Your Anti-Rants here

the_fuggler

Veronese68 wrote:

29" or 26" wheels? I'd love to get a 29er.

26" - I'm not a fan of the 29" - probably because I'm fairly short at 5' 10".

CFO changed her mind at the last minute. Not even a bribe of a pair of shoes would get the appropriate forms signed...

veronese68

The Fuggler wrote:

Veronese68 wrote:

29" or 26" wheels? I'd love to get a 29er.

26" - I'm not a fan of the 29" - probably because I'm fairly short at 5' 10".

CFO changed her mind at the last minute. Not even a bribe of a pair of shoes would get the appropriate forms signed...

Shame, when I got my newish mountain bike I had to buy the EPO a pair of boots as a bribe.
Yes, I'm 6'2" so quite like the idea of big wheels, also the type of riding I do is more suited to them. I don't tend to do tight nadgery stuff apart from the odd trip to Swinley forest. I've done all day 80 mile rides off road though.

bails87

Really nice ride in this morning, good temperature, the bike was running well, the drivers were good. The worst drivers were a woman in a Range Rover mounting on the pavement to get round a queue (it's wrong when bikes do it, but 2 tons of RR is ok....?) and a bloke who couldn't decipher the cryptic "KEEP CLEAR" message on the road and blocked a turning.

But those were nothing to really worry about. And when I got caught behind a street sweeper truck doing about 3mph (yes, three!) on a NSL road, I waited in turn in the queue of cars for a minute before deciding to overtake. When I did every single car moved over to make my overtake safer :shock:

the_fuggler

Veronese68 wrote:

The Fuggler wrote:

Veronese68 wrote:

29" or 26" wheels? I'd love to get a 29er.

26" - I'm not a fan of the 29" - probably because I'm fairly short at 5' 10".

CFO changed her mind at the last minute. Not even a bribe of a pair of shoes would get the appropriate forms signed...

Shame, when I got my newish mountain bike I had to buy the EPO a pair of boots as a bribe.
Yes, I'm 6'2" so quite like the idea of big wheels, also the type of riding I do is more suited to them. I don't tend to do tight nadgery stuff apart from the odd trip to Swinley forest. I've done all day 80 mile rides off road though.

A bit of both for me - I've done a few 60 mile rides in the past on an Anthem, but generally I like small and aggressive - a bit like the CFO...

Ben6899

I unpacked my brand new Dolan Prefissio frameset yesterday evening to find a deep gouge on the driveside chainstay just above the cable-stop.

I telephoned Dolan (at 1915hrs) and explained the problem to a very apologetic and friendly bloke. Tomorrow, they are couriering a new frame to me (Ormskirk to London) and taking away the damaged frame (London to Ormskirk). No concerns (between them and me) how it happened, no photo of proof required, just a simple "okay, that's rubbish, here's what we'll do..." response.

Dolan - cracking service (and the frame is a corker!), keep up the excellent work.
Parcelforce - if this damage happened during transit, then shame on you.

Overall an anti-rant.

suzyb

It was quite a plesant afternoon ride today. Nice weather and motorists seemed to give me more room than usual.

Santa cruzing

yesterdays ride home found that a quarter mile of my commute has been resurfaced, riding on tarmac that is just hours old is one of lifes little luxuries. And its not even that spray on rubbish, proper tarmac!

Fingers crossed for the other 14 and 3 quarter miles of potholes and frost damage.......

Ben6899

Ben6899 wrote:

I unpacked my brand new Dolan Prefissio frameset yesterday evening to find a deep gouge on the driveside chainstay just above the cable-stop.

I telephoned Dolan (at 1915hrs) and explained the problem to a very apologetic and friendly bloke. Tomorrow, they are couriering a new frame to me (Ormskirk to London) and taking away the damaged frame (London to Ormskirk). No concerns (between them and me) how it happened, no photo of proof required, just a simple "okay, that's rubbish, here's what we'll do..." response.

Dolan - cracking service (and the frame is a corker!), keep up the excellent work.
Parcelforce - if this damage happened during transit, then shame on you.

Overall an anti-rant.

And I just received an email from my girlfriend to confirm that the replacement frame has indeed been dropped off and the damaged one collected.

Result.

DrLex

Ben6899 wrote:

And I just received an email from my girlfriend to confirm that the replacement frame has indeed been dropped off and the damaged one collected.

Result.

Nice! Busy weekend beckons, or will you burn the midnight oil tonight?
(If your forecast is cr@p for the weekend like it is here, then perhaps no rush.)

Ben6899

DrLex wrote:

Ben6899 wrote:

And I just received an email from my girlfriend to confirm that the replacement frame has indeed been dropped off and the damaged one collected.

Result.

Nice! Busy weekend beckons, or will you burn the midnight oil tonight?
(If your forecast is cr@p for the weekend like it is here, then perhaps no rush.)

I don't have all the parts yet (after a stem and some bars) so tomorrow, I will be out on the soon-to-be retired 2nd bike. Homemade pizza tonight!

suzyb

A section of my route has been resurfaced, it's so lovely not to have to weave all over the lane like I'm drunk just to avoid potholes.

And another part is getting done next week. My only minor gripe...the rest of the road is in a worse state then the bit getting done.

CiB

OT, but satisfying. The washing machine failed yesterday with a still wet full load and a non-responsive control panel. Checked the obvious - filter, pipes, fuses, presence of dead cats etc but no joy. As a final stab before giving it up as a bad job, gave it a hefty whack on the front and tried again. Result. The Zanussi lives again, which is good as I've got better things to do with my pocket money than buy domestic white goods.

Just wait till OH gets home so that I can bask in the glory of fixing it with my dexterous skill and electro-mechanical abilities. If nothing else it should clear the way for a couple of hours out of sight tomorrow morning.

DrLex

Yay! Percussive maintenance FTW!
In the spirit of the thread, weather much better than was forecast, so able to ride, walk dawg and go running with the children rather than rainy day chores. Huzzah for early Springtime!

roger_merriman

Fairly cold and wet, perfect left a almost empty Richmound Park still a few cars but they where fine. And the few other cyclists seemed to be folks who knew what they where doing etc.

So from a purely selfish reason rain is good!

cjcp

roger merriman wrote:

Fairly cold and wet, perfect left a almost empty Richmound Park still a few cars but they where fine. And the few other cyclists seemed to be folks who knew what they where doing etc.

So from a purely selfish reason rain is good!

+1.

It was lovely (a wet and windy lovely, obviously), but it was soooooooooooooooooooooooo nice riding the Scott. First time in nearly five or six months maybe; maybe even since July. Might commute on it this week.

bails87

I fitted the wheels I built (Superstar Superfast/Switch Evo hubs, Stans Crets 29er rims, DT revolution spokes) to the commuter and rode in on them this morning.

They didn't break!

They felt nice and light too, I was consistently holding a higher speed than usual, although that might have been due to the 20kph tailwind. I'll have to wait until after the ride home to know if ti was the wheels, wind or both.

Kieran_Burns

My ride in this morning:





Hope that works...

Met up with a mate to cycle in via the River / Canal path to Nottingham from Sawley Marina (Long Eaton) making it an 18 mile ride.

It. Was. Stunning.

I have never enjoyed a ride into work so much - cold, fresh, bright blue skies and beautiful views. I honestly can't overstate how great the whole ride was. I even got to work barely out of breath with a huge smile on my face. That commute in will stay long in the memory as a high point of my cycling history.

jonny_trousers

Smashed my PB for the ride home last night, and on the singlespeed too! Sure, there may have been a light breeze behind me the entire way, but still...

asprilla

This was above my desk when I moved into this company / team a couple of months ago.



I finally got round to asking them what it was, so they turned it on. The devs built it when their last boss was on holiday. It monitors the corporate search servers and when a client searches for 'porn' it shows a red light instead of a green.

Also, when someone searches for 'James Bond' it plays the bond theme.

It just reinforced my belief that I made the right decision to come and work here.

bails87

My ride in yesterday (first ride on the new wheels and new Conti GP 4 seasons) was 1.5-2mph faster than my normal ride in, but I put that down to the tailwind.

The wind on the way home was the same, so now a stubborn headwind, and yet i rode home in an identical time to a normal, windless, day. I don't know if it's the wheels, tyres, or a placebo effect, but I like it!

Mr Sworld

Asprilla wrote:

This was above my desk when I moved into this company / team a couple of months ago.



I finally got round to asking them what it was, so they turned it on. The devs built it when their last boss was on holiday. It monitors the corporate search servers and when a client searches for 'porn' it shows a red light instead of a green.

Also, when someone searches for 'James Bond' it plays the bond theme.

It just reinforced my belief that I made the right decision to come and work here.

That.

Is.

So.

Cool.....

veronese68

Just got in from my annual check up with the oncologist. All clear. I knew it would be, but I still worried. Very relieved now, I'll sleep a lot better tonight. That's about 6 years clear now.

Applespider

Mr Sworld wrote:

Asprilla wrote:

I finally got round to asking them what it was, so they turned it on. The devs built it when their last boss was on holiday. It monitors the corporate search servers and when a client searches for 'porn' it shows a red light instead of a green.

Also, when someone searches for 'James Bond' it plays the bond theme.

It just reinforced my belief that I made the right decision to come and work here.

That.

Is.

So.

Cool.....

V cool. Back when I worked for an internet start-up, we had screens up that showed the number of orders, total order value for the day etc. It was also set up so that when we hit certain milestone numbers (1000 orders, £50K) it would go chi-ching or make the noise of coins dropping from a slot machine. Unfortunately it eventually got turned off since the customer service team ended up sitting there and it didn't really help when they were speaking to irate customers.

Ben6899

Handlebars (bought in the classifieds here) and stem (temporary solution being posted from parents' garage) being posted today hopefully.

That means I can start building the new bike this weekend, hopefully.

Kieran_Burns

Mass Effect 3 arriving at my desk tomorrow.

I'm so geeky

In other news - big smiles generated from several people on the way in today.

Huge artic behind me going through East Leake village (new build estate drop off) and I knew there were several pinch points coming up, so I swung off to let him past - them horns are LOUD with a smile and wave

MILF (really lovely!) patiently waited behind me through a twisty country section and she gave a big smile and wave after I acknowledged her patience.

Plus all the usual people pulling in to let me past up the A60 when they were stuck in traffic and I wasn't....

Cloud of positive karma is back

rjsterry

Kieran_Burns wrote:

Mass Effect 3 arriving at my desk tomorrow.

I'm so geeky

In other news - big smiles generated from several people on the way in today.

Huge artic behind me going through East Leake village (new build estate drop off) and I knew there were several pinch points coming up, so I swung off to let him past - them horns are LOUD with a smile and wave

MILF (really lovely!) patiently waited behind me through a twisty country section and she gave a big smile and wave after I acknowledged her patience.

Plus all the usual people pulling in to let me past up the A60 when they were stuck in traffic and I wasn't....

Cloud of positive karma is back

Somewhere someone is having a truly awful day - just to balance things out.

roger_merriman

bike's back from having it's headset done, and they have also fixed the niggling front brake. very nice Birdy Bikes.

Stone Glider

Today was a good day to be riding your bike. Very considerate traffic and dog owners.

Heading for home along a narrowish lane with cyclist heading towards me on other side. Can hear a truck behind which reaches to level with my elbow, then drops back to allow the other cyclist and I to pass then quietly overtakes. Imagine my surprise when said truck turns out to be a skip lorry! So thanks Raybell Skips for hiring sensible drivers.

Kieran_Burns

rjsterry wrote:

Kieran_Burns wrote:

Mass Effect 3 arriving at my desk tomorrow.

I'm so geeky

In other news - big smiles generated from several people on the way in today.

Huge artic behind me going through East Leake village (new build estate drop off) and I knew there were several pinch points coming up, so I swung off to let him past - them horns are LOUD with a smile and wave

MILF (really lovely!) patiently waited behind me through a twisty country section and she gave a big smile and wave after I acknowledged her patience.

Plus all the usual people pulling in to let me past up the A60 when they were stuck in traffic and I wasn't....

Cloud of positive karma is back

Somewhere someone is having a truly awful day - just to balance things out.

Must've been apocalyptically bad then... I even had a great ride home (one minor dent with a Passat knob who got abuse from the OTHER drivers) but more than balanced by the fantastic Transit driver in East Leake Was coming up behind me and saw the (very minor) shoulder checks, held back and gave me a massive thumbs up to let me know it was okay to indicate right. I duly did so and pulled right across so he could pass on the inside.

He got a big smile and an equally big wave - ahh.... great day

nation

Applespider wrote:

Mr Sworld wrote:

Asprilla wrote:

I finally got round to asking them what it was, so they turned it on. The devs built it when their last boss was on holiday. It monitors the corporate search servers and when a client searches for 'porn' it shows a red light instead of a green.

Also, when someone searches for 'James Bond' it plays the bond theme.

It just reinforced my belief that I made the right decision to come and work here.

That.

Is.

So.

Cool.....

V cool. Back when I worked for an internet start-up, we had screens up that showed the number of orders, total order value for the day etc. It was also set up so that when we hit certain milestone numbers (1000 orders, £50K) it would go chi-ching or make the noise of coins dropping from a slot machine. Unfortunately it eventually got turned off since the customer service team ended up sitting there and it didn't really help when they were speaking to irate customers.

At work our department has been shifted in a great office move-around onto a floor that used to be a call centre for sales and service people. It has those LED matrix screens all over the place that are hooked into the phone system to show stats about hold times and such.

Today our boss figured out how to access it from her computer and make it display messages (as a department manager she has a login for the phone system, even though we don't use it), and she's using it as a combination stream-of-consciousness sort of twitter and a means of ordering people to bring her coffee.