We’re about to go the personal hire route after going into the dealership certain we wouldn’t be interested. The difference between buying outright and the leasing arrangement is pretty small. It’s a three year deal and we get all the servicing included.

Such as Stockport to Stalybridge- once a week on Friday mornings, no return trip. Apparently required so they can say the line is still open and avoid the legal complexities of closing it

+1 for Loeb Boathouse

We stayed in The Mansfield Hotel a couple of years ago. It was convenient for MOMA, Broadway, Central Park, and we really liked it.

I have POA for a relative. The Court of Protection will take this very seriously. One critical thing is whether the POA is jointly held, in which case any action requires agreement of all attorneys. The documentation will tell you this.

Medium has 1132 mm wheelbase according to this[/url]

Bath deserved that win, but Sale made it easy for them. Stupid penalties gifted Ford the points – he rarely misses.
Sale’s pack looks promising though, do wish they would stop kicking the bloody ball away and back themselves..

Fair summary I think. I am just frustrated because I think we gave at least a losing BP away. Still, it wouldn’t be Sale if it wasn’t a roller-coaster

Starting to look like it could be a long season for Sale, and a rather disappointing crowd for our new look Saturday rugby too……

Nice to find another Sharky on here, Muddy. Looking forward to tomorrow? I’m a bit nervous because I think we need a good start to the season and I don’t feel we looked great against Worcester

I’m a bit of both

crystallised might work – maybe something like ‘some mineral phases crystallised during the heating & cooling phase of’….yada yada.

[Super pedant mode] Crystallised is reasonable, and precipitated would be OK too, but I wouldn’t call them minerals because ‘mineral’ can have overtones of being a natural material. Also, precipitation would occur on cooling, but not in the heating part of the cycle. [/Super pedant mode]

Then I guess I could go for ‘metallic iron has precipitated (or coalesce ?) from natural iron content of the amorphous clay-like matrix(?).

The latter is a strange one, as the temperature never got anywhere near the melting point of iron (1538 deg C), but the material was held at about 1100 to 1150 deg C (in a reducing atmosphere) for at least 7 days – but held at high enough temp for ‘things to happen’ to the iron content(?).

I’d use the word ‘formation’ for the metallic Fe- it’s sufficiently non-commital. While the furnace temperature may be below the melting point of Fe, you could have localised heating due to exothermic reaction (you could check this with differential thermal analysis)

Airline compensation is limited under some convention or other. It is based on a (fairly low) rate per kg and the weight of the lost item. A colleague’s bag went astray with a couple of seriously expensive suits in, and the compo didn’t begin to cover the cost. Sorry to be a misery but hope the bike shows up

Lost mine yesterday in a hawthorn hedge in the Goyt Valley (don’t ask!). I’ll be very impressed if you’ve found it.

Two hours or so round the Goyt Valley tomorrow afternoon to see if I have sorted out the new bike’s random shifting

Well he should have given you, at the very least, name, address, insurers.

Since he didn’t, you’ll have to contact him via plod. Go to them with the reg number and they should be able to track him down. They should (but probably won’t) be interested because he hasn’t given you his details which I think is a legal requirement. Once you know who he is, then get the costs of repairs to your bike and get back in touch with him. Make sure you aren’t hurt, bearing in mind that injuries may take some time to surface and could cost you through time off work and/or treatment costs.

You didn’t by any chance get a photo of the driver- that would be useful.

Be extremely cautious about accepting anything “in full and final settlement” or similar.

Any messing from him, fire up a lawyer

I had a similar experience. I went out early exploring some new places (which were good, apart from walking 100 m or so of impossbly steep, loose, rocky uphill) and met one person the whole time. Got back home cold and wet though.

Just because there are school holidays it doesn’t mean the rest of the world stops for it.

Agree, but the school holidays will change things whether you like it or not. Just as you wouldn’t expect to have a traffic free run down the M5 to the West Country on a Friday afternoon in high summer, so you wouldn’t expect a trail centre to be deserted on a summer holiday afternoon either.

It’s about speed appropriate for the conditions, whether that’s weather, other users of the path/road or anything else, and it applies to bikes as much as motor vehicles.

Sadly, you only have to think about a dick like that driving a motor vehcle and the origins of so many threads on this forum become very clear.

On two wheels or four, once a dick, always a dick

It’s pretty much irrelevant to this thread but I have had a Whyte 29 CS for two days now, and it climbs like a rocketship. Loving it……

While waiting to return a rental car recently, I queued behind a charming American lady who was explaining that the hire car she’d just driven from Manchester to Edinburgh and back had been rather noisy. After a brief discussion, the guy behind the counter worked out she didn’t know how to drive a ‘stick shift’ and it had done both journeys in second gear. I dare say that has now found its way on to the second hand market….

Pure acetone would probably be OK. Impure, such as nail polish remover, probably not

Surgical spirit contains additives to stabilise it, make it taste unpleasant and give it a characteristic smell. These can include castor oil, perfume oils and diethyl phthalate, all of which would leave a residue rather than evaporate.

So, I am now the happy owner of a 29C-S. I took it out for an hour this afternoon, just to get it covered in crap, and it’s a fabulous thing. Climbs like a rocket and far more bike than I really need, but God, it’s fun!

I’m looking at Asgard bike stores to protect a potential shiny new toy. Anyone have any experience with these please?

Sorry for slight diversion

You’re substantially cheaper than my LBS- their equivalent services are £ 35, 50 and 80 a pop

Having seen a number of examples in friends and family over the last while, if this isn’t depression, it looks like a fair step towards it. Please go and get professional help for this. There’s nothing wrong in doing so- loads of people do.

A lot of what’s suggested here- a project, riding the bike- help, but don’t deal with the underlying problem. You won’t be much fun either at work or at home if it really takes hold.

It’s arrived and I was allowed to see it when I popped in to pay for it. I’m away for ten days for work though, so I’m not picking it up for a while. #Excited

Pickfords were very good when we moved 5 years ago

I should not be crimson at the top of a climb

Maybe look at rugby baselayers?

Like this stuff

The idea of a 29er does appeal but I’ll have to ride one to see how I get on with the big wheels.

Makes sense. I am tall and it just feels right for me.

You sound a bit like where I was 6 months ago, though probably less fat and unfit, and much less time off the bike. My previous riding was almost all road and I’d never owned a mountain bike.

I talked to the local LBS who gave me what I think was really good advice, spending a lot of time finding out what sort of riding I fancied- cross country (and I am lucky in that I can do it straight from home). We settled on a 29er hardtail and the guy put some effort into talking me downscale to a less expensive bike (Whyte 529), to see how I got on.

I’m really enjoying it, apart from Friday’s rather good crash on to gritstone boulders, which has fortunately left me with only flesh wounds.

I think the 529 was about right for where I was at the time, not so heavy and low spec that riding was no fun, but not silly expensive or fancy. Sadly I had a go on a carbon hardtail a few weeks ago and the Whyte 29C-S is now firmly on the shopping list.

I like the 29er for covering ground and I also feel comfortable on them. Other here will know far more than I do about the choices available to you (though Whyte’s 629 is £ 999) but I’m very much a happy camper at the moment.

Well, that was just like me this morning, apart from my lack of speed and control, and my OTB for no good reason, landing on a bunch of gritstone boulders. Does blood come out of baggies easily?

Bugger! I’ve missed my chance. Several years ago, after a week of creaking, there was a sudden bang underneath me, and the saddle slumped forwards and sideways, leaving me to ride the next ten miles home perched on one corner of the saddle, and with my eyes watering…..

That must have been worth a few quid

Adidas Evil Eye Half Rim. Bought a pair a month ago and very impressed. Interchangeable lenses for bright and dull conditions and both types are really effective

Indeed! I have really enjoyed them. Thank you.

If you’re based at the northern end, you are pretty close to the northern edge of the Howgills or you could look norteast around Carrock Fell. Compared with the main Lake District honeypots, they’ll be almost deserted, even in high summer, and they can be pretty wild

Whyte 29C-S. Deposit paid; carefully managed information passed to household financial controller.

We have Echinops like this in our garden and we think it’s one of our best late summer plants. There are bees all over them from about now onwards and the plants don’t really spread much from year to year so won’t take over.

I seem to remember that the brewer at the start of the Firkin pubs (I think they only had the Fox and Firkin at the time) was an entertaining chap called Andy Rudd.