I was out on my road bike Sunday in humvees, a Fox top and MTB SPDs too (the shoes/pedals are just because I don’t use them offroad and I’m too tight to buy specific ones that I can’t even walk in).

I like to think I looked less of a twonk than the 20+ stone bloke wheezing away in his full Trek Discovery kit.

I did my DAS a couple of months ago.

The one thing that MTB seems to help with is slow-speed balance – people who lack any 2-wheel experience seem to have a hard time getting their heads around what the bike is doing underneath them. Beyond that it can actually be quite hard to un-learn what applies to pedal bikes – my problem on u-turns was that the instructor wanted us to look over your shoulder and keep looking back down the road while you bought the bike round. Years of cycling on the road had meant I was used to keeping the bike dead straight on when I do that so I don’t swerve into traffic, and I found it hard to get the bike to turn enough to make it round. Got worse with the big bikes and their limited steering lock.

The general awareness, hazard perception, etc that comes with road cycling helps quite a lot, except motorcycling brings it’s own challenges when you can be going faster than a lot of the cars.

Give it a go if you’re interested – book a CBT which is a day on a 125cc bike and see if you like it. If you wanted to continue, you’ve got the first step out of the way.

Dibbs, it’s a funny coincidence though that in our female-dominated HR world things like the childcare voucher scheme (which is also done via salary sacrifice and requires the same admin as c2w) have excellent take up among companies.

Cynical? Me?

Non-drive side is correct, but that does pre-date disc brakes. My maxle is on the non-disc side, making a mismatch with my rear one. If the rear was on the other side, the Salsa logo would be upside down!

I have yet to fly with mine, but friends have used the “ziptie wheels on, wrap in plastic and tape” method fine in the past. It makes it an awkward shape so the baggage handlers have to take more care (they can’t just grab a handle and drag/throw it) plus they can’t stack things on top wheras they can with a nice even shape like a box or bag.

I liked my black mk1 PA so much, I replaced with a mk3 – in orange!

I’d be up for a t-shirt or two, med or large depending on how generous the cut is!

The only Alfa that Clarkson has owned was an early 80s GTV6. The modern Alfas are nothing like that at all.

It must have been pre-website-hack, but there was a blog post about how poorly the magazines are treated by the big supermarkets. It’s a massively wasteful process and they squeeze the returns that the publisher sees to virtually nothing.

If you want more of your money to actually go to the people that write and produce a magazine, subscribe.

Bolle Silium for me. Also about £6 a pair, no VAT as they’re protective equipment, and the reassurance of meeting all the relevant impact testing standards.

Had a facelift 2.4 20v JTD for 2 years. Put about 45k miles on it, it ended up a bit over 100k. I averaged the claimed 42mpg – it was obviously tested before the BS current mpg figures as my new car claims 55mpg but I get about 47 doing the same sort of trips.

Never broke down, nothing fell off, it didn’t rattle, it didn’t suffer electrical gremlins. Cost a reasonable amount to maintain, but not really any worse than friends with Audi A4s, BMW 3-series and the like at similar age/mileages. In my ownership it needed a cambelt service, a CV joint (which includes the driveshaft!), front suspension wishbones and some new hoses towards the end where they’d perished and split. The rest was just the usual routine service stuff you get on anything – and again, a lot of similar stuff has needed doing on mates’ cars.

I loved the shape, not the most useful of estates though with the rear suspension turrets intruding a lot. The boot opening is a bit tight too – for bikes I’d take the seatpost out as well as the front wheel to fit them.

Overall, good car. The petrol ones tended to have cambelts fail early (Alfa reduced the interval to 36k after a while) but the diesels seem to be solid engines. And given how little mine was worth at 5 years old, there must be some bargains to be had.

Canon SX200 is looking pretty good right now. Blows your budget by a little though. SX100 is a bit older, chunkier and cheaper though.

Keep heading south for a few minutes and go to The Empress on Leman Street. http://www.theempress.co.uk/

Learned to dive in the UK (Dosthill) about 5 years ago, prior to a holiday in Egypt. Had a great time, did a couple more inland UK dives and some at Poor Knights in NZ before an Egypt liveaboard and took up UK diving last year.

Sadly I was spoiled on my first UK weekend with glorious weather and 15m+ vis off Plymouth. Hasn’t been that good since but have done loads of good wreck dives since. Off to Cornwall this weekend to kick off the season properly (only dives so far were in Capernwray at 3 degrees!).

I’d recommend learning in the UK, cost isn’t very different (UK schools generally give an “all inclusive” fee, in Egypt it’ll be really low but then there’s course materials, kit hire, fills, etc), the teaching tends to be a bit more thorough and you won’t waste holiday dives doing drills and stuff when you could be enjoying yourself. Plus if you do dive somewhere a little more challenging (like Poor Knights for instance), or even get silt kicked up and sudden poor vis you’ll be better prepared from the UK experience!

Been meaning to try out the camera on the hill going down to Archway, past the suicide bridge. 40 must be easily do-able before the 30mph camera!

Did you not look for the presence of a CD changer and the number of owners on the V5 before you bought it?

Some guys were on my Aberdeen flight with bikes – they just took wheels off, ziptied them to the frame, then wrapped in clear plastic. They said they’d never had problems doing that and their bikes were fine.

Theory is that it’s bloody obvious they’re bikes, and being an awkward shape means they have to take more care, and can’t stack things on top – they get placed on top of other things in the hold.

My 106GTi:

Owned it for nearly 6 years, only sold because I changed jobs and was doing silly mileage.

For the money, nothing else I’ve driven that’s capable of carrying 2 people + 2 bikes has come close.

From a programming perspective, or install/config/administration?

Have been since I was about 13, and my family know my wishes.

Reminds me, I’ve not given blood for a while…

Looks about as far off the autoroute as Tignes and the like, which we drove for snowboarding this year.

Cost about 60 euros in tolls and about £75 in diesel, each way (4-up and with roofbox at 80-90 all the way we were getting about 39mpg). For fuel cost you’ll have to get a sensible figure from your own consumption though.

Got from Calais down to there in about 8 1/2 hours, shared the driving though and didn’t really stop except for fuel, food or toilet stops. The autoroutes are nicely maintained and pretty quiet, so you can make very good progress.

Try to do it in daylight if you can though – I found I got far more tired once night fell and you don’t have so much to look at, to a far greater extent than I do on UK motorways.

Every services I can remember going to in the last few years has a 2-hour limit on parking to stop people doing that. Probably best off leaving the motorway and finding a street without parking restrictions to park on.

I know a couple of people who’ve done it and they’ve stayed pretty much the same weight since finishing.

IMO it seems great for the comfort/boredom eaters and people who delude themselves about what they’re eating because the likes of WW and counting calories just won’t work when they “treat” themselves several times a day. By completely cutting off any kind of normal food and drink for a couple of months it seems to reset their eating habits properly and they ease back in to regular food at much smaller portions and with the right stuff.

Eating less and exercising more is sound advice and perfectly adequate for most people though. Anything more drastic is only for people with a real problem with food that needs addressing.

I don’t bother, but then I haven’t slipped a pedal for a while. I would if I was doing an uplift day (along with full face, arm protection, etc) but not got general riding.

As Matt says, it’s the photo that expires (most people look different after a decade) hence the renewal. They save you some time/aggro by not demanding a new photo whenever you move or change entitlements.

I’m convinced most cars launched in the last couple of years have been engineered purely to do well on the standard mpg test (so they can use it for advertising), and real-world gains have been minimal.

I ran an Alfa 156 JTD for 2 years, claimed combined mpg was 42 and I never got less than that over a tank (mainly motorway but some crawling in London traffic), average about 44.

Now have a Civic, claimed 55mpg combined, actually average around the 46-47 mark – no difference in typical journeys or driving style. 55 seems virtually impossible even on long motorway trips sticking rigidly to the speed limit.

70mm. I’m 5’11 and have a medium frame, using EA50 bars. Wouldn’t want to go any shorter – 70 feels spot on.

They got a lot better since xbmc was ported to them – gives you the best of both worlds, all the apple-centric stuff when you want it and xbmc for anything it wouldn’t normally play.

Or else pick up a classic xbox and they’re easily modified to run xbmc too.

Newer Bromptons have the clips that keep it unfolded when the back wheel is lifted. They’re retrofittable to older ones too.

Consider carefully whether you’d bother folding the thing up and carrying it in with you to the pub/shops/whatever. If you don’t think you will all the time, just get a cheap old bike to tool around on.

Look no further than Handbrake.

Capsule Rebel for everyday – the impact protection of a silicone sleeve but it slides in and out of your pocket nicely. It’s a bit grippier in your hand too.

For riding it just goes in the top pocket of camelbak, maybe in a plastic bag if it’s really going to rain hard.

Ta, it’s worth a look at the pads but I’m pretty sure they’re stock Avids. Rotors are G2s and about as straight as rotors ever get.

Does anywhere sell just the bits I’d need to replace for a caliper overhaul? CRC and the like just seem to do a £30 kit that includes bolts and all sorts.

Still a bit torn – the other issue is that they’re both 203mm rotors which just looks a bit silly on a hardtail. If I was to buy new rotors and adaptors too I’m getting closer and closer to the cost of a new set.

Mobile broadband can be OK provided you’re in a very good signal area. You may need to give consideration as to where in the house you’ll use it – obviously not an issue with regular home broadband. The latency can be pretty poor though, while it may be quite quick to transfer data there can feel like a lag between clicking on something and anything happening.

Can you get Virgin cable? We get 10Mb broadband, TV (inc iplayer) and phone with unlimited weekend calls for £14 a month.

MS Money, any version since about 2000 would do the job fine – there’s been nothing particularly useful added since then.

I like CT, the slim-fit cut is nice and they’re one of the few that do that cut in non-iron fabric (I am both lazy and travel a lot).

As said though, if you’re in London then browse along Jermyn Street, there’s loads along there.

Happy times… :D

Long enough to stretch OK on big chainring / biggest rear sprocket.

Small enough to manage smallest chainring / smallest rear sprocket without the chain running over itself as it goes through the rear mech.

To be fair, this place has a disproportionate number of bikes from niche/boutique manufacturers.

I’ve had a couple of Konas in the past, I’d still take a good look if I was in the market for an off-the-peg bike and you still see plenty on the trails. I was looking at a Caldera a few years ago but the colour that year was rubbish so I started looking elsewhere, found On-One and later got a Dialled PA.

I think a lot of their appeal was they were one of the few manufacturers designing bikes for mud rather than dusty Californian trails. Their geometry was arguably ahead of it’s time as well. These days there seems to be more british-designed stuff that’s been penned by people who understand the kind of riding we do – hence less of a need to look elsewhere.

Nope, even with the pad separator spring so open it’s tricky to get pad in, give the lever a couple of pulls and the inside piston is sticking out a mm or two and the pad drags the rotor. Nuts.

LBS charges £35 a caliper for service/overhaul. More importantly, I want to ride this weekend and my old brakes are already on my mate’s bike. :(

That’s worth a go – ta.

I’m having fun with this too – fitted a secondhand set of Juicy 7s and there’s so little clearance the rotor drags.

Pushed pistons out, used a cotton bud with brake fluid to go around the sides of the pistons, pushed back and forth, seemed to be going nice and freely.

Bled fully, a bit of air came out, nice solid lever feel but still the tiniest amount of clearance as the pads are sat right next to the disc.

Tried turning the pad adjustment dial both ways, no sodding difference. Even tried strapping the levers to the bars overnight – again, no difference.

What’s next? A full caliper service? Or off to the bin/ebay and get some Shimanos?