As I said, Can't Stop Loving You is one of the finest pop/love songs written. Orchard Road one of the most moving, plaintive and utterly heart-rending narratives on the aftermath of an affair.

Then you've got the likes of When I Need You, Heart Stop Beating in Time etc… He may be considered a bit kitch (no doubt thanks to things like Long Tall Glasses and One Man Band) but I genuinely think he produced some brilliant love songs.

And what about disco classics like Thunder in My Heart and You Make Me Feel Like Dancing… I tell ya, genius… ;o)

Leo Sayer = Genius.

End of chat. ;o)

Something Changed by Pulp, or Can't Stop Lovin You by Leo Sayer.

Also, Orchard Road by the little curly-haired disco god is a belter… And what about Moonlighting? Surely the only ever mention of the Carlisle turn off on the M6 motorway in a song…

Correct me if I'm wrong.

TandemJeremy – Member
No you don't – its only worth making the effort if you can make a bad relationship into a good one and my experience is is that this is possible.

Erm… Am I missing something TJ? Because it looks like you're just trying to contradict me for the sake of it!

TBH, if I were you Jeremy, I'd cling to any woman that gave me a second glance. But then, I'm not encumbered by a personality disorder and self-worth issues.

It's the easy option mate. It's far easy to make that 'decision' now because the alternative is losing your home, access to your kids, bikes, etc.

It's easy to just 'say' "OK, I'll forgive her, move on, forget about it".

Unfortunately, I don't think the reality will be as easy. I made that mistake, I thought that taking her back was the easiest option because the alternative was to completely rewrite my life plan and start from scratch on my own. Now, 7 years later, I wish I'd snatched the opportunity to start from scratch rather than letting it mumble along for another 6 years, become far more complicated, and still end in separation.

I understand TJ's stance, but do you want to sacrifice your life to try and make a bad relationship work?

You deserve better. If you honestly think you can get past this, good luck to you, but be 100% sure why you're making that decision.

Any settlement is likely to be better now on gounds of infidelity on her part. Most inportantly you'll get over it and wonder what all the fuss was about.

You'd be surprised how little difference this makes. Long gone are the days when courts punished infidelity.
Unless you can prove that her behaviour is a threat to your childrens' wellbeing, it'll make no difference the financial settlement.

Falling knives and runaround wives… Don't try to catch them.

odannyboy – Member
i thought there would be more people on here who have "been there"…

There probably are mate, but I bet most of them would rather not share their experiences.

Trust is the issue here – you might be able to forgive her, you might even be able to forget her indiscretion. But trust is almost impossible to restore after such a betrayal. Let's face it, you probably trusted her 100%, and she did this to you. Even if you were strong enough to get any where near that level of trust in future, you'd know that any minute she could throw it all away. That will eat away at you.

Zebras don't change their stripes.

If it's any concelation, I divorced last year after trying to patch up a sinking relationship for 6 years. It was only after I left that I realised there was a lot more 'patch' than 'relationship'. Admittedly, as I said, infidelity wasn't involved, and we didn't have kids – we were heading down that route when I realised it wasn't a strong enough relationship to bring children into. But I've never looked back, and whilst I lost the house, all my furniture etc, I have a sort of stability that you can only get by cutting out the cancer that is a partner you can't trust or rely on.

Coyote – Member

Good to see how many people on here view relationships and family as a disposable commodity…

I think she's the one that did this…

Will you ever be able to make love to her again knowing that she's done what she's done?

If it was just a passionate fumble, I'd say that could be forgiven, but it sounds like she's fallen in love with this guy, or at least she thinks she has…

Telling ya mate, you're storing up a whole heap of anger that will manifest itself at some point in the future.

You don't want to be the next Michael Ryan/Derreck Bird do you?

Walk away. I tried to work through a big betrayal once (not an infidelity though) and it WILL rear it's ugly head sometime in the future, then you'll wish you'd just walked away when you had the chance.

The kids make this very hard, but I don't think you'll ever get over this.

Best of luck mate, hope you work things out and don't lose too much…

:o(

Sorry to bring Kit back down to earth with a bump, but he's said he's no oil-painting, and he's also said that she's a hottie… Isn't it time he lowered his expectations a bit?

What says "Mark!… Mark!… Mark!….. Mark!!!…….. MARK!!!!!….."?

A dog with a harelip.

What's brown and rhymes with snoop?

Dr. Dre.

Someone once told me: Always ask the prettiest girl in the room to dance, because no-one else will.

I'm not suggesting you dance with her, but I'd be arranging to pull up alongside her at traffic lights and open with "I feel like I should introduce myself seeing as I pass you every morning. I'm Kit…"

You've already got a bit of common ground, so "How far do you commute?" wouldn't sound too prying.

Follow that up with a few cheery "Good morning [insert girl's name here (not just any girl's name)]" which should just about tee things up for your big finale, again at traffic lights…

"Morning [xxxx], this is my last commute as I'm moving jobs (or whatever)… I hope this doesn't sound too forward, but do you fancy a drink sometime?"

Bingo. If that doesn't work, she's a lezzer.

Edit: And if she has a tongue like the young lady above, ask for her thoughts on tubeless rims.

Molegrips, I don't think so, it's served me well enough for 4 years or so. Just needed a bit of a change, I'm sure it'll feel fine when I get back on it.

I had a big crash last October, separated my A/C joint in left shoulder, missed 2-3 months riding and felt generally miserable. Everytime I rode my usual bike (a Blur, the one I crashed on), it felt like it had 50p-shaped wheels. Really just couldn't find a rhythm at all and I had no confidence descending.

So I rebuilt my Chameleon hoping to refine my technique on more techy stuff until my bottle came back, and I immediately felt completely confident desending, to the point that my riding buddies say I descend faster on the hardtail than I did on the full suss!

No idea what the reasoning is: maybe the Blur had become too 'second nature' and riding something slightly different made me think a bit more; maybe the rigid frame instills more confidence due to the amount of trail feedback; or maybe simply the action of 'making a change' was enough to banish the demons.

All I know is I've got my mojo back, and I've not ridden the Blur since! Hope you get back to your old self…

Thanks for all the pointers chaps, the Toupé is 143mm which is the right width for my sitbones, I just find the sharp edges on the cutaway sides start to rub, and it wears the stitching on my shorts very quickly.

I tried the Toupé on my RoadRat and it was horrifically uncomfortable, but fine on the road bike, so the different posture makes a huge difference to saddle choice.

Off to Ribble Cycles now to see if I can try any of the ones mentioned.

Cheers!

I love em too. And that feeling when you get in the bath after a ride and they all come back to life!

Yes! Ooooh YESSSSSS!!!!

Thanks for the pointers, I'll have another crack at it… Cheers!

MilitantGraham – Member
A more realistic comparison would be the belt drives used on Harley Davidsons. They've been around a few years and have proved reliable.

It would if people rode Harley Davidsons through axle-deep mud, without mudguards etc. Harleys are built mostly for the US market where grit, mud and rain aren't so much of a problem. Motorcycles that are built for more demanding climes are usually chain-driven.

OK, I'm reading this with interest. So you need a modified frame; you have to settle for either single speed or go for an expensive hub gear system with a limited range; you can't use it on a full suspension frame; and when it wears out (which it will) it costs £250 to replace.

I've heard about a system that works on all frames, hard tail and full suspension; is cheap to replace and parts are readily available; and it accomodates an absolutely massive range of gear ratios – as many as you will ever need. It was invented in the 19th century and apart from various fine tuning and development, ramains largely unchanged since the 1930s.

It's called the 'chain and deurallieur'.

Don't forget Yossi Benayoun – how many goals? And for 5 million quid?

As a Liverpool supporter, I have a lot of time for Benitez. He actually fulfilled his brief (from the owners) to the letter this season – to slash the squad/wage bill. When the owners are more bothered about the bottom line than success on the pitch, and aren't prepared to make the necessary investments, what hope does a club have?

Look at some of the shenanigans over the past couple of years – being forced to buy Gary Barry against his wishes, whilst being denied funds to buy adequate midfield cover; having to sell Alonso to fund vital purchases at the back and additional strikers like Aquilani… I doubt there's another manager in the world that could have made a success out of that situation.

And looking around at who might be available, there's nobody I'd prefer to see running the team.

That's fantastic Mar, thanks very much – I have emailed you…

Once again, STW restores my faith in human kindness! 😀

It's a Giro…

Dimmadan – Member
Why would you want 50lb line? I have never used anything greater than 15lb and have bagged 44lb carp in France no problem on the stuff.

Braided lines are far lower diametre than equivalent monos, so 50lb PowerPro is probably similar in diametre to 10lb mono. Using 15lb braid – which would be as thin as 2lb mono could cause horrific injuries to a fish thrashing round in the net.

And anyway, why would you use weaker line when strong, thin line is available??? Is it that outmoded belief that light tackle makes you more of a sportsman? Because as far as I'm concerned, leaving hooks in fish, or cracking off and leaving bated rigs in the water is just plain dangerous.

I went over to braid for lure fishing for pike about 10-12 years ago, then started using it for long range drifter work and realised that its qualites – zero stretch, strength, longevity – make it a much safer, more sensible and cost effective main line.

Buy him a bulk spool of 50lb PowerPro and he'll never need to replace his line again!

Yunki is right to say that 300yds wouldn't go far – I put at least 200 yds on each spool (big pit reels, 3-rod set up). Carpers should be able to cast 100yds with a balanced set up, and a bolting carp can easily cover 50yds before you even pick the rod up, so you need plently of line.

If PowerPro is too rich for your tastes, or if he fishes waters that ban braided mainlines, I'd also recomment Daiwa Sensor. Bulk spools are good value and it's a top quality, robust line that doesn't seem to deteriorate as quickly as others.

Never got on with Berkley, or Fox Soft Steel etc – over priced and damage easily.

And is "figure to die for" a way of putting a positive spin on "face like a robber's dog"?

Can you deliver to north west? I'll pay courier/petrol/meet within reasonable distance…

What about Come Up and See Me (Make Me Smile) by Steve Harley and Cockney Rebel…

I've always been a huge Knopfler fan and Telegraph Road is one of my favourite pieces of music (live version's best).

Not very 'rocky', but the guitar solo a couple of minutes in, and again the outro need to be played LOUD…

A… May… Ziiiinnnnngggggggg!

I'm 6'1 and ride an XL – it's high at the front, and not massive standover, but it feels bob on as a cross country bike. The large would be jumpier/more chuckable but this is a bike that suits shorter stems.

For reference, I ride a large Blur Classic and an Ellsworth Moment in a medium.

If you're anywhere near Preston, I've just rebuilt mine and you're more than welcome to pop over and swing a leg over it…

I was planning on selling it, but after a couple of rides, it's so much fun, I might hang on to it for a while…

Haha, and the fallout can result in deformed babies!

Is RO Adam G?

Thanks all, and Surfer, I'll use a torque wrench!!!

Thanks Loco, just watched a vid on YouTube and he only put oil in the left hand leg – why is mine leaking on the right hand leg? Should there be oil in there?

(PS, how competetive would that stock be) ;o)

Friend's little lad (5 years) was told by teacher that everyone in class was going to draw pictures for every letter of the alphabet, and the best one would go on the wall… Today, we're all going to draw something beginning with 'A'.

She looks at his work and says "that's lovely Joe, what is it"

"It's a snake" he replies.

"Yeeees… But we're supposed to be drawing something that starts with 'A'…"

"It does… A Snake!"

Genius!

I like the Edwin Jagger stuff combined with one of their badger brushes…

Edwin Jagger[/url]

I offended a friend's sister when she told me they'd called their kid Tyler. I said "That's not a name, it's a f***in occupation! Why didn't you go for policeman, or plumber???"

I had some Filipino tenants that wrote to me to ask if I'd write to the embassy to confirm that they had a house suitable for their kids…

Hanz Migeille Ivan, Karlos Louiesse Nikolai and Rob Leigh Maverick. Bizzare…