More and more of my clubmates are buying these bikes, and all are really pleased. I like the fact that they supply 2 pro teams and you can buy for sensible money the same frame. I’ll be buying one 2015!

A couple of concerns in that the sizing, but I can my mates, and second I think the fork and headsets are a weird size, but this isn’t a deal breaker….

saw this on jools Holland…….unbelievably good..Future Islands seasons complete with some utter mad dancing from the lead singer

Our club flew with Monarch airlines to Mallorca and were delayed over 7 hours on the return leg. There were 26 of us. Monarch refused any compensation so we are using a no win/no fee lawyer on the basis of EU law. We have started the legal process. We are using Bott and CO (www.bottonline.co.uk) They are very good…

As I understand it, its like tomhoward says above, the airlines lost in one court and have now appealed that decision.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/aviation/10892360/Flight-delays-could-lead-to-payouts-after-Appeal-Court-victory-for-passenger.html

Other court cases are waiting for appeal decision.

If you are in a new situation I would start the process of claiming but be prepared to wait for the ruling.

The person being made redundant may never work again, his ‘big pay payout’, might be just enough to keep him/her going until they draw a meagre pension.

The collection amount isn’t important, but remember…. you will be in the same boat down the line how do you want to go out?

I had exactly the same issue, I installed a Velo Orange threadless BB which has a square taper axle (so needs a new chainset). This worked ok for a while, but does tend to loosen. The real fix is a helicoil. I spoke to Bet’d and they said they could repair it with a helicoil, and this costs around £120…I ended up selling the frame on ebay with these faults mentioned…too much hassle.

I don’t like Froome, but massive respect for his performance today, all the GC guys were really trying. Tomorrow and Monday will be awesome!

Thanks to the OP for the great PSA post. Mine arrived today, the high quality is really evident. I normally take a 44 and ordered the 45’s. They fit great!

We had a pitch for a new PR company. One lady turned up from London in a Porsche Cayenne…..It wasn’t so much the cost of the car but the fact that it was such a ridiculous choice….needless to say contract was awarded elsewhere….

That Cowlyd loop looks good, I prefer wilderness xc routes rather than trail centres anyway. For some reason I can’t download the gpx file off the site mentioned, does anyone have a gpx file they could email me?
cheers

Well, its an iconic climb which you should do. My advice is that regardless of the weather at the bottom, which at this time of year will be hot, expect it to be windy and cold at the top. Take arm warmers at least. You will be with many other cyclists but ride at your own pace and when you break out of the forest look left and see the summit, you will recognise one of cycling’s greatest climbs…

great idea, signed

I did a similar commute for about 12 months as the OP. My observations are that by the time the weekend came round I didn’t want to look at the bike!

Also whilst I did loads of miles and got really thin, my performance in races did not improve because I wasn’t doing the intensity.

A couple of times a week was the best for me, and not when it rained!

Into Dub at the moment, The Scientist is a legendary producer, also a favourite is Armagideon time by the clash dub version..

Take the top 50 independent schools on a*/a grade at a level, identify the boarding schools, then see if you can in eg Eton quite difficult…..what’s so difficult?

IMHO they are all good at this level. But they can only get out what’s in there, and to a certain extent the child’s motivation is important.

The a level course is 2 years or 6 terms, very short and intensive, I would forget about the chid taking up sailing or advanced greek studies…A levels are a big step up from GCSE.

This is a superb ride, few things from my experience….

Maps. We had a garmin and also the paper maps I bought from IMBA. I am glad we had the Garmin, it just makes it a smoother ride without stopping a lot. But I would say there are only a couple of points where it is tricky.

Food/Drink. You need to take a day’s worth with you each day. On some long sections, there are no shops, that’s the beauty of the route. Also obviously a full tool kit. (We had to rescue a trapped sheep with a Gerber!)

Stream. There is a water crossing at one point, so some dry socks may help!

Accommodation. We took the list with us and phoned ahead on the day depending on how far we had travelled. I don’t think there is a lot of choice en-route.

Good luck

The point the OP made was about magazines featuring high-price kit. That’s always been the case, as has the invariably positive reviews the highest price items get (singletrack mag excepted!). The mainstream magazines are part of an marketing industry that has to sell new kit every year to keep going. Many naïve people seem to open a magazine read a review, rush out and buy the latest £6K bike and believe they have the best kit, not realising that next month another one is reviewed as the best and is available for £7k.

Latest today was that they now ‘know’ the place was on autopilot and that the ships were looking ion the wrong area.

Presumably there is no new data, and this is more theorising?…it does seem that they make definitive announcements without proof….For the relatives it must seem they are making it up as they go along

Isn’t there some stealth way of doing it….something like you build a stable/hen house with toilet or something, then after 7 years or so apply for change of use and then extend for accommodation? Someone told me this works in rural area. (Local chap refused PP for mansion on farm land , just built huge hen farm, hardly any hens in it at the mo)

Black Rebel Motorcycle club: poorly produced recordings, very good live.

The Levellers…..

Whereabouts are you, I’ve got a workshop and all the tools….?

I recently changed an engine and gearbox in one of these, quite simple as there is a lot of access room.
Why not do the job yourself with a s/h box, this will give you a lot of confidence to fix stuff on the way if it develops problems….

loads in this area as well.

Doe anyone know the law as relates to these things, are they allowed on the road…I assume not? and what is the max speed they can do on the pavement, and who has right of way on the pavement?

All great ideas, but from the café owners perspective…..they sell you a coffee and cake for next to nothing whilst having to spend £200,000 upgrading the loo’s…

It might be a better quality of life if you stayed in a B&B near the new job for 2/3 nights per week, get a good rest, bike, catch up on work etc. The new company might pay for this as well….

The reality is that at the end of the day HR have to side with employment law which may or may not have been followed in the line managers behaviour.

As has been said before, read up on the law, take scrupulous notes, keep hard copies of all emails, get signed meeting minutes. If you have a grievance procedure in the company handbook, you must follow this to the end.

Employers know there are lots of no win no fee lawyers out there and are scared rigid of a well-evidenced case.

We had a Greek girl at our place who resigned, then claimed racism, only because she hadn’t been given a birthday cake and won a few quid off the company rather than go to court….I think employees (in some cases) underestimate their power.

I always DIY but the downside to this is you need a pretty extensive toolkit, space and light. Changing the oil can be messy. Also, you need time, the first time you do any job it takes 3 times longer than the second.

As is said above electronic handbrakes can be tricky. But there is a huge amount of info on owners forums to cover all subjects.

teetosugars[quoteReally liking First Aid Kit at the minute..[/quote] Thanks for this really good, if you like them then try September Girls “Green Eyed”

Borders are brilliant pets, full of character and endlessly fun for kids…..but they are terriers, instinct tells them to hunt for vermin (squirrels, pheasants, cats etc).

Ours was attacked by 4 dogs and since then has become super-defensive, won’t go near other dogs but if they come close to her in an aggressive manner…all hell let’s loose…..

Will defo get another one…..

Skewers come in different diameters. It may be you have been sent the wrong ones for that hub.

My LBS story….

…..had a bad case of stuck pedal with allen key only fitting, tried a few times, realised I didn’t have the tools to do it and didn’t want to damage anything by excess bodgery. Pootled up to LBS with mind to buy long arm allen key. Mechanic said give it here, I’ll get it off for you – 1/2 hr later and 1 broken workshop tool we realised it was going nowhere.
Mechanic said he’d try dismantling pedal, axle in vice, give it some beans – still nothing.
So, warning me worst case is new crank, said he’d try some extreme angle grindery, pop back next day and see if it’s done.
Before leaving shop, we checked chainset price from Madison, eeeek nearly £200 RRP, then over to a leading online retailer, almost 1/2 that.

Was given option to order myself and be charged a small fitting fee or go via Madison (with loyal customer discount price) with free fitting.

Next day, phone call saying pedal’s out, crank fine come collect your bike and if you bring the new pedals we’ll fit them – no charge!

And while bike was there brakes and gears had been fettled
Was told chain was almost at limit of wear, so new one bought and fitted there and then, total bill – nothing, except for price of chain.

Lunch was indeed bought for the mechanic.

So big up to Switchback Cycles, one small shop working hard for their customers

With this type of business sense, I doubt they will be there much longer….

Quintana and Rolland…bring it….

Well what would you visit a LBS for anyway?…..for me the only things, Bike-fit (by someone who knows what they are doing which is quite rare), servicing – when I don’t have the time or the tools, or maybe wheel building.

Wow, thanks, just ordered a pair of LOWE waling boots, in sale reduced to 115, then another 40 off……Great post.

Presumeably if they don’t honour it we can still return for a full refund??

[quoteWhy is it so complicated?[/quote]

Well basically the software is very poor. It feels like they issued a beta version, with no user testing!..I have just about got to grips with it, but occasionally it will confound me….

Here’s a tip….when you get down to the bottom, don’t stop but come straight back up, you won’t want to climb with café legs.

Get into your own rhythm and enjoy the views.

just a few points on carehomes. Just been through this. If a person has assets of more than £23K they have to pay care home fees themselves. In the case they don’t have this the local council will pay a standard rate for the fee, but here’s the thing…these rates are being reviewed and in our case did not cover the care home fees we wanted my Dad to go into. So we had to ‘top up’….very, very expensive.

I did some back of a fag packet numbers and it may of been a good idea to get a live-in carer recruited directly from abroad….

Well it could be a few things. You need to plug garmin into laptop and open basecamp. If you look in the folders and if you see the file in ‘my collection’ you just drag an drop it into the garmin memory card folder.

Often the filename is an issue, so also try and rename the file before you transfer it.

Then it might be a track or a route, so on the device look in both options.

just did a similar swop to stronglight and didn’t have a problem. The front mech should be 5mm max distance between the bottom of the mech and the top of the big ring teeth.

what happened to that tandem? I’d have paid good money to see that descend on some of those steep bits! Well done to those on rigid forks as well!

My first time, and I’m going back next year with more suspension and a lighter bike! One of the best bike events I’ve been to, loved the tent, really nice atmosphere….

The BBC have double standards. The Top Gear franchise is, I believe, one of the highest revenue earners for the BBC. Hence reluctance to sack him for his numerous insulting remarks. Now he is backtracking with pathetic apologies for something he “didn’t” say.