There's nothing where I live, there's a McD about 4 miles away but my choice would be BK of KFC but the nearest of those is a 15 mile drive away, a rare 'treat' for me … I miss Woody's in West Drayton!

😆 @ tree-magnet !!

Thanks for the info jamesb, weather doesn't look too good eh, if I go this week I might just stick to the Brecon area then, looking to do some of the routes as listed HERE so there's about 16 routes in that area.

Cheers

Ah, ok, mostly rocky … thanks.

Sounds ok, just what I'm looking for. Can't find much else on at my local cinemas, it's all kids stuff, Toy Story, Cats and Dogs and Shrek.

P'eed in the middle of the night while staring at Everest in the moonlight.
Successfully sued a (ex)mate who owed me quite a bit of cash.
Fired a AK47 and M16 one after the other … better than sex, well, it is at the moment anyway 😆
Went up in a tandem microlight thing, and said 'can it do stunts?'
Done a tandem paraglide in Turkey, and … said 'can it do stunts?' (very close to vometing on both those occasions.
Ridden a motorbike through California with only sunglasses to protect my head.
Crashed a friends dads car, very long time ago this one, into a hedge at night when I said 'let's see what it's like if we turn the lights off?'
Spent the night in a police cell after trying to nick one of those big mobile crane things … dunno why we did that, youth and too much ESB !

That is all for now.

I think the Fuera smock is just showerproof, but I read somewhere that these can run a bit warm as the material is not as breathable as some, and they come up quite large and baggy, I find most of the walking type windproofs do so if it's windy you'll sound like you're trying to erect a tent in a force 10, the running and cycle tops might be better?

I use a Endura Rebound Jacket which is quite thin and very breathable, drys really quick and doesn't flap about, but don't know if it would last long if you ride where there's lots of brambles?

if you don't want them as a friend do you care anyway

Trouble is if it is someone you know, some people can be a bit funny, but at the moment I'm quite happy to ignore them.

Yeah, I checked it out a couple of years ago too after people I met travelling wanted to keep in touch but I hardly use it, don't see the point myself, I'd rather email to contact someone, I looked at it today and there's someone going on about a large steak they had last night and someone else is going off to be hypnotised … jeez, no wonder I don't bother with it!

Isn't Twatter a bit like this where people just tell you what colour socks they put on today??

😆 a F*** Off button, yes please! … I sometimes get requests from people I've never heard of, like I said I don't use it much and have an unusual name so I wonder how they find me?

Anyway 'accept them then remove them. That way they get the confirmation message then nothing else' … this sounds good to me, thanks.

Thanks for the headsup on the theft rate, I'll have a look at the FC websites, but I did do a quick search and found a great website listing loads of info for the areas HERE 🙂 but I might stay away from the purpose built centres and go to the 'MTB Base' areas as listed on that website.

It is now highly radioactive, having absorbed all the microwave energy.

darn'it already done that, how long do I have left on this planet? 😕

mini lightning ! … I might just do it again then 😆

the microwave must be about 15 years old?

I've been impressed with the Crossrides I have, they came on a new bike and I was a bit sceptical having read about split rims, spokes breaking and freewheels breaking down but maybe that was older models, these have been on a fs bike clattering up and down a trip across the Alps as well as at home, but I think both the wheelsets you mention have specific spokes, I know the Crossrides have the flat spokes but not sure about the Fulcrum, which could be difficult to get hold of. I'd save a bit more and get Pro2's if I was looking for new wheels.

We should set up a web site dedicated to relationship advice. Seriously this is way better than all that guff you get from agony aunts

+1

This is all great stuff, and obviously a bit tongue in cheek … so yeah, c-g what don't we get, I'm intrigued, or are you not going to let us 'get' what 'we just don't get' ? 😉

I've got the Stroker Rydes on one bike, find them a bit wooden, even though they are large rotors they require quite a pull on the lever to get them working, and I get the scraping/grinding noise towards the end of decents if I've been braking hard, thought I'd worn the pads out but they were and are still fine, other than that they're ok.

😆 some fantastic advice coming here, thanks guys … I've cheered up a bit and I think a nice wooded singletrack ride later with Rage Against The Machine on my player will sort me out

😆 that's better, making me chuckle already … she does want to do some more rides but I said 'mmmm, I'll think about that' and she's quite happy to do something else together too but to be honest I can't be @rsed now, I'm convinced it going to waste my time and energy!

Mmm, that's got me thinking now, maybe I will add some oil in the top section, what you say about the grease being pushed out the way makes sense, it's not going to run back down it'll stay where it's pushed too.

Ah, ok, I must be reading the manual wrong … actually yeah, just going through the manual again and there's another column for the 'air' side that just states grease and the small amount of oil in the lowers 😳 … thanks!

Mmm, you reckon from the caliper end? I'll have a look and try that, cheers.

they are anti theft

ok, didn't think of that, stands corrected … great idea still! 🙂

Great idea, but they do have an adjustable seatpost, rightly so, but I'm wondering how many of the bikes will end up without seats soon as they get nicked, a bolt up seat collar would be better and an allen/torx key could be incorporated into the key that you need to release it?

Resin42 – how did those come up sizewise, are they tight or spot on? I'm on the lookout for something other than my 5.10's, they had a good drenching in the alps recently and the cardboard sole thing is disintegrating 😐

Funny … when I saw the title of this thread I was going to say the Deuter Bike 1, ticks all your requirements so, yes, another one of those! But mine is like the 2nd one down HERE and not the pic you have.

Soooopeeerb! 😆

Who cares if it 'last week' I wasn't here so first time I've seen it …

Blimey, stop analysing it all and just ask her if she would be interested in doing something together in the future, just you and her, no kids, no cinema (you can't talk to her there), no talk of ex's, just a coffee and chat, it'll eat you up and drive you mad the longer you leave it, nothing to lose everything to gain etc, and if it doesn't work out then at least you'll know … do it next time you see her!

The female fittings are not tapered, but the original kit came with tapered male fittings, but the oil pipes were just rubber held on with jubilee clips so I had some steel braided pipes made up and they put the same type male fittings on the ends, they are the same pitch and thread type, but not sure how tight to do these up. Like Conespanner says 'taper thread turns until the effective diameter is too big and plugs the hole, subsquently sealing the hole like a mechcanical seal', but I've seen in the past an engine case crack when someone didn't realise it was a tapered thread so being a bit over cautious … araldite repaired that one though.

It's a very shallow taper so it could be easy to do them up just a bit too much, did them hand tight plus about one turn and they leaked … but I'll try the PTFE tape and see how that goes.

My old ones in the loft were torx too, but yeah, ebay brilliant, don't know why I didn't think of looking there myself, problem solved … thanks 😀

Mmm, older Shimano hubs eh, I have a pair in the loft but don't know if they are torx or not, off to check in a minute!

Ebay, ok I'll look there too, not sure about Ti though, is it as strong as the steel one's, sure I heard about some cheap Ti not being that strong??

I had to wind on my contact adjust earlier today

Do the Juicy 3's have a contact adjuster? Where and how?

Mine are as good as new really but I find there's a lot of lever travel before they start to bite well, I've adjusted the reach but they are out as far as feels comfortable, I'm used to Shimano brakes that bite quickly but these came on a new bike a few months ago?

Couple that I took yesterday evening on my way home from work, superb weather, a fantastic commute, make the most of it cos before you know it will be wet dark windy and muddy 😀

I like that! Jabba the turd 😆 put a smile on my face today

Ah, ok, might as well dig the levers out the loft and give em a go?

Hot, damn hot! Continuously drinking and non-stop sweating, I only p'd twice during the whole day!

Tips:
Get there early or stay in Winchester the night before, I trvelled there by train so didn't get to the start until 8.30am and was already dripping with sweat, think I was the last person to leave?
The start was really hard to find, I thought there would be signs but nothing and nobody knew where Chilcombe was and there were no road signs to it either, at one point I seriously thought I wasn't going to find it!
Take more inner tubes than you think you will need.
If you have a CO2 inflater, take more canisters than you think you need.
Take something more than just energy bars/gels to scoff on as these become sickly after a while.
Wet wipes were good for freshening up a bit.
I'm usually sceptical about energy gels but I tried out a sample zipvit 'caffeine energy plus gel' and this really kicked in after 15 mins or so, I've ordered some more.
Don't underestimate how hard it is, I only did the 65 miles, I salute anyone who did the 100!

… this is the route profile and data from my GPS, so you can see how up and down it is, although it probably looks worse on the screen as it has to fit it into the screen width?

I phoned them today, the only water along the way will be at the SDW water points, none at any check points, it's supposed to be a self-supported thing, so make sure you fill up at every available tap? They are giving out maps with the tap points on but these could be missed, although judging by the forecast you'll see plenty of riders around them to get water? But, there will be water at the finish points.

Looks like it's gong to be a scorcher of a day too!

Good luck to those doing the full 100 miles 🙂

I'm doing the 65 miles, training was going ok until I got gastroenteritis a few weeks ago so didn't bike for about 2 weeks, back on the bike now and did a 42 miler on the South Downs yesterday so hope to be ok, only thing I'm not looking forward to is a very early train to get to Winchester to make the start time. Oh yeah, and hopefully no wind, or a tail wind, the downs is a right pain if the winds the wrong way as it's so open!

Ah … I didn't mean to 'diss' the trail or start the 'trail centres are all just groomed paths' thing, just genuinly interested never having been to a trail centre, don't think there's many in Sussex?? And I'd be quite happy to ride there, it's all riding as far as I'm concerned, I keep meaning to get to one of these places one day, I reckon it could be good for gaining a bit of confidence on quick corners and small jumps? 🙂