If I was buying a soul I’d buy a large.
I’m buying a medium Bfe.

Its not going on epics, just some gentle peaks lowering.

Sounds about spot on for someone who’s about 6ft.
I’ve gone for a medium BFe and a large Soul. Both fit perfectly for the jobs they do.

If youd’ve asked ths a week ago, you could’ve borrowed mine for your morning in the Surrey Hills!

IMHO you’re better off with BA than any of the American airlines.
I can’t speak from the point of view of the actual trip but I spend my days at work on and off aircraft at Heathrow and the BA fleet is far better and more comfortable than any of the American airlines.
Personally I think that even the older BA aircraft which haven’t been refitted with the new interior are far nicer than the American stuff.

As for flying Club with BA, we’re off to Cape Town next year flying Club and can’t wait for it 😀

(In all seriousness though, it must be classed as a “supported” attempt and I don’t think anyone worth listening to gives a flying f…)

I agree, to the vast majority of people it’s a fantastic time for a hell of a ride.

Personally I find all this talk of rules set by a bunch of Americans the complete opposite of what mountain biking is about.

Thanks for the write- up, I’ve been looking into doing the SDW over the past few days with a plan to do it next year.
Reading things like ths gives a pretty good idea of what to expect.

Hope the legs are still feeling good, it’s always a couple f days later that long rides catch up with me!

The cheapest thing to do with the alloys would be to get them blasted and powder coated. You can probably get it done for no more than £100. It won’t look as good as if they ave a proper full on refurb, but if you’re just wanting them tidied up it’ll be fine.

For the arches you could try something like Chips Away, they might have a crack at it for you.

I think it’d have to be Canada for me.
Some friends of the family moved there about 20 years ago and they’ve loved it, even speaking to them now they think it’s the best thing they ever did.

its not that bad – but….
i’m sure the swimming pool car park will get alot more use…..

It would do if they weren’t starting to charge there as well 😯

I went down there for the first time last week and thought it was spot on.
The climbs weren’t too bad but had some rewarding descents after them. Most of it seemed to flow pretty well and struck the right balance between technical and non-technical stuff.
The biggest issue for me was turning up on a singlespeed, it was a bit of a struggle! Once the proper bike came out, it was a whole load better.

We did a 90 mile round trip to QECP and the only thing I’d change in future is that I’d use it as part of a longer ride round part of the SDW, it’s probably a bit too far to justify the trip just for the park itself.

Bring back Mark and Lard….STOP…..Carry on……

The last time I listened to the breakfast show on Radio 1 was when they finished. From the bits I’ve heard, it’s all been pretty poor since then!

I just Googled it to find out when they left an can’t believe it was 15 years ago 😯
Makes me feel very old!

Robinsons orange squash!

Fingers crossed mate.
Hopefully she’ll be back soon and wondering what all the fuss is about!

I’ve got Tech X2’s and Tech M4’s on my bikes and they’re fantastic.
The only Shimano I’ve tried are Deore’s on my works bike. They’re ok but not a patch on the Hopes!

I’m not impresed, they’ve still not fixed my email 🙁

….aaaaaand that’s why I will still stick to Gmail for my email. Apple do not have the greatest track record with email.

I’m not so sure about that, it’s the first problem I’ve ever had with it!

Nevermind new iPhones and iPads, I’d be happy if they could get my iCloud email back up and running as it’s been down since yesterday!

203mm/180mm here.
More than enough for my riding!

did they fold it up? surely that box isn’t tall enough for a frame!

Actually now I look back at the photo I can see what you mean, the box looks tiny!
I can assure you though, there’s definitely a Large Solaris frame in there 🙂

@alfabus, the frame’s in the big box at the bottom 🙂

Wheels are Hope Hoops with Flow rims, got them from Progressive Bikes for £270 which I thought was a bit of a bargain! Forks are RS Reba 100mm with 15mm Maxle and 1″ 1/8 steerer.
I struggles to find some white forks with tapered steerer and bolt through axle so had to choose between one and the other.
There’s a tidy set of Fox Talas in white on Merlin’s site but I couldn’t justify the extra £250+ over the Reba’s.

Not much help but here’s mine

[/url]

It may need a little work before it’s rideable 😆

City Link through Parcel Monkey work best for me. Never had a problem and it’s fairly cheap.

Complete whiteout.
January and Febuary will be cancelled.
No trains running, no roads open.

That’s what I’m hoping for 🙂

Anyone???

Yes.
I built up my BFe earlier this year. After a few weeks it was obvious that my Stumpy FSR wouldn’t be getting much use so I sold it. Not sure why but I find the HT so much more enjoyable to ride 🙂

Try the new Shimano Saint pedals. Really grippy and not too expensive either!

Ride somewhere new, even if is only for one ride. It’s a good way of re-energising your love of riding.

I spent too much time riding in Swinkey and started to get very bored with it. A couple f day trips to other places and I’m back to loving riding again.

Do the Roadrat frames give plenty of tyre clearance when used with 700c road bike wheels?

I’m really tempted to use my Boardman road bike as a donor bike for a Roadrat build.

Call the guys at Ciliary Blue, they’ll let you know if they can reglaze your frames. If they can the lenses are really cheap.

Been there, whatever you do DONT TRUST YOUR WORKMATES,never tell them youre looking to leave, are unhappy, or have another job lined up etc,as they tell tales and will stab you in the back to keep their job, and never accept the union will fight your cause, if theres no money for your job, and others can be manipulated to work longer for less thats how it goes.

This, 100%.

Also, don’t tell your HR people or employer where you’re looking for work. I was made redundant a few years ago and made the fatal mistake of mentioning to the HR person where I was applying for. She went on and told all the other staff, the other company suddenly had the pick of potential employees and one of th eother guys had a mate of a mate who worked for them and got him the job. Trust absolutely no-one!

On a brighter note, getting made redundant gave me the kick in the backside I needed to move jobs, I moved to a different company and ended up retraining in a completely different field. The job I’m doing now I love and would never have ended up doing otherwise.
Redundancy isn’t always such a bad thing 😀

It’s available now.

I’d suggest reporting him to the mods so he can’t rip anyone else off but they don’t appear to do anything to ban people who scam members on here.

Sounds awful. It must be one of the worst things for a dog owner to go through.
We’ve only had our two for 18 months or so now but I can’t imagine being without them.

Nothing much I can add to the other posts here but just remember the good times, I’m sure there were plenty.

I have been meaning to put this up and give some credit to Geoff Moorehouse who did a great job of making this pewter Cotic head badge.

That looks awesome……I think I need one 😯

womble321 – Member
Wise pranker is your ? a pic but i cant view it

POSTED 1 HOUR AGO # REPORT-POST

Sorry, trying to post from my phone doesn’t seem to work too well!

[/url]
P
I’m riding medium BFe and a large Soul, the medium is just the right size for throwing about. Comfort-wise, it was comfortable enough to do the Torq 12:12 a couple of weeks ago!

Try looking for the London Calling Facebook group. The guys on there ride in Surrey Hills or Swinley most weekends.

They still look good in green with black talas forks 😀

The reason I first posted about this issue, and why I joined this forum, was to engage in a discussion to challenge those with ignorant, bigoted and negative views of something very few people on here seem to have any actually experience and knowledge of, certainly not recently anyway. As somebody who has actually attended CM rides more recently than anyone who’s yet posted on this issue, I think I probably do have a slightly more informed view of what actually takes place on the rides. again, it’s amusing that those who’ve never even been on a London CM ride, and in some cases don’t even live in London, think they somehow are informed and enlightened about such matters. [/Quote]

Wow, you obviously have a different idea of engaging in discussion to most of us then.
I was always of the opinion that engaging in discussion would involve there being two or more parties who listen to and consider each others viewpoints, your understanding of it seems to be trying to ram your opinion down other peoples throats and poo-pooing others opinions as being ignorant, bigoted and negative.

Obviously because you’ve been on CM rides/protests more often and more recently than anyone else here, what you say must be taken as being correct and what we all think must be wrong. Surely you must be getting the idea by now that you’re likely to get very little, if any support from this forum.

Personally, I would refrain from posting about something I had no knowledge or experience of, for fear of looking ignorant and stupid, but to each their own.

Instead, why not refrain from posting trolling threads on here about things which have very little support or interest to others here, for fear of looking ignorant and stupid?

Blindfold distance challenge.

It’s best done one at a time as it’ll be absolute carnage if you all try it together!

I’ve not used my Soul much as it was bought and built up as a single speed winter bike but if it’s half as much fun as my BFe, it’s going to be fantastic!

I read the random acts of reality blog since the start, and very much got the impression that the main problems he encountered (in london) were LOB jobs that had been allocated priority based upon the call centre computers (bad cold = difficulty breathing = priority) – is that still the case, or have they improved things now ?

I’m on the road here in London and I can honestly say that nothing’s improved.
They try and mess about with the triage system and when they downgrade one load of rubbish, they upgrade others. One of the biggest culprits are GP’s. They claim that everyone they call an ambulance for needs an immediately sense as the condition is immediately life threatening. Very rarely is that the case, more often than not they just want the mildly ill person removed from their surgery.

I’m not sure what the answer to the problem is. The service down here seems to think that micro-management along with bullying staff is the answer. Needless to say, it’s not working for them.

We are currently losing a huge number of staff to outer counties services as well as losing them to sunnier climes, at the rate we’re going now, the problem will not get worse.