I think I saw one on the M40 the other day, it was dark and the car was covered in chequerboard but definitely had the right rear light profile for an F type coupe.

Carry over tail lamps from convertible.

Highway Code rule 169: Do not hold up a long queue of traffic, especially if you are driving a large or slow-moving vehicle. Check your mirrors frequently, and if necessary, pull in where it is safe and let traffic pass.

No one stocks rears as they split at the bead 😉

I find my 900 lumen helmet light only just adequate for my commute on unlit roads. Mounted on the bars I get flashed by many cars as it clearly dazzles, but on the lid I’ve never had any grief.

Try taking your sunglasses off 😀

900 lumens is an awful lot of light, more than I use for singletrack in the woods.

Why use a helmet light on roads? Surely a dipped down and to the kerb (as car and motorcycle headlamps) bar light is more than adequate. Helmet lights that are of the be seen nature are ok but ones powerful enough to use to see are generally too bright to use in traffic. I am all for being seen but think we sometimes dont do ourselves any favours with other road users with the brightness and also the angle some people aim the lights.

Riding in mud is quite subjective, there are muddy places that good mud tyres will get you through and there is mud with high clay content that no mud tyre will cope with. Wyre forest has few places that a proper mud tyre cannot cope with but not far away the bridleways of worcestershire just clog everything up and become a walk carrying a bike rather than a ride. I enjoy riding in the mud but only when you can keep pedalling for the majority of the ride, when everything gets clogged up it isn’t fun anymore.

Nandos!

Unsalted butter and a downright petulant marmalade on decent wholemeal here. Strong cup of English Breakfast on the side

first response and in typical stw style it has to be something posh, why not good old white sliced loaf and margarine????

I know I shouldn’t laugh, but…

yes you should as it is actually funny…

There’s a place in Redditch that replaces glass screens on smartphones, tablets etc for £30, don’t know if you are anywhere near there.

So when is it on? Did anyone answer the question posted earlier? having grown up in the latter stages of the cold war the sound of the 4 minute warning still turns my blood cold, really looking forward to it.

If anyone is interested, RAF Cosford near Telford has a really good Cold War section, my kids who are largely ignorant of the cold war were horrified at what they saw and genuinely couldn’t believe how close things got.

Another Sheila’s Wheels here too, cheaper than M&S renewal and no additional charge for specified bikes over £500.

slackalice – not had chance tonight, will have a look in the morn and let you know

Would have to dig them out, am in the mids and will let you know, think I remember changing the spacers round to give 100mm travel but easily converted back to 80mm, they have ISO disc brake mounts. Will go and have a look and let you know later

Might have a pair of RS Psylo’s in the garage, they are 80mm and off an ’07 frame, whereabouts in UK are you?

Not really a club but founder member of The Clent Duffers (TM)

Only saw them once and that was at Knebworth , Belouis Some opened and got bottled off stage, Quo were special guest and brilliant, had a roadie with a huge cardboard guitar on top of the lighting rig and eventually got him down on stage with them, Big Country were support and very good then Queen were amazing headlining. Have seen many bands of many genres and still believe Freddie to be the best ‘frontman’ of anyone, his stage presence and the way he could work a crowd, in my opinion, second to none.

ADIDAS Supernova Glide All Terrain or something

Dick – I am running Windows 8 and mine works ok, I do get the warning but things still work.

There’s also a phone app that you can get cashback for just visiting a shop, helps when the mrs is browsing!!

Good work so far, blog is good to read. I am using a Medtronic pump (virtually identical to yours) and associated software, the graphs produced by the accuchek software you have look better than those by medtronic. interestingly, the professional version of the medtronic software gives much better graphical output so very easy to see trends etc, am trying to get hold of a copy as I can spend hours looking at my data and find nothing, send a download to my DSN and when she and I view the graphs the trends jump out at you straight away!!

Pump user here too, been on mine for 5yrs now and has revolutionized my life, just stick mine in the pocket of my baggies when on the mtb or just in my trouser/jeans pocket. In 5 years have never pulled a canula out by catching the tubing and have only caught the tubing a handful of times. They are tough little bits of kit as mine has stood up to several bad offs that have resulted in several broken ribs 😳
My email is in my profile and am happy to answer any questions if anyone wants to ask about life on a pump.

Please post a link to your blog as very interested to see how things go.

Good luck with it but as said above, some people dont get on with it just be prepared to put quite a lot of effort in and the rewards will more than justify it. Good idea to write down as much as possible when it comes to exercise, I have found some quite strange things needed with basal rates pre, during and post exercise including overnight and the following day.

Cheers, anyone else?

Do you need spring tension adjustment/double braced/heavy duty etc?

My top 3 are:

Birmingham Odeon – now no longer a music venue but my first memories of seeing bands live
The Hummingbird – again in Brum, proper sweaty standing only venue, seen some great bands there
Civic Hall – Wolverhampton, again a nice sweaty place, plenty of atmosphere and had some great nights there.

As mentioned above, prefer the smaller venues where the atmosphere and show always seem a bit more personal and involved rather than the bigger venues where even front row seems detached from the stage, have had great times at festivals but the gap between stage and punter seems to grow year on year.

There are plenty of 1000 to 3800 lumen lights on Amazon at the moment for less than the ebay prices

Nice one Gilles but you and I both know you yearn for the winter mud of the wyre 😉

I think you mean “440-450g, the grip of a long mud spike up and down but much faster rolling than anything else offering the same grip”.

Nope, I mean exactly what I said, have run them on both FS and HT and they seem to hook up well when not pedalling but as soon as you need to pedal through stuff I get very poor traction, a problem I never had with the swampys or trailrakers, have tried different pressures with them and not found one that works for pedalling through stuff (wyre forest mud)

There is a Bugatti Veyron with the registration: YE51CAN

Just received my Hero3 white for £160 from play.com, now have a hero 960p going spare…

Dunno, but nobby nics specifically lose a tonne of grip as soon as the edges of the knobbies round off. Much less than 1000 miles though, probably about 100-200.

+1

Strange how the dogs that this is aimed at are the ones I have had least problems with, I have been chased and bitten by Jack Russells, Labradors, Border Collies, Yorkshire Terriers and Poodles, never by a Staffie, Alsation, Rottweiler etc so am hoping that any change to the law is across the patch and not just the ‘alleged’ dangerous dogs

Group of us did the NW Alps Saturday morning, 7 left the visitors centre………..only 4 returned!!

He (Clarkson) and Top Gear are two of the funniest things on TV, did think the end last night showing off Britain’s manufacturing (albeit automotive) was quite poignant.

Cotswolds are closer than the malverns, routes around broadway and snowshill, as mentioned above Bredon hill only 10mins away. Look up the Ashton mtb guys, they ride most tues and thurs and are a pleasant bunch.

jeff – you tease 😀

Use the seat post to hold it in the workstand and use the straps as normal on the bike carrier (I assume you do not use an extra leverage to tighten the rack straps)

A lot of Japanese cars use drum handbrake inside the rear disc, no problem doing the rears on my wife’s Honda Stream. There was enough clearance to slide disc off with the handbrake off, even the disc retaining screws came undone without any problem. Process was jack up, remove wheel, release handbrake cable, remove caliper, remove pads, remove caliper carrier, remove disc retaining screws, remove disc. Reassembly was the reverse with the addition of some copperslip on the wheel mounting face to prevent alloy wheel corroding to disc, took about an hour to do both sides.

Vulcan giving it full reheat, wow!!

My first lap at 1pm, using Panaracer Razer’s!!

any further updates from @mayhem24hr or anyone down that way as to weather and ground conditions? Wazzed it down here near the NW Alps yesterday evening and ground still rock hard.