I have a 2016 650b Stumpjumper, it’s glorious.

Stuff haven’t had girlie covers since 2014, they started doing two covers (one with a model on the front, the other one showcasing tech) in the months leading up to the change and found the non-model one sold better, unsurprisingly.

I’ve still got his double gatefold of The Wall on vinyl. Great album artwork.

Only ever really liked or two of their songs, he had much greater success with Queen and Led Zeppelin.

My dad loved Pink Floyd. He would have been 75 this year. I miss my dad. :(

She needs to demo some bikes to see what sort of geometry she gets on with. I’m about that height, but I don’t get on with a lot of women specific bikes because the top tubes are too short for me. I don’t get on with even the smallest sizes of bloke’s bikes in some brands, due to standover. I tend to struggle with 29ers,again due to standover (the top tube has to be pretty high at the front to accommodate a longer fork).

Grips and levers I’ve never really had any issue with, but I have got very long fingers (but narrow hands!)

Quite a few demo days kicking off next month, I believe.

Ooh, watching with interest? Mini Toast is six months old now, would love to get him out in a trailer. I thought we had to wait until he was a year old before taking him on fireroad type surfaces though? Keep on reading different advice. :/

There’s a huge number of forums, most of which are helpful, friendly, and pretty chilled out. AIBU is notoriously savage though, home to some excellent parking threads though (with diagrams, if you’re lucky).

I’m doing 24/12 this year. It’s my first time doing it, my first event since my disastrous Mountain Mayhem in 2012,and I’ve been off the bike for pretty much a year due to pregnancy/spawning. What could possibly go wrong?

Hope she makes a full recovery.

Hate coffee. Bizarrely I used to drink loads of it, until I was about 6. Can’t stand the smell or taste.

why cant you just press it in with the back of a spoon?

Why can’t you have a nice cup of tea?

No, my wife was lovely and is an avid reader of this forum.

What he means to say is that I was lovely during pregnancy, and continue to be lovely. ISN’T THAT RIGHT, DEAR?

In all seriousness, I got off pretty lightly – I didn’t suffer with the tiredness and sickness a lot of women do, worked until two weeks before my due date. I did learn a completely new meaning to SPD though, heh. :(

Congratulations, btw.

Got my ticket booked for Friday. Going by myself, as Mr Toast is looking after t’boy.

If the angle and light are kind, I’ve been told that I look like Mila Kunis or Avril Lavigne (possibly by people who have been bribed in some way).

Generally I look like a hellish mash of a cake fuelled Ozzy Osbourne, Janis Joplin and Aunt Bessie though…

Ack, sorry to hear that. Get your details on http://www.stolen-bikes.co.uk, and keep an eye on http://www.findthatbike.co.uk – when my bike was nicked from outside work in Leamington, I found it for sale on Gumtree in Sheffield via that site. I got my bike back (but the police were sadly pretty useless when it came to actually doing anything about the ‘suspects’).

I’d love to leap to Cannock’s defence, but when I was last there just over a week ago, I actually witnessed a bike being nicked from outside of the cafe. :/ It was in view of the owner in front of the window, but the little scrote was pretty brazen. Ended up happily – the scrote abandoned it, I’m assuming because it was too big for him, or had SPDs or something. He was only about 14, and with a family group – the lads had been hanging around the cafe for hours. He had two other teens with him all day – they ended up strolling casually back past the cafe.

I’m assuming the adults in the group were encouraging it – they realised they were being stalked by the Rangers (who were waiting for the police, who didn’t show up), and drove the wrong way around the carpark in an attempt to avoid them (even though it was a longer route to the exit)…

Sadly I can’t join in with the clothes donation, unless you’re hoping to start cross dressing!

I’m amazed at the parsnip!

My pumpkin is a bit toss compared to everyone else’s efforts, but in my defence I was using crap tools and had limited time (I’ve got a three month old son and poor organisational skills…)

Why does my car not have an air con vent under the steering wheel, blowing an icy blast straight at my ballsack?

What do we reckon, Kickstarter or Dragon’s Den for this?

Lying about on my fat pregnant arse, nekkid with two desk fans on, without much effect (at home, I hasten to add!).

I always tended to buy albums, but I think the first singles I bought were Soundgarden’s Spoonman, and Pantera’s Walk (two different versions with differing b-sides). I was about 13 and on holiday with a friend’s family in Wales. I also bought a range of beaded bracelets…

I think there was a change recently up Sheffield way – they originally planned to do a Meadowhall station, but now they’re talking about having a city centre station. The change in the route goes straight through the middle of a new build estate, part of it still under construction.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-south-yorkshire-36716526

(Serves them right for calling the estate ‘shimmer’ though…)

Mr Toast caught a couple last night!

I’m waiting for the proper UK release, can’t be bothered going through the palaver of signing into my New Zealand Apple account for my iPad (which I think would be a bit impractical given the nature of the game anyway) or risk dodgy side loading on my Android phone, especially with the risk of losing progress once the proper launch hits. Plus I can barely walk at the moment!

I always think they have a touch of the Resident Evils about them!

Other than various insects, I present for consideration the star nosed mole:

I know of three indie micro-studios that are closing and one that’s relocating to Germany because their VC funding had Brexit clauses based on the result of a referendum – funding was withdrawn.

The biggest effect is the feeling of embarrassment I have around my European colleagues, many of whom have spent years working and paying taxes here, who now think half the country wants rid of them

Same here, it’s a shock because we live in an immigrant friendly bubble (Warwick/Leam), and voted Remain. The games industry is filled with massively talented EU devs, not sure what will happen now with hiring.

ARISE, NECROTHREAD! ARISE!

I thought I’d inject some amusement into the dreary post-Brexit gloom and let you know that the new Samsung EcoBubble has also developed a fault, less than three months after installation. Different one, this time – it’s the water inlet valve (the machine kept on filling with water, even when unplugged).

AO have been great, a world apart from Currys.

Samsung have been a bunch of useless bellends.

FML.

My brother and wife have bought us a Ewan Dream Sheep for our (terrifyingly imminent) arrival, glad to hear people think it’s good!

I bought a Glo Egg with a monkey shell, although slightly worryingly it’s permanently orange as our house hasn’t dropped below 21 degrees in weeks. Handily it has a guide on what bedding to use if you’re stuck in particular temperatures, although I’m tempted to try and find a quiet fan.

I’m already looking at bike trailers for t’boy, but not going to be getting a balance bike for a while (we got balance bikes for our nephews, but not until they were 2 and 3 – one was a bit more physical than the other, he’s now three and riding a pedal bike without stabilisers!)

I’ve just sold all of my archery gear. I made the mistake of trusting eBay’s recommended postage costs, not realising that several of the items would cost £11.99 due to the length, even though they weighed very little!

I’d love to see more rigorous testing (including mandatory time on the roads on a pushbike, unless you have a disability), regular re-testing, and limits on the power of the vehicles you can drive according to your licence (as they do with motorbikes).

Too many people see driving as a right, but don’t take the responsibilities seriously.

My dad had an ace taste in music – Led Zeppelin, Queen, and a variety of prog rock.

He also liked Dire Straits and Genesis, because I think that if you’re male and procreate, it’s actually obligatory (along with developing the inability to play racing games without over-extravagant leaning when going around corners and an obsession with whether lights have been switched off).

Beware long haired dogs, they’re seedy characters…

This could be the greatest thing since chicken in a can!

It took him a while to get the optimum position for that stick..

Also, VIDEO ACTION! Complete with Mr Toast mocking him for his efforts, but he soon showed us!

Sometimes he tries to retrieve sticks that are still attached to trees though…

Fat Russell (actual name: Bailey) is a ruddy nightmare with sticks/branches/lumber. He’ll gleefully take out the back of your legs as he runs by with a 7ft monster stick, and will occasionally get annoyed at difficult to carry objects, come to a full halt and just shout at them.

The in-laws’ Fat Russell normally provides good value in the stock department. Reminds me of bikers with unfeasibly wide handlebars.

Absolutely horrible. A former charity worker, passionate advocate of equal rights, and, by all accounts, a dedicated MP. Not to mention a wife and mother – her poor family.

Our Tibetan terrier/spaniel cross eats Royal Canin Cocker spaniel, with a bit of Cesar Country Kitchen (the stuff that’s more like mince than pate) mixed in. He gets half in the morning, half in the evening, it took bloody AGES to find something that he’ll eat (he’s surprisingly picky for a dog that will happily eat horse poo), and that agreed with his delicate little prince of a stomach?

We went through loads of brands – Wellbeloved dry (would eat, gave him the shits), Arden Grange dry (wouldn’t eat), Chappie tinned (would eat, nasty poops), Bakers dry (we do not speak of it). Fortunately he’s been on his current combo for years now, he certainly seems happy and healthy, with good, firm poops. Although he did have a bad stomach a few months back due to snaffling something off the pavement on a nighttime walk, possibly some sort of pasty remnant – I came home to find his diarrhoea on the kitchen floor, poor sod (he never fouls in the house unless he’s ill). I was trying to clean it up, but unfortunately I was suffering from morning sickness at the time, so Mr Toast came home to remnants of dog poo and his wife being sick on the floor.

Poor Mr Toast. :(

I played a huge amount of video games as a wee lass (started early at the age of 3, on the Speccy), but also loved going outdoors, building dens, etc.

However, I was never really allowed to ride a bike. I learnt to ride without stabilisers when I was about ten, but that was in our back garden – I wasn’t allowed out on my own, and could only ride on the pavement with an escort. I think my mom was just too terrified of traffic, despite growing up in a quiet little village. So I didn’t really learn to ride a bike until I was 27. Strangely, my brother was allowed to ride a bike (he once sneakily escorted me on my bike to my friend’s house, my mom would have been furious if she knew). Such a shame, I grew up very close to Cannock Chase, never rode there until the past 8 years or so!

That said, I have some sympathy for my mother. I don’t like Mr Toast going on road rides by himself, because so many drivers are complete and utter bellends towards cyclists (there were three incidents of road cyclists getting taken out by cars in one week recently – one died, the other two were injured – bloody awful stuff :().

Sorry to hear that, Wrecker. My brother had similar with his staffie, Bruce, who had been a rescue dog at risk of being put down (he had mange, kennel cough and as a staffie didn’t have much interest from potential adopters). He’d had a few tumours and follow up treatment from the age of 7, but had otherwise been fit and happy. Then when he was 14 he’d had another tumour, and my brother decided not to put him through chemo again – the vet said that, given his age, he could die of old age without the cancer.

You’ve rescued a dog, given him an awesome long life, and made the kindest and hardest decision when he needed you to. I’m so sorry for your loss though.