All our ideas are stolen from somewhere. We use the term 'inspired by'!

PJBarton. I know, hence throwing it out to STW!
Woody2000 – see, it works! ;-)

Actually it's cos I'm in this business that I know putting it out to the power of the people via social media is likely to give me better ideas than I can come up with on my own. Wisdom of crowds and all that!

Now, anyone with a constructive comment? ;-)

Time you went to Specsavers? :-)

Surrey Hills largely ok. Even sandy in a few places.
Summer here we come. yay! :-)

70mm with 680 bars and Pikes

I still dont get it, is it just 'clit'hero, or is there soemthign i've totoaly overlooked in the shape of the town or something?

Trolling, surely?

Hope it works, I reckon there's a market for it in the area. Didn't the one above Blockbuster fail a few years ago tho?

This book is ace.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Sheeps-Clothing-Understanding-Dealing-Manipulative/dp/096516960X/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1268151083&sr=8-2%5B/url%5D

Seen them 10 times over the years. They're ace. Whilst their songwriting has faltered since the Black album, live they have huge energy, loud and agressive. Make a big effort to put on a show for their fans, focus is purly on the music, not fancy stage sets etc.
Also highly recommend Motorhead for an ace live experience :-)

1. As above, write a diary – so you have evidence as and when you decide to escalate it
2. Speak to him directly, it is possible he doesn't quite get why his behaviour is inappropriate
3. Buy a book on how to deal with bullying behaviour, which this clearly is. It'll help you understand why it's happening and what you can do to prevent it.
4. Remember that people who act like that are usually a) insecure b) jealous of you in some way.

It may seem a bit silly but if getting yourself to hospital is tricky, why not call an ambulance – you pay your taxes I presume, and that is what they're there for…

I've broken a collarbone and a shoulder blade coming off the bike and neither time did it feel like I had broken a bone – just lots of stiffness and discomfort, not agony. They were pretty serious breaks, both times.

Get to A&E sharpish is my advice

I did in 2003 and one of the guys I met is now one of my best friends…

I have some Mammut Base Jump pants. They're ace. Not superlight but very tough – use them in summer and winter. Not cheap, around £100 tho but they'll last I reckon

I also have a pair sitting in my spares box, barely used. Email address in profile if you're interested. Same £15 posted?

Agree with the 'go easy'
Also worth finding a club – you can learn huge amounts from running with others, more motivating + you can learn from everyone else's mistakes!

Re shoes, though, bad idea to use old ones, it's the fastest way to an injury. Get to a proper running shop, avoid the high st stores, get one that does running gait analysis (either on a treadmill or they watch you run) and let them recommend the shoes you need for your running style. Proper running shoes can be a lot cheaper than you think (c£50). And if you've spent the ££ you'll want to make use of it, which you can get you out running more often

Do you drive? Do you know how hard it can be for even observant drivers to see bikes? Make yourself as visible as possible. Hi vis jacket, take advantage of the relative cheapness of the backup LED lights. I have LEDs on the bike, my helmet and my rucksack for maximum visibility. Also worth getting reflective ankle bands IMO. Reflective tape on the bike can help too.
If you've not ridden in traffic before, practice becoming very observant, watch v carefully for drivers doing daft things and plan contingency action for anything you can imagine them doing. Making eye contact is good. Don't be too confident too soon. I think local authorities offer cycling skills courses for people new to commuting which may be useful.
Above all, enjoy it. It's great having the opportunity to ride your bike every day rather than only at weekends :-)

An old riding mate of mine said he didn't see what people got out of watching other people do sport. The pleasure, the gain and the lessons of sport come from doing it yourself. So I don't mind so much those who actually play the game. But the ones who willy-wave about it all so much (and especially the ones who are so lemming-like that they treat you as an outcast for not being interested) do my head in.
I remember during 2006 World Cup, England were playing at 5pm so we were all told we could go home early to watch. I decided I wasn't going to stay at work while everyone else got to go home and left at the same time to go out on my road bike (it was June, long evening) and take advantage of the quiet roads. When I told one guy where I was off to he told me straight that he considered it unpatriotic! ****t

ok, question was: what's the quickest way for her to get to 60 metres from a standing start on foot or on the bike?

Take the point about the LOL – this is just an intellectual curiosity! I'm just kind of interested in how close the margin is

Doh! :oops: I hereby nominate myself for STW numpty of the day award.

I meant 60m, not 60 mph! Her 'on foot' 60m time is actually 7.6, slightly faster.

TJ – you're right – the hole is in the cap. I'm going to give it a couple of rides and hopefully it'll be ok…

140mm revs, Hope Mono M4, Panaracer Rampage 2.35 on mavic/hope, XT drivetrain and thomson bits. For general trail riding. Comes out reasonably light and is ace :-)

agree with the point that none of the trails would be there if 'non-sanctioned' stuff had never been allowed BUT i believe the ban is only recent because of overcrowding so this argument never applied at the time those trails went in. Plus the point is we're being specifically asked not to build new stuff. How is ignoring this going to move us and the access debate forward exactly? It'll p*ss Hurtwoord and any 'anti' locals right off, that's for sure. Agree with the point about Hurtwood ensuring any new trails were well built but where do they get the money from? They're a charity with way more on their plate than our needs. Unless you want gates on the roads in asking for £10 to pass…

Jedi, what's your point here? Surely private landowners' wishes should be respected? I'd be a bit miffed if someone came round my house and re-decorated the front room, same principle, surely?

Room on your horse for one more Icj? I'm with OP on this one.

We have no legal right to ride on Hurtwood land, we're there by kind permission. If they say don't build on their land there's no reason to build. Unless you're a selfish idiot who doesn't care about other people and doesn't care that if the biking community doesn't respect the reasonable requests of the landowner that the whole lot will be taken away from us.

*caveat, I haven't seen the trail and if it's not new, take this back. But as a matter of principle a little bit of respect from us will go along way in the eyes of the local community…

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Sheeps-Clothing-Understanding-Dealing-Manipulative/dp/096516960X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1265486091&sr=8-1

for anyone reading this thread cos they're in a similar situation, I've got this book on the way from Amazon. should be interesting reading1

Rich, maybe. None of my bikes are in full working order right now but if I can get to the post office tomorrow I can pick up the package from Stif with all the bits I need, I can join you Sunday. Drop me a line to my email if you're still going out?

not an insurance co, no. There is a school of thought which says promote the idiots out of harm's way, which sounds applicable to your brother's co :-)

I am building a case. There's a huge body of evidence from the way he treats people across the company, there's no way it's me vs him. He was forced to apologise this week for making someone cry cos he was so rude. I was asked to participate in his 360 review and I've spoken to the Head Of before so it's been given to them in writing before, just not as forcefully. When I put the body of evidence in front of them they won't be able to deny it. but previous tactic was simply to do f*ck all. This time I'll hopefully force them into acknowledging they have a problem and they have to help me with it

Agree Hora but I like my job. it's supposed to be my dream job, i've been wanting to do it for years and don't give up so easily. Plus the market ain't too good at the moment.
re female employees, not liked in the slightest. We have a lot of very bright and capable female employees here, he doesn't get on with them v well but other than this crying incidence last week, no pattern of outright prejudice or misogyny

Joolsburger, you're right and everyone in the business knows it. I'm having a stab at getting senior management to change my line of reporting so he no longer has any direct control. If not then I'll start looking. I was looking a few weeks ago but stopped cos it looked like things were getting better. But people don't change that easily, I've worked with him for years, he's plenty of previous, his last employer set the lawyers onto him because he stole business from them!

PoisonSpider, as angry as I am that he continues to be allowed to treat people so badly, my objective is to be allowed to do my job – this is supposed to be my dream job. No desire to destroy him. Although I know from a previous conversation he likes the idea of destroying people!

we don't have an HR dept :-(. Only 50 people in the company.

the ride of the Cotic Roadrat is lovely. MTB-type nippiness

I've done 3 dig days now. 2x Redlands and 1x Hurtwood. Each time, no more than 10 volunteers. Where the hell are we?

@monkeychild.

Interesting idea. I'm not an IT idiot but no expert either. Would I need to delete Windows or just download Ubuntu and use it? And what should I backup (if anything) before I do ie: what are the risks, if any? How would I swap back to Windows if I wanted to?

2nd thread on this subject in a week (too many riders for too little unprepared land). I think we have a problem now.

Simply put, mountain biking is becoming more popular, which overall has to be a good thing given rates of ill-health in this country (physical and mental). But in the highly populated SE the land simply can't take the weight of the traffic.

Of course, people not being sensible enough to stay away when it's wet, riding round muddy bits, skidding, braking into corners etc don't help but the basic problem is too many people riding on too little land.

Not sure what the solution is tbh. More trail centres I guess. Sadly. As ace as they are, IMO they take the soul out of being in the woods/hills in the open air on your bike.

In the meantime I'm riding my road bike till the trails get dusty again. Or piling up the M4 to Wales…

@To29er. Actually he's married :-(

@ junkyard. With this guy I think it's more a fear of not being a good enough parent. Using technology to achieve something he's scared he'll fail to do on his own. Bit like us insisting on thinking we need full suss to ride anything technical I guess ;-)

Dafydd Davis was brought in to look at Surrey Hills and said the natural character would be taken away if trails were 'trail centred'.
Plus the land has been made available by the owners to all users for 'exercise and fresh air' so you can't trail centre it, which would exclude walkers and horse riders.
The problem is over-use and use in the wrong conditions.
It's a long process of education.
Sadly I don't see how you can enforce 'don't ride when it's been raining' or 'don't ride round the puddles', 'be courteous to the walkers' when it's open access land.
As part of the biking community we can, however:
a) stay away from the erodable trails when it's been raining, or like right now after the snow
b) stop riding around the puddles
c) help with the dig days. I've been on a few and it's about 4-8 people each time, a tiny % of the number of people at Peaslake on your average Sunday
d) tell everyone you know who rides to do the above

I'm worried we're going to overstay our welcome tbh. Sooner or later the locals will have enough. Look at the state BKB got into before it was re-routed, and the lack of agreement on here that it was a bad thing….

would be interested.

MTB-I sounds cool – I don't know the roads round there as well as the trails :-) Will be joining you on MTB rides again when the trails dry out. Currently enjoying my new road bike courtesy of Terry's cash contribution :-)
Njee, that work with you? These guys know the area. Pace will be sensible I would imagine….