Devil’s advocate and I’m sure it’s been said but I can’t be bothered reading all the pages…..

If this was a car driver this forum would be baying for blood, the pedestrian walking out with no warning happens all the time to car drivers and the standard line trotted out on here is to drive defensively and expect the unexpected…..seems when a cyclist mows someone down the forum has an outpouring of sympathy and indulges in a spot of victim blaming the likes of which gets vilified when a car driver does it.

None as pious and holier than thou as a group of cyclists eh?

As a local Nant Y Arian is a hidden gem, lots of fire road if you feel like taking it easy but loads of way marked quality single track too and some cheeky steep off piste stuff as a bonus.
Stunning setting too, stay for the Red Kite feeding and then play around on the new jump/pump track, it’s a great day out and Aberystwyth has some nice places to eat afterwards.

Purely observation but I was at BPW today, it was rammed, at least 4 buses running (maybe more?) and not a 29er in sight….not any that I noticed anyway.

Everything seemed to be 650b or old school 26….didn’t stop the hard sell in the shop though with Trek Slash and Nukeproof Mega 29ers displayed front and centre and available for demos…thing is the talk in the buses seemed to be that the asking price of £2,700 for the aluminium Nukeproof to £4,000 for the carbon Slash was a piss take…that’s the real problem right there.

I’ve got nothing against 29ers, wouldn’t mind one once the DH bike is sold but I’ll be going budget conscious through a company like On-One and getting the 29er Codeine.

See I do have a DH bike but like the specialist bit of kit it is there is a certain way to ride it or you’re just slower than on a trail bike….my situation in other words!
I’m sure if I spent all year on it I’d get there but life’s too short.

So, in light of these new BDS rules for single crown bikes I’m going to Langollen with my Trance SX 650b (160mm fork, 158mm rear conversion and 26 inch back wheel to drop the rear of the bike and further kick out the forks to slacken out the HA)…. It’ll either be a hoot and the saving grace of dwindling entries or riders like me on inappropriate bikes will die in a wreck on the hillside as we’re woefully out of our depth!

I’ll be reporting back after next weekend from my hospital bed.

Excellent, should be here Monday, can’t wait now!

Olly2097….

….if you go back to a band-6 role within 12 months of leaving they have to reinstate your previous pay point in that band, not start you at the bottom.

I’m just doing it currently, left a band-6 post 11 1/2 months ago and took a band-5 job, just interviewed for and been offered a band-6 post and HR contacted me to ask which point I left band-6 on as they have to put me back there as I’m returning within 12 months.

Different trust too, thought that was very honest of them, they could have just stuck me back into the bottom of band-6 and I wouldn’t have checked the small print of A4C.

During my time in the NHS (17yrs) experience and competence is more important than qualifications.
I’ve worked with some garbage new degree qualified paramedics who talk a good game but are shocking at the job… and there’s some excellent paramedics out there that trained 20yrs ago and only have internally granted and recognised qualifications and wouldn’t be able to register to practice if they tried now.

Thankfully I’ve always found that a good interview coupled with experience secures a job in the NHS.
My lack of a degree hasn’t held me back in clinical posts, when the time comes and I want to move into management I may find it’s a different story but I doubt it.

At 20yrs in the job I expect to have working experience of patient transport, the EMT/technician role, paramedic practice, ECP/PP posts, ambulance work, rapid response vehicle work, GP surgery work, community based work, walk in-centres work, working in A&E, minor injuries units, the custody/forensic environment and lastly the control room/clinical contact centre.

I reckon the NHS trusts I’ve worked for are quite correct in valuing that over qualifications but others may feel differently.

Very hairy throwback here, got very paranoid about it as a lad and would avoid swimming, I’d keep my t-shirt on at the beach etc….

Started getting my back and shoulders waxed in my late 20s (which coincided nicely with gym results appearing) and never looked back re. female attention, now obviously some of that will be increased confidence but some of it is the look….muscular bloke, confident in own skin and proudly wearing hairy chest and legs seemed to bring out something primal in the ladies, similar to the way most blokes prefer the natural curves of women to the skeletal catwalk model shape.

To keep things from looking silly with a bare back, shoulders and arms i trim with scissors down below but shaving or waxing!?….no way, having the less sensitive bits done is bad enough!

Adidas Terrex, looks like a normal Adidas trainer/running shoe but has the Stealth rubber sole….don’t know if they license it from 5:10 or have bought the company out to get access to the Stealth rubber compound but they’re ace, reasonable price too compared to MTB specific stuff.

LG tv’s are great, as good as anything else out there.
They made screens for Apple/iPhones for a while (might still do, not sure?)….

Employment solicitor.

My NHS trust tried this when we merged with two others, verbally told staff that everyone would be on the same T&Cs but in reality left one trust alone with their pre-existing favorable contracts….they explained it would be too expensive to put everyone on that deal….not good enough said the unions, they consulted a legal firm who told the trust in no uncertain terms that they would have to uplift the two other trusts to match the excellent T&Cs the remaining trust enjoyed or tweek the contracts of the staff at the favoured trust to come down to the level of the two that were on poorer deals.
Obviously staff felt a bit crap at potentially stuffing others at the favoured trust by having poorer terms imposed on them but the gamble worked and the trust relented and boosted everyone’s contracts to reflect the favourable terms of the trust we’d merged with.
Still boggles me that management try this kind of thing when the law is usually straight forward.

we are talking about an ideology.

At least somebody gets it.

As said before, it’s not the person I hate, it’s the ideology….couldn’t care less about skin colour but I care very much indeed when people are plunging knives into women’s chests and declaring: “this is for Allah”….that concerns me greatly and it has nothing to do with race and everything to do with a warped belief system.

Still all a bit “I’m not a racist, but…”, Deviant

….and I couldn’t care less.

I learned a long time ago that some people use accusations of racism, sexism etc to stifle any kind of debate on a difficult topic.

ISIS magazine – Rumiyah: “target them with edged weapons, firearms, vehicle ramming, in clubs & restaurants and bars.”

You can’t reason with that….pretty much a template for what happened last night.

I dislike all religion, it has no place in a modern society that believes in equality, discovery through science, freedom of speech etc…sadly this is the third terrorist attack in 3 months in the UK (Westminster bridge, Manchester and now Borough market)…it’s not going to end any time soon sadly, celebrities tweeting about ‘standing strong’ and politicians telling us to carry on as normal won’t fix it….neither will people lighting candles at the inevitable vigil that will take place some time next week.

It’s pathetic, the Rotherham rape gangs were brought to justice once the police and authorities got over their crippling political correctness and the same needs to happen with Islamic terrorism.

They kill themselves or the police kill them so they never get to see it. you have to assume they are angry with our country’s actions, especially abroad. But how does killing some random punters on the street make a difference.

To understand this you have to understand the ideology they follow.
Before anyone chimes in about ordinary Muslims or moderate Muslims that’s not what we’re talking about here….these people are extremist in their views, they believe in a literal translation of the Koran and they believe that death to non believers is the only mission goal….they couldn’t care less whether it’s Teresa May or an 8 yr old Ariana Grande fan they kill, they’re both infidels and both deserve to die in their warped views.

You could pull out of the Middle East and it would still continue because there is a small but viscous sect within Islam that honestly believe their role is to take the fight to non believers, kill or convert non believers and spread Islam…by force if necessary.
You can’t reason with that.

It’s not a race issue, it’s a religion/ideology issue….how to sort it?….buggered if I know, there may well be too many people in this country with these views for it to ever be sorted now, I’ve resigned myself to the fact that Islam will become the dominant religion in this country….hopefully not in my lifetime but the birth rate among followers of Islam far outstrips those who don’t follow that religion….given how ultra-PC the general population, police and politicians have become I think these attacks will become more frequent and that people who don’t follow Islam will end up dead or emigrating.

Shame that such a backwards ideology has taken such a firm foothold in Europe.

If it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck….

Remember folks, nothing to see here….drunk driver, ‘just’ a normal London knife incident, shots fired etc etc….definitely not terrorism, keep your head in the sand, religion of peace etc etc.

Which plank said the IRA bombed their way to the negotiating table?!

Off on a tangent but the security services had infiltrated every level of the IRA at that point, meaning that the vile Adams, Mcguinness etc had no choice but to start talking.

1 in 4 IRA members was a British agent at the time rising to 1 in 2 at a senior level….it was impossible for them to carry on….this is an approach I’d happily see in the fight against Islamist terror in the UK.

Source: belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/northern-ireland/half-of-all-top-ira-men-worked-for-security-services-28694353.html

And also why deviant agreed with him. It’s because they’re not particularly nice, tolerant or understanding people.

Yeah, I’m the one letting off bombs at a pop concert…. I’m the ‘not particularly nice, tolerant or understanding’ person who just killed 20-odd people…..erm, no.
I just want to get on with life, be left alone and not have to read about this crap or get caught up in it one day….if that makes me not nice, not tolerant or not understanding then actually I’ll take that, I’ve been called worse….why should I tolerate terrorism!?
Heaven forbid I should condemn those involved or point out the motive….just keep those heads in the sand chaps.

As for jumping to conclusions going right back to Cougar’s post last night given the world we live in today and the active campaign of incitement to commit attacks the LOGICAL first responce is that its LIKELY to be an Islamic Jihadist inspired terrorst attack UNLESS proven otherwise.

About right.

Loving the apologists in this thread wriggling every which way to explain it as anything other than terrorism…..helium balloon, stampede….yeah right, we all knew what this was when the news broke but people have become so desperate to appear ‘PC’ that they ignore the threat currently out there.

It’s not racist to be recognise the threat of an extremist group FFS….it’s not racism at all, it’s not about ‘brown skinned people’ as someone so crassly put it in an earlier post….it’s about the hateful, violent, part of a current religious ideology that sees the West as nothing other than to be conquered or exterminated.

That’s real, that’s not racism and it needs more than planks like Philip Schofield tweeting pics of himself looking sad to sort out.

Was in this situation last year.
After 16yrs NHS I had to give a ridiculous notice period of something like 12 weeks which would have seen me lose my job offer with the other NHS trust I was moving to.

Managed to negotiate down to 6 weeks due to a good relationship with management and a blemish free track record at work re. any disciplinaries, complaints etc.

Unfortunately new employer moved the goal posts and wanted me in 4 weeks….had to literally write a begging letter to HR and my manager explaining the situation and asking for understanding…..even offered to forfeit any pay owing to me if I could go early.

Long story short they met me halfway and agreed a 4 week notice period but I wasn’t allowed to take any leave (i’d accrued about 1/4 of my year’s entitlement at that stage)….instead they paid that leave in my final pay slip which was actually really helpful with a house move imminent.

In short, negotiate….don’t get stroppy, as others have said; it’s all done with mutual agreement.

She has a massive Google problem now….24 and a drug addict, wants to be a Dr….yeah, sounds like an ideal candidate for having prescribing rights and being around controlled drugs.

As an American might say….stick a fork in her, she’s done.

Indeed, bought potatoes, cheese, tuna and a bag of mixed salad the other day for a couple of quid.
Allowed me to make a couple of meals, far cheaper than buying junk filled ready meals each day or takeaways instead.

It’s nonsense that you can’t eat healthily cheaply.
Eat less, move more….how many athletes are obese?….as said in one of the first posts, nobody left Belsen overweight….i’ve been slammed before for using that as an example but it rings true albeit in an extreme version of the ‘eat less, move more’ maxim….those poor barstards were used for forced/hard labour and given meagre rations….guess what?…they weren’t obese.

Jesus Christ this isn’t rocket science, it’s often hard to do and that’s the real problem, people tend to take the path of least resistance which is the reason behind the obesity crisis these days and only individuals can fix it.
Asking a government to stop you being fat is like me blaming the government for something in my life I have control and responsibility over…utterly pointless, denial and trying to shift blame.

Child after just 12 months?!…..sod that.

You just don’t know anyone well enough, particularly in this situation where there’d be half sisters involved too.

There must be some push over men on STW if this is normal, I’ve split up with two nutters after a few years each as they seemed to view me as a source of sperm and money because they had the extraordinarily special features of having girl parts instead of boy parts like mine…..50% of the world have vaginas, I’m sick of every other woman thinking it makes them a princess or special case because they have one.

You got out relatively unscathed, me being an antagonistic tit would have fun with her on Facebook, via text etc until she had a proper meltdown….but I’m not very nice so you should probably rule that out.

They used to send some of their staff/soldiers to our ambulance service (when we were seen as the best ambulance service in the country) for their paramedic type training.
First names only (obviously), they dressed like ‘normal’ blokes on a semi physical medical/trauma course and were always happy to tell a good yarn….although how much of it was true and how much was for entertainment was debatable.
No paperwork or certificates were issued, they’d just attend for a week, have a syllabus to work to and then leave again.
This was late 90s early 00s so I’m hoping things are a little more professional these days, I know they no longer use us as a service as our reputation is in the toilet at the moment!

AlexSimon…..she was the same with Trump, if she can’t hide her disdain from public view then she shouldnt be in front of the camera.
Nobody cares what her personal political views are so why the need to be so obvious with her dislike when questioning politicians she disagrees with.
There were plenty of journos present who I’m sure found Trump as repulsive as a snake but you couldn’t see it on their faces or hear it in their tone because they were consummate professionals…..not our Laura, she made it perfectly clear who she’d wanted to win the US election and what she thought of Trump, it was embarrassing.
There was a time BBC reporters were seen as the best in the world, you’d never guess their political allegiance, all politicians were given a hard time etc….not anymore, the Keunsberg has decided to appoint herself head of labour campaigning for this election.

Lol at the ‘BBC are Tory biased’ comments above.
Watch the news recently, the BBC’s cheif political commentator Laura Keunsberg (?sp) shows more bias than is professional for her position.
If it’s the Tories she’s reporting on then she looks like a sourpuss, the questions are barbed and she’s the model of persistent questioning, almost Paxman like…but if it’s labour (or more pertinently Corbyn in particular) she’s questioning then she comes over all smiles, powder puff questions and gooey like their head cheer leader.

It’s nauseating to watch and if she can’t do the job with impartiality then she should hand over to someone who can.

Apple….it just works.

Couldn’t resist, sorry. Not constructive and im an iPhone user myself!

They are overpriced and average at best, only reason I stay with them is the awesome iTunes library….take it to an independent expert, do not take it to an Apple ‘genius’….they will try and sell you an upgrade.
Take it to one of those little kiosks you see in shopping centres and explain about retrieving the video in particular, you’ll be amazed what they can do…..Apple must hate them!

Minion front…..but don’t discount the HR2, stunningly good and at 2.4 width the tread spacing clears mud brilliantly.
Accepted wisdom has an Ardent on the rear but I find they move around a lot and unpredictably.

I have a Mary front, Nic rear on my HT….a 2.3 HR2 rear with 2.4 HR2 front on my FS….and dual 2.4 HR2s on my DH bike.

Got a Shorty too but never felt conditions were biblical enough to fit it…..if a Mary can’t handle things I’m staying indoors with a whiskey!

Kimbers, it’s largely irrelevant what he was saying. Small time politician made it big in the EU and can now see his and the EUs influence diminishing as our surrounding neighbours like Russia and Turkey look all set for a nice peaceful chit chat over tea and biscuits (sarcasm)….. If ever he needed to be courting the UK and it’s natural allies in the US, NZ and Australia then this is it….but he can’t see past his own nose and the anger caused by the Brexit vote.
Small man with no political foresight.

He can gob off all he likes, compared to US politicians he’s a minnow and as long as the US, Canada, and Australia continues to speak English and it remains the international language of business then his gum flapping is just that….the bitter ramblings of someone of Luxembourg nationality.

…..and that’s the crux of the matter for me, politicians from Holland, Belgium, Luxembourg etc have realised they are insignificant on the world stage, hence the EU to their rescue….now they can be a big fish in a sizeable pond.
They could do with some humility and take a long hard look at the amazing ‘success’ that is Greece, it’s shameful and deserves more news coverage but it goes against the general left wing bias in the T.V. news that all is great in the EU…..Germany essentially props up the EU, if they get bored, run out of money or change political direction (delete as applicable) it’s going to implode in an ugly mess with Russia on the sidelines waiting to pick up the pieces and expand their old USSR territories.
I’m happier we’re leaving, we need more economic and military unity with the US, Canada, NZ and Australia to ensue our survival….talk of an EU army was always laughable due to language and political differences, we have far more in common with our English speaking allies.

If Russia kicks off just give them France and Germany, the central European powers have been given fair warning (i worked last year with an EXTREMELY high ranking soldier who rated Russia above all else as Europe’s biggest threat)….politicians aren’t listening as it’s an old story (cold war etc), ISIS and the middle East/syria makes for better headlines.

North Korea is a joke, a semi serious distraction…..meanwhile Juncker spouts off about the demise of the English language (bitter much?)…he talks like the world is speaking in French, German or Lexembourgish (yes it exists!)….there will be some difficulties with Brexit I’m sure but what is more worrying are the number of countries in the EU taking from the pot while Germany supports everything, it’s unsustainable (again, see Greece)…..when Spain can no longer afford to repair it’s excellent roads, when Portuguese fisherman are locked out of British waters, when half the EU countries can’t afford their NATO contributions you’ll see just how wonderful the EU is then.

This is why people like Juncker are angry, the UK is a net contributor, they need our money, without it they can see the writing on the wall and living standards in the EU dropping markedly….as a side note, our middle eastern neighbor Turkey (who the EU have been teasing with membership) for years have elected a hardline president, if ever they could do with our military it’s now and we’ve given them the heave ho…..no wonder this no mark is crapping himself, he can see what’s coming, the UK however has always had the advantage of being an island as a natural geographical protectorate.

Sorry for the doom mongering scenario but dig below the trivial tabloid ‘you might be £1,000 a year worse off under Brexit’ and things get really scary.

Foul, needs a good wash.

This could backfire on the industry massively, if 29ers dominate this season expect the big factories to have them on the shop floor next year.

Once everyone is on 29er DH bikes, 26 inch will be the domain of the cheap eBay bargain and 650b although still good will be seen as old hat…..once everyone is on 29ers what does the industry introduce then to keep interest high and profits increasing?!

This could well be a developmental dead end where they’ve inadvertently created the perfect DH bike and have no where to go.
Wouldn’t mind if the R&D went into suspension tech instead but it’ll be interesting how the industry spins this, big firms like Santa Cruz, Trek, Spesh etc may well delay rolling out production ready bikes in order to bleed the 650b market dry first but if a company like YT or Radon were to beat them to the punch it would put a cat among the pigeons.

Tin foil hat on, Spesh, Trek and Mondraker have been making very loud noises about running a 29er….seems Santa Cruz fell for it and rushed out a big wheeled DH bike, it hasn’t worked in that people thought they’d lock out the podium…..instead an old timer returning from shoulder surgery (Gee) topped practice.

I’m sure 29er DH bikes have their place but can you imagine one going down the twists and turns of Champery, some riders would need a three point turn to get round some of the corners.

A few years ago when the calendar was packed with bike park style courses I’d stake my mortgage on 29ers wiping the floor with existing bikes….but a desire to move back to techy courses, the organisers of Lourdes flattening out bermed turns and making things ‘natural’ again kinda puts 29er DH bikes a year or two too late to the party.

I could be wrong of course, I’m a very average DHer myself but the top guys in first practice were the status quo, all on 650b and all winners in the past, no surprises there.
I’ll be shocked if one makes it into the podium at Lourdes.

Have ordered a 350 on the basis I’m back in the gym and likely to add to my 14st this summer, might be a mistake in which case I’ll come down to the recommended 300, we’ll see.

1. Gwin
2. Hart
3. Minaar…..just to rile the anti 29er hordes.

1. Atherton
2. Seagrave
3. Nicole

Can’t wait, any other teams running 29ers?

Cheers guys, I’ll get on the phone to TF and see what they can do for me.

Fork seems great, used all but an inch of travel yesterday which is what I like to keep in reserve for unexpected big hits.

The spring (just been out to check) says 250 x 3.6
I’m guessing 250 is 250lb which does seem underweight for a 14st bloke but what is 3.6?

Is it the circumference or diameter of said spring so it fits through the frame?

Plus, how long a spring would I need to order!?!?

Yeah too much sag, it’s lovely and plush but just too damn low to the ground.

The Glencoe DH track is an unforgiving bitch of a course designed to break bones and bikes…..never ridden it but kudos to those who have, in my world the UK round of the UCI world cup would move from Fort Bill to Glencoe, that’d sort the men from the boys.

I read the post as if he was getting pedal strikes when not even pedalling?

True.

I could be feet level on the pedals, rough ground, gentle bend approaching and ‘whack’ pedal strike….. The ends of my cranks look about 10 years old.

I’m heavy, maybe 14st so I think an uprated spring may be in order, cheers for the advice chaps.