Any recommendations for a good ski helmet / goggle combo? I’ve never used a helmet before, but reckon it’s probably time to start protecting my noggin.

I’m thinking along the lines of a Giro 9.10 and a pair of Oakley crowbars – any opinions?

No-one? I was sure PeterPoddy had an Otterbox… 👿

Kryton57 – you should get Far Cry 3 ASAP, it’s a definite contender for Game Of The Year.

I’ve just upgraded my laptop to Win 8 (from 7).

It drove me up the wall for the first couple of hours! I had to use google to find out how to turn the damn thing off, etc etc. However, once you’re used to the interface, it’s actually really good… The main issue a lot of people have is “the Start menu has gone”. You need to think of it instead as “the Start menu is now a whole screen” – which is actually much more usable then a small menu.

You’ve got the same type-to-find function as in Win 7, but you can filter by programs / files / settings. Commonly-used apps can be given their own tile on the screen – and the tiles can be ‘live’ if the app has the functionality present (e.g. the mail app tile will show unread messages as they come in). You’re not tied to any tiles – I’ve removed the Music and Video tiles and replaced with iTunes.

As Cougar says – give the new UI a try before putting some hack in place to get the old look back 🙂

Resident’s parking sounds like a good thing for you… adding double yellow across your driveway means that people will get fined / towed if they block you or your neighbour in.

That’s gotta make your life easier, as you can keep the bike off the road instead of having to leave it out there all the time. Win-win, surely?

Just watched that video and a little bit of wee came out. Can’t wait for February 😀

Cervelo S3 frame. Was at a bargain-ous £1200, but located in the US. Shipping and import duty made it slightly less of a bargain. Whoops! 😀

Is the partners / STD essentially a “run rate”?

In which case I am 11 for 2, not out 😛

Garmin Connect already does this to an extent – look at the “Training Effect” field. It does depend on having a HRM present though.

Inspired by this thread, I’ve pulled my finger out and am going to do my first 100-miler this weekend – London to Cambridge and back.

I’ve got a couple of friends who live just outside Cambridge so will be stopping at their place for lunch. Hopefully that doesn’t invalidate my 100 mile effort 😛

zilog6128 +1

IME it’s not just about CV fitness, but also about conditioning your body to the higher level of impact associated with running. Take it slowly, avoid injury, and keep running after you finish the 9 weeks 🙂

On the youtube link they say “We ended up slowing up in order to force him to pass us and go on with his day.”. I probably would have done that after 30 seconds of honking. Bikes have a right to use the road, but that driver is obviously a douche and it would be far less stressful to pull over for all of 10 seconds to get him to f*** off.

Seconding a Fox 36, spaced down. I’m running a 36 Float spaced down to 120mm on my 4x bike and it’s lovely 🙂

I wonder if you could get them to etch something other than “hope” on the bearings. Like those customised-wording rotors you used to be able to order filled with swears 🙂

UK ipod repairs worked for me – fast turnaround and not too expensive:

http://www.ukipodrepairs.co.uk/

Why are we or at the very least an independent council not allowed to evaluate all relevant data on these operations and decide for ourselves if our country should be involved.

We have this already – they go by the name of “the government”.

If the motion sensor turns the lamp on…
…how does the motion sensor sense the motion?

Some sort of infra-red I guess… maybe a lazer! 😯

After a six week holiday of drinking and diving, I rode London to Brighton (103km) on the road bike in just under 5 and a half hours. The last hill was an absolute f*****r, especially on deep-section carbon wheels and a 38/26 smallest ratio.

Then spent a couple of hours digging up the front yard yesterday – don’t want to skimp on the upper body training eh? 😉

I’ve used UK Ipod repairs for my iPhone and iPod before and they were fantastic both times. Reasonably cheap and very fast turnaround.

http://www.ukipodrepairs.co.uk/

I’ve had mine done – the laser whitening.

Stings a little bit and as brakes says, you have to have a week off any stain-heavy foodstuffs. But once done it’s really quite nice – I ended up smiling a load more ‘cos I liked my new teeth 😀

I watched Seasons 2 and 3 of Archer whilst travelling around Thailand last month, so so so so good. The ‘sand’ line in Lifer’s trailer above is priceless!

Here’s the Season 1 DVD trailer for more highlights:

Sorry mundiesmiester – the reason I’m binning the 819s is that they feel a bit off with wider tyres. An 821 would be ideal really…

I’m still not sure about UST tyres on the new Flow EXs though. They were fine on the old Flows, but the new BST is much shallowe – so the UST tyres don’t really fit any more. I don’t have a problem moving to non-UST Dual Ply tyres instead, as long as they’re going to be as reliable and burp-proof as my old UST setup.

Pic below for clarity – have a look at the depth of the hook holding the bead in place on old vs new:

I’d say go for the new job. If you play your cards right when leaving the current place, you could even leave yourself with the option of moving back in 18 months if things don’t work out. Nice to have a backup plan and all that 🙂

I was literally about to post the images Sputnik has. Loving the Hard Eddie – might be my first 29er ever and first hardtail in about 2 years.

Stem has been shortened slightly but this is mine and I love it.

One roadie, one DH bike, one 4x bike. No MTB hardtails 😛

Not a great picture, but this is my old ’98 Fire Mountain. My first ‘proper’ MTB! Still lives at home with the parents, but I keep thinking of sprucing it up with an 80mm Psylo and a front disc and using it as my London hack bike…

I had a problem with my old Ixus i7 and the Canon UK center were very good at getting it repaired out of warranty. Reasonable price too.

The graphs are from Excel – I record my weight when I take it.

Obviously the act of measuring my weight does not in and of itself help me lose weight… But I do think the trend over time helps (e.g. looking at 2011 and realising I’d really put weight on with extra food intake). At this point I could probably get just as good tracking from weighing (say) once a week, but I reckon weighing once a day helps smooth out the weird daily fluctuations. As an example, I’ve seen 1kg fluctuations based on doing lots of exercise and not rehydrating properly.

Every day at the same time (first thing in the morning). I’m aware of weight fluctuations over the day / between days, so it’s more a way of tracking a trend than knowing which size trousers to wear that day.

Graphs you say? 😀

August 2011 I was on two hot meals a day. Not ideal 😈

I’ve used MFP for a couple of months (on a recommendation from my housemate) and found it really useful. The big thing for me was portion control – just stopping to weigh out how much food I was eating (and realizing how MUCH I was getting through each meal) has really helped.

Was at 83kg in January when I started, now down to ~78 🙂

If the tyres are brand new, there may be kinks in the sidewall.

Try putting the tyres on with a tube, inflate up to 60psi and let them sit for a day or two. Then pop the tubes out and try again.

Float can with just spacers. Instructions on the Fox website:

http://www.foxracingshox.com/fox_tech_center/owners_manuals/07/eng/forks/36/36_float.htm

Depends on conditions:
– on the aero bars on a closed flat course I can do it in 45 mins (21mph)
– on the hoods going through London traffic & lights it would take me 68 min (14mph)

If you decide to change I might be interested in your XC70 – drop me a mail if you do decide to switch? 🙂

The Socom’s a DH bike with 8″ of travel. You might get away with a 180mm Fox 36 on there but it’s not really what you want – probably an Uzzi or an SS2 if you’re set on an Intense.

Haven’t ridden the others to compare I’m afraid!

If I were you I would stick with the Royal Mail.

They don’t use those dangerous Laser Scanners normally, and the service is very good

Especially considering the very low prices.

nealglover I salute you 😆

The video of Sun Yang is fantastic 🙂

In terms of breathing technique – it could be that your swim form is fine and you’re just not breathing right. Two thoughts:
– are you blowing out too much air underwater?
– are you gasping in air when you hit the surface?

Either way you’re going to end up with ‘off’ breathing and have to stop. Your breath when swimming should be a gentle exhale followed by as normal an inhale as possible – you can’t just huff all the air out and gasp it back in again as it gets very difficult to hold the rhythm with your stroke.

I found the pear budget excel spreadsheet to be really helpful:

https://pearbudget.com/spreadsheet

Nice and clear and it’s just Excel, so you can add charts and so on as you see fit 🙂

The Intense Tazer VP is in the ballpark. 68 degree HA, 1.5″ HT if you want to put an angleset in.

http://www.intensecycles.com/bikes/index.php?id=4&product_id=18

That YT is excellent VFM though 🙂