Other What currently makes your life awesome?

That bike there ^ is not a kid's bike. It is the same bike that was used for the 2012 Olympic games BMX racing. Look at the tube between where the seat goes in and the handlebars. On the top of that it says "XXL" meaning it is designed for people 5'10-6'2. The top tube, with stem reach is 22". A kid's bike has about five inches less reach than that. A kid's bike has handlebars with a 5" rise. Those are 9". Here, this may help to put it into perspective. This is my mate, who is 19 stone and 6'6 at a race meet.



You also wouldn't see kids riding around on bikes like that, as fully built and specced they are upward of two grand.

I do have a couple of kid's bikes from the 80s, they to me are like paintings/deco etc. Art, basically.

 

As I said to me they seem like kids bike specially when I know you are a big guy. But I am now wiser as it never occurred to me to think BMX which has always stuck me as an odd sport. Big blokes on small bikes pedalling like mad.
Thanks for the enlightenment Andy though some of your colour schemes are a bit iffy.

 

haha yeah purple wasn't the plan but when you find a set of £400 wheels for £100 you can't complain

BMX in the rawest sense is just that, bicycle motocross. It's racing, an explosion of raw power. Races are usually over in less than a minute tbh. Then you have street (which is doing dangerous things) park (which is ramps etc similar to street but using purposely made ramps instead of what you find on the street) flatland (which is kinda like ballet) and so on. There are many different types of BMX riding and many different types of bike. And though they look similar they are all completely different, purpose made for certain things.

BMX started in SoCAL in the 70s. It was kids then. Then of course those kids grew up, so now you have purpose built bikes for pretty much every one. There's one guy racing in his 70s. Amazing tbh.

Now obviously I can't race. I'm on far too many medications for that. I can, however, ride. And I love it and to me it's much more like fun that exercise That bike up there ^ is the one I ride. I've done more miles on that than any of my others combined, mostly because it is so light and goes so fast. But yeah, these days I wear helmet, gloves, jeans ETC. Back when I rode pro street? I wore no protection at all and used to do some pretty crazy stuff (god bless untreated mania lmao). Then I got back into race in my late 20s (because the falls started to hurt) and ironically had the worst wreck of my life. I was wearing nothing but a pair of shorts and trainers.

I don't feel quite so invincible after that lmao. Not losing the use of my right arm for nearly three months and two surgeries. These days I wear all of the gear.

 

Purple was fine but did you not do a bright pink one and an even brighter yellow one?

 

This is what became of the pink one.



I've got it listed for sale now (1987 Hutch Exel freestyle bike, so flatland) No biters yet but I am asking strong money and once Spring hits every one wants bikes again so I will bide my time

The yellow one is a recreation of a race bike I had in the late 90s that was stolen. They came in either yellow or red and I had red. I didn't want to tempt fate so I built that one in yellow

 

Now that I have a few quid courtesy of a PPI rebate I think I the first thing I will buy myself is a shed, no man should die without owning at least one shed in his lifetime.

 

I'd recommend Forest Craft (http://www.forestcraft.co.uk) if you're after a shed. They're down at Granton, and the shed we got from there has been tremendous - a lot more solid than your cheapy B&Q type sheds, and you can get them to build you pretty much whatever you want.

 

I have been looking at them but there is a closer place at Seafield http://www.seafieldshedcentre.co.uk/ but whoever supplies will need to put in a base and erect it as I could not do this myself nowadays.

 

Letter to Teresa May - Genius!!

Dear Mrs May,

Please find below our suggestion for fixing the UK 's economy.

Instead of giving billions of pounds to banks that will squander the money on lavish parties and unearned bonuses, use the following plan.
You can call it the Patriotic Retirement Plan:
There are about 10 million people over 50 in the work force.
Pay them £1 million each severance for early retirement with the following stipulations:

1) They MUST retire.
Ten million job openings - unemployment fixed

2) They MUST buy a new British car.
Ten million cars ordered - Car Industry fixed

3) They MUST either buy a house or pay off their mortgage -
Housing Crisis fixed

4) They MUST send their kids to school/college/university -
Crime rate fixed

5) They MUST buy £100 WORTH of alcohol/tobacco a week .....
And there's your money back in duty/tax etc

It can't get any easier than that!

P.S. If more money is needed, have all members of parliament pay back their falsely claimed expenses and second home allowances

If you think this would work, please forward to everyone you know.
Also.....

Let's put the pensioners in jail and the criminals in a nursing home.

This way the pensioners would have access to showers, hobbies and walks.

They'd receive unlimited free prescriptions, dental and medical treatment, wheel chairs etc and they'd receive money instead of paying it out.

They would have constant video monitoring, so they could be helped instantly, if they fell, or needed assistance.

Bedding would be washed twice a week, and all clothing would be ironed and returned to them.

A guard would check on them every 20 minutes and bring their meals and snacks to their cell.

They would have family visits in a suite built for that purpose.

They would have access to a library, weight room, spiritual counselling, pool and education.

Simple clothing, shoes, slippers, PJ's and legal aid would be free, on request.

Private, secure rooms for all, with an exercise outdoor yard, with gardens.

Each senior could have a PC a TV radio and daily phone calls.

There would be a board of directors to hear complaints, and the guards would have a code of conduct that would be strictly adhered to.

The criminals would get cold food, be left all alone and unsupervised. Lights off at 8pm, and showers once a week. Live in a tiny room and pay £600.00 per week and have no hope of ever getting out.

Think about this (more points of contention):

COWS
Is it just me, or does anyone else find it amazing that during the mad cow epidemic our government could track a single cow, born in Appleby almost three years ago, right to the stall where she slept in the county of Cumbria?

And, they even tracked her calves to their stalls. But they are unable to locate 125,000 illegal immigrants wandering around our country. Maybe we should give each of them a cow.

 

I mean, I know it's just one of those nonsense things that I roll my eyes to when I see them shared on facebook, but...

- Where is the £10 trillion coming from?
- How is someone suppose to buy a house, a British car (so exotics only, then), pay their kids' way through university and retire at 50 with £800k? (because they'll need to leave £200k to buy booze and fags)

 

I imagine they are hoping for a premature death through smoking and alcohol abuse.

Retire at 50 dead by 60, with anyone surviving dying in a horrible car crash whilst driving in their Aston, whilst going to buy said alcohol and smokes.

 

Aw, the bald leg patches of shame Hope the cat is sorted, and that the insurance goes through without any issues. Who are you insured with?

 

You are not going to believe this but another cheque has dropped through the door.

 

We've been with a whole load of companies over the years, but are currently with MoreThan (and locked in with them due to the age of our sole remaining mog). We've been unlucky enough to have had to make claims with a couple of different companies over the years and I have to say (as someone who worked in insurance for a looooong time) that MoreThan were absolutely brilliant last year when our tom developed an acute heart condition, which was ultimately terminal . He ended up at the University of Edinburgh's vet school as a last resort, although there wasn't anything that could save him, and even though that racked up a bill of several thousand pounds the insurer settled immediately and everyone that we spoke to regarding the claim was lovely.

Oh, and our policy also covers non-emergency dental treatment which came in handy last year when both cats had their annual vet check and had slightly less than perfect teeth. The cost of the work would have been at least two grand for the two of them, but fortunately it was covered by the insurance (which usually just covers emergency work).

 

It is the 8% year on year interest that boosts the repayment and when you are talking 20-25 years years worth it soon mounts up.

 

@Kronos , is that about £50,000 in the last week then?

Not an expert, but I believe that if your PPI premiums meant that you ended up maintaining a credit balance then the additional credit balance incurred by the PPI premium gets repaid at 8% p.a. interest (simple, not compound, but still adds up).