Hiller or Whitmore as they really stuck it to Johnny Foreigner 😁

Bumblebees, butterflies and buzzards galore in Friston yesterday.

My ferrets playing, the dogs running to see me, Chewie chatting to me (I may do Darth Vader breathing to provoke this).

I use the Michelin Wild Muds as a winter tyre, for the last 3 years,  I had the reinforced sidewall versions to start with and now got the enduro casing version (allegedly a bit lighter) on the front this winter.  I’ve run them as low as 18 psi and smashed through Southdown’s chalk and flint descents with no sidewall punctures/major damage.

Only two punctures in that time that wouldn’t seal were a piece of fence wire and the largest thorn I’ve ever seen.  Both centre tread, sidewalls have a few nicks but nothing compared to what the maxxis I used to run picked up in a summer.

Chewie (a leggy Staff) started riding with the bike at around a year old around the field for a mile or so to get used to the bike.  After he was 18 months or so we started stretching it out and by 3 we were doing 14-18 miles of stop/start single track riding, less with XC as the pace was generally higher.  Anything longer would see him over tired the next day.

He’s now 11/12 and his pace has dropped off, he still loves the bike ride but it’s tailored around him to about 7 miles at his speed rather than him streaking off and waiting at the trail junctions like the cheeky sod used to do.  He now takes massive single track short cuts and Strava lines the trail to still finish in front.

Had this the other month, came up behind two walkers chatting away, dinged bell three times and they were oblivious so locked up on the chalk* which made them jump, “where’s you bell?”, so I dinged it again and pointed out that perhaps they should’ve been a bit more aware of what’s going on around them as they hadn’t heard the 3 previous dings.  Left them looking like they’d been sucking on lemons.

*its chalk gully Bridleway that gets massively eroded every storm so my skid didn’t add to much to the general erosion before anyone whinges.

A few years ago I started birthday drinkies very early, about halfway through the evening Frank the Hungarian turned up with Palinka shots.  Then we carried on in the pub.  I felt fine until I got on the saddle at closing time and had to ride down the road to the bridleway over the South Downs.  I zig zagged down the road into the hedge on either side before somehow getting up the flinty climb from Litlington to Lullington Heath before a final stagger/push up old kiln bottom climb and the a very speedy descent into Jevington, apparently riding through a bramble bush after failing to negotiate a bend at 30mph!  Not my finest hour.

Ordered, one for Mrs M and two for me.

When I broke my scaphoid I ended up with a bone graft and Herbert screw.  I went to the sports injury guy in Ipswich (Brian Simpson) for some electromagnetic and IR therapy.  I used an allsports brace for 4/5 months afterwards but that was a good few years ago now and I’ve crashed on it a few times since and it’s been ok.

Be a bit careless when using “pathclear” on the drive ……..

Will order when I get home tonight after I’ve found the tape measure

Having a bottom like a Sarlac Pit due to IBS/Gluten Intolerance a padded lycra short is a must for my tender bits.  Over the years I’ve tried various shorts but breathability is a must, the last few years I’ve had Endura padded shorts which caused horrendous arse rot issues (being thick it took a while to put 2 and 2 together to work out the aggravating factor).  Currently using Castelli padded shorts which are not cheap but are very comfy and well ventilated.

Remember with lead acid batteries heat really kills them, anything above 21C really starts eating into their life span so try to keep them as cool as possible in summer.  I’ve seen on multiple times over £2K’s worth of telecoms standby batteries be ruined because some idiot forgot to turn the aircon back on after a leaving site, resulting in the batteries cooking over the summer months.

I’m with Hastings, won’t be using them again.  Cheap but very tedious to deal with, unhelpful when you’re asking questions.

Zombie pit

Still got my Liberator, still very bright.  Another good man gone.    RIP.   What a bloody awful day.

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RIP Troutie #troutelights #lumenliberator

A post shared by Ming the Merciless (@ming_t_merciless) on Mar 15, 2019 at 6:17am PDT

Horrible.  The worst we can be.

RIP

Yep, I’ll get one for Mrs M in dark blue and I’ll have one in green please.

Fitting my first kitchen, I was trial fitting the worktop when it slipped wedging my fingers between it and the wall.  I was unable to get any sort of purchase to move the worktop.  I was stuck, with fingers that were slowly being crushed.  In the end I had to drag my fingers between the wall and the worktop till I could get my other hand on the end of the worktop to tilt it out the way.  I had some very mangled throbbing fingers by the time I got them free.

I’m not sure the engineers will be too happy with banzai laps at the end of the race, especially if the drivers start getting itchy mode finger.

Rudy Project Rydon’s.

In typical STW try the Westerham Brewery or Longman Brewery webshops

Also, its C4 so I take everything they say with a large pinch of salt.

Late 80’s my mate had a Delta HF (I think), it was brilliant, fast, OMG the grip and beautiful (we all had minis and chevettes at the time).

Bad points;  it rusted so badly he had a sign in the boot window. 0-60 in two body panels.  The electrics were erratic at best, and it would spontaneously shed trim on a whim and it was hideously revvy on the motorway. ohh and it had an appetite for rubber that Catwoman would be proud of.

I once raced an Integrale along the A361 in my Manta GTE, it had me on the bendy bits but I’d reel it in on the straights (probably because the engine revs were making the owners ears bleed)

👍

Evo cycles in Eastbourne have some Michelin wild rock R’s in 26 x 2.35 flavour, very grippy with good sidewalls but a bit draggy

Trail clearance dog walk in Friston for me but it was so windy I suspect that my efforts were in vain as I could hear trees cracking and things dropping as I was walking out.

Total rubbish, I’ve spent my entire working life around various forms of RF generator, be it MW class transformers and rectifiers with all their harmonics in EM fields that stop wind up watches to testing and maintaining various PMR and cellular systems.  Far closer than members of the public, I’ve neither grown an extra eye or developed massive rage issues that result in me tearing up Harlem.

I’m more worried about that unshielded fusion reactor 93 million miles away, the PCB’s I’ve been exposed to working in old transformers and all the asbestos I’ve worked around.

Learnt a lesson a few weeks ago, decided to go road riding rather than MTB (because it was muddy/bog like) and got blown all the way across the road a few times near Beachy Head.  So next time its that windy it’ll be MTB (even if it is a clag fest).

I’m in, olive drab green if possible.

Doesn’t taste as good if you have to buy your haribo

Not knowing the layout of said field, could he not have segregated the cows from the path with an electric fence?

Too low, failed to realise this and abort, then had “cognitive impairment”.  It would be interesting to read the Secret Barristers take on this.  All seems a bit stinky to me but I’m not a legal expert or privy too what the jury heard.

Fairplay to the OP, he’s been ripped off and is spreading the word.

We’re well and truly past the point of no return IMO so make Merry whilst we can…….(let those snowflake millennials sort it out😁)

Crap.  RIP

Honda Izy tempting but knowing my record with motorcycles it’d become the bane of my neighbours with a Moriwaki exhaust and tuning kit and flattening the grass with dB before the cutter got anywhere near it😁

Tidy

Tempted for a set for my new build as they’re a tad more affordable than the Ti Cane Creek jobbies