Good luck Simon and best wishes for a speedy recovery.

I would go with the following build-up:

Timber cladding (I don’t think what type is critical tbh as long as the timber is reasonably durable – the breather membrane is what provides the actual waterproofing, the timber essentially protects it from the force of driving rain and from UV)
min 25mm deep vertical treated SW battens same centres as stud frame
breathable membrane (tyvek / kingspan nilvent / Pro-Clima Solitex)
100×50 studs with full fill rockwool batt or similar insulation.
15mm osb3 lining (if fitted carefully with good butt joints this not only provides frame stiffness but also a decent air-tight layer). You can also fix shelves and hooks to it easily and securely.

For the roof I’d use the same construction but a different roof cladding as it’s much more exposed than the timber on the walls and has a greater performance requirement. I’ve heard good things about Onduline corrugated bitumen sheet which can be bought from Wickes. I would also consider a slightly larger air gap – say 50mm rather than 25mm of battens.

As a note, I would try wherever possible not to use a kingspan type product in timber frame as it likes to trap moisture against timber rather than letting the whole system breathe.

If you are going to leave an air gap it’s likely you’re just transferring a moisture and condensation problem to a position you can’t see it happening and where it’s going to take a lot longer to dry out. If you go down this route it needs to be ventilated well, but this is actually quite difficult with what is, in effect, a flat roof as there’s no benefit of the thermal stack effect you get with pitched roofs.

If you really want to do it properly, full fill the space with a vapour permeable insulation like rockwool or wood fibre board or similar (not kingspan as this holds on to the moisture keeping your timber structure nice and damp for as long as possible). Then underdraw that with an intelligent vapour barrier membrane (one that is more vapour open in the summer than winter) like Pro-Clima Intello and make sure this is as well sealed as possible. If any moisture gets into the construction (whatever you do you can’t eliminate this) it is released as soon as humidity levels drop and the temperature increases.

If anyone wants a small 2009 prophet frame, I’m in the process of cleaning mine up ready for sale.

I have a Canon S95 (now up to S110 as mentioned above). Fantastic little camera which produces great IQ in most light conditions. The control ring round the lense is a stroke of genius. A very short zoom and lack of viewfinder are its main limitations, but neither are a deal breaker for me.

OK guys, plenty to go at. Cheers!

I was looking at those, they sound the ticket – hope that chunky monkeys fit! Cheers.

Also look at the Pipedream Scion or Sirius – they’re lovely frames, lightish, toughish, twangyish but not too extreme in any direction – a proper trail hardtail.

Mainly because I’m running bigger and bigger tyres, but also because they probably are a tad fragile. But then 2 years has been a good innings.

450d from Harrison cameras here. The Canon that switched to SD card, so mad sense to go on one model from the 400.

I’m 12 stone (don’t do metric weight) and have been running crests for a couple of years – first on a FS and since on a HT. Both ridden on quite rocky trails. They’ve needed a bit of truing and have the odd ding. I’d probably choose flow ex for new wheels in the future, but I’ve been more than happy with the crests.

I, ideally, wanted a trailer to tow our little one in but for a number of reasons this would have been impractical. Now I have an xtracycle converted hardtail and my daughter loves it (doesn’t seem to mind whatever the weather which is great). It hasn’t been life-changing but it has meant I can continue to not need a car day to day and my daughter seems to be settling into the idea that bikes are normal – so it may be transformational after all. It’s bloody heavy and slow on Sheffield’s hills, though, so I may have found it even more useful had we lived somewhere flatter.

or just abide by the rules of the road?

Go to 18bikes in Hope and try a few out on their demo sdg saddle fleet.

I really rate Specialized hemisphere armadillo. My wife and I did a 9000km tour and only had 6 punctures between us. They’re heavy, dead feeling and don’t fold, though. None were an issue for me with our pretty heavy loads, though.

Saw this on Twitter yesterday: ”a great philosopher once said”. I think it applies quite clearly in this dilemma.

6 miles each way on an xtracycle longtail conversion most days. Allows me to pick up lots of shopping and my little girl from Nursery. Takes about half an hour with a reasonable hill at the end of each leg. I can knock nearly 10mins off, though, when I ride the road bike which isn’t exactly light either.

It will only be fractional, but isn’t the height determined by a relationship between BB and bars, and therefore may change slightly with lower or higher BBs?

I used to go that way round, but now prefer descend and climb back on the left hand side heading towards Langsett. It’s nice and fast and rocky with a superb finish down to the bridge at the bottom (well beyond North America, but definitely worth it). It’s also a more manageable climb back up again.

Hora, I totally agree, but some of the recent works (eg the top bridleway from Fox Hagg in Rivelin) have made it increasingly dangerous for inexperienced cyclists with steep, very smooth tracks with no corners to moderate speed. Some minor technical difficulty and narrower trails is accepted to make things safer and easier for new riders not the other way round. Wider, faster trails increase speeds, likelyhood of crashes and trail user conflict. It doesn’t have to be like that and a cooperative approach like that used by Sheffield Wildlife Trust and Ride Sheffield in Blacka Moor is testament to that.

I’m also not talking about making things gnarly per se all the time. The works to Stanage Causeway and to Houndkirk are disliked by all but horse riders and make a visually attractive place that is a recreational resource for a huge number of users, less attractive and less of an attraction to the people that use them most. I’m a walker, a cyclist and a climber and dislike much of the resurfacing work as a countryside user in general.

From our experience at Ride Sheffield I doubt any of the decisions made by the council really have mountain bikers in consideration at all. Works are generally driven by horse riders on bridleways. Unfortunately, the law doesn’t give us any rights in comparison to almost any other user. If the law was changed to more accurately represent the proportion of users on the trail (we’re now a pretty big lobby), that would be the only way I can see for us to be properly listened to. A long way off, though, I think. The kind of thing we’re up against:

Stanage causeway

stanage causeway 2[/url]

I’ll be there manning the ride sheffield stand it seems; other years I’ve marshaled and had a grand old time.

I’m 5’7″ and have a small which fits me really well. The frame is currently hanging up in the garage (prophet 2 from 2009) and I’ve considered selling it on numerous occasions but never been sure. If you’re interested, give me a shout and I’ll reconsider its future.

Kaffenback here too:

TooTall – in pure energy terms maybe, but in terms of comfort and in terms of condensation – if the rest of the envelope is as good as it can be, double glazing will be an obvious weakness.

The elemental u-values of walls/roofs etc aren’t really very useful on their own. The best way to approach a low energy, high comfort building is through a whole building approach. This requires some kind of modelling although it doesn’t have to be very complex – a SAP calculation isn’t very accurate but will give you a guide. Much better is something like the Passivhaus Planning Package (PHPP) which is actually just a spreadsheet, but is pretty accurate and detailed.

I would suggest that high levels of insulation (0.15 W/m2.K or better), high performance triple glazed windows, effective air-tightness and a clear ventilation strategy (MVHR is a great option once airtightness is at a good level) are not green bling. The fact that winter solar gain through triple glazed windows can be more than winter heat loss through them and the fact that they’re passive elements not requiring much or any maintenance or energy to run is a great example.

However, don’t you have an Architect to advise you on this rather than a forum? If you’re building a new home for the future I would be spending now so that you don’t have to later. Get good professional advice, pay for the very best performing building envelope you possibly can afford. This is giving you and your family future comfort and future energy security without having to worry about expensive and maintenance heavy green bling like solar panels and heat pumps.

..and yes, timber does produce a cold bridge. The better the insulation performance elsewhere the more of an issue this becomes. This is where you’ll get condensation and mould so the thermal fabric needs to be detailed very carefully.

Listen to matt_outandabout, he has some expertise! Contact me on paulATpaultestaarchitectureDotcoDotuk and if I can’t help you, I’m sure I can point you in the direction of someone who can.

A couple more days riding it with short forks and a dropped stem and it’s a completely different beast. Much more fun. Chainsuck, though, needs some serious investigation.

thought about the bionicon guide too. May see how it goes.

The conversion BB height is quite high, so I may go for steeper head angle with a lower BB.

I think the flexyness of the donor frame isn’t ideal. I’ll see how I get on with it over the next few months and if I grow to like it much more then I may hunt out a stiffer frame (or spend loads on a big dummy!)

For a while the live luggage will be a 1 year old in a seat, so should be fairly manageable.

I expected it to be heavy – I’ll just have to remember my forgotten long distance, heavy loaded touring approach to riding.

Cheers folks.

Cheers Stoner – pretty much as I thought with most of that. I’ll try dropping a couple of links on the chain and lower the fork again to get the lower BB back. It will go rigid in the end, will just need new wheels and fork.

pipedream sirius / Xtracycle longtail for child ferrying duties. Build just started and should be finished early jan.

Nice.. hadn’t realised there’d been so much. Only a dusting on Derwent Edge on Wednesday night. Not a hint of it in central Sheffield. Hope there’s still some about on Sunday morning.

Ragley stubbing is silly low stack. I had to add 15mm (or maybe 20mm) of spacers after it replaced my Synchros AM.

spec and geometry (and description) look bang on for trail riding. Lovely looking bikes. I’d stick with the stem as it is for now until you’ve ridden it for a while – I certainly wouldn’t think it would need longer – the top tube lengths are nice and generous.

Big advantage fan here – a massively underrated tyre. Most folks in my riding group seem to have gravitated to them for a year round tyre over the last couple of years. 2.25 or 2.4 – both great. I’m currently running a 2.4 up front and a crossmark on the rear and it’s running fine in even the really muddy crap that’s out there at the moment.

I quite like mine, although nothing to really compare it to. With a steel rack and guards and sensibly tough spec for every day duties it’s easily the heaviest bike I own. I do find toe overlap an issue with guards on, but then the frame is a small so this might be better on larger sizes. Overall happy with it, but (likely due to the heavy build) it doesn’t exactly excite me as a bike. Ultra practical, though.

Jambalaya – they do, of course, have to consider flexible working and they have which we are happy with and grateful for. We are just questioning whether the approach they’ve taken regarding pay is ok or not. It’s very easy for part of a contract to be regarded as temporary so that the employer can, should they wish, remove it at any time so the only benefit to the employer is a cost one not a flexibility one.

Jota – that’s about as similar as it gets to my Wife’s situation, I suppose. If it was exactly like that we’d be fine with it. It’s the fact that my wife is obliged to be in work 3 days (by the demand of the number of cases she has and the amount of time each is supposed to take and within the agreement between her and management), but only has a contract for 2.5 days. Although the extra half day is paid as overtime it is not treated as such by management.

Junkyard – thanks for info. Not seen the ACAS one before. Would rather not have to get legal advice, but the way she has been treating during, and after her pregnancy suggests we might need to at some point.

Cheers for the additional answers.

Gearfreak – I think this might be slightly different. That talks about uncontracted overtime hours. They are contracted overtime hours – she has to work them under the current arrangement and her caseload has been calculated based on a 3 day week, not a 2.5 day week. I know she doesn’t get holiday etc for overtime, but I’m asking whether it’s straight and normal to have to undertake overtime and it still be classed as such?

Junkyard – definitely a 50% contract on paper.

Drac – They won’t be employing anyone else as yet, just in what they describe as “the next recruitment round” some time next year. At which point her contract could be altered from 60% to 50%. HR and payroll are happy with this, it’s just her line manager who isn’t. Other staff doing the same role as her within social services have 40% / 60% / 80% contracts – why should she be paid less and have fewer benefits for the same thing?

Druidh, re: the unpaid hours thing. Welcome to social services. You have x cases. If something doesn’t get done in the statutory timescales on any one of the x cases, management will do all they can to deflect the blame onto the overworked front line workers (we see this in the press all the time). The only way to maintain a level of input that allows you to achieve the required statutory outcomes and outputs is to work hours you don’t get paid for. Along with poor pay, poor staff support and the resultant staff morale and you can see why social services is a fairly unattractive career destination and well under-resourced.

My wife has been through disciplinary proceedings before after failing to complete all her file recording on time despite meeting her targets regarding visits / supervisions / court reports etc. Too many cases and too little time is not seen as a reasonable defense. Only solution is to work longer hours unpaid. It’s crap and a vicious circle, but appears to be the accepted way of it.

Cheers for the additional answers. Gearfreak, I think this might be slightly different. That talks about uncontracted overtime hours. They are contracted overtime hours – she has to work them under the current arrangement and her caseload has been calculated based on a 3 day week, not a 2.5 day week. I know she doesn’t get holiday etc for overtime, but I’m asking whether it’s straight and normal to have to undertake overtime and it still be classed as such?

Junkyard – definitely a 50% contract on paper.

Druidh, re: the unpaid hours thing. Welcome to social services. You have x cases. If something doesn’t get done in the statutory timescales on any one of the x cases, management will do all they can to deflect the blame onto the overworked front line workers (we see this in the press all the time). The only way to maintain a level of input that allows you to achieve the required statutory outcomes and outputs is to work hours you don’t get paid for. Along with poor pay, poor staff support and the resultant staff morale and you can see why social services is a fairly unattractive career destination and well under-resourced.

My wife has been through disciplinary proceedings before after failing to complete all her file recording on time despite meeting her targets regarding visits / supervisions / court reports etc. Too many cases and too little time is not seen as a reasonable defense. Only solution is to work longer hours unpaid. It’s crap and a vicious circle, but appears to be the accepted way of it.

davidjones15 – only found out after starting work that this 10% wasn’t being paid in the same way as rest – as above. It’s hard to make decisions without the full information. I don’t know how wanting to do more work and getting paid for it reasonably is greedy, especially if it’s not difficult at all for that to happen.

druidh – I think we may well have to, but it doesn’t mean I think we should.

I also don’t know what will happen if she actually is sick or goes on holiday. No-one else takes on her cases while she is. This will mean she’ll have to do further additional hours (this time unpaid) to make up for sickness or holiday.

Anyway, meeting now. Thanks for the replies – even if they weren’t what I’d wanted to hear.