Mr Woppit–I really do wish them well and hope they can get through the whole thing with some sanity left. Can’t be easy to live in the spotlight 24/7 and they won’t likely ever have much respite from it.

I am in Albuquerque, New Mexico

The news media here get wrapped around the axle on just about everything/anything to do with anyone with any celebrity status (real or imagined). A few years back when Anna Nicole Smith died, it was headline news on the entertainment shows for literally months—-to the point of becoming nauseating.

I lived in Las Vegas for 11 years, but before mountain biking came into being—I was dirt-biking and into boating in those days. One thing to keep in mind it will likely be hot–May temperatures can get into the 90’sF and have sometimes been known to top 100F that early. Take and drink a lot of water on rides and use sunscreen or you can get fried really easily. Early morning rides are the easiest way to deal with the heat.

I have used both and like both, but I am usually riding in very dry, rocky, hardpack conditions and they work great—slight preference for Nevagals, but be hard pressed to explain why other than feel. Don’t get much chance at wet conditions here in the desert.

alexx–who here in the US did you get it from. I don’t see why your customer rights would be different, but it does seem like a long time for them to respond and make a refund.

Been wearing them for reading/computer only (or close-up,fine,detail work with small screws, etc)for 15 years now. First 10 years I had to get a new, strong prescription every couple years, but it has leveled off and has stayed stable the last 5 years.
Thankfully I don’t need them for distance, so can bike without them (do keep an old pair in the camelback in case of trailside repairs.

I too get sjipped items in boxes that are mostly filled with air, using many times the cardboard needed. Another irritant is the items that come in the thick, heat sealed plastic that could stop a 30mm armor-piercing round–finally bought a battery powered cutter from Black & Decker that makes short work of getting them opened up

Agree with IA’s take on it–if you are getting interviews, there is appeal to your resume. I am in the search/recruiting business here in the US and I see really good candidates getting passed over—not due to something in their resume, but just because the current soft market has an abnormal number of good people for a company to choose from. From what I see here, it’s a tougher sell when you have your degree, but little or no experience in the specific field. All it takes is another candidate with the same level of education, but who has even a little experience or perhaps an internship or two in the field and they rise to the top.

Companies are generally pretty poor at providing meaningful feedback to individuals who aren’t hired—-that’s if they take the time to give any feedback at all.
I know it’s discouraging, but don’t give up—stay at it!!

Here in the SW USA, cacti of various sorts and a ubiquitous ground thorn, locally called goatheads are the bane of tubes. Almost everyone uses Slime, either added or Slime tubes. Before I switched to tubeless, used it for years and with very few flats due to punctures. With tubeless I went to Stan’s initially, then on last tire change went to a newer Slime tubeless product. It seems to stay in liquid form and not dry up as quickly as Stans did.

Maybe they are sheep coughing and sheep eyes—-maybe they aren’t—!!!!
I used to ride solo at night in the mountains—can really get spooky and riding with lights off is challenging and can cleanse your entire body of adrenalin instantly if something moves near you in the dark or a sudden, unidentified sound comes out of the dark.

If any of you ever get to New Mexico, try New Mexican food—very different from Tex-Mex or Mexican food. IMHO, much better, especially anything with green chile. We tend to use green chile on just about anything you can name–wife even makes an apple crisp dessert with green chile.

Is part of the screw still in the plate?
If not, you can use the same plate for new cleats. Whenever I replace cleats, I just use the one already in the shoe, but if the screw is sheared off and still in the plate that won’t work

I’m 68, still ride at least 3 times a week—do most everything else I always did—somewhat slower, less frequently, but none-the-less, I figure that since I feel somewhat middle aged, l should live to be at least 136.

When I worked for TWA way back once upon a time, I was working the lost baggage office and Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor strolled in as we had managed to mis-send their luggage to god-knows-where. They sat in the office for quite some time while we traced and located it. I think Richard had been in the scotch a bit, but nice and Elizabeth Taylor—well need I say more— both very friendly and willing to carry on a normal conversation during their “visit”.
Checked Charleston Heston in on a TWA flight when working the First Class ticket counter.

A very Happy New Year to all there in the UK and elsewhere.
You are all well into your celebration—–here in New Mexico,USA, still many hours until things begin. Me, I’m staying home–streets are icy and going down to 9F tonight—sounds like Jack Daniels by the fireplace time. Hope you are all having a grand New Year’s Eve.

I’ve had a few winter rides when the temp is about +10 degrees F, which I think is about -12- C and do alright as long as it isn’t windy. As long as my toes/fingers don’t get too frigid I am OK with it. I find the first couple of really cold weather rides to be the hardest, then I seem to acclimate. Same with the first few after-work summer rides when the temperature is in the +90-95 F–then I get used to it.

I switched from Blue Groove to Nevagal 2.3 and really like them. I ride in a mix that includes a lot of rocky terrain and have never damaged the sidewall (but take into account that I have reached the age of reason and probably don’t ride as hard as I did when I thought I was going to live forever). I usually keep them inflated to 35 lbs.

+++for Emmylou Harris—not just music but everything in general. Had the good fortune (to put it mildly) after conniving a first class flight from my employer, to sit next to her from Los Angeles to New York back in about 1974/75–stunningly beautiful lady and still pretty damn fine at 63.

Having grown up with country/western music and lots of relative who play, I am still partial to Waylan Jennings, Willie Nelson, Johnny Cash, Hank Williams, Merle Haggard, George Jones, etc—-the original “outlaws” of the genre. IMO, country & western music has transitioned so far from the “rough around the edges” style to much more of a slick, commercial style.

I haven’t been there but had some friends who stayed in the Park City area. The area has just about every kind of outdoors recreation and a lot of bike trails for every skill level. I would be surprised if there wasn’t horseback riding available.
That time of year is just about the very best weatherwise. I’d say 90% chance of warm days, cool nights and lots of blue sky.

They play up regional accent on some ads here in the US, which al
ways seems a bit contrived, but have a question along the advert line:

Do TV stations in the UK crank up the volume several steps on every commercial?? They do here and it is really annoying. They have been talking about passing an Fed. Comm. reg that would prohibit it, but nothing ever happens.

I have two labradoodles and one really has the lab instinct of chasing anything I throw and bringing it back until she is ready to drop. The other seems to have taken on more of the poodle mentality as she will chase and pick up whatever is thrown, then spend an hour making sure I and/or the other dog can’t have it.

+1 rightplacerighttime, I ran over a rattlesnake and had instant thoughts of it getting caught in the spokes and launched right into my face—-amazing how fast you can unclip and get your feet up as high as possible when the adrenaline rush hits instantly.
Night riding in the mountains had 2 deer jump from a small ridge directly in front of me, both about 5 feet in the air–hate to think of one of those hooves imbedded on my helmet or other body parts.

I’ll fax you a New Mexico coyote to turn loose in the attic–should sort it all out

The fox situation there sounds like the coyote situation here in New Mexico. Resourceful, wiley animals who come into the city for breakfast, lunch and dinner, be it fruit from trees, cats or small dogs, dogfood left outside, etc. and just about anything else edible.
Coyotes can clear a 5-6 foot fence like it wasn’t there to snag the occasional small dog or cat left unattended. I constantly see signs posted on light-poles for “missing pet” with a picture of a Yorkie, Chihuahua, or similar small dogs as well as cats, but the coyotes never seem to return them to their owners.
We do have a few foxes, but the coyotes are the overly dominant predator in and around populated area and keep the fox population down.

I was unscrewing a CO2 cartridge from the valve/trigger fitting and launched it across the kitchen, just missing my wife and putting a great dent in the dishwasher. She swears I did it on purpose, but just had bad aim.

Durango, CO and Crested Butte, CO are both good locations with lots of riding for every skill level in the areas. June through October the best as the mountain snows set in as you go into November. I used to live in Boise, but before mountain biking took hold–but knowing the terrain around Boise and Sun Valley I’d bet there is some awesome riding in the area.
Angel Fire/Taos area here in New Mexico is good as you can stay at one location and get riding in at both areas. If you do, don’t miss the South Boundary trail in the area.
Moab area great of course, but just south of there in the Manti LaSalle mountains has some great riding that you could wrap into a visit to Moab.

Pretty amazing—makes me feel like even more of a rank amateur of a rider. What a phenomenal sense of balance and timing.
Great scenery as well—takes me back to when I worked as an expat in Scotland (Paisley) back in an earlier lifetime.

I had it for many years until it reached a point I couldn’t walk much more than a few minutes. Tried orthotics, cortisone shots, a quack doctor’s bizarre taping procedure, etc. to no avail.
Finally went to a foot/ankle ortho doc and she recommended a plantar fasciotomy in which they went in laparoscopically and severed the plantar fascia just ahead of the heel and have never had any pain or discomfort since and I hike/walk a lot. It was an easy recovery as there were only two small incisions, one on each side of my foot, right below the anklebone.
Looking back I can’t believe I suffered through it for about 7 years before doing something.

+1 SteveBbrain
It really is all about using common sense and a reasonable sense of courtesy

Have you ever had someone approach you and when they decide to yield and stop, they pull across the trail in front of you instead of just pulling to their side and stopping

Here in the US, the “official” rule (whatever that means) is to yield to the climber, but I kind of deal with each case as it comes. If I see someone coming down with their hair on fire or generally out of control, I will yield. The one time it really pi$$es me is if it a really difficult, steep technical climb where yielding/stopping will force me to hike-a-bike a good ways in those delightfully comfortable biking shoes in order to even get started again.

Couple years ago I was following a guy I know (about 55 years old) up a really steep, technical single track. He has been racing for years and can ride/climb just about anything he encounters. A couple of youngish guys, maybe 18 or so come over the crest above us and start down at full throttle and the kid in the lead yells “get out of the way old man”, so Kirby just gets as far off to the right as the narrow singletrack would allow and just as the kid starts to pass him, raises his left elbow and catches the kid in the chest—kid and bike did a aerial that would rival an act in Circue de Soleil—Kirby just looks down at the guy and said “oops” and remounts (in a place I couldn’t have done so and rides on up the trail. Not that I’d recommend anyone doing that, but it did seem quite just at the moment.

Gun hell–how about an RPG!!!
When I was a kid, we lived on a cattle ranch in SW Nebraska and rumors were going around about people seeing two large, black cats, but no pictures ever taken. Come to find out, two panthers had escaped from a circus truck about 75 miles away. Never were caught/killed, but sure had everyone a bit nervous

pastcaring–you are more likely to be hit by an asteroid than encounter a mountain lion—well almost as likely anyway. If you are in a group it’s even less likely. Last mountain biker I heard of that got attacked by a lion was so unlikely due to it happening in heavily populated Orange County, in S. CA. It was an older lion who was in poor health and couldn’t catch any of it’s normal prey—so along comes someone grinding along on a bike!!!!
They are getting steadily pushed out of their normal territory by population, so most often found in remote area—the above-mentioned cat an exception.
We have had a few sightings of Jaguars in SW New Mexico, but they are even more reclusive, not to mention about twice the size of the typical mountain lion–they cross up from the mountains in N. Mexico (used to be seen quite often in NM, but driven to a zero-population here in early 1900’s. I’d probably fill my biking shorts if I came across one of them.

Some of the sketchy people I have run into who are wandering about in the forest worry me a whole lot more than the wildlife.

pastcaring—there are both bears and mountain lions in/around Moab (and generally all over the mountain west), but the likelihood of seeing one, especially a mountain lion is VERY remote. I have hiked & biked in the mountain west for 30 years and have only seen a lion on three occasions–one in New Mexico, one in Colorado and one in the Sierra mountains in California and each time I was in a really remote area—they are very solitary and stealthy–of course like my friend says, it’s the one you don’t see you have to worry about.

Bears are pretty common and I see a couple while riding almost every summer—they normally capture and relocate several every year that wander down into Albuquerque in pursuit of fruit as it ripens in late summer. They are usually only dangerous if you get between a sow and her cubs—-not a good thing to do.

scotabroad–I know what you mean about the imagination ramping up very quickly riding alone in the dark–the slightest sound or movement becomes a beast in pursuit.

I used to ride alone at night here in the New Mexico mountains, but gave it up a few years ago (wife convinced me I was crazy doing it). On rocky trails, you really have to pay attention and it does hone your riding skills. It can really be spooky, with all the night noises that my mind would immediately interpret as a mountain lion or mother bear with cubs close by—did see a bear once and almost always had deer jumping across the trail. Ran into packs of coyotes on occasion, but they normally aren’t a danger, at least until after you fall, break body parts and can’t get up.
In complete honesty, I always carried a Kimber .45-caliber semi-auto in my Camelback when night-riding alone in the mountains, since the locations were almost always out of cell phone reach.

Had one for 4 years now and wouldn’t have anything else. We went through about 6 different mattresses before trying it and best sleep I have ever had. No problem with it being hot, but we do have a lamb-wool mattress pad on top of it which would alleviate that I suppose.
Expensive, but well worth it IMHO.

Guy riding on local trails here with bar-ends that pointed straight up and took a fall—punctured his stomach on the bar-end when he came down. Have seen him and a woman riding together for years and both had the bar-ends vertical to the bar—not sure what that was supposed to accomplish.

I didn’t get a chance to read all of the string, but if someone hasn’t mentioned it, I use Diskeeper software and it does a continuous defrag and it has ran faultlessly for 4 years (upgraded to a new 2009 version last year). Really keeps things orderly in the system

+1 pinches above
Those dogs need a LOT of exercise, stimulation and activity–7 days a week
Not a good dog to have penned up or closed in a house or apartment all day

I am working with a client in Equatorial Guinea (W. Africa) and that part of the world isn’t the safest for several reasons: political unrest, health issues, etc. For example, this client won’t allow a family to come over if they have children due to the risk of Malaria. Their employees live on a secure compound and they only recommend going into the city in groups and during the daytime.They ship in fresh meats, fruits and vegatables due to the sanitary conditions in local markets.

I have traveled on business and worked in Somalia, Columbia, Saudi Arabia and Bangladesh and all are livable if you take the right precautions. One of the most important things to being in public in areas like that is to be always vigilant and always aware of what is going on around you—-and don’t walk about with your SLR digital camera hanging around your neck in plain sight.