Looks like a cracking day for it – think I might head over that way on Saturday to give the bike a pre-Alps shakedown ride.

Albeit, I’m lost at your route through Exley, are you heading up above Elland Woods there?

Yeh, yellow brick road is an option which I regularly used to take but its a right little sod of a climb plus if I’ve popped out at Clay House in West Vale then I tended to skip the road to Elland Bridge (rubbish) and just spin down to the canal. From there I’d continue toward Halifax to the old Punch Bowl (?) pub and then up the cobbles toward Exley/Siddal (Exley Bank) and then swing a left/right at the top and up Park Lane up to the first left hander. From there you could skirt past the house on the corner on the right and through the fields before dropping into Elland Woods (taking the right hand turn like I mentioned down the old stream bed or you can go straight on and you’re at the top of the yellow brick road).

As per others, my wife and kids.

About 12 years ago my wife was diagnosed with MS, relapsing-remitting first and then primary-progressive which means that she mainly uses a wheelchair now apart from when she’s stumbling around the house. Meant she had to take ill health retirement from a job she loved… if that were me I’d not leave the house and wallow in self pity but she’s not let it stop her at all. She’s out all the time (just stumbled in from her Friday morning art class) and is more busy now than when she worked full time and a large part of that is working with and helping others who have MS. She’s an inspiration to me – I should tell her more often.

All (I hope!) parents think their kids are epic and I’m no exception for loads of reasons. Proud my youngest in 12 months has gone from barely being able to swim to being promoted to the top gold class at his swimming lessons this week. Proud my eldest just smashes through life, taking it all in his stride with no stress but excels in everything he does.

I’m also dead proud of loads of other people for various reasons and I should probably tell them. From stuff some of my closest mates have done to family to colleagues.

@sing1etrack – Sutton Bank bikes hire our EVOC bags.

I’m using these guys (have a pickup centre in York) for a trip in a few weeks: bikebox-online.co.uk

Moved away from the area nearly 4 years ago and have only been back a few times – need to make it a far more regular thing… the riding throughout the valley is epic.

Alternatively you could head the other way from Cragg Vale – the stuff going Cragg Vale eastwards is a bit crap so suggest dropping down again and taking the cycle track/canal to Sowerby Bridge. From here, steep drag up behind the station to Norland Moor, down the moor on one of the many tracks there (the one on the southern edge with a sharp left after the trees is pretty good). Into the top of North Dean Woods and take one of any number of tech options to the bottom before dragging back up the main track through the woods back to the top and taking the trail all the way along the very top of the woods to West Vale. Spin toward Halifax and then climb up the road through Exley and nip into the woods on the left hand turn after passing the school, about 400m up the road. When you enter the woods, take the first trail on the right which is a tight, fast little descent with a short sharp climb at the end onto the brick road. Turn left and follow the road until a big clearing on the right – climb up there on the main trail (the centre one – think theres one that goes down and one goes straight up the hill too). Stick to that main trail all the way through the woods (its pretty obvious) until it climbs steeply between two stone walls and curves around to the left at the top. When it turns right, you turn left and onto a view point out over the woods. Keep right and take a trail along the top of the woods. LOADS of ace options off here but my own fave is stick to the main trail right to the hairpin at the end and just keep heading down. Eventually you’ll pop out in the park opposite the Colliers Arms. Spin along the road back toward Elland Bridge, over the bridge and canal to Copley. Back up the main drag through the woods to the top and right at the cross roads for a double track spin to Norland Moor again. Up the moor, turn left onto the road, right at the cross roads, left at the junction, straight on at the cross roads, right into Fiddle Lane – mint little descent there, BW along Heys Lane for a bit before techy, slippy cobbled singletrack descent into the valley. Then BW up to the bottom of Ryburn res, up to Rochdale rd and then there are various BWs going north-west towards Cragg Vale.

Clear as mud. I’ll scribble on a map if you’re interested ;)

Big loop = depends where you’re staying on Cragg Vale but if its near the bottom it might be easiest to just drop into Mytholmroyd and spin the 5 mins to Hebden?

For the Widdop loop I think a lot of the suggestions usually take you up the A6033 and then to the Hardcastle Craggs car park and up the BW to the House of Sh*t before looping over to Walshaw and boring farm track to the road to Widdop. I never bothered with that – go straight through Hebden and then the BW up to Jack Bridge and straight on up the road before a little descent (Rodmer Clough I think it is on the map) and climb out the other side to pick up the Pennine BW to Egypt and a rough, fast double track descent to Lower Gorple before crossing the damn and heading to Widdop.

Not sure what state it’ll be in at the minute but the BW off the Pennine BW into the back end of Cant Clough Res used to be pretty good as an option.

Zig zag back up to Long Causeway on the BW and then the usual BW into Whirlaw Stones and through the bottom of the golf course etc. From there, a good couple of bits of BW descent into Rodwell End.

Big slog up to Mankinholes, along London Road and finish on Birthday X or something. Sure there may be some cheek into Cragg Vale itself but never explored that way.

The Widdop loop is a lovely ride – take food though…

My immediate thought would be a Honda of whatever size you need.

Just been through something similar and went with Yellow Jersey. Seem to remember it was Snowcard I used last time…

Out of interest I’ve just put a quote through Snowcard (didn’t even bother shopping around with Yellow Jersey – recommendation and they were what I thought was a decent price so decided to just buy the policy) and its basically the same price (couple of quid in it). Think they’re both underwritten by Allianz…

This tends to be the problem with roofers who are available immediately.

In this day and age, its all trades. Good tradesmen tend to be booked up. Bad tradesmen aren’t.

For a while we got eggs delivered by the milkman and they’d regularly go missing which we found out was foxes nicking them. Stopped ordering them shortly after that but whilst tidying a big plant pot by our front door the other week I put a trowel through a buried egg that the foxes must have put there. I reckon the egg must have been there at least 8 months given when we stopped getting them delivered… I can still smell it.

He’s charged £2400 for less than 7 hours work and a bit of cement. I think thats a pretty valid argument you have. Was there scaffold to put up? Anything else other than just (I assume) one bloke and a bag of cement/mortar?

Whatsapp I find being one of those apps I couldn’t live without – for groups of mates or 1-2-1 messaging and exchanging pics and stuff, its brilliant. Only tip I’d give is look at the auto save feature for pics and gifs (video). If you’re in a load of chats and there are constantly gifs and pics being sent around, they all get saved on your device so I go through them now and then and delete all the guff I don’t need (can’t turn the feature off completely as I get sent a load of stuff from family etc that I want to keep).

Imagine the uncomfortable silence when, with my partner sat next to me, Android Auto splashed a message notification across the dashboard from Perverts R’ Us.

One of my football related groups got changed to “Frank Lampards Bald Patch” after last nights humilation of the fat fraud by the big eared one.

Danny Murphy is beyond awful. In the Portugal game 5 minutes toward the end he’s banging on about why managers bring players on with 5 minutes left as thats not enough time to change the course of a game. Player comes on in the 90th minute and scores the winner in the 92nd. And that Danny, is why you’re being paid (somehow) to talk out of your backside whilst people who know what they’re doing are managing the team.

Scotland… Grant Hanley is hilariously bad. Almost like he won a competition to play in a football match. And Mcginn – what a horrible player. Lacking anything like skill it seems his sole purpose on a football pitch is simply to make sly fouls on players. Has Che Adams touched the ball in either game yet?

Chewing through it would be preferable to a dremmel for a job like that.

Loads of places rent out bags, whereabouts are you? I’d rather be hiring a bag/hard case than risking putting my pride and joy in a cardboard box with airport baggage handlers…

Same as always, realise its midsummer and quietly mutter something about the days getting shorter to myself.

Argh, not the “I survived a crash therefore everyone MUST wear a helmet” thing again, **** off.

Why would you not wear a helmet? Unless you are a helmet.

My kids have both had lessons (I’ve had a few) and we got put in touch with someone selling a used Roland kit and its been spot on. I don’t play and the youngest has dropped away from it a bit but my eldest is still going and loves it. I’d definitely recommend a real life instructor – I’ve tried following online stuff and having a teacher there to give you in-person tips etc is well worth it. I know a great teacher if anyone is in York…

£3.70 for a large portion at the chippy around the corner from me but a) they’re good chips and b) a large portion easily does 2 people. Small portion is £2.50 and still enough for me (and I like my food).

My town bike is brush painted with hammerite. Looks crap which is exactly what I want to hide the fact its a sub 20lb speed machine…

Usual HR justifying their existence type stuff either directly or by creating some kind of policy/process that your line manager has to follow. I’ve had a few, skipped a few and been uninvited for one (two of us quit the same week and my friend/colleague had his exit interview the day before mine – I think he gave our manager both barrels so she didn’t want the mental torment of then doing mine the day after).

Absolutely pointless things. As someone else has mentioned, if they don’t ask for and take on board feedback whilst you’re an employee, why care when you’re gone?

Lots in farmers field’s near me (Cambs/Lincs border) for the absolute dickhead John Hayes. We had a pamphlet for him through the door.

Farmers seem to be the ones who regularly get screwed over by tory governments and yet keep on pushing them. Its like some form of BDSM for them.

I bought some of those cheap Amazon ones to make my own setup but in the end decided against the wooden “rail” thing and the guys at Forty Winks sold me one of their rails seperately which I bolted the Amazon mounts to (which so far as I can tell, look exactly the same as the ones Forty Winks themselves sell for over double the price). Only down side is that the little adapters for 20mm/15mm/QR/boost/non-boost sometimes fall out if you knock them so you’ve got to be half aware of loosing them but spot on. If you’re taking your front wheel off anyway it makes no odds whether you have to thread it through a mount whilst you’re at it vs just banging it back on and clamping it.

Out of interest, is it possible to research online about stuff like where your relatives were based and what they did during the war? As above, only got 2 very small bits of information but its something I’d be dead interested in looking into more now they’re not here to ask.

My grandpa and my mum’s uncle both fought in North Africa.

Grandpa lied about his age (can’t remember what the minimum age to fight was but he was a year under) and got sent to North Africa, I think via Istanbul or somewhere (I have some of his old cigarette cases he bought from places he went through).

Mum’s uncle was in a tank in the desert. Moving at the head of a convoy, the tank broke down so the one behind it overtook it whilst they tried to fix it. 5 minutes later the new lead tank took a direct hit from a German tank parked behind a dune.

Neither talked about the war when we were kids and both died before I reached an age where I’d have quizzed them a bit more about it (but been conscious that they may not have wanted to talk about it…). One ended up being a draughtsman (Murco petrol stations – he designed the logo that they used in the 80s… not sure if its still the same one used today) and the other worked in a big chemical plant making fertiliser (and the stories he told me about that made it sound worse than North Africa during WW2!).

Mine has done it a few times but only when Ive had the phone sat on the tray on top of the dash. Moving it out of the sun gets it working again…

but being on telly from time to time doesn’t make you famous

Name a famous person who isn’t in the telly from time to time? And I think he’s famous for more than just being on the telly – national leader for quite a large country who tend to do things their own way, human rights infringements, a tendancy to get his FSB mates to murder people he’s not keen on on foreign soil, definitely isn’t linked to planes falling out the sky that happen to contain an outspoken critic of his rule, being a psycho with his finger on the nuke button, anti-Western and oh, he invaded a country and started a war in the last 2 years. He’s reasonably famous for all the wrong reasons…

The world’s first electric loading lifestyle tool

I’m sold. The perfect tool for people who are too lazy to pedal a bike can now have them automatically loaded onto their vehicle. Just stop now – you may as well just get a fkn AI powered robot to go riding for you and just watch it back through some VR goggles whilst you’re sat on the sofa

Actor? Tom Cruise, Morgan Freeman, Al Pacino, Harrison Ford etc?

Dunno if they do them for the Caddy but I use a Forty Winks setup in my T5 kombi. No complaints at all.

Temu. No, nothing, never… See also AliExpress and Wish.

Uploading a pic to a classified ad – says 100% uploaded but keeps spinning and doesn’t show the image. Edge and Chrome. First time using the classifieds since it changed format from the forum type setup… Any ideas?

Endured facebook marketplace instead. Sold within an hour…

Think its a shame old slab head picked up an injury as he’s always been rock solid for England. Not surprised to see Maddison dropped – like Grealish (who has finally been sussed – full season on the bench and now dropped by Southgate for having zero impact on games), a weirdly over rated lightweight of a player IMHO.

Great to see Eze get in though and Wharton who has looked a beast for Palace since Glasner came in.

Longer term, unless Bellingham becomes a 9 for England, I don’t see any natural replacement for Kane. Watkins is a million miles away from being the striker that Kane is.

Yeh electrics I’m no good at (I rewired my van but had help from a sparky mate to make sure I didn’t do anything drastically wrong). I can wire a plug and a light fitting etc fine but anything more and nope. I’m totally colour blind so that doesn’t help when I’m looking at wires and trying to figure out whats what – shouting at the kids “Ozzy, what colour is this wire?” etc.

Uploading a pic to a classified ad – says 100% uploaded but keeps spinning and doesn’t show the image. Edge and Chrome. First time using the classifieds since it changed format from the forum type setup… Any ideas?

What kind of astro turf – the carpet like stuff or the proper stuff? I play on both and have different boots for each – blades for the proper stuff and “normal” astro trainers for the carpet rubbish at the local leisure centre. Fit is very specific – I wear Adidas. Similar sized Nikes felt too tight and going up sizes meant too much space in the toe.

People driving diagonally across (nearly) empty car parks instead of going down the rows.

Funnily enough I’ve just fired off a mail about SAP integration monitoring in Cloud ALM and then dived straight into STW for a bit of relief and I’m confronted with SAP questions :D

Some nice Sweet Protection ones dirty cheap on Stif at the min. Just bought a normal short sleeved jersey and a merino one for £25. Nice subtle colours etc (lairy ones are available!).

I have a weird love for Zafira VXR/GSIs and I generally hate Vauxhalls, moreso the types that normally drive VXRs. Theres a garage near me with a great looking GSI in and its really, really tempting as a bit of a retro bike hauler (which I don’t need)/daily (which I don’t need)/ car to fiddle with (which I already have).