Ditto the marshalling "issues"…first enduro race Ive ever done where I had to avoid a couple of cars (not course vehicles or ambulances) being driven in the opposite direction on part of the circuit…Also slightly surprised to see walkers out on the circuit and also a horserider!

Paying an extra £10 per person for camping with virtually no facilities was a bit cheeky too. As for the one small mobile toilet block for about 500 competitors, thats just bad planning.

To be fair, the track did get better as the race wore on and was actually good fun and nicely technical in places but there were two points that were a bit too dangerous (listed above)to be used without very clear signage or some kind of course alteration: If I heard correctly there was one incident of a broken ankle at the bottom of the fast straight grass downhill: not good.

Overall, a potentially very good event in a good area (with a lot of climbing) but it needs work to improve it.

I'll be there as part of a foolhardy pair with the Sussexmuddy@rse group Pre-event training has been, ahem, limited.

It really depends on how bad your asthma is and the serverity of attacks and control methods really vary from person to person so you should be prepared to do some experimenting with whatever inhalers you've been prescribed.

I take Beclamethasone (brown inhaler) twice a day but at a lower rate than my doctor originally recommended (one puff instead of two) as it seems to work very well at the lower dosage. For me the issues happen if I stop using it for a few days or so. Also just be aware that you can build a kind of resistance (well, it will lessen the effect) to Salbutamol or similar relievers if you take them a lot (ie every day) when you really dont need to.If you dont need to use it then dont as it wont help, it only is to open you airways up if you are actually wheezing/struggling to breathe.

Pilates-style breating excercises work well (as does Pilates generally) Do some good aerobic excercise regularly, carry a ventolin at all times , be aware that damp weather or dusty surrounding can affect your lungs and dont be put off if you're wheezing at the top of climbs.

Unless its really bad dont let it stop you getting out: strong lungs and calm, controlled breathing are a very good aid to getting through a bad attack.

Having seen this kind of thing happen on the M25: Foreign Truck changing lane and not seeing the Audi just ahead and on the right…

Actually Ive seen about five accidents (one fatal) like this over 7 years of using the M25 but the trucks always stopped…

Got in a similar situation when a Polish articulated truck decided to change lane next to me after his mate just ahead of me pulled out…try doing an emergency stop in fiat punto in the middle lane (moving into the outside lane would have caused me to crash into cars alongside ) in heavy traffic at 70mph…terrifying doesn't cover it.

I really dont like HGVs

Hmm, sounds like the Egg seller went on a home-brewed crystal meth rampage of revenge after a consignment of covert free range went astray during a turf war with the local Costcutter. Dont worry, its quite normal, happens all the time out in the sticks.

Better keep on her good side, just in case 😉

Going local and showing some friends my home trails.

Last months snow and rain seems a distant memory and the South Downs seems to be drying out nicely 🙂

Greenbee buildings and contents seem pretty good and do include bike cover.

National parks, volunteer mountain rescue team and RNLI, A very good and respected military, a (mostly) unarmed Police force, Ace music, diverse culture, a very good university system (much as I hate to admit it Oxbridge is world renowned), the best architects, the best formula one teams, tea, David Attenbrough, Radio4 etc. etc.

Oh, and we have Stephen Fry too 🙂

Well, bearing in mind that Im nodding in agreement with woodsman (waves) if you really dont want to ride around Brighton your best bet would be to go up to Peaslake and try Pitch, Holmbury or Leith Hill.

Or, you could try Whiteways above Arundel or Friston over towards Eastbourne for some singletrack (both are quite gloopy at the moment though)

I use a Quechua tarp from Decathlon. 3x3m, Cost about £20 inlcuding two (heavyish) aluminium poles, pegs and guy-ropes. Its a bit basic and needed a few more eyelets added but seems ok for Bivvying. I might change the poles for some lighter fibreglass ones if I see some going cheap.

The Alpkit Rig tarp is bit on the expensive side but has loads of eyelets and hook loops, looks well made (like all alpkit gear) and seems pretty light too so would be good for weight weenies. It doesnt include any poles though but its made to use walking poles.

A book?

A Mint book???

I'll only buy the book if its got titanium bolts (purple anodised, naturally)in the spine…

Still enjoy the "spot the Mint Sauce South Downs location" moments every time I go out riding round Devils Dyke/ Lewes etc. 🙂

Well, the Popular Mechanics website states that you actually can stop a car at full throttle in gear by pushing as hard as poss on the brake. The brakes are more powerfull than the engine, Sounds right to me unless your brakes are knackered.

This seems to make sense as cars are alpine tested with a load trailer down a very long downhill alpine pass with the handbrake on…repeatedly, till the brakes boil and then some. The cars brakes have to work in that situation otherwise you cant legally sell them.

Engine off, the brakes will work but with no servo assist (so the brake pedal will be harder) but also most cars will loose their power assisted steering in this situation. Handbarke will always work as its cable actualted. IIRC electronic handbrakes are on an emergency system so should be independant of the ignition.

If you're in a manual car the first best course of action is to stand on both the clutch and brake pedals as you retain brake servo, power steering etc. Had this happen to me a few years back in a car where the floormat moved forwards and got stuck over the accelerator…scary but easy to stop the car provided you stay calm.

Autos are a different issue but you still have some manual control over the gearbox. You should be able to at least change down, not sure about getting the car into Neutral under full load though but I cant believe that you cant…hmmm, can you crash change it?. If you cant it seems the best option there is to cut the ignition, stand on the brakes with both feet and pray.

Oddly enough a lot of uncontrolled acceleration incidents in the UK are due to people mistaking the accelerator for the brake, then pressing harder when they start going faster…

We're very lucky in the band in that we have two visionaries, David and Nigel, they're like poets, like Shelley and Byron. They're two distinct types of visionaries, it's like fire and ice, basically. I feel my role in the band is to be somewhere in the middle of that, kind of like lukewarm water.

Well, IMHO the greatest motivational speech came fromt the mouth of the great Leslie Nielsen in Airplane!

Well, I don't have anything to say, you've done the best you could. You really have, the best you could. You can't expect to win em all. But, I want to tell you something I've kept to myself through these years. I was in the war myself, medical corps. I was on late duty one night when they brought in a badly wounded pilot from one of the raids. He could barely talk. He looked at me and said, "The odds were against us up there, but we went in anyway, I'm glad the Captain made the right decision." The pilot's name was George Zip.

George Zip said that?

The last thing he said to me, "Doc," he said, "some time when the crew is up against it, and the breaks are beating the boys, tell them to get out there and give it all they got and win just one for the Zipper. I don't know where I'll be then, Doc," he said, "but I won't smell too good, that's for sure."

Excuse me doc, I got a plane to land.

well this was unexpected:

😉

I wouldnt worry about that, every house has one of those hidden somewhere.

Its just that most people dont realise it.

Oh, just dont try and move it or destroy it cos that can cause, er, problems.

Just after the snow got too deep to ride in, skis would have been more useful today…

Yes but at least I didnt have ice to contend with on Skiddaw 🙂

I am mostly liking the DIY snow spikes too 😯 Sounds like Ive got my "saturday project" now lined up 😉

Nice.

Er, guys, was it a tad windy at the top of Latrigg or does the vid just exaggerate it a bit?

I think you are all flippin mental but I possibly mentioned that (or indeed screamed it, I forget) at the top of Skiddaw last May 😯 😀

er, will a trig point do?

South downs, this morning…no snow 😥

Nice pic 🙂

Its actually not that wierd or uncommon as the halo is due to light refracting off ice crystals in thin clouds the upper atmosphere.

It can also happen with sunlight and you can get halo effects from an aircraft shadow cast on clouds.

A Hunters moon is the first full moon after a Harvest moon which is the first full moon after the Autumn equinox.

Stanmer near Brighton, this afternoon:

😉

Ive got a Hunka bivvy bag, loads of dry bags, a couple of Slim Airic sleeping mats, a Lantern and a Gamma Headtorch. All are really really good, seem to be lasting well after a fair amount of use/abuse and are flippin good value. I cant complain about the stock levels as they seem to get new kit in reasonably quick. My first order from them had a nice handwritten "thank-you" on the invoice too!

Hopefully Santa will bring me a down sleeping bag too 🙂

He was quite excellent in the very excellent Hot Fuzz too 🙂

Breaker Morant? Blimey, havent seen that in years…

Right, who is for building a memorial Wicker Man? Or we could just re-enact the swinging lightbulb being shot (cheap special effect from the halcyon days of TV) from the titles of Callan..

Thats just so wrong.

However I think I spy a Spinal Tap poster behind the tree which very nearly makes up for the crime 😀

Most likely its the sender battery (always has been on mine in the past) but on mine the display has been intermittently dimming then comes back on but with no signal so I suspect the main unit battery is a bit flat.

Hmm, Well in no particular order:

Keswick
Dolgellau
Salcombe
Aysgarth
Ashbourne
Storrington
Yes , I'll admit it, Chichester is really nice too even though I live a bit further east 🙂

Well, actually anywhere with hills/mountains, forests, lakes, rivers or sea and a few good pubs and some decent trails nearby 🙂

Thats probably just Hemp. Its only Canabis if there is a Rizla plant growing nearby 😛

Yet another inbred currently with 32:16, good fun (ie painful,slow, luddite stylee) on the south downs.

Ditto plugs then HT leads. However issues with HT leads on Puntos can also manifest itself in occasional missfiring (and injector warning lights flashing)when accelerating.

Spooky, you could always ask a certain mutual friend who is also and ex-mechanic 😉

…or just pick up the phone and yell at the garage

Matrix1: Keanu in really rather good and groundbreaking action movie shock. Goes "Woah" a few times, does Kung fu and shots lots of guns a lot and kills Hugo Weaving

Matrix2: Keanu in pretty average and surprisingly dull action movie. Goes "Woah" a few times more, shoots more guns and kills Hugo Weaving over and over and over and over again. Some bloke pretends to be french. Whole audience of Cinema wants to slap him.

Matrix3: Keanu in pointless and dull action movie. Cant say as to whether he went "woah" a lot as I couldnt be @rsed to actually watch this after being thoroughly bored during Matrix2 and didnt feel like wasting a night out at the flicks or insulting my inteligence and blowing £12 on a dvd but, as its a Keanu movie I would expect he did actually go "woah" quite a bit in this one too.

Personally I'd watch Dark City any day 😀

They really should do a kids version of that…might require a periscope though.

Or indeed the dodgy elastomers… 😉

Sir Stirling Moss (I was faster than him)

Matching Tye in Essex

er, or you could get a Sony S or E series walkman?

The S series 16Gb one Ive got (like this one ) is excellent, sound quality is better than an iPod, earphones are way better and it was cheaper too.

You get a 1 prefix and a 6 prefix instead of 0 and 5 so its 10 then 60 next year followed by 11, 61

Its almost so exciting I can hardly wait… 😉

I can give a big vote for the Civic: had mine for 3 1/2 years, done over 110k miles in it, reliability is really good (only issues have been some trim rattles, a faulty brake fluid level sensor and a small area of paint bubling on the roof, all fixed under warranty: the local Honda garage is excellent). MPG is really down to how you drive, I usually get 53-54mpg, worst has been about 45mpg, best has been 58mpg using a very light touch on the accelerator and religiously obeying the speed limit 🙂
Good for carrying 2 bikes in the back with the seats flipped up though the rear door trim can get damaged by metal handlebar end-caps…

Oh, and it looks ace too 8)

Other good cars to look at area probably Octavia TDis (v underated and basically a Golf underneath), Alfa 147 JTD 16v or poss an old shape Accord.

A gas turbine and a jet engine are basically the same thing (well they work in exactly the same way using a sequence of turbines to compress incoming air that is then mixed with fuel, combusted and the exhaust gasses produce thrust and turn a final turbine that drives the compressor turbine at the front of the engine) but a gas turbine usually has a driveshaft that can run a generator.

You need to get a jet engine up to speed (ie get the turbine blades spinning) to actually start working properly, you do this by blasting compressed air through the front compressor turbine. You can start the big jet engines with the APU or they can take bleed air from another of the main engines ( if you listen when the aircraft main engines are started they dont usually start at the same time for this reason) As an APU tends to drive a generator they can be started using external electrical power.

if you really wont to know more have a look at wikipedia for starters 🙂