I think it achieved what it set out to do. The novel camera work (novel insofar as it isn't usually used on big budget movies) added to the sense of confusion etc (as mentioned earlier) and set it apart from run of the mill Hollywood ectoplasm*. Yes there were flaws but isn't watching a film all about suspension of disbelief?

Did I like it? I found it difficult to concentrate but wasn't that the point? I watched it at the flicks and at home the other night. Put it this way, twice is enough and I won't be rushing to see it again.

*Or was it just self consciously "different" and therefore just one more product of the Hollywood machine?

I know what you mean… I started thinking about some new bouncy bits, drivetrains etc the other day and was slightly overwhelmed at the price of half way decent kit. It looks like my HT1 XTR and early HT2 chainsets will have to last a good deal longer despite the crank arms getting a bit thin where my boots/shoes have polished them.

Having said that, SLX looks good enough and seems to perform well enough not to bother with XT any more.

When I rode there it was fun, not overtly technical (although Trekster will tell you there was one bit I failed, and failed and failed to clean) and I thoroughly enjoyed myself.

Maybe compromise then….. first lap or so get the dull stuff then spend the next 10 hours getting more inspired shots.

Your language/dialect is a product of your environment.

Interesting. My nephew and niece go to an expensive public school. They and all their friends sound like they have all come out from Brixton until Mummy and Daddy turn up when they revert to the 2010 version of RP. In my very limited experience then (and believe me it is limited) it is a yoof thing and will disappear when the next street culture filters up to the middle classes.

There was a chap/chav on the Today programme a week or two ago talking about his dog in response to a report about dogs being used as attack weapons – as opposed to knives, guns etc. I had to go back to iPlayer and listen to it several times simply because I could not understand what he was saying. I don't know whether he was white, black, Asian or anything…. I just could not understand his banter! I guess it shows how removed I am from "real life" living and working in Suffolk! On the other hand, if one of the old Suffolk boys went down to Brixton, I expect they would be unable to understand him/her either.

I hate you lot. I thought I had finally banished this sort of thing from my consciousness ad now you drag it all up again. I'm off for counselling before I find my wallet!

Strangely, it looks like it is a green screen shot. Probably something to do with the fact that your bike is in perfect focus while the background isn't. That is not to say that I didn't enjoy it though, as I did!

Sadly I have had to drop out. Have a good time all.

you've got to be fast, strong, nibble, great reflexes and be technically good

what's nibble fot to do with it? 🙂

STW as google replacement – +1.

In fact STW is not known as STW Form in our household it is called the Oracle on the premise that most questions can be answered but sometimes it is just gobbledegook. TBH STW has only failed me once and that was on tyre choice LOL! ;o)

Cougar … and sizes, don't forget sizes or you'll be labelled as a size-ist!

Pretty much in the same boat although not as extreme. My immune system is pants and I get every virus going and then gold plate it, just to make sure I suffer! I spent 18 months going to and from hospital having every test known to mankind to no avail. The last cold got me a few weeks back, very badly. I recovered (sort of) and did the West Drayton off road sportive and suffered big time. Every ride since then has been purgatory so i too got medical advice. I have been told to rest up for a while and then gentle my way back as and when I feel ready. I have had to pass up on an audax this weekend and Bristol Bikefest next week and I am mightily pissed off about it. On the bright side, you will get better and if you are anything like me, when you do get back on a bike, they will be spotlessly clean, perfectly lubed and maybe even have a smattering of new parts on them. Maintenance isn't a total substitute for riding but it is the next best thing. otherwise, buy more music, find something else to do, you will enjoy your bike heaps more when you get back on it.

As for WTFU… as long as you remain generally positive the rest will follow without any misplaced Ozzie machismo! 🙂

words fail me……..

Cougar.. absolutely, but if you do not recognise the validity of someone else's rules then you won't care what that society thinks except maybe, when they are applied to you i.e. you are punished for transgressing. Take for e.g. if you were sent to work in a fundamentalist country where you were required to beat your dog every other Thursday, would you? I guess you would choose not to but when the religious police came around and chopped off your hand for not beating said dog, then you'd care. Silly analogy really but the best I can come up with.

By preventing the enforcers of our laws (the police) from operating effectively they are sticking the proverbial two fingers up at us. I don't agree with it but it seems, from the posts on here, that that is what's happening.

So, I am not an apologist for anyone who ignores/breaks the laws we choose to live by, it just seems that that is what is happening.

Very binary this discussion isn't it?

My cards on the table… I have never met any travellers and all my experiences of them have been vicarious so my opinions count for nothing.

Maybe all they are saying is "we don't want to be part of your society". If you want to exist outside any given society then clearly society's rules do not apply. Is it up to us to tolerate their behaviour or try and modify it so it fits with our ideals? Or is there another solution?

As Malcolm Bradbury said " I don't have an answer, all I have is the question."

I live relatively close to a large camp (Smithy Fen) they are so much trouble that when the police are called they send armed police with machine guns!!

TBH they sound like the people engaged in illegal hare coursing. My mate was a fireman and they were responding to a 999 for a RTA in a remote spot outside Mildenhall. Half way there, on a small-ish road they were hemmed (front and back) in by thugs with shot guns and pistols. They didn't care that they were responding to a 999 call and one of them got in the cab to ensure no one was using the radio to alert the police. The fire engine was "allowed to go" when the coursing was finished.

No idea what happened to the RTA. The local police said they couldn't have responded effectively as they didn't have any ARUs at the time.

You can really go off people who get to ride places like this

when all some of us have to ride is this:

I'm not jealous, oh no not me (much)

I would honestly have them eradicated,

Wasn't there a chap who tried this once?

A mate had the same problem although with a bigger nest. The pest man came round with a tin of proprietary fly spray (Raid I think). He emptied half a tin on the nest, had a cup of tea from his van, went back removed nest and dead wasps.

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Can't believe it… no one has said own him with your bombers yet!

Seriously, use your noddle, do the sensible thing and let let the professionals deal with it. If they don't want to know then you are a little bit stuffed and tbh they probably have more important things to deal with.. like parking tickets.

I work from home in an outbuilding with nothing but birds and horses to disturb me. Empty fields with the start of a few of my favourite trails not 100 yards away. Distance between my desk and field number one… three paces.

Mind you, when the weather is good, it is often quite difficult to concentrate on anything apart from getting out there!

Had a couple of his albums many years back. Heads off to record collection to see if they are still there. For Earth Below was one of them I think…..

My chest is clear – ish. Occasional coughing and goo but still phlegm around. also, it seems to take much, much longer to recover from a ride, any ride, let alone a tough one.

Better look up the doctor's telephone number again then. 🙁

..and FFS do not use an air rifle on a fox even if it is a .25 FAC gun and even then it would be touch and go. Legal limit air rifles are ok on rabbits and most things down in size from that and even then you need to be a good shot (half inch groups at 35 yards maybe). Shotgun or pest controller and that's it really.

Another thing about foxes in chicken coops – so they kill all the chickens and yes this is bad news all round (not for Foxy though). Doesn't sound dissimilar to dogs running wild in flocks of sheep or indeed, dogs let loose in a chicken coop. I don't hear many people calling for dogs to be snared, clubbed or shot!

In the countryside Foxes cause a problem with poultry and or game birds but they also do a lot of good preying on rabbits so it is 6 of one and half a dozen of the other really.

Many shooters would do it for free but definitely not in an urban context you'd get an ARU round in no time.

riding a road bike on it with tyres at 20000psi

If you will run soft tyres mate! 😉

Anyway, some form of suspension it is then!

FWIW my Salsa one made not a jot of difference.

I had one of these… a Thomson that slipped down whichever frame I put it in. I successfully sorted in in a two stage process.

Stage 1 : I bought some of that carbon "grease" that folk with expensive frames and seat posts use so the two carbon faces get some friction. This slowed the process down quite a bit but not entirely.

Stage 2 : I got a different frame and now it is as solid as a rock.

(The new frame was incidental BTW. I had fitted the post to 5 different frames before the last one. I was at the stage of chucking the damn thing away if it has continued slipping!)

…. you forgot to add cycling, athletics etc to that list…otherwise what is the point of all this EPO, blood doping etc?

Great event.. had fun.

Lots of Yummy Mummies on the way round out with Tarquin pretending to be in the country! 🙂

I'll do it again.

I did manage the full 100k despite feeling shagged out after 2km. (see earlier post!)

I'd go along with the "funniest and saddest" description. When it hits TV I'll watch it again.

Sam (Singular) reckons the Rebas.

I'm down for the 100 but have only been on my bike for 1.5 hours in the last 3 weeks due to illness. Was putting decent mileage in before that (approx 400 miles in 2 weeks) so I hope my stamina hasn't deserted me!

Double guitar – yes… doing Blockbuster (The Sweet)

He did Head Butts too and the electronic gizmo, and he jumped off a ladder and went straight into a somersault.

Great stuff.

mathewshotbol not exactly sure of his height but as said in OP he'd fit a 53 to 55cm frame – or so his dad tels me.

Could i start jumping over cars then and twirling round pointlessly whilst having a pained look of eighties teenage angst writ large across my face?

Lots of input there, thanks everyone I know where to start now.

3/4 bibs… I quite agree but I have just thrown my old ones away…the padding fell apart and got very uncomfortable. On the list for later in the year.

Chinless windbag CallmeDave will get played by the Eurosceptics and Osborne…. well he really worries me.

A pretty pickle we'll be in now Lib/Lab talks have broken down (not that a Lib/Lab pact would have made much difference)

ah…..

back to the drawing board then!

I'm sure this is the wrong thread to ask on but I have often wondered why, in Afghanistan, the army don't use things like the Sherman "funnies" used on D Day to clear mines.. you know, the ones with rotating flails on the front? It would sort out the IEDs in a jiffy wouldn't it? It might make a mess of the roads but it is not as if thet are tarmac or anything is it?

(Stupid question of the day I'm sure.)