Had my first Moderna jab on Thursday. 39 next week. A bit of a dead arm for 36 hours but no other symptoms.

A recent discovery for worst job is setting up wheels/tyres with foam inserts. 90 minutes of struggling and swearing. I’ll be running the tyres right down to the carcass to put off having to do that again.

I also hate re-cabling internal routes frames. I was not sorry to see the back of my road back that I sold a few months back. Changing the rear mech cable was a hideous job.

I find bleeding brakes and indexing gears quite therapeutic.

A lovely new set of wheels arrived from Hunt today. After a bit of a struggle the tyres and Rimpact inserts went on. Tubeless jizz went in and they inflated first time with no drama…great. Then on went a new set of brake rotors….perfect.

Finally, I carefully slid the cassette sprockets onto the freehub, tightened the lockring and it just span. I somehow managed to strip the threads with barely any torque. Luckily it looks like it’s just the lockring that’s damaged and not the freehub.

I’m hoping a mate or a local shop will have a 12 speed lockring in the spares bin. Very annoying!

Was lovely out there this evening!

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If you’re in the northwest this chap is worth a look. The finish is exceptional and whatever stuff he uses is really tough. My three year old bike still looks pretty fresh.

https://snakeskincustom.co.uk/

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Daily exercise… . . #staysafe #fujifilmx100f #fujifilmuk #wiggins

A post shared by Aaron Cousins (@aaroncousins) on Apr 4, 2020 at 10:57am PDT

Really enjoying having more time to ride with minime.

And now I’ve mastered it…here’s another from the same day…

Untitled by Aaron Cousins[/url], on Flickr

Third time lucky?

Untitled by Aaron Cousins[/url], on Flickr

Taken in Tenby a few weeks ago getting to grips with my new camera…

Sorry. Made a right hash of posting a pic.

On the back of this thread I decided to cash in on an Olympus Trip that has been lying in the cupboard unused for 5+ years. I bought it at that time for about £20. Anyway, i chucked it on eBay with a small selection of unused film with a buy it now of £50 and it was sold within 5 minutes. I wish I’d stuck it on a bit higher now.

I think he sees it as a great opportunity to give the kids and backup players a good run. If they win it’s a bonus as they get another run out in a few weeks.

We bought the Amazon Fire kid edition for little A for Xmas and it’s being returned today. Absolute Garbage…a waste of components. Sticking to supervised use of the family iPad Pro.

We were in exactly the same position…our 6 year old was asking for a better remote control car after having a ‘toy’ one that buzzes around the kitchen but is a bit rubbish.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B06XK7VCJ8/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o03_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

This arrived last week and I had a little play while giving the batteries a pre-xmas charge. The quality appears to be pretty good, it’s 4 Wheel drive, its pretty slow and it comes with two battery packs.

Homemade cottage pie for tea. Currently supping a poncy New Zealand IPA in front of the log burner while Mrs A and Mini A watch the dancing.

British Sea Power – The decline of british sea power
The National – Alligator & Boxer
Biffy Clyro – Puzzle
The Cribs – Men’s needs
Interpol – Turn on the bright lights
Gomez – Liquid Skin
Idlwild – 100 broken windows
Radiohead – Amnesiac & In rainbows

All as good as perfect to my ears.

Give feedback – briefly explain the situation and allow others to make their own mind up.

Done. I love trying to repair stuff but it often ends up being extremely infuriating. I do actively consider ease of repair when buying stuff now.

Recent wins include a Gaggia Classic coffee machine, Dyson V6 vacuum, Dualit toaster, G-Shock watch (strap).

Recent loses include AEG washing machine (impossible to change door seal without removing counter balance which crumbles when you touch it), AEG tumble dryer (leaking moist air from every conceivable gap – impossible to put bac together), the wife’s haird dryer.

GX has been working perfectly for me for two years. I lost the chain a few times but changing a worn chain ring solved that. When I did have indexing issues afeter a crash it was a bent hanger. Otherwise it’s been easy to set up and keep in trim.

If you’re in the northwest get a quote from snakeskin. Jakes prices are very competitive and you get a custom professionally fitted wrap.

https://www.snakeskincustom.co.uk/

Same as Pyro. I have an X with 16,000km on the clock and it’s been great. Would not think twice about replacing it with an Escapade if the need arose. Great bikes.

We had a good experience with malagacar.

Another interesting one in Saddleworth above Dovestones. Ashway cross.

,The Ashworth Cross, above the ‘Ashway Gap’, overlooking Dovestone reservoir is a memorial to James Platt, the MP for Oldham, who “was killed there by an accidental discharge of his own gun” in 1857.’

https://commons.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ashworth_Cross_1857_Memorial_to_James_Platt_MP_(RLH).jpg

Thanks @singletrackmind. I’ll give the rev range thing a go next time its on a decent journey.

We’ve got a 2009 VW Golf Estate 2.0 Bluemotion Diesel with 168,000 miles on the clock. We’ve owned it since 2013 and it just keeps on truckin’. It’s been a fantastic family car and we’ve barely spent any money on it. Every MOT I’m expecting something major – but it passes.

A couple of months back an engine warning light stared to come on periodically and the turbo would go to sleep – worked fine again once you had restarted it. We had it checked and it’s ‘probably sticky turbo vanes’ so the garage cleaned it out with some special detergent that goes in the air intake. All was ok until last week when it happened again.

We do a lot of long distance family trips so decided it was time to relegate the trusty Golf to local run around duties. (WBAC offered £400 and the garage we bought the new car from weren’t interested in a part ex!!) Its quite nice having a second car for tip runs, throwing the bikes in the back and not worrying about the dirt, commuting when its wet/windy, etc.

We’ll keep it going until it explodes…the questions is will that be in months or years? Who knows!

Here’s the old girl in Anglesey (the missing trim is the result of a deer strike)…

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That’s enough for me. Going to get a pro in. Thanks TJ.

There were two bikes on our group ride this evening with binding breaks; one Sram, one Shimano. Must have been the heat.

Inspired! I can’t wait to start planning my first proper cx tour.

I rode Wales in a day (road bike with no kit north to south) back in 2015. This looks like a much nicer way to see the length of Wales by bike.

Just got to keep peddling!

Thanks Guys.

I did the inaugural Wales in a Day back in 2015 so I know what to expect in terms of the distance (that was 200 miles). My main concern is Hardknott/Wrynose but if I go in expecing I’ll be walking parts of it on whichever bike I use then I wont be disappointed.

Hoping for a nice breeze from the west!

Try Tredz. I got. Some Frogskins for £55 from there a few weeks ago.

I’ve been running one since January. Had been running an Edge 200 for years before that which is basically an earlier model. I upgraded mainly for auto Bluetooth upload. I like the simplicity of these units over the 500/800 series. If you need to navigate you can plot a route on Strava, Bike Hike, etc and upload it. If you add way points on Bike Hike it will give you direction indicators a set distance before junctions. We’ve been lost following my mates fancy 800 with OS mapping more than we’ve been lost following my simple breadcrumb trails.

The battery life is good but nowhere near as good as the old Edge 200. I once got 17 hours out of that on Wales in a Day. I suspect the new one will last 10-12 hours tops. Maybe more if strava segments and notification are turned off.

From what I can tell so far, it’s fairly solid and reliable whereas the 500/800 series are prone to malfunction based on several mates having to make warranty returns.

Anyone know who that Chipps fella is?? ☝️ Never heard of him.

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Tanwall! #coticx #huntwheels #panaracergravelking

A post shared by Aaron Cousins (@aaroncousins) on Mar 22, 2019 at 2:23am PDT

If you decide to go down the road bike route you would struggle to find better than this for the budget. They can easily take 28mm tyres.

https://www.dolan-bikes.com/road/road-bikes/road-bike-carbon/dolan-l-etape-carbon-road-bike-shimano-105-r7000-se-build.html

Avoid cable disk brakes. Mine were binned with 6months.

What’s going on with that Whyte??? Slack!!!

I was half expecting you to be referring to my pals very retro Orange Patriot. A bit of nostalgia…

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Orange-Patriot-Mountain-Bike-medium/323749619894?hash=item4b60fb28b6:g:PGcAAOSwJcxcliyu

I’ve put 16,000km on the one on my commuter. The only time it creaked was when the bolts were under tightened allowing the saddle to move in the rails under load.

Welcome to the club! Our 160k mile Golf has a ‘fire’ drawn on the roof lining in crayon by our son (makes me smile every time I see it) and has been sporting deer damage to the front bumber/fog light cluster for the past 12 months….meh!

16 miles each way with a fairly big hill in the middle. 3-4 days per week is ok. Love it!!