Singletrackworld says….the image cannot be uploaded. Please check that it’s a valid jpeg etc and that the file size is no larger than 10mb

That’s been the message on two different pc and on my phone when I’ve tried to add a pic to the midweek ride thread. All running Chrome.

Beagy

Oooooh, I read your post and immediately thought back to a horror short story that I loved as a kid. David’s Worm, by Brian Lumley. I’d be steering well clear of that pond if I were you!

I was talking about this last night with my Outlaws who were both heavy smokers up until their 50’s and have been non-smokers for about 30yrs now. They were both still very defensive towards cigarettes and couldn’t see anything wrong with the rise of vaping amongst school kids.

Personally, I think Rishi’s cigarette ban is a pretty empty gesture. It’s an easy legacy for him. From what I see, working in Glasgow and living in a wee post industrial town in central Scotland, actual smoking has declined hugely. Really, the only people I ever see smoking nowadays are either standing outside the pub, or are smoking weed. Vaping is huge though, people haven’t quit the habit, they’ve just switched to vapes, and I’m fine with that as at least it’s a bit healthier. What bothers me though is the number of kids that are vaping. Certainly, where I live, it seems like every other kid over the age of 12 is walking along with their phone in one hand and a vape in the other. I’m not sure if they’re going to be a ‘gateway’ to cigarettes as someone else mentioned, but it does concern me that we seem to have a whole generation of kids growing up who are addicted to nicotine.

How is that a good thing?

I feel that my racing days are over, but I did have a hoot at many a Sleepless in the Saddle and 10 Under event in the past. Nowadays, I take things at a more sedate pace and this is one of my favourite events. It’s the 10th anniversary ride this summer and I’m gutted I won’t be there, but it is a lovely event.

Velo Retro Vintage Cycling Event

Here’s Mrs Beagleboy and I from 2019. Google seems to have hidden last years photos. Probably in embarrassment, as I’d forgotten to put my lenses in before the start and accidentally led a whole bunch of people onto the long route rather than the short!

I can’t watch that sort of stuff.

I’m acutely aware that I breezed through my treatment for advanced bowel cancer – radiotherapy, chemotherapy and two surgeries. At the time, I never felt anything other than ‘proper poorly’ and I feel so guilty about that when I see others suffering so badly. When my wife’s best friend, whom she’s know since primary school was diagnosed with cancer last year, I just naturally assumed she’d have a rough time of it but would get better like I did.

Tuesday morning we got a call from her husband telling us that we’d lost one of the kindest, most loving humans you’d ever have the pleasure of meeting. It’s just not fair, cancer’s an utter prick of a thing.

C.

I’m very much enjoying the novels of Jay Kristoff at the moment. I’ve just finished his brilliant Nevernight trilogy, where the main character could, I suppose, be described as a ‘Mary Sue’…. something I’d never heard of until I read this thread. However, his new Empire of the Vampire trilogy has a brilliantly unlikeable hero. A rude, sarcastic and vicious vampire hunter who’s brutally addicted to the distilled vampire blood that gives him his powers.

I like them, but then I just read books to be entertained. ;-)

C.

What you need is one of these monstrosities. You could pop a blunted bit of carrot into the lancet holder and it would still draw copious amounts of blood. It was ‘affectionately’ know as the Guillotine.

30+ years later and I still have Autolet nightmares of sitting there, building up the courage to press the button and watching as the spring loaded stake came crashing down….

Alternatively, as others have suggested, the warmer your hands are, the more blood you’ll get out. Run your hands under a hot tap for a couple of minutes, properly dry them then try.

C.

If you ever find yourself in the National Museum of Scotland there’s a display showing the Scotland footie strip through the ages. The outstanding one, in my opinion, is the 1881 strip sponsored by the 5th Earl of Roseby. It’s his jockey colours of Primrose yellow and Rose pink stripes. I’d love to see the reaction to that from a lot of the football ‘fans’ I know.

I’d bring that back, and the big long shorts. I’d definitely bring back the 5kg leather footballs. That’d give modern day footie players a genuine reason for falling to the floor clutching their coupin when they get smacked by one of those. Yeah, bring all that back and I might show some interest.

I’m with @Johnnystorm on this one. St George and his cross are shared with something like twenty other countries! Ditch the cross altogether from your strip and re-adopt St Edmunds dragon. Of course, I still wouldn’t support your team, but I’d admire their strip a lot more. ;-)

Our first tandem was a Raleigh Pioneer. It was a lovely bike that my wife and I had many a good day on. Still kind of miss it if I’m honest.

My wife spotted the tandem of her dreams for sale on Ebay, so we found a buyer for our old one (a couple of guys from Glasgow), and bought this 1974/75 Pashley Tourmaster. My wife loves this bike, I loathe it. The bike looks very pretty, but it’s whole reason for being…all it wants to do….is turn left. I’ve checked the alignment of the frame, I’ve checked all the tubes for cracks. I’ve serviced the hubs and headset, yet I cannot find any mechanical reason for it’s desire to turn left. I strongly suspect that Kerry and I are simply to heavy for the spindly little tubes the frame is made from. Anyway, it now hangs from pegs on the wall of my garage as a rather lovely display piece.

We now have a Dawes Galaxy tandem and this is a picture from the one wee spin we had on it four years ago before the Covid lockdown, then my cancer diagnosis and treatment….then my lung disease diagnosis, ongoing investigation, and huge fitness issues. With all that going on, the poor thing has been sitting at the back of the garage gathering dust these past four years. However, this summer is going to be different. I’m 2 1/2 years in full remission and the docs are starting to become more convinced that although my lungs are partially trashed, they don’t look like they’re getting any worse. Added to that, Mrs Beagleboy is on a fitness drive while I’m getting more used to where my new limits are and I can see a whole new raft of adventures with ice cream and lashings of ginger beer on the horizon!

Beagleboy xx

I’ve had my Levo for around 3 yrs now and it lives in my unheated garage. Like Escrs there ^^ I top up the battery immediately after every ride. I rarely use more than 50% of the battery on a ride as I’m almost always in Eco mode and have the assist dialled right down. I think I’ve run it down to the point where the battery cut out once in the time I’ve been riding it. The horror of riding that bloody tank the last 8km home with tired legs was what prompted me to look at and adjust the level of assists to give me about an extra 20% range! My battery is still showing 100% health and the only time I see any sort of drop in range is when it’s properly cold outside.

What has definitely helped for us is a wedge shaped pillow under her regular one. It raises Mrs B’s head and upper body up enough that it must release most of the pressure on the snore engine.

Worth trying, if, like me you’re not keen on the earplug idea.

@devash @chainbreaker

I didn’t get a Fohn jacket, but as I mentioned up there somewhere ^^ I got a really nice Fohn merino hoodie the other day and as far as that’s concerned, I’d say the sizing is true. I’m an XL, but I bought the XXL so I could layer up underneath it and it’s big on me.

Ecology degree

I’m the lab manager / Next Generation Sequencing specialists, in a molecular biology / genetics research lab in Glasgow University. When people are talking at me in the lab, I pretend I understand what they’re saying and nod knowingly, a lot.

Shhh, someone’s coming…

I just took delivery of a Fohn merino hoodie. Very pleased with it for £32. I’m usually a XL, but I went XXL for the hoodie so I can layer up and it’s a comfortable, baggy fit over my chunky (183cm / 110kg), frame.

Couldn’t she just take her sensor’s dedicated monitor with her? I appreciate for a two week period she’d be locked into using the monitor rather than her phone, but there’d be no stress about recharging.

Cheers for the 510 Freerider link. I’ve fancied trying a pair of 510’s for a while, but have hung onto my flat soled Shimano shoes as they’re not quite dead yet. £30 for a new pair of 510’s delivered to the door is a brilliant deal in my mind. This thread is a goldmine of bargains and good deals. Although it’s costing me a small fortune, I’m absolutely loving it. Keep up the good work!

I’m ready to escalate the war I’m having with my alarm clock to ‘Caddyshack’ levels. It’s an Amazon Echo Dot. Very small and unobtrusive with a LED clock face on it. It sits about 30cm away from my ear on the bedside table. My wife loves it.

The alarm volume…..

No matter how it is set, the alarm volume will randomly reset to apocalypse levels. I’ve even set up a routine on the damn thing so that it reduces the volume to 10% around 30 minutes before I get up. I heard it beep at 10% this morning, but when the music started 30 minutes later? I left an imprint in the ceiling.

It hates me and I hate it.

My 2021 Levo sometimes doesn’t turn on. I think it’s a dodgy connection with the battery charging cover. When I open the cover, give the inside a quick clean out then snap the cover closed again, it powers up fine.

C.

I got my wife a Jelly bean calendar because I’d treated myself to this nice Epoch Advent Calander to sit alongside Hans Gruber.

My brother was telling me a very similar tale at the weekend. He, and others had been losing money, cigarettes and tools from their lockers. All this coincided with the employment of a new lad and the thefts only occurred on the new boy’s shifts. Enquiries were made with friends who worked at his previous place and they confirmed that the lad was a thief, but without definite proof, nothing could be done. Roll on to a few weeks ago and the lad was caught on CCTV dipping into the cash in a driver’s cabin while out on a breakdown. He was shown the door and no further action was taken as the company only had proof of the £15 he’d taken from the driver’s cab.

Since then, the guy has been employed as a mechanic at a new place, but the guys at my brother’s work went out of their way to inform his new workmates that he has sticky fingers, if only so they are prewarned.

As I understand things, from eves dropping on conversations. The experienced early years specialists in Lanarkshire were told that they’d have to reapply for their own jobs at a significantly reduced (I think it was 2 grades lower), wage. Essentially the council have ‘rebadged’ the job description are looking to replace expensive, experienced care workers with kids straight out of college.

Ha! I’m not bolstering you’re views by falling for that one!

I was out on a local loop around the back of Bonnybridge on Saturday. The temperature didn’t get above -3c for the whole day. I’ve been colder, but my bones were younger then!

I’ve never gambled, but on our first visit to Vegas, (we were married by Elvis, pretty sure he was the real Elvis actually), I spotted a very distinctive looking lady working one of the slot machines.

After we’d had a torrid time booking into the hotel…. “Mr & Mrs C Lapsley? We’ve booked you into this room here… Erm, no thank-you, Mrs Christine Lapsley is my mother and I’m not sharing a bed with her!” we eventually got all the rooms sorted and went to bed.

In the morning, as we headed out for lunch, I saw that same woman getting taken from the casino in a wheelchair, sobbing her heart out and crying that she’d lost everything. I’ve never been interested in gambling, but that pretty much sealed the deal for me.

Mr Craig Lapsley, married to Kerry Ramsay, who’s sister Kirsten was there for the wedding as well. The hotel had only booked one Miss K Ramsay in as they thought it was a typo. They eventually were going to let Kerry and her sister share a room, but were still insisting that I sleep with my mother! I’m not from Fife!!!

Add gambling onto all that stress? I think my head would have exploded! 

Oh, and it all worked out in the end, I got to share a room with Kerry, we’ve been happily married for 20+ years and I didn’t have to sleep with my mum.

I’ve liked this because I just want to see what happens. Sit back, pour a beer and watch the world burn….

I dropped into a mini, but very steep sided bomb hole last night. The mud filling the bottom slowed me so that I didn’t have enough momentum to clear the rooty lip on the exit. So, I had to pretty much stand on the pedals and give it everything to drag myself out. The very, very loud ‘Ping’ my lovely old Orange 4 gave out at that moment worried me enough that tonight will be spent in the garage checking my spokes, chain and then frame, just to be sure!

They do drive me mad, but I’ll happily take a wee creak over something much more expensive!

C.

@Stoddys

No, I just put in the email address and password I used to activate my LibreLinkup account.

I gave up on disposables about 10 yrs ago. It was the waste that got to me, all that packaging and blades that clogged up with one swipe…

Since then I’ve been using a Parker 74R. A big box of generic, cheapo blades that I got from ebay for a tenner and will probably last my lifetime and currently a pack of 5 Imperial Leather shaving soaps that Mrs Beagleboy bought me for Christmas about 6 years ago. I’m about 1/4 of the way through the 2nd cake of that!

4 or 5 yrs ago I bought my big brother a Parker 74 to try. He’s a self confessed shaving junkie, his chin is like teflon. He’s never looked at disposable cartridge razors since. Is his skin better for it? Well, he’ll always be hideous as he’s my big brother, but I maybe don’t boak so much when I see him nowadays.

Hi Stoddy, 

With the LibreLink + LibreLinkup apps on your iPhone, and the CGM widget from Connect QI on your Garmin. Will this give you live glucose updates on your Garmin as it does on my Android? It was really simple to setup, because I managed it.

C.

Hi there,

Apologies for resurrecting this thread, especially if this is old news, but I was out on my bike tonight with my Garmin 530 displaying blood glucose levels from my Libre 2 sensor!

First I downloaded the LibreLink app from Google Play onto my Pixel 7. That’s the app that lets your partner/parents/friends monitor your glucose levels remotely….never gonna happen. I then invited myself, and accepted the kind invite to follow myself with this app. Next I went to Garmin Connect IQ and downloaded the CGM Connect widget by bruder_jakob. I then plugged my Edge 530 into my laptop and synced it with Garmin Express. The CGM widget was displayed in the list and if you click on the three wee dots beside the name of the widget, a bunch of options appear. At the top is the bit where you put in your LibreLink login details. Once that’s done I believe what happens is that my phone reads my Libre 2 and transmits the data to the LibreLink app, then the CGM widget on my Edge 530 gets the data from LibreLink and displays it on the screen. It works!

Only caveat is that it’s a widget designed for Garmin watches. Pretty much all the Garmin watches except my Instinct Solar. It works great on my Edge 530 head unit though, but I had hoped I would be able to display my glucose levels as a data field alongside others. As far as I can see, it doesn’t work that way. You have to navigate to the Widget menu on the head unit to view your sugars, or just leave it on screen while you ride. That’s what I did tonight. I’m quite pleased with it though as I generally ride with my phone tucked away in my Camelbak, so a couple of button presses are still quicker than all the faff of digging around in my bag!

C.

Another kid of the 70’s and 80’s from Central Scotland who went Guising. Halloween is when all the witches and goblins are out looking to snatch their victims from the streets, so any bairns that were brave enough to go out after dark had to do so disguised as a witch or goblin etc. We also had to perform a song, dance or joke before we got any treats and I still demand the same of the kids who turn up at my door.

We had about 100 or so kids, most of them escorted by parents, at our door over a couple of hours on Halloween. A couple of times we had a queue forming down our path and back onto the street. I had a tiny wee lass singing me a Ukrainian nursery rhyme, a few kids busting some excellent dance floor moves and a variety of truly woeful jokes. I’m 53, have no kids of my own, but still love Halloween. It’s utterly brilliant seeing how well behaved and polite the majority of the kids are.

What do you call a cow with no legs?..Ground Beef!

Why did the skeleton refuse to jump down the chimney?…He didn’t have the guts!!!

What do you call Bees who’ve died and turned into ghosts?…..BooBees!!!!!

Oh lordy, my sides are still aching.

If I didn’t want to pedal, I’d get a license and buy an electric moped, but I want to pedal.

I went out with a local Facebook organised e-bike group in the spring.  There were maybe about a dozen of us on an assortment of e-MTB’s and e-commuter / hybrid bikes. At 54, I was one of the youngest members of the group and from the off, I was pretty much on the rivet. In my very weak defence, I’ve got my Levo’s input dialled down so that I have to work in eco mode, but can bail out into trail when my back or my lungs start screaming at me. But from the outset with that group, I was off the back and chasing. I was getting no assist from the bike as I was over the 15.5mph limit for the majority of the ride. From what I gleaned from the final stop before the group all split and headed home, the ride leader had pretty much helped modify all the bikes in the group so they were running with the US style 20mph cut-off.

Barrelling along shared paths at 20mph is way too fast. Even at 15mph it’s crazy fast to be overtaking people. 

So I think the legislation as it stands is good. What we do need though is some sort of crackdown on these home made firestarter e-motorbikes that plague the city centres. Grrr!

B.

Is it these guys? http://www.luminous.bike ?

Or is it Lumicycle?

My Orange Four’s 7 year old Reverb Stealth is still going strong. Needs a bum bump to unstick it when it’s down, but otherwise it’s fine and hasn’t seen a service in all that time. I keep meaning to take the saddle off and check the pressure in the thing as that might be the problem with the slow / sticky return. I’ve always thought it was a great bit of kit. Mind you, if I was going to replace it, I’d get the same one that’s on my Levo as I believe it’s a fraction of the price and just as good.

Back in the late 80’s and early 90’s, I’m pretty sure the Union Canal tunnel above Falkirk was the longest in the UK. Cycling through it in the pitch dark, over greasy cobbles with naught but a wobbly, rotted wooden barrier between yourself and a plunge into the canal your entire focus was on that little oval of light around 100km away in the distance.

Since then, they’ve plugged the leaks in the roof, installed lovely coloured lights and replaced the handrail. Apparently now, it’s shrunk to a mere 850m. Still gives me a wee bit of a shudder every time I approach the entrance though!

I’d still like an invite if there’s any out there?

Thank you Mr Rubber Buccaneer. Thank you so much.

I just got a warning from EE that I’ve used 80% of this months 5gb allowance. I think it’s because I recently signed up to Instagram and Tik-Tok. Pretty sure it should reset within the next couple of days and then I can get back to watching videos of cute puppies, cat fails and the guy tickling the baby penguin (n0t an euphemism).

I wouldn’t mind joining the party if anyone still has a spare invite.