" is there any chance of Albury "going up" like Bunsfield then?"
Possibly but then so could Send Prison…..

The geological formation that provides the reservoir is a known producer of both oil and gas having a producing well at Brockham to the north – gas being more likely in the well at Holmwood rather than oil – the operators just need to know the areal extent of the reservoir, how much is in the reservoir and is it econommically viable to extract?

"But there's a difference between siting a gas storage facility (which can go in any old shithole)"

So Albury is a "shithole" then? I take it the 10km gas pipeline that is being planned from Albury gas storage facility over the North Downs isn't a problem for you then?

As far as I can see, the Holmwood prospect (PEDL143) is a known prospect with gas being present more likley than oil – the oil estimates that I have seen range between 4 and 22mmbol and basically they need to drill an appraisal well before having to relinquish the block. The structure has been mapped from a producing well not far away and the reservoir pinches out at Holmwood. If they drill from a site
accessible from the A24 then it isn't going to tell them the areal extent of the propect.

However I do agree that the area does not have the infrastructure to accomodate the amount of lorries/traffic for this project.

I am 5ft 3" ish and ride the standard 170mm raceface cranks on the mtb but on my road bike I have 165mm TA vega lite cranks which can also be fitted to mountain bikes.

"Doesn't say when it's being released though"

Expected release date 1st October 2009

quincy – nothin' fancy. Come for a slightly west London dirty ride. Oh, + beer afterwards TBH ride what you want (6"+ might be a bit big)

I know the feeling having started "running" again – have spent most of this week going downstairs sideways because my legs hurt! I went into the local running shop yesterday to buy a bumbag to store my keys and ipod in when running and the guy asked my what sort of running I did – slow was my response.

these are also quite nice but a bit wide for small faces (sorry got these as well)
http://www.gosportspex.com/AdidasSportsSpectaclesSoulesta.asp

This is for prequalification of services for a client and no we don't have any sustainable policies for the office side of things but we do have ISO 14001 for the boats – but I can't really see the office staff adhering to the requirements of this.

I looked at those as well and they do look suitable for riding but I was after some casual glasses – both pretty nice though.

bump

I recently bought these for myself as non-riding sunglasses – great fit but a huge box for them!
http://www.sunglasses-on-line.co.uk/Oakley-sunglasses-/oakley-ravishing-lavender-trust-24-084.html

I have a pinnacle xpede cross bike which does ride quite nice as a road bike – it gets used for winter road riding as well as off-road. If Mrs Mcboo is quite short then the choise of cross bikes is quite limited – as I found out.

there was talk ages ago of a tandem meet at swinley but nothing came of it…….

“Evans in Woking is a great store” – assuming you can drag the staff away from chatting to get served, don’t get served by the girl in the shop and brush off the assumptions that by me buying tyres must mean that I am buying them for my BF……apart from that its not bad.

Yup – saw that on cyclingnews.com
Lets hope he doesn’t win much – you know what happens when he goes out to celebrate a win…………….

L’Equipe reckons another 4 to 7 doping cases will be announced before the TdeF.

has the decision been made as to whether Boonen can ride yet? Should be sometime today.

“Apparently it’s even worse when you get to the Birthday of Doom which is 35”

pah!!! Mere youngster – I’ll be in vet class next year and don’t even mention the grand vet combined age group for Polaris next year – eek!

Looking back at what I was wearing 20years ago (my uni hey days), even if I did fit into them I really don’t think that I want to wear them again! The only things I remember fondly from that wardrobe were the monkey boots that I wore all the time.

M&S – it isn’t specific bike cover but insures any item up to a value of £4000 – anything more than this you will have to declare. Have only claimed once with M&S but had good service from them when I did.

I have the S6L and had dynamo and mudguards fitted for my commute. Once you get over the twitchy handling initially they do ride quite nicley. Someone I know has ridden a brompton and a dahon and he thinks that for the price the cheaper dahon rides better than the brompton and you get more for your money but it doesn’t fold down as small as the brompton. Look here for a good selection of folding bikes – and you can get an idea on price of a brompton with your spec – not cheap!

http://www.foldingbikes.co.uk/index.html

Apart from surrey hills, epping, swinley etc etc……try London Phoenix – they have a big mountain bike presence. Also Beastway racing starts tomorrow at Hog Hill and there is the London League cyclo-x races as well.

I used to stay at Hotel Aiglon in Montparnasse when I went to Paris – very close to Denfert Rochereau and Coupole restaurant.

I’ve quite enjoyed watching it and it does seem that each town thay have visited have welcomed the racing. I was just disappointed with the car drivers in my office who complained because the race came straight past our building and one end of the road was shut so the car drivers had to maybe take a slight detour to get out of town. Plus there was a lot of negativity towards cyclists as a whole ……”why do they need to shut the town centre just for a bike race?”, “bloody cyclists” etc etc etc.
The postie in the pink tutu was quite amusing though in the public race!

sportful – the sizing goes down to teeny arm size.

My sister gave up mountain biking when pregnant but continued to do road riding and fell walking. Watch your heart rate though – the general opinion is to keep your heart rate under 140bpm.

I have a brompton s6l in pink and black. I bought it because my commute to gatwick was part train and part cycle and it was the ideal solution. Yes dahons are cheaper but do not fold down so small. It was quite heavy to lift (maybe I’m just a wuss) but I worked out a way of being able to wheel it arounf clapham junction whilst folded. After the initial shock of how twitcy it was, once you crank it up it rides rather well – wouldn’t like to do 20miles on it though. I had the clip put on the back so that it connected but as I understand it these are standard on the new frames. I live about 2 miles from the brompton factory and went in there once – it is rather interesting especially seeing the myriad of coloured bikes lined up on racks in the factory – shame you cannot buy direct from them. Unfortunately since a freelander hit my SO when he was riding to work on it, it is a bit of a write-off – still waiting to get the insurance money (hint to someone). One tip – don’t get the dynamo that fits onto the back wheel – it is useless.

I rode the 130km route last year (my SO did the long route) and I was really surprised at the number of people riding the short route with support vehicles – can people really not ride 130km without support? Especially since there were three official feed stops on-route.

pease pudding?

My work colleague has been telling me today how nice toasted sandwiches are with mashed banana, honey and peanut butter as a filling are – I am not convinced.
IMO coconut is devils food !

IMO
The fowler family business by jonathan meades – wonder why I even persevered with it.
Zen and the art of motorcycle maintenance by robert pirsig – never finished it, got bored.
Meteor by dan brown – awful plot.
And the ass saw the angel by nick cave – its so flippin difficult to read!

CG – yes we have tracklogs – if you could send me the gpx files that would be great. Have a good weekend riding.

CG – Is this the ride that you mentioned in your email? I will put it in my diary but I may be in Madrid that weekend – not sure yet. Thanks for the route advice – I am going to try route A from the testvalley site, starting in Vernham Deam – apparently “very challenging”.

RB – forgot to mention the radish raita, bhatura (made in southall but bought from my local grocery shop) and coriander chutney as well 😉

Yes I can go a mile up the road and go to some good indian grocery shops but unfortunately I leave the house before they open and get home after they have shut but I have located an indian supermarket about 15mins walk from my work so shall pop in tomorrow. May just go for the fruit option – I struggle to eat three courses these days and after looking at some of these desserts I can feel my teeth disintegrating at the thought of carnation milk and sugar!!

If you have small hands then reaching the brake leves is one issue. Personally I have found, from my experience, that my small hands are not suited to shimano and I have found the sweep of the lever too great so switched to campag which, IMO, works better for me with small hands. You can get shims for shimano that bring the levers closer to the bars. You may also want to think about wsd handlebars which provide two widths on the same bar which shortens the brake lever reach. The horizontal part tends to be narrower and the bars flare out wider on the drops to give more stability when descending. There are a few ladies handlebars on the market ranging in price from £50 to £150 for carbon fibre ladies bars.

There are a lot of wsd off-the-peg road bikes on the market – the hardest part is finding somewhere that carries more than just specialized dolce and has more than one size in stock so that she can try them for size. Mid-price bikes – look at bianchi, cinelli, trek, pinnacle, giant, orbea, specialized, cannondale, scott etc etc or push the budget and go for a wsd pinarello fp3…..behind me in the queue!

strawbs or maynards wine gums

Yes I have the same bontrager saddle on my mtb, road and cross bikes.
As for baggies I like the sugoi gusta.

“Get your knickers on, you’re nicked!”

Loved it ……a good hour of entertaiment IMO and I didn’t even need the 80s sing-a-long because I knew all the words to the songs – including haircut 100.