I treated myself to the MW7 boots last year as an upgrade to my tatty old MW80’s. They’re comfy and warm, however, they’re certainly not as waterproof as their predecessors. Under the big velcro flap there’s just a neoprene tongue, not the full leather tongue in the older boots. Makes getting them on and off a lot easier, but also means that any ‘over the hubs’ stream crossings, or up to the knee bog missteps (like yesterday), lets water in a lot quicker than the older styles

I loved my Action Man Pursuit Craft (No. 4 on page 17), it was a brilliant toy that you could turn into anything as long as you wanted a car, boat or jet. Probably one of the most played with toys I had.

How big is the bobble? I like a nice big bobble on my head!

I didn’t get a free light with my helmet. The customer support lady on the online chat was very helpful though and promised me she’d get one sent out to me. Fingers crossed!

An early nineties Orange Clockwork. Even in my twenties, I was far to fat for one of those. I always lusted after a Cannondale… V-frame or something…as well. Ugly looking bikes, but they just looked so crazy different at the time.

How about trying here?

https://kidsracing.co.uk/

My work colleague has the tiniest feet in the world, honestly, it’s a wonder she doesn’t fall over all the time. I think this is the site I directed her to when she was looking for winter overshoes.

I’ll be my birthday in March. I’ve not got anything planned for the actual day (Friday 13th), although I’m kind of thinking of a city break somewhere, maybe Barcelona as I’ve always fancied going there. However, my aim is to do a lot of stuff in my 50th year. So far, I’m looking to get away with mates for a ski trip in Feb and I’ve got my first ever mountain bike trip to the Alps planned in June. We’re also looking to holiday in Corfu (we have friends over there) in the late summer as then it’ll be Mrs Beagleboy’s turn! Pretty much just planning to get out and about lots and use ‘my big birthday year’ as a general excuse to party the whole year!

I went on statins about 9 years ago, because my doc said I was 40 years old, diabetic and I had to because he said so. I only lasted a few months on them though as I suffered from terrible aches and pains in my legs after cycling….yes, more so than normal. The docs are now pushing me to try again, but are assuring me that there are a lot more brands on the market that shouldn’t produce the same side effects. I’ll take them when they catch me and make me.

I snowboarded in Bansko, Bulgaria for about 10 winter holidays and loved every one of them. We’d get up early enough to be at the head of the queue for the gondola opening every morning though, to get the best of the slopes. It’s incredibly cheap, and the food / drink is great, although some of the bars were getting a bit seedy the last time I was there.

We always went late February – Early March as the prices were a bit cheaper. I remember hearing horror stories though about folk going in the early season, and there being no snow to talk of.

Bansko’s cheap enough that private / family group lessons are a real option. I think the last time I snowboarded, it cost 60 euro for a half day private lesson, but getting a leg up in the snowdomes before you go is a sensible idea.

I’ve got a big, round, beachball head, and the On-One Enduro helmet is one of the best fitting helmets I’ve owned. I’ve got the Orange and Black one, which is going to make things awkward next time I bump into Dick Barton on the trails, but what I’m waiting for is the reflective ones to come back into stock. I want one of those for night rides.

My wife has just made about £200 (after costs and postage), from selling around 25 items of clothing on ebay. It took her a fair amount of work to do it, but there’s certainly a bit of profit to be had. I reckon what others have said is a great idea. Get a kid to catalogue and sell the stuff on an ebay shop.

Oh, and absolutely check everything, when my Aunty Anne passed away, we found £2000 stuffed into socks.

C.

I commute to Glasgow via public transport every working day. I leave my house at 6.30am and get into my lab around 8am – 8.15am. I travel into the city on the local bus service. It’s slow, expensive and oh my, you do encounter some characters on it. Once I’m in the city, I travel from the centre out to the west end either by the subway if it’s pishing down or on a Nextbike. Return journey is much the same, although the ‘character encounters’ are more frequent.

What I see every morning, is traffic snarling up and coming to an almost standstill on the motorway about 3 miles from the city centre. In the winter, this can extend out to about 7 miles. In the mornings, when I look up from the book I’m reading or amazon prime episode I’m watching, while sitting on my nearly empty bus, I can look into the cars and without exaggeration, I’d say that less than 1 in 20 have more than one person in them.

People think my commute is a horror show, (which it actually kind of is as I’m currently watching downloaded episodes of Preacher in the mornings on my Amazon Fire), but I would go mad if I was sitting on my trying to drive a car through that nightmare.

I always make a point of thanking the bus driver every time I get off. I can’t see why anyone would want to drive into or around a city.

I know it’s too late now, but it might be worth keeping a beady eye on Halford’s website. I bought a Moon XP 1800 from them on Friday, reduced by 70%. I was very pleased with myself.

“Africa was very interesting,” said Ford, “I behaved very oddly there.”…”I took up being cruel to animals,” he said airily. “But only,” he added, “as a hobby.”

“Oh yes,” said Arthur, warily.

“Yes,” Ford assured him. “I won’t disturb you with the details because they would-”

“What?”

“Disturb you. But you may be interested to know that I am singlehandedly responsible for the evolved shape of the animal you came to know in later centuries as a giraffe.”

Life, the Universe and Everything. Douglas Adams, 1982

It was spinning to really, really bad music, with the lady at the front demanding we do unnatural things, like standing up in the saddle! I assumed the bad music’s to make you angry so you go faster? Other than that, there were no big screens or anything, as it wasn’t a real spin class per se. I was keeping an eye on the guy in front’s cadence and resistance, because he was really quite athletic and I wanted to see how I would manage against him. Not great was the answer, but not embarrassingly bad either.

Other than that, the class was really just punctuated by the nurses coming around to check our bloods every 10 minutes or so. As I’ve been trying to say from the first post, it was a spin class on spin bikes with a spin class instructor, but it was part of a diabetes training course. I assumed that people would actually read the posts, rather than just the title. My bad.

Stick at it? No, thanks mate. I much prefer riding my bike outside. As I said at the very start, I’m not a gym sort of person. I’m not pretty enough to stand in front of the mirrors. :-)

It was a very informative and useful course, but it hasn’t convinced me that I want to join a gym or do spin classes. It has convinced me though that I’m actually a better diabetic than I give myself credit for, and that the Libre sensor is a total life changer for T1 diabetics.

Cheers folks….I didn’t die, but jeepers I sweated like a soaking wet sweaty thing.

The whole day was very interesting with lectures on how to balance my revamped insulin regime and exersize via my spanky new Libre sensor. Once on the bike in the monitored spin class, I was one of the few in the class who’d actually got the balance between insulin dose and exersize right, so I was well pleased with that.

I was less pleased with the fact that even on a stationary bike, I still couldn’t take my hands off the bar without losing my balance….seriously!

Yep, I see that there are very ‘different flavours’ of spin class now Corroded, cheers. As I possibly should have made clearer at the very start, my class is a single event where a doctor will explain the effects of extreme activity on my body and diabetes control, then a trained spin class instructor will take over and make me suffer for an hour to show the actual impact on my body and glucose levels.

I haven’t actually joined a gym, or a spin class. I’m kind of being made to do it! :-)

I shall make sure that I take plenty of towels, (I always know where my towel is), water and really, really tight spandex. Although given my figure, that’s not really an issue.

Cheers again!

Ummm…I’m not so sure we’re talking about the same sort of spin class (at least I dearly hope not), but thanks for all the hints and tips!

I’ve got a bell on our tandem for when we ride along our local canal, but nearly everyone ignores it. After I’ve said “Excuse me” and waited for the obligatory panic, most people explain that they thought it was a mobile phone.

I have a Hope Pro 4 rear hub on my mountain bike. When I’m on that I generally slow down and get to within 10 metres or so of most walkers then stop pedalling, let the rear hub do the job of a bell, if that fails I resort to a cheery ‘excuse me’. Still get snotty folk saying ‘you should have a bell’, but then a heck of a lot of folk are so engrossed in their phones or wearing headphones on the towpaths that you could be hovering behind them in a Harrier Jump Jet and they’d be oblivious.

It’s cigarette butts that do my head in. Aren’t you manky enough smoking the things? Nooo, take it even further and throw the things out of your car as you pass by, or drop them in the street.

Filthy mingers, beating them to death is too good for em’.

Actually, I’m having a bit of a deja vu moment. Have we done this subject before?

I’m goofy on a snowboard, but only realised I was the same on my mountainbike during a holiday in New Zealand. I’d hired a Cannondale Rush, I think (this was a good ten years ago), and although it was a lovely light and responsive bike, it fairly blew through its travel with a big lad like me on it and I had quite a few ‘moments’ due to pedal strikes.

Didn’t think anything of it though until I returned the bike to the hire shop a week later and the guy looked at the bike, then me and said, “So you lead with your right foot on descents then?”. The right hand pedal was mashed into the middle, it was practically ‘V’ shaped on both sides.

Yep, I’m goofy on a bike, in more ways than one!

I used to be a very active member of my local club for many years. I’m still a member, and still wear the kit at times, but I don’t ride with the club anymore. I just see it as a way of supporting and advertising the club. No harm in that is there?

Far and away, the most entertaining and memorable autobiography I’ve ever read is ‘The Moon’s A balloon’ by David Niven. It takes you back to the heydays of Hollywood and is brilliantly written, brutally honest and very, very funny.

Bigyan,

I would happily pay shop rates, if not more, for someone to come and pick my bike up, service the suspension and then drop it back off again. Like someone else said, the main reason I don’t get my suspension serviced by a shop is the faff of losing my bike for a week? Two weeks? That time my rear suspension failed and required a warranty replacement? The bike shop, Singletrack Bikes in Dunfermline, had my bike for eight weeks through the middle of summer. It was only when I phoned Orange in desperation and was told they had plenty of spare shocks in stock and would happily send the shop a replacement, that the shop phoned to tell me that the replacement shock they had ‘ordered’ had suddenly arrived. I reckon the shop would have strung me along for weeks more otherwise.

I can only get to a bike shop at weekends, so wouldn’t be able to pick it up again till the following weekend. Add to that, the fact that when a bike shop says 2-3 working days.. I’m sorry, but I have never experienced a bike shop that hasn’t bullshitted me about the time required to get parts or do a job, nor have I ever found a shop where I haven’t been treated like I should feel privileged to be there.

No, I’d definitely pay a premium for a mobile bike mechanic service from someone offering a professional and more personal service.

I’ve got some pretty high end bikes, and do most of my own repair and maintenance work on them. However, I shy away from the suspension and hydraulics. I can bleed brakes, but I’m not great at it, and I tend to just run my suspension to the death, then buy new.

If someone local was willing to pick my bike up, do a basic service and tuning of my suspension, brakes and dropper post….ooooh, he’d have a customer for life.

I reckon I’d be interested in the sort of service you’re talking about setting up. I might be a wee bit out of your area (Stirlingshire), to make it worthwhile for you to have me as a customer, but you have my support!

C.

I still use my 10 year old Garmin Oregon. You can get them cheap, they have OS maps on micro SD and for me, the important thing is that they use AA batteries, so if you’re out for a long day or multiple days, a quick battery change is all you need to worry about.

I was out with a guy the other weekend, ‘exploring’ some local hills. I had a rough idea where we were and where we were going, but I assumed the guy leading the ride knew better as he was using a device to navigate. Turns out he was using Trailforks on his mobile phone, the utter, utter numpty.

If I’m going somewhere new, I always have a rough idea where I want to head, my good old Oregon and a paper map in case of emergency. I’ve learnt my lessons the hard way! I honestly felt like taking the guy’s phone off him and dropping it in the loch to teach him the same lesson.

Hope?
I got two years out of my bearings and I’m a hefty lad putting a lot of load on them. I just swapped the bearings out for a new set last month, but could have gotten away with cleaning and re-greasing the old ones.

Every time I come up to a tricky / dodgy looking descent on my bike, I automatically stick my tongue between my teeth…everytime. I know I’m doing it, and I’ve got to mentally force myself not to. It’s going to end badly one day.

My tuppence worth!

The Moon is an awesome target for beginners, but can actually be quite painfully bright through the scope as someone earlier pointed out ( to a great deal of mocking). I have a bigger version of your scope, a 200mm Skywatcher Reflector and I have a moon filter that screws into the eyepiece to cut out a lot of the glare, without the filter, it’s like someone shining a torch in your face.

A lot of stuff can be really disappointing at first glance. Stars are stars, just tiny points of light. Some are different colours, but all you’ll see is a point of light. Someone earlier mentioned Nebulae, and in particular the Horse Head? Wow! Is his second name Hubble? Orion’s nebula, the biggest and easiest to see in the sky, doesn’t really have any colour when observed. You’d need long exposure photography to tease any colour out of it, and for that you’d need a tracking mount on your telescope.

What I’d recommend, and what I do, is research what I’m going to look for next. Be it a star cluster or a galaxy or whatever. I find out stuff about it, and then when I eventually find it (Turn Left At Orion is my go to roadmap), I can say wow! Dinosaurs were still kicking around here when the light that I’m looking at now, left its source.

Have a look for the Dragonfly cluster in Cassiopea. I dare you not to smile when you find it.

Hey Matt,

I have the boxset on DVD. I think my wife Kerry, is friends with your partner… is it Jo? You’re welcome to a loan of it, if you’re the same Matt!

Retro? Retro???

I found my 2nd edition Bloodbowl set in a cupboard recently. I said I’d post it down to my brother-in-law in New Zealand, but to be honest…I still kind of like it and have fond memories of playing it.

I even still have my Warhammer Fantasy battle (3rd edition) armies on display in my man cave, alongside my mechanised armies from Battle Tech.

No-one to play them with, but I’d struggle to part with them as I seriously loved all that shit, but I wouldn’t call it retro!

Beagy,

Not a Geek

Nope, never had a single issue with them in 15 or more years of pretty continuous purchasing.

;-)

I’ve only recently starting buying from Planet X and I haven’t been disappointed yet. Why am I being singled out?

I’ve bought a few things from the flash sales, but yesterday the postie brought a really nice pair of leather, 1940’s style cycling gloves for our trip to the Velo Retro festival in Ulverston next month. They were £8 and they look and feel really good. Can’t wait to see how they look on with my Plus Fours. The same order came through with one of those Planet X ‘enduro’ helmets. I planned to use it as a backup / night riding helmet, but the build quality and fit is excellent, all for £15??

I fancy the same helmet in the reflective ‘colour’, reckon that’ll be better for night riding, but it appears to be out of stock…and now I’ve just spotted the short finger version of those leather gloves. Think I might be shopping there again!

I got ‘busted’ by the consultant at my last diabetic clinic. I’ve always had low awareness (25 yrs now), but the doc didn’t see how low my hypos were going until I was issued with a new meter that had a USB port. At my last clinic they downloaded the data and boom….you’ll be going on a course and then issued with the Libre, Craigyboy!.

To be honest, the course was actually really good. I’ve always just ticked along with my diabetes, bloods have always come away okay, and I think because of that both myself and my diabetic care team have just left me to get on with it. Attending the course (carb counting, insulin:carb ratio, GI foods etc.), actually was a bit of a wakeup to the fact that my insulin regime is 25 years old and T1 care has progressed quite significantly over those years!

I’m now on a new insulin regime, and waiting to hear when I’m going to get my Libre device which sounds like a real game changer! Quite excited about all the changes…if only I can get on top of these hypos!

I actually laughed out loud at Yossarian’s comment. Well done sir.

Singlespeed, we had a lovely MTB tandem. Mrs B. made me sell it when we got the Pashley. I’m going to get another MTB tandem though, because as the Captain in this pairing, I think I should get a say in these matters.

Why?

Why can I hear laughter?

I know it’s not bike maintenance, but today I found myself trying to help a postgrad in the lab. She was struggling to get a new balance to tare, and give a reading. No matter what button or menu we went through, the thing stubbornly refused to register anything other than 0.0mg. A good few minutes of head scratching and random button pressing ensued…

Then I lifted the weigh boat up, and removed the protective lid that sits over the balance plate….

I swore I’d never speak of it to anyone, but I can trust you lot, can’t I?

Yeah Munro, the wheels are a pig to get in the dropouts, particularly the rear because it has a double canti-brake setup running from a single lever at the front. I would have thought though that if I was putting the wheels on wonky, the laws of average would mean that I’d be steering right from time to time, but this Pashley is a blood red leftie, through and through!

Cheers Fossy, I actually fitted the stem to give me a bit more stretch, and stop my knees from preventing the bike turning…at all! It’s the only non-original part on the bike. However, it’s one of those adjustable stem jobbies, so I could raise it and shorten the reach a bit, I’ll give it a go. Having said that, the original 10mm stem still left me fighting to keep the bike in a straight line. I’m leaning towards (See what I did there?), the likelihood that there’s a twist in the frame as Blacklab and Speeder have suggested. I’ll try the trick with the bit of string at the weekend and see if anything glaringly obvious shows up.

It’s actually a lovely, comfortable tandem to ride, as long as you want to ride it in a long arcing left hand turn. Straight ahead is a bit of a battle and turning right? Whoo baby, things get interesting, very quickly. It’s essentially a double version of Mrs Beagleboy’s Pashley Princess, which, on the odd occasion that I’ve taken it out for a test run has to be one of the most comfortable and stable bikes I’ve ever ridden.

The bizarre thing is that when out riding with the good lady on her Pashley, I’m on my Jaspa Trackracer, a replica 1920’s road bike. When you see how out of alignment the fork legs are, with one leg welded a good 5mm in advance of the other, yet realise that the bike runs as straight and true as an arrow….how??? :-)