as mentioned, traffic around Brislington is evil and although the victorian bay window houses are nice and its convenient for town, from 0700-0900 and 1600-1830 the Bath Road and surounding streets are a nightmare. Totterdown and Knowle used to have bad reps and I think its improved a bit since the really bad days in the 90s though you still hear stories of kids throwing rocks at the emergency eservices…
Bedmionster is ok, the area around Pearl and Ruby Streets is nice, all on street parking though and it gets busy.

Depends who is happier with the longer commute, if you dont mind a cut across town then Hotwells is good for the Uni…. otherwise I would suggest St Andrews, Bishopston or Horfield.

St Athan still does the repairs for MoD owned jets (non frontline) but when this was taken they did the F4 Phantoms :)
There was also a Hawker Hunter at a few displays in the past year or two that was red white and blue but I think it would have been the Harrier.

QinetiQ have a red, white and blue Harrier used for R&D so at a guess it was that.

Fair enough, s’pose 45 mins is a bit rapid given the original question was making reference to “middling fitness”…. take an hour but any more and you hand in your man card.

Blimey, if all it takes is a bit of ropey maths to get you all foaming at the mouth with rage you really should get out more. ok, so 53 minutes… on the flat…with no junctions…and no tail/headwind… and no herds of wildebeast migrating through your locale…..and no pubs…… and whatever

BTW you write whatever i say. My maths may be a bit ropey but my spelling and grammar are a bit better….

There are quite a lot of dependencies, luggage, road surface, traffic density and stopping at junctions for lights etc, on a road bike its pretty easy to average 18 mph without busting a gut so for anyone with an average fitness base, and as other as have said, 45 minutes should be easily achievable.

my favourite purchase has been a pair of skull and cross bones dust cap covers from tesco. bad ass!

Daisys Cafe in Ambleside is nice, all the other nice ones I know are referred to as “that one just past the field with the bulls in” or “the one along from the bit where we fly the kites on the hill” which arent much use…

general plane stuff: my favourite airshow experience was four F4 Phantoms taking off together at Fairford one year, they took off and banked right and we were stood just where they were banking right and could stare straight into the engines. Loud doesnt even begin to describe it. I was about 9 and my father was adamant that ear protectors were not necessary :)

F104 Starfighters were a favourite in the early 80s, i remember a few at Yeovilton Air Show coming in super fast and low, rumours were one went supersonic the early 90s were quite good too with mental Russian pilots in the Mig 29 and Sukhoi 27s. they could do some seriously cool aerobatics in those things with the moveable front ailerons.

At Farnborough last year the Dutch F16 pilot did his full display on afterburner, most likely for shits and giggles because the Typhoon was stealing the show display-wise and its all he had!

I used to live on the flight path out of Fairford and we could hear the B52s leaving in the night in the early 90s druing the first Gulf conflict. it was pretty weird knowing they were fully loaded becuase the engines were screaming.

finally, the F111s used to have new engines fitted at Filton and the last one to be completed took off, did a wide loop and came back through very fast and very low then put it on its tail and went straight up vertical, christ alone knows how much fuel he used doing that put it went as fast vertical as it did horizontal

any aviation enthusiasts may enjoy this:

http://www.econrates.com/reality/schul.html

found this on http://www.bike-discount.de whilst looking at other bits. specwise its incredible vfm (999 euros so its around £860) though there are some unknowns wrt the frame.

Frame ZR Team Series Alu 7005
Fork Rock Shox SID RL PopLoc
Travel 100mm
Brakes Formula RX, 180/160 mm
Crankset Shimano XT FC-M780, 10-speed
Bottom Bracket Shimano Hollowtech
Shifters Shimano SLX SL-M660 10-Speed
Rear Derailleur Shimano XT RD-M780, 10-speed
Front Derailleur Shimano SLX FD-M660, 10-speed, Topswing 34,9mm
Cassette Shimano HG62, 10-speed 11-36
Chain Shimano HG54 10-Speed
Hubs HB-M756/FH-M756
Spokes DT Industry black
Rims ALEX EN24
Tyres Schwalbe Nobby Nic Performance Draht 2,25″
Stem Race Face Ride
Handlebar Race Face Ride Riser
Seatpost Race Face Evolve, 31,6*350mm
Headset FSA No. 10 semi-integriert
Grips Radon Schraubgriffe by Velo
Saddle Radon by Velo
Pedals Aluminium Bärentatze
Weight –
Colours white/lime

http://www.bike-discount.de/shop/kS1/a58228/zr-team-7-0.html?lg=en

If you take it to a local clothing alteration shop they should be able to do it for under a tenner. Saves a lot of hassle, of course they may just chuck a new one in the post.

When I worked in an outdoor shop and we used one quite often when peoples zips and other things failed. It was much easier than warranty claims and if it wasnt taped seam it didnt matter. They normally did it in a day and the customer was pleased that they didnt have to wait for weeks to get the jacket back.

The price you see is the price you pay, if you hover over the price it opens a temporary window with all the currency options, no import duties or hidden costs. Payment page was paypal in german but it was easy to find the English language button. I bought a 2×10 XT groupset from them a few weeks ago. ordered on the Monday, picked up from the courier depot on Friday….

If you are after a alu frame and have £1K to spend, the CAAD10 is probably your best bet. Cervelo stopped making the S1 in 2010 and although its a great frame, Cannondale continue to develop the CAAD frames. Have a look at Canyon too, their alu frames get great reviews.

i can advise against conti ultra sports which are terrifying in the wet….

it depends, if its SRAM its way cheaper going for a complete groupset, if its Shimano its probably cheaper going for seperates as more people stock them and you can pick and choose what you want to spend more on accordingly.

i bought my Sram Force groupset from Shiny Bikes in the sale but if you hunt around you can still get bargains. Planet X were doing some good deals recently. Shiny BIkes are doing Apex for <£400 and Rival for <£500 at the moment and they are nicer to use comapred to SHimano equivilents at that price.

Never look at Campag so i dont know what a good deal is!

quick update, no pics yet but bought an XT 2×10 groupset from bike-discount.de for £320 delivered in three days. Looking at wheels now :) is the rear hub size 135mm x 10mm?

They are quite popular on the Continent but unlike Specialised they dont have an advertising budget on par with Africa’s GDP so havent got the ability to advertise on every fifth page of every magazine and sponsor a dozen pro tour teams.

There are some fundamental reasons why purchasing defence equipment is a costly and lengthy process. Firstly, you can not predict tomorrows war so we really dont know what we are buying kit for. Take Afghanistan (Op Hrrick) as an example, we were fighting a completely different war than Iraq (Op Telic), so much was designed and procured as rapid operational, almost development/prototype kit. Bulldog, Mastiff, all those armoured vehicles designed to deter IEDs, we had to design and build them during the first years of the conflict, and remember that it was the Politicians who were pulling the strings regarding that deployment. As implied, defence is a political football.

We were also fighting in an asymetric war for the first time meaning it wasnt tanks vs tanks but much more unpredictable. It wasnt like the cold war were we could just keep a load of planes and tanks on the German border and wait for the Russians to come over in their planes and tanks.

Defence is a politcal football and a vote winner. Its something that will always be subject to cuts and things. Also buying British isnt actually all that easy, we are bound by many European Contracting regulations. Maintaining a UK defence industry is important but the problem we now have is trying to feed it with orders. Take ships, we are building two new carriers, what happens when they are finished(!), we are replacing the T23 Frigates with T26, then what?…. it begs the question as to where the requirement for the kit is coming from, the Defence Chiefs or their industry counterparts? Do we build more ships after the T26s becuse we need them or to maintain a UK Shipbuilding capability?

That said, the cost of buying military capabilities is huge and we often use Multi-national collaboration to acquire kit. A400M, Weapons systems, Typhoon, all bought as part of a Europena consortium. We often do well from these collaborations in terms of the finished product but they are costly and time consuming…. we cant do it alone though.

We cant just buy American off the shelf like everyone believes we can, firstly, the Americans might not wish to sell us their latest capabilities (and what sthe point of buying almost obsolete kit) but we would need to try and integrate that kit, kit we had no involvement in the design and development of, with our own.

BristolPablo
MSc in Defence Acquision Managemnt ;)

http://www.parkrun.org is ace for those who havent heard of it, its a free weekly 5km around the country with timing and very friendly volunteers running it all. my best is 22.11 or thereabouts at ashton court, the course has 100m height gain in the first 2.5km which is really hard work (though its all down hill on the way down!!)

IRD 30mm aero rims on Novatec Supalites (20, 24 or 28h) for £334 from http://www.wheelsmith.co.uk and just 1453g according to the website.

Repairable by any competant mechanic and pretty much bombproof…

I’m in Downend which is great for the cycle path to the town centre or Bath, the bridleways around keynsham and south to Pensford are only a few minutes away, there is a high street with all the usual amenities, a good curry house, library etc.

Bristol is ace, I would only ever leave out of choice for Vancouver or Melbourne… there is so much to see and do that is free, loads of good bars away from the chavs, good music venues, open spaces, greenery, parks and places like the watershed and the old vic for satisfying any cultural requirements. Some of the best films and theatre I have ever seen has been in room with just a dozen other people and its often cheap enough £<10 a ticket) to take a punt on something that sounds good on a flyer and be amazed. Then there are th big theatres for the touring shows, comedy and bigger bands.
It still lacks some really good restaurants but thats being picky, there are enough ok ones to keep most foodies happy.

There is a bit of a lentilist/right-on movement and a “Keep Bristol Small” campaign – in that the Council appear to block all kinds of things that might allow the City to grow and attract Business but they dont do too much damage.

My favourite things are Ashton Court, “Moon Cake” from Parsons Bakery, the Watershed and a beer sat outside Channings on a summers evening…

IMHO you dont need to justify what bike you buy by riding a particular type of trail, its like asking how good a driver you have to be before buying a Ferrari. You shouldnt need to feel that you are only allowed something if you can justify it to others by using it in its intended environment.

I’ve ordered a BFe because I wanted something completely different to the bike I already have, a Commencal Super 4, which I’ll still use for the all day xc stuff around the Mendips etc. I just think if i had ordered a Soul, it would leave me debating what I take out for a ride. Choosing the BFe means I have two awesome bikes for different moods with a bit of crossover in the middle…

The BFE is “more” bike than I will probably ever need but if the fat bald guy is allowed to pootle round bristol in his Ferrari, I can pootle round Afan on my BFe!

thanks for the rose bikes pointer, forgot about them. ordered a direct replacement, i know i said it wasnt great but i think thats as much about my poor bleeding ability rather than the brakes themselves.

is there any compatibility issue regarding the caliper mounts or are all these things a set standard?

many thanks for the replies and advice, have not ridden tubeless yet so a little apprehensive about that but if they are a good balance between comfort and performance i’ll investigate further. I’ve always ridden clinchers on the road because i know its just a case of replacing the tube rather than faff around with sealant or tape.