however telescopic poles will not be very strong – I tried it with some lekis.

You won’t be able to do things like push yourself back up when you fall over or lean on them and you won’t be able to plant them fiercely and turn on them if required.

I used telescopics for ski-touring and snowshoes for a couple of winters, they are fine. I think mine are Lekis, you twist them to adjust them and if they collapse under your weight you haven’t twisted hard enough.

For what its worth I would avoid the twist design and go for the ones with the plastic clip that twists over and locks, much easier with cold hands.

Good fight for Haye, picking up a few quid before he fights the Klitschkos. For all the talking it’ll be very surprising if he takes many chances against Harrison.

Haye’s career has been managed really well. There is a lot of talk about him fighting the Klitschkos but now he has a couple of belts of his own he will earn some money, talk a bit of trash and up the fee for the inevitable Klitschko fight or fights.

He has every chance against the Klitschkos, he has great speed and is very heavy-handed for his size.

You can use telescopic poles.

If you have expensive carbon ones and you think you might fall on them and snap them, cheapo hire ones will cost next to nothing for a week.

You should be good on a Large, I have pretty long legs and it is the best-balanced bike I have had. The boy who designed it is around the same height and rides the Large.

This guy must be motivational dynamite in the gym.

“You’re a fat **** who’ll never amount to much, now get on that exercise bike”

I’m 6’3″, ride a Large with a 50mm stem. I bought a Thomson 410mm post, the 350mm that came with the frame was pretty much useless. dlr you could probably go for a medium with a longer post.

Matchstick – Skiing

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F8WH2LBmCa4

Absinthe – Snowboarding

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MTATBRhS8DY

The chat on here reminds me of the Crystal Holidays transfer bus, not in a good way.

Ideally you want a gym which is used by a decent number of proper amateur athletes, they’ll have all the equipment and the trainers will be more interested in putting on good quality classes.

If you lean towards cardio then try and turn some of those sessions into intervals. Free weights will give you miles better results than machines, there are loads of classes like body pump to get started on free weights. Core training is important, yoga is good for core strength and flexibility.

If you are doing loads of exercise you will keep fit anyway. Some people find it interesting to do specific training to improve an aspect of their fitness. If you throw in some intervals and free weights you will lose fat a lot more easily than doing steady cardio.

I’ll be moving from Nationwide when I change my mortgage next year. Only branch near me is a total hassle to visit and they have gradually worsened the terms of every single product or facility I have with them.

It didn’t take Cyclescheme long to figure out how to make more money out of it.

Shes so Lovely
Shes so Lovely
Shes so Lovely
Shes so Lovely

321s and Flows on my full sussers, never had any problems with them, you just need a stronger wheel.

Unfortunately i’m a bit hung over and I’ve eaten all the sweets.

You might have issues tubeless, tubed I suspect will be alright.

Nowt for me yet, despite spending a clean fortune with them.

I liked Ae, its pretty rocky in places but I hope they haven’t flattened everything out. Hopefully they’ve blocked a few of those cheat lines that appeared at the Ae Enduro.

Cyclists Training Bible is a great book, I am working my way through it at the moment. Its an easy way to start with your main goals and then break your training down/back to the basics required to give you a result. You really need to be honest and self-coach yourself, you will learn a lot from it.

Mttm what happened to it then..?!

I test-drove an ST, its a lovely engine and sounds great, I thought it felt slightly soft and front-heavy but I was still tempted.

Meganes drive really well but depreciate very quickly.

Civics are a real marmite car, worth driving one to see if you get on with it.

Golf is the one I went for, I thought it was the best all-rounder but they are quite common.

If you want to be sure of what kind of dog you are getting.

Pick a breed whose “typical” characteristics appeal to you.
Find a pedigree breeder with a good reputation who won’t sell you a cross-bred dog with congenital defects.
Train the dog well from day one.

If you are going to go for a mixed breed you should still try and see a pedigree on both sides, its the only way to determine there hasn’t been inbreeding. The worse thing you can do is buy a “cheap” pedigree or cross-breed as these are the dogs which have the biggest genetic problems.

I think the “total immersion” book is about a fiver and will give you loads to work on. It basically focuses on your body position in the water which gives you massive gains in efficiency. I was getting down to 12 stroke lengths when I was swimming regularly and really trying to stretch them out.

I’ve an Ignitor on the back at the minute, it grips alright in loose stuff. Other than that you’re looking at Medusas or Swampthings.

Be Internet provided me with a planned downtime notice that arrived after they had already dropped the connection, which was handy.

They dropped both my bonded lines at the same time instead of doing it in sequence.

Their call centre staff read out the same script for a day and a half and promised that everything was in order at their end whilst my IT guys checked and rechecked EVERYTHING at our end.

Eventually we got passed up to a senior engineer who fixed the problem in 2 hours.

I wrote a lengthy but polite complaint letter explaining how the problem could have been easily avoided with proper notice and access to a qualified engineer.

They haven’t responded at all.

Alarm bells should have been ringing when it took 4 phone calls and 3 emails to set up my Direct Debit correctly.

She’ll be going out happy after today. I hope a few of you economic experts get a nice boot in the financial balls before she goes.

Geetee I don’t really see why you are being suck a know-all, the majority of headsets will go into a Blue Pig perfectly well with a cheaps headset press, even if it does take a whole room full of experts to get your Chris King into your Nicolai.

Your BB is probably in decent nick straight from the factory.

Nope they are standard to go between the BB and the frame, can’t remember the set-up on the Blue Pig but you should have spacers in with your groupset and all you need is the BB size of the frame and then you can follow the Shimano instructions to give you the spacers required for that BB size.

The headset is easy with the correct tool, £25 from Wiggle.

The BB is hard to get wrong, either it screws in flush or it doesn’t. If it doesn’t you probably need the threads chased. You need spacers for your cranks.

Hub – No special hub required.

Rear Brake – Post to IS mount required.

Headset – Up to you but star-nuts are simple if you have the tool.

XT BB – I definitely wouldn’t bother as you’ll get plenty of time out of the XT and its paid for.

If your hips are stranded way out over your back wheel it becomes very hard to keep your weight centred on the bike. A longer chainstay would help prop up the rear end but it wouldn’t solve the problem of your hips being miles behind your cranks.

Yes but relatively, unless you have disproportionately long/short upper/lower legs surely the position for your saddle is relatively the same?[/quote]

The saddle position is similar but if the top tube length remains constant, steepening the seat angle lengthens the reach and puts more weight on the front. On the 456 you really felt like you were riding on the fork at times to get the most out of it, on the Blue Pig this isn’t so noticeable. The reach also gives you more room to get your weight onto the front end when you’re climbing.

I would agree about making eye contact with drivers, its the best way to get an idea of what they’re up to. You can pick out the considerate ones and the ones who are studiously trying to ignore your existence whilst they save that vital 2 seconds on their journey by cutting you up. If you’re going so fast in traffic that you can’t look over your shoulder you haven’t got enough room around you, or you’re in too much of a hurry.

If your hips are stranded way out over your back wheel it becomes very hard to keep your weight centred on the bike. A longer chainstay would help prop up the rear end but it wouldn’t solve the problem of your hips being miles behind your cranks.

Evilsea I’m your size with a 20″ BluePig, it fits great. You might be quite cramped on an 18″.

We’ve a MacPac, comfiest backpack I’ve ever had and well thought out with the rain cover, sunshade etc. Walking poles are handy on rough ground or long climbs/descents.

It is easier to up-sell bikes that are specced like that. People are always asking “what is the difference between this one and that one?”, its better to have something shiny to point out than having to say “not much but everything is just slightly better”.

I’d say £30 per tyre or as close as possible. They’ll need to do a bit of everything but I’ll not be doing massive winter miles. I have been looking at trainer tyres but I could maybe save a few quid running the Luganos into the ground on the trainer instead?

I had problems with them in my thighs when I was playing rugby. For milder ones I think gentle exercise and a bit of a rub helped to break things up, alongside the RICE. For the deeper ones you need to be more careful and see s physio for some ultrasound.

If you are having cramps and the runs try cutting out wheat for a couple of weeks. It used to give me highs and lows in energy as well as causing other problems, so you might find it easier to maintain your energy levels.

Small man syndrome…?

I like the way you try and agree with a minor point in a post that is effectively calling you a ****, like that person agrees with you. Its particularly amusing when the person comes back and clarifies their opinion that you’re a loser, like molgrips did just then.