I have a specialized fuse pro in the sale section…

Nice bike. I’d buy one.

Being serious I think if you can afford the premium for something that is genuinely made in an environmentally friendly a way as practicably  possible then why not?

That’s pretty much my view.

Back then Ford were doing some pretty exciting things with car design…

Mk1 Focus was a brilliant car.

The difficulty comes in deciding whether any particular freebie or loan of gear has an unwarranted influence on what gets written.

Two journos I know were vehement in their honesty and integrity. They don’t work in the industry anymore, but I’d be interested on their take on paid trips etc.

The flipside is that products are generally very good now; fluffing is not such an issue it was 15 years ago.

I thought this was going to be about the “Brexit Dividend”.

Me too.

Given the standard, inconsistency and subjectivity of reviews, I give them **** all heed…

I think you have to apply what you know to the review. With that in mind, most reviews do contain worth, but also plenty of crap and filler.

Avoid Audi and BMW, obviously.

Certainly A4s and 3 Series. Pitifully small boots.

Otherwise Tunstall Forest is only a quick(ish) drive up the A12.

…we’ve had  couple of Elises both seemingly built by job experiance kids on a Friday afternoon.

Apparently this is why Roger Moore never bought a Lotus after Spy Who Loved Me and For Your Eyes Only. They had someone on-set to keep the cars working (he worked on said cars every day) and after the film offered Moore a 10% discount on one.

He got a free Volvo instead.

Not really the ‘nicest’, but the one I miss. Peugeot 205 GTi 1.6 hardtop.

Edit: photo not of my actual car.

Laying in a cable.

*sniggers*

This. :D

Only 16? I salute your self control.

Move in.

#vanlife

Corbyn is a **** but I’m liking Ken Clarke.

Tell me about it. I never once imagined that I’d have reason to send Michael Heseltine a thank you letter. I had a really nice response from him too.

We live in interesting times.

It beggars believe that Wales as a whole voted for Brexit, especially as many ex-mining and steel-making areas have benefitted a lot from EU funding.

To me this is the saddest part/greatest irony of the whole debacle.

It is available to people who have ‘sensitive’ info or knowledge of projects.

This. It’s to make sure the knowledge you have of any given project is sufficiently out of date by the time you start a new role.

I still find it insane that we – as a species – have reached a point where we can extract oil, manipulate it into plastic, mould it into a detailed purpose-specific structure, ship it halfway round the world and deliver anywhere in a given nation, then stir our coffee with it and stick it in a bin.

Choose your buyer and give them a timescale (six weeks?) to complete. Explain the plan to all interested parties

This sounds like a fair plan. I’d then give the original buyer first refusal and agree a reasonable timescale.

I’m no doctor, but it strikes me that your wife telling you is a very good step.

Otherwise it’s all been said already: doctor and the Samaritans for an impartial, non-judgemental ear for your wife, and look after yourself and your son.

Absolute best of luck to you all.

I just thought it was really wishy-washy. It was alright, don’t get me wrong, it’s just one of those books that I’m surprised that people rave about. See, also, Wuthering Heights.

Ha! Not read that. I think the TV adaptations killed it for me…

Fair enough. I could easily apply ‘wishy-washy’ to his other books as they all seemed to be in a similar vein but never quite hitting the mark; thought SofW was great though.

I may re-read it now just to make sure. :)

2-1 against you.

Your move!

:lol:

We’ll agree to disagree.

Go on – I’m intrigued. His follow-ups aren’t a patch on SotW, but myself and the better half (who loves American Gods and keeps trying to get me to read it) thoroughly enjoyed it.

The Flashman series (there are 12). It’s a bit of an investment (£60 on Kindle?) but it’ll last you a looong time.

If this tickles your wick then the Roger Brook series by Dennis Wheatley – set around the French revolution – is superb.

John Connolly – anything in the Charlie Parker series

Re-reading a Song of Fire and Ice at the moment. It is superb.

Carlos Ruiz Zafon – Shadow of the Wind

Glenn Meade – Brandenburg

I’m almost identically sized to you (maybe an inch shorter in the leg) and would go ML unless that seatpost is utterly ridiculous, even with a 170mm dropper. I own a L Aeris 1.5 at the mo and spent a long time working out which was better – a M or a L. The L was definitely the better fit, but something a tiny bit shorter would be almost ideal.

I’ve used WordPress a few times, running it as a site (as opposed to a blog). It’s fairly simple once you get your head around how it works and very adaptable.

I also started digging into the code to alter the theme which ate time, but if you don’t want to do this you can have something up and running fairly quickly.

Wingnut? Lightweight, squishes down when empty, decent water capacity, gear capacity, waist pockets…

This.

IMHO Ospreys are great, but pretty bulky. Deuters are well worth a look for more conventional bags. Otherwise Wingnuts are incredibly stable and have the benefit of not clouting your helmet while descending either, no matter how loaded your pack is.

I could comfortably hop the bike with this lot on my back:

Wingnut kit bag by Neil Cain[/url], on Flickr

https://www.roughrideguide.co.uk/Wingnut-rucksacks

Trail Skins v1 are… … knee pads which I can wear for full day….

This. They’re light, airy-ish, unobtrusive and do a reasonable job at protecting your knees. I’d happily wear them for most things where I’d also wear an open face helmet, and do wear them for nearly every ride.

Otherwise I’ve had several pairs of ‘bigger’ pads and settled on some Fox Launches after my 661 Kyle Straits died – easy to pedal in and lots of protection. Scott Grenades/Rockets were also really comfy and could survive a nuclear strike, but were comparatively a little sweaty.

My knees didn’t get on with TLD Bones (If I recall correctly) pads at all. As said above, you’d be advised to try on as many as possible.

It was, as you say, about maintaining a high (legal) pace through smooth driving, observation, car position and handling. It has stuck with me.

That puts it far better than I did, as well as the constant risk assessment mentioned above. FTR he also did skid pan training.

I’d rather they pushed some more cash into gearbox R&D.

Never drove on the raod then? I drove in Britain for a week recently and found that every flow of traffic I was in was at about the legal limit + speedo error or above. How do you drive “fast” on a presumably busy commute without constnatly overtaking, speeding and being anti-social which aren’t on the IAM agenda. You live in the SE don’t you Pimp? Being with a good driver should feel slow. Nothing happens in a hurry, stopping distances are more than 2 seconds – many more if you have no intentioon of overtaking, lines give good visibility so there are no surprises. No hard braking or accelerating. You’re more likely to fall asleep than get the impression of going fast.

Thanks for the anecdotal story and assumptions, but I’m not entirely sure what you’re asking/telling me.

Doing an observed drive with the IAM first is a good idea, the observer can really make or break it.

I used to lift share with an IAM observer. He enjoyed driving fast, legally. The difference was he was incredibly diligent, observant and respectful, and knew his highway code. His car was also always in good condition. He wasn’t a bully or general ****. It helped he was also trained by the local police/ambulance driver trainer.

<span style=”font-size: 0.8rem;”>The drive to work was often a good learning experience. My experience is most of it is common sense when you think about it, but it often takes someone to point it out to you.</span>

Maybe different as I was selling them but I always knew Ragley was a Hotlines brand. I think at one time we were selling more mmbops than anyone else.

Hotlines = distribution arm of CRC.

Yep, lies unused in my desk drawer at work, if I could be arsed to post it, I’d give it away for free…

I’d take it off you @Nobeerinthefridge. Seal in mine is going. I’ll even pay you money!

I don’t live in sweden

I’m not from sweden

i have no Swedish friends

i have no plans to visit sweden

should I be concerned?

:lol:

That really is up to you.

Which bit of that concerns you most?

A country very near Russia – with its recent history of killing ex-spies and annexing countries – feeling threatened enough to issue such a leaflet, as well as reintroduce conscription and increase military spend.

im more concerned that since the Cold War we have reduced our local resilience to either natural or aggressive threats than I am worried about the threats themselves, if that makes sense.

Yes, I get you. Isolationist elements such as the European rise of the far-right, the increase in xenophobia, Brexit and Trump also increase that reduction because we’re too busy squabbling among ourselves; we’ve been divided. The fact that there’s a strong possibility Russia has influenced a lot of this only increases my concern.

To use a contemporary simile I feel a little like I’m watching GoT: the threat is in the unexplored, misunderstood cold, yet here below the wall we are fighting over borders.

I put up a Singletrack request for a drive away awning. Majority said the kyham. I picked a 2nd hand one up from here.

<div>Which one did you get?</div>

depends what you use your van for.

Fair point.

We tend to camp for a few days in a row and use the van to get around during those days, so an awing is a good way of reserving the pitch. But, because we don’t tend to stay in one place for much longer than a few days I’m after something that’s easy to get up and then pack away afterwards (so to speak). We do have a fairly small van so the extra room is very useful. Van has sliding door side access too.

Because of the size of the van I’m also after something that packs down fairly small for carrying around.

And a 10 minute erection sounds wonderful… :D

Between Tring and Wendover station is some great riding. From Wendover (heading east) you have Coombe Hill, Wendover Woods, Aston Hill, Hastoe/Tring park and Ashridge.

Ashridge is almost next to Tring station. It’s flat-ish (once you get onto ridge) and is full of legal RoWs and cheek. The Trooper in Aldbury is also a great way to end the ride.

I used to live in Finchley and would ride down to Victoria and get the train to Dorking for some North Downs riding, probably your best bet.

That would be my plan, or head out to the Chilterns (you can ride toward you’re in the hills at Wendover and both Wendover and Tring have easy access to Aston Hill; Tring has the added benefit of sitting next to Ashridge). You could even tube to Chesham/Amersham.

I lived in E18 for a year and rode predominantly at Thetford and Tunstall Forests despite Epping being on my doorstep; both ride well in the winter and were an easy motorway/A road trip.

Edit – maybe it is.

 I often try to be funny and fall flat on my face.

Wrong again,

So @jamj1974 has been funny all along? This really is confusing.