On the basis of this thread I bought a Petzl Actik earlier today, which is brilliant. Excellent beam pattern for running and plenty of light.
Sadly I am also a stumbling old buffoon, currently nursing a swollen ankle, but up to that point crisp nighttime running was the best thing ever! I might stay out of the actual woods in future…

We’ve got a Marshall Emberton, lovely little thing which sounds great and has a fairly epic battery life.

Got one for use on the motorbike. Generally works ok but is dependant on your phone performance, so not great if you’ve got an older or clunky phone. I find the route planning software very good and easy to use.Only real complaint is that on the motorbike it struggles a little bit in an urban environment, not quite updating fast enough to keep up with where you are, and without any mapping you end up guessing a lot. And then stopping to look at the phone to work out where you’ve ended up!
Overall though it does what I wanted it for, to pre-plan interesting routes and then be able to follow them relatively easily.

Elemnt Bolt, really easy to use although does require use of a phone app. Mapping is great, screens very easily customised, create a route in strava and it’s instantly available to load to the computer. There are probably easy non-strava ways also. Non-touchscreen, and battery life seems pretty good so far.

A mate and I are in; planning on doing it on Cx bikes at the moment.

FWIW I’ve just spoken to my insurance co (Privilige). They will add the old car onto the same policy temporarily, up to a total of 90 days in the year in maximum of 30 day chunks. Not super cheap, but easy and convenient.

But surely you can only use NCB on one of the policies? Interested as I’m about to be in the very same situation…

Our local Aldi seem to have this at £30 in a sale now; no temperatures quoted though, but certainly packs down small…

https://www.aldi.co.uk/crane-down-filled-sleeping-bag/p/081656189838300

Lonelier I guess. I like being able to keep up with what mates are up to while we aren’t able to ride together. Which is most of the time.  I Think of it as Facebook, but with people you mainly like, and without the irritating activities you don’t want to hear about.

Just started watching; fantastic!

The aircraft I joined the RAF to fly. It went out of service before I finished training, but I did see one airborne once!  And it turned out that my abilities fell a little short of those required for pointy fast jets!

If you get to the The Lizard then the St Keverne bakery is a as good a pasty source as you will find. Simon the baker will even do pasty making lessons if you’re so inclined.

Latest Sharan and Galaxy are near identical in size, both 7 seaters. Within 35mm on overall length and width, and running a tape measure over the boots seems to suggest they are within 20mm in all dimensions…

Any reason all the mpv recommends are Galaxy rather than Sharan/Alhambra?

Pact for variety, Aldi for cheap. Depends how much time I’m spending at home…

Just bought daughter a Motorola Moto C Plus. Big (replaceable) battery, sd card, decent sized display and all seems absolutely fine. £100 I think from Argos. In fact I’m struggling to justify getting anything else for myself as my iPhone 5S continues to degrade…

Similar here; 3.8 Nates went on a couple of weeks ago, a Brand X dropper a little before that, and its a hoot. I had a quick spin on a mates Surly ICT today, and while the 4.8 Bud and Lou’s were cool in the snow and slop it felt remarkably similar. I’m not changing it until the frame breaks…

Rouen 650 here, and absolutely delighted with it. Youngest rode it up Alpe d’Huez last summer at 9yo. Downside is the lack of cantis and clearance for Cx tyres if that might be something they’re interested in, but on the upside the brakes worked really well on the descent! Daughter doing DoE got us 10% off the sale price as well…

We were in the campsite next door, A La Recontre du Soleil in Bourg. Like you we loved it, and I suspect will return.

Very good. We switched from a local free range producer last year, as by the time we knew what we were doing all theirs were reserved. Not sure of the dates for Aldi, but was in Lidl today and they are getting their fresh birds in on the 19th, although no idea yet of pricing. FWIW I rate Lidl meat even higher than Aldi.

But you might want to be able to guarantee getting there nice and early…

T4 Caravelle here, had it 5 years and just over 50k miles; now coming up on 190k. We run it with the back row of seats removed, and can’t really see us being without something this size ever again. It just makes stuff like the 4 of us heading off somewhere to ride on a whim so easy; front wheels off 3 of the bikes and they’re all in the back in a couple of minutes. Also swallows camping gear for summer family jaunts with ease and has a rack on the back for the 4 road bikes. My commute is 45 mins cross country and it’s a breeze. Also no problems with tip runs here since I explained that it’s neither a camper or a van, just a big mpv…

32t on the front for me, with the std 11-42 on the back.

But I’m in the West Berks lowlands, and did nick the 30t off of jnr’s bike for the Dorset Gravel Dash in the summer.

Usual social road ride for between 3 and 6 seems to have become a gentle off road loop for three of us. Me on the fatty, mate 2 on his Cx bike, and mate 3 on his somewhat old school Ti mtb. We will be comparing experiences in the pub on the way back to the village.

My Dune earlier today, still going strong…

On the way to the woods today…

A thumbs up here for the Carnac xc linked to above; got one a couple of weeks ago and it’s rather nice.

It took a week from ordering to receiving my dropper post, bars and grips, but at less than £125 all in I’m not complaining.

I’ve a strange hankering for a Peugeot 406 estate at the moment; last decent car the firm made, and we’ve always had very good experiences with older French diesels.

Wow! Literally at the speed of a rocket…

What a very lovely thread, so many smiles in words and pictures.

Another ascent II purchased here, Been wanting to try a dropper for ages but since my Dune only cost me £350 it’s been hard to justify the cash! Thanks for the heads up.

Never been there for longer than a night, but my suggestion would be lobster. Eaten.

And now I’m trying to work out where it might have been taken…

midlifecrashes

Best guesses, from front left….

B29, Valliant, Meteor, Anson and an Auster maybe in front? Harvard, Vickers Valletta ( maybe, although looks a bit like a 2 engined precursor to the Britannia…). Canberra, Shackleton, early mark with tailwheel. Down the taxiway in front are Venom/Vampire, F-86 Sabre, Supermarine Swift, (or maybe Scimitar, I think one was straight wing and one swept) and a Javelin in front. Bristol Brigand, Mosquito and maybe a T-33 to finish.

Fantastic pic, thanks for sharing.

That looks interesting mugsys_m8, thanks. As a matter of interest what’s the reasoning behind your recommendation to head south?

It was a formation forming up for a fly past at Brize for the Annual Formal Reception; a do for local notables.

Picked one up today. 325g without all the fixings, 340g with the stuffsack. Slightly bigger than an Alpkit Rig 3.5 and a comparable weight. Has the makings of a proper bargain tarp.

Not sure how easy travel is for you but last time I was in the Swindon GO they had both sizes of Dune in.

On The Front.

Quite Tired Now.

Love Those Guys.

I’ve got a cyclist cousin in LA, and visit the states a few times a year in a C17, which is not short of boot space…

Maybe because of the mech mounting plate normally on the driveside, if you’ve gone 1x something?