Iron Keld gets my vote too… more for some ace memories of the best ride ever. And a couple of jars in the Drunken Duck before hand probably helped.

I found a nice wee one at Woodland the other day too – very straight forward but a lovely flow… rather enjoyed it and will be back for another go I think.

Then there is Dumyat circa a few years back. Last time I was up there (before moving south) it had lost some of it's charm. But back when I moved to Stirling around 2001/2ish the descent down that main track was just stonking.

I have it on good authority that Parkamoor is a bit special too though, so shall try and get out there in the next couple of weeks to check it out.

Trying to get out more – I managed 1 x 2 hour ride and 1 x 45 minute ride last week, and thought I was doing well!

The problem is work – I am out all day(ish) on site lifting bits of machinary about the place. Get home and tend to have no enthusiasm for going out, so I am trying to get some riding in first thing (even short) to build some base fitness back up again, then throw in a longer weekend ride each week and I will get there. Next week I will get out a couple of times (this week is a write off alas), and then add a day every week or two. Perhaps.

That's the plan anyway.

It's a decent road (by Lakes standards) to Parkamoor/Grizedale though, well… other than the last bit! You don't get stuck behind Mrs Miggins in her Micra doing 20 and slowing for the corners 😉

Depends what you want – grassy slopes, big angles and stupid speed = Howgills (there are some decent shortish loops that can be done around those parts, the descent down from The Calf past Winder and back into Sedbergh is just epic, and pretty easy for those used to groomed trails)

Going into the Lakes is just a complete pain in the arse at the moment. If you aren't fighting tourists it's floods! Slow going 🙁 That would suggest either around Kendal/Stavely or along the A590 for Grizedale. I would be tempted to go for the latter myself, but I aint done much in the Kendal area as yet!

http://www.greenandeasy.co.uk/categories/Log-Stores-and-Accessories/Log-Splitters-and-Axes.aspx

Have the Firepoint Axes. Didn't see the hatchet on there, which is a useful wee tool, but I didn't look that hard! Also available from Euroheat.

Tis easy –

2 slices of bread. Preferably decent stuff of any colour… but cheap crap white will do.

Butter. Plenty

Hot freshly cooked Bacon. Plenty.

Eat.

Simples 🙂

If bacon is not available then cold cumberland sausage with ketchup is acceptable as a substitute 😉

Liberals or Greens for me I think….

I have to look at the manifestos and the local candidates as yet though so may change my mind as yet!

I have a set of Firepoint axes (http://www.firepoint.de/products/other-axes.php) – they are really, really nice! Got a hatchet, splitting axe (Scandinavian Styleee) and felling axe – just because you never know 😉

They are all hickory handled ones, as I just like wooden axes, and were stupidly expensive, but I plan on never needing another set… ever.

I used a G5 rather than SLR/Compact for a few years but wound up finding the limits of what that could do pretty quick. It was good for a smallish camera, nice fast lens and all. It was just the shutter lag and lack of dynamic range that really pissed me off.

I am not sure any of the current crop sort that out particularly… perhaps something like the Panasonic GF1 (if that's right – the Lumix version of the Olympus PEN-1) is the answer??? Rumour has it that Samsung have something in the pipeline too… and Ricoh… which marry a large sensor with a compact camera. Not sure if they are offering interchangeable lenses or a fixed unit though? Something like the Ricoh GR Digital with a DSLR size sensor would make me have a sex wee though 😉

I was debating getting through this year without spending anything… but as I am getting back to riding I am realising that my main bike (nothing changed other than the brakes in 5 years) is getting a bit past it… so either needs a LOT spent on it, or a fresh start.

Thinking the latter, it may inspire me to ride more. But not until Spring!

If I were looking for simplicity I would probably take just 2 lenses… a 24mm equivalent and a 70-200 equivalent. I am finding this combination is actually very, very good at the moment (I am on full frame and using a Sigma 24mm f1.8 and a Canon 70-200L). I tend to find these cover most the shooting I do, so can leave the 24-105L and 17-40L behind if I want to!)

Been thinking of a 160 myself, just been looking at them this weekend. At 6'2" do you think I could get away with an 18" frame though? I used to have a Patriot which was superb (also a big lad!) but just a touch heavy for lugging up High Street, and a bit gate like at 20" (something a bit smaller would have just been a bit more manoeuvrable).

I am basically looking for a nice all day trail bike for a manly kind of man 😉 (Not quite the same weight as the OP, though I was a few years back, closer to 19 stone at the moment, and trying to shift another couple!). Local trails being the Lake District means I can justify something a tad burlier than my current 575.

Where abouts is it… will send the Stromness Mafia out to sort it out 😉

How very dare you!

The Panasonic is a better camera than the Olympus PEN, if I was in the market I would probably go for one at the moment for mountain biking (though I have just found I can fit my 5D in my Camelbak with the 28=135 attached, so that is good!)

For a grand though??? I think the Pitch may be the best bet.

I like liners – they add a wee bit of warmth in the winter and a wee bit of coolth in the summer. I always use a silk liner in my down bags… plus I can clean the liner a lot easier than the bags 😉

But I think it sounds like you need a warmer bag… and a liner whilst you are at it 😉

Best thing I have done the the last year or so… just getting through it. I have done bollocks all for 18 months now other than just keep going – seems that every time things start to pick up I get another complete broadside of devestation. Got another one on the way it would seem too 🙁

Still, at some point the crap has to stop and karmic rebalance will surely ensure some good times are massivly overdue.

You know… if there is no work on tomorrow, and since I have nowt in the back of the car, I may just bugger off to Grizedale in the morning and have a bit of time to myself 🙂

Ooooh – just been perusing the Scratch Air too… tasty nice 🙂

I ride up hills slow, and at the moment down hills slow too. You can bait me all you like… but I rest easy in the knowledge that I am hung like a donkey 😉

That doesn't sound too good really.

Waiting to see the new Spec Enduro too, which has a stonking spec.

The 2010 seems to have a bit of a repositioning – it has Fox 32 forks rather than the Lyrik.

Hmmm, have to see if that frame issue has been sorted though (at least if I do wait until Spring any problems can be highlighted!)

You haven't been up to see the new gaff yet Foxy… shame by the time you make it from the other side of the A590 the pizza will be long gone.

Probably.

😉

Yep, very easy to do.

I used Comet last time and it was a very painless process. They turned up with the new one (Zanussi, it was very good… but moved since then), disconnected the old one, installed the new one and away in 15 minutes. It was even fully levelled and everything 😉

1 peperoni picante pizza and 1 proscuitto picante pizza – both picante due to the chilli lacing that went on, and liberal application of garlic. All on some bizzare wholemeal bases (used a flour based on the stuff used in ancient Egypt)

Should be ready in 10 minutes or so….

Aaaah – I always quite fancied a GT6 myself. Lovely looking cars they are 🙂

You want to borrow my cat – he goes digging for the wee critters! Used to wander home covered in mud and stack up moles in my office 😉

We don't have any in these parts, I think he misses them. He was down a rabit hole a few weeks back in protest!

I stuck with them through this one, but then they decided to close the bank counter in the local Halifax estate agents… which means I need to drive a 28 mile round trip to put my paycheck in the bank.

Guess I am going to be leaving them too then. I think the Cumberland Building Society have a service where they move all your accounts and transfer all your direct debits for you, which sounds tempting!

I am getting bored of this type of arguement now…

For the deniers – yes it is happening, and if you actually look at the raw research data then you would be very, very worried. Most the IPCC predictions were seriously watered down as a result of political pressure.

For the I don't care, climate change is good for some – no it isn't. No one wins. You are going to see MASSIVE migration, unrest and outright warfare as more land becomes unproductive and water supplies simply dry up. On top of this the Northern English Grape Growers may find that the additional energy in the atmosphere which causes massive increase in windspeed and rain fall are really going to screw up their crops. It should make life so much more pleasant for the rest of us to, no?

Oh – and we have bollocks all time to do anything about it, so everyone running around thinking it is a non-issue or blocking progress is a complete f'cktard.

Bottle of wine or two… say £10? Perhaps 2-4 of bottles of beer from Booths, usually the £1 a bottle offers, so £3 say on average. Then throw in 4 pints down the pub for another £10.

£23 then.

If it's a proper weekend session though, which is perhaps once a month, then you are looking £60 – £100+ I would think.

I try not to drink like that too much these days though – back in the day it was a pretty regular occurance!

Went to one in Leeds a few weeks back. It wasn't a bad night out, not that I saw much of the kit removal bit, waaay too many people there 😉 Some of the crowd were rather nice though… and the lassies wandering about between their shows were also easy on the eye.

But mostly I just drank all the rum.

Suddenly I feel like the anarchist shopper!

Mine is ace – mad as a box of frogs and doesn't get anywhere near the physical exercise he should do. Follows you around a lot, lets you know what he needs… loves to play (and will collect the correct toy that you tell him to get – so long as he can remember where he left it that is, we are in a 3 story town house so it can go missing from time to time).

He keeps himself occupied mostly trying to herd our two cats. 1 of which is a teeny tiny moggy (well, she was – now a fat little cat) and the other is a HUGE Maine Coon. Jake the Collie and Ed the Main Coon get on really well together, probably as they are both so intelligent. I think Jake just wished they would play with him more!

I very rarely put him on a lead, my wife does a lot more than me (I just whistle to him to keep him close and on pavements). He charges around like a mad thing on the hills and in the woods, loves playing with sticks and is very hard to knacker out. Took him on the mountain bike when we lived in Scotland and only did a max 10ish miles but he would run flat out for the full ride, then fall into an exhausted heap for 10 minutes before wanting another go 😉

Ace dogs, so long as you get a good one and spend the time with them. Bit neurotic, but if they are occupied then they are fine – we can leave him alone for half a day without any problems (the cats keep him company – he will just gaze at them for hours if they are asleep!)

Ours was a rescue dog – had him for coming up 2 years and he is about 6 now I think.

Entirely agree – it is only "some" not "all". But despite my liberal leanings I really am starting to think that the whole antisocial behaviour thing (low level crime that just gets to everyone) is something that really needs some serious resources put into tackling.

Christ… does that mean I have to vote (shudder) Conservative!

f'k sake – that is one large populous of people that really need a properly good shoeing.

Crap turning circle, bitch to park and with a habit of blowing cylinder heads (got told that when I was looking for a pickup – bought a Navara and got shot of that after 12 months… unless you are building houses and moving sheep around don't bother with a pickup. It made sense for me for engineering use, but the thing was such a pig that I decided to live with the shortcomings of something more conventional)

We used to burn coal in Stirling – onto wood now post move. The wee fire we had would not take that much coal (it was a small bedroom type castiron fireplace). I used to order a couple of bags of coal at a time from the coal merchant (who took it down the back lane to the garage no problem) and they would last me for an age!

Best bet may be to pick up a sack at your local garage or coal yard and just see how you get on and work it out from there 🙂

Woodburners are better all round though – more efficient and much more hippy friendly 😉 Just installed a second one in the new house so we are using very, very little gas to heat the place now 🙂

Got a Drizabone for dog walking when it's really grim, but just took delivery of one of these[/url] for this winter:

It's waterproof as well as having the insulation – first try on says it is going to be toasty warm so should come in handy for surveying and photography trips too. And possibly Verbier if I go and visit my wee sister this winter 😉

epicyclo – LMFAO, that was far too funny!

You forgot to mention most of them are doctors, lawyers and other upstanding members of the public too though 😉

I actually get some nods off Harley riders these days – noticed a change in attitude when I went from the knackered old Yamaha to the (once) lovely shiny Triumph (lack of washing and an interface with a wall have made it no longer quite so nice and shiny… big feckoff scratch down the side!). Beemers are a mixed bad though, if they don't think they are Charlie MacEwan doing the Long Way Round then they are fine (ie anyone riding a non-GS Beemer). Kind of toying with a BMW K1200S/R Sport for the next bike myself (though there is a certain inevitability that I will switch from the Speed Triple to a Sprint ST – just love them triples!)

I am holding out hopes for next month to get me back on the bike properly after a couple of years off. At the moment it looks like I only have a few days work for November, which means I can get paid to ride 🙂

All I need is some nice crisp, frosty days….

Chance would be a fine thing! Probably get a load of call outs anyway 🙁