I dont really understand how people hurt themselves going over the bars.

As soon as you realise your doing it just make you let go of the bars and land on your hands and roll. I’ve came off over the bars in the last two races the first time at speed. I’ve never failing to roll.

Hey Oggles I did that on the last lap.

I knew the root was there. First two laps I’d lifted the front wheel off the bridge and my back wheel had landed in the mud hollow and my front wheel landed on top of the root.

Last lap I did exactly the same but I must have been moving slower (obviously) as my front wheel dropped earlier and landed just in front of the root and over I went.

there was one very good little down though very tight trees just to the east I think of the paintball area.

9 to 12 to 17 in the open 🙁

I would nt say it was that technical for normal riding. First lap I was fine but by the second lap I was starting to feel tired and the third lap I kept falling off cos I was knackered.

If I’d have been riding normally I’d have managed it all fine though.

Dont be such a drama queen its always goes back to being fine in the summer

is it not just the same as an Ordnance survey map ?

I’ve already got one.

I can see theres load of bridleways on Bing.maps already just wondering if there was any suggestions of which ones to take

true, which is what I mean by not playing to the same rules.

I also like the idea that the whole massive evolution movement is actually completely wrong and we’ve spent all this time barking up the wrong tree.

Mankind doesn’t like the idea of intelligent design because he can’t then stride around saying “see that, I used my enormous brain to understand that; gaze upon me, aren’t I magnificent and clever and all that”

You and ahwiles are nt really playing by the same rules so this argument is pointless.

Im not anti religious at all but you could say the same about intelligent design. “Look at me Im a man Im so great and perfect I must have been designed !”

If your not going to stake a claim to an alternative position this argument is pointless.

I mean everyone could be wrong about everything and you know what I sometimes “feel” the chances of this are probably higher than anything else. I also “feel” that really there should be nothing at all and the fact there is a blip.

But I have no evidence for these views and to live in the real world and take a position on something you need evidence.

The one thing I do agree with you on is its always worth keeping it mind that your viewpoint might be totally totally wrong, but as stated evolution is currently the best explanation for the variety of life on earth.

But there are still more things in the Universe (and beyond maybe) than we do not understand, than we do understand.

hmm not sure about that, what was her name ? The genome woman that is. Just out of interest of course, might read a bit of her research

Yes interesting but the problem with this line of thinking is it can become quite racist ie societies with a longer history of urbanisation less agressive + smaller w*llies societies with a shorter history of urbanisation more agressive + large w*llies

There is the possibility that with more and more of the population becoming urban we are selecting for the trait of non-aggression as generally aggressive people dont fit well into civil societies.

There was a study done in Russia in the fifties with Silver Foxes
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Domesticated_silver_fox

The basic findings were you could domesticate a species much quicker than expected by just selecting the least aggressive animals. But as well as the domesticated animals being less aggressive than than the wild animals they also underwent a series of changes in their morphology.

Ie the domesticated animals were smaller and show more child like features (ie big eyes) for longer much like other domesticated animals.

Therefore it seems the somehow that the two systems mental aggressiveness and the physical traits to be aggressive are linked.

(again there was something in the new scientist about this recently something to do with wasps or something that had the outward signs of dominance (ie think wasps with big beards or strong chins/foreheads) but actually were quite weak (therefore saving there energy for something else maybe the immune system) these animals seems to be “hated” for want of a better word by the other wasps who either looked strong and were strong or looked weak and were weak, ie everyone hates a faker)

Anyway there is always the possibility we are selecting for non aggressive traits ie rapist murders get sent to prison that we might be domesticating ourselves.

Which would also explain why although there is much more room for conflict in the world today ie more people less room/ resources, there actually seems to be less violence than in the past.

As to whether we are still evolving, I think the question is; Is change for changes sake evolution ? Or does it need some kind of force to push it or direction (ie natural selection).

Personally Im more with the guy on the program who says we’re along way from have disease beat yet (particular in the developing world) but if you assume we did have disease beat we’d still change.

For one thing there are still environmental factor pushing evolution like the example of Tibetan people. Another example given in the program is pollution. Obviously we cant evolve as quickly as a worm our generational span is much longer, but I would not be surprised if pollution did not have some selection pressure on us.

Also Im beginning to think change is now in built in us and most animals. Or if you like we’ve evolved to evolve. (generally animals that are not responsive to change will die out).

I think we’ve over estimated “Chance” or at least it gets explained wrong in the field of evolution. I think its clear most species have already developed systems to increase their genetic diversity and their ability to respond to change.

The most obvious example of this is sex, other examples are coming to light such as epigenetics. I recently read a story on new scientist basically someone was trying to find where we had diverged from chimps the most and came up with some gene or something with the most differences but he then discovered that all animals seemed to be very different on this gene not just chimps/humans. Therefore they were considering whether it was a gene particulalary for helping evolution. Also there is more and more talk about sideways genetic transfer in bacteria ie getting genes directly from another bacteria not have to evolve them in each lineage. I would be surprised if this could happens in animals/plants.

Anyway if we are built to change then removing disease/environmental stress would actually encourage that change as there would be nothing to weed many of out the potentially negative changes and would allow more genetic diversity.

Im pretty sure many “diseases/disabilities” have a genetic component for instance Im pretty sure if a blind couple had a child they are more likely to have a blind child. This does happen now, give it a few generations and none of the children would be able to see.

Now these people are quite able to operate within their current environment and have changed to some degree. If the environment changed suddenly ie we went back to hunting with spears they would probably die but it hasnt yet.

This comes back to original question is all change evolution or not ?

those saying it just another 7000 or what ever are missing yet another point.

for a start its only an extra 5000 as rich will have to pay 2500 no matter what, but more to the point it will be 5000 off the deposit. So it will 5000 and 25 years of interest ayments. There is also the ossibility rich will not get such a low rate of interest for the mortgage.

Me and my wife were in the same position as mentioned there no choise but to offer less than 250000, in a falling market this might not be such a bad thing if you have time.

I have a fairly decent level of fitness, but my diet pre/during/post ride have always been my achilles heel.

Most of the guys I race with tend to use energy gels/carbohydrate mixes. Personally they dont tend to agree with me. So would be best to check what your body likes long before the races.

My preparation is lots of complex carbohydrates, such brown rice/wholemeal bread/wholemeal pasta. Then I tend to eat nutty type things on the day. With the occasional sugary/chocolaty thing while racing, but generally I try to stay away from the sugary food as it tends to make me feel more tired in the long run.

Well Mountain Mayhem is quite different from a normal race, although I do agree it probably best to approach the laps as 6 small races. Ie dont take too much kit out with you, no need to a jacket even if poring down.

The good thing about MM is you can normally do a lap in an hour so you dont need to think too hard about getting energy in while racing. But you DO need to think about this inbetween racing particularly at night.

I’d say eat constantly but once or twice I’ve eat too much at MM and felt pretty bloated/heavy when I’ve got onto the bike. Also you end up spending alot of time in the portaloos then.

surely if you block spotify they will just use something else. Possibly you tube which means streaming video as well

Once you have a car, its still massively cheaper/more convenient/quicker than the train unless your heading to a city centre so Im not too sure what the alternative is for journeys over 10 miles.

To be honest I love my bike for short journey mainly because its quick and convenient not because of the price.

On about price I get the train(combined with folding bike) to work every day and it costs me about £250 a month. Again the reason I get it is because going into central london the train is more convenient/quicker than a car.

I suppose people might start cutting down on non-essential journeys due to fuel prices but this would mean the roads will be clearer so making it even more convenient/quicker.

I dont get it are you being ironic ?

But is it really not possible to enlarge existing bicycle lanes, and have all large-wheeled vehicles – bikes, mobility scooters, double buggies; not wheel chairs or push-chairs – confined to it?

“just require a few hardcore riding spots round london. Theres aston hill in the NW. PORC in the very SE”
I might be wrong, but I don’t think that isn’t (just) want many riders would actually want

I didnt say its what most riders want. It certainly isnt what I want.
Im assuming it is what the riders who keep building masses of woodwork and huge jumps want though.

I was attempting to suggest a solution to eliminate the issue around these riders who tend to be the ones the landowner/public notice the most. Before moving on to other issues.

Although the population pressure is much less in the midlands at cannock chase there is an official downhill/freeride area. Therefore the more extreme riders tend to keep their building to this area and leave the rest of land/trails alone.

This is the first thing that is needed just SW of london something like aston hill/PORC. The great thing about downhill/free ride areas is they dont actually take up much room but can cater for a large number of riders.

Unlike a XC trail.

Not sure that you are right there what can you make remotely. Now people who sit in an office all day maybe can work from home but I don’t believe we are looking at 50%?

I’d be interested to know what percentage of the working population basically work in an office.

I’d include job there that are mainly based in an office environment but also have occasional site visits.

The problem of people wanting to live in Rural areas but not being able to find work there will all sort itself out in a few years. When half the working population will be forced to work remotely because the company you work for wont want to pay for an office building anymore when people can just log into the system from home.

This will probably lead to a fall in prices houses near business centres and transport links. As everyone will need an office in their house now they’ll be even more people wanting to move to larger properties in the countryside. Which will increase prices there.

Obviously this still wont help you if your a fisherman. But you wont be complaining about people living in the countryside and commuting to the city anymore.

From reading your first comment mastiles_fanylion you seem to be living in a different world from me, have you ever had a boss ? Or are you self employed / always been the boss ?

Now come on scu98rkr this whole blog is saying the exact opposite. I was brought up in a busy city and they are shit holes….at least that what I feel. I would rather have cancer than move back…….not terminal cancer or testicular cancer terminal or otherwise.

ok probably over exaggerating to a large extent. Maybe what I meant is the majority of city dwellers either CANT or DONT want to move out of the city. I mean if every person who grow up in a city in this country suddenly managed to move out that would be 20 million or more people wanting to move to the countryside.

My point is the people the OP is complaining about are probably semi rural all ready.

PS Im not disagreeing with your assessment of city life

I would nt be supervised if most of these “Townies” actually grew up in a rural area/small town, moved to the city and have now moved back to a rural area (abit a different rural area).

Personally I dont think many people who really grow up in a properly busy city want to move to the country side.

Also its quite easy to grow up in a small almost rural town and actually have very little to do with rural life.

I mean when I was a kid there was a farm 30 seconds down the road and miles of countryside but my links were to the town cant say I knew any farmers or anything about farming.

I loved the countryside around for cycling through but I was never really part of it in the way your describing.

Actually when I think of the average UK person this is kinda what I think of someone who lives in Suburbia near the countryside but whose links are too the town.

The sender gets charged if their account it not verified or something along those lines

Well that cant be true because sometimes when I try to use Paypal gift it wants a fee and sometimes not.

often you seem to get charged on paypal gift any how.

If you send more than £25-£30 there is a charge

If one of the people isnt registered you get charged.

If you dont have your bank account details in paypal you get charged.

And sometimes no matter what I do there is a charge, I dont really get how it works.

This is where sky sports model lets its self down.

Presumably funding is needed to make this sort of niche interest program, but at the same time most MTBers are interested in spending £20 a month (or what ever) for the footy so wont contribute to the program.

Im sure if Sky released it as a download at least some mtbers would pay to watch it.

I mentioned this earlier and I think when we’ve had this discussion on singletrack world before we have come to this conclusion being the sensible answer. Even the people in Scotland dont think this change would be that bad.

GMT should be early/mid november to early/mid febuary then we’d already be in BST.
Ok it would still only be light till 6:30-7:00 at the moment but if you can finish work earlish this extra light could be used.

For MTBing you could probably go out for a ride when its light but need lights on the way back.

Just to say to the trail builders I took my little group to Swinley on Sunday and DID NOT go on the closed trails. Cheers for the efforts

yeah but obviously in spring and autumn it would be nice to have more light in the evening.

although I think the clocks could be improved Im not totally for this change.

I think another hour forward in the summer will be too much. It can already be pretty difficult to get to sleep on the hottest/longest days in the summer. If we moved the clocks forward another hour this will exacabate this problem.

Also I do agree that its already dark enough in winter in the mornings.

I dont think theres anything wrong with our times on the 21st of december and 21st of june its just inbetween that could be better.

To be honest we only need to be at GMT for 2 months tops.

I think the clocks should go back mid November and forward mid February. But overall its impossible to get this completely right.

To maximise light but have it going dark at the right times you’d have something like this ->

November to Feb GMT
Feb to May GMT +2
June to July GMT+1
August-November GMT+2

because GMT+2 will be too much in mid summer

From what I can tell Stickler is closed.

And seagull/tank traps is closed when wet/damp which is will be tomorrow. Im trying to rearrange my group for sunday.

Yeah Mordor in my book one of them trails which gets considerably harder in the wet as mentioned.

doh ! have you considered painting the bike another colour like red ? That way it would it would both be faster and you could replace the bars ?

ah cool cheers guys

ok i was meant to be taking a group Saturday morning. it is meant to rain friday night therefore i will try to convince them that sunday is a better day.

my usual route is from the look out clockwise 9 yards, stickler, tank traps, play on jumps climb to resviour round the back over the humps. Along seagull and the do some trails in crowthorne including corkscrew then back.

obviously u can stick on the 9 yards to miss stickler but if I want to get over to crowthorne from lower star point are there any other trails apart from seagull.

Is closed until 13 March – so please keep clear. Other trails have been relaid and are in need of bedding in – there are signs up to warn you not to rode them in wet conditions.

what other trails, how wet

should i bother taking some newbies this weekend

we need more information I live locally and would not ride the trails if I was riding on my own as i know where alot of other trails are but I could see if you had come a long way you may choose to ignore this. information needs to be on the gorrick swinley website

cheers for the info

Hey scud is there a list of closures any where ?

PS I know what you mean really 🙂 Try using the print screen button to take a screen shot. Paste into paint maybe and print from there?