By the power of google 😉

A few stills:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-1241610/BBC-Breakfast-presenter-Susanna-Reid-viewers-wearing-low-cut-dress-acting-flirtatiously-Hugh-Grant-interview.html

>to much cleavage
Only just about showing any, IMO..

video (tho' you'll currently have trouble downloading at the mo', to many in progress) :
http://susannareid.blogspot.com/2009/12/susanna-reid-bbc-hugh-grant-interview.html

None on the house, but the ones in my beard were getting to about an inch after a 12 mile commute on monday !

Every rigid or HT mtb I've owned, I've commuted on to some degree (2, 12, 9 miles each way depending on work/home location). Just pump the tyres up hard and they're probably roll reasonably well (tho' it might be a waste of an expensive XC tyre, unless you by something that's cheap/will wear well on the road). I can't be arsed with slicks most of the time, got some Contis of some sort and they're an utter git to get on and off, plus some of the commute can be off-road.

Crud catcher's work reasonably well – or at least well enough that I've never worried about fitting anything bigger. So long as you don't mind washing your face when the roads are really crappy, you'll get lots of black freckles 😉

I *think* shaving brushes are only really relevant to get a decent lather with the right soap, you might get a little lift under the beard hairs by brushing against them but it's mainly pulling the skin taught (usually from above where you start the razor sweep) that lifts the stubble.

Yup, shouldn't need much pressure.

Ditto – I'm sure they ream them oversized. I checked the USE shim on my '03 P7 yesterday and it's cracked where it's been stressed too much to stop it slipping – I'm gonna see if I can get one the next size up to compensate. I've previously knackered a seatpost QR for the same reason – needed to be so tight that the nylon washer under the qr cam bust 🙁

FWIW, there was a similar thread a few weeks ago…

It's the only frame I've had which has been anything like as bad as this.

>Have you started with the adjustment right down at 1 and then worked up

With the adjustable I've got I can feel if it's too acute *before* I do any damage, but I guess it takes some getting used to.

I've used one of my fathers safety razors on and off for years, no idea what it is, recently the thread holding it together gave up so I picked up a (60's ?) adjustable Gillette off fleabay. Kinda ok but the adjustability versus blade clamping bit seems a bit at odds with itself. That said, it shaves fine, just have to adjust it so it's acute enough to remove longer growth and cut in on sideboards/beard, without nicking. Curiously my father's was set bang on, so I'll have to fix it somehow

Apart from the stupid expense (IMO) the mach3 stuff works fairly well, but not with more than about 4 days growth or cutting around the aforementioned facial fuzz.

Pulling the skin tight so that the hair lifts up helps quite a bit (irrespective of razor). Must admit I usually just use bog standard washing soap and make sure it's well-wetted, nothing fancy.
Try not to shave over the same area too much, it may just irritate it – at least, it does with me, tho' I find I can only wet shave mebbe twice a week anyway – more frequent than that and I get irritation, tho' I could shave most days with a foil razor.

Getting one or two small nicks I'd expect, shouldn't really be missing bits tho'.

Shaving *against* the grain will cut off a lot more, but it may a bad idea 'cos – at least in my case – the skin grows over the follicles, so the hair grows under the skin and/or causes zits ! (I suspect the hairs on my neck grow a bit more parallel to the skin than on some blokes, IYSWIM)

I've toyed with the idea of getting a straight razor, but if you don't get the stropping right you can bugger 'em up..

Evel Knievel was ace 🙂 – just had to keep repairing things like footpegs.
Favourite – probably lego – but across the years I had (and still have some of these in the loft) – Johnny Astro, Action Man, Little Big Man, Matt Mason, Lone Ranger, Flightdeck, Corgi Rockets…

Only recently bought a decent amount of Scalextric for a road summer party the other year, that's sitting up on boxes in the spare room 😉

> to stop the thieving gits.
Lol!

Re squirrel-proofing – there's a few variations of something called a 'squirrel-baffle'eg:
http://www.charliesdirect.co.uk/products/gardman-squirrel-baffle

-some are intended to go directly under a feeder, or you can place then partway up. Works a treat 🙂

Only the SRAM attack (and rocket, if they still make 'em) shifters ie the 2:1 stuff.

Yup, sram rear mechs won't work with shimano shifters.

Front mechs/shifters are generally compatible between both tho'.

http://www.sram.com/en/srammountain/compatibleshifters/attack/index.php

Google is your friend 🙂

eg:
http://www.insurance4carhire.com/guide/What_is_collision_damage_waiver_insurance.html

Some of those you need/have to pay, but may be priced separately eg TP – third party insurance, as in the UK. TW+CDW is effectively the fully-comp bit of your own uk insurance I guess (well, less 'fire')

Bear in mind what the drivers in some parts of Italy can be like re parking around other vehicles (ie crap), if someone dents your vehicle and disappears you'll be liable.
The various waivers may have an excess (ie you pay the first however much of any claim, as in the uk), it may be worth comparing those between hire companies.

RobS – I'd check over these forums (I was reading 'em yesterday 'cos I'm looking for an i7 laptop with decent gfx):

http://en.community.dell.com/forums/p/19306277/19605802.aspx
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=437800&page=227

It sounds like it's a similar spec to the XPS you're describing.
Roughly how it goes is: machine stutters when on psu, 'cos it detects (90w) psu and throttles back to reduce it's power requirement (actually is fine on battery !). Needs both a larger (120-130W) psu and a bios fix (tho' there appears to be some unofficial workarounds to turn off throttling and buy a bigger psu). Sounds like Dell are being a bit crap about sorting the issue..

Thermostat ?

Rennkompressor. Looks like they're only a handful of few quid more than the Lezyne from the right place (and I suspect the bottom end's a bit heftier) – mine's at least 15yrs old now.

Rode my 5-yr old P7 on the 3 decent days of snow we had in Surrey last year, put it away in a dry garage and a month later had some surface rust on previously clean (unused) v-brake pivots, steel granny ring and a seized Hope caliper 🙁 – not to mention a lot more on chain/cassette.

Makes a nice mess of unlacquered motorcycle engine cases too…

Hi nasher et al,

yeah, I'd be on for a ride sometime – between my Orange being in bits (almost sorted but shouldn't stop me, I've got a backup) and a gammy neck I've been riding my recumbent* of late, but I really ought to get my arse out of my hand and get back on an mtb…

Re the river roads – yeah, they're nice, but some may suffer from midges in the summer – a mate used to live in one some years ago and found 'em a pain. Dunno if that was near the Portmouth Road waterworks tho' (ie next to the river) which has (mostly?) been built on AFAIA, so it might not be a problem.

*the *other* Darkside…if anyone sees some bloke on a silver low-slung thing around Walton/Esher, who looks like a cast-off from a metal band, that'll probably be me 😉

If you've only just noticed it then it's not been much of an issue up to now and you may as well leave it. By the time we left our old place after 15 years, there were several nests in assorted places, and only one had been a nuisance. And that was only 'cos we had some rubbish louvre windows just below where the wasps used to enter the loft, so they'd occasionally go the wrong way.

FWIW, wasps are quite useful insects and predate on various gardens pests. There's a good chance another one will appear at some point, so it's not worth worrying about IMO.

That's the area I've done a few rides in the past, with a guy from the london-mtb yahoo group who knew it a little better – reasonable enough for a local non-tarmac ride but at the time felt like it needed a few cheeky trails to make it more interesting. But compensated for by a stop-off in the pub at the bottom end of Claygate 😉

I imagine it's probably changed a bit in the last few years, there was supposed to be a lot of wood clearance being done to open the whole lot up.

Whereabouts are the jumps, jools? – there certainly used to be some stuff at the top of the hill to the north of Oxshott station (ie near the bombhole)

Depends on whether you need to get into London much.

Good thing about Surbiton is it's still in zone 6, you're on a night bus service from central London, and the last train is about 1am (likewise Kingston).

Like Atlaz – great bit of footage btw 🙂 – we moved from Surbiton* to Walton about 4 years ago after 15 yrs in Surbiton, that added about 3 quid to the cost of an off-peak travelcard into central London. Top of our list was actually Godalming but Walton won 'cos my OH thought she'd wind up working in London again (actually got a job in Guildford).

>the trains that serve places like weybridge, surbiton etc stop alot and vcan take longer that the fast trains from woking.

As nasher said, Surbiton>Waterloo is about 20 mins and they're v. frequent – whereas Walton has 2 fast (25 mins), 2 slower (35 mins) – add 3 minutes for Weybridge. Kingston has two slow (30min?) trains to Waterloo in hour (plus two slower ones via Richmond)

*actually we were on the edge of Surbiton/Tolworth, round the corner from Cycleopedia (or Martin Reed Cycles, in the unlikely event anyone remembers them…) – so a 15 min walk from the station.

Kingston/Guildford tends to be more expensive than Surbiton – Woking's cheaper still, but some of the town centre's a bit pikey in the evening. I could say the same of the area near the clubs in Kingston, but it has some reasonable pubs otherwise (as has Surbiton).

Another thing about Kingston – living in the centre or just north of it can be a pita to get out of in summer, if the one-way system gets snarled up.

>What a closed minded little man you are!

Excuse me ?
Smiley or not, that's plain ****ing rude 🙁

>>before and after shots of ours

Aaagh !
Deco fireplaces are an acquired taste – particularly that colour 😉 – but a bit of a shame you ripped it out IMO..

What I find rather ironic about the planned protest is that it wasn't so far back that the Taliban had a lot of control in Afganistan. Y'know, the bunch that aren't keen on rights or education for women (which in itself would appear to be contrary to the Koran..) – tho' the situation is only slowly improving in this respect.

Legally I *think* they're wrong – ISTR it's something along the lines that they have to demonstrate a material loss – I think the same issue's come up before about parking on reserved parking areas within a residential development.

For that matter, the BB on the Maverick isn't on the main triangle either.

>I knew you'd all take the piss.

I'm not sure anyone's taking the piss – apart from mebbe wrt the sales-y stuff 😉

But what does it boil down to ?
I could ask you for the link – I'm genuinely curious – but I suspect that still won't be very informative – after all, if they're trying to flog a book or two they're probably not gonna be in hurry to tell you up front what it is…

>I did the diet that they give heart patients who have to loose major weight lose prior to surgery in a week (cabbage soup diet)

MC – are you **really** sure that's the case – from a web search it appears it may be a myth. I find it difficult to believe a hospital would recommend a crash diet a week before surgery…

>They advertise stuff they dont have in stock

FWIW, real-time (or whatever you'd like to call it) inventory display is nice, but it's not exactly a prerequisite for being an online shop….

Yeah, spill the beans 😉

>It does involve eating real, whole foods.

Lots of fruit/veg/fibre, water and a sensible amount of protein/carbs ?

>THAT ACTUALLY WORKS AND INVOLVES VERY LITTLE EFFORT!!

Blimey, that sounds like a cut n paste off some internet this-is-the-diet-buy-the-book thing 😉

A few things to add to some of the above posts – the Atkins diet appears to work 'cos the net calory intake is reduced – the relevance of it being protein-centric is that's what triggers the brain to think you're full.
Equally chewing everything thoroughly and not rushing your food (with a more balanced meal) ought to have the same effect.

Beer/cider has colories. A lot of processed food has excessive sugar/salt and fat and you may may well be blowing you calorific intake with that (crisps ffs !) rather than something that has more bulk (not to mention vitamins/minerals)

The finish on motorcycles suffers pretty badly when they're used all year (road salt etc) – you spray this stuff over to protect everthing (including areas which get hot), then rinse it off at the end of the winter.

Nope, it's not a chain lube.

Following on from geetee's post – there's a writeup on the chrisking website about the different types and why they don't like the integrated jobbies – worth a read IMO.

Blacks in Kingston (dahn sarf) were doing a "buy one, get one half price" thing just before Chistmas on their 'Technicals' stuff (own brand or 'exclusive to Blacks' at, any rate) – I'm wearing one of these at the mo':
http://www.blacks.co.uk/product/071109.html

Must admit I dunno how it compares to other merino stuff, but at 30 quid I though I'd give it a try (the OH's got the other one) – I tend to wear base layers rather than wooly jumpers.

Bust mine and was riding to physio in 3 weeks.

OTOH, a mate bust his, and after another 5 months or so, he had to have it pinned 'cos it wasn't knitting (wasn't that bad a break either AFAIA)

Just found this via quidco
http://www.hotukdeals.com/item/563345/samsung-nc10-219-97-or-less-deliver

some NC10s are 200-220 from laptopsdirect.co.uk – some are refurbs but there's std black doesn't seem to be:

http://www.laptopsdirect.co.uk/Samsung_Netbook_NC10_Ultra_Portable_Laptop_in_Black_NP-NC10-KA02UK/version.asp

Worth checking the specs carefully, the only obvious difference between that and a more expensive black model from a quick scan may be the screen type.

Other thing is, there's two types – refridgerant stylee, or dessicant based. The latter works down to freezing (which the former doesn't) and is quieter – generally more expensive tho'.

>I probably don't see the point.

It's not exactly difficult.
Bloke in music industry with too-high trousers attempts to corner charts for Christmas again. Public say '**** off I won't do what you tell me'

To add some history from the rock front – originally it was gonna be a Journey song (Don't stop believin') which the current crop would be piss-poor at as far us us rockers/metalheads would be concerned..

Norbar are good, but not cheap – I bought one (SL0 I think it is) for the lower end (2-20Nm) 'cos that's what I'm more worried about stripping, but may well look for something cheaper for the 20-70Nm range (eg for bottom brackets..)

>I would never contemplate N or W London over SW or Surrey

Quite – Essex is a flat as…err.. a flat thing.

>Swinley I don't get when for about the same time/investment

Swinley trails are maintained by BOBMBC (Berks On Bikes MTB Club), plus they drain pretty well, so are rideable all year – certainly some of the better known N Downs sngletrack (ie not bridleway) I'd actually feel guilty about riding in winter 'cos they get such a hammering (tho' I believe there's some maintenance done on 'em nowadays). Not to mention there are cheeky (ish) trails around, too.

Chilterns/Henley way is (AFAIA) bridleway stuff (tho' there's an MTB club out that way too, so they'd know better).

Both Swinley and N downs you can get to on trains through Clapham Junction, Chilterns I think is Paddington (tho' I used to do mtb orienteering events around Reading/Henley/Sonning some years back, that would probably have been via ClaphamJ.)

Bear in mind that wherever you are within the M25 (or at least, the South West Trains bit) – the buggers won't, in theory, let you put a bike on the train around peak times (that includes about 7pm). However, if I'm riding at Swinley (I work out west M25, nr Staines) the train has emptied a bit so it's never a problem, despite the 'cycles are not allowed on this service' rubbish on the indicator board. But try putting a bike on the train futher in and you *may* get grief.

Re '10 mile, cheap, no crime'…pick any two 😉 Actually, it's not that bad…

I'd go for somewhere that is at least on the mainline to Clapham – have a look at the tfl/nationalrail websites.

FWIW, I lived in Surbiton for ~15 yrs – 20 mins to Waterloo by train, you can even ride out to the N downs from there – but that's more like 16 miles out from the City IIRC.

The nominal cell voltage for NiMH is 1.2V – eg the lumi 13.2V pack is 11 cells.

I've been riding a recumbent of late – they take a bit of practice re hillstarts, and whilst I generally don't wobble when starting on the flat it's not unknown, so I'm not keen on some idiot sitting a foot from my lug'ole. So if I know if some traffic lights are about to change, I try to time my approach to lights/back of the rearmost car (particularly on inclines) *and* take the lane to dissaud anyone overtaking for the last…ooh 15ft – and I *still* get idiots overtaking to park at the back of the car in front 😮

😉