Rupe

Well, the man, in the not very manly stance!

Ok then, whos this famous international model, guru, superstar?

Ok, bike nerds, Santa came prematurely!! Can you guess what it is yet? Midlife crisis maybe?

Similar idea to the piles of stones or crossed sticks outside soemones house to mark which one to break into for whatever item it is that corresponds to the marker.

That is awesome! Shame its not a higher spec. model, it would be worth £££.

Stand closer to the cup, a minimum of 6 feet at least!

No, keep it retro or hard tail at the most!

Oh, I dont know about stuff like that! Its all a bit irrelavant with my 14 stone on it! Its aluminium, and was £500, quite a lot of bike for the money, had it 4 years now. Hopefully out tomorrow on it. Its a giant XTC se. Not available now but giant bike are pretty good. Apparantly Giant own the factory in taiwan where most bike frames are now built, so you get more for your money.

Actually she says on facebook she has got a photo, and will post it sometime, and she lent her a pashmina cos it was chilly! My nephew now has that pashmina!

Not exactly a porn star but Pamela Anderson was at my sisters place last night. Thats not a eufanism!! (sp). She was there, but I dont think my sister has any photos, they are a bit more descreet than that.

But I am preparing the way to reveal my latest e bay purchase of retro bike madness! Not got it yet though. So heres more old photos. 88/89 saracen trekker XT limited edition. In tour and off road mode! Never saw another one then or since, was my favouritest bike ever, but of course, stolen! (from me, not by me) Anyone got one hiding in the garage let me know!

I dont know much about them, but a quick look on google and they look ok. Not sure which model you would be getting but some look like a lot more than 300. This is my current bike, cant find any pictures of me on it!

Personally I do think whisles whould be for emergencies only. But either way you shouldnt really be undoing your helmet strap just to get attention from your groundie.

You would only be blowign the whistle in dire emergency (not good practice to use it to regular, crying wolf etc) so a dire emergency up a tree is probably not the best, or easiest place to be undoign your chin strap? Just an observation. Better to have the whistle than not even if you do have to unbuckle.

I'm resurrecting this thread!! We need more old school mountain bike pictures. I'll start with this one, my first bike and first car! '87 saracen tufftrax

Mines on the end of the spare bit of strap. it hangs to one side a bit, not really a problem.

On petzle helmets its not that easy to remove the existing buckle, so adding a seperate whistle is probably better. The question is, is it ok if you have to remove the helmet in order to blow the whistle? If you use one one of those buckles ain place of your actuall buckle, then you would have to undo the chin strap and, I'm guessing, take the helmet off.

Or do what loads of people do already and buy a whistle and hang it on your chinstrap.

Unions deal with employers and employees, not comapanies and clients. So they wouldn't be able to help with customers not paying the bills.

entry level certificates of competence are vital in fullfilling H&S requirements Only if you are asking them to climb and/or use a saw. Dragging and raking do not require any certificates, and any potential treeworker should be prepared to do this kind of work for a year or so.

Its much easier for me being a small company and being on site everyday to see what is going on and to make sure everyone is safe. If I was in the office/quoting all day then I would actually want everyone to have CS30,31 at least and of course all climbers and at least one groundie would have the rest. I like having un ticketed people with no experience, they just seem to get on better with the job, or they are useless and dont stay long. Some have gone on to think about getting into tree work but in the meantime as long as they are happy to work as required, and as long as they are safe, then its all good. Much better than having ticketed people who bring their climbing kit for days chipping, and therefore do not have thier minds on the actuall job they have been asked to do. Also I have had people with tickets who are just plain dangerous/rubbish on site, not looking where they are going or looking up. Or not wanting to rake up because its demeaning. Much better to sort all that out before doing any tickets IMO.

I agree its not a discount, but that is a word they might understand. So the price for the job includes the discount for the wood. In reality the price for the job is the price for the job, simple as that, pay up. but in order to get through to some people you have to speak in their language, thats why I say explaining business costs is a complete waste of time.

Thats fine then if thats company policy. So someone with those tickets could start with you next monday then? Or would you A) need to have a job vacancy. and B) need to actually like the person and think they are hardworking enough and trustworthy and have the right attitude etc etc and then give them a job. What I'm saying is that the tickets dont get you a job, there has to be a job available and there are very few, and then there are other things to take into account as well. I think its odd not to take on people without tickets though, even the AA dont require that. They do require that people have tickets for the task they are carrying out and that there are sufficient tickets holders on site for the overall task, but if you have three on site one doesn't need any tickets at all. I guess though it easier for large companies to have everyone with tickets so you can mix and match teams more easily, but for work experience or as an additional pair of hands for a large job you just need the right person.

Yes they do that already. They ask what I do with the woodchip and if its worth anything. I say yes it is and you see the thought process going through their heads! These converstaions usually only happen when you have had to quote the lowest to get the work, so if they think you are selling woodchip then thats fine, the other companies were the ones that didn't offer the discount, and thats why your standing on their drive having the conversation. Dont take it personally, you have to win the jobs in order to be in the position of being abused by the client!!

Entry into arb comes with dragging brash and chipping up. You dont need any tickets for that, get a job first and give it a year and then you will know what to do next. If you go out and get CS30,31, 38, 39 you wont actually be able to do any tree work, all you will have is some training to show that you know how to safely get up and down a tree and cut a branch off. You will not be taught any tree work. So, with all the expense of training you will then not be able to get any work at all because you will think you are "qualified" and worth more. The only work you would be able to get is dragging brash and chipping so you might as well just do that in the first place. If you cant get employment without tickets, then thats becasue there is very little work available and what there is goes to certain people who have the right approach/attituted/level of fitness or whatever it take to get on with the person employing. Tickets dont help IMO.