Was out before it even started, 5hrs in A&E on Saturday afternoon with Magic FM (do you even need an FM when it’s via the interwebs) being piped in playing nothing but Christmas tunes, think we heard everything at least twice…

Lemon Ginger Crunch…mmm

Watch the best, watch Everest

The Mike Jones expedition to the Dudh Kosi. Bonkers, brilliant and an excellent film.

Minor claim to fame…Rob Hastings, one of the paddlers on this was one of the art teachers at my school, also ran the school canoeing club including a weekend trip to the Mike Jones Rally in Llangollen.

“Get on the cycle path”, when the nearest one was some two miles away…

C

Bet the previous owners of “Properties sold nearby” are regretting accepting the offers they took in 2018/17.

Ariel Atom

Have had Ileostomy since early nineties. Tried a waist pack mid/late nineties – a Karrimor one from when they were good. Similar to the current Karrimor Raid 5, the luggage bit was wider and less tall.

Was all right on very short rides, but to avoid it slipping down over the stoma area you had to have the waist band so tight as to be uncomfortable. Did a longer ride around MK redways with it with two bottles, took a fair few days for Oliver to recover from the ordeal.

Since then always used a backpack of some sort. Currently a Deuter Compact Lite 8 for rides when not much needs to be carried.

Puts me somewhere between ~37% and 46%, so slightly quicker than average.

Another vote for FS260s here.

Tried others, but these seem to suit my nether regions up to and beyond 100miles.

Was hoping to go Sub six, so with 6:09:47 official, 5:47:24 moving, I’m happy. Quite a few “crossing” stops on the run back from Surrey, so if I split the stops between my choice and not my choice I’m under six hours. 😀

Rider behaviour generally seemed better this year compared to previous, 2016 esp.

Not off until 6:40 in Green B. Riding for the South Bucks branch of Headway, who supported my brother last year following his head injury. No “branded” shirt, so if you see an old bloke, in a Cookie Monster shirt riding a Mason Definition, please say hi.

Will keep an eye out in the Swindon area.

PJM1974

Member
Essex snobbery aside for a moment (as per my last post), I know from a friend who worked at Dunton during the early 90s that one of the test fleet was an Escort Cosworth fitted with a V6 – I assume to be a 2.9 given the Escort Cosworth’s Sierra underpinnings.

Yep, saw it lots, but never got to drive it, canary yellow, no big wing, and blue tinted wheels. Was running 2.9 24v Cosworth V6 and auto box. Was apparently a hoot to drive.

Also worked on the 2nd phase Escort Cosworth, as mentioned above, smaller turbo meant that drivability in standard spec was better, but less tuning potential unless you changed the turbo.

Wasn’t all Cosworths and RS2000s mind, if you know how to decode a memory dump from most 90s EEC IV or EEC V ECU you’ll find my surname in there.

It’s a trap!

Did one for my 40th (eek ten years ago) at the old ProDrive track (Fen End). Had about 5 laps (inc in/out). Approach then was to try and get people going “fast” in straight line, rather than through the bends for most people. There was a rule that if you span it, your drive was over, as this meant you weren’t listening to the instructor. If you listened they let you push a bit harder.

Had drives in supercharged Ariel Atom and Ferrari convertible (think it was a 360). One was an absolute hoot, the fastest thing I’ve ever driven, or am likely to drive and would have one if I could, I can still remember details of driving it, and then there was the Ferrari, which I can barely remember.

Never had any issues with Premier Inn and bikes in the room.

Spent the best part of four weeks (during the week) in the same one a year ago, after the first week, they gave me a ground floor room so I didn’t have to take the bike upstairs. Also used them for Ride London and Velo Birmingham multiple times, again no issues what so ever.

Osprey also do different sizes (back length) on some models.

Really enjoyed that. 6h25m riding, 6h51m including stoppages (mostly related to crash mentioned above). Organisation and marshalling was much improved over last time.

To those who came out and cheered/sang/encouraged – thank you, it’s amazing the difference it makes.

Green 6 here, looks like i’ll be needing my “lantern rouge”. Dark blue Mason and once it warms up, Cookie Monster top to be uncovered.

I’m supposed to be doing it, training is a bit behind…aiming for ~70miles tomorrow…reckon if I can do that, I should survive 100 in a month.

But… all the insurance quotes I got, you had to put bikes as specified items.

In the original conversation, they stated only items over £1k needed to be named, and I questioned this several times, stating that I had multiple bikes each under that limit, but in total were considerably greater than that so would they all be covered. That they also failed to ask about whether the garage was attached to the house. I suspect they paid the full claim as they knew they would lose if I took it to the Insurance Ombudsman.

Whoever it is, as mentioned above, check the small print as your garage is not attached to the house.

AA tried to wriggle out of my claim (well nearly half of it) as my garage wasn’t attached and therefore only £3k maximum cover for non-named items. Challenged them over miss-selling, they insisted that they went back to the call logs. Happy to let them as I knew what I’d asked for…one week later they confirmed that they would pay the full claim, though advised that I should have checked the policy documents and explained that I shouldn’t expect their staff to know the full details of the policies they are selling…

No longer insured through the AA for anything.

Would this work?

Frame mounted mirror

Other thing to consider is cables stops.

Transit 2.2s and Galaxy/S-Max/Mondeo 2.2s are not the same engine. Transit version has its origins in the Ford Puma engine series. Galaxy/S-Max/Mondeo comes from the partnership with PSA – DW12 families depending on age.

Distinctly off trend vs the current slack and long geometry view.
Red cable outer spoils the grey/orange colour theme.
No plugs in the end of the bars.

Otherwise, no issues.

Have just done this – buying a part-ex off a developer.

Benefits are that it caps the chain, the developers are working on cash flow and want to get the property moved on, so a cheeky offer is always work it.

As mentioned above, it’s a “sold as seen”, so don’t expect everything to be perfect (we’ve a whole series of ugly rawplugs left in the walls, and some unpainted filler around one of the windows. Check what appliances are included before you make your offer and adjust appropriately. When we first viewed, the prior owners were still resident, they’d offered the range oven as an “extra”, which the developers didn’t take – so we had a 90cm gap to fill. Fortunately we’d factored that into our offer.

Dealing with the developers company was pretty smooth (Moving Made Easy), only niggle was not getting all the keys on completion day, they were at the new site sales office (about 200m walk) and the fun of completing on the day of the O2 network outage, confirming that we had completed so that we could get the keys and start unloading took a little longer than ideal.

And one other piece of advice. Don’t sneak an extra foot or so of back garden onto that land that “nobody owns”, and then build a summer house on it. Highways are way less flexible than a farmer might be when it comes to selling that small bit of land you taken from them. Like our original buyers did, which caused the chain to collapse.

That was harder than expected.

SSR might not be to everyone’s taste, but a Pontiac Aztek was to no ones taste. Sufficiently hideous that I’m not going to post an image. Google if you wish, but what has been seen, cannot be unseen.

Shower method works even better if it’s an over the bath shower – use the shower to fill the bath, more steam for longerer meaning even less crumples.

My claim with with Wheelies went pretty smoothly, my garage got done and nicked 7 bikes, value about £6500, insurance would only cover upto £3K (thats another story!) I could take the cash but if I went through wheelies I could get upto £3800. I had a warranty issue with a wheel on one of the bikes I received which was sorted promptly.

I had similar, though got the insurance company to back down on the £3k limit, they insisted they went back to the recordings of the call only to find that I really had asked multiple times to ensure that the policy did cover all my bikes even though only one of the bikes exceeded the minimum “named item” value. They initially tried to claim it wasn’t fair to expect their sales people to understand all the details of the policies they were selling. Combination of the recorded call and a threat to raise with Ombudsman stopped that.

Also won over the difference between “Wheelies supplied” and “cash settlement” values. Wheelies were actually quite good, sent them the specific details of the bikes (only one was remotely “off the shelf”), had a quick chat with them and sorted. Chap I spoke to agreed that they wouldn’t be able to find a custom built steel road bike with first generation dura-ace for the £300 it owed me (was early eighties frame and not custom built for me), hence wanting what it owed me (fully receipted).

I’ve had one, worth it for me and dealt with a couple of issues I was having. Mike at Bike Dynamics in Leamington was who I used.

Also used Mike, he covered cleat position etc, not just the saddle/bars bits. Could feel the difference between the ride to and from the fitting. Apparently I have short hamstrings, even for a cyclist!

That bit was nothing like what I expected.  Like you, I suspect, I was very concerned that sitting on a saddle would somehow now be an issue, and would risk reopening wounds etc. The actual closure point, well mine anyway, doesn’t get stressed by sitting on a saddle.

Had perm Ileostomy for more than twenty years now, though not for the more usual UC/Crohns reasons.

I was out of hospital (St Marks) within two weeks, and back at work after a further 6-8 weeks – I had a 65mile each driving commute so had to wait until the everything had properly healed even though I was mainly desk based. Main surgery took a bit longer to heal for me due to complication with my initial surgery three years prior. The original plan was temp Ileostomy, followed by reversal after 6-9 months, but in the end, was getting on fine with it so took the decision to go permanent with the Ileostomy as the orIginal complications meant increased reversal failure.

Recovery wise, was off the bike for about three months, and started very gently (none that new fangled suspension for me back then) following surgeons/doctors advice.

So twenty years on…

Positives, I can eat pretty much anything I want, don’t have to constantly think where is the nearest loo. I can do pretty much anything I want. Whilst others talk crap in meetings, you can express your views (best if only to yourself), in a more literal way. Hasn’t stopped me riding, done Ride London twice, Velo Birmingham with no issues (with the Ileostomy anyway).

Negatives, managing fluid balance can be harder – your colon normally helps to balance fluid levels so you can end up drinking more to keep you on the right side of things. I’ve had a couple of very bad stomach bugs (fluids exiting at both ends) that have put me in hospital, couple of days on a drip to get fluid levels back to normal. After a crash, you need to check that you haven’t burst a bag (never happened to me, burst that is, crashed more than enough times).

Overall, positives for me massively outweigh the negatives. Having a bag hasn’t stopped me from doing anything I’ve wanted to.

Happy to try and answer any specific questions if you have them.

Saves printing two different sets of dials?

Construction and Use regs ’86:

“35.—(1) Save as provided in paragraphs (2) and (3), every motor vehicle shall be fitted with a speedometer which, if the vehicle is first used on or after 1st April 1984, shall be capable of indicating speed in both miles per hour and kilometres per hour, either simultaneously or, by the operation of a switch, separately. “

Also, EU Regs mandate km/h capability, but allow for mph in markets using imperial measurements, such as UK. So German/French (etc) market vehicles only have to display km/h, though now with digital rather than analogue, many have the ability to display in either.

Nah – 56mph = 90km/h

Relevant to European lorries, but ours?

As ours will have to comply with EU regs, yes, especially if they pop over the Channel. There’s a reason UK spec cars have to be able to display vehicle speed in km/h.

I always thought the 56mph thing was related to fuel economy?

Nah – 56mph = 90km/h

Luton to Harlow week before Christmas, left Luton ~5:30pm, in a f-plate (1989) Sierra 1.6l – so carb, not injection. As it was pretty much street lit all the way got away with running on sidelights (smaller bulb in the dipped beam reflector), kept to the left hand lane on M1 and M25 in case of running out of electricity. Got home fine. Fitted new alternator the following day.

No baby robins harmed during the trip.

I love my brick