Just caught this thread again. I’ve had my 220 since last Christmas. The first one failed within a month, but Wiggle replaced it without question.

Use it almost every day, and just one hard reset in a year.

At the risk of saying “buy what I have”, I’m going to suggest what I have, which is the Garmin Forerunner 220. It’s waterproof to 50m, and does everything you ask. Garmin connect will give you elevation lost/gained and min/max elevation.

I guess the only downside is that it’s running focussed, and you need to change the activity type on Garmin Connect manually afterwards if you’re cycling. I believe if you buy the 620, you can change the activity type on the watch.

Mine’s a physicist, so less unbalanced than is normal for females, still nuts sometimes though. We’ve learned to ignore each other when we’re grumpy, which seems to work OK.

I think she’s rather tidy; clever, attractive and a gym bunny. We’ve been married 20 years, and planning on at least the same again.

Good on him for pursuing his hobby after an MS diagnosis. As said elsewhere, I suspect the article is a silly DM take on the situation rather than reality. My missus is happy that I keep fit (and vice versa).

Paul (proud lycra wearer)

Statistically representative scientific debate.

Yes, fairly tight so ambient light doesn’t leak in.

I’ve got the Mio Link, working with a Garmin Forerunner 220. Had it for most of this year.

Pros:
– it’s not a chest strap.
– HR seems accurate most of the time
– rechargeable battery
– pretty comfortable

Cons:
– when running, it needs to be on the same wrist as the watch otherwise it drops out (I guess it can’t communicate well through my body). Opposite wrist is fine when cycling
– sometimes at the start of a run, the heart rate is too high, and I either leave it and it settles down, or I switch it off and on again and it seems OK.

Overall I like it (just back from a lunchtime ride with it on). Tend to forget I’m wearing it. However, if I was buying a GPS watch and monitor now I’d go for the TomTom with the built in optical monitor.

My wife is getting me a Garmin Forerunner 220 as my ancient 305 is near death.

Good choice – I like mine.

Classical guitar lessons. It’s an itch I’ve wanted to scratch for ages. Ironically, wife is getting a cross bike.

Excellent, just ordered a mixed Trappist crate to sample over Christmas.

Cheers!

70 rides in 2014 so far (mix of MTB and road), which I’m OK with considering I also run (111 runs so far) and do gym sessions (38 so far in 2014).

I’ve got the Mio Link HRM wrist strap working with my Garmin. Uses the same technology as the TomTom. When running, the connection between the two drops sometimes when on opposite wrists, so need to have the strap a bit further up the same arm as the watch.

Looks like the TomTom Cardio solves all this by being integrated. I would have bought this if it had been available a year ago.

My present bike doesn’t have a tapered head tube, its got 26″ wheels with QR

Same, but the wheels will accommodate other axle standards.

The bike industry, in its ultimate wisdom, has rendered my upgrade options as ‘limited’, as everything about my bike is now ‘wrong’

Yep – completely agree. Just changed the bars, but I think I’m going to buy a new fork in the near future, before straight head tubes become obsolete. I’ll then get the “old” fork serviced and have it as a spare. Tough to justify a new bike when the current frame has a lifetime warranty

Same base layers (shorts and tops) on road and off
Same shoes for both (sorry), though I have two identical pairs a size different for summer and winter socks.
Baggies shorts off road (fairly fitted though)
Different helmets with and without peak
Do use my expensive Gore-Tex road jacket off road, which is probably not the best idea.

Joined, and will be putting on my Beinn 24 when I get round to it

I’ve been running a “proper” UST tubeless set-up for a few years with Maxxis LUST tyres, and it’s totally faff-free. Inflate first time with a track pump, top up the fluid every six months or so. No punctures or burping.

I wouldn’t go back to tubes, but I’m not sure if I ever would have gone for tubeless if I’d had to worry about compressors, tape, whether tyres would work etc.

Navfree? Have it on my Android tablet, and it works OK using Openstreetmap data. Not as slick as Garmin, but OK.

Looks like there is an iOS version.

Toyota Auris
Suzuki Swift
Nissan Micra
Mazda 2
Honda Jazz
Hyundai i20 or i30

Honda Jazz seems to win all the reliability awards going. We know a couple of people who have them, and nothing has gone wrong, and the owners love them.

Missus has an i10, which is surprisingly roomy for rear passengers. The boot is tiny though. One minor issue in 2.5 years of ownership, sorted quickly under warranty. She’d go slightly bigger next time though.

1. Did any of you feel like this and did things improve? or,
2. Am I the worlds biggest bastard?

1. A little. My wife coped really well with the first one, and I wasn’t really sure what to do. Never fails to surprise me that after a day or so in hospital, they give you this bundle of flesh and blood, and expect you to know exactly what do with it. For our second, my wife had to go to theatre with a fairly major bleed, so was left holding him and worrying whether my wife would come back. Bonded pretty well then. They’re now teenagers and can be summed up as challenging (in the usual teenage way) but fantastic.

2. Not at all

I also found my 620 better after the update. Was considering changing to Android, but I think this has tipped me over into keeping it

Halifax Clarity user here too. As above, you don’t get the loading added (2.75% on one of my other cards!!). However, although they don’t charge for cash withdrawals, you do get charged interest on the cash withdrawal from that day. Interest rate is a reasonable 12.9% if I remember correctly.

I tend to take some cash (pre-book from Travelex at the airport, not the turn-up rate, which is awful), and use the credit card for most things.

I really struggle when it’s cold, especially fingers, so my tried and tested solutions are:

Top:
Buff or skullcap, depending on the temp. Buff is worn year round anyway to catch the sweat.

Middle:
MEC (Canadian) merino wool base layer, windproof or waterproof top according to the weather. I do love my Gore Goretex top. It’s a road bike waterproof, so fairly fitted with only one pocket, but perfect for me. Bit spendy though.

Bottom:
I swear by some MEC (Canadian again, sorry) tights that are pretty waterproof on the front and very breathable on the back. Works really well. Use just thermal tights when it’s cold but not wet.

Extremities:
Sealskin socks work for me, and either Pearl Izumi windproof or Altura waterproof thermal gloves (which are very warm). Liners if it’s Baltic out.

Can’t help with the question on the 821 rims, but my 819 rims have also been perfect for 3+ years. Not a single burp with proper UST Maxxis tyres (so a bit of a weight penalty).

Mine have had Islabikes – grown out of them now. Mate’s kids have Frog bikes. Little to tell between them as far as I could tell, and as someone said above, the Frog bike is cheaper (and sold in local shops).

Currently in France with my Clarity card. As above, it’s a very good rate for purchases, especially now that cards need to declare the loading they add for foreign transactions. One of my other cards is 2.75% loading!!

If you withdraw cash, then you pay 12.9% (I think) from the moment you withdraw the cash.

My first born was nicknamed “Stinky” because of the truly awful smell she managed to produce on a regular basis. Not sure we were quite prepared for this.

She’s 15 now, and still happily (maybe) responds to the nickname. Doesn’t smell anything like as bad now though.

My own experience of being diagnosed with a meniscus tear was that once they went into the knee, they found it wasn’t a tear at all (two consultant orthopaedic surgeons). If possible, ask for an MRI scan to confirm…..

I’ve got a Garmin 220, which I like very much. Use the Mio Link for optical heart rate sensing. It’s good, but the connection between sensor and watch can be a bit flaky unless they’re on the same arm.

The TomTom Cardio has the Mio Link optical heart rate technology built in, which is a great feature. However, I would defer to DC Rainmaker for his advice (prepare to lose hours of time on his site):

Recommendations

Bit obsessive here about having the bikes ready to ride. Clothes and shoes on, bottle filled, out the door.

Glad somebody mentioned “the toast rack and fried egg” in Manchester. Brother’s girlfriend studied there many, many years ago. Leaked all the time because of the tiers and slanted windows.

My boy and I were at CyB a couple of years back. He chased some obviously ambling riders down, and they very nicely pretended to struggle as he came past them, saying nice things as he did. Made his week.

Those that got new brakes – did you get new rotors as well?

I had some spare new rotors, so put them on just in case

My similar vintage Deore front brake did exactly this. Tried all the things you’ve done, but eventually gave up and bought a new set (Deores are only 70 pounds though, so not too painful).

My wife had a 2005 C-Max 1.8 petrol for a few years up to a couple of years ago. I really liked it, but she wanted a smaller car.

Good:
– space for passengers
– big, deep boot
– nice to drive (in my opinion).
– comfy seats
– Ghia model so cruise, aircon, rear built-in blinds etc
– pretty reliable. Just the alternator (I believe they all broke) and hatch lock needed replacing
– three seperate seats across the back, so good for kids

Bad:
– rear seats don’t fold flat. You can fold the backrests down, and then fold the bases so the seat is against the front seat. To get a very big space, you need to remove the back seats
– don’t think it was especially economical, but didn’t actually check
– low geared, so a bit buzzy on the motorway
– wife really didn’t like the electric handbrake we had on ours. It didn’t auto-release, so was a bit pointless

I’ve got the Mucky Nutz front version, which is great in my opinion. Really helps, especially at speed.

Never tried the rear one above – just got the standard one that attaches to the seatpost, which takes away the worst of the spray.

My son did something similar a couple of years ago – handlebar straight in the side of the groin area. Firstly, I am extremely thankful he had endcaps on the handlebars (or the end would have cored his leg very close to the artery), and secondly, the hospital said that we were absolutely right to bring him in. X-ray but happily no lasting damage, and some amusing bruises for a while.

So… off to the docs/hospital please, and remember to keep those endcaps on the bars

Looks like duplex LC at the bottom, ST at the top.

Likely single mode fibre with the yellow jacket. Multi mode tends to be orange for OM1 or 3, and aqua for OM4. Single mode is 9 micron core, multi mode is 50 or 62.5 micron core. The stuff used in the Toslink system is 1mm plastic fibre.

As to telling the difference, LC and SC are latching connectors, FC is screw on, and ST is an old bayonet connector.

Value of the patch panel, pretty much zero. Unless your NAS has single mode interfaces, it’s not very useful to you.

The distance limitation for high speed transmission (10Gbit/s) in multi mode fibre is modal dispersion rather than loss, but this is likely single mode.

I work in fibre….

85% of kerbweight is the guidance, especially for people new to towing.

However the maximum towing weight should be the guidance here; I believe it’s illegal to tow more than this. My car is 1950kg ish, but the maximum towing weight is 2000kg. I “could” legally tow 2000kg, but I’d prefer to err on the safe side and keep it under 1700kg or so.

So… 1300kg should be your maximum – it’s the MTPLM figure you look at by the way (MTPLM = maximum technical permissible laden mass, i.e. mass of caravan, plus an allowance for payload).

Also, depending on when you passed your test, you may need an extra test, depending on the combined mass of car and caravan I believe (although being old I can tow on my standard license)

There is a Jaeger outlet at Cheshire Oaks. Picked up a really nice suit there last year. Tyrwhitt or Lewin for shirts.

Clarks in Cheshire Oaks sometimes sell Loake shoes, which seem to fit me well and last a decent length of time.

If you’ve got some time and you’ll be spending on a credit card, consider getting a decent credit card that doesn’t put a addition 2.5% on card purchases. I have a Halifax Clarity, but Moneysavingexpert has the full list of 0% loading cards.

Also book online and collect at airport. The rates at the airport itself are always appalling.