I use Aldi walking shoes quite satisfactorily but just got a pair of £90 (allegedly) Karrimor walking shoes for £20 in the sale at Go Outdoors and they claim to be waterproof. Make sure to get soles that are thinner than those on trainers.

Believe it or not the CTC campaigned hard for years against the introduction of any requirement for a bicycle to carry a rear light on the grounds that it was up to the overtaker (ie the car driver) to be making sure he could see what was ahead rather than make users of slower vehicles take the responsibility. They eventually lost the battle of course.

Surely the SV 650 is the obvious choice? Should give high 50’s.

Roll Away the Stone

Buff of course but I use a Marks and Spencer ski top half zip pullon which is made of some sort of “cloth” as opposed to “nylon” and has a nice tall collar and a mesh lining but no insulative lining. A wicking tee shirt or Helly Hansen longleeve (or both if it’s really cold) underneath has always been enough. If it’s wet the Aldi £10 jacket instead has always worked and, though the inside gets moist with sweat, you don’t feel it due to the wicking layer.

I’ve got Aldi or Lidl (do you sense a theme here?) windproof fronted tights and might wear baggies over the top. Being of a certain age I would find bib tights, how shall we say, inconvenient. Walking shoes rather than cycling shoes as I use flats and don’t need the leaky cleat bolt holes.

Is it not 15% off at the Coop this weekend?

Will that be a metric brick or an imperial brick?

Happy birthday by the way (I noticed you were 55 on a recent post).

This prompts me to ask. Are these LEDs a feasible option for lighting a whole room as opposed to under cabinet location?

I have a fluorescent strip luminaire in my kitchen but the light, while adequate, is not of a great ambience and I was looking for an alternative.

Merely stating the facts.

It will depend on the construction of the suspension unit. The good old instant bend Gas Girling motorcycle suspension unit had no damping if fitted the wrong way up.

Apparently there’s no way to switch it off (it’s an early 1.0 Homehub).

“Could you dig down say a foot, tip a load of hardcore in, place some large concrete slabs on top of that and have a solid enough base for building a large wooden shed on like trail rat’s (probably a bit bigger than that)?”

Back in the days of life in black and white instead of colour before Portacabins were on the go our site huts were always just founded on 3 x 2 slabs and I don’t recall any problems.

At least not until my boss wanted half a dozen for his own shed when we were clearing a site and, due to his loss of licence, I had to drive the Morris Minor Traveller with that lot in the back. A bit like steering a boat with the nose in the air.

I could throw my Home Hub out the window and hit the local exchange where the mast is mounted so the rad levels are not relevant to me but……..as my Hub sits next to the computer I would like a simple switch to stop it broadcasting and use it hardwired on the basis that nobody can hack in to a non-existent signal.

There was a cracker on Youtube where a rear seat passenger was trying something similar by hanging out the door – smacked his head on a parked car instead. Justice seen to be done.

I once had a hire Matiz with 200 or so miles on the clock. It was a superb tool for twisty roads, a local in a hot hatch trying to impress his girlfriend could not get past over Dava moor and I had to ease off as I did not know the road. Like a motorised rollerskate.

Obviously optimistic, but the speedo was well over 90 at one point on a downhill dual carrriageway. Only did 45 to the gallon though!

Chris Akrigg didn’t appear to be particularly restricted in that video of his.

All very true Coatesy but one likes to think that Orange actually do that in the course of building the bike up so I shouldn’t need to be facing it.

I’ve got a Shimano waiting to go on. I put decent bearings in the Raceface but they did not last long. Basically the design relies on absolutely accurate tolerances to get the correct preload on the bearings and I don’t see how that can work.

What’s needed is a steel spacer between the bearings to prevent them being squeezed together, in the manner of a motorcycle wheel bearing set up.

Well they didn’t find my pal when they swept the bus out at Peebles garage one night – he’d fallen alseep upstairs and woke up wondering why there was another bus alongside.

He wasn’t overly popular with his wife having to come out from halfway to Edinburgh to rescue him in the early hours once he’d managed to break out of the place.

Just back to the computer – thanks for the replies.

French Revolutions by Tim Moore.

Sophisticated foxes.

I find it hard to believe that fork oil is not designed to lubricate forks. Were that the case there would not be hundreds of old motorcycle trials bikes still running round after several decades with no signs of such wear.

I believe new Berlingos (Berlingae?)cars have a means of carrying a board inside the car above the passengers.

beej

Can you explain to a complete ignoramus on these things why, at my office (I’m on O2), generally there is next to no chance of a voice call, out or in, sometimes there’s enough to get the phone to ring but not to sustain a call and very occasionally enough to actually take an incoming call? Texts work but can take a long time to “go”.

We’re between half and one mile from four masts.

Crikey – I hear Frankie Boyle is now telling the one about Glasgow and Las Vegas being the two places on earth where you can pay for sex with chips.

Aye Essel, like that one we did in May that was seven miles pushing out of the total of 10 was it?

PS Still herding the cats for the Scott.

I’ve camped in the Berlingo more than a few times, plenty of room for bikes and sleeping and probably shorter than the big estates for parking purposes. Plus the tailgate extends even further than that on an estate – cup of tea on a wet day anybody?

I think you’ve made the right choice in as much as the 2010 may well be in better condition than the 2006 – fewer owners? (though condition depends on care rather than age as such). I also have a 2003 Rev 3 bought at one year old and it’s still as good, to me, as anything newer – but I know for sure how it has been treated.

BVM have always been excellent to deal with but, like everyone else, won’t stock some Beta specific stuff like mudguards (an Evo weakness apparently). Lampkins do good mail order times but it’s worth a trip to Silsden area to get a “proper” trial with rocks and stuff.

Reasoned debate results in agreement – is that a first on here?

Devs and I both seem to be of the opinion that the access legislation’s intent is that the situation does not arise.

The, somewhat lengthy, code is here http://www.snh.gov.uk/docs/A309336.pdf for those interested.

“Orange crush I think that you may be letting prejudice taint your comprehension of what you are reading. That para of the land reform act does not make it illegal to have a dog on a trail centre at all and a dog under control can go anywhere.”

I did not say it was illegal to have a dog “on a trail centre”, please read what I said more carefully.

I have no prejudice – merely stating the rules as I read them. Dog must be under proper control, generally held to be close control – normally meaning on a lead.

Access rights are not exercisable on land “set out for a particular recreational purpose” which sounds like a pretty good description of a trail centre route to me. This would also apply to the happy hikers who insist on walking on the Glentress bike trails instead of on the dedicated walking trails there (which the rule equally prevents people using whilst cycling).

The overarching principle is responsible use and, in the context of the above, I would suggest that if a dog caused injury on a dedicated bike route there would prima facae be failure to achieve the required level of responsible use.

Groundskeeperwilly – Land Reform (Scotland) Act 2003. Para 9(d). In fact I would go further and say that para 6(1)(e)(ii) makes it illegal to have a dog on a specific mountain bike trail at all.

DT78, it may be beyond your ken but Scotland is actually part of the UK.

It might be worth bearing in mind that if you are at a Scottish trail centre with your dog running about all over then you are actually breaking the law. This would have obvious implications for liability if anyone was injured as a result.

I just assumed their system had been compromised and it was spam so deleted it without any compunction.

I normally drink Deuchars IPA on draught but had some bottled Williams Scottish Joker IPA at a pal’s two weeks ago and would recommend it. I prefer bottled to canned beer any day.

I think the best office shift I can remember was 23 hours for quite a team. Ref the Americans, we were taken over by a combine, half of which was an American outfit, who told us that if we were working beyond hours then we were either inefficient or overloaded. Didn’t stop them overloading us though.

Could I ask you caravanning types about a very small van I saw recently at Kenmore. There was no manufacturer’s name but it had been titled the Tupperware Tardis by the owner who was nowhere to be seen. It didn’t look long enough to stretch out in but I was intrigued – it seemed to be made of material like the back of a small campervan.

I don’t think the OP was concerned about valve type so much as possibly weakening the rim.

Wheel rims tend not to be overly intelligent creatures and don’t really know if the manufacturer has drilled them for Presta or Schraeder – they won’t know if you have either.

In other words the manufacturer uses the same rim but drills accordingly – or are Schraeder rims really that fraction wider?

Also, check how many rather large holes are in Mr Macaskill’s rims – there seems to be plenty meat in reserve in a standard rim.

I hope it doesn’t rain stops raining. That’s about the situation I’m afraid.

I have the 2008 version and, apart from the joke Raceface BB, is OK but it’s my first hardtail, as opposed to full rigid, so I don’t have any long term comparisons. I wouldn’t have paid the £1,000 list price but it was on discount at the end of the year. Definitely would not consider it (or any hardtail I might be thinking of buying) worth £1,500. It did come with less than the recommended amount of oil in the Fox fork but I can’t imagine any bike manufacturer checks the oil level in forks supplied to him.

I’ve ridden it for longer than 3 hour rides often enough without it turning in to a pumpkin.

The original tyres were a bit draggy (though grippy) and the replacement Continental Verticals roll better (they’re a bit narrower) and seem to grip OK but I’ll know better after the winter.