That's very cool but it's yet another thing to stop me from doing any valuable work :D

I only hope Saxo bank get what they deserve.
Convincing all to 'neutralise' the race on Stage 2 but not having the same desire yesterday when their tour GC favourite is in a good position….

The motorbike only crashed because the Gavazzi crashed. The bike went onto the grass verge & unsurprisingly dropped it.
From that moment on it was madness because all riders were arriving on the scene of the crash blind & in such a situation it just escalates. They were always going to crash because they had to brake hard to avoid hitting the obstacles.

There was no excuse for not racing, but Fabian is a pro & gets his intstructions from one of the most cynical (but very successful) team directors out there.

Does anyone know if the VCLS seatposts are available to buy?

I know they're fitted to Canyon & Cannondale complete bikes but I was looking for such a seatpost with no luck…

edit: by the way – the 34.9mm carbon post on my Scale doesn't seem to bend very much at all. Ouch.

when are you thinking of visiting?
Bruges (Brugge) is pleasant enough but Gent is better… (Bruges is too focussed on touristy things – how many chocolate or lace shops does one need for gods sake?)
Where is your secretary from in Belgium? I assume she is Vlaams…

In 3 weeks from now it is the festival of Gent which is pretty awesome & definitely worth a visit. The town (city?) is ram packed for 10 days but it's worth the pain.

I'm surprised to see this news story is published in the UK but it is a very concerning situation here in Belgie.

The church were governing their own investigation into the hundreds of claims of sexual abuse from priests / church representatives & they were keeping the findings of the investigation secret to 'protect the identity of the victims'.
It is believed by the police / CPS equivalent were trying to find victims files that were 'hidden' hence their quite extensive searching which is one of the items that particularly upset the church.

I'm surprised to read such negative comments.
Over here in Belgium they are pretty popular. Personally don't own a C-dale but having ridden a few times with friends bikes I thought it was equally capable as my Rockshox forks. (Reba or SID WC).
Regards weight they are surely lighter? 1100g or so for a DLR SL no?

Service wise perhaps poor market presence in the UK breeds poor dealer coverage?

Just watched this on telly.
For me that was caused by Cav. He'd already squeezed Ciolek to the point he had to back out of it & he just kept drifting to his left. Hausler was coming through & the inevitable occurred…

And by the way – there is a huge amount of Dutch traffic heading south on any Saturday morning in July so keep that in mind….

I drove down from Denmark recently (back to Belgium) & there were quite some roadworks on the autobahn in Northern Germany. Was a surprsingly slow journey to be honest (& I drive in Germany very regularly)

thanks for the feedback.
The FNSS looks like an option or maybe the Midlands XC rd3…

I'll keep an eye on the website in the meantime.

ta

What is your route? I find the description a bit confusing….

I guess fears with regards shipping costs…
I find shipping things overseas is often more expensive than an online quote.
It's not like you can get an advance quote up front for every possible bidding destination.

Formula 1 = car theft. :-)

I would suggest driving an hour or so direction Belgium & take a hotel there. If you drive across Belgium & down through Luxembourg you can fill your tank cheaper plus the tolls are cheaper on the Route de Soleil…

I commmute a little bit further on a BMW1150GS & it does a great job.
Comfy, warm, nice seating position to see who is going to cut you up next.
ABS brakes to avoid 'panic' issues when some d*ck changes lanes without indicating. Big fuel tank (& gauge) so not stopping every other day to fill up.

Before that I was using a ZX9R & that does a surprisingly good job. They are also dirt cheap. Did some great long distance trips on the Kawa too.

I ride with a club that used to be full of Epics. (I've got an 05 S-Works btw) and then in 2007(?) when Spec changed from using the Fox shocks to in-house probably more than half of the guys had shock issues.
After that no-one dared to get the new Epic, especially as the earlier models still had Speci shocks
Finally in 2010 they returned to Fox shocks (I believe) & someone dared to try it. He loves it so much he's sold his other bikes & so far no issues with the shock…

Belgium here. Good beer (for those who drink), food & great cycling.

Met an Irish MTBer who lives over here too this week.

I have only good things to say about my GS. It's the older model 1150 Adventure but does everything I want. Or perhaps I am a boring old fart.

Before that I was using a ZX9R for everything (commuting, vacations, fun). The Beamer does more better, especially the commuting.

Great on hard / fast surface due to the (almost) continuous centre rib.
Surprisingly capable when it's a bit softer too.

I have them on the rear of my XC bike in the summer, with a Racing Ralph up front. Better steering particularly when banked over.

I'm tyre engineer by profession & chose to pay an extra €60 for a temp spare. The dealer left the 'temporary mobility kit' in car so I have both options now.

The TMK does work well in many instances but as mentioned above – a torn sidewall for example – makes it kind of useless…

Well I can't speak for France but here in Belgium you are entitled to use the C1 category on your licence for 5 years after you are registered as a resident. After that you require a medical to be allowed to drive C1 which is the same as if you had a Belgian licence.
A British colleague of mine has just gone through the process for his large motorhome thing…

They were in collision with a car driven by a home carer nurse…..
Allegedly the driver pulled partially out of a T junction straight into the path of the girls who had no chance.

I never voted when I lived there & there's even less chance now I'm overseas.
My sis is also expat but she bothers to do the proxy vote thing via our ma…

To be fair, it's a very good engine let down by the gasket, the dowls that hold it in place and the beancounters than ordered their fitment. A strong engine (esp. the bottom end) and incredibly advanced for its time…

Absolutely true unfortunately. The original K series engines had no such issues until there was a 'cost down' exercise…
One of those "Doh" moments in life.

Hello. What is the name of the person that signed for the frame? should narrow the search down a bit.

I guess you have never tried to decipher the scrawl that is left on delivery notes…. :D
It would be a lot easier if they recorded the name properly

My S-Works Epic frame (Large 2006) is 2650g….(or 680g more than my Spark)
Not so porky if you ask me.

I got back from Sweden (to Belgium) late yesterday.
Was hanging around the rental car companies & found a german registered car that someone had gone one-way with. Avis waived the one way for me to return it to Germany. (Europcar refused even though they had a german car in the same situation).
Managed to get a train from Koln > Brussels late yesterday.

Wow Fopster
that's spooky.

I'm at the airport currently. That's a long drive back. 1400km to Calais from here!
Fancy dropping me in Belgium on the way through :D

I'm just across from you Higgo – stuck in Göteberg.
Booked on a flight to Amsterdam tomorrow lunchtime but don't see much chance of that happening!

From my colleagues, I've got 1 stuck in Paris, 1 in Warwick & 1 in Roma… What a mess.

(but rather stuck in a hotel than dropping out the sky over Denmark)

poo.
Why do these things always happen in my own time & never during work hours :(

I'm stuck in Goteborg and it doesn't look like I'll be going home today :(

So long as you are driving behind the many speeding Belgians you'll be fine.

I pass this claim to fame over to the Dutch (at least the 10% that aren't towing caravans anyway) :-)

IME – since moving to France 5 years ago, when driving in the UK I now feel slow if I'm 'only' doing 70mph – in France, if you do 130kph you feel like the fastest person on the road. Except on the 'Route d'Anglais' towards / away from Calais where the brit cars bomb past you! Perhaps they think the limit is 130mph!

I agree – In my experience the old stereotype of the high speed frenchman (or woman) is long gone.
Germany on the other hand….

Surely this is no different to the 'German village' and the 'Irish village' on the Epynt ranges in Wales?

I was thinking exactly the same thing. I seem to recall there is a church there too.

In the past year I have been flashed in Switzerland, France, Austria & Germany (in my car with Belgian plates).
I have never had a ticket reach me as yet.
I must stress I don't drive crazy speeds but maybe 15-20 over the limit.
I travel a lot through the night for convenience hence with little traffic around…

I have a Belgian ID card & it is not valid (according to British Border Controls) for travel between EU member states…

Why they shut the passport office in Brussels?
God only knows. There are a lot of British people there due to the EU commission being there of course but someone clearly had a brain fart.

At least you have a consulate in Germany…
They closed the British consulate in belgium so now I would have to go to Paris to get a renewal…

Sounds very serious.
I would imagine the garage guys want to pull the plugs out to either:
a) reduce the compression to see if that will enable the engine to turn over
b) take a look down into the cylinders (with an endoscope) to see if there are any turbo bits down there!

How did the car stop? Why was the turbo identified as the 'issue'?

That sounds serious….

Engine won't turn over speaks for itself but that's not a good sign.
I assume you have had some form of major mechanical issue prior to the garage visit? Symptoms?

The glowpugs are just that – heated elements in the combustion that assist a diesel in starting. (bit like a spark plug). They should not effect an engine turning over – firing yes but not turning over.

Missed the twins!!! (got another foto? :) )

I'll probably be back on the Paterberg Saturday though hopefully in the dry.