That’s a great PSA right there 🙂

Been tempted to get one for a while to make videos for the turbo with GPS data. Brilliant, thanks very much.

I know it’s cycling, but if you haven’t read Tyler Hamilton’s ‘Secret Race’ then you really should.

It’s a very easy style to read too, thoroughly enjoyed it (if that’s the right emotion)…

We completed on Friday last week 🙁

Really happy with the house, but a bit of an arse to know we could have saved about £4k. About time the old system was changed though, it was a stupid system in today’s inflated market…

Same every year, a bit of a classic: part boiled, then in a frying pan with chorizo and chestnuts, big squeeze of lemon.

It’s impressively insightful. How does he know all of that?

I can only imagine it dropped further past 50 by the time you were clear of the traffic at the Regent Centre roundabout then…

57 MPG average. Bloody hell… I didn’t think anybody actually got those figures. 🙂

tomhoward – Member
Apparently it is against the law for Evans to discount any new bikes for six months from release.
Odd interpretation, but I can see where he’s got that from. (item must be sold (may just say ‘advertised’, now i think about it) at full price for 180 days at x number of stores before dicounting, to stop people quoting a massive RRP then 90% ‘discount’ straight away)

Not splitting hairs (and totally OT now) but it has to have been made available for purchase at the higher price (not just advertised) for 28 days, not six months for price comparisons…

My experience is they treat experienced cyclists like newbies, no qualifying questions of any sort, they just role out the same lethargic patter regardless (Gateshead). I know most on here won’t be their target market though so we really shouldn’t expect much more…

Thanks also. Top PSA…

PAT testing isn’t a legal requirement in any workplace on any device; and if you’re working alone and no clients can hear the radio when they visit then you won’t need a PRS licence either…

After years of using hammer and wood on King headsets I treat myself this year to a Park HP2.

Sadly five from six of my bikes now use press fit or integrated. I may have left it 20 years too late to really benefit: still, it is lovely.

The Cyclus ones for £80 less are pretty much the same…

This may not help the OP much, but for some reason I think this may be the best thread I’ve read in ages.

Quintessential STW. 🙂

Fair points about BT, but I’d be going to them with my proposed solution for approval (as opposed to paying them to find the solution for us).

That said, reading the links above, I think I’m going to have to bow out and accept that frankly it’s going to be more work than I’m capable of, and even if I get it running as planned it sounds like I’m asking for network trouble down the line which I’ll be struggling to solve.

Back to the drawing board I think.

Not really sure what I’m doing, to be fair, as you can probably tell 😉

The telephone server we have can only be connected to through a client PC connected locally, whether it be for admin or call recording/listening/analysis. It’s a BT rule by all accounts to minimise telephone fraud. I can get around it with Remote Desktop I suppose, but it’s a bit of a clunky solution which I’d rather avoid.

With regards back ups I was thinking (and explaining badly) that using the standard back up tools in Server 2008 I’m pretty sure you can only do a back up to a locally connected drive. So, I was thinking that if I could configure it to see the remote drive as local, then I could do the initial back up on site, and then take it off site on the same drive/letter for subsequent incremental back ups…

I’ll pour a big whisky and read the links…

Sorry, thanks all. I typed that after only one reply…

Thanks for replying RM, that is what I am asking.

I was hoping that if I configured the Cisco router at home behind my existing router, then anything plugged into it would be seen by the server as a device on the LAN… But it sounds like you’re saying that it wouldn’t, but also that it wouldn’t matter as the VPN will effectively translate between the two subnets?

I had a pair of early Sidi MTB shoes in the early 90s. They were road shoes really, with a half arsed rubber sole attached.

The were super comfortable but had no protection around the toe box: I broke one big toe and frequently bruised others from hitting rocks over the years I had them. I’m older now, and dislike pain even more so I’d never wear a shoe off-road without a good, strong toe box.

Sidi Five XC at the moment. Love them.

I’d be keen to know if you find any really good offers PCPs on the Beach, TLR. The standard VW offer is good but I don’t want to put a large deposit down (I don’t like big deposits on PCPs).

I think the Beach is better for us too. We wouldn’t cook in a small van, it has a better seating arrangement for us and it is lighter. Wish it was available with the 180 or 4motion but that’s not the end of the world… I can’t think of a reason not to buy one.

Boulder Bicycles (Defiant maybe)?

EDIT: too slow 😉

I’ve spent (like many, I’m not special) many tens of thousands of hard earned over the last 20 years in my LBS. I don’t expect discount, but I’m happy to receive it when offered. They tend to give me a discount on everything I buy but I don’t expect (and frankly feel a bit cheap) when they offer me discount on stuff under about £30 or £40.

They probably made about £1.60 on that £5 pack of rotor bolts. Forgetting about the free pack, how much do you think they should make on selling you a pack of bolts?

What’s fair? Should they offer everything under a fiver free to all their good customers for example?

I’m confused. You’re upset because you ultimately paid £4.99 for 12 bolts, when you should have paid £10?

The realities of retail. There’s talk in the thread of it being a ‘terrible business model’. Really? I’m not sure he guy who owns Cycle Surgery would have behaved the same way.

This is just one member of staff who just couldn’t be arsed. One member of staff who didn’t think of the consequences and one member of staff who will probably never think of the consequences no matter how many times you tell him. He might not be there for much longer, before moving on to his next job paying around minimum wage. There are some excellent people in LBSs earning proper money and there are some who will never get past just being order takers…

I was in Halfords the other day ordering a headset press. Guy walks in complaining the new bike he picked up has a chain that skips when he pedals backwards. One guy spends two minutes telling him that it’s normal, all bikes do that until a second team member walks up and makes a meal of it before telling him to bring it in as “he’s never heard of that happening before”.

Getting good staff is bloody hard. Training poor staff is nearly impossible.

Assuming you had the spare links/pins and the bike wasn’t caked in dog eggs, given you’d just spent £50 I’d have hoped the lad would have grabbed a chain tool and done it for you. If I had a LBS I wouldn’t lend the tool.

I’d move to Linlithgow just to have more steak from Champagy Inn…

I’m a bit like no teeth. Over the bars at 15 riding down some natural steps and broke the fall with my mouth and nose.

One tooth clean out, two more snapped in half on the top. Three root canals (one tooth was untouched in the crash but needed to be support for the bridge). Broke my nose at the same time, nearly lost all my bottom front teeth as the front of the gum came away exposing some roots. Dentist was baffled how that happened but after two years of a flappy bit of gum it all seemed to meld back together. It was as bad as it sounds…

My jaw is off centre now, with a bad underbite. I haven’t eaten an apple without a knife in 24 years, and I like apples… 🙂

Luckily I still have my hair.

Went to Sherwood with friends and our 2 year old and absolutely hated it. When our boys are older we’ll consider going back because there’ll be so much more to do when they are 7 and 10ish onwards.

4 and 18 months? I think your options there are limited.

It’s the exact opposite of escapism…

I didn’t know him, but I did spend the last 20-25 years reading his words.

Sad news, he wrote in a way that I imagine I’d have enjoyed sharing a pint or two. I’m sure he’ll be missed by many.

I was going to say a copy of MTB Pro and a packet of Mintolas but ohnohesback beat me to it. It was about the same time a chain cost a tenner and an inner wire was a quid.

I’m drinking a rough bottle Chianti that cost £4.99 from Asda though so I suppose some things stay the same.

Spot on, thanks nbt.

I pretty much thought so too, but I thought it was worth making the point for the Daily Mail / Express readers on the thread, who might be preoccupied sharpening their sticks… 😉

Two years on a set here, never a pick of bother; certainly not needed to true them once either. The only maintenance was to oil the panels one night when I couldn’t be bothered to ride.

Up to RQ 2.2s on no problem, although never tried bigger.

Here you go, Project (in case there’s no whoosh): some have absolutely no idea of road rules or laws,all because theyre dresed in leather Lycra and a silly little plastic full face helmet and the sooner theyre banned or restricted to a max speed of 70 mph cycle lanes the better for all families who must worry their family or freinds are not going to come home.

Tolerance is a wonderful thing. Plenty bikers I know are also cyclists and vice versa. Can’t we try to get along and consider that we share many of the same risks on the road (from those drivers who repeatedly fail to see us both)?

It’s pretty much all been said. You could go out all day from your doorstep in Kingston Park on bridleways and the like, but none of them are going to be epic technical rides or have much elevation change. There are plenty routes you could stick together (mainly south and east) for 1-8 hours. They are better than some, but it’s the kind of riding that you’ll probably be happiest on a light hardtail.

If you’re going to be in Newcastle for a while though I’d seriously consider a road bike. You could head out north from Kingston Park up towards Rothbury and pick up any number of amazing (and quiet) roads with proper rolling hills for hours. You could do any number of rides and once you’re just 3 miles or so north of Kingston park you could average a car every few minutes for mile after mile. Even if your just popping out for an hour or so you can be on very quiet, great roads pretty much from your doorstep.

A CBT will only get you on a 125, not a restricted bigger bike.

If you’re over 24 then you could take lessons and pass your test on a bigger bike (A licence), if you’re under 24 then there are different rules, under 19 and they are different again.

Under 24 and you’re restricted to 47bhp (there is one exception to this), not 33 as it used to be, but the bike you restrict can’t have more than double the restricted power…

Don’t see a reason why you couldnt do 60 mile round trip on a 125 though. I’d buy a scooter most likely…

As above, Avid’s 185 adapter will sort of work, but you’ll not be in the right place on the disc. You can’t do a Shimano 180 adapter on an Avid 185 disc though, it won’t clear.

Best get a Shimano 180 adapter if that’s your disc size.

I have a 2013 Madone with no cut mast and will lightly clamp it in a stand to work on it. I won’t apply torque to it, but as it has a press fit bottom bracket there are no twisting forces anywhere on the bike really.

It’s absolutely no problem to live with, although still not sure what problem it’s solving…

Mine was once they fitted properly into the smallest Specialized helmet and hold the weight of the helmet on their neck comfortably. About 10 months from memory.

Eldest loved it, youngest about to start… 🙂

Edit. Just looked back through photos, it was more like 14 months before I started.

I’ve got the Hamax on the back of a 29er inbred, 160mm Saint caliper/disc and the rack clears the caliper without any need for any adapters.

Make sure any rack mounted seat is sprung, not sure they all are? The Hamax we have (Siesta?) reclines too. It’s been brilliant and now on nipper number two with it…

Stunt Car Racer and F18 Interceptor. Many school mornings suffered as a result…

Was about to write the same post as Smuzzy, almost word for word!

Solo Air 80mm, a travel change is a change of damper, not just moving a spacer like the earlier forks.

I’ve thought about this myself, closest I can find are probably Marzocchi DJ forks…