As said above, proper training (like a school or something) and as we use, and I've heard my mom suggest (she is a vet), get a cage/crate. At first the dog will hate it, but then they will slowly begin to think of it as a den of sorts. Both of our dogs go and sleep in their's even when they arnt locked up.
I watched "movie" about 6 or so months ago. Now, I'm watching the show on TV. I really hope this isnt supposed to be serious. Its just sooooo bad. As said previously it looks like I'm watching a 70s movie, and the acting is bad, and the plot is quite crappy. Its kinda one of those shows you watch for the cheesiness. Like when they jumped a car. . . I'm not quite sure that I'm saying, but I am saying something. Help I've fallen and I cant shut up. I guess this is a rantish thing.
Saw a school but run over an entire exhaust system. Kinda funny because the bus driver didnt even stop to see what she had hit (there is an odd curb to get into the parking lot of my school that causes cars to scrapes if you dont go slow enough). I almost hit a family of opossums the other morning when I was riding my bike to school, but I'm not so sure that counts. . .
The route that my dad drives to get to the hospital where he works follows a road that goes down a steep hill around a blind corner. Once when he was going to work there was a car that had rolled into the middle of the road because some idiot forgot the parking brake.
My dad used to be a flight paramedic for MSP. First crash for them in a long time. Pilot, flight paramedic/trooper, I think a local EMS guy, and one of the patents died. My dad flew with the pilot and knew of the trooper (My dad switched jobs 15 years ago or so when we moved from Maryland to Ohio). Unfortunately it sounds as though it will be called as pilot error, but from reading elsewhere it sounds like there may have been some navigational error (it seems the pilot had trouble finding the approach and called to request to be guided in by the tower but they lost contact). Sad. . .
I watched it over and over and couldnt figure out what the heck happened. Was he trying to kill himself or what?
Edit: Just watched it again; seems that they were trying to jump the fence but forgot to look before hand. Not quite sure how I missed that, but still. . .
I've a friend with a nice gash on his face because there was water on his rims. He hit his brakes hard enough to stop himself, then the water wore off and he endoed. I've also got a nice scar on my leg from a log thanks to a massive build up of mud and snow/ice (no stopping power followed by crash, then I realized that my brakes wouldn't release due to build up of muck on the cable). But honestly, I'd go with V brakes on a bike in the OP's price range. They will just do better. Also what was said about rear susp. is true and false. On flat ground some designs/shocks cause a lot of bob (like you said), but there are some designs/shocks that eliminate this (Spesh Brain shock comes to mind). Also, for things like rock gardens and roots FS bikes are nice. They also handle better (in most situations). And yes FS rigs are nice big air.
I dont really care about your opinions on the war, but I am just about sure about the Viet Cong were in fact on amphetamines and this would make sense because of the manufacturing of drugs of all types in that region. What I meant about the gun being ineffective was that the pain would not be a factor (all shots are meant to kill, but obviously that doent always happen. Also what I said excluded the obvious factors of blood loss and a hit on a vital organ). Also, it seems that a taser does in fact work fairly well (the kind that shoots barbs at least; at the time my dad and his friend were cops, all they had were the type that dont shoot barbs) and mace seems to have almost no effect: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=01Mf81w_lbQ
A while ago me, dad (EX. Maryland state trooper), and his friend (EX. Cop, current FBI liaisons officer and his wife is a police Sargent currently) had a conversation. They were telling me how no backup and a person on PCP is the worst possible situation a cop could be in. Mace? Doesn't work. Hitting the person with a baton? Doesn't work. Taser? Doesn't work. Gun? Only works from time to time. PCP is scary stuff. Unless I'm mistaken that or something similar is what the Viet kong used in the war.
Correction: you need hydro disc brakes if you ride in the mud (even mechs get screwed up after a while, just they take longer to, but you are right; V-brakes + mud = super fail). But then again the IMBA doesnt want you riding on muddy trails (yeah right though. . .)
To the front suspension part: the crappy suspension forks that come on a bike in the price range he is looking at will be no better than a NON-DISC compatible rigid fork except for on very hard hits which you dont get on the road. I say non-disk because the disc compatible forks are much stiffer.
To the disc VS. V-brake: This has been a hugely debated topic on MTB forums. The general conclusion has been a set of V-brakes with good pads are better than a crappy set of disc brakes (With a few exceptions, any mechanical disc brakes other than Avid BB7s are going to be worse than V-brakes). Stock brake pads almost always suck, so I'd say go with V-brakes and replace the pads with Cool Stops, but be careful; you are likely to go over the bars.
Dont be haten' until you have tried it. It is really nice (and I dont wear lycra for streamlining, I wear it because it isnt baggy therefor cant get caught on the seat which always sucks). And for the record I dont have any sponsors on any of my jerseys or shorts (other than the little performance bike logo)
Not so sure about that for what the OP is going to use it for (the new ones are even more DJ oriented).
OP, avoid suspension of any kind and disc brakes. In the price range you are looking at susp. forks are going to be no better than rigid forks, but they will weigh more.
No kidding. If we had 75 mph winds here, I cant even imagine Galveston. I have seen some pictures, and I felt very lucky after words. My heart goes out to those people. I'll defiantly go with my church if they decide to go down and offer aid. Regardless of how angry many people were here (it was a bit over the top in many ways. We had people actually standing in front of one of the DP&L HQ places protesting and others with big nasty signs in front of their houses), we got sooooooooo lucky.
Apparently the big AFB nearish my house (Wright Patt AFB) is being used as aircraft storage for other Bases affected. In the 10 or so minutes that I've been on here I've gotten up a bunch of times to see aircraft fly over (in the last couple of hours sense I've been home from school, I've seen around 6 F-16s, the usual C-5s every 5 or 10 mins, a C-130, I think a KC-141, and another C-5 while I was writing this)
We have DP&L (I'm near Dayton, so thats Dayton Power and Light). After not having power for just around 194 hours (I think), the first thing I did was play with the microwave and garage door opener and I'm still not so sure lights are going to turn on when I hit the switch. But meh, we spent a lot of time together as a family and I did a crap load of Road biking (all of our MTB trails were just about killed, but now they are open). The only part that kills me is that one of my friends got power back on the Monday AFTER the storm (lost power for like 8-12 hours) and another never lost power, but another just got power earlier today and yet another still doesnt have power (but he is the only one without it on his street because DP and L has low priority on fixes that only help one house, which makes sense, but still sucks).
Edit: DP and L sent all their guys down to texas also, so all the work that has been done has been by contractors and guys driving around in Honda Civics that have DP and L stickers on them.
Edit Edit: From what you said, I'd assume you have well water; That sucks. We were lucky because we are on city water, and we have a gas water heater.
Got power back on Monday (8 days) and internet earlier today after friggen Ohio got hit by hurricane Ike. Took my friend and I 2.5 hours to get back from mountain biking (usually a sub 30 min drive). Everywhere we went there was a tree down, and because we were driving around during the storm, another tree would have fallen across our previous path. Would have been more fun if not for the bikes on the back of the car. Anyone else effected by Ike?
Sure, it probably can do some extreme things, but you are over looking the fact that it is a very large vehicle. This is not my picture, but it is a picture of the alpine loop (and I know that many other off road trails are similar in the respect that they are all narrow). This is a picture from a fairly wide spot that dosnt have a rock wall to one side and a 300 foot drop to the other but it gives you an idea of why a large vehicle is not always the best option. http://img.groundspeak.com/way ... 2a6-9717-0998f8970000.jpg
OP, I'm American and I understand and accept that our cars suck. I think its about time to face reality. Having said that though. . . what has been said about jeeps above may be true in some instances, and I'm not saying that the jeep is the best option, but we've been some impressive places in a rented jeep out in the San Juan mountain range in Colorado (probably one of the only places that that you can still rent a manual in the US, which we did). Low range, a high torque engine, and scrape panels can get you some impressive places.