Freeborn were offering Roval Control SL for £800 (down from £1400) a while ago. I went for these rather than Light Cycle as I could not get a build of Light Cycle rims for anything less than just over £600 and the Roval wheels have a lifetime warranty.

Separated at birth 🙂

I bought a 2014 Trek Superfly 9.6, then sold the wheels and groupset. Moved my XT single ring setup across and bought some carbon wheels.

Really impressed with it so far. Not as light as a Superfly SL, but I think spending the saving on the wheels was a good move.

I don’t know the in’s and out’s of the geometry, but I have no problem lifting the front end and it feels very stable on the downs.

I know it’s a bit of a cliché, but I have been riding and racing a Trek top fuel for the last 4 years and was really surprised how easy the transition was to the Superfly hardtail.

Yes please. Will donate sunday.

Thank you.

I was quite surprised to see Army 4 tonners rolling down Marlow high street last night. But then again I did see that the kiddy swings in the park had been cordoned off so maybe more help was needed. We added our names to the local volunteer list, but we keep being told that no requests for help have been received around here.

This morning I spoke to an old lady who lives on Long Island in the middle of the Thames. She has lived there for 60 years and today she decided to move out to a hotel. Apparently the water was lapping at her bottom step. She inferred that having those 60 years experience meant she knew more about Thames flooding than most. She was not worried too much saying that the signs were there that the water was managing itself and it would not get that much worse.

Mojo now offer an Interlink pick up service. This is what I used 2 days ago for my RP23.

Jumble – you’re [presumably] being paid to do it….. that’s the difference! So what else do you use for say a 2 acre paddock?

I am not a contractor if that is what you mean. But minimizing time/money is very important in our business.

Like you I did not think that the deck mower would be any use in the paddocks. I was completely wrong. The time/money saved in not strimming fence lines alone will pay for the deck in a few years. It is worth pointing out that the setup is not your average garden mower.

We have the usual suspects – flail, rotary topper and sweeper. Personally for larger paddocks I think the flail is the best, but it depends on the conditions and the grass length etc…

The picture you posted is mighty tempting 🙂

I have a lot of paddocks to maintain and a number of different machines to cut the grass and collect it if necessary. This year we added a John Deere compact for yard work and it came with a 5 foot cutting deck. It is mighty impressive in whizzing round 1-2 acre paddocks and especially good at getting under fence lines which the big kit just cannot do – this saves huge effort/cost in strimming work. Anyone can drive it and the control of grass length is excellent.

I guess I have different experience to Sharkbait :). Take your pick.

Our once in a lifetime jack rascal has an aggressive cancer right now. It was a complete shock and a terrible experience to come to terms with. She is 13 and in fantastic form.

We decided to remove the cancer as it was the only way of knowing if it was aggressive. We thought about this long and hard as a general anaesthetic is not a trivial thing for a dog. She has recovered from the operation very quickly and is living the high life at the moment.

Unfortunately the bad news is that the cancer is very aggressive so we have no idea how long she will be chasing rabbits for. We decided against any further treatment and to enjoy whatever time we have left with her. We are having great fun and we will know when it’s time to call it a day.

All the best at a very sad time for you.

I get paid not to cut the hedges regularly so I don’t know where these farmers are that get paid by the yard to cut their hedges.

What you learn though is that there is a good reason that hedge cutting was done yearly through the years. The hedges that we moved to cutting every 3 years are in a far worse state now and take a much greater effort to maintain. So now I think we will go back to yearly and lose the environmental payment. Where we live manual hedge work is insanely expensive. We only do it where absolutely necessary.

Hawthorn is a major pain in the butt. We replant with native alternatives now that don’t have the spikes.

Saying that, I also believe that something has shifted in the past few years and people feel the need to bang on constantly about everything they’ve done or are going

^^^^ This. Every family gathering all my family and their spouses go on about how fantastic they’ve done and how wonderful their lives are. Then sometimes you find out sadly it just ain’t so. Myself and my wife like to keep very quiet about what we have achieved. It seems that people don’t really care to listen and just want to show how wonderful their lives are.

OP – sounds like you have a great family life. You are very lucky.

Moved my wife to mac airbook. First few days were painful, but after 1 week she said that she would never go back and I get 90% less technical support calls from her. Worth every penny in my time saved.

I want to know where all the rain water goes that runs down the steps to the cellar/downstairs/underground bits. It looked like London clay so I reckon give it a few months and their proverbial gold fish bowl will be ready for a few fish.

Seems like a good deal to me.

It’s all about the terms and conditions. You cannot create a business based around the worse case costs for everyone so you need to be clear about labour rates and part rates for fixing stuff as well as examples of normal wear and tear.

My experience is though that even if you do all this there is a culture in the UK of not taking responsibility for paying for broken stuff. I have no idea where this culture comes from, but it’s like thinking it was the bikes fault that it got scratched.

Main dealer for the potential goodwill. An acquaintance of mine just had their mk6 Golf replaced by a new mk7 by a main dealer with no prompting from themselves due to a number of issues with the mk6 car from new. It seems like there are some decent main VAG dealers about, but you need some kind of relationship (in other words you gave them your dosh over a period of time).

Compare this to LR when my rear diff went 3 weeks out of warranty. I was using an independent for servicing and LR just did not want to know.

Had a Freelander 2 for 5 years. In summary I would not have another one due to the cost of repairing known faults. I use a specialist so goodness knows how much it would be with main dealer.

Con’s
– boot is small, (but ok for 2 terriers)
– had the rear diff problem 2 weeks after warranty ended and LR were not interested. After a lot of hassle they paid 40%, but it was still nearly a 4 figure bill
– door locks go one by one and need replacement
– steering rack is buggered due to weld mesh fault in steering fluid filter (known issue). I am putting this one off as it is a biggy.

Pro’s
– excellent in snow and off-road (live on farm)
– very comfortable and relaxing to drive on road

In the EU set-a-side payments went early 2000’s.

The Single Payment Scheme is a flat rate based on acreage and cross-compliance (husbandry if you like) rules.

There are additional schemes which can earn you more money which are environmental based. For example developing wild meadows or beetle banks. I would not consider these as being “paid not to farm”.

He was our only celebrity in Caterham unless you count Tina Charles.

She had an amazing number of gold discs stuck on the wall of her front room facing the front window. So I reckon she has to count just on flashy show the neighbours style.

Last few years seems like the most common TT-er are triathletes who have cottoned on to club time trials. This is great though as you see more and more ladies coming into the sport now via this route. Oh and the odd pro road rider such as David Millar who turned up on Tuesday.

No one is too slow to race XC, CX or TT. That’s why they are so much better than road racing. Good luck 🙂

I wouldn’t out him. Leave it up to him to decide. It might put him off the sport completely to pick on him.

Many moons ago at SITS I had a team mate who was easily the weakest rider in the team, but put in an astonishing night lap right up with the quickest of the event. His excuse was that he was somehow inspired on his second of two laps. We all just rubbed our chins. Luckily we forgot to register in the vet team category as we would have made the podium and then we would wonder about what to do about it.

I have no idea why he did it or how he got his timing so wrong.

The guys that ran the races at Lotts Wood used a software package on a laptop for timing. It took 2 people at the finish line – one to press a button when a rider crossed the line and the other to remember the number of the rider which was then typed in. I don’t think the software was expensive, but help of partners was definitely required.

All in all the guys did a great job, but it was a lot of work. Preparing the course in the weeks before, organising marshals, setup of the start/finish area each race evening, etc etc

I seem to remember that numbers wise really 50 entrants were required to make it worth while, but I could be wrong. Given when it started originally in High Wycombe at the ski slope there were about 11 entrants the Summit guys did brilliantly to build it up to over 50 entrants. But even in the last years at Lotts Wood there seemed to be race nights with only 30 odd.

To beat a horse when it is genuinely scared and not in any danger is not a nice thing to do.

I ride only on bridleways now. I used to really enjoy an evening ride down the Thames footpath around where I live. It was stunning and I never saw a soul. It did great things for my well being.

Then a local swiss land owner decided that bikes weren’t welcome on the bit of the footpath which crossed one of his many country piles and I got bored with my lovely relaxing ride being ruined by aggressive estate managers/workers blocking my path. I never got aggressive as I knew that pretty much they were in the right no matter how they chose to show it. I really miss that ride 🙁

Fried chicken relates back to the time of slavery. I cannot see how anyone who has spent any time in the US could say the sentence Garcia said without intending to insult in a racial way. That sentence is about as bad as you can get it seems to me.

I wonder if the European director guy is South African. Does not excuse his use of words, but might explain that the coloured term is engrained in his brain.

Pick axe and iron bar are the best in my experience for this work. Should not take long and the sense of satisfaction will be good.

To the OP. If you daughter is starting out in business then you really need to think carefully about what and how much you spend your money on. If the web site is primarily a place of reference rather than a sales channel I would question whether you want to spend some of the amounts being put forward in this thread. Think about how you create work and if/how a web site supports this.

Many long term successful small businesses start with no money available for websites/premises/tooling etc.. The people starting these businesses find ways to do business using what they have.

Also nothing wrong with a well designed WordPress site.

It’s the nitrates introduced in the curing process that is the problem. Read up on it in the Health Delusion or other such material. Buying it from your local butcher will make no difference to this.

I have a wheel with the newer A23 running tubeless for about 5 months. I used 2 wraps of yellow tape and then a Stans CX tubeless strip which I already had. I am running non tubeless CX tyres and this was the only reason a used the strip. If you use tubeless or tubeless ready then I don’t see why you would need it.

“media hype about doping”. Please point me to the hype? As far as I can see the media are reporting the facts as they slowly emerge.

No one who depends on cycling for their living will really say what is going on – just read Lizzie A’s remarkable reasoning about her boyfriend and the now clean male peleton. Same for Cav.

I cannot believe anyone is calling Nicole Cooke a has-been. Before this year she was the most successful road cyclist that this country has ever produced. She is a class act and one of the very few women road cyclists successful enough to have any sort of career. She has earned the right to tell people of her experience.

Maybe if you listened more you might hear what she is saying – the bad days are not over and the penalties must be much, much more severe to make any difference.

I bought one for £18 recently. The beam pattern is pretty useless for riding so I have ordered a wide beam lens from the US for £6 delivered. We will see. I am sure you could botch something up.

I use an old 26 inch inner tube with one knee in it for assistance. Does not dig in like a bungee.

My dad was into sailing and the sea so I read “Crossing the Bar” by Tennyson. I gave a very short explanation of the metaphor in the poem relating to my Dad’s love as an introduction.

Top tip is to read slowly with passion so people can have time for their thoughts during it.

Have fun and go for it.

It’s all relative. Long time ago I used to give my all in fun and come nowhere. Then got a coach, joined a well known team and first race out went into fun as last time I raced it was enough. Well found myself in all the sponsored team kit out front with one other. Red mist descended and we had a coming together with about half a mile to go which resulted in a bloody face for me and a broken wheel. Made me realise that it was time for a life of mediocrity in Masters :).

I doubt if my experience is unique. You don’t really know where you stack up until you race.

The first time I saw a first person game was on the ZX81 with the T-Rex in the maze. This was a real eye opener for me.

I am glad your wife is ok and goodluck with the rest of the pregnancy.

Some guys just cannot take either being asked to do something or take some form of reprimand from a woman. We see it several times a year with dog walkers and runners when we ask them very politely not to run/walk across our crops for the nth time. If I do it or they are women then there is little reaction. If my wife does it and they are a bloke then there is usually a tirade of abuse. I always wonder if they treat their own wives that way. The worse guy is a runner who swears his head off and then boasts how he is a solicitor and that he can go where he wants doing what he wants. This is a guy that I really want to meet as I feel that he may not treat me the same way.

This would explain a lot to me. I feel more and more terrible as I spend more time on the rollers. But once I get off and touch a tap then I slowly start to feel better.

More woes. Rear packed up just out of warranty. Up to that point I had to continually adjust the internal spring so it did not cut out.

Tell your friend to organise a vegetation cutting party! Don’t just assume someone else will do it. Local horse riders tend to be very keen to come to help when we ask them to.

We cut back the vegetation on all the bridleways adjoining our land once a year. We also do the side not adjoining our land as our neighbours don’t bother. We also tend to continue down the full length of them to the parts not adjoining our land. I think it is just a good thing to do.

Several dentists in my family including both my parents. Never heard of brushing before breakfast. Mouthwash definitely a good thing whenever.

Free tip if you ever run out of fluoride toothpaste brush your teeth with salt. Very good for your gums. My wife never believed me, but after a bout of gum sores were sorted in a day by doing it she saw the light.

(please don’t follow any advice of random person on interweb – especially mine)