haydon_peter

That video is awesome! I have wanted a baby blue Cotic BFe for years but resisted the urge. At the weekend there was a small one being ridden at the woods so I gave it a very quick car park test and the size was right, now they go and post that video! Dammit

http://awescience.com/2013/12/01/beware-chinese-make-the-infinite-hard-drive/

Just ordered my first snowboard, no hire boards for me this season! I have been using hire boards since I learnt to board and for the last x4 week long trips so I'm excited to finally have my own! I have been researching boards for a while now and decided what I was getting, I have never actually ridden the board before but the reviews are great and my friend who has boarded for years got one last year and was amazed at how good it was for the price. This years model is £265 but yesterday I noticed that absolute-snow have got hold of some of last years version and are selling them off for £170, bargain! Same technology just the old colour! (http://www.rossignol.com/US/US/taipan-amptek_RE2WC22_product_snowboard-men-boards.html) I also got some £80 Dakine Goretex snowboarding gloves for £30 in TK Maxx

Jumping on the petrol is more fun bandwagon. I love my pd130 Passat but it's boring and I miss my 1.8t Leon! What Dan just said is also valid though, it depends what you class as fun. The Passat is cheap to run, I can put my bike in it easily and sleep in the back if needed so from a lifestyle point of view a boring diesel estate is the best vehicle for me. I'm a cyclist not a car nut, I get my fun from having a car to get me and my bikes transported safely and cheaply and it's a bonus that I have a car I don't care about keeping spotless. Jardo would have a fit if he saw how filthy my car is

I'm still buzzing from the weekend! After countless hours of hard work spent organising everything our first race was a huge success! Perfect weather, riders were loving it and the crowd participation that was right up there with what you would expect at a national race! The racing was stupidly close but we got in an electronic timing company to make sure it was all accurate. A team had even travelled over from France for the weekend and their top rider Ludovic Oget got fastest time of day with Laurie Arthur in 2nd and Ben Deakin in 3rd, top 3 were less than half a second apart! We also had local legends Chris Smith and Steve Geall both setting awesome times with just 0.01 seconds between them haha! I managed to place 25th out of 101 riders overall and 14th out of 45 in my category. Pretty happy with that considering I'm in Senior which is always going to be the toughest category, even more so when you are racing against a previous French National Champion and World Cup racer Full Results: http://www.mikrotime.com/mtb/tid2013/tid131.html A couple of photos of me: https://www.rootsandrain.com/photos/563306 https://www.rootsandrain.com/photos/563213 And finally an amusing GoPro edit from Ben Deakin, watch out for me at 3mins:

The race is on Sunday and got featured in this weeks local newspaper.

We don't have a snowboarding thread so I will put this in here, awesome section with a huge line at the end! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1qz09-uZVuw If you like that here is a 20 minute video that is also worth a watch:

Depending on the car park layout you can use the lines of the space in front of you to help line up. Where I took my test they would always get you to do a reverse bay park because that was the only way you could park at the test centre, all you had to do was drive into the car park and drive forwards into a bay then then reverse into the bay directly behind you

http://metro.co.uk/2013/11/13/the-glass-ceiling-illustrated-in-one-meet-the-staff-web-page-4186032/

Easy for you maybe. I have limited tools and don't have anywhere to get the car off road. Plus my car mechanic skills stretch as far as checking oil/water levels, changing MAF/Coolant sensors/Air filters, changing wheels and checking tyre pressures

They said it's not ideal but convection will cause a certain amount of circulation around the system which isn't as risky in the winter. What you have said makes sense though, I guess it will always get to a point where everything is hot and it causes overheating issues that might not be noticeable on the temperature gauge. I will have to spend out more money and get the work done when I get paid then

Hmm The garage said I will get away with it at the moment because of the cold weather but need to get it done along with the cam belt soonish (Cam was done at 65,000 miles in 2010, you would assume a main dealer would change the water pump at the same time!). They are a decent garage so I doubt they are bullshitting me about the water pump. The annoying thing is I have no idea when it stopped working, for all I know it hasn't been working the entire time I have owned the car. I guess it's an bitch of a job but how easy is it to replace the cam belt and water pump, would it be something we could do ourselves or is it not worth the hassle? I don't really fancy paying garage price to get it changed (About £300), especially after just paying for the service and MOT. The tax is also due at the end of the month, then if the leak in the radiator doesn't seal that is more money to shell out fixing that. I hate cars

On the main invoice they have noted 'Wiper blades average', the advisory on the MOT is 'Front wipers noisy on screen'

The Passat has a fresh MOT! They also serviced it and investigated the coolant leak, the radiator was leaking from one of the corners so they put some radiator sealant in and they sounded confident this will do the job. The car has done 108,000 miles so they advised the cam belt is due to be changed fairly soon, the problem is they also discovered that the water pump is not working at all and they expect it wasn't changed when the cam belt was done at 65,000 miles. Annoying. List of MOT advisories to keep Mr Inur entertained: Front exhaust has minor leak of exhaust gases Nearside rear tyre worn close to the legal limit Rear brake pads wearing thin Front wipers noisy on screen Headlamp lenses cloudy Near side front seatbelt is slow to retract

The Passat is in for it's MOT today... I'm also getting them to give it a service and investigate/fix a coolant leak. It's started losing 1 litre of coolant every 1000 miles Fingers crossed!

This one is pretty cool too: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9wDPPmHBZu0

Dr Leather wipes

Cheers for the positive words Brett. Next time you visit if you see a bearded short arse digging or collecting day pass money make yourself known. Do it Rainbird, I noticed you will be based in Portsmouth for a while so you won't be that far away. You don't need full suspension, just bring any bike and have fun

Singletrack Magazine just posted this on facebook and it made me giggle:

It doesn't even look dirty in the first photo, you have Obsessive Cleaning Disorder

Luke, that does seem like a good price! I'm paying £390 for my practical diesel estate, 8000 mile allowance, aged 28 with 8 years protected no claims discount and an 'At Fault' claim declared because of the van incident back in February. In related news the Portuguese van wanker that pulled out on me still hasn't admitted liability so my claim has now been passed to a litigation department and I'm still out of pocket

Is the shocks piggy back going to hit the top tube with it mounted that way around?