if you are feeding an urban fox then you will need to see the following public information film from the boosh…

Go to the Hoffbrauhaus and get bladdered (dont feel shy, everyone has to do this as a rite of passage)…two or three steins and a couple of pretzels should suffice, you will know you’re drunk when the oompah band starts to sound ok-ish and you start singing along.

Well, we’ve been out in blizards or gale force winds with horizontal rain before (though we all secretly prefer it to be warm and dry and sunny… 😉 )

Oh there is also cake, we take the whole cake thing very seriously 😀

hmm, looks like the south americans are trying to flog cheap cameras to us 😉

If you are going along the M4 corridor (or using the railway into Paddington) you should be ok. Going along the M3 from the A303 may be an issue as we’ve had a lot (and yes I am expecting all the comments about how the south east grinds to a halt at the merest sign of a snowflake) of snow on the north and south downs last night, not sure about the line into Waterloo.

all you need is a chain tensioner so you can keep the chain taut and still be able to remove the rear wheel:

My red hope stainless steel BB is going into its second winter, its a bit scratched now , has never been serviced and is still going strong

Ah yes, have a run on the banks. Didnt this happen just before the Great Depression?

The principle advantage of butted spokes is that they are lighter. All the spokes in a bike wheel are under tension all of the time, if they arent you will really notice…

If the spokes are the correct length (which actually is the critical thing) and the wheel has been properly trued up this wont make a great deal of difference if you have a few spokes that are not butted. I had to do an emergency repair on a wheel a few years back using a non-butted spoke and the wheel stayed true for about 2yrs afterwards. The bike shop may have been a tiny bit cheeky but if the wheel builder knows his/her stuff you should be ok.

can we start some kind of STW 40-somethings support group as today for the nth time running ive not gone for a grade 1 or 2 all over due to cowardice

Good luck if you want to be a life model, difficult to stay still for 30-60mins.

The only advice I can give is DO NOT EAT ANYTHING while you are a life model! This one model at art college used to eat when she was supposed to be standing/sitting still…think large-ish tattooed naked woman loudly gnawing away on breadsticks for two hours solid, thoroughly offputting when you are trying to draw. The other model we used to draw was terribly skinny so we actually wouldnt have minded if she’d eaten something beacause frankly she looked like she needed the carbs, on the plus side she used to walk around the art class during her break (no robe) and would always look over your shoulder at your work, v. distracting for an 18yr old art student causing much shakey linework. Ah, happy days 🙂

As for the male model, our group never had the opportunity to draw him but we had it on good advice from the other class that he tended get a bit, ahem, excited… 😯

I got a G2 in the summer and am really pleased with it, much lighter and smaller than an SLR with v. near or same performance , nice intuitive touch screen interface, the stock lens is pretty good too and there are more lenses becoming available.

The iso in low light is really good too (provided you dont go to the very limts as it will get pretty grainy)

So if I’ve got this right, the three views are:

One party said there is no money left so we will put up the fees and did when they (almost) won the election and got into Government.

One party very quietly said there is no money left but dont panic we can get another loan so we dont have to put up fees although they already had done this before, lost the election but decided not to admit this to themselves and kept acting like there was no problem

And one party said that there is some money left so we will cut fees, didnt win the election but then found themselves in government, looked at the books and realised that there really was no money left so had to change their mind and had to increase fees.

or have I missed something?

Still, there is always the old adage that if you think education is expensive, try ignorance….

AFAIK the faster than wind vehicle uses the tailwind to turn the prop that is linked to the wheels by a very clever and very strong gearbox. As the vehicle accelerates the forwards rotation force of the wheels overtakes the roation force of the wind driven propeller and this starts to turn the propeller via the same gearbox, making the car go faster, I think there’s a flywheel effect in there too…Its not a perpetual motion machine as it uses an external force. It cant sustain this acceleration and it will slow down after a short while.

Ive got a lot of time for Marxism:

I mean, Duck Soup was pure genius but I didnt really see the whole freeing the proletariat workers and smashing the borgoisie subtext that others have. Maybe I should rewatch it?

had some limited experience with a Defender 110 TD5 a few years back….utterly horrible inside and out, uncomfortable, archaic, noisy and hilariously good fun 🙂

I rather enjoyed it 🙂

Big shame that Madison decided not to go as I really wanted to look at and test an Alfine 11 hub, but still some good kit there. The mountain bike test track looked a bit naff though unless you really like fork-lift pallets…

not great for body armour though 😕

er…yes, we do that….er,um….and have done nearly 2300 (!)…in 4 countries.

In my defence its a very good way of casing out new riding areas/seeking out new and exciting cheeky trails. Its also a good way of getting rid of 35mm and APS fim containers 😉

easy, simply show her this forum thread in its full, uncensored glory and explain that these are “your people” 8)

I was wondering what that really loud grinding noise was:

lack of brakes didnt seem to matter a great deal early on sunday morning, the mud seemed to act like the best set high end 6-pot DH brakes ever 😯

my second lap took an hour longer than my first… 😯

Really horrible conditions last night, huge kudos to all who were able to keep going through the night, we stopped at about 3:30am. Pity about the injuries at the bombholes (get well soon), very tricky conditions on most of the course.

Horse and Farrier in Threlkeld is pretty good too

I know a Gynaecologist in Dunedin (does that win?)

Nice to see the armchair experts out in force tonight (or does everyone here know how to strip and rebuild a Rholhoff Hub gear whilst very far from home or indeed your friendly bike shop mechanic?)… 😉

Im just impressed at the year of riding/kayaking and 15000kms travelled, her blog looks good too 8)

Its my fave non local ride 😉

Id cheerfully happy slap Bagpuss (and naturally record the event on my mobile for posterity and later police identification and press vilification)

If you cant see my eyes then I cant see you

actually I do own the road

Nice paint, would it like to meet my endcaps?

Above us only sky, below us only trail

This is my religion

Pete, the only kind of repair I can think of is a bit of a bodge and would involve fabricating and welding on a strengthening plate under the downtube to try and even the load out. Otherwise it may require some pretty extensive (and probably pointless) surgery with a new headtube and possibly a new downtube too…

Pity as I always liked that Thorn.

You could always ask Dave Yates to build a lovely new 853 frame for you 8)

Greggs in Main Street… 🙂

A little bit of a drive up the A66 but the Horse and Farrier in Threlkeld is very good

Ok then:

q: Who led the pedants revolt?

a: Which tyler…

and:

Italians: Slanty little eyes…

oh sorry, that should have read "Italics"

UK? Stag beetles…no-one ever told us they could fly….utterly freaked me out, they look amazing but are right b!tches to get out of a kitchen when they have flown in!

Elsewhere? Esturine Crocodile in Oz, Northern Territory…realy really big (about 5m long) and didnt leave a single ripple on the water when it dived. Comments like "we're gonna need a bigger boat" and " I want my mummy" really did come to mind

Ditto the advice about 3rd party being a waste of money, on a cheap car you are rated as high risk regardless but the additional cost of going fully comp is either nowt or negligable and you feel a right twonk if you have a no fault accident that trashes your car and you have to pay out for another one yourself.

State a low yearly milage (sub 8k, 6 if you can) Another possible idea is to go through someone like the AA or RAC and get the cheapest roadside assistance too (they give you a discount on your insurance if you do this).

The only other thing to remember is that you're 21 and you have points on your licence so insurance will be high until you have a few years no claims under your belt and your points are taken off. Until then, grit your teeth, drive something slow and group3 insurance or lower, pay the money and most importantly dont crash or get nicked by the police.

2cvs are actually pretty cool as first cars… 😉

Yes, but it aint rock n roll is it.

I mean, do any of them have a chart topping song in honour of their name?

I think not 'cos the mighty Kettley, well, frankly he da man.

er…er…er…blimey….er…thats just not right…er…Wow… 😯

Dez, which one's your mum? 😉

Another vote for Afan lodge…run by good people and its the best bike friendly B+B you'll get within decent striking distance of the trails otherwise you will be looking at Swansea.

They were also very happy to accomodate 14 hungry, loud, happy mtb'ers for an evening meal last time we were up that way 🙂

I've got a cat, but its not fast, just asleep.

Yes I do but its a bit temperamental, am happy to teleport you free of charge and at you own risk but please dont complain if you arrive at Berlin having been DNA merged with said estonian working woemn and have become a 12 foot tall 6 legged, 4 breasted, 3-headed ladyboy (thereby allowing plenty of interesting employment opportunities in certain parts of Berlin) and stash is now where no customs officer will ever find it.

er, possibly quite well known this one but as I've been lucky enough to be allowed inside I can testify its as cool as a Bond villains lair:-)

The MacLaren HQ in Woking.

The London Array…who says wind turbines look horrible?

and also for some reason the M6 at Shap…possibly cos it leads to some ace mountain biking territory

Hi Gavgas, I might be up late spring early summer to ride some proper hills 🙂 hope to see you guys soon

Great stuff. You guys are getting lots of jealous looks from "daarn saarth" 😉

Edit: just checked out the route on MemoryMap….Blimey! 😯