Monkey Shoulder is my favourite blend. I prefer it to some of the malts, but you’re not saving a great deal over a cheaper one.

Merlin tend to be pretty competitive for Times.

Shawshank, good, but not that good.

Shaun of the Dead: really? Good film, but not a life questioning work of crushing beauty.

I’ve just bought Papillon on the back of seeing the film (yes, I know), but (the film) isn’t as good as Cool Hand Luke if we’re talking about heart rending depictions of what it means to never, ever be broken. There is nothing sadder than the inevitability of one good man being beaten by a corrupt, complacent society.

BBC Today, in a piece about ice on the M74:

“It is thought the ice formed when the temperature fell below zero”.

Series first, then film.

Oops, double post.

I’ve just bought a set of X9s and was going to bodge them to run single ring, but this looks like a much better idea. If the OP disposes of his spider and rings, I have a set that I’m pretty sure are 36-22, unused that have suddenly become surplus to requirements.

12mm bolt through rear wheel

Cathkin Braes – no mud

Asda aluminium light switches – fiver each and look better than the 20 quid ones from B&Q.

Williams Brothers Joker – currently my beer of choice.

£70-£100 a week for two, depending on whether we need washing powder, cat food, etc. This invariably includes a couple of bottles of wine. That’s buying what we can in Lidl and then Asda for the rest.

And occasionally Wholefoods and Waitrose.

I got a HiLo for £140 from Wiggle and I’ve been pretty happy with it. Keep it greased and it works faultlessly.

Reamde by Neil Stephenson; OK, but some way off his best. Also Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantell, which I’m quite enjoying. Planning to move on to Papillon next.

DMR Bolt, NS Soda or maybe a Kona Entourage?

Team Zissou.

Thread closed.

Flying Fox maybe?

It’s been 2 years since I’ve cleaned mine.

I am currently not dead.

This simply reinforces my dislike of children. Bet he’s not quite so clever at differential calculus.

And no, clearly I’m not bitter.

Herons are tossers.

Stand alone solar powered air conditioning unit to keep parked cars cool in hot countries.

Tiny CNC drill to allow dentists to drill your teeth remotely.

RF tag in your clothes that talk to your washing machine and make sure you don’t have them on the wrong cycle.

A plant pot that changes colour to tell you the plant needs watered.

Shoes with steel pins in the soles that allow them to bend, but don’t wear down.

Saw them at the Tramway in Glasgow. Very, very good.

Good call, starting on +1 just now.

I’ve got a Hi-Lo. I put a bit of grease on it before each ride and it’s been faultless. Not had a problem with the seat clamp or cable although it can occasionally be a bit slow to go up, but I’m quite happy to live with that for the price.

So much for that plan, then.

I’ve got a 36T and an 11-36 on my Saracen Ariel. It’s not a light bike, but I’ve yet to find anything I can’t get up. I’m in Scotland, so not particularly flat.

Ah yes, I remember the old chap carving the dolphin with his chainsaw.

Inn Deep used to be The Big Blue and my wife assures me it was the Dolphin before that. They’ve opened the arch next door as a sort of smokers area, or an-almost-outside-when-it’s-raining bit.

Losing the will to live trying to post a picture, but it would have to be Inn Deep in Glasgow. It’s owned by Williams Brothers, so has a good range of their stuff plus guest ales on regular rotation. Also it has a beer garden overlooking the Kelvin which has been very pleasant during the recent good weather.

Personally, I don’t do anything with the left over bits. I’m not an evangelical veggie; I don’t really have an opinion on what other folk eat, I don’t as a personal choice and that includes not eating anything that comes from a dead animal. “Let other people eat it” is probably as good a description of my point of view as any. Very little goes to waste in the meat processing industry regardless of whether I eat it or not.

Tunnocks tea cakes as an alternative to marshmallows? Seriously?

I kinda think you might as well eat the bits of an animal that are left after all the meat has been removed, no?

No.

None, just had a tiler in who made a nice job of it and left the place cleaner than he found it.

Politics?

Nope, perfectly happy with the Maltesers, but I’d like to see those chocolatey flying saucer things replaced by proper Minstrels. All of this obviously pales into insignificance next to the lack of veggie liquorice allsorts and marshmallows. It really is a travesty that we can more or less find the Higgs Boson, but not give veggies the finest of all sweeties!

Popped in yesterday, bit underwhelmed, but some good sale prices on Saracen and Norcos. Not a huge range of mountain bikes, but I suppose it is TDF season.

I’m making an entirely unfounded assumption that running a 150mm 650B fork will be a bit like running a 160mm 26″ one. I’m not desperately worried about losing the 10mm of travel (or gaining 10mm axle to crown), but if it would entirely muck up the geometry it would be a trifle inconvenient.

Edit – my typing is clearly appallingly slow.

Can’t go far wrong with a Boardman hardtail. Evans are doing Saracen Ariels for £1250, which is a ridiculous price for an extremely capable bike.

Would it be madness to run the 650B 150mm version on a 26″ bike with a biggish tyre? Might be a sensible future proofing option.

They’ve matched CRC for me in the past

I got a Saracen Ariel 140X for £350 off of EBay. I run it with Lyriks usually set at 150mm. It came with 3 sets of dropouts so you can run anything you like at the back and I took 3 1/2 minutes off my PR round Cathkin Braes last night, although admittedly that’s coming from a pretty low baseline.

I got an aerosol can of it from Maplin.