First time, I got up, he lay there rolling around a bit. His dad came over, I shrugged the shoulders and explained there wasn't a lot I could do about it. He seemed happy enough and we helped the guy to the side of the run to sort himself out. They seemed happy enough so I left.

Second time, it was a middle aged English gent. He shouted "You've snapped my bloody pole". I said "You weren't even looking where you were going, where you?". His mates all laughed at him. We went our seperate ways.

In France they have the old-fashioned opinion that if you are acting a bit stupid and get injured in the process you don't automatically have the right to legal recourse or compensation. I'm sure the EU will pass a directive soon to ensure that everyone remains motionless at the scene until accident investigators can arrive and summarily execute the guilty party.

Where is this supervised snow park?!

The first instance was somebody who ducked a rope and traversed into the landing of a tabletop with a blind takeoff. That guy had cuts to his legs, I had a strained shoulder.

The second was a guy who was stopped at the side of the piste and suddenly decided to rejoin the piste without looking, whilst talking to his mate over his downhill shoulder. I up-ended him but neither of us were really hurt. His pole was snapped which he had a good whinge about.

The point I am trying to make is that no matter how safe you try to be there are clueless people around who have absolutely no common sense.

Edukator,

I'll remind myself of that the next time I sail over a tabletop to find some beaming mong traversing across the landing.

Its just common sense, you get it anywhere there is a bit of speed involved and easy access for people without any experience.

The best thing you can do is be friendly and remind them that they are not stopped in the best place. I've hit a few people snowboarding and its awkward when you hit somebody and its not your fault.

Yeah they are stalking me around the internet too.

ASOS do the same thing.

We took ours to a chemist, quite a few of them still do passport photos and they will keep trying until they get one that is eligible.

You could do it yourself but there are a lot of guidelines, I think you need a white sheet as background, etc.

I have a MKV GTI and there is some nonsense being talked here.

The myth that the diesel is as quick/quicker comes from the MKIV which was a big disappointment for all concerned.

Kerb weight on the Golf is around 1350kg, slightly less than a Focus ST and a lot less than a Civic Type R.

I originally test drove the diesel and the GTI back to back over 15 miles of country roads that I know like the back of my hand. There is no comparison. The diesel is much harder to keep in the power band, the nose dives under braking and lifts under power, the suspension and damping are nowhere close.

It all boils down to how much you get to drive the car on good roads. If you want something that feels like a proper drivers car get a GTI. If you want something sensible, economical, and with a bit of overtaking grunt, get a diesel.

EDIT – A bit more relevant to the OP, the Edition 30s should hold their value even better than a standard GTI and the car can easily handle the extra 30bhp.

Vents are good, as are removable earpieces. You want something that won't boil your head.

Dalmations will keep running and running.

Away from you.

I have had 3 mates with Dalmations, all of which have been chronic escape artists.

There isn't a big jump in top tube length between the 18" and 20". If you try and squeeze onto the 18" you might find the front end wanders on the climbs.

Rab.

Or anything that is designed for actual mountaineers rather than fat punters.

There is a lot of singletrack in the trees, a couple of open sections of fire road linking it up. You start up with a series of short climbs and descents, it flattens out in the middle third and then the final third gets hilly again.

Its mostly nicely built singletrack, some of the steeper descents are slightly wider, there is the odd climb that is breaking up and getting a bit trickier. Its a good trail centre.

I have been keeping an eye on the diesel estates on the market. I test drove a Beemer and to be honest I found it nothing special, although I'm sure it would be a comfy cruiser.

The other ones to look at are the Skoda Octavia, Seat Exeo (rebadged version of the previous generation A4, very polished motor for the dough), Audi A4. There are some very clean-engined Mercs on the market that look lovely.

The best training would probably be plyometrics for balance and controlled power, and cycling or hauling big packs up hills for conditioning.

I would say that after one week on skis you will find balance on the skis as difficult as the physical demands, it will sap a lot of energy if you just try and beast yourself.

Its no harder than hiking as long as you pace yourself. You'll have somebody to break trail for you. Make sure that you don't overstretch, nice smooth short steps until you get into it, concentrating on sliding the ski rather than picking it up. Leave something in the tank for the descents, there is nothing worse than putting all the work in and being too knackered to enjoy it. Try and make sure you change between skins and skis etc nice and quick and keep your pack organised, it makes a big difference. Layer-wise, start off cold, you will warm up quickly.

I've got an SX Trail. Its great downhill but you'd get bored/pissed off pedalling it around the place. It started off 32lbs but the tyres were compromising the purpose of the bike, its maybe 36-36lbs with bigger tyres and tubes. It will winch up anything. I wanted it to be my only full susser but I will be getting a trail bike as well, I love the SX too much to get rid of it but it just won't pedal all day the way a 28lb bike with lighter tyres will.

The English front five are probably the least inspiring combination of rugby players in recent memory. The Aussies aren't in great form but will probably get more ball than they did in the Tri-Nations and have some great backs. It'll boil down to whether England can defend properly and allow Saint Johnny to land his penalties. Its great to see him back at the top level.

Wales vs NZ, I reckon the Welsh will try and run it from everywhere and get severely punished for any mistakes. Wales are missing a few big names and New Zealand have lost a bit of consistency so it could be scrappy but it'll be fun to watch.

Its a good day's sport tomorrow with the rugby and then Haye-Valuev later on.

Do Deal Extreme have good deals on fire extinguishers?

Yet another pathetic example of the government getting rid of anybody that doesn't agree with their message.

Its pretty clever. I am a strange shape, tall with long arms and legs but a short trunk. It balanced everything out very nicely on both bikes and gave me a starting point to fine tune things from. I'll be much more confident picking a frame size now.

I've got that Sitting Pretty DVD which is also helping – pricey though.

Competitive Cyclist Fit Calculator

I set up my hardtail and my roadbike according to these guys. It gives you figures for BB-saddle, ETT, stem length, and saddle-bars. Once you have these you can compare them to how you run your current set-up and use it to judge changes in top-tube vs stem etc.

If you are wanting something thats good craic stood-up, down hill, I think you are on the right track with a 20" and a 70mm stem.

Funniest thread on here in ages.

I think the expensive cameras thing might be a dig at Ton. 😆

Take a load of air out of it and try it for one ride with loads of sag.

Apparantly the 29ers are pink or british racing green, black is only available for 26 inch wheels.

Springers are great dogs if you train them from a very young age. Sometimes this means feeling like you are being harsh when they are pups but they thrive on discipline. They are quite greedy which makes them easy to train with dog treats.

You really need to get them out at least half an hour a day. If you have a good open space to exercise them, get them trained to return on instruction they will run around constantly and get a lot of exercise in a short space of time.

Cages are great. When they are young it stops them chewing/messing everywhere when not supervised.

The Blackspire Stinger is a good alernative to a full chainguide if you find you drop the chain a lot. I'm pretty sure they do one that you can just fit inboard of your BB.

Politics
Equipment choice for trail centres
Weight weenie nonsense
Clothing choice

RZ 120. They are doing 120s and 140s.

Obviously there are some very experienced magazine bike testers about, but I doubt they are the guys reviewing the 15 sets of lights/23 pairs of keks/9 hardtails for £600.

9 out of ten for the SX Trail, and the review is accompanied by the tester "ripping it up" with about 574mm of seatpost sticking out of the frame. Or "the toughest bike test ever", which basically involved blagging a very nice Trek to take over to Europe and for an enduro.

This looks nice, decent spec too.

I've been trying to make a similar decision.

Meta 5 – Had one, good fun, but I got bugger all for it when I sold it on, I won't do Commencal again.

ST4 – Seems like an interesting bike. Not as much of a mile muncher but more craic downhill. The spec isn't great for the money. Looks a bit funny.

Zesty – Everyone loves them, spec is alright apart from Formula brakes (first thing to break on my Meta). They have put their prices up – £2800 is list price for a 514 in 2010.

Trek EX, Stumpjumper, Trance – I'm sure they are all very good bikes but I am finding it hard to get excited about spending big money on them.

I'll probably buy the Zesty 514 or just start looking for good deals on frames to build the way I want.

A new shock bushing sorted out a similar problem for me – should be less than a tenner I'd have thought.

Paint in the threads seems pretty standard.

Just take it steady and concentrate on your riding. Be prepared to imagine stuff and have a laugh about it.

There is an emergency filter for DX lights. If you crash you just point it into the sky and it projects a massive batman-style beacon. Within seconds whole teams of bike nerds turn up with flasks of tea and a stretcher whittled from nearby saplings.

Steve I see your point if you are using them all the time/for work/to get up your own driveway. It all depends on your attitude to the cost, plenty of bums get away without them. Then again, I have towed plenty out of snowdrifts too. 😆

If you have access to a 4×4 and are only looking to do airport runs and trips around the resorts you will probably get away with your current tyres, worst case is a bit of faffing with chains if you get stuck. Or if you have an understanding boss you might find you have access to the 4×4 more than you think. It'll be a fair wedge for winter tyres, you will then end up at the end of the winter with a very lightly used set of snow tyres which are worth a lot less than you paid for them.

good enough for Ray

Does that mean good enough for whipping up a delightful wild mushroom omelette in Epping Forest?

If there is snow on the ground or the roads are busy they check tyres/chains on main roads to prevent a shambles. If you have 2 wheel drive you will basically have to have chains to get past. 4 wheel drive will get you past ok.

Winter tyres are handy if you are doing a lot of miles, using the car regularly for short journeys in whatever weather, or have rear wheel drive.

Normal tyres will be fine if your car is a light front wheel drive and you are prepared to drive sensibly and stay out of the snow (or fit chains).

Unless you have a 4×4 get some chains for peace of mind. Buy them from somewhere cheap down the valley, and stick them in your boot with a decent pair of gloves and some flattened cardboard boxes for kneeling in the snow. Practice at least once before you have to do it in the dark when its minus 20 and blowing a gale!

Lets face it lads you have all done much worse 😆

I'm sure Rebecca is thrilled at the publicity over this. Despite being a decent-looking girl she has made history as the first person to be so funny looking that her appearance has been treated like a disability.

In addition people all over the country who have never heard about any of this are now looking at her picture and saying "well, she actually does slightly resemble somebody who's looking at themselves in the back of a spoon"