>mate of mine went the amicable route (edit)
>it's the modern way of getting screwed over.

Ha ! – I've got various mates that have got divorced, in a couple of cases it was amicable *until* solicitors got involved (not helped by their wives being airheads regarding finance and – I suspect – being egged on for ridiculous claims) – eventual settlements were what their husbands initially suggested 😮

Another mate+ex-wife have blown the better part of 100k on their divorce – again, not helped by her solicitors taking the mickey at every opportunity

Strut ?

Search for 'squirrel baffle' – there's various designs around, work a treat 🙂 – essentially variants on wwaswas's dustbin lid

eg
http://www.charliesdirect.co.uk/products/gardman-squirrel-baffle
http://www.cheappetproducts.net/Audubon_-_Wrap_around_squirrel_baffler_-_18_inch-UKP94422.html

Fluffer ?

BTW – might be worth having a browse on youtube to get an idea of how the space pans out – eg:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7PE94n7uZU8&feature=related

I've got a Vango Banshee 200 – which seems fine, certainly for the amount I paid for it in a shop clearance a couple of years ago (about 35 quid). Admittedly I bought more 'cos it was small and the right price for backpacking to a music festival, at something like retail price there may be a better option. Pack size/weight seems comparable with the others mentioned – definitely worth having the extra room of a 2-man.

Another style might be worth looking at is something with more of a porch at one end (eg Vango Tempest 200, tho' the weight goes up a fair bit) – having a bit more room to leave wet boots/shoes/waterproofs might be handy, tho' mebbe a tarp or otherwise over your bike with damp kit underneath might do. (Tho' I've not -yet – done any cycle touring with mine, but I did a festival earlier in the year with a far bigger tent, and all the wet gear got dumped in the porch.)

It's probably a case of mtfu and relax – easier said than done tho' !
I bought a scaffold tower last year to strip/paint the upstairs bay windows – managed to get the sill/lower section done before I ran out of decent weather. I found I was overcompensating and being far too tense (tho' scraping away at paintwork can unbalance you a bit)…this year's doing the woodwork *above* the bay, so I need to get my head sorted 😮

(Sweaty palms indeed !)

As a matter of interest – do you have an upper handrail and kickboards (around the edge of the section you walk on) – that might help your confidence

My dad would have probably found it funny/ridiculous – he was a joiner/builder so was more than happy running up n down buildings…

Was gonna suggest John Lewis too, at least as a start point for comparison – we actually wound up buying ours from a competing department store down 'ere in surrey during the end-of-summerish sales (IIRC)…it *was* a bit on the expensive side, but pretty damn good. (VI-Spring, fwiw..)

Err…don't understand the question – can you point me at a url ?

Edit: Ah – mobile phone provider thing, I see…

>On sram mechs the b tension screw moves the derailleur alot, shimano it doesnt seem too.

I think that's 'cos the mechanics of the two mechs are a little different – IIRC when the back end of the bike's bouncing around an sram mech tends to stay roughly where it is, whereas a shimano mech tends to bounce/rotate around (and slap the chainstay on a full-sus).

>I've set up dozens of mechs, and the b-tension screw makes barely any difference at all.

Funny, I've found exactly the opposite…it's not a huge adjustment but it does have an effect if your chain length's correct. It's definitely not for sorting the chain tension.

>QR style clamps usually turn out to be more of a ball ache.

A bit OT, but Ultimate Support (or whatever they're now called) quick-release-stylee clamps seem to work well, but mebbe a little slower to rotate the jaws tho' unless you're using their jaw unit that fits a Park stand. 'Fraid there's no bench equivalent tho' and some are expensive 🙁

(Fortunately I bought mine when they weren't the crazy amount of money they are now – it was either that or the extreme range Park, to handle the 2" tubes of a recumbent).

>are those anatech numbers a little misleading. dB is not a linear scale….

Misleading ? – don't think so – if you mean the bar graph, that's just illustrating how many bars correspond to what signal level. It does seem to confirm Apple's claim (damn ! 😉 )- there's only approx 6dB difference between 4 bars and 2 bars.

>Did you see my "old ladies

I have now 🙂

Some slightly better/accessible info here:
http://europeanmotornews.com/2010/01/13/nissan-nv200-combi/

>They all say the 1.9 is the one to buy.

Not to mention becuase the engines are a little more robust (tho' dual mass flywheels seem to be a consumable, albeit an expensive one…)

>Advance Driving UK ?

Tho' having just spotted a 'should cyclists have insurance?' thread over there (tho' I have now, as a ctc member) I'm tempted to register and put my tuppenyworth in 😉

Andy – Advance Driving UK ? – no, 'fraid not, tho' I'm curious as to who my possible alter-ego may be 😉

About the nearest I've got is a copy of Motorcycle Roadcraft in the bookcase – not that I've ridden a motorcycle for some years – I was tempted to get hold of that IAM book tho', in case it's got any useful tips.

>Sorry I forgot my 😉

Apologies, I should have guessed 🙂

>You'd have avoided that by being closer to the kerb

Absolutely not – there's no room to get a bike and a car through the gap between the bollards. That's the whole point about staying in the middle thought that sort of road constriction, it dissuades the vast majority of drivers from a last moment overtake/swerve as you're entering the restriction. Leave more room and you're more likely to get someone try to squeeze through, stuffing you into the kerb.

Possibly – I'd normally be about 3 foot out anyway on that section anyway, which ought to be enough (I'll have a nother look tonight) – I think the bloke simply forgot he had a trailer behind, even if I'd been further out I think he'd still have cut in. Last week I had some dick swerve past me as I was about to pass centrally between the curb and the pedestrian reservation bollards in the centre of the roads on another part of my route – dunno how he missed either me or the bollards !

>any need to emergency brake is a sign that you weren't observant enough, and weren't keeping an eye on the idiots / traffic around you enough. The more you learn from those experiences, the better at avoiding them you get.

Not sure that's entirely true – or if it is, it reinforces the idea of staying *further* out. Last commute home, wide-ish road, car pulls into middle from right then dithers, not enough room for a car to get through, would be for me but I start slowing and there's a car overtaking on my rhs. It slows, but as it almost stops it also swings over to the left (not that it can get through the gap, its about 4-5 ft) reducing my roadspace to about 1ft – although his rear wing is past me, there's a bloody boat trialer next to my lug'ole. Cue emergency stop 😮
About the only thing I see I could have done would to have been riding about 4ft out from the curb in the first place (which comes back to Al's complaint…)

>Cars will often be speeding as well – fast for urban roads

Possibly more reason to be a bit further out than on slower roads – so you're seen further back rather than disappearing into the roadside clutter. Part of my commutes on a 50mph dual carriageway, used to be a national…not that many years ago, heard something behind, looked back to see a stationary car just behind me – I think I just missed being rear-ended 😮 (it may have been in twilight, but I've some bright rear lights that would have been on)

Fairy-'nuff

FWIW, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vehicular_cycling#Lane_control

(john) "Franklin advocates the primary riding position as the normal position and the secondary riding position only when it is safe, reasonable and necessary to allow faster traffic to pass. [9]"

Perhaps the cyclists you're complaining of are simply enforcing the overtake-cyclist rule – ie if they're not going to be 'allowed' as much room as a small car, then they'll take it anyway.

Most drivers that pass me *do* leave that much room since I ride a recumbent on-road and there's the WTF element (equally there's some idiots that pass/swerve in close not realising I'm a bit longer and a bit faster than a lot of bikes they pass – or mebbe they'd do that anyway)

Al, perhaps you ought to try reading cyclecraft, look up vehicular cycling, read the latest IAM book on cycling (the author of cyclecraft being a contributor). There's two positions on the road, secondary – roughly where the lh car wheels are, and primary, either in the middle of the lane or where the rh wheels would be. Neither are riding in the gutter, the closer to it you are the less escape room you have, and more easily you are to be missed. And bear in mind the hwc says in overtaking a bike to leave as much room as with a small car (yeah, like that happens).
Most car driver where I am are fine, some are utter prats re giving cyclists room – this morning I had some idiot coming in the other direction shouting to 'get over', on a road with not much traffic other than a handful of vehicles in each direction, I'm 2 ft out from the curb, and even if I was further over you *still* couldn't get a car though.

edit – just seen you 1-3 ft – 1 ft's way too close, anyone clips you and you'll probably be on yer arse

Remebering my first v bumpy ride on a rigid mtb after I'd just bought it, 20-odd years ago – relaxing, not having a vulcan death grip on the bars, looking far enough ahead to get a few fingers on the brakes levers (if they're not there already)

For the west country, we've used http://www.helpfulholidays.com/ a few times in the distant past – how prices compare now I've no idea..

I used to use Sidewinders, but the latest lot (together with quite a few other glove designs) now have the velcro on the inside on the wrist – which pulls jeyboy lycra to bits 🙁

I've had it BSOD/reboot my (new) laptop – win7 64 bit – when downloading more than a few flv files at the same time, compared to no problems doing likewise with firefox. Haven't tried it on my old xp desktop to see if it's any better or worse.

(Dunno the version offhand, but it's an install from mebbe 3 months ago)

>what does the law or highway code actually say on this anyway?

http://www.leighday.co.uk/news/news-archive/the-new-highway-code-what-does-it-mean-for

rule 151 say to be aware of cyclists filtering on either side, tho' it doesn't actually mention the legality or otherwise (tho' filtering as such is legal)

(having said that, rule 77 is a recipe for getting wiped into the curbside…).

FWIW – generally overtake on outside traffic stationary or otherwise, on inside in stationary traffic if there's little room on the outside and there is on the inside (and at a speed I stand a chance of stopping in case a door opens). Either way, with a view to how long the lights have got vs whether there's room to pull into the queue (not so easy to see or do on a fairly low recumbent, so have to be a bit more wary)

btw – in case you haven't come across them, there's some low self-discharge cells available now (ie they retain charge longer than normal nimh) – eg sanyo eneloop.
Lower capacity than standard nimh, but normally I find they run out of charge sitting in the drawer rather than in use.

If anyone's still reading…

>Tranverse Abdominis is the true core muscle, slow twitch (Type I) and directly supports and braces the spine; rectus abdominis is fast twitch (Type II), a "power" muscle which is why doing sit-ups does nothing for core strength.

Thanks for that, not exactly difficult to digest 😉 – so is the definition of core primarily 'bracing the spine' ?

>IMO the whole concept of core strength has become conflicting through years of poorly trained PTs giving bad advice.

It's certainly improved in recent years.
Regarding 'core' confusion – I can think of things where the RA certainly appears to provide some significant stability (or at least, appears significantly engaged together with other muscles) – shoulder bridge with one foot raised, for example. The 'zipping up*' you do in Pilates engages everything in the trunk (almost wrote 'core there 😉 ), including the RA, but never aiming at the RA exclusively (if that makes sense)

*Come to think of it, I think the term's usually 'zipping up the midsection',rather than using the c-word.

>If there are no consequences then why hold back?

(Good) manners ?

>Do you remember when the internet started? Everyone was nice to each other

And I think that's partly the problem.
Now every man and his dog has internet access, the usually niceties/netiquette you'd see on forums years ago – or here in the earlier days – has gone by the board. People seem to think they can behave exactly as they would with their mates (I'm guessing), and poor behaviour gets perpetuated with the attitude of 'that's how it is on here so it must be ok' – judging by some of the earlier posts at any rate.

(That's not to say there weren't issues/flames on forums in earlier years, but that'd be more likely as a result of posting without searching the forum/reading stickies/faqs and generally acting like a noob)

I've pretty much got to the point of not bothering to visit/post – not even so much posters being rude as just ill-mannered, IMO.

A guy I vaguely knew a few years back – works in forestry – contracted it, don't think he found out for about a year and it did lead to assorted complications – supposedly if it's treated early there's no real issue.

(No idea how that bloke's getting on tho'..)

If it's just onto sand, has to be sharp sand, if onto concrete then 8:1 sharp sand:cement (just been using the latter to extend some slabs under a shed, the recommendation I found was >40mm thick)

Tore mine about 20 years ago – probably initiated a couple of years before that, standing up cross-legged. Would lock up when running for the bus 🙁 (cue 'comedy' moment kneeling on the ground pushing everything back together).
After a year or two, arthroscopy removed the inner 2/3, was fine for years until about 10 years ago when I overdid it unicycling/snowboard lessons with tired knees – now a bit more grotty occasionally, definitely don't run on them if I can help it.

Oh, recovery time was probably less than a week, tho' it may have been longer before I did much cycling on it. Both my knees feel a fraction unstable, *but* I wonder if it was several years of sitting on my heels on the floor playing guitar in my late teens – ie whether I've stretched any ligaments.

There may be some treatments around now which may repair a tear (carticel I think was one some years back..ah:
http://www.carticel.com )
– but I dunno how effective/expensive/available it is. If I'd know about it at the time I *might* have put up without the arthroscopy for as long as possible, can't help thinking keeping as much cartiliage in there as you can, can't be a bad idea…

>I could explain further, but will not waste me time telling people something when they will not take it in.

Bit of a cop out – put yer money where yer mouth is 😉

Oh, and reading recommendations, whilst yer at it…

>Fair enough

I might get my colleagues to agree with me, not sure I'd take fitness advice off a bunch of crisp-eating sw engineers tho' 😉

See above ?

Ok, put it another way – why exactly do you say it's not part of your core, rather than a simplistic yes/no exchange…

The distinction is that it's not a *deep* core muscle, but a core muscle nevertheless.