Luke Rainbird

They've done a flippin' lovely job on that, mate! With a few tweaks to the map it seems like Boris will be back and better than ever!

Sounds like a winner, Paul. Shelves seem sensible too. In Leon news: Have been on a bit of a hiatus lately due to belated honeymoon. Left behind the UK’s spring snow and spent a couple of weeks cruising around California: Now back to a slightly warmer UK, with bonus longer evenings now the clocks have changed. Unfortunately, on our drive back from London upon landing, it seems a wheel bearing on the Golf is about to implode. I removed the knuckle from the car the other night and dropped it to a local garage yesterday morning to swap for a new bearing. Mechanic was pretty busy, but likely pick it up tomorrow and then just a handful of bolts to refit it all again. Could do with finding a new arch for the Golf too, really, as this one’s getting rather crusty. (I should mention that there's an axle stand under the car here, not just the widowmaker!) Seems to be becoming a bit of a habit really - a few days before we left Matt was in town as his dad sadly passed away and he had to sort things out. One thing that had been high on his priority list but then rightly got pushed further down was a dying wheel bearing, so while he was staying with us we got that sorted. Turns out that he’d killed several in quick succession, which suggests that there’s more going on than just an iffy item, so we swapped in one of the spare LCR hubs I had in the garage along with a new bearing. Seems to have solved things for now, and will keep an eye on longevity. Last night I had a bit of time to myself, so figured it’s about time to start dismantling the old car and get it off the drive. I’d pulled some of the interior apart prior to going away, so decided it was time to start under the bonnet. I’ve not done a huge amount, but cleared a load of electrical/coolant connections and generally cleared the way to drop out the engine and box at some point semi-soon. With all the wiring issues I’ve had over the years, I’m not going to even consider selling the engine loom, so cut off a load of connectors to keep as spares since they’re bloody expensive to buy new! Lots more to do, but once the engine’s out the car will be that much lighter again and I can move it about a little more easily - photos are a little deceptive and there’s enough of a slope towards the house that it’s a bit awkward trying to move it around on my own at present. Once the lump/box are out, I can pull it forward from its corner and take the R32 wheels, coilovers, exhaust, ARBs etc off. I’ll likely replace suspension with old standard parts to the extent of keeping the shell rollable for collection at a later date. Will load it up with as much junk from the garage as possible, since that is in severe need of a clearout too! Layin’ frame yo! Looking rather sorry for itself TIP arrived for the new car while I was out the front too. Sods law that I only got round to selling an identical one a few months ago of course. Will get this fitted once the old car is sorted. If anyone needs little odds and sods let me know - I’m struggling for time to send much via post at present, but if you’re able to collect then things can potentially go cheap to hook you guys up.

Story of my life. I used to enjoy building bikes as much as riding them and swapped between 24/26" pretty much every 6 months, thinking exactly the same as you really. When on a street setup everything felt nicer and I enjoyed just following around, but missed being able to do stuff to a reasonable height/standard, but when I was on a more compy bike I was typically riding "better" which we nice but I missed the cruising. I solved the problem by playing with cars and not riding any more... ...but I have just built another Hex as it was the best compromise and since it'll now get used far less I wouldn't be too concerned any more. Just enjoy it. Edit; The alternative, of course, is multiple bikes or to keep a street and hoppy frame kit built up and just swap wheels over (or just a frame if you don't mind the extra effort every once in a while)

The only properly enjoyable trips to London I've ever had (see recent Angry Thread discussions for more on that) have been with the bike. The most enjoyable of those trips has been when riding the more off-the-beaten-track spots as those above

Perhaps he's travelling by carrier slug? You can't just make assumptions like that for crying out loud.

Tried that. Was still disappointed.

In fairness, a number of these have been broken through "normal" trials use in the past so you might struggle to prove the cause (though obviously I hope you're able to get it sorted). I suspect the shock loading in alternate directions is a little outside the design parameters of the mounting points, which is a shame as when they're working those Saint calipers aren't a bad bit of kit.

Spent about an hour in London yesterday between flight landing and getting to the car to escape. Not being from Cornwall, I don't have enough fingers to count the number of people I wanted to stab/shoot in that time. Don't get me wrong, there are dickheads everywhere, but increasing the dickheads per square foot exponentially as you do in a city like that makes almost everything shit.

Bitches be trippin'

Not everyone uses animal rescue centres to find a date like you do dude...

Almost everyone seems to be in a Mustang. Nice cars (other than their mild tendency to kill crowds of course) but super common. As we left Hoover Dam yesterday there were 5 white convertible ones in quick succession, all from different places but very obviously hire cars. We looked into them, but decided to just go for a boring Ford Focus class car. Arrived to pick it up and was handed the keys to a Mazda 3. I must have looked very upset because she soon changed them for those from this, which has been far more fun (and although a few about, significantly fewer than Mustangs!) Lots of cool old school stuff about too, you'll love it.

<GhettoQuote @Tom Booth> That's savage, how have you found Cali and Vegas Luke? We're doing pretty much the same trip for our honeymoon in September." </GhettoQuote> Currently in Palm Springs having just finished a day of breakfast in Vegas, Hoover Dam this morning, 6 hours driving (inc some Route 66) and just eaten my bodyweight in steak and chips. Sleep imminent. Will endeavour to post up some more info in the Happy Thread/similar but if I forget, give me a nudge and I'll drop you a trip report. This is our honeymoon/30th trip so similar deal by the sounds of it

I'm currently in Vegas, and last night watched a grown man in the street shit in his hands and launch it at a passing tour bus, hitting a woman on the open top deck square in the lower jaw. Somehow, despite all this, you still continue to surprise and confuse me to an unimaginable level.

I have a cheap Sim Only contract with Three. Costs me £10 per month and is pretty decent - I think the same deal is about £15 or so for new customers. For some reason they take £10.01 each month, which I've noticed before but never given much thought. Boring night plus new bill coming through, so I decided to ask them on web chat. Passed through two advisers, neither could really explain why it was happening but apparently it was down to "rounding". I pointed out that when the bills explicitly state I've not used anything outside my allowance, and show a distinct "£0.000 extras" then even with rounding £10.00 + £0.000 = £10.00 (yes, it annoys me that they mix different levels of precision too...), and neither had any real explanation. They've since decided that it's easier to just get rid of me so they've decided to refund the 15p extra which they'd taken, have knocked £2 per month off the bill and given me £20 credit on top. Can't really fault that in terms of customer services (except for the obvious fact they shouldn't be taking higher payments than billed, of course, regardless of the amount). If they start taking £8.01 I might have the same conversation and see how far I can push it

Ok.

No.

Purely an aesthetic thing for me - the idea of putting out a video is generally for it to be visually enjoyable, and for me things like that reduce that enjoyment (and always have, since long before Ali had a YouTube channel ) Feathering brakes in manuals to the extent of making them jerky and lots of correction hops are in the same league too. Bitch cranking looks gimpy. Yes it gets results, but it looks gimpy. I would imagine you take that view to a slightly different place given your brakeless riding, where there are inevitably some compromises in smoothness/aesthetic due to the sheer "holy f**k that's done brakeless" factor (if that reads like I'm slating how your riding looks, it's not meant to, I've just not worded it too well) Don't get me wrong, these guys are very capable riders and I've shown my appreciation for that numerous times in the past, but when there's a consistent niggle that's been mentioned before (by the riders themselves too) and then forgotten about again it's a shame. Minor points yes. So minor that they could be rectified with relative ease and make a major difference to the end result

The video was cool and all, but the fact that despite that enormous ramp and run-up you not only put in the world's largest bitch crank, and then gave it to us in glorious super slomo sealed the deal.

It's good that they're paying you to drive a Berlingo, but I'd ask for more than £400. The counselling alone will cost more than that.

Wholesale cost of unnecessary weights has clearly skyrocketed.

Ah, the RuseveltBot has begun to use targeted ads.

Popped into our local store the weekend before last as they had big signs outside stating "ALL STOCK REDUCED" and I fancied some bargains, but excluding half a dozen items in the window nothing was actually marked with any indication of the discount or new price. Strong business skillz.

Great pictures Mike. Video looks like fun too Felt a little seasick from that helmetcam though...

Are those the names of the new Teletubbies? Ended up in the local for a few hours longer than expected. Soph offered to play taxi but by that point Matt wasn't feeling up to being too social - His dad died early yesterday morning so he'd been up since 3am trying to organise stuff and running around after people. Would have been good to pop in and catch you, but it sounds like you were being a little sensible anyway