Just in case anyone’s interested in the Lifeline wides from Evans but out off by the lack of description, I took a punt for £18 delivered and they’re great. Super easy to fit and feel really robust. They even look pretty smart too. What’s not to like?

Hey mate. The Danes is a good shout…there’s already a playground there and a big expanse of green that isn’t under for anything in particular. The issue I could foresee is proximity to all the housing; as kids we used to ride bikes and build jumps round there and used to frequently get into trouble with the owners of houses that backed into the park.

@pimpingimp – do I know you?! I used to work in 559 as well around 2007 when it stocked Specialized and Santa Cruz. And I used to build trails around the local area too…

Hey Rocco.

Great idea and something that would benefit the town. I grew up there and don’t live that far away nowadays and try to get back as frequently as I can to ride my old trails. Have you connected up with the local riding community to see who else might be interested?

Not joking in the slightest, the simple answer is my entire bike as the damn thing never gets ridden. But because it’s in good nick, my joints will seize up before it does.

This thread has evoked some dark memories…

Aged about 12, my feet slipped off my crappy plastic pedals on a very small jump and I landed on the saddle with such force that I bent it. With my testicle. Apparently I threw up and then lay on the floor for about 15 minutes before hobbling home after the excruciating pain subsided. Several years later, I’m 15 and becoming aware of the need to examine one’s self periodically. Anyway, I find a large lump which scares the bejesus out of me. I trundle off to hospital for a scan only to find out that it was a lump of scar tissue from the aforementioned crash. That’s right….I’d partially split a testicle. No wonder it hurt so bloody much.

My separated shoulder aged 26 hurt a lot, coupled with that horrible sick realisation that it’s going to be a long road to recovery…

More recently, back spasms had me so sobbing and unable to move from lying on the floor for 48 hours.

I tried to leave the house before 7am to make the most of a free start to the day but got ambushed by the 7 year old demanding breakfast, TV and a cwtch; managed to get out at 0730 instead and clocked up a chilly but not-too-damp 40km along the Severn estuary towards Berkeley on the gravel bike.

(And before anyone says anything, I’m aware the front crud catcher is upside down; I find it’s better at catching front wheel spray like that).

In short: bugger.

Have you got a link to the tent offer? I’ve been on the site but can’t find it.

Thanks for the heads up robingrant. I grew up in Chepstow (and used to spanner in the old bike shop if you knew it) so will share with my bike friends still in the area.

Yup. After far too long trying to ignore the problem, interspersed with episodes such as yours a MRI identified a bulge in L4-5 disc causing severe narrowing of spinal canal and L4-5 arthrosis, both of which were in turn causing severe sciatica.

Physio helped a bit, particularly by strengthening my back muscles – strong back muscles mean your spine is suspended as opposed to the vertebrae being stacked on top of each other.  However, the biggest positive impact came from removing my wallet from my back right pocket which was causing me to sit all day with a crooked pelvis, and reducing the amount of commuting by car I was doing. As soon as I found that was the trigger, I was on the road to recovery. Unfortunately it took several years of painkillers, physio and doctors first….

Good luck!

Jean De Florette for the simple reason it was the first film that introduced me to French. And Emmanuelle Béart.

Lucia y el sexo by Julio Medem. Picked it up when I was living my best life as a student in Spain in the early 2000s. Decent enough film and the Spanish is easy to follow.

Mar Adentro by Amenebar.

EDIT: El Mariachi! Great shout Frogstomp! 😁

Summer 22 we caught the ferry down to Santander and then made our way up the west coast of France. We stayed just outside Biarritz, then the Dordogne and finally Ile de Re for approx 4-5 days each. It was amazing, particularly the Dordogne. You could easy drop days along the way and squeeze it into 10 days I reckon.

The guy’s in demand! I’ve got a second hand X2 in the post from a fellow forumite and will be dropping Smudge an email after it arrives. 👍🏻

I’d also add that this time last year I opened up about mentally struggling with work, life, kids, lack of fitness, lack of time etc and was feeling very, very low and depressed…not to the point where I would do anything drastic but when someone asked me the question, I broke down in tears. In January I contacted a GP and self referred to get mental health support, resulting in a diagnosis of Generalised Anxiety Disorder. Simply giving it a name validated the maelstrom of negative thoughts in my head and helped me plan a way to manage it. I can feel myself slipping back now so am trying to arrest the fall.

Stay strong people, get help if and when you need it and remember that ‘this too shall pass’…

Jeez Willard…I could have written that post myself. Very similar over here – I want / need to have some freedom to do what I want to do, but I know that if I try, I’ll feel selfish and guilty, which in turn makes me not go, which in turn makes me bad tempered, monosyllabic, withdrawn etc….so I might as well not be around her or the kids. I also echo the present giving mismatch, and the dislike of celebrating NYE – she stormed off to bed after I said I wasn’t interested in staying up until midnight and watching a film but would prefer to read the book she bought me for Christmas and go to bed…I ended up in the spare room and she’s not spoken to me today. FFS…

Well I’ve smashed out a grand total of 211 miles this year, and just worked out my MTB currently costs about £5/mile, and my gravel bike about £2.50/mile.

Next year will be better… 

Am I the only person who uses a short length of road bike bar tape? Lifeline stuff from CRC is cheap as chips and the sponginess deadens the sound of any slap. Lasts for ages and never gets tatty too. Plus a roll will do several bikes.

I’ve got nothing to add other than to say well done to everyone who volunteers for the kids. I’m a helper at my son’s beaver colony and in the last year or seen the kids grow hugely in confidence. They get so much from it, but none of it would be possible without you all – so well done and keep going!

Joe knows this already but on his suggestion I bought a 20+ for my 7 year old. He was all over his Frog 40 but it was just too small. In comes the 20+ and straight away he’s ripping round the place. Last week we went to Ashton Court and he managed the whole route, including the red Super Nova extension without any dramas. He wants to go every weekend now. 🤘🏻

This is Henry just before demolishing @joebristol’s PB on the quarry trail…. 😉

Hey Mark. I did it last year with very little training and struggled towards the end; there are some bloody steep hills towards the end! I saw a couple of people on gravel bikes so a hardtail and fast rolling tyres would work well. Unfortunately I’m not doing it this year as fingers crossed I’ll be moving house 🤞🏻

Good luck.

I was in Porlock Weir in Exmoor Thurs/Fri and there were a handful of swallows buzzing along the coast. And the woods were alive with chiffchaffs too.

35?! Are you hibernating or something?

I had the same symptoms for years but only in one side which I think is normal. Turns out it was piriformis syndrome but was being exacerbated by a bulging disc in my lower back. The things that worked for me were strengthening exercises directed by a physio and by addressing my driving posture. Without realising it, I naturally sat slightly offset / twisted in the seat which was a massive trigger. And I also stopped carrying my wallet in my back pocket as that kicks your hips out of alignment whenever you sit down.

I’ve not seen the other thread, but if that’s the case, then I stand corrected.

But to pander to the anti-climate change brigade, it looks like the BBC have relegated the final episode to IPlayer.

Chrismac – in what way do you mean hypocritical? Unfortunately, the UK is one of the world’s most nature depleted countries in the world with once common words for our flora & fauna falling out of common usage as people get more and more disconnected from nature. Looking at what we do have (or even had?) yet sticking heads in the sand about what is driving the loss of wildlife is hugely irresponsible.

Besides, it’s not just climate change but farming methods, pollution into waterways, expansion of the urban resulting in isolated colonies of wildlife which can’t sustain themselves etc etc

If you put your fork serial number into the RS Trailhead app one of the options displays compatible spare parts – if the airshaft has a part number on it, you should be able to tell what travel it will give you on your fork. If the shaft has no serial number then I can’t help sorry!

So what’s the point of an artificial or maintained earth if not to encourage foxes into an area and keep them there? Presumably, if they’re vermin you don’t want them around.

I don’t know why they bother with horses and dogs when they can just build an artificial den, chase the fox out with a terrier and then use a gardening fork to torture it. Seems a totally legit way of controlling vermin.

@marksnook & @joebristol, I need yo get you two together for a local Sentinel owners ride; you’re not far from each other.

Ever heard of Mark Hankinson? Director of the Masters of the Foxhounds, the governing body for over 170 packs across the UK? This the chap who on camera said:

“We need to have clear, visible, plausible trail laying being done throughout the day … It’s a lot easier to create a smokescreen if you’ve got more than one trail layer operating, and that is what it’s all about, trying to portray to the people watching that you’re going about your legitimate business.”

His job is to represent the hunting community and was found guilty of encouraging others to break to law and use trail hunting as a ‘smokescreen’ for hunting love animals. I’d say when one of the blokes at the top encourages others to break the law than that’s a pretty damning indictment of the whole hunting community. And don’t come back with the argument that it’s just a random comment from a single person; it was done in a series of arranged webinars to 100+ MFHA members.

I have seen ‘trail’ hunts pursue live animals around where I live and yes, I have reported to the police & local sab groups. Why else do hunts need to go out with terrier men on quads if not to dig out foxes from bolt holes?

One final thing, look up where the term ‘berk’ comes from. It’s pretty fitting.

Easy. Lowa Elite Lite. I wear mine daily and they’re like slippers. Full leather including up the sides of the tongue so are pretty much waterproof. They’re also lightweight and non-bulky so look ok with a pair of jeans / in the pub. I’ve had several pairs of Altberg sneekers and whilst they’re a great boot, the Lowa is better in just about every way for me.

Pretty much.

The ‘jabbers’ have been on stand by for a while and have been doing the online training in their spare time. That’s not new though and isn’t linked to last night’s announcement.

No provision being made for the planning teams as far as I have heard though; pretty sure they’re just being pulled together and being told to ‘do some planning’ to make the PM look good.

All this suddenly throwing the military at it etc, presumably this is something that’s been thoroughly planned and prepared and tested and trained for over the last year, right? Right?

Err…if it’s been planned, someone forgot to tell the people who make up the teams that something might be happening until about a week ago. But even then it was a ‘be prepared to…do something…we’re not quite sure.’

Brilliant, I’ll go warn off the wife that Christmas might be cancelled.

42 military planning teams sounds impressive, because that is the intention: to sound like he’s throwing everything at it. The truth is any team will be going from a standing start with no training, in an unfamiliar region and using unfamiliar systems. It will be chaos and they certainly will not be effective in enough time to contribute meaningfully to getting god knows how many millions of people vaccinated by the end of the month, regardless of hard they graft. It’s a mere sticking plaster to try to mask decades of underspend in the NHS.

We need to get past this idea that throwing the military at the problem is a panacea. We will always go, that’s what we do, but stuff like this destroys morale amongst a force that the Tories have spent the last decade hollowing out; only a week or so ago more news of reorganisation, modernisation and streamlining (ie cuts) landed. I’ve quit because of the shitshow of a Government we are enduring, their incompetence and lies, and the fact I can’t look my soldiers in the face and tell them the future looks great without lying through my teeth.

Out of character post but it needs to be said.

“Oh just send the army in, they’ll fix it”

As soldiers, we accept that sacrifices will have to be made and that we may have to deploy for a considerable amount of time.

— Sgt S G (@Para_Medic10) December 4, 2021

Anyway, rant over; go get a jab.

And there goes my sense of smell and taste, completely gone. This sucks.

Ah balls, that’s me testing positive too. Woke up with a banging headache and thinking ‘who turned the heating up?’. I’ve spent most of the day in bed asleep between Skype calls. 10 days solo in an upstairs bedroom whilst my wife parents 2 little kids solo is going to be a pain in the arse for me but brutal for her.

Wear a mask and avoid gatherings / parties.

Have you tried Saddleback? I’ve always found them to be super helpful so that would be my first port of call.

@joebristol knows full well the saga that I went through earlier this year with my neighbours extension which included a party wall!

What I would say is that regardless of how well you get on with your neighbour, request a survey as it protects both of you. You shouldn’t worry about the cost as it is your neighbour’s responsibility; they should have factored it into the budget and if they haven’t well more fool them.

From another perspective, if you don’t have it done and damage is done to your house the good luck trying to prove it and get compensation. At least if you have had the survey then there is an independent party already involved so it removes the subjectivity, emotion and friction. Also, should you come to sell your house, the works come to light and questions are asked about whether or not it was covered by a party wall agreement and assessment then it may cause issues.