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Ordered from them a few weeks ago. Was supposed to be next day, heard nothing for over a week, eventually got refunded after about a month. Communication was terrible throughout, avoid.

The hardcore option is clearly to do borough tops instead.

http://www.hill-bagging.co.uk/LondonBoroughs.php

There was a discussion on doing a similar route years ago;

http://www.lfgss.com/thread42068-3.html

ETA: the route google throws out for borough tops is 170 miles lol

http://i.imgur.com/QvlVe4O.jpg

I watched this on the way to San Francisco a few weeks back.
Even BA business class, three glasses of wine, a whiskey, and 20mg of valium didn't soften the blow of how fucking awful it was.

Viz top tip - if you're going to get out of your gourd on benzos and booze, save two grand and fly economy.

Quartz = doomed to failure through irrepairability.

Mechanical = almost always repairable. And cool as fuck. Less accurate, but usually not a problem.

Although if your quartz movement fails, replacing it is likely to cost much less than repairing an auto would. Don't try and justify wearing an auto on any grounds other than because they're cool and pretty, which ought to be enough.

Bump because the consultation finishes in a few days.

Shit, still haven't got round to stealing a car.

can we have a beer tasting ride?

Tour of the London CAMRA branch pubs of the year?

On a slight tangent, does anyone know the source of
"90% of UK cyclists also **drive" **
statistic that seems to be floating around now?
Nice (convenient) if it's true but it sounds like spun data to me

It's based on BC membership I think, and obvs they all need cars to drive their carbon confections to sportives and back every weekend. In summer. If it's not raining.

Drunkenly DASed someone by Hackeny Downs; you delivered, to my mates' amusement. Good effort.

Chapeau. In case you weren't aware (I'd missed it) there is a homebrew thread on here.
What batch size do you typically brew in out of interest?
Olly

So there is, thanks for that.

Generally do a 23 litre brew, that one was a 2 x 25 litre mash partigyled into 25 each of barley wine and best bitter, ie. I did the same mash twice, each time using the first runnings for the stronger beer. I'll have to put up a photo set of the full all-grain brew process at some point.

Lovely work, they look smashing. You're friends are going to love it.

Good skills using the parti-gyle technique too... very old school - did you and your assistants get smashed on the "small beer" that followed the barley wine? :-)

Thanks, the wedding is on Saturday, voluminous praise ought to be forthcoming.

The best bitter got served at a bonfire party and bodes well for the main event.

Wax sealed bottles of homebrew 9% barley wine I made for a mate's wedding. Album of the whole process

As anyone who regularly has to cycle between SE and NE London will already know, the Thames crossing provision for cyclists is shit. The last really practical crossing is Tower Bridge. From there heading East you've got;

• Rotherhithe Tunnel, a narrow, polluted and overcrowded mess that many car drivers prefer to avoid. Cyclists who brave it tend to stick to the pavement (technically illegal) but more divert a few miles East or West
  
• Greenwich Foot Tunnel which despite attracting far more cyclists than pedestrians since the DLR opened stations at either end a decade ago, has recently had barriers installed at three points along its length. These are so narrow it's hard to wheel a single bike through them, let alone two in either direction.
  
• Blackwall, which you can't (legally, or sanely) ride
  
• Emirates Air Line, which costs four quid
  
• Woolwich Ferry, which runs restricted hours, and is often slower than the tunnel
  
• Woolwich Tunnel, which hasn't had working lifts in years so requires 126 steps carrying your steed, plus has barriers (but is at least usually deserted)
  
• Dartford Crossing, some 12 miles further East, where you're reliant on the whims of jobsworths in 4x4s to give you a lift, and the roads either side are horrific.
  
  

click for big

Admittedly, the situation for cars isn't exactly ideal either: Rotherhithe and Blackwall might at least be safe by car, but they're invariably congested, and the Ferry even more so. Of course this has been a problem for years, but the NIMBYs perpetually kill [ame="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thames_Gateway_Bridge"]any plans to fix[/ame] it. Nevertheless, the idea is back, this time in the shape of a tunnel roughly at the location of the cable car, and/or moving the Woolwich Ferry a mile East.

From a cycling perspective the latter idea is beneficial, providing as it does an extra crossing and leaving the Woolwich Foot Tunnel in place (presumably with working lifts by 2017). The new tunnel however won't be available to cyclists, effectively meaning cars get across the river for free, whilst we have to rely on the limited-hours and expensive tourist trap that is the cable car.

This is the time to make yourself heard about the generally dire provision of cycling links across the Thames.

• Providing another free crossing for cars from North Greenwich - Silvertown, but not to cycles isn't fair. Either the new tunnel should be tolled, or the cable car should be free to bikes
  
• The Greenwich Foot Tunnel is the only realistic crossing between Tower Bridge and Woolwich, and is used heavily and predominantly by cyclists. It should be made bike only during DLR hours; pedestrians could be accommodated with free DLR travel from Canary Wharf to Island Gardens. This crossing is a critical part of London's cycling infrastructure, and having barriers in it is equivalent to putting a one car width restriction across the Blackwall Tunnel - a scenario no one would tolerate.
  
• Any new Thamesmead - Silvertown crossing needs to have realistic cycling provisions, in particular not dropping cyclists onto the A1020.
  
  

GO AND COMPLAIN

So I thought I'd update this thread in case anyone wanted to know how the Nomad has treated me over the last 9 months. The only modification made from the original equipment has been swapping the crap gel saddle with a Brooks Flyer (basically a sprung B17).

The bad news from a review perspective is that it hasn't been taken on any multi-day tours as intended, for which I hold responsible work, weather and my laziness. It has however done some long one day rides, and been used as a commuter for a few weeks in total. Perhaps 1000 miles in total.

It's handled that workload marvellously. It's incredibly comfortable, both on London's famously well maintained roads, and on gravel tracks and other light off-roading tasks. It handles weight extremely well, and in fact feels better with ten or twenty kilos in the rear racks.

Clearly it's not fast, held up on the open road by a very upright riding position, and lots of weight, and in traffic by really wide bars, but that sort of goes with the territory.

Maintenance hasn't been problematic, got through a few brake blocks due to rain and load mostly I'd have thought, other than that it's required little attention. Had two punctures, and would consider Marathon Plus rather than the stock Marathons if I was taking it anywhere remote. Wheels are still true, again despite heavy loads and rough roads.

Had a bit of a failure with the rear rack, which was almost certainly Evans's fault failing to tighten it up properly, and a snapped chain which was probably a manufacturing defect on Shimano's part. The important part, the Alfine 11 has been perfect, except when I adjusted the chain tension and didn't RTFM to reset the indexing: which once done was very easy.

Overall I really like it, and just hope I do it justice next year with a proper tour.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/bike-blog/2012/oct/04/boris-johnson-cycling-accident-statistics-wrong

This is ostensibly a story about cycling in London but the message is relevant to all, so bear with me. The lesson is this: for all the talk of a cycling boom in the UK, cyclists largely remain a marginalised, fringe group who regularly face unchallenged slurs, falsehoods and generalisations.
It all began in May when London's mayor, Boris Johnson, one of the more famous cyclists in the country, produced the startling statistic that in 62% of accidents in the capital where a cyclist was killed or serious injured this was found to be down to the rider breaking the law. It was questioned by cycling groups and it turned out Johnson was repeating some hearsay he'd been told at a public meeting

Not me http://app.strava.com/runs/18625394

So which drugs cheats have now been awarded the victories in his place?

Quite.

1999: Alex Zülle, banned for Festina Affair.
2000: Jan Ullrich banned for Operación Puerto
2001: Jan Ullrich banned for Operación Puerto
2002: Joseba Belok, implicated in Operación Puerto, not convicted
2003: Jan Ullrich banned for Operación Puerto
2004: Andreas Klöden, accused of blood doping, not convicted
2005: Ivan Basso banned for Operación Puerto

So five out of seven years the runners up were certainly cheats, and the other two are suspicious.

Will anything ever change if we're always quiet and respectful though?

Patches can be had as iron-on, which avoids the fact that none of us can stitch, and we don't want to break waterproofing. Ironing them onto synthetics is tricky but possible.

You can do them in tiny quantities too, they're a common custom order item. My classy forum name tags, that you may have been lucky enough to see on my jersey, are from this lot on fleabay

Obviously as "London's hardest cycling gang" we should have three piece patches though.

It is time for a public campaign and demonstrations. How can this be organized?

Not just in the most egregious cases either: all drivers convicted of death by dangerous or careless driving.

My inclination is that the reddit eyewitness is legit. It's an established account that's posted about cycling before. Horrible for all involved.

Now I'm worried 30 machines each pulling down a 30GB image will make the stream fall over.

I really am that heavy, obviously I carry it better than I thought.

Good to see you all, great company. Hope we didn't scare too many people with our numerous discussions on injuries and what we'd do to misbehaving drivers.

Bloody excellent selection of beers too.

anyone about early doors? I finish at 4,15 today so I'll be at the pub by about 5ish.

will sit and work on my iApp if not.

Yes. I'm on an early shift too can make it by five. Been meaning to check out the new south easties pub for ages.