The Virgin travel offshore call centre cocked up our holiday of a lifetime (up to now) booking a few years ago. It was a package self drive LA-Vegas-Sanfrancisco trip but they managed to book the flights to arrive and depart from LA but we had to drop the car off at SF the day before the flight and had no hotel for the last night. We didn’t find out until the tickets came a couple of weeks before departure.

I rang the call centre straight away, and there best advice was to drive to the airport (heathrow from birmingham) a couple of days before and they SHOULD be able to change the flights.

And that’s the problem with offshore call centres, the perspective is completely out of whack, they can’t understand why we give a crap about internet or phones and don’t see a problem with having to travel 200 miles on the offchance that someone could sort out a problem for us.

But not all are bad, Three are better than they used to be, and all the people there are clever people, they just struggle to relate in general I think.

First direct are spectacularly good though. Completely recommended.

I use my ipad mini loads. Watch tv/films on the train and on breaks at work. use it for the odd game and browsing at home, used to use my phone (GS3) but the screen is too small to be comfortable.
Also use it as a kindle if there’s nothing I want to watch/feel comfortable watching on the train (stuff with murder and boobs generally)

Next time I get a new phone I’m going to get something smaller and tether my ipad to it instead of ever using my phone, it’s just a bit too big and the battery doesn’t last long enough.

Fine here in brum, posting this from my phone ont train.

Muntjac

Boar

Woudn’t be hard to confuse the two running around the forest.

I could be wrong, but I still don’t think there are Boar on the chase, but I did some googling anyway and it turns out that not only are there boar on the chase, the moon landings were faked and the CIA planted the Oklahoma bomb, who knew!

No more pictures of Shand bikes please. I said I wasn’t buying a new road bike for the foreseeable future.

That Giant would be perfect for commuting. Drop bars, disc brakes, decent tyres, space for a rack and guards and you’d never have to worry about it being stolen. Result.

Another view – maybe

These?

http://www.ebay.com/itm/NEW-VINTAGE-CARRERA-SKI-GOGGLES-5435-PA-SUNGLASSES-LIME-GREEN-MADE-IN-AUSTRIA-/180842471339

Carrera glasses look like they do the arms from the bottom thing quite a bit

chakaping – Member
I landed on my head on a rock from about 10ft after going OTB off a ladder drop in the Alps this summer.

Cuts and bruises and a wrecked helmet, but I’m not eating through a straw now.

Not going to repeat the experience without a helmet to see what happens, whatever the internet arguers say.

I did similar to this sans helmet when I was 15, knocked myself out.
Now I work insurance and am married with two kids. It obviously caused some kind of permenant brain damage.

I used gatorskins for years and never had a problem with grip. I know there are better, but for commutiong you need to balance grip with lifespan and puncture resistance.

Was this roundabout anywhere near a petrol station by any chance? Diesel attack?

Kirroughtree is good. Nearest ones to Dalbeattie are Dalbeattie (duh) Mabie and Ae. Don’t think you can go wrong really.

I’ve only done kirroughtree, depending on how long you’ve got I’d do the red and black or just the red (you can stick jabberwocky in as well) I did the black on its own and the first half at least was pretty dull.

extremo – Member
seen a wild boar up there

That was probably a munjac, there are no wild boar on the chase. Muntjacs however look and move very similarly. 3 different types of deer on the chase y’know, each one more delicious than the last. Omnomnom

Edit, crossed posts with rocketman – I still don’t think there’s any Boar on the chase.

I had a huge cycst on my arris, ignored it for ages, finally went to the docs when it was golfball sized, he told me not to worry about it unless it got painful.

Shortly after, over the xmas holidays, I gave it a squeeze (always did, just out of habit and too check the size) and it ruptured in a fairly spectacular way. No pain, no blood, just a huge amount of stinky gunge. Managed to get it pretty much all out in the end, took a few weeks though, lucky it didn’t get infected.

Urgh, the smell.

Yeah thought that after I posted. Stavros has had it a while but I think he picked it up in the early to mid 90s, he was on old top gear with it. It’s an old reg so someone must have had it before him.

There’s also a Maserati in brum with the reg FAT 91T and his mrs has got a merc with something to do with nagging on but I can’t remember what now.

PEN 15 is Steve Parrish off the tele.

The old classic

New favourite

I used to use SPDs, swapped to flats a few moths before a trip to scotland for added dabability. As soon as I tried to ride flats I realised my technique was shocking, I haven’t swapped back, not sure I will either.

I’m sure I’m faster overall on SPDs but I have a lot more fun on flats, and my technique is getting much better. I used to just pedal through everything on my FS bike with SPDs

Like my feature, I’d definitely have another. Bit crap for attaching lights and things too though with the lack of holes. £32+p&p from fatbirds.co.uk

Linky
http://www.fatbirds.co.uk/459665/products/Giro-Feature-Matt-Titanium-Icon-MTB-Helmet.aspx?origin=pla?kwd=&gclid=CJ_5ueaWw7kCFWOWtAodpUsAAQ

I’ve jsut redone mine. Gone for 5 year fixed, realistically, it’s not going ot get any cheaper so might as well fix for as long as you can.

Fee’s wise, you need to add up the amount of difference per month over the fixed period and compare it to the fee. If it costs you more over the 5 years than the fees are you might as well pay the fee, as long as you’ve got the cash to pay it. I went fee free, it wasn’t a fat lot of difference at the end of the 5 years, and I didn’t have £650 lying around.

caveat, I’m not a mortgage advisor, this is just what I did.

Decent enough, not the grippiest but predictable sliding, they haven’t managed to dump me on my face yet, despite a fair few two wheel slides.

Only 1 puncture in 12 months, that was a pinch and I was going to put a bit more air in the rear when I got home. I wouldn’t blame the tyre for that.

As said before though, I tried to tubeless mine last summer, my ears are still ringing. But the upside, no need to carry tyre levers.

Has anyone suggested changing tinted lenses to clear yet? That’s my no.1 tip for night riding. Oh, and garlic.

I’ve just bought a Rollei Yougstar from 7dayshop clips on Youtube look decent, tested it in the house and it’s loads better than my Muvi clone. It’s meant to be for my Birthday though so I’m not allowed to use it in anger until december :cry: Only £30 though.

Vid that convinced me to give one a go.

Specialized have a habit of trying to bully/sue small companies out of existance so they can steal their ideas

http://www.bikeradar.com/news/article/verdict-in-specializedvolagi-lawsuit-expected-imminently-32929/

Up until this story broke I was a huge Spesh fanboi. Haven’t bought anything from them since.

Nothing interesting, but this is round the corner from me. Chase on your doorstep. Tesco and Costa within walking distance and a couple of decent pubs not a million miles away.

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-42009152.html

Yeah last summer I had a Hutchinson toro blow off a rim at about 40psi, I was holding it when it went, couldn’t feel the tip of my index finger for two hours. Ears were a mess too for a bit.

Put me off tubeless for a while, going to get something tubeless ready next time and try again.

That new one got a cracking write up in WMB, looks like a nice bike.

Clear radars almost always for me, although I find the clear ones a right bugger to keep clean. Might try something else off road over the winter, but on the road the radars are amazing.

I had away on an Archos 80 titanium before I bought my ipad. It was fine in the shop only just over £100 too I prefer the screen shape of the ipad and Archos to the widescreen of the other 7inchers, it’s a bit more comfy for browsing. Decided to spend the extra in the end though.

Yup, android phone and ipad for me. Tried android tablets but not keen, had an iPhone but didn’t like it. I think iOS works well for a tablet, the shortcomings aren’t such a problem. Whereas I couldn’t really give a hoot about widgets on a tablet.

You could get a complete POS of gum tree for £20 or so, depends how hack like you want it to be.

I’m thinking of moving on my hack as I hardly ever use it. it’s a 2003(ish) Saracen Dirttrax Disc, I was going to stick it on here and BR for about £150. No lockout on the forks though.

Stick it in a sock, in a nappy/sarnie bag.

Once maybe twice a week normally. I’ll try and get a couple more in if I can be bothered. Going to have to MTFU this winter, I’ve put a stone on in the last 18 months.

I really struggle for motivation when the weather is bad and it’s dark though. It’s very rare that I ride during the day, always 6am or after 8pm due to family commitments.

Too late for another edit. Similar weight to the 530 it turns out. Who knew.

I’ve got some of the old one’s with the plastic cage. They’re more supportive than the 530’s, the cage on the 530s is more to stop them spining when you stamp on them than for support.

Edit: Mine are M424’s Pretty weighty though I think.

The reason I don’t stop and take in the view when I’m out on a ride is because I have to get back for the wife and kids.

Therefore, families suck the joy out of cycling. They should be banned.

Red’s still faster.

Shimano AM45s did the trick for me. Not proper water/winterproof but with decent socks they were fine well below zero last winter. I had the shimano goretex boots when I was commuting and they were no better.

When it’s proper cold though I use flats incase of ice and snow, so just end up wearing trainers :?

http://superstar.tibolts.co.uk/images/ebay/PadChart.gif

Looks like it