Nice – I’ve got a black bag like that for when i take the bike on train journeys – just put it in a a bag and lean it in the luggage area, suddenly the guard takes no notice of it, even works on Cross-County (where they will chuck you off even if you have bike reservation if the guard is in a bad mood).

Don’t ignore free weights and mat work as well – good for improving core and balance as well which is useful on the bike

Wow, wonder what the ‘exit strategy’ looks like.

Given the significant number of protected birds of prey that are shot every year around grouse moors perhaps the gameskeepers assume every species is as myopic as their members when it comes to identifying targets.

Have a pair of bad knees (combination of genetics and a big fall off my bmx as a child) so always wear knee pads, also seperated my shoulder (american football) twice so I tend to overcompensate and wear more armour than probably needed. Must admit as i’ve got older they hurt more and I have backed off stuff because of it.

Nicolais seem popular – would love a Lambda ST myself and that MXTB is ace

More generally I keep lusting after silly freeride bikes I could never use effectively due to my inate lack of gnar.

I reckon it will be an actual filing cabinet, but carbon fibre, makes office moves easier

Text from my friend ‘on the scene’ – ‘scumbags just kicked in doors of off licence over the road stealing all the booze, police need to man up’

hopefully his flat gets left alone, his flatmate has got a lovely road bike

Sorry to dissappoint but we don’t have any water cannon on the mainland to the best of my knowledge, army may have some I suppose but they have only ever been used in NI in policing actions and it’ll take a while to bring them over. Pity really as many of the UK’s scrotes could do with a pressure wash.

Kidding aside its all getting a little bit nasty isn’t it, I’ve been glued to the TV like its some grim disaster movie, couple of friends up in Camberwell area texting and it doesn’t sound much fun.

Edit: beaten to the (watery) punch on the cannon

Couple of weeks back I was up in london town and saw the rather sinister sight of one of our Apache’s doing a low/slow pass up the Thames, looked properly out of place, not so much tonight I would suspect.

Hopefully police can control it enough tonight that they get bored before other groups of chavs around the country copy it

If the mods ask I think its terrible that this thread is sitting at the top of the forum, I think its even more terrible i can’t come as I’m over in Italy.

Good luck with it – will plan my holidays better in future

Lol at Kingsgate above (durham) – that building was award winning when built. Good drinks promos however even in the late 90’s.

I really agree with the slating of Southampton in particular but the more general issue I have is that while I understand post-war austerity led to poor/stopgap buildings successive council planning departments and developers have continued the abuse – the attitude seems to be that the town already looks like sh**e so let anyone build any old rubbish they want.

I’d rather see a slightly more picky approach that forces architects to consider creating ‘new’ uses for the space than simply building another box with some wood stuck on the front and an asymetric window halfway up. The current recession isn’t going to help this either.

Montane featherlights are ace but don’t wear them (or other ultralight windshells) with heavy packs/buckles – they can rub through fairly easily. Ace back-up jackets though – I’ve got a montane jetstream which is a fairly extreme ultralight mainly for windproofing.

Climbers shop (www.climbers-shop.com) have montane feathlights on offer at moment (smocks iirc) at about £25, they are a great shop and awesome for discounted montane stuff as they get lots of the samples and limited edition colours/designs in. No link to store other than having spent a small fortune on kit from them over the years.

Now being a total montane-tart i may wander to tk maxx just in case…

I come to STW for predictable, reliable arguments, but then I find people being mean to Brant, this has profoundly unsettled me, people on STW picking on Brant. Pure cognitive dissonance.

Worth it to see the Pandas Synthpop?

Depends on how much you like Pandas, I really enjoyed the visit and as i hadn’t seen them before was really taken with them, plus the other half likes them a lot so I earned a lot of brownie points for taking her to see them, only downside was its a fair ways on the bus to the south of HKI so it eats into available time if you are on a short visit. The two ‘habitats’ ( 1 pair in each) are good for viewing and putting aside my normal qualms about zoos i did enjoy it.

I do this, drives the other half insane as i ruin perfectly pleasant forest rambles with cries of ‘Racing Ralph’ and ‘Small Block 8’

I’ll get mocked by the cool kids on here but last time I was over in HK for business i took the time to go to Ocean Park (locally operated theme park out in Aberdeen) – the rides are fairly lame but the reason for going was to see the Giant Pandas. I got the bus over the top (rather than through the tunnel) as its a nicer journey albeit longer.

I’m a subscriber (who can’t be bothered to sort out the premier tag on my account…) and find its the best of the bunch by quite a distance as I find the articles and some reviews more in line with the actual riding I do/aspire to do compared to the other magazines available.

That said I have been a little irritated with some recent kit reviews as some of the recent test bikes/kit are so far beyond any sensible budget they are little more than aspirational lifestyle fodder. Thats a fairly minor complaint however (and true to all magazines since few marketing people want reviews of midrange kit) and i always find more to enjoy than dislike.

Portsmouth dockyard has some of the last generation vessels in before sale/scrap (inc Ark Royal) and some of the new 45’s viewable from the quayside at the mo, would prob need to go on boat tour to see Ark properly. Theres also some older 42’s in Portsmouth out on rotten row but again its a boat trip job to see them and they are in bad nick awaiting scrap. Endurance is also in at the mo but is sadly knackered and awaiting sale one suspects. Theres some neat little patrol boats sat at the back of the basin by BAE as well which i think are for a carribean nation and look complete.

Jubilee should be good for ships although we’re not going to have much left by then sadly.

Girlfriend did that to her tyre last year, hadn’t told me tube was full of slime sealent, it burst when i tried to work it free from the frame, how she laughed

My one comment here would be not to tell the suspects that they have upset your wife, its possible they really do want you out of the neighbourhood and it may encourage them to know they have caused harm, sadly bullies tend to get off on upsetting victims.

Loop some nice bass heavy noise with samples from movie torture scenes, at uni I had a noisy neighbour who would spend nearly all of her time arguing with her boyfriend, arguing with her parents on the phone and then occasionally crying to her friends about how hard her course/life was and how mean her boyfriend/parents were. Got a little wearing trying to concentrate on work when she was screetching about how no-one loved or understood her through the thin walls. Did try reasoning with her but she seemed confused that someone didn’t appreciate her plight.

So I assembled a ‘mix tape’ of brief horror samples, and low bass noise and put my speakers against the party wall, then I went out for the night. Not noisy, not immediately locatable, apparently quite disruptive to sleep.

Tactical Pens for those who aren’t scary survival types are designed to operate in environmental extremes (underwater, deserts etc) and are strong enough to be used as tools/weapons if need be. Some are even sharpened at the tip so when the nib is retracted you can stab people.

We have some at work for marine salvage work as they hard to break and work in the wet and filth, haven’t tried stabbing anyone as yet.

I got a super cheap Subzero XC/AM Wheelset (£90 iirc) last autumn as a set to use during the winter, they’ve held up fine and haven’t needed any more care than other cheap wheels.

The antics on this forum did put me off but the price made it worth a punt I felt

Sometimes the difference between winning and losing is a small concealed motor

I’ve had decent luck with my endura stuff, three years out of hummvee 3/4s and they are worn but in good nick, 2 year old singletrack shorts in good condition and a pair of four y/o mt500 baggy shorts that look a tad worn but are still wearable.

The fingerless gloves were awful however, failed at multiple seams, i just stitched them back up but they were pretty poor.

Well noting Akeiny has one post (that one)and registered today I’m guessing he is the admanager marketing man/sock puppet

I’m supposed to be ‘mentoring’ three of our younger (22-23, recently out of uni) staff who are just starting out on a fairly well developed career track in engineering. I’ve been a little surprised how little they seem to care about putting the time or effort in but can understand it on reflection, issues seem to be:

1) Loyalty, they know they are entirely expendable and have seen co-workers being forced to reapply for their own jobs in the short time they have been with us

2) Debt, they owe an awful lot of money already post-uni and can’t really see any way out of that so they spend most of their income on going out etc rather than ‘committing’ in any way, plenty of our older staffs ‘work ethic’ is as a result of their fear of repossession rather than any ‘nobility of labour’.

3)Overseas competition, they have accepted that most of the jobs in our sector will go abroad at some point in their careers as we simply can’t compete with low-wage outfits with a lack of basic H&S/environmental restrictions applied to them and people in the UK generally don’t care as long as its cheap. Right now we get by on quality but increasingly we are losing that edge as China and India ‘industrialise’ research (and IP theft in Chinas case)

4) Frustration at what they see as an unfair tax system, without being sucked into the Maily Telegraph quotes they are pretty hacked off that they see people in their cohort from school sitting in council housing having kids (facebook seems to make this worse as you can actually see it) rather than working and one particular sore point seems to be the way that all newbuild flats now have ‘affordable housing units’ in them – all three complain about having what they see as ‘chav’ neighbours who have got the same housing as them ‘on the state’ while they work to pay a private landlord.

TBH I can see why they can’t be bothered with ‘buying in’ to a culture of long hours as they have little prospect of a long term career or a standard of living comparable with people in similar jobs would have had 5/10/20 years ago particularly as regards housing. Suspect we will see them moving overseas once the training/golden handcuffs period is over.

I did something similar once after pushing too hard over the course of a fitness ride and followed it up by being sick over the handlebars onto the tyre, definately not my coolest moment.

Yes – was out in Lordswood near southampton a few weeks back and two scrotes on a moped rode past me (where they shouldn’t be with a vehicle) then stopped, turned round and came past again having a good look at the bike. They rode a little bit up the trail where I was headed then stopped so i buggered off down an overgrown bit of track sharpish.

May be overcautious but a mate of mine had his motorbike nicked by some kids (was caught on cctv) and police found it burned out in lordswood so I generally assume they are up to no good.

Love the sanction in the neon paintjob, my gf has an avalanche she bought a few of years back on cycle to work, its been converted back to mtb duty since she changed jobs and stopped riding it in due to lack of safe access.

I am visiting Bristol (for Grillstock) so may pop by, if only for some cake

Yellow and orange lenses increase contrast and make it easier to recognise movement and appreciate depth of field in lower light environments.

I tend to wear persimmon lenses as my default unless its a properly bright day.

Friends had ‘The lovecats’ by the cure, thought it was really nice

Stings a whole lot, I had thought it would be a better choice to carry on the trail than a mix of tatty plasters but reconsidered it after use! Does work however.

Cup of rice as above – will usually rapidly dry a gadget out, don’t use the hairdryer as you can trash the device.

It isn’t very heroic but the point above about pushing up hills and eating at the same time is a fair one if you’re not 100% sure you are ready for the full distance – you are going to want some proper food on the trip and as a result you will be stopping to eat, if you can keep slowly pushing up a climb while eating then you keep your average speed up, rest/stretch some of your muscles and get some ‘free’ elevation.

Think TJ is probably out – the organisers would make him wear a helmet :-)

Applied for mens MTB, football final, couple of velodrome sessions, Taekwondo finals and chanced arm for opening and closing ceremonies and the athletics. Got nothing which was a little bit of a kick in the balls as really wanted to see the MTB.

Went on Dertour (the official german olympic ticket reseller that have upset all the uk tabloids) and bought two of the cheapest Taekwondo finals tickets, its about a 25% markup when you factor in their charges and postage and I’d have rather had cycling but in any event its a ‘once in a lifetime’ so seemed worth it. Any EU reseller has to sell to any EU citizen so as long as its a kosher olympic reseller (you can check on the 2012 site) you can theoretically use it. Think the french general sale starts in late june so may yet get an MTB ticket.

Sabrepulse, awesome. Will see if I can make it – got a nasty feeling I’m in geneva with work around then.

‘Is this the way to Hoxton?’