Vorlich – one was “ride singletrack faster” which really came down to cornering technique. We basically did some riding with Andy watching us, spent maybe half the session doing drills on forest road to learn about weight distribution and grip – then half on one section of GT Blue sessioning corners and then flowing 2 or 3 together. Sounds a bit rubbish when I put it like that, but it was really interesting and changed my way of thinking about bike handling. I still ain’t fast, but I am faster and more controlled.

#2 we said “teach us to jump”. Started with manuals, then learning to land, then how to take off. Then put it all together. Then did some drops. Started off from a point I might awkwardly getting airborne and coming back to earth with the grace of food aid falling out the back of a Hercules. Ended up with an idea of technique and confidence to tackle small doubles.

Best investment EVER.

RBS. You’re effectively banking with HM Government, what could be safer than that?

They have been grand as a retail bank. Shame about the megalomaniac over-expansion culminating in ABN-Amro, and ill-advised investment banking wing. :-S

Done a couple of small group things with Dirtschool (Andy Barlow) – was arranged with a few mates rather than “randoms” which was ideal. He got me over my fear of flying at one and went a long way to sorting out my cornering technique at the other. Really recommend him.

Zeebrugge to Morzine or Samoens (via Cluses) is about 9 hours keeping it at about 80-85mph. That’s 2 drivers, a couple of shortish stops at services and Autoroute all the way. Would imagine Cham would be about the same. There’s not many places with potential to hold you up – the new A4 round Reims is great and we’ve been past Geneva on the A40 a couple of times at what would be rush hour in the UK (5-7ish) with no problems.

The days of giving it the beans with impunity on the autoroute are gone, you really stand out going much over 130kph as pretty much everyone else sticks to the limit, and there are quite a lot of gendarmes about. Fortunately the mobile cameras don’t seem to follow up UK plates :-/

I’d check the weather carefully before getting too adventurous, very strong winds currently forecast at the weekend.

Gypsy Glen (aka Peebles Ridge, Cardrona Ridge or Kirkhope Law) was wetter than an otter’s pocket on Sunday. Couldn’t really recommend that at the moment, gloopy and really, really slippy.

Minchmoor Road might be OK – basically start at Innerleithen, do the first half of the XC route but head E along the Southern Upland Way over Hare Law and down the Minchmoor Road to Yarrowford. From there head E towards Selkirk and do the climb from Philiphaugh Farm up Long Philip Burn to the Three Bretheren (there is a decent track all the way up that isn’t shown on my OS map). Follow SUW west to rejoin Innerleithen XC route after Minchmoor.

Plenty of good riding in the West Lothian.

Pentlands are a grot fest. I’ve done Bonaly/ Clubbiedean/ Poet’s a few times but not gone in deeper (oooooer) for a month or more.

The Fox Forks will be a normal steerer size – so probably 1.5 (or maybe 1 1/8).

The headtubes on most recent Cannondale bikes are 1.5 standard dimensions, so if you put an Si headset in there it takes a Lefty steerer; a normal 1.5 headset will work with a 1.5 fork.

(I have a Rush with a 1.5 to taper reducer headset and tapered forks and that works just lovely).

Not trolling, just trying to make a constructive suggestion.

My posting history shows how little time I spend on here.

Guess it will all change when the same people have the cafe at the Peel with no competition from the Hub and the Glentress Hotel.

I read somewhere diesel the same fraction of crude as heating oil so the price goes up in winter, while petrol isn’t so doesn’t increase?

About 9p/l differential here at the moment. But given I have a big car and if I cane it with 2 bikes on the roof I don’t get much less than 40mpg anyway then diesel doesn’t seem so bad.

“easy to do 60” – LOL!

Much more than 50 is properly hard to attain IME.

Managed 52mph coming off the Bealach na Ba towards Applecross last year which is probably fastest I’ve done in the UK.

It’s reasonably easy to get low 50s mph in the Alps, but the 100kph target has eluded me. Closest was a round 60mph (97kph) coming from the Col d’Encrinaz heading towards Pont des Gets – there’s a long steep straight after the Praz de Lys junction you can really let it fly on.

Plenty low-mid 50s on other cols; I find it really hard to get much more than that as you need a proper steep, straightish road anyway and even if you get that there’s often other traffic and restricted sight lines. Given you probably would die if you came off at these speeds, I tend to err on the side of caution.

I work in a company with a (closed to new joiners) final salary (DB or defined benefit) scheme. Everyone new is on a defined contribution scheme (DC).

As a department we are charged an amount for pensions for everyone in our cost centre based on either the employer’s contribution to DC, or a share of the company contribution (calculated by reference to the criteria pension would be calculated) for people on the DB scheme.

In terms of pension costs it costs us significantly more for an assistant manager who started before the DB scheme closed to new joiners than it does for a director paid over twice as much who is on a DC scheme. And we have a pretty generous employer contributions to the DC scheme.

The private sector has woken up to this issue already as it actually has to fund future liabilities (if you’re a insomniac or have excess will to live Google “IAS19 deficts”), and the public sector is coming round to it as it realises it is basically running a pyramid scheme by spending current “contributions” and hoping future contributions will come good.

Frankly if I have enough for 15 years of half-decent retirement, a single (business class, natch) to Zurich and a trip to Dignitas I’d be doing well.

Fuckaduckisitheroinwhite?

A toothless termite walks into a pub and asks “is the bar tender here?”.

Two parrots sitting on a perch.

One says to the other, “can you smell fish?”.

Good one Rik.

Couldn’t do a midweek fixing session (I have one day of annual leave left ’til 2012) but if you do a weekend one shout on the Big Book of Faces and we’ll be there if we possibly can.

Must get down to ride Drumlanrig before the end of the year, a gaping omission in this year’s riding calendar. For one reason or another we’ve hardly done any “away” rides, and it’s a while since your roots have tried to whip my front wheel from under me!

Occupancy rate?

No idea, but when I used it semi-regularly, you had to book a bit in advance to get a first class cabin otherwise you were in std class with a solo supplement (more expensive than 1st). Couldn’t expect to book on the day and get on (once I had to get the Glasgow one cos Edinburgh was full). Always work paying so no great shakes for me.

No idea about Highland Sleeper, guess it is less well used, makes bigger losses, but much more important for businesses.

£21m a year sounds like a lot.

But let’s work this through.

But the sleeper runs 6 days a week, so it’s £67,000 per operational day (£21m x 7/6 x 1/365), or £33,500 each for the northbound and southbound services.

There are basically 2 sleepers in each direction (Edinburgh+ Glasgow) and (Aberdeen, Inverness and Ft William) so on average each train costs £16,750 to operate.

There are (piecing things together from Wikipedia) 12 cabins on 6 carriages per combined train = 72 cabins, so you need to take £232 a cabin each way (ignoring seated sleeper).

Given a single first class is about £150, it’s probably running at a loss.

But it is a great service.

I like the sleeper even from Edinburgh.

Going south, pint or two in the Hebrides or Guildford, couple of mini bottles of red in the cabin and an hour of DVDs to get you through the crashing around at Carstairs. Half decent night’s sleep, wake up in Euston, shower in Virgin Lounge, set up for the day. Probably a slightly better night’s sleep than a redeye flight though admittedly not great.

Going north, could do a dinner in London, jump on train, crash out and into work the next day and actually do stuff (unlike a double red-eye with a half-baked hangover which wiped me out for the rest of the week).

From Fort William it was the shizzle. Went to World Cup weekend, onto the train, bit of food, few scoops in the lounge, bed as the sun set over the mountains, woke up in Watford. In the Canary by 9. Apart from the culture shock (and if I am honest the mild hangover) it was the absolute bollocks.

VW Passat (the 2006-current one) is a lot bigger than Octavia (I have an 07 Passat – it’s massive – looked at an Octavia – not so massive and crucially I couldn’t get bikes upright with front wheel off.

My Passat takes 4 bikes, 10 cases of wine, 3 weeks’ kit in the back no probs (seats down…). Wouldn’t get that lot in an Octavia.

EDIT: Previous model Passat is as big but possibly a better shaped load area.

Would be absolutely mental to can the sleeper service IMO. It’s ace.

We are pointed to the Francais Interactif at University of Texas for extra material (doing French evening classes). The grammar stuff is useful, haven’t really used the rest.

http://www.laits.utexas.edu/fi/

Just local ride so nothing spectacular.

[/url]
13 Nov 2011 – Winter riding, nr Craigie Hill[/url] by Stu_N[/url], on Flickr

Chatting to mate in Ireland on the Book of Faces

Paolo Nutini on the iTunes

Portuguese red in the glass (for six quid it’s a corker)

Pizza in the belly = happiness

Knee still throbbing from a “mild tumble” this morning. Wet leaves, manhole covers, sharp corners and inattention a poor mix.

Admiring the beauty of a Thomson seatpost clamp.

From BBC News

MP Tom Watson to James Murdoch: “You must be the first mafia boss in history who didn’t know he was running a criminal enterprise”

Classic.

When we find any issues here, as part of the fix we always ask “how did this come about”, “how did we find out about it” and “how do we know it’s not a wider problem” – surely questions that would (or should) be asked when signing off out-of-court settlements for very large sums of money.

It’s hard to know whether not knowing (which smacks of incompetence), or knowing and at the least not acting (which smacks of complicity) is worse. Murdoch would have been history at any other plc months ago over this.

Not exactly what you’re after, but if it’s all about the northern lights this might work?

http://www.auroraflights.co.uk/

A mate is doing the Edinburgh one in a week or so.

Saw them from Struie Hill, just north of Inverness – quite amazing!

If you have transport and can get to Samoens, there is some excellent XC riding from there (was out there a couple of weeks ago). Get an MTB map from the tourist office (and probably the IGN 1:25k map as well as not everything is clearly waymarked). Samoens is very much open for business; Bar La Savoie in the main square does decent food all day.

One option is to try the climb up the road to Pont du Dedain then offroad to Lac du Gers (took us 1h 15 I think); from Roux you drop back into Samoens entirely on singletrack – a classic.

On the Joux Plan side, the route that climbs up via Les Allemands, across the hill and down the trail marked as “black 61” on the map is most excellent. The red one off the main Joux Plan road also very good (#50 I think) – you can pick that up at the top of the col, or about 1100m where a track goes straight on from a right hand hairpin (it’s obvious from the MTB map as a couple of routes use the track).

Also some good stuff down from Les Esserts into Morillon.

On the road, Morzine/ Col d’Encrinaz/ Pont du Gets/ minor road into Taninges/ Samoens/ Col du Joux Plan/ Morzine is a great circuit.

The Col du Ramaz is also great (from Mieussy via Sommand to Praz du Lys); you could go main road through Les Gets, minor road at Pont du Gets to Taninges, Mieussy, Ramaz, then back over Encrinaz to Morzine.

Final road option is Vallee Vert from St Jean d’Aups – lots of quiet roads in that area.

Obviously they aren’t transplant organs, but the tyre situation for the Alps was far from ideal.

Don’t see much point going to sorting office, even if I could midweek. Our local postie and sorting office people seem decent, I suspect the problem is upstream of that.

More not getting a service that has been paid for.

Plus, the tyre was for going on hols so did a week in the Alps on a tyre with a tear in it which was somewhat worrying. And no-one locally does 29er tyres so that wasn’t an option.

And my toes were effing freezing yesterday and today.

Plenty of places do a prix fixee for lunch

+2 for La Garrigue, the lunch menu is exceptionally good value. (Also L’escargot blanc and l’escargot bleu on a french trip if La Garrigue is full).

Of places not mentioned above, Harvey Nics Fourth Floor Bistro also good value for lunch IIRC.

Centotre for Italian but they are “all day” menu so no lunchtime value bargains.

If you’re looking for really fancy, Castle Terrace Restaurant and The Kitchin both do a good value lunch (Castle Terrace is jawdroppingly amazing, less impressed by Kitchin). You’ll be looking at phoning on Thurs or Fri and getting lucky with a cancellation for them.

Deadlydarcy – “I uzed to enjoy doing thas. Then vet snipz me and I feelz nuthin no more”

+1 for Rum Doodle.

And Spike Milligan – The Looney. Still cracks me up.

Roddy Doyle’s Barrytown books – especially The Van, also awesomely funny. The bit about the cat and the chip shop is a classic.

Also the Thick of It Book – Malcolm Tucker’s Missing Diary or whatever it’s called. Read it in massive check-in queues in Geneva Airport on 3 Jan this year. Was about the only person in the entire airport who was enjoying themselves I reckon.

Always hard to get an idea from a picture as hard to assess the steepness. But with that caveat, I don’t like the look of the top ones – not a lot of room between steps and handrail for starters and they do look steep with sizeable lips.

Second set, look OK to me. In fact look a lot like a set I first rode on my CX bike at night (not entirely intentionally, but if you’re going to bin it trying to stop you might as well hang on and hope for the best)…. ;-)

“cos she’ll probably stop doing xxxx”

Lotus Notes, definitely. The email program is the least intuitive one I have used since PINE.

Ideas:

Hire a Velib on a Sunday. They close the Quais along the Seine from 9-5 or so, so you have a traffic-free route (most) of the way through the city. Costs €1 or €2 for a day pass then first 30 mins of each hire is free, then €1 for the next half hour.

Picasso museum is very good (in the Marais) – small so entirely managable (unlike the Louvre which is too vast to see in one visit) but really focused on one artist and his story of Picasso and explains the development of his art and style over time.

Go up l’Arc du Triomphe and watch the city from there, and the madness that is the traffic on l’Etoile.

Go to the Brassiere D’Ile St Denis for a Mutzig (if you’ve been to Morzine you’ll know Mutzig).

The Catacombs are also good (down near Montparnasse) – they moved all the bones out of Paris’s cemetaries in the 1800s and transferred them to disused limestone quarry tunnels under the city. Fascinating, if a little creepy.

Cemetiere Pere Lachaise is also good for a wander, but a bit of a mission on the metro.

Otherwise it’s a great city for a wander. You could probably do that for a weekend without any plan if it’s decent weather. For a wet day Musee D’Orsay is great, more modern work (impressionism onwards) and again quite manageable in an afternoon.

Or go into the Jardin des Tuilieres and take pics of your mate in front of the fountain:

Or some sneaky underarm shots of nuns at Notre Dame.

(There may have been drink taken that weekend!)

Google Broken?

All Prophets (except SL) have same geometry.

Seems like about 1/3 of internet works fine, 1/3 is on go-slo and 1/3 is timing out. But it’s a known issue so I should be happy…

Balls.

It doesn’t help that downforeveryoneorjustme.com is down too. Stooooooopid Virgin Meeja.

Stan’s rims have a deeper and more robust bead seat than normal rims.

If you haven’t done so yet, try letting the tyre down, putting some soapy water round the tyre bead and pumping it up again. It should “snap” into place if you do that so it sits evenly on the rim.