I’m learning to ride without an agenda. I’m not very good at it yet, but I will get there.

Hydrate, not just on the ride but make sure you’re fluid intake is sufficient for at least 24hrs before.

Description says

•Folds flat for easy storage

How?

Got to have a pretty rubbish wheel in it. Not sure how you plan to make one with a 26″ spare wheel, would surely put the centre of mass a little high for stability and create a really long trailer.

Beautiful day and a lovely ride up into local hills. First sunshine of 2013 and I feel fresh. :D
Then;

No spare link in my pack and frustratingly 1 link away from being able to single speed it(had a chain breaker on my mini tool which I did have with me). Had to laugh, first ‘event’ of the year :-)

50% of the return trip was coastable/pumpable so not too bad.

Love the idea of this. Do it.

Not sure NZ is the best idea, you limit yourself due to costs of getting there and then timescale due to visa, meaning you have to jack it in after a period of time and return. A sense of being returned to where you started, where you associate with your current feelings of being static.

Europe jaunt sounds like just the ticket, just get on your bike and pedal south. No need for extensive planning and pre travelling etc. Perhaps even more satisfying to depart from your doorstep and be self powered from the start. France then Italy, or Spain should keep you smiling for a while. Could even hop over to Morocco if you haven’t managed to outrun yourself by the south coast of spain.
Or head east through Germany and pick up the danube.
Or North and swing up into Scandinavia.

If funds are there to support yourself then limiting factors are very few. Look forward to reading your updates along the way, have fun :-)

Two small boys died.

That was the tragedy.

His legend lives on.

how much variation is there in pelvis size?

The size of the pelvis varies not only in the two sexes, but also in different members of the same sex, and does not appear to be influenced in any way by the height of the individual. Women of short stature, as a rule, have broad pelves. linky

I have a large pelvis, seat bolsters in all my cars agree and so does the bruising that I get after go-karting where my pelvis doesn’t fit into the seats.

Alu frame with carbon forks

What frame did you go for?

If you want to run mudguards for more inclement weather days on any of the frames without bosses then can just use P Clips

You considered a Surly Steamroller? Time tested design and good balance of road/track geometry. Aiming to build one up for my commute at some point this year.

Cheers for the ideas. Will have a play around with some of those things and report back if I find what solves it.

Overheating of something sounds a good fit, so will clean out the fan cover and seat it on something.

bumpety for any more ideas

+1 for Photobucket, easy to upload and use.

Only down side I find is the editing function they have runs slowly on my machine, sometimes use it to resize or crop photos.

Cheap, tacky and thrown together haphazardly for the tourist market. There is no substance to any of it. I would avoid the black sea resorts of Sunny beach and Nessebar like the plague. Drinking is about all they offer, prices of which are extortionate comparative to the actual cost of drinking anywhere else in the country.

If you can get a chance to get away from the hotspots there is actually some natural beauty out there though. Try going south on the black sea coast or get proper into the Rhodope, Rila or Pirin mountains.

Spent time here earlier this year, it is beautiful. One of the last untouched spots on a fairly commercialised coastline. I’m not telling where exactly though :wink:

Seriously though….. take your bike and give Nigel at MTB Bansko[/url] a shout. He is a top bloke and will show you the best singletrack around the Pirin and Rila, all of which is unmarked and most of which is very good. Lift accessed riding can be had retro style in the Pirin too, talk to Nigel.

More top riding is available in Rila courtesy of the Borovets BikePark. New in the last few years and constantly evolving, it has a variety of lift accessed terrain to suit everyone.

I like my seat stays, they make the ride feel sooo good.

don’t

Spooky, thanks for the suggestions. Had thought it might be something to do with the power/display settings. Screen going to sleep. Changed these to always on and full power mode whilst plugged in a few days ago. Didn’t fix it.

Tried your other suggestion just now(setting to ‘Show desktop only on display 2’) and got about 20m into watching ‘Looper'(Just long enough to believe this might have worked) before it blinked and display re appeared on laptop. :evil:

The difference, as I understand it, between road and off road pressures is the fact that a lower pressure softer tyre distorts to the uneven ground off road causing a lower rolling resistance. On a flat surface(road, towpaths) then a softer tyre will simply increase the contact patch and the rolling resistance.

A mixed batch, some standouts for me though

Alexandros Vasmulakis

Russ Mills (love the style of his work and never seen his art before, thank you)

NDK Park (Was sat in the park watching when this was put done :-) )

Painting

Alice in Wonderland
Hugo
Taken
Deeper and Further

when the first/biggest joint on your finger is at right angles

I find this the most comfortable and powerful too. So mine are about mid way on their adjustment.

Strips of aluminium can, beer or energy drink etc wrapped in ptfe or insulating tape.

My VLC player still has a santa hat. :roll:

One click on my mechanical pencil isnt enough, and two clicks is too much.

Ghetto ice tyres?? Should have used screws innit! :roll:

“The Monkey Wrench Gang” by Edward Abbey.

Read and thoroughly enjoyed his non fictional ‘Desert Solitaire’ at some point this year. Autobiographical tale of a season in the wilderness as a park ranger at the arches national monument park.

Shantaram – Gregory David Roberts
1Q84 or Norwegian Wood or tbh anything by Haruki Murakami
Master and Margarita – Bulgakov, a philosophical parody of soviet society. One of the very few books I’ve been back to more than once.

It doesn’t really exist unless you have particularly large jerseys tbh. Smallest worthwhile lock is probably the Kryptonite New York mini[/url]

Its been growing on me…slowly. Sol is a fantastic character, makes the show for me. Carrie on the other hand winds me up, she is perhaps the worst field operative ever and painful to watch

Ski, that post properly touched me. The beautiful image and heart felt words. Thank you for the wonderful energy

Last focus I drove, was a 54plate and understeered like sh*t off a shovel anytime you asked anything of it. Didn’t like the way it delivered power either, thought it was cheap and tacky inside with not great head room in the rear. The focus does say I just don’t care anymore, I’m going from a to b, this will suffice. Second hand value is poor too.

Last golf I owned was a mkII gti and sold it after a year for a profit. 195k miles on the clock too :lol: Solid consistant power delivery through the revs and go kart handling. Rubbish in town, rubbish on the motorway, it leaked and vag parts are a rip off. Get it on a b road though :D :!:

The newer golfs I have driven have been comfortable and un spectacular. Well finished inside with a decent use of space.

Get something with character, like an Alfa :wink:

+1 for off site storage or some type of ‘cloud’ copy. Both have issues(effort or cost) but my hard drive went when I had my stuff stolen and would have been instantly wiped and sold on. Lost photos et al.

Best and worst so far.
from being homeless in paradise for six weeks on the beach to being sectioned to a mental hospital. lost someone powerful to me. gained my family back. found some new passions and some old ones were prised from my grasp. ate through too many jobs. battled addiction. experienced pleasure and pain I hadn’t imagined possible. was robbed of all my possessions. wrote off my car. spent a few nights behind bars. danced naked in the rain. smiled and laughed till i was hoarse.
still truckin.

mud. rain.

Am running Revs with the 15mm and they are super flexy. They suit the flex in the rear end of the frame though and am happy.

I would be looking at either the fox 36 or Lyriks if going for an upgrade.

Have an Ergon BD1 I got 2nd hand off someone on here. It sits nicely and having the weight carried lower on the back is a revelation to me. The design keeps the pack from sitting against my back too, which is nice.

Its probably too heavy for any weight weenies though due to the frame.

Have used much Osprey stuff in the past, mostly for winter stuff, and can’t rate them enough in terms of functionality and durability.

Been 140 on the roads in a newish Audi, which felt like nothing compared to sitting next to Kris Meeke through a test stage in the mk2 escort he’s driving in that video.

Tough shift Kevevs?

All supermarkets should be required to employ trolley mechanics. The things never go in a bloody straight line.

Lie to me; The Mentalist; Prison Break; Jericho; 24; The Sheild; Californication; The West Wing; Criminal Minds; House; Life on Mars; Bones; Burn Notice; Person of Interest; Sherlock.

Am at peace now. Thank you. I have greived for my maglite and can now move on :wink: