Best cakes here in That London are these – Nattas – available from all good Portugese cafes and delis

Mosquito bikes import them, might be worth trying them

link[/url]

That sounds like Reynaud’s I can sympathise its not nice, I used to get it really badly when I used chainsaws full time. I had a load of tests, but apparently there isn’t a miracle cure, or wasn’t back then, the advice / treatment boiled down to keeping my hands warm, which helps a lot. The docs also told me that women often get it worse than men. Now I rarely use a saw I hardly get it at all, but still have to avoid getting cold.

Only been out on the rigid SS, as little as possible to go wrong, but it still shed the LH crank. The clamp bolts hadn’t worked loose I can only assume the steel hollowtech shaft has a greater coefficient of expansion / contraction than the ally crank and it shrank in the cold enough for the crank to slide off.

Nice crisp, cold day to be out though, didn’t get that far, going ranged between having to carry through the deep stuff to lethal water ice on some of the untreated roads.

There’s a good article in today’s Observer on the subject of riding in the cold.

Link here

Its very bad for any trees near the road if it gets into the soil. Won’t do any other vegetation any good either.

Not noticed much difference in economy, but mine certainly goes better when its cold, like muddy@rseguy says it helps the intercooler do its job. Cold air is denser, so you can burn more fuel with the same volume of air, more fuel = more power. Might also account partly for the increased consumption

I’ve hired them on holidays

Always been soft tops, wouldn’t have one of those here because the other posters are right, they never fit properly and are a security issue.

Other than that they are a very competent off roader, with proper low range / 4wd transfer box and good ground clearance. I’d have a tin top for work in this country, but they are a bit too small for what I need and not great for long distances. One scaled up to Defender 90 size would be just the job, preferably diesel. Can’t speak for reliability but most Japanese stuff is pretty good.

Not a book, but this is very useful especially if you need to look up local geology in the British Isles.

Open Geoscience

Loin is one of the best bits, treat like steak. Haunch is good too.

Compared with farm animals deer are olympic athletes, bits like legs and ribs usually have a lot of tendons, best stewed or casseroled for a few hours to jellify the tough bits.

Bigger, older ones are tougher, as per above posts.

Had the Canon one and wasn’t too impressed. Now use Arcsoft Panorama Maker 4, which came as a freebie on a CD with the last camera I bought and does the job pretty well, although there isn’t much scope for tweaking the images.

You can buy red blinky LEDs for a few quid and wire them in to make it look like you have a security system.

Venison stew [Sika pricket] with loads of carrots and taties accompanied by a nice muscular Rioja. Stalked it, shot it, gralloched it and butchered it myself.

[Pulls up chair to see if another deer thread kicks off 😈 ]

Had a teacher at school named Mike Hunt, we had a song about him.

Once met a James Bond, but must have been a coincidence, he was born in the 1930s.

Then there’s General Jock Stirrup – though the oddest military one has to be one of Cromwell’s generals who was called Praisegod Barebones.

Shame about the deer being a red herring, it could be cycling’s equivalent of the Mitsubishi Starion story – claimed by Mitsubishi to be a contraction of “Star of Orion”, although urban legend claims that it was intended to be stallion, as a result of an “Engrish” mistranslation.

3 hour ish spin round one of my local loops, Bricket wood, St Albans area, mainly bridleways and a few cheeky bits.

Frozen hard, so nice firm going, but camelback tube froze solid, last hour back in the dark. Bunnies, squirrels and a fox were out, but Muntjacs were being coy, usually see one or two.

Yes,

Had a test ride on an Alfine equipped one yesterday and it had Vs as standard.

I’ve picked up quite a few over the years, but only use them on the business card and a small footer on the business stationery. I think that putting them on the letter head or after the signature goes a bit too far.

Mine are a degree and membership of chartered bodies, which are qualifications that I had to work for, some of the other NVQ type stuff that people put up is hard to take seriously.

The other possibility that occurs to me, before I put on my tartan shirt pick up my axe and head off into the wild woods of N London, is Osage orange, Maclura pomifera, which is pretty rare and won’t normally fruit unless you have male and female trees in the vicinity. It has large thorns on the twigs.

Got pic of the whole thing, planes have peeling bark which is pretty unmistakeable?

Variable shaped leaves look a bit like white mulberry, but the fruits are a bit of a mystery.

Patrick Leigh Fermor – A Time of Gifts and Between the Woods and the Water. First two volumes of a trilogy, third expected early next year

These and loads of other travel books and maps available from Stanfords[/url]

I wouldn’t want to ride one of those past an Irish farm dog, some of those fe**ers will attack anything that moves – but then I wouldn’t want to ride a recumbent anyway.

Earlier in the year I was part of a queue of traffic slowly following a hand cranked one along a bendy road through W Sussex. The guy looked as if he was strapped in so maybe he’d lost the use of his legs, I can’t see any other reason for it.

according to developers there is no preservation order.

Don’t take their word for it, maximum possible fine is £20,000 per tree and get you a criminal record. There is probably a reason they haven’t taken them down.

The council are the people to ask, some have tree preservation order information on their web sites, otherwise its usually a phone call. You can also get into trouble for felling trees in conservation areas.

TDi Landrovers have a belt and some had a reputation for going, but there was fix for the underlying problem and as long as you change them regularly [around 60,000] they are no trouble, I’ve got 220,000 on one and 130,00 on another and both are fine. Not the cheapest maintenance job, as it takes some work to get at it, but much cheaper than not doing it.

One firm made an after market gear drive, but it had a very bad reputation. In fairness to Honda, if they’ve done it they’ve probably got it right.

Chains are inherently stronger, but can still snap, I’ve known one go, but it was pushrod engine, the rods bent and saved a lot of damage elsewhere. On a modern OHC engine with angled valves it could have been terminal.

Nice town Frome, used to have a decent bike shop but haven’t been back for a few years. Some distance to main roads / motorways if you need to travel a lot, although the A303 isn’t too far to the south.

Best thing for me depends on the ride.

Yesterday it was riding over carpets of bright yellow fallen leaves with the misty afternoon sun slanting through the trees.

Nailing technical bits I’ve been unable to do before is always good.

After the previous few posts I hesitate to admit to riding solo, but I do most times and being able to go at my own pace and vary the route at will are big pluses.

Used to ride round the woods near Bath in the late 60s, early 70s on an Elswick Hopper – 3spd Sturmey Archer job with the knobbliest tyres [i.e. not very] available then and a pair of bent handlebars off a crashed trials motorbike.

Mid 80s had a yellow 15 spd thing with a three letter name something like MBK. Memorable feature was the U brake on the back just behind the BB – if there is a better way to jam the back wheel with mud I haven’t found it.

First proper MTB was a 1992 Raleigh, which I still ride regularly, though its been heavily updated over the years, currently has Rebas at the front and discs both ends.

Impressive stuff

BTW does he work for IKEA?

You could look at Warminster [or Westbury].

Plus points
Off the plain, but close enough to ride to on some nice trails.

Longleat woods.

Its not Trowbridge.

There’s a red stag on an estate near here that’s lost half an antler one side in a fight, that must really throw his balance off.

If you hear a loud creaking, squealing noise like Igor opening the castle door that’s a Sika stag – amazing sound.

That bouncing gait is called pronking, they do it a lot this time of year. The stags / bucks pong from wallowing in a subtle blend of mud and their own urine, makes them more attractive to females.

+1 for catflees. And it improves most outdoor shots.

wire mesh goggles work for me. Don’t keep fine dust out but good through the woods

Amazingstoke?????? Must be irony, my daughter and her mates call it Basingrad, which suits it much better.

Now in Herts where a local francophile has been going round with black tape changing signs for Barnet to Barnét.

Back when I lived in Somerset we used to hear Concorde ones fairly regularly. Until seeing this thread it hadn’t occurred to me that I haven’t heard one in a long time – apart from bullets going overhead.

If you’re going at any speed using the A/C can use less extra fuel than the drag you get from having windows open. However there are so many permutations of car / speed / ambient temp / no of windows open / efficiency of the system that you can’t be hard and fast. Cars I’ve driven with it you certainly feel the drag on the engine when the compressor is on, it certainly uses more fuel.

I’d watch out with that custard powder, it’s explosive.
like this

Grand dad’s early 1900s oil can
1964 Marlin .22
1972 Husquvarna 77 Chainsaw
1992 Raleigh Dyna tech -[upgraded over the years]
1995 LR Defender
1997 LR Discovery
Main computer is 4 years old running XP, so is old in computer terms. Still run Cardfile from my old 3.1 machine, Autosketch6 from way back and MS Office 2000.

BTW nice lathe, Trout

Ridgeway is bridleway or byway all the way, so no legal problems riding it. Even where its not byway farm vehicles use it, so most is wide, firm going on chalk, few muddy bits here and there. I’ve done Goring on Thames to the end near Avebury then carried on over Tan Hill and along the edge of Salisbury Plain to Westbury a couple of times. Nice 60 – 70 mile day. Not the most technical riding, but some great views, on a summer day its like being in a Mint Sauce strip. Doesn’t go through anywhere much, so if you want pub / cafe stops you’ll need to divert off it a bit.

Not ridden Ackling Dyke, but some of the drove roads SW of Salisbury are OK, usually on gravel / chalk with some heavily overgrown bits unless they’ve been cut recently. A354 isn’t that busy most of the time but is straight, so traffic can be fast. I’d be inclined to be cheeky unless the footpath is an obvious no go.

Hope this helps

Still ride mine regularly, though the frame, cranks and saddle are about the only original bits left. Mine has a red rear triangle and other bits and the tubes are a strange black and grey camo type pattern.

Pleased with my 1×1, handles well, just seems to go where you want it, no fuss or bother. Welds are very well done too. Got a few of their bits on it too, nice well made stuff that just works.