Thanks for all the recommendations – so many!

TM

The 100 year old man who climbed out of the window and disappeared by Jonas Jonasson

Yes – read that last year and miss it. good suggestion. More like that please.

Still miss The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern

Keep em coming. all good :)

TM

Super – all those bought. love the lucky dip responses :)

any more?

Thanks TM

Thanks everyone for the offers

I swung a leg over Mings ridiculous carbon cheating bike yesterday. Its a Trek Superfly of some description and quite amazing. The slightest puff of effort sees you speeding ahead, and that coupled with the bigger wheels means you just don’t seem to slow down either!

TM

Cheers Matt, much obliged.

I ride 26 s/s (with boing)and agree its helpful.

TM

Matt

excellent. are both singlespeed?

we have a shared love of meaty flavoured savoury snacks

TM

Dr P – thanks – let me add that to the Travelmanager program that is being run for our Christmas/new year plans :)

TM

@Ming – lol! I thought it was helium and bubble wrap. A seriously light bicycle…

TM

Ming – noted :) and its a laaaavely bike too (despite being plastic)

DrP – ooooo! where in sussex please?

TM

Blimey – what a great response! :)

Clearly, I need to do a UK wide tour to try out all these bikes :)

very much appreciate the offers – and I do want to find a medium size bike.

Any more offers?

Thanks folks
TM

Cheers tazzy. a Jones as well! niiiice!

nbt – might be up that way over christmas – will drop you a line if interested ok?

Thanks

R

thanks Jameso. I know one owner at least – not sure its a 29er though..

Just wanting to see if a light 29er in s/s mode would work for me so not wedded to Ti frames..
anyone else?
TM

Cheers Tazzy – will bear that in mind :)

Blackheep bikes -that’s a new one for me

TM

Thanks for the offer – no plans to be that far north I’m afraid

TM

Optilabs user here – daily use and very happy.

I have photochromic lenses – which go amazingly clear (night riding no problem) and plenty dark enough.

try the frames before you buy – the ones I liked in the brochure had such a poor fit, and the alternatives that I went for looked much better off the paper and on my face.

TM

Jai Ho on the Balcombe road will take 40mins to walk- but is fab. Their Grand Thali is mar vel ous.
(Assume you are at the Povey Cross road variety of holiday inn)

TM

Sat – London Freecycle. Wonderful day of bikes, music, smiles and closed roads.

Sun – Bedgebury singletrack – first time I’ve ridden there for a few years and had a surprisingly fab ride – bermtastic! Picnic with ducks to end a wonderful weekend of bike-based japery :D

TM

another satisfied Optilabs customer here – like that nice Mr Udder above.

don’t order based on the brochure – the ones I thought would be perfect on paper turned out to look just awful on my face. (some would argue that’s more about my face than the glasses , but I digress..). They have a trial mail order service I think if you can’t get there in person.

I can still defeat the glasses and get eye streaming if I really try hard – but its rare. I use mine every day pretty much and they look great and just work. The photochromic lens is excellent too – really clear and fine for night riding, yet able to shut down for bright days ( a little bright compared to a full mirror lens, but just fine for 99% of the time inc this summer).

If you can get to their showroom take a toddler with you and ask that you use their loos – its behind the workshop and you can have a gander at their trick specs making lathes and stuff. (technical description). very friendly people and independent too.

TM

“Cargobikeplustoddlercore”, Denmark, Jul 2013

TM

A good example is concentration, I lack it, until the shit hits the fan. I usually come good, clear it up in the end, but if only I could concentrate all the way through I’d achieve more

There you go. you get it done in the end so you can hardly blame yourself for not being able to change when you don’t actually fail.

You sound like an ordinary, honest human being.

Is there a book or other course people here have done that helped? TBH it’s mostly lack of self-belief I guess…

Take a squizz at the 7 habits work of Stephen Covey. Not for everyone but might help sort you things out a bit and provide inspiration for making some changes
TM

Desmond Lleywyn (Q from the Bond films) used to call on the phone for my dad.

“Dad – its Q on the phone for you!”

He was a lovely bloke – his house backed onto our school and my sister had to go over to retreive a ball one day. She got shown round his house full of Bond gadgets (and before you ask – minus any Jimmy Saville type behaviour). The cow.

Breakfast next to the cast of R4’s Just a Minute (on tour) – too star struck to chat (and the breakfast was very good)

very nice on the ears that – good work!
TM

oh and there’s an excellent almost traffic free route across london from Victoria to Euston. Goes right through the middle and we did it on a Friday evening and was just great fun :) TfL website can spit out the details..

TM

If you like train travel then the overnight sleeper can be an amazing experience and part of the journey. Wonderful atmosphere in the bar on the way up, amazing views, travel while you sleep! for me the value in the higher price compared to a flight is in the experience.
If you just want to get there and get riding then get a flight – might be worth simply hiring a car and giving yourself the flexibility..

TM

Thanks folks

I think what I need is

1. dimmable high quality LED lamps
Got Philips dimmable 7W bulbs – tick

2. Dimmable LED drivers (with stated leading/trailing edge control)
Not found these yet (the ones I have do not state they are dimmable – bought them on a guess and can return these) -the search goes on!

3. a digital dimmer switch (240V) for the wall, leading/trailing edge to match the drivers.
Will search for this when drivers located.

Any advance on this as a plan? any recommendations for item 2 (dimmable drivers)?

Thanks
TM

bump!

A real shame – couldn’t they have left the big rocks in and done their gravel tomfoolery on top? at least it would stand half a chance of getting back to how it was…

the resurfacing that takes place around our way (East Surrey/Surrey Hills) is driven by horse riders as far as I can see. One glorious trail in Farley Heath got clobbered, even though there was a parallel sandy bridleway running paralell 200 metres away! Farewell narrow gulley almost shoulder height – so much fun!

Langley Vale got resurfaced recently too – thankfully the rain is cutting through back to the chalk and I can report from yesterday’s ride that its starting to be fun again :D

TM

Don’t miss Wray Castle – National Trust.
The NT have made a brave move and are giving it over to kids(big and small) to play with. Think a room with 200 foam bricks in and encouragement to build your own castle :)
Lots of outdoor stuff in the grounds and a stunning fell backdrop
TM

People who wear gaudily coloured riding “shorts” and hurt my eyes..

People who arrange routes on the South Downs called “Triple S up” and include a number of steep hills that are barely rideable (unless you own a plastic bike that weighs 9 grammes). Annoyingly everyone else seems to really enjoy said routes and keep asking for a repeat performance…

People who bring a crate of delicious local beer to a New Years Eve parties and force me to drink it and thus feel a bit “tired” the next day.

(Sorry – been a long week)

TM

Surrey is a big place – yes its closer to London than Sussex but you get lots of lovely things too. North Downs, Surrey Hills, lots of other nice countyrside and fab pubs :) Happy to show you trails too if you’re interested!

We’ve settled in Redhill – 40 mins to London, trails on the doorstep, South Downs 30 mins away. The town has a reputation for being a little colourful, but I think that’s changing now.
Oh and if you like twee shops than Reigate is next door – you can live there too if you can cope with 20% house price premium to do so :O

TM

Now have both the 8 and the 11 speed alfines. Both superb although the 11 speed does feel like a definte improvement in terms of operation and use (the cable fixing on the 11 speed is much more straightforward if you need to remove.

They just work. Really gone off the ker-razy world of derailleurs with all that pushing and shoving of the chain. But then I’m not fast and am truly terrible at bike maintenance :)

TM

Spin classes are (should be) tough. The people who sit there chatting away to each other throughout the class might as well as save themselves the fee and just sit in the cafe…

Bring the right attitude – be prepared to go hard and keep it up there. Fantastic results if you stick with it!

TM

Fast road descents always accompanied by the theme from the 80’s arcade game “Outrun”.

(yes, that’s the italian version. just thoguht it looked nice)

Tivoli will only appeal if you have young children or no soul. Its a big fairground, read about it in the guide book but its pricey and full of fast food places.

Appreciate that theme parks are not everyone’s tastes but I’ve had some wonderful fun times at Tivoli. Classic rides from the 1920’s rubbing shoulders with some state of the art thrill machines. If you like that sort of thing then do consider it.

TM
p.s. reopens on April 11th

Speaking as a parent (always wanted to type that), and in case one of them Singletrack office/editor type people are reading, I’d really like to see a future article about MTbers introducing MTbs to their kids. I’d love to read about the journeys folk and their sprogs have been on (excuse the pun). Random subject list follows

-first bikes
-progression to pedal bikes
-days out
-developing riding skillz
– creative bribery methodologies to get up/down hills

Oh and 2 years ish, Isalbikes Rothan to the OP.

TM

S l o w l y getting our 2 year old onto her Rothan.

Seemed only fair that she got a new one as Mummy and Daddy buy new bikes occasionally… :)

The more I see her “riding” the bike the more I realise how damn well designed it is. She likes the fact its shiny purple – no evidence but I do think the fact that its new does make it more attractive, and hence more likely to use it (which is the point really, bikes being important to us as a family..)

2p worth ends

TM

[/url]
big crash[/url] by Rich_F_[/url], on Flickr

In a bog, headfirst, in Wales.

Silly boy

TM

Buzz

at least you rode it rather than the rest of us who watched and took photos!

(and in my defence I did have the world’s worst back brake – draggy and about as much feel as a piece of 4 by 2…)

Oh and PLEASE get in touch if you’d like a trip to ride the South Downs with Sussex Muddy@rse. Rides are the the last Sunday of the month, but we can do something specially special too.

TM

Buzz

that’ll be me !

[/url]
076[/url] by Rich_F_[/url], on Flickr

[/url]
077[/url] by Rich_F_[/url], on Flickr