I went out round a loop on my local bridleways one Sunday morning a couple of months ago. I am a middle aged fat lad on an MTB and don’t go uphill fast. My route took me onto and up a quiet side road in one of the local woods and as I span slowly uphill I was caught and passed by a road bike. I bid him a cheery good day and was duly blanked, which is unusual as the roadies round here are by and large a friendly bunch. The rider was about my age and though shorter was proportionately no slimmer. He was dressed in the complete Team Sky replica kit including helmet, overshoes (although the sun was particularly warm for the hour and month) and was riding a Pinarello frame. He had clearly worked hard to pass me and I was able to hold his wheel for a period.

After a couple of hundred meters the slope eased and he glanced behind him. Nothing daunted I said, “nice day”. His response was to turn to the front, rise somewhat unsteadily to his feet and, with a slightly strangled cry of “Wgns attacks again”, try and accelerate away. I kept on his wheel for long enough to utter a somewhat surprised, “Excuse me, what was that?” to which I got no response other than that he sank back to the saddle. As my exit had arrived I let him enjoy his victory and pedaled off into the woods hoping he didn’t hear me laughing like a hyena.

I don’t think he did as he certainly didn’t comment when he came past me sitting at the side of the road having a drink about ten minutes later. The road is a loop and the bridleway a cut through.

Surely those Inov8s are too flexible for cycling any distance?

Rigid soled road shoes they ain’t but I find them fine with flats doing 4-5 hour rides and they tick all the OP’s other boxes. I got put on to them by a review in WMB a few years ago when they used them on a moorland photo shoot and raved about them on the bike and off.

I think they are aimed in part at the adventure racing crowd.

I use a pair of Innov 8 Roclite boots. Goretex so waterproof, sole works well with flats, lightweight and comfortable and works for hike a bike. Have stood up well to use and can take a decent pair of socks for winter insulation. Details here and can be found on ebay if you get lucky.

In terms of side effects, shall we start with premature cardiovascular disease and testicular failure?

This.

I get 1-2 people per year referred to me because they want kids or at least a sex life and it isn’t happening. If they stop the drugs some of them get lucky but some of them do not.

Depends whether you mean in or near. Links to Days out with kids list and also the Discover Yorkshire Coast website.

If you have transport then Playdale is probably the better of the farm parks. If the kids are old enough both Flamingoland and Eden Park will soak up a day but are out towards Malton. At Pickering the North York Moors railway is a good day out as is the Ryedale Folk Museum – think small Beamish.

Within Scarborough itself is the Castle, the Rotunda museum and the North Bay railway. There is a Sea Life Center in North Bay and I can recommend the ice cream at the Harbour Bar which is just across from the Life Boat Station on the front.

Used both in the past, albeit on a Kaffenback. As above, it depends. If you are used to drop bars but find the standard road bars too deep for comfort or function on a Gryphon then the Midge is your mouse. They allow use of road brake/shifters without their position being too far out. They are probably nearest to the Luxy’s from what I have read as well.

Mungo’s to me did not feel like a variant on drop bars, they are obviously shallower and road brake/shifters were a lot less ergonomic as they were splayed out close to horizontal. However, I found the position of my wrists a lot easier with a lot less strain on my back once I got them at the most comfortable angle, in my case sloping down about 10-15 degrees from front to back.

+1 for the feedback ultralight

Got a FLATB softshell which is excellent quality but +1 for aerotechdesigns. Their stuff is excellent and I have had good service.

Cheapest alternatives I found were courtesy of the unicyclists. Between 40 and 50ukp per rim. I have a Kris Holm freeride rim. It is about 250g heavier than the rabbit.

Rooster +1

Around 2800ukp a couple of years ago including under 1k for stove. Old house with modern fireplace in front of old alcove for small cooking range. Plaster hacked out, alcove rendered, stone hearth restored chimney lined with flue.

Another Moto G user here. Using an Otterbox case to provide protection. Ideally, I would prefer an SD slot and a changeable battery but overall I am not prepared to pay through the nose to get them. In reality I can only remember ever replacing battery in phone on one occasion and said phone was by that stage on its third user.

Indeed, the future of this work is going to be in someone’s head, not in their briefcase. There were people who had been thinking about treatment and cure for as long as aids has had a name. The eureka moment is going to happen in a head like that.

This.

Haven’t read all of this thread but while the conspiracy theories abound don’t lose sight of the fact that on top of the huge personal tragedy for all those involved, it now looks like up to 100 of the victims were delegates heading for a huge AIDS conference in Australia.

“This will have ramifications globally because whenever you lose a leader in any field, it has an impact. That knowledge is irreplaceable.

We’ve lost global leaders and also some bright young people who were coming through. It’s a gut-wrenching loss.”

The death of Joep Lange, a leading researcher into anti HIV drugs, has been extensively reported. The victims will also include activists, administrators and reporters who influence governments to change policies and improve research into and treatment of all sorts of potentially horrendous epidemics.

In a world were we are faced with increasing concerns about infection and drug resistance, this has ramifications for all of us, conspiracy theorists, zombie maggots, humans of all species.

Done it several times.

Best done at night with contents of can fired through entrance to nest.

They tend to come out a bit dopey but as to speed of wasps on exit I am afraid I have made it a practice not to hang around with a speed gun but instead to make a strategic retreat returning later to put remains of nest in bin. Not been stung yet

Hi,

If you have never done the Fantasy League before go to http://fantasy.premierleague.com/%5B/url%5D and sign up.

Choose and enter a team and then click on the tab marked Leagues, then click on the tab marked Join a League, select Private League and click next then enter the code given in my post above.

OK.

League is up and running

Singletrack2012

Code is 86376-26688

Everyone who was in last year should join automatically once they select a team. There are already 10 or so in.

14/15 does appear to have opened nevertheless. I have been watching for twas I that started the league the last two years. I will get on the case.

6am start at weekend means 3 hour ride and still back before kids breakfast. Can get round Dalby and beyond and only see deer and the occasional fox. Tend to have cereal and coffee on the way out and rest of breakfast on the way in in answer to OP’s original question.

Brilliant doc. What i didn’t understand was how it went from the federal case being dropped against him to somehow the anti-doping agency coming out with a 1000 page dossier against him. How did that come about?

As above, nobody seems to know why the federal case was dropped although clearly some have their suspicions. As was briefly mentioned, and David Walsh’s book deals with in a little more detail, Travis Tygart at USADA decided that he would continue investigating and re interview as necessary the people that had been interviewed for the federal case. Tygart was the gent interviewed near the end who admitted receiving anonymous threats including a death threat.

I have read Walsh’s book but not seen the video of LA’s testimony to the SCA case before. The sociopathic nature of his character came across much more from the video.

I had repeated restarts on Win 7. Often 4 or 5 in a row on start and then it ran fine. I updated all the drivers, ran every diagnostic I could think of and was about to take it to the repairer when following a further set of updates it stopped happening. That was 3 months ago and it is still going fine without recurrence of the problem. My guess is software.

Day 1 Home in front of TV
Day 2 Somewhere in Harrogate – out in support of Ambulance Service so need to get to the ambulance station at some ungodly hour. Looking at routes and road closures could be interesting journey in.

I have a set of 29er flows and have run them tubed with maxxis ardent, maxxis aspen and on one smorgasbord with no issues. Didn’t need a compressor or much if any over inflation to make them pop into place once I used Stan’s rim tape. Standard cloth tape and they simply would not bed properly. Didn’t try electrical tape but suspect that would have worked.

Maxxis tyres seem to be fine with Stan’s Flows and according to the interweb with other Stan’s rims as well. I couldn’t get a set of Kenda SB8s on for love nor money – don’t know if they would have seated but they were simply too small a diameter to get on the rim.

Looked at Santa Cruz a few years ago when buying a full sus 29er. Finished up with a Ventana and not regretted it, but even at the time was entertained by the fact that I could buy a frame from Ventana that was manufactured in house in California for two thirds of the price of a similar frame manufactured in the Far East by a company based about 150km from Ventana.

There has to be a significant element of paying for the badge and there is nothing wrong with that if you know that is what you are doing and feel happier for having done it. There are lots of other markets where that applies as well.

Our lab was 8 when the cat arrived. In fairness we knew that she had tolerated a neighbour’s cat adopting us when they were away. Took steps to keep cat in one room until she had accepted this as new home. She tended to hide under son’s bed as her bolt hole. We did take steps to introduce them in controlled conditions but despite a brief growl one night when the cat wanted to play and the dog wanted to sleep they rapidly sorted themselves out and the cat soon became boss of the local cat world by dint of coming and fetching the dog whenever any of the local cats decided to invade her territory and try and mix it.

Dog now 16 and a little infirm but they still greet each other warmly. We put cat flap into hall cupboard and feed cat in there so avoiding any risk of lab scoffing cats food.

Also on clean up duty overnight for offspring being sick, which mucked up family dinner plans for today. Have had t shirt and bike light as gift.

Been out with other offsping to visit a few local artists studios, they have an annual Open Studios scheme so part cultural event, part short random car journeys.

Feeling completely knackered from 36 hours with minimal sleep on back of a day out with local Youth Club yesterday and three 12-14 hour days doing a course for work in the latter part of last week.

Likely to be grumpy at work until at least Wednesday.

Moto G in an Otterbox or anything else in an Otterbox for that matter.

About to try out 11 year old son v Nokia Asha 503 which is built for the Indian sub continent and has its own protective back and gorilla glass albeit a proprietary somewhat restricted OS rather than Android. Time will tell.

Lenovo is buying Motorola’s hardware and R&D.

Met Mrs Ratadog, 17 years ago, because she was lodging with my landlord when I rented a house. Not sure anyone had heard the words internet and dating in same sentence at that time.

I was asked by aforementioned landlord why I was single and said that it was because I was waiting for my perfect woman who I defined as a Swedish Claudia Schiffer lookalike with brains and pots of money.

My wife claims that she scores 0 out of 4 on that scale, although I claim she scores 1 for brains and a half for not UK citizen. She also points out that she had to significantly lower her expectations as well.

Using one for 4 months and very happy. Also got 2 Motorola Defy Minis that seem to work very well despite one being my work phone and one getting hammered by my teenager.

If it’s anything like my Motorola Razri I wouldn’t bother.

I think all phones are a risk. I had 3 htc with no issues and then had one fail in much the same way you describe with the same lack of support from Orange as in the tail end of contract. That is why I don’t have phones that cost a fortune in monthly payments and why I went Moto G this time. I got a deal which only cost me 2ukp per month more than SIM only and if something does happen I can afford to replace it without a second mortgage.

Because someone has to do it:

Had several frames, one complete bike and lots of other bits from PX/OO over the last 5+ years and no issues apart from royal mail taking a week to deliver one parcel back to PX without bringing it here first. When I was starting out as a mid life crisis mountain biker Brant showed much patience in answering my daft queries.

I actually find it a plus point that I know that if I was to have a problem I have a fair chance of getting it sorted even if it is by a slightly unconventional manner.

When I was looking about 6 months ago the De Walt was by far the best deal – cheaper and 2 batteries rather than 1. Not regretted it.

Nasal insulin has been around for at least a couple of years as part of research projects. I think there was one going on in the North East and Novo Nordisk are based in Scandanavia and may well have research projects going on there as well.

There was an inhaled insulin on the market here about 8 years ago but Pfizer pulled it because no one bought it. You still needed to take injections of long acting insulin, it was hideously expensive, effectiveness deteriorated when you had a cold (which was just when you needed more of the stuff) and there was a non significant increase in the incidence of lung cancer (6 in 5000 instead of 1 in 5000). Furthermore most people who were interested were thinking of the small plastic inhalers used by asthmatics. What they actually got was a device that was about the size of a decent sized thermos and for which a degree in engineering or a life long love of meccano was desirable although not essential.

Cobb also has a selection of additional plates etc. We have had one for about 4 years, cooked at home and taken it on holiday/for picnics whatever. Highly efficient, cleans in the dishwasher, can’t fault it.

Thule do one with a system that clamps around the seatstays, can be used front or rear as i recall…. Quite heavy though.

Thule pack n pedal rack – can fit fore or aft and comes in 2 flavours one of which, the tour, will take side frames for panniers.

Thule bought the system from an NZ company so they have been around for a while as Freeload racks.

Works fine.

Got an old house and a homeplug set up. Works well. Link the router to the mains using a standard plug, or one with pass through power if you are short of sockets, and plug in a wifi plug at other end of house. If necessary add another in a different socket half way along. I have used Solwise for the plugs and they have been fine. Similar system worked in a friends house where he was becoming thoroughly frustrated by range extenders. 2 plugs cost around 50ukp if I remember

Started with one of the original 456 complete bikes in that blue and rebuilt the parts onto a mark 2 Lynskey 456Ti a few years later. Couldn’t ride them back to back for obvious reasons but somewhat to my surprise did feel that the Ti was more comfortable and was lighter and so easier on the uphills. As someone said above, best purchase for comfort on a hard tail was undoubtably a Thudbuster and as that came after the frame transfer I cannot say whether it would have improved the steel to a similar level although I also have one of the lesser travel thudbusters on my Scandal 29er with similar beneficial effects.

Booths always fondly associated with holidays in the Lakes especially the Windermere branch in the old station buildings. Fair spread through Lancashire and Cumbria with furthest East in Ripon at the moment, although there are early plans to come to Malton which is very local to me and will cost me a fortune.

Yes, BB7s times 3 and a couple of kids bikes running on BB5s. Could never get my head round the hassle and expense of hydraulics for the sort of stuff I do.

If you are going cheaper we have had more mileage than expected from a series of Indesits and recently reinvested in another. So far so good. Having had a mixture of expensive and cheaper brands in the past there seems to be no obvious correlation between cost and durability. Indesits seem to last as long as anyones and their dishwashers have been particularly impressive (averaging 9+ years apiece so far).