coffeeking – still me.

never, NEVER, take the bait. it’s just not worth it.

Is that to him or me :lol:

kunoichi – care to expand?

drinking alcohol forces more blood past the surface of the skin

Crikey, I’m not drinking ever again, i might bleed to death :)

Cofeeking – yes exercise bikes are fun. Depends on your personal definition of fun though doesn’t it.

But is it the bike riding, or the fact that you’re pushing your fitness that you enjoy? I would imaging you mean the second, therefore it’s not bike that is the subject of your enjoyment, just the vehicle.

I remember the ‘tough’ kids, on their BMXs or skateboards, being able to jump off things. I also remember the amount of injuries they suffered. I know people with bits of metal in them. And now they are approaching middle age, have problems with movement in some joints, etc.

But (as someone who did those things) I dont remember ever considering the outcome, I just enjoyed the experience of doing them. It was undoubtedly partly to do with looking good at that point, as a kid you’re easily affected by peer pressure. That said, I hated football and saw no reason to join in despite being called all the names under the sun for it. For me I’m fairly sure it’s always been about pushing myself and my fears, not worrying about someone else and how it looks to the women. And I think the women like the confidence, not the skill or the “look”.

IHN – no apologies needed. What you’re riding is why you’re riding in my case.

in bed at 7 pm up at 6.30 am

CRIKEY – dont think I’ve ever slept for that long!

28 ft waves on the south coast? Coffeeking, I think you should try posting that claim on a surfing forum.

Peak to peak, of course, off Rhossili not the south coast. Recorded by the electronic bouy thing in the bay (thats currently reading 2.3ft). And I did post on (kite)surfing forums at the time (couple of years ago).

Smee – riding a bike isnt inherently fun? Do you find exercise bikes fun? :)

I find a gruff “get back to bed NOW!!!!” seems to work.

Always worked with me as a kid. Unless there was a specific reason for not being asleep (bad dream, needing the loo etc) I knew I’d incur my dads wrath for waking him!

The 1 billion profit will not have been sitting in a bank, it’s been paid to the shareholders, so now they’re struggling to make profits they have to lose a few people from the lest productive sites. Its just natural selection – sure you can get annoyed if you’re losing your job, but everyone else doesnt really have an reason to complain. Businesses make money, its what they are there to do – it is there reason for being. If they keep the majority of staff secure by sacking (probably mostly temp/part time) staff and shutting some stores then wheres the problem? I love the way some people see these things as black and white – they made money in the past, therefore they must be able to accept some loses – doesnt quite work that way.

Thanks for those – we rode in greyfield a few times (he used to live in high littleton) but its on the small scale, some fun trails in it though. I think he stopped riding in there because they went all anti-bike in there? He got chased a few times IIRC. I’ll have a peek at them on google maps and see if I can spot them for next time I’m down there.

The problem is that fast moving frames in digital TV really do get screwed up by the compression, so HD would just about put it back in the league of analogue quality. I used to like F1 but I’m going off it more and more, in favour of WRC.

Now that takes some guts. Very impressed.

like it or not, thrill seekers do it to wow others, though they’ll never admit it.

Not sure that’s the case really. Its fun to tell people what you do and for them to look a bit amazed, yes naturally thats a bit of an ego boost, but its not the REASON I go out kiting. I saw kiting and thought it looked exciting. I spent 2 years teaching myself, virtually alone on a beach in high winds and cold water. None of my friends like that sort of sport and it just annoys my other half because I force her to stand about getting cold and wet. Bragging about it afterwards is fun, but you could simply lie about that and get the same effect – it doesnt explain why people actually DO the stuff.

I preferred the way that on the old site you could click on a forum and the threads would be arranged in the order they were made, and not by most recent reply.

Strange, I hate that. Generally the threads that havent been replied to are not worth reading, but I just click through a few pages in case something catches my eye. I hate having to come back and scroll through an unknown amount of pages to find one I replied to a day or two ago to see if it has new replies.

I personally dont think people come on here for in depth discussion, whenever one occurs half the members moan that its boring, someone gets heated about something and people get banned. Its a bit like going to the pub and having a mate sit and explain the complexities of thermo/fluid dynamics over 4 hours rather than just point out that hot fluid sounds softer when you pour it than cold (it does, listen when pouring cold and boiled water from the kettle into the same receptical!).

Internet discussion is rarely based on truth and reality, its usually based on opinions. other than factual “here is how you clean an X” posts, most of it is just people regurgitating google results and pretending to know all anyway, in any forum.

I run a few forums (car and sport related) and all of the ones broken down into areas and tech help, chat on and off topic etc are a waste of time – the mods are constantly moving posts between forii as people got it wrong, one or two of the boards get the most viewings and people asking for help in one of the less frequented boards never get a response because people like to congregate in one area (like in parties, people tend to stand/sit in one room and have little discussion groups, rather than spread out into different rooms hoping for a more pure discussion.

Its not as hard as it looks, it just has plenty of places to make mistakes! No sense of immortality here, which is why it’s fun I think – I just love the rush you (I) get when you’re holding on with everything you have and still getting semi-drowned every few minutes. Cant really explain it. I think its about overcoming fears – I was very scared of going out at first but macho bravadoness sent me into the waves, at that point I realised I could survive, so went out further, harder, faster etc and every time you do something new/more dangerous and survive you get a massive endorphin rush, which spurs you on further. Was nearly drowned at least twice (wave breaking on head pinning me to the sea bed for quite a while) but as soon as you’re out of it you’ve conquered it and need to move on to bigger.

I dont like heights though, I dont get the same endorphin rush from climbing/abseiling, I just get very worried and then glad to be down/up! Odd eh!

GW is right in my mind – bike-rambling is the epitomy of boredom for me. Its why I stopped riding the UK for a long time – I’d experienced the thrill of massively long alpine descents and couldnt find anything like it in the UK within sensible reach, so biking totally lost its appeal. I started kitesurfing instead – kitesurfing in (officially recorded) 28ft breaking waves off the south coast in a storm really does count as survival and then life in general seems dull afterwards.

I got banned for criticising the ads…

I got banned for rick-rolling! :(

bland – I’m not keen on the new forum either, on several grounds:

1) The search is a pain to find.
2) The layout is horrible – you cant easily spot the start of a message – somehow it seems it would naturally be under the “underline” but thats near the end of the message. No like.
3) Adverts are a tad annoying, but necessary – as a forum admin and self-hosted person I know the need to get a little cash back if possible!

But separating the FS/WTD/EBAY into different forums WONT work IMO, it makes the for sale section work nicely but the wanted and ebay ones wont ever get a look in – keeping them mixed is good. Why would you want discussion in the for sale section?

So my recommendations for the site are:
1) Use the new-ish (before the git messed up the site) template but with the new (current) forum software, allowing edits etc.
2) Put the damn tabs back.
3) Put the search back at the top!

But it takes time to do these things, and the forums are an add-on for the magazine, not the be-all and end-all of the site.

Sounds like a rip off of Kipling’s If if you ask me.

“A woman is only a woman, but a good cigar is a smoke.” ?

or

“When you’re wounded and left on Afghanistan’s plains, and the women come out to cut up what remains, jest roll to your rifle and blow out your brains and go to your gawd like a soldier.”

or

“The silliest woman can manage a clever man; but it needs a very clever woman to manage a fool. “

Cant find the one you mean…

Not that I know of. And they’re usually wrong when you find that sort of thing because of the vast number of options available.

I’m not happy unless I’m scaring myself, dont see the point in going out otherwise. Apparently its a sign of my inner failing?

Were 40 of them on the pavement or verge, like in the UK?

I suspect they dont really have much in the way of distinction between road and pavement in many parts of Nigeria. I could be wrong.

but isn’t thrill seeking symptomatic of an inner failing ?

Why is thrill seeking symptomatic of inner failing? I think it’s a good ermmm bit of text and it’s only about fighting and blood/sweat if you scratch the surface – it works on many more levels than that.

I’d love to do this, but in the time between shaved and beard I’d have “scruffy git” and would be too embarrassed to be seen in work! Oh and I shaved for the first time since xmas yesterday – missed this thread, gutted. I’d look stupid with a beard, my other half agrees.

It’s true, though. Students are often dirty, unwashed and feckless.

Often, not always!

I was never a big fan of pound-a-pint ‘Slappers Delight’ nights down the union. Just struck me as a bit sad, people getting off with others they neither fancied nor respected. I was particularly disgusted when I hear 3 blokes comparing notes on the same lass. Come on, man, have fun, but it just struck me as desperate loneliness, really.

Never a fan of them myself either, 3 people comparing one girl sounds a bit vile to me but I’m a little old fashioned like that, doesnt strike me as loneliness though – just that people have a different definition of entertainment than me! I was good mates with people who did do those nights (and a couple of lads who did and still never pulled!) but all of whome were happy and well adjusted in most respects! In fact the ones that were most screwed up were the ones in long term relationships while in the face of temptation – they often whinged about being lonely and unable to go out and have fun. Each to his own!

And sad, when you see someone who actually liked the other person, have to watch as that person got off with someone else.

That is sad, but its a fact of life and has been for god knows how long – its just more prevelant in “student nights” lol.

Still, most people grow out of it.

Eventually, yup, I am slowly regaining the mates that turned into club-crazed morons for years!

I dont know, and with the whole forum-outage I cant even search :(

Mine buy in mealworms – almost all of the birds seem to like them. Just dont try breeding them in the kitchen.

My parents also put out loads of different food types. They even have “tame” blackbirds that sit and chirp at you when you’re working on the car, robins that nest each year, bluetits that nest each year, the sparrowhawk, a heron, several local cats visiting and 3 small mice.

Nickc / miketually – Carn Ban Mor – now way would an SSer do that without a stupidly low gear and then they would have to freewheel the descent.

I think thats part of the fun of it – you have to strain to reach the top (rather than sitting back and relaxing in the granny, as most do – me included) but on the way down you have to pick your lines perfectly to maintain speed. Mines a rigid SS so its re-teaching me a lot of the old skill I had forgotten, but thats just due to my sloppiness!

Mt Kanin, Slovenia. Is there any requirement for it to be a “now” photo?

no it isnt

I’m with rudeboy. Although the dirty unwashed feckless student thing is a bit far.

Once you put all your trust into your new winter tyres you’ll get reckless..

Thats a helmet argument, that is…. :)

SaxonRider:
Arghh! Chains? 4WD? I think I might start a driving school in this country with the sole purpose of teaching people, one by one, how to drive in winter. My Canadian uncle once said to me when I said I wanted a 4WD: ‘What the h3ll do you want one of those for? What you need is a good set of tyres and some skill.’ And he was absolutely right.

You dont NEED 4wd (my old 40hp peugeot 205 was fine in most snow conditions due to really low torque and narrow tyres) but its much more fun and much more capable. When its snowy/icy there is a hill right near my old college and I’ve lost track of the number of 2wd cars that just sit at the bottom polishing the road – never failed to drive past them with my celica (full time 4wd, LSDs) even on summer tyres. The only time it has issues is when the snow is >6 inches as it runs out of wading depth and just sits on the floorpan until the wheels spin down to tarmac lol. My parents own a big 4×4 with mud and snow tyres, the grip in snow (even in corners and braking) is staggering, but those tyres do have 30mm tread depth – you see the X5 drivers skating about all over the show. In comparison, I have to drive VERY carefully and VERY slowly in the diesel estate as it has zero grip and plenty of torque, even just in the wet!

As mentioned up at the top, the key is to get used to driving in snow – most people rarely see it and so get scuppered. As said above also, as soon as it snows I get out on a deserted bit of tarmac (be it a car park or mid-field road) and test the limits. And pray I dont push it too far while testing :)

Erm….Eno crankset, Eno Eccentric hub, decent freewheel….ain’t cheap

Cheaper than a full XTR crankset, cassette, mechs, hub etc – if you want to take that route :D

Basic Etrex and a few OS maps do me fine.

we like arguing.

Because its different, quiet, challenging….

They’re.

I only recently tried SSing. I can get up hills I used a granny ring for too, just not if they are particularly long ones :) And I’m not a nazi, though I am a tall, blonde, skin-headed, blue eyed aries :)