Responses about what I should have expected I guess!

More seriously, only ridden it around the fire roads and some gentle blue bits so far for a bit of a shakedown and to make sure (a) the geometry isn’t going to kill me and (b) I’d bolted everything together properly. All good so far. Off to The Peak with it on Saturday so a better test of things then.

Feels pretty good. Steeper seat angle than I’m used to compared to my Cotic is noticeable but should help pedalling/winching and not an issue when the seat’s down.

Time and terrain will tell if my mismatched travel idea is going to literally bite me in the backside at some point or whether my ideas about what makes an ideal UK all-round playbike prove to be right.

You’re not wrong, and the evidence for that is this…

“Here’s another one that doesn’t help cycling’s cause – https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cgxq1dl5xz8o”

If that winds anyone up, they’d have a stroke if they saw the little playground ‘scraped in’ at one of our local nature reserves/abandoned quarries.

“My children’s school had mock elections this morning – Reform got 47% of the votes with Labour the other 53% and no other party getting any votes. The Reform voters, when asked why, in general said ‘so they could send all the “insert non white demographic here” home’. I was truly shocked when I heard this.”

Be interested to know the age of the kids and where the school is.

As a teacher that result kind of terrifies me!

I have a WTB Vigilante / Ranger combo on two bikes and really like them. Running 2.8s but they’re both available in 2.6 I think.

If they’re still there, check out Mary Wallopers on the iPlayer ‘Hidden Gems’ Glasto section.

(and not Glasto, but on  similar tip, if you’ve not come across them have a YouTube dig around for Peat And Diesel)

Louise surely?

Usual Friday local. Ticking off another new feature.

Anyone bored of the new ‘no surrender’ slogan already?

Another brilliant final sequence (they cut it off on the single version sadly).

On the basis that the thing that immediately pops into your mind must be the right answer…

Doug is called Doug.

Douglas when he’s been a very naughty boy…

Sometimes Doggolo / Dougolo

(the rest of this is only me – Mrs Noise would just pull ‘that’ face if she knew what I call him from time to time)

Occasionally Dougie / Doogie

When he gets excited and ‘revved’ up, he’s Doogy Rev with a nod to The Adventure Game.

That mutated over time into Douglas Revington III, no idea how or why.

More recently he’s randomly become Doogiewoogieboogieboy

Some other occasional names can’t be typed here…

Sunny Sunday local.

As a Head of Year for 12 years, been there, done that, and seen/dealt with a number of similar situations.

At the core of this, is the school’s response to that one particular incident. Sanctioning each student in line with the published behaviour policy (meaning the ASD student receives the more serious sanction here) does not automatically make it a discriminatory action and there are usually better ways to resolve/improve things with a decent school without resorting to legal process.

SEN status provides context in these situation, not excuses nor a ‘free pass’. Reasonable adjustments should kick in prior to any potential incident – if this is an ongoing situation then school should have adjusted social times/duties/etc. to try and mitigate. ELSA or similar support could also already be in place.

Reasonable adjustments could be applied to any consequence put in place, but imposing a suspension on an SEN student does not automatically mean the school has discriminated.

All students, SEN status notwithstanding, need to be supported to understand that there are boundaries and consequences when those boundaries are broken.

Bottom line. We don’t have detail of context or what else the school has done so it’s really tough to judge. My concern is that this looks like it could be one of a series of similar events, and the school don’t (again, from our limited information) seem to have a strategy in place to mitigate things. For me, that’s the real potential problem.

Forgot my ‘splatter’ Converse…

And another pair of DM Chelsea Boots I’d forgotten about…

Not sure I want to count, thinking it will just end up being ‘too many’…

Good work boots (Blundstones)

Old work boots (DMs)

Dress brogues

Winklepicker Chelsea boots

Patent DMs

A few pairs of casual trainers (1 x Adidas (Superstars), 1 x DC canvas things, 1 x FiveTen Sleuth, some old/old skool DC skate shoes)

Too many MTB trainers (1 x Trailcross, 1  x Trailcross GTX , 1 x FiveTen Freerider, 1 x Leatt 3.0, 1 x Shimano Bike and Hike boots, maybe a couple of other pairs of others kicking around too)

Adidas walking boots

Adidas trailrunning shoes

Keen Clearwaters

Some Sliders

Aldi lined winter boots for dog walking duties

Rigger boots for trail building

2 pairs of old Merrels for workshop/gardening/decorating duties

That’s 24 I reckon, and probably 4 or 5 more pairs of footwear that I’ve forgotten about are sitting round the house somewhere.

Forgot my ‘splatter’ Converse…

Not sure I want to count, thinking it will just end up being ‘too many’…

Good work boots (Blundstones)

Old work boots (DMs)

Dress brogues

Winklepicker Chelsea boots

Patent DMs

A few pairs of casual trainers (1 x Adidas (Superstars), 1 x DC canvas things, 1 x FiveTen Sleuth, some old/old skool DC skate shoes)

Too many MTB trainers (1 x Trailcross, 1  x Trailcross GTX , 1 x FiveTen Freerider, 1 x Leatt 3.0, 1 x Shimano Bike and Hike boots, maybe a couple of other pairs of others kicking around too)

Adidas walking boots

Adidas trailrunning shoes

Keen Clearwaters

Some Sliders

Aldi lined winter boots for dog walking duties

Rigger boots for trail building

2 pairs of old Merrels for workshop/gardening/decorating duties

That’s 24 I reckon, and probably 4 or 5 more pairs of footwear that I’ve forgotten about are sitting round the house somewhere.

Sunday local. Found a couple of new features the pixies have been working on. Only one ready to ride though.

Not really looked into this but out of habit and due to work, Mon-Fri I don’t eat anything between 21.00 and 18.30 the next day (18.30 is tea – always cooked from scratch and relatively balanced/healthy, and then maybe a habitual sugary snack at 21.00).

Do drink, but that’s only one mug of decaff  in the morning and then nothing but water.

Done bugger all for weight loss…

“dogmatixFull Member
Single Track World an arrogant, back slapping, left wing, echo chamber. Equally adept at smearing the upper-classes and the underclass but not their own class. ‘Plenty of public school educated right-wingers’ ‘Farage only appeals to a poorly educated subset.’”

Username checks out.

Looks good. Glad to hear it rides well. Got my own Marino frame a couple weeks back. Still waiting on parts to be delivered so no build underway yet. Also went 725 but agree (based on  ‘weighing’ the frame in my hand) there’s no real weight benefit to that.

I did photos that move too.

First Sunday morning spin round the local for a few weeks. Good to be back.

It’s deffo there.

@countzero should be on Disney+ if you’re a subscriber?

Taylor Swift. No contest.

For all its 80s bombast, it’s actually a pretty good sci-fi action film. It took until Prey for the franchise to make anything nearly as good (although I do have a soft spot for Predators due to Adrian Brody’s knowingly scenery chewing performance).

Looks like confirmation of Lady Deadpool in there too.

That PEB is just bonkers! It’s like the Tory comms team have watched The Thick Of It and Starship Troopers and regarded them as training videos.

I genuinely don’t understand how that might appeal to anyone.

Sunak still only repeating pre-prepared soundbites though.

Doesn’t always work though – he’s just said how everyone he’s spoken to loves the National Service idea, only 2 minutes after he mentioned it and the only audience response was laughter.

I’ll pass over the “natural” but then listing a load of trail centres!

Deffo would suggest laying up somewhere near Rhaeadr Gwy and doing an Elan Valley loop. Some good, open country riding, a few stiff hills and some top class descents (make sure you take in the (admittedly very unnatural) trails at Nantgwyllt and the Golf Links descent for some flow as well as the Penygarreg descent and the fast drop down from Gro for something a little less ‘built’).

Nothing to offer, but watching this thread for my summer road trip (will be in Glenoce for a few days and like to get a ride in at each stop – did the Devil’s Staircase loop – anticlockwise – last summer).

Android phone. Auto backup to Google Photos, then download and back up elsewhere (I backup to both Flickr and an external SSD).

Any Pixel phone will see you right as far as camera goes.

Don’t care where they’re from or how much of a one trick pony they were, this is still a HUGE track.

There is a landing too. They were a bit disingenuous with how they posted it, but even adjusted it still looks stupid!

Rampage canyon gaps go to mid Wales!

I know Drac already posted something similar, but I appreciate the refinement of this version.

“I've seen things you people wouldn't believe… Gullis eating soup with a fork. I watched Braverman try to deport a sofa. All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain… Time to die.” pic.twitter.com/6Uzq14BcRa

— Nick Pettigrew (@Nick_Pettigrew) May 22, 2024