Marrage isn’t the problem, having kids is!

The faster you go, the less time you have to see, process and deal with any hazards. potential or real.

I’d hope mostriders would have seen that car and would have assumed it could pull out, so should have slowed down, moved to the left to give the car driver the best view of the bike, and kept an eye on the car.

I know to some that seems silly and over the top to do at every junction, but there’s a reason advanced riding techneques teach us to expect the worst case scenario at every junction. As bikers, we have to keep ourselves safe, and not rely on other road users to do it for us.

At 100mph he may not have even seen the car’s indicator flashing, or realised it was moving towards the junction’s lane, before it was too late to change the course of events.

Watching that clip again though, I’m not sure the colision would have been prevented even if he braked as soon as the car moved over to the filter lane…

Good to see this is doing the rounds and making people talk/think.

I’m not saying I’m a perfect rider (I do have 11 years everyday riding experience and a few advanced qualifications, but as all riders, I’ve got a lot to learn), so I’m not making this comment as a know it all, but as someone who’s just learnt something from watching it.

It’s a clear example of not riding defensively, and poor use of speed and road position while approaching multiple hazards. I’ll be extra careful at such junctions from now on, and hopefully anyone else will who’s watched it.

A sausage and an egg are in a frying pan.

The egg turns to the sausage and says “**** me, it’s hot in here!”

The sausage turns to the egg and says “**** me, a talking egg!!!”

+100 for Darksouls 1 and 2, very challenging though.

You’ll get your monies worth out Oblivion or Skyrim or any of the Fallout games.

If you’ve played it and it won’t be spoilt by watching someone else play it, you need to watch this. This is well funny.

Correct, I was trying to keep the spoilers to minimum though… :P

Apparently it’s much scarier than Outlast.

I’ve never believed the warped disc theory. have you seen how thick a car brake disc is? you’d be talking a shite load of heat to warp that…

How long has it gone on for? If its got slowly worse since last set of discs where installed, its more likely to be a rusted/crap covered surface on the hub (where the disc bolts on), which gives a warped disc effect.

Worth checking the all the steering and suspension linkages etc…

Oh, as for toys, cats hate expensive toys and more often than not would rather play with a cardboard box and carrier bag. Lazer pens are good though.

Try not to be temped to buy expensive/fancy/cute/awesome cat beds, because they don’t use them…

Our cats where brought up on boiled chicken (when I lived at home, my mom fed them).

Now they live with me and we can only feed them Sheba prime cuts of chicken. Anything else and they try to bury it (I’m not suprised, most cat food smells like poo!)

They have go-cat biscuits down all day (we just top the bowl up when it’s empty) then treat them to half a pot of sheba twice a day.

We always used clumping cat litter, but have changed to the lightweight stuff recently. Seems to do the same job but the litter tray doesn;t weight a tonne! We have a tray with a lid and a door to stop them throwing the litter around.

Anyone remember going to a shop and buying books? :P I miss a nice trip to waterstones….

Alastair Reynolds for me.

if you like space opera, try the Revelation Space series of books – very out there, but it’s an awesome universe that’s created and spans over 5 books (3 in the main story, lots of short stories and 2 spin off novels in the same universe).

Pushing Ice is also a great book.

null

Whats the springs for on the back rest? I see how they worked on the original, but not on the new one…

daveatextremistsdotcouk – Member

ISIS will sort em out.

Are the old bottom bracket standards rebelling? Danm you hollowtech!

GrahamS – Member

Step 1: Uninstall Windows 8
Step 2: Install Windows 7

This.

The office dog (a big friendly German Sheppard/Collie cross from the unit next to our work) charged at me from across the car park with a football sized tennis ball in its mouth!

Then proceeded to not let me have the ball and just made snorting noises at me. :)

It’s quite black –

(sorry, not the best photo!)

It’s all I put in the bike. The engine runs much smoother and nicer on super. I’m not sure you’d notice the effect in a car though.

Go for it. :D

First day, you’ll be up for it and fresh so will be easy. Second day, is the last day so you can just push though if your tired and get it finished without saving any energy for the next day.

I think 2×85 would be easier than 3×55.

I was in a similar boat a few weeks ago (thanks to STW forum for helping!) and wanted to quit my job because I was bored and not challenged and it was getting me down. I wrongly thought it was work etc.. that was getting me down and I needed to change to a job that did motivate me. Turns out, STW forum was correct, I was making myself bored and unchallenged, and would do the same at any job.

I’m working very hard at caring less about work. Show up, put in 8 hours of “acceptable” work, then go home to my wife and bikes and forget about work. Give it a go.

What about a good old pat-van?

Yes, I have one. :oops: Its cheap to run and can fit two 29ers in the back with the front wheels off. It’s amazingly slow though (after a 180bhp bike).

Bigrich, where did you get it from? My brother has a Titus Motolight full susser with a 27.2 post and is looking for something other than a Gravitydroper..

Edit: just re read your posts and found my answer.

I think the issue with spoons is they are so tough, they last years. Mines 5 years old now, and it’s got another 5 in it I’d guess.

But yea, The Spoon is an awesome saddle.

Bottom bracket cups should be anodised to match your hubs. Headsets and seat collars should be black.

Probably been said before, but try not to worry about getting stuck in your SPDs, if your going down, i find you’ll just rip your foot out of them no problem.

I once lost the front end on solid ice (on my slick tyred mtb), i mean it really went, fast! I unclipped both feet and jumped off the bike over the top tube, landing next to the bike, holding it in one free hand. I still have no idea how i did it, but I’ve found its very possible to get out of standard Shimano SPDs without thinking about it.

http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/mobile/hope-pro-2-conversion-kit-rear-10mm-bolt-in/rp-prod11825

this is for a pro 2, think the evo uses a bigger axle, so check with hope first.

Yes. You can get a bolt on rear axle for it. Not sure if it improves stiffness by any noticeable amount though…

Use your existing hubs and build them onto some nice rims with decent spokes?

I built my old hope hubs onto DT X470 rims with double butted spokes and alloy nipples. I’m sure it cost less than £200 all in… so doable on XT hubs for £350.

Edit:

80 DT comp spokes and 80 alloy nipples are £44 from rose bikes. Factor in £60/70 for some XT hubs and you’ve got some cash left over for a decent pair of rims, maybe evern some LB carbon ones.

Thomson ordered from merlin

Hope you used Quidco to get 2% back too?

Sh*t!

FWIW I got a cheap CRC reverb and it came with all the trimmings, I’d kind of expected it to be OEM. Bit of luck of the draw maybe

I find this a bit crap TBH and think it should be noted on the description. I got some Reba forks in a clear bag from CRC. where’s my damn rockshox box! I wanted to recycle it. :P

Thomson ordered from merlin. :)

Thanks for the feedback.

Reverbs currently £162 at CRC less £12 if you spend over £60 (there was a PSA on here with the code)

I’ve got one, touch wood, no issues in 10 months.

No bleed kit though, so have to add on £30 for that…

Shand Stoater FT

That looks epic! I’ve got a surly KM frame and fork at home, just deciding which bits to get to make a very similar bike.

£600 is a good deal i think.

£500 or less is an insult. IMHO anyway.

+1.

What an amazing feat, and a well presented article. Reminds me of stories about LEL riders… 8O Bonkers! :)

Around Sheffield at least, there are a lot of gates and road crossings etc… which would slow you down and make it a bit of a PITA.

I think it could be done though. :)

When I started to ride a lot (about 7 years ago), I rode an XC MTB 14 miles each way, on the road, with a 200m + climb up to work each morning. Started with 2/3 times a week, then eventually every day.

Kept going for a couple of years (until work moved and the 2 mile ride didn’t seem worth it most days).

It was very hard, but I went from 19stone down to 13 and started riding with a local club. I haven’t been that fit ever since work moved and I started only riding at weekends.

It’s worth sticking with, but then again, I didn’t have a train or London at the end of my ride… I’m sure that would drain enough mental energy to make it almost impossible…

But if it’s not fun (most of the time), your probably just going to put yourself off riding…

I think its true that leadership in work don’t give a toss about employees at the moment. We don’t get any grief from the gaffer at my work, or any praise, or any direction on how he wants his business run… I think other than ‘good morning’ I’ve not spoke to him for a year! And we only have 9 people in the office. 8O

I do remember the first time i had to fill out a holiday form after my stint as a freelancer… It felt wrong!

But to be honest its not really the place I work that’s the issue, its the job and how I’m bored with it…

haha, we don’t get the office politics, apart from moaning about the lazy gaffer.

Sometimes it is good to simplify your life and how you live. People can become trapped in a certain job because of a large mortgage, high end car payments, fancy holidays and a wife with expensive shoe habit etc. I have found that the more basic my life becomes, the happier I get. I don’t need to earn a huge salary to maintain my lifestyle. I do have a good salary, but I have no fear of losing my job because I could get by very happily on a much lower one. I don’t get stressed out at work because I know I don’t need to be there really. I don’t take on extra responsibilities because I don’t need to prove anything to anyone. Once you strip away all the things that don’t matter in your life, it is amazing how much time you free up to do the things you enjoy.

You know, thats the best answer yet! Thanks.

I’ve spent the last 2 years getting rid of all my debt (3 motorbikes, my MTB, a big PC and a credit card + others), and I’m in your position now. The wife is a yorkshire lass and spends nothing on anything (plus she earns twice what I do and can buy her own shoes!). The mortgage and bills are easily manageable as we went no where near our lending limit when buying the house…

So I don’t need my particualr job (or it’s salary), and I’m old enough and wise enough to not volutnteer for everything under the sun to try and impress the boss, plus no one seems to mind that I’m doing less now but me. So why do I worry about it? Is it so bad if I’m not working my arse off and doing extra hours to be on top of my game like I was a few years ago? Guess not really… :-)

Agree with all above, which is why I have no idea what to do…

I did enjoy the job, although it is a bit repetitive and I never get to see the end result of all my hard work.

I don’t get on with my arse of a boss at work (he’s a lifelong road rider and past racer, so we get on well out of work though), but I’m not bothered by that. You have to deal with difficult people in any job.

Being self employed is hard work, not a part time, spend the day in your PJ’s jolly.

It’s much harder to leave work at the office as you are always thinking about maximising opportunities as you don’t know where things will go in the future.

You also can’t really turn work down if you want to keep your clients so some times it just gets silly. You’ve either got too much work and no time for fun or you’ve got no work and your bricking it and trying to bring some in!

I love being self employed but it’s not the route to a stress free life by any means.

Your job sounds cushy. Don’t shaft your employer by signing yourself off as someone suggested. Save up some holidays or ask for unpaid leave and bugger off for a month. Get a fresh perspective.

Good luck with it!

This is exactly why I was working more, and more stressed the first time i was self employed.

I don’t mind stress and hard work as long as it’s rewarding and seems worth while.