Is that point people keep making about “30 years of left wing thinking” sarcasm? If it’s not, then you must think Thatcher was a pinko liberal, right? Fackin’ hell!

I have a gooch like the surface of the moon.

East Sussex – Drusillas Wildlife Park is great with families. The beach at Rye is beautiful. Bodiam castle is amazing.

Completely second MSP’s mention of Gorges De La Nesque. Try and descend it from the Sault end.
If you’re there for a few days then you should really try a ride up to Gordes, across to Murs, and then down to Carpentras, really stunning views and twisty roads.
In terms of MTB, there’s the bike park on Ventoux which is very freeride and jump focused. There are some AMAZING trails in the Dentelles and La Roque Alric. Technical XC-ish, with some pretty steep detours!
My in laws live in Beaumes De Venise, so I cycle there a lot, drop me an email if you need any more detail on the MTB stuff. Otherwise most of the bike shops sell ‘Vaucluse VTT’ guides which all have maps of trails. If you need to rent bikes, Benoit Igoulen in Beaumes rents basic Cube Acid 27.5s and Cube Agrees. Cycles Ventoux in Malaucene have a wide range of Pinarellos and Scotts; from low to very high-end. DON’T rent from the gut in Bedoin, as he’s rude and fcking useless – normally doesn’t prepare any bikes until people turn up, and then takes an hour to do it.

Haven’t played it, but met Niantic Labs through work, and some obsessive Ingress fans.
Very impressive concept behind the games and some ambitious plans. They also have a really, really interesting concept in the pipeline.

Bump for the evening crowd.

Another nice metallic blue on the Basso too. Thinking a main colour like that may be the way forward.
Thanks for all the suggestions so far, beautiful bikes!

That Serotta looks just ‘right’…

Love the red and yellow Raleigh. Was that a respray?

Keen on the different coloured seat stays on the Feather too (quite common on forks too). I know that it’s a design trope now, but it looks soooo good.

Yeah, the raw steel Volares are gorgeous. Good job, Madison…

Oh man, that’s nice. Matt might be the way forward.

Oh yeah, good spot. I really, really like the look of that, including the logo. Hopefully a bit more affordable than the special editions as well.
Needs disc brakes too, obvs.

I had a go through work. Obviously still early days, but battery life is crap and the unit gets pretty hot. Not for me for day to day stuff but it will patently be brilliant for certain occupations and tasks. The directions app would obviously be very handy for finding your way by having directions appear in your eyeline. The translation of printed words is also amazing. The games, by contrast make you look like you have a severe case of Parkinson’s.

Not a pint, but while pissed about a month ago I bought a 500ml bottle of some artisanal IPA for £18.95. Not proud, but was served by a pretty girl.

Nail files, and people filing their nails.
Action man hair.
Big sponge fingers.

Possibly all related, as they all make me cringe in the same way. Freak me the **** out.

I think 2.4 will be a bit chunky on the front. They do 2.2 as well, I guess…

Thanks for the input.
In fairness the RRs I have are the Pacestar compound. Fine on the back but I find them much too sketchy on the front, especially compared to the Ardent I’m used to running. Would a Trailstar compound make that much difference?

Colleague at work was describing as fight she saw in an A+E ward and said “all of a sudden there was a huge falafel”.
She meant ‘kerfuffle’

On a mildly related note, she once overheard a discussion about Tolstoy (I know, sorry, but I work in publishing…), who she’d never heard of, so presumed we were talking about Toy Story.

You’re all wrong, Nescafe Azera is the nuts, anything more expensive is just posturing, and I’ll fight anyone who says otherwise.

All I know is I’m brimful of bromance for Misinformer. Been aaaages since we’ve had a genuine berserker on this forum. The internet loves a loose cannon.

It’s a really cool place. Bruges is beautiful, but is actually boring as ****.
In Ghent, you should definitely go to Plum bike shop. They have a mini-museum downstairs with beautiful old road bikes (no mountain bikes though).
As Crikey says, good shops and restaurants.
I’m not a massive gallery person, but there’s a brilliant one there too.

My Name Is Nobody. It’s mad as cheese.

OP, I have nothing useful to add other than the fact I always read your name as ‘excreto’. Am aware this says more about me then you. Sorry.

Eric Bristow called me a w@nker after I beat him at darts at the launch of his biography in about 2008.
To be fair I was doing a victory jig at the time.
And the only reason I beat him was because he was absolutely trollied.

As someone who has had dealing with the Tolkien estate, I can confirm it is ‘smowg’. At least, that’s how his son and editors pronounce it. I was nearly spat at when I said ‘smorg’.
This shit matters, apparently.

I’d take a bullet for my Gore Windstoppers. A BULLET.
Too hot, and you take the sleeves off, bish, bash, bosh. Love ’em.

I live next door to a chiro place. The couple who run it are both chiros. I have had a bad back on and off for years, they sorted it. My missus works in health regulation, and knows just how shonky many chiros and osteopaths can be, so I went into the treatment with my eyes open, and asked both about the dodginess. They were completely upfront, explained they don’t do all the odd energy centre stuff, but operate on medical principles.
Anyway, went there 3 times, and they sorted out my back, and a dodgy shoulder I’d had for about 3 years.
There may be shysters, I may be a amazingly prone to placebo effects, but it worked for me.
To be clear, I’m trying to suggest that a good chiro can help, I’m not saying all chiros are legit.

I posted a similar question a month or so a go. Someone recommended a Chunky Monkey as a front, and it’s been perfect so far (it’s 2.4). Still have a Mud-X on the back, mind…

Not a tabloid per se, but The Argus often has very funny headlines. They had one this year that was “BEARDED WOMAN ATTACKED AT CRUCIFIXION”.

Received a blumpkin from Paul Daniels whilst Debbie Magee has been in the same room

I was in my late 20s before I realised that the word “misled” wasn’t pronounced my-zuld.
Last year at the age of 33 I realised the word “segue” is pronounced seg-way.
Blew. My. Mind.

Ooh, Chunky Monkey is a nice, cheap shout might give those a go…

I love Istanbul. We generally stay in the Empress Zoe, which is a nice place in the otherwise quite tacky bit SE of the Hagia Sofia. It’s cheap for the standard of rooms, but has really friendly staff who hooked us up with football tickets.
Another fun but reasonable one is the Kybele which is near the Cisterns.
You should try and catch some football while you’re there. I took the missus to a Fenerbache game, and she loved it. Brilliant atmosphere. For some reason she preferred it to the Caley Thistle games I inflict on her when we visit my parents. Odd.

avdave2 – Ditto, did it for the first time on Sunday, just buried myself at the second ramp to keep the momentum going. Had to stop at the top to text people about my ‘triumph’.
Nobody replied. Probably to in awe to text back.

I’m utterly biased as I was raised about a kilometre from it, but the Ben Romach Port finish is lovely.
Also, have a look at the Gordon and Macphail website, they’re a family owned company who’ve made their (excellent reputation) on doing interesting finishes. Some of their Speymalt Macallans are amazing.

Great thread.
avdave2 – That Kingston climb is a killer, it’s the 2nd 20%+ ramp that doess me every time, always lose traction as I’m redlining by then and can’t move about the bike well enough. Usually not helped by walkers coming down the trail and not moving out of the way, despite the fact there’s A MUCH NICER FOOTPATH DOWN NOT 20 F-ING METRES AWAY WHICH WE’RE NOT ALLOWED TO CYCLE DOWN. As I wheeze to a stop before hitting them, they often then twist the knife by saying something like “ran out of steam, eh?”. Shitpuzzles, all of them…

Oh man, that Slimfast one if **** genius. That’s going to happen to some people very soon.

That clip makes my fall look unmanly. I’ll get back in my box.

I loved Sherwen saying there has been a “massive distillery of the group” just after Liggett pointed out the field were “literally spreadeagled all over the road”.
Wrong.

I fell 20 feet onto rocks down a ravine in Morocco on my carbon Tallboy. It wasn’t even scratched. I, on the other hand, was fecked.