De Marchi Contours are pretty good – they are my preferred, although I haven't tried Endura

I can't get any of the free streams to work today… Real radio has commentary though.

Youtube clip of the goal http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZSOor…layer_embedded

I've had some excellent food at the Horseshoe Inn up the road (5 mins) in Eddlestone.

£20 for 2 courses Sunday lunch – you'll need to book.

http://www.horseshoeinn.co.uk/menu_sunday.htm

We've had AG sitting there from LoveFilm for ages.

We finally got around to watching it last night, but we didn't get past the first scene before realising we'd seen it already – although neither of us could remember much about it.

I normally hate movies with Denzel, but we thought it was excellent last night. I really can't remember how I've watched it before and forgotten the content though, it's not exactly without a story…

Sanctimonious ***** on internet forums.

I'd gladly rip off my left arm and use it to club Boxxy to death. Jesus – can anybody spell precocious?

Eddie_fb – Member
iamtheresurrection – you must have misread my post – I'm married, so I don't have a sex life?

No, I did notice that. But given my wife was next to me as I typed it I kept that thought to myself… 😉

Relyon pocket spring with foam layer looks well supported (sic) on here – worth a shot?

I can't beleive anyone thinks the red is okay for somebody who's never ridden a mountain bike. Jesus. While I accept the red and black are both perfectly fine if you're a half experienced biker, a newbie would not thank you for it. There are tonnes of places on the red where somebody who isn't half competent on a bike *will* fall off. She'd love you for that…

Me? Well, if I wanted my wife to get into it then I'd take her round the green. If she thought that was fine/enjoyable then it would be cool to have her enthusiastic about trying the blue. The blue is pretty well thought out in that it's a tame or as exhilarating (to a point) as you want it to be, depending on how much you attack it.

Fitness comes into it too. My missus, who's very petite but pretty unfit, would cough a lung up on the (barely to a biker) climb up from the Hub to Buzzards…

Tires probably – you could take a couple of pound off with a lighter pair of tire. Bottom bracket and seatpost, if they are both cheap, could cost another 200g…

That has to be the worst footage ever! 😉

I want to see the shape and curves of the stays, mud clearance etc… The shot looking up at the front wheel from the ground is great. Sheesh.

I can't believe we've got to page five and nobody has discussd the importance of burning in your cables, or paying for the service…

This: I am not one who attempts to discern the subtle sonic differences cables convey on an audio system. I am a firm believer that only poorly designed cables can under the right conditions be sonically distinguishable. That being said, my listening tests focused on pure enjoyment of the sound quality of my reference system. At no point did I feel the Kimber cables were adding a level of realism I’ve never heard before with my standard 10AWG Blue Jeans zip cord. Never did I feel the midrange got more chocolatey or a magic veil was lifted. My wife never claimed she could hear the difference all the way from the kitchen while she was cooking up some chicken Marsala.

is from this article – real tests using graphs and all sorts… 😉

http://www.audioholics.com/reviews/cables/kimber-kable-8pr/kk4pr-8prlisteningtests

Well, confirmation from the other side…

I'm 5'11" and ride a medium Simple. When I bought the Soul, I thought I wanted a bigger frame – so I went large. I'm running it with a straight post and 70mm stem and it's fine, but I should have went medium and still can't decide what to do about it.

A large would be great for you, a medium would absolutely be too small – IMHO.

We've got a tight pocket spring RelyOn with a thin layer of memory foam on top, it's softer than I thought would be comfy (I've always gone for super firm mattresses), but it's the best nights sleep I've ever had.

I've got a friend who works in a furniture shop who said that Tempur mattresses might kill your sex life! Apparently, you miss a bit of spring underneath and don't realise how much until it's gone… He's had more than one comment made by unhappy customers.

LMT – Member
Was this out the same time as the Raleigh Activator or Activator II? they were better to look at but stupidly useless suspension!

They were around 91ish when they came out. I had a model before the 855 above – I can't remember the model number now but it was a dark grey/bronze main frame with a neon orange back end. I want to say it was an Offroad Proflex 750. It came with an neon orange Flexstem and Suntour XC Comp/Pro.

Which means it had front suspension that didn't work, rear suspension that didn't work and gear shifting that didn't work. Old Diacompe SS5 brake levers were the only thing on the bike that I'd still have. I loved it though, despite cracking about three frames in a year…

It was a different bike to an Activator too – I think the RRP was £850?

I wouldn't bother giving it too much thought, really. Never had a problem with my old 08 frame, but I cracked two 2009s. I have a 2010 coming as a replacement soon for the last one I cracked, it appears to have some tubing and design changes, hopefully the problems are all sorted.

Madison have been great in all the warranty claims too.

I agree it's a bit odd that people feel the need to point it out to you on a ride though.

I do love http://www.makeupyourownmind.co.uk/

Some criminally funny questions and answers – I especially like the three second rule myth…

I like McDonalds, as do British farmers who would rather sell to McD than the supermarkets – by all accounts they demand a demand good quality and are prepared to pay a fair price. I'm not sure about slave labour either, I think the outlet managers on on around £35-45k, and it trickles down pretty well. Plus, they've been granted an official Awarding Body so they can offer their often unqualified staff, a path to getting a qualification on par with GCSEs. Pretty responsible, I think.

I'm sure they've been pretty dodgy in the past, but they do appear to have become more responsible now that they carry so much influence. Bit like what Peter Parker's dad said, really…

I've just bought some refurb toner for a HP 2600 from ijtdirect.co.uk for about £25 – seems perfectly satisfactory…

Laser every time (although I agree about the smell), and refurbed cartridges.

Sadly have to agree on the Commencals – I've sent two 09 frames back (never had a problem with 08s). They are sending a 2010 frame as a replacement which has different welds and tube profiles (and I suspect from a different factory, but that's a guess). Hopefully the 2010s are sorted because they are really nice bikes to ride… Madison and Commencal have both been excellent with regards warranty.

I had an ASR, which although different had a similar rear stay set up. It never really felt right, and needed a fair amount of rebound dialled in to tame it, which made it pack up on the rough stuff. Lovely looking, but I think I sold it after three months – just couldn't get on with it…

Ask all taking part to only touch the glass with their finger nails, which have no grip. Watch the glass stay absolutely still…

Al Mega XT, non elevated, must still rank as one of my favourite ever bikes. I loved them at the time…

Oh, and iamtheressurection, if she wasn't parked there, the Passat would have passed, the moving bus would not have slowed, the crash bus driver may not have lept for the brake and missed, or a little old lady might have parked there instead and been smeared all over the road in her G-Wizz electric thing

Yeah, that's the point right there – how did I miss that? And lept for the brake? That's a bit dramatic, are you in marketing? 😉 I thought it was just a case of moving your foot a few inches to the left…

Regardless of the car being illegally parked, that bus driver should have his licence taken off him. I don't like the thought of a bus driver panicking and hitting the gas in error – that's something I'd not excuse an 90 year old for.

Anyway, too nice a day to argue.

I can't understand why you're all focused on the car?

Take the car out of the picture and all I see is a bus driver pulling off when he clearly can't see, swerving violently acros the road, mounting the pavement and taking out a bus stop.

What on earth was he doing? The fact that he clipped a car is almost irrelevant. Thank **** there wasn't any kids either in the bus stop or in the car. The bus driver is an effing idiot.

It must be quite a different build then – and maybe a different colour? If it's an identical build and colour, I'd want to sell it. I'm 34, but I'd still act like a 14 year old if it was *identical*.

If it's just the same frame, then I don't think you can be too surprised given it's price and style – there aren't that many options for that type of frame at that price…

What bike is it?

Pretty sure these come in non-ramped or pinned

http://www.bikedock.com/posit/shop/search.php?searchtext=4ARM4XTR&format=1

I'm on the same search… 🙁

Down the coast through Whitburn and play in Marsden Quarry or Cleadon Hills – you can put some decent loops in around there. Wear path southside from Vickers up to Fatfield with loops off, or onwards to Durham.

Some technical little bits around Tunstall Hill. Coastal path down to Seaham too.

I'm not local anymore, or I'd show you. Neither Newcastle or Sunderland an offroad Mecca 😉

Not even close. Mid shin if I'm lucky…

Must start stretching though as I want to start running again in the winter, and when I tried it last year the lack of flexibility caused me all sorts of trouble.

All year here too…

Off the bike, straddling the front wheel – which I have wedged between my legs. Somehow I find that easier than looking at it from about the toptube…

Bollocks. I've just remembered I loved R-Type too. Oh, and Stunt Car Racer (good call).

I never considered myself much of a gamer but I'm tempted to bin the wife tonight and break out the Mame emulator on the original XBox for a bit of R-Type and Gauntlet…

Speedball 2 (Amiga)
Kick Off 2 (Amiga)
Nemesis (MSX)
COD4 (360)
PGR3 (360)

Then I suppose:

Manic Miner (and JSW)
Falcon 4.0
F1/11 Interceptor (Amiga)
Eric and the Floaters (MSX – just liked the name)…
The Great Giana Sisters (Amiga – just cause it looked so good)

Clearly nobody else was sad enough, for me last night was 45 minutes of intervals on the turbo.

Summer in the North East, it's what dreams are made of…

Yeah. Hot pork or bacon chop with hot pease pud.

miketually – Member
Why on earth have I never thought of doing this?!

I don't know, more importantly though, why haven't I either?

Posted 2 days ago # Report-Post
clareymorris – Member
Just a little aside……………Malt loaf + Nutella ………. OMG :-p

So wrong it must be right.

Some old, but tasty red.

Got a venison sausage casserole in the oven, should be done by 9. We're bloody starving…

http://www.rgb-tech.co.uk/product/574

More capable than me, rugged and good in the hand (ahem, the camera)…

I moved up from a 20D and haven't seen much benefit other than ISO display. I shoot mostly RAW so the custom settings don't really get used on the mode dial, but I imagine they could be handy.

Personally, I wouldn't spend more than £600 pr so on a body until I can go full frame – we can argue FX vs DX all you want, but I much prefer the bigger view finder on the full frame, plus images defintely appear to get noisier at higher ISO with 12+ on a cropped sensor.

It's plenty sharp enough for me, plus I tend to prefer softer images anyway as not many people look good on portraits with out a bit of softening post shot!

At the price, the competing Nikons are smaller in the hand (too small for me) and a bit plastic feeling. The D300 is nice, but much more expensive. There's not much to mark the 40D down, really.

Actually – Grenoble? The route from the 2001 TdF up to Chamrousse is an excellent, smooth climb – if you like that kind of thing.

Doing this route clockwise http://www.bikely.com/maps/bike-path/grenoble-to-chamrousse up to Chamrousse is the TdF TT route. I haven't done the return part of the loop (we were staying in a van halfway back down the hill)…

There are some really excellent road rides around both areas, but I don't have any copies of the routes I've done – sorry.

That said, both areas are very easy to navigate around and you could easily put a few nice rides together aiming for towns to link up. I've not done any rides off-road around there but I'd be surprised if anything was really noteworthy compared to the well surfaced, and pretty quiet roads…

Check out:
http://www.bikely.com/listpaths/country/82/region/1799
http://www.bikely.com/listpaths/country/82/region/1796

Are you not tempted just to stick new, 140mm Vanillas on there, maybe with a touch less preload (if you really think you'll feel the extra 10mm)?

People I sometimes ride with seem to love their coil Pikes too.