Driving the blue-rinse brigade around North Wales and the Peaks and Dales would be a good gig I imagine, not much kicking off on those runs although maybe they pish themselves quite a lot?

always liked the thought of it myself but, to be honest, driving the 3am Saturday bus from George Square probably ain’t all it’s cracked up to be lol!

p.s. i’m sure it was around £9.50 a few years ago????

My friend did his PCV with First Bus in Glasgow. They pay for it and you pay it back out your salary over your first year of employment.

Used to be that the wages seemed quite fair to me but looking on the back of buses now where they advertise for new drivers, it seems like the pay has dropped by about £1 per hour, or stayed the same, over the past 5 or 6 years i.e. about £8.50 per hour up here

From the Telegraph obituary,

“working for him was like riding the hero-shithead rollercoaster.”

class – think i’ll use that in future

gargle with TCP

i got into the habit of a 24 mile round trip commute 5 days a week during summer left my car at work so i could use it to get to meetings, etc. sometimes if nice weather i would go a long way home on a friday to build up some miles. important for me to do 75% of the weeks riding at pootle pace. anything else and i was gubbed by wednesday. amazing how you adjust to it. didnt really affect my weekend riding as long as i made sure friday was easy paced commute.

unfortunately work committments have meant i havent done a commute since mid-august wouldnt fancy much more than 30 miles round trip though

have a lot or admiration for folks who do it day in day out throughout the whole year

By the way, guys that haggle for every last penny need to get a reality check.

A friend of mine used to have a wee bike shop and had no end of punters coming in with their several hundred pound bikes arguing that they could get GT85 50p cheaper on line.

Fair enough, buy on-line or for a high cost item may ask for a price match or a bit of discount – if the shop can’t do it then fair enough but for bits and pieces it is downright ignorant IMO

Planet X

Specialized – forks from a spesh allez elite had a hairline crack in the steerer. This was almost two years old but still under warranty.

They couldn’t give me a matching allez elite fork due to the change in paint finishes since I got my model so they sent me the closest match they could find which was an SL2 fork.

Billy Bilsland sorted me out when i’d just started cycling and had tried to adjust the gears on my bike without having a clue what I was doing and totally kackered the indexing.

He fixed it up for me and I asked him if it needed anything he said “oil and a scrubbing brush” but wouldn’t take any money 🙂

from what I remember, around 3 years ago last time I had my car there, it was around 1 or 2 cents per litre cheaper for diesel in France than for petrol. Of course, this may be due to the french government taxing diesel lower than petrol, I don’t know.

At one point around 18 months ago it was 5-6p per litre dearer here for diesel. Doesn’t it take less refining?

“When i’m cleaning windows” by George Formby was banned by the BBC due to it’s suggestive lyrics but, following a public outcry, the decision was overturned.

that is quite scary tho…

Thanks for the suggestion but lights are something I wouldn’t go for secondhand to be honest.

I was wondering if anyone uses the lights that Torchy the Battery Boy sells?

I see his torches with handlebar mounts for £15. Any good for offroad?

Was thinking of getting two of them with the added benefit of having them for use as torches if I need them rather than the purely bike specific type available on DX and luminous off here. Those DX £30 efforts look too good to be true at that price. What I don’t want to do is get something that works for a few weeks then the battery gives out or the internals suffer after a few rough rides or some rain. DIY electronic repairs may be ok for some gifted people but not me.

Sorry, I was going to post a new thread but a search shows dozens of these types of thread!

I reckon the torches would probably be ok – I was using Smart Halogen lights last year so I suppose anything would be an improvement.

Cheers

Kinda off topic but just wanted to blow the trumpet for Kenny!

Kenny Wilson is an absolute gentleman.

His trophies and medals are amazing and he donated about 2-300 quid worth for free to a CX race I organised last year and wouldn’t accept a penny for them. Plus he made a 100+ mile round trip at his own expense despite family committments to make sure he delivered them on the day in time for the prize giving.

The world record largest football attendance was the 1950 world cup final between Brazil and Uruguay at just under 200,000 in the Maracana stadium.

Roy Castle tap-danced 1,000,000 steps on Record Breakers in 24 hours

Marilyn Manson ISN’T Paul from the Wonder Years

Not for me – doesn’t use the best roads in the area anyway IMHO.

despite this, can’t argue with the last point about the Great North Run.

funnily enough – i have built up an old steel raleigh road frame into a fixed gear trainer and sometimes it feels really weird – almost as though the rear triangle is moving differently from the front??

dunno if this is the “steel is real” feedback phenomenon or if i’m due a catastrophic frame failure lol!

have noticed something similar with my inbred compared to alu bikes ive had

I think they are one of the nicest looking bikes out there – just check if it has a replaceable mech hanger. a guy i know had a 2003 or 04 model and the hanger was integral to the rear swingarm. he had to get a rear swing arm as a result when the hanger got bent.

Think i remember him saying the guy in the shop told him scott had changed it in 2005 to a replaceable hanger but might be worth checking.

is it definitely the same frameset? if so it’s a classic example of how cycling is becoming a rip off.

that model was 1600 3 years ago!

you could buy an SL3 frameset for 1200 discounted, ultegra group for 500 then put aksiums on it and buy discounted finishing kit and better tyres for 2100 max.

there was a good article in mbr a few months ago about the guys at hope and they said themselves the big brands are ripping punters off.

supply and demand i suppose.

personally id go for a caad10 105 for 1200 quid!

Talking of elegant gestures – former Celtic player John Kennedy, who had his career ended in his early 20s by a shocking tackle in an international friendly a few years back – had a benefit match played for him between Celtic and Man U legends recently. Full 60,000 sell out at Celtic Park and he donated the proceeds to the East Africa appeal.

Anyway, why does George Osbourne look like a corpse?

Someone suggested a mid-range tax of 30% for people earning 35k-ish.

Assuming one person earns 35k and their partner around 10k.

A combined income of less than the national average for two people but getting taxed harder?

Sadly true warton

I felt for the woman who lost her son. especially when she recounted the voicemail she left for him. very sad.

I know drac but is was primary school stuff lol! to be honest, when i saw it was bbc3 i knew what to expect but, like rubber necking a car crash i sat and watched it. the whole thing was ridiculous. the only thing interesting to me was the thermite experiment.

There were contradictions in it. for example the pentagon guy said all the body parts were inside the pentagon but in pennsylvania the reason for there being no body parts was because the impact was so great that no recognisable parts would be left. so which is it? it was lazy stuff

Going off on a tangent but still loosely on the 9/11 theme – did anyone see question time? david milliband, david cameron and nick clegg. Are they the same person? Their mannerisms and speech patterns are eerily similar. It does my tits in. “let’s be clear about this…” “look…………” (before going on to elaborate another mind numbingly dull point) “it’s a very important point…”

“it’s a very good question and one that should be asked” (before going on to completely avoid actually answering it).

Where are the people like tony benn these days? It’s depressing.

Tariq ali looked like he was going to pull his hair out

Yes, that was cringeworthy.

What is it with bbc3? It’s one of the most dumbed-down channels on tv. The part where they had them throwing water balloons FFS

it was typical bbc3 crap.

Sounds like you’ve got a good boy there.

The Gulf War Syndrome for sure.

Area 51 is one of them i’m 50/50 with. Reckon most likely scenario is a top secret military test/spy facility as opposed to cold storage for aliens but you never know.

Princess Di – can’t really think why Prince Phillip would really give a toss, to be honest, about who she was shagging and potentially going to marry.

The moon landings – don’t really have an opinion on that one either way.

As for the Gulf War again, I seem to remember reading somewhere that Saddam thought he had tacitly been given a green light to occupy Kuwait by the West but then when he went and done it they double-crossed him and declared war. I suppose it could be true, but, if they wanted an excuse to get him then they wouldn’t have let him stay in power another 12 years, would they?

Castaway! there’s a drink from the past!

Haven’t seen anyone admit to anything involving Babycham yet 😉

Is it Madness?

McEwans Export. 4 cans of ‘Red Death’ give the worst hangover i’ve ever had.

As an aside, a drink which sounds revolting but is actually rather tasty is a Buckfast milkshake. 50% Buckie and 50% milk – genuinely tastes yum

A mate of mine with two kids moved out recently. His wife changed the locks within a few days and he is still paying the mortgage plus she has hit him with a CSA letter. She earns more than him.

Move back in – would be my advice mate.

reckon the black at gt the only definite push would be the tower trail or whatever it is called – you know, the straight up the hill part at the end of soor plooms/goat track.

have only done the first red climb on ss as a friend took ill so we went home but i reckon it would be ok on ss although perhaps the final climb to spooky wood would hurt a bit.

inners would be brutal ss! tempted to try it though but fully expect i would need to push lots although i am distinctly average.

reckon the other stanes would be no problem although i have never managed to get up the scorpion at mabie even with gears. iirc, dalbeattie isnt that hilly and moe fire road than the others but its been 5 years or more since i was there. heartbreak hill at kirroughtree would be a push for me but second drumlanrig as being good for it.

was there in april. hired riks old ss p7 which was 34×16 had to push the last climb but it was amazing on the descents.

ooh! put me right in the mood for some mtb ing!

thanks fellas – those are the ones.

Haven’t ridden an mtb up there for 4 or 5 years – used to do the right of way up from Allandale under the railway then go along the minor road the the ROW that cuts all the way down to the Union Canal/Wheel. Quite techy in places from what I remember but a pal now lives in Bonnybridge and told me there is masses of other stuff to ride up past Rough Castle, etc.

Looks good for some winter blasts and, as you say, family riding as well.

Need to dig out the mtb I think – cheers folks

…and half – or less than half – bother to vote anyway!

Was always a labour voter until Blair became party leader. Never liked him. All the cool britannia stuff really stuck in my craw.

Guys like Major and Ken Clarke, for example, I may never agree with their politics but I think they are decent men – although I hadn’t heard the high unemployment quote before. Kind of makes me change my mind about Major a bit if that’s what he said.

I just said they seem plausible to me when reading articles made by people supporting both viewpoints therefore they put doubt in my mind.

I’ve tried to explain that in about the last several posts i’ve made on this thread.

They don’t seem plausible to you – that’s your opinion. I’m not trying to convert anyone or tell you that you are wrong or make ‘a case’ . I don’t think the reference to not seeing flame licking out the building is laughable. I never said it wasn’t on fire – I said it wasn’t engulfed by fire for example the high rise fires you can see on google images which are raging infernos. This one is quite obviously on fire.

The terminology ‘freefall’ and ‘near freefall’ are ones that are used by commentators on the subject and that is what it looks like to me as well. These are not my statments of fact.

The question of whether or not the towers were designed to withstand impacts. Pished on? The designer claimed to have carried out tests. There is no evidence of this having been done. It is another question of who you believe. I believe he did. I also said it an earlier post that perhaps the tests were flawed but maybe they were not. You don’t know and I don’t know but we have an opinion.

There are families of 9/11 victims who think there is a conspiracy and there are those who don’t. Get over yourself.

I agree – it would have to be foolproof in that case.

How to make it foolproof? I don’t know