I’m 6’1″ and found myself between sizes when buying my Cervelo frame (56/58cm). I opted for the smaller one as I prefer a lower front end and the faster handling of a smaller bike.

Having said that, I have roadbikes ranging from 55cm (Giant TCR Med/Lg) to 60cm and whilst the frames are completely different, the contact points are all in exactly the same position.

The bigger bikes feel more stable due to slightly longer wheelbase, but the smaller one feels much more lively and better for attacking corners on descents.

I think I’m right in saying that this is a centrepin trotting reel, not a fly reel?

Bloody lovely, well done your dad!

No surprise that after a during a date with someone displaying such selfish ignorance she decided to blank out reality with alcohol.

Very true. Does diabetes prevent people from sobering up for 2 days and heighten their sex drive? 😉

Allthepies – comment of the year so far! 😀

Are you sure she was paralytic?

2 gin and tonics washed down with a bottle of Pinot Noir, followed up with a large brandy… Yep, I’m quite certain she was paralytic. I was driving. 🙁

Ironically, this is exactly what you’re doing by making people with a medical issue feel like freaks. Why do you think you have a right to object to someone else going about their life? What else should be shut away because it might be offensive to someone?

Wrong. The overwhelming majority of people would rather not see someone injecting themselves whilst eating. Anybody with manners would have excused themselves and found a quiet area so as not to risk offending people they didn’t know who were paying to enjoy a dining experience in pleasant surroundings.

Anyone that thinks otherwise is a complete moron and deserves the total lack of respect that I was kind enough to bestow on the young woman in question.

And no, her life did NOT depend on doing it there and then. 🙄

Thanks Drac! Very helpful…:D

I think this attitude is symptomatic of a modern society where everyone is hell-bent on exercising their “rights” without a second thought to their responsibilities or other people’s feelings.

I’m perfectly within my rights to defaecate in my own hand and smear it all over my face, but I wouldn’t do it on a first date or in a busy restaurant.

Yep, tool. 🙄

So look the other way?

Erm, how about having enough respect for the person that’s taken you out to dinner and maybe just finding a quiet corner if it was absolutely necessary???

Or does diabetes have direct impact on manners and social skills as well as an inability to produce insulin?

Are there any links to funny (but related) Youtube videos ?

My latest lady has a “no cameras in the bedroom” rule… I’ll set up my GoPro and see what I can come up with 😉

Current GF (early days), 2-3 times whenever we see one another (in private, obvs.) which is 2-3 times a week. So not less than 4 and up to about 9 times a week.

Last LTR, average 4 times a week after 2 years.

Last marriage, ~3 times a month.

There’s a moral to this post. 😉

deliberate troll surely?

Absolutely not, I’m needle-phobic ever since I got a knife pushed right through the back of my hand. Can’t ever watch a needle going in, can’t even look at hyperdermics without feeling queasy.

I’d explained this to her but she told me it was just because I wasn’t used to it, then made a big song and dance about doing it in full view, drawing attention to herself in the process.

I excused myself – rather than be made to feel ill – and the date never really recovered. This resulted in her getting paralytic. The woman was a complete tool and is still single.

She was fit though, so I did the decent thing and knocked the back out of her. 😉

Quite right too, nothing shameful about it and nobody will see who isn’t looking.

Nothing shameful about diabetes, but injecting whilst people are eating is downright disrespectful and rude.

I could write a book about bad internet dating experiences. There was the girl I dated for a few weeks – the first night she stayed over at my place she dressed for bed in a onesie, earplugs and ski-socks. I wasn’t overly concerned as this was “post coitus” so I thought each to their own.
During the night I sleepily “spooned” her, she woke up and attacked me… Like proper fists, screaming, kicking, punching, gouging…
Apparently she’d “forgotten where she was” and thought she was being raped in her own bed!

I’ve mentioned a couple of others on similar threads: The RSPCA officer that turned up fro a date with a dead dog in her car (not the end of the world but one of her questions of our first date was whether or not I’d want to abort a pregnancy if it was Downes Syndrome… 8O); the diabetic who insisted on injecting herself in full view in a busy restaurant, she then got plastered on red wine so couldn’t drive home and wouldn’t leave my house for 2 days!

Many are single for a reason, and the vast majority around the 30-year-old mark are so desperate not to be left on the shelf that the sex can be fantastic, but they can be very difficult to shake off (that’s not a euphemism).

I’m now dating someone I met in real life who seems infinitely better adjusted than any of the women I’ve met on dating websites…

Cat Owner = Nutter. Fact. Sorry, no exceptions. Any woman that is so lonely and so stupid that she’ll open up her home to one of those vile, disease-ridden creatures should be left firmly on the shelf. Fact.

The 3-date rule is easily broken in my experience. Used POF on-and-off for 3 years and have an 80% hit rate of 1st date carnival knowledge.

That said, there is definitely a “certain type” of woman on POF… AKA mentally damaged.

Dating someone I met in real life at the moment, a lot easier to explain to people how you met… There still seems to be a bit of a stigma to downloading women off the internet.

I’m waiting for the Dura Ace 11 speed for my R5, the 7900 was a bit of a fail in terms of performance but the 9000 is streets ahead of anything else on the market.

If anyone knows where I can get a group with 175mm crank arms and 53/39, please let me know… 😀

Gary f*****g Glitter, “I love you love me love kids”. 😐

I built these over the last few weekends, about 18 steps so probably another 80 or so to do before spring. These were the tricky ones though – a very steep slope so a lot of digging and back-filling, plus flexi-coil/pea-gravel drains and each tread on a bed of pea-gravel to help drain water away.
Back filled with brick-bat/broken concrete, then crush-and-run and I’ll top them off with a decorative self-binding grit in spring.

Hard graft but very satisfying… 😀

This makes me slightly tumescent… Hollow chainrings, innit.

+1. I have a Magimix with milk frothy thingy. It’s great, only downside is the side of the brew. I like a builder’s mug of coffee so I have to double-tap my cappuccinos.

Here’s mine… I went for the matt black frame… Classy!

PS REALLY liking that Dolan.

Just get one. No pockets in a shroud… It really is a surprisingly lovely bike to ride – nice and light, nowhere near as harsh as I expected after riding carbon bikes, infact, the carbon fork makes it pretty comfy…

Having proper mudguard eyes and clearance means you get a nice solid bike with no rattling.

Mine’s built up with a 1992 600-Ultegra groupset (the first of the STIs), Open Pro rims and Chromoplastics. It’s just gorgeous.

Dolan Prefissio… Miles better than a Ribble… I enjoy riding mine as much as my summer carbon bike – TCR C3.

A winter bike is more than just an “N+1”, it’s a loyal friend.

I don’t think you’d see a yellow wagtail at this time of year, but greys are quite common and an all year round resident. They can have a lot of yellow plumage…

The behaviour you described is very typical, they love puddles on flat roofs where they pick off worms, grubs etc.

Grey wagtail…

The end bit of your thumb is approximately an inch…

I’ve been there man!

I actually got quite angry with the sales assistant – why the hell label a pair of jeans as 34″ waist when Iggy Pop would struggle to get in them??

He said “it’s just the the fit…”

“NO YOU MORON!!!” I shouted, “It’s a f*****g measurement, as defined in the Weights & Measures Act of 1985!!!”

Then I ordered him to get a tape measure… He didn’t have a tape measure. I was asked to leave the store when I tried to grab his thumb so we could measure it.

(I was getting a bid pissed off by this stage of the evening…)

I’ve worn nothing but Hugo Boss Orange and Black jeans for the past few years – I’m 32/34 waist and 34 leg with “cyclist thighs” aka drumsticks.

I spent 3hrs in the Trafford Centre last night and can report back with the following…

Diesel – nothing in their range has enough thigh room.
Reiss – Don’t even think about it. Their 34″ waist needed another 4-5″ to stand any chance of buttoning.
French Connection – Some options but you’ll end up looking like Henry out of Wrong Direction… Cheaper.
Firetrap – Again, some options but a bit over-styled for my liking
All Saints – You’ll need butter and a pair of tyre levers to get in there cigarette-cut or “iggy” straight leg styles. If you try the tapered styled, you’ll look like you’re wearing Dickensian jodhpurs.
G-Star – great if you like your crotch round your knees.
Next – Cheap, bland, they fit…

So, in summary, go to Hugo Boss, pay your money and get a pair that fit and last and look good.

that joke is worse than a cat covered in tattoos

Shudder! But can you imagine the sense of satisfaction of popping a .22 pointed pellet in that thing??? 😉

This still makes me throb slightly – just the thought of when I watched it unfold live sends shivers…

chorlton – Member

Nice pics. They’ve been spotted near to me in East Lancs a few times. Would love to see one.

Where in East Lancs? I’m central (north of Preston) and not seen anything. I have a few Rowan that are heavy with fruit, so I’m keeping my eyes peeled.

I have an old oak tree that’s completely covered in ivy – I watched a flock of fieldfares strip it bare in about an hour on Saturday!

My old man spotted a pair of Little Owls too but I missed them…

• Tattoos
• Cats
• “Flesh tunnels”
• Floral tributes
• Vinegar pots in gastro pubs (I light spinkling would be good, not a deluge)
• Funeral corteges driving at half the speed limit.

I have others…

Sorry Clong, it’s the TK series I’ve used – my brother has one… I’ve not tried an Airarms carbine…

My HW100 is just below the FAC limit of 12ft/lb. It’s a very simple job to convert it so it shoots at around 20ft/lbs but I’ve never had any problems with it in standard form.
When you start tinkering with them, there’s a payoff in terms of how many rounds between charges and I’m told they lose accuracy if you go too powerful.
Awesome gun though. The Airarms mentioned above is a cracker too for a springer, heavy but nicely balanced.

Ken Dodd died this morning…

It’s not a great argument is it. So, unless you’re a great politician you can’t criticise politicians, unless you’re an amazing footballer you can’t have an opinion on a football team?

Well, I have a degree in music and make my living from music, so I reckon I’m more qualified than his fan-boys on here.

Make your mind up Grum 🙄

… £25 Rapha Vouchers and CRC Discount Codes. He thought “hmmm… I could make a few quid out of those mugs on STW classifieds with these, so…

Yep. Very average. Forgettable. Unremarkable. Nothing new. Pick one of those

Nothing new? Hmmm… Well you could say that about any musician, even the oh-so-trendy dickwads trying to invent new genres like dubstep in order to showcase their “creativity”.

Or you can look at the sheer poetry in his lyrics, the abstraction, the beautiful way he splits couplets. Check out “Music When The Lights Go Out” as an example… His genius is the apparent simplicity, but the structure is far from simple.

I find his songs just keep growing, something new every listen. He’s the only songwriter in recent years that can give me goosebumps when I recognise another clever twist in a song I’ve heard hundreds of times.

Then look at his Babyshambles work, much written whilst in prison. “Down in Albion”, a stunningly wistful reminisce and “Pentonville” itself, maybe not groundbreaking but brilliant in its own right.

Waste of oxygen is that lad!

One of the gifted songwriters of our time. A flawed genius. And the fact that he’ll probably be dead before long makes some of his work even more poignant.