Well, when i did something similar (torn ligaments in shoulder) a few years ago I was determined not to lose the fitness I’d built up from riding so my distraction was maintaining a high level of fitness during my off bike time. So I got a cross trainer, I could obviously only use one arm on it but it really maintained, if not improved on my stamina and thigh muscle strength. When I was able to ride again it was great because I instantly felt fit and ready for riding without the ‘I’ll be hopeless I’ve done nothing for weeks’ mentality.

…. And basically he’s right, Cyrus is little more than a shit on top of a boiled egg.

I have to say that Noel does make me chuckle in his interviews. He’s become so jaded and disenfranchised (as well as having nothing left to prove or fear of being dropped by a record label) he more or less says what he wants.

That’s an incredible amount of weight to shift in a year. Bloody brilliant. Well done that man and what a way to lose weight – doing something that you really love.

In much the same way the mountain bike industry is messing around with wheel sizes to squeeze more money out of us give us the best possible ride, the mx world has done more or less the same. The experimentation has largely been with front tyres from 23″ down to 18″. 21″ is the norm now and it’s based on simply finding a wheel size that will roll over rough terrain best without compromising steering ability. Rear tyre size has remained largely the same to simply provide the best possible traction and rear end stability. It’s just through experimentation that we have what we have in MX.

I scored an own goal. Got lots of lovely wood to chop up today but sadly it’s all from my trees 🙁 . Two of my silver birch came down yesterday morning. Bit gutted but my wood pile was getting low I suppose.

Riding my bike is one of the few times I get to enjoy being away from technological distractions so other than a (basic) mobile phone I stick in a pocket or bag for emergencies I am ‘unplugged’. I don’t want to be constantly connected, cycling should offer a beautiful simplicity. I can judge a good ride without the use of a garmin or smartphone.

Well we’re having turkey ( I can’t talk my family out of it) but I’m in charge of the kitchen so I’m doing a slightly alternative Spicy themed Christmas dinner. Turkey with a honey and chilli marinade, roast potatoes in rapeseed oil, paprika and chilli. Carrots roasted in honey and chilli with a rich chilli, fennel seed and turmeric gravy. Followed by an India style dessert ( haven’t decided what yet though). I’m quite looking forward to Christmas dinner for once.

Hora, I think you need to stop looking for this holy grail of mountain biking, both in terms of trail and bike. You’re never going to find perfection because you want the bike and the trail to completely compensate for your (low?) skill level.

We bought our house in the first quarter of 2009 for 139’000. We’ve just last Monday put it up for sale for £195,000 and have just yesterday received our third offer of £200,000. I’m very happy but I haven’t got a bloody clue what’s going on to be honest.

Yeah, I still have my very first gameboy that I had for Christmas 1990 complete with Tetris. I still play it now and still find it as addictive as I did when I was 8 years old.

It will pass. Bit of conditioner in it will help.

Powdered toast man. Now there is a superhero movie franchise in waiting.

shes so pretty

Thread. Useless. Pictures.

It’s just a car, metal, plastic, cloth.

Yeah, think that’s about everything.

Yes, very good little film. Currently on LoveFilm watch now.

whats the point ?

Why didn’t you just say that in the first place then instead of farting around with your initial query? What you wanted to ask was ‘what’s the point in big burly long travel DH bikes these days when ‘all mountain’ bikes will suffice?’.

DH isn’t dead, big DH bikes aren’t dead and people ride downhill on downhill bikes cause it’s fun.

…may God have mercy on us all

Is disappointed.

I’m finding it hard to spot the ionric spelling errors here now.

Which is making this one of my favourite threds for this year.

Could there be anything more dull?

I use quiet a few forums and I have to say this is the only one that makes me particularly anxious about my spelling and grammar.

Not got any mates who ride? A few of my friends have been introduced to MX through me just loaning them some gear and my bike and going with them to a local track ( usually mid-week when it’s quieter ).

As I said, I realise there are far bigger things in the world to stress over but it’s just the selfishness of it that I find hard to comprehend. In all honesty it doesn’t have any real affect on me but I do feel sorry for neighbours who have kids who used to play in the street. It’s rare that kids can play (relatively) safely in their own street so it was a bonus to living in a Cul-de-sac but there is literally no room on the street now due to all the cars. It’s not like they just have a car each which I’d obviously have no issue with. But 6 cars and a boat! I just have a mindset that you have a social responsibility and that sometimes means you can’t have or do whatever you want.

Anyway, I just wanted to field some opinions as to whether I was being unreasonable In my mild annoyance.

If you aren’t prepared to go and talk with them about it, which it sounds like you’ve not, nor likely too – stop complaining.

We’ve had many a chat about it. They don’t care so do nothing.

Probably on benefits too…

How predictable. 🙄

Offer to rent them your drive?

Either that or stop whinging/ move house

No, there must be another option. I might start an urban street football team for the local kids. Volvo’s for goalposts.

I love Boris. I think hes **** ace compared to what else is on offer.

Boris relies on folk like you, who see his bumbling, smiley, cheeky chappy routine and think he’s a harmless bloke with his heart in the right place and a smile and a wink for everyone.

He’s not, he’s just another sinister Tory and you should hate him.

Saw it at a regular cinema, not IMAX. 3D irritating and distracting. Stupid Hollywood religious nonsense towards the end.

Otherwise – visually impressive but better in 2D I suspect, and Sandra Bullock in skivvies. Oh yes.

Surprisingly it’s not better in 2D. I’ve seen it in both and generally find 3D films to be unpleasant but gravity didn’t suffer from light loss that most 3D films do and didn’t rely on just small floaty 3D things or flashing images jumping out of the screen out at you. Unlike the 2D version in 3D the film is far more absorbing and relies on an almost constant 3D image. It’s still good in 2D but not the same.

It certainly defines that era. But I’d also recommend watching a race from this years worlds just to see how things have moved on in the off road world –

I also remember seeing Masami Hirosaka driving his buggy with his feet, almost as quick as he did with hands at the worlds at Basildon.

Speaking of which-

I’ve never been drunk. I’ve had a beer or glass of wine and I do enjoy trying them but never had enough to experience being drunk or anything close to being drunk.

Buying new is expensive, the M05 Pro kit like I have is about £130 (actually thats the normal one, my Pro one has some “hop ups” then radio gear I don’t know, £70 odd, batteries etc….

I got mine off ebay, £100 for the car, full radio gear, 4 nimh’s, 12v charger, uprated motor and some spares so pretty good I thought, probably worth more split!

£5 a night for racing outdoors, £7 at the indoor place.

Done about 12 meetings now and in that time spent £20 on new set of tyres, £22 ish on a lipo, £25 on a charger and a few pounds on things like body pins and new front hub after recent smash… There is enough time between heats to get by with one lipo topping it up although if I want to do a longer practise session at the start I use a nimh or two

The only problem with these types of cars if you need perfectly smooth places to run them as I only have a 5mm ground clearance so they are quite narrow use ie not much point unless you specifically want to race which I did. Both the local venues I have mentioned have loan standard ones for £0 or £5 a night rental so we did that first

If just wanting to mess around I would definately go the buggy route as you can use them in far more places plus if you want to race there are off road venues.

Relatively inexpensive then really. If I wanted to get back into 10th scale buggies now I’d be looking at the best part of a grand to get up and running with a 2WD (all new kit). Won’t be doing that and going budget route isn’t really an option I would enjoy all that much since I was racing Internationals up until 2001 so finding a competitive class that isn’t all about money money money is what I’m looking for.

Semi Off Topic: Recently got back into RC and now race “Mini’s” which are the Tamiya M03/M05 chassis at a local outdoor circuit. Weekend before last I did my first indoor carpet event, less run off, ended badly with broken front suspension and a missing driveshaft lol

Sounds interesting. I’m tempted to get back into some class of RC but no way do I have the sort of cash floating around to jump into an expensive class again. How does it fair up cost wise? Expensive class?

1/8 electric – didn’t know that existed!

clubber – yeah, it was an offshoot of 1/8th nitro Rallycross which really boomed during this past 10 years or so. With Lipo cells being so good they started doing Rallycross electric conversions and now it’s become a class all it’s own (they originally mixed them with the nitro buggies but the electric buggies just ate them alive!).

Drescher basically just followed the trends and was successful in all of them from 10th scale buggies to touring cars to 12th scale then to Rallycross. Think he works in R&D for Team Associated. Amazing to think you could turn toy car racing into a career.

favouredimage, I too spent many years travelling the uk and Europe with my dad racing at BRCA Nationals, and the Euro”s, friendships were formed that are still around today.

Yeah, it was a great hobby. I really miss it. Haven’t raced or owned a buggy in about 10 years. You’ll no doubt remember all the names from that era – Drescher, Kinwald and Matt Francis etc. My highlight was racing at the IFMAR Worlds in 95 in Japan. I was 14 and that was a week I’ll never forget. In the end though the pressure of the whole event got to me and I didn’t drive anywhere near as well as I’d hoped for.

There are quite a few YouTube vids from the early 90’s of various events including the worlds in Basildon in 91 I think. Worth a watch, for the day-glo pink Reedy caps and jackets if nothing else.

Very cool. Brought back some memories seeing those. When I was a kid I used to race rc buggies pretty seriously. My dad and I used to do a lot of travelling racing all the nationals. Was a great hobby, really loved it.

My absolute favourite buggy I’d ever owned was the yokomo super dog fighter works edition. It was a thing of carbon beauty but was an absolute pig to build and maintain, nothing like the the super easy to build buggies you buy now.

[/url] image[/url] by blogs15[/url], on Flickr[/img]

[/url] image[/url] by blogs15[/url], on Flickr[/img]

I guessed three replies before your same set of scalextric pics made an appearance Harry_the_spider. Standards are slipping.

Cats with guns in space?

Yeah sure, whatever you like.

37% which put me ‘somewhere around Oxford’ which is actually where I live. Can’t argue with that really.

Without a shadow of doubt –

[/url] image[/url] by blogs15[/url], on Flickr[/img]