I like stiff HTs with big tyres, wide bars and a fair bit of fork travel.

I miss Wendy. 2ys in April. Still feel incomplete on the special days. Must move on.

I’m coping

Ah I ordered the shoes they have not arrived yet. It remains to be seen how useful they are tramping over cairngorm with a board on my back!

Give up on SS

Half hoping to get a lap of Swinley Forest bike trail tomorrow morning before my Sister’s tribe surfaces. I have my bike. I live in hope.

Some days I love solo missions and explorations. But it’s truly great to have riding pals to lark about with.

[Doffs cap]

Have a peaceful holiday everyone

Good on three counts:

* Recognition that the prosecution was a misjudgement and unjustly blighted the life of a man who should have been(and should be) recognised as a mathematical genius and a hero of science (and also a wartime national hero). Let’s see Alan on a Bank of England note.

* Recognition that as a society we’ve moved on from sexual prejudices. I hope more pardons are issued.

* Acknowledgement that rigid adherence to legal process can be unjust and that our society has the wisdom and humanity to look past it.

Well done Her Maj

Think they’re pacestar compound so they’re not the best for a front tyre anyway.

Actually they are ideal IME, better than the more fragile trailstar

sergeant pepper taught the band to play?

This!

After racing the Fort Bill DH track on a hardtail, it’s certainly expanded my mind on what’s possibly with only 130mm travel up front.

Jeebus how did you survive the landings off the rock gardens!? I walked two of them and I was on a FS trail bike.

Funding research, and what research to fund is a big topic.

Your BiL has a point. When the energy and water run out, there will be wars like you can’t imagine. It’s a practical problem. It feels solvable too.

But space exploration is needed to answer important philosophical problems about life/identity and the nature of the universe/existence. To a lot of people, this matters somewhat less.

Nothing matters more to the masses than Sky sports, mind you!

Bloody heathens. The pipes sound amazing. Very little sounds as powerful. Electric guitar on full distortion is about the only thing. Pipes playing laments give me chills.

I think it’s the drone sound that puts people off.

For balance. I say that FS owners benefit from owning and riding a HT. I would not contemplate snowdon, highlands, Lakeland passes, Sierra Nevada, alps etc on my HT.

To stop being a monk.

Many blue runs are snow covered access roads and ideal. But you’ll be mixing it up with novice skiers. You will get bollocked. And you won’t be allowed on any lifts. Resorts were reluctant to allow snowboards back in the day!

If you’re aquatic

We are Europeans : celts Saxons Normans Vikings you name it and we’re it. We’re separated from the continent by a narrow passage of water. You can see France from Kent

As for national Identity? Have you been to other euro countries and mixed, no one is losing their identity.

Stop being to bloody insular!

Formal Competition is not really in the ethos of snowboarding any more than it is in trad mountaineering.

Width is not really a problem ime. I’ve had 2.35 Dampfs tubeless at low ish pressures on crests and never felt they might roll off. But damfs are a bit of a magic tyre.

But they flex and need regular tuning up , that’s all

Brilliant programming those two games.

IME other Europeans just happily ignore EC directives. I suggest we do the same. [serIous face] But our press seem to take it all very seriously.

Shakira or Ingrid – Fight!

Intense’s take on VPP feels amazing – huge amounts of grip climbing and descending. Not sure what the issue is.

Intense. 100% more sexy.

Welcome to the area

A solidly built HT or short-travel FS is the main weapon of choice. But a bigger bike can be useful on the more secretive and challenging trails scattered around Burrington, Rowberrow, Cheddar, Axbridge, Cross and Sandford. It will take you time to work out exactly where they are and how to link them productively.

Mendip trail conditions are quite poor/challenging at the moment. They start getting more fun from mid-March. Email in profile: contact me in the spring.

It was never about the bikes.

fight for it mate, if you think you love this woman or could love her again get back up there and convince her of it

It might work. At least you will not feel regret that you didn’t try everything you could have. That makes it easier to accept.

* My bid got written and it’s not at all bad. Pressure’s off.

* I got a small pay increase, which is better than nowt :-)

* I have a bunch of parties to go to over the weekend. There might even be some nice ladies there!

I’m not getting much bike riding done though :-(

:-(

People change. Sometimes they find they want different things, and want them more than what they have.

All wounds can be healed. Good luck with the future.

I actually really like Silent Night. But that’s about it.

I have lived such a sheltered existence.

It was hard to keep the bike on the ground. I was glad of the armour.

If life is boring, change your life.

Squirrel wasn’t so good, less good than rabbit. I guess that’s why we don’t eat squirrels.

I think Marco was a bit surprised when half the club turned up in Sierra Nevada on long-travel 29ers. More so when he realise they were no handicap on the steep, uber-rocky switchbacks. The only real problem was fitting them on his trailer.

I’ve got my work, and a job doing it. What is this career thing?

Alright with strong tyres. Need attention to spokes fairly often as the flex and work loose. Depends how you ride.

“I would of thought if you the route your taking needs winter mountain boots and crampons, then you won’t be wanting snowshoes or split boards?”

Yeah a fair point and route choice with snowshoes/board will probably be somewhat different. At the moment I don’t tend to use the 10p crampons unless it get proper hard and I can’t comfortably kick steps with my mountain boots (and also I hate them). Snowboard boots are so soft and rounded you cant kick steps at all; not to mention they way they fix your ankle makes them unsuitable for any non-trivial slope.

Since snowboards with harchisens exist I assume they help with walking over a range of snow conditions and slopes. I’ll have to experiment. Should be fun!