One of my favourite films is Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy but it definitely doesn’t reward you for staring at your phone!

From the Mulholland Drive school of “what the hell was that about” is Synecdoche, New York. I thought I had a handle on what was happening but then I read a very lengthy explainer and found there was so much hidden meaning an symbolsm throughout that I’d completely misunderstood. Definitely worth repeat viewings to catch everything.

I was given Along Came a Spider by James Patterson by a relative and at the time knew nothing about Patterson. After about 30 pages I got very bummed out that so many people enjoy this cliched garbage, god almighty it was awful! The best way I could describe it was if a teenager had written a shoddy fan fiction about a bad 90s Hollywood blockbuster.

In the 90s my mates and i would ride everything, dh xc dirt jumps etc and our skill progression was limited due to the ever present legitimate fear of what part will snap on me if i do this jump or that drop. Rims that would fold at the first suggestion of a hook up on a jump, handlebars that would snap if landing a drop to flat, fork top caps that would fire out into your chest. I really really like modern bikes in comparison

Ha plastic top caps! My friend had a pair of psylos that would fire the top caps out at his chest on drops to flat! I had a set of indy xcs that slowly over time choppered out as the crown join failed. And we weren’t even good riders, this was all from really tame stuff compared to nowadays.

I’m always amazed at how few broken bikes you see on things like the Friday Fails videos. I’ve been around mountain biking long enough to see dozens of fork failures, head tubes snapped off, wheels collapsing on much smaller accidents.

Absolutely this! When i was starting out in the mid 90s, half the fear of trying a new drop or jump was will my handlebar snap, am i going to wreck the square taper again, will the wheel survive. It took me a long time to accept the capabilities of modern full sussers because i was carrying the scars of those previous failures! We can ride so hard these days and not even think about pedals snapping off or forks shearing at the crown. I’m totally happy with a weight penalty for bikes that aren’t on the edge of failure on every downhill

Not too long ago we had 53 plate xsara picasso with a 2.0 hdi engine and it was bombproof. When the kids were babies and i had no time management skills, we went 2 years and 35,000 miles without an oil change, just tyres. Changed the oil and filters and it continued chugging along at 45mpg. We sold it for £200 at 175,000miles and at the last MOT it was up to 208k.

Yep I tried ESI chunkys and managed one ride without gloves on before giving up on them, no grip at all once you get sweaty palms.
Currently running sticky renthals and they are obviously the benchmark! However I find them slightly too thin so when theyre done I’ll be trying either a pair of sensus swayzes or odi long necks, both seem to be the other grips people get on with gloveless.

Do you have a library nearby? I’m in Birmingham and the library network has an online catalogue that lets you reserve anything in the entire system and have it delivered to your most local library pretty quickly. I’m yet to find a book that I want that they don’t have.

Ive had what sounds like the same pain for a good part of this year and nothing made any difference (months of low mileage, low speed, rest, everything) until i started stretching my calves. Turned out i had really tight calves and they were pulling on my hamstrings which is where the pain shows up.

I haven’t listened to many but one I could happily relisten to is #668 with Jon Ronson, his stories are amazing (and hilarious)

This feels like it would be last straw in the long line of events since the last recession of the wealthy middle aged and the elderly taking a dump on the futures of the youth of today

Which numbers though? This is my point, if people are basing their opinion on how the virus is progressing by the daily infections announcement in isolation, it’s a totally different picture to the graph where those infections are plotted by sample date.

I agree that neither shows we should be lifting restrictions but I feel it’s important to point out how the different ways of visualising the data can skew perception of where we are in the crisis

There’s been a number of posts recently saying lockdown hasn’t worked and infections aren’t going down. If you look at worldometers then I can see why you’d get that impression as they plot the daily announcement of infections as though they’re the date of those infections.

The government’s Covid19 data page linked below plots infections by date of sample and the reduction is a virtually linear decline, the lockdown is definitely working

coronavirus.data.gov.uk/

Another Kings of Leon victim here, this time at Benicassim in 2007. It didn’t help that they were following The Hives on the line up, who had just done one of their “we’re the greatest live band in the world” performances so the contrast couldn’t have been much starker. They may have said the name of a few of the songs in between mechanically playing their songs while not looking at the crowd, I can’t remember as I may have dozed off mid-set. Good lord was it boring.

Closely followed by The Strokes at Leeds Fest in 2011. Another phone it in job, managed to beat Kings of Leon in “we’d like you all to know we’d rather be somewhere else” stakes but only saved by playing some half decent songs.

I’m on android pie, using the chrome app and I get the jump to the how many bikes poll if I’m not logged in, stops happening once I login.

Not considered an Alpina? Quite a few nice looking ones on Pistonheads that fit the budget and a lot more unique than an Audi.

We were renting a flat in the Albion Works in Manchester at the time of the last crash and we were surrounded by owners who were trapped in negative equity. Things got worse for them when the facilities management company went bust and the place was left to ruin. Security gates broken, lifts broken, weeds everywhere, killing any chance of a decent sale. Story about the place below
https://www.theguardian.com/money/2008/mar/25/houseprices.housingmarket

The value of your asset depends on some other third party keeping the place looking nice and there’s no guarantee of that happening. I can see history repeating itself based on the volume of new stuff going up

The peerless Nicolas Cage. I’m not even joking

I used to shout at the bad driving and mobile use I saw while commuting but I don’t anymore. The thing that stopped me happened one day near my house in Manchester. Riding along a 20mph narrow side street, parked cars on both sides of the road, a guy screamed up behind revving away while he was held up for ~30m then swerved at me as he passed when then was space again. I did the international sign for self love at him as he revved off. Round the next corner at a t junction he was waiting to turn. As I stop at the junction, he gets out, runs at me and grabs my bike and is very very angry! Swearing about how he’s going to kill me etc, fake lunges to head butt me then runs into his car and speeds off. I’m not a hardman and this shook me up for a while. I now just assume crap drivers are nutcases and leave them to it

Definitely not a more linear spring! I’ve had this year’s 150mm Pike for a few weeks now and I’m finding it very progressive at the end of the stroke. With just under 30% sag and no tokens I was left with over an inch of travel after a day at BPW on Monday. This might work for you but I wish it was a bit more linear, I’m used to forks sitting higher in their travel and not ramping up so much, this seems a bit wallowy so far. (I’d given up on the trying some LSC to keep it up a bit but I’ve since discovered the first ten clicks appear to do nothing). On the plus side, there’s very little initial resistance, I can push it down with my finger.

Following a recommendation from family in Australia we’ve been getting into Rake. It’s a black comedy drama about a barrister who’s a disaster, lots of swearing and boozing plus some really good guest actors. Hugo Weaving stars in the first episode as a cannibal. Lots of laugh out loud moments and theres plenty of episodes up if you happen to get into it

Only once when my wife put her back out before we were due to see Royal Blood and nobody we knew wanted to come instead. Was fine during each set but was bored between bands as I’m not one to find strangers to talk to. Plus it was in the NIA where I have no phone reception so felt a bit of lemon just standing and people watching with my pint.

Coincidentally I’m seeing Idles tonight, can’t wait!

It might not be the same thing but I used to get terrible arm pump, would ruin rides at BPW within a couple of runs down. I tried different grips etc etc and eventually found the cause which was far too much rebound damping. I now run only enough that the bike isn’t just pogoing off everything and no more and my arms are way better now

I’ve had one for 3 years now and I love it. I was previously riding a borrowed Yeti 575 and I find the Fluid way more predictable. It’s loads of fun, the suspension is nice and progressive so it’ll pop off things if you want it to, instead of staying on the ground all the time.

Can’t comment on the build kit now as I’ve slowly replaced most stuff as I’ve gone on but mine was great value at the time, think its only £1100, it’s tonnes of bike for the money.

Its coped with everything I’ve thrown at it too, BPW reds and blacks, downhilling at stile cop, bmx tracks, long XC days, it’s properly capable!

I was under the impression that the Spitfire didn’t glide that long but was at the culmination of all three stories and we saw the same shorter glide three times from different perspectives.

Betty. And then when you want her to stop you have to shout “whoa black Betty! (bambalamb)”

Can’t post youtube from here but I’ve a few;

Kano – Another Life
Quando Quango – Love Tempo
Paul McCartney – Temporary Secretary
Soft Cell – Say Hello, Wave Goodbye

I’m not convinced many people have seen a tower block collapse without it being a controlled demolition. You’d be showing them a video of a building falling down. “yes, that looks just like a building falling down”

howsyourdad – I’m pretty much the same weight and when I hit 95kg I really started to struggle! Each 4th and 5th rep took so much effort I thought I was going to black out. I ended up going up and down the weight and increasing by really small increments, e.g 1kg and that kept me progressing.

Eventually I got to 105kg but lost my bottle as my squat stands have only got tiny safety tabs and I was worried I was going to get stuck under a failed rep. I’m doing lower weights at the mo until I get a get a proper squat rack.

I grew up thinking Blopes was a mtb legend. That was until I met him…

Me and some mates helped out with track building at the first fort bill world cup, mostly with the 4X. After the 4X race, we were winding down in the hotel bar. And so was Brian and Wade Bootes and some other crew. It was pretty quiet as at that time, most of the other riders were also doing the DH on the Sunday. Brian and his buddies were playing poker but instead of money, they were gambling for press-ups. We all ended up chatting about the race etc and then Brian had to do some press-ups… We made the mistake of taking the micky out him barely bending his arms. “That’s pathetic Brian, come on get your nose on the floor!”, his mates join, all a bit of light hearted messing around. At this point, Brian decided to jump up and grab me by the neck and press my face into the carpet “why don’t you get your nose on the floor!”. Cue everyone telling Brian to calm down etc. We all go our separate ways, everyone a bit bummed out.

I tried to give him the benefit of the doubt at the time but every story that has followed has confirmed he’s just not a very nice person

I don’t agree that burning wood is not something you could class as carbon neutral. That wood has taken decades to fix all that carbon, in the past and then today when you burn it, all that carbon is released into the atmosphere in one hit and in greater quantities than if you’d burnt natural gas for your heating. That carbon could have stayed fixed in timber products rather than in the atmosphere.

Can’t believe how anyone could argue that it’s pronounced “scone” when everyone knows its pronounced “scone”, come on

If you don’t like the way someone shakes your hand, just give their palm a little tickle with your index finger during your next handshake, hey presto, problem solved

So you piss in the sink…because you don’t want to poo in the toilet? Scared to ask where you normally poo

One of my many university jobs was working in currys’ delivery call centre. We would take calls from people similar to yourself who had taken annual leave to wait for their white goods, which hadn’t appeared as promised. We would then ring the driver (who never answered) and then their local depot (who never answered) and would then have to explain that they’d probably wasted a day of leave. And then to make their lives even better, the next day’s deliveries were all allocated so it would be at least another two days until they would get their goods. After two weeks of being paid minimum wage to get shouted at I walked out…

Check out moneysavingexpert for balance transfer cards, I just got an MBNA that does 0% for 36 months and will transfer cash into a current account as part of the balance transfer deal so you could do whatever you want then

The wind won’t make your bike any cooler than the actual air temperature, it just means it cools down to that temperature quicker than if there was no wind.

I did exactly this and got a norco fluid from Evans. Properly fun bike for the money. I spent last year on a loaned yeti 575 and I prefer the norco

We tried all the above with ours, she would get up at all hours, sometimes 3 or 4 times a night, properly started losing the plot. “Why are you up?” “I dunno daddy”… Good! Then we finally cracked it. We don’t do rewards but buckled for sleep. We made a sticker chart with her and told her she’d get a sticker every time she stayed in bed all night and once she’d got 5 stars, we’d go swimming. After a few false starts and a few reminders she suddenly got it and would explain to people she met “I stayed in bed aaaaaalllllll night!”. We then quietly forgot about the chart as she’d got into the habit. Every so often she slips back and we’ll do a new chart for a week or two.

Just to clear up what I meant, she was told she had a prolapsed disc and her vertebrae were rubbing together.

Thanks for the advice, lots of stuff I’ve not heard before so food for thought