That’s good timing for me. My cousin is being ordained a priest the weekend before just up the road if that date and venue is correct. Good excuse’s get better…

Thank Trappatoni on behalf of the nation for taking a paycut.

WFH! Time to waste on here I see instead on knuckling down…..

Markenduro works at rtc and there are a few others. We got an office s/s team at SiTS a few years ago and did OK.

Some nice bikes in the shed from time to time.

I still have most of those Pro mags from about edition 5 featuring a Kona Kilauea which I bought and still have. Got all the MTB worlds as well.

Recently retired and planning to read through them when I get some time…

Network Rail in the rtc building. And yourself?

Can agree with swoosh as walked up to main road earlier and it is clear. My 6 inches was measured in centre of back yard where there was no drifting.

(Until 8 weeks ago I was working on London Road…)

Cheers Stuart, hoped the ‘A’ roads would be clear and weather is supposed to be warming up to about freezing by the weekend….

I live about a 5 minute walk from the city centre and we have had six inches in my bike yard (just measured it) and it is snowing again…

OK valley-daddy I’ll bring it along.

Still plan to come over from Derby but we are waiting to see what the roads are like in mid Wales from Shrewsbury. Safety first and all that.

I live just off a main road into Derby and there is loads of snow on it. Snowed all day yesterday, not heavy, but just kept coming. Not sure about the main roads though so probably of little help. Looking out the door towards the main road it does seem quiet up there….

While we are selling stuff I have an MSR Superfly which I have used 2/3 times since buying in the summer. Can bring it along and available for just £15 if anybody interested.

Looking like conditions will be just below zero according to BBC. Not a lot to complain about really:

http://www.bikepacking.net/forum/index.php?topic=1589.0

Kev

Got my ingredients together yesterday for this. Accept for the lemons! On my to-do list, good to see its recommended.

A P certainly should be on the list, but like Peat or Atherton a minority sport is unlikely to win. He did eventually win the Grand National this year and deserves it for what he has done.

How many people watched Giro or TdF? Again, Cav an unlikely winner though another excellent year after a poor start by his high standards.

He could win the World Champs next year, it is Denmark iirc,and if he focuses on it he would certainly have a sprinters chance.

My Aizan 29er is about 2m away from me now – getting it sorted for Stuart’s bivvy ride this weekend. Nice bike supplied by Tim@Sideways.

Recall reading a book by Ned Overend and he mentioned training on a mtb on the road in winter to reduce the wind chill. SLower speed at the same level of effort.

Just gone into my front room and the temp is 9 degrees C. If I had to stay in there long I would be taking up Ton’s offer;-) Bit warmer out the back.

Was thinking this morning on way back from London I should hop on a train and take advantage of the free wi-fi and coffee to combat the cold and save on heating bills. (After a long career on the railway I get free travel…)

The phrase emma82 was searching for may have been ‘snakes in the pit’. Maybe;-)

Cheers Mowgli. I don’t run disc’s on my ‘rat and my rack fitted fine. Agree that rear punctures can be a pita sometimes when running gears.

I never thought of the Roadrat as a bike for full on touring, but fine for light touring and I have no complaints about that aspect.

If you put a phone in a microwave, shut the door and ring it (from another phone of course) then it will ring.

If you wrap your phone up in foil and put it on a table and call it, it will not ring. Faraday or something.

I heard this once and tried confirmed the above.

Don’t know what that all means as I am a bit fick.

Anyway, Mrs B has one and she has been known to be a dozy bint on occasion, my mate does and he admits he is a nutter, I don’t have one…

May I ask why you changed from the Roadrat?

I have a ‘rat myself and was thinking of changing just for something different. I had wondered about a Salsa or perhaps a Genesis Equilibrium.

One of the few times the whole family get together so that bit is nice, it’s just all the rest of the nonsense.

For a few years now presents are only bought for the nephew/nieces and a small value item between myself and Herself. That is much nicer and a lot less hassle.

There is always the Roadrat. I have commuted on it and use it for winter road training. I have toured (Berwick to Derby on sustrans route) and also HoNC.

Guards, rack and discs can all be fitted.

Both the Joe Parkin ones are a good read, the ‘Dog in a Hat’ may suit you better as it covers the classics. (The second one ‘Come and Gone’ has more US road racingand that new fangled mtb racing in it…)

In Search of Robert Millar is excellent as has already been said.

If you want a good post war read what about ‘Fallen Angel’ which is all about Fausto Coppi.

For my feet so far this winter it has been 2 pairs of merino socks, some regular shoes and some planet x over shoes which have been fine. I do have some Shimano boots but not used them yet.

Rapha are doing 3 pairs of thin merino socks for £30 which work well as one of the layers and something thicker on top.

I always get cold hands in winter – 2 miles can have me struggling.

This week I have been fine with these Craft split finger gloves from always riding which seem quite grippy too:

http://www.alwaysriding.co.uk/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=635&cPath=146_113&go_read=1&zenid=fdkm8s3e1jsuv78d633hqq5u53#BPRWrapper

Got to agree with the-muffin-man, that eejit Baggs was better this week. He made a stab at the language and did warn Laura about speaking fast.

Would be good if he got to the interview stage though to see him embarrassed by 3 senior managers.

Mine 32″ waist fit nicely and they are slim fitting. I guess if you have tree trunks for legs you may need to size up.

Got mine in a sale so pricing was not so bad for a quality product.

Centre of Machynlleth – Stuart suggested the former Celtica car park. So into Mach on the A489 to the T junction by the clock/monument thingy. Turn left and it is on your left after about 100m. IIRC correctly there is a leisure centre or swimming pool there as well.

I was bought up a Catholic and lived 3 miles from Knock as a boy over 40 years ago. My extended family has a priest and nun, and my cousins include an episcopal minister, as is his wife, a deacon who dropped out of the church in the last year before ordination and a third cousin who is to be ordained a priest next year. So a lot of religeon in my life. My parents still go to mass every weekend but I have no interest in organised religeon these days as I do not believe in a greater being (but I still hate Rangers!). I acccept I could be wrong though.

I try to live a ‘good’ life however and the 10 commandments are not a bad start as a way to live a life – despite being from the OT. Thou shall not steal, or covet your neighbours wife for instance……

I don’t imagine ever joining an organised religeon again but respect other peoples choices.

Good luck with your quest MrNutt where ever it may lead you. I will look out for a change of user name to RevNutt or similar;-)

Saw an article at the weekend that suggested that the cost of the extra bank holiday to the UK would be £2bn in lost tax revenues to the exchequer based on an average day.

Being retired I will stay at home and go away for a few days when everybody is back at work. I will go for a long ride to avoid the coverage though. Or join a forum ride

Hi C-G,

I saw this thread last night and just seen a 16″ Cotic Simple for sale on the classifieds. Don’t know the seller or if it is what you want but thought you may be interested. Ask Elfie what he thinks;-)

Solitude s\s, only production model but not many anyway I guess.
1986 Fat Chance, a bit of a rarity, thinking of selling this.
Titus oseo carbon road bike, not seen another one.
Also kona kilauea, Roadrat, Spesh Epic and Voodoo Aizan 29er all a bit more common.

And partly my fault for the athletics, bringing back very old memories to me.

I look at what is on and if I fancy it will watch it and then turn off. Prefer music, reading and internet. I like sport, odd film and comedy but not interested in the regular tv fodder. Last night I caught up with a programme about Wilfred Owen for instance. I will NOT be watching THE wedding next year….

Mrs B has not had a tv for years and used to get pestered about a licence. She has started watching iplayer though….

Could be something in that surfer – not sure how the top guys train these days but there was a lot of good runners back then. I always remember reading a book by Jim Alder and what he did after a days grafting on the building sites. And another by Gordon Pirie.

Even so, with sports science I would have expected better times these days, I guessed it was the ‘pool’ was a lot smaller. People have computer games and mountain bikes now…. Jumpers for goal-posts eh!

Even my mediocre times of 20 years ago would look a lot better now.

Surfer – you seem to know fair bit about running back-in-the-day. I have never been able to work out why the times Bedford, Foster, Adcock, Hill, McLeod, Martin, Moorcroft, Spedding and many more managed have rarely been approached despite better facilities, nutrition and equipment. (I know Mo Farah eventually took DM’s 5,000m record recently). Its not just that the Africans are quick, but GB has gine backwards in the last 40 years.

I don’t think many British men are running 2.15 for a marathon these days and yet a mere girlie has done that!

Should have recognised the Gateshead vest…..

I can always recall a picture of CS in the ’84 Olympic marathon in the stadium with John Treacy. JT was really going for it and CS was looking into the stands or somewhere while on his shoulder. JT got the silver medal behind the 37 year old Carlos Lopez.

I did one in August after getting caught on way to SSEC, bit surprised really, as seemed to be crawling in traffic along that road.

I was doing 36 in a 30 limit and that is the sort of offence they use these courses for. Going with an open mind it was OK, and we got tea / coffee and biscuits in Derby.