You have two kids and a house. Most Downhillers don't I suspect.

I used a redbull can rolled up for exactly this for years, no problems at all, still have all my own teeth etc!

This wouldn't be a MTB-only chairlift and there are plenty of chairlifts that don't rely on Skiers. There's even one earlier in this thread!

£28 is reasonable as a one-off, but if you go for a weekend or 3 days, it gets very expensive very quickly. In the context of historic prices, it does look like unreasonable increases have been added.

My main gripe is that the operators will charge that £28 after delaying opening for a couple of hours, then shutting the lift an hour or two early because of the weather. I appreciate it's beyond their control, but when you've signed up for 10 runs at £2.80 a pop, to end up with 4 runs at £7 each after travelling miles to get there etc it is pretty frustrating.

A fairer system would be to issue partial refunds depending on the down-time, maybe then they'd be less trigger-happy when it comes to switching the thing off.

But, my general impression from using the facilities and the bike hire has always been that they're out to get as much money as possible from people, with customer service being very low down on the list of priorities.

But, we're way off topic here anyway!

To bring things back on topic; I don't think TJ needs any experience of major Civil Engineering projects, it's pretty obvious that the numbers don't stack up. Also, joining a facebook group doesn't count as 'doing something about it'.

Because they've decide my house is a business they won't bring me post on a Saturday. Do businesses not work on a Saturday?

Because they're lazy ****, at my last house they would often post 'We tried to deliver….' cards through the letter box with the following days post, when I'd been in all day the day before. On one occasion I spent the entire day outside the front door working on my car.

Their pricing system is fairly impenetrable and increasingly random when it comes to posting parcels.

In their defence, the PayPal/Ebay postage system they have setup works really well and they will collect rater than me having to take stuff to them.

It's because she's not mega hot, they all think they have a shot with her.

Is FW £28 for a day pass now? I'm sure it was £25 last year and I remember it was only £12 or £15 when I was there in 2004. Happy to be corrected on my figures, but that looks like some cheeky inflation going on there!

I didn't use CRC, have 12 mm nipples coming

Sweet, ordered. Makes sense to get all one size, then get others if necessary from a financial point of view.

Yeah, I read the various arguments about seizing nipples from this very establishment that appears very high in any google search for red nipples!

Element Technium FR 200 Hubs are what they are, I've downloaded the spec from their website, and they do measure at 2.5mm. Is this going to be a problem? Just tried with some 2mm spokes, they seem to fit very nicely, so I suspect not.

Thanks, am reading through Sheldon already. Is 2.5mm an unusual hole size, or is it so the spokes are't tight and fit in easily? I suspect the later, but would like confirmation before I press the button.

Also, cheap red nipples – anywhere? They're £17 a set on CRC, but the spokes that are the same price come with nipples, so not sure i can justify the bling or not.

If the wheels aren't running at the same speed, the one of them will want to spin and there will be a massive load on the drive train. Can you not get around this by setting up the ratios so that the front wheel always wants to spin faster than the rear, then use a free-hub type arrangement to absorb the wheel spin?

Should be the same, but if you've already bought them, you'll find out for sure soon enough. Maxle is 20mm, I was buying 20mm wheels a decade ago, so pretty confident they'll be right.

Nice one, I was reading a 2005 MBUK last night and saw the Azonic frame and realised that's what you were looking at. Cool bike.

Jacobs Ladder itself is the footpath, though that magazine article appeared to be on the Bridleway. I don't believe anyone has cleared the bridleway, I'm sure there are better riders than me that have tried, but I'm pretty decent yet a million miles off being able to get up quite a few bits of it. The idea that the mag completed it in bits but rode it all doesn't stack up as there aren't many places where you can easily start pedalling again once you've stopped.

That's my opinion, so don't have a go like.

You can get IGN for MemoryMap if you visit dodgy website…..

You aint seen me right?

It's also nothing like that Rocky Mountain, I think only the seat-tube is similar!

Looks nothing like a Scirocco!

My arms are covered in this from HTN2, from using them to clear the vegetation on some of the corners.

My girlfriend paid about £350 for a week in Morrocco through STA travel, including flights. The trip included a tour with Saddle Skeddadle that was 2 days treking up hill, then 3 days mountain biking up and down hill. What she did wasn't mega technical, but the option to do loads of tech singletrack was there.

I thought, that was really cheap, so looked into Morroco MTB only trips and couldn't find anything in the same ball-park.

Can you post those .gpx files or email them to me (username *@* mail2web.com) please?

I'm going up to Newcastle at the weekend for a wedding, but I've only been invited to the evening thing, so want to go for a ride. Was going to go to Hamsterly, but natural looks more fun.

Thanks

It's a fault with the USPS system, I've had this a few times with bike bits from America. When USPS hand it over to Parcel Farce they then record it as an attempted delivery. It's nothing to do with Parcel Farce. Very annoying as you end up wondering WTF then chasing undelivered parcels with the seller as you've not heard anything a few days later. As siad, if you track on the Parcel Farce website with the same number you shoudl get 'proper' info.

Worth the wait Tom, worth the wait!

It's only the third butt that gets Renshaw back where he started, the first two just slow his trajectory towards the barriers, so not a problem as far as I'm concerned.

I didn't talk about his actions affecting Dean, I was talking a bout them affecting the guy Dean was leading out. If Renshaw is out because he deliberatley blocked someone, then he must have known someone was there. So he must have seen them. So it's not a huge leap of faith to surmise that he knew who he was blocking.

Not sure what your point is about Renshaw sitting up?

As far as I'm concerned, once Dean starts **** about the gloves are off and HTC are fine to do what ever they like so long as it only affects Dean and the chap he's leading out. Which is what they did.

I don't have any problem with it, other than the punishment seems ridiculous; was he thrown out for defending his position or for blocking? The defence was robust, but seemed ok given that it was a response rather than an attack. The block; I don't see the problem with blocking someone who's lead out guy caused the problems to begin with.

You can't 'punish' either Dean or Renshaw because they don't care about anything other than the guy's their leading out and you couldn't punish Cav etc for the indiscretions of another rider. So either chuck them both out, or neither of them. Or choose your least favoured rider and punish 'his' man if you're French.

Garmin estimates are massively lower than Polar for me. Polar will get me at about 800 calories an hour on the bike and 900 running, Garmin will have me at about 200 an hour for both. It's probably an accurate comparative number, nothing more.

No, I don't think I want predictability, the opposite in fact. It's predictable that none of the big guns are going to do anything today, but what I want is the best riders racing each other. Seems to me today was a good opportunity for that, but it's been negated, and I'm not really sure who benefits from that?

I'm not being deliberately obtuse, I don't know how these things are put together, what objectives they have etc. Do they aim to have a certain number of stages that let the minor teams/riders achieve something, for the good of the race as a whole? I guess if every stage was either the sprinters winning, or the GC contenders knocking seven bells out of each other, there might be less incentive for the sponsors of the other teams.

I know it's not new, it just seems to me that today's stage could have been really good, but might end up a bit dull because no one of note is going to attack on the climbs.

Anyone know what the thinking behind today's stage is? Why have all the climbs, then neutralise the stage by having a descent to the finish?

If traffic is overtaking, then the cyclists should be leaving gaps. I know this goes against everything roadies stand for, but they're wrong about that.

If they're four abreast, just run the outer two over, it'll soon sort them out.

Time and place then please?

Great thread. Want to see a race between Glenp and Peachos please. Peachos can adopt the attack position, Glenp can meditate his way down waiting for Peachos to rip a Rubber Queen and crash to his well-earned death.

When and where please kids?

Cycling is way better for losing weight, but if time is constrained you'll struggle to beat running.

Just. No.

Ditto! My Girlfriend lives up that way and I NEED places to ride round her for when she finally succumbs to my persistence!

Cheers

Can someone explain today's stage to me please? I was going to watch it but got distracted at work by various people, anyway…… the stage is pretty much flat on the Eursport profile, I was expecting a breakaway to be caught and a group sprint, where did all the time gaps come from?

Thanks

I signed up this morning, please tell me I won a punch from the hot chick?

FAOD a shorter stem makes it easier to pull up on the bars AND to do that wierd shit that Glemp is advocating.

FWIW I don't advocate riding with your arms straight.

my mate runs his Yeti asr with 100mm flat and it handles fine and he beats pussy downhill rig boys on it wearing his lycra

Conclusive proof!

I have this at home with Peachos every single day! I showed him a 120mm stem once, he still has nightmares about it.