Reilly in his second favourite environment. (The first is our bed!)

’93 Klein as my only bike.

I’ve always loved GK Chesterton.
Favourite is The Rolling English Road.

“Before the Romans came to Rye
or across the Severn strode.
The rolling English drunkard
made the rolling English road…..”

but I also love his ‘Ode to Tennyson’

“I ramble on, and on and on
And on, and on and on and on.
On and on and on and on
and on and on and on and on.
Just like Lord Tennyson.”

Carrera ‘somethingorother’
Cannondale F500
Diamondback ‘somethingorother’
Klein Fervor (long term loan’18 months)
Carrera Zelos
Merlin WCS
GT LTS 1
GT LRS 1
Marin Mount Vision
Airborne Lancaster
Rock Lobster TIG Team SL
Carrera LRS1
Trek Liquid
Mountaincycle San Andreas
GT Zaskar
Carrera Zelos
Haro EX1
Scott High Octane
Klein Fervor (my own this time!)

Plus about a dozen road bikes over the years, from a Dave Marsh 531 through to a Focus Cayo Expert.

’93 Klein Fervor.

Because I had one back in the late 90s on loan from a friend and loved it. Never seen another Fervor in this colour, onle ever seen a few anyway. When this one came up for sale I had to have it, mainly period kit with a few modern touches. Its now my only bike and replaced a 5″ full sus. I love it, it’s so fast and perfect for South Downs riding which is mostly what I do.

Working from 1 ’til 11pm. Going to fit some new mudflaps to my landy in a bit.

Motorola XTN446 or the newer digital version. Used them for years, mainly in either heavy woodland or built up areas. go for about £40-£60 on fleabay.

Or look at hiring some licensed ones, for much better signal. Somewhere like Talkingheadsets.com should be able to help.

More from 100 Acres today. The blue haze is getting stronger by the day!

Just starting to flower at 100 Acres near Fareham, taken yesterday (15th April.)

I quite like looking like a cyclist, what with being one and everything. I feel more of a tool riding it in ‘normal’ clothes than in specific kit.
I spent a fortune on my bike (for me, anyway) and I’m happy to spend a little bit more on proper kit for myself to make sure I’m as comfortable as possible when I ride, so I can enjoy it as much as possible.
Mainly loose fitting MTB tope and baggies, but occasionally dig the skinny lycra out from my old racing days if I want to feel all Euro….

Think it is the weekend before the Bank Hol. Hope so, because then there’s a good chance I can actually make it to this one.

Just finishing my coffee before heading out. I love working from home sometimes!

I run ceramic 517s with Vs. You can happily use standard pads but they do wear quicker.

The bit from the masts behind Llandegla and above the Ponderosa down to the road at Crag Arthur. Not ridden it for about 10 years but it was always the best bit of trail for me. May not be there anymore, TBH I haven’t ridden at Llandegla since it became a trail centre.

Or a swoopy bit at the Little Fawn end of the Chase, downhill towards a fords. Had a proper weaving through the trees at speed flow to it. Again, not ridden there for about 4 years.

The gloves I always wanted and never got round to getting had a cartoonish rocket logo on them, think the brand was Scary Fast, or something like that.

QECP to Harting Down was bone dry and lovely yesterday pretty much everywhere, with just the odd soft bit in the trees. Even the dips were summer-like! Barring any rain it should be perfect tommorow. Wish I wasn’t working….

This:

Klein Fervour, had one 10 years ago, got this one end of last year and its now my only bike. Absolutely love it and have done more miles on this so far in 2011 than I did in total in 2010. Light, pretty (IMHO) and bleedin’ fast!

Thanks to my old VW Type 2 and my current Landrover, I reckon there’s a few years worth soaked into my driveway.

I think it’s just the lens size and shape that’s different. Used to have a pair of XLJs and a friends std ones seemed to be the same frame wise. The lenses were interchangeable between the two.

I love how you just know me so well. You must be one of my friends, or maybe my wife. I’m sure you can’t just be a stranger on an internet forum who has made wild assumptions based something I wrote.

Oh, the

anally retentive sociopaths

who can be found

playing at soldiers

at either of my sites, or indeed at the training courses we are involved in include many serving and ex forces personel along with lots of middle aged IT types, and others from students and sci-fi nuts through to doctors, policemen and corporate types. We have run events for the military (regularly for ATR Winchester)and police as well as the likes of Ted Baker, Air New Zealand and a few boarding schools in Surrey. I’ll grant you the odd one is a bit of an oddball, but I think you’re unhappy about something you simply don’t understand.

i find the quasi-military willy waving a bit disturbing.

Willy waving? I work in a quasi-military environment as indeed I mentioned at the start of my post. I have the opportunity to handle and occasionally range test a variety of firearms as a part of that job including training others in their correct use. How is the fact that they are military or police weapons an issue? This thread seems a relevant place for such information, based on the posts prior to mine.

Toy guns for a living! (I run a couple of airsoft sites, and assist in some tactical firearms courses.) I also shoot rabbits and small vermin, mainly with a .22 precharged airrifle and very occasionally clays with a 12g.
I have fired a host of 9mm, 5.56 and 7.62 weapons including M249 and GPMG as well as Glock and Sig pistols and MP5s of various designations.

After a couple of years of hovering around the 1 to 3 mark I have rediscovered my joy in riding recently, and reckon its at about 8 or 9 now. (Mud pulls it back from 10!)
Weather has been kind, nothing too extreme although wet chalk is never nice.
I can tie in the moment my mojo came back to aquiring my latest bike, a ’93 Klein Fervor and getting rid of my ‘modern’ 5″ travel full sus. I think I’d overbiked myself for local riding with an eye on the trips to ‘proper mountains’ which in all honesty hardly ever happened. Local trail now feel fast and fun as they used to but a whole lot more engaging.
The dog loving coming out with the bike helps too; when he sees me get the bike rack out of the cupboard he’s by the front door wagging like crazy!

Used to use them for bike insurance. A claim for a written off bike (Long story involving an Alpine Elements transfer) was agreed in principle within 24 hours. Then took nearly 3 months to actually send the payment. Buggered off to M&S after that.

Can’t say much about it but a loady friend of mine has shifted some interesting pallets of kit off to some interesting places recently, the sort of kit used by guys who live near poole or Hereford and sport shaggy haircuts and scruffy beards along with unusual tanlines.

Mind you, it’s often a ‘just in case’ deployment, with little being done apart from smoking Embassy and bothering local wildlife!

Its in the ‘labs’ bit on my Desire.

QECP was pretty claggy today. Leaf mulch over sticky chalk. OK on trailrakers and at least the roots were pretty dry. Should improve over next few days.

After trying literally dozens my wife swears by a Fizik Nisene saddle. Not cheap at a good £60 odd but it does have Ti rails and a hardwearing cover, her current one is 3 years old.

Wife and I both have Kindles, we went for the wifi only ones. How often are you going to need to download content when not at home or somewhere with a wifi network? If loads, or if you want to download newspapers or jouirnals regularly it may be worth it, but I just use my Desire as a wifi hotspot if I need to and connect through it. Still only takes a minute or so to download a book. Seems like £50 wasted for most people IMO.

Where we’re going in June 2012

Many years ago Daves Cycles over towards Brownhills way used to do group rides, mainly at the Chase but also evenings up at Sutton Park. Were a really good bunch and great fun but last one I did was when I lived in Rushall about 10 years ago!

Subscribe Land Rover International (was a christmas present tbh, wouldn’t have bothered myself) also read a few other LR mags and Practical Classics along with Climb and TGO.

I love the idea of shiny HiFi kit, but since I’m deaf in one ear and therefore don’t hear in Stereo, I don’t see the point…….

Rascal also had ‘std’ style dropouts didn’t it? Fervor had rear facing.

My ’93 Fervor.

I just fill mt 16-18mpg 2.5td Landrover up a bit more frequently using the company card and carry on as normal. Will be back on SVO when it gets warmer though, bet the price of oil goes up in Tesco too mind you….

I love Roman fiction, and was really looking forward to this. It’s not as bad as The Forgotten Legion, but they seem to have tried to use gore to cover up a weak story and some wooly acting.

It costs more than half the 12 month cost to tax for 6 months.

Set amount into joint acc then what’s left is hers/ mine. Considering I’m left with £25 after the bills etc are covered, and she earns a fair bit more than me I do get subsidised a fair bit.
Wish I could have £600 ‘allowance’. that’s nearly my post-tax monthly wage…..