Do they say "Hope" on em? Does it sound like you’re being attacked by a flock of geese when you brake at speed? Its just the way I think.

All mybikes run shimano SPD, keep it simple (and cheap) one pair of shoes, easy to service/ buy spares and they’re what I’m used to!

I went through 3 bikes in quick succession before settling on my Patriot. It was a great bike, made my riding loads better (confidence), made me faster and may me enjoy riding more. It was however overkill for most of my normal rides, making my favourite local routes positively boring and made climbing more of a pain. It was also very heavy (built up in quite a dH style).

So, now I ride HT again and prefer it, but I do miss the full bounce when I’m in Wales!

Ask yourself honestly what kind of ridin you’re going to do, and would your riding benefit more from a really nice HT? Or a good fork change? Tyres maketh the bike as well..

I had 203’s front and back in the alps, now runing 203 front, 160 rear on my HT. Never had any probs with that. IMO 203 front and back on an HT is overkill, but for riding DH go as big as you need to stop you and stop them over heating

dunno about that? 5 isn’t that much lighter… but more XC spec/ geomotry… 224 is quite different as well… same platform though. Lovely bikes!

Ok, apart from the stainburn suggestion, I live in Leeds, and will be riding on Sunday. Don’t know where yet (first time back on the mountain bike since Nov) but probably around Leeds/yorks. If you want to come with us, give us a shout.

jim

No, thank YOU Dab, I’ve been meaning to get in contact with thm for ages! I’m sending my square wires off tommorrow!

Stainburn?

I use FSA pig head sets, "even though I can afford it". Can’t mess with a headset that costs £15 and has been on my bike for 5 years. Sometimes I lube it, but mostly I don’t bother. never had any problems.

Sometimes being off sick is a fruitful exercise!

cheers midlifecrashes… that was very thorough!

Probably help if I mentioned relevent factors, its a loft conversion! Thanks for the advice so far, I’m inclined to think some sort of plastic sheet or felt will be required?

Generic, cheap synthetic (envrironmentally friendly) lagging stuff. and yeah, I can see tiles, and all the gaps in between them!

maybe they were incensed at the lad A: riding a marin and B:riding on the pavement?

In all seriousness though, thats a bit harsh, and the guyd who did it obviously know enough about bikes to know its a worthwhile effort?

I ride more in the winter. Harder and faster cos its cold and I don’t want to dawdle. Its a good emotional thing cos it feels hard, so I feel like I’m training really hard (plus the addedd benefit that everyone else has the sense to stay in, so I feel doubly hard!). Also, come summer time, good weather feels even better and I feel fitter cos I’ve been riding all winter. Just treat winter astraining for the summer!

Surely hydraulic would be the next major step?

I like the new site…

Hmm, why didn’t that work eh?

Now with SPD’s more XT Bits and more sensible tyres, mind you, this is my latest toy!

[

one of those thingys you get on powerlines?

Lovely forks. are they leaking oil, or just a bit greasy on the bottom. if they’re just a bit greasy you should be ok, though it might be owrth gettinghtem serviced simply cos you don’t know where they’ve been!

Thanks, thats an hour and a half of my life, spent learning about his life. I had nothing better planned (I was thinking of painting something maybe?) but still, its the principle, and yesterday when I asked for links to timesucking websites as I was bored and off sick no one came to help me!

’nuff money for chips though…

I didn’t realise patriots went back that far? I had a 2004 Patriot, but I need to get my self sorted out and learn how to post pictures!

that sounds familiar… Not great facilities, though the showers were always hot, cheap prices and nice enough place.

We stayed at a campsite in montriond just down the valley, about a 10 min ride from morzine if that helps?

not too settled on the latest album, but Girls and boys in america is on constant rotation on my ipod.

Early stuff is good too… great live band

sometimes I don’t mind being pulled over. I once left work a bit early (2am finish, and I left at 0150) and got plled over cos I left the car park a bit quick. Police knew we finished on the hour and thought it was a bit odd to see a car leaving early. I’d rather be pulled over than have them wave at the guy stealing my car!

Mind you, I once got pulled over “cos you should be in school!” I did try explaining, that by having a valid driving license I was probably older than 16… but hten I got told off for being cocky.

I appreciate its annoying when you see other people getting more, for less than you did… but is this any different than buying bikes? I just stretched my £500 budget to £850 for a “bargain bike” which I have since seen at £700. Things get cheaper sometimes. maybe you should subscribe again, and sell your extra copies on ebay at gross rate of inflation?

MAte of mine got a blue light flash from an unmarked car, dodgy area in town, late at night, scruffy looking driver. refused to pull over and headed to nearest police station stating that h was being followed by an unmarked car, drving aggressivley close, speeding up to his bumper and slowing down etc.

turned out to be some obscure invetigative unit on a power trip who got a stern telling off from the desk sgt.

I was looking at the Tifosi Audax classic from wiggle (about £700) a few weeks back, but settled on a kona jake the snake which I got for £850 with full 105 groupset, with an eye to commuting, light touring (bivy bag, bottle of wine, france!) and road riding. Lower end CX bikes seem to have pannier mounts and rack mounts while higher end bikes don#t bother. they’ve got a 2009 jake at the bike shop in cross gates at a good price, and I seem to remember its a huge one, which might be to your liking sir?

I just bought a jake the snake for the same purpose and I love it. You know that great feeling when a bike just feels perfect and fits perfect? ONly weird thing is those STI shifters, is there any way to reduce the throw so i don’t have to move them so far to shift gears? its so far on mine (105 equipped) that I keep pulling on the brakes by accident!

Can’t be bothered posting a pic of my pathetic beard attempt (i’m fair haired y’know!) but I do have one, really long chest hair if that counts? Its about 4 inches long, while all the others are one inch or smaller. Very odd. Right in the middle too.

Worse case scenario, it breaks and you receive associated injuries. Probably no worse than a bad fall, which you risk by mountain biking. I’d ride it until it broke, but then thats advice from someone who once set himself on fire before doing a water jump off a jetty, only to find the tide had gone out and I was still on fire.

Hmm… I wouldn’t trust me!

IF… the news story is accurate and all the facts are clearly presented then these two will lose their jobs, the paramedic will be struck of the HPC and that is less than they deserve. However…

Has anyone seen a picture of the house http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2009/jan/03/paramedic-arrests-brighton-barry-baker, Its a state. Before doing anything personal safety is the most important issue. Having worked in similar houses, I can assure you the stink of places like this is unbearable. Also, early reports suggested he was a big guy. Now, depending on your opinion of big, I wont try to life anyone over about 25stone (unconcious people feel a lot heavier). Its not clear if Mr Baker was obese but his medical conditions reported in the press would support the liklihood that this man was heavier than normal.

now for the science bit.

Once you initiate resuscitation you should not stop. CPR stimulates the heart into beating in a normal rhythm, if you stop, the heart stops and all you have done by starting ismoved oxygenated blood away from the brain and replaced it with deoxygenated blood, speeding up the onset of brain damage and ultimately death. There are situations where this is unavoidable but idealy, you don’t start CPR until you know you can get a patient to a centre of further care (I.E a hospital). If you can’t lift the patient, or there is no clear access and egress ten there is no way you can get the patient to a hospital, so it could be concidered that there is no point starting CPR (its not like on telly, people don’t just sit up and say “thanks for saving me”).

further more….

The recognition of life extinct protocols ( http://jrcalc.org.uk/publications/ROLE_Most_FINAL_March2003.pdf)suggest that if a patient has been aystole (no cardiac electrical activity) for greater than 20 mins then there is no need to commence CPR as the patient is dead.

Being as no one apart from teh crew know what hapened in that house, are the media sure that an ECG wasn’t carried out on this patient, which showed aystole with occasional artefacts (as dead people tend to do) and decided to wait it out until a 30 second strip could be obtained without artefact (as required by the police).

As for slating the guys house, and saying “he’s not worth saving”. Highly innapropreate and unprofessional, but how do you deal with dead people? As someone who deals with the recently dead, sometimes as much as several times a day I have a fairly warped sense of humour. some might say I’m disrespectful of the dead (have you ever had to sit in a room with a dead body, stinking of faecal matteer, with the heating on full, for and hour waiting for the police? would you not pick up a book and start reading?)

The people who work in comms (them on the phone) are very different to those that work on the road, and unless the entire phone transcript is made avaliable, its just words.

As I said at the begining, if these guys are guilty then they will bepunished. to be fair, if they are innocent they will be punished by “trial by media”. Just thought I’d share the reality of life on the road in an ambulance.

Jim

(the thoughts and opinions stated above are NOT the thoughts and opinions of Yorkshire Ambulance Service and should not be quoted as such!)

Damn you man! If I’d known you were giving 10% off anything I’d have bought more stuff from you!

Very generous though!

I’ve not ridden my mountain bike since Noveber (broke my scaphoid). Fotunately I could still ride a road bike, so all is not lost! (Though my BB has seized up on the On one!)

I wore a suit to an interview that included a physical assessment and a driving assesment. Imagine 20 mins on the running machine in suit and tie, followed by an hour driving an ambulance!

However, I also wore my “interview trainers” once and didn’t get the job. Wear a suit, the ladies love it!

kinda, on “old ST” I was mehaja, cos i can’t type… now I’m meehaja, which is what i meant to be all along!

*Secret new years confesion, I haven’t ridden a mountain bike since November (I did break my scaphoid bone to be fair) Just bought a Jake the snake and it is my new love!*

mine is currently in the awkward stage between stubble and full beard, mostly known as “tramp fluff” I had a nice beard in october, but shaved it all off, only for fiance to say she quite liked it and wished i’d grow it longer!