+1 McHamish
Anglian quoted us a list price of 3.5k, which immediately dropped to 2.1k. After a couple of rounds of bartering/laughing at him, made a couple of calls to said manager, dropped to 1500 then 1350. Their telesales kept calling back (every day!) and eventually dropped to 1150.
Local contractors first quote for same job was 850.

Physical Fascination by roxette:
“I got to go, get aboard attack a love jet…
And I got to find a power station with a beat”

In fairness, I dont think that english (or writing decent songs) was their strong point.

£4k – earn themselves during holidays

Or 12k+ on a sandwich course. Assuming they pick an employable course.

Not that you actually get that much back but its worth getting a
Tfl Refund each time your journey is delayed by 15mins or more.

bucket of warm water with some soap flakes in it.

for a half built course it looks good. The bikemagic pictures give a decent impression of it. Just hope it remains as a permanent site so I can have a go afterwards.
I like the way that the course is shaped to give specators a decent view as well. Might actually be watchable on TV as well, as opposed to the usual imcomprehensible glimpses of riders diving in and out of a wooded section.

On a par with the guy from Anglian windows who came around to give me a quote.

terrible positioning of the TV and sofa means that there will be a constant reflection of the window on the screen.

2XU compression tights are good.

The fork is at the end of the long, fast, loose singletrack straight, just before the first big right hand berm…..iirc!

Sounds about right. I’ve nearly missed it a couple of times and often have to yell the rest of the group as they are too busy lining up for the berm.

The http://www.diaryofamountainbiker.co.uk/ lot usually have a forum ride in the Surrey Hills or nearby each weekend. Very friendly and quite fit, so you might want to check the intended speed/distance of the ride.

nightmare. I’d be the one on the empty trail next to it 8)

Settler Of Catan
+1

ooh, I used to love Escape From Colditz

Brechfa
Penmachno
Nant
Afan
CYB
in that order

Seeing as you’re close to Cwmcarn, you must have been to Afan already. Def worth the extra 45mins drive to Brechfa.

Llangdegla is a strange one. Feels more like a big park than a trail centre. There are some great bits there but you never seem to get the feeling of a trail that actually goes somewhere.

You have to put in some though, otherwise you end up going far too fast and falling over…

That’ll be the “Just balance it with being safe” part 🙂

running downhill – run loose. i.e. go fast, without expending energy trying to slow down. Just balance it with being safe.
Unless you’re interval training, you should be pacing yourself by putting in the same effort on both up and down hill.

molgrips – try shortening your stride but keeping the same pace (mph). This should ease the pounding that your legs get and could possibly result in a better running technique.

Topfield. Twin tuners. Works fine. Easily updatable firmware. Can pull content off onto PC with a USB cable. Lots of upgraded software available from toppy.org.
The standard interface is a bit retro but you can download/install newer ones.
Have usd it a lot over the last few years and it has been solid.

more force you apply to it you more resistance it becomes

just an inability to change shape/move quickly, this is more visible the harder/faster that you try to move it. Same with Blu-tack: can slowly shape it but hit it with a hammer and it will shatter.

yes it’s bullying and if he’s an ex boss (assuming that you left/got asked to leave) you’ve got grounds for an industrial tribunal.

Someone told me there’s going to be 2000 people doing it!

Pretty sure that they only had 400 places available. And judging from the emails that the organisers stupidly sent to everyone entered (not using BCC), there isn’t that many people entered.

Another plodding group of 4 here. None of us have done much training so were just aiming to finish.

No-one’s mentioned View to a Kill… when I saw that I though it was the worst film of all time, let alone the worst Bond

Saw some of that yesterday; the first half is rather good but yes, the second half is complete toilet.

It's a pretty standard red.
As a "new rider" you're supposed to find a red trail a little tough. But sounds like you got round ok so dont let it put you off other reds and you'll progress well.

Llandegla Red does feel a little easier as it's a more sanitised and less exposed trail. But it's one of those trails that's designed to be ridden faster to make it harder. Btw, you might want to give Llandegla black a go, which is about the same level as most red runs.

Also tried "English Passengers" which won the booker prize some years ago. Again, I really wanted to like it – I made it halfway but I don't know how it ends and don't really care.

Lucky escape – the second half was much worse!

Just picked up a Smart Lunar 1/2 watt from Halfords for 6 or 7 quid. They're selling off the stock prior to the 1 Watt version coming in.
(much cheaper than the £17 that Evans want!)
Seems plenty bright enough and good value.