A couple of laps round Bedgebury. First time I’ve been there and very enjoyable it was too… weather was perfect, trails (mostly) dry and the locals friendly. A good day.

Elastic shoelaces save a few seconds… all depends on how long the cycle is whether it’s worth changing shoes. On offroad duathlons I tend to just use flats and trainers, on road I’ve always tended to change.

I’ve done a few races and I’m not a great runner so the third leg is always painful. A few brick sessions beforehand help to get your legs used to it. A quick cadence with short strides for the first km of the second run can help..

Enjoy – they’re good fun!

I can completely sympathise.

My riding is at best bimblecore, I don’t jump nor do any form of freeride / downhill / slopestyle riding, yet really believe that I need a Transition Bottlerocket.

I'll be sticking with the 2 year old Lib TRS this year, provided I get round to repairing the lumps I took out of it through the trees last year in Chamonix!

Only issue I found with servicing the Magnatraction was a tirade of abuse from a French shop telling me how it's building in obsolecence and a pain to edge… he still serviced it and charged me the same though.

Off to Avoriaz to play on the Stash this Jan and then Le Rosiere in March for a more chilled out week… possibly a weekend in Mayrhofen in December too if the snow arrives in time… Cannot wait.

Rusty Shackleford – Member
I was given a Patek-Philippe with an annual calendar.
Really? That's a VERY generous gift. It seems odd to bestow it upon someone who doesn’t appear to 'get' the watch thing…

The Patek 5146P is one of my favourite watches… an absolutely gorgeous piece… Some pictures would be nice.

Woody – Member
meesterbond

That IWC is very lovely indeed – have they ever made a watch that isn't? Don't think the Hirsch goes with the Seamaster though (Eddie Platts?). I have one on my Zeno and it looks good but something like that deserves a TOSHI

I'm not a massive fan of the latest range of Aquatimers to be honest. The previous ones with the internal bezel looked so much better whereas the current ones are just too Sub / Fifty Fathoms for me… As for the rest though, pure class.

I've actually got a couple of Toshis from Richard for my Panerai – the SMP actually stays on the bracelet most of the time as it's just too fiddly to bother changing the strap too often.

More pics?

Ok, two more of mine…

My IWC Portfolio Chronograph… crap picture, but my first really nice watch.

and an Omega Seamaster. Would usually be on a bracelet, but was trying it on a carbon Hirsch..

Trying to justify any significant watch purchase on a logical level is practically impossible. Unless you're very shrewd or lucky it'll depreciate pretty heavily and it won't tell the time as well as a radio controlled one or even a £10 quartz… the thing is I get a lot of enjoyment from owning and wearing them and for me, that's all that matters.

I still defy someone to watch a well designed tourbillon working without being captivated by it. 100 individual parts, hand assembled and weighing less than a third of a gramme in total…

For what it's worth, watches are a bit of a hobby of mine. I've got a few, but this is my favourite…

It's a Parmigiani Tonda, bought when I got married…

Likewise… mine broke a couple of years back and I'm still happily using it. Can't say I notice it when I'm riding.

Absolute Values – that's the term I was thinking of…

Basically have a whole load of misprocessed entries I and want to measure the total ****-up rather than netting them off and making it look better than it is…

Much appreciated bristolbiker

DAB was old technology when it was launched… it's based on an inefficient codec and in order to cram enough stations in to make it look as if you're getting more choice, the quality has to suffer. If memory serves it uses MP2 which, whilst capable of delivering a very good quality signal, doesn't because there are so many stations crammed in.

Within a couple of years of the BBC launching their DAB service back in the early 2000's most countries had already ditched DAB and moved to DAB+, although personally I think the money would be better spent on improving wifi connectivity and going straight to Internet Radio.
The problem there for the big players is that rather than having access to, say 20 stations on DAB, the public has access to millions…

meesterbond – are you on TZ by any chance?

I do visit there from time to time, but don't post a lot…

I was going to recommend Seiko… I've got an Orange Monster as a beater and for the £100 or so I paid for it, the quality is outstanding…

Another alternative would be something from Archimede – the Pilots watches are pretty close to the budget (€325) and very nicely finished.

You can pick up 2nd hand Quartz Tags for <£300 occasionally… Chrono24 is a pretty good source or from the Classified at one of the watch fora..

Not sure I've ever seen them new for that price.

For <£300 I'd have a look here

The PRS50B looks fabulous (a bit of a Fifty Fathoms homage) and the Speedbirds always seem to be well thought of…

I'm never without a watch – just doesn't feels right…
I think I must own about a dozen at the moment, from a Parmigiani dress watch through to a hundred year old Hunter pocket watch…

I thought the middle ground between Bespoke and Off the Peg was called 'Made to Measure'?

Anyway, this is the guy I'm getting mine from
Chris Kerr

It's considerably less than £2k and makes rather a big deal about being properly bespoke…

If you go 'off the Row' it's quite possible to get a bespoke suit made for £1300 plus. I'm getting one made at the moment and whilst I'm paying a little more than that as it's 3 piece and a different cloth, but still considerably less than the £3k+ I was quoted by a Saville Row tailor.

I can't comment on the quality as I've only had one fitting but it's shaping up nicely…

I frequently carry a pretty expensive Turner on top of a considerably more expensive 911 all using a Thule 591 – no problems to date and if there were it wouldn't be the bike I would check first….

As a couple of posts before – Copperfields on the corner of Moorgate and London Wall… think I've bought about 10 suits from there over the past years. Will always come down a little on price and the alterations make a good suit into an excellent one, particularly given the price.

Gieves and Hawkes are currently having a sale on their Made to Measure suits – from £550 depending on the cloth.

*puts hand up*

Could really do with losing a stone by March too…

If I actually got my backside in gear, then I'd have a brown 456 to show you, but it's still largely in bits in the kitchen…

The rate I'm currently working at it should be ready in March.

Long weekend in Mayrhofen in a couple of weeks then off to Whistler for 10 days in Jan followed by a cheeky back-country week in Chamonix in March…

Can't wait!

Off to Whistler in 36 days… not that I'm counting.

Cheers Alex… apparently mine has now been delivered and signed for by someone I've never heard of!

Probably a daft question, but do you need to get the BB, headtube and brake tabs faced before you build it?

Do a search for 'Red Ring of Death'… the clue's in the name

It rather depends how beligerent Eddie's feeling I think! Bless him.. I think it's open at the moment, judging by the influx of random rubbish on there this week

I don't think you can even view Sales Corner any more unless you have the requesit 50 posts!

I picked this one up for about £650 I think… you can definitely get full size Quartz ones for sub £500…

MTT – I'm guessing you're talking about tz-uk? That's where this (and several others of mine came from)..

We'd usually do catered chalets if there's a big group but as it's only the two of us, a hotel was a better option… We've got a suite with kitchen area so I imagine we'll sort our own breakfast out then eat out during the day / evening…

As for the tea and cake, we usually just head straight to the bar but each to their own…

We're off to Whistler Jan 8th for about 10 days, oddly enough.

It's costing us about £1,200 each including flights, transfers and 9 days lift pass – self catering staying in the Hilton with $300 included towards food…

Booked it through Trailfinders..

There are apparently a lot of deals about at the moment as they're a bit scared people will stay away because of the Olympics..

Porsche 911 C2S

Because it's got 4 seats, reasonable(ish) boot, can take 2 bikes on the roof and it's bloody gorgeous…

Yep… I either stream music through Sonos and DAC for convenience or listen to LPs when I've got the time to sit down and actually enjoy them…

I have a new turntable in my sights at the moment – potential the Wilson Full Circle… just have to get the expenditure passed the missus..

The last week I had away, the only real injury someone had was a jarred neck after hitting the back of his head really hard on the piste… The cause – a skier and his instructor jumping back onto the piste from some trees and caught him square-on…

Personally after seeing that I wear a helmet all the time… I rarely fall myself, but you can't legislate for other people…

I do wear padded shorts though as they make a little bit less unpleasant sitting in the snow waiting for people!

Have a Google around for Neil McNabb's video and book – he has a useful four-points theory that works well in practice.

+1

Better still, read the book and then book yourself on one of his tech clinics in Chamonix next winter. Best snowboarding £££s I ever spent!

We've got a 911 and regularly put bars and a couple of bikes on the roof… it's a surprisingly practical car (is what I keep telling myself)

Do get some strange looks in the car park when we're unloading them though.

We went to Montgenevre last year and were very impressed by it – not much in the way of nightlife, but the snow was great (in March as well), very quiet in comparison to the more well known resorts, the off-piste wasn't bad (and very easy to find) and a quick hop over to Italy for lunch and the food was great…

That said, I'd still go to Chamonix every time, but the prices in France are getting stupid now, particularly for food and drink..

I thought that the world had moved on from this whole snowboard vs skiing thing and united in harmony against blades and monoskis…

For what it's worth, I've got roof bars for my 911 and a couple of Thule bike carriers… seems to work ok, although had to get the bars from Porsche as the front and back are different heights, widths and angles… Retail for about £300 I think…

The 911 has got mounting points on the roof though, so if the Aston hasn't, then you'd need to botch something up and I'm really not sure I'd want to do that!

I’m thinking about getting one at the moment and there are quite a few about… The Blackstar 5W always gets really good reviews and it’s pretty cheap too, other than that I love the Victoria 10″ 5W combo and the Cornell Rambler. Cornell also does a small Plexi style combo too, and both of his have an attenuator (of sorts) built in which take the output down much lower…

One that’s worth noting is that 5W is still really loud (technically half as loud as a 50W amp), what you sacrifice is clean headroom, so it will break up earlier, but won’t be much good for late night practicing…