I quite like some of the new Shimano ones – the RP5 are decent looking & are aboot £70 online:

Aye, forgot about that – maybe it’s a test & he gets the sack for “shenanigans”

I still can’t believe I didn’t get the “s’all good, man” joke in the name until watching the first series of BCS :|

I would imagine you are correct in regards to investment firms picking up the glut of cheap houses – however I only need the one.

So does everyone else in London with good skills & making a decent salary but stuck renting, that’s the problem… whereas the reality is that even in the current climate there are plenty of investors looking at rent prices & thinking there’s still more money to be squeezed out of them yet…

I do feel sorry for people in your situation – the easy answer is gtf out of London, I’ve said it & so have plenty of others but I also understand it’s much easier said than done just to up sticks & move your entire life across the country… although that watermill place a couple of pages back did look tempting!

I need to live near London because that’s where I make my money, I have absolutely no option.

Not taking the piss, but do you geniunely have absolutely no transferable skills to gain you employment outside of London, whatsoever?

Obviously you might not make as much money, however housing prices may be exponentially less than your drop in salary if you moved somewhere else – personally, i’d love one of those big old terraced villas in the west end of Glasgow, however folk with more money than me have bought them all, so I stay 25 miles away in a slightly (ok, much) smaller house.

Any massive crash in housing prices would see many people who are struggling as things stand in serious trouble & i’d bet it would be investment firms that would pick up the glut of “cheap” houses on the market as the rent from those would make a better return than the interest rates at the banks…

perchypanther –
Ripping a gimp mask off the janitor.

Is my new favourite euphemism :lol:

As previously mentioned probably Kitsbow here – the Mission Workshop stuff is just mental, they’re more like the cycling version of Acronym though (£650 for a hooded blazer anyone?)

Both suffer badly from the $ = £ conversion, Kitsbow’s 300 Euro shorts are $300 in the states – BARGAIN!

Cheers all, got accommodation sorted in Finalborgo – think i’ll take my own bike & make a point of using it as much as possible outside the shuttle days on nearby trails – now to construct an indestructible bike box (A-Team style) out of an old cardboard bike box, corrugated plastic, pipe lagging, cable reels, elastic bands, gaffer tape & the 6 foot mountain of jumbo bubble wrap i’ve been keeping for a “special occasion”

Can’t wait 8)

Cheers Honourablegeorge – just stumbled across This site[/url] which lists a load of different companies offering uplifts, not much info on hire bikes though – anyone any good suggestions or do most folks just take their own?

J

Hi all – just giving this a quick bump as i’ve booked up for a week in Finale Ligure at the end of June & wondering about bike hire / shuttles etc. had a look at the Finale Freeride site (seems to be down just now) and a couple of others but seems they’re more advertising full week-long trips with accommodation or the sites are mainly in Italian, can anyone tell me the rough cost of a day’s shuttling / bike hire & what’s available? I’ll email a couple of places & see if I can tag along for a couple of days here & there depending on what they have planned but just trying to get as much info as possible beforehand.

The other half isn’t at all interested in biking so i’ll be going solo for 2-3 days (or even half-days) spread through the week & wondering if i’d be better taking the bike over (old heckler but in good shape) rather than spending more on bike hire.

Cheers!
J

My favourite was “Hell Mend Ye” whenever I was proposing something unwise – it was accompanied by a special look that pretty much put the skids on whatever I was intending without so much as a raised voice… :cry:

I think i’m pretty poor at selling myself within the workplace – tbh it’s probably laziness, had a look a few years ago at the regrading procedure & put it off again & again telling myself i’d make an undeniable water-tight case next time round (did I bollocks), it’s now got to the stage where my line manager is constantly reminding me of the application deadlines for this year and almost offering to write it for me…

Few of my mates (different industry with a much higher earning potential admittedly) are kicking around in Mercs / Audis / Range Rovers earning more than the prime minister & their biggest problem is trying to hide it from the tax man… there’s a whole world of difference in the time spent in the comfort zone though – i’m pretty much that guy the Daily Mash wrote about & they’ll be earning $1000 per day for 3 months then bugger all for the next 6 until the next big bucks contract on an oil field off the arse end of Russia starts.

FSA Vero compact bars are quite similar to the Deda Rhm shape for reference, I get on pretty well with both. Only issue I kinda have with some compact bars, even though I prefer the shallow drop, is that the curve can sometimes be more pronounced on the section your hands rest on when using the drop so there’s nothing to support the middle of your palm which can be a bit annoying after a while… but ergos are butt ugly so they’re not an option.

On the subject of wood framed doors – we moved into ta new place in the summer & the kitchen has a set identical to DrLex’s pic above, only smaller

I’ve noticed recently that the sealer on the wooden external threshold piece is lifting in places & want to fix it before it gets worse & damp sets into the wood, I actually gave it a quick rub back a couple of months ago & a few coats of some ronseal exterior wood protector stuff I had in the shed but that doesn’t look like it’ll last too long – anyone any recommendations for a quality external sealer?

Also – with the recent sub-zero temperatures up here i’ve noticed the door seems slightly stiff some mornings, thought it might be the wooden frame contracting ever so slightly with the cold, more so than the doors themselves – anyone any experience of this?

Cheers,
j

I like the umbrellas in the RR doors, although the best & most pointless feature is the way the “RR” logos on the wheel centres are mounted on high spec bearings so the logo is always the right way up… thought it was a wacky rumour until I seen one – quite impressive attention to detail all the same!

The tiny amount of actual chocolate in most selection box / advent calendar fodder this time of year probably won’t kill them, however it certainly won’t do them any favours – dark chocolate, with its higher chocolate content (& subsequently much higher theobromine content) is definitely a BIG no-no!

Other things not to feed the dog include, grapes & their derivatives (no mince pies for you Snoopy!), onions, garlic, avocado, coffee, artificial sweetners (xylitol), walnuts, peach / cherry stones… the list goes on!

Log into pp & check your messages there – could be a fake email & she’s at it, dunno why she’d be unable to receive the money, unless it’s gone through as an echeque or something…

This is as relevant as half the posts so:

Merry Christmas, whatever it means to you all, & don’t f*ck with the Jesus.

You know what they can do with that saddle? Shove right it up their…

Best riddle ever.

I got a pack of those Ulvang ones off eBay a few months ago, these & they’ve been great! A bit of a mixed bag of colours & thickness but they’re £7.64 now for 6 pairs so you can’t really go wrong, i’ve washed them in with cotton stuff at 40 degrees and they’ve been fine – can’t remember who posted the original link to them but thanks again whoever you are!

*Edit – I have a few lots of the On-One efforts & the thin ones shrank from a size 9 to a size 3 after 2 washes – my missus wears those now. On the other hand the thicky ones are going strong, I suspect they have a lower merino content though…

I was just going to post that map – scarily accurate imho…

:lol:

seosamh77 – Member P
Why would that stop you getting a chap at the door for something that had bugger all to do with you?

Would make it slightly less pant-shitting at least 8)

Similar thing happened to my old flatmate – he had a speeding ticket that he didn’t know about (our post used to arrive weeks late / not at all in many instances…) & a subsequent reminder or two that had also vanished – both of us were welded to the couch one evening enjoying some old grey whistle test re-runs & two of Renfrewshire’s finest appeared at the door with a warrant for him… he managed to concisely explain the misunderstanding through a case of 3rd degree pinkeye & thankfully they told him to pop round to the station in the morning to clear it up, also thankfully they made no mention of the suspicious green cloud that filled the place…

YoKaiser – Try doing deck squats, then one legged deck squats – the momentum helps you get back up & helps your muscles get used to the motion – one of the kettlebell instructors at my gym has us doing them & at first I was awful, now they’re pretty easy.
J

Just back from another mild pummeling – weights I had little difficulty with on Monday defo required a bit more effort today so it looks like i’m reaching the point where a rest in-between would be beneficial, or even take the Wednesday off & do Mon-A, Tue-B, Thur-A, Fri-B… who’d have thought going to the gym would be so mentally taxing… at least i’ve found a good point to start from :lol:

Cheers guys – will play it by ear and see how it goes, been going pretty much every week day for the last few weeks doing various stuff & the last week or so trying out the 5×5 – still figuring out the weights for that really so not pushing myself too much (yet) hence the lack of fatigue. I’m actually quite enjoying the barbell based stuff instead of the random assortment of exercises I was doing previously so i’ll maybe keep going frequently now & get the technique sorted and settle on a good base weight to work from & after the Christmas break i’ll start doing it Mon/wed/Fri & increasing the weights as I go.

Cheers!
J

Back to ask a quick question for those with more experience – i’ve started doing the 5×5 stronglifts & have bumped the weights up from what they recommend to start with although it’s still less than I was doing previously. The gym’s pretty quiet just now so i’ve been making the most of that & going up every day, alternating the A/B workouts but i’m wondering if I should be sticking to Mon/Wed/Fri & not training 2 days in a row – i’m not feeling overly fatigued as instead of adding weight every time, i’m sticking weights i’m comfortable with for now to get my technique perfect before moving up, I feel I could go at least 10% heavier fairly comfortably but don’t want to rush it, especially 2 weeks before Chrimbo… should I still be having a rest in between as a matter of course?

Cheers,
J

We had something similar recently with the boiler losing pressure & requiring topped up every day & it turned out to be a leaking heat exchanger which was losing water into the condensate trap & subsequently the overflow, when the shower / hot water was on it was running hot & cold as the pressure fluctuated. We thought the expansion vessel was shot at first & the pressure was hitting 3 bar then dumping water via the overflow pipe but a friend fitted an external expansion vessel for us & it didn’t make any difference. The pressure never got above the set point when the boiler was running (that was an exciting hour) Only when we checked the condensate overflow it became apparent it was the HE instead.

I don’t know why he’s changed the EV if the system was just over pressurized – surely bleeding the system & re-setting it to the correct pressure would have had the same effect?

There should be a statutory thread on here with exactly that sort of information, step by step instructions & photos to prove it – this could even be it :wink:

I’ll chip in with the fact I can get a medium sized Chameleon wearing 26″ x 2.2″ shoes in the back of a 2000 VW Beetle without removing the front wheel if you fold the back seats down & rotate the bars upon entry (sorry, no photos)

j

(I know it’s not real)

It’s surprising how much stays in your system though, especially with the recently lowered limit – at the Wickerman festival the police were doing free breath testing on the Sunday morning as folk were leaving – my missus went down despite only having one drink the previous afternoon and was unsurprisingly fine, but the guy in front of her was still 4 times the limit & obviously just about to head home…

Dunno if anyone’s said it yet, but I think Neon Bible by Arcade Fire sounds good all the way through & I don’t particularly like them…

Also “The Last Waltz” by The Band – it was released as an album

J

st colin – Member
Why is lifting weights so complicated? In fairness I’m so embarrassed at lifting weights because I’m really not strong. At all. My dumbells for bicep curls are 7kg, and I struggle with that.

As above – the only bad workout is the one you didn’t do & and other such motivational quotes!

*Except that time I googled “epic gym fail” – were a few pretty bad ones in there :lol: *

Yeah, fair point – i’m fairly confident with my form though as I do pretty much all of the exercises in question with kettlebells (taught classes – instructors are always shouting about form so any wobbly knees etc. are heavily frowned upon) which are more unstable than a barbell, so as long as I stay within the range of weights i’m used to with those as a starting point I should be fine *goes to google epic gym fails*

EDIT – shouldn’t have googled epic gym fails, gonna load up the bar with those big hollow plastic training plates instead now :lol:

footflaps
Ignore their weight suggestion. Ideally you should be choosing a weight where you can complete the full set (5×5) with good form on all reps. So if your knees are bucking under the squat or your back rounding, you need to drop a few Kg etc. Form over weight every time.

Yeah, i’ll have a play around & see what suits me weight wise – looked at the list of strength standards on this site before & i’ll maybe try and fit the 5×5 routine around the “untrained” weight range with good form and go from there. Linkity link

J

Downloaded the 5×5 app to give it a bash – after entering my details and the weights & reps i’m currently doing it’s telling me to effectively halve the weights on the bench press / deadlift etc :?

Just finished the first session & feel like I used more energy typing this – i bumped the weights up slightly (still less than I usually use) & suspect i’ll continue to add a few other exercises in there to mix it up, I kept to the “5×5” though & did 5×5 chin-ups and 5×5 sit ups with a 24kg kettlebell into the bargain, will see how it goes.
J

BillOddie – Member
Has anyone mentioned diet and sleep yet?

Is it Winston Churchill diet / Margaret Thatcher sleep pattern?

I’ve been watching this thread with interest – i’ve also just started going back to the gym following the onset of winter & a reduction in cycling enthusiasm (in the west of Scotland it’s September to April…) :oops:

Regarding the reps v sets / strength v bulk conundrum – what’s a good middle ground for a beginner? I’m currently doing 3/4 sets of 8 on various exercises – usually bench press, deadlift, standing press, bicep curl (although i should maybe swap that out to pull-ups instead looking at the above – when I do pull-ups it definitely feels as though i’m working harder) with a couple of kettlebell sessions per week thrown in for an all-round thrashing, but should I try the 5×5 thing? If I do, should I up the weight a bit so i’m tiring at the end of each set or should I keep it the same & be tiring towards the 5th set?

Cheers,
J

Quite a few places round Finnieston are good – Ox & Finch is excellent but if you want a table at the weekend there’s a 4 week wait, Crabshakk is good for seafood as is The Finnieston, Porter & Rye gets great reviews for steaks if you fancy some of that (never been myself) as does The Butchershop… The Gannet also seems well reviewed but not been in there either.

Mother India if you fancy a curry, everyone appreciates a good curry.

Not been out in town much recently but Riverhill on West Nile St has some fantastic stuff on the menu but has more of a bistro feel than a fancy restaurant.

I’m starving now, cheers for that :?

*edit* not entirely relevant but if anyone fancies a pizza in town Paesano on Miller St is tremendous…

They’re great – even got a couple of Benedict Cumberbatch in his natural habitat

I thought the stream had stalled after the “nope” then I realized he was actually frozen to the spot with the most un-imaginable disappointment possible, and that’s the exact moment I nearly sharted laughing. :lol:

I’ve built wheels before, trued them up lovely (still don’t know how they ended up that straight) then realized i hadn’t got the hub logo lined up with the valve hole & pulled them apart and started again, but this is another level :lol: