I carry a set. I found them good for commutes etc. Easy to put on, no undressing required or removing of shoes. No sweat build up, so very nice for summer showers. Free leg movement and no tangling in the chainrings. A bit odd looking at first take but so is a lot of bike gear, just look at cyclists in general!

I dont know the price, but I would consider John Lewis (they do mail order as well) as you get an extra years garrentee for nothing which is well worth having.

I have been really pleased with my own Aspire One.

Thanks for additional info. Not many shops sell what I am considering buying, so choice of supplier is semi-limited.

Thanks for additional info. Not many shops sell what I am considering buying, so choice of supplier is semi-limited.

Best of luck to the guy. He got such a rotten deal from the cycling authorities. I admire he can keep going in the face of such narrow mindedness.

His book is very sad in some places, very brave and well worth a read.

Combined with the time trial book ‘the hour’ I really learned contempt for the UCI.

Zaskar, was this recent? Sorry you had problems.

Thanks. Don’t suppose if any of you know if they also do the bike to work scheme?

Women are interested in who someone is, as well as what they look like.

Unless a woman gives a man a h*** on at 50 yrds, he views her as a waste of space in all respects, if he is honest with himself.

I dated a chap 20 years older than me – it was accepted by everyone.
I had a close but totally platonic relationship with a chap 9 years younger than me – my friendship was treated with great suspicion by people and often with hostility. Usually included with this attitude was the comment ‘you are too old for him to want’ even, presumably, as just a friend.

A male newly divorced neighbour told me with total seriousness that all of the guys in his support group wanted to find new partners, but all of them wanted women at least 5 years younger than their ex-wives. His own ex-wife had already been 5 years younger than him, so at 50 he was looking for someone younger than 40 and was not prepared to ‘compromise’ on any woman older.

Well, I wonder why most women end up with guys older than them? Could it be social attitudes? Could it be they often only get a chance to date at all if they agree to accept someone much older than they are themselves?

I have 4 pairs of wheels from Merlin – between 3 and 5 years old. 2 sets are XT / Mavic 717s (I like cup and cone!) and 2 heavier sets for our multibike household. No problems at all with them.

The only issue I did have was with the parcel carrier they used at the time who had very few bases for collecting from and only delivered in my area twice a week at silly times. In the end I did a 100 mile round trip to collect them from the nearest branch of carrier. Hopefully they use someone else by now as it was a bit of a drag!

But good wheels!

I would guess using big roads for time trials is intended to help motorists by giving them plenty of overtaking space and a lot of visability for both motorist and cyclist, aside from the technical needs of the cyclists.

Also realistically, you cant send a mass of cyclists round 1 car wide, low visability, pot holed country lanes at 25mph plus. It would be more of a death trap than the main roads are.

Airnimals come in several types so they are worth checking out – 2 different types of road based bikes and a few MTBs. Mezzo folders are also worth checking out as they have more standard parts than Bromptons, so if something breaks, you can hunt down parts in any bike shop – no waiting days for special orders.

I would also say consider carefully how keen you are to carry a folding bike rather than locking it. Even small ones are much heavier than they look, even Bromptons. Try picking one up! I guess a 20lbs plus bike might be easier for a bloke to carry for longish periods though. One of the bikes I considered was a Brompton but the weight plus special order parts put me off in the end.

Bradley stoke is pretty bleak, but better than being run over in rush hour. Its about 20 mins car drive to Bristol Centre. There is a bus terminus in Parkway train station (Stoke Gifford, 10/15 min bike ride from Bradley stoke) so getting places is fairly easy (Bristol, Bath, Cardiff etc) and Cribbs mall is about 15 mins bike ride away. Its in easy biking distance of some nice places at the weekend if you like countryside lane type rides or a trip over to Bath.

Glass milk bottles come to our house. The milkman brings them. Long live the house to house milk delivery!

Unless you are pretty traffic brave I would not fancy commuting from Long Ashton as it is through a mass of city traffic, plus the faily brutal climb you will need to up to Clifton/Downs level. I drive across that way in the car sometimes (only biked it once and really did not like the traffic even in non rush hour) and I have no recallof much in the way of cycle paths. The Bristol bath path is quite a diversion I would think, plus risky for various attacks near the inner city.

I would suggest renting in Bradley Stoke, Stoke Gifford, Winterbourne, somewhere off the a38/Gloucester road (or maybe even Yate or Thornbury if you want more rural) for a short while, to get your bearings, before comnmitting yourself to living to an area you might not like living in or communting from.

I have several synthetic tops that say wash at 40. They gradually became unwareable due to smell retention. So having nothing much to loose, I stuck them in the wash at 60 each time. Problem solved. No sign of damage to the clothes. They are all made of polyester or polypropelene. Its that or chuck them out…

Bonfire of the vanities.

I tried really hard to go to sleep in the cinema as the person I was with would not walk out. Sadly I failed.

Do a forum search for mobile broadband as its come up on here several times in the last few weeks.

To me this is another pat on the back for the fairly well off, and a slap in the face for the low income folk.

I run a car that is over 15 years old. I cant afford to buy a mid age second hand car, yet alone one on a scrappage deal. Knocking £2000 of a brand new car price with not bring it into financial reach.

This deal is only of use to people who were planning to/can afford to buy a brand new car anyway – I am guessing perhaps ‘2 car or more’ families who might now trade in the older car to have 2 recent ones, or who can afford to buy the teenager kids a brand new car.

As many of the older cars will be destroyed, poorer people will have less chance to buy the old vehicles which they are able to afford – and to make it worse second hand prices will go up as older vehicles become more scare.

Acer aspire one (I think its around 9″ of screen).

My proper laptop failed and I bought this as a cheap quick carry around while it was being repaired. Its been great! I expected slow, I got fast.

I run AVG antivirus on it as McCaffee that it comes with seems to cause hesitation. I am pleased how fast the netbook is generally. I have even run photoshop CS1 batch jobs on it. CS2 wont work due to Adobe programming in some screen size restriction.

You can get bigger batteries from Amzon to make it run 6 hours plus without mains connection, I have found mine to be sucessful.

I find it handy to use close up and its great for proping on your chest lying down to watch films etc (I have an external drive) I am experimenting with copying films to the hard drive or large memory sticks. Its screen is harder to see on a table than a normal laptop, but there are other compensations and also, you can plug them into a freestanding monitor if you need a big picture.

The best way of describing it is ‘cuddly’ as you put it places and take it places its just too difficult to use a full size laptop in. I know 2 other people with netbooks and they both think they are great too.

If you manage to get one from John Lewis, there is a 2 year free warrentee on most of thier machines.

I dont see why there is so much discussion about traffic calming here – surely a lot of this is about helping to justify fitting satalite tracking in cars?

As for the additional fines such a slow limit will incur?

This is not to say I dont recognise lives might be saved.

Article “We sold our dream to Timberland” by Howies ex-owners

I know a couple of people who have lost babies in advance stages of pregnancy. I think knowing what it is personalises it even more and makes the loss harder.

Also, it more fun to have a surprise.

I find it kind of narrow minded and scary to start deciding on the colour of a childs room and equipment and on what personality you expect it to have before its even born. Its treating it as a fashion toy not a kid. Talk about pidgeon holeing a person and demanding a child behave in a pre-defined by sex way. No wonder there is a shortage of girls who become engineers and suchlike, when from birth they have to be surrounded by pink and are not allowed ‘boys’ toys. And for boys who want to break out of the ‘predefined’ role models. Its very sad how pressured kids are by parents assumptions and prejudices.

‘Bike’ in Bristol, opposite Habitat. Nice people who make sincere efforts to be helpful and informative. They acknowledge their customers exist, unlike Bike Dock. Politeness really does get customers back through the door!

If you dont care about the seatpost, but do care about the frame..

Stick fluid (as above posts) down it for a while.

Drill a hole right through the seatpost, so the drill passes out the other side, just above the frame.

Push hex key or similar metal bar right through the 2 new holes in the seatpost.

Tap hex key (and therefore seatpost) fairly gentelly upwards lots of times, alternating sides after every few taps. Dont do massive single strikes.

Way less damaging than twisting frames about.

I don’t think that trying to show grace and kindness in this pitiful situation is the same as being ‘a fan’.

Its amazing to me, having moved to a town, how many people seem to think their property line goes halfway out into the street.

As she is clearly in the wrong, I should just make the most of a humorous situation. Enjoy it each time she has to put herself out and inconvenience herself by parking every day in some place she clearly did not want to park in the first place. I mean if you cant get a laugh from someone prepared to cut off their nose to spite their face…

I see no reason to apologise or make up, just let it go. If she is that controlling and petty if you back down she will always feel she is entitled to the upper hand with you.

I started getting strange hip pains and then now and again my hip/leg would just sort of collapse under me (never actually fell over). After getting really worried I might have some serious disease, I traced it back to sitting with my legs crossed while leaning across the desk towards my computer for long periods. If I did not cross my legs or alternatively did not lean forward, it all cleared up. Must have been trapping a nerve or something.

Parky made his multi millions doing fawning interviews with people who often come from rubbish backgrounds and sell themselves to the public at every opportunity. I guess these ‘stars’ selling themselves on film in the cinema instead of via video on TV somehow cancels out the magazine shoot sales and the product promotions carefully shown only in Japan and the interviews done with Parky for the sole purpose of pushing the latest film or ‘autobiography’. Parkinson is part of the exploitation system himself both as user and used, so one can only laugh at his fantasy elitism and lack of self awareness.

The set up of these sales is amazing. I have been to several. They usually hire a full size sports hall at the local leisure centre and fill it (and I mean fill it) with masses of stuff all laid out on tables. Loads of tills, take credit cards, a queue clearing rate that puts Tescos to shame and all the staff have been really nice. They travel from Barnsley to wherever and back home again the same day usually.

Worth a trip just out of curiosity to see the efficient set up!

Excellent detailed review, but a little long. 😉

Michael Hutchinson (the king of time trials) used to train there, though I seem to remember he moved out of London a short while back. I bet he did more than the speed limit 😀

You cant assume our govenments will stay benevolent for all time (the present one is sliding downhill as it is). Once your family DNA is collected, data from that will be held forever and could impact on future generations. Ask the Jewish people what is is like to be traced and condemned for your genetic links.

Also, when the data is leeked via private security companies etc (as all data seems to be!) you and your decendents may have problems getting life insurance, general loans, home morgages, business loans, medical insurance etc becasue any genetic pre-disposition to life threatening or life shortening disease will mean you (and all of your reletives and of your own future descendents) are not a safe ‘bet’ and will either be refused or have to pay much higher premiums than other people.

Remember when you say ‘yes’ you are saying it for all of your reletives and descendents and not just for you alone, in the legal and moral climate we have during our lifetimes.

He always seems rather self satisfied. Also, curiously, he looks like he died several years back, a thought I can never get out of my mind if I see him on TV.

Is your seatpost the correct size? Even a tiny bit out can cause problems. They used to be 29.6mm.

Just re-read what I wrote last night and I would stress the service was very good and very fast until the last couple of weeks.

Funny how the terms of reference change. MPs are acting within the rules to claim their entitlement, but people claiming any kind of benefit are immediately ‘scroungers’. Hmmm.

Its part of a general assumption in this country, that poorer people are all a load of sciving scroungers who lie at the drop of a hat and the better off are always decent honest people full of integrity.

This is even echoed where I work, where ‘higher’ levels of staff can ‘work at home’ without question by anybody, but lower levels are forbidden as it is assumed they will be sciving off (being poorer is proof of dishonesty).

I have been using a vodafone one for the last few months and had been very happy with it. However in the last couple of weeks I keep finding the transfer rate drops right down, often going down to zero. The slow connection is making it hard to log on to services such as google mail and some other things, which now object to the slowness of my connection and won’t load unless I go back to ‘basic mail service’ etc. If I log out and back on it improves briefly, then goes back to frequently hopeless. It is dire at peak times, but still problematic these days even off peak. I thought it was my kit, but my housemate is getting all the same symptoms with his set up (same supplier) and another friend in different Bristol/Bath area who is using a ‘3’ dongle is getting the same type of problems in the last few weeks.

I am wondering if the sudden uptake of mobile broadband has caused the networks to hit some kind of data transfer saturation point?

Its best to put any blokes nearest the door, as none of them seem to be able to spend a whole night without visiting the loo at least twice!

Someone a while back did a study of ostriches. Some of them are consistantly faithful. Some of them consistanty ‘cheat’. The offspring of the faithfuls tend to be faithful themselves, the offspring of the ‘cheaters’ shag around. It is thought the mix of types must be sucessful and possibly helpful as neither group have died out and they co-exist within the same ‘herds’.

I suspect humans are similar – some are destined to be happy with one mate, some stray.

A male friend of mine says he would never cheat on his wife, as to betray her would be a huge betrayal of himself, so he would be letting both of them down. I guess he is one of the faithful ostriches. I admire his outlook.

Thanks for the photo.