It’s got me scouted… Dammit.

There aren’t many that have ever genuinely sent a shiver through me, but the last one I recall would be the first time I heard Anthony & the Johnsons ‘Hope There’s Someone’. Just his voice, more than anything else. Gets a bit weird at the end, but all the same.

Just emailed a report over to the Tech address. Apparently I’m lucky…

When I’ve been passing through, I’ve often met folk at the Barrowboy and Banker, just across the road from London Bridge station/tube. (http://www.barrowboy-and-banker.co.uk/)

It’s a Fullers house, beer’s alright, food’s been good when we’ve eaten there, nice pies, and 2 minutes from the station.

I’m in. Will probably be mid-pack as per usual. Or last. Could be last…

Bin dun.

Twice.

Couple of layers of white self-amalgamating tape?
On’t Amazon

Love the visuals…

< mode = “Heretic” >

…Can’t stand Attenborough’s voice though.

< /mode >

Sausage and mushroom butty with ketchup.
Always look forward to the Friday morning email from our receptionist saying “Anyone want a butty ordered?”. Numbers are dwindling in this office, but there’s still enough that the greasy spoon delivers to us for free.

Is disappoint. I thought this was a handy man-cave based warm weather thread.

Registering an interest in this. I’ve been using Avast for years, but the latest version gives really annoying pop ups all the time, and you can’t turn them off in the free version.

Have one machine on W7 and one on W8, and no interest in moving to 10 before anyone says it…

“Schadenfreude, huh? What’s that, some kind of Nazi word?”
“Yep, it’s German for ‘happiness at the misfortune of others'”
“Happiness at the misfortune of others. That is German!”

Sunrise was a corker as well 🙂

What Bregante said!

Absolutely stunning evening, great for, good company, great atmosphere and a lovely moment of sitting watching the sunrise with a beer and a good chat with a bunch of lovely people. Chippy stop was good (chicken kebabs FTW), big climb was a doddle, and the only minor issue was the midgies! Couldn’t have had better weather for it either, absolutely awesome.

Big thanks Fraser and Gary!

Handbags at 20 paces?

a man with the best beard in Yorkshire (officially)

Does that mean you’ve got Wayne with you? Tell him I say hello.

Best way is to throw the whole daft lot in the bin and order one of these instead:

With butter. Shedloads of butter.

Will do! I’ll be in my BearBones jersey, probably going very slowly, if anyone sees me.

Trying again…
Cyborg train seat disapproves

View post on imgur.com

The South Uist beaches were grand on 35c cross tyres in 99% of places, just the odd loose patch. If you hit them as the tide’s going out they’re firm as anything.

In the normal spirit of “recommend what you use”, I really like the Stique levers I’ve got.

https://stique.bike/collections/levers

It Bites, West Cumbria’s finest.

Francis Dunnery, the lead singer, did alright for himself after they split up as well.

Ate pizza
Drinking prosecco
Listening to Top of the Pops “1984’s Big Hits” on the telly.

Makes the motor even less conspicuous!

I really don’t get this opposition to creating great lines for people to enjoy in areas which previously weren’t being used… I can never understand why some (majority? or the most vocal?) MTB’ers are such narrow minded fun killing wazzocks?

I don’t think it’s ‘some MTBers being fun killing wazzocks’, and I can completely see why it’s a shame that all that hard work has gone to waste, but:
1 – It seems like there was no permission for it, so they’re totally entitled to knock them down. OP – you say ‘official’, what made it official?
2 – They’re great lines to you, but to a council worker or risk assessor the thought process goes that “this is something that a local kid is going to do themselves a mischief on: If that happens, their parents are going to sue the council for allowing the jumps to be there. Conclusion – knock down the jumps”. While, as I say, that’s a shame, I can see both sides of it. Looking at the pics, I wouldn’t want to ride those (I know I can’t jump for toffee), so a council fella with no MTB experience is going to see them as a court case waiting to happen.

There’s a bunch of places where unofficial park lines have become official by contact and negotiation with local authorities, forestry commission etc. Maybe jumps have had to be smaller, maybe they’ve had to be checked over, maybe they’ve had to be tabletops rather than gaps, but maybe that’s better than seeing your hard work torn down. Building stuff out of the way and hoping no-one notices always seems like a recipe for it getting ripped down as-and-when they do.

OP – I hope your emails and calls are fruitful,good luck with it.

I’m on 32s, it’ll be reet 🙂

Cheers Nobeer. Sounds like you were a bit quicker than I was expecting to be, I’ve got no real gauge so was just going to start at 8pm, take it steady and see what happens. Looking forward to the spin across the Solway Moss in the evening, and once we’re past Moffat and the Beeftub it’s just keep plugging to the finish. Crossing fingers for the weather!

I’d say one of Ian M Banks books if you like sci-fi. There isn’t much of The Culture series that has to be read in order (though a handful of bits make more sense if you do) – ‘Surface Detail’ is a big hefty lump.

Ah just noticed the ikea one does fit bikes, can’t see how in the pics though but I’ll take a look at the instructions.

Clamp on the seatpost or chainstay normally, don’t they?

edit: Chainstay/QR axle, by the looks of this shot:

Don’t get many, but there’s a few I’ve picked out over the years.
The only time I ever want crisps is when I’ve been out on a long hot ride or run, so I take it as my body saying I need the salt.
Tea cravings usually mean I’m dehydrated.
Pizza cravings mean I’m bored.
Kebab cravings mean I’m drunk.

Dear god every time I hear this sentiment it evidences some humans are chimps and Adolf may have had a point.

Godwin is smirking in his grave…

Keen water sandals. I gave up on looking smart a long time ago…

Eating salmon linguine
Drinking Malfi gin and Fever Tree Mediterranean tonic
Listening to the lawn grow, and feeling a mounting fear that I’m actually going to have to unbox the new lawn mower and do something about the lawn growing this evening…

My X on a recent trip down the Sandstone Way

I sent the following to an acquaintance who campaigned to reverse the Leeds Uni Union ban on the BNP campaigning on campus, on the basis of ‘free speech’. It seems kind of appropriate.

“1 – The ‘right to free speech’ only means that you will not be persecuted by the state for espousing your opinion. It doesn’t mean anyone has to listen to or put up with your shit.

2 – The flip side of a right is a responsibility. You have a right to say what you want, but you also have a responsibility to accept the consequences of what you say. That means you need to deal with whatever comes back at you as a response to you exercising your right – as long as those come-backs are legal and above board, you have no reason to bitch about it.

3 – Your right doesn’t supercede anyone else’s right. If you shout your opinion and someone shouts you down louder, that’s your problem.”

To me, the odious Hopkins is starting to get her comeuppance, and as long as it’s all legal and above-board, that’s fine. Interviews I’ve read with her indicate that she’s a delusional sensationalist who writes for reaction and thinks that as long as her hate-speech adheres to the rule of grammar, then it’s all okay. Maybe she’s started finding out that it’s not, but I suspect that part hasn’t pierced her consciousness bubble yet. Soon, maybe…

I’m on 40c Nanos, tubeless, on Hunt wheels. They’re lovely.

I like my Hunt 4Seasons, very good for the money.

Thought mine was fairly safe Lib Dem, but looks like there was only 2k over the Labour candidate last time.

Hmmm…