What he said…… ^^^^^^

+1

I switched from Barclays (Aaaaaaaargh) to First Direct about 15 years ago and have nothing but praise.

Who is John Denver?

A dead singer. Drug overdose I think.

Nope, air crash.
He did have a history of drunk driving busts but at autopsy he was found to have no trace of alcohol or drugs in the system. Made his name as a country and western singer but made the crossover into general acclaim. Father was a military flight instructor and he himself was a highly qualified pilot. Original speculation was as to possible suicide but he was flying a fairly experimental light aircraft, and the final conclusion was that the crash was a combination of unusual aircraft design, relative unfamiliarity on the part of the pilot and not enough height to recover.

For what it's worth my vote is also for Super Caley Go Ballistic.

Another 6'2", 33inch inside leg, 19.5 frame Scandal owner here. I also went for the on-one wheel package but ditched the SB8 tyres when it got muddy and went to Panaracer Rampage instead. I use it as my ride out the gate and see where I get bike so very much general XC but it's not adverse to the easier bits of Dalby if encouraged. No complaints at all.

Only other point is that I found an 11-32 cassette a bit like hard work on the steep bits and found life easier and more comparable with my 26er with an 11-34. I think its something to do with the effect of the bigger wheel on the gearing but I am sure there will be somebody along shortly to explain the science and several people along to naysay despite being unhindered by any relevant knowledge. Shimano do make a 12-36 but for me that means ditching SRAM and replacing rear mech and shifter so I have given that a miss.

My suggestion would be seek conservative care with a qualified professional and if that does not resolve the condition then consider surgical options, which are excellent these days but should not be the first solution.

Agree.

I herniated a disc about 2 years ago, just after finishing a new bike build. Have the advantage or disadvantage of being a quack so went to see one of my colleagues. Once the thing has herniated, it then starts to heal and contract and does so in its own sweet time – 3-6 months usually. Expect tingling and pain down leg, worse on walking in my case although gentle biking actually had no effect and the orthopod didn't seem to have a problem with that. Surgery is a last resort if you have pain ++ or start to have bladder problems etc. as outlined above.

Most important issues for healthy future are 1) a decent physio teaching you to contract and strengthen lower abdominal muscles and core muscles generally, 2) posture – get rid of the slouch when sitting/standing and 3) get your seating arrangements sorted out. My problem was probably brought about by the crap chairs my employer gave me to sit on. I now have a combination of a Hag office chair[/url] for my office, a Backfriend for other peoples offices and meeting rooms and a set of Mckenzie rolls for car etc. The car was actually the biggest hassle because the random movement as you bounced along was the thing doing the biggest damage and had to be overcome by the core muscle work and the pads to support my lower back.

Just bemused why people are so utterly desperate to get one the moment they come out on the market.

+1

Have a friend who complains of poverty on a permanent basis but has to have the latest gadget on day one or his life is not complete. I wait a few months and get something that does the job better ( because the high tech equivalent of nail polish has now been applied ) and costs me a fraction of the price ( because everyone is now making competing devices).

Just swapped my motorola flip phone ( circa 2004 ) for an HTC Hero – I know, it's so 2009. God my life is so incomplete. The shame, the misery, the money in the bank to do the things that are important.

Sorry, I think my children are starting to get to me.

Just used Towbar express. Mobile fitting and they do cover the W Yorkshire area ( see their webpage for coverage ) Very efficient and used by a lot of the main dealers round here. Cost depends on type of car, type of bar and electrics. I went for an integrated wiring loom as the car was new and the VAG electrics complicated. The prices quoted above look about right for a standard bar and simple loom.

4
HT, 29er, Kaffenback winter bike, Swissbike
plus assorted family bikes.

Suspect it means that there is one length on the disk side and the other on the non disk side. If it is DT swiss rim and hub you should be able to work out which is which from putting the details in their spoke calculator or even finding the info on their website. Given there is only a 2 milimetre difference you might get away with using the wrong length but it will probably be a pain to true. It is also a pain to buy one spoke mail order so best bet is probably to extract both parts of the offending spoke and take them, or failing that the wheel, to the LBS and get them to work out the length required and source one.

Regularly see deer, fox and badger when out on bike or in car so for rarity value

Otter, west coast of Scotland 20 years back, never seen one before or since
Water Vole – looks lovely, vicious little blighters, now on their way back after being ravaged by mink released by the self styled animal welfare brigade.

And no, I don't believe mink should be farmed for their fur but letting them go into our countryside in the name of animal welfare was not an intelligent solution. Our Victorian ancestors tried similar relocation programmes of UK fauna in New Zealand and caused no end of trouble. Do we learn nothing from experience?

After Rata the family labrador.

KINGTUT – Member

Very good.

Yes it would.

Yes it is.

+2

I have a Scandal 29er and it is the bike I ride most frequently. Bought as a bike for riding out the gate and seeing where I get to. I live at the edge of the North York Moors so usual rides a mix of tarmac, bridleway, singletrack and Dalby red and seems to cope with the lot. Also used for MTBO which is as fast as I get.

I have patients with up to -19 prescription, strong enough for you?

Gives me hope as round here the opticians look puzzled when I want anything trendy in a -12. Need to sort out riding glasses, maybe need to find out who round here does Oakleys.

I fit right in here. 😀

I'll try and get in before the crowd for once and say that an Islabike is what you are looking for.

See here Islabikes

We have one for our 9/10 year old and it is excellent whether on the road or on the tamer singletrack in Dalby.

Answer to the purely anatomical question going roughly from front to back is liver, gall bladder, right kidney and right adrenal gland. You can also get discomfort there from muscular/bone damage and sometimes from base of right lung. Pancreas is more central and sits below stomach against back wall of abdomen. Gut curled up in all available space below and to the front.

+1 for if in doubt get it checked.

Nice to see that despite political upheavals and the collapse of civilisation as we know it this thread still rolls on.

STW seems to be a microcosm of wider society – No respect any more

Labour 4
Conservative 2
Lib Dems 9
Green 0
UKIP 0
BNP 1
Respect 0
SNP 1

but the system (ie consultants) don't like this as they will tend to stick together.

Urban myth IMHO. You may get a similar opinion from different consultants because it's broadly the right thing to do. I never have an issue with patients seeking a second opinion and will myself ask one of my colleagues for a second opinion if I feel that I may be missing something. If that gets the patient sorted out then great.

If you do find one consultant who gives a very different opinion to their colleagues then you have to ask why. Could be that he or she has a special interest or expertise in your problem and is exactly what you have been looking for, or it could be that the other consultants had a good reason for not agreeing.

Never been there, but doubt that there is a doctor or a medical student anywhere who hasn't heard of the place. Has it's own code in the International Classification of Diseases See here[/url].

Don't get excited. Coxsackie B virus is everywhere and Bornholm's starring role in medical history was a long long time ago.

Kenda SB8's in Summer if it stops raining and Panaracer Rampage for the rest of the year and also Summer if it doesn't stop raining.

Diclofenac is not a muscle relaxant – its a non steroidal inflammatory – same group of drugs as Ibuprofen

Ibuleve is useless – so the trials show IIRC

Syndol is not a muscle relaxant – it contains an antihistamine to make you drowsey.

Get real advice from professionals.

+1

And as was also said, Amitriptyline is widely used in the relief of certain types of pain. I always tell patients about its other use so that if they know/find out/someone tells them that it is also an antidepressant they don't get upset/offended/bop someone.

Personally, I'd be looking to get one with standard sized parts that are easy to replace, as most cheaper folders have cheap bits. Thinks like seatposts; heavy steel jobbies

Possibly too heavy for what you want, borderline for price , but have you considered a
Montague/Swissbike[/url]
The smallest frame size is 16" ( although the frame sizes seem to come up small and they claim that the 18" is suitable for people from 5'3" to 5'10")

Originally developed for a US Department of Defence contract it is a 26" wheel folding mountainbike which takes standard parts throughout. When my employer did cycle to work I was looking at a folder but none of the small wheel jobs were up to my size/weight. The company doing the scheme suggested one of these and when I researched it I remembered seeing a piece on the gadget show that compared them favourably with the other offerings. To be honest, when riding, it feels like a normal bike that happens to fold. It won't fold down to anywhere near the size of a Brompton, Birdy etc. but it's a lot less expensive than an Airnimal. They have also started doing a frameset so if you can source one in the right size you may be able to build it up.

If you google there are several stockists on the web who may have previous year's models floating around at a discount. They build up as anything from a hybrid to an XO equipped MTB.

Hour and a half round the local bridleways on the edge of the NYork Moors. Mixture of sunshine and hail squalls so bailed out slightly earlier than planned.

It's very clear: your mother's here to stay.
Not just a year, but ever and a day.
She came to stay just for Mother's Day,
With the kids and you and me,
And that was Mother's Day of 1953.

If it appears that I've become a grouch,
It's all these years of sleeping on the couch.
I hear Gibraltar just tumbled, the Rockies just crumbled,
I knew they'd go some day, but
Your mother's here to stay.

If she'd go back, if she'd just say goodbye,
I'd help her pack, and as she left, I'd cry.
She just complains, with her aches and pains,
And her arteries are hard.
How come she's out there playing leap frog in the yard?

Her evening snack would feed a herd of elk.
Then she sits back, and watches Lawrence Welk.
I'm taking you and the cherubs, and just like the Arabs,
We'll silently steal away, and
Leave Mother here to stay.

Allan Sherman, parodying "Our love is here to stay" and influencing among others Weird Al Yankovic.

Some things never change.

XLII that came on my 456 has given no problems. Running Cane creek S6 on 3 bikes at the moment within the family and again no problems. Via ebay and got them all for the price of one Hope.

So, just out of interest, how many of you diehards go and see 'your team' week in, week out – or at all !

Start with how many of them support the team based nearest to the place they were born/grew up.

I speak as one who watches with interest as my kids primary school in North Yorkshire divides up neatly between the ManU and Chelsea factions. The dads mostly support Leeds of course.

I grew up in Liverpool at a time before the current cross city animosity when you supported red or blue, but if your team got knocked out of the cup you were happy to see the other one do OK (and if they both got to the final there was no segregation and no need for it), and both sides of the city were happy to see Tranmere have a bit of a run. After that it was anyone but Leeds and Manchester United and if the latter 2 did by some dreadful mischance get to the Cup final your best hope was a very boring 0-0 draw and a flood light failure in the replay.

Had the decision to make recently, went for SLX

The beeb have been accused by different parties of bias for as long as I can remember. Most politicians seem to think that anyone not showing them total support is biased against them, hence Thatcher's apparently frequent question "Is he one of us?", part of which quote was the title of Hugo Young's brilliant and remarkably unbiased biography. I remember reading it and thinking how anti Thatcher it was before realising that it was simply well balanced in a way that the newspapers of the day were not.

I am old enough to remember hearing Brian Redhead's spat with Nigel Lawson and can't better the summary of it which appeared in Redhead's obituary in the Indeopendent which reads as follows:

After Nigel Lawson's 1987 budget Redhead interviewed the Chancellor and challenged him over unemployment. Lawson dismissed the criticism as that of 'a lifelong Labour supporter'. Redhead asked for a minute's silence 'while you compose an apology for daring to suggest you know how I exercise my vote, and I shall reflect on the death of your monetary policy'

I do have an LT on the 26er that I am more likely to bounce over rough stuff and it is by far the best suspension seatpost I have tried, better than either of the non parallelogram ones. Went for the big tyre and thin seaptpost option on my 29er but less likely to bounce that around.

Hi,

I have no direct knowledge of accommodation myself I am afraid, I live the other side of Scarborough and my trips to Robin Hoods Bay are based from home. However, I asked a friend who lives and works in Robin Hoods Bay if they knew of anywhere.

Their suggestion was Thorpe Hall, a B&B but children are welcome apparently. I have no direct knowledge I am afraid.http://www.thorpe-hall.co.uk/%5B/url%5D

I have been to a few meetings/conferences at the Raven Hall Hotel which is at Ravenscar a few miles down the coast and is a classic country house hotel with an eye on the wedding market. Seemed fine but never stayed there. Seems to get good reviews on the sites like Tripadvisor etc. and appears to have both rooms and log cabins which might offer a bit more privacy.

Only other one I have any personal experience of is The Mallyan Spout at Goathland. The Mallyan Spout has had a good reputation for years but the village was the set for Heartbeat and although most of the tourist stuff is the other end of the village near the Steam Railway station, you should be aware that the village may be well attended on high days and holidays and the village itself caters to the crowd. Again, I last gave the Mallyan Spout custom some years ago but I'm told it is OK. Goathland is a few miles inland from Robin Hoods Bay.

Final option is look at http://www.yorkshire.com/accommodation which is part of the official tourist site for Yorkshire and search through its database and reviews.

Sorry I can't be more helpful.

Ask On-one for advice?

Had them on 3 bikes for about 3 years and no problems.

Local paper in Scarborough already running story that Dalby may have next 2 years in the bag, mind you they also say Thatcher to win landslide in election.

By chance, just discovered there are highlights on BBC red button sports screen (p3001), option 4. Looks a cracking event!

Now also a highlights package on the BBC Sport website – not sure if it is the same one.

If there was somewhere official and safe to park bikes, I never found it. And I had seen that there would be, and I had lugged my lock with me (albeit not a tree friendly one). In fairness, I didn't fancy driving to Thornton Dale to cycle from there when I could simply cycle straight from home so I came in from the opposite side to the visitor centre/Pickering access which may have been why I missed the official bike store. I did my damndest not to get in anyone's way with the bike and I have to say that like the last poster, I did not see it as a particular problem, although I took the view that pedestrians had total priority.

On the bonus side, my line of approach meant that I got paced up the last part of the hill from Givendale by 2 of the german team cooling down from the Women's elite race. Needless to say, they were texting whilst cycling hands off and I was working rather harder than that.

Good afternoon out, impressive racing, not too crowded along the contour road and fairly compact so you could shift from place to place in the 20 minutes between the arrival of the leaders. I have every intention of sneaking back one weekday and having a stooge round the course without the crowds, the cameras and the public embarrassment when I fall off.

I was doorstepped by the Tory canvassers this week and was most interested to find that the message they were determined to get accross ( even after I said thanks but no thanks and tried to close the door ) was that I must not let myself be fooled by Nick Clegg. Spoke to me of desperation.

I do think that if the division of vote stays as it is, pretty equal, with the Tories and the Lib Dems getting the highest percentage of the votes and then the party that comes "third", Labour, not only getting the most seats but with both the Tories and Labour getting 2.5 times the number of seats the LibDems get – see the BBC election calculator for the numbers – then I can see the Great British Public asking some very pointed questions about the validity of their current electoral system and any government not including the LibDems getting a very rough ride.

I am old enough to remember the non parliamentary reactions to some of Thatchers more interesting ideas. Funny how history keeps repeating itself.

I am 6'4" with an ~35" standover (33" inside leg for clothing – not sure which you are quoting). I am on a 19.5 Scandal with about 8" of seatpost showing. On-one's sizing charts have proven OK for me in the past.

What **** planet are you on

As Junkyard correctly identified the effing planet was one called Irony.

Roxanne Kowalski: I was being ironic.
C.D. Bales: Oh, ho, ho, irony! Oh, no, no, we don't get that here. See, uh, people ski topless here while smoking dope, so irony's not really a, a high priority. We haven't had any irony here since about, uh, '83, when I was the only practitioner of it. And I stopped because I was tired of being stared at.

The other thing Brown and Cameron share, sadly, is the premature death of one of their children.

In Cameron's case it is quite clear that he and his wife spent a lot of time in and out of hospital with their son. I defy anyone to spend a significant period of time in hospital with a sick child and not have their horizons broadened.

In any case, I think background and place of education is irrelevant. I even think personal profit is irrelevant provided the country and society also prosper, in all senses of that word. However, I do want our leaders to be well educated, in the broadest sense of that term, to be able to make good decisions under pressure, to be able to identify the right advice and take it and to be honest about what they get right and what they get wrong, both to themselves and to us. Their accent and their bank balance are unimportant provided they leave the place in better nick than when they started.

Does anyone here have a problem with Thatcher having made a quid or two given that her governments discouraged greed and united our society? Does anyone have a problem with Blair making a quid or two on the back of being an honest bloke who left the country financially prosperous and with a popular foreign policy universally supported by the people of our country and admired by all?

Nope, thought not.