Verifying your account is very simple, and lifts all of the restrictions.

Paypal can be a bit of a pain, and when it comes to disputes, always seems to side with the buyer.

Overall though, I rate Paypal despite the fact that a lot of people complain about them.

Cheers, Rich

2nd the Nirvana rides, fantastic group and great riding. Various rides to suit different speeds and styles.

Cheers, Rich

Have forgotten socks several times, and boxers, and once just as Molgrips, I forgot my trousers and had to go home to get them :lol: Made a nice 24 mile commute instead of the usual 8 :D

Cheers, Rich

A friend of mine in Serbia had a KTM and liked it, seemed like a decent enough bike. Mid-range aluminium thing, I rode it a few times, rode pretty well.

Cheers, Rich

My last proper fast bike, TL1000S

Replaced by the BMW, which isn't as fast, but a bit more grown up, and an old Kawasaki which I really must get round to riding more

New bike for pottering around India, bought last week. It's older than I am, and the design is about twice as old!

Interesting to ride, gearshift is upside down and on the wrong side of the bike, back brake is also on the wrong side, and the front brake could be a bit more powerful 8O

Cheers, Rich

Inspiring stuff, especially like Stoner's pair of Pompinos and kit 8)

Quite fancy a few weeks of pedalling around France next summer, I wonder if I build a new bike for the missus she'll be game :-)

Cheers, Rich

Am I missing an ironic in-joke?

Although groundspeed will be simulated by moving the wheels, this won't create any lift, as air won't be travelling over the wings.

Therefore it won't take off. Isn't it obvious?

Perhaps with a tiny model plane the surface of the conveyor belt will cause sufficient friction with the surrounding air to move a small body of air in close proximity, but this would be pretty limited.

Plane in a wind-tunnel would be a different matter.

Cheers, Rich

No holiday in India, but I'll take it lieu when convenient

Cheers, Rich

Training will make you faster, but will be more evident in the recovery. I'm sure you'll manage your 26 miles, but I can guarantee that walking down stairs for a few days afterwards will be a challenge :lol:

Good luck and enjoy :)

Cheers, Rich

Realplayer also has a download option, then a conversion tool for changing into various different formats, works pretty well.

Cheers, Rich

Looks good, makes my collection of bikes look very normal indeed!

Liking the chest mounted gopro vid too, I've got mine post mounted at the moment, but the chest gives a better riders eye view without as much of the bike obscuring the shot, but at the expense of a bit more shake I suppose.

Does the chest strap impede on your movement at all?

Oh, on the subject of brakes, obviously hydraulics wouldn't have the nice rubber hood, but surely some of them would work at the right angles to function on a midgealike bar?

Cheers, Rich

I've spent most of the past 6 years odd working abroad, and mrl is pretty close to the mark, and covering most of the bases.

Our company works on the basis of overseas allowance of about 10%, plus a location premium based on a number of factors (language, safety etc) Australia wasn't seen as a hardship, so just the base 10%. Serbia was 25%, Brazil was 30% IIRC, Dubai was 15%, currently in India it works out to be about 40% ish. 40% sounds about right for a civilised part of China.

You also want either the company to provide you with an accountant for preparing your tax return, or an allowance for you to get one, can get a bit messy with overseas tax and equalised tax agreements etc.

Mobile phone certainly a must, I was stung once through things being a little vague on this front.

My contracts have always had a guarantee of at least 3 months work back in the UK after the assignment.

Make the most of your time, should be a fantastic experience. While it's nice to have the familiarity of an ex-pat club, get involved in things with locals to get a better idea of local life. It certainly gives you a different perspective on things when you return home!

Feel free to email me if you want any further info.

Cheers, Rich

The random U-turning tuktuks are sure to add some excitement to a ride :lol:

There appear to be 2 rules here:
1: bigger vehicles have right of way
2: don't hit the car in front

The 2nd rule is quite interesting, it means that you can turn left or right out of a minor road onto a major road, and not look to see if it's safe or clear, as it is the responsibility of everyone else not to hit you 8O

Combine this with typical road repairs

Comically overloaded delivery trikes

and the frequent remains of crashed trucks

it makes everything quite exciting…

Cheers, Rich

I removed this from my ear a few months back 8O not the fuse :lol:

Cheers, Rich

My levers

Cheers, Rich

I've used insulation tape to cover the holes on XTR shifters before, one bike has tape which has held for about 8 years now :lol:

I've also chopped the windows on Deore non-removable indicators, and filled up the resultant slot with silicon sealant which has worked well. I find that with Hope mini levers I need to have the clamp where the indicator sits, so have to remove them.

Cheers, Rich

You will need some shorter chainring bolts, but replacing just the rings is a nice and simple solution.

The more elegant solution is replacing the spider with a duo, but you don't have as much choice with chainring sizes.

Cheers, Rich

McDonalds milk shake or Irn Bru :D

Cheers, Rich

I went for tungsten with a platinum inlay, tungsten stays shiny, and the platinum is a contrasting dull tone.

Missus has titanium for both her rings.

Cheers, Rich

Just looked up the LOCT seats, they look 8) as :D

Cheers, Rich

a pig being chased by a bunch of stray dogs, it didn't seem to be enjoying it 8O although the dogs were :lol:

Cheers, Rich

I use a great little bit of software called Better WMF where you can copy and past directly from AutoCAD to word, and it'll automatically rotate, change colours/line weights etc as required.

Feel free to email me a drawing if you would like me to do any quick copying for you.

Cheers, Rich

Absolutely fantastic, I remember one of your previous videos pre-crotchcam which was ace too 8)

Looking forwards to getting back to the UK and commuting again :D

Think a cam of some sort might be a suitable birthday present to myself :P

Cheers, Rich

In an office in India with no windows, so a selection of walls :(

On the plus side there are some birthday cards sat on my desk to brighten things up :-)

Cheers, Rich

I've had 2 bikes written off by other parties insurance after collisions with cars. I've never claimed for any injuries, as I've never had anything too severe, but have had the value of a replacement bike, helmet, clothing etc, one time also a watch which had the face torn off in the crash.

First time I bought the bike back from the insurance company for scrap for £100 (after a pay-out they effectively own the bike) so you may want to factor this in.

Get a written quote from your bike shop stating the bike is a write-off, and a full list of what it should be replaced with including kit etc.

Might take a few chats with the insurers, but should get sorted out pretty quickly IME.

Good luck, hope you're feeling better soon.

Cheers, Rich

Another vote for the NC10 here, bought one 2nd hand off eGay, under 200 notes, and it's great.

Was mainly for skyping the missus, as I'm away with work most of the time, so it's paid for itself many times over compared to phone calls.

Nice keyboard, great battery life, super portable.

Cheers, Rich

Does Guinness count as a recovery drink :lol:

Cheers, Rich

What you don't want to do it sit them on a red hot electric ring for a while to burn off the residue. I did this not that long ago and found that the pad material fell off the backing as I'd fried the adhesive :?

Doesn't cost much to try and clean them up, certainly worth a shot before binning, certain compounds are more easily contaminated than others – one of the advantages of sintered pads I believe.

Cheers, Rich

Not sure if I can remember throwing away any tyres ever 8O

I'm sure I must have done, as I've been riding MTBs for about 13 years :lol:

If only I could say the same about motorbike tyres…

Cheers, Rich

I love my current Alpinestars boots (got 2 different pairs) but found my first pair which were fairly low end weren't that great.

Frank Thomas is reasonable stuff, but I've found the quality to be variable. My 6 year old winter gloves were going strong until the other day when I melted one on my exhaust DOH! The textile jackets I've had haven't fitted particularly well, and have had poppers fall off etc.

Dainese have a budget range which is well worth looking at, Lione, same quality as their higher end stuff, but not as flashy.

Cheers, Rich

Does anyone know if the Garmin Edge 500 supports any sort of mapping?

Follow the line would be fine, via a gpx file I assume, but it's hard to tell from the website if this is possible, or if it's purely a route recording device.

Any thoughts appreciated.

Cheers, Rich

I'm going to have a go at lobster thermidor :D

It'll probably be a disaster, so fingers crossed :lol:

Not sure about starter/pudding yet, might go for some scallops.

Cheers, Rich

1h 40 each way
project engineer
and not as often as I would like!

Cheers, Rich

Does it help to add that I drive a BMW and ride a BMW :lol:

TJ in high horse non shocker :roll: :D

Cheers, Rich

I'm with Renton on this, probably would have done pretty much the exact same thing.

On the motorbike, I generally don't bother trying to persuade cars to move out of the way, and just treat them as mobile chicanes :D

Cheers, Rich

I can confirm that a google image search for "Dirty Jo in action" isn't recommended to be done at work :lol:

Tinsy, had it almost exactly 5 years now, love it.

I hope your Scandal fills the hole your tinbred left :(

Cheers, Rich

I bought my tinbred after it had broken and been repaired.

Don't have exact details for the repairer, but it was an ex-Raleigh special products welder.

Before: (not a great photo I'm afraid)

After:

Has been perfect for my existence, not sure of the cost of the repair.

Hope this helps, Mail me and I can put you in contact with the previous owner who had it repaired.

Cheers, Rich

One thing with Apple products is that you don't ever see them discounted, so unless you're at an airport to get them tax free, or are buying second hand, they're all the same price.

However, it's worth keeping an eye on the Apple store – they have a refurbished section for macs and ipods. Bottom left hand side of the store page, under special deals. I bought a touch from there which had a discount of about 40% iirc. Free postage, and I couldn't tell that it wasn't new when it arrived.

Cheers, Rich
None on there at the moment, but if you're not in a hurry it might be worth having a regular check.

Cheers, Rch

Saw quite a bit of this when I was at Middleburn. IME once you run cranks loose, that's it, they'll never be the same. Never tried shimming or filing though.

Give Matt a ring on 01420 520223 and I'm sure he'll do you a good deal on a replacement arm.

Cheers, Rich