winter mitts, leg warmers. All good stuff.

I camped in mine last weekend at around freezing temps in my sleeping bag and was toasty. Get mine from http://www.alwaysriding.co.uk

Thrown my support behind it. It would be a nice addition to off-road cycling up there.

Michael Barry[/url]
For roadie stuff

For mtb and also trail running over last year – and good writing – Jill Homer’s blog

http://arcticglass.blogspot.com/

It is a nice route but you will not see much civilisation, s8tannorm is as good as it gets round there;-)

We did it early October a few years ago and did not quite finish it dropping into Mach early towards the end. We had a train to catch and had to ride a section back to the start. Three days would be nice.

For 100 miles it took longer than I thought it would, be careful with navigation, we had no problems but could have gone wring a couple of times.

Email received pb, thank you. It may be harder further north but I am such a poor climber that the South end was tough enough for me in places!

It is a nice route and quite remote for England and I always enjoy being up there. Won’t let the hills spoil my enjoyment :-)

pistonbroke – would you mind emailing me the Northern section as well. Email in profile. TIA.

I did the Southern section in October and was surprised how hilly it was, though I am not a good climber. I was not travelling light as I slept out a couple of nights so the bike was a bit loaded. On my list for this summer to do as a through route.

Thanks for all that Mark, interesting reading, especially as one of the initial subscribers on the 5 for the price of 4 offer.

Might be worth putting some of this on your blog as some people might not read your insights on his thread. I nearly ignored the thread for one.

Good luck with it all – particularly reducing waste. I hate that!

I have only ever called them and got excellent service. They might be a bit short staffed at the moment due to The London Bike show as they have a stand.

Fixed a problem for me just before a light was out of its 2 year guarantee – despite the issue being caused by myself. A company I am happy to use and support.

I’m doing it:-)

Entries closed 31st December

Some good advice up there. As regards directi9on I would suggest riding ‘home’. No messing about at the other end waiting for a lift or train ride.

Doing Berwick to Derby did it the ‘wrong’ way as we lived at the South end.

Yes, for the last 4 years I have used XT shifters and 105 chainset and mech’s on a Roadrat.

Rega are good and the Systemdek I heard was a good deck back in the day. I had a Linn Axis for a while as well and probably quite cheap now. I currently have an 18 year old Linn LP12 with Ittok arm and it still sounds great. Enjoy

I have a Titus Oseo carbon road frame, so not a lot I guess since there financial problems. Planet-X have said they would honour it or something but hoping that will not be necessary.

So many questions. To answer one; doubt freight will be on the route. Trains are slower and will slow down the high speed trains, which reduces capacity on the line. Freight will remain on current tracks with quick trains on HST2.

Virgin is expensive, last time I looked Stoke to London was about 50% more at full rate than Derby to London, a very similar distance.

Agree with what konagirl and johnners said up there. You will need about £300k lump sum to get an annuity of £18-20k pa at current rates. You will be entitled to state pension at 67(or more) which is currently ~£5k per year. Talk of going to £7k in a couple of years.

So how are you going to raise that sort of money over the next 30-40 years?

Educate yourself as above and see an IFA. At least you will know what (s)he is on about so you can ask questions. Possible decisions are different based on weather you are higher or basic rate tax payer. Company pension schemes that are being contributed to are a great start.

I invested in the stock market and bought a buy-to-let property as well as company pension. Another tip – Don’t put all your eggs in one basket – caused some of my colleagues a big problem 10 years ago. For instance if you work for a company and you are also in a share scheme with them, if it all goes wrong you lose your job and your savings!

Having your house paid at 31 is a god start though, well done.

The rules say no but I forgot to take a couple of mine out on a USA internal flight last summer and it never got picked up in the x-ray machine. Nor did they explode in the sky!

I will be there next weekend. Did a bivvy ride early December in Peak so will take much the same kit.

Someone who knows something about cycling in snow:

http://arcticglass.blogspot.com/2012/01/south-pole-on-bike.html

Not sure I fully agree with Frodo way ^^ there. West Coast upgrade took out a lot of level crossings (which allowed line speed increases) and re-doubled the track in the Trent Valley which had been taken out by Beeching(?). Capacity increased quite a bit – as did the price of tickets! Railtrack looked at a fancy signalling system to allow 140 mph linespeed that eventually got scrapped to bring the costs down to £9b from an original estimate of £2.2b iirc. (Estimate went £12b or more at one stage).

I did hear Iain Coucher when head of Network Rail say that he did not believe there was a business case for HST2 to go to Leeds via Birmingham, not sure if this was a personal or NR view though. Things change and politicians do not always make the best decisions when votes are to be had. Or lost.

As also said up there it is a lot easier and therefore cheaper to build a line fresh than to upgrade a current line.

Good one MTG

Struggling to get a Decker / Budd to link correctly, will give up!

The gates that seem to be out of order through summer 2011?

She doesn’t think she is way better than you or she wouldn’t be with you. (Bit of a problem for me with Mrs B really, but its lasted 18 years so far and it took me about 12 years to be comfortable) So have some confidence in your situation.

You could try ‘Horny Goat Weed’ which is a more natural product rather than a drug first. H&B and Zipvit stock it.

http://www.zipvit.co.uk/cgi-bin/popupprod3a1.pl?prodcode=A32&cartnumber=20628z&currency=

I used it a bit the other year when I was perhaps a bit stressed (work) but also over 50 which can’t be helping. Made a small difference I have to say but not used the big V. Maybe a bit of a placebo as well.

You probably have to just relax, good luck hope it works out for you.

£7.75 per year is not so bad.

Little cheaper for us Irish at 80euro but now we have to pay when over 65 to help out the economy when it used to be free.

Are you allowed a speed awareness course for 41mph? I thought it was for folks *just* over the limit. Over ~40mph would mark you out as a bad boy. Being shot in front of your family being to good for you or something! I got caught for 36 in a 30 (middle of day following traffic on unfamiliar roads on way to ssuk).

I did the speed awareness course and the bit I remember most was to do ’30 in third’. In third gear you can tell from engine noise if you are going to fast. I find it works well and try to stick to it in urban areas. The fine and the course were the same price in Derbyshire.

What 16sp says but also in ‘track manager’

Just been talking about this on R5. They reckoned ebay was probably best for best price, mentioned shysters like cougar above while accepting people just want rid and these companies are easiest.

The Dakota 20 is good for bike navigation, it was great on the bearbones 200last October. At least one rider used one in The Tour Divide last year. (I paid £270 for mine including OS mapping.

I have heard good things about the new Etrex range but not used or seen one. I would go for the 20 probably. Scott Morris from Topofusion knows his onions on GPS units and thought it was good – can’t find his review but put Scott Morris / Etrex in google and there is a few mentions – just could not find the review.

After the Epic / Revelate issue of a few years ago I decided to refrain from buying Spesh kit. I did weaken over some cheap tyres and may over shoes but generally will now avoid. Have not sold my Spesh Epic though which I already had.

Volagi are probably not really a competitor to Spesh as such small volumes but I guess the ones they do sell at ~$5,000 may impact on Spesh.

Encouraging certainly. Had previously missed the bit about the road circuit, wonder if suitable for road racing?

Sorry to see Queen St facility to go though, I learnt to swim there and now live a few minutes walk away.

New cycle track and a Premiership football team in 2014!

Cotic Roadrat? Been meaning to sell my medium as a frame/fork or as a bike. pm if interested.

I have just replaced it with a Forme Plateau (Aly frame carbon fork) which does not do discs but is nearly 10% quicker for the same effort. Has mudguard and rack mounts.

Lomo Watersports do one with a clear strip down them so you can see the contents. Good quality, used mine on a 2 month tour this summer.

As trailmonkey said – what happened to the fortune?

Miss Haversham looked better then the ‘beautiful’ young Estella though.

What about busking?

Bike Bash in August which is down that way iirc?

Pennine Bridleway? Not as far but a lot hillier. Fully open in 2012.

I am putting together a 4/5 day loop in the Lakes at the moment. Stat from Penrith and head over High Street, Ambleside, Dunnerdale and then North and East back to Penrith. Getting my maps out over winter!

Got a skin from poundland but then Mrs B made me a cover for Christmas:-)

I know somebody who works for them locally. She has won awards for her photography, not sure if it was Venture work or separate to portraits though. She told me what there break even price was, which I won’t repeat here, and that they used top quality materials. Surprised just how high it was but also thought it was good management to know what the break-even figure was. Some businesses out there don’t.

I know prices are in the ‘I could buy a bike for that’

Should work just fine ime