If you can expense fasttrack you can cut it fine. I leave from just outside chester at 06:30 and catch the 08:00 to Dublin from Manchester, and that includes a starbucks breakfast. The shortcut through duty free saves me at least 5 minutes :-)

What’s the price when you fly Cardiff->Dublin->US on the Aer Lingus website?

Edit: I mean put Cardiff and say Boston into the website.

pantograph

bobbins

All depends if you are in a property hot-spot.

+1 tomtom

Ok thanks for the suggestions.

Any idea why people mark feedback as private? I just sold a bike to someone who has 100% positive feedback and has been a member since 2008. He’s offered to pay via PayPal and collect the bike a week tomorrow, so is this thread making me paranoid that something is not quite right?

Some great goals so far. Here’s my favourite as I was just to the left of the goal when this one went in.

Those eyelet cableties look good chip. Anyone know the diameter on the Reverb cable? I’ve found some on ebay but they range from 2.5mm to 7.6mm

I’m based in cheshire but Tia are in hebden bridge. They also have some accommodation so you can spend a weekend in the company of the dogs before you make a decision to take one.

Cooking/Soft chorizo is much better than the dry stuff.

6 x Cooking Chorizo
Shallots
2 x thinly sliced red peppers
2 x tinned toms
2 x tinned butter beans
Stock cube

No pre-cooking required, just combine all the ingredients and put on a low heat for a couple of hours.

The new pension regs are going to have a massive effect on this market. I’d seriously consider dipping into my pot when it’s available to fund a classic car, as will quite a few others.

The pinkbike review Kimbers linked to covers pretty much everything you need to know about Madeira, but here is a bit more info on the guys at freeride.

When to go – this is the great thing about Madeira, you are not locked into a short summer season as the weather is pretty good most of the year although I would probably avoid the winter months.

Cost – €65 for a days guiding plus €35 for bike hire. I hooked up with a couple of Swiss guys who were there for the week which kept the cost down. The price goes up to €145 for the guiding if you go on your own.

Hire Bike – Specialized Pitch which although a bit old suited me fine. It had a triple ring but needed a bash as I had a couple of strikes which nearly had me OTB. The brakes were setup the European wrong way so if you book a hire bike make sure you request UK brake setup. The Swiss guys had brought their own bikes and one of them had a fairly new Santa Cruz Tallboy which he didn’t like for Madeira’s tight trails.

Uplift – I was picked up from my hotel in Funchal, then we went across town and picked up the Swiss guys. As we left Funchal I checked whether they had helmet and pads for me, which they hadn’t so we pulled into a petrol station for a quick cup of coffee while the guy from the shop brought them to us. Anyone who has been to Portugal probably recognise that local folk can be a bit slapdash so it’s worth checking and double-checking on any booking details. The island’s roads are very good with lots of tunnels to get you around quickly, but as you start climbing you get onto the typical switchback roads.

The Guiding – Nuno was our guide and he was brilliant, not only for picking the trails but also giving you the history of the island. He also insisted on swapping the brakes around for me. Unlike the Alps where you tend to get very long trails, in Madeira the runs are typically between 1/2 and 1 mile, then you hit a road and have to pedal up or down for a couple of minutes before hitting the next section so a guide is essential. We finished riding at a great little beach bar for a few beers before heading back in the van to Funchal.

The riding – just look on You Tube and you will see what a huge variety of riding is available, often on the same decent.

Bloody great. Anyone who travels overseas to do MBing must put Madeira on their bucket list. Difficult to do a long review on the smartphone so I’ll post up when I get back to the UK tomorrow.

I’m booked in for a day ride on Thursday. €65 for a days guiding and €35 for bike hire. Price includes pick up, safety gear and insurance. Great comms so far from Marco and I’ll post up a review after riding.

Taken yesterday at the Marin trail on its second ride.

I rode with ad on Saturday and tried the nukeproof mega tr, Ghost ASX 7500 and Ghost Cagua.

The mega tr felt a bit barge like on the climbs and quite unrefined but it did handle the downhill section well. But I always felt that I was sitting on the bike rather than ‘in’ the bike if you know what I mean.

The Ghost ASX was only available in a medium and it was obviously too small but I took it out for a spin and it was buttery smooth on the climbs but I couldn’t push it on the downhill due to the size.

I then tried the Cagua which was a totally uninspiring ride.

By this time I had decided I needed to ride a large ASX and luckily the one Graham from Hotlines (top bloke) had ordered for the demo day but was delayed arrived via TNT. He quickly built it up for me to take out on its first ride and it didn’t disappoint. The climb was as good as before and I even managed to keep close to ad on the downhill section who was then riding the Yeti SB75, but the stock Rocket Rons were deadly in the wet and I had to back off after a big wash out.

A quick chat in the shop and they were doing 10% discount on the demo day bikes so I pulled the trigger on the ASX for £1,800.

For an old fart like me who doesn’t like air and likes to ride within himself this could be the perfect bike

@GrahamS – out of interest which route forces you to fly Ryanair, and which airlines have pulled the plug on that route?

Buy cheap, buy twice.

Like some other people I have one contact lense for close up and one for distance. Trouble is it gives very little depth of field so when I ride I wear distance lenses in both eyes. It makes an amazing difference to your speed over the rough stuff, but you’re stuffed if you need to read a map.

Don’t you mean cunni?

I’d rather fly Ryanair on the Manchester to Dublin route due to the stupid bus offload when you land at Manchester. But they have started flying to SFO which is a really good option from Manchester.

Really bad here on the edge of Delamere, I wouldn’t mind betting there will be 200+ trees down in the forest and a few of our favourite trails will be blocked.

When did ski-jumping go down the scalextric route?

Edit: bbc have just said they run on some kind of ceramic material instead of snow.

Three Guardian staff members – Johnson, executive director Sheila Fitzsimons and computer expert David Blishen – carried out the demolition of the Guardian’s hard drives. It was hot, sweaty work. On the instructions of GCHQ, the trio bought angle-grinders, dremels – a drill with a revolving bit – and masks.

Sounds like the Guardian hard drives are the same ones I used back in the 70’s.

The speed limits have just been changed around here

The main road now has a 40 sign just where the school sign is, and the side road has derestricted signs at roughly the same place, and of course the school entrance is on the side road!

Useful info, thanks. Time to rethink the itinerary, it’s just such a bloody long way to go for 2 trips though.

Thanks guys, I can only get 4 weeks off work so we’re stuck with that schedule. Would love to take 3 months but it just won’t work.

If you’re in Queenstown, you must go to http://www.fergburger.com/

Thanks m0rk cracking website.

CaptainFlashheart – Member

Sauce? On steak?
Ban them immediately.

It’s a northern thing, you wouldn’t understand :wink: You can keep your Café de Paris butter

Enjoy Flashy.
Sat here with a full belly of sirloin from the local butchers. Nice rind of fat which rendered down in the pan while the oven chips (OK let me off that on) were in the oven. Rest the steak while I deglaze the pan with some brandy, throw in the peppercorns, double cream and heat. Pour the sauce into a small jug and get mrs Pembo to serve up including green beans while I wilt some spinach in the frying pan with butter. Final touch was to pour the juices from the rested steak into the peppercorn sauce.

[Teaser] As we know, Vine’s Radio 2 show is a soapbox for the weak and the stupid to moan and groan about those who have been more successful in life.[/Teaser]

If you analyse natural numbers e.g. numbers you come across while reading newspapers or websites, or even tables in engineering handbooks 31% will start with 1, 18% start with 2 and only 5% start with 9.

The whole series thread has been a bit Doctor Who, smug and self-regarding

FTFY

Excellent TV, the eye flicking scene in episode 3 was brilliant.

Nothing wrong on my ipad download. Heavy night last night?

And me. Around 90 minutes on a Nexus4.

Runcorn to London now £301 return at peak times! I must rack up about £8k per year on that trip and some people do it at least once a week. I claim it back on expenses but it still has to be passed on to our customers, who then pass it on to their customers – that’s you and me.

Just a comedy OTB into a pool of very smelly mud in Delamere.

MoreCashThanDash – Member

Depends how tense it gets between my wife and my mother. Might need to take kids out to check over their new bikes….

I know what you mean MCTD, it’s like walking along a tightrope.
Hope to get out for an hour in the morning for a bimble around Delamere.

Paid a £1 for a litre of Famous Grouse today. Went down to the local pub to see the hunt off and won the raffle :-)

WFH today. DHL just brought my new work iPhone so I’m getting that set up and moving everything over from the Blackberry. A good day to prat around doing stuff like this as I imagine moving contacts will be a bit challenging.

PSA 3 for £3 on all big bags of crisps at Tesco. Kettle Chips, Tyrells, Burts, etc.