I would have thought hiding it under the nearest hedge is customary.

Got an 800 which seems to have constant problems with moisture getting into the USB port. I often get the ‘USB device not recognised’ or ‘this accessory is not supported’ error messages. I can only get it to connect through to the computer irregularly now. Are the ports on the 810 better protected against moisture or are the equivalent Magellans better?

I get this regularly with mine (it is out of warranty otherwise it would go back). I scrub out the USB port with isopropyl and a toothbrush and let it dry on the windowsill for a day or two. It then generally works until it again accumulates moisture. I’ve tried duct-taping up the ports but that doesn’t stop sweat etc or solve problems. Mine is now currently stuck in diagnostic mode since todays ride, hope it will sort itself out. It has never done this one before.

Thanks for the advice. Sophos did pull up one threat. It was an emailer virus as it sent out emails to all her contacts once she opened the attachment. Sophos detected Mal/Phish A but couldn’t/wouldn’t delete it. I deleted it manually so hopefully all sorted. Running the Sophos again now.

Think the large scale studies showed neither was particularly better than placebo treatment.

On bikes, I ride a full susser, XC 100mm travel 29-er, I think I’d suffer a bit on a hardtail over long distances. I find I do get back and neck pain on my roadie on long (120+) km rides although that may be due to posture/the way I ride it rather than the AS.

I did go and see a specialist rheumatologist early on. He was very helpful, tried different anti-inflams, found oravail SR worked best for me. I’ve been on them now for a good 5 years or so. I get blood tests about once a year to ensure they aren’t doing me any harm (wife is a GP so that makes it easier). Was given a set of stretches to do every day, to be honest I do them irregularly.

I do have it although not severely. Riding helps, as does keeping active. I take Ketoprofen each night, otherwise my back/neck/hips etc stiffens up during the night leading to me not sleeping well and having a bad day the next day. I commute to work on a bike (and ride according to my wife excessively). I mountain bike and do 6-7 marathon races a year.

It definitely flares up after a solid stack so try to keep the bike rubber side down. I also try not to spend a lot of time during the day sitting around. If I have a day stuck in the office it definately plays up more, as it does after sessions playing on the PS3 (try to avoid this and get out for a ride instead).

It goes through phases definitely, winter is worse for pains but they tend to go once I loosen up on the bike. I don’t think I have any vertebral fusions though (although I do get a fair bit of back pain when not on anti-inflams). Hips sometimes play up. My father had both his hips done a few years ago (agaed 65ish) as did his sister before that.

Good luck with it.

We see them all the time out here. A few local riders have hit them with serious results. If they are on the verge of the road and see you coming, they wait till the last minute, then panic and hop onto the road, often sliding sideways as they hit the tarmac and have no grip.
I jus8t missed one recently when I was out on the roadie. It had seen me, was standing by the side of the road, decided to hop out at the last minute. I was coming down a hill, missed it by centimetres, a real brown trouser moment.
Wombats tend to be more of a problem for mountain bikers, picture hitting a foot sized boulder suddenly without warning. They seem to amble out of the undergrowth when they see lights and hitting them as as much effect on them as hitting the boulder.

I retrained as a teacher in 2004. I’d originally been a research scientist. The first few years in the job are really hard with long hours planning and prep. It does get much easier as you get more efficient, work out what systems and strategies work for you and you gain confidence. I spent my first year working at rough inner london school that had dysfunctional management, left there after the first year (my wife pointed out after the fact, if I’d stayed I would have ended up a basket case). Moved to a better managed school which was a much more rewarding experience. I’m now teaching in Aus in a catholic boys school in Melbourne.

The school is very supportive when I need time off for family (sick kids etc) but I do put in by going on camps, running the science club and helping with out of hours activities, so I do build up brownie points.

It is a good school, the job is very rewarding and the holidays are brilliant especially when you have a family. Downside is that my kids friends parents assume I’m professional childcare during school holidays (always either the mad parents or the ones with nutter children), a point I have since made very clear to be incorrect. It can also be hard going back to work after 6 or 7 weeks of holidays (I can hear the sympathy from everyone over this). Less than one more week till we are back, time to get out for a ride.

The google docs one didn’t work unfortunately, found a hard copy so will just OCR scan it in and get an editable word doc that way.

Saw a black snake last weekend while hiking the Great ocean walk (along the coast in Victoria). I’ve seen brown snakes swimming in the Yarra just near our place, worrying when you are also swimming, and had a snake go for me while riding, think it connected with the back tire, I didn’t stop to look.

We had a friend who went the chinese medicine route, she ended up with lead poisoning. On the plus side, it gave her something to take her mind off her original minor ailment and associated gullibility.

I’ve always crashed in them after a few years so have never had a helmet for 8 years. I stomp on them before binning them. Good for getting rid of frustrations. I did cut one in half to show my physics classes and discuss changes in momentum and head injuries.

Depends on the trails etc, I’ll run 25-30 in the front and 30-35 in the rear depending on conditions, if it is mainly fire trail/dirt road I’ll go the high end, technical single track will be the lower end, summer tires are Geax Mezcal on the rear (saguaro in winter) nd something a bit grippier on the front (depending on what the bike shop has in and recommends).

Brett Belchambers is another animal, only 2 laps down on overall leader and he is on a single-speed

Saw Jason English do the 24 hr scott at Mt Stromlo, Australia two weeks ago, he is a machine. We were in a team of two and came third in the pairs, he did the same number of laps as us, won the solo and looked fresh on the podium, second and third in the solo looked pretty knackered. I don’t know how he does it, let alone being able to line up for a second race two weeks after his last solo outing.

As Scc999 said, I also find climbing walls a right pain to follow some colour routes (blue/purple, orange/red/yellow, green brown) especially if the holds are older or chalk covered. I couldn’t tell the difference between the green and brown pencils in the school pencil sets and had an art teacher acuse me of taking the piss for not following the colouring guide at one point. Apparently I’m not allowed to join the airforce or police either (don’t think they’d take a 45 yo teacher anyway). I has been a source or general hilarity for my wife and children at times also, such as when i bought a black tie for a funeral and came home wearing a dark green tie.

Wednesday nights ride was my worst for ages, started with tired legs from a big (good) ride on sunday and a slight nagging cold, did all the hills on dirt road and tarmac out to where our good singletrack starts, started tipping down about a minute later and got bloody cold (by our standards). It was also probably a bit early to put the summer tires on really.
Turned around to ride home as I wasn’t kitted up for a cold wet ride. Rarely been so cold on the bike as the trip home (almost entirely fast down hill on the roads), could barely walk in the door when I got home. Warm shower was very painful thawing out various appendages. I’ll be back out this weekend for more dirty fun though.

I think I’m about as fit as I’ve ever been, never seem to get my heart rate much above 160ish even on big climbs. I can do a 100 km race in 5.30-6 ish hours averaging about 145ish. I do worry I never see the high heart rates people seem to talk about, but I’m still kicking along at a pace I’m happy (ish) with.

Since moving to a shiny new carbon 29er last December:
chain in 2 places (second ride)
2 rear hubs
Frame
spoke
+ usual wear and tear items (tires and cables)

For the cat thing, I heard once that cats require a certain distance falling to turn over so they were foot side down. Survival rates go up over a certain distance as they no longer land on their backs.

Both our TV’s came off the side of the road when everyone upgraded to big flat screens. They aren’t small and would have been a pretty penny when new. Both work fine.

Feed part of it to the dog, if it is still moving in a couple of hours eat the pie (my dog however will eat shit and not get sick so take this advice at your own peril)

We took Malarone I think when we went to Africa. Gave me the most vivid dreams I’ve ever had, techy-colour. My son (who was 4 at the time) said it gave him ‘shouty’ dreams.

I get regular error messages if it has got wet on a rainy ride or covered in sweat (stationary trainer) as moisture gets into the port. Usually let it dry out on the bench for a few days. I’ve started duct taping over the rubber cover for the usb port to keep moisture out, seems to do the trick.

I used a rear seat (can’t remember the brand). I didn’t fancy a trailer as we were in inner London at the time and I figured a trailer would have been more difficult on the brief section of busy road. Moved onto a tag-a-long type once they were bigger and had moved to Aus. (commute involved quieter side streets and older child)

Garmin definately seems to flatten the rides, doesn’t matter whether on the mtb or roadie. Did a bigish road ride yesterday, the garmin gave 1100 m climbing over 130 km, strava about 2200 m climbing. Maybe it is the calibaration on the garmin.

‘Feed’ trilogy by Mira Grant, it is a trilogy, one of the others is called ‘Deadline’

I’ve had two road tires (back and front) let go on a 40C + day when the bike was left in the sun (went some time in the afternoon while we were on the beach). They were close to maximum pressure before the bike was (carelessly) left in the sun

Clipped a rabbit with a pedal at speed on night coming down a long tarmac road, it somersaulted off into the bushes. Also had kangaroos jump out when startled by the rider in front, scary locking up a road bike on steep winding descents when that happens. We also have a wombat that runs out and has taken out a number of local riders on night rides near here.

Scouts seems a bit more ‘outdoorsy’. My daughter is doing scouts (after having been through cubs) and loves it, although she is a bit of a tomboy. My son is in cubs still. The only thing I ddin’t like was the whole pledge to god and country thing being not at all religious. They are good for the kids though.

29C here today, 29 tomorrow, 35, 41, 33 for the next few days, will have to do the crack of dawn rides to stay cooler.

I’ve recently moved from a 26-er to a 29-er (anthem X to a Scalpel-1). Although the new bike is over a kg lighter it doesn’t sem to climb quite as well as the anthem (I was surprised). Whether this is due to gearing (both are 2 X 10), geo differences, differences in my fitness/perception or the way I pedal on uphills I’m not sure. The new bike is much faster on the flats and descents though, overall I average about 5-10% faster over a similar loop.

My last purchase a few weeks ago pushed me to d-1 (where is divorce). Wife wants me to sell the old one, but then I’d be at d-2 (and n-1). Besides everyone knows you need a spare mountain bike (or so I told my wife)

Did the Wombat 24 hour here in Victoria, Australia. First ever 24 hour race, first time in a team of two. Good track but hard yards during the cold dark night, especially getting out in damp gear. We won the pairs though. Already planning our next one.

I broke mine about 9 years ago rock climbing, fell about 3 foot onto the only rock on the beach. From memory it was a couple of days to a week before they put a cast on, waiting for the selling to go down a bit, then about 6 weeks in a cast and a bit longer still on crutches. I was on teacher training at the time and once I was out of plaster I would ride to one of the local schools were I was on placement carrying the crutches on the bike.
No problems with it now, other than it bulges out a bit where I broke it and I get blisters on the bulge skiing and doing multi-day hikes. Just need to carry blister plasters. Apparently I’m in for arthritis in it eventually but no signs yet.
Good luck with the healing

Road riding till the broken thumb heals and I can take off the splint. 140k trip into the hills north of Melbourne (Warrandyte, Kinglake, Flowerdale and Glenbourne). Beautiful scenery and I hadn’t ridden out that way much (although not as much fun as the mtb trails up that way)

I use the Geax saguaro, the Mezcals roll faster but are a summer tire.

I’ve used the duct-tape and sandpaper method, thought it had been shown to be as effective as other wart-removal methods. Duct-tape on wart, sand off surface of wart daily and reapply fresh duct-tape. Repeat un til wart is gone (took about 2-3 or so weeks I think for me)