isitafox

Somehow seem to have blagged Modern Warfare 3 on my Xbox for free?!

Ended up just sticking with the Sapim ones that came with the spokes, they were the fancy nipples with the weird hex end. Didn't realise they might have had threadlock in but I don't like the sound of that!

Just set off building a wheel for one of my lads for xmas and run into a possible issue. Rim is a DT Swiss EX511 which has come with concave washers and their own 2.0 15mm nipples, spokes are 14g Sapim from Tarty and they thread ok but get tight very quickly. I've only just threaded them lightly by hand but I'm not happy with how they're binding, I assumed they'd work fine but could the thread pitch/diameter be slightly different? Will I be ok to use the Sapim nipples with the washers that came with the rim?

Bit of a random question but does anyone on here live near or in Clacton on Sea? My son is after a MTB Hopper ramp for xmas but they're f**king expensive. Seen one on ebay reduced but the seller has it down as collection only and it's a bit of a drive (steady 230 miles) so I'm trying to pin down someone who'd be willing to pick it up and drop it in the post for me (beer money supplied for your trouble obv.....)

Well, it's been a long time coming (I started clearing the garden last March/April) but finally got some grass down yesterday and space for the kids to play and relax. Been hard work clearing as there was a static caravan here previously so the paving slabs were well set and there was a lot of gravel and stuff to clear. I think I've shifted roughly 18-20 tonne bags of stone and garden waste (did 6 bags in the last couple of weeks). Slight nightmare as the area was roughly 66²m but yesterday afternoon just after 3pm I had 4 tonnes of topsoil and 70 rolls of turf delivered. With the weather being warm and dry I didn't want to leave the turf so set to barrowing all 4 tonnes myself while my dad levelled iit out as best he could. Finally got finished laying turf at 9pm last night, today I feel absolutely broken but pleased it's finally done. Now onto the next job 🙈 Before: After:

After 2 years we've finally got a calisthenics setup in the local park 😁

Bit behind with this but it popped up that Get Out was leaving Netflix so thought I'd finally give it a watch. As someone who suffers from anxiety, claustrophobia and panic attacks it was definitely not the film to watch to relax 😂

I'd say they're a bit too narrow so there's a bigger chance of the tyres ballooning off the rim

Finally after having my last about 12/13 years ago I managed to get hold of another 2007 long Zoo Python. Needs a few bits sorting like the wheels truing, new tyres and ideally new forks but I'm well happy with it. Swapped the Zoo bars for a spare set of Trialtech high rise I found in the shed which is a bit of an improvement already!

To continue the useless train rant, I'm working currently, train sat in sidings waiting to go, shunter asks if I can clear signal towards sidings for shunt move so I tell him when the train that's there has departed as I've cleared the route for it. Train departs, shunter starts radioing again asking for signal so I ignore him and pull the signal for the shunt move as previously agreed. Shunter then radios AGAIN asking if the signal is for him and his shunt move, I somehow resist calling him a bellend. f**king morons....

The strikes are hitting me hard and it's wank. On one hand there was good reason for them, NWR have always had a clause in contracts that they couldn't just sack maintenance staff as the RMT always push to make sure that is included in any negotiations. Currently they want to get rid of thousands of track workers which on one hand could work in favour of those who are almost ready to retire and would take an early payout package but the issue is the fact that instead of replacing them they want to delegate their work to the staff that are leftover and also use trains to do certain jobs like assess the condition of the track instead of people. To the general public this might sound like progress but to us on the railway it is a terrible idea, the majority of the rail network is patrolled weekly (though bosses have even tried cutting that back) and trains can only identify certain issues meaning the potential of life threatening accidents would shoot up considerably. The wage deal is just a normal negotiation done every two or three years but since we came under the governments control we got hit with the same pay freeze as civil servants and the NHS. This is the bit that doesn't make sense as whilst NWR is partially funded by the government it is also paid for by lots of private firms who run railways in different countries, they are taking record profits every year, spending that money elsewhere and then trying to say there is no money to fund a pay rise which is absolute bollocks. The thing that is starting to piss people off is the RMT have their own agenda, we were offered 8% over two years last month (not amazing but in the current climate still alright) along with the no compulsory redundancy deal RMT wanted but as they knew us members would probably take the deal they flat refused it without even consulting us. We're now stuck with having to strike when we could have had it all sorted and losing money which we'll struggle to recuperate even with a pay rise. That and the fact that the planned strike dates have hit half the staff harder than the others, if we were still atriking this week it would be the 5th and 6th for me when some have only had 1 or 2. Be interesting next month as our strike vote runs out so will have to be retaken and I'm not sure people will say yes this time round..... In addition to this NWR f**ked us over by paying us the original strike days "by mistake" and going on to take the money from this months wage along with another two days strike pay to back us into a corner.

Nope, we use Cyclesolutions and you can literally order anything off their website up to £1000 per year and they'll price match everything

Works cyclescheme wins again, after bagging a pair of Pro 4 hubs for around £150 (can't remember exactly) I've just bit the bullet and ordered some forks for my Big Dog. Ideally wanted some Revelations but there was no stock at the store we use so gone with a set of Domains which after a price match and tax adjustment work out at £220!

Met Martyn Ashton, that is all.

Huge thread bump but I couldn't think of a better place to post. Went to a Speakers From The Edge talk tonight in Buxton to hear about Martyn's career and life after his accident. Was a lot I never knew about him but what an absolute legend, even met him afterwards and had a quick chat. He remembered the book we sent and said he keeps it on a shelf in his living room. One hero I'm quite happy to have met!