When we got a couple of Are You Being Served DVDs several years ago our son, then aged 8 thought they were hilarious.

From the article:

the type of pain and suffering that comes with riding only one gear

Suffering? Pain? Where do they come into singlespeeding? I must be doing it wrong.

Rode there yesterday for the first time in 2 or 3 years. Chapeau to the trail builders, it’s loads better. Still slightly little damp, so just a bit draggy on some of the newer woodland sections and a few big sideways moments on the chalk but no bike cleaning required at the end. Yippee….

The new hopes have a thinner spring.

I noticed that on the last batch of spare pawls and springs I ordered. Looks like they’ll rust through even quicker.

In the past I’ve seen new Hope hubs with so much freewheeling resistance that you cant spin the pedals backwards without the chain dropping.

I’ve only seen two M+ defeated. One by a flint the size of a penny and razor edged all the way round. The other, the owner had been running solid tyres which had battered the side of the rim into a sharp edge that wore through the tyre’s bead very quickly. with the solid tyres he had been breaking spokes on a weekly basis.

It’s the cold , wet days that justify some of the kit I’ve bought over the years. Being comfortable on such days makes me feel smug.

I’d be even happier if I hadn’t woken up to one of our cats heaving his guts up over the duvet this morning.

Reminds me that I’m long overdue another motorbike road trip.

I’m not rich but getting by and I have to work pretty hard for what I get but I’m self employed in the bike trade so no grumbles there.
The family’s great, lovely most of the time and hard work just often enough to keep me on my toes.
I made some pretty big cock-ups earlier in my life (wasted far too much money on motorbikes, married someone completely wrong) but yes I am happy with where I am now.

Fly to Carcassonne. You can see the Pyrenees from the airport.

If you can’t see the picture, count your blessings.

In my experience stocking anything much high end is a waste of resources in this internet dominated age. Repairs to bikes that came out of Halfords and Argos pays the bills. Occasionally it’s frustrating not to have nice kit to show to more serious customers but not often enough to justify the investment required.

Orange anodised bits?

My lad started walking and sometimes cycling home when he was 10, cycle path all except the last 200 yards. He’s 11 now and one or two days a week in the holidays we’ll give him a lazy day where he gets up after we’ve gone to work and either amuses himself or goes to see one of his more local friends. BIG emphasis on letting us know where he’s going.

Made me laugh. A lot. And my son.

+1 for all the above.

ciderinsport – Member
Regular Thursday group from the Southampton side too

We also stop in a pub for half way through the night

FTFY

@Mr Beach. I’m currently thinking of leaving Thursday and returning Sunday. If you want to contact me directly see my shop’s Facebook page here.

On a vaguely Valentiny note, this just made me smile…..

Out riding with the lads tonight as usual. She told me I’d look a wuss if I told them I wouldn’t be out tonight. And she doesn’t like the idea of having a wussy husband. We’ll go somewhere nice at the weekend.

@MrBeach and eyerideit, I’d be up for a STW Collective accommodation.
Easyjet aren’t opening up bookings for Bournemouth to Geneva until mid April but I’m considering driving the van and packing the road bike too. If I do drive I’d happily transport any kit for anyone reasonably local to Southampton.

Now I’ve got the entry (Friday, Morzine) I suppose I’d better work out how I’m going to get there and where to stay. Any recommendations for accommodation, or is there camping within riding distance of the start?

I’m in. Morzine on Friday.

I’ve still got my son’s old Merida TFS frame in 14.5″ for sale. That’s light.

The Giant’s Causeway, probably because it was bogging cold and raining horizontally when we got there.

Last couple of years I’ve taken my son. He goes with a lower tuition group during the day so I’m effectively on my own and making new friends in the group I’m with. Works brilliantly.

Good news. I missed this last week when I was away.

But Portland Bill was outside the path of Totality!

The edge of the area of ‘totality’ is very hard to predict accurately and I can assure you that it was total there. We could see ships lights out to sea and the light house started up. The official prediction was that the area of totality should just brush the tip of Portland Bill. We got far more than that.

Anyone heard from Nick recently? Any news?

+1 for a solar eclipse. I went to Portland Bill in 99 for the UK one and we got lucky as a small chink opened up in the clouds just before totality. BIG CHEER.

Most recent WOW was last Thursday’s 700m of night time descending without lights or wheels. 20 or so of us skied down from a meal at the top of the mountain with just the stars, a couple of torches and the headlights of the piste bashers to show us the way.

I manage to do the ‘picking up a foreign bug’ thing too this year. Felt crap for the last two days but through sheer stubborness didn’t miss any lifts-open time. Coming home on Sunday I let it all wash over me and spent the day in a snotty stupor, to the extent that I managed to leave my jacket somewhere and not realise until getting off the plane at Gatwick.

There is currently more production capacity in the world than there is demand for oil. The growing demand from India and China is estimated to fill that gaop somewhere between 2016 and 2018. Then the price will rise sharply and alternative technologies will become more attractive.

How about railway style pantograph lines on motorways to give electric cars and lorries greater range?

Was in Bardonnechia (close to Italian/French border) last week. Tuesday and Wednesday we had VERY warm conditions, temps well into double figures at resort level and warm enough for jackets off outside the cafe at 2000m. For the snow this resulted in a lot of melting and refreezing so lots of big icy patches that don’t appear to have been noted on the Ski Club GB reports.
Anyone know how much further into the Alps the warm weather extended?

+1 for Kate Pierson from the B52s (and any other helium fuelled vocals) although I can’t say I’ve ever heard her talking rather than singing and American accents can be a big let down. Billy Joe Armstrong of Green Day is a good example.

I’ll concede that one or two of the posts were perhaps thinly veiled, but I don’t really want to get into an arguement over where ‘tounge in cheek’ stops and offence starts as that’s very much a personal thing.

The word ‘perv’ is a hard one to pin down. Does it only apply to visual stimuli? I posted a picture of Justine Frischmann and I can honestly say that the sound of her voice gives me more of an internal glow than any pictures of bum eating shorts.

I reported the talented and gorgeous thread. Do your perving on reddit like everyone else

Maybe I need it spelling out to me but I fail to see how that thread was offensive. It was a selection of (mostly musicians) that people here personally find attractive and contributions from the female members of this site would have been perfectly welcome. The subject is a debate my wife and I have quite regularly at home, over both male and female figures. None of the pictures that were posted were in my opinion, not work-safe and a lot of them presumably came from album covers or publitity shots that would have been displayed in music stores nationwide.
In Monday’s episode of ‘Miranda’ both Miranda and Stevie were lusting over Gary Barlow. Should I take offence at that because I will never have Gary Barlow’s voice or looks?

Round here at the moment the trails are all the suspension you need.

There’s enough people with enough ingenuity and enough people with enough money to pay them to be ingenious that at least an elite core will survive right up until the world ceases to be capable of supporting life. After that they’ll probably spend a rather long time travelling through space looking for somewhere new.

In the meantime wars over religion and resources will probably make the world an unpleasant place for large sectors of the population. Apple and Microsoft may be called upon to hand out huge quantities of free product loaded with ‘Angry Birds’ to act as a pacifier to hostile groups.

If the ad shows a girl in anything less than a Burka then it should be reported to the mods so they can close it down like they did with the ‘Gorgeous and Talented’ thread yesterday which was full of pictures of female singers wearing the type of clothing you’d see on any street on a warm day. Abhorrant it was.

Gussett chromoly forks are cheap and available in both 26er and 29er versions. Surly forks are quite a bit shorter if you want to steepen the steering.