I had to speak to him on the phone and it turns out he had removed the mech-hanger and old derailure as a single unit, and couldn't understand why the new derailure wouldn't fit straight onto the frame!

I did a group course with Ed Oxley, and he was a top bloke, very patient. His course changed my riding and really improved my confidence.

I'm planning on going on another course with him soonish.

I got the elbow from my girlfriend on my 30th. Kind of put a dampner on things…..
(Tho she did get me a pair of ice axes for christmas )

I take fexofanadine and initially found it made me feel drowsey.

As I'd tried loads of antihistamines without success, the Dr suggested taking a lower dose more often, so I'm now taking 30mg 4x a day, rather than the one 120mg tablet I was initially prescribed.

First you'd need to get hold of 100L of liquid heium in a storage dewar that will set you back about £450 +vat

I'm not stupid enough to try but, if you break the vacuum on a helium tank, it will boil instantly and you're 100l of helium will increase in volume by about 800 times. It starts off life at 4 kelvin (-269C)

Here's a video of someone I kind of know opening up what is effectively a helium dewar to atmosphere in a kind of controlled manner….

Youtube link.

When full the tank would have held about 20-30L of helium, but I'd imagine it wasn't full when they opened it up.

It depends on how long the tap was left open for after it ran out of pressure.

Either way, breaking open a cylinder of an inert gas at atmospheric pressure won't really do much.

I say breaking open, because although I've never cut one, I have dropped an empty 5ft He cylinder breaking off the hand rail and tap, and apart from a loud noise as the cylinder hit the ground, not a lot happened.

…. You do realise that it will be full of helium at 1 atmosphere?

So when you cut into you'll be subjecting your 1atm gas to erm… 1atm…..

I'd imagine that'll achieve the grand total of diddly squat 🙂

Now if someone wants to try this experiment with a full Liquid helium dewar, I'd pay to watch that 🙂

Did you hear about the magic tractor?
It went down a hill and turned into a field

What's E.T. short for?
He's only got little legs

Two blonds walk into a bar…. you'd have thought the 2nd one would have seen it.

Really impressed by my Rebas, £250ish from Merlin (Guess it depends on your definision of daftly priced though….)

I found that I needed to use a syringe to suck all the air out the system on my SLX brakes, as following the shimano instructions left me with a spongey brake.

SLX. Probably worth trying someone elses first though, the weird cam thingamy (cant remember the name) isn't to everyones tastes….

I agree, but I'm apparently being selfish because I don't like moving, and have a shorter, cheaper commute.

I kind of thought that there wasn't an ideal place.

Problem is, I don't drive, so am limited to cycling (ok until winter) and trains/buses.

Should say that at the moment we're living in New Mills

Thanks Spacemonkey. Just got a speed lever, and had the tyre on in a matter of seconds. Then off because I'd forgotten to put the inner tube in, then back on again!

Someone stopped me in New Mills looking for the (now closed) garden center. It was someone off my uni course that I'd not seen in about 7 years

A few years ago, I shared a bivi spot in the Alps with two lads who went on to have an epic few days doing their planned routes. We then randomly came across them in a small cafe a few days later. On returning to the UK, I went to a small esoteric crag to climb, and one of the lads was there climbing with his girlfriend.

Been trying since half 7 to get this sodding tyre on, and it's still not happening! 👿

Is this any use?
Hope website

Hopeful bump?

Was looking at moving into a cottage with oil fired heading, and decided against it because of the cost.

The current tenants said that the tank was pretty much empty and they weren't going to top it up before they left. When they moved in, it was apparently half full (They reckoned it cost about 400 quid to fill the tank from empty!), so they must have profited by around 200 quid from the last people in there.

You shouldn't use aquarium salt with plecs. If you do (and I'd strongly advise against using it in a tank with scaleless fish like plecs), it's best to build up to required concentration over a matter of days.

Most plec species aren't biologically equipped to handle a change in the salt content of water.

Salt acts as an irritant, so encourages fish to produce more slime which has a protective, and possibly anti-bacterial effect. It doesn't actually coat them.

Ulcers could be caused by bacteria or fungi getting into wounds from other fish (is the plec being bullied?) or by dodgy water parameters causing stress to the fish and reducing its slime coat (and hence natural resistance to nasty stuff in the water.

First thing I'd do is check for Ammonia/Nitrite/Nitrate, and doing appropriate water changes to reduce any harmful parameters.

I've had a lot of luck using Melafix and Primafix on smaller fish (upto about 10cm) but I've never had a plec with problems.

Hope this helps

You need at least x amount of travel to ride suchandsuch a trail

Had a play today going up and down a bit of bridleway.

Feeling pretty good, and able to go much faster, feeling more secure with a combination of
[list][*]Brake levers more horizontal [/*]
[*]Using one finger to brakes, and only using brakes on smooth/flatter sections rather than them being on slightly for most of the decent. [/*]
[*]Heels down[/*]
[*]Slightly lower tyre pressure[/*][/list]

Thanks for all the advice!

You can install vista drivers in windows 7. you could try that?

The descent must be pretty steep for you to all that way back though ?

The descents aren't particularly steep (or at least I don't think they are!) , it's just that I find that if I don't really put my weight back, the feeling of travelling faster than the bike gets worse!

My riding is pretty much exclusively around the New Mills area so sorry for those that have offered advice but dont know the trails.

The downhill bits I've noticed this feeling on are the drop down into Rowath from Lantern pike, Linnet clough, the rocky bit towards Little Hayfield over Middle Moor and the two bridleways that drop down towards Strines station (starting here Streetmap)

I'll try my brakes in a more horizontal position and dropping my heels to see if that helps

It's a Specialized Rockhopper Comp 09 with a 100mm ToraSL fork

It's not really an abrupt feeling, it's kind of constant during the decent, and feels worse as the bike goes faster.

The bits through the clouds in the high peak were very orange.

realised I was being thick. Brain in neutral today

Ah, was assuming they considered all contents as "valuables".

D'Oh!

Thanks for your help.

It's on the inside of the metal tab (as shown in the really dodgy picture below.) If it was above the tab, surely it would rub even more?

Sorry about the state of my bike, been out today and haven't cleaned it yet!

I was refering to the White Peak and the Dark Peak, hence "Peaks"

But this is two different areas (or districts if you will) so perhaps it should be the Peak districts?

iain1775
…..
Never heard of a "trailhead" in the Peaks

The term trailhead is used to denote the point where a path starts.

The reason you've never heard or seen one of these in the "Peaks" is because there is no such place.

There is however the PEAK district (or the peak if you want to be brief) and assuming this is where you mean, there are many trail heads there. They are commonly denoted by a finger post sign labelled "bridleway" you are allowed to ride these on your bike with it's expensive Rubber Queen tyres. There are other trail heads, marked with a finger post sign labelled "Foot path" you aren't allowed to use these.

I hope you find this information useful 🙂

Our cat refuses to eat the beef flavour. The other half refuses to see it "starve" so ends up offering it alternative flavours. The result is a cupboard full of beef flavour whiskers.

Does anyone have a cat that dislikes chicken or duck flavour and fancies a swap?

The official avid bleed kit is a total rip off, but somehow it feels acceptable for them to charge what they like. When someone decides to cobble together pretty much the same kit which probably only costs about £5 in total, but then charges £15 for the privilege, I somehow think that's taking the p*ss!

It's a a funny old world 🙂

For the win is used to express the best option in a situation. Eg if someone asked what the best hydraulic brake system was someone might (if they were sad and geeky) respond with

Avid mini mono R1s ftw

For the win
or
F*ck the world.

window licker