I tend to ride cheeky trails of dubious status, but mostly avoid them if they are actual footpaths or waymarked walking trails, especially if there are no-bike signs.
There are plenty of options available without upsetting other countryside users where I ride.

Watch how many riders crash on corners on time trial bikes. The position is no good for much in the way of climbing either.

I can’t generally hear any of the talking from my office, so that kind of thing passes over me. 😉

Free, Smooth, Heart FM – I feel like suicide after a few days of that garbage at work. It’s not bad enough that I hate 90% of the songs they play, but they have playlists of I’m sure, no more than half a dozen tracks that are on over and over again.
Luckily at the moment we are going through a Radio 2 stage. I still don’t like a lot of the music, but at least it’s not the same song every 5 mins!

I always listen to albums right through in the correct order without skipping tracks.
I would like to think the artist has put a deal of effort into arranging the running order and therefore to get the best out of the music, that’s how it should be heard.
I still buy loads of CDs every month. Call me old fashioned, but to me, downloads just seem throwaway and of no great worth, where a physical album can be likened to a piece of art.
The ability to cherry-pick and download single tracks is a product of the short-attention-span generation and artist albums shouldn’t allow it IMHO, I think it’s disrespectful to the artist, however I can see that choosing just the tracks you really like from v.a. compilations is handy and saves you money.

I guess your point of view depends on how serious you are about collecting and listening to music. I can see maybe, that many “pop” music fans are only really interested in current individual songs for the duration of their popularity, whereas I still play years-old albums over and over.

Tuesday. Lots of good stuff in this one, if you have simillar interests to me. 😉

I tend to stick to my current fave all-rounder for a good while until I get tempted away by something new that looks like it might work better.
Don’t change for conditions these days tbh, as most of the time a ride has a variety of terrain and therefore favours an all round, rather than a mud-specific pattern for example.
Tread-wise I look for the fastest rolling I can get, while being grippy enough not to be useless in mud and heavy duty enough not to split at the first sign of a rock. Rounded profiles suit me better than square.
Mostly I run the same tyres front and rear, so I can swap ends and replace one at a time.

Cut gate was like a rocky fast-flowing river between the boggy parts last thursday. I’d be amazed if all that has dried out by now.

Cheers dood! 😉

Are the rangers still really on-top about riding off-piste? They used to be pretty active, especially on the steep slopes of Cofton Hill when I used to ride there in the 90s.

Was a good read. I used to ride the Lickey Hills regularly when I lived closer to Brum. Often rode from Clent via Waseley.
Think I may have to take a trip back over for old time’s sake, as the article has re-kindled my interest somewhat.
Nice one Rocketdog. 🙂

Music. I’m still an avid CD collector.

I used to do it regularly on the road when I was (much) younger, but I never ate or drank properly in those days. It was horrible, set off migraines and whichever way I headed home were always up long hills. I can remember lots of petrol station choccy purchases and much sitting down on the pavement. Blew so bad a few times I had to phone my dad for a lift as I was way too far from home to get back.

Can’t remember the last time I really popped, big-time. Must have been a while back now.

Electrypnose, Ocelot, Ital, Dirty Saffi, Etnica and some compilations on Mighty Quinn & Parvati Records.

Sounds about right. Cheers! 🙂

I’m on about the bolts fixing the caliper to the frame, not holding the pads.
Perhaps “spring clip” is the wrong term, but I don’t know what else to call these things! Never had them on any other bikes.

The Swift has the Kudos I guess, but I can’t fault my Fortitude SS.
Never been keen on EBBs and the rear facing dropouts have been trouble free. I’ve no intention of putting suspension forks on it (defeats the object of SSing to my mind,) so the non-suspension corrected geometry isn’t of concern.
Don’t know the weight but seems very reasonable. Certainly a fair bit lighter than my old Io SS.
The handling is spot-on and it doesn’t hang about. 🙂
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119_4674[/url] by franklini10[/url], on Flickr

Adam & The Ants – Kings Of The Wild Frontier
Adam & The Ants – Prince Charming
Madness – Complete Madness
Madness – The Rise & Fall
Iron Maiden – Powerslave

Judging by their comments about my daily commute, the only way you’d encourage most people to cycle where I work, would be to ensure:
a) it never rained or snowed,
b) it was never cold.

I guess it’s the larger diameter wheel rolling better.(Not a very scientific answer, I’ll grant you.)
I’ve got similar 26″ & 29″ singlespeeds and the difference on long climbs is quite clear.

Sandwell Valley is the only real place to ride within easy distance from my front door. I often nip down the cut and have a spin over there.
Good to see some surfacing on the trails as it tends to get crazily muddy and waterlogged.
Checked out the first little loop a couple of times, look forward to giving the new stuff a go when it’s completed. 🙂

There’s nothing unusual about the way Amazon’s warehouses work. I’ve been working in distribution for nearly 15 years and other than the size of their operations and the pressure of so many orders, there’s little different to our warehouses.
Using temps for busy periods and to recruit is standard practice all over.

I’m surprised they get away with pressuring the workers to keep up to speed so much in this country though.
I’ve seen it in the US, but not here, especially if some of the workforce belong to a union.

I use Amazon all the time. Almost all books, DVDs and CDs I buy (and I buy a lot of Cds) are either from them or via their marketplace.
At the end of the day, they are stupidly easy to use and satisfy their customers, that’s why they have so many.

It gets a big thumbs up from me! 😀

Karl Urban was superb I reckon. Looked just like Ezquerra’s Dredd, as already mentioned.
I used to be a big 2000ad (and Starlord before that) fan and was SO disappointed with the Stallone Dredd.

It’s something I really hate too. Ruins the atmosphere and gets in your line of sight.
I don’t mind people taking the odd photo so much, but videoing the whole thing!!!
I’ve come close to grabbing someone’s phone and launching the thing across the room. 👿

If you really must film more than a few seconds worth – go and stand at the side out of peoples’ way you selfish b******s!!!!

2 at the moment.

Fortitude SS 29er and Io SS 26″.

I’ve pretty much lost the ability to write with joined up letters and lower case.
The only writing I’ve done for years has been printing in capitals (because that’s what has been required at work, mainly,) and that’s all I can manage now without it looking like a 6 year old wrote it.

Good one!
I raced at Castle Coombe once many years ago, but it was too fast and flat for me and I got dropped in the final laps.

😆

Yes. Just like that one.

Joking aside – in my experience bridleway signs are almost non-existant in some places and especially where there’s no visible trail on the ground and you could really use a pointer.

It’s something I wondered about too.
Not sure about fields, but to my mind it would be great to have some proper (legal) mountain routes marked out by small signs or paint on the rocks like they do in some areas overseas. (Or moorland routes.)
I’m not bothered about the “built” nature of trails, I like a bit of everything, but enjoy not having to worry about navigation sometimes, especially in wet weather.

…and no I don’t own, or plan to buy a GPS. 😉

My new buddy, in his default position: 🙂

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I had to pop into Swinno’s on Saturday and the B.V. area was rammed. Not really a surprise though – first nice weekend for aaaaages. Always brings them out in droves.

😆

Don’t reckon you need to be super strong or fit (luckily, 😉 ) to enjoy SS riding, just smooth on the bike and determined.
The kind of people you see mainly at trail centres, who drop down to the granny and spin like mad at the first whiff of a climb, would probably be faced with a steep learning curve, however. 😀

FWIW, I ran 32:17 on the 26″ and now use 33:19 on a 29er.

New one:
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100_5241[/url] by franklini10[/url], on Flickr
Old one: (Now the commuting bike.)
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IMG_0500[/url] by franklini10[/url], on Flickr

Used the Surly on a couple of bikes now. Can recommend!

aphex_2k wrote:

Did anyone who went to Atomic Jam go to the West End bar for the afterparties?

Yup. 😀
Used to meet up in Quo Vadis first, often as not.

Nice one Tomaso!

I’m in that video from ’96, along with my bro. and loads of old mates! 😀