Hi DDmonkey

I have exactly the same symptoms at the moment – bursitis – irritation of the synovial fuild sac between the muscles on the outside of the hip and the bone, plus what feels like a mild groin strain. I've had it on and off for two years and I find that if I don't warm up properly/push too hard too quickly I get it badly.

I'm taking Ibuprofen / ice packs to reduce it. I think it's due to my back not being strong enough and lack of flexibility (probably coupled with too much driving). So I'm doing lots of streches and core muscle excercises. I got rid of it over the summer but then had 8 weeks off with a broken collarbone. Now I think I've done too mcuh too soon and agravated it.

Let me know if you sort yours out.

Hi Bushwacked

Basically with most companies they will have decided that you are the one they want to let go – for whatever reason – logical or illogical – and they will play the rules to get their way. The power in this situation isn't in your hands. Usually in Sales the reason they give is the bottom line. Check your figures ASAP.

I reckon that you just have to get the best possible outcome if they really want you out and move on.

Hi I have had a Seiko Kinetic auto relay for 8 years. Never a problem. I also have a beautiful kinetic Tissot (Swiss quality without paying extra for the name), but I hardly wear it unless I'm fully suited up.

not according to the link. Southerners (specifcally The City) subsidisies Wales and Northern Ireland. As I'll be telling my in-laws in the third world aka S.Wales.

Actually I have no problem with this – being a Northerner living in the SE.

It's not an 80's Mercian. If I read it right it's a 2007 Mercian – hence the Carbon forks. He probably paid around a grand for the frame and with all that NOS Campag on it he's probably spent alot of money putting it together. Over 2K. It's a pity it looks like a dogs dinner :D

I'm getting my fifteen year old Dave Yates 653 refurbed soon but the steel forks are remaining and the Record carbon groupset off my best bike is going onto it. The biggest changes over the years IMHO is in the components not in frames – at least for steel. Hence I'll have a lovely Sunday morning coffee stop bike the changes gear and stops properly.

john was begining to sense that the ebay description for his new full susser might not have been 100% accurate

djglover your are of course right. Your total cumulative tax allowance before higher rate is £43875 – even less reason to need vouchers!

ranos – higher rate of tax is £37400. If you are higher rate tax payers then you should be able to afford childcare without the vouchers. I can't think of an arguement against this. I'm a higher rate tax payer and haven't claimed them for our childcare because I feel like it's not ethical, even if I pay huge amounts of income tax.

juan post-doc jobs are hard to get at due to funding constraints. Plus if you haven't finished your write up people don't want to take you on until it's done otherwise you can't fully commit to the new job and there is the risk that you might not pass. She shouldn't have moved to London until she had gone through her viva. Basically she was scientifically niaeve alougth obviously not niaeve in other ways.

I reckon that it's just a plug to improve her citation index.

When I was teenager I worked on my friends small holding cleaning out the chickhen batteries. Worst job I've done. You almost have to burn your clothes afterwards.

Considering the forecast for Saturday, not queuing for the Eye in the rain.

I'd say the Science or Natural History are first choice if you've not been before.

make sure the arm warmers fit right up the top of your arm – if you are wearing a thermal top then put them over the top and under the jersey. They grip better to material than skin. I have a couple and Assos are the best but as long as they have good grippers it doesn't matter.

"What emits at 560nm following excitation at 460nm?"

Something with a long stokes shift? Big lifetime fluorescence molecule?

I had great sushi. That was about it!

There is a big difference between the Black Chilli and non-Black Chilli contis. The non black chilli are too "hard" and hence slippy. I'd pay the extra and only go for the black chilli ones. I've used a black chilli Mountain King on the back of my Fuel Ex this year and been very happy with it.

full suspension!

BigJohn you have it right. At first graduate interview time, unless you have some un-imaginably unique set of skill that are in demand (pretty unlikely at the moment) – the cards are with the employers. You should wait until being asked in an interview, until prompted or at first offer. Once you have an offer negotiate as far as you can push it (you'll never have a better oppertunity). Once you are up the greasy pole with experience and hopefully a good track record then you can play hardball with salary negotiations or turn down jobs out of hand due to insufficient pay, but not at the first stage.

midlifecrashes – one word accidents. They might know not to land on their heads but for instance the accident when someone else jumps up and they are catapulted off the trampoline without intending too and they land on their head has little to do with percieved risk.

I perfectly understand risk and so does my saon. He's seen dad's broken collar bone this summer and he's seen broken bones in football. But not putting in place a reasonable safety precaution, with possibly serious adverse consequences, when you can, seems biazarre to me. Each to their own though.

we got a jumpking (I think largest manufacturer globally) with a enclosure that fits inside the springs, hence the best for safety. It has definitely been used more than anything else we've bought. Very well built.

Midlifecrashes – I hope you are joking ot talk to a paediatric orthopedics surgeon.

Because somebody who is looking for the job primarily for the money is less likely to do the job as well as someone interested in the job (and the money). Someone who pushes the money straight up rather than being interested in what the job is all about wouldn't get a job with me.

Having conducted lots of interviews, I'd say that there may be a vague discussion of money but no real discussion until the offer is on the table. Somebody asking up front/straight away for the cash may seem less appealing than someone who wants the job for other reasons. Like they might enjoy it. Plus if they offer you the job you know that they want you and you may get a better offer.

If you are interested in how much the job pays. Try asking some other people in the industry, google it or ask on a forum.

Yep covers multiple single bikes up to £4K no exceptions except jewelery. I've lots of expensive road / MTB bikes :-)

"changing the cassette will make more of a difference than changing the chainset." err no. It's the cumulative gear inches. Changing the chainset or cassette will have the same effect quite often, you will end up with the same gear. It sounds to me that the original questioner need to change both.

If it's Shimano – then there is loads of cassette availablity but for Campag it's much more limited.

a 39×26 is almost exactly the same gear inch as a 34×23. Change to a compact and a bigger cassette, spin up those hills and enjoy yourself. It's always better to have too many gears than not enough.

They might might still be going but they have never caught on. Worried about whether you need the 20mm front axle rather than a 9mm axle then look away now http://www.slingshotbikes.com/

My jones ACX are hanging on the garage wall. Far too tight to bother puting on the Bonty rims they came with. The might be OK with a 22mm rim but for a 24-25mm rim they are lever busting tight. I don't enjoy that sort of hassle out on the trail.

Genetic predisposition to alcohol. People from Asia generally have a polymorphism that makes them produce less alcohol dehydrogenase (the enzyme that breaks down ethanol) hence they get drunk quicker. Not sure whether this makes them more likely to be addicted too.

Some people definitely have this and/or a addictive personality, which long term is a very poor combination for health.

The way our bodies work biochemically (phenotype) is largely due to genetic predisposition and this is begining to be better understand. Even things like mental disorders.

Part of the problem with any drug (alcohol or other) is that until you take it you don't know the pharmogenomic effects. Hence you might be the 0.1% of the population that cannibis has very serious mental side effects too (or whatever the proportion is) but you won't know in advance.

This gives me a break from explaining this sort of stuff to my customers!

The issue with Nutts seems to me to be that he's talking about the stark figures of relative risk factors not social attitudes eg. ecstasy vs horse riding is a good example. The figures don't say that one is legal and one illegal. It's like if I suggested a highly addictive new drug, that cost a fortune per gram, that had many side effects such as heart disease, lung disease and a massively raised risk of cancer, it would be made instantly illegal. But it's socialy fairly acceptible, Smoking eh!

Abergavenny or Brecon
Dorking (if you have to live and MTB in the SE)
Alnwick/Alnmouth (was there last week)
St Davids

For cities
London (sorry still love it)
Newcastle
Cambridge

All good for riding except Cambridge! – but a more dynamic business place is harder to find in the UK

Lots of the Valley's. methyr etc.. are terrible. More social assistance than the old Soviet Union. Truly depressing places.

Scariest place ever Belfast a few years ago. My shaven head and english accent, then being asked if you are "army" in very menacing tones. Much better now.

I travel all over the UK and I think that many places are similarly disadvantaged, clearly massive imabalances in the UK (although MTB'ing is doing it's small bit for some parts of Wales). People in deepest leafy Surrey (where I live) have no idea about the rest of the UK. Many here have never visited much of the UK.

Having ridden Kysriums for years and many thousands of miles on the road, pinging is a sign of spokes going (always exciting as they shoot of like arrows when under high tension on a road bike). I'd lube the nipples and get a alloy Mavic spoke key to sort them. This usually works for me and I've bust a few on my road bikes, although a lot less than some other wheel types!

The Yanks pulled the Russians out of a Nazi shaped hole not us. With the airwar won we were relatively safe by 1942. We would have effectively been in stalemate in all probability. It was the Russians who were messed up. I bet that gives all our American a warm feeling!

ton – I would love to commute by bike but they aren't too much cop on the M25. On the plus side I work from home ~3 days a week so whilst you are cycling to and from work on the road I'll be in the woods for a couple of hours this lunctime.

jimmy – gargage – maybe garbage is the term you are looking for? However it's genius. I'm hooked and so is the missus. All medically correct too although obviously farfetched

I have an Afline Inbred http://www.muddymoles.org.uk/2008/12/alfine_review.html which I've had for two years. I've ridden it through two completely claggy winters with no problems. It's been sitting all summer and just knocked off the mud, then ready to roll.

rode the Pronghorn enduro this morning and it was the wettest ride I've had in ages. It bascially bucketed down before the event and for the first 1.5hrs. The whole place was a complete mudpit and some of the berms were filling up way over the axels. Great fun!

I run a 33×18 which is about the same as a 32×25 in bottom gear (I hardly ever use a granny on my triples). A 32×20 would be a fairly low – like a granny in all but the bottom couple of gears.

got this upgrade for my mini maglite and another for my D-cell maglite. The AA maglite is bright but not that impressive. Definitely not as bright as the Tesco torches some of my friends ride with. The D cell maglite is stonking. However I converted both to save on batteries. I hate it when you come to use a torch and find the batteries flat.

Tubs are great to ride on. The ride beatifully but I'd say that they are strictly for road racing. I'm not sure about rolling resistance but they are marginally better road racing, more esp criterium racing, where they are best for hard cornering. I'm with Crikey though. They are a complete pain to get on/off (on road bikes) and I've never changed one quickly or not got covered in glue.

I don't use tubs any more. Too much of a pain really to bother. To reduce rolling resistance and get a similar feel to road tyres, I use latex inner tubes for road racing. I do wonder how much of the good feel of high quality tubs is due to the latex inners they use? If I was going down the tubs line I'd go for one of the new road tubeless tyres.

The tubs in fixie thing is pure posing.

just finished a Halloween party for 11 six year olds. Not much into Halloween myself but I love to see the kids having fun. Things move on and although I didn't do Halloween as a kid I appreciate that times have changed and I go with it. I'm knackered know. I think it's time for a beer soon!

Hi TNFalpha. Tumour necrosis factor alpha (it's nothing to due with cancer in this instance it's just where it was first found) is a protein that is released during auto-immune reactions. The TNFalpha antibody basically takes TNFalpha out of circulation due to a standard immunue response reaction.

It can have dramatic positive effects.I had a mate a few years ago who almost couldn't walk due to Rh arthritis and he was back to normal almost in a few days. Amazing really. No idea what it does for Crohn's – sorry.