Portsmouth Uni today.

Interesting how the campus is interwoven within the city center. This is definitely a campus for people who like the buzz of a city.

The history degree sounded fulfilling and engaging, definitely a contender with my daughter.

The university played on the employability of their graduates and how they have consistently risen up the Guardian tables over the last few years. (perhaps they are good at getting the right data results – as suggested above).

Accommodation ranged from the very poor to very good new builds.

Thanks for the exhaustive reply Northwind.

My original post was intended to be a bit flippant but as has been pointed out education is now a big business and the stakes and pressures can be high for the individuals and corporations.

Entirely agree that the gut feel is a very important emotion to take on board consideration. Sussex just felt tired and and a bit dis-organised plus the course wasn’t exactly what my daughter was looking for, Reading campus felt like a small town, modern, clean, well loved but the walk to the accommodation albeit lovely on a summers day will be rubbish on a wet winters day. Chichester, as i said before felt like and cosy old village, and the uni focused on the small family togetherness of the place.

Most the tutors have come across a passionate, knowledgeable, energetic, patient. Although i have met one who i thought if it was me going there i would struggle to get on with them.

Finance is my main concern. Not the “debt” (its not a loan in a conventional sense, but deferred taxation depending on your income) but the day to day balancing of the books. Convincing my daughter to find work to fill the gaps will be as much of a challenge as anything else.

A little disappointed to be honest. Didn’t show the hobby in a great light. Came across as a bit toy train set’ish. I would have preferred it if they built something smaller but higher quality. I was hoping for a competition around true modeling skills.

i think changes in geometry are a gradual, one step at a time process, rather the someone have a grand new design which will change everything.

The way i see it is, with the arrival of bigger wheels, (cynical invention in my mind, but be that as it may be) the big frame making brands said to shimano and SRAM if you can get rid of that front mech we can tuck that bigger rear wheel in a bit more, hey presto 1* drive trains, and a shorter wheel base.

With  bigger wheel out front we need to make the front a bit slacker and alter the trail etc, But if we do that then the the cockpit will be really cramped so we’ll make the reach a bit longer to compensate….

plus the trend of wider bars need a shorter stem, even more reason the extend the frames reach to compensate.

Not saying modern geometry is not an improvement, but just one thing leads to another.

Had a similar conversation with a game keeper about four years ago with much the same message although on rather more friendly terms.

Basically only a small section immediately behind the the cafe is Forestry commission land. Most of the rest of is owned by the duke of Norfolk estate with this then leased to local farms. Yes these farms and land are used for shoots in the season.

The game keeper basically told me we were welcome in small groups but to take care. Keep noise to a minimum to avoid scaring the nesting birds and wear bright clothing to avoid being shot at. Also be aware at night there will be marksmen present in the woods culling dear.

Basically they did not like noisy groups and aggressive trial building.

anything doing on Bodmin moor. Staying down that way at the end of august. i will probably just do Cardinham Woods but was just wondering if there was anything worth riding on the moor.

Just for clarity, could somebody upload a map with the effected area shaded. I know where evian and 3a and A51 are but was hoping for a clearer definition to avoid straying into disputed land. As said above best avoided until the heat dies down.

I brought one last autumn and still remain a bit underwelmed.

Better than a road bike but not as good as a mountain bike.

Never got this notion of it being a go anywhere bike. Yes you could take it down some technical stuff but you will be compromised. A mountain bike is a true go anywhere bike.

had trouble uploading photos but here goes. Devils dyke station in it’s “heyday “circa 1911

[/url]1911 Circa by andy constable[/url], on Flickr[/img]

Clearly not much traffic expected – circa late 1930’s just before closure

[/url]THE DYKE RAILWAY by andy constable[/url], on Flickr[/img]

some of my work

[/url]DSC03258 by andy constable[/url], on Flickr[/img]

Recently got back into the hobby and starting on a project to recreate the Devils Dyke railway station on the southdowns. If you live down this way there a far chance you never knew there was ever a railway up there, but there was. Fairly bleak by southern standards.

The bits i enjoy about the hobby are the historical research and then the actual modeling/crafting.

id did exactly this. Fit a forget, literally. Until i read this thread i had forgotten i’d used them.

haven’t had a letter but downloaded the app some time ago.

Useful when you out and about to get a decent wifi connection.

no idea how the sharing of my hub works and who knows whats been going on, but we do use VM web safe on our hub so maybe that limits strangers only downloading safe stuff… no idea. On the other hand does it mean if my kids access another persons hub outside our home the parental control will be wide open ?

Coming at this from a the model railway world, (not airfix i’m affraid but i guess its all the same) i really would recommend humbrol weathering powders. its early days at the the moment and still experimenting but i’m liking them. I mix these up with water and apply as a generous wash over the pristine paintwork. then when dry i wash off the excess with either a tissue or a cotton bud. You can also apply them neat as a dust to the model and move them about. Again excesses can be washed off. Then when happy set them with a spray coat of varnish. The results so far have been rather pleasing. furthermore over the course of a couple of days they seem to tone down and have a very subtle effect.

There are some humbrol channel videos on youtube that i would recommend. As ever they make it look very easy but do give you some ideas to practice with. I knocked up a painted panel of plastic and practiced on this before i attacked the real thing.

As a local to the South downs national park i think it captured the essence of the park perfectly.

The south downs are a soft landscape in terms of the views being easy on the eye and the hills gently roll and fold over and into each other. There aren’t any rocks, we don’t have any water falls, there are no hard edges, so its not like some of the other national parks in the country. It’s different and as such stands up to scrutiny on its own.

I think the programme fairly reflected that it’s mostly a managed landscape and the look results from the agriculture taking place. Yes there are pockets of ‘wilderness’ but it’s mostly a worked landscape, but still magical.

I would sum up the downs as windy and wet in the winter, hot and dusty in the summer but always a big view landscape.

Bring back the old slam door trains and we’ll close the doors ourselves. Nothing more to argue about then.

i like it, on of the best programes on the bike channel.

Filmed by Liam Murphy who always makes a good film.

i dont get how pcp or leasing is a better deal. say leasing is £300 per month, that’s £3600 per annum. I could buy a good second hand car for that and it will last a darn sight longer than 1 year.

@ joolsburger yes mine are comps as well and that is the exact area where mine have gone, common fault i’m guessing

Anyone had any success in sticking shoes back together. If so what glue did you use. I have a pair of spesh that are coming apart at the toes. Rest of the shoe is fine, would like to get a few more years out of them.

Mine’s due to be built up on friday. Wheel upgrade would be nice, but not heard anything other than the advertised spec as yet.

Back to blazing saddles, obviously no one sems to know the real reason why they are closing but there does seem to be a lot of bike shops around these parts. Ive often wondered how they all make a living. Im guessing it was just enivitable that one of them would eventually throw in the towel. From shoreham to littlehampton ,say 10 miles along the coast, I think there are 7 bike shops that I would say are stw type bike shops, and 4 general family type shops, plus 3 halfords. Thats a lot of bike business required. Simple case of a lot local competition.

Does seem like something else is going on as the price increases are greater than the currency drops.

So the £:$ rates has fallen by approx 12% but prices, by the above figures, have gone up by circa 25-30%. Looks like a bit of profitiering and taking advantage going on there.

Im a local authority employee and on recent budget calculation we worked on employed staff backpack costs of 40-45% of salary. Ie the cost of providing benefits, employer NI contribution, HR costs on top of normal salaries.

Worthing local here. Usually get out on a tuesday, usually a bit earlier, could do 19:30 though. Where the meeting point ?

Agreed with op. Keep the moving parts clean but leave the rest. Worked out a long time ago that water kills bikes. Especially in winter when a wet but clean bike gets put in the shed and then stays wet for days on end, plus the effects of frost on a wet bike.

I have a theory of all those disc brake pads falling apart a few years ago was in fact frost forcing the wet compound away from the backing plate. Lost a couple of pairs when I washed bikes regularly, now I dont ive never had a disc pad fail.

Agree with stump01, re the free postage that isn’t. Products are advertised as free postage but aernt because you haven’t purchased the right combination of products, and you only find out when you get to the checkout. Feels like trickery. Most frustrasting web site ive used in years. Made a personal vow never to try there again. Ebay buy it now works better for me.

Haven’t been there for a while. There used to be a few bits but not enough to make it a destination in itself. Best as a link up with Tilgate.

Purchased lots of stuff over the years, pads, expander rings, chain rings, wheels, stems. everything has performed perfectly. tbh i think they need to be praised for bringing usable products to market that are priced correctly.

Isn’t this debate , ie the suv in relation to old school cars the same as the modern mtb bike against 10 year ago mtb’s.

In both cases everything looks basically the same, but everything is a bit bigger, efficiency in terms of motion to power input is a bit comprimised (ie slower up hill for bikes) , but the new option is better in getting over bumps in the road/trail and makes the user feels more secure, so feels better.

Sad news. I really enjoyed this event last year. Matt put on a great event and well organised. I’ m guessing that it just hasnt sold this year.

Seems to me that stage events just dont sell in the uk. History is literred with great event that have just not taken off in a commercial sense. Ultimately the organiser needs to cover their costs at the absolute least.

The overlapping zones has no affect unless you start your ride in a different zone each time. No matter how many zones you have listed if you always start from home you’ll form a circle with your house in the middle of it as only the privacy zone where the ride starts\finished is used , all others do not apply.

I get what you mean but what if the start falls witihin say four similar but not the same privacy zone, ie the zones have a large amount of overlap. does strava not hide the start from all the zones. In effect four similar zones which have a large amount of overlap end up creating a more freeform privacy zone.

Thatll be the climb out of washington on sdw going east to west, or at least looks like it. Barnsfarm hill. Nasty little bugger. Gets steeper the higher you go.

£500 buys a lots of b&b nights plus an evening meal, even in june. Plenty of none racing riding can be done on that budget. In answer to the abovd question, £300 would seem about right for me. Epic cymru seems better value, and 5 days riding instead of 3.

Then again depends on their business model, sell a few places for lots of £ per entrant or sells lots of places for a small £ per entrant. I guess its easier to manage an event with fewer people.

edit… just noticed its limited to 200 places. I think epic cymru sold about 150 places last year and I think that event is more attractive.

re Trans lakes, looks like a great concept until you get to the £550 for 3 days.

Anyone else enjoying the comic value in the tv show free wheels. Cant make my mind up if its supposed to be funny or is just the translation that makes it funny. Reminds me of the old eurotrash tv style of the nineties. Strange words creep in like calling ridng as bike as piloting . If this is how europe mtb realy is then it very different jn style to the uk scene, in that we are more serious about style and collness than they are. Not being critical just an interesting observation.

yep all 26’ers here

yep works on my virgin box, channel 552 as above.

Hallelujah… there are people out there who agree with me that 1* is not perfect. For me its the loss of the extreme gears at each end that is really annoying. Yes you might only use then 5% of the time but i miss them. Changing the chain ring means im either too lowly geared or too highly geared.

Also agree with an earlier post about adding extra weight to the rear wheel. i cant get my head around how this can’t be a major influence to how the bike handles, in terms of rotating weight and unsuspended weight.

I must be the only person who doesnt get on with 1×10. It just doesnt seem to have the range. If I get the low gear right I miss the high gear and vise versa. I think it depends on the downhills in your area. If they are fast pedally none technical runs then you will miss the top end. I can see the 10t on sram would be really good but without it the range is to restricted.

Secondly I dont get the advantages. Yes less weight around the mid frame area but youre loading more weight onto the the rotating mass ie the hub and cassette. Yes there is one less gear lever to push but its not exactly hard as it is now is it.

I like a bike that gets me up every hill and down every hill without any comprises. A rough look at my stats showed my average speed for a ride was higher with a full set of gears that with 1×10. That convinced me.