I have just dumped R785s for Hope on the winter bike. Commuting 17 miles down a busy A road without front brakes was an exciting experience I do not wish to repeat. First impressions (300 km) of the Hopes are that they work very well, and silently.

Bit of a weird contribution. Snow scooter oil instead of paraffin in an old style Primus stove at Geopol Hut in NW Spitsbergen. Cold food that evening.

MTB 2528 km 62315 m climb (including tomorrow’s little pootle)
Road 3835 km 49560 m climb

Totals 6363 km 111875 m climb

Quite good for me

Different year, different arrogant ****

I ordered and paid for a rather special frame from Stanton back in May (my choice to pay up front). They first told me it would be end of the year, then that it would be further delayed, probably to Spring, because they’d decided to move manufacturing to the UK. Not ideal, but they’ve kept me up to date and have always responded quickly to any queries. From my point of view it’s just part of doing business with a small specialist company. I can just dream of a bling hardtail in the Spring sunshine as I’m slogging through the Dark Peak muck over the winter.

I’m selling a house at the moment, as executor of a relative’s estate. The agent suggested asking £ 280k but we didn’t have a sniff of interest at that and I have accepted an offer of £ 245k. So the market value looks to be 12.5% lower than the asking price. Settling at £ 350k against an asking price of £ 400k is exactly the same % reduction.

My scenic route to work is 55 km x 900 m and takes about 2.5 hours. I do that occasionally, and once or twice I’ve even done it on successive days. I have the advantage that I work flexible hours but even so I would hate to have to do it, especially in the winter. I have never ridden the scenic route both ways either- the return would be about 1150 m climbing- and that’s just too much for a fat old bloke after a day’s work

I don’t know exactly where you live but you could always threaten to use public transport for your Bristol trips? With all the mesing about that entails the travel time will go way up, and the cost of daily return fares to Bristol will make a hotel look cheap.

More seriously, HSE has a Driving at Work leaflet downloadable from the web. That asks some pretty pointed questions.

It’s definitely worth going to the owner of the land on whose behalf the car park operator is working. I had a row with one over the summer- their payment machine wasn’t working, but they still hit me with a parking charge.

Appealed to the contractor- rejected without even reading it

Appealed to POPLA- rejected for some pretty crap reasons

In parallel I had been talking to the owner of the land and when I got to the right person there she just said “Oh yes. They issued loads of incorrect notices in June. I’ll tell them to cancel it”. Which is fine for me but how many other victims of incorrect notices just paid up though?

Kit Kat. Had one today and noticed just how bloody small it was…..

Anyway… are we at the point where the new “uk” named Stanton hardtails are made in Taiwan, and finished here… or are they made here? I still don’t know where “plans to build hardtails in the UK”, and “hardtails you can buy now with UK in the name” crossover, or don’t.

I’m waiting for a Stanton Ti frame and have been in touch with them on and off over the last few months. As I understand it, they are transferring all production of the existing range, both steel and Ti, to the UK. This shift is what’s holding up my frame, which is still a couple of months off

Our timetable (Buxton-Manchester) changes from early October to January to allow for leaf fall, with trains running 5 minutes earlier towards Manchester. If they get on OK, they then stop for a while at Hazel Grove so they don’t run early into Manchester

Chemistry academic here who sees a good deal of chemical engineers. I pretty much agree with everything said above about the two disciplines.

I think it’s really important to go somewhere she likes the feel of, and study a course that really interests her because, unless she’s self-motivated, she’ll flounder, and a contented, interested student will do well.

Whyte, Enigma, Stanton…………

Cold, wet, windy

School run traffic

I’ve gone soft!

Older bike has 2 x 10 XT and the newer one has 1 x 11 XT. I’ve bust the new bike so I have been back on the older one for the last few weeks, and feel that 1 x 11 is somewhat limiting. The gap between the bottom two gears is a bit too big and I do use the top gear for smooth downhill bits but find I am spinning out.

I am now plotting a new bike and that’ll be 2 x 11, probably XTR mechanical.

The broom wagon

On the one occasion that the train home from work caught fire- properly- flames above carriage roof height- I was very glad there was a guard/conductor/call him what you will on board.

The conductor got all the passengers to somewhere safe and if he hadn’t been there, the ****ing old git with the huge trolley case (who could easily feature in the Daytime Arseholes thread) would have cheerfully blocked everyone else’s escape route just so he could try and take his bag with him even though it was obviously too big to fit down the aisle and too heavy for him to move easily.

Couple of obscure ones-

Pierre Clostermann- Flames in the Sky

Ira Jones- Tiger Squadron

Oh, and Cecil Rwnsley and Robert Wright- Night Fighter

Congratulations! Part time is a really tough way to do it.

Just stick to titanium frames and make sure there’s never more than one visible at any one time……

I was dreadful with contacts when I started out. Couldn’t put anything in my eyes and my eyes were really sensitive too. But I persisted and have been using contacts for sport for over 30 years now…. I find high water content disposables are fine.

I’m struggling with this at the moment for a new build. Ti hardtail frame and black fork with orange logo, so what hubs? Black just leaves the fork as the only splash of colour, looking like an afterthought. Could pick up the orange of the fork with the hubs, or I could go red or blue hubs and get the fork decal changed to match? Or if I am changing the fork decal, maybe do the whole thing fairly stealthy with gunmetal or slate hubs and  match the fork to that?

Argh! First world problems I know……

Son of a historian and a classicist here, though I am a tecchie. Most of it’s already been said

If she has a passion for history, do it. A good history degree will be more valuable than a mediocre one in a subject she’s not really interested in

Just be a little careful of Oxbridge. It doesn’t suit everyone and if you don’t fit it can be a very damaging experience.

I do this stuff for a living, admittedly to a slightly older age group.

Good advice above about few words on slides and using the content of the slides as prompts

Don’t patronise them; talk to them as normal people

Keep it simple- 10 mins is nearer 5 than 10 slides for me, and only 2 or 3 themes

Would it be worth using personal experiences? ’20 years ago I was sitting where you are and…… ‘ What floated your boat about joining? What have the good bits been? What have the bad ones been? What have you done along the way?

Can alleged nerve agents ‘survive’ that long in the environment (assuming that the two incidents are related)?

Yes, easily, especially if protected from water, air or sunlight which would be the main things that might degrade them,

Some are designed to be ‘persistent’ so that the risk of poisoning continues and anyone working in the area has to take precautions, which degrades performance and causes casualties. You might use those on an enemy’s airfield so they’d have to try and run air operations while all suited up. Others are non-persistent and degrade quite quickly. These would be used, for example, if you expected your own troops to occupy the area soon and didn’t want to expose them to risk.

The Litvinenko poisining left radioactivity in many sites around London and a few further afield, and where the poisoners prepared the polonium was hot as Hell. No reason to expect the users of the Novichok would be any less messy.

I’m very happy with a 32 stepcast which I’ve abused for about 6 months. I’m planning a fancy build later this year and will go for stepcast for that too.

Disclaimer- I am a bit of a mincer

Try a guy called Marc Manderson at Sandringham Financial Partners. He’s based in Stockport and has has looked after us for more than 20 years

Never done bikes but have organised orienteering events in SSSIs. You need to understand why it’s an SSSI. Some of the reasons are very seasonal so if you use it outside a sensitive time, you might be OK

The presence in urine of salbutamol in excess of 1000 ng/mL or formoterol in excess of 40 ng/mL is not consistent with therapeutic use of the substance and will be considered as an Adverse Analytical Finding (AAF) unless the Athlete proves,through a controlled pharmacokinetic study, that the abnormal result was the consequence of a therapeutic dose (by inhalation) up to the maximum dose indicated above.

My bold- he is in the process of trying to prove the abnormal result is due to legitimate use, therefore not guilty at this point

If you actually look at the Prohibited List, salbutamol is not a prohibited substance in all circumstances. Its presence at concentrations above the specified threshold (which is what Froome had) is an Adverse Analytical Finding and requires explanation. Froome has not committed an anti-doping rule violation according to the definition above.

You can argue this is legalistic pedantry but it is also the current rules.

The Carers Federation were brilliant when my brother had a really bad time a few years ago. Congenital heart defect, diabetes and some other problems which ultimately killed him last year at the age of 54 were dismissed as sleep apnoea.

About 38 Zippy

I use Gore Power Trail Thermo tops in winter. Quite heavy and nice and warm

I like it but it does get confused by snow……

Not HCl with steel. It’l never be the same again. I’d go for loads of water and if I really wanted an acid rinse maybe vinegar? Then loads more water

My fave at the moment is curried potato skewers- very unhealthy but very yum!

I’m an optician’s nightmare- squamish about touching eyes and very sensitive eyes as well. I still remember a trial with contacts which felt like sandpapering my eyeballs. Very soft lenses with a high water content are good for me, and I’ve been on disposables for more than ten years now. It’s well worth persisting for sport

Sale Sharks 58 Worcester 25

Just sayin’

I went up to Derbyshire Bridge from Whaley Bridge today. There were two very short stretches of Whiteleas Rd which were unrideable due to snow drifts but it was melting fast. It had improved a lot from yesterday and it’ll be fine tomorrow.