+1 for BB7s

How many people who work could take 50 days plus training/recovery time off from work to do that

I think the answer to that is I don't know, but I am not sure that Eddie was of their number. IIRC he played some venues on the way round. In episode 2 he definitely pointed at the Liverpool arena from his ferry across the Mersey and said that that was were he was doing his show. If anyone feels the urge to say that that isn't a regular 9 to 5 job etc. etc. can I suggest that before you do you take a moment to reflect upon the meaning of the word nitpicking.

Frankly, don't think it matters. Fair play to the guy.

Lowepro used to be fine, and mine's still going strong, but I have no experience of recent models. Most recent case was from Crumpler and is excellent. Not sure whether they do something that fits you rrequirements but suspect that they might.

+1 for the BB7, now have them on 3 bikes, no issues and a lot less hassle for maintenance.

Aerotech are pretty true to size and everything is measured in inches. The quality is good

+1

Solicitor is giving good advice. If you do get burgled with no evidence of forced entry in all likelihood insurance won't pay.

any country outside the USA

Just checked, they now acknowledge the existence of Singapore and Tijuana ( although possibly think that they are in the USA – website lists them with US retailers ), plus Canada, South Africa and Israel. Surely there is someone on here who wants to pick up the UK rights?

Oooh I sympathise with this problem, took me ages to track down shorts that weren't sized for whippets ( for the record, for any cycle clothing manufacturers or retailers reading this, XXXXXL does not mean fits 34 inch waist in any normal universe ).

Agree about Aerotech designs. And also about Hoss Technical Gear in the US who do shorts for Clydesdales as the yanks put it – they don't appear to have a distributor or outlet over here which is a shame and their website failed to acknowledge the existence of any country outside the USA last time I looked, although they have supplied me direct before now for the cost of an overseas phone call. More recently I sourced a second pair through ebay from a dealer in the USA with no problems.

Finally Wiggle's own brand DHB do big sizes ( and XXL comes up at about 44 inches ) although they seem to be temporarily out of stock of baggies.

If you have had them – does the pain just appear?

Not had them, but looked after plenty of people that have. Some get niggling pains before trying to pass one but real fun comes when a stone ( think spikey crystal ) just a little bit bigger than the ureter ( tube from kidney to bladder ) makes a bid for freedom. That does tend to come on suddenly and as stated above, women who have been through childbirth, even quite protracted childbirth, would rather do that again than pass a second stone and are usually quite vocal on the fact.

Could be other things so go and see your GP. Its what you pay your taxes for.

Nah F is a Barre chord init? No open strings.

That's obviously the first place I am going wrong then.

It's definitely F

Scarborough Fair, must get on to second tune soon.

Given the winter we have been having won't your red nipples turn blue when you get them outside anyway?

Hexus/hummer – keep coming back to one of these.

I am not sure I understand this desire to be the first post on a page. Is it some sort of crowning moment in the life of a forum member?

+1 for Islabike. My 10 year old has a rigid Beinn 26 inch and finds it much lighter and easier than the 20 inch Kona it replaced.

Mind you I got a 14 inch 456 in the sale that never was and that will be going into store for whichever of the kids needs it first.

Is this finally going to drop off the front pages? Frankly, I'll be glad to see the back of it.

I had this problem and after a bit of research went for Saris Bike Tracs. If your wall isn't up to it and you live in the USA then Saris do a vertical rack to fit upto 5 bike tracs relevant page here. I reckoned this looked ideal but neither Saris nor I felt it was worth the cost of exporting 8 pieces of angle iron/U channel to the UK. However, click where it says instructions on the linked page and you'll get a pdf for how to put the rack together including all measurements so I bought the bike tracs from Wiggle and sourced the 8 pieces of angle iron/ U channel locally for £20. Bike tracs – non locking version – Google suggesting best price around £25 at the moment.

If your workshop has decent walls you could simply screw up the bike tracs. Unless you go for the locking Bike tracswhich are a lot more then you will also obviously need a wall/ground anchor or 2 for security.

+1 for granfors, I like a company where the craftsman signs his work

So unless I have miss read your post you have talked about splitting. How do you cut across the grain ie the length of the log? Can these Maul things do that?

Maul splits with the grain i.e. lengthways. To get down to useable lengths a bowsaw as suggested by glenp. If you find yourself with a huge tree to saw up in short order find someone who has the chainsaw, the protective gear, the training etc. they are nasty things even in experienced hands.

Salsaboys link for Granfors covers a lot of safety info in a short segment. Mr Mears strikes again.

Saw this heading on the list – immediately thought that the answer to your question is "yes" without needing to read further. Despite 20 years pulling people out of badly parked rally cars, I can't do diagnosis or triage over the forum either, but I don't need to as the advise given, namely get it checked out/xrayed ASAP, is what I'd tell you even if I were in your presence.

Children now outgrown them, but we had 2 different ones. First a Hamax, the exact model is no longer around but the current ones are very similar and there is a link to one above. We went for the non-reclining version. That had quite a heavy bracket bolted round the seat tube into which the twin prongs of the metal support arms of the seat fitted. Nifty button system to show they were locked in and the seat was then cantilevered over the rear wheel on the support arms. Gave it a bit of suspension but sometimes had a slightly unerving amount of bounce, although it got round the green and blue at Dalby with no mishaps. Left you with a heavy bracket on the seat tube that took a bit of time to fit and take off again so tended to leave it on what was basically a hack bike. No attachment to the seat stays so no issues with fiddly fittings but, whereas on my 20 inch frame the bracket came halfway down the seattube, on my wife's 14 inch frame it would have fouled the front mech so that led to plan B – a Co-pilot Limo.

This fits on a Blackburn EX1 rear rack which is included in the price. The rack is a bit of a pain to take on and off but the attachment seemed a lot sturdier albeit straight over the back wheel and with no in built give. On balance for offroad I would probably feel safer with the co pilot but both company's products seem fine. The Hamax are a bit cheaper ( although they do their own rack mounted system that is about the same cost as the co-pilot – sorry got no experience of this, only of the seat tube mounting version ).

One issue to check on is the fit of the Blackburn rack. You will need the frame to have rack mounting points -obviously- and on my wife's very small frame I needed to get some longer strips to join the front of the rack to the seatstay mount points. There are a number of posts around including a review on Wiggle that say it won't fit bikes with disc brakes, and although it is a standard rear rack and SJS cycles and CRC seem to think it will fit most bikes I found a posting on a US forum that quoted Blackburn as saying they didn't make bikes for frames with disc brakes and didn't approve of the much posted fix of putting in a cylindrical spacer between rack and frame.

I think Madison import Blackburn so they should be able to give you the official view.

Last point is make sure you tie the little blighter's feet into the foot stirrups with the straps provided or there is a risk of them trying to insert foot into spokes. On balance I suspect the spokes will win.

When I was umming and ahing about whether to get a Scandal 29er frame or wait for Brant to get round to ordering the steel ones, the general consensus, Brant included, was that the Scandals were no harcher than the steel. Impatience won, and I don't find it any harsher than the 456.

Quite like them as well, so it ain't just a woman thing.

Hope you enjoy it. Let us know how you get on.

Did a couple of MTBO events in Dalby at the end of last year. Part of the NYMBO series and really enjoyed it. They were scatter events – visit as many points as possible and get back to the start within the time allowed. People were helpful and friendly to a Newbie and you could potentially get a good score by just being fit and picking a good route – in fact I suspect there are more points to be gained as a beginner by good route choice than by scary fitness – although all STWers are obviously scary fit by definition. In my limited experience, someone always seemed to go so far over the time limit so as to lose a huge chunk of points and promote me to as high as 3rd from last in agegroup. The events I did were 2 hour time limits but most of this years are 3 hour so I'll have to get a bit fitter, ice permitting.

I would say go for it – it gives you the fun of competition without the schoolboy embarrassment of seeing everybody lap you, although be warned, the over 60s are all terrifyingly fast, and the NYMBO events allow pairs so you can be companionably lost rather than feeling lost and abandoned.

Don't want to see this get demoted to page 3. Not sure it has the embonpoint.

Park tool seems a bit steep, in fact I have built a bike for less.

I have the Ice toolz remover which is a slightly more sophisticated verion of bash it off with a chisel and a screwdriver. Cyclus also make one see here but I have no experience with their version.

+1 for the Panaracer Rampage. Switched to them after a good review in STW, from Kenda SB8 which were fine in the dry but not 4 season. The Rampages seem to cope with anything from mud to tarmac – interested to see the 26inch version getting the thumbs up in another ( and obviously inferior ) MTB mag this month. SB8s ar elighter and may go back on towards the end of summer for MTBO on dry gravel/hardpack.

As a number of people have commented, Ray Gosling has not been in the public eye much of late. However, those of us who remember the 70s and late 60s remember an excellent journalist and award winning documentary film maker, possibly one of the best around at that time. See wikipedia entry.

He had a lean period in the 90s but a series of documentaries about his life led to him being back on regional television.

He has always had a quirky view of life and has a history of activism in various causes, including in recent years gay rights, although the work I remember him for had nothing whatsoever to do with that. In all honesty, his delivery and use of language doesn't seem to have changed much from what I remember. Didn't see the program and don't have the full context, although from what I have heard second hand his "confession" was part of a piece looking at the difficulty and feeling of hopelessness of seeing a loved one suffer a slow and painful death.

This wasn't a live show as far as I am aware and therefore he and the producers etc. had time to think about this. I suspect that he is well aware that without more information from him the Police will get nowhere and I have read media speculation that the event described may have been changed in the telling to make pinning it down impossible. For some reason the phrase – crazy like a fox – comes to mind.

usually told the other way round guv'ner, in Oz at least

Mrs Ratadog is a Kiwi so can confirm that Tankslapper's version is the correct one.

Like MS, but never, ever understood/got/laughed/had wry inward smile of amusement/any flicker of human emotion etc. at The Far Side. ( suspect that GaryL may not be a member of this forum, although I anticipate that 30+ people will soon be competing to register in his name and exercise his right to reply ).

Did have a colleague in the past who had apparently been absent when the sense of humour was handed out. He used to illustrate his lectures with Far Side cartoons. Couldn't work out whether a) he thought that they were funny thus confirming my suspicions, or b) he didn't find them funny but thought that people who did have a sense of humour would, thus confirming my suspicions.

I can still bite my own toenails (should I choose to)

No, sorry, you don't get out of that one so easily. Only way you know that for certain is a) you thought about it in the first place and b) you tried the experiment at least once. May not have bitten them but at the very least an attempted mouthing.

Thanks, just to be on the safe side I'll take all forms of bungee jumping off the list.

+1 for the walking boots or shoes. I use a pair of Merrell Chameleons which are also goretex and waterproof.

Agree with all of the above. Most people I see with chronic fatigue syndrome make a slow but steady recovery.

Used to play crown green bowls with my grandparents when I was about 10, then took up golf and continued fairly regularly until I was in my mid 30s, moved onto bikes at the age of 43 or so. Slightly worried that if this is to progress I need to look at skiing in my 50s and sky diving in my 60s and neither really appeal.

+1 for Chocolate Fish.

Had a 1999 legacy 2 litre estate. Traded it in as part of the scrappage scheme last year with around 135k on the clock (had 35k when bought second hand in 2001). It had had 1 new clutch and needed its catalytic converter bodging with a week to go. Otherwise no serious problems in 8 years and was an excellent handling estate which swallowed bikes dogs shopping etc. with no fuss.

Downside was it drank petrol ( albeit not quite as fast as the Saab it replaced ) and parts and service costs were also on the expensive side – 7,500 mile service intervals and that version was apparently designed to make the simplest job as complicated as possible e.g. to change clutch, first remove engine.

lakeland terriers!!

Oh that takes me back. Had one of these as the family dog when I was growing up. Described by a visitor as a "transistorised Airedale" – same marklings, half the size

1) Currently a ( now somewhat old and slightly whiffy ) black lab with a sweet disposition

2) always fancied a Cocker Spaniel, but would happily take 90% of the dogs in this thread

3) If it just related to geography that would mean a Yorkshire Terrier and sorry but they would be in my 10% no file, just can't get on with them.

Send an anonymous email

Not as easy to do without being traced as is sometimes thought. Depends on how good your IT skills are compared with the tracer.