Guardian article
It illustrates all my concerns perfectly, read it through. This has the potential to escalate BADLY unless order is restored somehow!

and this one

Further anecdotal evidence also suggested that in other cities hit by Monday night’s violence, communities were also remaining vigilant. On Amazon sales of baseball bats and truncheons rocketed overnight. Sales of one aluminium bat increased 65-fold in a day, albeit from low initial sales, while a truncheon jumped from a sales rank of 5,973 to 136.

What’s that got to do with what happened in Brum? The only bit of that that is correct is “(before I know the facts)”

I was hypothesizing… I’m worried about people taking to the streets to ‘protect their property’ because they see the police as ineffective. I read that the EDL is taking to the streets – VERY worrying! This incident obviously has some relation to the rioting. 3 citizens were concerned so after prayers they ‘took to the streets’ to protect their neighbourhood. They got run over. If the rioting had not taken place, they would have been at home with their families.

I added ‘before I know the facts’ to indicate that what I was about to say was merely conjecture.

I’m worried about vigilantism, we need effective policing or more of this stuff will happen.

I found this:

“We got a call that there had been a car that had been set alight and a group of youths had moved further up the road. They put the fire out but there were still yobs on the street – they had no agenda other than simple stealing.”

Several cars then drove past the group which was guarding local stores, and the occupants shouted abuse before one vehicle returned and mounted the pavement at “tremendous speed” and hit the men, throwing them into the air. According to witnesses, the car, containing up to four men, then sped off.

I’ll say no more until the truth comes out…

I expected ‘plasterer’s radio’ ending…

Finish off with bath and then bed with some horizontal refreshment!

I use Nuke-Proof enduro pads in my Juicy 7s. Awesome stopping, no squeal.
My LBS JEJames has some Elixir 3s for 55 quid per bike end, why bother fiddling with Juicy 3 calipers? Just get some new brakes! I bought some Elixir 3s myself but I prefer My Juicys (lighter, stop better, look nicer (carbon levers, Ultimate lo-pro pad contact adjusters)) so they’ll be on the ‘bay later today!

Syncros Point’n’Chute

Classic ‘enduro’ tread pattern a bit like the old Spez Ground Control.
Light for a 2.35, low, hard centre tread for durability and fast-rolling. Softer side knobs for grip. Predictable on the trail, they don’t suddenly let go. Casing is tough, no rips in 4 years. Just retired my original 2.5 rear after 4 years plus and there’s no more than 3mm lost from centre knobs. Only took it off because of my new bike. My 575 wouldn’t take a 2.5 in the rear without cutting the side knobs down. My Mega will take one without mods and so I treated myself to a brand new 2.5. The old 2.5 is being converted to a winter tyre. Cutting all the knobs down and inserting some studs.

PS: they mount up great on Notubes rims!

Trout, someone was allegedly murdered last night defending their community in brum.

3 vigilantes run down and killed.

What worries me (before I know the facts) is that a bloke is in a car and sees 3 armed (with baseball bats, whatever) people in the street maybe flagging him down (do rioters drive?) and thinks: “shit, I’m being hijacked, I ain’t stopping!” and puts his foot down.

3 vigilantes, slightly overstepping their civic duty as they see it, see an unfamiliar car entering a street and decide to flag it down. Driver panics and accellerates.

I got lost in the Alum Rock area of Birmingham in my car once. I felt scared! If anybody had tried to flag me down, I’d have pressed the right hand pedal, not the large left hand one (automatic car, in case you were wondering)

Are you just doing it for the hell of it? Reason I ask is because new brakesets are so cheap I’d say it isn’t worth the time and effort!

There’s loads of unmarked routes and acres of moorland trails as well, it’s not just about the (one of several) forest (/s).

If they can’t get it through my flap at the front, they usually take it up my back passage. Or my neighbour signs for it.

Yeti Arc.. OR a Bigtop!

Sheffield centre is crawling with cops, I suppose that has displaced the idiots.

Just been threatened by a trio of thugs on Abbeydale Rd Sheffield. Great.
Come on Cameron, get some boots on the f’king ground. Blue OR green!

Syncros Point’n’Chute. 2.0, 2.35 or 2.5. Fast rolling, don’t clog.
Don’t let anyone say Conti ‘King’ tyres are fast rolling. They drag and buzz and wear down faster than anything.

Did anyone get anything decent?
This chap has got it down to a fine art!

It’ll need to be between Aberdeen and Turriff ideally. Rothienorman looks ok, not far from Bennachie (I didn’t have to look it up to spell it!) I used to live in Fortrie 10 years ago – my user name is from River Deveron and AB53.
My CV is circulating several companies in Aberdeen, gotta see what turns up…

Hmm, say the blades runners get quite good and famous and then rich. Would we see promising athletes ‘mechanical doping’. i.e. arranging to have an ‘accident’ in order to be fitted with blades…?

I just checked online, was thinking of buying Mrs Deveron53 a Mega. Bugger me, they’ve chopped £50 off all colours, now putting the painted yellow ones around £850!!

It’s a Pelicase Micro 1010, about 17 quid inc shipping, have a look on google shopping. Avoid the ipod etc versions as they are more expensive and have different liners.
You will need to buy 3 filters of the chosen size, two of which you will remove the glass from and use 1 as the base filter thread. Once you’ve got the camera secured in the case, mark the lens centre. Then heat one of the glassless filters up and use it as a melting cutter to make the hole in the case.
The tricky thing was to get the height of the wideangle converter above the compact camera lens. Took a bit of fiddling! I laid the camera on a glass top table and laid underneath it to get the converter close enough to avoid vignetting.
Next, the straps are fairly easy to do, I used a polystyrene wedge to angle the back. The buttons are the last thing, I intend to use some iphone stylus as they have a big squishy rubber button on the end. Numberplate screws are the external buttons. Photos of this bit later, not done it yet!
Case 17 quid
3 filters at 6 quid total
converter was 13 quid
some rubber bungee cord with small carabiners – about 4 quid total

I’ll have some footage from more gnarr terrain later this week. It’s cheaper than a gopro although a lot heavier!
The wideangle converter is removable and the box takes 58mm filters which expands the capabilities of the camera. Try b+w with a red filter – superb landscapes and better than photoshopping it later.

Mk3 is now ready, the wideangle version. Still needs stabilising on a harness to stop it drooping. The wideangle adapter does add a bit of weight but sorts the viewing angle out nicely.
Still got the buttons to do as well.

Here’s a bit of video I shot this afternoon to check the viewing angle:

Total cost when finished will be less than 40 quid. And it’s still a 12MP all-singing all-dancing compact when not being an action camera.

stw forum suddenly becomes the ROC!

mmmmm, Mosquitos…

The most effective bomber of ww2, discuss.

2 man crew (rather than 10+ manning all the guns etc), fastest twin engined aircraft of most of the war (almost twice as fast as all heavy bombers). bombload only slightly smaller than a B17 (look it up, it’s true!). Very cheap to produce. Highly accurate and difficult to shoot down (very high speed, low altitude, small radar cross-section).

And it was made by a composite sandwich construction method (yep, open target for trolls there, obvious lame jokes to follow below) the forerunner of today’s composite carbon methods.

Just remembered, maddest version had a self-loading field gun in the nose for anti-shipping.

I will need a 2 bed dwelling with enough room indoors for 4 bikes, 2 of which will not be very clean some of the time. North of the Dee and either within 10 miles for cycling or alternatively 40 mins drive.

I rented a house in Fortrie for 15 quid per week as it had no heating apart from a coal fire and the hot water was back boiler or immersion heater. I’m not sure if the money I spent on fuel for the car and fire offset the low rent… Still, running up the hill at midnight in the total stillness and blackness to sit and watch the Northern Lights was most excellent!

It’s VJ day weekend…

EDIT: that’s next weekend.

I assume rear drive would be a requirement? Best handling by far. As Top Gear said, BMWs are safe to drive now as all the d1ckheads are now Audi-botherers!

I was wandering around EBC yesterday, found another one! Front only, the rear was holey.

Thanks for the input!

I lived in Aberdeen 10 years ago and the riding was either undeveloped or I didn’t really look very hard. I lived in Turriff and commuted in to Gallowgate College daily. I suppose all my money and time went into keeping the car on the road!
I plan to commute and do general trails on a 29er, leaving the Mega for weekend excursions into the mountains.
Any decent property websites (rental) for the area? Only looked on Rightmove so far.

For those who liked the graphic novel without becoming an obsessed fanboy, you’ll enjoy the accuracy in the transfer to the big screen. The whole story has a certain resonance as it involves a ‘false flag’ operation.
I also have a soft spot for the Stallone Judge Dredd film. Again, I liked the comics but didn’t become a fanboy and therefore enjoyed the film, they got the world spot-on.
If you want to see a big blue superhero you can’t get better than…
THE TICK

The most hilarious super hero since ‘Mystery Men’. Watch out for Batmanuel, it’s Nestor Carbonell from Lost!

I have considered this idea myself but the main reason I discounted it was that if you made them bright enough to light the trail then the back-shine off cables etc would dazzle too much.
It’s a neat idea but it’s a solution looking for a problem.

In a few years time that’ll be worth a lot if in mint condition. That is, if people take up collecting rotors like they collect postage stamps now…

Although Jack Fulton’s and Gregg’s are 2 of my favourite retailers!

Yep, Rotherham town council shafted the town when they disallowed the ParkGate developer from expanding his only-just-out-of-town development. Result: he approached Sheffield City Council and they approved what is now MEADOWHALL. The gravitational forces now pull Rotherham’s customers in 2 different directions whilst the distance of Meadowhall from Sheffield centre keeps the CBD in that city intact.

The Flux is a very hot helmet. I use mine for my daily commute and my specs need gutters to channel the sweat away! I need a nicely vented commuter helmet and an all-mountain lid. The commuter helmet needs mesh to stop insects as well, the feeling of bugs in the vents is not nice!

Robert Newman tells it like it is:

Him and Mark Thomas know what’s going on!

My ideal car would be an E39 540 touring. Loads of space and the excellent stiff chassis E39 handling.

Erm, anyone visited Rotherham lately? 5x pound shops, 3x amusement arcades, 6x betting shops, 10x charity shops, 2x Jack Fulton’s (THE cheapest supermarket in the UK!), 3x Greggs and the highest ratio of empty shop units I’ve EVER seen. And that’s supposed to be the Central Business District (O-level geography coming back!). The 80’s recessions and miner’s strike never went away from the place!

I emailed the links etc to Derbyshire Police and they’ve got back to me and added the info to the incident record which they found on their system. It would be interesting to know what the outcome is.

it’s subsiding but still raging. these pics are dynamic links, they update automatically:


It may last until tonight but I doubt it, Minnesota in the USA are currently enjoying the show.
Check out the gallery here:
Spaceweather August Gallery
Any news on those pics martinxyz?
I’ve got an obsession about seeing the Aurora and have watched the Spaceweather site for a few years now. Another weird obsession is with this site: underground stuff[/url]