Is that really true? If so it’s shocking.

Remember we (us taxpayers) picked up an extra quarter of a million extra employees when we nationalised the banks. They’re all public sector workers now.

But according to this, only 21% of the UK workforce are in the public sector.

http://www.statistics.gov.uk/pdfdir/pse1209.pdf

wonderful things for 20 state controlled utilities such as BT, British Gas etc,

Hmmm.

Back in the day of the nationalised industries, they basically didn’t give a damn about those poor saps who were paying the bills.

After all, why should they? They had a monopoly – so you had to go to them, and if they screwed up even that, the taxpayer would bail them out.

So if you wanted a phone line, you had to wait weeks before they’d even talk to you. Things are much better now that BT – and their ilk – have been privatised and so have to actually care about customers.

And, just ‘cos someone used your IP doesn’t make you responsible for their crime – a bit like if they stole your car to do a hit-and-run?

You’re completely correct.

But in the time between the report of your alleged sex crime making the front page of the local newspaper, and having the charges dropped 2 years later due to lack of evidence, you may find your life a bit messed up!

I’m not trying to be funny or anything – I just think people should be careful, and not be too trusting.

Wait till someone starts paying for child pron using your internet connection.

Don’t think this can’t/hasn’t happened.

Easy there.

I’d offer everyone a beer, but I’ve only got champagne(*) at home.

(*)Home made, from grapes in the garden, probably pretty rough but it gets you drunk quick.

I found some quite nice stuff near Cromer. Take an OS map and look for the obvious intersections of bridleways and contours near to the coast (generally West of Cromer).

I spoke to someone in a bike shop who told me about some riding in some big park, but I never managed to find it (ran out of time and now long forgotten).

Don’t be fooled by the rhetoric. Manufacturing management were equally at fault

There’s a lovely book by a guy who worked in the Ford factory at Dagenham. It just sounds totally awful on all sides, but at one point he recounts how a worker was killed by some big machine. Biggest concern of the management? How to get the line moving again.

CBA.

She was ‘good’ with the miners, right?

In 1974 the miners had it out with Ted Heath, and won.

Arthur Scargill thought he could repeat the same trick. And he deliberately avoided a ballot in order to ensure he got his fight. And he chose to start the fight at a time when coal stocks at power stations were at an all-time high.

He did as much to destroy the NUM as Thatcher. I think a lot of people refuse to believe that – they like to see him as some kind of folk hero I guess.

Mind you, that American guy was a bit of a sh*t.

.is it a good thing that the working class no longer have the right or power to fight for a better living?

But while the workers at Cowley and Longbridge were fighting long and hard for this pay rise or that working time concession from British Leyland, the Germans and the Japanese were quietly getting on with making great cars. And then crushing our car industry.

We thought the world owed us a living, because we had once had a great empire. But it turned out it didn’t.

EDIT: not even sure what’s meant by working/middle class anymore to be honest.

If you think the country was run by the unions in the 70s you are sadly mistaken

We should discuss that one over some beer and sandwiches.

EDIT: Sorry, this quote is from the Daily Mail, which I usually try to avoid, but it amused me anyway:

“Indeed, in January 1977 a Gallup opinion poll found that 54 per cent of people believed that Jones was the most powerful person in Britain, ahead of the Prime Minister James Callaghan.”

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1172472/Jack-Jones-union-chief-shared-beer-sandwiches-PM-No10-dies-96.html

The architect of today’s broken Britain, sold everything we owned for pennies and gave the key to Bank of England to “spivs and gamblers”.

But Gordon Brown selling off 400 tons of gold at a quarter its current price was just fine.

And TB getting us sucked into a war in Iraq more or less on a whim was just one of those things.

And we’d all be perfectly happy if the country was run by the unions as it was back in the ’70s. Coal strikes bringing down Ted Heath’s government. Assembly workers at Cowley on near-permanent strike producing unusable cars. The English sickness derided across Europe.

FWIW, Cambridgeshire Constabulary have recently rounded up some huge number of bike thieves. They had some kind of elaborate sting operation going for a year.

“So far, 62 people have been arrested by the Operation Northwood team, and 52 charged.”

http://www.cambridge-news.co.uk/Home/Man-who-sold-stolen-bikes-jailed.htm

But we’re spending £500M on cyber security.

That’s an awful lot of pimply youths sat in front of VDUs downloading porn defending the nation from Al Quaeda cyber warriors.

If you want varied hand positions, what about drop bars?

A scarf on a bike, Luked2 ? Have you never heard of Isadora Duncan ?

That’s scary. I might need to get a balaclava.

I guess that’s what happens if you don’t conduct a full risk assessment before getting dressed.

Good grief people. So judgmental. So much insecurity.

I don’t care what people think. I care more about whether I’m going faster than them.

When I show up at a bike race with my scarf gracing my neck, and see other people wrapped up in their fancy winter coats I rejoice!

I know that I will be able to drop these poor insecure people about twenty minutes after the start when they realise they are waayy too hot.

Meanwhile, if the sun comes out and my scarf gets too hot, I can whip it off (the scarf) at the next fire road section and stuff it in my jersey pocket.

Scarfs rock. Scarfs are the sign of wisdom and maturity. A scarf shows that you can plan ahead. Scarfs make the sun shine and the grass grow. Do not wrap your weak and feeble body in a “coat” or a “gilet”. Gilet – that’s not even a word. Use a scarf! Let your body breathe. Demonstrate your confidence in your ability to survive anything that nature can throw at you with nothing but your determination and a small piece of cloth.

Double post.

You’re going to fixie a bike bearing the name of a TdF winner?

But it’s not like he rode this particular bike is it? And at the end of the day, he’s just a man, not a god. And this is just a bike.

Perhaps we should ask him if he would be offended. I bet he would be quite pleased that people are still doing stuff with bikes he designed a decade ago.

I’ve got to say that riding fixed is a lot of fun. It takes a little getting used to, but it’s very minimal. You just have to keep pedalling.

what ratio?

I’m using 46:16 which seems about right. I tend to be a bit slow away from the lights but I’ll be going absurdly fast before I spin out.

That’s with 170mm cranks.

I fitted one that I bought from a shop. Needed some help from a friend that owned an angle grinder in order to adjust the hearth.

If I can do it anyone can.

We got replacements free from Thule, ISTR. My wife talked nicely to them.

If you fixie it, won’t you also need a new rear hub?

Chances are it doesn’t have a reverse thread for a lockring, so your sprocket will come undone.

I ride occasionally round there on my SS 29er 32:18/32/19 and its hard, and dependant on the weather you will puch up something. But then there are hills even the geary weirdys push up too.

I’ve got a 21t rear cog I can put on with 33 up front (29er). Anything I can’t get up with that is probably best walked up tbh.

Just take which ever bike you think you will have the most fun on.

There’s something very liberating about not having to worry about gears. Plus there’s less to go wrong/clean. Single speeders know what I’m talking about 🙂

Inspired by North shore.

How do the 2.25″ Maxxis Ardents fare? And is the 2.1″ Maxxis crossmark a summer only tyre, or OK on the back for winter use or not?

I was riding exactly this combination this morning. Ardent 2.25 up front, crossmark 2.1 at the back.

Much better than you’d expect for what should be summer tyres. I’ll probably change the front for something narrower for the Thetford Winter Series, just because the extra width leaves you pushing more gloop out of the way. If I wasn’t entering this, I’d leave them on.

I met a roadie on this morning’s ride who claimed his carbon frame was 15% faster than his aluminium frame. Is that really possible?

Never had a problem with SS pads (sintered). Been using nothing else for several years.

Thanks – some good advice there. SS it is; I’ll just drop the ratio a bit and try to avoid getting stuck behind any geared riders 🙂

Get a single speed. Or a better paid job.

It’s nothing like as bad as when they become teenagers. That *really* does your head in.

Or find an old inner tube with a removable cored valve and cut it out with some scissors. Schwalbe tubes usually come with removable cores.

Have you got steel cored tyre levers?

Cambridgeshire. Only 8 hours drive from Scotland!

If you were feeling a bit brave, you could file out the vertical dropouts on your soul by a three or four millimetres.

Since it’s a steel frame, you’re unlikely to cause any nasty stress problems (aluminium could be tricky I’d have thought) though obviously you’d kiss goodbye to any warranty.

If you got an SS chain with a half-link you’d then probably have enough variation to get the chain reasonably tight.

Get a chain ring with nice long unramped teeth (e.g. Surly).

Never tried it myself 🙂

20 months old?

Probably just bored and fancies some attention.

If you respond to the crying then it’s working for them.

20 months isn’t really a baby, more a toddler. Can he/she speak? If so, get a clock and explain about the short hand and getting up time.

Well, I bet it’s easy enough to fix.

My xrandr doesn’t mention anything about VGA either. I’m not sure that xrandr isn’t a bit of a red herring. I could be wrong about this, but doesn’t it query the connected screens. If you’ve got a very old laptop perhaps that won’t actually work?

Anyway – similar advice to going tubeless applies. Stop. Have a beer. Then try again 🙂 Drop me an email if you want to give it a whirl.

http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/Models.aspx?ModelID=17473