Nottinghamshire is my local force

I'm in Notts, city centre based.

Mail me in from my profile if you want to talk.

Job is great as long as you keep your head and don't find yourslef becoming a cliche or too influenced by neanderthal old boys working their notice (which in my opinion is the worst bit).

Second worst bit- target obsessed commanders who have given up on Policing and just want charts that say the right things.

Loads of woods to play in between Nottingham and Mansfield but it'll take you ages to find/learn where the good bits are. Bestwood, Burntstump, Watchwood, Sansom Wood, Blidworth Bottoms, Harlow Wood, Nomanshill Wood, Newstead/Annesley Woods…

+1
Been riding out tat way for four years now, always another moth-balled mine railway or RUPP to find and follow not to mention loads of trails in the woods.
Burnststump/Blidwrth and Haywood Oaks makes for a good trail hack most time sof year. Theives wood is good for night riding.
Sustrans route 6 is always near by to limp home on in comfort.

I can get a good dyas riding in from Gedling going down through Calverton, picking up Burnstump, Blidwrth and lunch at either Blidworth suasage van or Newsted abbey and then on to Theives wood and onto Hardwick hall etc before looping round past the M1 down the other side through Kimberly etc.

A good 60 miles plus but well worth it!

Yeah think I might do a superman in a porterloo and get kitted up should I feel like it.

It'd be alright if the wife didn't have the car and was dropping me off, then I could keep my kit in the car.

This forum is the WORST place to come for advice on the fairer sex. You would be better off asking a hermit for that kind of advice than on here!

+1
Asking a BIKE forum about your bike getting in the way of your relationship kind of either shows or expects a certain amount of bias.

IMO- plenty of ladies I have known have gone for the PJs, if they're not on I'm on for a cert' or will atleast find myslef so charged up at the posibility I will pester until sated. Even if they are worn though, they soon come off. I sleep in my T shirt that I've had on all day, so I'm hardly Mr Lover man am I?

Just beware of cuddly toys coming into the picture- that's the real end of it all.

I find it quite handy for picking up cheap and cheerful accesories like gas for the stove and waterproofing for boots.

They called me once when my card number was a didgit short and I saved the number.

Called it a few years later when I needed to query an order, even thoughit was the finance office they took the time to help me and ordered me the right bit of kit- Call went straight through too, no waiting.

Now that's service!

I find my leatherman usefull for pulling thorns out of tyres and the file is usefull for roughing up tubes and taking the edges off metal burrs when stuff snaps or has worn badly and starts causing an issue en route.

Just make sure it looks like it's been used for bike stuff-i.e has greasy hand prints on it and you don't wave it about a lot.

In a perfect world I would recomend getting a cheaper version with a smaller non locking blade and maybe selling the better one on ebay to avaid any potential infractions should you come accross an ill informed security jobsworth. But only if you think it's likely that someone will decide to suddenly rifle through your kit.

Try erecting 600mm of trellis on top of the wall. Its generally unstable and people don't like climb over it.

Spot on mate, home office best practise for burglary reduction.

Have a gold star 😀

I scaled a few walls coated in it in my youth to use the local youth club's skate ramp in the evening.

It does naff all, it's only purpose is for a short term aid in identifying if someone has been over said wall recently as they are still stained with it assuming they haven't washed or changed their clothes.

You'd be better off coating it with axle grease and stopping the buggers getting a grip.

I know some people who got the bike shop to order a "bike" on paper but what the purchaser actually got was a Frame & forks of the same value as the complete bike. But this is dodgy and not to be recomended as best practise, however if you want to give it a go I'm hardly going to stop you from my keyboard am I?

For my part I got a Trek hybrid and a new ste of XT shifters for my Orange on the same deal as on paper they were upgrdes to my Trek. I actually phoned up cyle to work to ask if this was ok and the said –YES!

Haven't ridden to work yet, but do use it to go to the shops and get to other places in the evening.

My mate regrest going on teh scheme tho as he got a grands worth of road bike and has just been laid off so now has to pay it off with the lay off money- double ouch! 🙁

I'm carp with photoshop

You did all that typing and you're a fish? 😯

Respect mate!

on my bike-open both ends of the brakes and basically topping up the floor for fourty minutes.

Generally – Unscrewing my plumbing much further down through the lateral torque of trying to unscrew a tap to change a washer, result being my dog dancing about in the kitchen under the ensuing indoor rain coming through the lights.

My wife's thoughts-

" well why don't you just have on the gears that you use the most and take the others off, then you wouldn't need all these gears"

I laughed at her at first, then I thought….

+1 for Pil – Heavily into sex pistols aged fifteen, got lent a Pil album, not quite what I was expecting. Now think they are ace.

Foos – I think they have got better with age and I have therefore grown to like the. the video on the plane with DG playing the camp air steward did help convert me I think (although that's a poor choice of words).

It was Fugazi who put me off RATM.

It was like switching from Newsnight to the local socalist worker meeting or possibly from channel four news to live from studio five.

TJ – manly handshake and say no more about it?

I get where you're coming from on that one, I spend my days trying to prove HAD and similar but in a more urban environment. Wish I could put some of our scroats on leads- it'd solve a lot of problems.

I'm leaving this thread well alone now.

toodle pip. 😉

TJ – fair point.

I didn't express myslef clearly enough. I was thinking in terms of just generaly being in the same place at the same time, not running down strangers or trotting up to someone to sniff them.

It's not easy to prove H.A.D if there's a marked out rugby pitch between the dog and the IP which is what I had in mind when I meant going towards them, I wouldn't wait till they had a muzzle in their crotch.
Even if someone at this distcance was a bit wary then the lead should go on.

Tandem- you read me wrong guvnor.

I'm assuming that she had control of teh dog and that it was not dangerours.

If anyone is scarred or distressed then yes the dog needs to be controlled, if you have it out and you can control it and it runs up to someone who is distressed the yes you call it back and put it on the lead. If it runs up and no-one says anything then you as a dog owner make the first move and ask if it is alright and act appropriately and if you're a **** who has a big dog and you can't control it then you don't deserve to have that dog – which I believe is the same as your point.

+1 for XCGB and David_R.

If a big bloke walked towards you in the street or came into the pub do you run home or phone 999 just becuase you don't like the look of him and he looks like he "could" be a bit handy?

By picking up your dog you are reinforcing to the dog that he has to be scared of everything and that any dog approaching it is a threat, this is not too smart and can leed to a nervous dog that is likely to feel more scared more easily and possibly snap at other dogs thus actually starting the fight.
My mother in laws precious King Charles gets picked up and kissed at every little thing and is totally unmanagable as a result. I took my new puppy rund to meet her and the first thing she did was go for his throat as she now equates any dog with danger.

I agree that the owner should have called out to you asking if your dog was alright with other dogs or reassuring you that hers was a big dappy thing (assuming it was), but you need to remain calm and assertive or else your dog will pick up on this and start to feel snappy and nervous too. Your calling to her and her not responding was irrsesponsible and she should have headed and responded your call.
On the other hand if her dog was a slavering beast that would eat you dog for breakfast then it was irresposnible to have it off the lead- but if this was the case your picking it up wouldn't have changed anything and it would have attcked both of you- which it didn't.

Getting worried yourself and scooping up your dog just turns it into something far more interesting that the other dog will want to know.

I don't want to sound rude here, I'm simply trying to offer some advice as an experienced trainer of working dogs. Sounds like you could both do with an opputunity to socialise and get to know more big dogs that way you will both feel calm happy and confident when surprised by one. You admit that you were scarred too.

A call to the local RSPCA or Dogs Trust Dog shelter would give you a chance to take your dog and both get to know and get used to some large dogs in a controlled enviornment thus leaving you both calm and happy campers when another big lad comes over to say hello, albeit in a less than restrained way.

As you go through life you will met many people you have a “connection with”, as you rise in stature and age at work you will more as likely find yourself in the company of younger pretty young things who listen to you and laugh at your jokes out of a mixture of sympathy and the desire to impress the boss, you may also retain some attraction that also brings these ladies to you. The difference between a human being and a rutting beats is the fact that you can sit down and think…

Do I want to hurt my partner, screw up my life, and risk everything for the chance to bump uglies with someone who will just as likely do the same to the next guy? I get a frisson of excitement when some of the temps in the office invite me out for a drink or wander about the office in inappropriate proto office wear. But then I think of my wife and all the years of fun and happiness we have and how pathetic the thought of losing all this is for the chance to undergo the same sensation I have had many times with many other ladies when I was younger until I found it all to be a bit samey with the lights off and ultimately went looking for the something more I found in my wife.

On the other hand if she makes you realise that you and your partner just don’t have a future then do the descent thing and break up with her before you do anything else.

Snaped my seat post twelve miles from home, rode back with seat in my hand standing up over a jagged shaft of metal.

so that'd be twelve miles for my contribution then.

oh and don't buy USE products.

Sorry for thread hijack, but:-
Does anywhere do some alright 3/4 lycra shorts for not much cash too?

Oh yeah Decathlon shorts- I've got a pair of the baggys and they serve me fine at trail centres, tend to reach for the enduras when I've got a long day of XC in the diary though.
Haven't tried the Bibs though…I'm not really helping am I? 😳

I spend all day on my feet in a non uniform Police role, Clarks are comfy and polish up well. You can't beat a good pair of DM shoes but since they stopped doing brogues I rely on clarks etc to look smart without looking like a plain clothes cop. As a result I own eight pairs of brougues in various makes, styles and colours.
Leather soles just wear through and soak up water, crepe soles don't grip in the damp and I could go on for a long time on this subject as my wife will testify so I will shut up now.

I think it stinks and am quite surprised at some of the "I'm alright Jack" attitudes on this thread. I do agree that it is a little naive to blame the “evil bankers” when it is obviously a high value fiscal recovery policy designed to put off high risk borrowing and to guarantee high reward to the banks investors thus refloating the bank as a viable commodity however…

If you agree one set of reasonable T&Cs such a proportional set of interest rates and accept that the fee is offset by the reward such as a working or new bike to take an example close to this forums heart. To then find that you are now risking insolvency because your previous payments of around £20 now no longer even cover the monthly fee whereas they previously covered the interest charge and a moderate percentage of repayment is pretty harsh IMO.

If the spend was for something less lavish and was for an essential such as a new boiler, kids shoes or something equally annoying but essential it’s a little rough to hypothesise that anyone in this position is a fool and a victim of their own circumstance.

This forum has some conversely intelligent and helpful threads around support for those who have lost their job etc in the country’s current rubbish state and the impatient comments here are quite eye-opening.

Most people also seem unaware on this thread that this fee is for an ARRANGED overdraught. In my personal experience the joyful new Halifax T&Cs are £1 a day for arranged ODs and £5 a day for unarranged.

Fortunately I do not have one of these accounts I do however shiver at the prospect that it could have been me going from financially tight but just afloat to risking bankruptcy and am surprised that very few other people share this sense.

My wife and my old housemate say that my tombstone will just say
"He liked jafa Cakes"
Everytime I go abroad I have to go to a shop and try that country's equivalent, so far Lithuania is winning on points although Germany is ahead on sheer sugar rush audacity.

Just out of curiosity with the standard round ones does anyone actually bother to bite them and treat them like an individual snack as opposed to a multiple snak food and put them whole into your mouth in quantity like minstrals?

nom nom nom 😉

I use them with my scout group and they're quite handy, although a mobile phone does the job just as well when there's just a couple of you.

I made a broken skateboard clock for several girlfriends.

Old straight bars make a handy addition to a car tool kit for extra leverage on a wheel spanner.

I lived in Wisbech between the ages of twelve and eighteen. I can assure you the people they picked were a fair and even cross section of the society there.
It's really horrid place full of pig ignorant inbreds, the school was so bad ofstead closed it (I wrote them a letter saying "what took you so long?").
The curry house they showed is nice and used to give my Dad loads of freebies as he was a regular customer though.
On balance I agree that it was hardly a fair bit of journalism going to a deprived area and using it to represent Britain as a whole.

I got a bike hut one from Halfrauds 😳 for my hardatil, matched it with a Ti railed saddle and it soaked up the buzz really nicely, was a bit fugly but did the job with no complaints whatsoever.

Decathlon are supoosed to do some alright road bikes.

I'm the last person to ask mate (! !! , but if you have the money get a better shock front and back and that would seem to solve most of teh issues you list. Other things sound like the product of buying items that may be on the turn already.

Don't discount the idea that you bike is just a bastard that hates change though- I had a bike that wilfully resited every upgrade I tried to give it. It lives in my parents garage now- in disgrace and partially stripped.

I carry one as it doubles a regular pump too (spesh windpipe).

I have been known to add a bit of air now and again when I've got a long ride home on the road and want to firm things up or if sag is sapping energy from my ride due to a change in terrain eg from rocky high ground to sandy woody low ground.

Jason- email is in your inbox.

Uplink- nice one, looks a bit scary and requires specialist tools. Might just leave well alone and keep greasing it for a bit longer.

OK anyone got any tips for where I can get a guide on how to service the rear shock?

The manual for my manitou SPV shock only covers adding sag not stripping and cleaning, neither do any others I can find online.

All help greatfully received.

Maverick,

you sound like a kindred spirit.

Trying to explain to a mystified wife why you genuinly would rather have a working bike than a trip to a family wedding.

Backing away slowly from a ride after tearfully roling your bike into the garage to the sound of gritty bearings and a knakered BB knowing you can't afford to fix it.

Oh the shame! 😥

Foxy – thanks for the tip, I will try harder.

Well yes, there is that point to consider druidh.
A good point well made 😉

Maverick- spot on, pretty much exactley what I'm finding- bought it with a redundancy pay off and can't afford to keep it in the standard which it was when I arrived or any standard really- LBS loves to remind me of this.

I'd forgotten how much I loved MS, pity I threw out all my old MBUKs when I moved out from my folks.

A book would be great.

I actually cried when they did the strip with Mint getting shot.

I seem to remember if you could spot which song the lyrics in the cartoon came from you used to win a prize too.

I bought some big screw ended hooks with red rubber covering them for 95p each from Wilkinsons.

Bit ugly but they do the job just fine with a bit of no more nails in the hole prior to rawl plug insertion.

To keep things tidy I routed a series grooves through a thick fence post and mounted this lower down for the rear wheels to sit in.

For added security I bought some screw in "eyes" and mounted these in a row between each bike along the middle and rund a big chain through them all.

Headfirst & Vitalspark are speaking sense.

If it realistically is more 9 hours that just over 7 this is a bit harsh.

I've got two Malmutes and take them out for an hour and a half through the woods in the morning or playing in the fields with some other doggy friends so they are knackered (up at five but it's worth for the fun and excercise) and then take them out again after work for an hour or so every day rain or shine.

I also have a dog walker who takes them out for an hour every other day (£10 an hour- but well worth it).

I do the early shift and leave them at about 9AM and my wife gets in and does the evening shift getting home at about 16:45.

It depends on your dogs personality and temperament though- a bored intelligent dog will destroy your house.