Give me a break folks, we lost to the mancs, I’m a bit stressed and this drizzle is causing havoc with me perm! 😉

Is that banter too cb? Or do you wildly stereotype and generalise about about the populations of most UK regions?

As a Liverpudlian, who has met JC on several occasions and had trials with LFC whilst JC was there as a school boy, I can honestly say that I’m unbelievably shocked that he did this. He’s always been friendly, polite and accommodating and this was truly out of character, as far as I know him.

Notwithstanding that, his actions are horrendous, the personal violation of being spat at is terrible and can’t be excused, the actions of the others is poor too though and no one, regardless of wage, how they earn that wage, background or personality should have to put up with it.

No one has come out well, should never have happened but yeah, there is a family dying from a nerve agent and a potential government cover up occurring that should be taking priority.

There’s tons of hotels in the city, get on late rooms etc and have a look, various levels of budget and amenities. I’d try and stay as close to the city centre as possible, it’ll work out better as a base. Campanile or YHA on the Strand might be worth a look.
I was born and brought up in the city, now work there but live outside, so I’m a bit biased, oh and a reds fan, the city is great, brilliant people, loads of history and things to see/do but nothing will top match day at Anfield!
Taxis are cheap but look at the Mersey Travel website for train and bus options
http://www.merseytravel.gov.uk/Pages/Welcome.aspx

On the travel point, take a trip on the Mersey Ferry, nice little trip and the view from the river gives the best view of the cities waterfront too.
Have a great trip and lets hope for 3 points too.

Hi Pete and welcome back.

I live on the other side of Delamere and have been riding/making trails/hurting myself there since 1989, so know the place pretty well.

I ride with the fellas at twelve50bikes in Frodsham a lot and help lead their Wednesday night ride when I can get back from work in time. There’s a good few of us who head out and a wider bunch who ride a the weekend too.

Have a look at the twelve50 facebook page and come along some time.

Delamere is a bit of a bog fest at the minute, never drains well during the winter but there’s miles of singletrack in there if you know where to look.

Cheers, Ross

I’m chasing the Strava holly grail:
Offroad decent
Offroad climb
Road sprint
Road climb

Currently hold 3 out of the 4, all for fun you understand.
I used to get really hung up about Strava and as someone else said, it took over and started ruining rides, now I just ride for the fun, fast where I can and see what happens at the end.

My old man and I used to get so much swag out of Sam’s Yard in Warrington – anyone else remember Sams?
Highlights included –
A Triumph Gloria chassis and running gear.
Various LARGE blacksmiths bellows.
But the the real find was a full set of B17 Bomber wheels and tyres that we sold to the film makers and they ended up on the place in the Eric Stoltz movie.

Happy days, that seem of another time now

I work for Cycling UK as a cycling development officer based in Sefton Council as part of the Liverpool City Region, Merseyside basically.

I sit on a team (Merseyside Road Safety Partnership, as part of my role and we are tasked with reducing cycling casualties across the borough. We have a police task force specifically assigned to our remit and 3 other similar remits – pedestrians/motor cyclists and older road users. Each group have to find ways to address the specific issues. The funding comes from traffic offenses, particularly speeding fines – there is substantial money in this and no signs of it diminishing, however, at least in our area it is being put back into the right areas of improving things for all road users.

Contact your local authorities road safety team and see what they are doing.

Behind the drystone wall at the start of stage 4 (I think) of the Tweedlove EWS last year. The need to ‘Drop the kids off at Heathers’ had become all consuming, so I ‘carefully’ hurdled the wall and engaged in my weight saving to utter relief. All the while the Vets category began queuing oblivious to my mooning I then duly took my place at the front of the queue again (And now you can trace me if you feel the need ;-)).

Not done it myself but witnessed many a bomb dropped at the top of qualifier for the Mega……watch you step in those cleats!!

Another vote for Aigburth, I was born there and grew up for a short time there, before becoming part of the Cheshire set!(More tiny village than mock Tudor nonsense).

I commute in to Bootle by bike and the prom right through to the Pier Head is a great route, unless there’s a headwind!

Other options heading north would be Crosby through to Formby.

This is by far the greatest thread I have seen for many a year, it felt like watching the final episode of some multi season US hit drama when I read the final comment…..sad that it was all over!

So I feel it is my duty to resurrect the phoenix that is ‘Man without a real problem, asks wife to invent a problem so he can ask people how he should tackle said problem’

Type away……

Whilst coaching football in Widnes during the 90’s (I’m from Liverpool) I told the kids I was Robbie Fowler’s cousin. There was a degree of disbelief but they all began to believe me after a while. I was a decent player BITD and had had trials at Liverpool a few years before, I knew a bit about Robbie, being a LFC fan so could fend off some searching questions along the way.

One day one of the lads brought in his own cousin who was attending currently trials with LFC and indeed saw Robbie on a weekly basis, albeit from afar but never the less, more frequent than I did!

The quick thinking and talking became harder but the lies still flowed from my lips convincingly, I was actually surprising myself with my quick witted responses.

The coaching role ended for the summer and we all parted ways, the kids going on their merry way thinking they had been coached for the summer by Robbie Fowler’s cousin…….role on 3 years and I was holidaying in Majorca when my name was shouted across the pool by a lad, struggling to recall the face it came to me that it was ‘Kenny’ from the soccer school, bounding over asking how I was and if Robbie Fowler was with me, I could have come clean but without thinking I just said ‘ Oh no, he’s on preseason at the minute!’

To this day those unsuspecting kids think they were coached by Robbie Fowler’s cousin.

…….and presumably not on Singletrack, franksinatra?

globalti – due to my old fella being an IT dinosaur and me not having enough time to sleep and eat at times, we haven’t got a website I’m afraid.

The links others put up are for another cycling museum in mid wales, which I think has now closed.

As I say, we’ve got a facebook page, search for The Cycle Museum Walton Hall and Gardens.

Little bit of selfless marketing here but my old man and I own a cycle museum (Facebook The cycle museum walton hall and gardens).

Its a small, obviously, family run museum, completely free of charge set in the stable block of a country estate between Daresbury and Warrington.

We’ve got a great collection, even if i do say so myself, of bikes from all walks of life, corners of the world and right through the ages. If you speak nicely to my old fella he’ll also let you ride some of the bikes too.

Take a look at Sprocker Spaniels, cross Cocker and Springer……we went through the same process late last year and figured these could fit the bill.

Ours is ace, we rehomed him, at little cost, but have had to undo some of his behaviour, but he’s got a willingness to learn, bags of character and enthusiasm but will equally be happy to curl up on your lap and fall asleep.

There’s groups on fb with advice and some pages on the web for breeders and people wanting to rehome.

I used 4″ posts on my corner pergola too, seated in brick supports with linking walls/seat – no problem at all, really strong and supports itself fine.

Just give it a go, the format you’ve described pretty much some it up, don’t forget you need insurance now to race, details you will probably find on UKGE website, or links too.

Eastridge is a great venue, only a smallish hill but they laced it with great trails, it also means that the climbing isn’t huge (If that matters to you).

If you haven’t ridden at Eastridge before it’ll also wet your appetite to ride there again.

After careful consideration we plumbed for a Sproker back in December, we found one to rehome who was 8 months at the time. He’s an absolute bundle of fun, full of beans and character but is happy to doze and potter about too.
He’d been loved by his previous owners but was somewhat lacking in the training department, things are improving though and all the talk of Sprokers being the hardest dog to own hasn’t been the case here.
He has chewed a couple of chairs and cardboard boxes (We’ve just moved house too) but nothing major and considering what upheaval he’s had, it’s nothing really.
Don’t expect an easy ride though, they are spaniels after all and Ozzy’s from working stock so loves flushing birds etc out of the undergrowth…….an the ubiquitous trail hound training is coming alont too.

Cookeaa

Stroke of luck or my stars aligned, whichever way you want to look at it.

I was at a conference for my previous employer and the job was advertised during the lunch break – CTC at the time were in partnership with a training organisation (Who were delivering the conference) to deliver a project.
Luckily I was listening at the time and spoke to the facilitator during the break…..long story short I completed the application, went through a rigorous assesment day, formal interview and then got offered the job……the day I got the call is still remembered with a hige smile.

The jobs come up very occaisionally but for cycling related jobs check out Bikebiz, most are mechanic based roles but others do come up.

I’d raced the UKGE at Inners the week before but had to travel back to the NW for work, got up to Peebles Friday afternoon, then raced Sat/Sun completely blind.

After speaking to mates who stayed up and practised from Wednesday I got mixed feelings about the worth of practise, some got spooked by the severity of the tracks (The bad weather didn’t help) and others were knackered from riding.

I was aprehensive about racing it blind but had no choice and actually really enjoyed it, picked the brains of a few riders about important bits to try and remeber but it was refreshing to ride it without knowing what was coming, just difficult to pace yourself throughout a stage.
I bagged 11th in the EWS2 (Still don’t know why I entered 2?) so clearly something went well.

Best race I’ve done (Better than the Mega) for the sheer camaraderie, trails and spirit within the pits and Peebles as host venue.
Planning on re entering again this year.

Love it…..but then I do work as a Cycling Development Officer for CTC.
Spend a great deal of time, planning routes, leading rides, running bike related courses, advising on cycling infrastructure and legislation and generally talking about and riding bikes 5-6 days a week.
The pay is good (Enough for me), colleagues are mint, environment is great and I always look forward to going to work……there isnt a day goes by that I don’t count my lucky stars for landing this job.
I used to work with young people, in a different role and when giving career advice I always said if ou can make your hobby your job, then you’ve cracked it……I know this isnt always acheivable or practical but if you’re gonna spend that many hours doing it, try and find something you enjoy doing.

The snow scene in Russian at the end was a nod to the festive season that it was scheduled to be aired at.

Bearded man visiting children in the snow – gives you the alterate Santa.

Overall I thought it was must watch TV, great acting, good powerful story with some unrelated (In the end) storylines. This along with The Fall have made me want to put the TV on again.

Mines on the 19th, last day in the office before finishing, so no comebacks on the Monday morning.
That said I found out this morning that the only day I can get my new heating system (The full hit) fitted before Christmas is the 20th. The thought of a hangover whilst my house is being ripped a new one is enough to keep me on the Shandys and getting the last but one train home.

wwaswas – strangely uncanny!

Stoner, John and Jo and brother and sister, hence the similarities

I work for CTC and we have done a fair bit of research and study into this area.
The crux of it is, is that if they want it they get it but you need to make your bike more difficult to take than the other. This doesn’t sound the most public spirited but it’s unfortunately the way things are.

http://www.camcycle.org.uk/resources/cycleparking/guidance/cycleparking.pdf

Using a D lock with a cable lock makes it more difficult as they require seperate tools to break them, it’s also imprtant to fill the space in the D lock with your frame, cable lock etc, as the theif users the space for leverage to burst it.

A colleague sitting opposite me, who I do consider a mate, when he gets bored, which is frequent, finds amazing levels of delight in throwing things at me. This can range from the humble screwed up paper ball, to the more rapid elastic band, recently he has upped his game to mints, pens and an hour ago an ball of string, he then proceeded to unravel the string and thread it through the vents of my bike helmet which was on my desk, only when he touched the sweat soaked pads did he stop!
he’s left the office now and I’m tempted to tamper with his desk/keyboard etc but this will only increase his efforts………..still enjoying the peace whilst it lasts

The Twelve50 guys and girls will be there but not in our usual force.
Russ, Ross (me) and Des the Chef aren’t there, although Russ will be there Friday to set up the pits…….so if you see any of them wondering around looking lost without their ususal loco parentis supervision on hand help them back to our pits and make them a sandwich

Try this for size

http://www.ctcshop.org.uk/ctc-plastic-bike-bag/

Grum – I work for CTC and we have a great track record of putting together packages like this. I personally developed 3 after school clubs (High Schools) to deliver mountainbiking, the success led to them writting it into their curriculum and indeed delivering it at GCSE level.

We helped them build pump tracks/features on their premises, put them through Trail Leader and maintenance courses. They now run completely sustainably and are self sufficient, with only occaisonal input from myself just to offer advice.

I know I may be slightly biased 😉 and I’m not suggesting that there will be this same level of support but we have an affiliate memebership pakage (Link in an earlier post) and a bike club toolkit that would answer all your questions and talk you through the processes.

Contact

http://www.ctc.org.uk/contact-ctc

For a chat about what we can offer and how it may fit your needs

Take a look at the Ragley frames, pretty cheap but good quality steel frames. Nice geometry that would suit the Peaks/Dales but equally happy in local woods/towpaths.

I’m sure you could build a nice bike up for the £1000 mark.

Hoping not to sound like a salesman but there are other organisations running courses too. Our CTC courses offer a good progression through from Trail Leader right through to Instructor. We have several courses a year, in a variety of locations.

Have a look at the link

http://www.ctc.org.uk/courses-and-training

Cheers

Always had bikes, strange brown, pedal back brake thingy, with white tyres was first, ended badly when I snapped the headtube off. Somewhere along the way there was a Raleigh Commando, bent the forks jumping over a miniture railway at the base of a dry ski slope! Then the Grifter, followed by a racer before the move on my 16th Birthday that changed my Sundays forever……my first ‘ATB’ a Raleigh Massif. This got me out into our local forest and trails and was upgraded by a Huffy and then eventually a real ‘MTB’ in the guise of a fluro yellow Marin…..things were about to get serious now, with club rides, racing, trips into the Lakes and Wales and the obvious move onto a new bike. The GT Zaskar still sits proudly in the spare room, evoking memories of riding when nothing else mattered or got in the way……I’ll leave now to bask in my 26 years of nostalgia

We stayed at a site a few years back on the side of the mountain on the outskirts of Les Gets.

Really nice site with great views of Mont Blanc in the distance, can’t remember if it had hook up and it is a 15 minute walk into Les Gets (Down through a number of hairpins), this can be a bit of a trek on the way back at night after too many Mutzigs!

It was reasonably cheap, had some basic tools and workshop area for bike fettling and was the nearest site we found to Morzine and Les Gets.

Google maps link below, if it works. Otherwise google La Grange Au Frene

https://maps.google.co.uk/maps?q=les+gets&hl=en&ll=46.151847,6.650033&spn=0.011669,0.019205&sll=53.495347,-2.920192&sspn=0.641305,1.229095&t=h&hnear=Les+Gets,+Haute-Savoie,+Rhone-Alpes,+France&z=16&iwloc=lyrftr:h,15309830802237363904,46.150792,6.64336

https://maps.google.co.uk/maps?q=les+gets&hl=en&ll=46.151847,6.650033&spn=0.011669,0.019205&sll=53.495347,-2.920192&sspn=0.641305,1.229095&t=h&hnear=Les+Gets,+Haute-Savoie,+Rhone-Alpes,+France&z=16&iwloc=lyrftr:h,15309830802237363904,46.150792,6.64336

I’ve completed a couple of CTC courses, including Trail Leader and can highly recommend their courses.

Run by a network of skilled, experienced and knowledgeable leaders, the courses cover all aspects of leadership and group management.

CTC’s old and sometimes still present image of ‘rough stuff’ cycle touring isn’t relevant anymore, the staff team comprises of a complete mix of cycling types, including mountainbikers who have ridden all over the world and raced at every level of the sport…….I know this because I am one of them.

I know my views could be deemed as biased but I can highly recommend them…..link below to Trail Leader course content and dates/venues

http://www.ctc.org.uk/courses-and-training/mtb-leader-courses/trail-mtb-bike-leader-award

As long as you have good front and rear lights, a back up set should the others run out and some bright/reflective clothing I can’t see the police bothering to stop you let alone check your kite marks. The only issue would be if you were involved in a crash that went to court, a clued up brief could check on the validity of your lights.

My Dad use to push him around in his pram…….when he was a baby that is

Is there a point to the question?

I’m about to get one of these for the very same reason

http://www.screwfix.com/p/rechargeable-portable-li-ion-led-site-light-240v-10w/61325

Looks like Liverpool is looking favourable.

If you do fancy looking further up the coast to Crosby and Formby, our works website has some good info.

http://www.visitseftonandwestlancs.co.uk

Liverpool all the way, I’m slightly biased as I was born there, live just outside and work to promote cycling in the north of Liverpool and up towards Southport.

Loads to do both free and at a cost, if you want the coast head upto Crosby/Formby on the northern line out of Central station. Dock area is all refurbished and well worth a look too, tons of bars and restaurants.

You won’t be disappointed.