Other cracking albums from 1995 included;
Faith No More – King for a Day
No Doubt – Tragic Kingdom
Rocket from the Crypt – Scream Dracula Scream
Slash’s Snakepit – Its Five o Clock somewhere
Pennywise – About Time
Everclear – Sparkle and Fade
Foo Fighters – S/T
NOFX – I Heard They Suck Live

And indeed THE GREATEST ALBUM OF ALL SODDING TIME!….

I was sixteen in 1995 and had the use of an older brother who would drive me to all these gigs. Annoyingly he was at Uni in South Wales and got to see Dub War in some tiny venues where they just bounced off walls and ceilings. Bristol, Newport, Cardiff etc had so many good venues pretty much every band big at the time passed through.

Solid fuel is pointless for a 2 hour race, it takes the digestive system around 20 minutes to make use of a gel so I’d say blazin saddles is about spot on. There was a lot of debate about Froome’s gel taking episode on the Alpe D’Huez in 2013 as even Sky were a little baffled.

Most nutritionists agree that most fit athletes can do an hour of medium to high intensity activity using stored energy and water alone which is well worth testing on a training ride. The point being you should be empty and feel it at the end of the hour but not need any additional carbs.

The Edge 200 is a great bit of kit, there is only one model/version. I love mine and will replace it with another one soon. It has all I need, speed, distance, time moving, height gain, calories used (though thats a bit random), the only thing it doesnt do is cadence and power but then I know that I dont do enough of the former to generate much of the latter so ho hum. You can set an auto pause too which is quite handy if there are lots of traffic lights on the route!

You can follow GPX routes with it and it gives good, reasonably early directions but obviously thats dependent on the route. Its the old style “breadcrumb” method but it works and has yet to get me lost on numerous self made and downloaded routes. The rubber seal on the back isnt great and mine broke off so I just use some electrical tape to protect the cable port. It does strava etc and the garmin software isnt bad but looks clunky these days.

Shop around though, Rose had them for £72 recently, Bike Discount.de were a little more and they are only £80 from wiggle

I dont even have a mountain bike and I’m interested….

The diversion is madness, your best bet is to come off the path and head up Fishponds Road to Page Park in Staple Hill, then come down Teewell Hill and back on to the path. If the tunnel is open in June I’ll buy you all a bike, its a complete f***ing disaster and someone needs shooting…. 3 months over run already….

The last time I went to Goodwood, I stood next to a Porsche 917 which was being started for the first time in 12 months, it sounded like the devil gargling with spanners…. after a few minutes of warming up he then started tinkering with the throttle, i turned round and I was at the front of a crowd about six deep.

Goodwood is ace, forget the stuff on the track, just wander round the “garages”.

Pablo’s austerity special tip, Do Goodwood on a budget and go to Prescott or Shelsley Walsh hillclimbs on VSCC, many of the same cars, 1/3 the price, no queueing to get in/out.

Ah memories, in two years at sixth form in the mid-late 90s we saw Ash (secret-ish pre Glasto gig), Rootjoose, Wildhearts, 3 Colours Red, Therapy?, Echobelly, Sleeper, Feeder, Reef, Terrovision… The Wildhearts were awesome, still one of my favourite bands.

Two interesting articles here

http://www.thirdsector.co.uk/charities-start-tough-london-marathon-runners-fail-deliver-sponsorship-money/fundraising/article/991700http://www.theguardian.com/voluntary-sector-networ…

http://www.theguardian.com/voluntary-sector-network/2014/apr/11/how-small-charities-miss-out-on-marathon-fundraising

Try the Castle Combe Summer Series, its quite fast but the riding standards in 4th Cat are better than I have seen elsewhere. In reality no one wants to crash and they usually happen in the last 1/4 of teh race as everyone gets tired and starts to panic for position. It would really help if you could ride the track before hand, there are Tuesday evening sessions and a fast group from Chippenham Wheelers normally circulates at a good pace. This will give you sight of the dips and squeeze points so you know which side of the track to be on and when.

Sit and spin, it is dependent upon the length and gradient but in most circumstances, on longer drags its better to sit and spin. If you are out of the saddle, you will have less core stability and rock the bars from side to side, this is a waste of power and effort. Stay seated, pedal continuously and in a fluid motion, ie not pedalling in “squares”. A good tip is to do core exercises like press ups and the plank which will stop you wobbling and rocking the bars when standing.

Park it in the same spot and leave a note in the windscreen saying “my locks have been glued and I cant move the car, apologies for any inconvenience”

To be honest, I spent ages looking at 3 series touring but ended up with a 2007 Saab 93 estate, bought a lovely 150bhp 1.9 TID Vector Sport for £4k with 113k miles on it but a massive stack of reciepts and from a very reputable local dealer. I just found 3 series were too much money compared to the others. My budget was £4k and I was looking at ropey poverty spec 320 SEs circa 2004 which werent filling me with joy.

Personally I’d go for something a little older and with higher mileage to get a bigger engine, the BMW 4 pot is ok but the straight 6 is better. There is an abundance of spec choices, parkers.co.uk has a good enough spec sheet for all configurations.

325i – http://www.pistonheads.com/classifieds/used-cars/bmw/e90-3-series-05-12/2006-06-bmw-3-series-2-5-325i-se-touring-5d-215-bhp/2722791

Snurf, that sounds great, many thanks

Sennen cove is beautiful, never as busy as St Ives but also fewer facilities. Personally I dont really like St Ives but you can head round to Carbis Bay on the train easily enough and thats nice. Porthcurno is just around the corner from Sennen too. Porthtowan has a massive beach, as does Perranporth and both towns are a good size for supplies etc.

We’ve stayed at plenty of places through http://www.classic.co.uk and never had a problem though we havent had children havent really got any family friendly suggestions I’m afraid.

Joe, looks interesting, I’ll be in touch.

“We” is me, wife and 1 year old daughter, I like the van idea, hadnt thought of that! We are planning a trip to Australia in October 2016 to see family and had thought we could upgrade from economy to not so economy but that doesnt seem to make best use of the money although it would be nice.

I honestly cant justify a new bike although I may dip into it a bit to buy a new track bike in the summer. I have good road bike, mtb and commuter and I think replacement for the sake of it would be a waste.

The bike brand idea is to build up some road race bikes, good quality race-orientated geometry frames and finishing kit (to pitch under £1500) that people wouldnt worry about racing in criteriums and potential crashes rather than racing a more expensive bike. I have no idea as yet as to whether they would sell but figure if no one buys them I strip them again and sell the bits off at a loss and apologise to the wife as to why we’re not millionaires….

Do you need to use a rear mudguard with it or are they fine to use without one?

27.2mm seatpost not tube, thanks for the help, looks like I’ll be ok using all three bikes.

50mm, they are nice wheels albeit not the latest design like the Zipp firecrests but for £300 they were a good buy. They do catch a strong wind but you only get caught by surprise and blown once before you start to keep an eye out for wind…….. and who hasnt been blown once and then worried about wind…. ba-doom-tish.

To be honest, I’d go with the Aksiums and then save the cash to get a set of aero wheels. Weight makes bugger all difference in all seriousness. I am just as quick on my road bike now it has Campag Zondas on it compared to the Fulcrum 7s I replaced and the difference between them is something like 500gs. I’d only worry about weight if I was doing back to back days in the Alps, even the pros seem to use deep rims on all but thre Cat1/HC days in le tour.

I also have a pair of Carbon Clinchers, old v-shape Gigantex rims on Novatec hubs, from 2011cycling2011 via ebay and they arent much heavier than the Zondas but I probably see a greater benefit based on their improived aero comapred to the weight saving from the F7s to the Zondas, essentiually they are the best of both worlds. Lighter than the F7s and a nominal aero benefit over the Zondas. As they have a carbon brake track, I use the Zondas for some of the year and the Carbon clinchers for the summer!

From all I know (and its not that much) Aero trumps weight on all but the steepest, longest climbs. If you look at your average speed on a ride, you spend more time over the average than below it, usually because the climbs are much slower dragging that average down so it amkes sense to optimise the time you are spending over the average, hence aero. The advantage you get from having better aero compared to lower weight must be worth it. And chicks dig deep rims.

eI know its rotational mass and has a different effect on the bikes ability to gain and hold speed, when I see people fret about the weight of their wheels then fill up two bidons and their pockets with energy bars at the start of a sportive with feed stops every 30 miles I do think the marketing teams have won another small victory.

Pah, we were in Vancouver in 2009 during the Stanley Cup Play offs and the atmosphere was awesome. We sat and watched a game on the big screen in Canada Place and all the local tramps came to watch too, so you had the underage kids who couldnt get into the bars, the tourists, the tramps and anyone else who was around all watching the game…

I think they were done over by the Black Hawks that year but they should have won, that team was superb..

oh, and GO CANUCKS!

If the weather is bad, I’d head over to the Granville island Brewery, get one of the little aquabus’ over there for the experience, they are like bathtub taxis but good fun. The beer is great and the guys are pretty cool too. I’m sure you can talk bikes and beer there for a few hours.

Alternatively, if the weather is good, head over to Kitsilano which has some good little cafes and bars and a nice beach cove. Its where the pretty girls sit reading Foucault and other weight tomes ;)

4-5 hours is probably enough to wander round Stanley Park and the west end. From memory the square between Denman, Robson, Davie and Burrad Sts was quite nice.

My favourite was the Man Utd chant for Sun Jihai

“Singing ai ai yippee Sun Jihai
singing ai ai yippee Sun Jihai
singing ai ai yippee
we’re going to the chippy
ai ai yippee Sun Jihai”

Will be 50/50, he sounds like the type who will argue, change his story, fabricate a witness etc etc, suck it up and move on, life is too short. Sorry, I know this isnt what you want to hear but thats life.

Here is a list of things I will be putting on (or near) a table…

2005-ish 17″ Specialised Hardrock sport, complete, would make excellent pub bike, RST forks and slick tyres, weighs as much as the earth itself
2001-ish 55cm ctt Specialised Allez frame and forks, seatpost, stem and possibly bars, cranks, chain rings and bb
BB bought for the Allez not fitted, probably Shimano UN51
Fulcrum 7s – Well used but still a good solid wheelset
Mavic EX721 rim on a fancy red anodised Middleburn rear hub
Mavic Open Pro on a Ritchey Zero rear hub
Mavic CXP21 on a Ritchey front hub with a spoke missing
On One overshoes (L) used once, too small
On one full finger gloves (L), worn once, too small
Easton Haven (400mm) seatpost, black
Easton Haven (711mm) bars, black
Eaton Haven (70mm) stem, black, mag plate
55T unused TA Chainring, if you want to impress Katie from Accounts at the Christmas party, you NEED this!
Deore V-brakes
Hope Pro2 15mm Hub conversion widgets
MKS AR2 pedals (new)
A pair of almost new (one 120 mile sportive) red wall Michelin Pro3 race 23mm tyres

…And the rest of the stuff I find in the box at the back of the garage…

Just wait for the strava outrage to begin….

I’ve done a few at Castle Combe which are good fun (if not a bit pricey now at £31!) but its a good mix of people competing, they are sealed surface events on the racetrack and perimeter road so fairly quick times, they run 2/10/2m distances so even biffs like me are done in well under an hour but its a really tough hour and you finish a physical wreck. All I would say is get in to trnasition and out as quickly as possible, no faff, no dawdling, no stopping for a breather, you waste so much time in transition its untrue, you think you are in and out quickly but its easy to waste two minutes there…

Also remember where you left you bike in the racks and watch out for the BTU officials patrolling the transition area who will DQ you if you touch your bike without first putting on a helmet, really….

for those on twitter @EGXCinfo and @RAFRed10 are worth following, the former is the unofficial Coningsby movements feed, where the BBMF and Lancs are based, the latter is Red Arrows Team Manager who are perfroming lots of displays with the two Lancs.

It shows how little mountain biking I actually do when I assumed this thread was about fishing!….

I’m not a fan of the glossy finish but the frame is very nice! I can recommend the Chinese carbon clinchers from 2011cycling2011 off of the ebay…

On the bright side, you get to holiday in the UK now which is lovely.

As for the “privatise it all” comments, it would only end up with Serco, Capita or Atos and when one of those showers get their mitts on the passport office, we might as well all holiday in the UK…

What are you trying to find out?

http://www.letour.fr already has loads of information about routes, maps and timings for all the stages based on likely avg speed. Zoom in on the map and use something like google earth to work out the route.

Stage 3 for example http://www.letour.fr/le-tour/2014/fr/etape-3.html

http://www.steephill.tv are normally spot on regarding routes and maps in advance of the official route confirmation coming out from the organisers. Again their website has route maps, just apply the avg speed factor based on the profile and you shouldnt be too far out.

A race manual exists of course but it will either be hidden in the media area of the website or only available in hard copy and they are usually collectibles/only given to press/teams etc so hard to find.

You could probably pick up an old 100cc air cooled kart engine with carb for under £100. pretty easy to strip and rebuild, they happily rev to 13k as well….

My father had the 2.7 as his fun car but I didnt like it. Felt way too planted to be fun and although it handled superbly. I cant remember the tyre size but that had a lot to do with it.

That he sold a TVR Chimera and bought the Boxster says a lot though as the Chimera was brutal in terms of acceleration and handling. The Porsche was far more progressive compared to the TVR which would just snap. The Boxster was fast though, even the 2.7 had plenty enough power to be entertaining and you felt fairly safe in it owing to the good handling.

Nothing came as a surprise though, turn it in and the back just followed you, I’d imagine you would have to be really making progress or be very aggressive with the steering wheel to unstick the back end.

I miss them both ;) but miss the TVR more! As he has got older he has bought an MX5 now, I think thats his favourite as there is less power but its lighter and still handles very well!

I think my point is as a nice touring convertible, the Boxster is superb, for a proper “fun” car, I’d be looking for an S2000

ah I see, its RAAM, but unsupported and a different route, epic!

Is this the mtb version of RAAM? epic!

If Wiggo is targeting the track in Rio 2016 as suspected, he will want a stress-free 2015 in order to prepare, there are rumours that Orica are interested in him, they also seem to be interested in Richie Porte but he has another year on his Contract and isnt technically available until the end of 2015.

The whole Alonso thing appears to be stalling the process though Sagan to Tinkoff is a done deal apparently. Alonso needs riders with UCI points to get WT status but no team is going to let a likely transfer target to acquire loads of points only to move to Alonso next year… quite a few big names are out of Contract at the end of 2014, Tony Martin, Eddie Higgs Boson, Rui Costa…

Alonso is also targeting an exclusive bike deal too….. I see Halfords bought Boardman today?! ;)

Criterium Dauphine should be very interesting to gauge the Froome/Wiggo relationship

well?…. ;)