I saw the title and thought 'i hope it's not Shatners effort', as i have actually heard that before (he's got an entire album of this goats jism), once was enough. So i won't be clinking on the link as it'll just make me angry.

[putting something you think is witty in bracket thingys]

[/putting something you think is witty in bracket thingys]

What illnesses does smoking cause anyway? Heart Disease, cancer (many types), impotence….. the list is huge.

In the UK around 120,000 people die each year from smoking-related diseases. 50% of long-term smokers die prematurely from smoking, a large number of them when they reach middle age.

Now if MTB_idels statistics are correct then these folk are saving us from the cost imposed on society of a long goverment pension and subsequent home help/hospice care that a normal 'healthy' person often imposes.

If they die before retiredment age, then they have paid money into the tax system (provided that they have worked)and taken less from it, so i believe that they should get treatment, give em a break, they'll proabably be dead soon anyway.

Driving bellend more like.

Simple Question: Am I best transfering some of my AU$ savings over to the UK NOW then? …or better waiting..?

If you have savings in AUS and want to put them in GBP then today would be a very very good day to do it, it's only 1% off the best price you'd get in the last 10 years, so the risk is to the upside (worse for you) of course currency is a speculative business, so it could get better, but if you knew that or what it was going to do you'd be a millionaire in a few weeks of currency trading.

Put it this way, if it was my savings in AUS i'd be more than happy swapping it to GBP today, or anything below 2.00!!!! last October if you had say 10K AUS you'd of got 3700GBP, today you'd get 5026GBP, that's quite a difference.

be quick thou, the SMP500 is set to drop 4/5% over the next couple of weeks apparently if you believe any of the analyists, that normally weighs on high risk currencies like AUS, which could have a sell off.

Of course if i knew exactly what is was going to do i'd be rich also, which i'm not :(

1.98 is pretty much a low (1.97 lowest this year), it'll be back up to over 2.05 in a week or so (maybe), it probably won't go back to 2.70 like it was last october any time soon. the AUS is a risk driven currency, driven by speculation of a bounce back in the economy and the requirment in China for the commodities that it produces. All you need is some bad news from US and the AUS will take a bit of a dive, but i'd look to exchange any cash at about 2.09, unless you can afford to wait a bit.

Sucks don't it!

that's a real steal, the frame looks a little claude butler, but there is no way you can fault it for the kit. I'd definitly buy one but i'm not sure if i fit the intended demographic:

designed for serious mountain bikers who want to discover new trails.

I kind like the old ones i ride, oh well :cry:

I may be wrong here but i think production of some items moved off shore somewhere a few years ago now. I've always had endura stuff and always loved it, great price, good qaulity and very durable. I've also had great customer service from them when i once worked in a shop and had to send a couple of things back – no questions asked prompt replacement or repair.

It's a shame if they've gone down hill. The only issue i've ever had is those funny plastic tighteners on the singletrack shorts, they just fall off, but at 40 quid i'd still get another pair over race face (now they made some shonky shorts!!) and they cost twice as much!

LMFAO

and contador was clean that year huh? Chicken had it in the bag, he may of 'cheated' in your eyes, as he was chucked off, but none the less he'd of been in yellow on the last day. I think the playing fields were pretty level between the two that year.

I'm not the only one that thinks so,

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,,23978612-5013406,00.html

I saw a sticker on the back window of a car the other day that said:
"i love owls"

That made me laugh more.

:(

He also won a Million dollars for unfair dismisal from rabobank. I think his return will mix it up a bit in the mountains.

Should of been banned for life imo

He never proved positive for doping.

Others such as Contador were implicated in more dodgy goings on.

I just don't get it……………… Why?

How the hell will they get my wifes pre pay non registered mobile number?

Do you have a home?

As long as you don't have a pin on your phones start-up.

Clearly

Yes i have a home, and my wife is not always there, as she often go's to her mothers at weekend so i can go riding!!! Look this is stupid, you want the police to have to go to the hassle of trying to trace your address through a credit card. and/or contact details of your wife/partner, drive to your house, hang around for a few hours to see if wife/partner returns, just because you can't be bothered to get some id :roll: I'm sure the police would prefer you took some.

OK think of it this way – your found on the road, a few hundres yards from your house after fall, your knocked out (plausable scenario)the police and ambulance attend. Your in back of ambulance, where is your bike going to go??? if you have ID the police could drop it back round your house if you only lived up the road, better than you trying to get it back later.

Damn that wasn't the gorefest i was after, i thought with all the sucsessful bike bodgery the STW lot would of at least attempted a few Dremel aided root canals. :lol:

Would take them no time at all to get your details though.

How the hell will they get my wifes pre pay non registered mobile number?

Luckily you don't need a signal to retrieve the number

As long as you don't have a pin on your phones start-up.

As far as i can make out anyone who thinks it's not a good idea is just being unnecessarily pedantic, that or they are always like this so no one really gives a flying f*** if they come home or not.

the key is not nessessarily being 'light' at the level of sporting proess we are realistically talking about for us mortals – the objective is to get lean, look at thor, he weighs 80 odd kg, yet when he went on the attack to secure the green jersey he was flying up those hills.

Loose the belly, with lots of kardio, gain power through reistnce training in the off season, you'll climb a lot faster, maybe not as fast as thor, but still faster.

they be too ugly, plus i've got 30 odd sets of tyres, what the heck will i do with all them?

Funny we were talking about this on the obligatory cafe stop on Saturaday road ride. I went for the Road ID 2 weeks ago, took 6 days from the states, as i'd hate for my wife/kids not to know (for example) if i was knocked unconscious and in hospital. Reason i went for it as opposed to phone/credit card etc……

1) What if your phone is smashed, lost in accident, pretty likely if you've damaged yourself, camel back tacken off/misplaced etc.

2) A credit card provides no details to the police about emergency contact numbers ie pay as you go mobile for your wife, dads/mums number etc.

3) Tell them where you are/when you are due back – yes you should probably do this anyway, but would you prefer the wife etc to be ringing round all the hospitals unesesarily?

I didn't hink about it much when single and kid free, but having been involved in a serious road accident i think that it's not much to spend for a little piece of mind for your family, even if the new they get isn't good, at least they stand a better chance of getting it.

Jan Ullrich once fell off the bike and hurt his arm when he was working on his weight before TdF

That's hardly suprising, have you ever tried to get a Bratwurst out of it's wrapper whilst doing 50kph, it's always going to be dangerous.

apparently the haircut had minimal resulting powerloss and the 'samson effect' turned out to be utter bollox – do you have a silly hair cut? that'd be the first thing to do.

then i guess you have to lower your body fat, as little power comes from a beer gut and double chin. Run a calorie deffercit of about 500 Kals a day, this'll result in minimal muscle loss (provided exercise is continued) and you'll loose a pound of flab a week.

Do some stregth work, on your legs, reps of 3-7 apparently, sqauts, lunges with weights ert. That's increase your metabolic rate so you'll burn more Kals just watching tv.

Join a pro tour team and race a few grand tours, Barry Bethel said the weight just fell off.

Rasmussen will be back next year.

Do you know which team he'll be signing to Smee?

It will be interesting when/if he comes back, the 2007 was amazing with the battles between Contraband and Rasmussen in the mountains, although he lacked the explosivness of AC he pretty much had the measure of him. Although i don't think he'd match AC individual TT pace now thou. He is of similar pace to Andy Schleck, so it'd be great to watch, i always liked the chicken man, although he always looked like he might die of malnutrician at any moment.

I've never ridden one of those Whytes, how do the forks compare with something intended for purpose?

Most road pros are a lot lot lot better than most mountain bikers gives them credit for (at decending), especially the sprinters, plus cav used to ride BMX so i dare say his bike handling skills are excellent. So i think your probably right there.

Besides Oli is (mostly) a mountain biker, Cav is a road/track star so a different comparison

Well didn't both of them do the Nationals this year? I'm pretty sure Oli did, Plus the tumble is quite like a mini Ventoux, no steeper, just quite a bit shorter, and barren and crappy at the top. Oh and there's nowhere to stop for coffee on the tumble.

A race from the bottom to top, not counting it as part of grand tour – i'd bet my house on Oli winning that one.

Doing this – but shit faced on a bottle of Jack Daniels, with a load of explosives set to go off at altititude & with my entire life savings on board in 20's soaked in petrol – Why? to teach my lad a lesson for drawing on the walls with crayon this morning, that'll learn him good!

I know, even to me it doesn't make any sense, and i'm as thick as pig shit. Bobby Julich used a similar system to biopace for years, didn't do him any harm!

what drugs do footballers do, beside cocain? i heard quite a few were implicated in Puerto.

I had some of those hollow form PACE forks once, the first year they came out. if it was even mildly damp out they would compleatley lock out and need stripping down and an oil change, after about 4 rides were ruined by these pieces of crap i sent them back to pace, (cost me about 15 quid postage) i phoned them a few weeks later, they told me 'our mechanic has been riding them around for a few weeks and they work perfectly (complete BS as it was obvious they hadn't put them on a bike unless it was running a syncros headset, or put the crown race back on millimeter perfect from when i originally put it on' then they sent them back charging me for postage if i remember rightly. Pile of crap, never never never again. I felt bad about it but i ebayed them, with a very honest discription, taking a hit on the price, but jesus what a load of crap. I'm only saying this as superstar seem to have taken a page from (my experiences) of pace's customer service book, if they took 5 more they'd have enough to wipe thier arse.

over a working geared bike

there's your advantage right there!

:P

Yer Popo's going to look like the hero of Astana for at least the next few weeks/months. I don't know why Di Luca's result took so long, it didn't take that long to find Saunier Dauval out when CERA testing was in it's infancy. Strange.

The best thing about this crank is that it's only 400 grammes heavier than a normal crank – double whammy! doesn't do ought, and heavier, ideal! :lol:

If you think that it's unfair that they be disqualified how/do you think is it possible to address the notion that an unfair advantage has been given to the winner, maybe allowing him to win? I know it would be hard to prove that they would of won anyway if their team mates had been clean.

has someone tested positive?

This won't be officially released until after the tour apparently. I wouldn't be supprised if one or two are implicated, but i don't think it's going to be anyone of the big names, hence my original question.

which is why teams have been kicked off in years past.

Ideed some teams have been chucked off, some have withdrawn themselves due to pressure from sponsors – i'm taliking retrospectivly, as in the UCI demanding that Byarn Riis hand back his yellow jersey etc, or changing the official winner of the 2006 tour.

Do you think it's fair that winners of the tour retain their status as 'winner' if their team mates that actual year were proved to have doped?

they don't have spinning classes at my gym unfortunatly, i'll have a look at the squats thou. Many thanks.

yer running is not so hot on my bad knee! I've a turbo trainer at home, so use that there. The choices are: Treadmill, x-trainer, step machine and rowers. There are also a load of free weights and every machine going, but i'm reluctant to do too much weights for fear of wreaking my knees (they ain't too chippa any more!)

my bosch now only works after a good shoeing, and whilst your kicking and swearing at it it pisses it's self over the floor, it's not only rubbish at washing dishes, it's a damn pussy too.

This looks like a good solution for splitting a bike in half for transport.

I can't see that myself, it would surly be easier to just detach the caliper (2 bolts) then cable tie the looped up brake to the handle bar, no – readjustment or kinked cables.

i think that this cable actuated hyraulics is probably best for a heavily laiden touring tandem with drop bars, i can't see much use for it otherwise, commuting bikes is out of the question, as hope calipers are allergic to the road grime you get in the city.