Yeah two guys I play football with in London have recently started MTB one Australian one South African. The Australian guy often goes to north downs, swinley and south wales with his mates.

However it was quite funny the South African guy saying he was heading off to the Long Mynd on the weekend.

So a reasnoble target for starting out would be to average 10-15mph on Swinley singletrack, which doesnt actualy sound too hard, maybe the course was more technical than it looked.

Course was nt particularly technical and again for alot of racers the speeds are nt that great.

But what your'll probably realise is when you normally ride you probably stop alot to eat drink or just take a breather and this does make a big difference.

as the first 'pinchpoint' can really make a difference, even to 'slow' guys.

Has any one noticed that the numbers in the gorricks are really low in comparison to last year.

I managed to head off near the start of the open group and there was no pinch point for me which was nice.

Are more people doing fun ?

Imagine if the £70bn equivalent that was spent on the trident programme a couple of decades ago had been spent on R&D into non petrochemical energy sources. We might now be sitting pretty as an energy independent state telling the arab nations to go f*ck themselves. No messy little interventions in Iraq or Afghanistan, no need for Islamic extremists to hate us. Now that would have been national security.

Hindsight is a wonderful thing!

Great Comment ! Not guaranteed but the gist of it is true.

A similar point is that in the 1500/1600/1700 England should of pored all of its money into naval defense, due to the threat from the spanish/dutch/french.

Any money going into education was a waste of resources, however without the standard of education improving the industrial revolution may never have happened so its always difficult to know where to channel resources without hindsight.

Also, killing Trident, kills submarine building, marine nuclear capability and myriad other things in the UK to the tune of 20000 jobs and thousands of lost skills.

One wonders whether politicians genuinely don't see the disconnect, or whether they know it and just lie and hope people don't work it out for themselves…

This is very true and Im sure trident also indirectly creates jobs, Ie research spin offs etc etc.

But surely you could spend the money on something else which would create an equal number of jobs and hopefully would help create more jobs indirectly.

Like spending the money on improving the transport system in the UK ie roads+pulic transport. Or delivering Broadband to every part of the country. Or putting the money into power generation ie nuclear + renewable.

Surely these schemes would be better for the economy and generating jobs + money in the long term ?

http://www.mbswindon.co.uk/croft-trail/

"My only concern is the gentrification of what should be affordable housing stock."

Yeah I agree poor people should be forced to live in **** buildings.

were no bridleways in the forest

just looked at a map and there do appear to be bridleways in the west of the forest ?

"Women make up 52% of the population… There are more women than men, so why should men be proposing to men?"

This is literally the best quote ever he manages to not just insult homosexuals but also women by suggesting they should just be waiting for men to propose to them.

And also what is even more bizarre is he seems to suggest that if there were not enough women it would then be natural for men to become gay !!!

Oi! The ironic thing is, I dont even think of myself as being that religious – I do lots of stuff that Ratzinger would dissaprove of, as do many supposedly religious people. I just wanted to point out that not all catholics blindly accept what the vatican tells them to, and then it all went a bit fundamentalist – It doesnt take much on here, does it?

Pretty much the same as me then.

I've just had this funny imagine of Mr Whoppit and BarnsleyMitch being born in the late Roman Empire.

I could imagine "Mr Whoppit" becoming a Christian after he realised the ignorant Pagans MUST be wrong I mean HOW can there be more than ONE god ???? I mean all the latest cleverest people are Christian its just stupid old timers who are Pagan cant they see they are doing soo much damage allowing people to get divorced think of the children !

While BarnsleyMitch would probably stay a Pagan saying the old ways also have value. He'd then probably get burned to death by Mr Whoppit for being a heretic !

Now that would be ironic :)

"His book says it is a sin outside of marriage he does want you to do it but only with your spouse who is the opposite sex to you to make babies for the glory of god… "

I dont know why people find this teaching so strange. Say you were not religious but you were a 6th BC official at a court of a small kingdom. You want to create a stable society you might suggest people should get married, only have sex inside of marriage and then raise their offspring together.

Now say you were a twenty first century politician you might come up with something like this
http://www.conservatives.com/Policy/Where_we_stand/Family.aspx
Which is not far off the same thing.

People cant seems to remember that only 50 ish years ago sex was directly linked to child birth + sexually transmitted diseases.

I could suggest that they told them not to have sex out of wedlock and have sex with only their wifes and not with men. Had they followed this and married as virgins then they would have been fine re AIDS.

Oh well, of course THAT'S going to work. How very practical. Exactly what planet are you on?

But the catholic church was formed before condoms, are you suggesting the problem is they have nt moved on with the times ? Or the original teaching was wrong ? Are you suggesting before contraception their teaching was correct ?

brakes are now inboard of shifters on all my bikes.

the sort of disgusting brainwashing that happens in religious cults like yours, to be an exact product of the indoctrination that I am talking about.

Any type of upbringing is brainwashing. Surely you could argue any ideas you put in the mind of a child could be viewed as evil ?

Personally I could see labeling a child as an english child would evil, both the first and second world wars were partially caused by nationalism and this was encouraged in the 19th century during the raising of children. It is still something which is encouraged to a more or lesser extent in most countries in the world.

If you raised a child with out any influence you would nt be raising them at all.

For being born into a Western Catholic Family I pretty much seem to be responsible for every evil in the world. Oh well Im not going to worry about it too much.

Is this a new form of the Nuremburg Defence….. I was only follwing Gods order as given on Earth by his appointed representative Der Pope?

You've totally missed my point here one of the key words was "Western" which am I meant to be fixing first the horrors of colonialism ? The situation on the Middle East ? The problems with the catholic church ?

Get real man, the simple fact is that the all western nations* are morally bankrupt organsiations, and to choose to continue to passively support their unbelievable evils is to actively engage in the commission of those self same evils. Or do you think millions of Europeans/Americans turning their back on their nation publically stating their reasons would have no impact on the way the franchise is run ?

Or would they just go to war with who ever they fancied because there was oil there ? Which is what they did despite all the protests.

* or put in which ever organisation/nation you fancy because none is perfect.

It's really about choice is it not?
You cannot opt out of paying tax (prison awaits) but you can opt out of voting for a war mongerer or following a religion known to abet child abusers.

Yes you can if you really thought it was wrong you could go to prison, you could leave the country you can make any choice you want.

"I'm more interested in you responding to the idea that the only reason you're a catholic, is because your parents placed you in the instructional care of the cultists when you were a child, who brainwashed you before you were old enough to examine the argument independently."

Im a catholic my answer would be yes thats true.

The main reason any one holds their views is the environment they grew up in, if you think the views your hold have not been shaped by your parents, friends, environment and society you are from you are saddle mistaken.

There are view few people who genuinely come up with a new idea of way of viewing society most people just recycle other people beliefs and mash them together in a way that lets them get through their lives without going mad.

Only the ones who voted for bLiar.

Well then surely only the catholics who agree with pedophilia are responsible for the abuse.

If you paid your tax's the money went to the government and was spent on the war regardless of your personal beliefs.

Same as if you put money in the plate at a catholic church some of that money may have been spent on hiding child abuse.

If you had refused to pay your taxes while we were at war in Iraq that might be different.

well yes imho

Im not saying that not wrong either, Im just making the point we're all indirectly to so many evils that it would be ridiculous to try and point out them all out.

No one is in a better position to lecture anyone else.

You follow the people who commit these crimes, you follow the people who actively cover up these crimes and in doing so YOU ARE RESPONSIBLE.

Surely that makes every British Tax payer responsible for all deaths in Afghanistan/Iraq everyone who buys clothes from Primark responsible for child labour.
Anyone who uses electricity responsible for global warming.

For being born into a Western Catholic Family I pretty much seem to be responsible for every evil in the world. Oh well Im not going to worry about it too much.

err I dont really get this question. Is it possible to stop yourself crying, seems a pretty involutary response to me.

I suppose my answer would be real men dont cry if nothing bad ever happens to them. Which is highly unlikely

To me its like asking do really men never sneeze. Mind I have to say its never really occured to me I might be able to stop myself crying but then again I cant stop ****ing mid flow no matter what were as some of my mates reckon this is deffinetly possible.

I think most of the answers are going to be very obvious or seem boring with a few hidden gems.

I think obviously you have to add the lake district in there, with my favourite view being loughrigg fell looking down onto Lake Grasmere. I also like like the view from Castlerigg stone circle.

Both pretty boring typical lake district tourist spot but I like em. Would also agree that Rhossili Bay is a great beach.

Oh yeah would add at least one decent welsh castle in there maybe Caernarfon or Conway Castle

Cheers for all the info guys :) Although most of you have nt read my posts :)

Yeah I heard it was pretty pointless if wet like I say I was only going to go if the weathers good. My boss is pretty good with holidays so if its raining I'll just go into work and try again another day.

I think that bit about getting 2 elephants and 2 kangaroos and everything on that boat thingy was a bit made up.

Im not really sure what your point is. Im trying to say that 19th Century secular ie non-religious Zionists believed that the parts of Bible related to the history of the Kingdoms of Israel/Judah just as strongly as religious Jews. Because frankly at the time it was the best historical source.

Hence why even though they weren't religious they want to create a state in Palestine, at the time the religious jews didnt cause they still thought the messiah would create it.

… and religion is still the elephant in the room.

Surely this is one example that shows religion is not always a problem, cultural differences which cause conflict can come from a variety of sources.

In this case the Jewish, Christian and Muslims populations were getting on as well as you can expect a 19th century population groups to get on under the Ottoman empire.

The problems started to occur when Europeans decided another group of "mainly" eastern Europeans should be moved to a different continent.

This would nt have been a problem in the 19th Century as which ever side had the greatest military strength would have just wiped the other side out. However the world is nicer place now adays and that cant happen but we dont seem to have any other ideas how to sort it out.

In fact the Christian + Muslim Arabs still get on reasonably well so surely religion isnt the main problem.

Also many Zionists were not religious

modern Zionist movement, beginning in the late 19th century, was mainly founded by secular Jews,

They simply believed they were descended from people who had inhabited and had a kingdom in Palestine in the past, because at the time the Bible was also probably the best historical source for the region. Currently the bible is seen as basically correct back to 600BC before that point its not clear what is over exaggeration and what is totally made up.

It gets on my nerves that people seem to think you can separate "religion" from "culture" especially before the second world war.

Your not getting in my way on my trails !

Oooh you mean benefits to you? I'll have to give that some thought.

sacro illiac joint dysfunction.

More seriously from your description you seem to think its activity related and is a muscle/nerve problem rather than something internal ?

This area of the body is complicated and relies on all the muscles and structures operating together correctly. Like you say a sports hernia is nt a normal hernia and I would ignore anything you've read on it. Generally the surgery for this injury is used on professional sportmen and its questionable wether its the surgery that helps or the inforced rest.

I would suggest if your sure its not something internal it might be an idea to do some kind of core strength training + streches. However your unlikely to see anymuch improvement from this for a couple of months.

Read up on Pilates or something like that.

Hey guys cheers,

Sounds like I can probably go a lot further than I thought, although I was planning on stopping and doing some sight seeing ie white horse/waylands smithy. Although I suppose that wont take much time.

Yeah I heard it was pretty pointless if wet like I say I was only going to go if the weathers good. My boss is pretty good with holidays so if its raining I'll just go into work and try again another day.

Really I want to just head out and not plan anything but at the same time I dont really want to spend much money on accomodation so though I might need to book or I'll turn up somewhere and the only place to stay will be like £100 a night.

The Phone two days before suggestion seems reasonable. If you really believe there is no demand it will still be empty.

However lots of people like to do things last minute so it will be interesting to see if it is.

Flatter than your mum ?

Flatter than a squashed hedgehog ?

Flatter than a witch's tit

I dont know about the M1/M6 but I'd definitely use the M40 after Bham.

much in the same way you wooed your wife to marry you, you must follow a similar process getting her into mountain biking. I mean she wouldn't have married you if on your first date you'd have admitted your feet smelt of cheese now would she?

I agree with this and started my wife with the thames paths, then swinley + cannock chase (she really likes follow the dog). But I've never managed to get her to move past the surrey hills in terms of technical riding. She doesn't even like parts of summer lightening (in the dry/never mind wet) because its too rooty.

If I ever took her to do a real ride in wales/peaks/lakes it would be a nightmare. I'd imagine she'd get to the top of the ride fairly easily but then refuse to come back down ! (unless I carried both bikes and she walked)

Maybe if I was a better teacher shes have got a bit futher but I feel this real issue is she just doesnt get any buzz from technical riding.

She likes all the other parts of cycling because it makes her fit and being fit is good (ie keeps you slim + healthy + likely to live longer). But technical cycling might get you injured which seems silly to her.

I think there maybe a slight difference here because especially as a younger bloke there was a certain attraction to doing stuff they may have lead me to be injured cos it sounded cool!

My Wife who I've know 9 years is dead keen on keeping fit and has always enjoyed cycling (when I met her she'd just done the london brighton).

But no matter how hard I try I know she'll never love MTB in the same way I do.

She like off road riding, because it keeps her away from the cars. But she views the descents, especially anything difficult, as interruption from proper riding and hence exercise. Almost like they should not be on the ride, although she enjoys steady climbs as I think she feels like shes achieving something.

Which is quite difficult to understand as I think most of us look forward to the downs most (although I do like a good climb too).

Although we like to assume we've moved on, the problem with this countries land access laws are they start with the assumption that all land belongs to the monarch. Any access to any land really is a grant of the monarch.

The land laws need to be rewrote the other ways round. We need to start from the assumption that everyone (at least on foot has access to all land. Exceptions due to privacy farming industry then need to created.

So laws need to be passed to restrict land access rather than the current system where generally laws have to passed to grant access to land.

"I mean that I suspect an Ethiopian coffee farmer might more efficiently apply his time to some other form of employment. Creating a price floor for coffee encourages him to grow coffee, which for whatever reason, his farm isn't well suited for. On the other hand, he could perhaps grow some other crop, and live on the proceeds of that, without needing the Fairtrade middleman / subsidy. Or he could do something entirely different."

I completely understand your points. However Im not too sure this is a great example because didnt coffee originate around Ethiopia ?

I'd have thought as the plant evolved to live in this area it was a good place to grow it. Although obviously what I say is a generalisation.

Just watched the 2 episodes and yeah pretty impressed.

Like others have said I think I could do most of the celebrity challenges with out too much problem. However I dont think I could do the amount of running Eddie did.

I mean he hasnt just done a bit of running these are some serious distances. Also its the fact he's not doing anything especially cool or extreme he just runs.

Although you can see he obviously loves the lime light, the people he mets and places he goes are just as important to the story as he is.

And also considering how tough it looks he complains remarkably little, if at all, and he seems like a really nice chap. Compare this to say James Cracknell in On Thin Ice.

As your from reading have you seen any of the maps of MTB map of swinley ?

ie this one

http://maps.google.co.uk/maps/ms?client=firefox-a&hl=en&ie=UTF8&t=h&msa=0&msid=117405219518174636568.00047c1c4c613645d094b&z=14

Have you then tried to follow them ?

Im not really sure its worth the effort.