I would try and get away from the pads as soon as possible, we have friends who used them for their puppy and even now that it’s 2 years old their dog will pee on any newspaper/magazine/blanket that is left on the floor.

We crate trained our pup, we thought the fact that you have to get up during the night for the first few weeks far outweighed the fact that you have to un-train the peeing on paper pads behavior.

I use a Garmin GPS (not an edge though) and only use open source maps based on http://www.openstreetmap.org/.

I use the Dutch and Belgian maps a lot, but have used Luxemburg, France, Austria, Italy and Switzerland without any problems.

I don’t have all the link available now but if you have a google it should show up some download sites for pre-prepared maps, the one I use the most is; https://sites.google.com/site/openfietsmap/

Edit: Found another link, http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/OSM_Map_On_Garmin/Download has links to map downloads for loads of different countries.

The clamps are generically called over-center latches/clamps, or toggle latches/clamps.

We’ve been a few times, first time we went my daughter was 3. She absolutely loves the place.

You can hire buggies or wheelchairs inside the park if you can’t be bothered taking one – I know this could be morally questionable, but children get a lot more attention from the characters if they are in a wheelchair!

The parade is really good, there are also mini-parades dotted about throughout the day so keep a lookout for those. My daughters favourite is the finding Nemo ride, it starts out innocent enough then all hell breaks loose, I had to carry the wife off it the first time! Definitely book a meal with the characters the kids love it.

The hotels are OK, they are fairly basic chain type hotels but I think it’s a pretty big treat for the kids to walk into the lobby and happen to see Mickey or one of the other characters just milling about. The first time we went we had a few complaints about the room – it hadn’t been cleaned properly and there was a full ash tray on the table (it was a non-smoking room) I complained and we got free drinks, a free meal and gift from the store, so look for something to complain about!

Everything is expensive there; everyone knows that before they go so I don’t see the point of moaning about it.

I once flew from Bristol to Inverness just after bonfire night and just after going through customs at Inverness I realised that I had a packet of bangers and a catherine wheel in my coat pocket – so on that basis, you’ll be fine.

How about billing the events as a ‘featured segment of the month’? You wouldn’t be doing anything that isn’t already available in Strava, just bringing people’s attention to a nice trail.

Do a video if you like, a bit of a description and possibly suggest a route which takes in the segment or multiple segments to make it more ‘gravity enduro’. No mention of racing, no prizes and massive caveats about respecting other trail users, riding responsibly etc.

And if the KOM at the end of the month gets details of a nearby geocache which just happens to contain “something suitably “Northern” like a box of tea and some biscuits or possibly a trophy made from manly working stuff like bits of metal and old tools” then that would be lucky wouldn’t it.

I believe a Van Persie offside was also missed in the lead-up to Utd’s goal?

Ronaldo was offside for his goal as well.

I actually thought the ref did OK, there were a lot of decisions that fall into the seen ’em given category but I think he got most of them right, the keeper punching Vidic (happens all the time and keepers never get punished), Rafael hand ball, Ramos on Rafael, Ramos climbing for the disallowed goal etc.

In the cold light of day I can see why the ref gave a red (although I still think he got it wrong), Nani was high and the ref wouldn’t have seen the fact that he was only looking at the ball. That said, I don’t think anyone would have argued if it was a yellow.

Of course the fact that the ref follows Real and Ronaldo on twitter might have had some impact on his decision!

Engine oil works poorly on a chain as it flicks off

No it doesn’t, the excess may “flick off” if you lather the chain in it (as it does with most lubes), but where the lubrication is needed it will stay there. That said chainsaw oil is good too, as is transmission fluid. The only downside I have found to any of the aforementioned oils is that they don’t smell as nice as some of the ‘bike’ lubes, transmission fluid in particular smells nasty if you store your bike inside.

A little light-hearted tale, not directly pertinent to the debate, but I thought it might amuse a few. Apologies if this derails the serious discussion.

My daughter has expressed an interest in God for quite some time, I don’t really know where it comes from. Neither my wife nor I practice any religion but neither of us are anti-religion, except the fundamentalist nut job types, and the wife family being originally from the outer Hebrides has a deep mistrust of Presbyterians. The little one sometimes asks questions “what’s Heaven like” and similar, we tend to use the non-committal approach of answering with another question, “what do you think it’s like”, apparently it’s just like the pink palace at Eurodisney with unlimited pizza and cupcakes (chuck in Snow White and Cinderella and I quite fancy that myself).

We decided that it would be OK for her to go along to a Sunday school, so this Sunday we took her along to a local church for the first time. As it was a Sunday school, in a church I did expect a bit of preaching and maybe the odd bible/God reference but went along mainly to make sure there was no thrusting of anything down anyone throats going on.

We met the teacher, who was a lovely young lady. I suspect this is where things started to go wrong for me because there was a bit of coveting going on (Strike 1).

The room they were in was an annex of the church and it had an amazing carved oak table in the middle of it, the teacher overheard me ask the wife if she thought it would fit in our dining room, after all they didn’t seem to lock the door (I paced it out, it would). The teacher didn’t look amused (strike 2).

The kids all sat around and the teacher read a story about Moses, they had just passed the burning bush bit when I thought that I could actually smell burning, wow that’s pretty powerful stuff, maybe there is more to this after all I thought. It was then that another Dad tapped me on the shoulder and pointed to my coat, it was slung over the back of my chair and was pressed up against a radiator and was now smoking away. I jumped up, “’kin ‘ell my coats on fire” at a volume which was a bit above what I could have gotten away with, grabbed the coat and ran out of the building (strike 3 and I’m out).

In the car on the way home we were talking about what she had learned (except the fact that her Dad is an idiot who sets fire to his coat), and interestingly she has already decided that not every part of the religion is for her, she didn’t like the sound of “honor thy father and thy mother” because sometimes when we ask her to tidy her room she would rather play with her Barbies. She is also little bit concerned that God will “smite down” Aria and Damman, her friends who are Hindu because they don’t believe in “her God” (they have told her that before), although we have tried to persuade her not to try and convert them.

I’ve taken the whole episode as a sign that I’m not welcome, and more to the point that God considers The North Face the work of the devil, so next week the wife and daughter will go to Sunday school leaving me with all Sunday morning to go out on my bike and I get an excuse to buy a new (non-TNF) jacket. God certainly does move in mysterious ways.

We’ve been living in the Netherlands for 3 years now, on our last visit back our list of things to buy (which I suppose roughly equates to stuff that’s better/cheaper in the UK than here) was; Cheddar & Stilton, Bisto, Mcoys crisps, Cadburys mini-eggs, sausages and of course bacon and also some clothes, which are massively overpriced and poorer quality here.

Other things which are better are, cheap petrol, lower energy prices, lower taxation and the BBC. Specific to here as well would be hills, but obviously some countries do have better hills than the UK.

Whilst the idea of the NHS is great, the only thing that is actually better about it is the fact that it’s free. Yes we have to pay for health care here, but the standard and availability of care is way better than on the NHS (unless you want pain killers of course in which case you get a resounding MTFU).

Interestingly you have the right to have your child go to the nearest faith school of your choice- ie a ctaholic will always get a catholic school etc.
you do not have the right to NOT send your child to a faith school and go to the the nearest non religious school so the non religious end up in fatith schools
Imagine the reaction of christians if we did this to them

From the school admissions code;
2.8 With the exception of designated grammar schools, all maintained schools, including faith schools, that have enough places available must offer a place to every child who has applied for one, without condition or the use of any oversubscription criteria.
2.9 Admission authorities must not refuse to admit a child solely because:
a) they have applied later than other applicants;
b) they are not of the faith of the school in the case of a faith school;
c) they followed a different curriculum at their previous school;
d) information has not been received from their previous school; or
e) they have missed entrance tests for selective places.
Faith based oversubscription criteria in schools with a religious character
1.36 As with other maintained schools, these schools are required to offer every child who applies, whether of the faith, another faith or no faith, a place at the school if there are places available. Schools designated by the Secretary of State as having a religious character (commonly known as faith schools) may use faith-based oversubscription criteria and allocate places by reference to faith where the school is oversubscribed.

So which bit of the legislation precludes you from sending your children to a school that is farther away than the nearest faith school? We did exactly what you are saying you can’t do; we had to pass the Catholic school to take my daughter to the secular school a mile farther away.

I’d echo the above about sticking to whatever the breeder uses at first. But let’s face it for the first few months it will mainly be eating shoes, socks, tissues basically any household item it can get to before you notice, and probably any poo it can find whilst out on walks.

Endmills will work on wood but you might need a custom grind to get them to cut efficiently. Router bits will work OK, the limiting factor is usually spindle speed (it will be much higher on a real router) and if you don’t feed fast enough you get scorching.

The main problem is that the wood dust will stick to everything and gum it all up, it gets in the ways, expands and seizes the bed up. If you really want to machine wood, use a dedicated machine which has been degreased and use lots of extraction (especially if using MDF / hardwood). The N+1 style answer would be to use the mill to make a CNC router though!

My wife has a Spesh Dolce with a triple (Sora as well) and its was dog to set up properly, you could only use the smallest 2 or 3 sprockets in the big ring otherwise the chainline was too extreme and the chain derailed into the middle (or more often ‘neutral’). If you weren’t in the small sprockets it wouldn’t shift into the big ring at all. After much faffing I ended up fitting a narrower BB which moved the chainline in a few mm which improved things.

We’re on the Faraway tree series (by Enid Blyton) at the moment. I think we picked them up from Asda on a trip back to the UK. Our 6yr old girl seems to like them.

Ours comes out with me on any rides less than an hour and every time I go running. Beagle/Cocker cross;

nipple and flange

Your making that up for comedy value!

grow up!

Sorry

How about these;

http://www.metals4u.co.uk/Size-B-34mm-tube-clamps/132-B-Railing-Base-Flange-size-B/1625/8575/detail.asp

You might be better with the smaller size, but would need to shim the stem.

A 50mm prime gives a certain kind of shot. Why would you choose to ignore all the other shots you could take until you’ve ‘mastered’ the 50mm? Makes no sense to me.

I think the stick to a 50mm prime advice is a hark back to the old days where all SLR’s were full-frame and a 50mm lens creates an image which most closely resembles what the eyes see. So you wandered around, spotted a scene you liked and took a shot. The intention is to train the eye to spot a good shot before getting the camera out at all.

Obviously crop sensors screw that up a bit and as you mentioned there are creative reasons to want to use other focal lengths but the general advice is still fairly sound, it gets you thinking about the shot rather than just snapping away at random, and once you have a grounding in basic composition then you can start to ‘see’ more creative opportunities.

Leuven
Antwerp
Gent
Bruges

I’d give Antwerp a miss, it’s one big building site at the moment due to the tram works. Agree with the others though as being worth a visit.

As others have said, Brussels has enough to keep you interested for a weekend though. Hire some bikes?

W’ve just been for the weekend with our daughter who’s a few year younger (she’s 6). We ‘did’ the Harry Potter experience, took an open topped tour bus which basically covers all the main sights we went into the tower of London because she wanted to see the crown jewels (no sniggering at the back)and the natural history museum which she really enjoyed.

P.S. avoid Hamleys or it will cost you!

Assuming Row 1, data starting in column A;
In column 8, =AVERAGE(A1:A7) the function ignores blank cells

Stone Roses (including Ian Browns solo stuff in the decline), Charlatans, Suede, Happy Mondays, and especially Ride off the top of my head…no guessing which era I grew up in!

One of my daughters friends (also 6) has hypersensitivity of taste and smell which means that she can’t stand strong flavours. When she comes over she will eat plain spaghetti or pancakes with nothing on. You should have seen her when she tried to feed the cat!

I don’t know a huge amount about it to be honest, but it may be worth looking into?

it would require cutting up a frame to get the wall thickness though..

Good point, although you can get the specifications for Reynolds tubing easily enough here which could be a good place to start?

How about reverse engineering a metal frame? Measure the tubes and calculate the failure loads then work from there with the composite model.

[nerdmode]LEFT(A1,LEN(A1)-6) that’s a neat way of dealing with it[/nerdmode]

Can you send me the spreadsheet? email in my profile.

If there is a date where the day is less than the 10th e.g. 1st 2nd 7th etc it is represented as 1, 2 or 7 NOT 01, 02 or 07

Then you need to do an IF loop based on the LEN property of the string,

something like; IF(LEN(B2)=7,CONCATENATE(0,B2),B2) this will make all of the strings 8 digits, then a combination of LEFT and RIGHT to seperate out the days, months and year.

24112012 changed to 71/12/2012 ???????????

American date format?

Assuming your text is in B2 the one way would be;

=LEFT(B2,2)&”/”&LEFT(RIGHT(B2,6),2)&”/”&RIGHT(B2,4)

Then format the cell as a date. It does require the text string to always be in the same format though.

Congratulations, it was like hitting a wall of emotion for me as well.

Try singing “Wires” by Athlete now. Impossible without breaking down into sobbing tears

The first compilation slideshow I did had “this is the one” by the Stone Roses as the soundtrack, whenever I hear it I get all chocked up. It’s a bit embarrasing when I go to Old Trafford (it’s the song that United always come out to) I should have thought that one through!

Most of the information can be found here;

http://www.roymech.co.uk/Useful_Tables/Seals/O_Rings.html

Which component of Carbon, causes this?

The carbon fibres themselves – in most applications the resin will form a decent barrier as will any anodising. I guess that the seatube is either mandrelled during manufacture, and/or reamed afterwards which could expose the fibres. If the post is moved up and down it might scratch the anodising exposing bare ali to the naked fibres, a bit of salty water (from washing with soap?) and you’ve got a battery!

Does it have to be single malt and whisky? Or would a blended whiskey be OK?

You could get a Jamesons reserve or maybe even a gold reserve, both are really smooth drinking whiskeys.

If it must be single malt, then you can’t go wrong with a Macallan another one I tried and enjoyed recently was a Glenfiddich Solera Reserve or as mentioned earlier a lot of the Japanese stuff is very good.

If you want to find out if you like laphroaig, get a glass of cheap blended whisky and mix in a spoonful of Germalene and you’ll get the general idea!

I just dug out my old turbo sessions, this is the schedule I used to warmup. I didn’t use a turbo at mountain bike races unless it was slashing it down, but tried to stick to it as close as possible. My max HR was 208 for reference. The last of the sprints was a ‘bit of sick in your mouth’ type intensity.

10mins building up to 145bpm
5mins @ 165bpm
5mins @ 190bpm
5mins @ 165bpm
5mins @ 190bpm
1min maximal sprint
1min easy
(repeat sprints 5 times)
5mins @ 190bpm
5mins @ 145bpm (kept going until as close to start as possible, get to the start line just in time, realise you need a slash “10 seconds to go” too late, gun goes……….spriiiint)

I don’t think I could get to the end of the first 5 mins @ 190 before hurling now though!

It’s a pretty common repair problem in industrial engineering, and there are a few off the shelf solutions;

Ready made sleeves;
http://simplybearings.co.uk/shop/Engineering+Parts-Shaft+Repair+Sleeves-Metric+Shaft+Repair+Sleeves/c4713_4847_4849/index.html

Tolerance rings;
http://www.wixroyd.com/en/catalog/standard-parts/transfer-rollers-and-tolerance-rings/tolerance-rings

Or any of the suggestions above

The problem is not grip, it’s the fact the tyres get destroyed in warm weather.

Apparently Continental think otherwise;

“Winter tyres are as quiet and comfortable as summer tyres and, thanks to sophisticated compound technology, do not wear any more quickly.”

My experience back this up as well, we have winters fitted all year round and don’t have to change any more frequently than when we used summer tyres.

Even if the temperature is low enough to mean that the performance of the summer tyres deteriorates they would still need to deteriorate a lot before they were worse than the winter tyres.

From the link I posted above; from 62mph at 5°C stopping distance for winter tyres = 65.7m summer tyres 70.5m QED?

thats on snow. I’m regularly told that in any conditions below 7 degs winter tyres are better.

They are on anything but perfectly dry roads; http://www.btmauk.com/data/files/Why%20fit%20winter%20tyres%2030%20May%202012.pdf

Awesome shots stuartie_c, it makes me massively jealous that my average ride amounts to 20m climbing!

This has to be cute in anyones money;