Best Sunday this year – training wheels are off!

Just to balance the argument

I moved to Swindon from Edinburgh 13 years ago. First 6 months were the most depressing of my life. Then I moved into the Old Town area and things got a bit better. Like anywhere it has its good and bad points.
I now live in the Sparcells area – lake with pub on my doorstep. Two large areas of parkland 2 minutes away. Lidiard park a 10 minute family bike ride away. Ridgeway. 50 minutes to Cwm Carn. 4 bike shops. Access to country lanes right on my doorstep if I feel like a road ride.

If you move to a town thinking its a hole, it will be. Every village mentioned so far has some horrible areas in it, with extra isolation thrown in. Follow MNutts advice and get to Old Town.

Juggling balls never impresses anyone. Five balls, they want six. Six balls, they want seven.

Pick up a knife and a flaming torch however…

Or, if you cant ride the unicycle, juggle it. Hold unicycle in left hand. Throw two balls high up from right hand. Pass unicycle from left to right hand. Repeat. Comedy and skill.

Had mine out last year following a gallstone episode. Arrived at day surgery 8am, back home by 6pm. Fully mobile again after 3 days. Rode bike to work after 10.

Surgeon said that the only use he could see for the gallbladder was as a very good chemistry set for creating gallstones then killing people.

Doc will tell you to take painkillers as most cases clear up in 6 weeks. The missus prolapsed a disc and her sciatica cleared up in 4 weeks. Mine too over 2 years and I still get twinges 4 years on.

I tried physio, chiro, epidural injections all to no avail. I was at the stage of asking about surgery but the consultant told me that was an absolute last resort and that the pain *would* subside with time. It did.

Pilates helps. Moving around helps.

I wouldnt ride D2D. The inflamation needs to be given time to calm down.

Oh, and virtual box from Sun is a free PC emulator – seems just as good as Parallels/Fusion.

My imac came from John Lewis and they threw in a free copy of MS Office. Problem solved.

Joy! Thanks.

Hmmm. No further forward really. The atera looks like it will work but the diagrams show round and oval tube profiles – 2007 trance is sort of squareish down at the clamp point. Someone *must* be carting a 2007 trance around on a car roof somewhere…

Trouble is they moved away from the shock going through the downtube design in 2008 – I am worried the downtube on the 2007 model will be too big for the clamps.

I nominate the Dockle Farmhouse "real ale" pub in Swindon. One of Weatherspoons largest. A number of us turned up at 8pm one Friday night, to find out they had forgotten to order beer. Fosters, Guinness and alchopops were all they had. We migrated to the pub next door.

Sunbase in Swindon did a strip and powdercoat with laquer for £40 – this was for a front and rear triangle of a full suss so a hardtail would probably be no more than £30.

You need to check out the edit profile link – its directing to the "Tom dB" profile for everyone.

Sorry, points lost for pedal/wheel reflectors and white grips. Some things should not be white. Like handlebars.

Bought the frame looking like this:

Strip and powdercoat was £40. Decals a fiver. I *almost* got it done in orange but chickened out at the last second. Metallic purple looked nice but thats going too far.

Just finished putting the decals on tonight:

You can get SRAM shifters which will work with a shimano rear mech, but shimano shifters will *not* work with an SRAM rear mech.

Front mechs are fine as they have the same cable pull ratios.

You need to visit the lbs.

I have been thinking about how to do a home made compressor for a few weeks now. Yesterday, I realised I had one already while spraying paint on a fence. Rob, you just confirmed it works!

Ta. 68mm it is then.

I dont know if this is still up to date – but I hear the anthem bearing replacement is the same as the trance:

http://forums.mtbr.com/showthread.php?t=242343

Retracting swimming pool and fold down palm trees reveal the down ramp to our hollowed out volcano.

Theres no bike storage on the mono-rail which is a bit of a downer.

We took our daughter to Prague at 6 months and she slept on the outward and return flights. Shes now 7 and has been a nightmare on every flight since.

My missus decided the best thing to calm our 11 month old son down before a Florida flight was 12oz of milk and a chocolate bar. He spewed it all up in the ailse as we were boarding. Try stopping 300 idiots from walking through spew.

Its well know that the best way to find a lost bike part is to buy a new one. Ten minutes after getting said new part home, fridge suck reverses and the part appears in the middle of the kitchen floor.

Running revelations at 130mm on my old scandal was slightly more twangy than at 100mm. Something to do with the leverage I think.

Did this over two years ago.
Still doing physio.

I solved a creak by changing the bearings on a 20mm front hub. Noticed the creak only happened when I put my weight on the front of the bike.

Where: West Swindon to North Swindon, sometimes via Cricklade
What: One-one scandal direct route – Dolan Hercules the long way

I used to ride my hardtail with a thudbuster. Then I started riding a road bike. The thudbuster just seems like overkill now and the hardtail is comfy enough without it.

Second hand thudbuster anyone?

Try Swindon Road Club
The Saturday morning ride is easy going and has a cafe stop so you can get to know everyone.