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Alex isn't doing the folder race this year, so if you'd like the Helios SL (definitely quicker than a Brompton) just say the word.

Just got this from a mate's blog: http://www.atomicecho.com/cycling/racing/womens_race_at_smithfield_nocturne_2009.shtml

Sounds like an excellent development to me. For anyone who hasn't been along - the atmosphere is indeed amazing.

I'd go for a lower ratio, just on the grounds that your metabolism pretty much stops in the wee small hours and everything suddenly becomes a lot more like hard work. OTOH, I'm a wuss who's only ever done it one geared bikes, albeit the first time was on one of these (not recommended):

See the other saddles thread. Koobi Xenon FTW - a bit more money but super comfy despite not being thickly padded. For additional squashiness they do an "enduro" model.

I'm not sure, but if my bloody rims ever turn up, I shall have LF Campag Record front and HF Miche Primato rear.

On the subject of big chains - look out the video of Captain Cropper having a pop at an Almax III. Given he a) can't cut it and in fact hardly marks it and b) buggers up a very expensive set of jaws on his 42" croppers in the process I'm pretty confident in its ability to keep my bike safe. That said, I'm using a Krypto M18 at the moment as the Almax is just too much to carry with a cracked rib.

Should you fancy meeting for a pint and conspiratorial chat, it'd be a pleasure.

Me! Did the Dave Yates course a couple of years back.

I'm posting this during the process of converting a friend's desktop to Xubuntu. Not a very high-end machine and about four years old, though with two gigs of RAM. Currently copying many gigs from the old hard drive and downloading/installing openoffice, vlc, mplayer, java, flash and the usual civilisations. Still perfectly pleasant to browse on. I fucking <3 *NIX.

opens popcorn

Better than ceramic open pro's? If so, they must be good

I was thinking of the regular flavour. IIRC I read some accounts of slightly inconsistent braking in the wet that put me off the ceramics, as I tend to use the front brake pretty hard.

Unless you already have the Open Pros, you might like to take a look at Ambrosio Excellight (if/when mine turn up from eBay). Similar price and construction with allegedly better quality. I found out about them while googling Open Pros as wheel nerds in the States seem to recommend them as a slightly better alternative.

Campag Shamal Ultra have been very good to me - the quality is stunning, they're very light, they don't seem to mind potholes (I hit a lot on the Dynamo and they stayed utterly true). To cap it all, I was chatting at some lights with a guy (obviously a pretty rich one) who's been commuting on a pair in London for a year or so without any trouble at all - not bad for race wheels.

http://www.benchmade.com - best penknives ever.

Marlin have been going forever - the Sportster is a sort of larger, more civilised Caterham based on BMW running gear. They had a demo with the M3 engine/gearbox at one point which was quite awe-inspiring - a bit like a Westfield SEight that actually made sense. I love the retro/bonkers looks of the Sportster too:

Having adminned Linux professionally for a few years and played with it for an age before that (going back to kernel 1.2 days) I've settled on Xubuntu for my sitting-at computers. Works nicely on everything from an EeePC to this machine (8GB, quad core, RAID1), requires a minimum of faff to install and keep updated and avoids the Windows-alike bloat of a full GNOME/KDE environment. Debian on the servers. I had a job that involved maintaining a fleet of Gentoo boxes and that got old really quickly - the additional admin time involved just isn't worth it. FreeBSD is also worth considering for servers, but a bit of an effort for a desktop.

48:18 is fine for me at present. An emergency swap from 48:15 after my knees complained about riding up from Whitechapel to Finsbury Park carrying a full Berghaus Vulcan.

http://www.marlinsportscars.co.uk/forsale/

320bhp, mid-engined, £14500 ex-demo. Something of a bargain.

More google, but: http://www.weldingmobility.co.uk/aluminium.html - mobile alu welding sounds promising.

I have some Ambrosio Excellights on order from eBay at the moment (£81/pair inc shipping). If all goes according to plan, they should be built up fairly shortly if you want a look at them.

Last year I got there at 0715. That'd be a long five hours, and by then I'd be starting to think in terms of the coach home.

Hmmm. The ale plan is a good'un. IIRC the caff only has tinned fizzypiss or bottles of cider. Anyone finding it in their heart to turn up with some bottles of Pride or Summer Lightning or something for sale would find themselves very popular.

Compressed air canisters are definitely out there - one makes up the butt of an air rifle of mine, for instance* - ~200bar in fact. The difficulty would be building the charging/regulating kit for application to tyres.

*an FX Verminator, airgunfanz. I prefer my Theoben Evolution though.

Noticed these earlier while bouncing around Parkers looking for something else: http://www.parker-international.co.uk/4767/Campagnolo-Xenon-9-Brake-Calipers.html

No idea. One thing is that I don't rough up the tube much (lost the little sandpaper bit so generally just give it a quick scrape on a kerbstone or something). If you're getting slow leaks afterwards, maybe it's via the little scratches since there's no semi-liquid glue to fill them up with the pre-glued patches?

EDIT: though in general I stick a new tube in and patch at home.