No judgement, but why the car split?

Imagine it would take as long to park up/unpack bike as the extra riding time.

Basically what I’m getting at is, will the car portion end up getting ditched really quickly? And would that change which bike was best suited?

Not sickness, more in the case of not taking holiday- that can be a red flag.

I think that’s a reasonable cause for concern. Although, personally, I’d be concerned for that employees welfare.

People have been specifically talking about not taking sick leave to be suspicious behaviour though. Not time off as a whole.

No-one has said that if you never take time off then you must be on the fiddle, but it is a fair indicator.

I can see the argument that it may be an indicator, that in combination with other red flags may cause an individual to be under suspicion. But saying it’s reasonable to suspect people of foul play merely because they happen to be fortunate enough to have good health seems very wrong to me.

Not all people who never take time off are fraudsters, but fraudsters never take time off.

There’s a difference between people who never take *any* time off, and people who never take sick leave. Discriminating against people for being too healthy is just bizarre.

Weird to assume, reasonable to suspect.

I don’t think it’s reasonable to suspect at all.

I bought a Yellow Jersey policy the other day. Cheaper than anything else for similar cover. A *lot* cheaper than snow card.

Crust do one that meets most of your criteria but I think is a carbon steerer.

There’s quite a few options (that you don’t even have to bother with the faff of importing) if you ignore the only thing that they’ve been particularly firm about.

Everyone gets sick, If I had an employee that’d never taken a day off in 5 years, it would ring alarm bells. Especially so if their role involved the company’s money.

It’s weird to assume that people who don’t take sick leave are up to nefarious deeds.

I think in about 20 years, I’ve taken 3 days of sick leave. Being relatively active, and somewhat of a hermit, means I actually don’t get ill that often. I’ve always had the facility to work remotely, so if I have had colds which I think are contagious, but don’t stop me working, I’ve just worked from home.

Yeah, avoid a rucksack if at all possible. If you must carry one, make it a small one.

For short trips, I’d not use a pannier rack either, unless you’ve already got one. Or I guess if you’ve only got a big tent. Otherwise, you shouldn’t need to carry too much stuff – seat and bar bag should be plenty.

I’m waiting to see if a lot of people recommend the Lanshan 1 Pro

I’ve got one, or something like it.

I like it for what it is, and I doubt there’s really much else in the same weight/price bracket.

Space is fine, I don’t find condensation a problem really.

I think the only thing to be aware of is that it really does rely on pegs, you’ll struggle to get away without good anchoring points, particularly if there’s any wind.

I think I got to a dozen or so revolutions in two or three sessions, so probably four or five hours. It did help having an empty car park to play in though, would probably have taken me quite a lot longer otherwise.

I mean, almost anything that’s on a bike that fails at the wrong time and in the wrong way can cause catastrophe, I just think that the fears of instant death are over egging it a bit.

IME crap chains will stretch and destroy your drivechain and skip all over the place long before they’ll snap.

I think breaking and causing major accidents is just fear mongering, though. I’ve broken a fair few chains, lived to tell the tale.

I’ve never bought anything from temu, but bike chains are one of the few things I wouldn’t take a punt on. I’ve had a couple of fake KMCs from disreputable shops, and they’re awful, and if you don’t spot them in time, they’ve the potential to destroy the rest of your drive chain.

I can’t remember if I learned to ride backwards or idle first, but idling is just about keeping rocking about your centre of gravity – I think about it like balancing a garden came.

Corridor didn’t work for me. Need more space to move in the direction you’re falling in, rather than catching yourself with your arms.

b) Don’t bother paying extra for the Fenix solar, it’s barely worth it unless you are in bright sunlight all day and even then it’s a minor contribution to battery life

I’ve got a 7 solar, and I definitely get a couple of extra days out of it in summer vs winter.

If you’re actually outside all the time in sunlight, and you’re not using it too hard, it’s pretty epic. I think in 8 days bikepacking (was using something else for navigation) last year, it only went down about 10%.

I just drilled a hole in a broken mech hanger, and bolt that on instead of a stem cap. Even a tenner seemed excessive.

I think stiffer soled shoes help – but there’s quite a few factors that go into it.

What filter kinda depends on where you’re intending to use it / what you’re using it for though.

I’m happy with a trailshot fwiw. Easy enough to fill up a couple of water bottles reasonably quickly, although I wouldn’t want to have to pump more than about a litre in one go – but that’s typically all I want to carry, I’d rather fill up little and often than carry a lot of weight around.

Hose is a bit easier for filling up in some places than scooping with a bottle/bag would be.

For some reason part of me still thinks it’s incredibly risky to use unless I was dying in the field and had no choice.

I don’t think they’re risky to use, but I don’t see why you’d use one if you had the choice of clean tap water.

Am I being over cautious?

It’s kinda weird to not use one and wonder if you’re being overcautious. Using one as a matter of course on all water regardless of source might be overcautious.

Sometimes it’s not really clear that’s what it’s having you do either – if you’re just following it blindly, and don’t think to zoom out to see where it’s taking you after, you could assume it’s taking you on an alternative route.

Google maps has suggested I do this in the past

It’s all part of being a religious zealot, right? Believing that the org you’re part of must be right despite all logic and the cost to the little people.

If you can’t rotate the bike then also rotate the lever on the bars so it’s horizontal.

Another advantage of the little bucket is that you can get away with a much wider range of angles, because it’s wider and holds more fluid (I really like the bucket).

Why did it take them so long to bring out a version that was more easily serviced???

It’s not like that bearing needs replacing all that often. I think I replaced one after about 20 years, and after it had been through 4 bikes.

Levers come straight to the bar, is the Marshy method definitely the way to go?

That method just looks like a way to drop a load of fluid on the floor to me.

But bleeding brakes isn’t really too difficult a job. All you’re trying to do is get a complete run of fluid with no air bubbles. It’s helpful to consider where you might get trapped air pockets, like in the bottom of the piston opposite the bleed port, any high points in the system, or next to the hose entry point.

Personally, I like to inject from the calliper, tap around to get any air bubbles to rise, and then use the syringe I’ve just injected with to bleed down.

Gravity feeds work great too, I just find them a bit slower.

btw – worth getting some isopropyl/brake cleaner if you don’t already have some.

They’re not, but you should be able to get a replacement head with the thready bit, and just swap the whole thing over. Hose diameters can vary a bit too though, which can make replacements a bit tricky.

The tbs one uses a syringe with the plunger out as the cup so exactly the same

Except presumably you can’t stopper it, which is kinda useful.

The kits with a little bucket are a bit easier to use imo.

Shimano brakes are fairly simple to bleed ime, hard to get it too wrong. Watch a YouTube video or two, and you’ll be fine.

Yeah, I couldn’t get the roll the wheel method to work either. nixie’s method looks good, the problem with either of those though is that you need a sufficiently strong and well anchored thing to act as a counter lever.

I’ll see if I can dig out a picture of my method.

Are you sure that’s a VPN and not just an alternative DNS service?

What is 1.1.1.1? | Cloudflare

Probably WARP

If it won’t go in by pressing in the centre of the piston, try working around the edge of the piston (with the brake pad still in, ideally). Sometimes they push in a little crooked, and need a little coaxing to be square again before they’ll push in cleanly.

Pretty much all VPN providers are just preying on fear imo. Public wifi has it’s risks, sure – but https traffic is encrypted end-to-end, just make sure the website you’re connecting to is presenting a valid cert.

If so are you sure that you need to remove the ring to get the bearing out?

That ring definitely needs to come out to access the bearing underneath it.

Boiling water on the hub shell

Bearings frozen

Bearings being frozen are completely irrelevant to removing that lock ring. Boiling water will not make enough thermal difference to have any meaningful effect.

Strap a big lever across the wheel (inflate the tyre, and strap around the tyre/rim). Get a big lever on the tool, then you can use them against each other.

Could there be a funny sort of threshold for Zwift where if they reduce the number of users enough (and remaining users pay the increased fees) they can run fewer servers or something and sort of break even?

That’s probably not how it works. I’d be surprised if they didn’t scale on demand. The ideal for them is probably lots of subscribers but lower, or more evenly spread, levels of active riders.

Just realised, after a few years of seemingly getting a cold round about this time, that is probably hayfever – which I’ve obstinately denied before now.

Just to say, you’re not alone – it took me an embarrassing number of years of “summer colds” to realise I’d developed hayfever.