Rick, my Mrs is the same height as you and felt that the small Soul was slightly too big, so went for a Genesis Altitude in 16″ . Whilst you are welcome to have a go on my Soul, I’m pretty certain that borrowing Hazel’s bike might be of more use! If you find a small Soul to borrow locally and aren’t sure about sizing then I’m sure you could borrow Hazel’s Altitude – they are a very similar bike after all.

the only house for about 20 miles either way.

Err, whilst it does stand alone, I would think the nearest house would be within a mile, nearest pub not much further, Glencoe village is about 4 miles, and Fort William is probably only 20 miles.
I can remember it’s previous owner standing outside waving at the tour buses passing. I can also remember him visiting the shop/post office in Glencoe and finding out it was the owners birthday. At that point he took a card from the display, borrowed a pen and wrote the card. He didn’t actually pay for it mind. He wasn’t exactly popular in the area from what I remember.

Edit – Doesn’t Hamish McInnes live on the old road, down from the Red Squirrel camp site on the way to Glencoe village?

Booo (on both points)!

Also, 5p off per litre until the end of the month – Here

480 Avios for a tenner

I’m pretty sure that the £20 of free fuel is in the form of 4000 drivers club points on a new drivers club card, therefore you could just convert those to Avios (4000 DC is 2000 Avios), so your 480 Avios became 2480. Like you say, not bad for a tenner!

I asked basically this a while ago (but also wanted horizontal dropouts for Alfine duties). Ended up with an orange R8 (and a chain tensioner). It feels very similar to the Soul running on a 100mm fork, though my Soul tends to be nearer 130mm. The Orange came from Bike Scene in Guisborough, they had a fair bit of old stock, but I can’t get on their website to see if they are still available.

This

It might have changed now but the c/card companies used little tricks like this – you do a 0% thingy/purchase/transfer.

Then you use the card for something else, say, some forks for £400. You pay the £400 off at the end of the month thinking you’ve paid the forks off. You don’t, that £400 doesn’t go towards your forks ‘cost’ but pays off your 0% balance and you’re getting interest charged on the £400 outstanding from the forks.

If you do the 0%, don’t use the card again.

Have a good look at the terms etc with regard to how they allocate your payments, I suspect it is easy to come unstuck.

Devils work, avoid if at all possible

Why? If you’re prepared to shop around a little, maybe change cards occasionally, then cashback, or reward cards can be very good. (Me and the missus went to New York last year, we paid the taxes fees and charges for the flight – the “ticket” part was free and 3 nights in a hotel was free – all off the back of credit card loyalty schemes).

If you’ve never had a card before though, I’d apply sooner rather than later – a lad I know had to go down the route of one of these credit builder cards – extortionate interest and a limit of £200 because he had no credit history to speak of. After a few months he was able to increase the limit to something more useful, and after another few months to a normal card with one of the big lenders. Just worth thinking of if you’re needing to use it as security for car hire.

That’s really sad. I only met and rode with him once and he seemed like a really nice bloke. Best wishes to all his friends and family.

Try SJS Cycles, I’ve had Chariot parts from them before.

If you like jumpy stuff, have a look around Hades/Clough woods at Hade Edge.
And obviously, as jackthedog says, easy access to Cut Gate.

We’ve a Chariot used purely as a trailer – it’s a double and we’ve only got one little ‘un, and it’s just too big for a lot of the stiles and gates round our way.
As a buggy we use an Out N About nipper, which is available as a double. We have an old model kept at the inlaws and a new model at home that replaced a Mountain Buggy. The Mountain Buggy didn’t fold very well – it filled the boot of a Seat Leon completely and just wasn’t as good as we hoped, so it went and the newer Out N About replaced it. On the whole we like the new one, it has some better features than the old one (ability to take a car seat being one) but one thing that really bugs me is that the brake pedal/bar is below the level of the rear axles, and therefore catches on rocks, I’m convinced this is why we’ve bent it (making it useless – though it was replaced under warranty). On the whole though, and for what it costs compared to others, it’s pretty good.

Edit – it’s the Nipper 360 as mentioned above.

Orange R8 with Alfine8

(I do have a Cotic though).

Well, enjoyed that a lot more than I expected to! Thanks to all the organisers for putting on a really good event, hope you made plenty for your charities. Thanks also to all the marshalls for your your encouragement and abuse!
Regarding the comments about rude riders, personally I prefer it when someone shouts which side they will pass me, rather than just Rider! and I only had one example of someone barging past when there wasn’t really space (and of course he was miles behind the riders in front, and miles in front of the riders behind) and at the water splash bit, someone shouting at me to get a hurry on whilst I’d slowed to let someone who was walking it to clear the exit so I could ride it, funnily enough he didn’t then come past me that I know of!
All in all, a top event!
(Also had a little thought as the balloons went up at the start).

Yes, nice enough.

I use a flashing and a steady light, front and rear. I’ve actually got some lights that pulse dim to bright, don’t know if they are any better or worse than anything else though.
The thing I like about a flashing light is that it identifies you as a cyclist, very little else on the road has lights like that. (This may make you a target rather than something to be avoided mind).

just tell her it costs the same as her engagement ring

I bought my Mrs an engagement ring – she bought me a new bike!
We both earn and contribute everything bar a small amount of spending money to the joint account, if my new bike purchases come from my spending money, that’s fine, though it does mean I dress like a tramp! I guess that it helps that she rides too, and for a long time had a much nicer bike than me.

Marmite goes for a bike ride. (Excuse the amount of spacers under the stem, new bike and all that).

Marmite with my brothers’ dog, Kolo (also a Patterdale – they vary a bit don’t they)!

Glad you’ve had your jabs – I’m going to Preston this afternoon and don’t want to catch any Southern Rabies or owt!
Can’t help with Lunch spots though I’m afraid. (Spar distribution centre canteen if I’ve got time)!

Cragg Vale and Holme Moss on day 2 – the only question is which one to go for!

Holme Moss for me, mainly as I can tow my daughters’ trailer to above Holme village with almost no tarmac involved. Mindyou, I took her to see the Tour in France in 2011 and she slept through it! (12 weeks old at the time, so I’ll forgive her).

Cumbrian produce farmers market type supermarket

– that’ll be Cranstons. Good stuff, and a lot of it is made in their factory out the back.

You’ve been to flyertalk.com then

“My champagne wasn’t chilled to my liking, what compensation am I due”?

That’s really good news. My Soul gets a few more locks on it than the standard fitment of the rack I use.

Oh, If we’re on about The Black Country, how about Allan Bennett Butchers in Wolverhampton. Very good.

Further Huddersfield Pork Pie recommendations – E R Grange, Slaithwaite.
(And he rides too)!

Just noticed that myself Chris

We’ve got a Littlelife Voyager S2. It’s brilliant.
We went from the Babybjorn front carrier to a Deuter Kid Comfort (1, I think), but didn’t get on with it due to the rain cover not being very good in the wind – it just sort of opened up and flapped around, letting the rain in, it also restricted little madams’ arms which she wasn’t happy about. (The first 1/4 to 3/4 of a mile of any walk we do from the house is very, very exposed – think watching the rain/snow/hail pass in front of you, but going uphill)!
We got the Littlelife from Little Trekkers in Barnsley, they’ve got a really good selection that you can try. From memory, the Macpac ones (which is what I thought I wanted) had a very good harness, but the seat and childs harness wasn’t as good as the LL. I think that they may also have had different back lengths that meant we couldn’t buy one that would fit me and my wife, but that may have been a different brand.
I’m sure there was another brand available but again felt the bit where the child sits wasn’t very good. They also do Deuter. If you’re in the area they are worth a look.

Eurosport player is only £3.99 a month. (I think).

Nice one Marsdenman! All you need to do now is get out of that valley and move somewhere nice, like above Holmfirth!

Patterdale and a Border. Patterdale is mine, Border is my parent’s.
The Border is getting a little old, fat and cranky, not to be trusted around my 18 month old daughter at all.
My Patterdale however loves my little girl, mainly down to getting fed from the table, and (some rather poor efforts at) throwing a ball for her. She’s a tough little wotsit as well – she managed to get herself poisoned 10 days ago, and all the staff at the vets were rather amazed she lived through the first night, yet you’d never know she’d been ill to look at her today! Top dogs all round.

I am sure you could get a rack onto a simple somehow if you really wanted too.

I’m sure I could too! In fact I probably could for pretty much any frame, there’s enough axle mount kits/seat stay clamps etc on the market. It’d just be nice to have proper mounting points.
I can live without the rack mounts I reckon, but do need to be able to put a guard on, little Miss really doesn’t like muddy spray!
One other concern I have is the actual trailer hitch bracket, it’s one of these Chariot bracket and it’s fairly bulky – it only just fits under the cowling on the Soul’s dropout, so, for example the Sanderson, I’d be worried that it may not fit. (Though the Sanderson website refuses to show me pictures at the minute).
Whilst modifying my existing soul is a nice idea, I really would want to have another Soul with, erm, real gears, and that’s just going out of my budget, £500 for a new soul, plus a couple of bits like seatpost etc then the cost of renovating my old Soul looks like it might be in the region of £300 ish.
Thanks for all the replies so far, there’s a fair bit to think about here.

Never thought of the Orange. (Wanders off to peruse internet).

Simple, yes would love one of them, but I really want to be able to bolt some mudguards and a rack on from time to time.
Kona, I could cope with the orange (the IOID is bright yellow)! But it doesn’t look like it would take rack/guards.
Sanderson, yes very nice, but back to rack and guards. Also, the 18″ has a 22.5″ top tube, the Soul has (I think) a 24″.
Modifying my existing soul – well I have looked at doing this, but by the time I’ve had new dropouts and the other bits and bobs, and a respray (which it could do with anyway) it’s fast approaching the cost of a new frame. I also want to keep my existing Soul as it is.

Thanks very much for all the links, a fair bit of reading material there!
Hopefully we’ll be blessed with sunny skies and plenty of energy to go exploring.

Thanks for all the info.

Fab descent into Mevagissey off road from the Lost Gardens of Heligan

Is that on the Sustrans trail, or a Bridleway?

Cardinham – is that just a case of exploring, or are there routes to follow? FC website doesn’t help much!

Have also found reference to the Fal River Ride, but only on the website of the ferry company, anyone have any more info on that?

Duck tape wrapped around pump.
Credit/Debit card – Had to replace a seatpost mid ride once! (Luck would have it that I was only a 20-25 minute ride from a shop).
Salmon pin boning pliers – small and light.

Yes, I kind of thought there’d be a few more folk on here with one. Regarding the suspension, I’ve no intention of swapping away from the rigid fork so that’s not going to be an issue for me.
Gotama, when you say short, are you meaning TT length? As I said I’ve never ridden a 29er, so am a little unsure as to geometry etc.

Bit of a Bump!

Someone on here must have one of these, and an opinion on it!

Rising damp is just a catch all surveyors use and very rarely exists.

99% chance it’s water penetration and not rising damp eg leaking gutter, leaking pipe, leaving shower tray etc.

Yep, our rising damp turned out to be (mainly) rising from a botched roof, down the inside of the walls. Clever eh?

Oh, and with regard to replacing the kerb mirror with a wider view camera, I think you would need it in addition to the mirrors. It might fail, but more likely it gets a drop of rain on it rendering it useless. Which comes back to how many things you are trying to look at. Also you are having to (especially in the dark/low light) work out how many cyclists you are seeing. Are the 2 in the camera the same 2 in the wide angle mirror, and is the 1 in the rear view mirror 1 of those 2, or an additional body to keep an eye on. Like so many have said (and without trying to absolve any HGV driver of responsibility) cyclists really do need educating about where is and where isn’t a safe place to be.