First bike I ragged off road was some nameless racer with bullhorn bars and knobbly tyres circa 1981. First “mountain bike” was some purple candy-flake Emmelle monstrosity in the late 80s with plastic brakes which I just couldn’t kill. Frame was still doing singlespeed pub bike duties until last year!

That sounds ideal. July to October is generally considered to be the best chance in Kenya to catch the migration, but it can vary year on year depending on weather conditions. If you wanted to combine it with biking then I understand Exodus also do a bike safari in Tanzania.

Some great songwriters mentioned already but I’m going to put in a late, possibly left field vote for Shane Macgowan. Seriously underrated as a lyricist in my opinion….apart from Fairytale of New York you’ve got these beautifully simple lines from Rainy Night in Soho…

I’m not singing for the future
I’m not dreaming of the past
I’m not talking of the first time
I never think about the last

Edit: just realised a few other folk beat me to it!!!

We did an 8 day trip with Exodus a few years back to Kenya. Highly recommended. They only take small groups and use really knowledgeable local guides. There were 8 of us split between two guides in separate 4×4 vehicles. We were picked up from Nairobi and went to Nakuru / Naivasha area for the first couple of days staying in great, low key lodges. Then went on to the Masai Mara where we stayed in an open camp which was just incredible… staff were all local Masai guys, food was great and the amount of wildlife in the area was just dazzling. We had lions roaming around the camp itself one night and had a hippo stroll within 20m whilst we were eating dinner one night…. whilst there we had a combination of early morning and evening game drives, a couple of guided walks and a very memorable dawn balloon safari which is probably up there with one of my most memorable moments ever.

Emphasis throughout the trip was as much on local culture and environment as the animals themselves – never felt that we were separated from the country itself which is what happens at a lot of the bigger camps which are really secure compounds in the bush. Also nice to get to meet some of the locals.

This is the camp in the Mara we stayed in for second part of the Kenya trip – it was originally set up by Paul Goldstein who is a wildlife photographer and works for Exodus:

http://kicheche.com/our-camps/mara-camp

Link to similar itinerary to the one we did:

http://www.exodus.co.uk/holidays/aym/itinerary

My god but there’s some misanthropic buggers on here… :wink:

It is a personal choice at the end of the day (call it a lifestyle choice if you wish)… and obviously not for everyone. There is no way that I would dream of telling anyone that they’ll regret not having kids as it really is so subjective.

FWIW I generally found other people’s kids a complete bore but always thought that I’d like to have them at some point. Despite this I married my wife knowing that she was ambivalent to it at best and we both accepted the situation. We travelled, lived abroad had good careers and generally lived it up through our 30s but people do change over time and 8 years down the line at the respective ages of 37 and 40 we started to try for for a family. We now have a beautiful, lively little boy of 3 who really is the centre of the world. We made a conscious decision early on that we would continue to do the things we love, and by and large we have… we continue to go biking and walking as a family and do a lot of camping and our boy has become a real lover of the outdoors as a result. Loveliest thing is seeing him getting enjoyment out of the simple stuff – poking around in rockpools, paddling and throwing sticks in streams and climbing stuff. It’s a life-changer certainly but I don’t regret it for a moment.

Less depreciation

That’s reminded me of one of the other benefits of going with a quality VW type conversion over a coachbuilt… they do hold their value really well. I could probably get back what we paid on ours 5 years ago if I sold at the right time of the year.

Happy SWB Pop-top T4 California owner here. We did consider larger vans but it had to double up as a second daily use vehicle. Good points are that it can easily be used as day to day driver and no parking issues. Also great for day trips out as we can get a brew on and prepare lunch etc.

As others have stated it really is more akin to tent camping with better weather protection and without having the hassle of putting up a tent – personally I see this as a good thing, but if comfort is your thing you are probably better getting a bigger van with separate sleeping compartment. Ours is kept ready to go at a moments notice over the summer months so it’s just a case of slinging in a bag of clothes for a night away at the beach or in the hills. When we get there, we pop the roof and are done. For longer trips where we’re staying several nights in each place we pitch a driveaway awning which gives us loads of extra space.

Can be a bit cramped in bad weather without the awning, particularly if you’ve got a load of kit but we’ve learned to travel light as a result.
Personally I’d be averse to ablutions in any vehicle so the lack of onboard facilities is a blessing rather than a curse – less to clean and less to go wrong.

Ours is a Westfalia conversion – if I was going to upgrade it I’d probably look at something with a full width rock and roll bed and a removable kitchen unit, just for greater flexibility. The Westy design is great but relies on you packing it well, and we do find not all the storage is used effectively so I’d be prepared to sacrifice it for some more interior space. Captain’s seats are a must as they really help you make best use of the space – we’ve had 4 people + child in ours eating dinner.

A good compromise between a camper and full on coachbuilt may be the larger Westfalia conversions – take a look at the Exclusive which is the high top LWB T4 version (EDIT: Just discovered they’re introducing an LWB T5 version called the Club Joker) and has a fixed bed in the roof, separate kitchen area and washroom. Or the James cook which is on a MWB Sprinter base. Both of these are smaller than a coachbuilt motorhome but have more space than a T4/T5. Hope this helps.

http://www.westfalia-mobil.net/en/modelle/james-cook/james-cook.php

My brother in law had an S2000. I’m not a big Honda fan but have to say it was an awesome bit of kit with fantastic grip and handling…. I think at the time it was claimed to be the most powerful 2L normally aspirated car around.

From the sounds of it, it’s not a consideration in this case but it’s also fairly practical for a 2 seater with a reasonable sized boot.

I mentioned this guy in the dodgy office thread a few weeks back….

Worked for a telecoms company in Holland for a bit in a tech development team. This young guy of about 25 was redeployed into our team after we took over another company in Belgium he’d previously worked for.

He was the single most obnoxious person I’ve ever met. I know you shouldn’t judge people by appearances but he was about 5 foot tall, was riddled with acne, had the most revolting personal hygiene habits and stank of BO. He had a string of dodgy rental properties he’d somehow acquired in London (I got the impression he had rich parents) and spent most of the working day screaming down the phone at either his rental agent or the poor tenants, in some cases threatening violence to them… if he wasn’t doing that he was leching after all the women in the office and openly downloading genuinely sickening and violent filth onto his work computer. He lasted about 2 weeks before he was marched off the premises by security never to be seen again.

any rigid fork recommendations? The cheaper end of the spectrum looks a bit dirt jump gnarr

Orange F8s are pretty good and cheap too…

http://www.allterraincycles.co.uk/.Orange-F8-Rigid-Fork_125995.htm

Or for a bit more, Salsa Cromotos

Surly 1×1 forks are also excellent if you don’t mind the canti mounts (the posts are removable though)

I don’t actually own a bike with suspension anymore. Like the directness of rigid forks and generally like to keep the bike as unfussy and easy to maintain as possible so I can just concentrate on enjoying the ride, lower weight is a plus too.

It’s just a personal preference – not for everyone maybe. Been riding offroad for 25 years so it’s hardly a new fad – just what I started with and have developed riding style to suit. On the 29er I regularly beat mates on hardtails down techy natural descents.

Company I work for is quite community minded, so our boss got together a gang of us to clear the pavements and main square of the village where we’re based. We worked hard for about 4 hours, cleared the snow properly, even chipped away at the ice and gritted it all down etc and it’s stayed properly clear and safe since as a result. Comments we got at the time were 50/50 between genuine gratitude and “you’re doing a grand job there – well done” and the miserable sods saying “you do know you’re not supposed to be doing that, don’t you…. if it refreezes you’ll be liable. ” One of them from the old lady next door whose pathway I’d just spent 40 mins clearing… note she didn’t make any comment until AFTER I’d cleared it though.

Came to the conclusion that even in a supposedly community orientated rural area like ours there are some properly mean-spirited gits about. Also made me wonder about what sort of lazy-arsed compensation culture we’ve become…

My vote would be for the Mu Uno too.

FWIW I knackered the rear mech on my Jetstream so fitted a tensioner and ran that in London as a singlespeed for about 3 years without any problems. The Mu is lighter so would be even better.

Is he planning to use it much offroad or just as a general purpose bike?

For that money I’d be looking at something from EBC’s own brand, Revolution. Probably something with a rigid fork.

Would one of these fit the bill?

http://www.edinburghbicycle.com/products/revolution-courier-pursuit-12?bct=browse%2fbicycles

http://www.edinburghbicycle.com/products/revolution-courier-race-12?bct=browse%2fbicycles

http://www.edinburghbicycle.com/products/revolution-ascent-xc-disc-12?bct=browse%2fbicycles

Not sure about Carrera, but pretty sure the Raleigh folders are actually made by Dahon.

Bit above budget but what about this? Singlespeed but that’s all you really need for London – pretty light too:

http://www.winstanleysbikes.co.uk/product/48056/Dahon_Mu_Uno_Folding_2012_Bike

Or this is within budget:

http://www.evanscycles.com/products/tern/link-c7-2012-folding-bike-ec032585

Terns are only available through Evans – basically it’s a breakaway company from Dahon formed by David Hon’s wife and son. They left to set up their own company taking a load of Dahon designs, people and kit with them!

I had a Dahon Jetstream the same as the one above and am 6’1″. It was a great little bike for the London commute. Not as easy to fold as the Brompton but far better to ride over longer distances.

The Dahon D6 I had before that had a side on smash from a motorbike who cut me up on the embankment. Took a dent to the frame but worked fine afterwards so I have no concerns about their durability.

Birdys (Birdies?) are great too but quite difficult to pick them up secondhand and are also quite a bit more expensive than Dahons. Also take a look at Bike Friday.

For some reason all folders seem to hold their value really well second hand so even if your son gets one and doesn’t get on with it, he should find it easy to recoup some of the investment.

Let us know how you get on

You wouldn’t actually need any VBA to use the add-in – just Excel. I’d just test it against one of the matrices to see if it does the job – you’ve then got an example you can show to your VBA boys and get them to automate it.

It sound like you actually want to deconstruct the matrices into a tabular format?

Would this add-in help I wonder? It would at least get the data into a flattish file format which you could then pivot to display in the format you need.

http://nature.berkeley.edu/~oboyski67/MatrixConverter.htm

I suspect you’d still need a bit of VBA to automate the conversion though.

Not sure I fully understand what you’re trying to achieve but would a pivot table not do the job for you?

Bit more pricy but you can get passthrough powerline adaptors. I use something similar to these at home:

http://www.misco.co.uk/product/164530/D-Link-PowerLine-Homeplug-AV-Passthrough-Starter-Kit

I was going to say Neilson, but would agree La Santa is a good call. Great biking and surfing.

I use OpenOffice at home. Have only used the work processor and spreadsheet, both of which are pretty intuitive and reasonably compatible with MS Office apart from some occasional odd formatting issues when saving down to other formats.

One of the nice things is that when you email a document from within the application itself, it prompts you to ask you what format you want to send it in which means you don’t forget to save it down to MS Word format.

I don’t understand why some people think I should spend less than I want to; after all it’s my money so why do some people have a problem with that?

See it’s comments like this which get us thinking this is a troll.

We don’t. We’re just trying to offer advice which you’ve asked for and trying to stop you from wasting money…Are you actually reading the responses?

I suppose the ghetto option would be just to sand and wax the bottom of an old deck? Any idea if that would work?

It’s your £2K of course but whatever your budget you’re almost certainly want to replace or exchange some parts as you get used to the bike and start to develop your riding style – tyres, bars, stem saddle etc are all down to personal preference and stuff which tends to get changed quite quickly. The other thing is that you’re probably going to be quite hard on components when you’re starting off until you develop the relevant skills. Hence the advice to start off with a mid priced bike with a good frame and upgrade when you need to. You wouldn’t jump straight into a Ferrari straight after passing your driving test would you?

A 2K full suspension bike is unlikely to be inherently more reliable than an £800 hardtail – the opposite is likely to be true in fact as it has more to go wrong and is likely to require more maintenance. Similarly mid range components like Deore are not any less reliable than XT – just heavier in most cases.

You’ve obviously convinced yourself you need to spend that sort of money so as above get yourself to a bike shop and try a few out. Evans has a lot of stock but I’ve had mixed experiences with the knowledge of their staff. I’d recommend looking at independent bike shops too. If you’re in London then Brixton Cycles are worth a visit. They stock Trek, Nicolai, Specialized, Surly and Cotic all of which are respected brands.

Just over £60 actually. Tempted? :D

Spain, France, Israel and possibly Madagascar

I was willing to give this the benefit of the doubt but I’m sensing troll too now ;-)

Agreed. I’d be looking for something at well under £1000 for a first bike. I’d look at the best frame for the money rather than going for something with blingy components out of the box as you’ll probably be looking to upgrade parts as you go anyway.

I’d also recommend going to a hardtail bike initially – good tool for developing skills before deciding if you want (or need) to progress to full suspension.

What about an On One? Classic frames ripe for upgrades and a reasonable package out of the box:

http://www.on-one.co.uk/i/q/FBOOINX526/on_one_inbred_x5_26er_bike

http://www.on-one.co.uk/i/q/FBOO4561X5/on_one_456_evo_x5_sektor_bike

I haven’t seen sheep exercising and sweating for fun like humans do?

You obviously didn’t grow up in North Wales like I did.

+1 for using PowerLine adaptors to enable you to stick it another room. Be far more reliable than WiFi. Getting a lot cheaper too – some good deals here:

http://www.misco.co.uk/product/Q522398/NETGEAR-Powerline-200Mbps-Single-Port-Mini-Bundle

In terms of the NAS itself, some good recommendations above.

I use a QNAP in work which is pretty good but also got a couple of Buffalo units which have worked fine for me (firmware is a bit of a pain though), but apparently other people have had problems with disk failure.

+1 for merino. Expensive but you won’t need to buy 5 as you’ll need fewer washes. Loads more comfortable than polypropylene too. Finisterre ones are brilliant but pricy – they did have some in the sale a few weeks back though.

Yes Merino does get wet, but the point is it still keeps you warm when it does. 36 million sheep can’t be wrong.

Thing is to go for the finer grade ones – heavier grade merino can be a bit too warm and you can always layer up.

Both can work really well but I think it depends on the terrain and whether you’re running suspension or not.

I run a Surly 1×1 and a Karate Monkey.

The 29er rolls faster and is better able to ride out the bumps in a rigid SS setup but is slower to get up to speed and hence as a singlespeed is a bit more of a handful on techy, thrutchy climbs than a 26er in my experience. Downhill its pretty much unstoppable though!

The 1×1 requires a bit more management over fast rocky descents but is generally a lot more chuckable and better able to cope with steep techy climbs than the 29er.

For those interested have been in touch with Fuse and they are $44.70 shipping to the UK. No UK stockists apparently.

Can’t seem to find a UK stockist though. 50 dollar US retail price looks reasonable. Shall I see if they do a volume discount on shipping to the uk :-)?

IT manager for a small family owned holiday firm.

No formal IT qualifications – did an English and History degree and fell into IT from a temp job in a BT call centre. Worked my way up and did around 8 years in the telecoms industry here and abroad and a further 9 years in rail in various quite specialised roles mainly relating to asset maintenance systems. Done everything from support to business analysis. Gave up quite lucrative job in London about 18 months ago to move to Devon.

New role is very general compared to what I did previously – pretty much look after everything with a plug and more, and have had to learn a hell of a lot. Also as busy as ever but have got a very short commute, work for a great company and we get to live in a stunning part of the world. Recently became a retained firefighter too, which I’m loving so far and is a nice complement to the day job.

No, no you are right, you are a wild-eyed loner standing at the gates of Oblivion. You need to hitch a ride on the last freedom moped out of Nowhere City. Either that or just grow up.

Few flakes during the day but forecast is giving us possible blizzard conditions here on Dartmoor overnight. :roll:

Not very aero I suspect.

I use one of these:

http://www.on-one.co.uk/i/q/CLOOMPUH/on_one_merino_perform_headwear