JD™

I sometimes think that G will get his act together, but I guess

Ah, you got the optional wench attachment. Good choice.

Lobster dog and jam.

I sort of dug myself a massive hole when I released that pregnancy announcement a few months back, because it's meant I have to be very aware of being a hypocrite with posting any updates online about our progress. I like that because it keeps news to family, but it's obviously natural to want to shout about it a bit as well. We never held anything against those who did for that reason. So I'm keeping it to myself as much as possible, but I'm going to pop if I don't write it here. Found out yesterday that our little one is going to be a girl. I'm having a daughter, and I can't wait to meet her On the other hand, my offer at the end of that video to chat to anyone going through tough times with the process is still open

Managing to teabag him while you're in him is impressive. Good job!

Mine gets used on bits for a near on 20 year old Land Rover, does fine for that. I can't complain, I was given it. I'd prefer a gas setup but this was free and it does the job.

It's gasless anyway, so no worries on the bottles! I've got the same one. Good work Dan. Can you weld already or are you going to learn with this?

As someone completely outside, I think I can be a bit more direct about this: Running "as a group of like minded people" has resulted in this topic. Good job. Pat yourselves on the back. No offence to the individuals involved, but despite your best efforts it seems the state of UK competition trials is in the shit. The ol' Albert Einstein quote comes to mind. Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. Everyone seems to be getting the definition of "running as a business" wrong. It's not rocket science, and boils down to this: Listen to your f**king customers. Yes, competition entrants are customers. That's it. No, you don't have to wear a suit or have a business card. You don't have to boss anyone about. You can still be a group of like minded people. Here's a shocker for you: Most good businesses are like minded people. Once again, to clarify: This is not a personal attack at anyone. If you feel the post is about you, it's not. It's about you all as a group, and the general attitude towards change and evolution. Things that don't evolve die.

Thanks I'll check it out

Cheers Stu, that looks great anyway! I should have made it clear I'll only be shooting video as well – not sure what settings it'll give me access to as it's not with me at the moment but I'll try to work that out before we go. Main thing I'm going to be trying to get the hang of, I think, is decent 'fly-by' shots that focus on the subject – trying to continue travelling in the same direction while turning the drone to stay focussed on something you're flying past was difficult in my little play session yesterday afternoon. Only an hour of flight time done though, so hopefully that'll get better by doing a couple of flights a night.

Not quite photography, but I'm sure you guys know a lot more than me... I just took delivery of a DJI Phantom 3 Standard for some swanky shots in the mountains next month. Anyone done any drone work that can offer some "I wish I'd known x" style advice about getting a shot right? I'm an enthusiastic amateur at best, so any pro-tips will be welcome!

As an outsider reading this conversation, it's pretty painful to watch. I have volunteered in many organisations over the years, and the best ones are always the ones which are run as businesses. Importantly, as Mark mentioned, that doesn't mean in the "making money" sense – it means in the "how do we best provide for our target market with the resources at our disposal" sense. Everything that Mark has mentioned has been a good idea, but I feel maybe it needs someone to step up and implement both the resources and the 'training' needed to make sure those resources are used. There's a danger in volunteer organisations that the people involved actually do it because they love telling people how busy they are. Don't be those people, because being busy is not smart. If the UK trials scene decides they want to be less busy and more effective, then it has a very healthy future. If not, it probably doesn't. The first step, as Mark's already said, is to quit guessing what your target market want and ask them. Then, most importantly, listen to the answers and act on them. It doesn't matter if you think it's stupid, just do it. Then start implementing centralised resources to improve both efficiency (in both time and money) and professionalism. Those two things are exactly what you do when you try to make any organisation a success. If I were part of the UK comp trials scene right now reading this thread, I'd be finding a way of offering Mark the right sort of benefits to get him involved – he's clearly got good ideas and is passionate about the scene as a whole, and it'd be better than going in blind yourselves.

If your baby has bad eyesight and looks like it might not shave on a regular basis, get it a trials bike to be mediocre on like the rest of us lookalikes.

Here's my take from what seems like a similar position to you. I'm sure some of the people who like to know the science behind stuff can pick holes in what I'm about to say, but how's about just don't? Dave seems to want a simple route, and doesn't seem to need results yesterday, so here's how I've done stuff with similar goals. I started probably about a year ago trying to put on some weight, started at 65kg/14%, now around 73kg/12% Eat more, of the right stuff Boring but true. I can't stand eating breakfast, so I went for cereal bars. I eat chicken and rice every lunchtime during the week. The rest of my meals are outside of my control, but my wife does make sure we're eating relatively healthily. I haven't really bothered with protein shakes after the first few months, although I'm thinking about making them more regular again as I've plateaued a bit. Lift more, with variety I do weight oriented stuff on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. I think blocking out a specific time to go do stuff, and keeping yourself free in that time is a massive factor. I leave the office for the gym at 10:15 on each of those days, so have to keep my day free a little bit either side to make sure I go. I generally go chest and back on Monday, arms and shoulders on Wednesday, and legs on Friday. I superset everything, and do abs as active rest throughout – I think that really helps keep the heart rate up. It probably comes at a detriment of full lifting power, but I'll get to that. I don't have a specific plan of when I'm going to do high reps/low weight and vice versa. I basically just go with how I feel in a given week. Make sure you do get some of both in though. Cardio. I run on Tuesdays & Thursdays, and try to get one in at the weekend as well. As far as I'm concerned, this is easily the most important part of my training. Ultimately this part is about being healthier, rather than just vain. The fitter you are, the better. I don't think trials counts, it needs to be something that you can be in constant pain during for at least half an hour. f**k the numbers I have no idea what my one rep maxes are, and I don't care. I also don't go into any session thinking of what I lifted in the previous session. Each exercise I do my warmup, see how I feel, and lift a weight that is an educated guess based on that. If I was aiming to do 10 reps but I've clearly chosen a weight too light, I'll carry on to 15 or whatever and make sure I up the weight next set. The only aim is to feel sick at the end of every session, and the level at which that happens will change depending on your fuelling, your mood, or whether venus is in retrograde. Enjoy it. Stop weighing yourself, just go to the gym because you want to. Run because you want to. Eat well because you want to. Then when you do remember to weigh yourself, or measure your biceps or whatever, you'll be pleasantly surprised at your progress. As I mentioned, I am not some prophet of the most efficient way to put on lean mass, but my way has been enjoyable and sustainable while allowing me to put on 12% of body weight in about a year. Not being too strict also means I get to drink beer and eat takeaways, yay!

I think this is great G, shows you can have a good laugh about whatever it is that makes you cut up your frames.

I'm putting 4 of these up on eBay tomorrow, unless anyone here wants them. Pretty much brand new, only did about a hundred miles before one of the wheels drove itself into a curb. Definitely wasn't the wife, after I put hours into making them look pretty. Nope, not her. They're 225/25/R19. £400 saves you £150, and you get 4 free wheels with them. You might even be able to save the dented one, but I doubt it which is why they're free.

If you're massively bothered, just buy another one and sell on the replacement when it gets to you.

I'd imagine it's like having spreader plates on your cage in the event of an accident. You don't know what you're missing until you've tried.

Just so I'm understanding this right... Your now wife didn't know she was getting married until the day?

Just takes a 12v input. Just have to butcher one of the gazillions of 12v adaptors everyone has in a draw someone to get the connector then wire that up to a switched live off the ignition. I have realised that that one isn't actually bluetooth though, not sure what I was on when I posted it.

This looks like it would do the job. Probably worth a punt for the money. If you wanted to skip the Bluetooth aspect, there's a product linked from that page which is a fiver...

Yea, some sort of Bluetooth amp buried somewhere would seem perfect.

Just send her one with a few words changed to whore. She'll probably not notice, but potential employers will.

It'll run as quick as the slowest part, so you should see somewhere near 100mbit internally, yes. Similar setup in my office (except it's Router -> Switch -> Device). Always just been plug and play in my experience, but I can't proclaim to be some sort of expert.

Oh no, they're beginning to self learn. I for one welcome our robot overlords.