Semi-PSA: Dixxon have a sale on today.

Have a look at Cabin Zero, we have 4 of them in our family of various flavours and have been quite impressed.  They were used for 3 weeks interrailing Summer 2023, various City breaks and then 2 weeks in Canada this summer.  Surprisingly capacious if packed well.

https://www.cabinzero.com/

The Osprey mentioned up there pops up as a recommendation on https://www.reddit.com/r/onebag/ fairly often.

The Americans do some things the best, Burgers, Diabetes, Petrol Stations and Flannel shirts.

Dixxon, Dakine, Carhartt (not Carhartt WIP) and Orvis all make nice Flannels.  I’d love a Pendleton but apparently they’ve been bought and quality (but not the price) has dropped.  Filson shirts are also great apparently but not tried them yet.

The answer is long waterproof socks, a boot dryer and your normal preferred flat pedal shoe but 1/2-1size bigger.

Not a Renault Kadjar in case you were looking at them.

Loads of electrical issues including the central locking/alarm with mine and my mate’s had similar plus leaky headlamps.  They are essentially a Qashqai with a different badge IIRC.

I have an unbranded, multi coloured, large ‘golf’ umbrella – no idea where we got it from but it keeps rain off me when walking doggo and has survived fairly windy conditions.

I’m impressed by your ability to hold an umbrella, dog lead and pick up a turd at the same time!

Not that it was particularly nice before but suspect the area either side of the M4 (i.e Port Talbot) is going to get even grimmer (even by S.Wales standards) with the mass layoffs from the steel works.

Combo that with trails that are half closed or behind the current trends and the valley will die a death.

I used a Nomad e-Sim when we were in Canada this summer worked well.

That being said – having been caught up in the Jasper wildfires on that trip I would be checking with each accommodation provider that they’re still open (and don’t assume a lack of response means that they are) and seriously considering a change to your trip.

The area between Charlotte NC and Knoxville TN looks really bad and there is significant flooding in the Atlanta metro area.

Have they not learned you can’t out-Reform Reform?

Fees for my trip to Wembley to watch the NFL in October.  3x£130 tickets for context.
Name: Ticket Booking Fee Amount: £46.80
 
 
Name: Digital Tickets Delayed Amount: £2.00 
 
 
Name: No Donation Amount: £.00
 
 
Name: Wembley Sustainability Fee Amount: £8.25
 

Name: NO Collector Ticket Amount: £.00

Ah the eternal battles of Mountain Bike Clothing…

Reasonable Looking vs High Performance

and

Reasonable Pricing  vs High Performance

“Reasonably priced” Mountain biking waterproofs are either breathable and not waterproof or waterproof but not breathable.

Add in the fact you’re also kicking out a ton of heat riding up hill and  the fact they’re probably dirty.

I’m a big fan of Vests/Gilets, be that the wafer thin DHB one I have at the moment or the sadly dead Howies and Roach ones I have used in the past.  Both the howies and Roach one had sleeves you could stash just in case.  That being said they look a bit weird.

Pockets on shorts – yes please but just big enough for an iphone and not flappy.  The Dakine shorts I own seem to get this right but I’m big of thigh so things tend to be tight-ish on my thighs which helps.

Zips on jerseys  – no thanks, yes you can vent but they are lumpy and scratchy.  They’re simply not needed if you have a nice mesh facbic like the stuff Dakine, Madison and Setup use.

If you would like to have a giggle at the automotive dumpster fire that is the Tesla Cybertruck then head on over to https://www.reddit.com/r/CyberStuck/

I’ve used “not WT 2.3” and “WT 2.4” Maxxis DHRII tyres on the same 30mm internal rims and WT is defo a bit more suitable, the narrower tyres just square off a bit.

I have also used Specialized 2.6 and 2.3 (bigger than maxxis 2.3) on the same 30mm internal rims and both work well.  Aaaaaaand I’ve used a narrower (25mm I think) rim with the same specialized 2.3 and that’s fine too.

The only issue I have had with running not-WT 2.3 maxxis on 30mm rims was the old Minion SS which was semi slick in the middle of the tread, so you’d end up with the should knobs taller than the centre due to the squaring off.

TLDR: 30-35mm internal rims will be fine with anything from 2.3 to 2.6 in my experience.

More Nala spam…

Leicestershire County Council
MTB trails
LE67 3LN
Refurb/upgrade of existing facility

This appears to small park in Coalville

Always blaming others https://t.co/cFavqtpliO

— Armando Iannucci (@Aiannucci) September 17, 2024

Gerber Dime here too, it lives in my riding pack and has been a ride saver a couple of times.

Used to carry a Leatherman Wave which was total overkill and (possibly slightly) illegal.

Whatever tucks comfortably into a pair of wellies if last winter was anything to go by.

I seem to live in these for dog walks from October to April:

Arnison [Mens]

The day we moved in the old owners told estate agents they had lost the shed key. But nothing really in there, they hadn’t been in it for a couple of years.

Later that week I cut off padlock to find that they had lied as thrown all the household rubbish, broken furniture, old carpets, you name it crap into the shed and closed the door…..I know because the top, ripped rubbish bag had a receipt in the top for one week earlier at the supermarket.

I think I would have relocated the newly found “treasure” to the front lawn of their forwarding address.

In true STW of recommending what you own…

Had a look at the Marzocchi Z1?  The older one with Grip Sweep damper is very very good and can be had for around the £500 mark.

I have had one of those since May and it’s been very good.  Used once or twice a day by one of the kids and for my midday pick me up (I drink a gallon of filter coffee first thing).

I paid £80 including 200 capsules and came to the conclusion that the machine was in effect free. So that price is very very good.

The only slight issue I have had with it is that it doesn’t seem to work with some compostable Nespresso Capsules.

Get the credit card company involved, in my experience they’ll sort it.

This is also just as wrong – the fact it’s cheaper for parents to pay the fines than the inflated costs proves it.

That tells me the fines aren’t high enough.

Used to try and catch the races when I could (life allowing) on Red Bull TV but now it’s on Disco+ I don’t bother.  I’m not going to pay for yet another streaming service for the times I’m actually in the house and not busy on a summer weekend afternoon.

HT PA03A – I run em, better than Vaults imho.

I work for a pretty big company who pride themselves on mental wellbeing. Guess I’ll be putting that to the test later today.

My experience is that the ones that make a fuss about great they are on this are the ones that have the biggest issues in causing wellbeing issues.

You’re doing the right thing taking control and getting signed off.

Last prescription riding glasses i had were Oakley Racing Jackets with Prizm Trail lenses which were great for riding in the middle 80% of daylight conditions.

If i was buying now I’d use a Prizm low light and then use my more casual sunglasses if it’s proper bright.

Happily i can get away without using prescription lenses now that my eyes are getting less shit due to getting older.

Which vehicle/version/head unit?

There are issues with the T6.1 and Apple Car play.

Sounds encouraging. Will go for it and see what happens! Cheers all.

If you can, take spare tyre(s) anyway.

Lovely place, still dream about the Meringues.

Should have gone to Disney/Centre Parc and got matching T-shirts…

To be fair, mine were pretty good at that age on holiday aside from a few nights crap sleep on ferries and the like due to over-excitedness.

Oh, and my youngest saying he’d like to go home after 30mins at Disney as his legs “ached”.

That being said we’ve never done holidays where we just hang around a house, we’ve always tended to go to the beach/pool/theme park/mountains/forest.

Go do stuff, have a plan, but be flexible, take more snacks than necessary for a rugby team.

I’ve run EXO, EXO+, and DD Maxxis and Grid Trail Spec.

Grid Trail is similar in terms of weight/protection/feel to EXO+ (new EXO+ not old).

How much descending per day and where in the Alps?  It’s a big place and the higher you are the rockier it is (in general).

Were they kids?  I have 2 teenage daughters, there’s no amount of telling them how inappropriate their clothing is for the current weather / activity, let alone the weather which may come along later in the day!

Not unique to daughters, my sons are the same.

“Who is Jen?”

In the basement with Moss and Roy?  She looks after “The internet”…

Tons – took it for years in my 20s/30s.  The standard answer is bullshit in this case as it’s not something that can be easily consumed without supplementation unless you REALLY like steak.

It’s the most researched Sports Supplement, it’s wildly thought to be safe, it’s effective and it’s cheap.  Just buy plain old fashioned Creatine Monohydrate without any daft stuff, 5g/day, loading phase of 25g/day helps but isn’t strictly necessary.

The water retention thing is a bit of a red herring as it does make you hold water but it’s intracellular water in the muscle bellies, just keep a close eye on hydration levels (like you do normally right???)

The puffy gym-bros might be down to other *ahem* “things”.

This reminds me of the time I against my better judgement agreed to go on holiday with my In Laws.In fairness to me we had gone to Florida about a decade prior and had quite a good time, lots of time round the pool with my young at the time kids, some time at the theme parks (their stamina roughly matched the stamina of the kids, bit of free childcare.

Cut to this time – tail end of COVID – decide to rent a holiday house. By the time we put in all the must haves from their end (close to stuff but away from “people”) along with it being dog friendly the old middle of Venn diagram was looking mighty slim.

Ended up on the edge of a village in Pembrokeshire – nice part of the world, plenty of beaches and places to go.

Did they want to leave the house?  Apparently not.  They literally spent almost all their non-eating waking hours glued to their iPads, mainly on Facebook and audibly complaining about the GBNews talking points of the day.

Some slightly odd behavior from the Stepmother-in-law in relation to her dog. Feeding it a ham sandwich with a knife a fork was a highlight.  Why it has skin and gut issues is a mystery though… :rolleyes:

I have no idea why they bothered to be honest – they just did the same things they would have done had they stayed at home.

We just left them to it to be honest and went out and had fun.

Guardian reading Tofu eating wokerati here!

Beats Flex in daily use for an average 4+ hours a day since August 2021 and still going strong.

Position some massive worksite lights to beam directly into their house, see how they like it.