The Boulting/Millar highlights on ITVx have been the best highlights this week.  Shame it’s only Paris-Nice though but I expect they can’t really watch both and have it all ready that evening!

My last lot of Fibrax gear cable came with some nice frame protector things that go on the cable itself.  Similar to these

Bike Cable Frame Protectors for 5mm Brake Outer Casing Fibrax | eBay

They also do a spiral thing that can go on cables that have already been fitted but not tried those.

Not at home to check but yes, I think I have it the other way round.  Everything plugged into the TV and only the TV’s ARC port to the soundbar.

In fact given we mostly just use the Firestick which is direct into the TV, it is definitely that way round.

Yep, I ended up just going with a new wheel from Spokesman Wheels.  Stans rim, novatec hub and sapim spokes – very nice!

The cheaper ones may be soft alloy if they are anything like the Chosen freehub I had which I had to bin after getting chewed up by a steel cassette.   It was very very similar to a Supadrive freehub which I considered for a replacement.  I did wonder if made in the same Taiwan factory as Chosen are one of the outfits making them for other brands.

It’s worth a test if you can before buying anything.  I took the child seats/straps out of ours and found a bit of foam to use as a base instead so effectively made it much the same as a pet trailer.

He howled the whole way to the beach and back! Tried it a couple more times with various changes/treats/bone to chew on/etc.  Still howled the whole time so had to give it up as not going to happen.

To be fair, weird dog anyway, howls every morning, howls every time left alone for more than 10 minutes, etc.

@gotbike – had a chance to try out the exorail yet?

Spelling it ‘pfaff’ somehow seems a better way.  The entirely redundant and silent ‘p’ is in keeping with the general nature of (p)faffing.

I got rid of this with a combination of switching away from gloves with a padded section under the heel of the hand to Specialized Grail gloves and also changing to Ergon GP1 grips, both of which helped massively in spreading the load across the hand.  ‘normal’ padded gloves can actually make things worse and concentrate pressure to just where the padding is.

Men’s Body Geometry Grail Long Finger Gloves (specialized.com)

I think there are others doing a similar glove now but if not, perhaps just try unpadded gloves, assuming you aren’t already.

Asgard would seem the obvious one.

Large metal sheds & large metal storage sheds – Asgard (asgardsss.co.uk)

Happy with the bike shed we have.

Not quite the same but I found an Ultegra front derailleur coped fine with running a 52-34 combination rather than the specified 16t gap (52-36 or 50-34).

The dust caps on some valves double-up as valve core tighteners so you’d be nuts to leave them off.

@Wally – I’ve been using a ‘Trustfire EB02 battery box’ for that purpose.

https://www.trustfire.com/products/trustfire-eb02-battery-box

the caveat is that it does rattle a bit so i’ve had to wrap a bit of electrical tape round the cells here and there.  I then keep it in an old sunglasses case which happens to fit quite well in a bottle cage but you could get something similar like one of the Carnac bottle-cage cases.

P.S. Sorry – nothing to add ref: towbar electricals!

A similar story would be ‘The unlikely pilgrimage of Harold Fry’.

The HP smart app will tell you how much is left.   I noticed the initial cartridges were small ones as well, whereas the replacement ones are XL versions.

Slight hijack but what do you all do when it’s bitterly cold and you want full length leggings. No matter what shorts I put on over leggings they always end up looking slightly ridiculous so I just stick to leggings and the one slightly longer top.

There’s no real technical need of course, it’s just a ‘modesty’ thing. The only thing I can think of are old school Ron Hill Tracksters but they seem to have become tighter and thicker now with a DWR finish which is not what I really need. Back in the last century (old git) I seemed to live in the blue ones with a red stripe down the side whether rowing, cycling or running.

Selective amnesia – it’s the horrific mental image of a pale skinny 50+ year old man that’s being blocked out.

The few brief seconds at the start of a climb where I imagine I’m launching some epic TdF breakaway on Alpe d’Huez.

Worth it just for parading around the house in front of the Wife wearing nothing else, while causing her a great deal of revulsion 😁

Excellent, not just me then!

I’d second the approach of separate liners and shorts. The Runderwear line is good for that whether the briefs for revolting the wife or the long ones for a bit of thigh coverage/warmth/anti-chafing.

My experience – I’m not going back to caffeine…

Little changes – big impact…

One take away from that thread was not having your caffeine very first thing. See if you can leave it an hour or two after you’ve woken up. I think that may help in reducing dependency.

The sway on the 15l backloader is a bit of a pain climbing out the saddle although I did find I could eventually adjust my own climbing technique to minimise it.

That said, I’d like to try something like the Alpkit Exorail first – just seems a more elegant solution and would also help with stopping the bag sagging if you haven’t packed it perfectly.

Or you could look at one of the ebay equivalents for a 1/3rd of the price? ‘Bike Saddle Bag Stabiliser’ throws up a few.

Another Jamie Oliver one, this takes 15 minutes or so and doesn’t need loads of ingredients. A staple favourite in our house.

https://www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/fish-recipes/quick-salmon-tikka-with-cucumber-yoghurt-17-minutes/

I usually just stick the Naan in the toaster rather heating up an entire oven just to warm them through.

Thanks, geograph gave some ideas and as a result I’ve also now found there are some Google Street Views taken by people cycling along bridleways. Looks to have been integrated from a ‘Trekview’ app; so not just roads then which is great.

I expect other things would include – not being overlooked by houses or footpaths, not being in easy range of early morning dog-walkers, etc. And avoiding those weird cold spots you sometimes get along roads and paths would be good but not quite sure how you suss them out in advance – other than only finding out after dark!

It was things like not being able to get out and clear my head with a good long ride / windsurf / run / etc that lead to me having a bit of crisis where I ended up in hospital having fainted just sat at my desk.

TLDR – I’ve switched to a 4 day week, am much happier and get to do great long rides in the 9-3ish window after seeing the kids off to school.

Yep, looking forward to it.

I’ve left subscribing to Discovery/Eurosport till today to minimise the cost now GCN+ has gone. It’ll have to be a couple of months though to cover all the Classics and early Monuments.

Fingers crossed Julian Alaphilippe returns to form, can’t wait to see him livening things up.

It’s an old model on PSA though. The newer ones have the enormously important bagel setting so I’d splash out for a full price direct from Dualit if I were you.

Yep, and Ultegra/XTR/DuraAce as well!

There is the Shimano compatibility chart although it only shows the latest iteration of brake pads.  The numbers (03,04,05) are just the generation of pad material so a G03A will fit the same as a G05A but the latter is supposedly improved and lasts longer.

https://productinfo.shimano.com/#/com?cid=C-460&acid=C-653

The Gorilla website, as an example, also shows compatibility of their equivalents.

https://gorillabrakes.com/products/shimano-105-hydraulic-disc-brake-pads-br-7070-l03a-l02a?variant=45281647165759

You sure you weren’t meant to dilute the fluid?  We have the Rug Doctor Spot Cleaner and there’s no way I’d get through that much just for going along the skirting of one wall.

It’s great though for, as you found, pet mess and indeed spilt tea, drinks, minging car seats, etc or even just mopping up a load of spilt water.

https://www.rugdoctor.co.uk/product/pet-portable-spot-cleaner/

N.B. look out for refurbs on their site which can be half the price of a new one.

Got some of these recently as I’ve had a couple of wipe outs on the road in the last couple of years from overcooking it on bends in greasy/mucky roads.

https://www.merlincycles.com/sportful-ltd-shield-bib-shorts-221027.html?

They definitely come up longer than any other bib shorts I’ve had – almost touching the knee cap. Think WvA long (not that I look anything like him on the bike :-( ).

Thinking about your foot arch comment, I was watching the youtube video linked below recently where the guy explains quite clearly how the arch of your foot affects your posture including knee angle.  Gets there in the first couple of minutes so you don’t have to wade through endless waffle!

https://youtu.be/HXlKVVoVnpU?si=4rU1yLumuVpSmWQz

I’ve got an old Patagonia Capilene top that also sounds very similar but again they don’t seem to do exactly the same thing now.  The closest is probably the ‘Capilene Cool’ range rather than the Capilene thermal or mid-weight.

https://eu.patagonia.com/gb/en/product/mens-long-sleeved-capilene-cool-lightweight-shirt/45690.html?dwvar_45690_color=BLK

Do they, or you, like aeroplanes?

https://sinsheim.technik-museum.de/en/concorde

That place was a highlight of our trip through Germany.

Heidelberg was sort of good, but I think the kids only actually remember the Lindt chocolate shop and the hotel having cheese, pickles and ham for breakfast :-)

The other odd thing you notice is how much better the National Trust do things than their continental equivalents.

I found a monthly sports massage made a huge difference when I was marathon training.   A recurring calf niggle that caused it to feel locked up and impossible to stretch was completely sorted after a couple of sessions (and some decent rest).  That said, one of those sessions had to include some cross-frictions – tears-to-your-eyes pain but worth it.  And of course that tight calf had been exacerbating the achilles tendon.

I find the sound quality on our tv such that to hear dialog clearly you have to turn it right up.  With the soundbar though (not an expensive one) it’s way clearer and no need to turn up so much so that might be all he needs.

Or perhaps one of these next to his chair?

SRS-LSR200 | Wireless Speaker For TV | Sony United Kingdom

https://www.sony.co.uk/electronics/televisions-speakers-speaker-grilles/srs-lsr200

I’ve been using GLF for road, gravel and  MTB in a mix of sandy/muddy/etc conditions.  With sand/sandy dry soil/general road dampness, it’s great.  With continual water and mud a lot less so.  I think the wax within the rollers is still there ok but the outer protection gets worn off pretty quickly and can start to look a bit rusty fairly quickly but still a while before you start hearing too much graunchiness.

I’ve started topping up occasionally with a bit of Squirt lube in wet weather on the assumption it’s wax based and won’t dissolve out the GLF wax so negating the need to re-wax too often.  That’s working out ok as quick to do, but the sooner GLF man (@Daz?) comes out with the drip on wax option the better.

It does sound like putoline copes better with winter and to be honest, if I was doing a lot more MTB in the winter I’d probablyjust  have an ordinary lubed chain on rotation for that season with Peaty’s or similar (like the old WickensandSoderstrom stuff).

BillMCFull Member
Cork screw, oyster knife

I wouldn’t bother with the chemi-khazi

I’d be paying a visit to the GP if I were you, not a campsite.

I’m considering not spending £220 on a Dualit toaster.  This is going against STW advice but will I regret it?

Those of you complaining about wursts and kebabs clearly didn’t try this place:

https://disgustingfoodmuseum.berlin/

Unfortunately ran out of time on our trip to do this but it would have been fun with the kids.

One thing that can help is having a monitor which in itself is also a USB-C docking hub that can power your laptop and have all the usb peripherals connected along with phone chargers and so on.  Can really help on cable clutter and would obviously reduce the wall socket requirement. 

I think the Rausch Shokoladenhaus was the highlight of our trip as far as the kids were concerned.  Definitely worth booking yourself late morning/afternoon tea in the cafe there.

https://www.rausch.de/en/chocolate-house

Close to the center as well so easy to walk to from the other big attractions.