Try The Tossers and the Real Mckenzies

They are a great trailside fix, though I have found that overtime they begin to leak, this I think is due to their lack of stretchiness. When I get a number of innertubes in the shed needing patched I replace all the park patches with traditional rubber patches – this solves the problem of the eventual Park patch leak.

An imported Pajero is probably ideal for what you are looking at, I have a short wheelbase version, cost 4 grand six years ago and is still going strong and is regularly used to towe up to 3 tonnes. I have only had one issue with it when on a steep off camber fire road where the trailer got the better of me.

I had a chariot CX2 around some of Glentress red and most of the blue, it has been round Carron Valley full loaded with both my boys in and has always been bloomin good fun for all concerned. My eldest was first in the chariot in the sling at 3 months, I managed to roll it when he was 4 months old on one of my local trails. Mum wasn’t best please to come round a corner to find me pulling the upside down trailer out of a ditch. Young H was fine and used to yell for more speed when he started talking, also the rougher the trail the more likely they are to fall asleep. According to my wife it will more often than not be up on one wheel on fire road corners.

I have pushed the trailer in buggy mode up Ben Lomond and the Cobbler, as well as doing some big long days out on the bike with it.

You will be amazed at what you can get them up – and down. You can use them in buggy mode and wander round the shops, they are an absolutely brilliant piece of kit.

The only problem we have with the trailer, is that now the boys are two and four they fight like mad when in the trailer, a tag along is soon to be purchased.

Joe Abercrombie is good, sort of norse / medievel full of dark and often nasty characters, where things dont always turn out for the best. Best Served Cold can be read on its own, though some of the plot lines make a bit more sence if read after The First Law trilogy.

I would also second anything by Alistair Reynolds and Iain M Banks

I am booked for round one, will book the others if I know I will be in the country. I am a wee bit worried as the only other racing I have done in the past is cyclo cross…….

On the bending the frame argumment, I have been towing both kids for the last four years, often behing my Patriot (its a damn good way of improving fitness) and have not seen anything on the bearing pivots. However it has **** two axles on the hub, which is a Hope bulb.

I liverd outside Toronto for a year over 2004, did really like it, it is far to urban for my liking.

There are trails following along the river North out of town these are very seasonal, it is frowned upon (or was when I was there) to ride them in the wet. There are also a few nice little areas close to a couple of the closer ski hills – I cant remember their names, the trails are more cross country than anything else, all short climbs and decents.

How about meditation, works for me. All you have to do is sit somewhere comfy and concetrate on your breathing – in through your nose and out through your mouth. You dont need to do any silly mantras or that sort of stuf, just find something to focus your mind on something other than the everyday nonsense that stresses you out.

+1 Balfa, that section showed up all those unable to carry speed through good old fasioned flat corners

Right I am starting on earning some extra brownie points, the only problem is it may involve disneyland for the wife and kids.

My dad breads Koi and according to him the best way to stop anything eating them is to have the edges of the pond a minimum of 6 inches above the level of the water. He says having the pond border close to the level of the water may look nice, but it gives any birds or animals looking to catch the fish a good place to get at them, also don’t have any shallow areas a heron can stand in.

I think the mech hangers on on-one’s are made out of cheese. I had a plate welded onto mine to stop it constantly bending.

As a geologist; atmospheric, surface and ground processes are facts that I have as the base to my knowledge of the overall processes involved in how the “world works” and I find some of the questions that my friends and for that matter my wife’s friends ask to be astonishing in their apparent ignorance. It always amazes me that so many people have such a limited understanding of such things as how a river works.

Anyway, the water flowing down the river seven that you are seeing now will be from a number of sources, the prime source being the water table / ground water. This supplies what is know as the rivers base level, though this does change as the water table changes over the year. The water in the rivers from rain, melt water, sheep wee doesn’t stay in the river for very long the length of time is dependant on the ground cover, geography and geology of the rivers catchment area. Water from a rain storm can be seen in the river in just a couple hours and can increase the water level for half a day after the rain has stopped. The SEPA website has some nice real-time information where the river level can be gauged against rainfall and other factors, its great for picking which rivers have water for kayaking, and the speed that the water level increases following storm rain is interesting to see – look at any rivers data following a prolonged dry spell and you will still see water flowing, which is sourced from its ground water supply, which has already been explained wont be frozen, as in our climate even during really long cold spells the level to which the ground freezes only extends to a few centimetres.

The most likely scenario from my experience is water getting in from the cuff and the sock simply filling with water, as they are waterproof then what gets in cant drain out.

Still no sign of the mag here is Helensburgh.

My eldest this morning woke us at six by procaiming “Daddy I think I deserve porridge for breakfast today”

The thing is a general geology text book would be more suited to A level study than degree. When you get to degree level you are then looking as general books on sedimentology, ingneous petrology, structural and metamorphic geology. You need to be a bit more specific in area you want some “general” information on.

I used to use Diana Ross but got fed up of explaining myself all the time, so dont bother anymore.

As a rule I go sit in the line-up. Only if silly teritorial behaviour starts or things such and someone deciding to surf across the back of my boat when on a wave happens will I move further out, either that or move to a diferent part of the break for some peace and quiet.

I dont get the them and us attitude of many boarders, the secret breaks and this is my beach comments. Its surfing, its fun, accept there are many ways to enjoy it.

I surf a kayak and look on waves like that with a sense of terror. I have ridden double overhead at Thurso and Brims and just about pooed myself trying to get out on a big day at Machrihannish, on a day like that looking for a break with much smaller waves would be the order of the day for me.
The lip on that wave is chuffin massive and would do some serious damage if (though in my case it often seems to be when – not that I would ever contemplate anything remotely approaching that size)it landed on you.

Coffee I am with you an the boardies attitude problems, one of the advantages of a kayak is you can sit further out and catch the wave sooner. For some reason that often seems to send some boardies in to apoplectic fits of rage…..

I run 2×9 on my Patriot with a short cage, I havnt managed to snap anything yet and it changes gear no problem. I run a short cage due to the number of bent medium and long cages I was experiencing.

I have one of those for the business, it is a Japanese import – the silly little mirror on the near side wing is the giveaway, also as mentioned it is unlikely to be 2002, it will be 1999 at the best. They are not the best on road cars, very vague steering, awful fuel efficiency, takes an eternity to accelerate – hardly surprising as it weighs almost 3 tonnes, but brilliant at towing and great off road, again as mentioned the engine seems to be bomb proof. The SWB has NO boot space and for some odd reason the wiring for the glow plugs keeps corroding on mine.

We used a baby bjorn from about three months, though it was spring time when we started and we had all sorts of “fun”.

I suspect that three hours in November will be a trial for all concerned. You will almost certainly get a sore back, with a jacket over you and baby, you will both over heat and then as you try to cool down young OMITN will get cold and complain. The smell of poo wafting up from inside your jacket will be something of a nice surprise and it usually happens just as you are furthest from civilisation, the rain is at its worst, there is no shelter and the young one really doesnt like the feel of a poo filled nappy. Not that I have much experience of it, oh no.

That and rolling the trailer with my eldest in a couple of weeks later are a couple of outings my wife reminds me of on a regular basis.

Sir Charlie stinky socks goes down well in our house, also “Who’s on the loo” I can recite that one over the phone when away with work.

I have floor to ceiling windows in my sitting room that you have to walk past to get to the front door, the path through the garden also has anyone walking to the house face the window. I have been stood in the window and had a delivery guy walk down the garden path, walk less than 3 feet in front of me and then post a “you were out” notice through my door.

It was a large parcel I was waiting for, which he didnt even take out of the van.

I managed to catch up with him on his way out of the garden, once I had the parcel I made him aware of my feelings and told him I would be making a complaint. He didnt care a toss and said it would make no difference – he was with home delivery network.

Right thats me unpopular tomorrow morning, just dug a couple out of the freezer to go with the poridge (which is just in a pan soaking) and some loverly burps on tomorrows ride.

Rode Drumlanrig for the first time last weekend, the trails were just the nice side of damp and rode really well. I was very impressed with the quality, they are just the sort of trial I would love as local trails. The thick covering of leaves caused a few “whoa, where did the trail go” moments.

Had a slip and slide round kirroughtree on Tuesday and to say it was wet would be an understatement. Should have taken the kayak, as Palnure burn was “humping”

If all I had lost when getting divorced had been photographs then I would have been laughing.

My ex and I split up while I was working away, I eventually tracked the few belongings of mine she didnt give away or throw away to a storage depot about 50 miles away from where we were living. And then it was mostly furniture neither of us liked or a couple of bags of mouldy clothes.

The wedding ring is somewhere in the Bohai sea.

Looks like the way to the compost heap at the bottom of my garden.

I crashed on the glencoe downhill track on the first run down with a brand new SRAM X0 deraileur. It took me a while to figure out why I couldnt get the chain onto the bottom three cogs on the cassete – the body of the deraileur was bent in towards the wheel, so causing it to hit the rear axle. Luckilly I was able to salvage the cage which I put onto the old deraileur. When I say "old" it was about three months old and I had snapped the cage on it.

I broke my little finger a few months ago, where someone wedged half a scaffolding plank in a bush at handle bar height on a nice right hand bend at the bottom of a short decent into a hollow, where it is usual to skim the gorse bushes at the low point.

I have occasionally met a few doddery old farts along this section of trail who have passed the odd sarcastic comment as I have passed (most likely thinking I was out of earshot – I once replied wit a "jealosy will get you nowhere" to which I got an earful of abuse). I can only think it was one of these happy souls making their lives more meaningful. Oh and I know if was a scaff plank as it had the metal protection on one end of the plank.

I would have happily wrapped the said plank around the side of whoever's head was responsible. Though the plank would have most likely come off worse.

Vortex, I am 6'4" and was looking at a large, many thanks for the thought.

Will give hotlines a call on Monday, ta.

I have a partial tear in the cartilage on the inside of my knee and at the same time severed both anterior and Posterior cruciate ligaments, this was done in 97, I never had re-constructive surgery on the cruciates and the torn flap of cartilage was trimmed during an arthroscopy.

I had to give up skiing (due to lack of cruciates) I was crap at that anyway and took up snowboarding. I wear a brace while boarding, I also had to stop running as that was causing pain in the side of my knee. I now avoid impact sports as much as possible, though can still manage a good long day’s hill walking, though after which my knee will be sore, some ice and ibuprofen gel do the trick. After a week snowboarding or a few hard days on the bike I might have a bit of a limp, overall I am as active as possible, though having adjusted to take into account the limitations of my knee.

Hmmm, would my rather regular evictions from my kayak and resultant "swim" be included in this………

Some cracking pics, on riding this route I am usually having too much fun to think of taking pickies. As for upsetting the locals – as a local I cant say I have had any problems.

Most folk on the hill, either during the week or weekend are happy to see what they consider a nutcase hurtling down on a bike, many even cheer you on. The only times I have had the cold shoulder is when overtaking someone on the way up with a bike over my shoulder.

Rob, yes I have lost the smell of pine, and once my wrists stopped stinging I got all my old innertubes repaired. If I manage to meet you guys for your trip up Ben Lomand I will have a nicely patched tube for you, that is if I can get the Patriot fixed, as I broke it on the Glencoe downhill track.

Not too busy mid week – its when I usually give it a go. There is only one bit to push on the way down, unless you are a freeride godling. 60% ridable on the way up, you are avin a larff, 20% max is my reconing.

Chicken wire wouldnt have stopped a mate knocking himself out at the very end of the boardwalk – as he went for air time with a gale of a cross wind.

What is drilling in the Falklands is called a semi-submersible drilling rig, the one they are using is the Ocean Princess. Its not much of a princess and last time I worked on it about 15 years ago it was a right old sh1t heap. They are towed by a couple of supply boats or tugs and anchored to the bottom while drilling.

The picture up the page is of a newer generation of directionally possitioned semi's that are used mainly in deep water – just like the one that sank in the gulf a couple of weeks ago. They dont use anchors as they are self propelled (most of the time)

Try butter, I switched from olive oil and the wholemeal loaves improved no end