small block eights came off tonight. Spesh enduro pros 2.3 back on. Big, bouncy, comfy, seem to do the job for most of the winter. I have some conti Fire XC 1.8 for somme-like days, but TBH they only seem to see the light of day at Mayhem.

Fair points by everyone, I didn't mention we hadn't overtaken them at any point.

yeah, I've been known to be a bit vocal on the road when I feel threatened, but I guess it's almost that some guys can't wait to shout at somone and jump at the first opportunity, almost like they see it as part of cycling.

tails – Member

but by now she's in tears

1 dose of MTFU, please. Seriously why are people bothered by a bit of abuse, give it back or ignore it.

err. she's female? bizarre comment!

gentle downhill – we hadn't overtaken them – they had coasted through the lights after us, so no, they were never in front of us in the first place – they were the ones wanting to do a risk overtaking manouevure!

either old duke or judy.

I like bob geldoff.

I think he's cool….

drive really, really fast.

That's the deal these days. pay gets frozen. I don't see why public servants should be immune to it. The rest of us aren't (and I din't have anything to do with the economic crisis either)

You've got a job, possibly a secure one. If you have a tracker mortgage, then you're probably a bit better off.

It's not very pleasant. but that's life, eh?

I've got the weedy 85PS 1.9 and I get a solid 38 combined out of it.

superreliable, nice enough to drive, comfy.

however….

You'll get stiffed on tax for a combi. I was going to get one as my compnay car, bu then the tax man decided the combi was the same as a car, and it would have hit me super hard on tax. Hence I ended up with three seats in the front, ansd therefore tax costs about £500 a year.

If you have any seats in the back, the tax man thinks it's a car as far as purpose goes, and you get stiffed.

I love my transporter though, it's bloody brilliant.

*ducks for cover*

this one

I got one of these about a year ago – it works just fine – dont see why you'd spend more to be honest.

couldn't do without one now I have on though.

good luck mate – the weekend brings you a bit closer to being well again. Thinking of you both.

jim

Miketually – I'd say that the scheme looks like it is abused if you just looked at a cycling forum, but as someone who runs a scheme for a large number of businesses around london, the vast majority of bikes are used for commuting.

The scheme does work, and while salary sacrifice will always benefit higher tax payers, again the vast majority of people taking up the scheme are standard rate tax payers.

This is demonstrated by the fact that our most popular bikes are £500-600 commuters, and generally as un-shiny as possible so as not to attract the magpie effect of bike thiefs!

talk on a public forum of fiddling the scheme isn't a great idea, IMHO.

they aren't a light bike – not supposed to be. the idea with the ST4 is to put trail geometry into a short travel platform, while still retaining a super plush action, which is achieved by a higher volume (i.e. longer eye to eye measurement) shock and the commencal-esque rocker linkage.

Everyone I know who's ridden one loves it, but its a trail bike, not a light weight XC marathon machine, and it's all the better for it.

as backhander says, you'd need some top drawer stuff on it to being it down to that weight (and putting super light wheels on it sort of negates the point of the bike)

I'll second Clives opinion (that's a first eh mate!! 😉 )

Surgeons/consultants very often are very often completely arrogant with zero people skills, who are most comfortable when patients are anaesthatized and they can get on with their brilliant work. I've been the butt of similar egos (but on an admittedly much less serious problem):
consultant (onlooking at big, badly sewn, badly healed scar from previous op): ooh that looks nasty and untidy – who did that?
me: you did
Consultant: I don't think so
me: no it was definately you. 28th Feb 2008.
consultant: oh it was probably a friday afternoon. ha ha ha.
me: er…..

In short, they can be complete tools. But if they make you better, be happy to let them do their job. And then poo in their mail.

good thoughts going out to you mate.

Jim

Agree with CK,

You can get a set up these days (kite, board, harness, wetsuit, helmet) for around £800. not cheap, but then neither is mountain biking.

kites these days offer a lot of wind range, and typically you'll use one kite size for about 80% of the time.

learning, well, that does depend on the person, but 20 hours seems like a lot. as I said earlier, a few days spent with a smallish power kite will make a huge difference to how long it takes you to learn with a larger, more powerful kite.

best advice though is to avoid kites more than 3 years old, prior to this they were a lot more unpredictable, with less depower and in the wrong hands pretty dangerous.

I'll say it again, get insurance, get lessons and you'll have a bloody brilliant time.

I miss it but not the interminable waiting around for the wind to blow.

that's what riding bikes is for!

I used to windsurf at Pugneys! ah those were the days!

Now on south coast and kitesurfed most evenings in the summer.

Windsurfing is still awesome, the portability, light wind potential and big jumps made me switch to kiting. Anyone who thinks windsurfing is dead should head to shoreham beach on a windy day.

been kiting for 3 summers now – learnt in Tarifa 2007. compliments biking perfectly – riding when it's windy isn't fun, so go kiting, wind drops/starts raining, back on the bike.

It's very addictive though, once you start jumping, I seriously had trouble sleeping at night for thinking about kiting.

My advice, get some lessons – it's still a potentially dangerous sport. Get some insurance. and get yourself the new Progression DVD:

Progression kiteboarding[/url]

very well made and gives you a lot of knowledge that you can top up between sessions.

If you're happy on a snow/surfboard, then the kiteflying bit will be the biggest challenge – worth buying a small cheap powerkite and flying it in a field for hours and hours before you go – it makes a huge difference to your learning curve…

I'm off to Tarifa next week for four days, can't wait!!

🙂

love this thread! makes me want to work closer to home!

oh dear. so what might have caused this then? I don't think he's had the BB off since he bought the bike. I've never seen it before, so surprised it's happened though.

hmmm… that seems to be along the lines that I was thinking….

The house restaurant is a good value, nice restaurant. regular food, presented well. reasonable prices.

Drinking – spoilt for choice as long as you avoid west street really.

for real ales, try the evening star near the station – excellent dark star ales, nice atmosphere, though not a romantic spot!

ginger pig – good
ginger fox – good
red snapper in seven dials – BYO, and good!

casa don carlos in south lanes – v busy at the weekend, but very good tapas

ignore the last two lines of previous post. I'm a muppet (but one that can bleed brakes) 🙂

can be done without any of the faff.

wheel out

leave pads in

put screwdriver/thin flat thing in between pads

squeeze pads together

take off hose at lever end

cut to length

install new olive, being careful not to spill fluid out of hose

put hose back on lever

take off reservoir cap

push pads apart, pushing fluid back through the hose and into the piston – you should see a few small bubbles pop up through the reservoir.

top up reservoir, put diaphragm back on, squeeze brakes

done. no ttubes, no syringes virtually no oil needed either.

I've done it on saints before and it works a treat.

take hose off lever end

cut

it's a climb up from somewhere neaer upper beeding, up to the top of truleigh hill. it's a bit loose, and pretty steep (as are most of the climbs on that side of the downs)

Couldn't do that ride this year – did it last year and remember it being sunny and lovely then too – saw lots of people with red BHF t shirts around in the early evening.

A good day out with some buddies and for a good cause too. Downs link is a bit boring though but I don't think there is any real option of doing it any other way without making it ridiculously long.

thanks chaps – I'll report back.

CHeers!

Jim

mebee we need to club together for a STW wedding present instead???).

I'm in for that.

I was having a right old whinge earlier today before I read your update – as everyone else says it's put my life into perspective. I'm in london quite a bit, so more than happy to bring you a ST and some grapes if you're in while I'm in. Again been reading since the beginning – totally inspired by your courage.

I'm in for a stag do ride in some proper hills!

All done. really surprised how easy that was. first wheel took a bit longer. second wheel from bare hub to trued and on the bike in less than 2 hours. BEen for a spin and they are still round.

WIll be keeping spoke key in camelbak for a little while longer though!

meandyuk –

Unlikely you'll be able to get out of it I'm afraid as you'll have agreed to the payments, and your work will have already paid the money to Halfords.
Unfortunately top ups on vouchers can't be done (as a retailer, it would be great to sell higher end bikes) but at the end of the day, rules is rules and Halfords are correct in not offering top ups to vouchers.

p.s. I'm a competitor of Halfords too!

I've been following this thread from day one, and I echo the sentiments of everyone above. You and meg are a real inspiration to me in the way you're dealing with this – I really don't think I would have the same strength.

I'll be thinking of you over the next few days. rip the **** balls off.

jim

mine was a bit further out to the end of the shoulder. generally the more in the middle it is, the better. if it is out towards the end (a distal fracture) you get more complications with muscles/tendons and more likely damage to your acromium.

If I were you I'd opt for surgery asap, as I can't see those two bits getting back together. the longer you leave it, the less willing they are to start knitting together again. Speaking from experience, it was 5 months before the doc thought it appropriate to operate, which then led to an extremely painful 9 months with a hook plate installed, as it took that long for the bone to completely heal. if done straight away, I'd have been looking at 3 months before the plate could be taken out.

The surgery hurts after, but ain't that bad so I'd just go for it every time with hindsight.

Happy to chat more about collar bones if you like – jamesdotrobertson77atyahoo.co.uk

I'm no doctor but did a fair bit of riding in my year off bikes!

scaredy pants – done.

🙂

OK, so I just laced up the wheels after reading rogers bible.

that was dead easy. trueing begins this weekend. rotors arrive either today or tomorrow.

could be on shiny new hoops next week!

cool – that's easy then.

off to order some bolts.

🙂

I'll take that as a no then. anyone want to sell me some? 160mm 6 bolts please!

PCC replies…..

Dear Mr *****

Thank you for contacting the PCC with your concerns about the Daily Mail article by James Martin. The PCC has received a considerable number of complaints about this matter.

We will ask the Commission to determine whether there has been a prima facie breach of the Code raised by the article. We will let you know its decision as soon as we can, and hopefully in the next two or three weeks.

In the meantime, I note that the passage that has provoked the most concern has been removed from the online text.

Yours sincerely

Simon Yip

simon.yip@pcc.org.uk

Press Complaints Commission

Halton House

20/23 Holborn

London EC1N 2JD

Just been onto the PCC now. Not so much annoyed but I'd love to see him publicly eat his words. T0sser.

Agree with . – it's the first I heard of the government taking this line, though in practice more people on bikes is undeniably a good thing, the tax man will definately take a bit of convincing.

I certainly woudln't recommend customers buy bikes for anyone but themselves on the scheme, but as Miketually says it depends on the ethics of people usuing and adminstering the scheme….