Can seat 8, carry 4 bikes on the back, a few inside and still have room for gear.

Plus on long trips you get plenty of rests at all the petrol stations you stop at. 42 gallons takes a while to fill.

But don’t assume that your letting agent will be in any way, shape or form competent. Check everything. At the end of the day all the responsibility will still fall to you.

Ideally have some local handyman who you trust to attend to any minor issues.

Take out repair insurance on anything that is liable to go wrong. Check you have the cash to pay a few months mortgage should you be without tenants.

Get everything up to scratch before you go, it’s not like selling where it’s not your problem if a door handle falls off six weeks after they move in.

That’s all I can think of right now.

OK, I’ve been living in the US for 2 years.

People die here because they can’t afford medical care. People lose their homes because they cannot afford the copay on their less good insurance.

Yes, the care for the wealthy and insured is great. I, for one, would take the NHS over the system they have here, and I’m lucky – good job, good insurance.

Imagine your child is sick. But it’s a difficult month and you’ve had to repair your car. You know if they need much (say some tests, a night in hospital) it’s going to cost you $1000. Imagine sitting there an thinking about the cost of getting help for your child and if you can afford it.

Then complain about the NHS.

@Highlander -sorry been busy.

Most times if you’re using a hardware (or ‘clever’ software) load balancer, you’re going to terminate SSL on that device. While some lower end devices might use OpenSSL, the bigger payers will have something like a Cavium Nitrox SSL processing chip, which won’t be vulnerable to this attack (but might be to others, of course). Better software load balancers might have a different proprietary stack also.

Often,the range of ciphers supported by hardware is smaller than OpenSSl so it’s possible if the device is configured away from the default that it might fall back to OpenSSL, which could be a vulnerable version.

However, I’d say that in general sites which are using high end Application Delivery Controllers (posh load balancers) are less likely to be vulnerable to this and other TLS based attacks.

It’s not all sites out there mind, even those runing Apache/Nginx plenty are sat behind hardware load balancers (especially big, high throuput sites), which often use dedicated hardware, which usually isn’t vulnerable.

I’ve got a muscle car engine, a 454cu inch (7.4l) big block chevy V8.

Sadly it’s wrapped in 3+ tons of SUV steel, aka 1997 GMC Suburban 2500.

It’s still fun though.

In a similar vein: there is a shop near me called “Bike, Book and Hatchet” – is there a more STW shop in existence?

Hmm that’s only an hour drive for me. I might just have found something less economical than my 7.4l ’97 Suburban….

I am equally incompetent at both.

I MTB’d before I skied, and what I find hard is the learned reaction to lean back when it gets steep – which is about the worst thing you can do when skiing.

You have to lean towards the danger. My advice would be to try skiing the blues really well, properly leaning forward (so you can feel the boot pressing on your shin, not your calf). Ski the easy stuff properly – even if you can get away with not doing it. Then when you hit the steeper stuff it will take longer for your form to go to pot.

It’s worth watching some videos and doing the drills, it can really make a difference.

Not my style but this is near and fits the criteria.

I’m not sure how the UK version works but in the US I get 2 screens at the same time.

I can upgrade to 4 screens, for an increased subscription.

I was looking at it today out of the office window.

I think one of the best things about flats is they don’t let you get away with poor foot positioning. I’ve had my feet come off a few times with decent pedals and shoes (5.10’s) it has always been when when I’ve failed to properly drop my heels and drive the bike with my legs on descents.

Mind you I don’t ride much in mud as round here it’s really un-rideable after rain.

I have been stunned by the low light performance of my wife’s RX100 mk2. She replaced a G10 (which went a bit odd but now seems to be working fine).

It’s a bit wee though and I liked the handling of the G10 more.

That’s sad news.

I was about to post something about the weather here (SF Bay Area), but then realized I actually miss the UK Autumn.

I got quite excited when I found some mud the other day, someone’s sprinkler system had overshot and mixed with the dust…

I grew up in Caterham, my parents still lived there and until a year or so ago I lived in Reigate.

I’d say for riding and commute you would be better off in Reigate, Dorking is nice to but I think would push the 30 minutes commute in traffic.

Reigate has a selection of pubs and restaraunts, a good night riding scene(3-4 groups a week) but nothing much in the way of clubs etc.

Rock climbing is going to be a haul across to the East Grinstead area but not impossible. There is a decent wall south of Redhill.

Good luck!

Groceries are not cheaper, at least not in California.

Tax burden is about the same plus you pay for health insurance and you pay at the point of delivery.

I’m not knocking the place but it’s not hugely less expensive for many things.

For some reason the modestly cheapo combination lock on my wife’s bike jammed the other day, whilst it was locked up outside school.

Hopped out to the hardware store and bought some small bolt cutters. One quick snip later and we were done. I think that there are only two kinds of locks worth having,

1) Super small, light lock that you can carry anywhere ‘just in case’. Won’t stop a bike thief, but will stop a casual scally from riding your bike away while you take a crap or whatever.

2) Big F-off lock for securing your commuter/transport bike.

Anything else in between is pretty much a waste of time.

It’s clear that humans can run in ‘normal’ trainers or minimalist.

There are plenty of cases of ultra-distances being run with minimal footwear (see Tarahumara).

If you are going to start easy and you are not already a runner you could do worse than go straight to minimalist, since you will be building up slowly and naturally anyway. Just take it easy – you probably have leg strength and aerobic capacity way beyond what your feet can cope with at this stage.

There is also evidence that early humans would have run great distances (see persistence hunting).

As to the zealots on both sides – there is definitely a lack of scientific evidence that links traditional running shoes or minimalist shoes to a reduction in injury – so you might as well do what appeals most.

You should have negotiated a trade in for the old kit when you bought the new. If nothing else then you would now have somewhere to send them and the numbers make it look like you got something for them.

Plus most places would rather give you a trade in value on old kit rather than additional discount as it does not set future pricing expectations so you can often negotiate a lower overall price.

Just my 2p’s worth.

Just grateful not to have to run the aircon too much this week in Nor Cal. 🙂

There was even an article on it in STW once upon a time I believe….

Our rattlesnakes here in the East Bay seem to have gone mental this year, I’ve seen quite a few out on the main fireroad size paths. All whilst running so far since I mainly bike in the early mornings.

This just in: a bottle of Torco Engine Assembly Lube which I’m going to use as fork lubrication. Rock and roll, rock and roll.

Pivot bolt on my Superlight.

in/lbs not ft/lbs doooooooohhhhhhhhhh.

I’ve got different models but the same make: SB8 on the back and Nevegal on the front. Will stick a Nevegal on the back when the local hardpack start breaking up and it gets more loose and sandy.

I honestly think the biggest difference tyres make to me is confidence, if I feel the tyre is going to grip I’ll lean the bike over more and it will. I’m not sure the physics of the tyre make anywhere much as difference as what goes on in my head…

Nope.

But its worth investigating in advance if your holiday travel insurance will cover you for all the extra insurances they like to add on, which often come to more than the base daily rental.

Also, depending on your length of stay, it can be cheaper to just buy a $99 satnav when you get here than paying for the daily rental, or buy the US maps for your own if you have one.

Enjoy….

Parcelforce – you can pay online, print your label and take it to a depot.

I’ve seen two rattlesnakes so far this season, I didn’t see any last year until about July. Apparently this year there is a bumper crop.

OOh, what does it cover?

One of the skills I lacked the most was tight swithchbacks, I even emailed phil @ mbmb at the time (2009) suggesting he hook up with Jedi to create the course.

I’d love to get another skills course done but there don’t seem to be so many in my area.

Been on here a while, I think I’m a 2001’er/. Two usernames pre/post midlife crisis weight loss.

So there goes your chances of winning a national title….

I live in the San Francisco Bay Area, so it’s pretty liberal, but even then there is a lot more religion than the UK, but none in school, which I like.

It’s odd that a country with specific clauses separating religion from that state ends up with more religious influence than the UK which has a state religion, bishops in the House of Lords and mandatory Christianity in most schools.

I don’t discuss religion, politics or healthcare with the natives.

Mainly Filmed 5 mins from my house:-

I’m nothing to do with Rivendell though….

I think it also depends on the ecosystem you have got already. I would have got a nexus or a galaxy but I already had apps and an iTunes library / purchases. For that reason alone I went iPad mini.

That said, it’s been a great device.

What is it about this job that makes it worth staying?

If there are only poor alternative options your best bet is to stick it out, be super positive in asking for feedback and an improvement plan etc. and wait for the time to move to another job/area/business unit. I can see that it’s a matter of principle but is it worth the hassle?

Take this as a learning experience: always expect to get shafted, protect yourself against it and vow to never to it to anyone you manage.

I was having my leaving drinks from work and packing up to move to California.

It’s rained today 🙂

Not sure if anyone on here ever uses the Boris bikes, but if you do make sure you check your bank balance afterwards.

Or alternatively make sure it’s properly docked….

I agree with Mike

Clean your PC (assuming its windows).

Malwarebytes for spyware (free)
Try a couple of different AV’s the Microsoft one is pretty good.