We were looking at Serre Chevalier for 2011, but have booked Les Arcs instead. Was 50/50 and Les Arcs got it because of the skiing (linked to La plagne so loads of options)

However, if your still open to other suggestions, one of my fav hols was Selva Gardina in the Dolomites. Great views, hardly any drunken brits, and vast amounts of intermediate/easy skiing – I was with the missus, so this suited her and caused no arguments 😆

The only thing about Selva and the sella ronda was i didn’t find anything very challenging for myself. If you were going to push yourself then prob get a guide to show you the best the reort has to offer.

Those forks tempted me until I saw the steerer size.

New bike build for the new year – go on, treat yourself! (Carbon 456?)

edit – 456 has a tapered headtube sorry!

We’re going to Les Arcs on Jan 22nd. Not been before so looking forward to it.
Not going to get a second ski holiday in (usually go in March) as our recent wedding and the cost of the Les Arcs trip have put pay to that

Got to admit it has gone expensive in the last few years. Our hotel this year is £150 more expensive than last year

We are going to Les Arcs at the end of Jan – looking at £750 each. Thats Half board, including lift passes and ski carriage.

We are holding out for a better deal, but unless you want to go by coach or stay at a low resort, its going to be more than previous years.

Best deal could be to get a chalet last minute. Also watch out for self catering deals – lots are based on 4 or 5 sharing . when you add suppliments, it gets expensive

The rate bike thefts are going at the moment, no where is safe.
They have gone through the roof at one planet and broke into one of the STW crews house with his missus still in bed!!

Looks like if they want it, they will get it – just be well insured

Fox Glacier – NZ
Was a nice day, so I went in shorts

Wow – 23mins is very fast!!
Old FTD for me was 35mins
Monkey trail in 1hr 27mins.

i have been riding cannock for about 2o years , funny thing is i never see all these super fast riders , when do you ride ?

The only time I’ve seen the fast people is when its quiet, early morning late evening.

Out of interest – anyone got a time for FTD or Monkey in the Dark??
pps – is there any club/group evening rides?

The new rear shock is really good. The bike rides really well from local bridleways to Jacobs ladder to trail centres and bike parks.

I love new blingy bikes but if someone told me I could get a new bike tommorrow worth the same money I’d get a remedy again

Ton – I’m 6ft4 and prob 16 stone with my riding gear. Riding a 21″ frame. Much prefer it to my mates Orange 5

I’m currently riding a Remedy 8 2010 (well it was a 2008 but I had the frame replaced as a crash warrenty). Use it for all day peak rides to long and short trail centre rides (and stile cop as above)

Mine came in at around 30lb with full XT, however since getting the new frame I have upgraded the wheels for some pro2’s and fitted SLX double bash and a few other SLX type stuff.

Hopefully taking it abroad next year and I reckon it a great do it all bike

Been on Basque MTB.com and i know Doug posts on here every now and again.
We are looking to go end of May, hence the reason for the southern areas as the french alpes might still have a fair bit of snow still.

Will google the white room now

One tempting option (but might not be able to afford) is the Basque MTB skills week with Jedi!

I have got the TZ10. Great camera, but people are right about the GPS, it eats the batteries and most of the time tagging never worked where I was (in NZ).

Another vote for Bryn bettws.
We stayed in the main block in September – great place

I was also there today – tall bloke on a Trek Remedy.
We were near the northshorte for a while, but out of the way on the fireroad. Had to change a tube after jumping off the end and getting a puncture from a flat landing – doh! 😳

Edit – looking forward to having a go on the section after the pump track when its open!!

Sat – Cut the grass, Shopping in Derby the play squash
Sun – Llandegla to meet up with some mates (Is that new free ride bit open yet?)
Mon – FTD/Monkey trail with a detour to Stile cop early in the morning then squash in the evening

Tue – Go to work to relax 😆

Cheers – Thought it may have been brought up before

Haha

I love it when someone from an electricity supplier comes round.
Get them to tell you what they have learnt to say then ask them some questions on the supply market etc before telling them you work for an electricity company – they always seem to want to leave quickly (yes I am that boring!)

Nice pictures – I think the landcruiseris a good option – but the missus wants a bit of comfort

I would love one of these –

I used to drive the same type of 4×4 when I was a linesman for MEB. Would love to find a used one an do it up – would be great for biking weekends.

Back to the subject – we will be after a mixture of beautiful scenery and some extreme activities

I live in Burton – about 3miles away.

Not seen round Catton Pk, but local trails are riding well – even Robins Wood (Which is always v wet) is drying in places. – Until they cut all the trees down 👿

Unless we have some flash floods I imagine it will be all ok, just slightly tacky

Given the choice, without financial constraints it would be the Navara hands down

Hopefully the new Navaras are better than the older ones. However, as a fleet buyer, my company found them to be poor as a long term, heavy use work vehicle.

Our 4×4 choices are now land rovers and ford rangers.
That one above look very nice

I would go fo a landrover every time for UK farms, unless you plan to do alot of road miles then go for the Hi lux.

Stay away from the Navara as mention above. My company (electricty company, so always in fields) have had massive issues with them, and we now won't order any more.

Another option could be the ford ranger – we have used for a few years now and the lads like them

Only go when its quiet, but normally takes around 1hr 30mins
The only problem is that the cafe is shut when I go, so no cake after the ride 😉

I always offer assistance too – if I've got spare power links then I will let anyone have them.

C_G

I've got a 4 socket adaptor from Maplin, and I've been running it without probs for 2 years now. Being a engineer and work mainly out of the car I have run my laptop, charged torches, charged sat nav, phone and even run a DC to Ac invertor of the second cigar socket in the car all with no probs

The only thing I have to watch out is draining the battery – but the car bings at me if this starts to happen

With the cost of components and general bike stuff at the moment I would go EX8. You would struggle to make the ex6 as well spec'ed with the spare £240

Stoke is shit – however, if you finish early chuck the bike in the car and head towards Lee/Macc. The nights are light enough to get to the roaches/macc forest and get a quick loop in.

Other than that – hanchurch or apedale. I haven't riden either – I only go back to see the parents and don't take the bike

Although had an ace night out in Hanley the other week……………….

EDIT

Not sure what the term TX/power line

TX = Transformer
Power line – HV or LV overhead line. You mention the line crossing your field has 3 wires – this is a 3phase 11kV line with a single phase t off to the farm.

Just to clear up the labour required –

– 1, 2 man team to install and wire a freestanding pole prior to the shutdown day
– 1 waggon to transport material to site
– JCB to excavate ground and install earthing for new TX
– Depending on how many customer are affected by the outage – 1 man to deliver outage cards informing customer they will be off supply while the work is done
– 1 jointing team for a couple of hours to terminate the cable if 95 wavecon, if 35mm CNE then the linesmen can do this
– 1 linesman team (including an authorised engineer) to switch off the HV and connect up the supply

##Additional costs could be incurred if WPD send a gang out to pull the LV cable into the trench you have dug##

wildgoatie – first some questions

What will the supply be feeding? Have you worked out your final load requirement in KVa? Is it going to be 3phase or single phase?

You mention it is 130m to your meter point, this will create a volt drop that will prop require you to install a 95 wavcon cable.

Depending on the construction of the t off pole, it would be possible to hang a tx on this pole – however without looking at it, clearances could be an issue, also a transformer creates extra loading on a pole a require a stout pole if the construction is not already suitable – this could be blagged to get WPD to pay for the upgrade and get them to treat it as betterment on their network – talk to the planner about this….

TBH, I have (along time ago) quoted similar prices for a new freestanding TX pole with transformer, cable terminations and the cost of the cable etc.

Are you digging the trench and WPD installing the cable? One option could be to install a meter cabinet close to the proposed transformer pole and install a private cable to your property. You would cut down the WPD cable costs, but you would then have to purchase a cable of sufficent cross section area to ensure you get a decent amount of volts at your property. (If a single ph connection is required this could be done by bunching a 3phase cable)

Hopefully some of this make sense or may help

Tom

Jumping_flea can you help, I see this is your line of work, please, please could you or any one tell me how long it takes these guys to fit a high voltage transformer to a pole and how long would it take to fit a new pole under high voltage cables and connect the wires? The labour comes to nearly half the cost, which seems very high to us.

Sorry – I misread some of the quote, I see you are doing some of the work yourself.

Central Networks normally gives time-scales of 12 weeks from payment to complete the work. However time onsite to install and wire a TX is 1 day to prep and 1 day to connect – cable to pole etc and LV wiring (Including local shutdown and giving residents notice of the interruption)

Any customer that will be affected by the outage needs a minimum of 5 working days notice before being switched off to connect your supply

Hello

Sorry I haven't seen this thread earlier.
I understand your problems, but don't work for WPD (I'm Central Networks) but here are a few tips you could use when speaking to the planner/designer of your connection –

Firstly, is the connection near and existing TX/Power line or will it require a totally new build? this could influence things

All work bar the final connection can be done by anyone you like as long as it is inspected and approved for connection by WPD. This was brought in under the competition in connection regs. Doing the ground work yourself could save you money..

If you are getting WPD to do all the works make sure that the Maximum demand you have given them takes into account diversity factors (Known as ADMD – Maximum demand after diversity)
Just because your largest appliance uses 10KW, your usage, after diversity will be more like 3.5kW as long as the appliance is not run all the time (ie a house with a gas supply will be given a MDAD of 2kW even with a 9kX shower) – this will reduce the cost by getting a small section cable or Tx installed

The second option, but only available if there is existing infrastructure in the area, is to get WPD to do any upgrade work as asset improvement and hope that they just charge you just the basic additional work and not the entire cost.

Have a look at this tread – http://www.singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/anyone-from-eon-in-new-electricty-connections-highway-robbery

Another chap on here called IGM works for CE electric as a new connection manager. He has loads of other useful advice as seen in the thread above

Tom

+1 for the crossrides from merlin. Hopefully the ones I ordered will arrive tomoz!
Had some on my old bike – very good wheels

Yeh – was drunk and tried ago on a punch ball – missed and hit the wall at the side – doh

I punched a wall by accident 5 weeks ago and I still can't properly move it or make a fist. Just pop into a and e and get it looked at – I should have dime that, but didn't, but I'm an idiot (according to the missus)

I was lucky enough to see 2 wallabys whilst out walking the Roaches nr Leek.
Was about 15 years ago, not sure if there are any still up there.

On Sunday morning saw a bigish bird of pray perched on one of the monkey trail signs (not sure what kind it was) – took off as I came round the corner – looked brill.

Just do what I did – went on my parents insurace for 5
years, then got a company car.

If I need to get my own insurace now I can just get my company insurace to say I've been driving so many years without a claim etc

Igm

Good comments. I work for a fellow dno, and have seen some bright graduate engineers and some vary intelligent craftsmen who have gone on to do engineering roles as well as anyone with the letters after their name.

I think they key is having a good mix in a team who work together to get the job done. Without support from other areas one group – engineers or techs, wouldn't get anything done

Tom (CN)

Most of the problems we have are due to technicians failing to follow basic procedures or work instructions

Guess as a technician, I will need to tell the "engineer" to go and refer to his/her vast knowledge and experience and not to bother asking me for the answers to questions they paid to understand

Im working towards my "engineer" status through the IET. Just to meet personal goals

So technically i'm only a technician – but i have to agree with the above comments, some of the worst people in my trade (power distribution) are "engineers" that think they know what they are talking about, but don't know FA.

It's just letters after your name – oh and technicians at my place earn more than the engineers.

edit – fyi, I did an apprenticeship and went on from there – invaluble

Jedi – I just need some skill replacement now!

Colin

Thanks for the response –

I have spoke to my LBS and they have spoken to Trek and confirmed the crash replacement deal. The bike is going in tommorrow after I have striped it and they will sort it out.

Good services from LBS and Trek in my opinion and thanks for the reponses from everyone above

The forum works! 🙂