I think it's a lot harder to brick an Android phone than some other types, mainly because there is a built in boot-loader that you can start the phone up in. It's used to reset the phone to factory settings and the like, and it also where you install the new ROM from…

You can download and install completely different versions of Android for your phone. Once you have done that then there won't be any Orange software on your phone…

By the looks of it, by doing that you could end up with Android 2.2 before us Desire owners get the official release!

It appears one of my local ones wants to build a velodrome…

Damn them and their plans to make me spend even more money and buy a track bike!

spooky… it's probably that it the satnav uses power at about the same rate the Desire charges at, so you while it won't charge up very fast, it won't splat the battery either…

EDIT: Or the car charger is crap… :o)

Bugger.. I'm busy but would have given it a go otherwise…

Hope you manage to find someone.

They are pretty distinctive, and will keep my eyes open for you…

Well… if you are feeling flush then this… or for a more normal budget, anything else by him…

ned.. I know… go for a ride without a helmet, you'll soon crash and not have to worry about it any more…

;o)

Oooh.. have they changed the Weirwolf since the weekend before last then? It didn't look like that last Sunday!

Bugger… I wasn't having a good day then and promised myself I'd be back to ride it later in the year… and now it's been tamed…

dave360.. it's part of the latest Google Maps upgrade, not a seperate download.

Didn't do anything other than set it going… it kept the screen on all by itself.

Oh yes, and it got nicely toasty too!

Cove? Don't they make some of their bikes in Canada/US?

BB… so you do make an assessment of the risk then, it just happens to be different from other peoples assessment. Life would be so dull if we all agreed though.

Now, that wasn't so difficult was it?

:o)

Used the voice navigation on the Desire the other day when I went to pick up some forks… although it's a little odd sometimes with how it pronounces numbers, sometimes say the A four hundred and fifty three and other times saying A four five three… but other than that I found it rather good.

I'd not want to do it again without a car charger though… it ate the battery as it keeps the screen on all the time…

Nope, neither did we have cycle helmets back in those days

My god… how did you manage to survive?

;o)

It's gotta be a miracle!

hilldodger… well, as my other half works in H&S I do actually tend to agree with you there having seen some of the things she has to do on occasion.

Although I certainly don't agree that more bike accidents happen while pootling around at home compared to hammering it down the black run. That's a bit like saying more accidents happen close to home than on the race track! I'm far closer to my limit, and far closer to having an accident, when piling down a trail at speed.

But shouldn't a risk assessment be an assessment of the risk of doing an activity, that then allows you to make a choice whether to do that activity as is, or to do it with added constraints(eg wear a helmet), or not to do it at all.

BB… excellent description of a motorcycle helmet. I'm guessing a cut and paste? ;o)

Now compare with a cycle helmet which has probably less than an inch of polystyrene with a thin plastic outer with gopping great holes in it to let the air in/out. Well, I guess we can agree they are superficially similar though.

On the motorcycle front, they seem to also wear leathers and spine protectors… should these not be worn on a mountain bike as well? Or how about the neck protectors that they downhill guys wear… how far do you take it to make an activity completely safe?

Oh, and you are aware that it's legal for a Sikh with a turban to ride a motorcycle without a helmet aren't you… :o)

Oh yeah, and one other thing, regarding my earlier comments regarding wearing a helmet on a motorcycle. The technology for the constuction of cycle helmets is the same technology as used for M/C helmets, and isn't simply an inch of polystyrene as you claim.

Erm… you have actually handled a motorcycle helmet I presume… and compared the weight to that of a bike helmet?

Now, I have a Xen at home and that is about an inch of polystyrene with a plastic shell over the outside… that's it.. nothing more.

So what exactly is the technology that is shared between the two?

And just as a little thought… would you make a Sikh with a turban wear a helmet for cycling? :o)

hilldodger – Member

Decide yourself about to wear or not to wear a helmet, but don't try and justify it with some bullshine about risk asessment or rationality, just make your choice and STFU

Excellent… risk assessments are bull$h*t now, I'm sure the HSE would like to be told this… it'd certainly make their job easier!

;o)

juan – Member

Well it comes with the fact that you may take the risks, but we all pay for it. No one can pretend not to fall on a ride specially not TJ (who is probably a poor rider, as he's slower than I am… And I am average less).
Now some people know things better than everyone else, which is very easy when other people pays for your mistakes.

So why is it okay to hurl oneself at 30-40mph down a hillside on a bike with only a helmet for protection? I would imagine that the risk of injury is significantly higher for that, that riding along a Sustrans route without a helmet.

Are you still not putting yourself at risk of injury that, as you put it, other people have to pay for? If not, why not?

I just don't understand the evangelical zeal with which some people are taken with helmet wearing… to the extent that people who don't wear helmets deserve what they get, or they'd refuse to even help someone who had an accident and wasn't wearing a helmet. There are the same sort of voices in the climbing community as well, and I just don't understand them either…

Why does it matter so much what other people do when out on a bike?

Anyway, surely it's more dangerous to ride full speed down a black route at a trail centre with a helmet, than pootle around a local route without one. Why is the risk of the first acceptable, but the second not?

You can associate a debit card to your gmail account and it will be used to buy apps… but just be aware that if you buy apps priced in dollars that you could get caught with a nice little charge from your bank for the privilege!

I drive through there every day and will keep my eyes peeled… but didn't see anything around 4:30 when I went through this afternoon…

The panasonic recipe books are available on t'interweb… so you should be able to find them pretty easily.

Although the other half still uses it I seem to have gone over to making bread by hand at the moment. Am currently trying to get my sourdough right… they all come out looking like flying saucers at the moment! I think it's just they are still a little too wet still, but it's fun trying. It's amazing what you can make with just bread and water, and the bread is gorgeous, I just need to get used to long narrow sandwiches!

I use the Andrew Whitley 'Bread Matters' book, which is fantastic.

you must learn to disassociate between words and (proposed) actions

Aaaah… so you don't mean what you say? Or is this as my Dad used to say… 'Do as I say, and not as I do!'

;o)

Didn't wear my helmet for any ride last week… although they were only out with the dog taking him for a run, although I did manage to ride some lovely singletrack, and then down some steps and not die.

Actually, the closest I came to having an accident was when I was out trail running and thought it would be a good idea to run down a steepish slope… it got a bit steeper than planned!

Should I be wearing a helmet for running now, as on a ratio of time spent to likelyhood of injury, I am thinking that running is looking far more dangerous!

Surely it would depend where you held it…

The bit I was reading was that the 1600mAh batteries were 80-85% efficient, whereas the offical HTC battery was about 95% efficient, so giving the HTC battery a larger useable capacity…

I get it from time to time on my Inbred, and the times I get it is usually only when I am dragging the brake. Never found out why it comes and goes though…

Mat.. be careful with spare batteries.. it appears the aftermarket ones that claim to have a higher 1600mAh capacity actually don't, and the official HTC 1400mAh battery is the best one at the moment…

Mat… in Settings, go to Accounts and Sync. From there you can select which bits get updated automatically, and how often they update, and which don't. Stopping the Facebook app and the stocks updating is probably a good idea, plus on mine the Facebook auto update thing causes a crash anyway so that got turned off before anything else!

On the chicken theme…

Dr Alimantado 'Best Dressed Chicken in Town'

Why is there no aspirin in the jungle?
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.
.
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Cos the parrots eat the all…

5lab… they used to order pretty much anything in, but over the last couple of years they have reduced the number of suppliers that they deal with. They can't now get Spesh and a whole host of others.

Do you have a local Leisure Lakes? No idea if there is one down Oxford way, but they definitely take Halfords vouchers…

Of course, what else are you supposed to do?

Well, I believe you can get a wormery that is able to break down dog poo and produce compost and liquid fertiliser…

In fact I really should look into the idea for ours…

Pretty sure the bill if it ever comes will be a free vote, and the majority of MPs are LAbour/Tory and therefore stand to lose out. Therefore its probably dead in the water before it starts IMHO.

One of the Lib Dems was saying the other day that the Tories would be whipped on this vote, and so the bill should get passed to hold the referendum on electoral reform.

That doesn't however stop the Tories campaigning against it at the referendum.

I've seen loads about this year… but then I've also moved house since last summer, so it might just be a location thing!

I'd imagine the easiest way would be to get a large syringe of brake fluid and slowly inject it into the caliper bleed nipple, with the reservoir on the lever open, and just stop when the reservoir fills up.

You can then bleed them as normal, or I would imagine that they would be pretty much spot on just from doing that as it should purge the air as the system fills up with fluid.

sfb… you are being obtuse, and you know it!

tinribz… just because someone exagerated somewhat, doesn't mean it can't generally be true! Now, I would imagine that in some circumstances that SPD's do help with pedaling efficiancy otherwise we'd see Tour riders and track riders all using flats!

Now, whether it has anything to do with pulling in the upstroke is moot, as on the whole riders don't tend to do it, so I would imagine it has more to do with ensuring foot position and getting good power transfer than anything else.

Back to the main topic, it would be interesting to know if people like Chris Hoy pull up on the back stroke when starting a sprint. As has been said above, I have a feeling that even though it might produce more power, it is less efficient than not pulling up, so for short sharp sprints it might be useful.

Halfords don't let you order any bike, they have a list of suppliers they can order off, and if it's not on the list you are in trouble…

However, if you live near a Leisure Lakes, then you can go in there and they take the Halfords vouchers, or they did this time last year, and they can get pretty much anything you want. I believe there might be some other shops that do the same…

:o)