I like it, although don’t tend to eat it at home, partly as I just don’t eat that much meat at home. There also isn’t a local butcher anywhere near me and I find supermarket meat, esp game, expensive and a bit meh!

Would like to see it more regularly, same with things like Pheasant – Pheasant mince is a great beef substitute and much better than burying the poor shot beasties!

I’d go for the Garmin one – I’ve the premium strap which is a little softer and imho a bit more comfortable. Going strong with no issues some 6 years later. Also have a Wahoo one which is ok, it’s a bit more bulky so only tend to wear it on the turbo – being bluetooth rather than just Ant+

HR straps, the only time I’d vote Garmin over Wahoo 😂

I know exactly what you’re going through as I went through it a year or so back. The Exceed looks like a great XC bike and will be rapid around the estate tracks in the highlands, local places like Countesswells etc, and rapid on some of the Fungle single track. It’ll be much harder work on some of the harder steeper Highlands stuff – Think rock steps/drop though.

However, you’re in a good place by, unlike me, not being sucked straight into the Long Low Slack 650b Plus world. I bought a Whyte 905, and although it’s brilliant when it gets steep going down, long days are a Draaaaag, especially on forest flattish flowing single track, it just drags it’s fat arse/tyres around, catches its pedals on every rock thanks to low BB. It also climbs like a dog. If you’re used to the speed of road and gravel bikes and like fast flowing XC, these bikes aren’t for you!

Some of the new – ahem – downcountry bikes might also fit your needs – the new Pipedream Sirrus and Merida’s on the homepage being but 2!

I’m in Aberdeen too, so depending on how tall you are (I’m 6ft 2), if you want to try the difference between your XC and my Trail hardtail, just from me a message!

Firstly, I think it’s key to cut yourself some slack. I used to be ultra productive WHF, but somedays recently, even getting out of bed and logging in seems like a triumph. It’s been a long, uncertain and stressful year which has taken a toll on most people, consciously or not. People haven’t been taking leave so are tired, and there’s no guarantee you wouldn’t be feeling like this in the office too.

Echoing the others above, going for walks/run/rides at lunch help, especially if like me you’re not a morning person so before work is out. Talk to your bosses too, I think WFH gives a degree of flexibility, so as long as you’re not supposed to be in a call, taking a 2 hour lunch to go for a ride and working an extra hour later is probably fine. We’ve been told that, within reason, you’re free to work when’s productive and convenient rather than ‘you must be at your desk between 9 & 5’ as long as goals are being achieved.

Podcasts/radio in the office helps too, I used to only have music on, but the spoken bits kind of help with the missing human interaction stuff. Audio books too.

I’ve also found (where allowed – i.e. Scotland), meeting local colleagues or friends for lunch in a cafe/park really helps stave off the isolation feeling.

Lastly, chrome apps like Stayfocusd are great for nuking your web-based procrastination. Setting yourself set social media/STW breaks etc.

I’ve got one, it’s a great little speaker but not tried it with the TV, I’ll give it a go if I can and report back.

Can I ask why you’re using it instead of the TV speakers?

I’ve had a Lenovo X1 extreme from work, as a long time MacBook Pro user at home, it was the first ‘corporate’ laptop I’d had a good experience with and actually liked. Great screen and performance, even if the keyboard felt a little plasticky.

Dell XPS’ are popular with my windows friends, and the Huawei Mate book gets great write-ups in all the Tech blogs.

Yeah… I thought the whole ‘low intensity fat burning’ thing had been debunked as the most effective method of weight loss?

It has, but it’s still remarkably effective for some people, especially in the early stages of trying to lose weight. Essentially a transition in lifestyle to eating less/better and moving more. As others have alluded to above, as you get closer to goal weight, things get harder and intensity has to go up. As with most things these days, it’s easy to over-science it, and especially given that fitness trackers (mostly) grossly overestimate calorie burn, end up not getting to where you want.

Keep an eye on what and how much you’re eating. If you’re upping the training it’s possible to eat too little as well as too much. Eating to little with a training load will prompt your body to hold on to stuff as it’s in starvation mode.

Also, bare in mind that being on an exercise bike is going to be different in aerobic level to going for walks etc, thus you may just end up burning through your carb reserves, rather than low intensity fat burning.

I’m being contrary of course. In the letter of the law, what you did was wrong, end of. There was a time where traffic enforcement was performed by actual humans who could differentiate between driving past a school at 40mph at 3pm and doing it at 3am, or clipping over the limit momentarily during an overtake versus driving like your head’s on fire for 20 miles. In the world of unmanned speed cameras or patrol vans it’s flash flash £100 and three points thank you very much, they’re a blunt instrument making a binary decision.

I was once caught in much the same manner as your second example, overtaking a string of vehicles in a crawler lane on a single carriageway. Got to the head of the queue, pulled in, thought “hm, that was a bit quick,” looked down to see ~74mph indicated and immediately slowed back down to the 60 limit. Got a NIP for somewhere around 67-68 IIRC. Is it genuinely safer for me to be staring at the dashboard rather than concentrating on the road during an overtake in case I go a few mph over the limit for like two seconds, or trying to squeeze back in to a queue of all-too-close traffic in a lane the is about to end? I’ll hold my hand up, I made a mistake and I took my penalties, but I can’t help but think that it was rather a cynical placement for the camera and that it was there for the wrong reasons.

Careful, this is the internet, not sure there’s any place for this kind of common sense here!

Cameras – no
Black Boxes – no
More autonomous control – no
More Ruddy Touch Screen controls – no
More testing of over 70s – yes. Doesn’t need to be a full test, just a basic competency test.

I’m a strong believer that all these systems make people lazy and less aware of what they are doing.

I kind of agree with this. It’s about time people started taking responsibility for their own actions and not hiding behind technology. Not too long ago, someone reversed onto my friends car. the excuse, oh sorry, my beepers didn’t go off. A blackbox isn’t going to change stuff like this.

It doesn’t doesn’t mean we have to be under 24/7 surveillance in order to try and avoid stuff. Accidents happen, people make mistakes sometimes. Dangerous driving and it’s prevention should be the responsibility of the police and punished accordingly, or it was until they had their budgets slashed and thus there’s no longer anyone patrolling the roads.

Be careful what you wish for, mandatory GPS tracking, registration, cameras and 18mph limits on bikes may follow if we go down that path!

I’ve got a bread maker, but never that happy with the ‘baked’ results, therefore I tend to use it on the dough function and then stick it in a hot oven on a pizza stone to make a boule type loaf rather than a sandwich tin type loaf. Always light and fluffy inside, but with a nicer crunchier crust! Never had a problem with coarseness or greasiness though, what flour are you using? I tend to use the basic 500g strong white flour, 320ml water, tsp yeast sugar and salt recipe, or variations of.

The lighter and fluffier you want, the longer and harder it needs kneading.

Naming and Praising – Tweeks cycles have been great for getting drivetrain bits when almost everyone is sold out of anything between Deore and XT! Sigma sports great with roadie clothing bits.

Why create a system that encourages people to lie about symptoms?

If the capacity for testing is there, why not open it up to those who have been told to isolate?

Exactly, total incompetence from the top. IMHO, the amount of people humming and ahhing about whether or not they have it given the massive variation in types and severity of symptoms, and the hoops you have to jump through to get a test, is probably part of the reason we’re back in lockdown after 9months. lots of people walking about with it infecting other, probably unbeknown to them, or thinking they’ve got a mild cold as they don’t have a continuous cough or fever and so haven’t been tested. If you’ve been in close proximity to someone confirmed positive, there’s a strong chance you have it, symptomatic or not, and likewise a strong chance your household therefore has it too.

singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/how-to-get-a-covid-test/#post-11472311

I took a test earlier in the year as had some wider symptoms, but not the ones listed to get a test. I got one 3hours after filling in the form and and the results back in less than 24 hours. This despite the city being in 2nd lockdown. The test centre was deserted. If you’ve been in contact and are concerned, get a test. Your wife is only locked down until you get the results, if it’s negative and she has no symptoms then she’s free to move about. If you come back positive, she has to isolates too, but then it’s probably better to know sooner rather than go about potentially infecting people!

Vitoria Corsas, awesome tyres and look the mutts. Unless you want tubeless, then annoyingly they only do them in black. Think Schwalbe do a tan pro-one too, but probably as rare as the Conti’s.

I’ve an old version of a Logitech H570. Simple, comfortable enough for long calls and easy to use. It’s USB so not as slick as the bluetooth ones, but I seem to have way less connection issues as a result – especially if you’re using VM’s. reasonably cheap too.

I’ve a set of Bose QC35’s headphones which I have used for VC, but the noise cancelling just means you end up shouting as you can’t hear your own voice, so I tend to use the Logitech for VC’s and just use the Bose for music.

Should have qualified that I use a lot of GIS and subsurface data, big files that are incredibly RAM intensive and also VMs – my Work computer (windows) has 128gb of ram and still falls over frequently.

My MacBook Pro runs fine on 16gb, but all the hefty stuff gets done via the VM’s in the cloud.

Personally I’d be looking for as much Ram as you can get, even 16gb barely cuts it these days. A SSD is always a good place to start too, however, depending on what you’re using it for, I’d probably wouldn’t pay loads for a massive one, External HD’s are so cheap now and so is cloud storage.

Just an aside, to add to confusion, Do you definitely need to go for an iMac? I’m currently WFH running a 13inch MacBook Pro, running in clamshell mode plugged into an LG ultra wide monitor via USB-C and bluetooth keyboard/mouse and it works brilliantly. If you’re not a ultra-power user with video etc, a MacBook/MacBook Pro and a 30inch 4k monitor may well set you back less than the iMac. Likewise a decent spec Mac-Mini.

Another vote for the Alpkit 0hiro from me. Great value and really is extremely warm. It’s easily as warm as my old Rag neutrino down jacket but far more practical when things get damp.

The best praise I can give it is that it kept me warm at Murrayfield (easily the coldest place on earth) in February watching a dour penalties only loss to Wales!

Yep, they’re yours if you want them.

Cheers all, some good suggestions to check out. Sorry – I hadn’t seen the previous thread. Quite like the the Carradice stuff, and the wizard works from the other thread, slightly more aesthetically pleasing that the dry bag styles.

Just curious (so I can avoid same fate) how did you put holes in yours whilst in the back pocket?

Erm, I’m not totally sure. I’ve two ideas, either its being rolled up tightly and the main zip rubbing on the outer fabric, or its where it’s shared a pocket with the case I keep my phone in, again rubbing on the zip. I did ask Castelli, given the delicate nature of the face fabric, whether it was worth storing it inside out. We’re not talking major holes that leak, but noticeable.

This doesn’t help with your wife’s challenge so much, but certainly helped me transition to a more veg based diet. I started phasing out everyday meat for meet free alternatives, such as no chicken in stirfrys but adding things like cashews and chunky veg to give it a bite, switching to mushrooms and Puy lentils in a spagbol instead of mince, stopping adding bacon to things like pasta dishes for the sake of it etc. As a ‘reward’, with the money I saved during the week, I’d treat myself to a piece of luxury meat at the weekend, such as a nice steak, or something a bit more pricey that I wouldn’t normally buy. It’s amazing how much you save on your weekly shopping if you only buy meat for 1-2 meals rather than 7.

I also used to get a veg box from Riverford delivered. Having a box of fresh, appetising and different veg arrive on your doorstep kind of encourages you to try new things rather than sticking to the normal weekly staples. It’s also far more inspiring than walking around the veg section of the supermarket while hangry where you just give up and go and buy a pack of mince and tinned tomatoes!

At no point did I ‘forbid’ myself from eating meat, which I find makes it much easier. But after a while of doing things like that, you get out of the habit of eating meat which often is the main reason (IMHO) for people having a heavily meat based diet. I can now happily go weeks without touching meat.

“Isn’t that more tyre tread than size though, the reckon isn’t the most aggressive tread pattern.”

The Rekon is on the back so hasn’t been so much of an issue. I’ve been looking at DHR’s but the bikes already quite draggy in the dry and I don’t like constantly changing tyres. Might bite the bullet for the winter though. I thought the Aggressor was more, ahem, aggressive, than the minions I ran in 2.3 on my old bike, but I’d say the grip is lower than those in the slop – thus the comment about the extra width. I’m probably wrong tho.

Pro’s: Increased grip on firm surfaces, increased comfort and cushioning on anything rocky.
Con’s: Front wheel will want to slide out the minute it gets muddy.
I’ve 2.8 on both ends. They really make a hardtail grip and feel like a full sus on rocky & rooty but firm ground, but are totally and utterly hopeless in the slop. (Rekon and Aggressor), oh, and so much drag.

I’ve found the Fabric Scoop to be similar in the radius form. Supportive and comfortable and something you sit ‘in’ rather than on like the Antares.

CAAD 12 – the geometry is superb, both fast and racy but not back breaking on long rides, and I found comfortable than most ‘endurance’ frames. Plus in the purple it looks the muttz nutz. Not sure about the Caad 13, the welds don’t look as neat and the bigger downtube and dropped stays just look, well, meh.

I’ve got a Whyte 905 that I bought for the same purpose as you’re planning, and I’ve found it a little underwhelming. It’s superb fun on the downhills and at trail centres, amazingly capable and confidence inspiring when things gets steep. But for long days in the hills and XC I find it sluggish, tiring to ride and a real dog on flatter swoops xc trails. IT also gives me persistent back-ache on anything longer than about 3 hours, no matter how I set it up. Considering chopping it in for something bigger and narrower wheeled, a bit lighter and maybe shorter lengthwise. I’m never going to set the jump lines and bike parks alight, but it would be nice to have something that rolls faster and climbs better on the proper ‘into the wilds ride’. I’m eyeing up the new Pipedream Sirus when they get a demo bike out, or a Solaris MAX or even the new steel Bird 29-er, again when the demo bike hits the markets.

The Newcastle Ferry is a good shout, especially as I’m in Northern Scotland so the drive is the same distance to Dover as it is from Calais to the alps. Just a question though, what’s it like on board and can you find space away from people? Considering driving and doing 14days rather than flying and doing a week, but my rationale behind driving was you’re in your own car on the Eurotunnel rather than mixing with folk. Not sure I fancy being on deck the whole time in January on the North Sea!

I struggle with being too far back too and having front end wash out, and as things get steeper rockier and more technical, the further back I go. In my case I think it’s two root causes – firstly to avoid going over the bars and another log and expensive dental bill, and secondly, having switched from an older style 26er to a new 27.5 LLS style.

I’m by no means over it, but I’ve found that finding a local trail centre with some berms that’s not steep and a section you can get away without braking on (a blue trail locally to me) and just lapping it, trying to stay off the brakes and concentrate on staying forward and railing through has really helped. When you find that sweepspot you really feel it, then when it starts getting sketchy, trying to remember that position and feeling gives something to focus on, as my brain can only think of 2 things at a time. Focusing on where you’re going and body position helps push out the ‘deck, I can see my face and that rock getting friendly’ thoughts.

Also echo the coaching suggestions above. Sometimes, just having someone watching your riding and giving pointers not only helps your technique but it’s amazing what a bit of praise about something you do well being told that you’re not a complete chopper does to your confidence to try things.

I’ve always been a wheels off and put them in the boot devotee, but recently bought a roof rack and it’s been a triumph in terms of less faffing about taking the bike apart, putting it back together or worrying about leaving wheels in car parks (I’ve never done it, several friends have). Plus, it keeps the mud, water and grit out of my car, no matter how much you line the boot with blankets, it always gets through. Downsides, there’s an initial outlay, and if you leave the rack on all the time the noise will drive you mad, plus it knocks about 5mpg of my fuel economy. Thus I tend to take it off if I’m going a distance without the bike.

Check out the roof box company, they have pretty much all you could ever need.

Best: a difficult choice, but either a Double Decker, Lion or Yorkie

Worst: Bounty. Coconut and chocolate? Just no.

I’d probably go with the new Gaggia Classic (2019) now they’ve gone back to the solenoid valve and added a decent steam wand. That or the Sage Bambino/Barista Plus around your price range. The Gaggia will just keep turning out great coffee. Even my 2015 (takeover years) model made great espresso, not far off what my Rocket now produces which considering the price difference is amazing. It was just the milk steaming which was was shite and they’ve now fixed that it seems. Probably as good as they get before going to rotary pumped/dual boilers and forking out over a grand!

I’d avoid ones like the delonghi though, they seem to break quickly!

Castelli Nano-flex. Work great on my spaghetti like roadie arms.

Discovered again on Sunday that what they’re best at is keeping your feet in two lukewarm puddles as opposed to keeping them dry. As above, water just gets in the top and can’t get out.

Quite fond of my Alpkit Gravitas – very light and packable and breathes well to – managed to run in it as well as ride. Only concern would be how robust it would be in an off due to the lightweight fabric.

Would probably avoid Gore-Tex shake dry off road. They’re superb jackets/fabric on the road, but since I’ve manage to put holes in my Castelli Idro from simply having it rolled up in my back pocket, I dread to thing what gritty mud would do to one!

I find winter MTB clothing is actually much simpler than the road equivalent. If you’re on a budget (and assuming you have summer stuff like baggies, bib/liner shorts), I tend to add Legwarmers to my normal lycra shorts, then wear baggies over the top.It’s amazing, especially if you wear pads how much that will get you through! Water resistant shorts are a bonus, even if it’s only the back panel as they really help avoiding that soggy nappy feeling. Other key items include sealskins socks, and some decent gloves – although the Planet X soft-shell are decent and good value.

Also, a pertex/windproof Gillet is a must for me. I tend to just layer up with either Merino or synthetic base layers and a stretchy fleece mid layer. The Gillet keeps the wind off and your core warm, as well as being splash proof so you don’t get soaked from puddles or even light rain. Then a jacket comes out if its really hefting it down. Bonus is the jacket doesn’t come out much, it doesn’t get washed much, but I wouldn’t spend loads. Nothing more irritating than snagging your spend new threads on the first sharp twig! Alpkit are good and don’t break the bank.

In winter, I tend to find a short but hard blast is much more fun and rewarding, instead of hours and hours in the cold and wet! Therefore, when riding hard, you can actually get away without that much.

Etap for me. I was ‘forced’ to an extent as my frame I was upgrading has external routing, but I love the wire/cable free lines and simplicity. I also like that the batteries are removable and interchangeable, so I don’t have to try and store the bike near a plug to charge and you can remove when flying and take in hand luggage. Batteries easily last >700km between charges, and that’s on the rear.

Shifting wise, I don’t really notice whether the shift speed is faster or slower than Di2 etc, it works and that’s about all I need. I test rode a bike with DA Di2 and would say the Shimano front mech is better as it auto trims, but I hated the buttons as I found them way two small. I much prefer the distinct ‘click’ you get with etap. I used to Run Ultegra and Force mechanical previously and front shifts especially are much crisper especially under load. It’s also crisp every time and stays that way, not just when the cables are new. Do I ‘need’ electronic? No. Would I give it up and go back to mechanical? Nope!

IT was a known issue but in my experience has now been fixed – see thread below from Wahoo customer services. I unpaired, repaired and updated the firmware and it all works fine now.

From Wahoo:

Hello Ben,

Thank you for letting us know about your experience. This is an issue we are aware of and we have opened an internal ticket with our development team to investigate and resolve the problem.

Since we have an open ticket with our development team, all customer service tickets related to the issue (including this one) will be marked as “On-Hold” and merged with the developer ticket to be monitored internally. This process allows us to send automatic notifications to you via email when changes are complete. Full release notes are posted on https://support.wahoofitness.com

Be sure to keep your app and device up-to-date to receive the fix, when available.

We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience and appreciate your patience and support as we strive to serve you better. Please let us know if you have any additional questions or concerns in the meantime.

Thanks for being a Wahoo customer,

Margo​

Now fixed –

This note is a follow-up to your ticket. We want our customers to be happy with our products and support. We appreciate your patience while this issue was remedied.

The ELEMNT Companion app version 1.32.1 was released on June 12th. Please visit the App Store to download the latest version. A fix was included for your specific issue. For a complete list of the release details, reference this link:
https://support.wahoofitness.com/hc/en-us/articles/360000466930-ELEMNT-Companion-App-Updates-iOS-

Thank you
Don Murtha
Head of Global Customer Operations

80 kg, (plus ahem about 5kg of lockdown cake) and run 75 front and 80 rear on 25mm Vittoria Corsa G+. I could run lower, but it makes me nervous when leaning the bike over on fast descents. I’ve tried as low as 65f and 70 r on this set up when going slower, works but feels odd Used to run 32mm G-ones at about 55 for road, 45 for commuting/gravel. Anything north of 65 was like riding on solid tyres.

Only ever run 120 psi once – for a 10mile TT. Most uncomfortable experience ever and most definitely slower since the bike skipped and bounced over every crack/rough surface. Ran 90psi in the tubed equivalent on the Corsa’s, 80 psi on tubed Conti’s

WRT not getting past 50psi when repairing a puncture – I had a corsa G+ Control that was like that – add sealant, pump up to 60/70, ride around the block, pump up again, ride around the block again and leave with the hole at the bottom overnight – was fine after that.