Just signed up for myself and my daughter, we’ve got registration numbers in the 110’s, so that suggests that there’s a few more entered. As a local, it has struck me that there doesn’t appear to be any advertising around like there used to be and as the father of a cub who will benefit from the funds raised (and who will help out marshalling) I’m also rather surprised how little we seem to have heard about it through those channels. (Though maybe I’ve just not noticed it). Anyway, hopefully a few more will sign up before Sunday!

Milwaukee Packout (small) is about 250×410 if that’s near enough?

https://www.milwaukeetool.com/Products/Storage-Solutions/PACKOUT/PACKOUT-Tool-Boxes/48-22-8422

Just short of £0.90/l in West Yorkshire for 1000 litres last week. (Plus the Vat).

In true STW style of recommending what you have – Mason Definition, Aluminium, not Ti though.

The first we knew of it was when our regular driver told us yesterday that he wasn’t collecting (whilst sat in our yard). Haven’t been able to send anything with them today, though the driver was back in for a chat at his usual collection time. We had to wander down to the post office to send out our deliveries today and I’m told you could barely get in the door for parcels from surrounding business.

TNT’s booking system is now showing that they’ll be collecting again tomorrow.

Also got mine yesterday. I should imagine that many recipients are in the same position as me in that their driver CPC has lapsed, or they never had one.

Notice how the Baroness isn’t offering to pay for that.

This letter is targeted at those who have left the industry, and therefore, surely, are unlikely to have a valid driver CPC, yet there is no help to get that sorted, only the vague bit about some employers may have a scheme…..it’s a litle bit of style and absolutely no substance, isn’t it?

(My licence was paid for by my current employer as it suited to have someone who could drive an HGV at the time, but it’s over 5 years since I needed it).

General lack of biceps here and fairly long arms – I also like Catelli Nanoflex. I actually wear a medium, I think small might be for children!

I got told to ditch soap and shower gel by my GP to help with my eczema and was prescribed moisturiser to wash with instead (Aveeno) She was right – it had more of an effect than years of steroid creams. I still have to use a lot of hand soap and sanitiser on occasion at work (food industry) and it has an almost immediate, negative effect on the state of my hands.

I’ve an old Howies one that has lasted for about 15 years so far, somewhat faded mind. Also, the Singletrack one, I’ll recommend that one based on fit – I’m 6′ tall, but slim, so a small, but it is long in both body and sleeve and therefore fits better than any other I’ve owned. I’ll tell you in 15 years how it has lasted.

You could also look at mini ‘plus’ bikes

We got our 8 year old daughter one of these for christmas – Cannondale Cujo 24+ and are really pleased with it. It has certainly given her a bit of a confidence boost.

(We didn’t have to pay quite that much either, about 10% less from memory).

We just got our 8 year old daughter one of these https://www.tritoncycles.co.uk/kids-bikes-c2/pedal-bikes-c216/cujo-24-kids-bike-2020-p23171 for the same sort of reasons that dahedd mentions – no compromises made to get a suspension fork on it, reasonably light weight and a decent spread of gears. Was a bit worried that it was going to be too big stepping up from an Isla 20″, but even though she’s of fairly average height, there’s a bit of seatpost showing.

Towhee is also ace!

Milwaukee they are amaze balls

https://www.bigredpowertools.co.uk/milwaukee-m18braiw-0?gclid=Cj0KCQiA7OnxBRCNARIsAIW53B9vRKMRf2levivZKxux2UpbHvemPpKjO9gllnVTt-Ipp3ER03at_B4aAmOMEALw_wcB

We’ve one of these at work and it really is good, though possibly a bit over budget as you’d need a battery and charger too.

Got the Honeywell Evohome installed along with a new boiler a year ago. Had priced up the Evohome in the previous house, but then moved, and whilst we intended to have it installed at some point, we had our hand forced by the boiler packing up and needing replacement, so it seemed sensible to have it all done at once. (Wasn’t aware of the Drayton system).
So far, we’re happy with it on the whole. It occasionally seems to lose touch with a TRV (always one of the same two) and one TRV has needed new batteries (one of the two just mentioned), which I think I’ll have them look at when they come to service the boiler soon.
Seemed to take a bit of setting up, but that might be down to it being a rather complex and piecemeal system. (Oil fired combi boiler doing heating and hot water to one sink and shower, with the option to do hot water in the tank at the other end of the house, oil fired Aga doing the honours at that end normally). The house is long and narrow (only one room deep), and at the minute, poorly insulated and drafty – but improving.
We have 11 zones set up, one of which is hot water and only one of which has more than one radiator.
It probably hasn’t saved us much money, but it has certainly made the house a nicer place to be as we can actually turn the heating on and heat the rooms we want, not the whole house or all of upstairs etc. The kids’ bedrooms are set to warm up for bedtime at 7, but our room stays off until nearer 10, the spare room doesn’t come on at all etc.
Just looking at the app now, my wife is working at home today and the dining room is set to 18°c (actual temp 17°c) and every other room is set to 12°c, with temps ranging from 12-14.5°c. Downstairs will all start warming up nicely for when the kids come in from school and are using other rooms. I think we can set each zone, for each day, so it works nicely around our working and school hours, yet it’s very easy to override it if you have a day off when you’d normally be at work or whatever.

Overall, recommended. (I even quite like the noise the valves make as they wind themselves up and down).

Rode this last year and thoroughly enjoyed it. Rode alone at times and also with other folk, some alone, some with mates and also with a couple of clubs at different points of the night. There was a lovely friendly vibe on the road. The climb up Devils Beeftub was cool – all those little red lights twinkling away in the darkness! I had a coffee and that at the end, but was too cold standing around to wait for sunrise so headed back across the Forth to my hotel and had the rather surreal experience of having the entire Forth bridge to myself whilst watching the sun come up over Cramond.
Hopefully will be able to get up there again this year.

Another Octavia VRS owner here with them fitted. First fitted early winter, then replaced in spring, new ones fitted the following winter, and it’s all I’ve used since. They have been by far the best wearing tyre the car has had so far. I don’t think that they are as good as a “normal” tyre in mild or warm, dry conditions, especially when turning in, but they’re not bad. Fuel economy doesn’t seem to have been affected, but, unlike others, I’ve found them to be noisy.
Grip in the snow and ice is really pretty good. I loose some of the advantage of the car being front wheel drive by carrying a lot of tools in the back but still manage to get around. The only thing that stopped me last winter was having to dig through the drifts due to the road to our house not even being gritted by the council, never-mind ploughed!

Really enjoyed my night out. Didn’t manage to convince any of my clubmates to come along, but it is such a friendly event I didn’t struggle to find people to chat with.

I enjoyed the route through Edinburgh, i liked the buzz of it all at 3 in the morning after the peace of the previous few miles, I wouldn’t change it.

So, so sorry to hear this.

I’m in and looking forward to it! Currently sat glaring at a couple of batteries that don’t seem to want to charge though. Had hoped to get a few from my club or a mate or two to come along with me but without any joy, so if you see a Billy-no-mates in Holmfirth colours. say hello!

7 Minutes to Yates – Did he forget to eat for the last couple of days? Gutted for him.

I’m wary of chainsaws and tigers

These days there’s more chainsaws than tigers in the woods around Holmfirth, so I’m only wary of anything orange if it says Stihl or Husqvarna on the side.

Also don’t process green birch when it’s below zero, the water in it freezes and makes it bloody hard work, give up and have a brew instead
interestingly the Norwegian wood book says wood should be easier to split when it’s frozen.
Maybe some is and some isn’t?

I think that the book is referring to splitting with an axe and Houns is talking about cutting with a saw?

Grace Girvan The stuff I’ve seen in the flesh is brilliant.

Noticed there is quite a big jump in claimed mpg for the 2014 model over the previous

I’m not sure what the official Mpg is supposed to be, but I really can get over 60 on a sensible motorway cruise, and, as mentioned, as low as high 20’s when taking the mickey. Car full of children and camping kit, full roof box and 4 bikes on tow bar mounted carrier, 130Km/h all day on a french autoroute and it did over 50 Mpg.
I had the same engine as would have been in the older (pre 2014) VRS in a Seat and the Mpg was probably 10-12 lower – it very rarely got over 50. (My Octavia is a manual – not sure if that makes any difference).

I’ve a diesel estate (2014) and struggle to fault it for what we paid for it, and for it’s intended use. Bought it when it was around 3 months old with 5000 miles on it. It’s a manual and is pretty much bog standard apart from cruise control which was an extra when the current generation was launched (see comments above about kit levels)!
Problems – silly noise generator in sport mode and a dodgy cruise control switch replaced under warranty. Also had a faulty solenoid on one of the water pumps causing car to think it had overheated when it hadn’t, then go into limp mode. Part was on a 3 week back order, however our local VW/Audi specialist sourced it elsewhere. I don’t think it’s very comfortable in the back.
Positives – I really enjoy driving it, it handles pretty well for a car bought to carry a couple of hundred Kg’s of tools, or the family. The mpg is fine by me. It’ll be as low as high 20’s if I’m taking the mickey, over 60 on a motorway cruise at the speed limit, or a more real world trip – 200 Kg’s tools, Huddersfield to Newcastle airport – urban 30’s, motorway at 70 for a few miles then from the M62/M1 up to leaving the A1 at speeds that would get me told off, with a 15 mile ish stretch at 50 – it did 56Mpg. It’s a good size in the back, way bigger than my wifes’ Leon and it’s got a full size spare wheel (not standard).
I seem to have had the opposite experience to Craigxxl,apart from the fact that I think D M Keith are hopeless (my car came from Simpsons in Preston).

I’d bet you neither Debbie nor Andrew made those sausages

They used to, but sold up. (From memory to finance bigger and better premises and newer machinery). Andrew stayed on with the new owners but When they felt that the sausages were no longer being made to the quality that they used to work to, and production had moved from its Yorkshire beginnings to different sites around the country, they tried to buy the brand back with no success.
They now make Heck.

I like my trousers from Hebden Bridge.

TomD gapped by Movistar and Bahrain!
(According to Eurosport)

Have hired from BikeBoxAlan twice now with no real problems. 2nd time around the box had seen better days and was quite hard to get closed properly, but worked fine. The only thing I don’t like is that once you’ve booked it, they ask you to ring them a few days before collection to make sure everything is ok – I’ve booked it, I’m expecting to get what I’ve booked, not start hunting around for something else 2 days before I fly!
That said, a fair few of my clubmates have hired from them too with no issue. (I’m interested as to what the horror stories are….)

Do a dummy booking, then right down the bottom of the page is a little link – Mileage calculator – this takes you to another page where you can work out what you’d earn. A random date shows that the direct flight is a codeshare with BMI Regional earning from 125 miles in cheap economy, up to 2500 miles in expensive business class if you hold status with them. You need to take note of the booking class. The dates I had a quick look did however throw up 1250 miles each way on an economy fare.
I’ve found with Miles and More that it can be fairly hard to earn miles flying, unless it’s at short notice, or in business/first class, but stuff like hotels can generate a lot of miles if you can take advantage.

Edit – Like CFH points out with the 35000 miles to redeem on that route – often economy redemptions are poor value, and Miles and More are pretty bad for the taxes they make you pay as well – often this equates to the same as a cash fare.

That Stretcheck seems pretty accurate for where I live – 489 White and 3 Mixed. Country of birth is UK apart from 6 EU and 3 Other. Interestingly, 67 people don’t hold a passport.
Can’t be much of West Yorkshire with numbers like that surely?

If I’m thinking of the right place, then that’s where the 4×4 lot have been especially busy. It’s also a well used track.

Well, the Police haven’t been for it yet, but knowing how few of them there are around our way, that’s not a surprise, I’m sure they’ll be along soon.
My wife posted a picture of the wooden block on a residents page on Facebook, for the immediate area to try and alert some of the others in the village who ride or walk through the area, and was asked by one of the admin lot to repost it on a Holmfirth-wide page, which she did. 73 comments and 1 hour later the post was locked because it had turned into a fight, with some people suggesting that “it is life”, and everybody should just, pretty much, shut up and deal with it – if you’re going to venture away from the tarmac, then you should just accept this kind of thing! Somebody even questioned what Tom, the OP, was doing looking in puddles for things, and suggesting he stick to the roads in future!
Fortunately, links like whatya’s have spread the word pretty well it seems – the dog walker we use has posted about it, so that’s an awful lot more people getting to hear about it.
I do despair at what some people get up to at times.
…a quick edit..
I do think it is probably aimed at the 4×4 crowd, as they have been busy round our way recently. The cheeky bike trails that (used to) exist in the woods on the other side of the road have never been targeted in this way to the best of my knowledge, which makes me think it’s probably not cyclists that they are after.

Thanks to all those involved in the organisation of this, and to those who led at various points during the day. Really enjoyed my day, some lovely descents, and good to catch up with a few people I haven’t seen for a while.

Ben – Black Soul.

I should be able to make it. Looking forward to it, it’s been a while since I’ve pootled!

Cheers for all the help folks. RS805 on a Saturday delivery from Evans sorted it.
Ta, Ben.

Thanks folks, that’s the kind of info I was looking for. The fork is indeed a flat mount, so will have a look at the RS405/805. Had wondered about the XT785, but the different hose entry was bothering me!

It’s easy to be wise after the event but I always pump the pistons out a bit more, clean around the exposed surface with a cotton bud and lubricate with a drop of shimano fluid before pushing the pistons back to fit new pads

This is what I thought I’d do as the pistons weren’t retracting fully beforehand. However, they simply don’t want to move at all!

This does seem to reinforce the appearance that the last thing that Southern Rail are actually bothered about is trains, and having them provide a service for getting people from one place to another.

Rail franchises involve bidding to provide the service at the lowest cost. Southern have clearly underbid imo plus they have union issues. It’s beyond the point of no return and they should just hand it back to government for re-tender

As far as I understand it (and I’ve got work to do, so don’t have the time to look up all the detail), Southern are on a completely different deal to every other franchise holder. The rough idea is that the government pay them to run a service as detailed in the timetable published. It doesn’t actually matter what trains do or don’t run, that wil not affect what Southern are paid. they also don’t get to keep any ticket revenues. There is basically no incentive for them to actually operate a railway. They know they will not likely get the franchise renewed, so the less outgoings they have (like not having to pay striking workers) the better the bottom line! Genious!

Mason do a 60cm, if you’re in the south, maybe worth asking them for a quick try on one? I’ve a definition and it really is a very, very good bike. I can’t fathom how Dom Mason has produced such a comfy, stable bike that has as much get up and go as it does. Very much recommended.

63 Plate Octavia – Check!
Box is a Kamei Delphin 340K, bars are Atera Signo RT aero style. Both bought from Roofbox.co.uk who, as others have said, are very helpful. They also offer, on some boxes, an exchange service. It costs, but if you buy a box, use it, and decide it’s too small, then you can return it, cough up a few quid and get a different one (worth reading the small print though). Went for the Kamei box because it seemed nice and simple, so hopefully long lasting. Bars are aero because I thought there would be less noise, and the whole lot is pretty good on that score.

It’s not a hard ride really – it’s only got one proper hill, the rest just undulates, allthough it does have some nice descending and is a very friendly event. Did it the last 2 years and a bit miffed I can’t make it next time round.