What sauce for a XYZ butty? Is certainly a difficult question.

It really needs a Venn diagram or something.

My personal rules are:

Bacon butty = ketchup
Bacon and egg butty = HP sauce
Sausage butty = ketchup or HP sauce depending on mood
Sausage and egg butty = HP sauce
Full on BSE = HP sauce

There is a definite weighting towards HP sauce.

Inclusion of egg requires HP sauce. Sausage trends towards HP sauce, but I would not be angry if presented with a sausage butty with ketchup.

Not that I have any of the above often. Usually a once a month treat, which is why it’s important to choose carefully.

I tried ketchup on a BSE a while back and came away from it feeling a bit cheated.

Yeah, I agree with Ton – something like RaveyDavey’s post on this thread should do the trick…

I have had a bad week while stuck in a foreign country but this almost literally made me PMSL. Thank you gentlemen – I really needed a good laugh.

I had a JBL Micro II Wireless speaker and thought it was ace. Very light and slim enough to slip into a laptop bag.

Paired with my iPad no problem and never failed to just immediately connect when I powered it on. No mess, no fuss. It had a 3.5mm input and could be charged via USB.

The only thing I didn’t think was so great was that it did support chaining multiple speakers (yay), but would still not be stereo (boo).

I lost it on my last trip though. I’m either getting another one, or will give something else a go.

Probably a pair of these: HDMX Jam Plus Wireless

Issue 84 was a great example of a digital magazine. A lot of thought obviously went into the design and user experience.

Makes it all the more frustrating that the whole experience surrounding it has been, and still is, quite poor. From the bug-ridden app registration process to things like this, it’s quite disappointing as you say.

Gary_C
Did you work with/know Taffy

Yes – same era 🙂 There were two Taffys around a the time. One worked for Manny’s crew and the other for Charlie. I worked all around. Did a couple of stints up the Cav – first when it was Peps and then Utopia. Some of the Friday Peps dance nights were pretty special in the early 90s. Did a little up Manhattan’s, Never’s and a bunch of pubs around Blackburn and Accy

Here’s same roll call of some of the decent, more professional names from then, some of them good friends: Big Paul, Skinny, Chris & Karl Astley, Tugs, Dave Atherton, Sags, Hussain, Sloany, Richard (pink Cadillac & leaky Trans-am), Sally. The trouble usually came from Scouse hen parties, hangers-on from the Wilson’s, Gallagher’s or the gym lads. Had a couple of run-ins with the gym lot, usually when they’d buggered up their steroid cycle. Most of them were nothing by themselves, but were terrible when Tony Davis and Dave were out because they wanted to show off.

This thread has brought back a lot of memories. Was very close to starting my own security firm at one point before I decided I’d end up dead or worse and went back to college.

I worked the doors in Blackburn for about 6 years in the 90s. Worked with some wonderful, selfless people and also some animals who shouldn’t be let anywhere near that kind of responsibility. A bit like some STWers and keyboards… 😛

Woke up this morning dreaming of burnt toast. As I came to I realized it was the smell of skunk wafting through the house (the animal, not the recreational substance). One got run over near the house and the a/c had been dragging the smell around the house for a few hours before we woke.

One of our cats had obviously been investigating, as he stinks too. Will have to wash him in tomato juice (for the second time this summer).

On the way to the gym I saw two more within a few miles. At 35mph, approaching the skunk in the road, I could smell it from 50ft away.

The house still stinks and I work from home. Yay!

What tires for Bongobongo land and will I be over biked on a Five?

Like Kryton57 says, the decision has to come down to how well you and Mrs RRR handle stress and handle it together.

I did a fairly extreme example of this last year.

Due to contracts etc. we had to move the week before baby was due. The new house needed renovations that we tried to have completed by that week. We were also renting vans and moving ourselves (with help from number one son and buddies).

So, on moving week (we planned 3 days for the move), the second day resulted in my wife going into labour and me spending the night at hospital with her.

Oh, and of course the renovations were late and two weeks behind at this stage.

Managed to juggle between hospital and moving vans with number one son really stepping up to the plate to help while I was with mum and baby.

Cue us moving into new place with new mother and baby installed in the dining room on our bed while the work upstairs was being finished.

Did I mention with baby that made 4 kids? Yeah, had their usual gubbins to deal with too.

The best bit came when, after being ‘home’ for a day, the temperatures had risen to 100degF and the power went out in our suburb. For 4 days. Luckily we have a decent generator, but the house was not wired up for it to power the air conditioning (we live in Detroit, so it’s common). It did power the fridge though.

Needless to say this was incredibly stressful, but my wife and I have a very strong relationship and when under stress like this can detach it from the personal and just deal with it.

When it feels like the world is against you, just being able to look into your wife’s eyes and know that nothing else matters so long as you are together is like an invincibility shield.

I’m not saying it was a picnic (and I did get a bit sweary at one point or another – that’s mainly because I’m a Northerner though), but we made it through relatively unscathed because we were truly in it together.

This article is worth reading if you had a Speccy or C64. There are a few quotes from ZZAP and Crash magazine journalists. Really brought back memories. I still have my rubber keyboard Speccy 48k in working order. Wish I still had my Amiga 500.

Eurogamer Digital Foundry Speccy vs C64

Cheers metalheart. I’ll have a final chat with Cy in a few weeks (baby due soon!) One of the reasons I’m happy to send my money to Cotic is Cy’s attitude to customer service. I’ve had three or four detailed emails from him chewing the fat over geometry and frame sizes. He’s shown nothing but enthusiasm and genuine interest in making sure I get exactly the right thing. Good bloke.

Very nice. 8)

Metlaheart, what size frame did you get? I have been talking to Cy via email and he has been great with advice so far. We have further discussion to go through before I finally decide on which frame size to order but I was hoping to get your impression of the size of the frame.

I’m a smidge under 6ft and am leaning heavily towards the medium as my current bike’s reach and stack are similar. I don’t have gibbon arms or other freakish dimensions, so I’m thinking a medium will be safe and I can play with stem length and seatpost layback to tune tune it exactly (looks like you have done the same with the layback seatpost – either that or, erm, you’ve got a bent seatpost mate).

From your demo ride thread, I think you had a medium. Did you end up getting a medium and if so, how tall are you and how does it fit?

Cheers.

I’d like to echo the ‘surprised at a remarkably sensible thread so far’ sentiment. Well done STW (unless someone posted something toxic while I was typing this, in which case, ‘typical bloody STW atttude, blah blah etc.’) 😉

It irritates me every time someone evangelises having children as some eudaimonia, swiftly followed by the implication (or explicit accusation) that you are some kind of dysfunctional being if you are childless.

Up until three years ago, I was firmly in the ‘happy with my life and kids would disrupt this too much’ camp. I’d emigrated to the USA and the world was my lobster, lots of hobbies, travel, money and stuff to do.

Things changed, I got divorced at 35, met a new woman and got married again. I am happier than I’ve ever been (my wife rocks). The marriage gave me three wonderful stepchildren – two boys and a girl. Our boys are now 12 and 17, our girl is 15. Obviously it was a bit of a game changer with respect to freedom to travel etc. but it changed my perspective on kids completely.

I’d previously been very happy looking after friends’ children, but happier still to give them back at the end of the day once they’d been stroppy/demanding/etc. Actually living with my own new kids let me push through that barrier and build a relationship with them so that even though they still do annoying things and play up from time to time, I experience it and react to it differently.

I think I’m one of those who has the parenting gene and definitely had a switch flipped once I’d spent a little time building our new family. I’m in full-on nurturing mode and take every opportunity to help the kids grow and learn in whatever they are doing.

My stepchildren inspired me so much that the missus and I decided to have a brand spanking new one of our own 8) I’m 38, she’s 43 and we were trying for 18 months before she got pregnant.

A bouncing baby boy is due around 4th July and we are all well chuffed and can’t wait.

My best mate and his wife are resolutely ‘no kids’ and I respect them for it completely. They are perfect ‘aunt and uncle but not a real aunt and uncle’ material and they are looking forward to coming over for dinner, winding our new kid up just before bedtime and leaving us to deal with a hyper kid and a pile of dishes as they leave smiling, off to light candles and shag all over their house (or go wakeboarding or whatever people without kids do). Just what I used to do to my mates. Happy days.

Wow, I carried on a bit. Soz for the long post. OP, go with the flow and don’t worry about it. Nobody can tell you how you should feel about this – carry on having fun, live life and see what the wind brings.

Just got an email from Cy about buying from the USA.

It will be a pleasure doing business with you 🙂

lol @ geetee – well, I have three stepchildren right now. What extra work could a really small version be? Erm…wait…what have I done?! 🙂

I emailed the USA distributor (EU Cycle Imports) yesterday for a quote and he said they were still working on pricing.

My wife is pregnant and due first week in July. July 4th of all dates – I’m British, she’s American 🙂

The custom here apparently is to give a ‘push gift’ when the baby is born. Thanks very much I thought, although I was technically thrusting rather than pushing and I would’ve done it for free too. Anyhow, semantics aside, my ‘push’ gift will be a Cotic Rocket – medium in orange with a Bos Vip’r. 😉

Roll on July!

Started off in Blackburn – happy days of horizontal rain and having my bike blown out of my hands while trying to crawl into Darwen Tower for shelter.

Meandered to Cambridge, which was ok. There was riding to be found if you looked for it, but it just wasn’t the same as oop North.

Ended up in the bullet-dodging, bereft of mountains, economically bankrupt (literally) city of Detroit! No idea where the nearest mountain is, but lots of ‘mini trail centre’ type managed singletrack nearby, so I’m spoiled for that really. Lack of mountains and general gnarr still won’t stop me ordering a Cotic Rocket though 😈

The advice so far is good. The shock will require a slightly different setup for each suspension type. When I did mine, I started off with 75% of my bodyweight as a baseline. 2/3 would be absolutely fine also – it’s up to you, as you will be adjusting from the baseline anyhow.

To be clear – take your weight in lbs and set the pressure to 75% of that in both the black and the red chambers and fiddle from there.

I am 200lbs so I put 150psi in the SPV (red) chamber to start with. I put the same amount in the main (black) chamber.

You are 56kg (~133lbs), so start of with 90-95psi.

With this starting pressure, measure the sag using the o-ring on the piston or use a zip tie as a substitute. You want about 25% or so of the overall travel.

I mucked around 20-30psi here and there and after 10 minutes worrying my neighbours riding round in circles in my garden and jumping the bike off the patio, ended up with about 160psi in the main chamber and can’t remember what in the SPV one – something like 155 I think.

Have a muck around from those settings and you’ll have it bob-on in no time. 😉

was: legal alien – we don’t do American style receiver hitches here in the UK unfortunately! They aren’t approved for towing AFAIK.

Never knew that. Thanks for pointing that out, was. Ignore me and carry on everyone. 🙂

Frame. It’s your 40th and should be something you’ll remember. You’ll probably still be using the frame in a few years when the drivetrain has expired or been sacrificed to upgradeitis.

It’s my 40th next year and I’ve already got wife approval for a Cotic Rocket. She doesn’t know yet, but I’ll be working hard to add a Soul to to the birthday list if things go well this year 8).

Regarding the OP’s core question (pardon the pun), I proffer the following tenuous analogy: if you bought a car and intended to make it perform better on a budget, would you start with new paint and bodywork or would you sort out the tyres/chassis/engine first?

As has been mentioned, core strength is key in many sports. Having strong abs will also help you look thinner like aracer says. I have about 15-20lbs to lose to get my ‘visible’ six pack back, but it’s there under the flab. I have mates who also have a similar amount of extra weight, but their bellies are more pronounced.

I dont think it something to joke about as I am sure others would object to your immature responses

The procedure involves some bloke sticking his finger up your arse and doodling around.

I’m 38 and the doc started during my annual physical when I was 36. I think the guidelines are slightly different here in the US. Well, either that or he took a shine to my quaint British accent. 😯

Doc: During this part of the exam, it’s normal to experience an erection
Patient: I haven’t got one
Doc: No, but I have

IGMC.

I was in the same boat a while ago. Minute 2:00 with a sheared rebound adjuster and in need of a good fettling. Getting a replacement for the rebound adjuster is not a simple task. They are like rocking horse poo and you can’t just buy the adjuster – it’s part of a kit that I couldn’t seem to get hold of. I tried various online retailers, LBSs (who mostly didn’t have a clue) and eBay with no luck.

I gave up, as it was taking more time looking for the part and how to sort it out than it was worth. That plus I would be very cross when the new rebound adjuster sheared off (and it would’ve done because they are shite) after going to the trouble of sourcing one. I ended up buying some new forks (and I kind of wanted some new forks anyhow). The DT Swiss XMM 140s I got are a decent upgrade.

As for the service, you can download the service manuals from their website and you can get cheaply get seal kits that include a gazillion o-rings for all the forks/shocks and I got one of these to service my 3-way shock with.

Copper tube. Cut and splay. Cheap as chips. Did exactly this for my last headset job. Worked a treat along with the homemade headset press (threaded bar, nuts, washers and two pieces of wood). Made me feel quite skill. The satisfaction of using home-made tools was even better than knowing I’d saved money. 8)

MTB spare parts prices are certainly an anomaly. I live in the USA (formerly a UK Northern Monkey) and often find CRC way cheaper than buying online from US retailers. And wait, that’s with free shipping too.

For many things you can literally swap the pound sign for a dollar sign, but bike bits and bobs ‘ain’t cheap. I have no explanation.

On the culture thing, I don’t know. In certain areas, you’d think MTB was the only sport that existed and in others you would see amazement and wonder if you rolled into town on a Five. And when I say ‘areas’ I mean states. When I say ‘states’, I mean places it would take me 5 hours to fly to whilst staying in the same country. This place is too large and diverse for generalizations. A lot of the states are literally like different countries.

Some of my MTB mates do their own spannering, but many don’t have a clue. Many of the bike shops are bloody awful too. The other week, the LBS mechanic was trying to sell me a square taper BB insisting it would be fine for my ISIS cranks (I know, I know, but I’m keeping it going on a budget-ish until I can do a major upgrade). I politely declined and got lucky with my old Stumpy BB that I had in the basement.

Culturally here, meehaja is close to the mark – as soon as it gets a bit cold or rainy, a lot of the big jessies cry off. To be fair, a lot of riding is managed trails and the volunteer organizations tend to request you don’t ride them when too muddy so they aren’t wrecked, but that’s partly just an excuse for not getting all sh1t up.

No idea what happened after page 2 in this thread.

Struggling to keep a straight face at work after properly wetting myself at AndyP. Well done sir. 😆

Basically we still know **** all on how the body works

Is right. For instance, if I eat a sausage, a little bit later I do a poo. But if I eat a poo, I don’t do a sausage. Work that one out.

Still struggling. Involuntary giggle while previewing the post. I hope nobody walks into my office right now.

I was amazed by that…what’s up with these riders?

I suppose I was dazzled when I was multiple gnar bikes mincing, that’s all.

Ask yourself the question (in all seriousness) – why do you care?

I used to care about that kind of thing a couple of lives ago. I had various ‘good but not cutting edge’ motorbikes and had the “pah, just passed loads of spanky new R1s on my dirty old ‘Blade – what’s up with them mincers?” attitude.

Well, after a few years I realized the answer to “what’s up with them?”: nothing at all.

I think it’s something you’ll either come to realize or not. This all might sound a bit Yoda, but there’s some inner mechanism somewhere that can switch any one of us and change how we see things. Mine has flipped a few times over the years and I can quite happily chat with a bloke who has a $7k mountain bike, knowing that I can ride rings round him and be content that he’s a decent fella, out for a ride on a very nice bike that he appreciates. Happened the other day in fact (lovey Moots, dripping in XTR).

I don’t exactly know what the signs of a mid-life crisis bike are, but I think I need one. 🙂

Horses for courses. Back in the UK, I used to ride Rivington, the Lakes, Yorkshire, CYB (all over, wherever Singletrack or MBR maps inspired) and a 3×9 was just right. Where I live now, the trails are flowing managed singletrack and a 1×9 or 1×10 would be perfect. I won’t be riding many other trails, so I’m considering trying 1×9 with a ghetto chain guide (will look in my big box of bits this weekend and see what gaffa tape, miscellaneous round things and zip ties can bodge up). A few severe rock gardens and mean a chain guide is necessary for me (chain jumps occasionally even now).

Munge-chick – fair play to you for being completely honest. I think too many people expect every individual police officer to conform to some uber-cop stereotype. Policing is far more nuanced and complex than just being a hard-case and completely filling the force with steely-eyed Harry Callahans wouldn’t be smart (although maybe a few more wouldn’t go amiss in certain places 🙂 ). You are putting yourself in harm’s way, knowing you have a particular fear and that’s something that most people won’t do. Respect due.

As for this particular incident, having seen the video, they did put on a bit of a poor show. Once thing I’ve seen many times over though is how group psychology can rapidly take over and it looks like they succumbed to this in a big way rather than piling in and kicking the crap out of the dog’s belly or wrapping it in a stab vest and sitting on it (or whatever – I don’t want to play armchair quarterback as I wasn’t there).

I’ve had cause to look at various incidents (real and staged) involving multiple people (3+) and one antagonist. There are certain visible shifts in the behavior of the group and fear/uncertainty can propagate incredibly quickly, causing undue caution and breakdown of protocol/technique compared to when only one or two are dealing with an assailant.

It’s amazing to see trained people treating a swinging fist as if it’s a live grenade when there are five of them against one crazy loon. Half the time it’s because of one of the alpha’s initial negative reaction (even just a flinch) and the rest rapidly follow. The same people on their own or in a pair having a history of behaving completely differently (i.e. bolder and more assertive). Pretty interesting if you’re into psychology in any way.

I’ll echo previous comments on the original Alien. Bought the Anthology on Blu-ray and Alien was visually absolutely stunning. The transfer was impeccable – looked like it was filmed last week. I was expecting good things based upon reviews, but wasn’t prepared for quite how good it was. 😯 Sound wasn’t half bad either. I’ll have to see if I can talk the wife into watching the rest this weekend.

Double post even though I was told “you actually have to submit some content” by an uppity forum server 😕

There is certainly something special about the Giant Anthem. A regular riding buddy got one late last year (Giant Anthem X2 29er) and claimed he took 6 minutes or so off one of our regular trails. This is all forest singletrack, lots of short ascents, roots and twisty stuff. I thought it was a fairly bold claim at the time.

Last night I went out with him for the first time in ages (I was off injured for over a year) and he was absolutely flying. Now, he’s a bit of an XC jeyboy roadie whippet and I am out of shape right now, but I can usually compensate by being far quicker on the nadgery bits and downhills. Not so last night. I think the Giant has given him some extra confidence, as he was tackling switchbacks etc. far quicker than he used to (old bike was a GT something or other, but well sorted with SIDs etc.) I know for a fact that he hasn’t been Jedi’d, so it is highly likely to be the bike 🙂

I’ll be having a go next ride to see what all the fuss is about but I’m inclined to believe that it’s a cracker. Not my cup of tea though – I prefer mine big and bouncy.

Zulu-Eleven – Interesting young lass who you wouldn’t want to attack in a dark alley:

Yes, she’s quite famous on this side of the pond. More talent in her ponytail than me and all my shooting buddies put together.

This is my current weapon of choice although like already mentioned, I have a gun wish list almost as long as my MTB upgrade list 😛

Shooting is a great hobby. Haven’t shot airguns for a while, as the Sig P229 .40 is a bit more fun 🙂

Love this gun. It’s far more accurate than I could ever be, utterly reliable but it’s a touch heavy for daily carry. Going for a poo while carrying requires some forethought.

Here’s a clip of an IDPA practice session. Decent shooting if I say so myself 😉

EDIT – sorry, this is a video link. Tried to embed it, but can’t remember exactly which link I need to paste. Click on it and it will take you to a short video of me shooting.

I just got a Saddleback leather wallet. When it arrived we were discussing which future grandchild it could go to.

Last year I acquired a Kifaru rucksack. Quite bombproof and should outlast me.

druidh – Spoiler Alert!

Oh crap, it’s even in the chorus. 😳

[Edit – can’t seem to edit the original post].

Hopefully only fans who’ve already seen past that point will watch it…

…IGMC…

For the Firefly fans…

Smooth and steady with it all is good advice. My workbench and laptop look like the banana bunch jizzed all over it. Managed to get yellow oil everywhere while pulling out the damper shaft. Firstly, it was very hard to undo the shaft. It took a lot of force to get it to loosen. Once that was completely undone, it was also very hard to actually pull the shaft out. I’d suggest holding it in a soft clamp vice and ease it out (might take a few minutes to twist and unwind it out). I just used my hands and it came apart very suddenly and I got oil everywhere. My daughter found it quite amusing. I did not. 😛

Note – they really mean it when they say the IFP (internal damper piston) will fly out when you pressurize the damper body 🙂 I pointed it into a plastic container and some oil came out after two pumps and the third pump jettisoned the plastic piston like a rocket.

The rest of the job was easy – replaced all the o-rings and plastic seals. Stole some tupperware off the missus to use as an oil bath. Dip the whole lot in there while putting back together, making sure to get trapped air out. Tighten up and air up. Back on the bike and working a treat. Hope it hasn’t pissed itself all over the garage floor by the morning!

The rack I have is a Giant bike branded one. No idea if it’s a generic one they put stickers on or what, but I compared it to the equivalent Thule one at the time and this seemed to be a bit sturdier, albeit heavier.

The rubber gubbins for holding the bike frame are starting to wear after 5 years of light duty use, but I will be replacing them with some generic mini ratchet straps. The rack itself is still rock solid.

Here’s a shot of the hitch and the rack:

Here’s the bike on the back:

This is it mounted and swung away with the boot fully open. Easy to operate and plenty of space when it’s swung away:

Success!

The PB Blaster did the trick.

I would certainly recommend using a good quality strap wrench.

That’s good advice about the cores and pressure though slinky. I had already released the pressure but hadn’t removed the cores. Looking at the shock now with cores still in, the effort needed to compress it to screw it back on isn’t enough to cause problems with unscrewing it (I can easily screw/unscrew by hand with little effort). If I’d had a core removal tool or some tweezers handy I’d have done it though just to be sure.

I’ll post back with any tips/tricks I find while servicing it. That can wait until tomorrow though. Big juicy New York Strip steaks marinated in home made zip sauce ready to go on the grill 8)