A quick heads-up for anyone who was following this, Richard’s released a Kindle book about his South Downs Triple attempt.

Well worth reading!

Does anyone know if you can get it on Virgin Media?
If so, which channel?

You could always save some money and go for my Cotic wheels 😆

http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/fs-cotic-700c-disc-ready-wheels

So arrive at 9pm and get out sometime upto 11pm…, are buses still running?

It doesn’t usually take long to clear customs at T1 at that time of the day, there’s very few arrivals that late.
If you’re coming in on a domestic flight, you’ll be out in next to no time.

The buses run well into the early hours as they are used a lot by airport staff to commute.

Is it wrong that I really want a unicycle after looking at the Cumbria Muni website? 😆

If you head to the Central Bus Station at Heathrow, it’s a couple of minute walk from T1, you can get the A40 bus to Gerrards Cross. Probably cost about £3-4.

If you need a cab, don’t use a black cab as they’ll charge you £80+, try getting a price from Green Tomato Cars.

I had the Hubsan X4. It was a great little toy, had plenty of fun flying it about the house and back garden until one of the dogs decided they were going to try and eat it once I’d crashed it 😀

Resigned as an MP so shouldn’t get any ‘wages’ whilst inside

But will he still get the golden goodbye that MP’s get when they resign?

Definitely get the flex strap. You can use it to fix the camera to almost anything. I used mine to mount the Contour to the bars, frame, seat post, helmet and motorbike swing arm!

I had a Peugeot a few years ago; ran out of Manufacturer’s Warranty on the Saturday, and the Greabox failed on the Monday…

Peugeot are a nightmare. My 308 was under warranty with full dealer service history and they refused to repair engine oil leaks as, according to them, it was meant to be like that.
After a bit of an argument they agreed to fix it. The repair involved huge amounts of silicone applied to anything that looked like it might possibly be the cause of the leak!
When I questioned the quality of the repair the dealers basically told me ‘tough luck’
Needless to say there was a very heated discussion with their useless customer service team followed by letters threatening court then they changed their minds and agreed with me that their repair was shocking!

I’ll not be buying another Peugeot and can’t be bothered with newer cars anymore so I’ll stick to stuff I can repair myself.

what time does it start?

Started at 10am.

I’m not sure of the answer to your question but I’ve never been charged any more for SDP + commuting rather than SDP only use.

The guy signed up here 4 days ago and was selling S-Works bikes and iPads straight off yet still people send him money by Paypal gift 🙄

I just had a demo on an Epic Carbon Comp this week. I’ve has a hardtail 29er but never tried a full sus.
Loved the Epic that much that when I took it back to the shop I bought one 😀

The Brain seems to work really well, climbs just as well as, if not better than, a hardtail.

Paramedic.

Left school at 16, got a job hitting big trucks with big hammers, got NVQ’s and HND’s which were pretty easy.
Moved to another dealers but got made redundant. Got myself a job hitting ambulances with hammers as a stop-gap. Got bored after a year of this then someone suggested doing an ambulance technician course. Sounded like it would be a bit of a laugh, nothing to lose.

8 years later, qualified and loving every minute of the job. Currently getting paid to ride about on a bike and attend to so-called emergencies 😀

Just a quick update you on this if you’re interested.

I went out for the demo’s today, lovely day for it, bloody cold but the trails were mostly frozen so running quite fast. I took the Epic out first and it was fantastic. With a minimal amount of setting up, namely putting air in everything first, it was a rocket out of the box!
It climbed better than my hardtail and descended much better as well. The Brain rear shock worked well giving very little movement while climbing but allowing plenty of travel for me when things got bumpy. The fork was pretty good, nothing special but no problems at all.
Basically it was a fantastic bike.

I’d love to say what I thought of the Camber but after trying the Epic, I didn’t even bother taking it out as I knew which bike I’d be getting 😀

Sorry, my mistake. It was friends of the family, not family.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/crime/9590623/April-Jones-Kay-Burley-vilified-after-telling-local-volunteers-live-on-air-they-dont-expect-to-find-her-alive.html

Just wait until Sky News roll out Kay Burley to go door knocking to break the news to relatives of the deceased like she did in the April Jones case.

Air Ambulance or Police?

No, neither of them according to their twitter feeds.

Unfortunately, I can completely see the current demand on the NHS/Emergency servicing being such that, unless there is a rota’d/structured break, it simply ain’t gonna happen by chance…

Sadly, as far as I can see, it’ll only get worse before it gets better.
Our lot have been panned by the press this weekend for offering control staff £250 bonuses to try and refer more calls to NHS redirect or walk in centres. They’re offering frontline staff double and treble time to cover extra vehicles and they still can’t cover them. Realistically the meal break issue is getting bumped further and further down the list of problems needing fixed. I can’t see how they will solve the problem without more staff or lower call volumes, neither if which the seem able to do.

Hi, having ridden both the 2012 carbon Camber and the 2012 carbon Epic. And buying a 2012 Carbon Epic i would say the Epic is much more fun.

Thanks for that.
Have you had any problems with it at all?
Are the standard wheels any good?

There are a few paramedics on here? When do they have breaks?

I can’t speak for the guys at other trusts but at mine, we don’t!
I can’t remember the last time I had a break when I was doing an ambulance shift, at a guess I’d say that the last three months I did on a truck I never got a break.

Madeley’s just proved himself to be a ****, he needs to try researching things before he puts it in one of his articles.

the shop guys said they thought the 2013 was lower spec, the fork in particular

That’s what I was thinking as well after comparing the specs. The 2012 has Fox Float Evolution forks, X7/X9 drivetrain and Elixir 7 brakes. The 2013 has RS Reba’s, XT/SLX/X7 drivetrain and Elixir 3’s! The list price of the 2013 is only £200 less than the 2012. Strange!

what are the weights of the Epic and Stumpy?

I’m not sure about the Stumpy but the Epic is 11.9kg and the Camber 12.6kg

Sounds like there’s going to be some tough choices to make on the day!

On a slightly down note, first ride of it at the weekend and something has gone wrong with the rear brake (lever just goes to the bar without applying the brake). Seems fairly common with Elixirs unfortuantely.

The brakes on either bike won’t be getting used as I’ve got a set of Hope’s to go on along with a set of Hope Hoops with Flows from my current bike. I’m not overly happy with a £2.5k Camber having Elixir 3’s on it or the £3.2k Epic having Magura’s hence bringing the Hope’s over.

Are you doing it as part of a demo day?

No, I’m just using the demo bikes from my LBS 😀

It seems to be the same in the few reviews I’ve found for the Camber as well, they all seem to say it’s a fantastic trail bike and good for general XC stuff and some racing.
The Epic sounds like a great bike as well, from what I’ve read the new Mini-Brain is a belter 🙂

@teamhurtmore, I’ll be demo’ing the bikes in the same place as you did, namely around Pitch Hill and Holmbury. I’m going to try and do the two bikes back to back to see how they ride so it should be an interesting comparison.

I’m quite surprised that Specialized have made two bikes which seem to overlap each other so much, especially when the cheaper of the two seems to do the better job, at least on paper!

Can you prove that Wiggo isn’t?

How do you prove a negative?
If he’s not failed a test, then he’s not a doper.

Snow forecast for Monday and Tuesday round my way, fits perfectly with my days off work 😀

Bought a 700c yesterday, selling a 26er this weekend, buying a 29er some time this month 😀

You might be lucky but I can’t imagine any dealer warranting a cambelt after 3 years and 35k miles.

I’d guess that you could use a Hope headest and fit the crown race adaptor on the straight steerer forks and have the normal set up on the tapered steerer forks.

Does that make sense?

Do the wheels fit in the main bag?

Are they 3×10 only?

Yes and if you follow the instructions on the Hope Youtube video you won’t need to bleed them either.

You can put whatever checks in place but I’ve learnt never to be surprised by what people can do or say.

A friend of mine’s having a similar issue with his place.
Tenant passed the credit checks and references with no problems. Been in the place for a year but he’s decided not to renew their tenancy. The tenants got to the day they were due to be out and sent him a text message telling him that they aren’t moving out as they’ve nowhere to go and he’d have to evict them!

Kind of shows that the letting agents checks weren’t worth the time and money to do!

Wowsers! – Just added up my build – comes to £3200 ish………

Don’t want to tally mine up, I might give myself a bit of a shock!

“Touch base”

No, you’re not going to “touch base” with me, you’re going to talk to me 👿

wisepranker,

Do you have to remove any wheels to get the bikes into the Caddy or a straight fit? looking at a Van and its clicking all the right buttons atm.
Thanks

No, my 26er and 29er both fit in easily without removing wheels.
BTW, mine’s just a normal Caddy, not the LWB Maxi.

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It’s strange that people are complaining about poor fuel consumption.

My old Peugeot 308 diesel did about 50mpg on average. The Caddy I’m running now does about 48mpg on average whether it’s got bikes and kit in or not. It also has cheaper road tax 🙂

Interesting to see the photo above, looks like crash investigators. Would they be there if it had been you or me who had been hit?

It looks like a couple of Police traffic cars to me.
From personal experience, if there’s any injuries in an RTC, traffic turn up and have a look about and a measure up incase the injuries are life changing or life threatening. Seems to have been a pretty normal procedure with all the accidents I’ve been to.

no its not a simple weight limit

its “car based van” & a weight limit

kangoos and berlingos DO fit the criteria (although its a grey area with the popo and ive had to argue once)

Connects despite being a similar size DO NOT

Your allowed to do 70 on the motorway

It’s a strange system, my Caddy is on the logbook as a car derived van but as it’s over 2 tonnes gross weight it’s classed as a ‘proper’ van regarding the speed limits.

This clears it up a little:

https://www.gov.uk/speed-limits