Blind bearing puller didn’t have the purchase to pull it out based on how seized it was. Took it to a bike shop as well and they struggled for about an hour only to move it about a millimetre.

Dremel did the trick. Tried most other options and no joy

Blitz – I can feel the joy!!!

Ambrose – yes. What attachment would you suggest?

Just to add to my comment above – stretching the back into positions it can go into but doesn’t get to visit often is important, but I should have added that repeated gentle movements in these directions is as useful – e.g. a gentle flexing “cobra” can really help to get the back moving and happy – but don’t force it. Over time it’ll allow you to go further as it loosens up. Perhaps doing 10-15 of these 2-3 times a day will help ;)

DON’T PUSH IT, either in the amount you do, speed or how much you force it.

How far does your back go the first time you do it? I’ve been doing them for a year now and can get nearly 70 degrees (full arm extension) where as initially it was about 20degrees.

(disclaimer – I’m not an expert, just sharing something that has worked for me – if in any pain always see a qualified specialist)

Stretch and build up your core. Cyclists, especially ones that drive or sit at a desk a lot, don’t move their back in all directions enough so causes muscular in-balance and this results in pain and suffering, which leads to the dark side!!!

Mudfish – I’ve learnt there is a big difference between hurt and harm with regards to pain. This time last year I didn’t trust my back at all – now I push it loads and always bounce back even if I have a little pain. To be fair I ride and if I do like 5 hours my back yelps at me but now I wake up the next morning with no pain. That ability to differentiate between something that is going to harm my back rather than just hurt it is important.

In my opinion surgery fixes a problem but until you learn to move and build your back correctly you’ll end up going down the same road again. I’m coming up fast on 50 and I’ve realised that there is a way to keep your back in good condition – we all start to wear out but this accelerates if we don’t look after ourselves. The back is no different – if we don’t encourage mobility, flexibility and strength it’ll start to cause issues – surgery will fix the effects, but the root cause is not keeping your back in great shape. A bit like never washing / lubing your bike and replacing parts when they seize up – for some this might be OK.

The pain will stop when your body is freed up to move how it should.

Sounds cryptic I know, but having been there and now being where I am “I can see the light!!”

Motion is lotion – rest is rust!!! Keep on moving!

Lot of long posts/war-stories on here so I’ll not go into detail. Other than to say a lot of pain and frustration over the years, culminating with me collapsing on a train and being off the bike for 3 months at the end of 2019. MRI showed up some bad stuff L5/S1. Managed to get an appointment with a top sports medicine consultant who told me I’d likely not ride MTB as hard as I’d like again and running would be a complete no no. Surgery wasn’t worth the effort and told the pain would go in a few years as the vertebrae would fuse naturally.

Enter depression stage left…

However, I’ve never been one to take only one opinion. My physio had put me onto a guy in the states that does a lot of back related stuff over the internet. I was super sceptical but ended up contacting him and going on his program for 6 months. 6 months after the end of the program all I can say is it has changed my life. I’ve not felt this mobile and painfree for a long time – and I can feel my 47 year old body getting stronger every week. I can’t recommend him enough. He isn’t cheap but for what he has given me it’s more than worth it. https://www.therehabfix.com/low-back-program or https://www.instagram.com/rehabfix/

Bollocks – One ride and problems back. Going to do a full bleed tomorrow. Magura have suggested sending back but will give it one last go and then may send them in for an inspection.

Qualified dog trainer here. I had the same issue with my dog about 7 years ago – high prey drive dog that loved to chase cattle, deer, horses, sheep and small prey. Led me down this path.

You need to build up the recall away from any distractions – get it super solid and then add in some distance (how far away you are from the dog), then add in distractions (dogs, picnics, people, movement). Practice it on every walk. It’s a slow but really rewarding process.

Make your time with the dog super fun so he wants to hang around. Every walk you can spend 5-10mins of the walk building this up – do this every day and you’ll have a super attentive dog that listens and reacts to you. As Mildred said (who gave some of the best advice on this thread) establish what aspects of the predatory sequence you dog loves to do (e.g. chase) and give them an appropriate outlet for this – plus you can use this to enhance your recall training.

If he strays too far from you call him back – don’t let him rehearse chasing stuff or wandering too far from you. The more he rehearses this the more he’ll do it. Best to nip it in the bud.

Until your recall is rock solid, avoid any areas where there are distractions (animals or smells of animals) and if you have to go in these areas keep him on a long line / lead. Once his recall is rock solid and you feel confident you can let him have some freedom and use either the long line left to drag behind him (On a harness – not a collar) or a drag line which is a shorter lead with no handle that give you a chance to catch him should you need to.

Unless you want to ruin your dog and make things much worse don’t bollock him when he returns; don’t try to dominate him; don’t listen to Caeser Milan or similar trainers; DON’T use a shock collar (whether legal or illegal – they are such a bad device and have been found to cause so many problems).

I’d suggest finding a good trainer in your area. Give them a call and discuss with them your problem and get a feel for how you might be able to work with them. https://www.imdt.uk.com/find-a-qualified-imdt-trainer

Thanks everyone. I left the bike to “stand” overnight and then topped up the fluid at the lever – now seems to be back to normal – so might have just been a little air getting in somewhere.

Thanks – I’ve sent an email to Magura to discuss with them.

I’m wondering if it might be the master cylinder now although it looks dry.

I have just left the bike on it’s back wheel to let the air get to the top of the hose (as much as possible) and noticed the lever is working as good as ever in this position. Not sure what that means but if I can’t resolve it I may have to manual everywhere.

Yeah, all moving OK.

I should mention it’s only ever the back brake. Front is always good, in fact in 3 years only had to bleed it properly once. The rear is always a problem.

Pump the brakes a few times and they come back to life, but leave for a few seconds and they go all spongey. I’m thinking air in the line but can’t work out where from apart from the EBT screw or the hose has a really small leak that I don’t notice but under pressure (braking) air is getting in and is compromising the system.

Having a think about it – I’m wondering if the bleed screw is worn and letting air in – this might be the weak link in the system

Thanks for the input. Good to get more thoughts on this as I’m not sure what is happening.

Pads are new and hardly worn. I can’t see any noticeable fluid leak.

When you say “reset the pistons” you mean just push them back into the caliper housing and pump them a few times to let them settle?

Van is bare, so just have the ribs. I did look at that video but I’m more interested in how to attach to the ribs rather than to a ply wall.

I’d treat it as a tick bite to be on the safe side. i.e. see the docs

I had a tick bite about 10 years ago which was similar.

Thanks for all the input here – massively helpful.

Martyn, cheers for the reply. Its for me to do some demos outside – so needs to be remote mic (no cables) so no trip hazard. Been looking at some remote / lav mics for iPhone initially for ease but not sure about whether this is best option.

Ahhh. One of those furry caterpillar mics

IvanDobski
The go-pro mic add on isn’t supposed to be very good according to DCR.

Aaaaaand that’s my knowledge on the subject exhausted.

PMSL

Craig – a “lav mic” – what’s this interesting terminology?

Haven’t found one which works with the camera yet. If you know of one let me know.

Love my Maguras! Had them for about 3 years now and so good. I can’t use Shimano’s now.

When I was in Finale most of the guides use Maguras, speaking to ours he was saying they were much more reliable, better for both the brake performance riding down but also surviving the shuttle runs up.

Single finger levers are good but I got on OK with the 2 finger levers too until it was my birthday and got the one finger.

The bleed can be a bit of a faff but I have the process dialled now so quite quick when I need to do it (about once a year).

PSA – The Magura Storm rotors eat brake pads so I have Shimano rotors which still stop good but make the pads last.

Apparently with the 4 pot you can use individual pads so you can mix and match too – sintered and organic on the same rotor for all conditions! Not tried it yet myself.

matt_bl
Member

35Cr per light year, no-one needs money that badly!

@Bushwacked where are you at in terms of the game? Need money? Need engineering? Guardian stuff? I have been doing some engineer unlocks and visiting prominent sites in the game recently, not great if you’re looking to make money, but interesting. Davs Hope, Jamesons Cobra (there’s an interesting site on the wrong planet near Jamesons Cobra! Good story, a bit ‘the thing’). Next I’m going to Sol and find voyager.

I’ve unlocked two engineers but not really sure what to do. Done some mining and made £10m, upgraded my ship but just not sure what to do now. Might do as someone above suggests and unlock Sol but then what?

Help! – I got sucked into ED while enjoying recovery from COVID, but since going back to work I’ve not touched it. Give me something to do or an objective to aim for so I play it again (especially as my wife is taking the kids to her parents next week so I am able to explore the galaxy uninterrupted)

Thanks. I wasn’t quite expecting a museum piece when he called and asked me to have a look.

I was thinking that might the old SRAM stuff might be pre-1to1. Hmmm… might check out the charity bike shop round the corner.

This game is VAST. Slightly overwhelmed by it really. Spent about 30mins this morning not sure what to do next so decided to get into mining to make some money and upgrade. A fair bit of trial and error with various mining tools and was about to give up when I managed to crack open an asteroid for some Alexandrite on about the 10th attempt. Was certain I was going to get jumped on when going to sell it but managed to get to a pace with a good price and had a nice little route going.

Currently about to upgrade to a Asp Explorer to do some mining and exploring while having a bit more defence. Also want to get some more engineers but it’s a big place and a lot to do.

I suppose the benefit of different ships is you can go mining in one, make some money and then go off in another to do some exploring etc.

Haven’t even considered the faction and political side yet. Not sure where to start and what it means.

@matt_bl

@Bushwacked it is a hell of a learning curve isn’t it!

Enjoy the sights out there.

Matt

Isn’t it half. I’ve gone off to get some Meta Alloys and in doing that I’ve had to learn about Fuel Scoops, Thargoids and the FSS scanner. Still a whole lot I don’t know but that is part of the fun.

One thing which is causing me grief is moving around the galactic map – when going on my meta-alloy journey I noticed I couldn’t easily find places that were populated to refuel/restock – not that I couldn’t use the filters but that I couldn’t interpret the map and move about to select the stars.

I had CFS/ME for 4 years. 11 years since diagnosis I’m pleased to say I’m fully recovered. It was a tough journey and the experience has changed my life in more positive ways than I expected. It feels so good to know it’s behind me. The recurring nightmare at the time of being stuck in a dark maze not being able to get out still freaks me out.

The way I like to think of it is CFS occurs when you push too hard and a fuse blows, a bit like a ship loaded with cargo, you overload it and it just sinks but you can’t easily refloat it – the cargo being life’s stresses both positive and negative. Not being able to easily reset that fuse is the chronic aspect that causes the continuation of symptoms.

As someone says above each journey out of CFS is individual as the key is to reduce the stress being put on your body (the cargo in your ship). It’s also worth mentioning that you may not even be consciously noticing what is triggering the body’s stress response.

For me it was riding too hard, too much stress at work, 2 yr old kid waking me every night at 3am and generally not giving my body time to heal/recover. The result was the fuse blew and I burnt out.

I’ve thought about this a lot and my interpretation of what was happening to me was due to how the body produces stress chemicals. If you think of this process as a tap, now if that tap is on constantly your body gets used to it, but a constant flow of these chemicals also poisons the body (Look up the symptoms of overdose of adrenaline and to me it read like a list of my symptoms). This is why rest is so important.

Overtime, much in the same way as high blood pressure you get used to it and don’t notice the level of stress (positive or negative). However overloading the system or riding it with the tap fully open for too long leads to burn out physiologically. The transition from normal to CFS is what I like to think as where that tap gets stuck on (fuse blows) and you can’t turn it off easily and also where any stress triggers the tap to turn on fully rather than an appropriate level of flow. (Read up on the maladaptive stress response).

For me recovery was all about relearning on an unconscious level how to manage stress to ensure the tap works correctly – not as difficult to do as it sounds but does take some dedication. I saw a specialist and without their help I wouldn’t have recovered.

(I’m sure a medical person will come along and poo poo this but the doctors are also the people who said I’d never recover too ;) )

Happy if you want to PM me with any questions.

Finally after a few days playing i can understand more of this thread than I did before.

Having a great time. Currently on some mad exploration.

Sounds like a lot of you are a long way down the road compared to me and I’ve got a lot of space time ahead of me.

I tried a planetary landing yesterday, managed to work it out myself. Initially thinking I needed to land it like a plane before realising at the last moment you come in vertically using the thrusters.

Then I got my SRV out, had no idea what I was doing. Got stuck on a rock, self destructed. Then when I was trying to take off I managed to turn flight assist off without realising and ended up like a turtle upside down on the surface, flailing around unable to get myself the right way up and take off. Most fun I’ve had for a while and was laughing out loud, especially when I realised what I had done and then turned flight assist back on and I was gone in 30 seconds.

Currently building up my money to get a cobra mk3. The stock sidewinder I can’t bring myself to upgrade.

What platform are you on @Bushwhacked ?

I’m on Xbox – is it cross platform?

I’m definitely in the playpen still and imagine I will be for a while.

Got my hands on Elite Dangerous with Horizons over the weekend. I’ve spent a few hours on it already much to the joy of my wife and have it now setup in the back bedroom rather than the living room.

Vast would be an understatement and I think I might not notice lockdown being lifted or my wife and kids leaving me.

All I can think about is what to do next, especially after browsing through this thread and other sources of info on the internet.

Don’t know if anyone has posted this, but just found Elite Dangerous inc Horizons reduced on xbox to £13 via the MS store for Game pass users

I wouldn’t. Planetary missions are part of the core game as far as I’m concerned. There are lots of missions that involve landing on settlements even if not driving around. And I’ve no idea how you’d get meta-alloys, but aren’t engineers also part of Horizons? I think playing without the update is playing half the game.

Great – thanks.

It adds in the ability to land on planets and drive around in a rover, multicrew, and other stuff that I cant remember. There’s a new expansion on the horizon too (lol pun), if rumours are to be believed.

Sounds like I should save my cash until I get bored of the core game

Always fancied Elite since the old days of BBCs. Whats the difference between Elite Dangerous and the Horizons add on? Is it worth getting Horizons from the get go?

Yep

doesn’t dive at all.

This is important for me, less sag and the right compression/rebound reduces brake dive which otherwise at speed is scary and dangerous. Too much sag and you can lose control of the traction.

15-20% here depending on conditions – depends on your weight, how aggressive you ride and the nature of the trails, plus how you run the compression / rebound plus spacers.