Depends on the vehicle and it’s use. The main family car gets premium tyres. The Berlingo gets whatever mid range are cheapest.

Can’t go wrong with premium brands, but there’s loads of decent mid range tyres these days. Kumho, Dunlop, Toyo, Avon, Uniroyal etc.

I’m having issues with chrome on android. Not staying logged in, having to accept cookies frequently etc.

Can’t help with that specific tariff, but Octopus GO tariff was 42.30p/kWh peak and 12p/kWh off peak for 4 hours only Vs the current standard rate of 33.03p/kWh.

Looked at it for charging our EV, and we’d need to charge it 4 or more times a month for that tariff to be worth it – which is about 8k miles a year. It didn’t seem worth it for us.

I’d be interested is what the other rates are like.

Recently got a shark cordless with anti hair wrap. Very pleased with it so far. Handles our long hair cats just fine. Battery lasts long enough to vac round the whole house and then some.

Far better than the old Vax it replaced, which kept burning through floor heads at an alarming rate.

I might be the minority here but I think the song is an absolute belter – one of my favourite Christmas songs.

@gribs Descend Bike Park at Hamersley Forest – I’m sure some national rounds have been held there previously

I feel personally attacked by this thread…

I struggled to find cheap forks with the right A2C for 120/130mm, but the two that fit the bill were:

1) exotic rigid forks, they do alu or carbon, the latter being a bit more expensive

2) Bird blank rigid forks. Bargain, but steel.

I’d probably just get a bootzipper though.

I got one of these a while back at its great, just works no drama. £70 at the time which I thought was a bargain.

Tranz X and brand X are made by the same company, and the cable/mechanism on this is identical to the brand X droppers.

The adjustable travel is really easy once you figure it out. This has come in very handy on the hardtail with the kids ride shotgun seat attached, as we can just adjust between me and my wife’s seat height easily.

Really? Someone flung 5-15% about further back, that looks a lot like mark-up and then some.

The subsidy rates that retailers have to pay finance companies for interest free credit depends the term and amount of the loan, but are typically around 9%. Sometimes less, sometimes more.

Cost isn’t the only consideration. The cycle to work schemes are usually more of a ball ache to administer for the bike shops. Most of the big finance companies have relatively easy to integrate web platforms where the customer can sort the finance themselves online via a button at checkout. They just need to ship the order and they’ll be paid automatically. Much easier than going onto one of potentially many scheme providers portals/emails and manually redeeming the voucher.

It’s a good point though – bike shops have to pay to receive money weather that be card processing fee, C2W voucher, or finance subsidy. Some just think the C2W juice ain’t worth the squeeze.

It benefits the cycle industry the same way as company car tax rules benefit the motor industry. And it’s higher earners who get the most benefit from both.

All the legal stuff is quite complex but there are some legal limits depending on you employer:

-Employer run scheme with no FCA permissions – £1k limit
-Employer run scheme with appropriate FCA permissions – no limit
-Third party to run the scheme (e.g. Cyclescheme, Cycle2Work, Halfords, Bike2Work, Cycle Solutions) – no limit

Even if there isn’t a legal limit many employers choose to impose their own limit on the schemes for a variety of reasons. In most cases it’s cashflow reasons as the employer usually has to pay for the cost of the bike in full up front. There’s minimum wage restrictions too, and recovering funds if the employee leaves can be a faff, so some might want to limit this exposure by having a cap.

The vast majority of employers tend to use a third party scheme just to avoid the hassle of administrating the hire agreements and bike purchases. An employer (definitely not mine…) might be FCA authorised, and hold consumer hire permissions, but may choose to outsource to CycleScheme to avoid the hassle. They might also hypothetically impose an arbitrary £2k limit for no good reason, in spite of the HR Director being an avid cyclist…again, hypothetically speaking.

The third party schemes are easy for employers but aren’t ultimately that good for employees or bike shops. The third party schemes charge a commission (typically 5-15%) to bike shops so they have to absorb this cost, or pass this cost onto the customer in some cases e.g. Bird. It’s a shame more employers don’t run the schemes themselves internally, but I can see why they don’t as it’s a legal, regulatory, tax, and operational minefield.

Technically speaking, the government guidance says that 50% of the bikes use should be for ‘qualifying journeys’, i.e. commuting to work purposes, but no one, not even the government, gives a shit. No one is policing this. Get some forks, or a DH rig, no one cares. It’s much easier to do this with the third party schemes as you just get a voucher which can be used at shops that accept them. If you employer runs the scheme internally it’s a bit harder to ask Debbie in HR to order some Fox 38s.

The track ‘Black Magic’ at Descend Bike Park at Hamsterly Forest has a section with a few successive drops in a straight row.

I’ve got a 1/4″ for bikes and a 1/2″ for cars.

All the little portable bike multi-tool ratchet sets are 1/4″ if that impacts your decision.

Another recommendation for the Ali Clarkson videos from me. I usually prefer hands on training but I found his videos great for learning to build wheels.

It’s quite therapeutic/relaxing bringing the truing stand into the warm house and lacing up a wheel on the dining room table or on the sofa.

You need to provide your and your insurers details to the other party. And you’ll need to notify your insurer yourself also (doesn’t matter if you intend to claim yourself or not).

Epic, Enduro, and sport are all the same course. All stages are timed, and you get an overall time for all of them too. They’re just slightly different flavours of the same thing.

-Epic (Friday) – Stage times, and overall times. No practice. Supposed to be a ‘MTB marathon’
-Enduro (Saturday) – Stage times only, and you get a few practice stages on Friday. Supposed to be the ‘proper enduro race’.
-Sport (Sunday) – Stage times only. No practice. Supposed to be an enduro race for punters.

You get a mix of abilities and ambitions in all of them.

Knee pads go on for anything more than tow paths, commuting, bridleways, or fire roads. I like my knees.

I’ve been running mine a year now and really happy with them.

Not had any problems with the rims, but I do run inserts. Only had to tension one spoke. Otherwise been very reliable.

They’ve not had an easy life either, I’m 120kg and have done BPW, Ard rock, Revs, and plenty other trail rides this year.

The superstar essential has the V3 hub. They have other wheelsets with the V6 hub for £119ish. Much more engagement and better bearings.

I have been eyeing up the element XC wheelset with the V6 hub – a bargain at that price.

We’ve got a Lenovo M10 for the little man, pretty happy with it. Cheap, good battery, works fine, Android.

Yes. Replacement handles can be had from Screwfix, Wickes etc. Unscrew old one, bin it, and fasten new handle with two screws/bolts.

You may encounter difficulty if there’s nothing for the screw/bolt to grab onto. One hole was pretty mangled so had to use a rivnut.

Just to add. Everyone at revs should be extremely proud of what they have built and the service they have provided.

Absolutely gutting news. Went for the first time a few weeks ago and the trails and staff were absolutely excellent. ****.

Small jumps and drops, stuff you just fly off, aye no bother. Anything that requires skill or technique, not so much…

Doesn’t bother me at all. Riding bikes is fun.

Whilst I’d love to get better at jumping I just don’t have the time these days to go out and practice over and over. I’d much rather cover ground than session some jumps with the time I do manage to get out on the bike.

Marathons are very puncture resistant, but I don’t like how heavy or harsh they feel. I found Big Ben’s with green guard the best for slicks on a 29er. Good comfort and rolling speed. Didn’t run either tubeless.

I’ve been commuting on WTB Rangers for the last two years and they have been fantastic. Lighter than Big Ben’s, far more comfortable, pretty fast rolling for a small block tyre, good grip off road, and fairly light, went up easily tubeless. Not one puncture either commuting through glass riddled urban paths. Done around 2000km on this pair.

We just went down to one car as the new one won’t be ready until January – and I’m already browsing the classifieds after 5 days.

During the week is no bother, but it’s the weekends that will be the problem when we both have different plans.

It doesn’t help that most our friends and family are in opposite directions to where we live, and we have lots of things in the calendar.

On one are launching a new bike soon, the Huntsman which I like the look of.

Canyon stoic looks good. If the budget can be stretched, the Stoic 4 is good spec.

Nukeproof Scout, Ragley Big Wig, or Big Al might fit the bill too.

Some Sonder bikes would probably be good options too.

It’ll be fine

I remember the last year it was at Temple Newsam (2002?). Toilets on fire, gas cannisters getting chucked on bonfires, riot police, and even a police helicopter, with some fireworks being launched at it. Good times. Wasn’t involved, but saw the people scrapping, throwing cans and stones and stuff at the riot police.

Went a few years at Bramham Park too, and there was always bonfires and ruckus on the Sunday nights but not quite the scale as at Temple Newsam. We’d always keep someone sober and drive home 2am ish on the Sunday night, as quite often there’d be a bonfire near the tents, and you’d not want to risk sleeping in them.

You can get the GoPro Hero 2018 model off eBay from around £100. The firmware can be updated so it’s the same as a Hero 5.

@Rich_s It’s ultimately up to a court to determine whether a criminal offence has been committed or not – innocent until proven guilty and that. The likelihood of the police investigating and taking a case of this scenario to court are pretty low – as mentioned before, they don’t give a shit about this kind of thing. The mortgage fraud they do investigate is usually of the organised kind.

However, if charges were brought, then the ‘intent’ in this scenario could easily be demonstrated by the fact that by failing to disclose information the OP will:

(1) gain something (a big ass loan for a house), and;
(2) will expose another (the mortgage lender) to a risk of loss (not being able to pay them back)

The definition of the offence “Fraud by failing to disclose information” under the Fraud Act 2006 covers either of these ‘tests’.

The ‘secured loan’ argument would not stand up at all. That’s like saying stealing something that is insured isn’t a crime.

I work in financial services and used to specialise in financial crime and anti money laundering.

What you’re describing is likely to be ‘fraud by failing to disclose information’, which is a criminal offense under the Fraud Act 2006.

If you have a decision in principle you will certainly be asked to confirm whether your personal circumstances have changed, and depending on the lender, they may carry out verification checks.

If you fail to disclose your change in employment, and the lender finds out, then the lender will likely decline the application, and also register the fraud with CIFAS, and other fraud prevention agencies. They register a ‘Category 4 CIFAS loading’ which will ruin you ability to obtain any credit in the future, not just mortgages.

It’s unlikely the police will give a shit about this kind of fraud, but that’s just because they’re swamped, and there’s too much fraud for them to investigate everything.

A CIFAS loadings can impact things like rental applications and job applications of the company screens for this kind of thing.

Your choice at the end of the day.

I’ve been happy with Nukeproof ARD inserts so far. They’re often on sale for £35ish for a pair and come with valves.

As others have said it’s up to your local Evri courier. Some are shit, some are good.

Our current one is spot on, and CRC next day has been fine for me, so far.

125kg rider here with WTB Rangers in 2.4 flavour on a rigid hard tail. Gets used for road, gravel, tow path, and mild trails. No issues with the sidewall at all. The grip usually runs out before the sidewall falls over.

What a race, and what a season so far.

I’m a couple of inches shorter and a similar weight. Frame an other components shouldn’t be a problem, but a reasonable set of wheels isn’t a bad idea.

Other things to consider for a heavier rider are:

Tyres: Need more PSI to stop the tyres folding over and feeling wobbly, but too high a pressure and they lose grip and deflect of rocks. I find tyre inserts great for enabling me to run lower pressures, and adding support to prevent tyre squirm. DH casing tyres help, but are heavy and draggy.

Suspension tune: Most tunes are aimed at average weight riders, so you may need to add a few tokens in order to stop it feeling too harsh over smaller bumps.

Brakes: I typically run the next size up rotors than my mates, riding similar trails at similar speeds. 220/200 vs 200/180 etc

I’ve only had two wheel issues which were to do with weight. First was with the stock wheels that came on a 2016 voodoo bizango – rear wheel pringled going off a small drop. Second was on my gravel bike with cheap second hand road wheels running too much PSI going over a speed bump – snapped a spoke.

I’d take delivery estimates with a pinch of salt.

Ordered my company car Skoda Enyaq (same platform as the id3) in June last year, and still haven’t got a factory build slot confirmed. Estimate keeps getting pushed back every month. Now showing October, which would make it 16 months from order to delivery, assuming it doesn’t get pushed back again.

If you’re reasonably fit you’ll be fine on any tyres, but something faster rolling will sap less energy.

Are you in Leeds by any chance? I might have some fast rolling 650b tyres you could have for cheap (I think they’re Vitoria Aka’s).