We have discussed bike rides etc and mrs c has agreed that I should still do my riding. She is just a bit clingy with a bit of the baby blues / pnd. So will give it another couple of weeks.

I’m 46, Mrs Gixer is 25 ( and very pregnant :D )

Mrs G acts about 10 years older than she is, while i act like a young fool (most of the time)

Seems to work for us

Thanks cp, that’s the kit i bought – didn’t realise that the crank sensor was stuck to the spoke magnet :oops:

ta

I was looking at Sram red with Ksyrium SL’s, good that you can customise the paint scheme to. Currently offering the paint option FOC – so quite tempted.

Used to ride 300 miles from Cannock to Linwood on a GSXR 600 K1. Hated it when i was on the motorways. Different story when going from Cannock to Betws-y-Coed, Abersoch, Harlech, Fairbourne etc.
Bikes get tedious on motorways – i get bored after about half an hour and have to let it rip, which could get me into some trouble if i was caught.

Now have a K1300s which shows 50 -55mpg with some enthusiastic riding thrown in, wouldn’t use it for those distances due to tyre and service costs.

Had a good scout around the woods earlier , but with 350 acres and the amount of time since the theft it was a bit of a forgone conclusion.
Donks, hope the insurance will be OK about it as the incident is classed as a domestic burglary because they entered the house to get the keys.

Not much insurance cover compared to the bike value, but i thought with the garage being alarmed, with a fully double glazed triple lock door at the back and a 7 foot close board fence i would be OK, didn’t usually set the alarm until we went to bed. Don’t really expect anyone to enter your house while it is visibly occupied.

We were only upsatirs for about 15 or 20 minutes, so think it must have been 3 or 4 of them that came and took the bikes. Had a look through the woods last night, but will be going over later to have another look. Local cops were over last night to see if they had been stashed.
Am going for a drive around to see if anyone happens to be pushing or riding them around.

Found the keys this morning, they had been dropped beside one of our bushes.

Oscillate – i can see the tyre tracks across the grass, so definatley taken through the woods at the back. Front garage door was not opened. So it is someone with local knowledge as the woods are pitch dark at that time of night.

Ianc, i usually lock the door but as we were both in the house and moving around, there is a 7 foot timber fence and gate and the garage door was locked i just didn’t anticipate something like this happening at 8’ish at night. Maybe the middle of the night or afternoon when nobody is around.

Clobber – made me and Mrs G laugh when we read that.

Police arrived at 11.15 last night and seem to have a good idea who it was.
SOCO have just left, but didn’t bother fingerprinting anything.

Mrs G is real stressed that they were bold enough to come into the kitchen while we were in the house. She is starting her maternity leave with being pregnasnt is worried about being in the house herself :(

Cycled up it in November – German tourists were amazed to see two pasty Scotsmen with shorts on standing at the top. Bloody fast descent though 8O

tj – do you think that people earning around or above £42k need a reality check?

i was brought up in a one parent family during the 70s in the West of Scotland, done my apprenticeship in the early eighties,got involved with motrbike clubs / gangs and all the associated “business” – mates knifed, shot, kidnapped etc. I then effed off in the late eighties – done a bit of travelling then ended up in London. Worked on construction sites 7 days a week, living in shitty bedsits, used to do 120 hour weeks on lane rental jobs, moved all over the country gradually improving my position as i learned the ropes. got into a supervisory role.
Now in a lowish managerial position, and earning a decent living, my Mrs also works in construction – neither of us can work shifts. a i mentioned in a previous post – it boils my piss when the only 2 non tax payers in our street went to Feurta ventura 4 times last year – disability cars, taxis to pubs etc.
Don’t preach and assume you are the only person to have sufferd hardship, and earning a decent wage means you don’t know the ropes or haven’t struggled in life. I have seen a lot of bad things in my time and would probably be in prison or be dead if i hadn’t taken a decision to get the eff out of Paisley when i did. Don’t be sutch an judgmental eejit :roll:

tj “Its still irrelevant – £42000 earnings put you in the richest 10% of the population therefore very well off”

no it doesn’t put you in the richest 10% – i earn close to that but am nowhere near the richest 10% in the country.

I live in a 3 bed semi in cannock, married, Mrs Gixer due a nipper in June, mortgage, credit card, loans to pay off. I am not poor, but i have worked damned hard to get where i am today – used to work on concrete gangs, construction labouring, kitchen porter, farm labourer etc.
I pay a lot in tax and national insurance every month, with very little benefits coming back to us. Pay for dental, prescriptions etc, Occassional long weekend away with Mrs.
Neighbours across the road and to our left went on 4 overseas holidays last year, drink every night, taxis to the pub and back every Friday and Saturday, smoke like effin chimneys – do they work – do the bollocks – makes me wonder why i don’t get a wee tax break every now and again – maybe like when Gixer Jnr is born……. but oh no i’m effin rich according to some eejits.

Magoo’s now into 2nd place

I’m 46 and a half
Mrs Gixer is 24 and a third

So she’s got 22 years on me and is 5 inch taller – not done too bad for a short, bald, grumpy scotsman.

Met at work when she was on a scholarship placement.
Married last July, Baby Gixer due in June ;-)

We have a mini Gixer arriving early June, and have spent quite a few weekends looking at prams. Quite a minefield, Mrs wanted a Stokke to start with, but it was abit of a faff to fold and change around the different bits. We had a look at most of the curent travel systems and eventaully ended up looking at the 2nd pram we started with. We have bought a Silver Cross Surf which seems well made and is piss easy to fold, and swap between car seat and pushchair / cot – no adaptors, just straight on and off.
I tried a lot of prams in the shops and some of them were real difficult to lock and unlock in the folded position – bad enough in a shop, but would be a severe pain if you are in a car park / outside in the osiisng rain with a screaming baby in your hands.
The only way to find out is to go to a few of the retailers and try folding, unfolding, changing to car seat etc.

Does get pretty pricy – but i suppose the load is quite valuble!!!!!!!!!

Just got in from an hours walk on Cannock – live just beside it. An inch to two of snow on frozen ground, and the forecast is for more to land during the night.

Boney Bones Hopkins

Couple of us went there on the motorbikes June / July 2010.
Weather is unpredictable – drizzle for 3 days then glorious sunshine.
Scenery is stunning, people are friendly but don’t speak much English, so learn a bit of pigeon Sapnish and you will get by.
Traditional food can be quite salty. We didn’t do any beach stuff because of the weather, inland lakes were lovely.
After the Picos we rode to Biarritz and stayed ina lovely hotel – couple of nights in Biarritz then a days ride up into the Pyrennesse, stayed near Ordessa national park – amazing location. Had 5 nights there, thena day ride back to santander for the ferry.

Think our package was around £1800 8O, but it’s what Mrs gixer wanted, afterall she was getting an ugly scrote like me at the end of it!!

We used a guy from just outside Cannock called Neil Maxwell, think his company name was picturebox. Done ours at Brewood in July, very pleased with the results and he was fun during the day, which everyone commented on. He wasn’t cheap, but we are well chuffed with the photo’s.

Can get his contact details a bit later if you want.

Stevie – is that in Paisley, might have to pop in(not due up there for another few months) if they are any good

I would also have contacted the bus operator and reminded them of the drivers responsibilities under The Health And safety act 1974, as well as The Road Traffic Act. It tends to make the person on the end of the phone pay a bit of attention if you can let them know you know a fair bit about legal responsibilities of employers as well as employees. Council would have to investigate if you made a complaint to them.

I had a similar experience with a coach which tried to squeeze past me as i was going through a reduced width carraigeway, which was reduced as part of the traffic calming measures – didn’t calm me down :evil:

About 16c when i’m in, when Mrs gixer comes in she puts it up to 22c. Later on she snuggles under the Shetland wool blanket which she cocoons herself in, she then slides into a Vango Viper 1000 down sleeping bag. I’m usually in trackies and a t-shirt.

Had to do it on a construction site in Birmingham, old painter collapsed and a bit of a panic ensued. I was just getting onto my motorbike to go home when i got a few peeps running over to me to tell me what had happened.
Myself and another first aider made our way onto the first floor to see about 20 electricians and plumbers standing ina circle over the guy who had collapsed. 4 of them were 1st aiders but had frozen and couldn’t do anything.
I made sure someone had phoned the emergency services, and me and my mate looked at each other – he went for his chest which left me with his mouth – not pleasant as the guy smoked 80 fags a day and drank at least 12 pints of Guiness a night, his false teeth were half out of his mouth too.
I told the onlookers to **** offn but make sure we have people at the gate to guide in the emergency services. They all fcked off.
I have no idea how long the emergency services took, but we done our best and at leats got some colour back into him – but to no avail.
I know we didn’t save him, but we done what we were tought as first aiders – and that was good enough for me.
I was surprisingly un-affected by the whole CPR bit, but i was rightly pissd with the on-lookers who i gave a bit of a bollocking to the next day.
The guys wife, our client, my director and the guys work mates all thanked me for trying to save him – that made me feel OK.
I laso had to give first aid to a drunk guy who had been given a punch which knocked him through some doors outside of a pub – guys face exploded and the bouncer just closed the doors and left him lying on the pavement – i got a new shirt covered in claret and snot. I was only going out for a pint of milk and some bread.
Another time i was driving to Wrexham at 6 in the morning – some teenege bell end decides to overtake a car as he approached a blind hump (well signposted and soild white lines) smacked head on into a car coming up the hill.
Woman was trapped in her car and paniced. Lots of blood, had to smash the side windows with a steel toecap boot. Calmed the woman down and helped until emergency services get there.

I had a chance to go this year, but Mrs Gixer is due to give birth on the 4th June to our first wee one, so that scupperd the trip. Could have been a good one, free accomadation inc drink and food from a director of a big UK construction company :roll:

Was looking forward to giving the K1300s a good run out.

Anyone know what the music is playing in the background to the Shipsterns clip?

ta

gab – where di you buy them from and how much?

[There is quite a gap in our ages, different ethnic origin, different first language, culture, diet, faith, etc.]

My wife is 22 years younger than me, she came from a muslim family ( im a white scottish agnostic), she cooks bacon sandwiches, buys me pork pies, scotch eggs etc for me. She is degree level educated – i have 4 o’ levels, she likes Katie Melua type music, i take her to see Motorhead, Hawkwind, The Cult, Kasabian etc.
She hates cycling – i don’t and do it.
i ride fast motorbikes – she loves it – until we fall off :-()

My family and friends think she is a wonderful person.
Her family and friends despise me and have now disowned her.

Get on with it man – don’t worry about others opinions, your heart will tell you what is right.

I work for a medium sized builder doing private and H/A new build as well as refurbishment.
If Redrow use the NHBC for quality checking / certification you could ask to see the build inspections – you should be looking for RI’s which are non-conformances during the build stage inspections, also ask to see the CML documentation which is in place before the property is allowed to be mortgaged.

if i was buying new build i would spend plenty of time inspecting the outside of the house, looking at the brick pointing quality, external works finishes, door and window fit, mastic work etc. Inside have a proper poke and pull at doors, worktops, stomp around on the floor listening for creaky floor boards, have a tug at the sockets and switches to see if any of them move. House builders fit low wattage bulbs to get eco points, but it can also mask poor quality plastering and painting – take a bright light and shine it every where.

As stated above by others, it’s a good site manager, his finishing foreman and a good package of sub-contractors that build the job.

My mate has a replacement frame being delivered to his LBS, lacquer started peeling around the shock anchor point. LBS took photo’s and sent them to Trek, no questions asked, just offerd a new frame and paying for the LBS to do the frame swap and replace any components which are not compatible with the new frame. result.

Sky’s just clearing in Cannock after a piss miserable wet morning.
No riding, just clearing out the back room in preperation for the cot etc for the wee one who is due in June.

I’ve got a company car through Lloyds Autolease (i think) and i asked about fitting a tow bar.
No problems, as long as fitting and towing doesn’t cause additional maintenance problems, explained it would be for a bike rack and they sent a letter giving permission.

I have had company cars for the last 15 years or so, main reason i took the company car option rather than buying my own was the mileage i was doing. Covering 30 – 40k a year meant at least 2 services a year, 2 sets of tyres and brake pads, a set of brake discs every 12-18 months, a chipped windscreen repalcement approx every 2 years, shock change every 24-30 months. Residuals would have been pretty poor after 4 or 5 years. I know i pay a lot in tax having the car and fuel option, but i see it as worry free motoring, with no nasty financial bills if something breaks down.

Trail Rat, i wasn’t saying the boot was the cause of the injury. It was suggested at our safety meetings that the lack of ankle support could have been a contributory factor. We discussed what could be done to reduce the likelhood of a re-occurence and decided to try a lace up boot with ankle support and a rigger boot with ankle support. we didn’t carry out a knee jerk blanket ban like many of our competitors.
That is why the boots are being trialled.

WOur region are were going down the line of banning rigger boots, unless i could get a rigger boot which offered similar ankle support as a lace up boot with ankle support. This was following a review of the accident statistics where 70% of RIDDOR accidents involving ankle injury identified that the injured persons were wearing rigger boots.
I have worn riggers, wellies, forge boots, lace up boots, safety trainers, safety shoes since 1991.
Riggers are good in sloppy civils / new build sites where the ground is not capped off. They are crap when the back of the heel starts to sag.

I have sourced a rigger boot which has ankle and heel support, and is also waterproof and insulated. They are Scruffs Cyclone 3’s and i have started wearing them this week. Bit clumsy for first couple of days, then you get used to them. Warm, comfy and waterproof and our site staff who have seen them have asked for me to approve them, so that they can go back to wearing riggers on site. Not much good for refurbishment type works where we are in occupied houses.
I would reccomend these for your brother.

The rigger ban was started by Network rail about 7 years ago – i had quite a few heated debates with their safety managers, asking them to prove that a standar lace up safety boot offered more ankle support.

BTW Doc Martins don’t have a protective mid-sole which is a requirement on most construction sites.

Peiness, middle of Skye. got a couple of photo’s when we cycled throught it last month.

Missus bought me one last Christmas, works well for me. Less razor rash than any other razor i’ve used before, even with a few days stubble. Don’t have the self washing one.
I would recomend.

What about a murder mystery night – my missus went up for her Hen do, and to meet my family in Glasgow May / June time. Think they went to the Argyle Hotel, about a 5 or 10 minute taxi ride from the city centre.
The women had a day shopping and gossiping around the city centre, then back to the hotel to freshen up.
Dowmstairs for a meal and a murder mystery event. everyone said it was a cracking event, very interactive and entertaining.
Package price was pretty reasonable as it included the murder mystery event, 3 course meal and B&B. Lots of the family and my missus don’t drink, so they weren’t interested in a pub crawl.

Married for 4 months now, we were together for 4years – including living together for 2 1/2 years.

I am quite a bit older than wifey, and was ready to settle down – enjoying married life so far!!

Just checked the price out – £995 plus delivery !!!!!!!!!

Brum traffic is grim from all directions from around 4’ish to 7 i’sh – not much help.

The group are Steel Panther