https://www.mnn.com/green-tech/transportation/blogs/out-for-a-bike-ride-in-the-mountains-of-norway-in-1898

Not been but it looks good. Make sure you’re suitably attired and equipped

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+1 for the Trend diamond stone from Screwfix.

Ray Mears has some useful videos on sharpening. You might not need all the kit he uses but the explanations of how and why are good, particularly for the different blade types.

The four Norwegians are one of my favourite pics – this is another – Waterford cycle club 1897, all immaculately attired in heavy tweeds, hats and ties.
From the size of the chainwheel that three up tandem must have been a rocket. The absence of brakes must have made it an interesting ride too, which would account for the evil grin on the front guy, the big guy in the middle preparing a roll up and the rear gunner looking nervous.
The bike on the far left looks like it drives the front wheel through some sort of epicyclic

Waterford cycle club

Quote – Can we ask that Grayling is put in charge of the scheme?

Why not – after all it is coming in on his birthday

Is it just me or does Dusko Lokin look a bit like Guy Martin?

Wallop – you must sound a bit like I used to. Do you say ideal for idea yet?

Very interesting. Took time and seemed to go all over the place, but eventually pretty much spot on. Having moved from the west country up to that London quite a while ago I had to revert to using words I did when I was younger for it to get there.

+1 for sparrowhawk

Finally lured a red kite in on Friday.

I work in an upstairs room overlooking the back garden which is small and surrounded by the house and trees and hedges, so I thought it might be a bit confined for birds that big to land and take off. I’ve tried getting them in by leaving out tasty scraps and bits of carrion, but no luck until I tried a pheasant rib cage. The kite took a reconnaisance pass from right to left being pestered by a couple of magpies. I had the camera ready, but it did an ambush over the house roof, dived into the garden, grabbed the bait on the wing and was off and away over the back hedge without pausing. It didn’t actually stop, so I’m not sure whether it counts but sod it, it made my week, can’t have been more than ten feet away at the closest.

1992 Raleigh Dyna tech now used for errands / pub duties. Still has the original cranks and ti bars, later additions include Surly 1×1 fork for the disc mounts, rear rack and panniers. Rear disc mount brazed on by Argos cycles in Bristol, which will offend the purists.

99% of the time I ride straight out from home. Can put together loops of 30+ miles plus, not massively challenging seeing as its rural Herts, but a few interesting bits, many made / adapted by local riders in the woods, not bad for living inside the M25. If you’re stuck in the traffic on the NW section and there a smug looking git riding across the bridge, it might be me.

However just back from a non bike holiday in Malaga and was tempted to hire. They have electric assisted full suss 29ers.

Crispin Odey’s name must be where the work odious comes from. And the ****’s been photographed wearing a poppy, these guys are the true patriots

Two things struck me from the Andrew Marr – Bankski interview.

If it’s true that that the £8m lent to Vote Leave came from the premiums paid by half a million insurance punters then each policyholder put £16.00 into it.  I don’t think I’m one, I’ll be well pissed off I am.

He said that he’d now vote Remain because such a mess is being made of Brexit that it won’t be worth it.  Most grown ups could see that from the start but it sounds like he knows the wheels are coming off it all, so is starting the narrative that it would all have been OK if the remoaners and traitors hadn’t sabotaged it.

****

Goat willow, aka pussy willow – Salix caprea.

Might be a hybrid with grey willow, which happens naturally – leaves are a bit narrower and grayer on the underside than many goat willows.

21 years ago my bike had 21 gears – it still does, although they aren’t the same gears.  The only original bits on it are the frame, crank arms, front mech and about 85% of the bars, which I’ve shortened.  I also have three others now and an extensive collection of bits.

Maybe MPs need to be dead before they’ll name anything after them.

I get them occasionally, thankfully just the trippy visuals not the headache.  It starts as a bright dot that turns into a glittering C shape that expands out of my field of vision in a few minutes.  It seems to be to the left but covering one eye or the other makes no difference.

Inciting factors seem to be similar to other peoples’:

Bright light / screen

Dehydration

Stress.

The first was driving down the M1 on a busy day, I had no idea what it was and thought I might be going blind.

This pretty well nails it

titanic disaster

Good illustration of Theresa May’s predicament.

Meopta (Czech firm) make good binos in that sort of price range, I have two pairs for different jobs, pleased with both of them.  And a rifle scope.

Link to the Picolax thread from another site (Difflock.com)

27.

8 on bikes

2 on wheels

17 hanging on the wall.

Until recently I had 25 then the STWer up the road changed to tubeless and donated two more.

I usually get them in pairs, the odd number is due to one being totally written off on a broken bottle.

Not thinking of Dornford Yates are you? – wrote the Chandos and Berry & Co books.  What PG Wodehouse might have written if he’d had a bad time in the trenches.

They were forever dashing round Europe foiling dastardly plots by swarthy foreigners – Lines like “Through the night to Rolls thundered across Europe.  Bats were dashed to pieces on the gleaming radiator”  They have been described as snobbery with violence. Definitely not on school reading lists these days.

You can get restrictive covenant insurance for cover if someone invokes the covenant.  A one off payment covers the property permanently.  It got a house sold for me once.

Or put the trees in wooden pots or ones with big holes in the bases and stand them on bare ground / grass.  In a year or two they’ll root through and plant themselves.

The Albert Hall seems an odd venue, seeing who it’s named after, maybe that’s the point.  Such a good egg there’s a bicycle named after him.

I haven’t seen the film in years, but IIRC Guy Gibson’s black labrador has an unfortunate name, have they overdubbed it with something else now.

It’s worth watching the Benn / HMRC guy video with the sound off and looking at the body language, especially when the HMRC guy concludes his evidence

Oh dear, I’ve been pulled into this thread 🙁

Bodgy is spot on, old oaks like that one have enormous ecological value alive and dead. Some die and remain standing for decades, others fall over before they die and take just as long to decay fully, either way they continue to support a lot of wildlife. Fallen ones are good for fungi and insects, standing ones better for bats and birds – and for magpies to stash Saxon gold. The responses on here show that they have huge cultural value as well.

There are a lot of ancient oak and yews in the border country, it’s sad when one falls over or dies, but not the end of the story until long after all of us on here are gone.

This lot stock about everything you’re likely to need

https://simplybearings.co.uk/shop/Products-Cycle-Bearings/c4747_4586/index.html

+1 for Victorinox, especially the fibrox handled ones

I’ve been told that wood from shops (clean offcuts no nails or paint) has to go in the black bin, Only wood from trees is allowed in the green bin

Lowa Renegades work well for me, but I have wider feet than average. Equally good on mountains, canyons, mud, also the unforgiving streets of London, as the work I do doesn’t justify a folding bike. My original pair are high fitting, they also do a lower, shoe like one. When the current pair pack up I’ll definitely go for the same again.

Epicyclo wrote:

They (Surly) are built to last, and last they do.

They should do, they’re made out of the same steel as AK47s. Probably why mine keeps going through mud and crap and is in about its 4th or 5th combination of components.

It’s illegal for airgun pellets to leave the property they were fired on but not for shotgun pellets to do so.

You might think that was political, but I couldn’t possibly comment.

Just a badly written note on Trump Plaza Hotel headed paper saying

“Crooked Hillary did it, what a NASTY woman”

stag with a hat