Gold – not white gold – proper gold.

! = 😥

? = 😀

Mat – thanks – I've surfed most of the SW but never Porthtowan. I can recommend an East Coast trip – Scarborough North up into Northumberland. Some of the most consistent surf (honest – proven through a degree study by a guy at Newcastle Uni a while back) and some great waves. Gabe Davies and Sam Lamiroy grew up on the same beach as me in Tynemouth – they do something right up there!

Tell me about Porthtowan – I'm planning a week there with the family in September.

Stop tarting about girl! I ride Flows and weigh twice what you do so, despite not riding DH, they get a hammering that they shrug off.

Erm………some of us call them '29er' these days. Just look up 29er rims on CRC for example.

Being away from home for years at a time at war
Rickets
Polio
Typhoid
Shell shock
lead pipes for water
smog

Sweeping off the load bed rather than stuff flying off when moving – which would be a bit dangerous and leave the driver liable.

ddmonkey – that should teach you to have better control of your kids and be a responsible parent.

If you'd rather put form over function, get a bike that is too small for you. It might look big when you're not on it, but a bike too small will just make it look like you stole it from a smaller kid. Just get the proper sized bike for you and you'll not spend loads on longer stems and layback seatposts to force it big enough.
You answered your own questions – you want this but you need bigger.

Why do people go to experts, get expert advice from an expert, then try to force a different answer because they 'want it to look smaller'? 🙄 It doesn't need to be chuckable, you don't need to drop the seatpost for descents, you don't need it short to loft over drops or manual – you need the right size bike. It looks tall? SO DO YOU!

I run the XCG and it works well at protecting the outer ring and stops the chain coming off the inside of the 3. As said, not a chain device but does a good job for the bashing.

Whilst it is obviously the duty of the rider going against the grain to keep an eye out for approaching riders, it may also help if all riders kept an eye out for riders approaching in the opposite direction.

However – if you are some sort of racing snake, too important to speak, too special to ask, won't even make eye contact, offer to go left or right or even slow down YOU ARE A CHOD AND NEXT TIME I WILL JUST RUN YOU DOWN AND RIDE OVER YOUR CRUMPLED BIKE AND WHINGING BROKEN BODY YOU RUNT! YOU WILL HURT MORE THAN ME!

This happened several times on my one lap today. On narrow sections. Anyone polite was accommodated, anyone coming past in my direction I side-stepped for. However, the special types barging around the wrong way really stood out and will not find me so fluffy next time. The monster truck will roll.

*breathes*

You think it will feel too big because you've allowed too small to become normal for you. You've never had what really fits so you've rationalized what you've got.
They don't make bikes big enough for you off the peg. You're outside the bracket.

Tell you what – get it made and I can find you 20 blokes who will take it off your hands if you don't like it. You need to give it a fair chance too – not just up and down the street a bit.

Having the occasional 'unjustified hangover' is all part of growing up. You'll possibly discover that you don't need a skin full to have a good night out as well. Some call that 'maturity'.

I've always wanted to ride Steep Hill from top to bottom. The way I ride and when I'd like to ride it would require full armour!

Having said that a lot (but not all) instances of physical problems can be overcome.

Yes – and even if you are in the 'impossible' group there, the health 'professionals' still run from formula feeding and there is a void of information – which is very disconcerting to a soon-to-be mother who knows it is all she can have. I'm not talking about people choosing not to breast feed here – I'm talking about the people who should provide the information but are in fear of the legislation that promotes breast feeding – totally different thing.

that horrible plastic pub in EG.

Went once on fact-finding mission. Formed judgement. Won't go back.

The Mill Stone. Ugh.

Well, buying from an offy, at home!
I'm Emersons Green way so only really been to the Bridge Inn and a couple of other places around there.

The reason for the pro-BF propaganda is that a lot of people just can't be arsed with it for their own convenience.

Nope – its down to the over-eager interpretation of blanket legislation. We knew MrsTT wasn't going to be able to breast feed in advance, yet the help was not there and the implied stigma was shocking – not the way a developed country should behave.

Buy good quality bibs – not cheap ones that don't absorb anything. Good bibs and swaddling the baby works really well.

Sell bike.
Save up rest.
Buy proper bike.

or

Get stupidly long seatpost.
Ride wrong size bike.
Break something.
Buy proper size bike.

Get yer mum to do your shopping for you. I think you might be safer.

There there.

Big holes the size of wee bikes? rough?

Sounds like a job for the Monster Truck Bike! RROOAAARRRRRRR!

If you're riding it and hear the rumble of a minor earthquake closing in, it'll be me on the Sultan!

You're a dad as well now – short of time these days. I'm exploring the bridleways North as well.

They were a very expensive alternative for a couple of turns of inner tube secured with tape. IMHO.

I've never ridden the Timberland Trail. Perhaps I could bag me a skinny wannabe racer scalp if I managed to catch one head on!

Expected – the word is expected – or perhaps accepted – but not excepted. 🙄

Moses

Humpers
26 Soundwell Road
Bristol BS16 4QW

Looks like nothing from the outside – they have the plastic containers there or take your own. Prices vary between £1-20 a pint and £1-60 for the reet fancy stuff.

You'll not see a Specialized 29er FS on these shores – I don't think they are doing anything.

You're in the 99th percentile for height – thats taller than 99% of people on the planet – not the UK – the world.

Manufacturers usually make for something close to the 70th percentile – as in from 15th to 85th percentile – the averages. There is almost no profit outside this banding as the market is so small (the very tall and the very small – although since we all start off small, this end is easier to accommodate).

It took me this to realise I was never going to find the bargains and, if I wanted something, it might cost me more. You'll be very hard pushed to find anything comfortable in your price range with those requirements. 29ers (IMHO would suit you more) are in the minority and thus more scarce – the FS side is only now getting sorted.

Save up more, plan a holiday to the USA and come back with more than a smile!

I'd love someone to explain what these bikes are good for compared to a normal bike

Go ride one – don't talk, act.

For the Bristolians, Humpers is the off license for the discerning cider drinker – about 6 on draught including Cheddar, Westons and Janet's Jungle Juice – all mental and lovely.

Go to the USA, take your bike with you, obtain a bike, bring a bike back.

Us normal blokes don't have many options that are less than an arm and a leg to obtain.

Yale do the same as the Xena alarm linked to – but you can link it in with other alarm components as well. They are rather loud and do a good job but not a substitute for physical barriers as well.

Soma have been selling that for years. Seems fairly reasonable for the morning ride in to work and only as pretentious as riding with a hip flask cage.

Webbs of Warmley – Simon the owner built my heavy duty commuter wheels – they're great! Tell him I sent you and the Lastkingofsweden also speaketh well of the chap.

because some people are attention whores and will do anything to draw attention to themselves?

How cheap do you want to look? If you are only using it a couple of times, the implication is that you want/need to look smart. If you need it for fancy dress, Asda. Smart for a reason? Go to M&S.

Interesting article:

http://www.bicycling.com/tourdefrance/article/0,6802,ss1-3-11-21021-1,00.html

If you cycle with a power meter, you know that a fairly strenuous ride yields an average of about 140 watts for an hour. Mount your bike to a generator, slice off 30 percent for mechanical and electrical losses, and you've put out a measly 100-watt average during your sweaty hour. It amounts to around a penny's worth of electricity, one three-hundredth of a typical home's daily use—not enough juice to run the PlayStation for 15 minutes.

So you'll spend more energy producing than you'll get – which is fine if you are a fit fatty with a spare 6 hrs a day!

How about a split charger on your car and charge the leisure battery up driving to / from work as well? Or get an inverter and charge the laptop at the same time? Or charge a spare laptop battery at work?

Another banned idiot returns under a different name. Great.

No numbers here, but you'd need an awful lot of pedal power to do that. It would probably be more effective to look at solar charging – unless you want to spend all night every night like a hamster!

Technical stuff:

bicycle-generator-faq

Numberplate must match. Numberplate must conform to British Standards.

Saying that, I see so many people not doing the above I do wonder. If you're unlucky, you'll get busted.