Yes! Saw tons of punctures when I did it

I found the first 50 miles fun until some idiot thought cutting into a line and hooking his bars round mine was a good idea and we both wiped out.

Knackered my helmet, saddle and left shifter so I phoned a friend.

As people have said, it’s fast and there is a huge mix of abilities. Lots of guys who think they are Chris Froome but don’t have a clue what they are up to weaving in and out at a moments notice. It’s like they’ve never even seen a road before never mind cycled in a group. Bizarre.

I stayed over in London Air BnB. Made it much easier.

As above. It doesn’t get too muddy. It’s slippy and rutty chalk you want to look out for. Not too nice in the rain but it dries out quickly.

My kids are in to it too. I restrict the time they spend on it as well. They come home with tales of how their friends spend hundreds of pounds on skins and emotes etc. “All my friends have…”. Obvs I’m the meanest Dad so they have to mow the lawn or wash the car to earn the money if they want to spend it on that stuff.

The behaviour model seems a lot like gambling. The games are short, you are always on the verge of ‘levelling up’ or getting a ‘Battle Royale’ or something so it’s difficult to put down. Your friends all play and they buy stuff so there is peer pressure.

In March this year Fortnite made  $225,000,000 dollars for EPIC games. Not bad for a ‘free’ game is it?

It’s handy as leverage as a parent but obvs I prefer it when they are down the woods practicing jumps.

Like how to spend more on bureaucracy than they do currently?

And as for PFI, one word: Carillion.

Are you suggesting that the Carrillion situation was not created by government tampering and forcing a race to the bottom?

…and ok maybe the 20% stat was not spot on but are you really suggesting that NHS has nothing to learn from profitable, lean, customer-centric organisations with well motivated staff and happy customers? (not carrilion!)

Hey – Don’t know about that specific lid but Smith Squad MTB goggles FTW!

Oh goodie. A nice simple one 🙂

Sure, more money could pay for more stuff. However, would it make it leaner, quicker, more efficient?

It’s a pretty well know statistic that asprin (for example) costs the NHS 20 times more than it costs to buy at tesco. #facepalm

I’m not suggesting that we privatise healthcare but there are obviously things that the NHS can learn from industry. They should be incentivised to do that IMHO.

If it was my money, I would suggest taking a step back and targeting more of the extra funding at education (which I also think needs a radical rethink). Surely, it is the building block of our whole society. Get that right and we save billions from NHS through avoided costs, have more doctors and we win all round.

This however is a long term fix and governments only last a few years so this is unlikely to fit their agendas. Oh well, as we were..

You can get good Chinese carbon HT frames on eBay too.

…forgot to say, I’m using the whisbar with 2.8 tyres no probs.

I bought the whisbar rack from roofbox. I love it. I have a longer wheelbase bike but probably not as long as a geometron.

You could also check out https://www.scorpionracks.com/ because they come at things from a different direction.

The small 26″ frames hold their value pretty well for exactly these reasons but so do kids bikes.

I just sold 2 used 61/2 year old Isla bikes for more than I paid for them new… crazy! Obviously, inflation has made the new bikes more expensive but it’s handy that not everything in the bike world is out of date within 6 months.

I searched for small 26 frames for my kids. I have the added joy of having twins so I always want to pretty even so finding similar 26 frames was even ore difficult. We ended up going with some end of season Vitus Escarpes which can run 650b but building them up with my old 26er bits, my old 680 bars. They love ’em.

Bit more that 300 quid all in though but we get the use out of them and they have a little bro to hand them down to too.

Good luck!

All / most of the kids in our local school take in sweets for their birthdays.

Like you say, teeny Haribo, a lollipop or a chew or similar for the class.

The grumpy parent totally needs to get over themselves.

Awsome. Thanks. Ordered the last 2.

Anyone have any other ideas?

I have the Fulcrum 6.5. They came with the bike as OEM. They seem fine. The faster I pedal, the faster they spin.

Had ‘em since 2013, rims still ok, first spoke popped this week. Can be awks to find replacement spokes apparently but my lbs sorted it.

Thank all. Looks like the tensile option is sold out.

Yeah I was wondering about just replacing the front.

I did think about the ‘new bike’ option too but the discs are pretty new on these sizes so the bike would either be worse, more downhill oriented or still near new prices.

I’ll probably be around but maybe not by the 19th.

Will keep an eye on the thread. August is a little far away for my style of organisation just yet.

If you can, you really want to demo a few even if it requires a bit of a drive – they are so different now with anything up to 4.8″ tyres on your fat bikes and 64 degree head angles on your gnar monkeys.

try ’em you might like ’em 🙂

thanks – will give them a go.

My Polaris neoprene ones are decent for chilly weather but for real winter gloves I have some Sealskins which I was grateful for out on the roadie today.

Wow. Not seen any of that. I haven’t been there for a month or so… will have to take a look.

the peeps who I really don’t understand are those who go running on busy touristy streets e.g. the South Bank in the height of summer. It looks totally unfun and unproductive.

Just ordered some smith squad mtb’s. My O’s pressed down on my nose with my A1 open face lid.

If you can believe it, I live in a country that voted to exited the EU. As such everything everyone earns, owns or has invested now or in the future is or will be worth about 30% less compared to the rest of the world.

Do I win a prize?

p.s. to be completely transparent, I will at some point receive a blue passport so it’s not all bad.

My 11 yr olds play it but they aren’t that impressed with it. Having said that I don’t see much that is 16-ish with most 16 games so they play battlefront and halo against each other and me too.

they did a black friday thing once upon a time… i think.

Q acoustics 3 & 4 have good reviews for this price bracket as does the new sky soundbox if you are a Sky customer.

fox and 661 I think.

Thanks for the tip and thanks for the note re: legality Doug… that’s a shame on the North Shore’s

Those Scorpions do look good. They advise a lighting board anyway so I’m not sure what the fuss is about. You have to use one with a regular rack too.

I have a westaflia detachable towball, does anyone know if you can get a detachable flange plate to swap in, for the detachable towball. It doesn’t sound too complicated but knowing my luck…

Yeah sounds like a good idea. Probably worth getting the hitch receiver fitted just for the hassle saved with loading the bikes.

yeah they do don’t they!!

A whiteboard 🙂

Some context would be useful. Team level, portfolio level, product level, personal level?

What’s important – flexibility, consistency, reporting, adaptability, hosting, centralised admin… etc

fox, scott, polaris for the winter

I like my rotoring pencil. 20 – 25 quid. Lots of good design in it.

…they make a matching pen but I’m a commitmentphobe.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Rotring-1904255-Rapid-Mechanical-Pencil/dp/B00JXIRDSW/ref=sr_1_7?s=officeproduct&ie=UTF8&qid=1508273580&sr=1-7

Not really sure if I can add anything here. There are loads of great small batch producers who make gorgeous stuff but if your priorities lie elsewhere or you don’t have the kit to make the best of it then don’t bother.

As has been said, I’ve never had an amazing cup from a supermarket but I love coffee and I know I’m an edge case so the supermarkets won’t make products for me.

Supermarkets are getting better, I found a bag in Sainsb’s (I think) where they even had a roasting date. Still not awesome but better than a couple of years ago.

Good luck!

Puky too FTW. lightweight, durable.

Don’t get one with a brake. Their hands are not strog enough to use it anyway.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Adventure-Accessories-Longer-Mounting-Trailer/dp/B001OC6CF0

If that’s true then “not that often” must be annually.

If you leave it plugged in and switched off, it’ll download any updates in the background.

monthly maybe… most games less often than that.

I’d definitely say you need a fibre-speed connection. We didn’t have it when we bought it and I did try to download the games that came with it (but as downloads). Obviously, I had to turn it all off and pack it away before the kids were around then get it out to carry on after they’d gone to bed… it took over a week of the same faff every day.

Today we switched on tomb raider… again another 200 Mb download.

I’m not sure why but mine doesn’t seem to download anything in the background.

Don’t get me wrong, its good fun when it’s up and running but it’s not plug and play. I always seem to have enter passwords and codes and download stuff when they want to play.

240 or 350 hub swap will be required

But will you swap to boost or non-boost and adapter 🙂