It's 6:30 from the shop.

midlifecrashes – Member
Interested here too, let me know.

Went along last night and met with a small group from the shop. Nice steady ride out to Steetley and back, dead chilled pace, nothing too technical. Decent bunch of lads. Thanks to Dean, Marcus and the rest for making me feel welcome.

Stopped at a pub near/in Sprotborough 20mins from town on the way back.

Good to know there's a local ride I can tag on to whenever I want.

Apparantly they ride on a Saturday as well and are planning a trip up to Dalby 6th June.

Check out linky at

mountainbikerides.co.uk

For some helmet cam footage of Follow the Dog route.

Plus there's a load of pics in the photos section (can't get link to work but the site is easy to navigate)

EDIT: They're under the 'photographs/Local rides/cannock chase' section

I really shouldn't have found this funny so I'm quite prepared for the justifiable flaming I'll get.

Guy at work was telling me he had to go to hospital for some tests for suspected prostate cancer.

Clearly this isn't the funny part, however when he went into the most graphic and minute detail about having things inserted up his rectum and down the shaft of his penis, plus he'll most likely have erectile disfunction (you have to see him to realise that the image of him shagging is hilarious), incontinance (requiring the wearing of "incontinance pads in his underpants" his words) etc etc. I struggled to stiffle a snigger, I am afterall anally retentive with the sense of humour of a 5 year old.

Shame on me! :oops:

Doh!

There'll be no fighting after all then? :x

Just off to check the classifieds…let me see…anything from zcapx32 or JRTG?

bigyinn – Member
poisonspider you're certainly living up to your name. Having a bad week and need someone to pay? lol

There's nothing like a bit of (totally) unjustified sh1t stirring to brighten up an otherwise boring day in the office.

sv – who's your seller??

I'll campaign for all consumer injustices. I'm like Anne Robinson with PMT! Grrr!

Has he seen the angry mob with burning effigies (sp?) coming over the hill top?

It might galvanise his efforts to get down to the Post Office!

Don't start backing down now bigyinn!

# We want BLOOD! We want BLOOD! We want BLOOD! #

Best practice would be to evacuate. That is what I insist upon in my factory.

This has a number of benefits:
– avoids people becoming complacent
– every evacuation is good training for the fire marshalls and helps identify process improvements
– if it is a recurring false alarm it focuses the site services manager on fixing it when we have to shut down and have 70 people in the car park for 10mins

Tests should be same time same day every week and this should be made aware to everyone through proper inductions and training.

Someone must have an address? If it's near me I'll get the boys round to explain your predicament and try to negotiate a mutually beneficial outcome. 8)

put some feelers out if this isn't resolved soon.

Do you work for MI5? (or 6 I'm not sure which is which)

Was he a robbin' git at Uni as well?

I swapped out the RP23 for exactly that reason, I wasn't impressed. It seemed as if you had to up the pressure to stop it blowing through the travel which reduced small bump sensitivity and if you dropped the pressure it seemed to ride at either extremes of the travel.

By comparison the CCDB is a million times better. But then again I have a personal preference for coil.

Yeah! I'm with bigyinn on this one!!

Not that I know him or bought anything from 'Ashley Garvin', in fact it's got nothing to do with me whatsoever, but I like yin's style. :wink:

If it comes to a fight can we have pictures?

I went from a old style Horst link 5 spot to an Orange 5, both with a coil fitted. The Turner was on a Romic and the Orange has a CCDB.

I have to say there's not a huge amount in it.

The Turner was heavier and not as nimble as the Orange, probably due to the change in angles, the Turner was an '05 and things have moved on since then.

The Orange is plusher and seems to have more usable travel, however I suspect that is mostly due to a better shock (although I think the Romic is under-rated).

I would happily recommend either.

midlife' – I think that may be the gist of it, I guess I'll have to tag along to find out.

piston'- It is pretty flat I'll grant you but there are the odd short DH run here and there (the afore mentioned Steetley for one)

You mean, the fag in the Ford.

And we're supposed to live in a classless society :roll:

That's all in the back of the S-Max! (With rows 2 and 3 seats are folded down)

Very cozy it is too.

Very nice'n'all that but can you fit two mountain bikes, tools, spares, a pressure washer plus kit bag in the boot and still have room for a full size air bed and sleeping bag laid ready for a kip. I think not.

It's always a dilema: bling v practicality

bump

It makes a change for me to be the catalyst for agreement, it's normally the other way round. :wink:

Don't know if it's been said already 'cos I can't be aresed to read all the posts, however, for what it's worth I would recommend a Ford S-Max Titanium 2.0 Tdci

It's pretty much the same inside as the Mondeo trim wise but WAAAAY more practical. 7 seats, loads of boot space, performance is on a par the same engined Mondeo.

Wouldn't bother with the X option on the Mondeo as it's very poor value for money and the spec list on the ordinary Titanium is pretty darn good.

For £25k you should be able to get the 2.2 Tdci for a bit more poke but fuel econ isn't as good obviously.

I've had two and I can heartily recommend them.

In my experience of comparing steel versus Ti (an RCS version) on a Romic, you'd be lucky to save much more than 180g ish. There are cheaper ways to save weight, although you have to consider the pimp value.

BTW it made no decernable difference to the ride characteristics.

Haven't ridden the Whyte or Genesis but I've had a Cotic Soul for the last 5 years and I can highly recommend one. Decent weight, great handling, very versatile. Plus I like the independant brand vibe, man 8)

As I understand it, if you sync to another copy of iTunes it will wipe the iPod and you'll lose everything. This happened to me recently when I upgraded my desktop. I had to copy over all the music from the old HD to the new one and rebuild the iTunes library and playlists.

How were you planning on adding another CD if you've removed iTunes. You can use ipods as data storage and copy mpeg files to it, however it won't recognise it as playable (on the iPod) if you haven't sync'd it through iTunes. You can plug it into another computer as an external drive and it will play it through Media player but that's all.

As far as I'm aware iTunes is the only way to get playable music on an iPod.

I know this isn't what you asked for but, we normally stop at Barncrosh Cottages which is self catering. It's just outside Castle Douglas which has a few pubs and curry house etc. There's a couple of options for sleeping 7 depending on whether you mind sharing or not.

I'm assuming your going to do some of the 7 Stanes routes, we've found it really well situated for most of them (except Glentress).

Just a thought.

Isn't a 'bridleway walkers route' an oxymoron.

If it's a bridleway, you can ride it. End of.

The side walls should be ok but you can easily get down to the canvas if you get carried away locking the back wheel on the steep decents.

It's just like sandpaper, I still have the scars where I left my skin on the trail, proper friction burns!

Might stick the old front wheel on wife's 2008 Rockhopper Disk

I thought you said you were gay? Or is 'wife' just a euphemism for the more effeminate member of your relationship.

br – the legal minimum is 5.6 weeks (based on 5 day week) = 28 days.

This includes bank holidays.

As others have said, if you are working compressed hours (ie a full week in 4 days rather than 5) you should be entitled to the normal number of holdays, ie the 24 you quoted.

You are also entitled to the 8 bank holiday days, therefore your entitlement is 32 days in total.

As others have said, you then need to convert the 32 days into hours and then consume them in line with the hours you are actually working. IE if a compressed day is 10hrs, a day's holiday debits you 10hrs from your entitlement.

If a bank holiday falls on a work day you must use up your holidays to cover it. If your day off is a bank holiday you do nothing as you wouldn't have been working anyway.

I'd agree that's different. It isn't an On-One, Radley, Cotic, Turner or Orange. They seem to be the default STW bikes de jour!

I've 2 out of the 5 (and just sold a third), does that mean I'm cool and hip and with the zeitgeist, or just not that imaginative.

<back from the dead>

Surf-Mat – I'm not going to tell you what you can and can't post about.

All I will say is, why not read back your posts just before hitting the send button. Ask yourself:

Do I sound like a big head?
Do I sound like I'm waving my willy?
Do I sound like a bragging bell-end?
Does anyone give a sh1t what I'm saying?

If any of the first three are answered 'Yes' and/or the last one is a 'No' then consider re-wording or don't bother at all.

I'll give you some time to reply because I suspect you may have a few re-drafts to do.

Soz, chuffed up the link

Try this

The Beast is from marker 2 to marker 6 on the map.

BTW the Beast is on the Triple Eight mentioned above (although I think it may send you up it) :oops:

"How to Make a Good First Impression" by Surf-Mat, an invaluable read.

My first post, which was only a short while after Surf-Mat posted included:

Urrghh, what a big head, I hate him already

Which was meant to be a joke. Actually it turned out to be quite profetic.

Mat – if you are so keen on cars (no problem with that, I can fully appreciate it) why aren't you on a car forum bigging up your BM, you'll probably get more constructive input that way.

This is an MTB forum, where, sad as it is sometimes, people like to talk about bikes. It should come as no surprise that it contains a higher then average number of people not that intrested in cars.

I sense you have confidence issues. What's your relationship like with your parents? Did they neglect you as a child? Tell us about it, you're among friends here (ahem!).

In all honesty I don't give a sh1t what car you drive, it doesn't define you as a person, your actions and attitude do. What impression would you like us all to be left with, if it helps here's mine;

" Wow, that Surf-Mat is a cool dude, I wish he was my friend. He has such a cool car (which is loads better than my deisel Ford, hangs head in shame)and is clearly really fit and a great MTB rider. I bet his wife/bird/partner is gorgeous and everyone wants to shag her. I'm so jealous. Why can't I be him, I'm off to kill myself…"

That's God's honest that is!

BANG! THUD!

This is a classic

]Hope Triple Eight[/url]

Link has GPS download files and maps etc.

Toasty – not sure CX is bike a good idea, the vast majority of decent trails around there are ROCKY!!! I'm sure someone will post to say they've done it and it's a piece of piss but I can't imagine it would be much fun.

Ride a few times a week, run a lot, surf a lot, did an offroad tri last year (my only race involving an MTB to date!) and live in sunny Cornwall.

Urrghh, what a big head, I hate him already :wink:

We're dead mature us lot. :roll:

They're not the only option. You could try: ChillChalet who offer great accomodation and MTB guiding.

TJ – 'I KNOW!!!!!' :x

Have you read the previous posts about gut reactions?? Particularly the example I gave of the financial advisor.

It is a well proven and accepted psychological response. EVERYBODY and I mean EVERYBODY is pre-programmed through thousands of years of evolution to make instant gut reactions to things.

The brain can then take over and make more rational and reasonable interpretations of what it sees and hears.

The point I'm making, which most people seem to be missing, and would rather boo hoo about someone saying someone else was 'short and tubby', is that it is an unconcious human instinct to make generalisations and snap judgements about things.

The OP was not being mean, he just called it the way his gut instinct told him to.

Jeeeesus!

You could try Smudge on here. He builds batteries for Trout Lights.

Smudge's website