Oldboy
I was once in this game. The fabrics they are using cannot have cost more much than about £2-5/sq m, so work out for yourself where the mark up is.

Finished product costs loads more than raw material – shocker! Sure a lot goes into marketing but the service and kit is really good too.

IMO it’s worth it at sale price or bundle price, the shorts I have are great (better than my Assos pair), base layers really soft and durable and my Pro Team Jacket is easily the best jacket I’ve owned, was rarely off my back all winter and still looks as new. And the off-centre gilet zip is genius. So yeah, a bit of a fan…

Ciclo FTW. Had five or six years running then ruined my knee and haven’t been back since. Always after the week after the Swedish Girls too.

Next year I’m doing their brand of “it’s all cross county really”. You pedal up a bit but it’s always worth it. Plus Jackie’s food, the catch up on the gossip and dinner at the piano bar

Go Massif will take you, give them a phone when you’re out there. We used them a couple of years ago to get across to Morzine then rode back to Samoens. If you’re flexible on times then might get a deal if they can combine with a drop off or pick up. There’s loads of riding on that hill but if you’re coming off the Bourgeoisie then main trail is pretty good value.

Joux Plan is a tough climb, almost exactly 1000m ascent. I’ve ridden it half a dozen times on road bike and gone about 2/3rds of way up to do descents off it. Let’s just say while I enjoy the road bike, I wouldn’t chose to do it ion MTB if I could get a shuttle sorted. Many better uses of energy.

Doesn’t take much, I high sided off my road bike, when I was sat up taking a drink. Very fortunate to land on verge, no major damage done. Went back to check a few days later and all I could see was there was a patch in the road about 20 yards back from where I landed and the shiny tar they seal the gaps with was in a wee ridge, maybe 5mm proud of the road but I’d have hit it at an acute angle and I reckon my wheel skliffed off that, I got flicked forward and over be top.

Heal well anyway.

What was the mud tyre? Trailraker I think? Again great on mud, terrifying on anything solid. Give me my Maxxis Beavers any day!

Moab should be fine then, snow will be hitting the high Rockies though. Moab is great for 3 or 4 days – we were there sept ’13 and a lot more trails than in 2005 visit. The Whole Enchilada is phenomenal, shuttle up to La Salle mountains and then a 50k drop back to town. Also did Sovereign trial, didn’t have time for MBar stuff.

Fruita is also good, it’s just across the state line in Colorado. 18 Road and horsetheif bench were brilliant – hints and tips from the guys at Over the Edge. (Fruita is only about an hour from Moab)

You’ll probably need a hire car to get about but I guess you know that anyway!

Yourguitarhero – really?

Seems unlikely – if it’s James Watt or Martin Dickie who were leaving I’d expect that to be a material fact for this offering so you’d would have to disclose it in the prospectus.

I’m basically coming at this from same place as tenacious doug. EFP II was supporting someone doing something different at the point it was either going to break through or flounder, and a company that if nothing else had passion for what it did and was trying to do things well.

I invested £300 which is now worth about £3k on the EFP IV valuation. EFP IV is a much more serious proposition, you’re basically going in on growth prospects, but they are are a growing company in a growing market so the valuation isn’t ridiculous. Again the risks are fairly obvious and you’re not going to make an EFP I or EFP II “on paper” return and I don’t see them doing the build/ sell to one of the big guys type of thing so no easy exit. it’s not a hard nosed commercial proposition but if you think you’re not going to lose long term and have the cash you can tie up for a number of years it’s worth a punt IMO. I’ll probably add about same again to my “investment”.

I wouldn’t invest more than I could afford to lose. I put money in at EFP II – if the new issue is a fair reflection of value that’s gone up ten-fold. I’ve had my value from discounts and a couple of AGMs.

It’s not a kickstarter thing at all – you have real equity in the company, voting rights etc. The founders own the majority of the business still but they are raising equity to invest. Their beer is good to very good, inconsistency of a couple of years ago seems to have been ridden out. There are many better breweries now but BDog really kicked off “Craft”. They didn’t invent it – it’s a US import – but popularised it and helped pave the way for everyone else. id concede the marketing is better than the beer but they wouldn’t still be around and growing if the beer wasn’t competitive.

I’ve got an old one that is like that. I think it’s friction between the fixed and moving parts of the clamp arm, as it telescopes there’s a large surface area so probably doesn’t take much for it to become sticky.

Rarely use the carrier, it’s in the middle of the roof bars so can get a third bike on if necessary) and the ratchet/ clamp works so I can live with it. If there’s an easy solution I’d like to know though!

Do it. We did Denver – Moab – Vegas – Yosemite – San Francisco in Autumn 2012 over three weeks.

Don’t underestimate the driving, and there’s a lot of monotonous scenery, like once you get out the Rockies (which are only about 80 miles wide) into the high barren Colorado plateau you have 500 miles of scrubby rolling semi-desert.

Stay in motels and hotels. Spend money on hotel in Vegas, you’ll never stay in a better room in your life. La Quinta was fine for us for the rest.

Fuel is cheap, but just as well as the cars are shit and really uneconomical, get Sirius or an iPod dock. Remember no-one can drive round corners and no-one speeds as penalties are really high. And STOP means stop.

And don’t drink too many cocktails in Vegas then work out it’s 12 hours with a hangover to Yosemite through the desert because Tioga Pass is closed. That’s not nice at all.

But yeah, US road trips rock. Do it.

We stayed in Hotel Jules et Jim in the Marais in Dec last year. Modern hotel built around an old courtyard so really quiet given the location, 10 mins from Chatelet-Les Halles metro for connections to everywhere and a few mins to Pompidou and Place des Vosges. Small but beautifully designed modern rooms and really helpful staff. And a dangerously good cocktail bar in the evening.

Great to have them available in the UK.

We used ours last year, first time was a bit nerve-wracking and we had a frenchie leaning on his horn flashing his lights at us as we approached the Orange Lane. He stopped well back expecting us to have to reverse out again but the tag beeped and the barrier rose and we were off again. How I resosyed giving him the Agincourt salute I will never know.

The bill on return was a bit disappointing, clearly hadn’t appreciated how much we spent on tolls but the convenience is ace.

I think it was the Aftershock ones I saw, thanks Swirly. Airdrives might be worth a look as well. Bit pricier than I’d hoped though. It’s a lot of money but for solo road rides when the only other noise is the wind, maybe worth it.

The “normal” headphones just won’t stay in my ears at best of time(I think I have tiny earholes) and single bud sounds weird on a lot of music recorded in stereo as you only have one track. Speakers? Maybe for soma but doesn’t appeal for me…

I use mine “properly” occasionally. Not much would do 220kph with 2 people, 4 bikes, ten cases of wine and three weeks’ stuff in it. Or cruise the autoroute at 130kph and 45mpg for 9 hours and still leave you feeling fresh.

But most of the other 11 months it’s a bit of overkill…

Call up and speak to someone at the court and ask to defer, rather than not do it at all.

In my experience they are reasonable.

Aeropress here too, takes 2 mins to make a nice coffee. Once it’s made, I just pop the puck of coffee and filter into the bin and wipe the plunger and cap down with damp paper towel. (We don’t have a sink next to the water machine). Best £25 I ever spent, colleagues reckoned I’d get bored of it but been using it for a couple of years now – just about to go into my third pack of filters so that’s about 1,000 coffees made with it now. I buy beans from Pact and grind a few days’ supply at a time and take them in, fresh beans make a huge difference to the coffee.

Another good option is to speak to one of the airport shuttle companies, if you’re flexible you may get a cheap run over to Morzine/ Les Gets if they would otherwise be going empty to do a pick-up.

Then ride PdS til mid afternoon, nip up the Ranfolly from Les Gets, pedal across to top of Joux Plan (basically flat) and do the Bourgoiuse descent back to Samöens to finish on a beer at Bar Le Savoie.

Lots of good riding, start with the tourist office map. Lifts aren’t as ubiquitous as Portes du Soliel and not all open every day.

Most of the best riding is off the Joux Plan side, though an epic day from Samoens 1600 round to Flaine then downhill from 2500m on top of Grands Platieres back to Samöens takes some beating. Last summer was shit and we didn’t ride MTBs from Samoens at all; July 2013 had brilliant weather so rode until bits fell off people and bikes. Ho hum.

There’s not really trails off the chariande express, it’s more a link to get across to Flaine/ Lea Carroz (which is also doable from the two lifts out of Morillon.

. Morillon has best lift assisted riding though as others have said it gets very muddy in wet and is slow to dry out.

The river trail runs right up the valley from Taninges to Sixt which is a useful link as trails don’t start and end in same place. Enjoy!

Live near Edinburgh, bought last car from dealer in Warrington. Spoke on phone, went down to look at it, did the deal. Dealer ended up delivering it to me and collecting my trade-in as they were so desperate to get it in before month-end.

Well worth it to get the car I wanted and it was several k less than similar cars in Central Scotland (or a year/ 15,000 miles newer, depending on how you look at it).

Mine (iPad2) was running super-slow on iOS8 but 8.1.2 fixed that. I’ve had it 3 years so it’s done well for portable consumer electronics TBH; used daily in that time.

Reckon next iOS will kill it off but until then no great incentive to swap or upgrade.

Get yourself some physio. Cycling is really bad for compensation with good side which causes all sorts of issues – lower back and pelvis/ core instability in my case.
I wrecked my knee (ruptured patellar tendon) and ended up with about 50% deficit at point I was walking and starting to pedal. Lots of gym work (fixed weights plus squats/ lunges/ work on balance and core stuff) has got me back to where I was and sorted lower back pain I used to struggle with too. Care and maintenance now.

Sounds like you’ve had less time off bike (I was out for about 5 months) so hopefully not as much of a mess but It’s well worth getting pro help in my experience. If you can get guidance every month or so and discipline to do a program on your own its not too bad going private as NHS just covers to point you can walk. Good luck.

Streetview

Walk yourself out past Haymarket – basically follow the black Mazda – and the tram stop.

You won’t be able to use the cut left as the area will be blocked by taxis, delivery vans and people dropping off. Plus the lights don’t change for cycles so you can be sitting there for 2-3 mins trying to rejoin the traffic.

See how many times you have to cross tracks and the angles.

Then think about having a bus right behind you, pedestrians going in and out the station, often using the cobbled kerb as a short cut, sometimes stepping into the road. Oh, and it’s also dark and raining.

Now tell me it’s fine.

Oh, and if you want to go down into Haymarket Yards to join the bike path? FFS. Cross 4 tracks, squeeze in a foot wide lane between kerb and track, another 4 tracks to cross again.

More street view….

https://goo.gl/maps/AyKtY

Good, eh?

The bit immediately in front of Haymarket station heading out of town – both on the road and following the cycle route – is potentially lethal and the council have been negligent in allowing the road design there IMO. This is also part of the NCN and the road markings are part of the problem, rather than a solution.

You can’t hold the road AND cross the lines at a safe angle. In simple terms, the road curves gently to the right and the tram lines curve gently to the left across the road so you have to cross both tracks at a dodgy angle in quick succession. I stay hard left then slow and cut right to cross at as much of an angle as possible, don’t mind it much on MTB but still gives me jitters in the wet on road tyres. This is a busy stretch of road and there’s a lot of buses and taxis. Moving the taxi rank has helped slightly but really the inside lane needs to be given over to cycles with a physical obstacle preventing other traffic from entering the space.

The rest of the tram/ bike infra isn’t too bad – you need to be aware of it and it restricts your “swerve space”, and take care on crossings. People coming off there is more bad luck, but Haymarket is inherently dangerous and needs sorted. Unless people are prepared to sue the council I don’t see this happening.

Nope, Rapid Rise is defunct. 9 speed derallieurs are very difficult to come across and hasn’t even been made in 10 speed as far as I know. I’m told new stuff is much smoother shifting so benefits of RR (mainly “on the power” downshifts) are less problematic.

Maybe not an obvious suggestion but Colmar or Ribeauville in Alsace are great. You can go through Belgium, Luxembourg, Nancy then up over the Vosges and drop down into Alsace. Might be a few € in nothern France but otherwise there’s no tolls apart from tunnel through Vosges (€10 I think). Plus cheap diesel in Lux. Alsace is beautiful and really quite different to rest if France. Next day it’s down to Basel and through Switzerland to Geneva – you need to buy a vignette for about £30 – then finish job off on A40. Probably cheaper than direct route via Reims/ Bourg en Brease and only about 90 mins longer.

We usually go direct one way and via Alsace the other, bit of variety.

Saw a fat bikist at the bottom of the mossette lift above Les Lindarets last summer (late August). He was arguing with the lifty. Not sure how it ended.

Good ref to Mr Jolly Lives Next Door.

“Just because my name’s Jolly doesn’t mean I have to be Jolly all the **** time”

Rather happy with 3. If it says you have signal it works properly, even on 1 bar. Service is a bit patchy in far N and W of Scotland but I’ll live with that when I get 3G where I spend 98% of my time, plus properly fast 4G at work.

Three at Home is great too – no extra charges for calls, texts and data in France, Switzerland, Ireland and USA plus a few others.

Should add

Less expensive/ still great:
Hanam’s – Kurdish/ middle eastern. Good med-spicy, interesting and BYOB.

For coffee, Wellington on corner of George and Frederick Sts is hard to see past (basement on NW side of junction). Scones are epic too.

For cake, Love Crumbs on Westport is great, despite (??) location amongst strip bars and porn shops.

finest – Wishart’s in Leith, if you;re willing to try amazing food and pay for it, plus it’s quite formal but not stuffy if that makes sense (about £300 for a couple for dinner and drinks)

otherwise – Restaurant Castle Terrace – closer to £200 for a couple, still amazing but by any measure still expensive, If you can do a lunchtime it’s astounding value (but still budget £120-£150)

nearly as expensive, not quite as good
– Ondine – seafood dominates, great location. Oyster bar good as you get some chat from staff, tables more forma.
– Timberyard – modern scottish, inventive, good cocktails and small plates. Not remotely formal.
– Azile – quite adventurous, take-me-leave-me service but food is great

Less expensive – there’s whole tier of great places, my top pics (£80-120 per couple including driinks):
– Blackfriars – great modern food, not pretentious, epic service, great beer, small but well formed wine list, though quite adventurous; menu is reasonably game heavy,
– La Garrigue – most French restaurant I’ve been to outside l’hexagon. Provincial French, super food and service and great wine list. Ask questions about food and wine, they will love you forever if you show an interest and care about what you eat. Set lunch is easily best value meal in town
– First Coast – great modern scottish bistro. Again, brilliant service and great food
– Cafe Marleyne. The one on Thistle Street seems better, small menu, very french, always good.

Less expensive, still great
– L’escargot Bleu, Broughton St (French traditional – think snails/ terrines/ steak/ coq au vin)
– Contini, George St. Italian – greta pizza, pasta, house dishes. Hard to go wrong.

Snacks/ lighter meals
– Burger meats bun, Forth St
– Urban Angel, Hannover St (great for brunch)
– Coletti and Co, Lothian Rd (great for Brunch/ Lunch).

I’d tip Castle Terrace, La Garrigue, Blackfriars and First Coast of that lot but hope you wouldn’t be upset with any of them.

Don’t know if anyone’s noticed the A6 Avant 3L bi Turbo? It’s a 3L diesel Quattro that does 0-62 in 5.3 secs! How mad is that? Still out of my budget unfortunately! Maybe next year….

Yep, RS6 just doesn’t make any sense to me – even if I won Euromillions I doubt I would, just too big to use the power anywhere. But 300+bhp large and capable estate, still turns mid-40s mpg, wafts when you want it to, and quick enough to hurt your face? What’s not to like?

If it’s a decent day arm warmers and gilet is fine. Even when it’s 30°c or more in bedoin it’s about 10-15°C at the top. We’ve started early so you get the lower slopes over when it’s a bit cooler and staggered the start times so you all get to the rop at about the same time. Much more pleasant sitting in Bedoin with a coffee than waiting at the top and chilling to the bone.

Haha – good reminder. Was reading STW and finishing cup of tea before cleaning the car windscreen.

Just taken mine off now, had a crappy cut-out-yourself disc one as renewed in August and they’d run out of proper paper. Got rid of the satnav sucker marks from summer holiday and the remains of a 2012 Swiss motorway vignette at the same time. So I can say I’ve achieved something today. Yay!

Some sort of secondary fermentation going on. Almost all wine has a bit of sugar in it but if it’s got some sort of yeast or bacteria in it it will referment and go fizzy. Don’t drink it – could have all sorts in it.

Take it back, they will probably refund you.

€50 sounds about right. The season one wasn’t much more than a week pass.

Would expect those funds to be about flat (say +/-5%) for that period. Are you definitely comparing your contributions with the value of your fund?

Reason I say that is there will be lots of info on there – for example a projected pension amount. This will assume you pay same amount in for x years and retire at age y, so will generate an estimated fund value and tell you what your annuity might be.

What are you actually invested in? Can’t think of any asset class that has gone down about 30-40% in last 12 months.

If it’s stakeholder fees from the pension provider will be capped at about 1% so that’s not a big contributor (you’ll be paying less than £100 running costs).

Did you arrange it through an IFA or another intermediary and are somehow paying commission or fees to them?

Yeah, wouldn’t recommend a repeat of what we did on Sat – mainly because wind was far stronger than forecast and effect on riding was much more than anticipated.

Was a fine day in Braemar and otherwise conditions were good (decent vis, dry and ground wasn’t too wet) but up above 900m it was like being in a different world. Had expected it to be blowy but it really was something else. Takes a lot to knock me over and at one point my bike was in a flat whip position and I was struggling to hold onto it.

Our plan A was the three Munros south of Lochnagar, down to Coire Cash and back over Gelder Sheil. Had loads of extra layers, were riding by 0930 and had food and lights for the return from Balmoral in case we ran out of daylight so the route would have been doable in better conditions.

Once out the trees, we realised that at best would be an out-and-back to Broad Cairn and Cairn Bannoch, then once we got the full force of the wind at about 950m, became clear that would be impossible, so we fought to the summit of t-Saigart Mor and made a dignified retreat.

With hindsight should probably have gone back the way we came as would have been more rideable but was difficult to predict what the wind would be doing, I think it was whipping round the slope we were on so was even stronger than on the tops.

Sadly no pics as I wasn’t taking gloves off for fear they would get blown away and end up in Norway.

One for a reprise next summer…

Update – we came up the ridge to below Carn an t-Saigart Mor which is different approach – path goes all the way up to the plateau but only shown up to about 750m on map. That’s the most rideable way up IME. The NE ridge is hard pull at the end.

If there’s snow up there wouldn’t even consider it.