Had the results of my second x-ray last night following an off on 5th Oct when A&E said I had several fractured ribs, results are 6 fractured ribs, swollen and torn intercostals, swollen left lung and fluid in left lung that is nothing to worry about as it is normal and will clear as soon as I can cough properly :(
Good news is no haematoma in the lung, no punctures and no trapped air pockets,no sign of infection, been told at least another 2-4 weeks but could be 6-8 weeks, might be back on the bike for the Clent Duffers(TM) Xmas ride

Am I wrong to decline both seasonal and H1N1 jabs? Am in high risk group (Type 1 diabetes) and have never suffered from colds/flus in general and other members of my family that have had the seasonal jab in the past and were similar to me in not suffering then went on to spend every winter sniffling, coughing and sneezing.

Several fractured ribs on 5th Oct, still very painful, off for a second xray this afternoon, hope nothing untoward there but still unable to breath deeply, cough or sneeze without a loy of pain, thankfully my bike is ok ;-)

Hangs head in shame and apologises to forum :oops:

samuri – NOT LK 8O

mike – comments duly noted, however the girl on the sofa is very easy on the eye :wink: especially at that time of the day

drac – good point, I just have and wait with baited breath

Gilles – who is Steve M???? I know a Steve S, a Steve P, a Steve H and a Steve G and a Steve M, the Steve M I know I haven't ridden with for years since he emigrated to Northants :wink:

Got mine from wheelpro so they have had the once over by Roger Musson, so far they have been brilliant (fitted to orange 5 and carrying 16 stone, I also tend to crash across things literally than float over things) they cost a few quid more from wheelpro but this covers the rm treatment
Mine are pro II's with flow rims

2 bike shops I have purchased bikes from, one changed the part under warranty then dealt with manufacturer, was without bike for a couple of days, one sent bike back to manufacturer/distributor to sort warranty, was without bike for couple of weeks, know which one will get my cash (if) when I buy a bike again

Nige – hope the rib(s) aren't fractured, was it a tad slippy last night? How did the knight of gnarl get on with his new tyres?

Get some tramadol down your neck for the ribs, feel like you are p!ssed without the bad head and upset stomach, can thoroughly recommend them :D

Back to the docs tonight with my ribs, hoping the popping in my chest when I breath isn't anything too serious :?

Cozy Powell
Keith Moon
Zak Starkey
Neil Peart
Nicko McBrain
Lars Ulrich
Jon Bonham
Phil Collins

John Entwistle – The Who
Steve Harris – Iron Maiden
Lemmy – Motorhead
Mark King – Level 42
Mani – Primal Scream
Flea – Red Hot Chili Peppers

Good luck to all those in this situation, couldn't imagine life without the constant joys of my kids, yes they can be a pain, but wouldn't change that for the world

mastiles – agree re BJ comment, not technically gifted but one of my faves :D

Bruce Dickinson – Iron Maiden
Meatloaf – once saw him at the NEC, we were in the rear block and they turned the PA off and he sang, could hear him clear as day!!!
Brian johnson – AC/DC
Mick Hucknall – not my cup of tea but very good live
also dare I say it – Michael Jackson

Being injured always makes me want to get out and ride, second set of broken ribs in 12 months for me and also had a shoulder decompression op earlier this year – so want to get back out on the bike :cry:

I'm with postierich on this one – just think how many moans there will be on here when CRC/Merlin and all other online retaillers have to use the privatised companies that can only operate profitably by delivering and collecting once a week etc – never had anything but fantastic service from RM, long may it continue

No jab for me, qualify for the 'normal' flu jab as I have diabetes but have never had that as I know too many people that have had it in the past and then suffer with more colds and flu-like symptoms than they ever had before. Not generally a sufferer of colds and flu so it's not for me.

Mick,

only thing I would say is I had a pair of optilabs with photochromatic lenses, great specs but the lenses are/were very prone to scratching, lasted me about 12 months then too scratched to see with

The best type of music in my opinion is……………live!!! Doesn't matter what style it is you can't beat live music, everything from pub bands all the way through to massive stadium/outdoor gigs, live music is where it's at

Both here too but if I had to choose only one then it would be helmet mounted

Reliability has been faultless in the 2yrs of ownership apart from the breakage, will not be using anything else on my bike ever.

**** me – how much to post something to the states???? GD charge $13.50 to send me the parts to fix post myself, to return the post to them UPS are quoting £54.13 wtf is that all about!!!!

Just a quick update, e-mailled GD in the states about the issue and asking about purchasing replacement parts, got home and their reply is:

Mark,

I apologize for any inconvenience this has caused. We would like to correct this issues and also inspect the seatpost at no charge to you. Is it possible for you to return your seatpost so that we can perform the necessary repairs. If so please ship to us with your name, address, phone number and email address and we will take care of this issue promptly for you.

Let me know if you have any other questions. We look forward to your business!!

At your service!

Josh Richards

Sounds like excellent customer service to me, even if I do end up paying for the replacement bits, having them inspect and repair sounds good, post will be in the post tomorrow.

BigDummy – who knows???? never landed like that on a normal post so have nothing to compare to, so as the saying goes: man without data is only expressing an opinion

Inner post has been ordered, shoulder and rest of bike ok

Landing badly meant my feet slipped off pedals and my svelte physique landed right on the rear of the saddle, snapping the inner post, I didn't intend to sit down on landing :cry:

grumm – I agree but lifting my fat 4rse to unweight the saddle, depress lever, reapply weight to drop saddle, release lever then stand up doesn't happen as quickly as I'd like :D

Steve – can't really blame the post reliability on my incompetence and to be fair, even on your gate size frames and radio mast length seatposts you don't really need an extra 3" or 4" of clearance :wink:

Grumm, schoolboy error of not dropping the saddle in the split second I had when I spotted the jump/drop on an unknown bit of country park car park we were riding round at the time :wink:

Mick – you're right, hear you were living the dream this morning, and to quote 'blah, blah, blah and Mick looked really bored' :D

Had a nice surprise last night about 5:15pm, travelling north on the M5 around junction 9 as the Vulcan came straight down the motorway at about 5000ft, was an awesome sight seeing it, my 2 boys were equally impressed :D

mikertroid – sorry to be harsh, working for Jag makes me a bit touchy, however, the figures that are published internally and now externally within the business has shown Jag making a profit at times, do agree that LR have been making more though – am a bit passionate about the company I work for :D

mikertroid – Jaguar HAS made a profit – FACT, it was making money before Ford bought it and it made money during Ford ownership, please check your facts before you gob off

CFH – apologies for cutting and pasting the e-mail from management :D

geoffj – thank you very much, that will be a good starter, have until November to do my 'homework' 8O

The press don't have the full story, changes to pension arrangements, lose roughly 20% final pension, new contracts for everyone next year so single contract for all employees, manufacture of vehicles outside the UK (chinese built XJ anyone?) outsourcing of product development, only mention of redundancy is no compulsories, 20% lower salaries for any new hires including contractors, 4 pages of changes put over in a JFDI manner.

Think the writing is on the wall for CB, too expensive to modernise paint shop to accomodate trucks, land locked so unable to expand, 2000 at CB, 5000 at Solihull therefore easier transfer of labour, Product development based in Cov to move to Gaydon, JLR to become LR PLC as all Jag facilities will be closed (Halewood is a LR plant now), veneer plant to be closed/sold etc etc so not the rosey picture that you may have heard

Most amusing for me was sitting in the garden of a pub in the new forest, when you ordered food they called your name, I showered my wife in lager when the waitress shouted 'Food for Hiscock' :D

Ran BG F and Nev R last year, both 2.35 DTC run ghetto tubeless on my Orange 5, fantastic, tried HR F&R 2.35 60a both with tubes and ghetto, found them absolutely pants, less grip thean the kendas and slower rolling, but according to the STW experts, this is because I am a sh1t rider, so have gone back to the Kendas. Gave the HR's to a friend to try and he must also be a sh1t rider because he moaned about them all ride on sunday round the wyre

About to get flamed here as my opinion may be different to others, ran JRA wheel milk in my ghetto set up last year, 10 months on same tyres, never topped up and when I swapped tyres in the winter there was still plenty of nice runny wheel milk in there so I never had an issue with it drying out. I have never tried stans so cant comment on that.

Juan,

think you might find that Britain makes up far more than 1% of the mtb buying public

totally agree with original post, an mtb should be fit for purpose as all products should be and this covers ALL riding conditions (I work for an Indian owned British car manufacturer and the expensive testing and development work we have to do so we can sell 12 cars in some obscure country is unbelievable)

Bottom brackets are not, in my opinion, a disposable part

I think that we as consumers should be entitled to better than we recieve from some companies, especially since the enormous price hikes seen in the last 12 months (our cars haven't increased in price anywhere near as much as the bike components and we use the same aluminium, carbon, magnesium etc raw materials and are subject to the same currency fluctuations)

Must balance this with a pat on the back for those companies that do offer good warranty and back it up by honouring those warranties when required.

The ebay mentality creeping in I think, ie if it's on ebay it must be a bargain, when most of us can do a bit of research to find out if it actually is.