Are chavs an effnik minority now? Like gypos and pikeys?

It was probably pikeys. I **** hate pikeys.

:wink:

I don’t sell on ebay anymore because of an issue much like this when I sold a 2nd hand road bike. The condition was listed accurately and as used, and the bloke went ballistic about some imaginary “washing brush scratches” in the lacquer. Even if they were there to the extent he claimed it is more than covered in the ebay description of a used item. It was a blatent ploy to try and get some money off after the fact.
It worked as I offered him a partial refund of £50 (£500 selling price), to get it over and done with.
To this day I wish I had offered a return for full refund. I bet he wouldn’t have gone for it, and if he had I would have had it back and taken the risk on making less on a re-sale out of principle. Little scrote.

I’ve got a load of stuff sitting around that needs flogging but I’m not fannying about with ebay anymore. Not cycling stuff or it would be on the classifieds here.

What lights are those? Didn’t seem to be giving you much illumination!

I have both. The stealth is both warmer and sweatier.
I much prefer my phantom, unless it’s slashing down with rain.

+1 on pics of the pegoretti please.

Chicken, chorizo and king prawn paella last night. First time I’ve done it and it turned out bloody luvverly. Made enough for 5/6, there are only two of us, so that’s dinner sorted tonight and my lunch tomorrow :)

i am more drawn to the tarmac tbh,but was worried about riding it through the winter months (ice,salty roads e.t.c)

Ice isn’t going to effect the Tarmac any more than the Charge. You hit a patch of ice and you’re skidding whether you’ve got a steel frame and mudguards or a carbon speed machine.
Salty roads? More of an issue for drivetrain – which looks to be shimano 105 in both cases. Carbon isn’t going to dissolve under you through a bit of rain, dirt and grime.

Evans Cycles stock Santa Cruz and will do you a build to your spec on one. They might even price match the best component prices you can find online, though don’t know if they will do this on a finance deal.
That way you can spec it to your heart’s content and get finance.

If you actually want to get into debt to the tune of £5k for a bike of course…

Alternate approach – buy it on credit card from wherever the hell you want either on a 0% intro offer, or balance transfer to a 0% for x months card.

Tarmac for me. No question.

My logic is it is better to have the best bike for the nice days, than to have the winter type bike for the crappy days but compromised on the good ones.

You can fit crud roadracers if you are actually going to use it in the lashing rain, it’ll cope with that just fine.

I’d consider tha charge as a second bike, but not as the only. A chap I met on London2Paris24 last year was on one and it was nice to be fair – lovely looking bike in the flesh. He didn’t enjoy hauling it up some of the steeper hills in kent. He was a mountain biker primarily who had bought the Charge to do the L2P on, it’s a bike that seems to appeal to MTBer’s buying road bikes.

Following with interest as I just moved to Bristol in July and have hardly had a chance to explore yet!

Don’t start changing things after just one ride. Give yourself a chance to acclimatise.
If you still have the problem after a few rides then by all means start tweaking things.

She’s always made a big deal about how she likes to remain feminine and girly as well as being a top level athlete, and how the two aren’t mutually exclusive. Strictly seems to be a perfect fit for her now that she has retired from competition.
Good luck to her.

Her dad seems like a right ****. He came across really badly in that documentary about her.

The great thing about this list IMO is that there isn’t one pig bladderer, golfist or jockier in sight … unless MciLroy puts in a shift to help us win the Ryder Cup

McIlroy is already having a year big enough to get nominated. Doing well at the Ryder Cup could get him in with a shout of the prize. But I do think that there have been too many other great achievements in other sports for him to win it.

Wiggins will be getting my vote.

Is Assange still hiding out in the Ecuadorean embassy?

Mrs.Marple

She get married? I’m happy for her.

This story is hilarious. First blowing up over the totally innocent neighbour “stealing” the PC, and now this!
It’s Victor Meldrew esque.

Bravo.

Of course the company are required to take it back, and Dariusz sounds like a right plum. But the OP has hardly helped himself here.

:lol:

don’t fancy a full road bike due to discomfort

Road bikes aren’t inherently uncomfortable. For long distances they are often more comfortable. It is a mistake to dismiss a whole genre of bikes on an incorrect generalisation.

Salsa Chromoto steel does the job on my commuter.

I weigh 92kg and didn’t want to take the risk on something I was close to the weight limit on. Plus my commuter takes a bit of abuse getting shoved in and out of racks, locked up to railings etc. The forks are often in contact with other hunks of steel, I thought the steel forks would stand up to this sort of abuse better.
The steel forks look considerably less “bling” = less attractive to light fingered gits looking to feed their crack habit.

If you aren’t commuting on it then most of this is probably not relevant. If you are planning to ride it off-road though, personally I wouldn’t consider something that you are pushing the weight limit on.

The handling after I installed the Chromoto’s was distinctly weird (they replaced an old set of rockshox Judy DH), until I put a longer stem on it (110mm), now works much better.

I never really realised how lucky the wife and I are. We both get along with our own parents and each others and are happy to spend time with them, at their places, out for meals, us blokes on the golf course.
They are supportive when needed and leave us to our own devices the rest of the time, which is just ideal really.
I get on much better with my dad now I am an adult, he was a little distant when I was growing up but we are much closer now, shared interests I suppose, and he has softened over the years.
The mother in law is a bit annoying, but only because she is a bit fussy and a worrier – but it is only because she cares so much so it’s easy to let it slide.

What throws this into sharp contrast recently is a couple of very close friends are currently organising their wedding, it’s next week, and they have had so much stress heaped on them by both sets of parents. I just can’t comprehend how these people can be so self centred and try to take over. It is so different from our experience of organising our wedding last year.

+1 for Seiko.

+1!
Smith Hustle and Phenom here. Zero gap, they practically lock together.
Is “your mate” a bit of a Tefal?

Tefal?
No issues with my lid and goggles.

Thanks Countzero. Think I’ll give them a bash.

Is this for use on the bike?

Gore Phantom II jacket here. It’s windstopper, water resistant (not proof), zip off arms. Lovely jubbly.

Got an Endura Stealth too but way prefer the Gore, unless it’s absolutely cats and dogs.

My mate has a Smith Holt helmet, and Smith Phenom goggles. These are a helmet and goggles specifically designed to integrate and not have a gap.

He has a proper **** gap. How? I do not know.

I have a Smith Vantage and no gap with either Oakley Crowbars or Spy Soldiers. The Vantage is a sweet helmet.

Kathy Reichs Tempé Brennan books,

Mini-review? Going to need a new series to get into when I finish the Mitch Rapp ones, this could be it.

If you want entertaining, not too challenging stuff the following are great holiday reads:

Mitch Rapp series by Vince Flynn
Jack Reacher series by Lee Child
Myron Bolitar series by Harlen Coben
Alex Cross series by James Patterson
Harry Hole series by Jo Nesbo
Camel Club series by David Baldacci
King and Maxwell series by David Baldacci

For something British:
Tom Thorne series by Mark Billingham

All are action/spy/military/cop type thrillers. That little lot have kept me going for a while.

I’d suggest picking one of the series, google for a list of them in order and start at the beginning.

My Ride SPI’s have been pretty good, going on 6 years old now I think. It’s a good solid binding, not a flexy freestyle binding, more for general “all-mountain” riding. The ratchet on the toe strap is annoying though and gets a bit stuck when you try to loosen it. I think they fixed this in later years.

When these eventually die I will replace with Union Force. The feedback I have heard says Union Force are the go to bombproof all-mountain binding these days.

Michelin Krylion Carbons if you can find them are a good, hard wearing and light tyre with reasonable puncture protection. In a 25mm size they are only about 50-60g per tyre heavier than a Schwalbe ultremo r1 in 23mm. (verified on my kitchen scales)

If you aren’t bothered about weight then go for something really puncture proof like conti gatorskins.

Kaprolopongo Kaptro (30/08/2012 at 10:54)
It hurts m to knw dat sme man untd funs are talkin trsh about sm1 dat has been nthng bt gret fr d great manchstr club.u guys are acting like sme female dog;u knw wht i mean? Wayne is de real deal.yeah he not at hs best dats ok dat; litle work out needed.tell nme a striker other dan rooney dat does wht he does?wayne is great at both de offensive and deffencive end o hs game.h a cmplte player.

It always strikes me that it must actually be more effort to write like this than to use actual real words.

House is registered in joint names as joint ownership (no stated equity split) so yes i could go for the full 50% but that’s not my style.

House was bought in 2001 for £104’000 & now valued at circa £220’000.

Unkle & Rizla – This is what she is saying however as i have pointed out, if it hadn’t been for my income we would never have been able to afford to keep the house for the first 9-10 years as her income wasn’t sufficient to cover all bills where as mine was so we have both put in over the years one way or another, i’m not going to charge her interest on the monthly money over & above her’s which I’ve contributed & don’t see what she should do the same with the lump sum.

I concur, 100%. You are being reasonable, she is not. In my honest opinion.
In terms of how to take it forward, don’t know, presumably you want to keep things amicable?
If not then demand a full 50% equity share, see if that wakes her up a bit.

I think you are being reasonable.
You’re probably entitled to a full 50% of the equity.

This lot are good:
http://www.groovestone.net/

Had them at our wedding. They have some sample clips on youtube.

Isn’t Strava exactly this?

This:

Tyre

Is not compatible with this:

consensus

edit: wrong thread – doh!

Oh and no one does pulp better than James Ellroy! Start at Black Dahlia and finish with Bloods a Rover.

Loved black dahlia.
Love love loved american tabloid
Loved a Cold 6 thousand
Struggled to get into bloods a rover. :(
Have put it down, will probably get back to it at some point

After finishing the Reacher books I struggled to find anything else that kept me coming back but now I’ve discovered Vince Flynn’s Mitch Rapp series, gripping stuff

Coincidentally I’m also ploughing through the Mitch Rapp books. Just finished Memorial Day, which is the 7th if you include the prequels. American Assasin, then Kill Shot. Both prequels. Makes sense to read them first before getting into the original series with Transfer of Power.

Before these I went through Harlan Coben’s Myron Bolitar series, they were good.

OMFG – that segment from All I Can was unbelievable.

Going to have to look into Serre Che, it’s had a few recommendations now and has piqued my interest.

Every sperm is sacred.

The old towel under my bed must be practically as holy as the turin shroud then.

We’ll have none of that here Miketually. There is conjecture, assumption and sub-daily mail ranting in the offing.

Here’s a student with a suitably ironic sign: