I’ve ridden a mates one a few times and I find it a bit bland, sort of deadens the trail for want of a better description. It rides well but it just seems to plough through the trail with out much fun.

Head South and try out the South Downs (just don’t use the A22 to get there). Either open downs or try Stanmer or Friston Forest for singletrack.

I’ve the got the Atera Rack for heavier MTB’s, it tilts but has no slide. After 2+ years and many trips, long and short still impressed with it.

Always ride like the Devil himself is chasing you.

I fully intend to deliver a shattered and broken body too the furnace.

Gove’s idea of reform is pile more and more work on teachers, increase the audit trail and take away Teaching Assistants. More workload, less staff = poorer quality. The cretin is all stick and no carrot, a bit like some of the comments on here.

They might be on 30K+ but every week Mrs Ming works 60+ hours, she gets maybe one day off at the weekend. She is not alone, every other teacher in her school does the same. So on a £/hr basis it sucks.

She has to put up with lazy and aggressive parents and continual changes to working practices that they struggle to implement before the next government changes tack completely.

I get my wife back for 2 weeks over Xmas, Easter and 5 weeks over the Summer Holiday.

Gove is nasty piece of work, never a compliment to teachers, it’s all bash, bash, bash, he wants a confrontation.

I would not recommend teaching as a profession or career path.

“You are so mercifully free of the ravages on intelligence”

ahhh and normally bellowed at full volume as I launch myself off a precipice:

“MING COMING!”

another rarely used favorite;

“You are so ugly even the tide wouldn’t take you out”

Stripped caliper thread on KTM after torque wrench didn’t click.

Let motorbike go onto it’s sidestand, only I hadn’t put side stand down.

Tiding shed and thought I could get a bit more junk onto the top shelf and watched metal junk on the other end of the shelf topple onto my brand new GSXR1000……

Tried getting a tubeless Bonty tyre to fit and seal properly on a Crank Bros rim, inflated tyre to 80 PSI and left it in the sun whilst I started bleeding the brakes on the bike. Got to engrossed in the brakes and 30 minutes later the tyre detonated behind me causing the dog to nearly shit himself in the house and the shock caused the rear spindle and freehub in the wheel to pop out into the grass.

It took me a while to calm down as well!

More field testing of DESTINI?

If its dry and has been for a few weeks then a low grip summer tyre is fine. Bear in mind that flints will rip any tyre apart so take a good tyre patch with you just in case.

The climbs at the Winchester end are gentle and from Amberley onwards they get more brutal, from Ditchling onwards on tired legs they can be will sapping. My personal nemesis is New Market hill between Lewes and Southease, oh the sniffles and huffiness that that caused will be long remembered.

Weatherwise take sunblock/glasses and a neck shade if it’s going to be hot/sunny, the glare from chalk is evil. If it’s wet then chalk has all the properties of teflon and when you fall off the flints have all the properties of a scapel blade.

I’m not selling this am I….

For climbing practice try riding the Lewes to Eastbourne SDW section (you can then train it back to Lewes).

1.Gold Finger
2.Casino Royale
3.Live and Let Die
4.View to a kill

Drill down to find the root cause of the issue.

“I want someone too step up”

and take a sh@t load more responsibility for the traveling public’s lives and delays BUT there will be no more money in it except more weekend working, oh and a bollocking when it overruns into Monday morning peak time.

“I want volunteers for weekend overtime”

with about a weeks notice because all “The Chosen” have seen this job coming and want nothing of it so it’s passed out to “The Unclean” as a juicy morsel.

Helmet Valhalla on the bonfire and a pint to toast them off as it’s the least I could do after keeping my bonce in one piece.

Very nice, two strokes make the best motorcycles, I’d have a 500 Doohan era screamer if I won the lottery and there were any that hadn’t been crushed.

Please Mr Honda.

As a side note I knew a guy who bought one of the privateer NSRV twin 500’s (I’d have one of those as well). He was a track day organizer, and when it ran properly it used to scare the willies out of him and he was no slouch around a track.

He’s wrong, focus on the patch of mud six inches in front of you, pedal like the devil himself is chasing you and deal with the problem as it arrives in you field of view. No time to tense up then.

@ Anna, Bo-Peep near Alfriston, West Sussex

More here[/url]

Amtico in our living room, ply on a concrete floor. Still looks pretty good after 13 years, 18+ ferrets(and associated carpet mines) + 2 dogs. It’s getting a bit tired in places (certain favourite corners) but I dread to think how many carpets we would have been through in that time.

Mileage of vehicle?

Seems to be a problem in focus’s at 65K, it does help if the oil is regularly changed and the sump flushed with fresh oil to clean out the sludge BUT once it’s gone pop from all accounts on the internet it’s a lemon.

Lateness

Broken bike before the start of the ride

Moaning about the climbs (FFS it the South Downs, half the ride will be UP!)

Not bring a camelbak/bottle and sponging other peoples water.

People that issue unsolicited advice about saddle height, bar and lever position.

On a group ride, people that decide they want to change the plan because they don’t like the GUIDE’S route (bloody ride your own ride then)

Slow people starting first onto singletrack or DH and then not getting out the way and then holding the fast boys up (after being briefed to let the quick people go first).

Littering

People that ask for advice and then completely fail to take on board what they’ve been told because they didn’t listen.

Fast riders intimidating new riders on a social ride

SkidZ

My old boss used to relate the tale of arriving in a field in a chinook after “one of the bad dashboard lights” came on and it was either land now or crash.

Arm chair faulting, diagnosing things without actually having the full facts, blaming the fault on someone else’ equipment.
Failing to properly test safety critical systems even though they’ve been told to go and do it but that would mean leaving the depot.
Spending an hour grizzling about doing a 5 minute job just down the road.
Leaving a piece of equipment failed for 6 months because it might get flooded and fail again.
Drive-by-maintenance.

Apparently she’s only been in Hell for a few hours but she has already shut 3 Furnaces!

Hmm the Rocky is in pretty good nick (after I bled the front brake), it was put to bed over winter so all it needs are maybe some new jockey wheels.

The polystyrene bike is mint after throwing money at a new shitfit, oh sorry press-fit BB.

The one speed thrives on neglect but is OK at the mo (it did need a complete new transmission at the start of winter).

Preston languishes in the shed and probably needs a new front and rear shock but that can wait.

Beep Beep Richie!

Dash around a nicely drying Friston discovering some new bits the trail pixxies have built.

Emily Green, now there’s a blast from the past………….

All I’ll say is that there was no need for aircon in the waiting room before the podium and the Champers on the podium was warm by the looks of the faces pulled

I remember the first time I rode down “the Nutcracker”, halfway down giggling like an idiot I realised Mrs Ming had only ever ridden the South Downs before. A minute or so later she arrived in a hail of swear words and rude gestures…… 😀

I have one in the Imperial Hanger, it looks even more wrong as a commuter with bar ends and conti slicks on it. BUT the number of roadies that have had bad wobbles taking it in has been more than worth it!

“My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!”

My Havens are not covered. 🙁

Bontrager FR4

It was like it when I found it…………

Helva,

Teela,

Killashandra

Tamiko

Friston singletrack, more of which tomorrow!

First time out yesterday practicing big drops and only one dead sailor out of about a dozen attempts. More tomorrow.