Curious to know if network is EE?

The ICO took action against someone (sole trader) who had been spamming me for several years. Was in the form of advice and a written warning but did the trick.

They were and maybe still are hugely overworked and understaffed though. Plenty of their staff left before GDPR hit to work in the private sector for significant payrises. I hired one!

My experience of the old Pro Ones suggested a straight forward QC issue.

Bead size clearly differed tyre to tyre.

One of the pair I bought (same supplier, same day) inflated with a little swearing but sealed well and generally felt good.

The other took every trick in the book to get the bead on but sealed badly even with loads of sealant and then popped off repeatedly overnight. Removed and refitted a few times taking hours and hours.

Being me I swapped the tyres front to back and the problem followed, it was clearly the tyre not the rim.

Good one now being used with a tube on my winter bike, bad one got cut in half so I never wasted hours trying to fit again.

I can strongly recommend Bianca who now works at the Boardman Performance Centre. A fantastic physio and bike fitter, and their setup looks absolutely amazing.

Try this firm:

Home

No connection to me but have heard of them offering very competitive solutions.

Eat well, sleep well, stretch, do a couple of really easy 1-2 hour rides to keep legs moving.
Small steak, eggs and potatoes night before.
Pack kit early in week so have time to get anything you may not have.

40 Nanos on a DT Swiss R24 rim went on without levers and inflated tubeless easily (one on a track pump the other with a shot off my inflator).

No problems. Sorry if it is a bit road focussed but I haven’t MTB’d over here. It is very dry, dusty and rocky though so not really my thing (I like mud).

Here is the link to La Manga bike rental and MTB bit:

Mountain Biking

Strava segment explore over at Portman Murcia area would give you an idea of the sort of gradients but I think it’s quite tame compared to Alicante way.

Loads of places to choose from but I find anything around the Mar Menor really pleasant. Can go cheaper end like Mar Menor Golf Resort (20 mins from RMU airport / 40ish from Alicante) or more expensive over at La Manga (35 mins RMU, 1 hour Alicante). Also loads of hotels but a small villa or apartment is probably better value.

La Manga has group rides based out of the local bike hire shop, think they go Tuesdays and maybe once at weekends.

Mar Menor Golf has a cycling club who do 25+ miles 3 times a week (distance depends on heat and wind).

Los Alcazares is 5 mins away from Mar Menor Golf and does bigger club rides on Sundays http://www.clubciclistalosalcazares.es/
If you are extra lucky Valverde may be there – sometimes turns up in autumn or spring. A lot of the local routes have KOMs set by professional cyclists from the area, saw a Movistar chap here (can’t recall name) back in April.

There is a local cycling tour company who do bike hire (Cannondale Synapse high spec) and guided rides all over including trips out to the national park (they drive with bikes on roof/trailer – saves doing the 100 mile round trip if you just want hills and beauty). https://etiquettecycling.cc/

Also another cheaper hire company who do Focus bikes and also will drop to your door. https://murciabikehire.co.uk/ Have used from here before.

There is also a place to hire road bikes and MTBs over at La Manga.

Riding over at Portman is good fun and Mazarrón is a challenge I’ve not yet got around to doing.

For non-cycling stuff there is plenty to do too. Cartagena has a lot of Roman stuff including old baths.

There are are some amazing gun turrets set into the hills all around, and a variety of museums all over the place. Most are free.

There are beautiful beaches both inland and the Med (Mar Menor is basically cut off from the sea so virtually wave free and warmer in off season, Calblanque is on the Med and popular with surfers).

Lots of good restaurants catering for all tastes. Los Alcazares is a little Benidorm like on main food strip but has some superb restaurants (and some terrible!).

Let me know if you want any more info about that area or contacts for flight transfers (have someone who takes my bike box to airport, knows the area well and really helped out when we somehow smashed a TV into 2000 pieces).

Pair of 370 hubs (on factory R20 DT rims) on one of my bikes that I didn’t do anything to for around 4 years / 4k miles. Only ended up taking the freehub body off then as it seemed a bit draggy.

Gave it a wipe inside with a rag, regreased what I could and have ridden again for X thousand miles more.

Couple of the bearings are slightly noisy and bit of polishing on the pawls but they still roll well and keep going.

I wanted an excuse to change the wheels but nothing come up yet. 1500g, decent engagement, fast rolling, and (as they are dicut) very pretty.

Do also have some R24s on my CX bike which have 370 hubs – all I have had to do in however many thousands of miles is pop the freehub body off to regrease around the seal, and they get all sorts of use (rain, sleet, snow etc).

Block paving using a decent Marshall block for ease of bring able to patch and get replacements.

Can’t help on size but for planning purposes (assuming England?) you can only go up to 12″ in height and 50% of garden under permitted development.

Also I really recommend you put in access points for rat / mouse baiting stations. We bought a house with 3 large decked areas and I would love to pull them up (can only take one up – but then need to dig out a patio that someone has decked over…)

Have you tried shimming the headset?

If you get same in drops or on tops it is worth a go.

I have two aluminium bikes running cassette headset bearings which need a ‘micro spacer’ or two to take up the slack and make sure the angled insert under the top cap sits home and doesn’t creak.

My LBS tried sticking loads of grease around the bearings but the creak would come back within a few miles. Couldn’t feel any play at all by the way.

They are 0.25mm shims that take up engineering tolerances between fork, steerer, bearings and other headset components. Is neater and easier than skimming the bike steerer tube!

My LBS hasn’t heard of them (dread to think how many BBs they have done needlessly because of it) but FSA distribute them and they are easily available on eBay or some online stores.

https://shop.fullspeedahead.com/en/micro-spacer-3479

It is unlikely to have a 32 on back on a short cage mech, I would check that again.

If it’s a short on a 28 then easiest to get a medium cage to replace. A medium cage can fit a 36 if you use a ‘roadlink’ type product or sometimes it can work by putting the B screw in the other side of the thread on the rear mech (I have run a medium cage Ultegra mech like this for years without any problems). Sometimes you can fit a 34 without anything but winding in the B screw.

Plus point to turning screw around is it doesn’t space the mech downwards and keeps it slightly further away from rocks etc.

Cheapest cassette option is SRAM 1130 11-36. It’s quite heavy and shifting is not as smooth as other options but does the job for not a lot of cash.

As for an oval ring that is up to you. I wouldn’t for that sort of bike unless you know you like it.

In my experience a little grease replaced often, just a smear on everything – especially a steel bearing in an aluminium frame.

A local mechanic diagnosed a headset creak as too little grease and near enough filled the frame up. That turned out to be engineering tolerances on frame versus bearing and needed a single 0.25mm micro spacer to sort it.

They charge you more for clothes if you don’t have kids?

I’ve got a Moto G6, it’s generally been good and worked but with some shitty quirks that make it irritating to live with – do these carry through to the G7?

Screen can flicker when trying to auto-adjust, have to tweak brightness manually.
Randomly the screen will rotate even when turned off.
Minimum volume is way too loud and the increments to adjust volume at low end are too big.

You can setup an online login to view your tax record (massive pain, needs government gateway ID and there are some dodgy clone sites so care needed).
Once in you can view tax record and get an up to date tax code to get over/under payments resolved through PAYE.

As well as reading the firm’s policy and writing everything down ASAP also have a read of the ACAS website and if you want call them – it costs nothing (bar any call costs).

http://www.acas.org.uk

Have one and echo the above, the BB is mighty low on the standard Maxxis wheels but then the wheels are also undersize.

I fitted a 160mm rear brake adaptor so can swap rims between my hardtail and the Spark without brake faff, not yet ridden in anger on the 29 wheels though but BB is higher.

It’s a very easy bike to ride fast, the tyres roll well and although can feel draggy the times are up there (versus a pure XC 29er).

I have always struggled a bit to setup rear shock and even at 30% sag never get more than 75% through the travel, and you can’t take out the single volume spacer it comes with (unless I am wrong!).

Some good info above. The big unknown is what happens tomorrow. With 10 years left on the mortgage your exposure to interest rate rises is limited. Even if they begin to creep up we should be many years away from cripplingly high rates, if even that is a possibility given the economic climate now (which many influencial economists believe not!).

If you had longer to pay it off, say 30 years left on the mortgage, that brings far more variance into the equation and increases the argument for paying it off now to protect the potential for future rate increase. But assuming retirement date is sort of aligned you can counter that by saying more into pension now gives more scope for growth on money that is already enhanced by being tax efficient.

The real answer is there is no absolute right answer unless you know the future. As long as you have a plan to pay off a mortgage (if you have one), have some pension savings, and can do all that whilst maintaining some cash you probably will benefit at some point and be better off than if you didn’t.

Or you could move to a supplier who gives you interest on the credit?

I am with ‘Tonik’ and don’t really have a bad word to say. Third cheapest tarif I could find, easy enough to deal with online (slow to get through but good on the phone), and 3% interest on credit balance up to £1k. Is a better deal than I get from my bank.

I had 2 ‘professional’ bike fits using Retul. One was with a bike shop mechanic who had done a 2 day course, the other a sports scientist who’s main knowledge was biomechanics (free full fit with a bike purchase).

Both in retrospect were terrible for their own reasons (first cleats all over the place and second was very efficient for pedalling but mega long and high, pushing pressure back onto lower spine). Both had saddle height within 2mm but that is a by product of computer saying get close to X degrees.

I tweaked fit by quite a lot over 6 months and got far closer to comfort, mainly by more saddle setback, lowering bars and shortening reach.

2 years on went for a third bike fit with a physio who assessed me and said I was the main issue. Back was overcompensating for poor core and glute activation, she set me a series of exercises and sent me on my way.
10 weeks later I pop back for a checkup with her. She tweaks my position by dropping saddle 5mm and suggesting lengthening the stem to 110mm and lowering the front 10-20mm in 5mm steps. I had the position basically right but my mucked up body meant nothing would really work.
Total cost was less than half a retail fit and I felt better both on and off the bike.

I can’t help but recommend someone with hand problems going to a physio. It doesn’t have to be a ‘pro’ bike fitter but that would be useful.

Have you tried the Steve Hogg test of being able to lift your hands off bars whilst pedalling at your 20 minute pace? (Do it on a trainer on flat ground). If you fall forwards no amount of tweaking setup on front end is going to cure it. Would then be a case of looking at back end of bike and your strength.

My first pair 5 years ago were the most comfortable shorts ever. The supposedly identical pair I bought because of this 2 years ago were awful. Mucho disappointed

What was wrong with them?

Forgot to say too that it looked like Stevie Wonder applied the rim tape and Jack the Ripper cut the gigantic slash for the valve. They were nothing like tubeless ready in that state and needed retaping before I could stick anything on without a tube in.

Although my experience with the wheels themselves has been good the order through to delivery was a shambles.

Ordered for delivery week commencing 25th February and they arrived on the 21st March.

By 25th had heard nothing so called to check, told they were delayed to around 22nd March, info on website was a mistake of sorts.
21st I emailed asking them if they were definitely coming out this week and they responded on 22nd to say they had already been delivered. Courier had signed for the parcel in my name and appears to have left the parcel outside the door of delivery address, rather than give to a human. Never received tracking info but thankfully did get the wheels, and been happy with them ever since.

To be fair they were very apologetic and not at all dismissive, but the experience wasn’t exactly great. It looks like I need new road wheels ASAP and if wasn’t for the above experience probably would have gone with Hunt, instead considering spending more at a local wheelbuilder (for a similar spec product)

Thanks for all the info everyone

DT have a lot on their website but the wheel manuals don’t cover bearings and this hub is not in the hub manuals. That said if I follow the 3 pawl hub manual it says the bearings are:
370 hub (front) 100mm QR – 200 ball bearing Ø10 / 26 x 8 mm HSBXXX00N1002S
370 hub (rear) 3 pawl (no width listed) – 200 ball bearing Ø15/28 x 7 mm HSBXXX00N1468S

Howie’s bib tights were pretty thin, they have changed the sizing but the material looks the same.

Worth a try, think they do free returns if not right.

Edit – see someone beat me to it above. Somehow this reply didn’t post until picked phone up this morning.

XC wide here. As with others I could not find anything off the shelf that was comparable on weight and spec.

As it happens they (eventually!) arrived very evenly tensioned (better than DT factory wheels I have had previously), tyres mounted well (both Spesh Storm Control and Maxxis Ikon 2.2), and they make a very nice sound when freewheeling.

So long as they stand up well to my clumsy riding and stay round I’ll be happy.

Thanks for the info so far. I might go try the Spesh ones as not far from the Chelmsford Concept Store.

Problem with mail order is until try an insole in the shoe I won’t know what arch height I need.

In a Shimano MTB shoe I wanted the higher arch, in my Fizik road shoes the lower arch – guess is a different last which already has some shaping on the road shoe.

I have a CAAAD12 so ally frame but tried one with an ally post back to back with a carbon post and the difference was huge (made sure tyre pressures were same).

On a carbon bike not sure you would notice so much if honest. I tried the carbon Cannondale at the same time and even with same geo and finishing kit it felt completely different, dull and lifeless compared to the ally bike.

If you asking for weight purposes most of weight is in the clamp so not as much in it as would think.

In terms of good advisors (and to be more helpful than my reply above) you can ask what qualifications they have, and for examples of what they have done for other clients.

I really suggest speaking to at least 3 people to get a feel for them. As well as your local guy can try a couple of national firms maybe.

Big firms do huge amounts of analysis in the background which is a plus, but I wouldn’t assume all their investment managers pay much attention to it. It is still an industry where big knobs will stick money in FTSE 250 firms because their clients are familiar with the names as it is easier.

The key to good financial advice is all about the planning not just making investments.

What are you likely to want to do with the money and when. What else have you got in terms of insurance, assets, liabilities etc.

All of this depends hugely on your situation and needs tailoring. Once you got that sussed, and know how much you have to invest for how long and critically how much you can afford to lose the. I would suggest looking at investments.

Firms like Brewin Dolphin more recently do a lot of work with models, where a decent research team justify a strategy which a discretionary investment manager will charge you ~1.1% to invest in. Typically similar or even the same can be purchased on an execution only basis, i.e. you self invest, for a fraction of the cost (in terms of ongoing charges).

I work in ‘wealth management’ (not as an investment expert) and get a ‘staff’ rate on services yet have chosen to go execution only with Vanguard, mostly in trackers. If I was aggressively seeking growth I would probably hold a number of investments in single companies, again with me managing it, but I’m comfortable sitting back and letting typical market growth happen and take whatever I get over the course of a few years, without losing big chunks of the potential gains to someone in the middle.

I found their MTB stuff to be long in the arm but otherwise ok.

Road stuff have found generous in the body width but very short in length.

Quality varies in all ranges.

Went to Bedgebury to test ride a Whyte from Quench. Threw leg over and bounced about to see if suspension was anywhere near right, tapped front brake and went straight OTB. Had ridden it a total of 30 feet. Front fork was a touch soft…

It’s a country park with rights of way which vary according to markings and surface. If it’s a hardpack path, unless otherwise signed, it is walkers only. These trials are probably informal but have been there umpteen years, they link one cycle approved area to another with no signage saying no bikes between.

I’ve reported it on the basis I don’t want anyone getting hurt and I can’t think of anyone else to tell. Doubt the police can do anything but if enough reports get generated they might investigate.

Genuinely didn’t know what to report as hence the thread but wish I hadn’t bothered.

Reported via online police portal, thanks to those who actually posted a helpful response.

I did say twigs were stuck in the ground and where jumps land (plus logs and 40 foot branches). That suggests intent and not sure about others on here but nobody I ride with likes riding through piles of twigs and leaves.

Of course people walk in the woods and everywhere. I just can’t see someone walking down the jumps and drops often, and have never seen anyone there, yet see lots of riders. But what does it matter?

Glad to know I am talking nonsense.