Ah Campkoala – was that you I played with in the helicopter a few nights ago? Name rings a bell

I should change my PSN name really I suppose so it matches

Drac – that was me today.

Brilliant fun but your dress sense was slightly off putting. That dress is a bit short !!

I think that is one of my fave missions as you do make a lot of progress as you said.

I thought you were rather good – better than I was although it got more even as we played more.

I tended to take Lifers strategy of waiting for them to come at you. With 2 or 3 people covering each other there is more chance of progress. I’ve managed to cover 9 waves with others doing this strategy ang got nearly $15k

Playing with Crew members is the best. A few nights ago I had fun with someone (forget who now) in a heliopter – one of us flew and the other picked off people until we flew into the military base and got 4 stars.

My Mrs also out on a girls night out so expect to see me online at some point.

Would be good to get a crew together hunting some french kid down for screaming down his mic.

Love that downhill video – genius

OK – I’m YetiRiderMan

Should be on later so will look out for people.

Yey I’m in the crew – thanks Drac.

Now what ?

Request sent.

Crell – in what way did you want to be “friends” ?

Wales trip is being sorted – seems it’s all down to me again – I too fancy Nant-yr.

I tried without success to play online until the patch update today.

Seems pretty good so far but only played for 30 mins.
Just need some friends/crew now.

The problem with a mini pc is you need the keyboard and maybe a mouse to drive it. Not easy if you’re sat on your sofa.

I stand by an Apple TV and an ipad – You can get players for all the channels on the iPad and then display them through the Apple TV – Is so easy even my wife can do it !

You don’t need another PC to serve content to it – you can stream from iCloud for your music and I can’t remember the last time I attached to the office PC. I have ripped movies to a NAS drive and an ipad app detects it and plays through the Apple TV.

There may be an issue with the ITV player – last time I checked it only sent the sound but you can mirror the display as a last resort.

If you fall off a lot then you’re riding beyond your current skill level.

Skills courses help but so will backing off a bit, not trying to ride quite as fast, not trying to keep up with mates.

Don’t stop riding, just head out on your own for a ride and force yourself to take it easy. If you find one bit difficult, or fun, go back and ride it a few times. I find that some days my heads not there so I’m quite happy to walk a section that normally I’d ride without thinking about it.

The more you ride the better you will become and if you badly hurt yourself you can’t do either (ride or get better at it)

Well I’ve got 3 and I’m covered for all the riding that I do and am interested in doing off road.

26er Yeti ASR (full sus for all day riding and anything else)
26er Van Nic Tuareg (Ti hardtail for racing and anything else)
26er Genesis ioID (Rigid steel SS for when I want to have a chilled ride – usually on my own)

I don’t want a 29er as they look stupid and would struggle to think of a different bike as I struggle to decide between the Yeti and Van Nic for most of my riding.

As others have said you won’t get a device that does it all properly.

The best bet is to have an Apple TV plus an iPad.
You use the apple TV for the film and music consumption – and it’s very good at it.

Assuming you want to do it all from the sofa – use the iPad for email/browsing and then mirror the display on the TV via the Apple TV when you need to.

Lots of good comments above.

In the end it will depend on your personal circumstances.

I decided to self-insure

My approach was
Work out a worse case scenario and decide how I would cope.
If I had no income for a period of time what would I do, how much would I need to live on, what can I cancel etc

I then made sure I had enough money saved up to live for 6 months.

I figure if I’m able to work I can find something I want to do in that time.

If I’m ill and can’t work then I am covered by my current employer for a % of my salary as a benefit that’s provided at no cost to myself.

If you have dependants it’s a sensible thing to think about in advance and having rainy day money like this removes a lot of financial stress.

Don’t go waterproof, they wont’ be that comfy.

I wear what mudsux suggested – a pair of roubaix padded bib shorts.
They have a windstopper front and are warm when they get wet.

If it’s not going to be cold but will be muddy I have a thinner pair of cheap unpadded longs I put over normal padded shorts – I just peel these off when I get home, let the mud dry on them and then brush the mud off.

I might wear them twice before washing depending on how often I’m riding.

I’ve not really played console games since I bought a PS1 but I have to say that seeing all the trailers and reviews plus the £199 Tesco deal is making me very tempted to buy one and irritate Mrs R.

I don’t usually have the time to play games for hours but having enjoyed a couple of the very early GTA games I should probably re-evaluate my life priorities.

Last winter I used my normal shoes plus overshoes.

This winter I need to do something else as my feet got cold.

I will either put SPD’s on and use my MTB winter boots, buy some winter road shoes or more likely ride off road when the weather is crap and ride on road with normal shoes when it’s nice.

I don’t quite understand why you don’t just get down to A&E.

Asking people on a forum is of no use whatsoever.
Without someone who knows what they are doing have a physical look at it any advice is pointless.

If it were me I would head straight to A&E and get in the queue. You will soon find out if it serious, and if it is you’re in the right place – if not then they will tell you what to do.

I think there is always a risk in road riding and it’s difficult to minimise the chance of accidents against never riding just in case.

Whenever I do ride on the road I ride aggressively – that is a third of the way into the lane. I never ever ride near the kerb – it means I have always got somewhere to move to, it stops a lot of vehicles trying to squeeze past and I get less punctures.
You do get a few horns which I see as a positive thing as that driver would have tried to squeeze past.

I also never undertake large vehicles and will avoid very busy A-roads.

It means route planning is hard work but it means a safer ride.

I’ve not commuted by bike for a while but if/when I start again I’ll wear a camera given how cheap they are plus a couple of rear red led lights.
Maybe a wearable sign in large letters saying “rider wearing camera” might help – probably not though.

The problem here is that fitness is a relative term.

I’ve been asked to take out someone for a ride (partner of my wife’s friend). He was supposed to be very fit but hasn’t got a bike at the moment.
Offered him 12, 22, and 32 mile routes and we went for the sensible 22.
Afterwards he was a shell of a man and reported back that I almost killed him.

I’ve equally been on the opposite side as I’m quite fit (for a middle aged bloke who gets to ride once or twice a week) and have ended up feeling like I’m 5 stone overweight with just one lung.

I’m not going to get involved in the arguing but to say that Concorde wasn’t useful and to judge it in terms of more recent, or different aircraft totally misses the point.

It pushed the boundaries of what was thought possible, which in turn changed the way people (engineers, passengers and the general public) felt about flying.

It also changes the views of Britain (and France) around the world, showing what we as nations are capable of.

That is unquantifiable, but without doubt useful.

@jekkyl

Mine is a 2010 frame that I bought when they were selling them off before the 2011 frame changes. 2010 has a straight down tubes where 2011 onwards have the down tube curved plus other tweaks. Personally I prefer it. Because it was cheap (relative term) I got the Ti seatpost and collar as well.

I think the frame was 43% off or something like that. I then built it up with an XT groupset to save a bit but went KCNC for cockpit and Hope brakes and wheels.

As for getting it past the wife I didn’t :-) I decided forgiveness was better than permission and I figured she wouldn’t know it was Ti and hence work out how much I’d spent.
I was only partly right.
It took her 8 months to notice it and even then had a rough idea how much I would have spent on a new bike anyway.

More detail shots

I have a Van Nic Tuareg and love it.

But then I have a Yeti ASR which I love and a Genesis IO ID SS which I ride the most at the moment.

They are all different but I ride the Ti Tuareg when I want to be a maniac and ride fast.
If I could only have one bike it would probably be the one I’d choose.

We are staying at the JW Marriott Union Sq. We are there for 6 or 7 nights –

Bike-wise my plan is to take my pedals and shoes with me and sort out a hire bike either in SF and get transport over the bridge, maybe a hire car for the day or hire one at a place nearer the trails. I’ll work it out in the days before once we’re there.

I’ve tried to get in touch with people there for advice and am going to try and hook up with repackrider.

Where are you staying?

I’ll post details of interesting stuff when we’re there.

We are heading to San Fran this Saturday. Staying for a week then 2 days on the road before going to Yosemite.

We’ve only booked Alcatraz and are winging the rest so if there is anything that we find is a must do I shall update.

I’m taking a day out to ride the trails in Marin County – not sure you can get away with that on a honeymoon

It’s only interesting if you subscribe to the evolution school of thought.

Which I do BTW

All you need to know to answer that question is the knowledge that David Cameron thinks it’s a brilliant idea.

This means it’s a short term win for him/the tories and a long term disaster that makes no real sense.

Great thread.

I lived in central London and we used to look forward to seeing it come over at 5 every day. Never ever got fed up and was always amazed.

BA are now just another airline. They had an aspirational aircraft that they may have not made any money from but now they have nothing that sets them apart.

I’ll be after a new one when I’m back from hols in 2 weeks – what discount for STW volume ton ? :-)

I’m with stevied on this.

I’ve got a bike with full XT and it’s great – XTR is a lot more expensive for a small improvement.
On a recent upgrade on another bike, I was replacing SLX which after 2 years was a pain to use and went with XT but with XTR shifters – IMO the shifter is better than XT – the feel is nicer – but I don’t fancy the replacement costs of an XTR mech.

It’s worth spending the money on the bits you touch in my view.

I also have a io ID built as a rigid single speed with a Salsa Cro-mo steel fork and a bunch of genesis branded/cheap/old bits.

The finish on the frame is lovely.

It’s not super light but it feels solid and rides really well and it’s hard to find anything bad about it at all.
I’m very impressed and it’s a top brand IMO.

I’ve just built up a cheap singlespeed and put on some rigid forks, expecting to be battered after riding it.

Not the case and as OP mentioned it’s a very good option for SS in keeping with the simple approach.

New bike syndrome and the novelty mean it’s my current choice of weapon at the moment when I head offroad.

As dooosuk has said – you’ve left it too late to get a CC.
I applied online for a Capital one world CC that is the same as the Halifax one – approved in a few mins but it took 3 days for the Pin to come through and the card 2 days after that.

Best bet might be a preloaded cash card (TravelEx do them) and then add more to it it online when it gets low. You can get decent rates, not have to carry cash and no fees

I wouldn’t use a debit/credit cared to get cash overseas – not when there is a cheaper alternative.

We decided on not finding out.
It makes no difference and it sets some expectations on names, room decoration blah blah.

We just bought neutral stuff and a bare minimum at that, and were both glad that we didn’t ask/know/find out as we couldn’t decide on a name and took a couple of weeks to see what name ‘fitted’.

As others have said – the best thing is to join a local tri club.

They will have sessions that will help in all aspects of training so make sure you get to several and you’ll pick up what you need to know.

It can be quite addictive once you get going, the variety of training makes it fun and varied.

Thanks Charlie.

We’re coming over Sat 17th August – I expect I’ll be looking to ride midweek – it’ll be flexible once we’ve done some family stuff.

I’ll get in touch when we’re there to sort something out.
I’m starting to get rather excited – Marin county and all the trails were the things of dreams back in the early 90’s. Hard to believe I’m actually going to ride the trails I read about and watched videos of.

:-)

I’ve had similar issues with my SLX brakes/pads/rotors for a while now.

They squeal like mad and have no stopping power. Clean rotors, clean/heat pads – Tried to use them repeatedly on hills and I just end up making my ears bleed.

New pads (Superstar and Shimano) and cleaning rotors and callipers help but I find it comes back. Checked for leaks but nothing.

Replaced them with Hope Tech and moved them to a new SS build and same problem. Am reluctant to bin them but am struggling to work out what to do/ try next.

You’re not alone. We should start a support group.

I can’t offer a comparison but I have a Kindle paperwhite and it’s brilliant.

It’s designed for just reading on and it’s rather good at it.

I buy books on Amazon
They appear on it.
I read them.

It works.

I’d echo the others in that a 125 is underpowered.

You do need to be able to get out of trouble by pulling away at times and it’s not really possible on a 125.
You’ll also outgrow it quite quickly.

I got a Bandit 600 as my first bike – you don’t have to ride them quickly.
Just about to sell it as it happens as I ride my 1250 all the time and it’s not been out of the garage in 2 years.

Thanks Crell – you’re all heart.
Your text informing me that you were in the pub made me feel very happy. I read it while trying to cool down in the shade.

I also didn’t mind the tarmac at the time, it meant the k’s were ticking off and you managed to get some speed and a breeze to cool down.

When the sun went behind a cloud my speed almost doubled – quite amazing the effect it has.

+1 for a 3 way fridge.

We have one and it’s very good. Get it cold at home on the mains, plug it into the car for the journey there, then run it on gas while camping.
Makes ice and keeps beer essentials cold.

Uses very little gas once it gets cold and you turn it down to a trickle.