To reduce butter content but keep the flavour I substitute half the butter for sunflower oil. Butter is approx 30% water so I reduce the oily half by that proportion (by weight).

Eg, 200g butter -> 100g butter + 70g oil.

Yeah, fair enough, my phonetic spelling was ambiguous. He said ‘Sh-say’, with a flourish. It’s shassee, like Massey (Ferguson).

Oh, another was the pompous twazzock who asked me for ‘Cal-va-doth’ when wine waiting at some toy-sellers guild meal in Manchester back in the 90’s, explaining that it’s ‘Spanish apple brandy’ I suppose assuming I’d neither heard of it nor knew it’s in fact French.

Not me, but a former housemate pronounced chassis, “shassey”.

It doesn’t bother me when folks mispronounce the words they know they want to use half as much as the previously alluded to folk who don’t know what the word they’re trying to use actually is: Upmost respect, tenderhooks, pacifically, “literally” etc etc!

And me!

Nobody’s yet mentioned the Maserati SUV 🤮

Hi All,

I’m a bit late to the STW lockdown party but better late than never…!

Like Singletrack I’m based in “sunny” Calderfornia and offer MTB guiding and skills instruction as Whoosh Mountain Biking. Skills courses are generally here in Hebden Bridge or at Lee Quarry and I have routes all over the North of England including the Peak, Dales, Lakes, Lancashire Moors, and elsewhere in Yorkshire.

One-to-ones have been back for a few weeks and I’m now able to take bookings for small groups so please get in touch if you want to set something up.

http://www.facebook.com/WhooshMTB

http://www.instagram.com/whooshmtb

Thanks for the great thread idea Chipps, cheers,

Chris @ WhooshMTB

Thanks Nick, great riding with you today!

Thanks gents. Of course I’m now struggling to even find Fox 34mm rings without a crazy wait from China. C’est la vie.

There’s no issue with parts availability per se, it’s just because I’m a skin flint and don’t want to drop the cash for the full service kit from the distributor for this service!

… what do you mean “when the weather warms up” – If you’re waiting for some sort of “summer” I think we just had it!

*Waves*

I can help with your bumming problem Andy!

On one Twelfty, £20 atm (not the cheapest I’ve seen it to be fair)?

57.6mm it transpires (between shoulder lugs and only a tiny smidge wider on them) Very similar indeed to the dhf 2.3 as predicted by BillOddie.

Wow 😲 so much data – Thanks Stevied!

Thanks Bill, that’s actually pretty helpful as I have a 2.3 minion on the front! Cheers.

There’s been some good deals about on Lezyne lights – Evans had some ex-display ones up on the online shop the other day for decent prices. Ah, but they’re gone sorry, still, something like the Micro 500 is available at <£30?

Sent photos to Ison, after a phone call and they sent me a longer sleeve. Not fitted yet but looks about right… (although they did ask that I go through the shop in future)

Will post back for info if it doesn’t work.

Thanks guys…

Scotroutes – Can see/feel inside the sleeve with the BB fitted but not the crank.

Philjunior – That was what I thought!

Rocketman – Gusset EXT24.

Whitestone – See above – Sleeve definitely doesn’t reach! Yes, bearings began creaking with each pedal stroke after about 5 rides. 1 of these was short but was with the sideways play in the spindle (had chosen making the sleeve meet the cups over the correct number of spacers without envisaging the side-to-side play issue) I rectified this asap once I spotted it but next few rides were a bit mucky (I use a hose but not a jet wash for cleaning) Upon disassembly the inner side of (particularly the NDS) bearing was pretty grubby and the bearing running rough.

So, longer sleeve we think? I’ve emailed the manuf., distributor and shop in question but had no response!

The skin on your shins! Don’t be proud, wear shinpads at first, you will save yourself some swearing and have beach-ready pins all summer.

Recommended though to give flats a go. Give them a few rides and some time to get used to – it will likely feel like a massive step backwards at first but with a bit of practice you’ll learn to keep some weight on there and generate lift without pulling up. Then there’ll be no need to go back…!

Thanks guys, so having not ridden here before what do I need to tick off? I’ve got 2 maybe 3 day passes during a week’s stay in Tweedbank. Happy to drive as far up towards Peebles as necessary…

Also, My local riding at home is Hebden Bridge. Will I die?

What’s up with the golfie trails? Blown out from overuse? Surely they can’t be sloppy still!?

What’s the riding at Thorneylee like?

Am riding somewhere along the tweed valley tomorrow, just popped on here for input as to where’s best. Apologies for the thread hijack & thanks for any advice…

Cheers

Chris

Just for completeness in case it helps anyone else in future: We’ve ended up sticking with our local broker (Ryburne & co in Hebden Bridge). They offered us a good policy with uprated personal possesions cover to cover the bikes either with or without flood cover. Without flood cover it was no more than insuring all the bikes with Bikmo+, with was an extra £330 which seems fairly reasonable compared with other offers, (but until we’ve anything much worth insuring down there not worth it for us.)

And in fairness to Hiscox they called back (I’d forgotten they said they would do so) and offered a good policy including flood cover that was “only” a couple of hundred quid more (higher excesses though – £500 for contents claims.) Probably worth a try if you’re struggling to find cover – the guy I spoke to was decent and not a call centre automaton (and coincidentally brother of a guy who shoots photos with Danny Mac so he said!) which makes the process more bearable too.

Thanks again for all the input.

Chris.

Thanks, Hiscox not interested because of the flooding.

Bikmo+ for 4 bikes worth what they’re worth comes in at £770 which seems a little steep. But then all the bike only insurance seems as much as you’d expect to pay for home ins including bike cover…

Think we’re going to have to put up with incomplete cover or pay through the nose…

Andyl, might not be too bad if it’s not flooded before, there’s a points system and a risk ‘colour’ (ours is a “red risk” apparently).

Rich_s

Found this on the Young vs SunAlliance case. (in short, should be superseded by Rohan Investments Ltd v Cunningham [1998])

http://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/publications/technical_notes/flooding.html

It’s not that there aren’t ANY options, but I had hoped that adding cover for 2 more bikes and either flood:re backed flood cover or continuing to exclude it could be achieved without putting our premiums up from £400 to £1000. Seems I was overly optimistic, but thanks for the suggestions guys.

Yeah it’s groundwater. Water rises from below the ground in our lower floor, but only when the river is in flood. It is clearly substantial and abnormal, related to specific instances of prolonged and heavy rainfall. Gradual seepage/percolation eg: rising damp I would take to mean over days, weeks, months… This came (to depth of 2-3 feet) and went again within 24 hours.

From the govt. regulations for Flood:re:

Definition of “flood”
4.—(1) For the purposes of sections 64 to 69 of the Act, “flood” means water, from any source external to a building, which enters a building—

(a)(i)at or below ground level; or

(ii)above ground level, provided that part of the body of such water is at ground level;

and
(b)does so with a volume, weight or force which is substantial and abnormal.

(2) For the purposes of paragraph (1), the following do not constitute a flood—

(a)the gradual seepage or percolation of water into a building (such as rising damp);

(b)water escaping from a water main, drain, sewer, pipe or other thing inside a building, unless such escape was solely the consequence of a flood falling within paragraph (1).

No it seems that with more than one specialised requirement at once I’m essentially screwed. How dare I ride bikes and be affected by natural disaster!

JL Specialist insist that their interpretation of what constitutes a flood is correct and that 3 foot of water in my kitchen doesn’t count despite the Flood:Re regulations and Financial Ombudsman saying otherwise. Even with flood risk excluded their quote was still huge (because we’re in a flood-prone area!!!). Insurers are not my favourite people right now.

Thanks guys.

John Lewis seem to have got the wrong end of the stick with Flood:Re – I’m hoping to talk some sense into them when they call me back today.

Bradord & Bingley seemed promising at first (asked about flooding and bikes upfront as per usual and he says that’s fine… 15 minutes of questions later he asks about bikes, we add one bike, fine, add the second, “ah I’m sorry that’s taken us over the amount our underwriters will cover” ffs!) Seems they have a 5k limit on the combined replacement values for bikes so depending what bikes you have you may want to check your cover Sofaboy!?

Does anyone else have any suggestions please?

Cheers,

Chris.

Home office allowance is a flat rate claimable depending on the number of hours worked from home. Easier (but possibly less money) thank calculating proportion of floor space x time used x (rent + allowable bills)

In short it’s real and worth claiming.

Everything else had been covered above. +1 that accounts are simple enough for straight forward sole trading not to need an accountant, keep good records and check what you can expense online – remember the phrase “wholly and necessarily”!

Isn’t there an outfit that delivers courses round Surrey Hills? There’s someone at Swinley too I think? Of course you get more for your money up north but it’s a long way to drive/train/pedal…!

You could get a 601 and get into the kind of riding that’d make the most of it? I know retiree who does regular uplift days on his ‘big’ bike!

Some coaching would help you get more out of your current/not such a big bike just as it might help you keep a big bike under control.

A big bike will bail you out of a lot of sticky situations but one day you”ll write a cheque it can’t cash. Budget for some skills coaching too!

Any of those bikes will add to your confidence. But the liteville stands out as being ‘bigger’ than the others. The 301 would be a more direct comparison.

Well, based on a visual comparison with what I was running on this frame before on 26″ wheels I plumped for the Ardent 2.25. Evidently my eye is out as it was too wide.

Now settled on the Ground Control 2.1 after wrestling it on (fairy snug on an Arch EX!)

Why such a burly frame has such little clearance I’ve no idea, great otherwise… (Identiti AKA)

Thanks for the input.

The Trail Boss looks good but is 2.25 – do they measure up on the small side in real life?

That’s a good shout thanks Cookie.

Any love for nevegals in 2.1″?

Thanks guys but have decided to just refresh the oil this time. Noted to check with you for stock next time though Si.

Little bump for this…

Has anyone used Fox parts to service a 32mm X-fusion fork and lived to tell the tale please?

It’s supposed to be safer, not everyone thinks it’s necessary but we want to keep him that way round for now.

Middle seat has isofix on the older model, and the 3-point belt is integral to the seat back, dunno about roof mounted belts I’m afraid…

@Squirrelking, re:vtech Hahahahahahahahahahaha!!! c#nting vtech really can’t be killed enough… Do you want to play puppy says?

op – good advice above, +1 for 2nd hand stuff & the better quality carriers, a ring sling can be handy.

You may also ‘enjoy’ Mytholm Steeps, Shibden Wall (Both in RvC?) and the Penny Steps from Mankinholes to Stoodley Pike.

<slight hijack> So is there anything that works reliably, (even for beardies) or am I doomed to dusty lungs?