Sorted! Thanks guys

Late in on this but although my deliveries are at lunchtime which is a PITA and I have a succession of different posties, they are all pleasant, helpful etc so I have no complaints about them and actually want them to stick around.

nothing

Epic thread. 🙂

Sorry about all the decorative bits……. it wasn't me! 🙂

I seem to have lost my camera! I might be a while……….

Bushwacked……give me five minutes or so.

good idea… never thought of evil bay!

A history degree did f*** all for me so I started my own business 25 years ago.

O Level in '85 huh…… a year after I graduated having taken time out in between school and uni. Does that make me an old git?i

eeeew… think about it…. if we had British owned car factories etc again, we'd all be driving Austin Allegros and Morris Marinas! Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

+1 for the Body Shop goo, more lie 3 months but still good vfm.

Somewhere above someone said they use a Mach 3 but only get a handful of use out of each blade. I shave every day and a Mach 3 blade lasts me maybe 3 weeks before it starts to get draggy/notchy. Either you are doing something wrong or it is my old roadies tendencies coming out (e.g. "I bought brake blocks in 1978 and they have worn out already" sort of thing).

Just spotted the price of the new ones. £150.00 posted. Tis isn't a slot dropout frame. I paid the thick end of £270 new.

It isn't quite a year old and has hardly been ridden (bad back) so how about £200 posted?

I had one of the XLs (I'm a smidge under 6ft 4ins) and it was fine. Sadly we didn't get on in the end but that was because I wanted the bike to be something it wasn't. When it was asked to do what Cy told me it was designed for…. it was brilliant.

Not sure if that helps at all… I'm not even sure Cy makes an XL any more.

I had a spesh Hard Rock nicked many moons ago. Locked up out of sight (under my office window) in a sleepy market town so I felt quite safe. It was nicked. The strange thing was they had also nicked a £99 special five minutes before (or so the police told me) and they decided to swap the wheels over. They took the £99 bike and my wheels to the bike shop down the road and made a fuss because the gears didn't work (one had 8 gears, the other 6!!!!!). The buggers must have got my wheels to fit the cheapo bike because they didn't ask about that. Anyway, the bike shop sussed something was up and asked them to come back in a few days while they ordered a part. They were on the phone to the police when I walked in to alert them to the loss of my bike etc etc. They gave me my wheels back in the end but the scrotes did not show up again so they basically got away with it. Hate them…every one, they need stringing up.

Bury St Edmunds – humid

Just to tie this all up albeit slightly late…. in the end I bought the Boardman Team Carbon. Of all the bikes I rode it felt the most comfortable. I have done short rides 20 milers and a few 40s and so far it has been very comfortable, it is also very fast… one hell of a deal for a grand. When I am allowed to do proper length rides again (i.e. when my back is fully sorted) I'll do a few 100ks, I reckon only then will I discover whether I made a mistake or not!

Thanks for the input guys, it was all very helpful, even the squabbling! 😉

Strange about your XP problems…. I find it as solid as a rock, never missed a beat even when running it on a pc! I run it through vmfusion on a Mac now and wouldn't look back!

I think I started with a HiFly 370, moved "up" to A Fanatic 370, A Tiga Sprint (320) which got moved on v fast, Bic Rock n Roll, Bic Astro Rock, F2 Sunset Slalom, F2 Lightening World Cup Race, F2 Bullit, Mistral Stinger (many of these at the same time but never less than 2 at once) with sails through from 4.2 to 8.5m. At 15 stone the Stinger was interesting to sail if the wind dropped…. stuck out in the North Sea on a sinker ain't much fun! Anyway, it picked up to a 4 and I limped in.

I have still got the Sunset Slalom and a custom Second Skin steamer (winter) and a harness but otherwise it has all gone.

Agree with the wind comments…. it got to the stage where if it wasn't 4 gusting 5 and up I wasn't happy. I tried the race board and a big sail but it wasn't the same. To increase light wind performance I had a quiver of fins and it all got terribly anal….which board, which sail, which fin? Then I'd come in and switch it around to make up for my skill deficit and so it went on.

I miss it but not the interminable waiting around for the wind to blow.

if you do cave in you aren't suddenly a smoker again

Probably the most sensible piece of advice you can give someone who is giving up.

Getting on for 25 years now and I still occasionally fancy a puff though it is usually only a fleeting aberration and it goes no further than a wistful thought.

Anyway, good luck with staying off the weed… you know it is worth it. 😉

[quoteHow do people know the Thetford courses in advance?[/quote]

It is a new course every year but the way it works is that Paul has a lot of help laying out the course and knowledge seeps out that way. He also does guided rides several weeks before presumably to gauge rider's reactions to the course and then it sort of goes viral.

Given the restrictions Paul operates under, there really isn't much choice about where to ride. If the rules and regs were a little more relaxed he might be able to extend the scope of his courses but as it is…..

I'd do it maybe the day before if I didn't know the venue but people are doing it weeks ahead and practicing on it. While there may be one or two new bits added in (cut through the bracken) there aren't going to be any surprises in Thetford and tbh the bombholes aren't really that tough.

D2D Weather

To be fair though,it is so dry here at the moment any amount of water will probably run off.

Am I doing it? No, bad back!

Or buy a couple of Fenix lights with mounts, rechargeable batteries and a charger, you'll end up with change too!

sapper I used to use chain cleaners but find it easier to take the chain off and give it a bath in degreaser, dry off, re-lube and then fit.

Otherwise, thanks all for the input, at least I have somewhere to start now. 🙂 As we all know, there's often a world of difference between manufacturer's claims and reality!

Just finished the Algebraist again, brilliant. TBH I much prefer his Sci Fi stuff tough I read everything he writes.

FWIW I hate the bike show stuff, talk about yawn inducing, but I simply decide not to read it. I can see the rationale behind attendance at such shows but it doesn't translate to good copy – for me anyway. The same happens whenever you pick up a newspaper or other magazine, there's always going to be stuff you flick through, ignore etc and I can live with it.

As far as listening to your customers is concerned, it always pays to listen to everyone and be courteous in your communications with them. Having re-read Mark's comments I don't think they were "off" in any way, just factual. Whether he might have dealt with it another way maybe by private email and in a more conciliatory style is a moot point… he seems to have lost a customer though which is bad news.

I don't read the mag as much any more, it arrives on the doormat and is often unopened for days but, I suspect, it is more to do with my changing appetites rather than stylistic or content issues (except for the occasional duff publication). I continue to pay my subs as it helps pay for the site which has become part of my work time ritual!

I was hacking through some singletrack in my local trails (Thetford) maybe an inch or two behind my mate's back wheel, urging him to go quicker and quicker and quicker. We exited a couple of berms when he slowed down, not much but he slowed down, he drifted left as I was drifting right, I clipped his back wheel and flew over the bars. I had enough time to realise that I was going to hit a tree with my collar bone (no way I could avoid it). It wasn't a big tree (maybe 6 inches diameter) but it was enough to hurt. I thought "this is going to sting" and then impact. My collar bone hit the tree………. and I carried on going. The tree was completely rotten and disintegrated to powder. Luckiest escape I have had for a while.

Bunnies… loads of them. Can gut them within a minute, I always seem to have problems with the head so skinning them takes a couple of minutes extra.

I have shot about 200 this summer, eaten several, given the rest away to friends and acquaintances who like rabbit. So.. free meat for me and a happy farmer. I have also been harvesting his blackberries and sloes! Yum!

I used to use BBB but they kept seizing up far too often. I moved on to LX/XT with no trouble so far (6 months) but am attracted in a tarty, bling sort of way to the KCMC ones tho' I'll probably never buy any!

Dan

Don't freak out if you end up doing it as a pair but I'm sure the rest of the guys will sort themselves out. Just take it easy…. remember you tend to go off too fast. As it will be your first loooong race, forget the big ring, at least for the first half of the race, it will ensure you ride well within your limits. By 6 hours you will have some idea of how much stamina you have so you can ride accordingly. Don't forget, it isn't a 2 hour blast so don't ride it that way and most of all…. have fun. Oh yes, and ignore people blatting past at warp speed, don't try and chase them down, ride your own ride.

IMO solo is easier (mentally) than pairs but I have told you that already. Keep a look out for Richard (E), he'll be in a big Claas caravan with Kurt and Chris (he of the little beard). I'm sure they'll make you a cup of tea if you get cold!

nice one Dave……

Every month my fave bit is the Mike Ferrentino (is that the right name?) column. This month I too opened the mag and felt underwhelmed…. probably because I hate reading interviews. Interviews are the bits I always leave out so a "interview special" was never going to float my boat. . Mr F was his normal high quality self and it redeemed the issue for me.

Singletrack issues are very marmite and this one, sadly, is one of the "hate it" variety.

I subscribe so I can help pay for the website, where would we be without it?

Micarms

Just a thought about your son, just a thought. Peeps with aspergers often have dyspraxia as an associated condition, this impacts on their gross motor skills such as catching, cycling, bumping into stuff etc. If you find he has dyspraxia it won't help much right now but there are plenty of really good books which give you strategies to help etc.

My son has asperger's, tpurettes, ocd and dyspraxia. The dyspraxia has been pretty much grown out now but the rest remain.

He's off to uni next week to start a degree in computer science (surprise surprise) so if any of you out there despair for your kids, don't worry, they can and will surprise you many, many times.

Haven't seen any Dead Kennedy's, Stiff LIttle Fingers, X Ray Spex, Siouxie etc tees yet so punk hasn't completely sold out……..yet! Not that it really matters if they did.

The Ramones…. always a tad too commercial IMO anyway, though good for a few minutes jumping about. Sadly I 'm ust too old to jump about any more…… wanders off into senile dribble fest! 🙂

Put plastic carrier bags over your socks and your feet will stay dry… though ypur shoes will still be soaked through. I don't know that ay overshoe is completely waterproof.

The trouble with jigs, and I think I'm not alone in saying this*, is that you tend to find the position you think you are comfortable in and that often tends to be the position you have always ridden in… because you are used to it. This doesn't make it the best riding position nor the most effective though I do accept that those two may often be mutually exclusive. 🙂

*I know I read this in a CW many moons ago and Greg Fuquay said pretty much the same thing when he was measuring me up for my TT frame.

I am quite prepared to accept that I am totally wrong though.

Right…. back the the drawing board then, not ignoring sportive type bikes, not fixating on carbon.

OPens up the field a bit but strangely, narrows it down too!

Watch this space!

Unless you're planning to win the club 10, forget your past. Get a bike you can ride day in day out, set a time on it, and then get faster from that point.

Yeah, you are probably right…. in fact I know you are so therefore, don't rule out the more relaxed geometry sportive type bikes, that's where you are going isn't it?