Quite a few years ago myself and some mates had a go over a w/e – expected two days riding. Two of use were fit for doing faster 3 1/2 hr trailquest (orienteering) – the others from doing LEJOG – but the first day was bloomin' hard by the end…the second day we copped out and rode to Brighton along the coast, and lazed around 😉

There's a lot of climbing altogether – tho' if you're gonna do sections and increase the distance I guess you'll get a feel for what it's like. IMO you've got time to get fit enough, but as mentioned, it's long rides/climbs that'll help.

Nerve inpingment ? – istr there's one running along the top of the foot, dunno what route it takes to get there…

Yeah, some of the early Priest stuff's corking…tho' some of the later stuff is too:)

It's worth checking out the 'Halford' albums (and Two for that matter) – some of the best albums Priest have never made, iyswim…

I used to like Maiden in the very early days (Di'Anno plus a bit)….but they were on at Download a few years ago, and I wandered off to one of the other tents 😮

>Recumbants are dangerous in traffic.

TINAS – that is utter b*llocks – ever tried riding one?
(Correction – riding one for any duration ?)

They're *different* in traffic, not dangerous. In fact I get given a *far* wider berth on either of mine than yer average DF rider.
Some are better that others for filtering on – and I certainly wouldn't filter on a trike 'cos you're below driver window level – but this guy's on a Hurricane (seat height's about 13" or 14") and doesn't seem to have much trouble:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sWp4SQYaEsU

IMO you just have to ride them with a bigger set of balls, take a bit more road space when necessary, and be better about gear selection 'cos you can't stand up.

>I also cannot understand why veggies feel the need to give meat eaters a hard time.

Because there are moral/ethical/ecological arguments to not eat meat, but not vice versa (I guess there is landscape management that occurs with keeping livestock, but you could argue that's only 1000s or years old)

(FWIW I eat meat, but it does p*ss me off the way some meat-eaters try to be a bunch of smart-arses…)

>Nutritionally organic vs non organic is neither here nor there.

Unfortunately that's always the thing that gets quoted by pepople taking the piss out of organic farming. IMO the ecological element's the most important bit.

If you get some slicks – make sure you take some tyre levers, some slicks are an absolute git to remove once they're on.

One alternative – some cheap/decent (wirebead?) knobblies that'll stand up to some road use, if you're unlikely to use the slicks again afterwards.

>note that the promo videos don't include traffic lights, potholes, ruts or traffic

>ride it fast in the rain and you'd be rewarded with a face full of urban gack thrown up by the front wheel!

You lot are crap at this browsing lark :p
There *is* a video involving a pothole, fwiw…and I think puddles too…
They tried doing pedals too – there's a separate site selling rights (iirc) to that design – link somewhere on the site…

Seriously? – ones that go round 😉

There'll be about 30(?) miles in the middle that you'll be able to get a decent speed up for, but out of London and into Brighton (plus the the few steep hills on the way) – it'll be dead slow. Unless he's on a roadbike or particularly quick, not sure I'd bother changing 'em, just pump 'em up bloomin' hard..

>what purpose to the baggies serve other than to ensure you are conforming to the mountain biking community uniform

Exactly.

Just stick to lycra (weight/warmth of your choice) and have done with it – peel it off afterwards and it takes the mud with it (particularly if you've a car to get into) and not wearing shorts* is one thing less to wash.

Tsk, mtbers nowadays, bunch of fashion queens 😉

*jersey or Camelbak surely cover the pockets angle…

But you'd need to anchor the end of the brake cable to use those (centre-pull) dia-compes. The ones underneath on the same page (the 806s) might be more likely perhaps:
http://www.identitibikes.com/billys/english/productresults.php?delbrand=del&group=B&PHPSESSID=q4krcgb67cu32fuuvfehn89a81

*waves*
Wotcher Hugh !

Have you tried cleaning the rims too ?

Have a look on http://www.brick-yard.co.uk/forum/ – dunno offhand which threads deal with limits/reclassification but there are a few – mebbe try searching the t4 forum first

As mentioned, I think you might manage to get it reclassified as a camper, doesn't help you now tho'.

>seems a bt of a grey area
In terms of working out what's what, yes, but I think it's pretty clear cut according to the registration document, IIRC it's either M1 (non commercial) or commercial (whatever that designation is)

>as a car-derived van(based on Golf and Touran),

Not sure it's as straightforward as that, might have the same chassis but the bodyshells different (I guess that could be the reasoning)

>coffeeking – my clothes do not smell

Same here.
When we lived in a flat – generally dried the clothes on an airer in the bathroom, a few things in the drier or just to fluff up towels
When we lived in our last house – couple of airers in the back bedroom
Now – a couple of airers in the (somewhat larger) kitchen – which until recently had little heating in it, but was well insulated, so it's never been exactly a warm room.

Oh, and why anyone needs air freshners – plug-in or otherwise – beats me – just open the bloomin' windows if necessary. They're just more consumerist rubbish like fabric softener..

Any tips for using waxoyl? – I've tried spraying it down the seatube before now and most of it seemed to accumulate about halfway down !

Is it best decanted into a jar and thinned out a bit first ?

ISTR that good quality sleep's as important as nutrition re building muscle – but mebbe if you feel you're getting enough, mebbe that's all you need ?

I hit 40 being the fittest and strongest I've ever been (47 in a few months time) – shortly followed by a series on niggling tendon issues which kept me out of the gym for long periods, and still flare up a bit now. A house move a few years later completley buggered up my sleep for ages, which didn't help with getting back in the gym 🙁 – and whilst I'm not overly bothered about being a wrinkly, that hasn't done the area around my eyes much good either.
Haven't cycled anything like as much in the same period either – the more this last year – but the one thing that's kept off the cobwebs is doing a Pilates class once a week (plus more of the same inbetween) – ie core strength and flexibility stuff

>you have less to lose :o)

In my case I think it's 'more easily damaged' !

>But they are nothing to my Kona shorts that they don't make any more

If that's the original (50-75quid ?) Air Times they used to do with the big rubber logo pad and keprotec stretch panels – indeedy ! My OH got mine from a sale in Halfrauds, and I picked up a long-panted version of 'em from an Evans clearance a few years ago.

Nothing like the thin sweaty nylon crappy equivalent they did later (I've got a pair of those too, only use 'em for diy…)

Occasionally you see some 28" waist old stock appear on fleabay for about a fiver…

>Firefox as it is targetted less by malware

Got caught by one – despite using Firefox (yes, it is a little better) last wednesday (annoyingly as I was trying to pitch in for the free Rage Against The Machine tickets). In another tab I'd been looking at coverage on a company product -some fansite of other – and picked up some spyware. A few giveaways – pinged up a warning that looked vaguely kosher but didn't ring true particularly compared to other occasions when MCafee's found something – plus there was now a little shield on the toolbar with a related dialog box that I didn't recognise. Tried to kick off McAfee but that was reported corrupted – yet a search for changed files for that day didn't show it as such – very suspicious. Didn't dare touch anything apart from pulling the network cable, rebooting and getting our IT bod. Spybot in safe mode (IIRC) found it, simply deleting the relevant (new) subdirectory worked, following scan was clean.
I suspect the worst thing you can do…well, other than handing over credit card details 😉 – is to start clicking popup dialogs, you can't trust what's real and what the virus is generating

Cue 'how to fix a broken socom' threads on SD 😉

I don't have one very often, but – a crisp sandwich 🙂

>I think it is a bit paranoid to suggest that IAM are anti-cyclist just beacuse they provide driver training

That was kinda what I was trying to pull out of the figures I posted above.

To look at it another way, the IAM use Roadcraft and Motorcycle Roadcraft as their tuition material (I thought there was a cycle version too but can't find it..). Perhaps the poll's simply just to see if support is for providing instruction – tho' the poll could be better constructed, eg the CBT question probably ought to be split out into two parts.

No particularly crass ones, but we do have a set of 'motivational' posters in our small canteen: Strength, Goals, Perseverance, Attitude, Teamwork.
I'm sure they'll be somewhere on here:
http://www.allposters.com/-st/Motivational-Posters_c12920_.htm

Gawd knows who thought it was a good idea…we're engineers, give us interesting engineery things to solve and we'll be happy bunnies…

I haven't run any distance for years 'cos of ropey knees/missing cartiliage – but a noticed a few years ago after moving near to a station I was tending to use my forefoot when legging it for the train, to save my knees a bit.
I still haven't bought any, but there's some sizing info on the 5finger things here:

http://www.begin2dig.com/2008/11/fitting-vibram-five-fingers-and-injinji.html

http://www.colinseymour.co.uk/sizing-vibram-five-fingers

http://www.keith-in-training.com/2008/03/vibram-fivefingers-ksos-part-i.html

And mebbe some useful info/outlets around London:
http://www.funckey.co.uk/forums/topic/1464-buying-vibram-five-fingers-and-weightlifting-shoes-in-london/
http://www.funckey.co.uk/forums/topic/1133-vibram-five-fingers/

>being organised by the IAM which is constructed to support yet another attack on cyclists

Interestingly, associates/members make up 15% of the poll responses.

Just over 4% support registration/licensing for cyclists.
Even if you assumed the *only* supporters of that were IAM associates/members, that means over 2/3 of them *aren't* in support of licensing/registration.

IMO it's not so much the price of a pint, but cheap beer in supermarkets. With few customer/pints sold, pubs then need to charge more per pint to cover theirs costs, hence more people stay at home, etc – vicious circle.

Plus property prices are such now that some of the big pub companies (not some much into running pubs as running a balance sheet) see a better return by selling pubs off for development – in some cases selling them on with a restrictive covernant to prevent someone else starting up in competition where they've already got some existing pubs

I'd far prefer a pint at the pub, change of scenery and all that. I rarely drink at home from one week to the next…

Body in the boot ?

Isn't most of London a flood plain ?
😉

(FWIW I'm a few miles west of Hampton Court…notionally ok from the river Mole 'cos of the local flood defences..)

Stonemonkey's alluded to it already – re trees near houses, it depends a lot on what the subsoil is, as well as the type/size of tree. We wound up having to get a tree survey on our current place because there were several close to the border of the property (tho' the only large ones were a decent distance away) – sand/gravel, so no problem. It's more generally a problem on a clay soil – but removing a tree can cause a problem where one doesn't exist, since the tree will be removing water from the soil. Remove tree – clay expands and you get ground heave.

>I'll simply not bid on an item with a reserve price.

>the stats show that non-reserve auctions for indentical items end up with higher prices

Which IMO would indicate that as a *buyer* there's an argument to let the sheep go chasing stuff that doesn't have a reserve (and may well end higher), and keep a close eye on the stuff that *does* have a reserve when it gets near to it's completion time.

For than matter I can never work work out start minor bidding wars a couple of days in advance for the end, all the interesting activity happens in the last few minutes…

If the reasons for the susidence have been established, and it's been done correctly, can't see why it should be a problem. A kneejerk reaction's a little simple-minded, if you'll excuse the phrase.

OH's parents had some underpinning done on their place some years ago (and didn't have much problem selling it a few years later either), can't remember exactly why but it wasn't built on clay/near water/earthworks etc

Only problem usually is that only the insurance company under which the work was done will cover it in future..

>which have 'been fixed' then start subsiding in another way.

Do tell, I'm curious 🙂

>why is a bit of poo in the tip worse

It's not the poo that's particularly the problem, it's the mountain of disposables that need to go into landfill – particularly when it's avoidable. Not to mention that even compostable stuff (not that they are particularly) doesn't break down at any decent rate in landfill – which is also why councils are now having separate food waste collections to reduce – putting waste food is an expesive use of landfill when there's better options.

It's only the last few decades disposable nappies have existed, every other generation prior to the last few has seemed to manage it without too much difficulty..

>Take it to local bike shop

Last time I used my old LBS to remove a crown race I think they *did* use an axe and a large rock 😮

I've managed without one for the last 20 yrs – but I wanted to flip the link on my Enduro and was a bit paranoid about either not using enough torque and damage resulting if a bolt worked loose, or stripping a thread at the start.

Must admit I hadn't noticed it could do that…mebbe it is different – probably a couple of years old.

ISTR the V-brake clamps (tho' that is around CF) and the brake arch bolts on my '97-ish Paces are somewhere around the 2.5 – 5 mark.
I think the cable clamp on Avid mechanicals is about 5-8, not that I'd normally bother with a wrench, 'cept I had one to hand last w/e when I was fitting 'em

(FWIW I've got a Norbar SL0 – 2.5 to 20Nm )

Thinkpads used to be IBM 'till it was split off – but the build quality's been kept pretty decent AFAIA.
Toshiba does pretty well on reliability/customer service ratings too.

>But not as dull as bowls.

Ah, I beg to differ.
Played a few times with my uncle when I was young, it's quite good fun, if a little sedate. You do get a little bit of evil satisfaction from knocking an opponents wood out of the way to supplant it with yer own.

(Croquet's got similar element to it – we used to play on one the lawns in my halls of residence when I was at uni in Manchester)

Depends on the roads in question, but I'd be more worried about being tail-ended by some idiot hooning round a corner on a minor road than most dual-carriageway I've used.

Must admit I'd stay off the A3 much of it's more like a motorway, tho' I *have* seen cyclists on it just south of the M25 junction at Wisley – there's even a recommended suicide route shown on how to cross the M25>A3 sliproad, but there *is* still the problem of how to negotiate crossing the A3>M25 sliproad without some idiot taking you out..

I didn't get one either…not helped by my PC picked up some spyware from another browser window whilst waiting – spent a few hours sorting it out 🙁

However….they *are* doing Download this year 🙂

As coffeeking said, the illumination level *will* drop, but it may not be initially perceptable to you.

Also your energy-based calc isn't helpful – eg as the cap discharges it's voltage will drop to the point that you won't have any significant conduction (=light) from the LED. LEDs aren't *exactly* a constant voltage device – and you'd normally think of driving them at a particular current – but they do have limited operating range (dunno offhand, but it might be 3-3.6V according to the current through it)

But assuming you're not exceeding the diode specs/applying the wrong polarity, there's nothing particularly wrong with what you're doing from the sound of it..

Pretty sure the San Remo is where the GF and I stayed some years ago – nice place and not like a big hotel chain.

http://www.sanremohotel.com/san-remo-hotel-location.php

If you like decent (real) ale there's (or was) a pretty good brew pub a few doors away from the City Lights (?) bookshop, nr the junction of Broadway St and Columbus Ave. (corner of Jack Kerouac Aly).

😉

To put the record straight I *do* indeed have a beard, I *am* a member of CAMRA…but I don't have either the beer belly or SPD-sandals (!) that seems to be more common on t'other side of the Pond !