If it helps, I quite liked it when I rode it. But then, what do I know, the last time I seriously rode a full suspension bike before that was probably 2011 (but I didn’t like that bike).

The main issue was the temperature and humidity which just seemed to make the idea of doing any kind of outdoor exercise completely ridiculous. I think it’s worth persevering with for a bit.

Monte? Glen Eyre? Pfft, you’re all posh to me, South Stoneham tower, 12th floor (although I could look down on the fancy Monte people from my view point).

Summers were spent setting out on big construction sites and I worked in the Stoneham bar for 3 years during term time.

Did anyone else notice that when he changed his bike on the last stage he made sure he took his SRM head unit off the old bike and put it on the new one. I’m fairly certain everything he does is measured and analysed to the nth degree and even a stage where you’d think power/energy used would be the last thing that mattered he still took it seriously.

Tim Kerrison is the person who should get all the plaudits for his and Sky’s success imo.

PJM1974 – Member

Personally, I’d also have liked to see her receive a ten year driving ban, but ultimately when she does get her license back she’ll be practically uninsurable.

Doesn’t seem like the kind of person who will worry about having insurance.

And wrt to charging these situations as GBH as opposed to driving offences – that will require a lot of realigning of jurors beliefs. There’s a massive social norm that driving offences/crimes committed behind the wheel of a car are different to say stabbing someone. It’s the idea that they could happen to anyone. Either the media need to be encouraged to treat these things differently, or the laws need changing the make it impossible to apply a charge of dangerous driving to a situation where there was clear intent.

Well here’s a review – doesn’t seem to pull any punches but they reckon it’s a good thing. https://www.wideopenmountainbike.com/2017/05/marin-wolf-ridge-review-rich-thomas

kilo – Member

I was under the impression that Stybar was marking a move for boonen that ended up going away.

Yup, he was certainly doing that. And as such didn’t have to do any work with the lead group (he apparently has said that he was only told he could go for the win at 4km to go – which sounds about right, it wasn’t clear that group would get to the velodrome on their own until about that point). With GvA clearly the strongest rider in the group he had no incentive to do work for GvA, even more so with a viable team mate behind him and by the time he got to 4km to go it was clear that they would make it so why would he waste energy? I think it was poor form of Sean Kelly to criticise him imo.

The big disappointment was Trek-Segafredo’s negative racing. They had the resource (Degenkolb plus two others) and the incentive (no one from their team up the road) to work to pull GvA etc back but showed no desire to do so. If you want to point fingers at anyone for sitting in, that’s where your finger should be pointing.

reggiegasket – Member

+1 glad GVA won and not the wheel-sucking Quick-Step rider*

I really don’t understand all the hate on here (and by Sean Kelly) for Stybar’s tactic in the finale. He had a team mate behind who was more than capable of winning the race, he didn’t have to work. Neither GvA nor Langeveld had anyone – why does Stybar have to help them get to the line and potentially beat him/his team?

crashtestmonkey – Member

Nice to see Hayman at the pointy end to prove last year wasn’t some fluke.

The same Mat Hayman who prior to winning P-R last year had previously had two top tens in the race?

I think a lot of people are ready to criticise something they don’t completely understand.

The majority of routes on old railway lines (nowhere near 40% of the ncn btw) include covenants which mean Sustrans have to allow it to be used as a railway if the government desire in the future. I’ve never actually heard of Sustrans blocking such a scheme. They did object to parts of the Bristol to Bath railway path being used for a bus rapid transit route, but that’s because it was ill thought out and badly planned rather than removing the use of the path (in fact the plans would have allowed cyclists/peds to still use a segregated section).

As for maintenance of routes, that’s almost always the responsibility of the local highways department. Cf. potholes and the general state of the roads.

Wrt to access issues, sustrans don’t actively support motor cycle barriers but take a pragmatic approach – is it preferable that no path is built rather than one with reduced access?

Anyway, given the state of funding I’m not sure Sustrans will be about in their current form for much longer.

(Disclosure: I used to work for them as one of the few engineers in the organisation. Imo they get a lot of ire which should instead be directed to council highway departments and generally do a pretty good job given the lack of money they have)

Calm down dear, it’s only an internet forum.

Still, I wouldn’t suggest resorting to lawyers would be the best course of action. And I’m not sure what you think a civil action would result in, if the landlord is found responsible for the injury of a child, in the uk at least, it’s a criminal matter and any compensation the child is entitled to would be set by the court as part of that. In a civil case the best you could expect is recompense for any medical bills and loss of earnings a parent has in dealing with this along with any out of pocket expenses for rectifying the kitchen. We don’t live in America (thank god) so a $3million lawsuit for “mental anguish” would get nowhere in our courts.

jekkyl – Member
Hot tub? in a little gazebo surrounded by bamboo fencing?

With some pampas grass nearby?

It won’t be Obama – he doesn’t arrive until Thursday. Might have been a rehearsal though.

Come on, 3 pages in and no one has mentioned the ultimate STW buggy? We’ve got a bugaboo donkey. It’s huge, big wheels, goes anywhere, can be adapted to so many things, very expensive. The Santa Cruz Nomad of buggies if you will. The one upside to it is they seem to hold their value well.

In our defence we also have two babies to put in it.

Generally though, my wife uses it in one baby mode and the other one goes in a sling. Or we both use slings if we’re both going out. If you’re looking for slings I’d avoid the baby bjorn at all costs as they put all the weight through your shoulders rather than your hips and putting babies in them forward facing is really bad for their backs. We’ve got his and hers ergobabys.

I’ll second white tail croft – lovely place to stay. I think Brant has stayed there too…

One of the best pieces of news I’ve heard so far this year is that Phil’n’paul won’t be commentating on the tour for ITV4. Boulting and Millar are doing it apparently.

allyharp – Member
Is it only me who’d have expected it to be CRC buying Wiggle if anything?

Probably. CRC, still family owned, would never be able to raise the capital to buy Wiggle, owned by a venture capital firm. Whereas Wiggle’s owners probably have that kind of cash spare.

perchypanther – Member
*fails to see how the landlord is responsible for his tenants behaviour*

You might fail to see it, but legally they are. http://scotland.shelter.org.uk/get_advice/advice_topics/neighbourhood_issues/antisocial_behaviour/private_landlords_and_antisocial_behaviour/how_private_landlords_should_deal_with_antisocial_behaviour

The thing he hasn’t realised is that he’s liable to prosecution on top of any clamping fees: https://www.cartaxenforcement.co.uk/%5B/url%5D

What happens if you don’t pay

If you’re registered as the vehicle’s keeper, you’ll get a letter saying your vehicle has been impounded and will be disposed of unless you pay all the fees.

You could also face prosecution with fines of up to £1,000 as well as paying any arrears of vehicle tax owed and costs.

Unclaimed vehicles could be disposed of or sold after 7 days, or 14 days for more valuable vehicles.

I sincerely hope that when DVLA aren’t able to recover their costs for towing his car when selling/scrapping it they prosecute him with the full force of the law.

http://www.uci.ch/mm/Document/News/Rulesandregulation/16/72/76/MTBReglementsENG_English.pdf

4.3.011 All lycra-elastane based tight-fitting clothing is not permitted.

4.3.012 A full-face helmet must be worn properly both when racing and when training on the course. The helmet must be fitted with a visor. Open-face helmets may not be worn.

The UCI has a remit to promote the sport and iirc it was seen that lycra and no peaks wouldn’t help that.

How about if you run an online mtb magazine that very rarely makes a profit?

My mother in law refers to them as “burden to society”, as in burden to society knocked tonight. After quizzing her this is because one of them once opened with the line “I don’t want to be a burden to society living on benefits so am selling…”

@saxonrider

WRT to still birth, it very much is (as it should be!) viewed as the same as a live birth. Both parents are entitled to statutory maternity/paternity leave as they otherwise would be. My condolences for your loss.

Plant theft and theft from building sites in general is very very common.

Last big project I was working someone broke in and stole the fuel (red diesel) bowser two weekends in a row, turns out 1000l of diesel is pretty attractive when pump prices were close to £1.50/l. Contractors fitted CCTV after that. At the same time they also nicked a couple of 30m rolls of terram…

https://www.senditnow.com/%5B/url%5D

Goes via parcelforce, but tends to be way cheaper than parcelforce will quote. Never have quite understood why!

The only issue with the map is they’ve put “convicts” on the one bit of Australia which didn’t have convicts. There’s a reason why the Australian MoD is based in Adelaide…

@scaredypants – I’ve done BigDummy, slightly disappointing in retrospect.

If you really wanted to bodge it, you could just use a screwdriver as a drift and then hammer them round…

I was hypnotised by a stage hypnotist once. As above I was in perfect control of what I was doing but couldn’t see any reason not to do it – I’m normally quite a self concious person, but basically the hypnotist encouraging you to do things (and getting the audience to encourage you too – as was evident in the Derren Brown thing last night) gives you the confidence to do them without any thought as to what the negative consequences are. Also they put you in a position of safety – you know that the audience aren’t laughing at you, they’re laughing at the ‘hypnotised’ you.

Oh and not bike related, but I was once in the car park at Freshwater West, in my wetsuit applying wax to my surfboard when an old lady in a micra literally drove into the back of me (at about 3mph). Apparently I was using the parking space (which she wanted to use) for something other than parking a car and that wasn’t acceptable, so she decided to let me know this by driving into me. The mind boggles.

I got called a “white c**t” (apologies to the mods for filter avoidance, but it’s relevant) by a delivery van driver who was upset that I shook my fist at him (literally all I did) when he pulled out on me and almost knocked me off. I then took a photograph of his number plate and him on the phone when he stopped at the red light 50m up the road, he was even more upset at that and got out of his van and squared up to me so I calmly got off my bike with it inbetween us and told him to calm down until he got back in his van and drove off. He hadn’t seen the reason for my calmness which was the policeman on the pavement on the other side of the junction who I then went and spoke to who took a statement from me and the driver of the car behind him at the junction.

He didn’t bother turning up to court when he was charged with racially aggravated assault, was found guilty and fined £600, made to pay a £100 victim surcharge, given 6 points and given 200hrs of community service. In his interview (carried out at 3am after the police picked him up at home 30 mins earlier) which was read in court he denied calling me “white” and instead suggested that he had called me “British” – the magistrates suggested that in their opinion this was still racial assault.

Given that I still haven’t received the £100 victim surcharge almost 2 years later I would be surprised if he’s done his community service (he certainly hasn’t paid the fine as I’d get any money he paid first).

seosamh77 – Member
I mind a big 4×4 forced me in to a puddle one time, 2 secs later, blue lights flashing and the polis stopped the 4×4. As I plodded on my merry way past them I made eye contact with the driver and just laughed! Quite a satisfying morning that yin.

Obviously no bearing in your case, but the polis do care at times.

I had similar to that, was cut up on a roundabout by a driver in a white van (it was the driver doing it not like the sentient 4×4 in your case though) who failed to notice the police car waiting to enter the roundabout at the next arm. Blue lights on and straight after the van. I think I even stuck my tongue out at the now stopped van driver. To make it even better, it was the morning of my wedding day.

Ad posted 20hrs ago (as at this morning), whiny post posted 11hrs ago. Ad up for 9hrs and you run to the chat forum to shill it rather than think first about your ad and pricing?

Very much this, am surprised the mods haven’t deleted this thread yet tbh. I think I’m going to start overpricing everything I put in the classifieds and then asking about why it’s not selling on the chat forum. Will make my ads a lot more visible.

I can’t believe none of the pendants on here have pointed it out yet, but neither those pans with the little dishes in them nor the cling film method result in poached eggs – they make coddled eggs. The egg white needs direct contact with water for proper poaching…

Wideopen had the Banshee Phantom after Singletrack – I had a go and it didn’t seem like it had been tested that hard! Was a really nice bike though. http://wideopenmag.co.uk/2015/04/long-term-test-our-29-banshee-phantom-review

The bikes are generally lent by the rep for a month or so before they’re passed on to either another mag or a shop for test rides. Most of the other, cheaper stuff is left for the mags to do what they want with. Knowing someone in the review trade has been a good source of helmets for me – they can’t be passed around due to h&s etc.

the v50 boot is tiny compared to an octavia fyi.

Basically people become greedy idiots when buying/selling houses. Irrationally so.

When I sold my previous house the rear elevation needed re-rendering and we had hoped to have finished it before putting it on the market, but had only got as far as the rendering and not the painting. The buyer agreed to buy on the basis that we would have it painted before exchange, which we did. Their surveyor came round to check this and the next day (the day before exchange which was a long chain and couldn’t really be moved at this point without the whole thing collapsing) the buyers got in touch via the estate agent that they didn’t like the colour and wanted to reduce the purchase price of the house by £700 so they could get the rear repainted in a colour of their choice. I had email evidence where i’d told them the colour it was being painted (country cream iirc) asking them to advise if this wasn’t ok…

Anyway, much tooing a froing later I basically agree to give them £500 on the basis of not wanting to hold things up (after the estate agent accidentally forwarded me an email from the buyer saying I was holding them to ransom…). They want to ok this with their mortgage lender, who advise any change in purchase price would require a new mortgage offer which would take 3 days… In the end I agree to give them cash with the keys (naughty naughty) and we exchange contracts. On the monday morning the estate agent rings to say that the buyers have decided they can’t accept the £500 cash as they themselves are solicitors and it would be dishonest. To say I was angry would put it lightly. Sadly our cat did a massive poo in the house five minutes before we left and I didn’t have time to clean it up…

£500 was less than 0.2% of the purchase price (that’s the irrational bit).

Whatever you do, just make sure it’s both passive and aggressive

unfitgeezer – Member
Because we are a Christian country !

But we’re not, we’re an irreligous country. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religion_in_the_United_Kingdom

ah, ok I missed the Norwich bit. Not the company I was thinking of then!

@jonm81 – judging by the language you use is the head office you work in any where near Box Hill by any chance? And given the 150 miles does the secondment happen to be for an organisation which shares a name and history with the makers of fancy cars (in fact do both organisations?).

any tips for going teetotal? -> don’t drink. hth. 😉