I’m into seven figures now. Actually, it is 7.

Exactly this happened to me the other day. Walked into the changing room and there’s our neighnour stood there SBN. Not the first time this has happened so just carry on as normal and say hello to him and strip off.
He then pipes up “it’s a bit worrying, being recognised naked, isn’t it” !
Fair play to him, wish I’d thought of that.
I thought afterwards I should have said “At least it wasn’t *his wife’s name* that I recognised” but wasn’t quick enough

My dog’s called Reba, seriously !
I was wondering what the smell was

Anybody mention that odious Richard Branson knob-head yet ?

I just go down the pub, they’ve got free wifes down there

Thou Julia is wearing too much makeup these days for my liking. Much too much.

FTFY !
:D

I’ve used some skinny Kenda Small Block 8’s that I thought were pretty good on towpath commute, 1.95’s I think they were

Endomondo

Thrust bearing
Instant gasket
Girt bar
Cowl gills
Sonic screwdriver
Gunk
Whacker plate
Birmingham screwdriver

Good news for defence budget cuts then as I hear gas is cheaper from the US

Interesting question, I wonder if military aircraft fuel is tax-free like civil aviation ?

No I think they’re during the day strangely, an early afternoon arrival and a dawn departure. They are notoriously tricky to land, they have a chase car that follows the landing aircraft along the runway giving the pilot instructions on what the aircraft is doing, the chase cars have another U2 pilot onboard. Also on departure they are unstable and heavy due to the departure fuel load, they have outriggers on the wingtips (to prevent the wingtips contacting the ground) that fall away as the wing achieves positive lift. The outriggers then need to be retrieved by the chase car.
I guess all this faffage require daylight ?
As a guess, it’s more likely to be somthing going into/out of Brize Norton that you’re hearing. The U2 is relatively very quiet (and small) but some of the older coal-burning types at Brize like the VC10 and Tristar, and some of the Russian types that visit are way noisier.
Also the RAF charter various types for their air bridge out to Ascension and the Falklands and these can often be older generation types. What’s the schedule for those flights ? You can find our easily I would imagine as the public can buy tickets on those flights.

By the way. the 100ARW at Mildenhall aren’t exclusive to the U2 at all, they will service all kinds of trade, often not even US. They’ll go and park themselves in a racetrack pattern over the North Sea, off Cornwall, or over the Med and wait for the fast jets to show up. There is a website ‘Banter Ops’ that I used to have a login for where you could see what was coming and going from Mildenhall and Lakenheath. Often you’d see a tanker, or several, launch from Mildenhall and soon after a bunch of F15s from Lakenheath, they’d be calling something like RANGER or MATRIX, whatever, you could often tell from the jets callsigns which ones the tankers were on their way to service.
And there are other active units at Mildenhall, the 101SOS I believe with their Herks and H53s (soon to be Ospreys) and the SRW boys who have their Rivet Joints (RC135s) to play with.

In the days of the SR71 Blackbird, they used a unique fuel which only the KC135Q tankers were able to carry. You always knew when there was a Blackbird about, the Q’s would all launch about 3 hours beforehand.

Fascinating stuff ….. (or is just me ?)

Not at all, the U2’s are in service right now over Afghanistan and who knows where else. They transit through Fairford every couple of weeks, one going west and the one other east to relieve the first. They’re hangared over night and sent on their way the next morning. You can tell when they’re coming, a NOTAM is issued declaring the runway at FFD open for about four hours (it’s usually closed).
They’re way modified now, far more capable than they were in the Gary Powers era.
They were renamed as TR1s for a while but they’re back as U-2s now, U2S IIRC.

Yes, you can get a map of just the canal in paper form, they are (or were) produced by a company called geo Map. Have a blue cover, try Googling.

I’ve done that a couple of times over the years, although not in one long stretch. I’ve started at Wolverton, near MK, and gone North. A couple of times I went to Stratford and the other time to Birmingham. And then I’ve been south to London a few times.
It’s an interesting ride, more so in and around towns, interesting industrial heritage to investigate, nice pubs and tea shops in the rural areas. Best done mid-week and outside of school holidays to avoid walkers, bored kids and very grumpy maggot danglers as much as possible. One of the times was on a Saturday and I ran (not literally) into a fishing match, mile after mile of (see above) all with tons and tons of kit spread over the towpath and those stupid rods that are longer than the canal is wide (WHY ?). For some reason they have a right to be there and you don’t ?!?!. Allegedly.
A bit boring in between the towns, but you’re not between towns for long.
There was one stretch that was hideously overgrown and virtually unrideable on all of the occasions, this was just to the North of Braunston and went on for about three miles up to around Napton Junction (I think) where the Oxford canal and GU mainline diverge.
There are one or two sections that you aren’t supposed to cycle on, but they are few and far between and appear to be no different to the other parts. I ignored this and no-one challenged me.
You’re supposed to have a permit to cycle along the towpath which you can get for free from Waterscape.com. I’ve never been asked for it by anyone so I gave up carrying it.
Hope that helps.

Out of interest, where can I find instructions / diagrams for servicing Fox forks ?

Haven’t Marin become Whyte ?

I have a special pair of HER pants for such occasions.

Try a bike fitting session, I went with CycleFit in Covent Garden after suffereing with my knees for years. Much better now, they look at reach, saddle height, shoes etc etc. Not cheap mind but money well spent IMHO.

Mucky Nutz do something called the “Butt Fender”, which sounds simlar to the Ass-Saver thing

Nightshift tonight, here til 0630. Could be worse

Not the in-laws, who are generally great, but my own M :

Constant weather updates.
All sorts of crap information, which must be absolute gospel as ‘they’ say so, whoever the **** ‘they’ are.
Reminding us every five minutes to give the dog his medication, like we’ve been doing perfectly happily every day for the last six years without needing reminding.
Constant questions about what time we’re going to do this and what time we’re going to do that. Usually not even today but three days hence.
Absolute silence required required during *insert name of garbage soap opera here* or Downton Abbey, but talks endlessley over the top of anything worthwhile that we’re trying to watch.

Hurrumph.

Just a suggestion – if you can get some relatively cheap business class tickets with BA, you can take two pieces of checked baggage up to 32kg each. Your bike can be one of them, size is irrelevant. You’ll also be able to use the lounges on departure for free food/drink and get fed and watered properly on the aeroplane. Nothing to pay in the way of extra charges for the bike.

You don’t have a Spicy 514. You either have a Spicy 516 or a Zesty 514.

D’uh ! you’re quite correct :oops:, it’s a Spicy 916. I’ll go away now.

Sorry to slightly hijack the thread, but it seems like a good question to ask …
I went on speed awareness course last year and the guy quoted a phone number that can be used (instead of 999) to summon the emergency services which will record your location automatically rather than you needing to describe it yourself as you do with 999 apparently.
Anyone know what that number is, I can’t remember. or did I dream that ?

a 514 frame would be a Zesty

I don’t think that’s true, I’ve got a Spicy 514 (2012) i.e. It’s not a Zesty

Why do I love mountains so much?

Cos they’re there ! :-)

Yeah, but she got a lovely set of placemats :-)

We have a Viz, I can’t recommend them highly enough. Beautiful, lovely, bright, intelligent, bidable, loving dogs. They’re called velcro dogs for a reason, they absolutely HAVE to be in your lap the moment your @rse touches the sofa !
From our experience they will take as much exercise as you’re willing to give them, ours doesn’t NEED huge amounts, he’ll have about 45 mins in the morning plus half an hour at lunch and again in the evening. But if we decide to go for a 15 miler he’ll trot along quite happily all day. He’s 11 now and just as enthusiastic as ever, calmed/slowed down a bit since he was younger, but will still run like the wind when there’s another dog to chase.
We’ve been quite lucky I feel, he doesn’t seem to mind being left on his own too much and has never been destructive or chewey. We always give him Kongs stuffed with his dry food if we go out for any length of time which keep him amused and something to chew on.

Things to watch out for :
Can be a bit neurotic, ours hates travelling in the car, on a bus or by train. He will get in the car but rarely relaxes, and shakes beforehand. Must have scared him at some point as he used to be ok.
Get them used to this early-on.
And he hates black labradors on sight for some reason, prob had a nasty experience with one a few years back that we’ve forgotten about.
Can be a bit over-dominant with other dogs too, I think it’s an insecurity thing.
They have their signature health issues, as all breeds do. They’re prone to eye problems. Ours had a glaucoma about five years ago and lost an eye becuase of it. Medication has kept the other healthy ever since much to the vets amazement, we expected him to lose the other at some point after a year or two.
There is a disease (whose name I forget) that causes muscle-wasting around the head and is very serious, ours doesn’t suffer luckliy but it is out there.
Ours was mildly haemophiliac when he was much younger but he grew out of it early-on. Would bleed from various places for no reason, notably gums and wedding tackle (!). Used to take longer than usual to heal from wounds like general cuts and grazes and from when he had the snip.
Do some Googling about Vizsla health issues.
A lot of these issues are genetic and if you can trace the bloodline of your prospective pup you can avoid those families with any history of these problems.
Hope that helps. Go for it, they are wonderful dogs.

Jesus, is it April the 1st ?

Oooooo, I love a bit of FlightRadar24 !

James Corden

Winding up Wendyballists by calling them Wendyballists

there is always the vegetarian option

Go on then, I’m intrigued, what is the vegetarian option ?

‘the boy’ when commentators are talking a wendyballist
**** OFF !

Oh yeah ‘my bad’ – what the chuff does that mean ?
That really irritates my ‘English grammar’ spot

Oh I was wondering what happened to that, I thought it was on last night. I bet it will turn in to a cyclist-bashing exercise though but I will watch with interest.

Get a bigger dog and keep it in the bin.

Yeah I agree M-C, I’m lucky in that respect. Each to their own I guess. Dunno what time his lates start but there’s three mornings right there when he could do something. For me, the more I lie around the house/bed the worse I feel, so perhaps dragging himself out for ride (or something else) before a nightshift would improve how he feels over time and he’d begin feel better.
I would struggle to sleep during the day before my first nightshift if I didn’t do something energetic, have to ride or something in the morning then hit the sack for a few hours and get up about 6. So maybe CTW should try doing something after a nightshift and before bed to make himself properly tired.
It’s surpsrising how often I can find somebody else to ride with mid-week too with the above multiple group sceanrio. And if not, well, I have no problem riding alone, just me and the trails and the music. Just plan in a coffee or a lunch stop for some human interaction.

Hello CTM. I work shifts, 6 on/4 off, lates/earlies/nights, 2 of each, and I love it.
Gives me so much more usable ‘me’ time than I seemed to have doing 9-5, I ride far more (in the summer especially) than I used to.
The trick for me is to cultivate more than one set of riding buddies, one week I can get out with Group A on a Wednesday night, the next week it’s Group B on a Thursday and so on. Joined a couple of MTB clubs, so sometimes I can make Club A’s events and sometimes Club B’s.
I’m trying to cross-pollenate them a bit so that some of each group get to know some of the others etc.
Sometimes I’ll organise a ride on a day/evening that suits me and invite all of them.
I find that on days in the winter where the weather is pants I’ll do someting else, I belong to a gym so stuff like swimming, pushing weights around, turbo-trainer (in my garage), Spinning, circuit training.
I seem to be quite lucky in that I can survive on relatively little sleep and have no problem sleeping at home during the day. I’m motivated enough (like this morning) to set my alarm to get in the pool by 8am, then weights, then lunch, then work by 2pm. Rather than lying around in bed. Tomorrow is an early so I’ll be circuit training in the evening after work and then I’ll ride Friday morning before bed for a few hours and then a night shift.
Between the two nights I struggle to do anything on the way home in the morning, too tired, I’d rather sleep til 3ish and then go for a ride, or the gym, or ride back to work for the next night shift at 9:30.
Having said that, I do love going for a swim on my way home after a night (35 mins or so) so pretty quick and then it’s really nice to snuggle up in bed afterwards especially when it’s peeing down and blowing a gale outside and every other bugger is on their way to work.
I commute regularly-ish, but invariably end up on the road going at least one way in the dark so really I prefer to ride earlier/later in the day in my own time off road on trails I choose rather than ‘have’ to ride to work.
Although I did have some magical evening commutes in the summer on the mountain bike on the canal towpath, so much nicer than the road, riding into the dusk, watching the lights come on, boats on the canal, pub gardens etc.
Sorry that was all a bit long-winded, but in summary :
1. Find different groups of people to ride with.
2. Try other stuff than just riding. Variety is the spice etc. I think actually that ddoing a variety of stuff is really beneficial.
3. Be flexible, even if you only have an hour, go for a run, turbo, a good stretch, anything is better than nothing.
Give us a shout if I can be or any more help.
Cheers
:-)