I am surrounded by aircrew in Kingston – they all seem to catch the 285 bus to work if they don’t have a parking perk!

The A3 leads to the hills – to the coast – and to the M25!

But what Molegrip has said is a good bet for your money. Other than ride what else do you do with your time off?

Living in the South west ‘burbs ain’t that bad – lots to do and easy reach of town if you need that as well.

My only tip with a bob is to get two of the rear skewers that the trailer attaches to the bike with. That way you can share the towing…

Mrs GDRS does the flat bits…….

Hey CG if you have a shoulder injury these packs are a winner (if you like packs – and frame mounting stuff is not your thing).

Also for those that sweat a lot – I find that in the summer the wing nut is much cooler than the Deuter packs I used to favour.

Swerving the politics – I think since the tube strikes the other year there are more commuting clyclists in London – and more have gone all weather from fair weather…..

I now suspect Evan’s and CycleSurgery are in league with the unions…….questions must be asked……

As per Dave

There is a Klien vibe. There is a chap I would say in his mid / late sixties that I have seen burning around Richmond Park (not gnarly) but he is tanking it on a nice big fat tubed purple Klien.

He looks a bit like skeletor. Never with a helmet – instead protecting himself from falls by a bandana.

I thought he looked like Keith Richards the first time I saw him…..

Make a cosy for your compost heap…..

Just a quickie – as I age I have dropped the ratio.

32;17 for a Swinley / Surrey Hills vibe – and I will screw on an 18 if I was going to a welsh trail centre. The days of a 16 have left me.

BUT I have had ‘knee trouble’ on what I call my ‘best foot forward’ side. The physio has put me right about the need to look after the ITB – and by using a roller on this in the gym I am getting back to normal.

Turner Guy – yep that’s the spot. I am sure everyone gave it a squirt from their bottle / pack.

Grum – of course moving over is an option – but when you can’t – you can’t and IMO it is not cool to be an arse about it.

Second the canals. Did a little touring a few years ago with the S/O.

A little map work is a good thing before going to France as if travelling light and you are in the sticks(and you want to eat in the middle of the day) you have the following paradox – you can’t buy food becuase the shops are shut for lunch – so you need to go to a cafe / bar etc. However if you want your lunch cooked for you and you are later than 1.30 / 2, forget it as food has finished or the places are shutting.

Timing is everything.

But if you have a place in France you will likely know this. But I shout it out as we knew this – and forgot everything we knew when we got on our bikes!!!!

I say drop an e and see 🙂

Chas Bike Mong – short bolt tastic.

Z1ppy – agree about the weight…..but as a low tech solution / anyone intrested in a taster of night riding in the woods I think it’s fine.

The other thing I think it’s worth saying if people are looking at mounting options for torch style lights, is that if you have any switchbacks / tight corners to negotitate at night a head mount is great as you can look ‘around’ the corners (I find bar mount only set ups are a bit limiting in the tight and twisty).

I just use cable ties – I ride with a Hex helmet and the vents are positioned well enough to make a secure fix. Cheap and cheerful.

but I have a bar mount (cheap) for another ‘torch’ and that works fine for me…..

the site below has bar and helmet fixing and is where I got my lights from previously.

http://www.fenixtorch.co.uk/led_torches/lockblock.html

Like a lot of people on here I have done a few guided trips – and my partner and I use them to improve as well as ride in an new and challenging environment.

The guided part of the service is really important us – the guides make the sessions tick in my opinion.

Anyway what I wanted to say after reading this thread is that some companies have put a focus on customer service – and I think that shows in some of the prices, and the quality of the guiding and accomodation on offer accross Europe.

Nobody has metioned the operators margin in the thread – and every guiding company is relient on getting in numbers to make margin. A total of around 14 (?) riders in the week could be too much of a stretch for an operation of this size (gauged by the manpower and resources that have been disclosed in the thread). However, I guess the margins are slim and the temptation to have all of busienss and a ‘full week’ in the season is important to the operator. They do need to make a living – that’s the lifestyle choice they have made – or are trying to make work for them.

The balence has to be what is important to the client.

I am not sure I am bold enough to fully articualte what customer service is to the average person in this forum in the guided mountainbiking space. But I would say I know this about running a business – the best customers are repeat customers – you have less marketing spend attracting them back to you than you do attracting new customers to you – and in every case you have the oppertunity to turn every customer into a promoter (i.e they do your marketing for you) if the experience is great.

In this thread there are detractors – and my thoughts are look at what they are saying. I must confess that I have not used this company, as I have been influenced by some detractors I have met on other trips. I won’t act as a promoter for other companies in this thread, as the point I want to make is this, if the service is bad, most of us are not fools, we tend to not go again. And to any operators reading this, I don’t know the ins and outs of your various busienss models, but look at your customer base – it’s niche, I would say tech savvy, and with a resonable commitment to keep doing this type of holiday for as long as they can. Everyone talks – and the detractors often have the loudest voices – which cast further with the aid of technology. You can’t blag it forever.

Intrestingly – what would it have taken to turn MC into a promoter? I guess if the trip was as good, as opposed to as bad as reported, how many other people would have been told about a great trip?

A bit of ramble. Sorry. But I hate poor service, and I listen to both promoters and detractors when I make my consumer choices.

Not doing it this year – but the ‘rooty climb’ up to mini death bowl is a sinch now that the chalky rutted section at the top has been filled in with stone and gravel. Was there the other week on my Singlespeed Cross.

KMC BMX chain – especially if you are a screw on freewheeler…….

Skid MArk – do you mean the felix bat in the peninsular hotel?

That is the best view.

Expensive and smart togs to get in!

Time and any jet lag aside……..

Star ferry – its iconic and one day they will fill the harbour in!!

Cheung Chau for sea food and a nice vibe (check out a google earth for orientation).

Stanley is my kind of hell. But I can do temple street night market for tat – but like looking at the men with their fotune telling birds.

DO GO AND HAVE DIM SUM HK Style……and don’t fear the ladies and their steamers.

Re: TV – eyebrows raised whenever a ‘vet’ pulls out a big one in a tour – and on big stages………benefit of the doubt as always unless there is a positive test result.

I would suggest TV’s pee is well sampled after this many days in yellow.

Basso and Evans might turn the tables on the Schlecks if they keep focusing on Contador.

Money on Basso for the stage win into Italy if he can get away?

I’d go with a KMC. In fact I always do.

Cheap enough, if not just to rule it out as a fix.

One other thought that came to mind – as per above – have you got a chain tug fitted? I think they help with general bodgery and singlespeed voodoo.

Del 11 is fine.

We will be the couple in our late thirties faffing about by a Renault Scenic……….

Bucko – I come down to see my folks four / five times a year. We normally ride on Exmoor (out of habit) – but want to see what else is about.

Cheers.

G

Del

Ping me an email – it’s in my profile. Be great to be shown around.

Mid morning is good for us.

Cheers

G

Evil Joe

Cool will mail you tomorrow!

Still looking for a guide though if anyone is game for it.

32:17 – in the middle of too hard and too easy.

I let the knees tell me what they want – but I tell them off if they say ‘a range of gears’.

Hmm – you don’t mention what type of hub / wheel you have, but just a thought – if the wheel is ‘wobbling’ then you might have done the bearings in one side of the hub*

It gives the appearance of the wheel moving back and the chain slackening despite the high tenstion through the axel.

*Note – see my inglorious exit from SSEC on lap 2.

If you are in Ed

Henry Grey might give you a good price / Sports Car breakers might also make you an offer…..

A couple of thoughts.

If they your company are willing to fund the training, then this benefits both parties – and some form of agreement to pay the training costs back if you leave within a reasonable time period is quite common. This might come with a rise attached – which is negatated to a degree if you leave and have to pay the training cost back (you are in effect net neutral over the course of say 12 months / period to qualify).

If your role is an amalgam of three – I would start by agreeing / refreshing your role profile with your boss (if not already done so). This does two things. It increases awareness of what you do exactly – which in turn provides visibility on what value you add to your organisation. This will in likelihood make any presentation to the directors more straight forward for your direct boss if he goes into bat on your behalf.

Secondly, with a current role profile in place you can benchmark against the local market. If the benchmarking shows your current salary (in relation to skill set) is higher than market – then you might be better to keep quiet and leave the organisation when a more fiscally attractive offer comes along elsewhere. However, if you are being paid below market, you have a corner stone to negotiate up from. All the options are open then for you to discuss ( e.g. the training / raise option, a straight raise to market level or a combination of both).

However with this type of thing, there is in my experience a risk that you are over paid to market and your skill level is below the established market entry point – so you might want to do some informal benchmarking of your own before you take things forward.

But let’s assume you are overworked and under paid 🙁 But you are successful in your negotiation 🙂

Good luck!

Water ingress through pack zips has been an issue for me in the past – well not so much for me but for my laptop 🙁

Interesting thread.

I do a sporadic 28 round trip in from the ‘burbs to Southwark in London. I say sporadic, as cycling in London has made me take a risk based approach to the days I cycle based on daylight and weather.

Been doing this for 10 years and a these are the things I would share:

If you want to ride your other bikes at the weekend – make the commuter as simple and as robust as you can. This cuts down on maintenance time at the weekends and cost (me – pompino and strong wheelset).

I second the panniers idea – done both backpacks and panniers over time – and for work, the load carrying and water proof abilities of a rack mounted system has won hands down. I use only one pannier and I also use this as real estate for extra reflectivness and lighting.

If your lights have batteries – keep a spare set at work.

Don’t be one of the endless stream of idiots who will start to cycle into work now the weather is better who insist on wearing ipods / MP3s. Traffic and headphones is IMHO a bad scene.

Finally – let your SOH know that you have arrived safely at work / when you are leaving. This creates domestic calm to offset your new requirement for laundry hanging space mid week.

And the best thing about cycling to work is cycling to work!

Thanks Parvis – do you have a couple of grid refs for key points?

Thanks for the link – sorry I thought the rivery thing was the canal – but Lower Weston is right – not too far from Victoria Park.

Any other ideas………….

bump 🙂

Thanks to all for the advice and pointers – Kona TC I will PM my address as I would like the leaflet.

Take the point on the boring sections guys – mind you I have done the south downs link to Brighton and that’s quite mind numbing – and my brother does not live there – so at least there is a goal for this one….. and a cup of tea, shower and a curry!!

Thanks drain for the pointers.

I quite like canal rides – and this one has been in my mind for a while. I sometimes have to work in Bristol (although my bro lives in bath) and several times I have got to reading and thought this might be fun. Years ago (in the early 90’s) did the ridgeway from near reading to swindon – and toyed with it then but never got further than one of Readings many pubs……

80 is about what I thought the long and the short of it would be – Mrs GDRS actually said 84 to me a gut feel guess. great stuff.

Thanks everyone – slugwash that would be great if you could scan the article. Fancied doing it on my cross bike. Being a bit lazy now but with all the wiggly bits how far do you estimate it to be?

Late to this post……..

Nothing to do with pricing of the yak but – I have one – I have done 1000’s of miles with it (on road / off road / back and cross country) and imho they are worth the money. They are bomb proof. Once I got used to it I did not really feel the weight – but we have dropped and sledged it down unridable bits of alp, chucked it onto to trains in france – slung it onto the bike bus and really abused it over seven years – and all I have had to do is change the rear tyre and fasion some replacement pins for the QR.

So okay I am a fan – but if you really are going to abuse a trailer these things can take it.

Not riding – but we are watching (several of us). Meeting in the half moon first – but we will remember to leave the pub!

Flying ball in Mongkok was always good when I lived in HK…..