I have never had a single lesson of Welsh even though I am Welsh, grew up in Wales and went to school for the majority of my time in Wales. None of my mates spoke Welsh or did it in school that I know of, I think my brother briefly went to a school in Penarth where it was taught, we are from Barry. As I am now older I have made a more concerted effort to learn the pronunciation of Welsh as I believe it’s important to me, even though I live in England now. The name changes in North and South Wales a great in my opinion and it is how I will try to refer to them, but I am under no illusion that I will have to say the new name followed by the old so people know where I am referring too… I’m pretty sure that if I don’t get it quite right then no one will mind anyway

A friend at work did say the Brecons the other day which up until then I had never heard them called that!

The external drain, is it a proper sized manhole? and is it full? does it lead next to the main sewer or is there another cover on the way? if so is that one full too? If it goes down to the main and joins in via another manhole then the water company should sort it as they took them on some years ago. If it goes in blind then then it will have to be tackled from the manhole above going downstream and they may argue that, if the blockage is outside of your boundary it’s their responsibility. Is your house the only connection? If it is shared then again I believe it is the water company’s responsibility.

The screw, 2 twisted prongs is for pulling out roots, pretty useless. The plunger part as above, is only needed at the head of the pipe and creates movement and the water will do the rest. Jetted out a few sets of rods before with the owners claiming they didn’t know how they got there!!

check your home insurance doesn’t give you 1/2 free for a call out. Used to work for a drainage company and do plenty of these jobs, could usually phone for an extra 1/2 FOC too. May not give enough time for a complete jetting depending how far it is but should get you moving again. If it is blocked with grease then rods wont do much unfortunately.

had the same problem on a long travel fork, it was the crappy Cane Creek plastic top cap. Replaced it with a metal one and the problem was solved, good luck

PM sent, I am assuming that functionality works… Let me know if you’ve not received anything

Due to buying them off a mate he gave me a bleed kit, but i already own one, so i’ve now got 2 of those, obviously one will be sold.

not sure it’s ok to ask here… but how much would you be after?

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That’s certainly what the Germans are using the old JHQ near Rheindalen for.

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and Herford. Was in Paderborn in December and some of the old quarters have Ukrainians in now though most are empty still, one camp has been flattened and the other is in the process of being developed. We were one of the last units to leave Minden and they moved refugees in the day we moved out. Good use of empty real estate IMO. There was a brief amount of rioting from the refugees in Herford a few years ago, about conditions if I remember rightly

I lived there in the 80s, the spare housing was taken up by the MET Police who were temporarily housed there for the miners strikes at the time. It was the best camp I’d lived at whilst my old man was in the RAF and probably still in a better state than most of the current military establishments. There used to be a Vulcan at the end of the runway but I’m pretty sure that got shifted a long time ago. You can have enough of the Red Arrows too after seeing them every day! Not really relevant to this story.

Numerous barracks in Germany are now being used for asylum seekers and old quarters have been given to Ukrainian families, this has been happening as far back as the war in former Yugoslavia

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Last time I went through there was a horse box type setup, not sure how much they are there. Wouldn’t bank on it.

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thanks for the info, not far off our route so might take a chance

Great thread! There used to be trails around Erlestoke, an old SAMS DH track from early 2000s plus used to run the Erlestoke 12 endurance race there too, not been up that way for a long time though.

Dorset 330, maybe more than a 1 nighter though

https://www.cyclinguk.org/route/dorset-330-bikepacking-challenge

@d42dom are you talking about the old Chieftain cranks? I don’t think that’s what this is for, they were proper 3 piece.

That’s the ones, they deffo did them for 68mm shells though as above. It was when the first came out, proper pain in the arse!!

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Its says 68 / 73 shell so I think you are right Dom, any idea what tool is needed to remove it?

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You can remove the lockring with hammer and punch/screwdriver. I’m pretty sure the DMR Chieftain cranks I had were normal BB tool of the time. I would probably go at getting the cups out with pump pliers or similar, more suitable tools maybe available! Having been a bike mechanic late 90s early 2000s most new things were a pain in the arse!

original DMR cranks had a splined BB axle much like a BMX but cups to fit a 68mm threaded BB, looked like an ISIS BB, was not a sealed cartridge but had a fixed cup and non-drive side had a lock ring like a cheapo cup and cone BB but with cartridge bearings. Came out around 2000, weighed a ton, I had some on an original Santa Cruz Bullet. I have an original DMR Sidekick, it has a 68mm threaded BB shell so should fit most modern cranks. Later ones may have had a BMX BB shell as I think some of their frames did, do some measuring of the BB shell on the frame and a bit of google

happened to me some 15 years ago, though my ex went back to Germany with my daughter. If I can offer one bit of advise no matter how you feel, keep it amicable, it makes things so much easier. The bonus now is you can say what you want to say as regards decisions effecting your daughter etc as you don’t share a house and put up with atmospheres.  I only see my daughter on average about once a year, was there for her 18th in December, but have a good long distance relationship via WhatsApp etc, which is better than nothing. I know what you mean by the empty silence of the house, it’ll pass and your life has changed but good things will come from it. I am re-married and have a 9 year old son and life is good. Good luck to you, avoid the alcohol, (I didn’t), look to the future, things have changed but that can be a good thing. Feel free to message if you like

it does depend on the bar manufacturer as some bars, Nukeproof for example, do correct for want of a better word, for the back sweep of the bar.

Johnny Walker too, although he’s doing other stuff now I think.

He’s still riding, not on a factory team though. It’s Endurocross over the winter but will be back on Hard Enduro come the season.

SAS/SBS/RM/PARA

I think you forgot the RAF REG!…

got my lad, when he was 7 or 8 a Tony Hawk one from Skatehut as they were a reasonable price and it’s quite decent. Can’t remember the size but I think there was some good info on there about sizes etc. Can’t tell you much more as he’s not used it as he wasn’t instantly Tony Hawk! he does prefer roller skating

A few years ago (quite a few now) one of the 16 year lads in training at the Army Foundation College at Harrogate collapsed at the end of the inter company cross country run, so was witnessed by quite literally hundreds of his fellow junior soldiers.

I was there when it was AAC Harrogate and a lad died in the changing room after PT. One of 3 in the 2 years I was there

I run an M7000 11 speed mech on a 11-50 11 speed cassette as above with no modifications, can’t see 12 speed cassette being an issue. Asked the question recently about running a 12 speed mech with 11 speed cassette and shifter and the consensus is that it works fine. Cannot confirm as I haven’t fitted it yet…

my 8yo lad asked for roller skates last christmas, since then we have been going pretty much every week. Still had my 30 odd yo Bauers in the attic which fell apart when I picked them up! Have bought new ones since as above, as has my wife and lad… Take a look around on social media for discos etc… loads of them around. I thought I would be out of place as the only bloke in his late 40s skating but it is certainly not the case. It’s deffo more quads than inline skates from what I can see

YT Izzo, know nothing about it other than it looks similar. Take a look at the Pinkbike downcountry bike field test, all 120mm ish bikes on there

cheers all, I will check out some prices. Off to Germany in later December so can even save a bit more and get one delivered locally

docrobster, lardman excellent the answers I was hoping for. Thanks

I have read that, but then references XTR being different and should work, I’m not in the XTR market, more SLX these days. Still on the look out for the definitive yes I am and it works/doesn’t work. Thanks for your answer.

 If your not happy with the pay you receive then find another job offering better pay. Plenty of jobs out there, just requires a bit of effort.

Thanks for the career advice, wondered where I’ve been going wrong all my life…

Never read so much crap in all my life.

take a read back of your own post, might trump it

Never paid me when I’ve been on strike before?

apparently 50p a month from every membership payment

https://www.pcs.org.uk/campaigns/pcs-pay-campaign/i-cant-afford-go-strike-will-pcs-support-me

The department were I work has wasted 3bn on one project alone in the last decade and still owes around 2bn on it. The product was supposed to be delivered 2019 I think, which it hasn’t, and the trials show it’s not fit for purpose.

One of many where money is wasted, I know it is not as straight forward as that but I see money wasted every week, not on heating though!

my CS department didn’t reach the PCS threshold to strike either, maybe as we were offered 12% over 3 years beforehand that the other unions excepted. We’ve had under 2% over the last 10 years at least and this one though better than most wasn’t as straight forward  as it sounds, meaning losing holiday and sick days and redundancy terms. I believe we are going to receive 2% now though. Good luck to all those striking, I believe PCS have a strike fund meaning all those on strike will not lose any money. Not entirely sure how it all works though

if the bearing has worn into your BB axle then there will be some misalignment most likely in the BB shell of the frame, worth checking that out as otherwise in time you’ll be in the same situation again.

all sorts of bolt ons from here at reasonable prices https://backcountry.scot/product-category/bikepacking/drj0n-bagworks/

can’t help with hotels, but if travelling from Bournemouth to Swanage the chain ferry is shut at the moment. Not the end of the world but saves a trip to Sandbanks to find out

this time last week I was having a few beers before seeing Parkway Drive in Cardiff. Not my video

The mobilisation is of reservists who have military experience so will not doubt be able to give them a bit of a clean up

Drove to Germany and back beginning of the month via Dover/Calais. Queued for about an hour at French border control on the way out, 2 booths open and stamping passports, and about 45 mins in British border control on the way back, bigger queues but more booths open. No problems coming off the ferries either side. Biggest delay was ferries being cancelled.

I have had 2 consultations over the years. First was late 30s when they wouldn’t do laser eye surgery as my prescription was still changing, Vision Express I think. The second was in Salisbury, maybe Optical Express, offices were on Bridge St. This was a couple of years ago, mid-forties and again they would not do it as I was now to old and didn’t do laser surgery on people my age as our eyes are deteriorating more at this age. They would offer me lens replacement surgery which I would’ve probably gone for but I didn’t/don’t have £7K to spend. I wear contacts for anything outside and varifocals for work stuff, my eyes are in the +4 range though.

Take a look at fishing ones. I bought a couple years ago, never been cold in sub-zero temps inside vans, tents. Loads of room inside them and can be had for around your budget, mine are Tracker I believe.

yes, the Easy Jet plane was held and the baggage handlers came on board with a card machine and charged me and my brother about £50 each if I remember rightly. This was a long time ago, we were off to Les Gets for the Dragon Downhill race (2002?) with a Super 8 and an original V10 plus body armour, riding kit, spare parts and normal clothes. I remember them being properly heavy and we had to buy more bags in Les Gets before we travelled back. I think it was just the weight of a single piece of luggage they were pissed about. Drove over every time after that…

Russia claimed that the annexation of Crimea was in fact a revolution from within the country/region. The troops had no insignia or markings on their uniforms so the Russian Army could not be blamed. That is if it was regular Russian Army troops or state backed mercenaries.
interesting website

Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania all being NATO member states have the reassurance that they won’t be invaded. It doesn’t stop the Russian Army amassing plenty of troops at their borders at the moment though. Unfortunately Ukraine not being a member of NATO have been left to sort themselves out in the main, I would imagine there is some support from other nations happening somewhere though.

Good book written by an ex General who was NATO Deputy Supreme Allied Commander Europe