I’d find a way to get on a taster/experience/beginner day first seeing as you’re starting off fresh.

One final update. Matt made it to Honiton at 1230 but due to it being -1.5 to 0.5C the whole time and raining the last 3 hours he couldn’t stay warm. He was described as not struggling but due to being soaked through and cold he decided to call it quits.

Just a quick update. He’s about 40miles from Honiton. Reports are its bloody cold and he’s hoping he can get to Exeter before it chucks it down.

Thanks all. I’ll put updates on how it goes.

Yeah, my sister suggested going via Ashburton as she’s joining him from Honiton, but he’s insisted on it. The Exeter -> Moreton’ -> Postbridge section is a killer.

Oh, what tyres should he use? 🙂

How on earth did you know that link existed??!

I don’t remember where I saw that, I knew I had seen it some time ago. Maybe reddit.

http://www.sleeplikethedead.com/mattress-sex.html

Lucky it’s not possible to buy a 2013 Dispatch on a £2000 budget then.

my dad bought a dispatch – its a citroen….but its actually a fiat. Everything is branded fiat in the guts of it.

Are you talking about the engine? The JTD is a rebadged PSA engine.

@tacopowell
I’ve an old-type 2.0 HDI Citroen Dispatch (3seater) which cost a bit more than your budget but mine came plylined, full-bulk and the 110 HDI brings up the value a bit. However, the 1.9 XUD will go on forever (albeit slowly) and vans with those cost less. Rust doesn’t seem to be an issue on these vans too.

As for parts, brakes couldn’t be much cheaper, I got a £75 quote for back-box replacement (incl labour), service items from ECP cost next to nothing. Not sure what cambelt job costs but i think a bit more than usual as it’s a bit of an arse, at least on the HDI.

Insurance, 3yrs NCD, 25k/year cost me ~£400. Not bad I thought.

Always drive. I live on the east side of Bristol and experimented with riding out to my Ashton/50Acre/Leigh loop twice. I can’t be arsed. My other places I go to, such as the Mendips/Quantocks/FOD/Exmoor, are a bit of a trek on the bike.

have a theory: the more the bike costs and the more expensive the vehicle it comes out of is in direct proportion to the amount of time the bike isn’t actually ridden!

My bike is a 9yr old hardtail and I have a 12yr old French van. It gets ridden on average a few hours each week.

Metallica – Master of Puppets
Slayer – Reign In Blood
Anthrax – Among the Living
Anvil – Metal on Metal

Sadly Cowboy’s from Hell is just a few months out.

Your experience mirrors mine with Michelin’s Country Mud’s. I had never fallen off so many times in such a short time. They lasted 2 rides before I switched back to Small Block 8s, at least with them I knew I when they were letting go and could surf the slide/wobble out. Not the XC muds.

Buts thats just it, on the surface he’s transparantly more interested in that, the bikes etc than women.

Some lads love sh@gging, I don’t like sh@gging. I don’t mind it, but I’m not into it. I’d rather just go and ride me motorbikes or me pushbikes.

I’ve been in the situation a few times. 1st time was when my dad had his bike knicked and we spotted the scrote going into some woods whilst we were in the car. My dad dropped me off on one side, he went to the other side, tyre-iron in hand. We got the bike back.

2nd time, same woods, my motorbike had been stolen. Cycling through the woods I hear it coming towards me. I wait and throw my Spesh P3 under the wheels and charge them. The scrotes crash, 1 pegs it the other stands his ground and we get into an argument as he claims some guy at the other end of the woods let him have a go. He wants money for his torn trackies but in the end he runs off. I ride off on the motorbike with the mangled P3 across the tank.

3rd time motorbike gets stolen and I go hunting in the usual spots: council estates with woods/fields. I find fresh motorbike tyreprints on bmx jumps so I return at night and wait. I hear the bike but it’s not close so I go running. Scrote is driving around the estate and is coming towards me, I grapple him as he goes round a mini-roundabout but I can’t keep hold. He pegs it and I hear the engine stop. My friend turns up to help and we find the scrote trying to make a break for it again but he gets passed us. We eventually find the bike dumped in a car park.

4th time. My Giant had its lock chopped round the corner from the copshop. I find the scrote, start talking to him about the bike and get the police on the phone. The Police aren’t turning up & the guy’s bigger than me. I didn’t get that bike back.

I’ve also had 2 mtbs and 1 motorbike i never saw again after they were knicked. Bike-thieves are scum.

1st deore lasted a weekend of a v’wet & gritty Afan. The drive-side seized solid. Current set has lasted me 8mths but it’s making weird, regular, clicking noises.

I guess he either has too much on or too little time.

He has said (maybe in those C4 shorts) that he’ll always do 3-days a week as a truck mechanic. Doesn’t exactly leave him with a lot of time what with his summer of road-racing too.

Buy Eggbeaters.

I dunno, most people running them end up with several sets [/quote]

I must have the only set of Eggbeaters (original, stainless) that are good. I’ve had mine 18mths, regreased 1 side recently and they were cast offs from my brother who had them on his CX bike for years and he never touched them. Now i’ve probably jinxed it.

Put 3in1 on your side-pull brake pads on your BMX because they were squealing, then go to the top of a steep hill, give your mate a backy and then head off down the hill.

In my defence I was 8 and thankfully we only ended up launching into stinging nettle bushes.

People moan about it – but code the lints cleanly and is MISRA compliant is notably less buggy IME.

If you start a project with a good pc-lint setup I’d imagine it’s fine. If you suddenly apply it to a massive codebase 18mths into development (my only experience of applying it) – Oh sweet baby Jesus.

if (p1 == NULL)

Why the == NULL?

if (!p1)

The second form, while it most likely compiles the same, is an implicit conversion from pointer to bool which could cause readability issues without a consistent naming scheme. That’s 3 MISRA rule violations in that slight difference. (MISRA != fun).

I use it day in day out and it’s not so bad (Python & C are tops). With a good coding-standard, code reviews, static-analysis (etc) and avoiding all the whizz-bang features it’s ok. Without those checks in place it’s a good language to make a mess with. It could always be worse, you could be using PHP.

A good breakdown of the finances in F1 and makes clear why Williams/Lotus are unlikely to mount a serious challenge in the near future

http://www.bbc.com/sport/0/formula1/29905081

I wonder if Benson pulled those figures from where he usually does.

Whats the best way out of Smith Combe?
I normally turn right at the bottom which is a slog.
Can you go left and then up through the dear park? – whats that like?

Yeah, the right is crap. If you go left for ~100m (just after the stream) then go left again, away from the fence, keep looking for a track going straight up the hill away from the trees (IIRC there is a solitary small tree 1/3 the way up). It’ll bring you to a grass track running across the hill. Don’t stop there as that track will bring you to partway down Smiths, keep going up to the top.

I must add, it’s ~90% unrideable.

I wouldn’t imagine the oil would last 18k miles when most motorbikes will rev and be used up to twice the speed of a car engine. The oil on a motorbike also lubricates the gearbox unlike a car.

Most Harleys, BMWs (boxers up to ’14) and Guzzis (amongst others) have separate gearboxes. On a Harley you don’t need to change the oil, just keep topping it off. 😛

Saw it yesterday. Initially it seemed like it was going to be a good one but the longer it went on the more I was thinking w.t.f is this unbelievable tripe. I was half-tempted to walk out. It felt like a poor-mans tarantino what with the weird dialogue and ott Nazi killing.

It was well filmed, i’ll give them that.

Make sure to check the cups too; My hub locked up and toasted the cups. There’s no spares for them.

Just had similar situation as you. My 756 6-bolt rear has toasted bearings and cones (because the cones always come undone on these). I’ve ended up getting a new rear hub for £32 at Evans.

As a temp job I had to put 1000s of needles onto syringes for a large medical supply company(apparently the machine was out of order). After the 3rd day my wrists were in agony so I asked the floor manager if I could do another job, like moving boxes. Nope, syringes it was for me. I told her I was off and went home.

3years later I visited the same place as part of my course at Uni. The machine was broken and people were assembling syringes by hand.

My current bike ’06 Tomac Omen. Mostly it’s my best as it’s the only bike I’ve ever had that hasn’t been knicked or run over.

For riding qualities my Specialized P3 would be my favourite, despite its lack of replaceable hanger. That was a fun bike to ride/jump/trick. After being run over by a motorbike, then torched in a fire the P3 gave up after being run over by a car.

Not Maxxis Advantages. They’re worse than the SB8s they replaced on wet roots/rocks but much better in the mud. In the few hours ridden on the Advantages i’ve had more crashes, moments & punctures than the last 18mths with the SB8s.

All I use is a 5l garden sprayer, brush and muc-off. In fact, im off to use them now.

It’s always been 25-30psi in front 30-35psi at back for me (bit higher if its hard out). But after switching to Maxxis advantages recently and getting my first pinch puncture in ~15years I may have to revise that.

No wood burning stove included?
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……..(‘(…´…´…. ¯~/’…’)
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……….”…\………. _.·´
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Get down to the straight for the start. It sounds like thunder when they set off. Around midway they’re going max chat and it’s quite sight to see them spread out coming towards you. Last year, you could tell who the pros were – the ones jumping. Everyone else got round.

Also, bring waterproofs, and cash.

I was aiming to do it this year but unfortunately my bike got knicked. Next year…

Nice 1 Clobber. I laughed, then felt immediately horrible.

Got a Zee and Works N/W on my Patriot. The chain still falls off (usually after rolling through compressions) and despite it being quieter, my friends told me they could hear me coming down the trails at BPW from the car park. Going to get a cheapo top guide.

Topirimate worked for me at the prescribed dosage. However, it came with some nasty side-effects. At half-dosage things are manageable.

If someones driving slow- overtake them. Or is that a dirty word?

It’s called “making progress”. 😆

I’m not sure it intended to be a “How to build a <insert thing>” program. Felt more like a generic history program that is typical for this time of year.