Crikey – grew up, worked and lived here way before Internet and mobiles even existed……..

Daffy, neighbour of Dave & Jezza?
Whenever I speak to the BT bods in India they always say speed is within what’s expected but don’t explain why it drops out usually 5 or 6 times a day and router needs rebooting, bah

Superb bands last night inc. saints of sin 80’s type poodle hair rockers, a ska band and we really loved the last one Davy Jones Locker. Great atmosphere all around…

The oh-sees are at eotr this year,and closeby to us, love to see them but £195, no day tickets, hard to justify really

Getting crap where we are in rural Hampshire / Dorset , shit potholed roads are pretty much the norm. The contractor does quick fix fills which last no time, I guess so they can keep coming back and getting paid. I think a combination of uncut trees and hedges sticking out and broken up road edges makes everyone cut corners and tend to drive down the middle of the road, leading to many near misses and busted wing mirrors. Made worse by either old people dawdling or nutters driving way too fast on the other extreme. France is great on the other hand.

We’ll be there, looking forward to it, looks like a good beer selection and band line up too

Jbl flip seems pretty good, kids have had one for a couple of years, good sound and charge lasts ages.

Honda 125 for reliability, the trailies hold their price and popular with yoof. Uncool bigger wheel scooters like the sh125 or innova can be had cheap, more stable, really economical and the one one of my kids had was pretty nippy too. 125 much better, 50’s are pretty much a hazard in normal traffic making people take risks trying to get past them.

I got one when they were flogging them off really cheap a month ago, 31.6mm seat post fitted fine, maybe I was lucky. One side of the bottom bracket thread was a bit crap though and needed some work to tidy up. Built just using spare stuff lying about:

I’m really surprised by there being so many 2 stroke MZ fans, me and just about everyone I know thought they were just cheap unreliable crap in the 80’s. Often issued by courier companies at a price to new riders learning the job when I lived in London. Neither the riders or the bikes lasted very long. I guess despite this they probably reminisce about them or something

iphone SE 2 weeks old, dropped on road as etting off for a ride, smashed screen to bits. Apple want £106 to replace….groan

Cbt and get a honda

Another vote for a Honda, been using this one lately, FX650 single, bought for £800. Not in the 70/80’s category though, it’s 2001, kind of retro looking I guess. Been reliable and goes well so far.

I bought this 80’s Honda XLV750R trail bike for £900, air/oil cooled V twin shaft drive, Honda reliability, comfy & nice to ride. Pretty rare though and prices seem to be creeping up over budget now.
Honda do more modern versions of retro classics like the 400 CL’s and CB’s, much improved lights/brakes/running gear etc compared to 70/80’s. There’s a place in Reading and another in Brighton advertising these imports, never been to them but have really nice looking modern retro bikes advertised.

My brother had an ancestral DNA test as a present (don’t know how much it cost), which said we were descended from the Beaker people in SW England going back 4500 years, it is where we are from but never thought it would go back that far, even got things like hair colour right. Thought that was pretty impressive, but still maintain a slightly cynicism about such things.
Ditto – on link above, I gave details of a bloke who does the normal family tree stuff.

We have a retired chap up the road from us who does family trees and research for £50, he did one for me and got back to 1600’s pretty quickly following the paternal line. Basically he pays £500 a year for the various websites and databases, and as long as he does 10 a year to cover costs he’s happy and just does it as a hobby. I can pass details if interested, or contact him via his other passion: http://www.radiomuseum.co.uk cheers

Gove = Pob

You can find relatives here by searching family name etc:
http://www.cwgc.org/find-war-dead

Thanks for the help!

Sorry for the delay in replying, thanks for the info, cost £140, yes it’s a kind of metallic shiny brown colour. Been out on it a fair bit lately, it’s quite a harsh ride with the steep angles, short wheelbase and narrow tyres, anyway more so than my other steel bike, a newer Condor Fratello. Do like it though. I think I deleted the pics by mistake, so here again:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/109756768@N03/
Frame number ends in a dash 90, so presume the year

Well not an mtb, just one of those stealthy black Planet X London Road framesets they were flogging off cheap a few weeks back, stuck together with spare bits lying about. Pretty light and goes well but wish I’d gone for the large frame, the medium seems a bit on the small side for me.

Thanks all for your help, looks like Chorus it is. It’s a nice bike to ride and feels precise/tight, well not worn out. Quite a short wheelbase with very close clearances on it and with newer skinny 22mm tyres you notice the bumps on crap roads, but no space for much bigger tyres. Thanks again.

+1 for dura ace 7700 and Suntour superbe pro, lovely, light and worked well

I’m sure he’s a nice chap but I do find him a bit boring to listen to on his show, and ditto his own / Elbow’s music. Usually retune when he comes on. That said he’s not as bad as some they have on like Shaun Keaveney.

Has anyone mentionned having a shed?

You want bees (and pandas), have a look at this lot in my garden:
http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/swarm-of-bees-in-the-garden-today

Been checked out yet for diabetes, food/drink allergies/sensitivities?

In the usual tradition of recommending what you have; got a (steel) condor fratello which has a higher front end, really comfy and great for old less flexible farts ( like me)

Fosters piss here as sainsburys had 20 for £11, that’s my excuse, iechyd da

Buy one from Millets/Cotswolds in November to February, and their sales strap line is…….

When I first got into riding seriously as a teenager, CTC was the thing to join for the insurance and route info. An old chap down the road used to encourage us and talk endlessly about his old steel bikes with fancy lugs, and teach us bike maintenance. He was a typical CTC member of the day. I used to go out on the local club runs where me and a couple of friends were the youngest by at least 40 years. They were nice old blokes and we regularly did 100+ miles every Sunday and got to see some great places. We even did Lejog as 15 year olds. Wanting to burn everyone off wasn’t the ethos obviously so I joined a road club (and BCF then) for racing.

Fast forward 20 years I start getting into riding again, decide to rejoin. Nothing much seemed to have changed. As a Director of a youth charity I meet with the then CTC CEO and tell him this, not that it was a huge problem but said it would be great to get more young people riding for all the well known reasons. And why not go for full charitable status to attract more funding for cycle campaigning, grassroots clubs and training. We did some great partnership work. We had a bit of a peak 5-10 years ago with getting many projects going, more young people involved, growing membership, our charity even had a Pro team for a while to raise awareness.

As ever, once funding tails off and government cut backs really started kicking in, so does the momentum and impact. This is often exacerbated by good people in an organisation who make a difference tending to move on / getting head hunted. The then CEO knew more than anyone the need to respect the heritage and membership whilst modernising. The local memberships were a key factor, they have been and could be even more a brilliant asset to inspire more people young and old to get into cycling. He knew to reach and benefit more people, stakeholders and investors, an easier to understand name and brand was needed. No easy task with the then set up.

I haven’t been involved for a few years now but it looks like his successors have finally brought it to a head. Some of the old guard will inevitably moan, but overall I think it needed doing years ago. I have the CTC / CUK to thank for a lifetime’s passion, I hope it will continue to do the same for future generations.

Thanks, really helpful

Well they have all just taken off and gone somewhere else. The Panda hasn’t returned to the bamboo yet.

James at recommended creative is good and into cycling, I think on here sometimes or google, cheers

I phoned up the local bee bloke this morning but his wife said he was out doing his day job and hasn’t called back, the swarm is about 1/2 the size now since pic was taken. Scared the resident Panda away though.

will send pm too @wysiwyg

Yes it’s the fingerprint later version so now I’m worried about a potential cost cutting method cocking it up comletely. Looks like it’s young enough to still register for Applecare, still costs mind but just a bit less.

I like Schwalbe CX Pro’s, lightish and cheap too

I’ve used this lot a few times, fast and efficient, and had some odd sized ones I needed and couldn’t get elsewhere, have an ebay shop too:

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Apparently the PM has just bought a bangernomics Nissan Micra for his Mrs, good enough for him/her etc….