Good question. I’d also be very interested in any suggestions or experiences in this area.

Defining the TD by the fact that it goes the full length of a country just misses the point though – that’s like equating the Isle of Man End to End to the Divide. With all due respect you really need to think through what you’re saying.

It’s not really trail blazing though! All you’re doing is getting off your arse and piecing together bridleways and footpaths and assorted bits of cheek that other people have been riding (and walking) for years. I don’t get how anyone would not get out and explore all the stuff in their local area.

@ Molgrips

It would not be a substitute or even much like the TD, anyone knows this isn’t the Rockies.

So why ask ‘Could there be a UK Tour Divide equivalent’?

Yes. Isn’t that mountain biking?

I’m not quite sure how anyone could imagine that this was something novel and / or different.

No.

I think you probably need to think again about what political correctness actually is. The logic behind this step reflects Victorian cultures of philanthropy associated with groups like the Charity Organization Society. Thankfully Britain’s transition into a social democracy put paid to such attitudes until the idea of ‘welfare dependency’ was then picked up and elaborated as part of the New Right’s attack on consensus politics and the state from the 1970s onwards. Given that ‘political correctness’ is something that tabloids and the hard-of-thinking usually attribute to the woolly liberal or the left you seem to have the politics of this move completely the wrong way round.

Angry-pirate – Member
god, old people take this interwebs buisness far too seriously.

it doesnt take a genius to realise that due to the progression of the english language alot these insults dont mean the same thing they meant 1 or 2 years ago. for example, when i call my homosexual freind a gaf i am not referencing his homosexuality, just his effeminate manner, and that would go for anybody, gay, straight, male or female.

theres a south park episode called fags i think, it explains it perfectly.

Try telling this to the kids struggling to make sense of their sexuality and hearing the word gay slung around in the playground as an insult all the time.

pastcaring – Member
this forum is funny, open hostility and bullying are tolerated but someone obviously taking the piss isn’t?

if people reported him for taking the piss, maybe i should of reported the R.lepecha for abusing southerners and people who grew up on council estates? but found his adolescent indignation rather funny!

there was some great come backs from others and was a funny thread. beats what tyre for… any day!

PC gone mad!

‘PC gone mad’ = capacity for independent critical thought gone AWOL

@ SaxonRider

I think I just made the classic modernist’s assumption that all you early medievalists are the same!

1920s culture for me now — subjectivity and mass culture.

@ SaxonRider

That sounds like the serious stuff! How’s your codicology? 😉

Do you know Chris Wickham btw?

19th and 20th centuries for my teaching – my research is all first half of the 20th though.

@ Saxonrider

That’s right – lecturer in modern British history by day. You?

Yes: one monograph; one co-edited collection of essays; a dozen or so journal articles and bits of journalism and more reviews than I can quite remember. But I’m a historian so I guess all that is part of the job.

Not it’s not.

Lecturer in Modern British History

Also getting excited now! Dales trip this weekend to see how the kit and bike (and my legs) are shaping up…

Trimix – Member

Is this evidence of logic killing a fad ?

It’ll be 810mm bars and those funny exploding gearboxes next.

Trimix – Member
On my commute I pretty much ignore the cycle lanes – they are crap.

Ride where its safe – maily on the pavement actually since they are empty and the road full of cars and lorrys.

That’s not a commute by bike though is it?!

I have an X in its off-the-peg commuter guise. Since the snow disappeared it’s been the bike I’ve ridden most on and off-road this winter. That’s included short blasts in our local woods, long afternoons out on road, the recent CX Sportive in the Chilterns and a fair bit of the muddy field stuff. It’s been a blast. I haven’t had the problems with brake judder mentioned in the Road CC review and I’ve found the handling to be stable and accurate. It’s coped just as well with some of the tight singletrack in the woods as it has with the doubletrack and gravel. It might be because I’m coming to it from mountain bikes (Santa Cruz Superlight and a Cotic Simple) but it just works for me.

If that’s your front door then I think the bike might be a bit too big for you.

I work at one of the institutions featured in that programme. Hmm…

I spend plenty of time here Loddik and I don’t care if you’re impervious to criticism or not. You’re an ignorant narrow-minded bigot.

You’re an ignorant bigot Loddrik. I seriously doubt you have the capacity to have ‘thought’ anything. Grunt and respond to basic stimuli perhaps.

zokes – Member
Mark has previously stated that the ‘p’ word isn’t rude. So that’s OK then.

Personally, I’m far more offended by the use of causal homophobia and sexism on here; two things which I know for a fact put people off posting on here.
There’s worse things than a bit of swearing.

Seconded

Thirded. The casual homophobia and misogyny that’s allowed to pass on the forum is the thing that really gets to me. It’s also exactly the kind of thing that creates an environment that puts many people off posting.

+ 1

Tipping point = when you notice – 6 months

I did it with CrispedWheel (above) in December last year–I was on a Soul and he was on a P7. Great fun.

Go on. You know it makes sense.

You’re not the only one Stoner–though possibly the only one to use your vanity MA 😉

BA in history from Cambridge (1997)
PhD in history from Essex (2000)
Post-doc in Oxford (2000-2003)
Lecturer and Senior Lecturer at Liverpool (2003-8)
Lecturer in Oxford (2008-)

I guess I never quite got round to leaving.

You really are getting bored with being off work and off the bike aren’t you Mark?!

+ 1 for walking round the corner into The Cut. The Baltic is good too.

Epicyclo (and TJ–sort of) are pretty much spot on above: if you read any of the big cycling magazines between the wars a large part of their focus is on exactly the kind of riding that we now associate with mountain biking. There’s an interest in hill climbing, off-road touring and exploring all the trails that run through areas like the Peak District and so on. Think about it in the context of the increasing popularity of walking and rambling between the wars and the activist politics that informed the Kinder Trespass and it all begins to make sense. It isn’t just the RSF or a few isolated groups that are into riding off road (often on exactly the same bridleways that we follow). It’s a mainstream part of the culture of cycling between the wars. For sure, you can argue about the distinctions between the origins of mountain biking and the origins of the mountain bike–but to my mind the origins of what we do have a far longer history in this kind of activity. After all, the riders and the bikes in the photographs in some of those very earlier mountain bikes look very similar indeed to the guys riding between the wars. And it’s the spirit of riding off-road and exploring the wilds–rather than necessarily seeking the thrills of bombing downhill–that were most prominent then.

I’ll take my historian hat off now.

+ 1 for nickc: there’s nothing wrong with a bit of good old-fashioned exploring. Just follow every likely looking bit of singletrack and you won’t go far wrong. It’s easy enough to orientate yourself on the fire road network and make your way back to the car park.

@ Surf-Mat

Are you incapable of having your own opinions then? In the happily ‘revolutionised’ world of Higher Education we call that plagiarism…

Zulu-Eleven – Member
Who got us involved in Northern Ireland?

A Labour Prime Minister!

a nice little fact you choose to overlook when making accusations TJ!

Please try and think about what you’re saying here: ‘we’ were involved in Northern Ireland right from the moment of its creation under the Government of Ireland Act in 1922 because ‘it’ is part of the United Kingdom. Unless you’re fingering Lloyd George it’s pretty difficult to blame anyone for getting ‘us involved.’

Surf-Mat – Member
No politician is perfect, but as Tony Benn said you knew where you stood with her. On the point of unemployment, industries like coal were no longer viable, she didn’t waste money trying to subsidise them and although bitter at the time, countries that did try to keep loss making industries going like France & Germany are now paying for it with huge unemployment now.
She stood firm against the IRA and reacted with an incredibly cool head in the Brighton bombings.
She took on Argentina and won.
She revolutionised higher education.
Her government turned around an uncompetitive, union-dominated economy into a powerhouse that set a lot of precedents for the world to follow.
She inspired (some of) a generation to believe that hard work pays off.
She was a genuinely well respected leader the World over.
Do people not understand that the coal industry was NO LONGER VIABLE? Why prop it up?

Do you actually have any idea what you’re talking about Surf-Mat?

‘Standing firm’ to the IRA only perpetuated the problems in Northern Ireland: what really moved things on there was Major and then Blair’s willingness to shift and negotiate and start the peace process.

She inspired (some of) a generation to believe that greed is good and the pursuit of self-interest can be put above the well-being of the whole.

And what the hell do you think she did that ‘revolutionised Higher Education’? I ask this in all sincerity as someone who works in the sector.

And as someone who also grew up in one of the steel towns that fell apart in the 1980s.

You really are a bit of an ignorant bigot aren’t you alpin

+ 1 for Crispedwheel

Jonny-come-lately

Keep the rubber side down