Hah, sorry, lose/lose 😉

Seriously considering buying one…

2 young kids, wrong side of 40, arthritic knees have massively dented my riding, getting out now hurts and kind of loose loose as I’ve put on the pounds.

Building a light XC bike at the minute to see how I get on with that, but I reckon something which gives that bit help up the hills will bring the enjoyment back to it all, which for me is what its all about…

Now, just got the find a few grand down the back of the sofa…

Mine just arrived – long cage – going back.

Annoying.

I’ve had it bad in the past, golf ball was good (bloody agony though), and ice (water bottle kept in freezer).

Generally found it was tight calves / hamstrings was the underlying issue, lots of stretching everyday made a big difference.

Had acupuncture in the sole of my foot – didnt enjoy that at all!

LPG is generally more expensive than oil (approx 7.5p per kWh where as oil is about 6p) and you usually have to pay ground rental on the tank

Bought mine with 106k on it, have done almost 40k in the last 13 months, needed a clutch / DMF which is fair enough for the miles, been spot on really, interior plastic is a bit cheap and creaky, but it was a whole load less cash than the equivalent Passat.

1.9 Diesel is the same engine as in Vectras etc, seems a good lump to me

I was about 20 when I had it done, hasnt come back which is great.

Fully expected the open wound scenario, where they let it heal from the inside out, but they stitched me up, meant some pretty incredible build up’s of pus, daily cleanouts at the doctors for a couple of weeks, lots of standing and lying on my front. Not a great experience, but not as bad as I expected.

Mine had gotten pretty infected, so no option but to chop in there…

**** me – that was a heart in mouth moment – we’ve got a 400kW wood pellet boiler in GSOA – I’ve worked our from the piccies that it’s in a totally different building – district heating heats the whole street.

Might have some fun with head office though!

That was my first thought, ‘please let it not be the biomass that started it’

Beautiful building, spent many an hour in there over the years…very sad day

Work at a very small company, only a couple of years old, worked my ass off the first year, got good rewards – come from being self employed / having my own company, so can see it from the other side. Me putting a massive effort in is making a very big difference to how the company is going to go over the next few years, which should see us right. I expect to get rewarded for it…I treat it like an investment. Owners look after me and the family, I feel appreciated for the efforts Ive put in.

Where as if I was at a big company then that would be very different, it all depends on who you’re working for…

One came past me last night at a hell of a rate, wasn’t hanging around either….

Everyone hates seeing trail sanitisation, but it seems that there are a lot of riders that aren’t prepared to think about the impact that their actions have on the trails.

This.

We’re an organised group looking after trails in a wood up North, and its something we’re struggling with. As the trails are getting more used, the damage in the winter has destroyed some cracking trails. We try to repair sections with rock and a bit of gravel, not turning the trails into roads at all, just trying to repair the real boggy / wet stuff which turns metres wide from traffic. We will stick drainage in also, which makes a lot of difference where possible. We really try to make it a soft a touch as possible so that the feel of the place is still natural, and the majority of repairs do blend in quite quickly, keeps the trails nice and narrow and can often add good features to the trails.

We do come across a fair bit of opposition to what we do, saying its sanitising natural stuff, but probably have more complaints from those riding the trails in wet weather that they are unridable from the mud – can’t win to be honest. We would much rather spend our Sunday mornings riding, but if there weren’t repairs carried out, the whole place would be trashed from over-riding in the wet.

Guess we’ll keep on doing what we do, try and keep anything to a minimum, put in as much drainage as we can and keep things ridable without going too far. Just wish some of the people who complain about either the sanitation or the mud would come and grab a spade once a month to help and put their ideas across through action, not moaning…

Bought a 9-3 TID last June for £3k, equivalent passats were about £5k (have had VAG for years). Have done 30k miles since then and its pretty good. Not as nice as the passat, gear change is shite and interior is pretty low spec, has needed a DMF (but there’s not many cars that dont need one after 100k miles!) and have done timing belt / water pump. Good on the motorway, likes to sit a bit too fast for me though!

Its served it purpose well, will keep it another year I reckon, not sure if I’d get another, but its a couple of cheap years motoring doing 40k a year (unless it goes bang in the next few months….)

I know 3 people…

My Grandad – had both his done at about 85, perfect, was walking around in no time, happy as larry….

Good mates dad, had one done, again no problem, out playing golf again very soon after the op and all good.

Then my mum’s – nightmare, operated on 3 times, out of theatre, straight in again the next day, then again a week later. Infections and other problems mean that she’s one of the un-lucky ones. The first consultant was an arrogant git who wouldn’t give her any time, she was in absolute agony (and my mum is one of the hardest people I know!), second consultant was shocked at the state of her knee. Physio at first was useless, pushed her far too hard and caused permanent damage, she got a good one and that helped a lot. She’s still in a lot of pain (7 years on) but can walk on it. Her other knee needs replacing but she wont do it.

When it works its fantastic, and brings a new lease of life to the patients, my mum was the unlucky one, but not sure if she’d be any better off now if she hadn’t done it?

Have been involved in several of these schemes (we supply the boilers)…

Have one landlord selling the heat at 3.5p per kWh, you generally pay about 6p per kWh for oil, but that was a woodchip scheme, not pellets (generally cheaper fuel if done right).

The landlord will get RHI (Renewable Heat Incentive), he’ll make some decent money from this, the scheme requires heat meters in each separate property and this is what the costs to you should be based on – you pay for what you use… but as said above its all about what contract they offer you – but they need you to use heat to get the grant to repay the generally substantial capital cost of a big biomass set up.

Landlord will have to maintain the boiler to get RHI (Evidence of servicing), will have to keep it full of fuel too – if its not producing heat, and you all dont use it, he’ll not make money from it. It ‘should’ be a win win for all concerned if done right.

Just commissioned a 199kW system today, will be saving the retreat centre about £20k a year on heating costs….

I like Kielder, its good to get some miles on the legs. The black descent after the pretty grim descent from the top of Deadwater is ace, flows with enough rough stuff to keep it interesting. The Blue has some ace little runs in it too.

There are trail closures at the minute though, was there at the weekend. The up and downy black section is closed (before the Deadwater ascent) as well as the last few black descents, so not the best time to go to be honest – dunno when they’ll be opened again.

Can be properly sinister out there, especially if its still and starting the get dark, think it must be the quietest place I’ve ever been! Good for the soul and all that…

Yep, I’d agree with that – 25% of our business is writing reports on badly installed / set up boilers and putting them right. Someone mentioned the ones installed in Hospitals / schools etc that have never been fired up (was part of planning policy for a few years) – utter waste of money and resources. Spending a full day tomorrow surveying 3 of them with a view to getting them running…

When set up right, and the right kit specified for the job they are cheap to run and very efficient…

Hopefully next year the government will finally release RHI for domestic installations, and it will make it an easier decision.

We are distributers / installers / consultants on biomass, busy times for the commercial sector, not sure I can handle the ethical situation with RHI at the minute as basically a means for well monied people to get paid to heat their properties…but it is what it is…

Sustainability wise, as mentioned above the UK has a lot of woodland, and a huge amount of that is un-managed. Think the 50 acres of spruce on a farm which has gone wild. There hasn’t been a market for this as the timber quality is pretty poor – the small roundwood has been sold to the chipboard type manufacturers for next to nothing.

Woodfuel is another market for this, it can justify managing woodland, meaning better production, and it can really improve rural economies and give another source of income for those in the industry on a localised scale. We’re probably involved in more woodchip than pellet installs purely because of this, designing and planning a full fuel production for under-used woodlands and re-planting plans – it can work very well!

Woodchip doesn’t really work for domestic unless in exception circumstances, and the pellet industry is made up of much larger industrial companies. We’ve put a good number of small pellet systems in now, using various bits of kit, with various results! Most are rural, on oil and needing a new system anyway, so they’ve taken the plunge. Most are very happy, the boilers look after themselves generally. British made pellets are generally of very good quality (3/4 of whats produced were exported in 2011), there are some exceptions though and some boilers can handle stuff not quite as good (dust / salts etc).

Have also done a good number of log boilers, if you’ve your own timber its a very cheap way of heating a property, but the labour involved in filling the boiler once or twice a day shouldn’t be underestimated.

Bought my Camper Van off eBay pissed on my birthday a few years back.

£6k.

It was in Munich.

That took a bit of explaining and sorting out, still have it tho, its ace!

Hah, told my missus it was Steak and BJ day last night – her reply “how about Pork chops and a cuddle instead”

Bah…

I spent a couple of weeks further down in the Black Forest, mainly around Freiburg last year, was some good stuff – contacted a group and went out for a ride with a couple of them – 12km rocky descent we did was amazing! Few specific trails and some pretty hardcore downhill stuff nearby…

Bad WildBad
http://www.bikepark-bad-wildbad.de/

Borderline, just outside Freiburg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dPEOBcLQXbI

Freiburg is ace too!

what engine is it – presume the 2.1 – they’re bloody thirsty, very smooth though. Its an absolute must that the coolant is changed every two years, the head bolts sit in the water jacket (?!?) so if the none corrosive coolant is old they will rot, then snap – look for any signs of weepage around the heads.

rust – they rust around arches, especially the panel joints – very hard to get rid of as it starts from the inside out, if its a fresh re-spray I’d be worried about what its covering up. Rear arms, rear valance, around fuel filler, around windscreen and steps are also bad for going.

I love my Westy, they’re very spacious inside compared to newer front engined ones and still a great drive (but then mines TDi’d)…

Did this in Sept 2011 – pain in the arse – what grade separation is it?

Took me 3 months to get back on the bike, still not right to be honest, end of collar bone sticks out, but it doesn’t give me much gip.

Sling lasted about a week, had a couple of sessions of physio but theres not an awful lot that could be done, just let it heal as best it can, dont sleep on that side etc.

Physio did loads of jockeys and rugby players, shoulder separation is par for the course, jockeys would have cortisone injection and be back on the horse in 3 days

@Rogerthecat

Afternoon…

Got rid of your bread yet?

There’s another factor to it, attendance in schools is a big factor to if its viewed as ‘succeeding’ or ‘failing’, if the school opened and half the kids didn’t turn up it would be marked against them, hence shutting the school – according to the missus (teacher). Asked her why weather wasn’t taken into account and she said it just isn’t…yay…

“they can take the best part of a year off, paid“

Erm, yeah, check that fact fella…

Company director for biomass boiler distributor….

So, gcses, a levels, started degree in mech eng, switched to automotive design which I passed fine but found it impossible to get job, learnt web design, got job in that. 3 years later was a bit sick and went off to china to teach English.

Came back and managed to get job as multi media guy in a school, enjoyed that but started doing my own stuff on the side, helping to run club nights, doing graphics etc, set up a business with a mate and few years later had got to the level where we were touring the world doing big audio visual gigs (10k audiences), big building projections etc. was great for about 4 years then the travelling, late nights, drinking and everything took its toll.

Was looking for new challenge, got speaking to some people about renewables and ended up taking on a company doing biomass boilers, it’s been a bloody tough year but starting to get everything in place now. First little one on the way in may so have to get it all working by then

I sometimes wonder how the hell I got where I did, but probably wonder more about what’s next!

Have had a cheap Mcculloch for years now, its got through some impressively big fallen trees, it was bought as a cheapie to chop a couple of things up but has kept going for years. Needs a new oil pump now but I’m chuffed with what its done.

Try and get nice light saw, nothing too big – your arms get stredded after a few hours. I think the fact that the saw is not too powerful works in my favour, have *never* had a kick back so far (touches wood etc).

At the very basic read / watch instructional videos, keep the saw to your right, never let your attention waver from the saw and the cut…they’re bloody dangerous things, but do it right and you’ll be safe.

I found putting a 40mm stem on mine made a huge difference to this, coming down from a 70mm – big jump but I feel much more confident with this set up…