RP.

No, it teaches those who experience that sort of thing (ref G’s note), to look at themselves and stop being such a pain in the arse to all around them. Its a good lesson to learn, and some need it to be delivered in such a fashion, unfortunately.

Its taken a while, but I’ve read this thread now and I have to ask, is there anyone here who is saying its acceptable for teenage gangs to hastle/intimidate others, in any way ?.

Cos if the answer is no, and if you’re getting hastled, at that moment when you receive threats of violence or abuse, just who is in the wrong, and what options does the victim have ?.

Running away can be just a dangerous as standing and still not allow you to avoid violence.

Seems to me that if these children are intent on picking on people, then like so many things in life, its at their own risk.

I’m not aware of groups of people going round handing out free booze to children and ordering them to stir it up with whomever passes them by.

These children choose to do what they do and so deserve whatever they get in the way of a whack. Its not rocket science is it ?, don’t threaten and abuse people and their property, and you won’t get beat, or as I’d prefer, arrested.

I’m just sorry that Fred the OAP or Johnny the dog walker who may have to resort to running away, or violence just to protect themselves, when all they wanted was a pint of milk from the corner shop, or to walk the family pet.

These gangs of children are a tyranny of our streets and it shouldn’t be left to Johnny dog walker to sort it. imo.

So, what is the answer. I’ve read remarks by others deriding those who have resorted to violence to protect themselves. But ask those contributers to tell us just what should we do when we find ourselves in that moment, a situation, where youths are shouting at and spitting on you, making you fear for your safety. Just what do you suggest.

Solo.

String and things across the trail is a matter for the police, imo.

As for the tree. I once met with similar obsticles on a trial I used. Initially I use to remove the obsticles, clear the way for other MTBers, etc.
Sadly, this only escalated the number of obstilces placed along the trail.

Then I started riding around the obsticles, then they couldn’t be sure if their actions were a deterent and didn’t extend the obsticles, they eventually backed-off.

Show them that their efforts will be fruitless by riding around and not removing the obsticles. Thats what I’d do.

Sorry to learnt that some tw4ts are screwing with your trails.

Solo.

Gotcha, thanks.

:-D

Solo.

Another vote here for Hope, I’ve XCs and a Pro 2, all going good. They’re competitive weight and cost. Quite durable too and as mentioned earlier in this thread, good range and supply of spares.

Solo.

I’m with green flag, used them once when I blew the engine my car.

It was late on a Saturday night, they attended within half an hour and took me the remianing 40 miles home.

Got the same cover this year, £65. Not bad I think, for the peace of mind, knowing that they’ll take you home. Even if it was on the back of a low-loader…

Solo.

I use a windows phone and run Memory Map. I have an HTC phone, it will play your MP3s, films, take piccys, access the web, make calls, it has an FM radio, will run Memory Map and it runs TomTom too.
All in one handy, phone sized package.

However, as you probably know, these phones aren’t as tough as say a garmin and I wouldn’t strap my phone to the bars for continuous guidance.

I guess that if you know roughly where you’re going, but want to stop and check occassionally during the ride, then a phone running MM will be fine, just keep it in a pocket or your back pack and dig it out for a look at where you are, as and when.

If you’re looking for something you want to look at while riding, in order to follow a route, then something like the Garmin Edge is fine. I’ve a 305 Edge. Once I’ve laid in a route/course, its simple, no brains riding, just follow the line on the display.

Solo.

I have to move around for work and as a consequence you get to meet laods of people. I once met a guy called Alan Burke.

Poor blighter. What were his parents thinking of. They had given him a christian name which combined with his sirname would leave him signing anything:-

A. Burke.

I mean, couldn’t they have chosen any other name but one that started with an A.

You could tell that going through life with such a name, had effected him.

I once knew a Dave Chicken too. Again, you could tell that he’d just about heard any and every joke you could think of.

S.

Did the TV progam “the gadget show” cover roughty-toughty mobile phones recently ?.

Check their website, you never know…

Solo.

Not read any books that have moved me.

But I could never watch the green mile again.
(apollogies if this is strictly a book-only thread)

Solo.

Retro83.

Thanks for your reply.

The grey seal in the top of the right leg-lower has risen up out of the fork and moves with the right stantion.

I put the bike upside-down to remove the wheel and oil started coming out of the fork.

I think you’re right, I’ll have to contact Merlin in the morning. This is beyond my inclination to remedy.

I’ve a pair of the Reba Race team, had them around two years and I weigh alot more than the GF. Yet they’ve been faultless…

Cheers

Solo.

CK.

Yeap, I hadn’t missed that statement. However, (here it goes) how many homes have someone drive to work, but leave someone at home for most of the day, electrical goods on standby, etc, etc.

Yeah, I know we’ll get into numbers, etc, and that probably isn’t a worth-while exercise for this thread.

But as we’re being saddle with Nuclear Power Stations then ultimately heating a home would release less CO2 into the atmos….err, maybe…
But then again, if cars become more fuel efficient….Yeah, that may be a point to consider. But there are other advantages to not having to drive to work.

This has been a good thread, I’ve enjoyed it :-), but got to go out now, on the bike. :D

Cheers.

Solo.

MD. Love that post. Yeah, I’d like to give up driving too.

aP.

Traffic is a problem for US. Seperate your hate of the car, from the proposed replacement of current cars with Electric cars.
If human kind finds a solution for a sustainable car, in whatever form that may take, then the car stays, and more importantly, so do we !.

I think we need to try to change car culture, find a better way to get people to want to use an alternative.

And where as taxation does have its place. Perhaps we need to change the record and use a less blunt instrument with which to clobber our problems. Aren’t we cleverer than just to resort to the treasury all the time.

is there a problem ?, TAX IT LAD, TAX IT !. Err, no.

I would like to see some of our Gov money go to incentivise employers to have their keyboard jockeys stay at home, use secure IT infrastructures, etc.

Can’t we give it a go at least ?.

Solo.

aP.

Some good points there, but raising the cost?. As others have pointed out, increase something that people beleive to be essential to their way of life, or even earning a living, and their wage demands will increase.

Look at housing. Prices go up, we all need more in the pay-packet in order to buy.

Yes, housing is more important than cars, but the principle is my point. Raise the cost and people demand more pay to afford it.

Furthermore, we in the UK pay £25 Billion in green taxes, yet we cause £5 billion environmental damage.

Oi !, Gordon, wheres the rest of it going !.

Ooh. Don’t start me off :-)

Solo.

aP.

I think you’re so wrong, jmo.
Taxing the ass off the car owner isn’t the answer.

Reading the posts, looks like we’re not having the wool pulled over our eyes. Seems that quite a few here think that the electric car isn’t the “way forward“.

While I have mentioned the Hydro-Fuel cell car, it was more for the observations the road tester made about modern car culture/useage.

Hydrogen isn’t really the answer. Imagine the cost in restructuring the worlds Petro-Chem handling infrustructure to handle pressurized, liquid Hydrogen. California, U.S.A. is trying it, but its costing them loads.
You basically have to start from scratch, I don’t believe you can convert the petrol/diesel handling infrastucture of the world to handle (store, transport, pump) Hydrogen.

It may surprize some here to learn that the industry is spending serious time looking into alternatives. The latest I heard is that Methanol is the future…
Or rather, synthesized methanol.
No major restructuring of the material hanlding infrastructure required, etc, its renewable, although not so sure about the actual emissions ( I didn’t invent it, just telling what I heard).

Early days.

Solo.

CK.

Exacly ! the point I was making, every case is different. UK car culture encourages/entitles people to take the job which is a two hour commute each way, away from where they live. Our car culture throws up all types of car owning households now.

I was observing our car culture. I cringed at all those cars going out everyday, onto the roads, thats all. :-)

I’d take it another step further and ask. For those who work at a keyboard, why, in the 21st C are we still traveling to another place to use the works office and computer.
Can’t we as a nation develop a remote working culture, which may just happen to reduce the number of cars needed/used on the roads on a daily basis.

Then we could all use the extra 2 hours a day for cycling, rather than commuting. :D

I think that having to drive to work can actually hamper your carrer prospects, as we know, theres a limit on how far one can drive to and from work.

I don’t want to endorse anyone having their career hampered for lack of ability to get to where its at, and so therefore, their quality of life.

However, there are some who would argue that some levels of quality of life are unsustainable. And our car culture allows people to live a long way from where they work. Is that sustainable.

Either way, you make some good points. :-)

Ta

Solo.

CK.

Take a Chill-Pill, you seem to have some “baggage” related to when you lived at home. Don’t take the frustrations about the issues you have about your unique home experience, out on me.

That remark was used to high-light the households where every family member has their own car, used regularly/daily. I was indicating how the car culture in the UK has developed. Thats all. The drive is full over night, empty during the day. All those cars on the road. Will every household be like that one day. Will every household have a seperate car for towing, a special sports car, a car for Monday, a car for Tuesday…
Should there be a limit ?, should people compromise the number of cars they own ? is there a place for the….multipurpose car ?.

As for those who would not be able to, or who would find it extremely difficult to travel without a car due to physical issues, the disabled, the infirm, etc. Of course I’m not saying that they should be denied transport.

But getting back on-topic, should that transport be in an electric powered car ?, imo, no.

Solo.

Mr Salmon.

You have a point, we can’t just keep churning out cars with the happy abandon of a society that has been granted limitless space and resources, true.

It is cringe worthy to see six cars parked onto the bulging drive of a semi.

Don’t deny that a few less cars wouldn’t be a bad thing. Short sighted Govs to affraid to really grab the bull by the horns and try to re-configure car useage in the U.K. Must not upset the economy, etc. And its not just about taxing car users out of their cars either. However, it would be a little less painful for the motorist if they could actually see the benefits and not just dirty old smokers of buses chugging along the high street.

The roots of the car industry sink deep into the U.K.

As I pointed out, James May, while road testing the Honda hydrogen car, made some interesting observations about modern car use.

I don’t want things to stay as they are, but I feel that electric cars are a 2red-herring”.

I feel that we are right to want to find a cleaner alternative to burning 100% petrol/Diesel.

Solo.

Cynic-al.
Ah, a voice of someone who has nothing to lose from such a suggestion. Lets stop the industry you rely on for work. :roll:

Agreeing with CoffeeKing.

Solo.

Just a thought. Has there been any research into the physical effects on the human body from being in such a close proximity to a high powered electric motor. EMFs and all that jazz ?.

Solo.

Transpoting electricity via wire. Thats some wiring there, have you seen that stuff. What does it take to produce that, transport it, lay it, maintain it, etc. Hardly cheap and clean.

Tessla produced an electric car based on the Lotus Elise. Customers had to have 3 phase fitted to their homes to charge the thing !.
And do you want a 600Kg battery behind you when you hit something….

Solo.

Mr Salmon. You don’t want people buying new cars ?, if so, thats pretty harsh on all those whos’ jobs rely on the motor trade. What would all those people do for a J.O.B.

Anyway, Has anyone here seen James May’s review of the Honda saloon car which runs on Hydrogen ?. In his presentation, he makes some good genaral points about car useage.

I agree, those using their car for the <3 mile journey are possibly being a bit irresponsible. But be careful, what would be the sensible minimum car useage distance ?.

I don’t like electric cars, same if not more pollution, and as someone here has pointed out, it just removes the pollution out from under out noses, the high street. To a more remote location.
Out of sight, out of mind ?.
Consider also the energy intensive production process to create an item which is seldom recycleable such as a car battery, and contains exotic and toxic materials. Then, electric cars, for me at least, seem an unattractive proposition.
What would we do with the millions of batteries we’d have when they start to lose their performance ?.

Agree with another here who pointed to public transport.
I utterly hate cycling through my town centre for all the emmissions from tired old buses which kickout huge volumes of cr4p.
Perhaps local Gov should lead by example, rather than through the parking meter and clean its public transport act up first.
Running old diesel buses and telling everyone else that they’ve got to run an ultra clean car is rubbish.

I want clean buses, now !.

Solo.

Graham S raises a good question….HC ?

S.

Carling C2 ?.

S.

I have not actual data to support this, but my feeling is that the Chain will be more efficient.

As for belt drive being “the next big thing“. I would hope not, but then again, we ride in the shadow of an industry which is totally geared up to selling us all, the next big thing.

I have 4 bikes, all chain drive. I’m not replacing them with belt-driven bikes just because some company cracks the perceived technical issues involved.

Anyway, as others have pointed out, I just can’t see a belt taking the abuse a chain will. Perhaps if I rode bone dry, dusty trails all year round, and if I liked hub-gears/gear boxes.

No, its not for me and it wont be my must have feature on a bike.

As for Gear boxes, No thanks to them too. I like being able to service my bike, with a minimum of tools. Not something I’d be able to do with a gear box in my bike.

Solo.

Or is that “write”……DOH !.

S

Recently, I caught some malware. I asked on here what was going on and someone recommended MalwareBytes another recommended Ad-aware.

I’m now running Norton Internet Security, MalwareBytes and Ad-Aware.

I guess we’ll always be stuck with the idiots who feel the need to wright malicious code, hack websites, etc.

Solo.

Sorry for the double post.

Fat fingers.

Solo.

I once bought a pair of wheels from CRC, Mavic rims, DT comp spokes, Hope Hubs. They came in at under £200.

As mentioned, anything that includes your Mavic rim (717) and a hope hub, is likely to be light enough, tough enough for the use you describe.

Whatever you get, enjoy your birthday.

:-)

Solo.

I once bought a pair of wheels from CRC, Mavic rims, DT comp spokes, Hope Hubs. They came in at under £200.

As mentioned, anything that includes your Mavic rim (717) and a hope hub, is likely to be light enough, tough enough for the use you describe.

Whatever you get, enjoy your birthday.

:-)

I’ve an HTC Touch Cruise, othewise known as the O2 Xda Orbit 2.

However, I have the HTC as it comes without the network cr4p that O2 or any of the other networks install on these phones and reducing the amount of built in memory available. I’m running mine with a SanDisk 8Gb micro SD.

Pretty good phone, quite customize-able and with in-built GPS, runs MM a treat. Check out the other HTC phones too.

Its a good “all in one solution”, it plays MP3, films (.WMVs and other formats) has a 3.2 Meg camera, video, its 3.5G allowing faster web access and can connect your laptop to the web too. It runs TomTom also and using the GPS chipset and NOT a data connection, so even when you’re out of the range of the mobile phone networks, so long as you can pick up the Satelites, MM is fine. It has office apps on it too allowing you to create as well as read your excel, word, pdf files, etc.

Solo.

Yeah, I’ve a Pro 2, too. Very clicky loud.

:-)

Solo.

Yeah, I’ve a Pro 2, too. Very clicky loud.

:-)

You have to remove the top cover of each lever to expose the cable fixing and cable nipple. Then I just poked around to release the cable nipple from the mech.

Then just shove the new cable in, etc.

You may also know that the covers on the left and right-hand levers are NOT the same.

:-)

Solo.

The Bladders that come with CBs seem fine to me, I’ve one and it does fine.

I don’t use CBs anymore, I’m hooked on the Deuter Air series of backpacks now, but still using the bladder out of my first and last CB, Mule.

Solo.

Thanks to all.

:D

Solo.

TJ.

“It just seems to me that there is more hatred of Brown than he merits”

To quote:

“deserve has nothing to do with it”.

Solo.

Dr_Death/GrahamS.

Again, in a world full of cr4p, its the wonderful gift of cycling that brings people together in a way so fantastic.

I’m so grateful for your repsonses because you have decided to help, and its through cycling that we are all here.

Thanks, so very much.

Kindest Regards

Solo.

A few here MikeWSmith, El-Bent, are SPOT ON !!!, imo.

Of course, absolute power, corrupts absoltely. This is the flaw of democratically elected Gov, be it Lab or Con.

But this is only half the story, isn’t it ??.

It is only my opinion, but the UK public should own-up to not taking enough interest in current affairs. Surely, under the democratic system, we are the “master of our own destiny” ???.

Someone voted these twits into No10 (if thats what you believe), either by voting for them, or by not voting at all, etc.

In 11 years, alot of poor decisions have been made. And that isn’t a dig at NuLabour, the opposition carry some minor responsibility too. And, I believe that had they remained in power (winning the 97 election) then things would have not been much better.

But getting back to the U.K. voter. Lets face it, there are alot of people who “don’t do politics/current affairs” and, most importantly, who do not vote !!!.

I believe that this is at the heart of the problems the UK has suffered with for the last 30+ years. People today don’t seem to care enough to pay attention to what the knobs in London are saying. And given the amount of spin coming out of Westminster, I can see why.

However, I believe that each and every member of the U.K. public should consider it their DUTY to learn about what the parties are saying/lying/promising, and VOTE !!.

Its just my opinion, but if WE aint happy with the way things are, then its WE that should all take the time to find out whos promising what and to get off our ASSES and VOTE.

Too many people haven’t a clue about current affairs and do not vote.

No, GB shouldn’t be PM now, only after the house of cards has fallen, do we see what he really has done to us. I do not doubt his compassion for the poor or disadvantaged, or his concern for those less well off. BUT the way he has tried to go about re-dressing the “balance”, hasn’t worked.

Where he has lead us to, isn’t good. Obviously he didn’t do it on purpose, but we’re here anyway, and I believe that he is not capable of bringing us out of the mess he permitted to occur.

We need a new PM. Q is, can that new PM, whomever he/she is “make the difference” that 21C U.k. needs

Solo.

GrahamS.

Thanks for that, although as I read your post my heart sank lower

I have just installed Norton 2009 internet security and, perhaps wrongly, hoped that such a purchase/installation would prevent this sort of thing happening.

Thank you very much for the info. I am now off to do as you have suggested.

Cheers :-)

Solo.

Hora.

I like a bit of risk too, I think a lot of people do. Perhaps thats why we like mountain cycling.

But using a car on the road isn’t a place to take risk.

Last year I was traveling along the A127, to my surprize I noted that a certain section had ASCs in place, this was new to me. I mentioned this to someone at work and they told me that a car had left the road on a bend, killing the occupants. This, they suspected, precipitated the installation of the ASCs.

It would appear that they were doing the wrong speed for the bend, a case of inappropriate speed ?, but look at the outcome.

I still believe that speed alone isn’t the entire issue, but rather inappropriate speed is always wrong.

S.