Which part of France are you going to, if you are anywhere near Luxembourg, the prices there are much lower than France, under 1 euro per litre for Diesel when prices here were £1.20 in May.

Saw these back in the day, one of my faves at the time. Check the hair

Got to be this classic duet, you can just taste the hormones. Just brill

I was on a wet road ride in the Italian Lakes a few years ago when I a rear wheel spoke broke on my Kysyrium wheel, wheel wouldn't even go round without catching the frame. Resigned to a very long walk/carry, a guy in a VW stopped, obviously with mother and kids in car. Asked if I was ok, I showed him my problem and tried to explain the complexities of Mavic wheels in broken Italian, he put the bike and me (sopping wet) in the car and ran me to his LBS about 10 miles away which was the type of place that only sold Pinerello Princes and you could eat your dinner off the floor. They didn't have the exact spoke length in stock despite having a box full of Kysyrium spokes so took the wheel out of one of said Princes on display rendering it unsalable, fitted it trued the wheel and charged me 7 euros. I really must have been a good boy in another life :D

What about using Wikiloc, draw the route on Google Earth, download to Wikiloc, upload to GPS and voila,Robert est son onkle.

You might want to have a look in TKMaxx at the moment, I picked up a Vaude 50/50 Merino/Nylon top for £15 last week, wore it last weekend on a pretty hot ride and it seemed quite cool and non smelly.

Nice to see they've fitted it with a balcony where the Captain can play his pipe organ. RIP James Mason

+1 For Otley,great to see proper athletes giving it their all. Well done Wilco and all the Holme Valley kids. Great atmosphere and a good chippy to boot.

Using the word disinterested to mean uninterested. Pedants corner is alive and well.

It's a lot like Wales, forests and dampness. Had a very wet fortnight there 4 years ago. Some good riding around the Ballons D'Alsace and the usual array of waymarked VTT routes centred around Gerardmer. The German side of the Rhine (Black Forest) is generally drier and nicer. No guiding companies that I know of.

By an old motocrossing friend who was about 8 stone wet through and took up with a rather buxom Welsh lady. "Its like owning a 500 but only being able to ride a 125"

Got to link to Detroit if only to avoid anything by Bananarama Oh my god

Blackhole Sun Poss link into James Bond themes??

There's a massive carpark behind the leisure centre in the middle of Mach which you get to by turning off the Newtown road opposite the Holey Trail shop. Not sure if there are charges but also beware if you have a roofrack on that the height restrictor is not closed. Mach 3 can be found by cycling out of town past the Co-op and turning right by the tyre garage towards Forge then right again in Forge. If you are going on Saturday, call in the Holey Trail for a map or speak to Tegid. The Climax trail is a few miles N of Mach near the Centre for Alternative Technology, park at the trailhead as advised earlier.

Thanks all, especially Jamie, hadn't thought of that.
Any stockists of Sugoi in Yorkshire so I can try some on?

I'm not, I'm going to the Pyrenees and Catalonia, it's going to be hell 8)

There was a guy doing the Sustrans C2C last weekend that we kept passing. He and 3 mates were doing it for Prostrate Cancer and was wearing a full face helmet, very quickly got christened the Stig.

Their product descriptions kill me, "Rectangular Sleeping Bag" bugger I was looking for a circular one.

Is it in bottles? If so check the crown cork when you open as they can go rusty. Probably won't taste very nice but anything made by Fosters can claim that.

You clearly didn't try the corned beef pie, chips and gravy at the kiosk by the beach. Delicious :P

Did it last weekend, Friday wasn't the best day to set off from Whitehaven but it was organised weeks ago. 10 of us on a variety of bikes from my Blur to a 700cx23 tyred road bike. If you want to do all the off road sections, a mountain bike is definitely preferrable, especially over the Old Coach Road nr Threlkeld and the section up from Rookhope and along the old railway line which is quite rough in places, you might also want to do a lap of the Whinlatter trail. All in all it is a pleasant ride and well signposted. We finished at Sunderland which uses a nice trail round the Stadium of Light. Great B&B at Motherby House and Bunkhouse at Allenheads broke the route up into sensible sections.

Nor at Nant Yr Arian, there is also quite a big layby on the main road that the pikeys who don't want to pay a quid for parking use, 50 yd walk to the cafe.

If the German girl had Deutschland printed on her shorts, it wouldn't fit, however if the English one had "The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland" printed on hers, it might just be visible either side of the crack.

It was a bit complicated as there was a master tap in the kitchen and outside on the bottles and the individual pipes had small taps as well, gave me something to do, by the time everyone else arrived I had the fire on, cooker going, water heater sorted so it was home from home. I'd forgotten how nice gas lighting was, took me back to caravanning as a kid before the days of electric hookups.

Just a thought, Claerddu is run by the Elan Trust, given it's facilities, quality and obvious lack of neglect, those who stayed there might consider sending them a donation. I'm thinking of moving there permanently!
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I arrived at 5.30 cooked and then sat around bemoaning not having brought anything to read or listen to. At about 9, just as I was giving up on seeing anybody, 3 more arrived (over active knife etc) having come from a direction I didn't think was possible to ride. Then Chew,Luke and Alfachippy turned up, the 3 Shropshire guys and about 11.00 2 more so I ended up moving 12 bikes out of the place in the morning so we could get going, mine being the closest to the wall. It was cosy :D Doing Monks Trod at 7.30 in the morning clear and sunny was one of the best memories of the weekend.

John, were you one of the group in the Teifi Inn on Saturday night, the chef was telling us you were still up and about at 2 o'clock, he reckoned you were steaming. Nice pub isn't it?

From Palma you have a good choice of routes, the hills to the E over to Calvia and Andratx are nice and the coast road round to Deia and Soller is fabulous. No need to get a guide, just a map. Getting out of Palma can be a bit nerve racking with the traffic but it's generally fine.

Looks like the army are looking into it. IGMC (I'm here all week)

Too knackered to work out the climbing stats or download my photos of an assortment of semi ruined farmhouses but thought I'd add my thanks to Stuart and Dee for what was the best 48 hours I've spent in a long time.
My numbers were
142 miles total, 45 Saturday, 58 Sunday and 39 today.
19 hours riding, all 13 checkpoints visited and discovering the best equipped bothy in Wales.
Put me down for next year.

Stuart, looks like you've devised the perfect event format, everyone enters and pays, no-one turns up. Don't worry I'll be there with my gammy knee and buggered shoulder, you give up putting things off when you pass 50 it's too dangerous. :D

Slightly worried that IanB seems to have one of those flip over calenders on his bars. Or is it a book to read whilst pushing :oops: It is only 3 days isn't it? I'm just taking OS 147 & 135 and a good memory.

Sometimes I'm one, most of the time I'm the other and occasionally I'm both. Mainly stems from years of enduro motorbiking and a KTM which suffered from this.

Just come from Alpkit, warehouse is like a desert! Managed to liberate a down gilet that they thought they had sold out of though. Now where do I put that?

JC can you put me down for Sausage & Mash if you haven't already, ta.

Try ringing Shelly Childs at Cambrian Tyres as he is a member (I think) or ask at Summit Cycles, Joe should be able to point you in the right direction. I would guess this is 100% road along the A44 and back over Clywedog, if you see a lot of people with orange bags on their bikes pushing singlespeeds, that'll be the Welsh Ride Thing :wink:

There's a really alarming number of singlespeeds doing this event, do you know it's in Wales?

Hi Chew, No prob on the lift, leaving about 9.00 I'm 10 mins off J37 M1 heading towards Manchester.E Mail me. Just a thought on roofrack, its designed for normal dropouts with front wheel out not these new fangled scaffold pipe things but could get them inside at a pinch.

Saus n mash washed down with Double Dragon if it's on, can't wait.

Thinking about it it's not a big deal to divert to Llanidloes, I was thinking I'd prefer not to see those bloody big hills up the side of Clywedog more than once. I'll go with the flow.