We have been repeatedly assured that no cheeky trails have been ridden and that no rules were broken. That is what we have been repeatedly assured. Al …

By amandawishart

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FGF 578 – The nothing happened that shouldn’t have happened edition

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Taking the mick out of the bent government and free beer. What a week!

That Field Day jacket looks very snug!

That Nukeproof BB is not really suited for outdoor use, IME. I would avoid like the plague.

If you’re trying to look furtive, bright pinky/purple is not the colour for you.

hope head doctor in FGF ? has anything changed with it as I’m sure I had one of these on my 26″ bike 10 years ago…… since balloons were not involved it may not have been a head doctor though and my definition of head doctor evidently isn’t the same as everyone elses 🙂

Issue 82 was Benji’s peak when he rode around with some bearded youngster, I remember the angst while waiting for him to arrive that my local trails wouldn’t be good enough for him to ride!

Delighted to hear Benji is returning. Really great news.

Phew got a hat! Christmas sorted..

#TOTW for farts.

I’m tearing up.

#TOTW for farts.

I’m tearing up.

Well you should have kept it in until you were in a well ventilated place then.

Already had a free case from Beer52 previously, so it wont let me have another! Drats.

Sorry STW, i did try!

#TOTW for farts.

I’m tearing up.

It wasn’t me. *whistles*

Had a Beer52 subscription once. Hated it – far too many ‘on-trend’ over-hopped pale ales and not much actual variety, plus the shyster technique of ‘we’ll make it as easy as possible for you to sign up but as complicated as possible for you to cancel’ did not enamour me any further…

Trance looks nice. All these new bike launches are great, but you can’t actually buy them! I fancy a new Anthem – it’s been launched but not even on Giant UK website (although it appears on other countries).

Great to see Benji back – can we now look forward to an exhaustive diatribe on grips?

pom pom hats? surely that’s a bobble?
#dontfearthebobble

Our test bike comes with a Shimano XT 2 speed drivetrain

Seems a bit of a backward step, I thought my 10 speed was retro 😀

Beer52 – trendy, but expensive. £3 for a small can is too much. I can buy a 750ml bottle of good French/Belgian beer or two 500ml bottles of various English ales from Lidl/Aldi for that price. Unlike @pyro I had no trouble when asking a nice lady at Beer52 to cancel my subscription.

Had a Beer52 subscription once

Your description of it could’ve been written by me

That Nukeproof BB is not really suited for outdoor use, IME

good news, I’ve just installed one! Mind you it was the only one I could get, everything else out of stock

Beer52 – trendy, but expensive. £3 for a small can is too much. I can buy a 750ml bottle of good French/Belgian beer or two 500ml bottles of various English ales from Lidl/Aldi for that price

Even in Aldi you can pay £3 for a small can of beer if you look further along the shelf. You can get cheap beer in any supermarket if you really want to drink it – and the cheap French beer in Aldi tastes exactly like that, cheap French beer. (Every so often, normally during a hot spell in the summer, I make the mistake of thinking that I’ll get some, and then wonder why I bothered.)

@Pyro that was my experience too, it didn’t help that we were in first lock down. All too samey (to me) after around 3 months.

@gazzab1955 – I think I was quite an early subscriber, things may well have changed now but at the time they weren’t very forthright with how you could cancel, and made it as difficult as possible.

You could sign up really simply on the website, but not cancel that way, which irked me a little. I emailed them to try and cancel and heard nothing back. I private messaged them on social media and heard nothing back. Eventually I posted publicly on their social media and got a ‘you have to phone us’ – which irked me further. I phoned, and spent a good 15-20mins with a guy trying to convince me that I shouldn’t cancel.

I appreciate that people are capricious and that a business has to retain subscribers somehow, but that way of doing things annoyed me. That said, even ‘you have to phone us’ does that.

Beer52 is a beer club, and they are offering Singletrackers their first case free (you can cancel at any time, just pay £5.95 postage).

I fell for their cheap beer offer elsewhere a few weeks back -who wouldn’t- and tbh the beer was cheap and enjoyed but the cancellation process left me wishing I’d not bothered. You can only do it by phone and they don’t make it easy. Long waits, get cut off when you get through etc. Felt a bit scammy. VFM at regular price is probably ok if you live 40 miles away from any shop selling decent beer.
(sorry).

Can’t you just cancel your direct debit?

What @Pyro said and what @James said. Beer52 – generally not as good as what my local bar has. But then I am not that far away from the Côte du Burnage’s premier hostelry https://www.reasonsbeercafe.co.uk

On bike matters, really liking that Giant.

Darn. If only I hadn’t just received a package in the post based on a Beer52 and SingleTrack inspired buying session at ION for gloves, shoes, and a hoodie. ION so far are the ONLY cycling apparel company whose ‘medium’ is even close to normal (maybe vanity) medium clothes. Even their medium gloves fit my hands! Snugly admittedly. But the fingers are the right length.

Field day jacket looks good!

Bike made me realise I haven’t actually seen anyone riding a giant in years.

Alpkit have managed to match the higher end brands for prices, while maintaining the look of a cheaper product. 😬

Benji! Welcome back

26 comments and not one about how the Hope bars line up perfectly with the canal lock in the background. I honestly don’t know why I bother.

Good composition never draws attention.

Or no-one noticed. I didn’t. Sorry.

@thepodge No, they don’t do direct debits, its by continuous payment authority (another red flag) on the customer’s card.

Sorry Amanda, I did notice but I was too busy getting angry about a beer subscription service… 🤦‍♂️

Welcome back Benji.

I declined to pass comment Amanda as the bars didn’t have white grips fitted 😉

@Amandawishart

26 comments and not one about how the Hope bars line up perfectly with the canal lock in the background. I honestly don’t know why I bother

I came down to the comments to remark exactly on that. Well played! 👌

Isn’t the right hand side of the bars a little lower than the lock? 😉 Still a lovely shot.

@Amandawishart
if only you’d got your horizon horizontal first and then aligned the bars to the gates, it would have been perfect but still a great shot ;o)
you redeemed yourself with khruangbin finally getting onto FGF though – thanks!

@simmo khruangbin was me. Consider Amanda unredeemed 🙂

(I’d never heard of them before, it was the title that led me to it!)

Welcome back Benji.
Still use the knowledge I learnt from your ‘Stop taking crap pictures’ weekend years later.

My main takeaway from the hope bars piece was more irritation that 35mm bars exist.

Nice to see Benji back with the team!