Tricky, can I join your team? I learned a new word this week – "tapering" as in tapering your training pre race. My team are doing it aaargh! I prefer your approach.

Broke my ankle in 4 places. Within 48 hrs of the cast coming off I'd got weight on it, and "walking" (in the loosest sense) without crutches after about another 2 days. I was a bit eager as I managed to split the staples and open the wound. Not good. I was on the turbo trainer after about 2 weeks – absolute mare getting on and off it though.

When you're on the bike the biggest problem for me was putting my foot down. Incredibly painful. The pins and plates don't help with that though as tey resonate. Silly in hindsight but I have very good flexion now and I'm convinced it's as a result of excercising it "to the point of pain, not beyond it" as the physio kept telling me.

Best advice is to listen to your orthapedic consultant, and ask them all the questions. Have them written down if need be so you don't forget.
If you're having the metal work out then there's more to worry about in terms of infection control.

edit…and the above points to everyone being different

A 6R4; it's just so wrong it's right. 8)

I'll be building a 7 when I get a new garage sorted, or another elise with a K20. I need to scratch the 7 itch though.

I see no twitter feed here

It's certainly niche.

Ride of the day was Melandri. I just wish he'd do that more consistently. The way he rode through the field was amazing. Stoner shaking his head on the line was bizarre by comparison. I guess he was rueing that tyre choice before he got off the line or that he hasn't put the ink on a Honda deal just yet.

It pains me to say it having watched the formula evolve over the last 12 or so years, but MotoGP now looks pretty uninspiring compared to the racing in Moto2 and 125. For those stuck with just the awful BBC coverage you have my sympathy – you don't know what you're missing.

Rossi's crash was awful – about 120 mph or so. I feel a bit less annoyed now though that I won't be at Silverstone watching.

The software that comes with the cam sorts it, as does Picasa.

We went when we stayed in Ruka a couple of years ago. The kids were 3 and 5 and they (and we) thought it was absolutely fantastic. We were skiing with Crystal and instead of going to the "commercial" santa we ended up going to a very low key traditional 200 year old Lap farm house. I'm sure it was this place. There was no rush, no hassle and no commercialism. Just a very cool experience, with the kids listening to stories, talking to Santa (Joulupukki) and Mrs Claus. The kids thought it was fantastic and very magical and still talk about it now. They've seen the "real" Santa.

Its also a lot cheaper to combine a visit with a skiing holiday – everyone's a winner :)

22 miles,sunshine, warm evening air – perfect. I came across this lot, and I wouldn't fancy taking their steeds up here! I think it was some niche downhill sessioning really :)

What's with the ipad? BBC cut product placement deal with apple? tsk! He's just holding on to it like a crutch.

No idea ;) I'll type it properly next time. freestyle skier[/url]

Seemed like a nice guy. He spent loads of time taking photos with kids at this event, including mine.

Jon Olsen has had his murc like that for a while, complete with ski box. Nice to see something like that being used.

Yep, I had them on one bike and they just popped off. Useless bits of plastic. Cable ties all the way.

I'll be over at Alvaton park bmx track this weekend so will keep my eyes peeled.

Don't forget the other classic of "bonification" (in an a Kelly draaaawl). He actually cracked a funny joke 2 days ago on the Giro, I nearly fell off the sofa. I still like him tough on Eurosport, and you can't knock his credentials.

errr…thats for a RC100 with the custom headset. DON'T cut it PLEASE as there aren't many of those around and it would be a total waste. Sell it on Retrobike then get one of the later pace stems.

Do your bit for humanity :o

Do you reckon they'll be sorted by mid June? (thinking Mountain mayhem)

Saw the piccy earlier today and thought that was cool. I didn't spot the "insert coin" button though. Brilliant.

I have them, theyre OK, not without their faults but once you get them set up I like the travel progression ( I prefer it to Fox & RS ) .

The onone deal on Fox 140s is pretty stonking though.

There's quite a lot of discussion on the Vholdr forum, and the MOV files can be a pain when editing due to the current versions of quicktime and their codecs.

It's not free, but sony vegas (the cheap(er) one) is popular. I have it, but to be honest if all you are going to do is crop the vid then the free software is OK, and that's all I do to my vholdr vids. It's useless at playback though.

For playback have a look at Splash Player lite. Really nice piece of software, low memory and CPU, and lets me just about watch HD on my Ion equiped Netbook (which is no mean feat).

So would there be any reason not to run two split links on a chain? I was thinking about this when walking over the hill :) One as normal, but the other set so you remove the right number of links if you ever need to go SS? Anyone doing or tried this?

:lol: Funnily enought I did when I switched the cam off as I had an overwhelming feeling of social responsibility. I did a few ninja moves on it though to vent my anger before it was last seen disappearing in to a hedge.

I took the mech off and stuck the cable in the stay protector. If I could have been bothered to split the chain which rings should I have set it up on – small (dual chainset) front and middle of the casette at the back?

Another Haglofs barrier vote.

I picked up an 09 nvis for less than the normal one, it's comfy, and vents well on my back, but I've not tried the normal one to compare. Only downside is the extra weight.

Talk to Jamie at balfa. They were doing some good deals on curnutt servicing.

Snowheads forum has a few usual recommendations; including Col. He was swanning around Europe with the Scottish team when I needed a fitting a couple of months ago, so he pointed me to James at Outdoor Traders in Abingdon.
Very nice and friendly guy who went out of his way to help me. It was a toss up between a Dale Boot or a Salomon, and due to the amount of time I had before I travelled I went for the Salomon. He gave me his own dale boot liner in the salomon to tide me over for a week of skiing, and I need to go back for my own liner. He's charged me once but it's effectively 2 fittings – so he's down by about 3 hours labour. All "part of the service".

I had a few aches but what a difference I found a custom boot , liner and footbed made. I was really worried about how the plates in my leg would rub but the boots were very comfortable. My new boots are 26.0 – my old boots were 27.5! A proper liner in a close fitting shell make a huge difference – and I didn't have to clamp my boots down really tight to get some control. Thoroughly recommended…bear in mind you're looking at about 600 for boots liners and footbeds though (more or less depending on the shell) you choose.

Your biggest problem will be whether any of the fitters have shells in your boot size. Col was out of stock in my size IIRC, James still had quite a lot – but for that amount of cash you may as well go for the dale boot and a full custom fit.

Profeet in London were on my list of possibles but I'm pleased I made the effort to go to a proper "master bootfitter".

R4 were covering an amateur investor who'd put 1k in as a gamble and apparently walked away with 350k. Not a bad return!

http://www.electoralcommission.org.uk/ or your local returning officer.

It's your own personal hell…especially when you've got a long way to go. I hadn't done it for years then was re-introduced to it once last year. You'll probably get a major sense of humour bypass at the same time :)

Eat, drink, take the rest of the ride easy, though it's not as though you'll have any choice on the last one.

If you are going flat out in your granny gear on level ground and weeping gently. You've bonked.

That's pretty close along with the physical torture and associated mental slump you get.

dry humpers? Discuss

:D

Congratulations to you both on the new arrival. I agree it is probably the most terrifying thing I've ever seen but the most captivating and exciting at the same time, particularly if you get to spectate / help at the business end :)

Get the Champagne in the fridge and the camera on charge!

Anyone? …

Pete, a video to whet your appetite. I liked it, it's a bigger version of FTD. I did skip one section (upper cliff) as it was getting late and I had no lights – which was a bugger in the trees. The switchbacks are fun. I dabbed a couple in one section but the rest were rideable. What I really liked was you could just use the trail to give you the speed in many places. The track condition isn't bad at all, just a couple of hot spots with people skidding in to corners. It doesn't detract – it's just another thing to take in to account. Considering Cannock is hardly alpine, they've made good use of the available height. If some of the fire roads could be kicked in to touch it would be even better.

Can anyone tell me what time the car park shuts ar Birches? I got back to the car at 8.45 and I was the only car there. With there being a gate there I was worried about getting locked in.

Also, there was a diversion on the short climb as you approach Penkridge Bank. I followed a fire road from there to Birches – did I miss a sign back on to the trail or is that whole section closed?

The only thing that would have made it funnier is if the fella had come back into shot running away from an angry Ostrich….

Followed by the donkey a few moments later. I have tears rolling down my face watching it. It's all about the donkey.

Will do Pete. Just negotiated the pass so it looks like all systems are go for tonight.

I've just sent a helmet cam back to the US for warranty repair. I paid. I did buy it from a UK store but didn't want to run the risk of getting another with the same fault, and after talking to the manufacturer agreed to send it back.

I also paid VAT on the return leg because they didn't fill in the forms properly according HMRC. I could try to claim it back – but the process looks like a nightmare. So easy to take, so hard to get back :evil:

All you need now is a pump track.

Can't you guys get one built over lunch ;) That would be a nice addition.

Is Cannock normally quiet after 6pm during the week? I think I might nip over tonight rather than run the gauntlet this weekend and try out monkey.

Actual name is for poseurs or seriously hot-shit riders/pro's

Not sure where your average Islabike owner fits on that scale, but having your name on the top-tube certainly has 6 year old appeal.

It's all pretty vacuous and non commital. I do wish Cameron would adress the studio qudience / question raiser rather than grinning innanely in to the camera. It's also very telling they've been told to adress the questioner by their name. Very "presentation 101".

"give 1/4 of gov contracts to small firms" – Cameron – Oh dear. what's all that competition law malarky all about then?

I feel like I'm stuck in an unsubstantiated sound-bite version of "buzzword bingo", though that sounds like I'm suprised.

"Don't pay NI for your first 10 employees"…How many companies will divest for that perk!?

Ah, I only pulled the thorns out when that wheel went from tubeless to tubed; due to a [big] rim ding that would cause the seal to fail catastrophicaly when run tubeless – usually up a mountain in the middle of nowhere. There were some bloody big thorns in there which was impressive to see, and the warm feeling I got thinking about the number of avoided punctures on the trail.

Megastream – you really must ride it after you inflate for the first time. I've been there and turning the wheel / spinning the pedals on a stand just doesn't do the job properly – the tyre will deflate fairly quickly. When you do get them working I find the non ust NNs just like running latex tubes in terms of air loss.

I found inflating non ust NNs on 355's hard! Try using your arm to squash the carcass and force the bead out on to the rim near the valve … as you pump :) – harder than it sounds though, and an extra pair of hands helps.

Bite the bullet – they will last for years.