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Interesting interview. I hadn't realised the RCC stuff had been cut to that extent (including Mondial, boo - I always liked that). I can't decide whether Mottram sounds like a steely-eyed visionary with a goal or a Nick Hussey trying to hold everything together while the company's on the skids - I suspect the difference may only appear in retrospect.

The problem there is more the peanuts pay than the taking of people with no retail experience. IME basic customer service skills can be taught to most people in a day, and then cemented by experience - but if you're paying people minimum wage you're less likely to invest even in that level of training.

If it helps, I find my Speedbird looks a lot better in the metal than in most photos.

Immediately, or soon? I noticed their website was having problems earlier today. Pity - they were always good to deal with on the occasions I bought stuff off them.

I have a standard Speedbird III, which is great. Mine is one of the old ones with the sterile dial - I'm not hugely enamoured of the 'Speedbird' logo. I gather the movement used in the GMT can occasionally have the GMT hand go out of sync, but this is a cheap fix for a watchmaker - didn't someone on here have this happen recently?

Very handsome, that.

Interesting stuff; so did they publish that Rapha blueprint for racing report mentioned in the press release? Wasn't it originally going to be released over the summer?

Chocolate Challah I helped my girls make for school tomorrow.

White(ish) is going to be the tricky bit. For sitting around and staying warm I like my submariner roll-neck (though it's not especially windproof); it is a bit utilitarian/Captain Birdseye, mind. Light grey will be a lot easier to find, and plenty of high street options there for a light/mediumweight wool sweater; M&S lambswool knits are as good as any, and easy to get hold of.

In my mind Yomping is associated with the Falklands; wiki suggests it was the press coverage of the war that brought the term to wider attention. Definitely military-inflected, and along with this bloke's politics makes me think the constant repetition is partly born of some waltish desire to seem well 'ard...

^ what are the clearances on that likely to be - 28mm plus guards, or bigger?

Somehow I quite like that ^^, but the bezel numbers look disturbingly like Chicago (the old Mac system typeface).

What spoke key should I use for fat Dutch bike nipples? Some of the spokes on the rear rim have gone totally slack, so I figure I should probably back them all off and try tightening up from scratch. I guess this means using something better than the one that came with my cheapo bike tools kit?

Lion Bellworks is nice and loud, and under £20, but more classic/retro look than silicon valley sleek.

I've used these for a couple of years, and ain't dead yet (though the heavy metals point hadn't occurred to me - I presume they're food safe...):

https://www.bakerybits.co.uk/professional-leather-oven-gloves.html

I'd agree the strict season starts Advent Sunday (or perhaps December 1st for the secular mincers), but 1st November/post-Halloween is a hard limit. OTOH, the January season lasts as long as the supermarkets are remaindering them...

Damn straight. Without mincer straight-edgedom (not one bite before Advent night!), I'd be an even fatter bastard than I already am. Let seasonality substitute for self-control, I say...

Sorry, missed this at the time. 'Air Mechanic' was one of the Royal Naval Air Service enlisted ranks, so that would be the first place to look; if your great-grandfather was transferred to the RAF he'd also have an RAF service record. The National Archives have some decent online guides to tracing family service members - the RNAS one's here: http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/help-with-your-research/research-guides/royal-naval-air-service-ratings/ - which suggests using the search forms here: http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/help-with-your-research/research-guides/royal-navy-ratings-service-records-1853-1928/

For any eventual RAF service records, they suggest the best place to look is on Findmypast, which has digitised most of them.

Ta @Cazakstan for the Liverpool rec of Bold St Coffee; went at the weekend and it was excellent.

AIUI it positively stops the collar from moving to the 'release' position. There was someone on the CTC forums complaining that without them and using the MKS SPD-a-likes they could sometimes nudge the release and pull out the pedal instead of the shoe when trying to unclip...

Think a couple of the audaxers on yacf have them, and always seem v positive about them. If you've already got a rack they're probably lighter and more aero than a barley &c.

ISTR that even before the growth in e-bike usage the majority of NL cycle fatalities were single-person incidents involving elderly cyclists; e-bikes have just strengthened that trend.

What do people use to cut a beard right back? I tend to go a bit feast and famine WRT shaving; I normally use a Merkur DE razor, but if I've got a couple of months' growth on there it's a bit of a pain to hack it all off. I gather open comb designs are a bit less likely to clog - anyone use one of these?

'Banned for two races' - well, it's nice to see the motorsport authorities taking the same hard line as the traffic courts...

If they look otherwise clean, I'd guess it's just felting of the fibres at the surface of the fabric; not sure there's anything you can do about that, especially as most baselayers are so fine.