It wasn’t our bath water, we had to collect it from t’ lord of t’ manor.

I tell thee, you tell kids today and they’d never believe you.

6 week wait for an MRI scan? Were you in some crumbling former Soviet state or something?

Mars Bars? MARS BARS?

When I were lad I got a handful of hot gravel washed down with last nights bath water, and I were grateful.

Its doesn’t matter what vintage a Mars Bar is, the Jocks will still ruin it.

You see, thats why I’ve got private healthcare. You don’t get doctors like that on the NHS.

Its not often Englishmen have something to thank the French for.

Well done our Gallic cousins.

Cross-stuntry, I like that.

‘The Joshua Tree’ was the last good album U2 did though ‘Under a Blood Red Sky’ was arguably their best. Since then they have descended into blandness with a large side-helping of preachiness and irony.
Such a shame as once upon a time they were really good.

Jole Rider or Help For Heroes would be my choices.

Oh yes, can you delete that link RepacK, we really don’t need the good Doctor over here.

I thought Sky had NFL? You could try them.

😉

Giant do a bike called the ‘Cypher’ which is basically a female specific version of the Trance but the problem you’ll find (and you’ll probably get this with all female specific bikes) is because of the lower volume of them that are traded the potential discounts are a lot lower than on male bikes and it will also be more difficult to get the size you want unless you pay full price.

Of course as has been touched on, you may not need a female specific bike. Taking the Giant Trance as an example (they are fantastic bikes and relatively cheap), Pauls Cycles are doing a 2008 Giant Trance 2 for £929.74p and they are available down to an XS (14.5″) which considering the whole range is well-known for quite low and short for their sizes, is probably not a bad bike to be looking at.

Clicky

Got rid of mine just after new year (replaced with BT on demand – excellent).

I did the same last year. Although the sport isn’t quite as good I get most of the football (and more importantly ice hockey), etc I want to watch fed to my telly via a Slingbox picking up the feed from a second cable box at my brother’s house in Michigan.

BT Vision is cheap as chips and second cable box at my brother’s house costs me nowt and as he’s not short of a few quid he has every subscription service under the sun which means they’re available to me.

Been watching the new episodes of Battlestar Galatica recently, cracking program and not yet available over here.

Hmm, Americans in F1.

They’d better take a few corners out of the circuits.

:o)

Solamanda – £5,000 is the upper limit for small claims court (small claims track)

http://www.hmcourts-service.gov.uk/courtfinder/forms/ex301.pdf

miketully – So it is against the law and the decision to fine you or not may rest with if the officer thought the way you hucked the staircase and then grinded the rail were irresponsible?

Spongebob – Actually phoning up and asking for your PAC number may motivate them a little more than “I’d like an upgrade and I’ve seen this elsewhere”.

Vodaphone call centre staff hear folk asking for better deals with the threat of folk moving their business and I’m sure they’ve got some stats on those who make threats and don’t against make threats and do which makes it profitable to fob you off at the first hurdle.

Ask for your PAC number and if they don’t offer better then move.

Not necessarily.

What, against the law or you would get fined?

Uplifts to the moon anyone?

Trails are crap and the pubs have little atmosphere.

I believe the longest travel bike in the feminine range is the Cannondale Rize which has 130mm travel compared to the Prophet with 140mm.

Nah, sawn-off shotgun in the face.

Jobs a good’un.

Spongebob – When you phone up to cancel they’ll put you through to their ‘Cancellation Department’ which often has people who are authorised to offer you much better deals than the automatons who work the normal renewal line.

If you’re willing to spend another £5000 I’m sure you can find someone in a dodgy pub in Leeds who will sort them out good and proper for you and bring a sense of finality to the problem, if you know what I mean. Nudge. nudge, wink, wink.

Why is it that a reseller can do a better deal than the service provider?

Because they are willing to take a cut in profits to pull in a new customer and they rely on existing customers who are bothered about flash phones or are too lazy to punt around for their bigger margins.

BT Cellnet (remember them) were giving me the runaround a few years back at renewal time so I told them to poke it and moved to Orange. I’ve been with them a few years now and my phone is up for renewal again and they’re being a little tight with what they’re offering so it may be time for another move.

Gary, do you have any photos from our little pub rides about London too?

Apparently this is their support act.

😉

If you’re looking to stop with an MTB guiding/lodging company then ‘Trailaddiction[/url]‘ are probably about the best in the Les Arcs region.

If you don’t stop with them they still offer guiding (though spaces are sometimes limited).

If you don’t want guiding then Les Arcs has some really good route marked trails including a huge one that starts just about as high as you can reasonably go and swoops all the way down, via Arc 1800 and then onwards down, down, down, down and down some more to Bourg St Maurice.

Guiding is good and you will find great trails but some people find being guided or being with guided groups intimidating and if this is so then all is not lost, Les Arcs has loads to offer and sometimes its nice to go at your own pace rather than that dictate by a group.

Kona frames are a bit higher tech than some.

Linkage-actuated single pivot, cutting edge stuff that! Just like this cutting edge bike.

(In fact sorry, I’ve just noticed that the Claude Butler appears to be a proper Horst Link, which would arguable mean it has a more sophisticated suspension system than the average Kona).

If they are supposed to be fixed bikes then how come one of the ride manuals his bike (before doing an almost wall ride thing)?

Is he using a freehub? Won’t the other fixed riders shun him for that?

..guess that mas the advantage of tasting minty fresh as well. Does it kill off all the bugs in the same was a bleach though?

Yes, but without leaving the odd aftertaste you get with Milton.

You can also get lemon denture tablets if you don’t like mint.

wwaswas – Is that a picture of that hanger the USAF had built to store its B2 bombers in? Is that after they accidently set off the fire suppression system?

I use denture cleaning tablets rather than Milton for cleaning out my Camelbak bladder.

Plnk two in, fill with warm water and in the morning its spotlessly clean.

One of the guys I used to work with has a Kona Stinky and I was shocked at how poorly equipped and built such a relatively expensive bike was.

The last Kona I owned was an ’93 Kona Lava Dome, which was actually pretty nice.

All the middle classes will do is vote Tory. Sad, but true.

Like they did back in ’97, although a slightly pink tinged shade of blue?

This is my Trance.

harrybb – You can buy the Trance frame only from companies such as Pauls Cycles or you could buy the complete bike for not really much more, stripe off what you don’t want and sell it on eBay or on here and make a decent amount of money back.

Does it have to be a niche bike or will you ride anything?

My recommendation would be a Giant Trance but I understand they are a bit low brow some folk. 😉

Just about one of the toughest 4″ travel XC bikes you’ll find. Their popularity on the NPS 4X circuit speaks volumes of their strength.

The only ‘problem’ with them is that the suspension action is so good that you feel like you are riding a bike with a lot more, which can lead to you getting into trouble if you forget you’re basically on an XC bike.

Vadar – Yes, my ‘tang is a real Shelby (GT350). I’m restoring it but with many modern upgrades such as discs all round, coilovers to replace the ox cart suspension as fitted originally and a whole host of other mods from standard.
Unfortunately though its currently sat in my parents garage 200 miles away because when I moved out of my last house I didn’t move into another house with a garage. Still loads of work to do and until I get it garaged up here I can’t carry on.

Strangely, although my family has a history of high blood pressure I have low blood pressure (90/60) yet rarely suffer any side effects from it.