Not proud of it, but it always raises a smile. It was the first MTB trip for the fella on the floor and, I think, his first exercise since he left school…

when he wasn’t shagging Joanna Lumley

He’s gone up even further in my estimation now…

Still waiting on an answer from 2Pure to my last email from a couple of weeks ago!

Whereabout in Ireland are you heading too? It’s not a big place, but we are lacking in motorways, which makes getting around a little bit more time consuming than on the mainland…

A mate of mine borrowed his girlfriends brand new car for a night out when I lived in Germany. On his return at around midnight he was driving along a road in the local forest, which we all used to speed down.

He was doing about 70mph when a wild boar ran out in front of him. He hit it square on and wrote off the front of the car. He stopped, more to check the damage to the car than the well being of the boar, which by this time had picked itself up and managed to savage his leg before disappearing back into the forest at a great rate of knots.

Looking at the Contour forum it seems the new firmware for the GPS has only made minor improvements to the sharpness, at the expense of colour reproduction.

I get the impression the Contour technical department is focussed more on the new Contour+ rather than fixing the problems with an “old” model.

I think I’ll stick with my GoPro thanks.

I had the Contour HD1080, which was great, but traded up to the GPS version, which was a big mistake.

There are a lot of people having problems with the video quality on the Contour GPS, just have a look at their forums for more info. Also, the Bluetooth app, which is why I bought the camera in the first place, seems to be causing problems for a lot of people.

Also, the build quality of the Contour GPS doesn’t seem to be as good as the HD1080 and you get a lot of movement on the mounts, which means the video is always a bit wobbly, especially on bumpy trails. The lockable flat surface mounts are the worse. One knock when they’re locked and you immediately get 2-3mm movement in the mount that can’t be fixed.

The goggle mount and the handlebar mount also transmit a lot of vibration to the camera – I think the rail system, being plastic, wears as you use it and the camera then wobbles on the mounts. Okay for skydiving, but not for mountain biking where vibration is an issue.

Contour customer service was okay at first, but when a lot of people started having problems with the GPS unit, especially the video quality, it all went very quiet and people started getting frustrated.

I gave up on it in the end and bought the GoPro HD. Much better mounting options, much better stability on the mounts and the chest mount just works so well for mountain biking. So far I’ve been very happy with it.

If you can get the Contour HD1080 for £162 then that’s quite a bargain, but I still think I’d spend the extra on the GoPro. I picked mine up brand new off eBay for £229.

I use both the Kevlar and organic Superstar pads in all my bikes and I’ve never had a problem with them. You also get a very quick response if you contact them with any issues/questions via their Facebook page.

Superstar Facebook Page

This is the favourite at the moment, because it’s the one I’ve been riding almost everytime I’ve been out recently.

I’ve had a 156 Ti diesel for the past two years and had no problems at all with it. When it comes time to trade it in it will be against a 159 or a VW T4.

The Irish pub in the bowels of the shopping centre

The pub is in the Europa Centre. Like you say, a bit of a surreal experience!

Is the Klo Bar still going, where women drink beer from glasses shaped like a certain male appendage?

Urchinboy – your Switchbacks video is superb!

A couple from this weekend…

I’m in…

I’ve just closed down my Marine tank. The secret is to have as much water volume as you possibly can, so that changes to the water chemistry don’t happen too quickly.

I had a 30″ cube in the office, with pipes running through the wall and two 72″ sump tanks in the garage.

The biggest cost isn’t the fish, it’s the electricity. If you’re going to have coral then you need a high turnover of water (big pumps) and a LOT of light (Metal Halides).

When the tank was running my electricity bill was £220 a month, now it’s less than £90. Having said that, my set up was very power hungry, as I had a closed loop in the tank as well as the sump drains and returns.

With so much water volume I had to do very little maintenance to the tank, just a 10% water change every couple of months.

I only closed it down because I will be awa a lot more with work this year.

I will see if I can find the report for you Ernie, but basically it was to do with the repetitive training that has been used by the armed forces to increase the effectiveness of troops on the battlefield.

This repetitive traning came from a study done after the 2nd World War that showed most soldiers weren’t shooting to kill on the battlefield. By making training repetitive, so it became a drill rather than an action requiring thought, it was found that the efficiency of soldiers on the battlefield improved, in that a much larger percentage were now shooting to kill.

Unfortunately, it has had a knock on effect, illustrated by the increasing number of mental problems experienced by troops who have served in an operational theatre.

Like I said, I’ll try and dig out the links for you. In the meantime, maybe you could reciprocate with a link to your documentary evidence.

We stayed here with two young kids. Was a two minute walk into town and easy access to Skiddaw and other routes just outside Keswick.

Not sure there’s enough riding from the door to keep you busy for more than a few days though.

Edit: Just realised you asked for South Lakes, sorry!

Taken in the winter, obviously!

It’s a phrase that was used often in the military, meaning get something sorted. It wasn’t meant to be taken literally.

Now, there is actually documented evidence that soldiers trained to kill, have a desire to kill, and some will just kill indiscriminately if they think they can get away with it, others will kill indiscriminately whether they can get away with it or not.

Do you have a link to this documentary evidence, because this seems to be the opposite of what I’ve read previously?

I’ve a mate who rode his on our regular Sunday outings. He’d replaced the coil shock with a DHX5.0 Air and was running Fox Float 36 forks up front.

He could pedal it up hills pretty well, and it was fast on the downs.

Over the bars in Spain.

Concussion and a broken collarbone.

I had a bottlerocket for a while. Great fun on the downhills and it could actually be pedalled uphill as well. Wouldn’t want one as an “all day” bike though!

I have a Thule 909 tow bar mounted rack that takes 3 bikes normally, but can fit a fourth with 9081 adaptor. I drove all the way from Northern Ireland to Morzine with four bikes on the back in the summer and didn’t notice any adverse affects on the car’s handling (Audi A4 Avant), although fuel consumption did go up slightly.

The rack takes two minutes to fit and then five minutes to fit with four bikes. The bikes are secured, so they don’t bang against each other, but I usually put foam between forks/chainstays to stop rubbing.

The rack has a tilt mechanism that allows you to access the boot, didn’t have any problems with the Audi.

It is expensive, but it’s the best rack I’ve ever used, by far.

The adrenalin line, Lake Garda. Rode it on a hardtail and it was hard enough in the light, but much harder in the dark with no lights!

We took an absolute beginner – hadn’t even cycled in 5 years – around Coed-y-Brenin. Started with Cyflym Coch to get his eye in, then exchanged his 900 year old bike with knackered forks for a rental bike before tackling MBR.

He had no problems whatsoever; he did walk a couple of small sections and his lungs were hanging out of his nose on the climbs though!

Did the Beast the following day with no problems.

wheelz that is small to what there is at chatel best grow yourself a pair ha ha.

I can see a smaller drop in the background. I will have a go at that and work my way up. If all goes well I’ll be throwing myself off the one in the photo about ten years from now!

Wheelz – memories. Did that 4x into Les Gets with my son on child seat on the Five early last summer. You should have heard his screams of delight.

The day after I shot the video I took my nine-year-old son down the same trail on his Carrera hardtail. I was expecting him to struggle a bit, but he almost pwned me! It won’t happen again – I’ve set his brakes so the pads rub against the rear disc 😀

Mostly the Les Gets side, as I was on a family holiday and only managed to escape on the odd occasion!

A recent day out on the big bikes…

Mind you, I’ve yet to hear anything remotely passable from Pete Doherty.

This one’s not bad.

I agree the Sex Pistols were overhyped, but I still love the music.

I’m also a big Cure fan. I wouldn’t say they’re overrated, as they never really had a truly mainstream following.

we do it all to provide a service to the country!

They don’t pay you?

Hurry Up Harry – Sham69
Banned from the pubs – Peter and the test tube babies
2 pints of lager and a packet of crisps – Splodgenessabounds
Too drunk to **** – Dead Kennedys
One bourbon, One scotch, One beer – George Thorogood and the destroyers

Have you stolen my iPod?

Bruce Springsteen. Never understood why he’s referred to as ‘The Boss’.

Phil Collins, but only because every restaurant I go into in Belgium seems to have his greatest hits on loop!

Spandau Ballet. I don’t really know why, I just hate their music with a passion! Maybe I was jealous of Tony Hadley in my youth!

I used be able to break one of those in about five minutes!

Kept Vienna off the #1 spot and my missus never lets me forget it…

Tyre delamination in action – about 12 seconds in.

The data showed Nakano was doing 200mph when the rear tyre let go!