Most flannel shirts are mostly cotton – flannel is the soft weave rather than the check pattern.

I looked at the thick ‘wool’ check fjallraven shirt (“Canada” and was surprised how little wool there is in it (25%) and how rough it felt.  It might be hardwearing but it didn’t feel like it was going to be cosy.

I’ve got an old Howies padded flannel shirt I wear a lot, and a DHB one I picked up in the CRC sale that’s really comfortable.  I’d look at padded rather than just thick to get warmth for weight.

@nixie

“He mentioned that sealant slowly evaporates through the thick black tape just like it does through the weeping sidewalls of tires because Gorilla tape is porous — where a proper tubeless tape isn’t. That evaporated sealant then enters the inside of your rim, which isn’t anodized and speeds the corrosion of the rim and aluminum nipples.”

Freely might not be around in the medium term. No apps for smartphones or existing TV’s and no donges. It’s almost like they want it to fail.

It’s a successor for freeview/freesat and it’s backed by all the UK free to air broadcasters.  You can already watch live tv via the individual broadcaster apps on an AppleTV (or any other streaming box). So all it gives you is a traditional live tv programme guide that shows what live and on the other channels in one place.  (do many people on here actually watch live tv? I’ve not really watched anything that wasn’t either streamed or recorded for c20 years)

https://www.gbnews.com/tech/freely-internet-terrestrial-channels-release (apologies for gbnews Link but it was genuinely the best explanation I found).

freeview/freesat will have developed the interface. It’s up to manufacturers to launch products that use it

Accugage

can’t deal with presta (which most people run on their bikes) and Schraeder (for the car).  Otherwise excellent.

I’ve had/got a Topeka and an SKS gauges and they’ve all been crap and unreliable.  Accugage is the only one that reads consistently and without often just letting loads of air out.

But far better is just to fit an accurate guage to a track pump (ie one where your target pressures are around the middle of the range it reads) and use that to check pressure and add air at the same time.  Only disadvantage is you need another pump for road bikes and tubeless inflation.  SKS rennkompressor takes a standard c40mm rear entry gauge. Guages way more accurate than those normally fitted to bike pumps from about £5

the original promise of the streaming services has long gone – old films you have to pay to rent IME.

For stuff I really love I’ve started buying blu -ray when I want to see it.  Nikita available for <£6 delivered and blu ray quality is generally noticacably better than streaming (much less compression, and potentially compressed ‘actively’ by a person rather than just thrown through a automated pipeline so some effort to make sure it looked good as well. )

Ok – seems to be solved.  the Orbea blue paper specs 8nm for the top bolt.  When I torqued it to spec it turned significantly further than my ‘thats tight enough for a top bolt on a headset’ judgement and there was quite a bit of ‘cracking’ as everything settled.

No noise on the last ride done.

Ion Shelter

Personally much prefer the Spanish side – better weather, more varied scenery and better (and cheaper) food.

If you’re looking to guide yourself and dont want uplift then a lot of the towns on the French side have marked routes.  We rode with AQR out of Luchon a few times.  If they’re not running trips any more I might be able to dig out gps logs of the rides we did (mostly starting and ending in Luchon itself,  maybe a few from a different start point).

Theres great riding in the Basque coast area of Spain (Basque MTB is based there).  Some old mountain paths, some ‘built’ and the Hondaribbia-San Sebastian ride along the coast (you can return by train) is one of my favourite days out on a bike anywhere. You’d need route tips or guiding the first time you did it though.

Trailforks seems much more use in France/Spain than the UK – I find it much more useful than the ZonaZero app in Ainsa and I’ve found some great riding in France by just seeking out a little cluster of trails. However, nobody ever takes anything off as reliably or updates conditions so I’ve also found stuff that’s clearly been unridable for years after storms or logging.

You can usually arrange odd days guiding from Basque on the coast (depending on the time of year) if you want to self guide the rest of the time.

Brita Purity Quell ST filter is supposed to soften but give good flavour – I’ve fitted one of these (there are small cartridges suitable for home use c50/100/150) for my fridge and for use in the espresso.
https://www.brita.co.uk/purity-quell-st

modt manufacturers say don’t descale. I did my machine once before I’d fitted the filter and created some issues (and it took forever to rinse the milk wand). Haven’t needed to since installing. £50 cartridge (via eBay) every 9 months has to be cheaper than bottle water.

If we’re doing photos… QuickMill Silvano and Eureka Mignon. 10 years old now. Have replaced the pump once and some internal piping (and thread locked the switches which stopped them coming loose).  I’ve been wondering how much longer it will run before it needs a more major rebuild – most of these Italian machines are incredibly simple and all built with standard parts so feel like it will always be repairable (I wonder how much the same is true of the Sage?)

Steam is fine for a small jug (two cups) but would struggle with larger so maybe someday a small footprint dual boiler might replace this when something breaks.  Would be nice to have something plumbed in too but that would mean drilling a hole in the worktop (or kitchen cupboard…hmm)

@blokeuptheroad what’s that machine? I can’t read the brand

We self built 9 years ago and I saw a lot I recognised in this one.

Wanted to dislike them but they clearly got stuck in. Never understand the branding rules on GD – why are some co’s shown and others blurred out?

Coming in under budget was impressive. I came in on budget. How? realistic to start with (most GD aren’t)  – lots of research and quotes. Make sure estimates for anything you dont know are high and have a big contingency.  Then scale stuff back when one thing goes over – they did a load themselves (there was a comment about finish quality being rough in places), the garden wasn’t planted, some of the rooms weren’t finished, had they delayed the hot tub?  did they actually build the outbuildings that were mentioned at the start? (I’m guessing the gym was going to be in a garden building, they scrapped that and put it in the garage. That might have been 50k by itself..

https://www.instagram.com/thefoxesmaltings/

I think a lot of the questions / requirements are solicitor driven, especially when cheaper remote solicitors are involved,

I forgotten the best one. The solicitors website and making a fuss about a tree protection order. The house (in a small estate of about 40) was about three years old and my parents bought it in about 1982. There are no mature trees within the boundary of the property.

“2. The result of the search shows there is a Tree Preservation Order 19th December 1972, can you advise whether there are any trees within the boundaries of the property that would be subject to this Order?”

From my memory of being a kid and looking on Google Earth, I think it related to an oak tree that was in the garden of a house about four doors away.  What they expected me to do about it, I’ve no idea

You can pick up six bolt SRAM centreline rotors very cheaply on eBay (£<10). Pretty sure they’re just OEM. Certainly can’t tell any difference from the ones I bought in retail packaging. And get some centre block 6 blot converters.  DT are nicest but im sure others are fine – one listing has 160 disc plus adaptor for £16

Our solicitors have not advised anything similar for the house we’re trying to buy, but our buyers are telling me their solicitors (A different firm) strongly recommend these inspections. My gut feeling is that this is completely unnecessary and only serves to hold up the sale and cost me a couple of hundred quid for very little benefit to anyone (except central heating engineers and electricians).

Sold my mum’s house when she went into a home and it was clearly a complete refurb job – needed new windows, kitchen, bathrooms, internal doors, et cetera, et cetera. Some of the stuff that buyers solicitor started asking for was ridiculous and I just kept saying no. (“I haven’t lived there for >30 years. My dad is dead. My mum’s demented. I have no idea where there might be planning permission or building regs for a conservatory that was installed nearly 40 years ago that would’ve been permitted development anyway). I think I estimated the install date of the boiler and consumer unit update and told them they could make their own assessment about how much work would be needed based on that.)

Boiler service -As others have said, when we got our new one installed it was a condition of the warranty

The engineer who fitted hours didn’t even want to come and do paid servicing at the boiler each year. Said he’d say he’d done it and handle the warranty if needed. Taught me how to top up the pressure in the expansion vessel.  it’s quite a high tech boiler though and it’s meant to have good reporting if anything does go wrong.

(apologies for terrible writing – in a cast so a mix of bad typing and attempts at dictation)

@boltonjon

How so? their size chart says long is 33″ (and extra long 35″, but dont seem to have that trouser in x-long).

Ive got ex-airforce over trousers picked up on  a recommendation from here and their proper 36 leg. not a riding cut though=too baggy  in the lower leg.  good for walking

(I have quite a lot of surplus clothing as I’m like the High Street the military recognise that clothes actually have to fit all people and that we exist  so you can find stuff with proper long legs and also long bodies and jackets and shirts.  A NATO sizing his real dimensions of proper waist hip and leg in metric, not imperial.). Not much of it, blue air force stuff around anymore though I think it was sold.

I think coffee experts are like hi fi buffs.

I should be noticing a huge difference between the last of my kg bags that’s been open for a month and a new batch. I don’t. But maybe I’m not that fussy – I prefer my coffee at home to almost anything I get when it’s out.

I stand on ’em but then I weigh 60kg, that might not be such a good idea if you’re a big un

some years back I lent a wheel against the front bumper of the car and stuck the bike in the fork mount roof rack.  got in drove forward and heard a crunch. reversed back to see what id hit.

hope floating rotor was wrecked and it had part cut through a few spokes but the wheel was basically fine. Theyre amazing things

@daffy

4kg at once?  Either you’re drinking a shed load of coffe a day or the beans are pretty old by the time you’re done.

its vacuum packed in 1kg bags. I don’t notice any degradation of the sealed stuff over a couple of months. Once it’s opened it is fine for a month in a sealed container (it’s slightly less glossy by the end of the month but not enough to need to adjust the grind. If I’m on holiday for a few weeks and an open pack stretches longer sometimes I need to)

I order 4 kg at a time for free postage (use about 1 a month). The last is still fresh when opened (theres more difference in a kg from start to finish, even if kept airtight container)

best balance of quality/value I’ve found.

https://www.lovecoffee.co.uk/classico-2473.html

@fossy

I personally can’t tell the difference. I’ve one bike with a cut out, a Selle Italia SLR

That’s surprising. I ride an SLR on all my bikes. My partner was riding a SI women saddle with a cutout and it turned out. It was exactly the same as an SLR with a cut out which is what she’s riding now.  I tried using one of her saddles on the wattbike and get on with it at all.

Yup, I’ve done two of these in the last 10 years. Before kids it was 2-3 per year minimum

this feels very much like you and your mates have got older rather than a trend. Presumably a younger cohort will be new to riding and doing the things you were doing when you were their age.

If you live in the SE of England BPW in a day is a mighty amount of driving.  The people I know still do it as a weekend trip.

I don’t have kids and K rides too so we still do weekends away with mates.  Did a whole load in Covid years.  Very few the last 2 but thats been a function of the weather – its been shit and unpredictable the last two summers, but we just grabbed 5 days in Cumbria for that week of great weather.  We’d done it as a group of mates for a week for a few years before but last years 7 days of rain meant no-one was booking ahead this year

Afan Lodge will have died because Afan trails offering has got worse and worse. The last few times I went huge sections closed, other stuff badly in need of maintenance. Theres a load of places would be higher up the list now.

the demise of the mates biking weekend

thats an odd comment. When/why did people stop doing that?

I’ve said it before on here, but Saint cranks come with an alloy tension bolt rather than the plastic one. It maybe just cos a gold cap looks cool, but maybe they know that it makes it a bit more secure for DH stuff….

but Zee comes with plastic

Shimano manuals say

“• The two left crank arm mounting bolts should be tightened alternately and incrementally rather than each bolt being fully tightened all at once. Use a torque wrench to check that the final tightening torques are within the range of 12 – 14 N·m. Furthermore, after riding approximately 100 km (60 miles), use a torque wrench to re-check the tightening torques.
It is also important to periodically check the tightening torques.
If the tightening torques are too low or if the mounting bolts are not tightened alternately in stages, the left crank arm may come off during the ride causing the rider to lose control and fall.”

Shimano has plastic caps to stop you overloading the bearings. it’s by Design that they don’t go tight and that shouldn’t be what’s holding the crank on. That should be the pinch bolts (and the little safety clip with a pin that goes into the hole on the axle should stop the crank falling off before you’ve  felt it’s loose).

I sometimes very lightly tap the crank onto the axle with plastic mallet to ensure it’s fully seated before fitting the plastic nut. Tighten the pinch belts evenly a bit at at a time with a torque wrench. Check after a few rides. Think shimano is the only crank fitting system I’ve never had an issue with.

@TheArtistFormerlyKnownAsSTR

searches and finds

which looks like a fine listen.

Lol, I’ve no idea who is, either.

really?

He came to notoriety in the late 70’s as the DJ that single handedly turned a whole generation of punks onto reggae. It was whilst as a d.j at the first punk club ‘The Roxy’ in 1977, that Don adopted the punk D.I.Y ethic and begun to make his first film ‘The Punk Rock Movie’. Shot on Super-8mm it is the only documentary on the U.K punk scene w/ Sex Pistols-The Clash and many others. This led to a period directing over 300 music videos for an eclectic mix of diverse artists ranging from Public Image to Bob Marley. He then moved into documentary work covering the likes of Gil Scot-Heron, The Jam, Sun Ra, George Clinton and most recently Paul McCartney. Dancehall Queen (co-directedby Rick Elgood) shot in location in Jamaica 1997 was his first feature film.

https://www.donletts.com/bio

His CV of film and tv contains a lot of good stuff. (Big Audio Dynamite was my entry point – the band he formed with Mick Jones when the Clash split up).  And his music selection is good.  But he’s the only person who refers to him as the rebel dread.

33/34?  still nothing for those of us who need 35″ or longer.  2″ short is a lot when it comes to effectiveness.  Is it really too much to ask that manufacturers do ‘regular’ length and then long enough for anyone, hem to fit.?

waterproofs are so sweaty I’d really like something ‘highly water resistant but not seam sealed’ for riding in. Riding when it has been wet rather than actually in the rain (those Ion Shelter look perfect but id need an xl or xxl to get leg length and a m for waist.). SP pricing is optimistic.  £150 on ion uk. 186 on SP)

good article – thanks Hannah

If you are digging and building unauthorised trails, or are part of a group that is, please stop. Consider getting in touch with us confidentially, to see if we can somehow work together.

they’re  not exactly making it easy. surely this needs a point of contact (a direct line to Dan?) rather than just a link to this page. https://www.forestryengland.uk/contact-us

the kid that digs what they want to ride in their local woods

mostly this is an big misconception from landowners/managers – “kids” might knock up a few badly built kickers but the people actually setting out or maintaining trails look a lot more like the forum members on here.  one way or the other they’ve got the time and resources to dig as well as ride.

but part of that is freedom – its grabbed hours around work family and weather.  formal volunteer groups are a lot tougher to make work. digging or building needs a lot of guidance if not to do more damage than good and most features don’t actually suit more than a handful of people working on them.  ive been on a few dig days which were pretty frustrating as a result.

Now, clearing existing trails – cutting back branches growing over the trail, clearing ferns/gorse/brambles/nettles – doesn’t need any real supervision. and a small saw and secautuers are not expensive.  a lot more riders could contribute a lot  more on that front. carrying some tools and do some clearing as part of every ride makes a big difference. If more people did that would be a good thing.

If FE aren’t going to build out networks someone will – so can’t help feeling they need to accept that and work on back channel dialogue to the builders as to which areas or features or trails are a particular issue.  There are definitely sensitive areas of woodland/forest but when you see the state of a hillside when logging vehicles have been in (even if it’s thinning rather than clear fell) the idea that mtb trails generally cause problematic erosion or disturbance to wildlife  doesn’t seem to bear much scrutiny.

Certainly if you were really worried about wildlife in an area the first thing you’d do is ban dogs off leads (if not banning dogs completely).

The Golden Dregs on Thursday at the George Tavern. Captivating. Loved their album from last year on 4ad. New one due soon.

Anything other than ball valves has failed for me. Hep2o washing machine valve was useless after c6 years.

Beer52 have a mixed light and dark option that’s been giving me lots of new stouts to try but had a few lovely draught pints in the lakes last week but failed to make a note of them

these on the shelf at the moment (the Basqueland is very fine – went back for more).  Their advent calendar is also excellent value (have ordered 2 for us this year)

(obligatory referral link – half price first case https://www.beer52.com/join/HPN8ZK )

Try to keep it in a straight line as you drive it out of the dealer.
https://x.com/autobant/status/1839309907205697816?s=61&t=QxF0FI-upZcXsqCcjxAhDw

Messages. Every time it seems to send messages twice.

Is there any way of stopping the auto play, overlaid, videos?  Some (many) of us don’t want to watch them all the time and they make the site infuriating on a mobile, and almost unusable on a really slow connection as nothing happens until the video loads.

at least give members the option to disable.

(sometimes entertaining but anything that requires sound on doesn’t work if there are other people in the room. )

The ‘everyday’ stuff is a bit niche; it’s designed for if/when you require some electrolytes but don’t want any sugars.

I’m not so sure about that. I used to be a user of energy drinks, but over recent years switched to squash and then just plain water. Energy requirements of riding e-Bikes really aren’t the same and jelly babies provide the sugar when needed. But on hot days I do sometimes get horribly dehydrated and plain water isn’t enough the Sis tablets are packaging heavy and expensive.

Twitter threw up this recently…

https://x.com/pigshitsonballs/status/1833566191308218381

2004. Mostly hardtails, sub 100mm travel. Looks like I was lucky enough to have full Suspension but both those forks and rear shock were terrible, and that was before bikes got big enough to fit me properly (must have been my first Nicolai and this is the first pic I have of it)

Also, any idea if there’s any cheek/off-piste in Whinlatter?

I’m always surprised how little of piste there seems to be in the lakes. Would expect far more in Winlatter and south of Ambleside but what Little there is doesn’t seem to get much maintenance.

described by the provider as ‘the best legal ride in the lakes’. The route: Start at Great Langdale, Up Rossett Gill and descend (miles!) down to Seathwaite, road to Borrowdale, Up and over Stake Pass back to the start.

That right there is the danger of smoking too much Crack.

Some explanation before we go to try it next time we’re up?  I went up stake pass from Langdale and down into Borrowdale many years ago and I remember a lot of carrying up and a fair bit of pushing down, with one of our party breaking some ribs. Bikes and skill levels have changed a lot since then (might have been on a hardtail).  It’s enough to put me off without a recommendation again, but I might find it brilliant now