JL = £40/month for a 5yr old Springer! That’s ridiculous – more than I pay for my car.

Hmm, John Lewis … have a friend who works there so will ask them what they know about it.

Cool, but is that based on experience or WOM loddrick?

DO NOT get a labrador/retreiver. They are fantastic dogs but not designed to do long distances. Unfortunately they will run forever, and 10x further than they should do. If you do cycle with a labrador/retreiver they will love it until they are about 6/7 years old and then start suffering from chronic arthritis in their hips so that you will have to put them down 3/4 years earlier than you should.

Collies, spaniels etc should be fine

That may be the case for others, but not in my experience.

I used to run/ride with a black lab and he was awesome. He kept to a solid pace and always remained within about 10m of me (he was professionally trained though). Top dog – and doing absolutely fine now – albeit living it up close to the NZ earthquake (with my ex).

Have since taken our Springer out on several runs but the boundless energy he exudes (not trained) makes him go OTT. Hence I stopped as soon as I realised this. Not sure if it’s a “Springer thing” or the way he is. He (and his Springer mates) seem to make out they can run forever, but when they hit the wall they really do hit the wall – much like us “bonking” and being virtually unable to carry on.

Would never drink from my bottle or bladder pack – only puddles. Hence wet conditions would be the only option.

As much as I loved being out with our Springy, it’s the Lab that I would take any day. Not on a hardcore 50 miles XC session, but certainly on a 20 mile jaunt.

So is it considered a physical condition or a mental illness?

Not really for me to say – best left to those “suffering” with it. IMO possibly more of a psychological imbalance that creates both physical and mental debilitation.

B.A.Nana, one thing that many “sufferers” suffer from is “boom bust”. i.e. they feel they can suddenly do stuff > go overboard > and then pay for it big time. Not saying that accounts for your friend, but it does happen.

Nuff said. 😀

Depends how long you’re riding for.

IMO 10-12 mph for 1 hour is slow. 13-15mph for 3-4 hours is quick.

We all ride differently but there’s no harm (usually) in trying to reach our optimum speed etc. Obviously things like tyres and FS vs HT are going to make a difference to. But after a while you’ll figure it out.

Just enjoy it. And if you want to slower or faster then do it.

EDIT: Nowt to see here. As you were.

I much preferred your original post 🙂

What is it with people editing entire posts these days?

spacemonkey – as a current (what’s the word?) sufferer? of ME/CFS – that stuff about the Lightening Process is very interesting. I’m naturally skeptical and it all seems a bit cult like but I have heard good things. It seems to cost a lot of money…..

You have a right to be skeptical – that’s to be expected. I was too, as was Mrs Spacemonkey. However, one of our (properly genuine) friends had had ME for 2-3 years and she went on it in early 08 on the recommendation of another friend who had suffered for a long time.

The transformation for all three is remarkable – and literally overnight. And I say that with absolute sincerity, e.g. working full time, running/gym, parenting, social life, energy, enthusiasm etc.

Seems to be a mix of self-coaching/hypnosis/NLP blended with other stuff.

I recommend calling a couple of practitioners local to you and just seeing what they have to say and how they come across. You might be pleasantly surprised …

PM if you want more

Regardless of the medical validity of the condition, it will always be met with a degree of cynicism and derision I’m afraid.

Agreed (unfortunately).

Better to make light of it…

Easy (but ignorant and disrespectful) if you’re distanced or uninvolved.

Shameful if you’re not.

My missus had ME for about 5 yrs. Incredibly debilitating and indeed life changing (for good or bad depending on how one deals with it).

She finally “got rid” of it after going on a Lightning Process course – recommended by two ME suffering friends. Check out: Linky[/url]

Transformed her literally overnight (as it did with the other two women). And that was 2 years ago now. Since then she’s back to working full time, being a mum and generally putting a whole lot more into life.

PM if you want any more details …

PS Loddrik and anyone else who tries to be witty: I too used to wonder about the sincerity of ME sufferers and there may well be a few who “aren’t unwell” – but seeing it first hand ain’t pretty. ME can destroy lives. Grow up.

OSX? Pah.

This thread is just plain weird.

i

I’m confused. 2 mins ago this was about a father having £10k to give away, but not now, just some time in the future … and now it’s a friend …

Yep, as mentioned above, if someone from a company/institution calls me ( as a customer), I always ask them to confirm what details they have already and then use a number to call them back.

Far too many dodgy folk out there praying on the <S_B_Z> naive</S_B_Z> type.

I shared best man’s duties a few years ago. I did the formal stuff (organised the stag do, ring, speech, etc) and then the other guy (his brother) did some gags. He’s a good lad and bloody funny, so it was a good way to finish off the official side of things and start chilling.

Can’t see it working every time though, but IMO it depends on how “close” the two blokes are.

I never asked Specialized about replacing the Enduro because it was second hand so why even bother?

My first Enduro was second hand. When it (the frame) snapped, I called them up and told them it was second hand > they said bring it in > which I did > they offered me the 04 S Works with new shock for £400 under CRW.

Can’t say fairer than that. Top folk are Spesh.

Bent the forks back and rippled the frame on my Mont Cenis road bike back in the late 80’s. Was racing some mates (on their BMXs) down an off road trail. They had grip + I didn’t = crashed into fencing on a bend.

03 Enduro S Works – broke the frame in about 2005. Can’t remember how or where it happened.
04 Enduro S Works – broke the ream arms in 2008. Trails on Ranmore.
07 Stumpy Carbon – broke the frame last year. Road session – very random snappage.

Have also broken seatposts and bent brake levers etc.

McMoonter – is your mate on the left a jockey?

Yep, I actually bought a MBP last year just so I could use Scriv.

Very good piece of sw – does loads of things which is IMO both good and bad. The good; provided you have the time and the inclination, you can organise your material pretty much however you want. The bad; if you have a lot of material then you may well get fed up with the time and effort it takes to manage it and wish you hadn’t bothered trying to be clever and resourceful in the first place.

Gave it a good run out for 3-4 months but found I wasn’t taking enough advantage of the Scriv-specific features. Tried loads of other sw (Mac and Win) but couldn’t find anything as capable. Reverted back to using Mind Manager 8 (Win) for organising everything, and just using Scriv to write the book.

Then got irritated by using Mac and Win … so ended up using Word and MM8 (both Win) and putting the whole Mac/Scriv thing to one side.

A Win version has since made it to beta (is buggy for some) even though this was never the author’s original plan SOB. Have tried this but it’s not as slick as the Mac version.

Hence I’m still with Word and MM8.

Having said that, it does depend on what you’re writing, the resources you need, the way you organise/structure, etc.

Very solid piece of kit though and fairly well supported – download the trial and have a go.

Next time, phone and say you’ve apprehended someone in your home and you are about to shoot them – then hang up. That’ll get their attention.

Likewise, I bet if you told them this woman is psychotic and likely to harm him should he try anything, then they’ll be straight round to give her a talking too.

Tell the police, but don’t necessarily expect them to do anything. Someone will probably be along to say differently though.

My experience of this isn’t particularly proactive – and I’m speaking on behalf of two women (one being an ex GF).

Both were ongoing sagas. Here’s one example; 5 years ago I called the plod to tell them one of the aforementioned women was about to get attacked in her home, to which the response was “I’m sorry, but we don’t have the resources right now, so there’s nothing we can do.” Sure enough, she got attacked. None of us were there so couldn’t intervene.

EDIT: I should add that the fuzz did issue the other woman with an emergency/priority response number (after lots of hassle), but ultimately did little or nothing to prevent any harm coming to her. He was a proper nasty bastard and got away with loads.

EDIT ^^ Just remembered that my (older) brother built me a bike to replace the Raleigh when I was 8-9. Sprayed it bronze IIR and put some off road tyres on it 🙂 Cracking times.

We moved to a village when I was 4 and didn’t have a pot to piss in. I made some cool friends pretty quickly and my mum paid the grandad of one of them to build me a bike for my birthday – cost a tenner I think. I still remember the day I got it and riding it around “the green”.

Upgraded a year or so later to a bike from the toy shop (think it was a Raleigh Ranger or Rancher?).

Used to cycle on it everywhere including 10-15 mile rides around the local villages/fields/woods. Even used to cycle along the main road (2-3 miles along the A24 each way) in the evenings to and from the pub with my mate and his grandad. Can remember shitting it when buses and lorries went by. Can even remember writing about it in my school “What did you do over the weekend” Monday morning diary. Was probably about 8-9 at the time.

Carried on from there really … road biking in my teens (anything up to 120 miles around Hants/Sussex/Kent/Surrey) … and then MTBing 😀

Plenty of my best childhood memories revolve around being out on the bike with my mates. Loved it.

Parking at Peaslake/Holmbury/Leith Hill is only 20 mins east …

The man from Crawley

Plenty of his type in Crawley. One of the true shit holes within this country.

As mentioned already football has many parallels with religion, hence it suffers many of the same fundamentalist-type issues.

Plenty of idiots, bigots, xenophobes etc in all walks of life; football and religion just happen to bring many of them together.

Depends on your riding SC – maybe go for SPD on your X bike.

Like MF, I feel naked without them, but I have been using them since my teenage road days.

Others will swear by flats.

Only you can figure it out – just go try.

Another thing to think about is how are you going to finance this? If you’re opening an account with a new supplier than sometimes you’ll need to pay £X up front – even if you have an excellent credit rating.

200 PCs is a fair wad – not to the likes of Dell, but certainly to many small/niche/local VARS. Hence you might struggle to get them to actually accept the order because they’ll normally have to manage the “build debt” until you cough up.

I do know a VAR that handle these numbers (I used to work for them), but they’ve since moved out of London to Essex. Fair size provider into NHS so the number aren’t an issue. If you’re interested, PM me.

Which ear protectors ‘work best’?

I bought some Peltor Optime III when our lad was a month or so old. You’ll still hear him (or her) but at a much lower pitch – probably a bit like sticking your head underwater. Can get them online for about £15+ del.

Cheers guys. On the case – I forgot I used Irfanview in the past.

I suspect what you mean as that the reduction in number of colours required to make a GIF doesn’t suit the image type

Yep, GIF loses too many colours, hence unworkable.

Remember, it will get better. My last split was in Nov 05 – got “evicted” and had nowhere to go having sold my house the previous year. Ended up crashing at various mates’ houses for 4 months; just me, my dog Bert and a car full of stuff. Ended up being a pretty interesting adventure all in all.

Having had one particularly bad late night experience of having to leave an alcoholic so-called mate’s place in the middle of the night, I’d say plan ahead and see who’ll to put you up. Sleeping in one’s car in winter is not fun.

But once you’re back in the swing of things and getting out and about keeping your mind occupied, then you’ll soon be sorted.

Chin up.

But unless its your only bike why would you want to ?? Apart from smooth fast trails a mtb is much the better bike for the job

It wouldn’t be my only bike. I just want something that’s going to help me get more miles in. I’ve spent years exploring the trails around here and want to revisit my road routes, but mix it up and go off-road. MTB not quick enough even with slicks, so CX has to be the way to go. Plus I can take it up north, into Wales and up to Scotland etc – and see more than I did before.

I must admit I got pissed off with the site a few weeks back, and didn’t see it changing … and probably didn’t loiter around as much as previously. Seems to have picked up in the last few days or so though. I think ‘chilled’ is what I’d call it right now.

Cheers guys. Just hearing your stories and seeing these pics/vids is making me want to get a sorted one and get out there. I think I’m somehow seeking to relive my teenage road biking days but blend it in with all the MTB stuff of recent years, and basically get the best of both worlds. Can’t wait now – just need to justify the purchase and/or find a way of keeping the missus sweet 🙂

Nice.

I think discs (or at least V’s) are the way to go.

Linky no worky.

Yeah, I’ve heard canti’s can be shit. Are you lot just accepting that’s the way it is, or switching to V’s or discs?

You could always set-up your drops with a higher-rise stem so that your hand-vs-saddle height in the drops is about the same as that on your MTB. Much less scary when braking downhill…

Erm, unfortunately I sit high up anyway (long inside leg 😯 ), so certain drops and roll-ins can be pretty hairy anyway.