24.50 as part of a sprint triathlon, so a 700m swim and 20k on the bike beforehand. Hoping to get it down a minute or two this year!

Intense Tazer VP is 3.25″-4″ adjustable with a 68 degree HA. It is proper small though!

Book as far in advance as possible. I paid £32.50 one way Chester -> London 2 weeks in advance, a week later it was up at £102 for the single! No help now I guess 😕

As far as Euston to Excel, you can go for:
– 2 x singles (Euston -> Excel, Excel -> Euston). Max £3.10 each way, less off-peak.
– Zone 1-3 travelcard (£10.60) – probabl only worth it if you want to do other stuff in town

Joe Blow Sport works fine for me on tubeless MTB tyres (Maxxis on UST) and road tyres.

Google shopping results

Note that occasionally with new folded UST tyres I’ll need to leave them overnight with a tube in to get them the right shape before they’ll mount up.

Jedi taught me to whip / table better on my jumps / drops course 🙂

👿

Couple of links that might help swimmers out there (I’m currently working on flip turns and getting up to one mile for tris this year):

How to flip turn (part 1 of 5): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YFQpLyihI5M

0 to 1650: http://ruthkazez.com/ZeroTo1mile.html

To get fit, AND to look fitter so I can chase after fitties 8)

I’ve got a pair of Easton CNT DH carbons you can have second-hand like. 25.4 clamp, 2″ rise. Drop me a mail if you want any more info!

Wow, they look good… definitely going on the Christmas list.

30-35 psi isn’t super-low – try tubeless with 25psi and see how you get on.

Personally, I’d be inclined to try and get a demo on a Slackline (it’s only 1 extra pound, you’ll be fine pedalling it round all day) and maybe a C456.

I had a hardtail debacle at the start of the year:
– had a medium Chameleon – beautiful frame, but far too stiff
– swapped out for a medium Soul – again, really nice, but realised I just didn’t enjoy riding hardtails as much as full sus.
– replaced the Soul and my 5.5 with a Tazer set to 3.5″. Perfect – no more hardtails for me 🙂

EDIT: ^^^ mamadirt, you’ve bought another new one?!? Did you ever sell that Intense BMX? 😳

Looks good – that’s the sort of thing I’m after, but reckon it might be a bit on the large side (30 x 37 x 13 cm). All it needs to carry is a bottle of water, sunblock, maybe a shirt, so the lighter the betterer.

Thanks STY but I think I’m good as I am 🙂

OK, since you’re clamouring for an update 😉

First off – thanks for the advice (and other input) in the thread. I found that thinking of her as someone I knew seven years ago helped – it’s true, we’ve hardly spoken since and I was pining after someone who didn’t exist any more. That helped sort my head out a bit!

Secondly: went to the party anyway, and she didn’t show. Would have been nice to be sure that I’m feeling better about everything by seeing her, but had a good night out regardless 🙂

Sam, after 7 years a 3 other relationships, you are starting to sound a little stalkerish……

Don’t think I’m being stalker-ish – I’d be quite happy not to lay eyes on her again. Just having problems moving on, like Stoatsbrother says.

BTW: I do recognise that I’ve not had that hard a time of it – no marriage, kids, house etc – just looking for some advice on how to deal with the situation I’m in atm.

Oh and borrow a wedding ring.

Now this I like 😆

Thanks everyone so far 🙂

In order then:
– no chance of getting it on with her (even if I keep thinking about it, argh!) – she’s married (mutual friends told me, I guess hoping it would help me move on)
– have had a couple of 2-year relationships and a couple of 6-month ones, currently single
– I’ve blocked her on facebook – didn’t think seeing posts from her or news would help in the moving on process

I think the thing that worries me is that splitting up was very painful (it was my fault entirely – acting like an idiot) and I think I do still have feelings for her. The acid test for this is that – if she were to suggest another go – I’d say yes 😕

Jumping in at the deep end with long runs is asking for an injury – running is an impact sport, and if you’re not used to it then bad things can happen.

Build up slowly: http://www.coolrunning.com/engine/2/2_3/181.shtml

Curtis Racelite for £200 😯

Must

Resist

Fair enough then! Got to say, I’ve not yet had a problem running round my local playing field or round the streets in daylight. Wouldn’t want to chance it at night or over anywherewith pointy sticks or rocks though.

SBZ: have you tried barefoot running?

Barefoot running helped stop me getting IT band pain and fixed up my form (less heel striking, fewer injuries).

However, you do have to build up slowly. Very slowly. If you overdo it and your bones / calves aren’t ready, you can end up with stress fractures in your metatarsals. Which means no running and no hard MTBing for 6 weeks or more 🙁

EDIT: for clarity – I was running on pavement – you may find it easier to ramp up if you can stick to grass / track.

EDIT 2: I would recommend starting off with a couple of weeks just wearing the vibrams for walking around. Once you’re done with that, start following the couch to 5k from scratch (and don’t rush through it or skip weeks!!). Available at http://www.coolrunning.com/engine/2/2_3/181.shtml

I’m 5’10” and I ride / have ridden:
– XC / AM: Intense 5.5, medium (19″)
– 4X / DJ: Intense Tazer VP, medium (15″)
– DH: Intense Socom, medium (16″)

So they’re all by the same manufacturer and all the mediums have different seat tube sizes.

HOWEVER; all three have the same top tube length (23″), and all three felt very composed in the air and on the way down. IMO TT length makes a huge difference (just 0.5″ shorter felt wrong to me), so I’d suggest checking the top tube on your 456 against the frames you’re testing. Maybe try swapping stems out on the FS bikes to get the right reach?

trickydisco +1

To be fair, I’m glad they kept some of the classic gameplay elements in BF3:

Also: hooray for flashlights!

You’ll be very lucky to get a Hardened package – they’ve pretty much all gone in the UK.

Should have no problem getting the game and voucher from a decent-sized Tesco though. The offer means you can pick up Elite if you want for a reasonably chunk off.

greeble, I would agree with you but I made the jump to console two years ago and it’s not that bad. Not as precise as a keyboard + mouse but perfectly playable (and a lot easier to just jump into a game with friends).

I’d go for Float 36 RC2s. Set the travel to whatever is appropriate for the bike and ride them as-is, don’t bother with the travel adjust.

No experience of the Deville, but I do prefer the 36s over my old Pikes.

You could try some Vicks First Defence – worked for me last year when I felt a cold coming on.

Last service was around a year ago I think – can check the exact date when I get home. Service was done by the old HR Owen Volvo dealership in Camden.

changed the fuel filter last xmas doesnt inspire confidence ….

Why? I had run the car down to ~20 miles left in the tank. As it turns out, that flushed a load of crap into the filter – so got the filter changed (not by a Volvo dealership, but by a fella who’s worked on Volvos for 25 years or so). I thought that all sounded ok – is changing the fuel filter a sign that something is going wrong with the car??

Some good advice there – thanks! Looks like I’ll have to get it booked in with a Volvo dealer and get the codes read, then go from there.

One other thing I’ve noticed is an occassional buzz behind the dashboard on the driver’s side – apparently that’s a sign of a bad fuel relay on the older 850s, but not sure if the component layout is the same on my V70 (as a ’98 it is the old-shape V70).

To answer a couple of questions:
– it’s a 2.5L petrol turbo
– no idea about the petrol tank – I thought they would be metal by default??

Hmmm. Could be that – my lambda sensor warning light is on, so engine could be over or under fuelling. Only thing is, I had the MOT on the car done on Tuesday (!!) and the emissions were spot on – I’d have expected it to fail if the car was over/under-fuelling.

I could be wrong though – not a car expert!

I’m sure if you want gritty realism a la GTA 4, GTA 5 will be quite good.

If you would like to have actual fun (like in Vice City and San Andreas), then Saints Row 3 is out in a couple of weeks 🙂

Volvo estate would work fairly well – should be able to find a 940 in good nick or an old-shape V70 for that money.

If you’ve got a PC already connected to the wireless network, download and run this to extract the password from the Windows password store:

http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/wireless_key.html

Forza looks lush – I’ll have to try and make some time for the demo.

I’m currently playing through Dark Souls at the moment. Absolutely brilliant game, but don’t buy it if you don’t want a challenge 😈

How hard exactly is it to carry your driving license around?

I’ve never used anything other than Mavic rims so can’t comment on your other options. However 819s (and 823s) with Maxxis UST tyres are an absolute breeze to run tubeless – tyres mount up nice and easy and go up with a track pump with no problems.

Thanks for the input everyone. I’ve suspected leaky seals but wasn’t sure, but looks like there is a way to check. I’ll have a look tonight.

Will I have any luck going for a warranty replacement? Given that they’re an old model and second hand I wouldn’t have thought I’d be in with a shout. Maybe a discount off a new set of 810s? 🙂

Addendum: I’ve got a set of the same style XT brakes which work great. I’ve been considering swapping out parts bit by bit (e.g. swap over the XT caliper onto the Saint lever and hose) to try and identify any parts of the Saint brakeset that are ‘bad’. Worth a go?

As above – almost all SDG saddles have the screw hole for the quick clip, but the I-Fly does not (presumably to save weight).

If you want a saddle bag you’ll need to either:
– swap out your I-Fly for a saddle with a screw hole
– find a saddle bag that only needs to be attached to the post and not the seat

Sadly I don’t know of any bags that attach to just the post – every one I’ve seen attaches to the saddle somehow to stop it slipping down when loaded up.