9

Have you contacted the Police yet?

The Tiffany Aching trilogy are lovely books, perfect for younger readers as well.

Oh yes, loved those. Bought them cos I’m a fanboy and need to buy all his books, but really enjoyed them. Found them really evocative and moving.

Taking the road bike out to tackle the Crow Road in the morning

It might be in stock, but they’ll still need to build it!
Wiggle will be the same.

I bought a Malt-RS from Merlin recently and it took 2 to 3 weeks to turn up. Cracking bike. I’d recommend Merlin any time.

because i’m from yorkshire i went 1*9 to save cost

This!
I damaged my front shifter recently, and it would save me buying a replacement. Some **** off big hills round my way though.

Do you ride from home or roof rack etc? Just wondered whether you have been spotted and followed?

I hadn’t really considered this as being something to avoid until recently, when I saw someone driving through the middle of Clydebank with a bright orange Orange Five on a roof rack.
Very noticeable and it would be dead easy to follow them home, if you were that way inclined.

Not much today. Nipped round the local woods with my son and his pal and showed off. Managed to do that without falling off too!

Did my local loop up the Kilpatricks last night though. It was excellent. Dry trails, just starting to frost over as the temp dropped. Beautiful night.

Looked at Merlin?

I tried it once. I’ve never seen a cable unravel so fast!

NJA – if you’re UK based and are storing information relating to legal services provided to clients then as a matter of course you should seek to keep any such information within European borders (Data Protection Act requirement). You shouldn’t be routinely transferring such information outside of Europe (i.e. no storage on servers located in the US or elsewhere). Do you comply with these?

Depending on what the information is, you may also have to comply with the Attorney-General’s Guidelines for Data Security (whole disk encryption to FIPS 140-2 standard, password strength requirements etc).

No prizes for guessing what I’ve been responsible for over the past 18 months at work…

Having been fending off demands to put everything we have on the cloud for the last year, I always love it when someone who knows about info security wades in with a bit of a reality check.

I keep the smallest Asda kit you can get in my camelbak. Basically wipes, plasters etc.
I slung a space blanket in the other week too, as I was going on a freezing cold run up the Kilpatricks. Gets quite exposed up there, even though you aren’t far away from civilisation.

Might well be up for this, how finished is the loop?

Mostly. They are still busy on the dual slalom bit, but the left line is useable. There’s a bit near the start which is completely unfinished and needs to be detoured round.
The rest of it is fine. Some fun bits too.

my last job required me to drive from Glasgow to sites in Edinburgh a few times a week.
Thats the main reason I left. It’s a shite commute.

There were a couple of Pitch’s out with us yesterday. They really do look like fun.

3 hours up the Kilpatricks this morning. No snow lower down, but some up there.
No photos, it was too bloody cold to stop!

Loads of folk getting road bikes, lots of talk about lost mojo, fed up with wet summers and dirty winters.

Reckon that’ll be it. That’s partly why I’ve just ordered a road bike.
It’s all still cycling though, innit?

A cheeky 20 odd miles down NCR7 to Balloch and back on the singlespeed today.
Nipping up to Comrie Croft with some mates for a proper bike ride tomorrow.

hainman…any more details on the trail building proposals? (at the risk of highjacking the thread!)

Not really. It was an initial meeting with the local riders to see what we’d like. Nothing promised yet.

It’s the constant being smashed into the mat, not to mention the grip fighting that’s taking it’s toll on me.
Hoping there’ll be less of that in BJJ.
I learned to tap early a long time ago!

Sounds fun and painful in equal measures!!

Well, it feels great when it’s over, thats for sure!

I was also thinking of getting into some Masters stuff myself, but my 2nd Dan lineup has left me with a permanent hand injury, which although minor, could have been much worse. This freaked me out somewhat and is partly what led to me giving BJJ a more serious try. It looks a bit less ruinous on the ageing body.

At a dan grading, if you’ve won a couple of fights, they give you the opportunity to win your next grade outright by getting you to fight 3 opponents in a row, hence a lineup. You need to beat them all and theres no break between matches.
The usual method is to gradually gain points from wins at competitions and gradings. I think you needed 100 points to get 1st dan. With you gettng 10 points for a win, against someone of the same grade.

Karate – can’t remember, it seems so long ago. 3 or 4 years it took to get 1st Dan, probably.
Judo – I blazed my way up through the Kyu grades and got 1st Dan (via a lineup) in about 2 and a half years. Kind of wish I’d taken a bit more time about it now though. I waited about 4 years before trying out for 2nd. Got it on the day via another lineup!

Another Judo 2nd Dan here, got it earlier this year. Along with a 3rd Dan in Shotokan Karate (going back a bit) and more recently sporting a shiny white BJJ belt.

you’ll run that off, no problem.

Be sure to visit Baird’s and also the Louden Tavern for some local colour. Preferably on the same evening.

Yep, I converted an old Scott Yecora to SS, and with the weather being so rubbish, it’s getting more and more use. So to give me a few more hand positions, I stuck an On One midge bar on, some Dia Compe levers off Ebay that work with my old cantis and a pair of Vittoria Randonneurs that are really cheap out of Decathlon.
It works a treat! It’ll zip along quite happily on roads, cycle paths and light trails.

My first one lasted about 4 months. Not only that, I just did not get on with them when taking cranks off and putting them back on. Needlessly fussy.
When I built up my new frame I made a point of going for Shimano. Much easier.

klumpy

The pyjama side of fighty stuff has that sort of weird discipline side to it. Bowing to people, rigid lines, do what you’re told, speak when spoken to… Which might help lead a particularly odd person to those lengths. “You are weak! You will never be ninja!” <smack> etc.

Fighty stuff that is approached more like a sport (including judo, despite the jammies) is generally less like ‘The Cruel Tutelage of Pai Mei’. (U-Tube it!) Oh, and may actually work, if that matters.

I’ve got a theory that with your more sport oriented arts, you need to be able to back your words up with ability, therefore they attract less of your “BOW TO YOUR SENSEI” type of halfwits.

Report him to his governing body. Thats not acceptable, though I met many like him in my Karate days.
Send junior to a Judo club. Judo is much more fun for kids. Karate can be dead abstract and make no sense to children – “put your foot there, no there. Punch higher, a bit higher, no lower!” All that nonsense. Plus, frankly, you seem to get loads of martial fantasists in Karate, like this guy sounds.

Anyway, Judo = brilliant falling skills. Saved my ass in crashes a few times. Might come in handy if your son ever gets a MTB.

I got a set of Midge’s for my ss. Love ’em!

Get whatevers cheaper.

More pressure! I’m 94kg and run 120 in neg and pos.

Gunz – Member

I was cleaning my old Kona the other night and wondering why front mechs have got so portly and comparitively ugly. Look at a 1993 XT mech and it really is an exercise in pleasing simplicity compared to the modern stuff.

When I discovered that the SRAM front mech off my old bike wouldn’t fit onto my new 456 Evo, I resorted to bunging an 18 year old STX-RC mech on.
Works great, is smaller and neater than modern mechs and works with a SRAM shifter too.

Edinburgh? Pop over to Glasgow, and take a cruise doon the watter on a paddle steamer (Glasgow-Rothesay is my recommendation)
waverley excursions

Nice one! The Waverley is great fun, but can be a bit of a booze cruise!

Did anyone in your family enjoy the Harry Potter films? How about a trip in the Hogwarts Express (aka the Jacobite)
http://www.westcoastrailways.co.uk/jacobite/Jacobite_Details.html

A bomb disposal suit, heavy leather gloves, manacles, swarfega, a crucifix, tactical air support circling the area and Drontal.

I also had problems with wifi on my superhub. Wired connection was fine, anything wifi would connect to the device, but get no internet connection.
I heard a rumour that if you change the auto channel selection in the hub and manually specify a wifi channel, that sorts it.
Gave that a try last night and bingo. Wifi now working fine on my laptop, phone and kindle.

hmm…thinking about this. BMXs look simple, fun and cheap.
I’m still confused though, 20 or 24″? I’d be using it mainly at the local track. I’m 5’11”

turning 40.
Today.
Balls…

I was thinking about doing some yoga or martial arts training to learn to crash better, but never have yet.

I keep saying it, do Judo!

You learn to breakfall, but more than that, you do it so often, it becomes instinctive, breaking the reflex action to put your hand out to stop yourself.

Depending on demand, Judo classes for the MTB community may be available in the Glasgow area from this August… :P

I replaced the worn out middle ring on my Stylo crankset with a bog standard cheapo Deore one with no problems whatsoever.