The iOS version being released today was perfect timing as my wahoo blue sc sensor arrived yesterday. Downloaded the app to the iPad, fitted the wahoo and paired it with no problems. Just completed the FTP test. Looks like my w/kg is approx 2.7. First impressions of Zwift are good. The iOS app seemed to work well and even the FTP test motivated me enough to do more on the turbo than I otherwise would. Will probably try a short race tomorrow.

Wahoo Blue SC Bluetooth and Ant+ sensor on Amazon lightening deal at the moment if anyone is interested. £33.99 down from £49.99

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Wahoo-Cadence-Sensor-Android-Computers/dp/B00NW882KM

We’ve got quite a few thinking about it

There’s one that’s quite special for us though. My wife always had her Dad’s old rugby sock as a stocking. The story goes that before her first Xmas, her mum realised she didn’t have a stocking so her Dad put a hole in the top of his rugby sock and they used that. It then became a tradition and she still has it and we use it every year. My FIL passed away a few years ago and now I put a present in it each year for my wife. When we had kids ourselves, I followed suit and put a hole in my football socks (don’t play rugby) to make their stockings and so it carries on.

My current bike and first full sus – a Vitus Blitz. RRP 5 years ago was £1699. Paid £850 as a CRC ‘recycled’ item which turned up as new except for a small paint chip on the underside of the downtube which you’d never even notice. It’s been faultless really and only had to replace consumables. Doesn’t owe me a penny and only just coming round to replace it.

I once ‘lost’ the cast icon from the tune in radio app. It was there previously and then one day it just wasn’t. Deleted the app, re-downloaded it and then the cast icon was back. Maybe try that and see if works? If it’s a compatible app it should have a icon I imagine?

Edit: too slow. Shame.

In the same boat as the OP. Just picked an iPad mini 2 up from Tesco. £189 but I had another £24 in club card vouchers to use so picked up for £165. Will be good for general stuff and for the kids too so seemed like a good option.

http://www.tesco.com/direct/ipad-mini-2-32gb-wifi-space-grey/380-0143.prd?skuId=380-0143

Any more feedback on the Evolva? Thinking of getting one but note the comments about the clamp. Does grip tape keep it place? Wondering if it might work with one of the hope universal bar mounts? http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/mobile/hope-universal-handlebar-mount/rp-prod23533?gs=1&gclid=CKSepJO1wdACFcW4Gwod4t4LXA&gclsrc=aw.ds

I work for the NHS and was sent this today in an email. It’s by Roy Lilley, the NHS commentator. Apologies for the long post!

We are where we are.
It matters not how we got here.
What matters is; what happens next.

We can’t change the past; the banking crisis, quantitive easing, panicky politicians, austerity economics. We are where we are.

We can’t turn back the clock. We are in the NHS, not a Tardis.

How we got here doesn’t matter any more. It might matter at the next election… get your own back. But, now, we are where we are.

What matters is; what happens next.

We could be like the King’s Fund and make wholly unjustified imputations that the NHS is working on the future in secret.

We could rubbish STPs. We could run around like the Captain Mainwarings at NHS Providers, crying ‘doom’.

We could hammer the MPs who voted for austerity politics and we should, at every opportunity.

More productively, we have to focus on what happens next. What could happen next?

The NHS has the mother-of-all-winters and collapses under its own weight. The system could silt-up with yer granny, two-to-a-bed, marooned in hosptial because social care is bankrupt.

The renegade rump of the BMA malcontents could go back on strike, the RCN could ballot for industrial action over nursing assistants, bursaries, no proper pay increment since Florence was a lad in short trousers and GPs could follow through on their threat to resign on-mass.

Or, we could realise; what matters is what we make happen, next.

One thing we do know is; planning for next year and the year after has been moved forward. How we come at this cycle will define us.

We could say there’s not enough money. What shall we cut? Or, we could say; how do we look at funding in the round to try and make what we’ve got, go around.

I see no role for commissioning. I see every point in coalitions of providers, syndicating resources, pooling the cash-in-flow around long-term conditions. I see redesigning patient flows which might sweat the health-pound and take some heat out of the system.

Vertical integration; recognising patient journeys that are seamless might just be better for them and cheaper for us. Social care, primary care, community care, secondary care, out of hours care. Who cares? Patients don’t but protective professions do.

We are where we are… but this is not the first time the NHS has been in a tight spot.

In post war, austerity Britain it took political courage to nationalise the health infrastructure, fight the doctor’s union and deliver the NHS; taking from the shoulders of working people, the worry and anxiety of accident, illness, maternity and disease.

It defined our nation; became recognised as the best health system in the world, formed the centre piece of global attention for our-Olympics and because of its significance in our national life, became the focus of lies from the chisellers and shysters of Brexit.

In the years since the NHS was born it has been used and manipulated by malevolent MPs, messed about by politicians, kept short of cash, complained about and complimented. It has made a mess, created innovations; achieved some notable firsts and played its part in helping us to live longer and better lives.

None of that happened on its own. It happened because men and women just like you, working in and around the NHS made it happen.

Now it is our turn. We have a crisis to deal with; just as those who went before us recognised they had to solve their problems if there was to be an NHS to hand on.

We have to solve our problems and hand over the NHS, safely, to the next generation.

Sharing solutions. Turning sterile meetings into melting pots of ideas into action, finding out what good looks like and doing it. Being open to better and best practice and demonstrating the NHS isn’t just a bottomless pit for the Treasury to throw money into.

We will come through this tough time. We will get better at doing better.

We are where we are; together we can deal with it.

I agree with much of it but in particular this….

I see no role for commissioning. I see every point in coalitions of providers, syndicating resources, pooling the cash-in-flow around long-term conditions. I see redesigning patient flows which might sweat the health-pound and take some heat out of the system.

Vertical integration; recognising patient journeys that are seamless might just be better for them and cheaper for us. Social care, primary care, community care, secondary care, out of hours care. Who cares? Patients don’t but protective professions do.

The attempt to introduce internal competition and local GP commissioning has been a disaster IMO. Services are so fragmented and I think the only way for the NHS to improve is for these organisational and political barriers to be broken down completely. In my area of Pharmacy the problems are clear. We have pharmacy teams at the acute trust where I used to work, the community trust where I now work, and with the CCGs supporting primary care. None of these teams are fully staffed and people just move between them. It’s largely the same pool of staff. We all know each other but we work almost completely separately. There’s duplication of roles. The acute get aggrieved becuase they do the bulk of the training and then lose staff to the community or CCGs. The acute and community get aggrieved becuase the CCGs should only commission but in some cases provide services from direct employees and blur the lines. It’s a mess and the organisational divisions are the biggest barrier to better outcomes without doubt. We need to be one pan-organisational team, with one central commissioner. We need to co-ordinate, remove duplication, remove the barriers, so we can follow the patients care throughout their treatment pathway. More can can be delivered out of hospitals. Virtual wards in the community. It can all be done and done much better but not without co-ordination of provision and commissioning the way it is now, will simply not allow it. That is what has to change.

661 Evo Am lid. £20 in CRC sale. Bonus of having a pin head.

Does anyone else have ‘national express’ stuck in their head when riding now?

Cheers.

Those Yorkshire cottages look good. Will definitely throw those into the mix.

Just had my letter through. The new account they’re putting me on is crap so looks like I’ll be switching to Nationwide FlexPlus too. Pretty much everything else is with Nationwide anyway including savings and mortgage.

Been with Barclays since I was student when I was lured in by the free, almost Dom Joly sized, mobile phone!

I’m saving for a new bike and have the exact same wish list as the OP. I’ve considered these:

Orange 4
Santa Cruz 5010 alloy
Cotic Flare
Transition Scout
Whyte T130
Bird Aeris 120

I think cost is likely to rule out the Orange, 5010, Transition, Cotic so it’s likely to be a shoot out between the T130 and the Aeris 120. I’ll be demoing both but if I couldn’t, I’d be leaning towards the Aeris 120. Just looks sorted and you can spec one better than an equivalent costing T130 e.g. For about the same cost as a T130 S Yari, you can spec a Pike and Guide RS brakes on the Bird.

Looking forward to testing them soon once I can fit in some demo time.

Spotify premium for £5 per month on student rate using an ‘alumni’ NUS card which costs £12.

Without doubt should be recorded in the clinical record.

Nice.

Reminds me of a road ride a few years ago in winter when I came to a part of the road that was completely flooded for a good 100 yards. Didn’t fancy wading through pretty deep freezing water and there was no option to go round. I was just weighing this all up and contemplating the massive detour I’d have to do to backtrack when a bloke in a van pulled up. He could see my predicament so offered to take me through. Put the bike in the back of the van and drove through the flood before dropping me out the other side. Top bloke!

Had it the other way too. Was riding a few weeks ago in the local woods and on the fire road that intersects it I came across a young student lad pushing a BSO with a flat. He was cycling 6 miles home from work and had picked up the flat about a mile in. He’d already pushed it 2 miles when I saw him. Offered him my spare tube but he had no clue what to do to fix it so ended up sorting it for him. He was very grateful to say the least.

Cheers for that. Some good options there.

Do this journey quite often but to Liverpool, and have tried all of the above suggested routes.

On say a Saturday morning, I’d do M40 > M6. On a Friday evening, more likely M1 > M6 to avoid the Surrey/Heathrow hell on the M25. I generally find going via Dartford flows a bit better on average but it’s the M25 so anything can happen.

I used to do the M1 > A50 > M6 route as it swerved Brum and some of the M6 but now with the toll I don’t generally bother as its further and no quicker now I think.

It’s a shite journey though. Get the train if you can!

I’ve not taken them but I’m a Pharmacist. Like all drugs they have adverse effects. Those effects are pretty well established for statins but my experience leads me to think they’re no more prevelent than many other drugs and they seem generally well tolerated. Of course you’ll have outliers who have bad experiences but these drugs are taken by LOTS of people and so obviously gross numbers may seem higher even if the relative incidence is pretty low. The positive benefits are again well established.

As in the posts above you’ve just to try it see how you get on. There are a number of them that are off patent and other options from different drug groups if you do have any issues.

My daughters (5 and 3), and subsequently many of their friends, think that my prominent BCG scar and a scar on my belly from an op I had as a kid are from a fight I had with a dragon. BCG scar is where he bit me, belly scar from when he whipped me with his tail. Of course I then went on to win the battle.

My wife and I went in June. Very similar experience. Brought us both on a lot but particularly my wife. What was great was that Tony picked up that her background was horse riding and then he just related everything he was trying to get across into horse riding terms (he has quite a bit of riding experience too) and this really helped her.

I guess that’s his gift, very quickly working out what you need to do to improve and then importantly, how to get that across in a way that works for you.

I was a serious single figure handicap golfer before I had kids 6 years ago. Still play occasionally with mates who are still members. In many ways I probably enjoy it more now. I was almost too obsessed at one point as its incredibly addictive and frustrating and you have to put a lot in to improve, especially to get to low single figures. That can start to take away the fun and then once kids came along it was game over – literally. Just too time consuming and after a year, realised it wasn’t worth renewing my membership. I can see me getting back into it in a few years but the bikes are much easier to fit around family commitments now. Great game though!

On a similar theme I once turned up for a meeting at the council offices. I was deputising for my manager so wasn’t really clued up as to exactly what it was about. I was just told it was related to our organisation (NHS) possibly becoming involved in supporting or delivering the council staff flu campaign and I was to attend to find out more detail. I also had a new team member just join us so decided to take them with me for some experience.

I wasn’t given a contact name so when we turned up at reception and said we were here for a meeting about vaccinations, the receptionist checked a list and directed me to a room. Got there to find this grand looking oak panelled door and although I was on time, it was closed and I could hear voices. I thought that the meeting must’ve got going a bit early so knocked and got called in. There were about a dozen people around a big oval table with a couple of spaces free opposite each other. From the looks on their faces we didn’t appear expected but I guessed that this was because they were expecting my manager. I introduced us and my colleague and I took our seats opposite each other.

The meeting carried on and although it was a vaccination meeting, it soon became clear that it wasn’t the vaccination meeting we were supposed to attend! It was some public health England meeting that by the worst coincidence happened to be going on at the same time. My colleague and I started exchanging knowing looks as it dawned on us what had happened and we were silently trying to read each other for a clue as what to do. Own up to being complete bellend imposters, get up, apologise and walk out in shame…, or sit tight, blag it and ride it out like that dude did on the news that time. With no way of talking it out, the status quo prevailed and we rode it out before bailing at the first opportunity. I don’t think I’ve ever been as embarrassed in my life. We were then obviously also massively late for the real meeting. More embarrassment as I then had to blag further excuses for that. After everything, it turned out that they had no funds for us to provide the service so the whole thing was a waste of time!

A pretty flat 10 miles which is about perfect. 35 mins +/- 5 mins depending on traffic and weather conditions. Enough to be a decent work out but not too long. I tend to go a bit easier in and blast home.

I’d really recommend she has a look at this wiggle exclusive from Huub

http://www.wiggle.co.uk/huub-aira-wiggle-exclusive-womens-wetsuit/

I’ve got the men’s version and it’s brilliant for the money.

Something like this?

https://www.evanscycles.com/specialized-rumor-fsr-elite-2015-women-s-mountain-bike-EV212321

I’d be surprised if this doesn’t end up being my next bike. Looks perfect. Currently riding a 26er 120/100 short travel FS and was looking to go for something with a bit more travel but knew 140/150 would be overkill. Loved the look of the original Aeris and a huge fan of the customisation and (reported) customer service. However because of the travel issue I was leaning more towards a Whyte T130 S Yari. This looks like it will top that though. I expect an equivalent build in this to be cheaper, possibly lighter (just a guess but the Whyte is like 14.2kg or something?) and becuase of the customisation, shouldn’t need much, if any, tweaking. Love that blue too.

Perhaps Broadstairs depending on where exactly in west London? Theres the main beach (Viking bay) but also a number of quieter bays a bit further along the coast. Could be fairly straightforward M25 > M2 > A299 drive and local traffic not really an issue.

Has to be Hollands Meat Pies for me. Growing up in Liverpool these were a staple from the chippy in a ‘pie dinner’ with chips peas and gravy. I live down south now and it’s all pukka pies which are shit. I still have to indulge in these when I go back home. Christ knows what’s in them. I don’t think they know themselves hence the simple catch all ‘meat pie’ name. Lovely though!

I often commute 10 miles without shower facilities. Similar to most of the above, I’ve got a locker which I keep spare clothes and shoes in and also have a toiletries bag. In this I keep wet wipes, deodorant and talc. I take it steady on the ride so as not to get too hot. Mainly the ‘hat line’ around my head and my balls that inevitably sweat up a bit. Few mins cool down while I lock the bike up then it’s a quick face wash in the disabled toilet sink. Wet wipe pits and nads. Talc nads and anywhere else that’s still a bit sweaty. This really helps I find. Then liberal deodorant spray before getting dressed.

Always feel fine after that. I allow at least 15-20 mins before I need to be at my desk for all that as if you’re rushing, you don’t cool down and still sweat.

The Malborough sav blanc is gvfm (freemans bay or something? ). The steaks are great. Wagyu burgers are immense. Specially selected sausages are good too.

Not really a hybrid pedal as such but I use Shimano M530s on my MTB and love them. Proper SPDs but the extra surrounding platform is great for MTB as it gives a little extra surface if you accidentally unclip and need to find the pedal quickly. Also gives enough platform to pootle to the shops or take my daughter to school in trainers.

Food debris from the kitchen sink plug filter thing is to be left until I put it in the food bin.

Any cup that has been used for tea or coffee has to be left with the dregs in the bottom. This remaining liquid cannot be tipped out no matter how close to the sink the cup is. I don’t drink tea or coffee.

All of the calendar and ‘I’m fine’ stuff ^^^ (surely universal?)

Yep, my loss is your gain!

I’ve got the front on ready to ride tomorrow so not used in anger yet. The rear will be going back as I needed 135. The spin test seems good though!

You’re wrong :) I recently ordered it after planet X said it was 12 X 135 but when it arrived it was 12 X 142.

Stans Arch ex from Planet X. Front £75 rear £50. In those sizes too.

So, I ordered the wheel and nukeproof adaptor. The wheel arrived and lo and behold it’s got a 12 X 142 hub! What a bunch of tits! So, that’s going back then as I’ve not got the skill, tools or inclination to machine off 3.5mm from the hub caps.

Hmmm…. Bought it from Evans (Tesco vouchers!). Guess I’ll have to try them but bought online and the nearest shop is miles away.

Hadn’t thought about warranty. Have just sent a message via their site asking about it. Cheers.