‘I always drink draught beer if I’m in a pub, I only drink bottled beer when I’m at home,’

As above. My local is tiny, space for maybe twenty inside. It always has locals drinking outside on a Friday afternoon if the weather is dry. Usually an ale is on tap alongside a bunch of gassified nationally available brands; lagers and a bitter. EVERY time I try the pulled ale it is off. Every time. It must be costing them surely?

Name and shame eh? The Mount, Gwaun Cae Gurwen. https://maps.app.goo.gl/p3ozJ1Fe5TaSGKEU9

Oh bugger, I’m a bit worried now :-(

Daily? Music is pretty much constant except when I’m teaching but even then it’s often present. Late night reading for an hour or so often combined with a long soak in a very hot bath, it helps my bad hip. I also tidy things.

Weekly? A couple of rides one of which is usually solo or better, with Max the collie. Time spent making or fixing things. Tomorrow’s project is to make a small table from a scrap signpost a friend has given me.

I hope they are OK, I’ve just ordered a pair in XXL.

I liked my Bontrager post. I especially liked the way it’s constructed to fail safely when hit hard sideways. I wore mine out because of my peculiar riding style, I cannot stand in the pedals. When the post finally failed I replaced it with a OneUp because it may offer better support of the upper shaft.

FWIW I never experienced problems re: finding a sweet spot to make it sag but I am quite a bit guy if truth be told.

Also here, Cold Climbs and Hard Rock as well as those above. And additionally, Rock Climbing in Britain inc. Billy Bollweavil on Ordinary Route, Idwal :-)

@munrobiker, I know, I’ve a bunch of them for my bit of Wales. They’re far more detailed and as above, much drier.

The Merthyr one is OK though, once you get away from the Coal Measures.

I didn’t know that they are online, many geeky thanks for the heads-up.

Chain gets hot waxed with Putoline.

Mech gets a squirt of GT85.

Fork stanchions, dropper upper post, rear shock get a regular squirt of Fenwicks suspension lube.

Messages? What bleeding messages?

And notification of updates to a post? Don’t make me laugh!

That’s the Adams Family down there that is. Plus a cup of coffee around the corner at the Coed y Brenin visitor centre.

I ask because I know that in the Local Authority I work for insurance is provided. Trips have to be signed off by County prior to at least 14 days prior to departure. No insurance will automatically stop the trip, inasmuch as County will not support, cover assist etc should something go wrong.

To be frank. I am gobsmacked that individual participants in the OPs situation are required to arrange their own insurance. Over the years I have arranged and led countless trips. Adventurous, theme parks, field trips, exchanges, whatever. Abroad (European and beyond but never USA) as well as at home. From a day’s duration to many, many days inc. crossing multiple borders.

I would NEVER ever allow a participant’s family to arrange their own insurance because in life many people will be swayed by the ‘best’ price. And who would have to juggle the sh1t if it hits the fan?

Similarly I always seemingly overstaff, the costs being covered by the participants. If little Johnny gets so ill he cannot continue he then needs adult supervision. I know of a school trip from a Local Authority school where a member of staff had to fly home early from New York to escort three teenage boys who the hotel refused to have after their continued poor behaviour, behaviour well in excess of any leeway. (Repeated balcony climbing into girls’ rooms) The boys concerned and their parents were made well aware of the importance of good behaviour prior to and then during the trip.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m a huge believer in the value, worth and importance of educational trips but they have to be very well controlled. If a participant is left to sort their own cover I would say that the trip is not appropriately controlled and I would refuse to have anything to do with it.

It seems that I’m quite lucky that my Local Authority has really good Universal coverage for all taking part, including loss of personal possessions, delays, additional costs etc, as well as health care, repatriation etc.

I had it happen once, to one Superstar pad. I seem to remember it being warrantied/ replaced FoC. Over the years I must have got through several hundred pads from my first Hope C2s through to my current Guide whatevers. Mostly Uberbike and Superstar but a fair number of Hope, Avid etc, as appropriate.

I stay on top of maintenance nowadays and will happily replace any dodgy looking component. Having said that, I blowtorched a set of Uberbike pads that were squealing like a stuck pig a few months ago. Since then they have been subjected to quite a bit of Welsh downhill nonsense plus fun and games in the Lakes. All seems well.

It’s beautiful.

Says the bloke who has a Berlingo.

It’s getting a bit laughable really, this lack of visible improvement. Early on, since the great server upgrade we seemed to get regular (cf frequent) progress updates, less so now.

I have a bit of a weird relationship with this place. I like it for what it offers and have spent a lot of money supporting it in the hope that there would be the planned improvements that were offered coming down the line. But as yet I cannot see any improvements whatsoever compared with previously. And the previous service was not first rate by anyone’s standards.

I was happy to give cash to support the site but expected to see positive changes as a result.

I can post pics again- but I could do so previously.

I have the like button again- but I had it prevously.

I have threads time stamped (or whatever it’s called) agian- but I had that previously too.

But I do get my name in the back pages of the mag, despite not (knowingly) being asked. And a nice tee that I really like.

I WILL win the next raffle surely?

Can I ask what sort school before I pass further comment?

Lunch in the café at the Lliw Valley reservoir and the cycled home. This view is above the Amman valley, looking over to Tair Carn Uchaf. About a mile away from home with not a soul in sight.

@JamBo, did you find the cheeky return to the carpark beside the stream? It’s short but good fun.

And the person who went away, their intruder alarm goes off. I call the police at gone midnight. When occupant finally comes back days later with the alarm still going she’s well put out that we’d called the cops.

Cross over post to the Wales 20mph frothing some members have contributed previously… I live in a quiet place with a narrow A road passing through. Garnant. Between Garnant and Glanamman, the next village down there’s a lot of on street parking which inevitably narrows the road to effectively a single lane. Since the introduction of 20 mph road speeds have dropped noticeably and traffic flows more smoothly. Oncoming traffic looks ahead and anticipates, pulls in, drives on, whatever. It’s almost balletic sometimes. A finger lifted from the steering wheel in acknowledgement is universally utilised as the acknowledgement of the other drivers’ good actions.

Except for one or two self entitled cacas who breeze on through, oblivious to everyone else. Looking at you B3KSO or whatever your ridiculously convoluted vanity plate is. On a rust box of a Range Rover with pink trim. Bet she’s pushing for that section of road to return to 30mph.

Politeness costs nothing. Grrrrr.

Curveball.

Do NRW or any other similar bodies have an advertising presence?

If I was Mr and Mrs Average with 2.1 kids on holiday and I saw something like CyB being advertised I think that I might be tempted to give it a go.

Re: burning of fossil fuels. Yup, I am a monster. I own and use quite a few petrol garden tools inc. lawnmower, leaf blower, chainsaw, brush cutter and hedge trimmer. In total I use about 20 to 25 litres of fuel annually. I have a wood burner too. I’m probably going to burn in hell.

Re: useful advice given, thank you :-)

Cheers.

Oooh, cheers :-)

Cheers folks.

Weather forecast looks amazing, it’s going to be a great day :-D

Where’s the best place to find the deer?

I’ve not had nits for years but a perk of being a biology teacher is that I can look at them under a microscope. They are well adapted to their habitat tbf.

And now I’m all itchy.

Pale sky here in Carmarthenshire. Possibly wishful thinking though. It’s certainly nothing special aurora-wise but sitting back and just looking at the sky is really nice to do.

Pretty well on all the RoWs, off piste stuff less so. I’ll be sticking to what I know because of my hurty leg.

Oops. Saturday. At the bowling green. On a Rail :-)

I’m certainly planning to attend. See you all there.

loads of old copper piping, all in odd shapes, sizes and lengths. Ditto electrical cable.

Did you weigh it in?

Don’t be daft, it might be useful some day ;-)

That’s way better than what I have had to deal with.

Is this a serious question? Look outside, make a decision, walk the dog.

Alternatively, does ASSOS have anything to offer?

60km of gravel routes were added to CyB last Easter.

Further, the massively popular Traws Eryri passes through and uses it as a hub, surely it’s raison d’aitre. It offers a café, wash facilities, WC, shop, e bike charging, route finding, loads of alternative biking as well as walking trails.

Come on people, pipe up. If you have ever had a good time in any of the Welsh trail centres please offer your support.

You don’t know what you have got until it’s gone.

All is good, they need not worry about me : https://singlespeedmtb.uk/

Ooooh, Really?

Do you know what the route is, it’ll be good to watch.

I’m still owed a fiver for marshalling at the world champs in Afan Argoed years ago. I remember a couple of riders didn’t return on time and when I went back up the section to check all I could find was jazz mags and empty Guinness cans. Not that I want to watch that TBH. I mentioned it as an interesting anecdote.

Just keep digging Ambrose, there’s a way out of this somewhere!

Re: my previous post. For ‘big’ read ‘bog’. It’s so wet that it’s best ridden in a really hard frost.

Living in Wales, albeit a couple of hours drive from NyA and further still from CyB I have a strong interest in this. Other posts have expressed well what a disaster has been happening. Penmachno is in my mind a portent of what is to come for NyA and CyB although being less reliant on woodwork it might not be quite so bad. However, see White’s Level in Afan. Goodwood was shut for maintenance and afaik, never reopened. Hopefully I am wrong.

The lack of responses on this thread is indicative of the lack of interest in the places. They need to change to attract more and new riders. I toyed with the idea of an uplift service at CyB once, I still think it could possibly work. Not so sure about NyA though. A friend tried to run the uplift at Afan bitd but the Forestry Commission/ EA, NRW put so many barriers and conditions in the way, as well as requiring hugely expensive insurance it wasn’t even vaguely viable.

Again, at Brechfa I know if two failed cafe vans. Both had great food. But again, I believe that both had to really battle with NRW and in the end it just wasn’t worth it to continue.

Yet bizarrely, Cwmyrhaedr has never had any extra facilities beyond a car park, using the middle of nowhere with only a short trail and seems to be busy.

The upper Amman valley is a bit soggy but there’s a fair bit to do in Ynys Dawaela, Cwm Twrch and Loamworld. The national park is a huge big around here but better over the other side, towards Bethlehem.

That lawn needs a trim.

I know, I know …