Looks great – sold! I see one in my not-too-distant future… 🙂

Spiffing.

“at this moment in time” – unless you’re talking about levers, what other moment would it be?!

Use of “leverage” when “borrow” or “learn” would make sense – see above on leverage!

Use of “that” for comparatives rather than “than” – grrrr…

“up” added to everything – what’s the difference between “meet” and “meet up”?

And – breathe….

The Church.

Clearance obtained, it’s all looking very good 😀

Nice one, Charlie.

Thanks, z1ppy, nothing showing as available online at the Wells or Wincanton ones but could be a ‘phone call will unearth something, here’s hoping.

@mashiehood – I was waiting for someone to point out the bodge option. Ta, had been thinking about it, but you underestimate my innate ability to make any bodge go fubar. It’s a gift 😀

Thanks, guys – checked Lidl a couple of days ago and saw nowt – will check again! Much obliged 😀

In a similar situation – I’ve opted for Hope Hoops with the X12 adapter kit. Hopefully it’ll work out…

@shortcut – was that Mavic 29er set up with just rim tape or did you also use a rim strip? Thinking about converting mine or perhaps buying Hope/Crest wheels, so this is a handy thread for me!

Thought ours was pish but looks like some people’s is even worse

Ain’t schadenfreude wonderful?! 😈

@DavidB – will do – still pop up to see mates who live in the area as well so will drag them out to play 😀

@DavidB – my hero! 😉

At one point reading it I thought you’d got CCTV set up on my mancave 😀

Great read, your book – also made even more relevant as we used to live up at Burderop (on the new-ish little estate there) and the routes you’re describing (to a tee!) are my old stamping ground. Still trundle through on the Ridgeway 2-3 times a year cycling offroad (K&A Canal, Ridgeway) from Somerset to a mate’s place in Oxfordshire.

Another vote for French Revolutions – hilarious: as is Obsessive Compulsive Cycling Disorder (it even has my wife laughing at it, since it’s uncanny in describing the behaviours she observes in me/my cycling friends).

Charliethebikemonger should be able to fix you up, don’t know if you’ve already tried him?

True words indeed.

LOL at ‘Soylent Green” 😀

It’s undifferentiated fungal mycelium i.e. mycoprotein like in mushrooms, but ‘shrooms are the fruiting bodies of the largely unseen fungal body.

Another one for Hendrix. My biology teacher saw him at the Isle of Wight, spawny git used to wind me up about it!

What Northwind said re the ORC compound vs the Evo – the difference is significant and noticeable. The Ralph EVOs are surprisingly grippy in all but gloop, run them a bit lower than in the dry.

Also second coastkid’s vote for the Geax Gato – running as tubeless front wheel, they’re very very good and with such stiff sidewalls you can really drop the pressure. And cheap! 🙂

Stacked on a badger coming out of a hedgerow. On two separate occasions! Must have got a badger magnet in my front wheel (fnar). They’re pretty chunky beasts alright.

Numerous other near encounters such as stags, foxes, rabbits but none quite as painful. I think my favourite is the barn owl that flies along in front of me on one particular stretch of my routes.

Hydrapak hydration backpack and bladder with WhatMTB, still going strong after about 5-6 years.

“Guess she don’t like the cornbread either.”
“What do you expect us to use man, harsh language?”

And sundry others from the Aliens script 😀

I think it’s because it’s such a simple game – both the physical pieces of ‘kit’ you need to put a knockabout game together, as people have said above, and the rules of the game.

Compare the rules to to those in rugby (which I love and understand very well) which can seem impenetrable to casual observers (and occasionally to experienced fans!).

Like clubber said, the yr.no site has (IMO) the best visualisation of weather information, really like it. Accuracy of it? Still not too sure…

On the other hand, inAccuWeather has been so thoroughly wrong over the last few months that I’m finding it very useful to know what the weather is NOT going to be! 8)

Dyson, a Staffie / whippet / lab cross (we think!). Currently on long-term loan to some friends as we live in a rented farm cottage and there are lots of livestock around 🙁 Note Dusty the cat has kicked him off his bed, the wuss! 😈

Doing his favourite thing, frisbee chase/catch (this was at 24/12 a few years ago):

Getting a bit old now, going grey around the chops in exactly the same way as me, spooky owner/pet thing 😯

Dusty, a proper cat:

Brillo, the duck-footed fattypuss, daughter of Dusty and clearly a great disappointment to her 😀 :

I’ve been eyeing up that 7.9 for a while now but even with the weak Euro it’s still a smidge over the £1k bike2work limit! 😕

Canyon do look like superb value and all the reviews appear good too. With the £1k limit in mind, I’ve been thinking one of these would be ideal, also seem to be insanely good value 😀

Limited amount of reviews on them though – anyone got any info?

As above, not with Shimano 10sp R / M (as you’d asked).

Am I right in thinking that SRAM 10sp is good across both Road and MTB?

There’s a few architects of this parish, hopefully they’ll be along at some point to give their perspectives!

Definitely taking my DirtWorker! Solo-ing the 12 hour noon-midnight then helping out some mates doing the 24 hour team. Should be fun… 🙂

Starting with Nobby Nics but have MudXs on standby. Both have worked really well there on previous occasions.

Grief, that pic of Alnwick looks extreme! 😐 Hope everyone’s all right / insured.

Got caught in a brief snow and lightning storm coming down from the high point of Trail 401 in Colorado, and again in two hours of an absolute downpour with sheet lightning on the hills approaching Burgos on the Camino de Santiago while on a steel bike. The polished limestone descent was also quite entertaining on the latter 😯

All very character building – big manhug with my mate after we’d got down from the descent! 😀

Onzadog, as someone I think pointed out on That Other Forum 😉 , singling out Schwalbe without some specific evidence is probably actionable, which might be why they’re removed it 😈

And which might mean that Schwalbe are no more/less likely than others to pop off the rims. Blazin-saddles’ point about the tyre size decrease / rim size increase might be a better reason that they’re not such a good idea!

Wonder if current Hope Hoops stock is made with the older rims, so perhaps a bit less of a tight fit faff…

Onzadog, don’t know if I’m looking in the right place on the Stans site, but I can’t find a reference to Schwalbe being A Bad Thing on their rims on the page that covers which tyres

recommended tires (sic) 😉

There do seem to be some threads on various other fora but like me they’re a bit confused as to why Schwalbe would get singled out specifically e.g. here (will this get blocked?!)

all schwalbe are now not recommended for stans rims

What’s this, none at all? Was hoping to get some 29er Crests and run some TLR Schwalbes (Rons / Ralphs) – is this no longer an option?

LOL @GrahamS – but who knows, someone just might…! Thanks for the info – may have to get it and give it a go on the offroad rides.

D’you know if it disqualifies rides with an average (for the whole ride) of over 25mph, or will any blip over 25mph (easy round here in Zummerzet on a descent) disqualify the whole ride?

Ayup, Stoner – we used to live at the end of Giffard Drive, the small estate on the south side of Marlbank. Really liked everything about living there and only moved because of work (ironic as now I’m based from home!).

Re being “chin-achingly pleasant” 😀 great phrase. Absolutely, I used (and still use) the same tactic, being effusively polite in the face of the grumpy brigade – takes the wind out of their sails every time 😈

Ah, the Conservators – I seem to recall they commissioned a study on erosion of the hills with a view to using it to limit/prevent biking – but it backfired because it showed the footfall volume of walkers was doing way more damage…

I often did night rides on the hills so I didn’t need to worry about stacking into a bunch of walkers / horses / dogs around a corner. Some breathtaking views on a crisp sunny day though.

Spotted a van as I was driving to Cwmcarn earlier this week with “Jean Claude Van Man” emblazoned on the side. Well, it made me laugh anyway… 😆

We used to live in Welland, on the outskirts of Malvern, from 2002-2006. Great little primary school there (at least it was then). Friendly people. Some good pubs within staggering distance. Malvern has all the usual amenities.

I used to commute to Brum, it’s about a 20 minute / 5mile ride to Gt Malvern station from Welland (got me into cycling!), which would be an option for Cheltenham as well, obviously.

Onto the trails on the Malverns within 10 minutes 😀 plus some bridleways round and about for when it’s been dry.

The blurb under the video says “Shredding in Bolivia with Joe Schwartz, Rene Wildhaber and Rob Jauch, in 2009.”

EDIT: oop, too slow…