We’ve had an AEG heat pump one for about 2 years. Seems fine – dries clothes pretty well, and supposed to be fairly efficient.

Goodness – lots to unpack here. Not in any position to give advice, so just my own experience. Being a parent of grown up kids has been, at different times, the absolute best and worst experience of my life. I love them both so much it hurts. It’s a massive change, but I wouldn’t change them for the world.

45 isn’t that old. My best man had his first at 50, and his second is due soon (he’s 51 now). He’s a great Dad

I’m a similar age, and hoping to retire within a few years. I’m 51, and just checked my NI contributions on the Government Gateway.

Turns out I have 36 years – so credited with full years for the last two years at school, plus university years.

Just my experience – drinking definitely affects my resting heart rate, as does stress, lack of decent sleep etc.

52 yo here, not too chunky and very active, but could do with losing 3-4kg. Resting heart rate average for the last week is 47, also measured with a Fenix 6. It’s never been seen as an issue, although I always get pinged by my annual ECG as having intervals that are too long (which just comes with that heart rate)

I think my favourite fast(ish) estate car that I’ve had was my Misubishi Galant. Looked like nothing, but had the 2.5 V6 engine. Our two current cars are faster and have more power, but it was quick for the time, and just lovely to drive

Also had a Saab 9-5 estate, but that was only the 2.0 Low Pressure Turbo. Was OK for the time though

Hmmm… looks like there’s a few ways to skin this cat. What I do is:

– Garmin watch paired with Smart trainer to receive power and speed
– Garmin Edge also paired to Smart trainer to receive power and speed (just so I can see the power easily on the handlebars)
– Garmin watch broadcasting HR to Edge and Zwift
– Zwift connected to Strava to record ride
– also save ride on either watch or Edge, so I have something in Garmin Connect (physio trueup means that it doesn’t matter which)
– if I time it correctly, Strava ignores the Garmin Connect ride – sees it as a duplicate – otherwise I delete the duplicate ride in Strava

I’m using a Fenix 6, but my wife uses her 245 in a similar way

I’ve had the 935, and it’s an excellent watch. Sold it two years ago to a friend, and it’s still going strong.

I upgraded to a Fenix 6 Pro, and the battery life of the Fenix (and the equivalent 945) is waaaay longer – supposedly up to 36 hours. Just looked at my newly charged Fenix, and I’ve got 27 hours on GPS with no battery mitigation.

I sold my Dad’s old car to WBAC, and they were completely switched on to the PoA – suspect it’s pretty common.

I was completely honest about the dents (of which there were many) on the online form, and they gave me what they’d promised (which wasn’t that much, but I just wanted rid).

I’ve run 4 season tyres for the last few years here in the NW of England, and I’m not sure I’d ever go back. Absolutely fine in summer, and way better than summer tyres in winter. I have Cross Climates on the back and Goodyear 4 Seasons on the front (to try something different). This video shows summer vs 4 season vs full winter very well.

Snow Test

Edit: Should also add that both 4 season tyres have the Snowflake symbol, so legal to drive in Austria/Germany in winter

Donated, and there’s a couple of packs of dinosaur postcards on the way to him if he wants to send his own (once they arrive with me).

You are a lovely bunch of people x

Not the answer you’re looking for maybe but if its a case of the remote being complicated rather than not being able to operate it at all you can buy replacement remotes that are a lot simpler to use – just volume up/down and channel up/down so that theres no drama with getting confused by the remote or accidentally messing up settings.

I did think of that as an alternative (or likely parallel) suggestion – appreciate the reply

That looks ideal – many thanks

As per above, four seasons here. Had Michelin Cross Climates on for the last couple of years, but just changed the fronts to Goodyear Vectors (mainly because the reviews were good). I’ve found them really nice to drive on – quiet and comfy.

As has been said, it’s not the going, it’s the cornering and stopping. Live in Cheshire, so we get some cold weather, but probably not enough to justify full winter tyres. Having said that, all the tyres are M&S/Snowflake rated, so legal to use in Germany etc. in winter. I don’t think I’d go back to summer tyres.

Just my own experiences – I am not a doctor etc.

Had issues in both knees over the years, both of which, if left, could have led to worse issues. Left knee was diagnosed as a torn meniscus, but ended up (during surgery) as synovitis (inflammation of the synovial membrane). Bit of a clear out, plus some steroid injections over the next year and it’s been fine. Right knee was the patella running out of its groove due to imbalance of muscles, which was wearing away the cartilage on the inside of the patella. MRI scan and targeted physio, and it’s been fine ever since.

So I’d be more interested in the root cause of the pain. It may be something that’s treatable and will leave you with pain-free knees.

I have a Fenix 6 Pro, which I absolutely love. However, my wife’s Garmin 245 Music is absolutely great for the money. Much lighter, good battery life and no issues.

Looks like Wiggle have a good offer on the 645 Music at the moment, which has to be worth a look.

At the risk of recommending what I have, I looked into this pretty carefully a year or two ago, and ended up with three Dell Inspiron 13/14 for the wife and two university age students. Wife uses it with a USB-C docking station with extra monitor/mouse/keyboard.

SSD, pretty light, nicely built and have lasted well with no issues. Actually nicer feeling than my more expensive Dell business laptop

21 year old wife? Back of the net!

Jeez. How did I not see that coming :-)

Grammar school education too :-(

All (mostly) good advice above. Nothing to add, except that it does get better. My daughter and I were incompatible for a year when she was 12/13 – too similar I suspect. My (incredibly wise) wife moderated and told me it would get better, and it did. She’s a lovely 21 year old now, and we get along brilliantly.

My advice – marry a professional teenager wrangler (high school teacher), and let them handle it.

Back in ’94, a group of staff from the Glegg Arms split between two cars to travel to a football tournament in Manchester. In a last moment change, it was decided I wouldn’t travel in Andy’s car and Andy set off with his passengers. Next time we saw their car was with Andy dead ~5mins up the road on a lethal crossroads on the A540, with passengers injured but thankfully they all made it.

I don’t know if more has happened since, but Andy’s mum was still campaigning to get this crossroads made more safe in 2017.

https://www.aboutmyarea.co.uk/Cheshire/Neston/CH64/News/Local-News/312602-Neston-Town-Council-Calls-For-Major-Improvements-to-A540-Junctions

Bugger all change at the moment – that’s just down the road from me. There’s rumours there’ll be something done soon…hopefully. Some funding has been secured apparently.

Heard a bomb go off close by in Belfast in the 90s, which was eye opening. My Dad was held up at gunpoint when we lived abroad. He held his nerve and refused to get out of the car, figuring that if they shot him there, it’d need a good clean. They waved him away.

I’m going to follow the herd here, and say that Thule just works. Have a mix of 591 and 598, and the 598 is worth the extra, especially for thin walled frames (with the carbon protector that Thule sell). It has a force limiter.

For the bars, I went to Altera for a while, and despite the torque key that came with the bars, the pin snapped. Roofbox were great and replaced them with Thule wingbars. The equivalent pin is double the diameter on the Thule.

Just my own experience, but an older petrol Toyota Avensis would fit the bill. My Dad had one from new, serviced every year by Toyota. Was desperate to pass it on to someone, but in the end I sold it to WBAC for £500 at 15 years old. Sailed through the MOT again this year I noticed.

Dent in every panel, but non-turbo chain driven petrol engine. Conventional auto, so no clutch to worry about. Will probably go until it rusts away (not that it had any).

You can “Send to Device” using the cog wheel too. It’ll be on your watch the next time you synch

Specialized do a saddle fitting thing where they use a pressure pad to measure width of sit bones and then recommend the right width saddle.

My Missus had this done at the Specialized Store in Chester. Her saddle cost about £60 if I recall, and has made a huge difference to comfort. They do a no quibble return policy as well (or did at that time at least).

Never had a proper lemon, but my first car, a 1977 Chevette rusted away before my eyes. Floor went the day I traded it in. Didn’t do any maintenance though; so mechanically it was really good.

Really liked my 1992 Cavalier, but it had a leak in the boot that took ages to find under warranty, so smelled and started to rust within a couple of years. Sold it to a guy who loved them; apparently he’d had two stolen before…

51 here – both of us had Covid at the end of Jan. AZ vaccine gave me us a sore arm for a few days. Both had flu-like symptoms the next day for one day. Fine ever since

Had an S7, S8 and now have both an S10 and an S20. Whilst they are excellent phones, with very good cameras, I’ve never seen the point of the curved edges (not that I’ve broken any). Would probably go for the flat screen if work just didn’t buy standard phones.

Oh, and matt_outandabout the S20 has the on/off and volume keys back in the right place – both on the right.

I have exactly this setup (plus a couple of wireless extenders to reach outside). Works way better than the original Virgin wifi.

Good advice above. DHCP enabled on Netgear. Option on VM router not available in modem mode. Use the different colour ethernet port on the VM modem.

Always loved the shape of these. They were crap though – a colleague had the front brake assembly fall off on a French motorway

Fenix 6 Pro (me) and Forerunner 245 Music (wife) user here. Anecdotally amongst a fairly large group of runners and cyclists, the Garmin wrist based HRM seems to work for people with bigger wrists, and not for people with really skinny ones. My wife uses a separate optical heart rate monitor on her forearm (Scosche Rhythm) which works really well. Fenix HRM works perfectly for me.

We’re currently Covid positive, so checking blood oxygen regularly. Garmin seems to be a few % lower than a finger tester, but pretty consistent (94% vs 98%). 83% seems like it’s faulty

Very enjoyable thread, thanks. Had a 1983 rust free metallic green 1.6 Capri as a student and into first job. Was an absolute hoot, and actually pretty reliable all things considered. However, my mate’s Astra actually went round roundabouts without drama, unlike the Capri.

Occasionally look at them on Autotrader, but I just don’t have the time to spend on it, or the garage to store it (full of bikes)

Well done OP. Terrific bikes – probably my favourite bikes that my kids had (they’re 19 and 21 now). Had the pleasure of meeting Isla herself when I collected our first one, and she went through the bike, including explaining the custom brake levers she had made, so little hands could operate the brakes.

Sold the last of ours to a nice chap on here for under what it was worth, on the basis that he sell it for no more than he bought it for, and indeed he followed up on this when he sold it.

I have Cross Climates on my Santa Fe. On standard tyres, the traction was OK in snow for the last couple of years, but felt pretty sketchy.
The Cross Climates just feel good in all conditions – ice, snow, wet, dry. Really good tyres. I’d only swap them for equally good 4 season tyres in the future.

As above, link the turbo to the Fenix as a power source (and add a cadence sensor if you have it), and record and save the session on both Zwift and Garmin. I always save the Zwift session first to Strava – sometimes Strava sees the duplication and doesn’t list the Garmin session, and sometimes I get both (so delete the Garmin one).

I also use the Fenix 6 to broadcast heart rate to Zwift. It works well for me, but I hear mixed reviews of wrist based heart rate.

VO2 Max and Recovery calculations work fine.

I use a Dell USB-C docking station with my work PC. Works great.

For our home PCs, I looked at this recently, and there seemed to be two main variations. Those with power delivery via the USB-C and those without. In the end I bought two of these for a couple of places in the house. I only wanted a single monitor connection, and it has power delivery.

Plugable USB-C Docking Station

My lad has one – does everything you list well. It’s a third of the price of the Samsung S10 and S20 I have, but definitely not a third of the phone. The only thing it really lacks is the waterproofing

Wahoo swapped out my Kickr Snap after 18 months with a brand new one, no quibbles

I’ve strayed from Thule once in about 20 years. Bought some Atera bars, which despite using the supplied torque allen key, I managed to snap two of the pins.

Roofbox.co.uk were excellent, and they quickly replaced the bars with more expensive Thule ones (for the same price). No torque allen key supplied, but the equivalent pins in the Thule ones are double the diameter.

So, in my limited experience, buy from Roofbox.co.uk and stick with Thule

Depends on the Garmin and the Lezyne I think. You could set your Garmin to transmit heart rate over ANT+, and pick this up using the Lezyne GPS. Compatibility matrix here:

ANT+ list

I use this setup with my Garmin Fenix 6 on my wrist, transmitting heart rate to the Garmin Edge on my bars. It’s via ANT+, so not Garmin specific

I’ve just switched the other way, after my kids (young adults) telling me for ages to ditch Amazon music. Spotify app is way, way better and (to my ears) the quality seems a bit better

Been to Berlin with work a fair few times. Best hotel I stayed in was the Radisson Blu. There’s a massive fish tank (and I mean several storeys high) above reception).

Love Berlin – great city, and easy to get around.