Would be very interested to know out of all the broken chains I saw how many were 10 speed though!

Interesting, I didin’t think todays course particularly favoured the 29ers. Perhaps I had just got faster since the last Gorrick, but I found myself overtaking people for a change, 26ers and 29ers alike.

The Crowthorne course 2 weeks ago was another matter. I lost count of the number of 29ers that overtook me on the corkscrew and bumpy section afterwards.

Have to admit to taking a close look at the Merida 29er. Can’t afford a new bike though :-(

I have a bomb proof Gitzo tripod and ball head. Brilliant bit of kit but far to heavy to carry around much by hand let alone in a back pack.

My dad has just bought a hama traveller compact pro. I was pleasantly suprised by the quality. Nice large ball head means it is easy to adjust and will take a reasonably heavy camera. Hook on the central column means you can hang your backpack on it to improve stability. Best bit is you can pick them up on Amazon for £36. Bargain.

Got an MTB specific idea currently being prototyped… Need to make sure it works before getting thousands made. Will let you all have a ride on my yacht when I make my 1st million!

Harry sent you an email BTW.

Don’t mind if they decide to repair it, as long as I don’t have to spend my saturday removing all the parts from the frame. I especially like the colour scheme and would be annoyed to end up with a red version.

It also seems a shame to replace a perfectly usable frame that just needs a repair. Undoubtedly if they do swap it they will put the original “beyond use”. Gonna see the mechanic at Evans Guildford on thursday to discuss.

Oooh I have something to contribute for a change.

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Wake Boarding_171[/url] by fettling[/url], on Flickr

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Wake Boarding_192[/url] by fettling[/url], on Flickr

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SkateparkBMX_9[/url] by fettling[/url], on Flickr

Top tips as ever from the STW massif ;-)

Viamichelin is suggesting the Laon route will be faster! Still going to cost 100euros in Tolls though.

Great work tricky. Wish there were some races with only 10 riders in round here!

Wednesday evenings eelmoor race has 40 plus most weeks (sometimes 60). And Goodwood… that’s another story. Raced there last month with a bunch of 100+ riders. Got spooked the 1st lap by the sheer numbers and went off the front for a bit to calm down ;-)

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Wake Boarding_171[/url] by fettling[/url], on Flickr

This is a pic I took of Dean Downing 2 years ago at the tour series in Woking. 2 laps to go and he went on a solo break ahead of the bunch… held on for the win! I was lucky to lean out at the right moment for this shot.

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Tour Series Woking 2009[/url] by fettling[/url], on Flickr

footflaps, you could stitch things together yourself in photoshop to creat a 360 pano without the top and bottom or lightprobe stuff would be a total 6 shots.
I used Autopano because it takes the hard work out of the equation when you are dealing with 42 images!

I also have a nodal ninja panoramic head which keeps the lens axis in the right place. Dont see why a landscape view wouldn’t work straight off the tripod though.

I have a 10mm nikon one that I use for doing things like this;
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Office360[/url] by fettling[/url], on Flickr

It’s a 360 degree panorama shot as a light probe – composite of 42 photos means the hdr version records light information.
I then use them to light my CGI work.

Great idea chamonix666. Always easier doing business with someone on the same wavelength as yourself.

It is a small bike, head tube length at 180mm is more in keeping with a sportive style bike. So a bit more relaxed and upright. If you want a really racy head down position then you may well want to get the head tube length reduced.

The slightly shorter chainstays will help stiffen the rear triangle, making the bike feel more responsive out of the saddle. You should still have clearance for reasonably large tyres if needed as well.

Looks good to me.

If you do a lot of road miles and decide to go for the look keos make sure you get the ones with the stainless steel plate. The all plastic body ones wear after a few years.

The second change sounds pretty unenforcable. It essentially prevents you from doing your profession.

Don’t sign.

Also bear in mind the 2nd clause is only as enforcable as he decides to make it. In my experience small companies just don’t follow through on clauses like that. They are more of a threat than a reality.

Before they were legal, the chinese imported ones used to be really good. They had a nice strong signal and worked well. Now they have made them legal and reduced the powere output the are a bit pants.

How well they work depends a lot on where you live, if you have tons of radio stations in your area you can struggle to drive far without constantly re-tuning.

I am now looking for a new car sterio with aux input!

For those of you who just can’t wait for these to arriveIn case you missed out – I have a cunning plan.

1. Take an old issue of MBUK.
2. Find the Mint Sauce cartoon and select a favourite section.
3. Cut out said section.
4. Fit to this;

5. Hey presto your own Mint Sauce keyring.
6. If it turns out great and you wan’t to express your gratitude send me one with “Summer” on, I am missing her.

I would make them and sell them if it wasn’t so easy to do yourself. I’m the guy who makes those chain cufflinks BTW.

Take a camera, then every time you feel you need a breather you can pretend you are just taking photographs ;-)

First time taking part in Tractor trumps. No idea what it is, just spotted it last winter on a snowy ride.

The bombhole with the chicken run was included. Right for hole, straight on for chicken run.

Rode the course last night after a few inches of snow. Still fantastic, although we got lost on the last section and had to cut out to the road.

Why not offer your client a discount if they pay up front. Has worked for me in the past. Alternatively a smaller discount for 50% up front.

1st step would be to speak to the agents boss (sounds like you are dealing with an underling who doesn’t know the rules). Explain your understanding was that you were now on a SPT and that as per the most recent agreement you would like to give 1 months notice.

Looks like a poorly worded Statutory Periodic Tenancy (SPT) to me.

Key things being “therefore the terms of the present notice and lease will continue”
also the “or one month by yourself”

A new contract seems unecessary if it is simply a continuation of the previous agreement, and frowned upon by the law.
The new agreement clearly states a one month notice period for the tenant and 2 months for the landlord. This is standard for SPT.

Agent is wrong and as others have said deposits are now protected and any disputes over them are handled by a 3rd party. This has been law for a while now.

Have just been to Rhodes (Ixia), lovely people.
Saw a few roadies but didn’t see any extreme mountain bikers. Usual hire places around for typical hire bikes… Not sure if there is anything more upmarket available.

Did lots of Running and Swimming instead.

‘Dog, whilst I am not up for the six pack by Christmas challenge, I do some Gym work over the winter. I have been using a great book “Weight Training for Cyclists” by Ken Doyle and Eric Schmitz
Ok it isn’t targetted at a siz pack, but it is aimed at improving your core strength (something a lot of cyclists lack).

The best bit of kit you could get for helping in your goal is a Swiss ball. Doing the usual exercises such as Plank, sit ups etc on the ball will really help the six pack out.

Favourite exercise to make the abs burn is cycle crunches….

Good luck with the plan, it is certainly ambitious. I think I would be hard pressed to achieve your aim and I don’t have any fat to loose!

Spit, preferably that of the bleeder, or should that be bleedee?

Works for small stains anyway.

The one thing I and probably everyone else who has had CFS will say is don't underestimate how easy you have to take it.

1. Don't Panic
2. In fact don't do anything.

I had this same problem last year.
Cough that wouldn't clear up after the winter. Then got really ill for a week, after which every time I so much as looked at my bike I would feel tired and ill again.
Any riding resulted in me need ridiculous amounts of sleep and feeling flu like symptoms for days afterwards. Even doing a full day at work was too much at one point.

My solution was. Stop doing exercise – full stop. Take it as easy as possible even a shopping trip could floor me!
Get tons of sleep, avoid late nights and rest regularly.

I took a couple of weeks off work. During which I watched TV did a little work from home (emails etc). Slept a lot and generally rested.
Then I worked full time again, but had an hour siesta when I got home. 2 months of this and I was starting to feel better.
I then was able to do a little exercise, 2 1/2 hour rides a week. Gradually increasing to an hour.

Rules are if you feel achy stop, if you feel tired stop, if you see a tea shop stop!
Oh and find something else that takes your mind off it. I bought a Camera and got seriously into photography. Occassional walks with the camera were great for rest and recuperation.

Basically I had to take things far easier than I have ever thought possible. By the end of the summer I was able to do the club 10 mile TT (albeit slower than I used to). Buy winter I was doing the ocassional Gorrick XC Race.

This year I am racing again, slowly finding my form and most importantly enjoying the racing after a good summer of rest.

Our hotpoint has twice gone into earth shattering banging mode when spinning. Both times was the counterweights coming loose. There are usually a set top and bottom.

Whenever I use any type of rack I always drive a little way, then stop and check. Usually a handy layby before joining a fast road.
Have ocassionally spotted things on the check which I am not 100% happy with and have rectified. Never had any problems with this option, although I will corner more slowly when using any type of rack.

Ahh fudge, suprised to find you lurking on here…. want any cufflinks?

I reckon you could find someone to do a very basic site with paypal payments for under £300. It would probably look pretty basic, but function fine.

Then add money depending on how classy you want things.
I built my own site for http://www.shinycufflinks.co.uk as I had some previous experience in web. It's not great but looks more professional than the original one page paypal affair. Allows me to keep track of my stock and do special offers etc. Still uses paypal.

All you then need is a friend who is keen on photography to do some decent shots for you. I took all my own pictures for my site.

If I was to charge for something similar – including photos I would probably want 1K for it. I am expensive though…. It is probably between 40 and 60 hours of work spread over 2 to 3 weeks.

molgrips, car is old enough not to have steering wheel controls. However, new enough to need a canbus adaptor of some sort.

I would get a propper audi stereo of ebay if it wasn't for the risk of getting a nicked one.

A bit off the wall but what about a used audi a2. I was looking for a car recently and tried out a few, very nice to drive lots of space inside and very economical.
Looks are a bit quirky but they grow on you. Ended up getting a used A3 as my wife wasn't as keen on the A2 as me.

I would base your decision on the type of photography you do. I am considering an upgrade to the d300s for 3 main reasons;
1. Can do 7fps (8 with battery grip) I do lots of sports photography.
2. Better weather sealing – lost count of the number of times I have had to put my camera away due to drizzle.
3. Metering of old manual lenses – I have a few older lenses which I really enjoy using.

There aren't many other reasons to buy the d300s over the d90.

10 Min tasty pasta rcipe.
Cook plenty 2-3 mug fulls of pasta until al dente.
Meanwhile chop up 4 or 5 tomatoes, a mozarella ball and some fresh basil.
Make a dressing of olive oil balsamic vinegar, salt, pepper lemon juice and a bit of lemon zest.
Throw it all together. Eat.

You can always add a side salad of rocket and parnesan if you want to look posh.

Timelaps do the Gorrick races, the chips are stuck to the back of your race number so must be some kind of RFID. Works great if you have a single point everyone goes through each lap.

Searching on Millyard got me a picture of a monoblade rear swing arm…. Mmm now lefty front, lefty rear GBOX arrangement, 29er with an alfine rear hub and hubless wheels. Shoot me now.