Nice pics guys. I love crispy winter sessions – but right now I can’t get away form family/work/bugs to get out for a proper ride. So yesterday it was 90mins on the turbo while watching United beat Liverpool 🙂

Good to see Suarez showing what a class human being he is today. Fitting in well with Stevie Me and Dogleash.

What a sad bunch the Dippers have turned into.

Welcome at last to Bouncy World!

1. Can you use a track pump to inflate the shocks or do you need a proper shock pump? As above, ask LBS for shock pump.

2. What pressure do I need to run the Rockshox Recons at as it doesn’t seem to give you any pressures? And is it adjustable for rebound? As above.

3. Do you run the tyres harder than you would a rigid bike (used to run them pretty soft 30ish psi as I’m about 90kg and a big guy!). At 90kg I’d be looking at 35-40PSI depending on trails/conditions. The squishier the trails, the lower the pressure. Whereas if you’re gonna do some road/hardpack miles then crank up around 40.

4. Can you use narrower tyres than you would a rigid as the suspension will be doing the work instead of the tyres? Yep. Why wouldn’t you? Should be marginally quicker but normally at the expense of grip. I know better riders than me who run 1.8s but chuck the bike around like it’s on 2.5s even on the slippery gnarly stuff.

5. Does anyone use bar ends anymore? Eeuurgh. Bar ends are just wrong.

Put mine on about 6 weeks ago but due to work/family/illness I’ve not even managed to test it once 🙁

Portsmouth

Is that pikey fortune teller still doing the rounds in the Cascades Centre?

Can you ping or tracert from command prompt? E.g. Start > CMD > ping http://www.bbc.co.uk

A couple of blokes at Fleet services used to sit in their BMWs/Mercs and prey on passers-by near the Services entrance. Mainly sold watches for something like £100 (supposedly RRP £500 or so). Got away with it for years.

Who is your ISP? I only ask because those that offer ‘proper’ support might be able to point you in the right direction. I had a really odd ‘wot no connectivity’ issue a few months ago and Zen (helpful as always) applied some lateral thinking and got me sorted. Can’t remember exactly what it was – something in router settings needed resetting or something weird.

I wasn’t intending to damn with faint praise it’s more that I usually get books from the library so paying is a bit alien to me…

I’ve bought hundreds of books over the years and TBH only read (or start reading) about 20% of them. Just don’t have the time – nor the money to ‘waste’. Hence 2 years ago I too started using the local library and oddly I reckon I read more than before. Saved a good few quid too. Plus downloading samples to iP4 Kindle app is a help.

My lad (nearly 18 months) has been having a proper rough n tumble in the snow/ice at nursery this week. Outdoor play is encouraged there regardless of the weather – they’re free to go outside at any time. Thumbs up from me.

To do something useful with my spare time after work

I take it you haven’t read this:

Maybe you’re waiting until it’s available on Kindle? 🙂

I remember paying a neighbourly acquaintance (professional decorator/builder type) to line all the walls in my house about 6-7 years ago. He said it would take him and mate X days.

I turned up at 9am the first morning and they were sat in the van having not even started … eventually they came in, did some work inbetween a few breaks, then scarpered at 3pm.

I saw them the next morning and said “You’re not counting that as a full day are you?” “Yes,” he says. “What, about 4 hours work? Sorry, but I’m paying you to work full days, not half days. Therefore I’ll pay you half for yesterday and would appreciate it if you work full days from now on.”

Both of them then worked something like 8am-4:30pm and TBH did a brilliant job. I felt awkward having to confront the ‘boss bloke’ seeing as him and his wife were good friends of my then gf. But at the end of the day I expect the job done properly. End of.

Representative of the Fruit, Rice and Potato Suppliers Association ?

Don’t mess wid da High Carb Crew!

All fine on my iP4.

Car tax + MOT + servicing.

Bike bits.

Single occupancy outgoings on utilities don’t always end up being ‘comparatively’ less vs couple/family etc.

Sure, if you’re out a lot/don’t use much power then you’re going to pay less. But IME if you use a fair amount anyway then don’t be surprised if you’re spending more than you expect. Leccy prices have gone right up too remember.

Going out …

£160/month on food? What are you eating? Cardboard?

£35 on leccy doesn’t go far these days. See if you can work out your consumption then do a comparison. Easy to spend £75-!00.

Nice one.

Here’s our’s in last year’s snow:

Beware SyncToy – lots of people seem to have problems with lost data.

I use EaseUs – free and bloody good.

+1 Ccleaner – damn good for a freebie

Also check out ATF-Cleaner[/url]

Halloween a couple of years ago.

Me on the left (also had the feet to match). Drank beer/wine and ate chilli/snacks through my new snout. Hence the mess. Cracking night.

Ambrose, I’d also cut out the over-use of “I”. No need for it. Gets tres annoying.

All a bit dull and fluffy.

IMO one of the best ‘travel shows’ of recent times was Clare Baldwin’s cycling jobby.

Baron Silas Greenback

Can’t be bothered commenting on your arguments above … so I’ll just say I watched the first hour or so and found it pretty good. Naturally the old boys’ clips were the best, but IMO Ewan (who I ****’ detest) and his brother seemed to keep grounded (no pun intended) without coming across all slebsy.

Would’ve preferred a proper historian (even Dan Snow) though.

Lighten up Ernie.

the central charge laid against him appears to have been “negative use of the forum”,

We’re being modded by Scotland Yard are we now?

LOL, see how well it worked? Get over it!

Nothing to ‘get over’. Merely stating an opinion.

it was a wind-up

No, it was f^&%ing annoying and just not necessary.

Folk thought the patios was him being serious, it was a wind-up – and clearly a very effective one, was not it, spacemonkey?

I’m guessing you mean pathos? Either way, he liked the sound of his own voice too much IMO and became too absorbed in performing to an his audience. Having said that, I’ve no doubt he’s a sound bloke one-to-one and I’d happily saddle up with him on trails any time.

Not really. It’s nice not having threads taken over by Elf all the time.

^^^^
THIS

Besides, he’s probably too busy figuring out some pseudo-urban way of spelling ‘narcissism’.

Boilerjuice[/url] are usually the cheapest down here in t’ south.

On a serious note, one of the coolest things about it is the dynamics between the characters. You can remain attached to them even when you don’t know exactly what’s going on. Makes it more immersive. Every single player has a role to play and it’s easy to feel for them; good, bad or indifferent. Epic TV.

Mine was a bit slow a few months ago but has been back up to speed since. iP4 with iOS5.

+1 Tayyabs

They know you’re not from round these parts. Wouldn’t happen to me or any of us other locals.

Repeatedly saying stuff like “That was ^&*%ing wicked!”

Not a fan of the hard angled flavour that’s doing the rounds at the moment (a la Google, You Tube and now the Beeb).