V8s with 661 Freeride shoes. Supposed to be the ‘holy grail’ I gather.
And tbh I’ve not been riding that often so my ‘several months’ is about 2 rides in Lee Quarry, one in the Peaks and a couple round Surrey Hills…
I did play around with foot position on the uphills yesterday and moving the foot forward did make a difference… could feel quads working, not just calves

Muddy down in Surrey Hills and not as sunny as hoped. I hate riding in mud and the bike’s a mess. But it will still a bike ride on a winter’s day so all good 🙂

Spending time with good, proper, friends.
Riding my bike

Blacks are going under because they’re not very good. They’re no cheaper than the better quality stores like Cotswold but the quality isn’t as good and the staff know less. Simple.
High Streets are suffering in part because we, the customer, prefer the convenience and pricing of the supermarkets. Simple. Our choice too and if we don’t like it we just have to stop shopping at the supermarket.

And actually there’s a more important bigger picture. Most of the growth in UK retail over the last decade came from debt – the companies used debt to open new stores and we used debt to buy more stuff than we needed. All that’s happening now is a correction back to something more sustainable and sensible. We’re buying less stuff, getting a sense of perspective back about what’s important and as a result, retailers will close down.
Personally I think that’s good. We lost the plot getting so focussed on buying ‘stuff’

I suspect Howies premium pricing strategy is not helping the business in the current environment – even back in mid 2000’s a lot of people thought they were overpriced.
I suspect the decision to shut the shop is more related to the financials of the business overall that what they have presented in their email which is essentially blaming the landlord rather than saying ‘our business model is broken’
I used to buy a lot of their stuff but I’ve had a few personal experiences with them which led me to doubt the veracity of their whole brand positioning. I reckon I’m not the only one…

My brother lives in Ireland. I reckon he moved there so he could detach himself from the family – I think he finds it easier that way. He never got on well with my Dad and we’ve always had a strained relationship. Sad really, he’s a good bloke and if he wanted to talk about how he feels I reckon he’d get a positive response from us.
He made me Godfather to his two boys which was great and was a positive gesture but I’m b*ggered if I can get any communication from him at all. Text, email, Facebook. Nothing. He must just delete them without thinking… Had something of a personal crisis this year, got no message of support from him at all, except the time I called him… I have to say that’s pretty poor, it only takes 30 seconds to send a text.
One of my best mates is a couple of years older than me. I’ve never said it to him but when we first met I saw him as a proxy older brother. He’s not that close to his younger brother so I guess it’s something that works for both of us.
I reckon happy and non-dysfunctional families are as rare as hen’s teeth. Most people I know have issues at some level with siblings or parents.

can’t believe he played with them at Sonisphere! 🙂
Wonder if he can play Lulu on horns?

Selling my turbo trainer in the classifieds

If you’re interested?

no truth in that at all. People who like to bang on about others’ being ATGANI are small-minded IMO. get over yourself and just ride yr bike. Why does it matter what anyone else ride and how good they are?

happy to pay my taxes tbh. Don’t want to end up like Greece…

spend a bit of time in London and you’ll see plenty of examples of helpful and courteous behaviour. It’s one of the good things about the Tube, we’re not all shut away in our own metal boxes being passive aggressive.
And as above, some people never have given a sh*t and never will. I don’t believe they’re representative.
Anyway, if you focus on them and assume everyone’s like that you end up with a jaded view of life. Best to focus on the good people IMO

I’ve overtaken walkers on the SDW, downhill, sideways and on my ~rse too 🙂

I don’t ride if it’s going to be muddy for more than a bit of the ride. Not from being soft IMO. it wrecks the trails, slower and less grippy than summer riding and means I have to spend as long as I did riding, cleaning the bike.
Surrey Hills, my local riding is getting trashed because people don’t stay away in the damp – bombholes, trail widening etc…

probably the bloke from Nirvana

unlikely. that bit at the end was too true!

Did Head For The Hills make that?

The point of the post isn’t to re-hash it, but to see if anyone else thinks it’s a likely scenario.
Not that JC is a political pawn either, the whole thing was him doing a favour for his mate…

If I can bring the Roadrat, and I don’t end up going roadying with Dulwich Paragon then count me in….

Good luck, stay strong.
Sheep’s clothing is a good book. I read it when I had a bullying boss who the company were too naive and feeble to deal with. Reckon he was a full blown psycopath actually, he thought it was funny to hurt next door;s cat.
At the end of the day you have to stand up for yourself and your team, and you’re doing that, which is being true to your own values and the only way you can operate really.

In my experience, senior people who actually do the right thing in these circumstances are rare. HR exist for the company’s sake, not the employees’ and they will resolve this whichever way is most likely to keep the company out of a law case so tread carefully…

And frankly, if they play dirty then you’re better off out anyway.
Best wishes, I know from personal experience these situations can be very hard to deal with and for others to understand…

when you have it, you know it. And you wonder why you’ve lived so long without it.
It’s great for walking, running and even standing better. And superb when you want to put some power into the bike.
Particularly helpful when the tube driver jams the brakes on too hard 😉
More people would have it if they knew how it felt

I love sitting at my desk in London after a weekend battling in a Scottish whiteout. The contrast gets me every time 🙂

Deviant. Are you David Sharkey? I remember he got into a whole lot of hot water when he said something similar at the time….

You’re right about plenty of black people not behaving that way – and by acting just as everyone else does, they get treated just like everyone else. Anyone living in London sees that on a daily basis

Didn’t the Romans solve this conundrum a few years ago?
By using stone floors?
🙂

and most equal countries – no, very far from it

I think this is part of the issue. Look at the Gini coefficient tables. UK IS one of the most equal countries in the world. Not equal per se, but ONE of the MOST…

No-one seems to realise this…

Global Gini Coefficient ranking

I remember the pokey one in the old market. A proper dig around and see what you can find LBS…
I’ve always found Cycle Surgery’s service and mechanics the best in London. Never shop at Evans any more after they lied to me about not sending my Cannondale frame to the manufacturers as they claimed…

We won’t get out of the mess without a positive attitude and taking responsibility for it, instead of blaming other groups of people.
I love the UK but I’m not very impressed with the general, knee-jerk negativity that’s becoming more pervasive by the day…
We’re still amongst the richest people in the world

There’s some really quite serious stuff that this country needs to sort out right now.
But this thread is 8 pages long… one of the longest in recent days.
I think that tells us all we need to know about what Clarkson’s game is. And we’re all quite happily playing it.
Including me 😉

I’ve got U Turn Revs on my 2010 Soul which takes up to 140mm.
I use 140mm occasionally on rocky stuff, 125 for general singletrack a descents and 110 for uphill.
I really like that adjustability

There’s some shocking class prejudice going on here. Why not get a therapist and work out why you’re so angry with some ‘other’ group of society instead of letting it take you over?

We’re in a difficult place. The simple narratives like ‘it was Labour, it was the Tories, it was the Bankers, it was the rich’ ad nauseum are all deliberately oversimplifying the situation, bandied about by vested interests. Why involve yourselves in it? You lose.

The best way out of this is positive attitude, hard work and creating some opportunities for ourselves and each other. And don’t forget we’re still amongst the richest people in the world…

what;s the difference between that and taxpayers’ money being used to build new infrastructure in order to boost the economy?
The artist and the framemaker are presumably small businesses who need someone to buy their stuff in order to survive/pay their employees/buy stuff from their suppliers etc?

FNM Angel Dust I didn’t like so much at the time. Now I listen to it more than The Real Thing.
Smiths I first heard in 1983 and didn’t like. Got Hatful Of Hollow in 1991 and loved but still didn’t properly get them until 2005. Even went to see Morrissey at the Albert Hall in 2001 without quite getting it 😳
Amuses me people claim Morrissey is miserable and then the whole country’s blubbing at a cover of one of his songs on a TV ad…

People who know me by my job title think I’m the son of Satan and all the Western world’s problems are the fault of me and my colleagues…
People who actually know me think I’m a really nice guy 🙂

That McMullan quote from Kimbers is shocking. At what point did he take responsibility for exploiting a very vulnerable person?
That inability to have a conscience is psychotic behaviour…

be very careful with the weather at the moment. CG is not funny in wind. Unless you want a lift from Prince William!
Check MWIS and call Joe Brown’s in Capel before you leave and get some local advice.
+ it’s much nicer day out on a dry, sunny day

Yoga.
You don’t half have to focus to do half the positions. Keeps your head empty of other stuff.
Core strength will make you better on your bike
And you get to lie down and have a snooze at the end 🙂

Shocking. Common assault. You did right.
Clearly he was prejudiced and thumping him would have just confirmed to him his own warped beliefs.
I have a rule not to engage with people who are unhinged like that, you can’t tell how far they’ll go – they clearly don’t have the usual mental processes about acceptable behaviour.

Roadrat with Hope Minis and carbon forks. Fun and fast 🙂

DC19s in the Roadrat here. They’re great. Comfy and stiff

ovalised top tube = 2010 onwards
Send photos to Cy and Paul at Cotic, they’ll tell you

Abu Hamza dare not risk pron

Maybe that’s why he’s so angry
Should’ve tried the left hand trick
although now he’s in jail he’s probably no need of that stuff anymore 😉

they need to get themselves on here and give their side of the story.
But not in a Sierra Cycling style…