I had exactly the same with WTB Byways.

They did eventually seal themselves and held air fine after a few rides.

Alpkit do some really good rucksacks at reasonable prices.

Their 14l one is great for MTB, but they do a 25l one also.

Presta 25L

If oats are off the menu, I’d suggest:

>Peanut butter/Nutella sandwiches or wraps
>Soreen or other malt/fruit loaf
>Pancakes
>Brioche

Or if she usually eats toast, can she make some? I’ve managed to toast bread on my jet boil before by sticking a fork into the side and hovering it over the flame at the right height.

Motion control is fine for a basic damper but the limited compression adjustment can make it it difficult to set up especially if you’re a light or heavy rider – it just felt harsh for me over rougher stuff.

I replaced the MC with a Novyparts Splug and it feels like a big improvement. I’m not good or clever enough to say why but it just feels…better – less harsh and doesn’t dive as much over chunky stuff. Not sure what that translates to in bike journo marketing speak – something, something…small bump sensitivity…blah, blah….mid stroke support.

The Suntour R2C2-PCS damper is also really good and probably quite underrated – loads of adjustment.

I had the same when I first started commuting, so many punctures and mechanicals.

Leeds is littered with broken glass, nails, screws, and other stuff. I even managed to puncture a marathon plus casing tyre!

I’ve sacked off road oriented tyres now and have been running fast rolling MTB tyres tubeless. WTB rangers were good, and now running Mezcals after they wore out.

Also sacked off the gravel bike and now ride a rigid MTB.

I had the same rust on my suntour stanchions around where they interface with the bushings.

The wiper seals must have been letting water in. I just cleaned and polished and smoothed off the surface rust, replaced the wiper seals and foam rings, greased and oiled. Been running them for two years like that and there’s no play.

I’ve got a 2019 Substance VR and haven’t had any problems with mine.

I changed the bars for some with more flare and rise, but apart from that it’s not needed anything.

I’ve not ridden any other gravel bikes, but it rides how I’d expect a gravel bike to ride – faster and more efficient than my rigid MTB, but strong and compliant enough to ride poor surfaces (but not as comfy). I’ve got two wheelsets for mine, one 650b with big gravel tyres, and a 700c set with commuter/road tyres. Tyre clearance is limited (on the 2019 model at least) so you can’t run big 700c tyres.

Pretty good bike, but I don’t really ride it much these days so I should probably sell it.

Kielder Campsite is decent with good facilities.

Some MTB trails and plenty of gravel riding.

Looks great! Quite fancy one of these myself

13.6kg for a steel hardtail is pretty good if you ask me. Mine weighs 15.5kg…

I used to have a Bafang BBS01 fitted to my 2016 model Voodoo Bizango.

Not sure how the kits compare, but the bafang worked just fine. I did fit a smaller chainring (think it was a 36t lekkie ring). I think I got some other crank arms too as the ones that came with the kit kept coming lose. From memory I think these were Shimano.

The kit came off a few years ago, but the frame is still going strong and is used as my commuter.

@tall_martin

That’s a great idea!

Funnily enough I was recently thinking of ways to strap my lads balance bike to a rucksack, but rack is another option I can consider.

My ‘dad bike’ which has a kids ride shotgun seat permanently attached has 64° head angle, 160mm 36mm stanchioned forks, enduro casing tyres, tyre inserts, 200mm rotors, 4 pot brakes, and an XT drivetrain.

I genuinely find going to the store far easier and less stressful than doing an online shop, providing they have the scan while you shop things.

Plus, I get to walk about rather than sat in front of a phone/computer searching for 100+ items and adding them to the basket, which I hate doing.

I’m definitely going to look into the advice about using a Tesco credit card and clubcard plus. Our current cashback credit card (Amex) only gets us about £150 back each year.

Aye. Works just as well as the Brand X fixed travel ones.

Travel adjust is pretty easy once you get the hang of it.

I use it on the ‘dad bike’ with the kids seat so both me and my wife can ride it – 200mm for me, 170mm for her.

I’m finding Gillette Mach 3 to be quite a good compromise for shaving the head currently.

The three blades are spaced a bit further apart than the five blade ones, which seems to clog up less. I typically shave my head twice a week, so its a bit longer.

Costco do 20 packs for £18 or something.

My absolute favourite ones are Venus though. The little flat handle at the end is very ergonomic for the back of the head, and the moisturiser pads are a nice touch. Not as cheap as men’s stuff though.

It’ll be fine.

+/-10mm travel is pretty much the difference between 20% or 30% sag.

Excellent, thank you.

20 correct, jeeeez – I need to spend less time on here 😂

Honestly, what’s so hard to understand – some people like them, some people don’t. Do people seriously lack the perspective to be able to see why others may prefer an SUV over other kinds of vehicles?

Vehicle choice, just like bike and component choice, is about deciding which compromises best fit with your own wants and needs.

Some people are far too concerned with what other people choose to spend their money on.

Classic singletrackworld – SUV bad, van good…

Salad cream just got added to the shopping list.

Also, malt vinegar can sod off. Non-brewed condiment (commonly referred to as vinegar) is the stuff that chips should be drowned in.

Call them up and raise a complaint. You’re a victim of a crime and they’re failing to treat you fairly.

The stress, worry, and inconvenience, is causing you material distress and inconvenience. The credit file impacts your legitimate access to credit.

You shouldn’t be receiving any arrears letters whilst the agreement is under investigation.

The credit file update can take up to 6 weeks to filter through (once they actually make the change).

My employment contract says that moonlighting during contracted hours is considered misconduct, which could result in disciplinary action or termination of employment. Working another job whilst pulling a sickie would clearly be in breach of my contract, but I’m not sure whether the same would apply to striking – it ‘feels’ similar.

By the way, I’ve got no problem with people striking, or people doing additional work in their free time, apart from the fact it may be a necessity.

I’ve also got no problem with paying for services/good with cash. Whether they pay tax or not is none of my business – it’s a matter between them and HMRC.

Signed up to a new GP last time we moved and had a routine vital check from them. BP was 160/110 to my surprise given I’d recently ran a marathon. Now on ramipril and lercanidipine and it’s down to 130/85ish.

All time high reading was 170/120.

East Leeds tends to be a bit better value than the northern/north western areas.

Garforth, Rothwell, and the surrounding villages are quite nice, and have decent schools.

And more importantly, there’s plenty of bridleway/canal path xc riding around that area too. And good motorway links so better riding isn’t that hard to get to.

I understand STW have one at the moment, so a test/review will be out at some point.

There’s also plenty of owners opinions over on the Bird Facebook Owners Group.

Not officially, and there’s no flip chip, or linkage available.

It’s got a fairly high BB so could probably get away with just putting a 27.5 wheel on the back without getting pedal strikes. But it’s fairly slack so you’d probably want to run 150mm forks rather than 160mm to keep the head angle sensible.

Alternatively, you could get some offset bushings and run them ‘backward’ to normalise the geo.

I’ve got an old Ragley Blue Pig steel hardtail parts bin build I’d sell for that price. Rockshox Reba RL fork, WTB i29 wheels and tyres, NX 11 speed (11-46t), crank brothers dropper, Shimano 2 pot brakes.

I’m in Leeds though, which isn’t necessarily on the way if you’re heading down the west coast. Drop me a PM if interested.

That’s mental!

I’m sure some STW armchair engineers/scientists will be along shortly to give their expert opinion.

Worked for me too.

They did wildflower seeds at Leeds Urban Bike Park, which looked fantastic the first year. But weeds have taken over now, so the flowers don’t really grow anymore. Still, the muddy bits now have foliage which looks much tidier than mud.

Mech hanger is the only part to worry about, but it appears that Nordest ones are the same.

What size is your lad after? I’ve got a 18″ gen 3 one I’ve been thinking of selling. Love the bike but I just don’t use it enough.

Two of my friends quit teaching after a year.

My sister recently quit after 20+ years.

Three of my friends are pretty happy, but two work in (different) special needs schools, and the other one works in a private school, all of which have decent funding, staffing, facilities, equipment etc.

It’s not unusual for bigger companies to ask for payment upfront. Fairly standard these days.

Bit different to local tradesmen or businesses who generally only ask for deposit upfront and invoice afterwards.

Just pay using a credit card. You’ll have protections under the VISA/MasterCard chargeback scheme, and you’ll have protection under section 75 of the consumer credit act. Both will cover any dodgy install or non delivery.

It doesn’t matter what you use the bike for. No one cares, no one checks.

My old c2w bike has never ventured into the office. And was a full suspension trail bike.

I’m one at work.

You’re not expected to be a counsellor or mental health professional, just someone impartial people can approach confidentially if they want. Helps if they’re reluctant to speak to their manager or HR.

Our role is to be an impartial point of contact for other people in the company, and to signpost them to internal company support and external help.

The training is fairly straightforward but quite interesting, and covers things like how to listen without judging, understanding the different mental health conditions and the warning signs. And what to do if you think someone is a risk of suicide or self harm.

Edit: Not had to put it into practice much. Only two people have approached me in the three years I’ve done it. I’ve mainly just helped people find the number for our Employment Support Line.

Dan at the Helm?

Nah, he prefers Fox 36’s…

Has there ever been a redundancy consultation which resulted in zero redundancies? This is the point, they didn’t want to use the word ‘redundancy’ and instead used ‘consultation’ because it was a bit fluffier and didn’t sound as bad.

It’s the role that is made redundant, not the person. Consultations often end with no one leaving the company.

I’ve been through a couple of ‘proactive organisational transformation programmes’ (department restructures) where no one actually lost their job at the end of the consultation. The old job roles were canned and new ones were created which people landed into.

@monkeyboyjc

This is quite often pointless as many finance agreements you have a fixed interest fee. On a 28k car with 10% interest you’ll be paying £30,800 (2800 in interest if you pay it off early or not)…..your almost always better off not doing finance.

This isn’t correct. There’s rules governing how much lenders can charge when you settle early – gone are the days of front loaded interest for regulated consumer finance. If you pay off finance early the lender calculates a ‘settlement quote’ using a prescribed formula which rebates most of the ‘future’ interest.

You can quite easily take out finance to take advantage of any offers and then pay it off early. You might end up paying a minimal amount of interest, which will roughly be the amount accrued up until the date of settlement.

My dentist says:

>brush regularly with an electric toothbrush.
>Use any toothpaste, it doesn’t really matter which
>Use fluoride mouthrinse, not mouthwash
>Floss regularly

I remember there was a thread on ‘Credit card touring’ which had lots of useful advice.

Edit: Linky

Bikepacking lite advice