+1 for the Galibier Zoncolan

Infra-red, for sure, but the panel heater types (can be disguised, as BearBack says) NOT the halogen type.

If the eye is dry, it’s horrific.

I can’t do the pinch to take them out, I have to use a mirror. I pull my lower eyelid down, then watch in the mirror as I slide the lens down and force it to bunch up against the corner between eyeball and lid, then I can hook them out.

Petrol.

Non-turbo.

Japanese.

After that: condition, mot history, little tells like 4 matching tyres from a brand you’ve heard of, neat piles of receipts and old MOTs etc. Buy the seller as much as the car.

Pre-dented cars can be a good buy, too – daughter’s was scraped all down one side when we bought it – far too expensive to repair, made for a cheap buy with nothing much else wrong tho (2006 Corolla, so ticked all the boxes above).

Although they’re a little smaller than you’re considering, old Jazzes are little TARDISes.

Another HH vote, but this time for their sailing gear (when it’s in the outlet shop ;) ). Plain ol’ rain ain’t getting through that.

And if it’s proper wet, wellies – WP trousers worn over – decent insoles makes a great improvement even to my cheap ones.

I had mice in the garage last year – I’d not bothered to look at the rotting bottoms of the door frame. I wasn’t very well for about 3 weeks and hardly went to the garage… when I did, and started looking around, they had peed and poohed on everything, everywhere. I didn’t how how they climbed to some of it! I think the score was 17 -0 to me by the end although it did also cost me 3 bottles of spray bleach and a day cleaning THE LOT.

(And a rapidly fitted new uPVC door/frame)

Nazareth/ Hair of the Dog must be missing its entire chorus!

I’m addicted to Pirates Outlaws (on Android, but available for the wrong type of phones as well). A card/deck building battle game. A few pence to buy, a HUGE amount of content – I’ve played for many many many hours, and I’m still only maybe halfway through the characters, and each plays differently, along with different games modes, quests etc. I like the art style, and there’s definitely a sense of humour in it too.

Most importantly for me, however, is it behaves very well with being put down at any moment. The most you’ll lose is progress in the current round (and force-stopping it and reloading can save a bad situation ;) ) so you can pick it up any time without worrying about how long you “need” to put into a session.

I use photochromatic ones: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B077GKK11Z

They respond pretty quickly when heading under trees, etc; I had to take them off once going into a tunnel as the complete dark was too much.

Smog Rocket.

Reminds me of drinking around a campfire, happy days

I was in the dodgy end of Swansea town center (and the nice end ain’t all that…) a couple of weeks ago.

People’s attention, including a dear little old lady just in front of me leaning on her stick as she was waiting to cross the road, was caught by a couple of drunks/druggies shouting an argument a little way up the street. What it was about was not clear and there was a slight gasp from the audience as a glass bottle was thrown and shattered and we all expected it to kick off properly.

However for some reason that seemed to be the end of the matter, we all relaxed… the dear little old lady said “C**ts!” and toddled off over the road.

We’ve got a bio-eth stove. Yes, you need to be careful with them, they’re just a big Trangia – never refill when hot. As it just goes on when my wife is “feeling a bit chilly” or just fancies the flames, it doesn’t cost us lot to run – after all, we’ve got proper central heating too! However, it’s very effective and heats the whole of the ground floor if you leave it on for a while. The burner is basically just plonked in a cast iron multi-fuel stove.

Crap video (please ignore soundtrack, it was just the telly on) of it running here:

Although sounds like the Op won’t need the tip, another thing not mentioned when swapping discs is making sure the hub surface is very very clean before you put the new disc on – a tiny bit of old built up muck, rust, whatever, under there and it’ll cause some run-out on the disc; a thousand miles later you’ll be doing the job again as the new discs warped. Guess how I learnt this…

And buy the big squirty aerosol cans of brake cleaner anytime you see them reduced, then apply liberally as you go :)

I also tried it because of the SFX write up. Too much narration, but maybe aimed at Americans  who have zero knowledge of other countries, let alone their religions. “Krete” appears to be America anyway!

I’m 95kg and running SRAM Apex. They’re fine and they do a lot of work on the hills around here. I’ve just bleed them as, after 3 years in use, both ends were starting to drag a little and I think it was the water absorbed over that time increasing the volume and pushing the pistons out a tiny bit, especially the front. They’re back to smooooth now :) I use Swisstop Endurance  pads. The levers have a couple of adjustments IIRC, but I set them up once and have never had to change them.

Building your own may not be much/any cheaper than buying a pre-fab, but you’ll likely end up with something 10 times stronger at the end. Design around multiples of whatever lengths of whatever you decide to use are stocked at your local timber merchants to save a lot of cutting. The roof may need a bit of thought at that size – I’d be strongly considering sheet metal for lightness and longevity (like https://www.rollaclad.com/roofing-sheets.html – again, look locally, as delivery costs add up)

I like Skratch as I hate the taste of artifical sweetners, and I am also a slow absorber of fructose, which leads to an unpleasent 24 hours or so the day after if I drink too much of it – and most energy drinks are stuffed full (discovered via High 5 and some urgent trips…). I’m very sweaty, so I find a noticable difference with elctrolytes against plain water. Or maybe it’s all in my head! Pineapple, lemon/lime and strawberry lemonade flavours are all nice, so I get some variety too.

Skratch do have a little sugar in the mixture; they reckon (IIRC) that activating the sugar absorption channels also helps take up the salts.

You want to try come working in community pharmacy and see the whole thing happening the other way around… “The surgery said come here and you’d sort it out.” Did they indeed.

(TBF, this appears mostly to be a problem with poorly trained surgery staff than GPs per se; the GP I was working with last year complained constantly about his own staff, too… I resisted pointing out the obvious, but ultimately their training, or lack thereof, has to come back to the partners.)

Buy both bikes?

Otherwise, heart for bikes, all the way.

Chapeau!

I’ve been looking for a new every-day jacket, and the “moody model” look seems to be everywhere. Puts me right off a bit of clothing if it’s so horrible even the model who has only got it on for 5 minutes obviously hates it.

Worth seeking out “The Crash Detectives” on iPlayer for a good insight into this stuff –  I think it should be filmed nationwide as a regular program, there is so much learning in most episodes.

To unlock the car, t’internet’s suggestion is to get under it with a battery charger, attach the positive clamp to the big red wire going to the starter motor, and the negative to the chassis/engine earth strap/etc. Can give enough power to unlock.

Or, start poking through the grille, or up from underneath, to release the bonnet catch.

Then 100% keep and run the Micra, it’s the perfect learner/starter car.

Worth looking at the JDM day vans like the El Grand

Anything by OK Go, but this one was my first and maybe still my favourite:

There’s one at Afan, and a very small one at Pembrey. Pembrey also has a road circuit, and a surprising amount of xc single track hidden around the place… along with the playground, beaches, ski-ing, mini railway etc, could be well worth a camping weekend.

https://maps.app.goo.gl/c63pckbyJBLj6yHR8

My Rudy Project Egos (available reduced at BikeLounge last time I looked) comes with it. I immediately took it out in favour of the open pads as I need max ventilation, and mostly seem to suck insects into my gapping panting mouth if they come anywhere near me!

The Best Electric Razors For Men (2024): A Practical Guide

This guy talks a lot of sense. I bought a (now discontinued and no longer on his lists at a quick look) Braun series 5 on his say so, been very pleased with it for several years now.

Vaseline on your nipples.

Or is that just me?…

I bought the one of the old style single piece Canyon VCLS posts last year (half price, fairly sure I put in the bargains thread at the time) and despite me mostly buying it for being a 25mm setback post (in affordable CF) and not expecting any noticeable change in comfort, I have to admit it’s actually really effective at taking that tiring constant buzz’n’slap (calm down at the back there) out of the rough broken up tarmac roads around here. They’re out of stock now though…

Just got a Rudy Project Egos for my big head and it’s very comfortable/light/vented (my head likes: Giro, Bell, Troy Lee; dislikes: Kask, Met); their med runs up to 59cm.

Discounted here: https://www.bikeloungeonline.com/collections/rudy-project-egos (red and black both showing available in med)

I work in pharmacy, but buy my IPA in 5L tubs from Amazon as it’s cheaper than we can order 500ml – if it’s in stock at all…

I then transfer it a bit at a time to an old 500ml bottle, so when I inevitably tip it over, I don’t lose too much!

Surgical spirit should have methyl sal and castor oil in… what Boot’s is selling there is not what I would  recognise as surgical spirit, and the proper stuff would make a poor degreaser.

Still got mine, although it rarely leaves Zwift these days!

Road riding around Carmarthenshire/Pembrokeshire is excellent so long as you stay off the main roads, you might not see a car one hour to the next. If you want a bit of MTB, Afan Valley and Brechfa are both sort of on the way.

Personally, as I’m a little bored with my corner of Carmarthenshire, I’m off up to Snowdonia with my road bike and tent for a  couple of nights later this week.

Another thing to consider is “toeing in” the hoods/levers a little towards the center of the bike as it can give your wrists a more natural/neutral/relaxed line. Mine are at different angles as I broke one wrist some years ago, and it just likes to sit a bit different to the other.

Galibier

(Unless Wiggle are closing down and have 75% off Castelli again)

We saw Punt and Dennis live a couple of weeks back. For all the topical comedy, a random “milky, milky” still got the biggest cheer!

However, one of the funniest things I’ve ever seen on TV was Hugh Dennis on “I’ve never watched Star Wars”. It turns out Mr Milky Milky is real… but prefers roadkill to old milk. There’s a “lovely” from each, and the blackbirds get me every time! (section split across 2 videos, sorry):

Working ok for me, sorry.

It’s more surprising the band can play the song and the singer knows the words for the song the kid requests than the kid being being able to play it.

Sweet Child O’ Mine? Everybody knows the words to that, and I’d put money on 99.9% of vaguely professional rock guitarists being able to knock a reasonable version out as they’ve almost certainly played it 1000 times on their way up. In fact, I was specifically thinking that if you had to choose a rock song to play off the hat, this would be one of the best to go for.