Cycling UK Forum

Cheers Mick, hope you're getting out a bit now, I'm awa' to brave the Leeds mist I think or there'll be tears by tea time, Rab can be a sulky brute when it does'nt get it's daily (st)roll, like it's ' owner '.Me fingers are gettin' like Mark Hughes quads with all this keyboard joggin' anyway.Cheers

Grazi Fausto,I tried calorie counting the Breakfast but me calculator broke, Middlemiss of Otley's slingers, can't be denied. Picked up on a ride.so they're guilt free,I think I'd better get the plastic bag over the Brooks and get going after this lot. Keep it saddle side up all.

I took this picture of the ' Rab Jockson' gazing moodily oot the windie this morning, it's slating down, and it's a ' double droplet' day on the BBC weather with a bit of wind.If no ones waiting for you on a corner somewhere would you, indeed did you go out into this ?
I don't mind getting wet once I'm out ( just stick the ' stylish ' cagoule on), but going out into it seems like taking the ' funishment ' a bit far. For the record I bailed out and cooked a fry up and I'll probably hack away on the ukelele or harmonica until it relents a bit or listen to a bit of Cerys on R6 (recommended).I'm retired so I can go out tomorrow, it's obviously a bit different if 'you're ' leisure time deficient ' or whatever the current jargon is. It doesn't seem a good day to mix with the Sunday 4x4 er's and Audi attack dogs oot for their walkies.

That's a lovely job, a lot of time and research went into that I'll bet. I like the contrast between the ' Old Gold ' and the ' Plum ' colour, classy. Wishing you many happy miles riding it.

Queen Victoria would not have been amused.

A Heron eating a frog, I just thought it was a bit of weed until blew up the photograph, just the legs left sticking out of it's mouth, the picture's a bit to 'real ' to post.

Pictured Leeds ;23rd March 2013, these flowers thought it was spring too.I don't think winter's started yet personally.

I wonder what happened to these' wonder chains ',"needs no oil !" found in a clear out of me bike paper work folder the other day. If these worked we wouldn't be having all this faff 37 years later.For what it's worth I give mine a run thru' with a WD40 soaked bit of kitchen roll then re-oil, and use an old Park 'hooky' tool and brush and an old swarf brush for the gears.Duckhams used to do a large tin you heated up and soaked your motorcycle chain in years ago,it was good stuff as I recall, the lubricant was solid at room temperature, I'd imagine o -ring chains did for that idea.' Jumpers for goalposts' time again . Oh dear!

I still use an ordnance survey map, and highlight in the roads I've been on, (newish to the area where I live ). To keep a vague track of my mileage, I measure out the twists and turns of the route with the edges of a piece of A4 when I get in .I think I first learnt to do this in the Air Cadets about 45 years ago, I'm quite tempted by a mileometer though as the A4 business is a bit of a pain, Do they still make them or are they all GPS now, I'm not even sure whether I want to keep this computer lark going to be honest , I do like some things , but it reminds me of the c.b craze in some respects (anonymous people having a go at each other that sort of thing). Present company excepted of course . Careful on the ice.

That should be me blushing for being too quick on the 'count - downish' anagram, have to check street view next time !

Route 66 was smokin yesterday mornin'; yesterday evenin' too; there's a song here somewhere

I use those cheap readers in a plastic case carried in my jersey pocket, an OS map tucked between the rivets of the long flap on me saddle bag. I think of looking at the map,think 'oh I'll look again after a few more miles', I do that, I'm normally proper lost by then, I quite like that. Mind you I wear some cheap sunglasses that always cast an optimistic hue on the day's route.Check out ZZ Top's song Cheap Sunglasses on youtube, the lyrics fit cycling. Mine are those two tone ones clear at the bottom so you can see the road as well going into the sun. They have Mountain Biking written on the arms(!), they were about 30 pence in a charity shop.
I tried some vari focals, I didn't need them for riding / driving quite yet, but the long vision bit made driving less tiring on the eyes.What I found was that it's essential to get frames that put the lenses at the correct angle to your eyes otherwise you can get quite a lot of horizontal distortion even though the lens prescription is correct, whilst reading a map say and if the frames place them at an incorrect height on your ears, it's also tricky looking to the right for oncoming traffic, I found you had to keep moving your head up and down to get the correct facet of the lens, to me it seemed it would be too easy to lose sight of an oncoming bike at a junction. I gave up in the end and got bi-focals which I just use for driving or watching the box.Safe cycling one and all.

I've no doubt like any person who moves abroad, he will pay his local (US) income tax. This question might be better asked of certain Rock groups who register their affairs in places such as Holland whilst themselves being resident elsewhere, he's just doing what's best for his career and family.He does plenty of charity work so he's putting his money where his mouth is by the looks of it. Good luck to him.
His and Robbie Williams gripe as I understand it is with large global corporations not paying taxes locally in poor countries, (happens here as well). One world.

Mick F,did you have a 'quiet hock ' in the village local in celebration ?

Saw a Red Kite low enough, and stood still enough to take this picture yesterday, I find them hard to take a photo' of in flight as they hunt in such large sweeps of sky.It's easy to forget what a lovely looking bird they are as there are so many of them in these parts.