I picked up the Elite Mag Speed Alu from Halfords from the link above earlier today. Same price as Wiggle, and cheaper than CRC. If you’re going to get one from a store though, make sure you reserve it online before heading down, as it’s £119.99 in-store. Variable resistance with handlebar mounted control, and it’s compatible with the virtual power feature on trainerroad.com if that’s something you’re after. Doesn’t seem too noisy either from a quick spin.

Near Neville’s Cross (dunno what he’s cross about though) in Durham. Originally from Manchester but been up here for a couple of years now and work for a very North Eastern company so I’m settled

I’ve been perfectly happy with my current gen Paperwhite 3G. As above the lighting isn’t terribly even at the bottom of the screen, but it’s never bothered me

If you stick with finishing in Sunderland, watch out over the last couple of miles, as it’s more or less completely surfaced in broken glass. As above I’d personally aim for the Tynemouth finish, as the scenery is better and the refreshment options are better.

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Cube Peloton Pro[/url] by durhambiker[/url], on Flickr

Cube Peloton Pro, my first road bike, collected from the lbs yesterday. Starting to get interested in triathlons, having done a sprint distance earlier in the year, and the bike and run legs of an olympic distance at Ullswater last weekend. Been craving a road bike, so went for this one to get started.

Love the looks, now just need to get used to riding it!

The Hurt Locker and Zero Dark Thirty are worth a watch

Well, went out for my first attempt at bikepacking this weekend after wanting to try it for a while. The wife decided she didn’t want to be in the house over the weekend, so decided yesterday lunchtime that we should load up the bikes and head out.

Fairly tame first attempt, 30 all-road miles from Durham to Middleton-in-Teesdale. With not much in the way of lightweight and/or small cooking equipment we decided we’d use local eateries on arrival (this needs to be changed, NEEDED a brew this morning and had to wait).

Used cheap Tesco kit in the form of a 2 man tent, self-inflating mats, sleeping bags and drybags. The tent poles were wrapped in my mat to take some weight off my back. All seemed to work quite well, though the tent was a bit on the short side for me. Looking forward to another attempt soon.

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The Bikepacking Machine[/url] by durhambiker[/url], on Flickr

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Camp[/url] by durhambiker[/url], on Flickr

With my old Kindle 3G Keyboard (which was replaced with a Paperwhite 3G after I stupidly left it in the seat pocket of a KLM 777 at Singapore airport during a fuel stop) the browser “worked” on both wifi and 3G, which made it much more useful. The Paperwhite browser is only usable on a wifi connection.

As for loading up with books before you go, that’s fine unless there are books that are due to be released whilst you’re away. There have been a few occasions now where I’ve been able to read a new release in the sun thanks to the 3G, and for me I don’t begrudge the initial additional outlay to have that benefit. And as stated by others, I’ll often get to the end of a book, and want to find more by the same author that I hadn’t expected to want to read before setting off.

Sure, a wifi-only model would still serve it’s purpose fine, I just like the extra flexibility of having the 3G.

No contract fees with the Kindle Paperwhite 3G. Just the initial purchase price and that’s it.

I agree with knowing how to ensure the chain is tensioned properly. Had a chain jump off the bar once due to being too slack, and I can honestly say it was one of the most terrifying moments of my life so far. Luckily the saw saw stalled immediately, but it took a while for my nerves to settle back down.

A macho ex-army mate of mine would never go anywhere near chainsaws, however..

+1 on the Sigma lenses. On top of the 18-55mm kit lens that came with my 400D, I’ve got the Sigma 10-20 f4-5.6, and the Sigma 105 f2.8 Macro. “Cheap” compared to a lot of other options on the market, but decent lenses too. Also running the very cheap and cheerful Canon 50mm f1.8, cost about £50.

Bag-wise I’m a fan of the Lowe Pro Slingshot series, though I’ve also got a Lowe Pro bag similar to the Canon bag you’ve shown there. The Slingshots are great for fast access without having to remove the bag.

I progressed away from Auto mode mainly using Av mode. Decide what sort of depth of field I want, and let the camera work out the rest. Then take it onwards from there.

No particular order, but here are mine:

Peter Green
Joe Satriani
Slash
Dimebag Darrell
Brian May

On the reliability front my work runs something like 230 Caddys for the past couple of years after swapping from Transit Connects. No major problems. Love driving mine, just wish I had weekend use of it and didn’t have metal racking taking up the entire load bay.

The original plan for our wedding was a fancy do at Durham Castle after the ceremony itself at the registry office. After looking at how much saving that was going to take, we decided to bin that idea. Were we personally going to get the benefit out of spending all that cash? No chance, it was going to be a special day anyway for us, so we re-evauluated the plans.

Stuck with the registry office, which in Durham is in a gorgeous building anyway and the staff were amazing. 17 guests at the ceremony that we then had a slap up lunch for in the adjoining restaurant which was the priciest bit of the day, but was no more than £30 per head. We then buggered off to a hotel for the afternoon before heading to the evening reception.

Rather than Durham Castle, we had our reception in our favourite pub in town. They closed the place for us, the chef did an amazing spread of food and then outright refused to take any money for it, and they even got onto one of the local breweries who got a special brew on for us. We then got nicely drunk, in our local, with our friends and family, and genuinely believe we had a better time than if we’d gone for the castle.

Then used the savings to go to Bali. Get your priorities straight!

Got back from Bali about 2 weeks ago from our belated honeymoon. Stayed in Sanur for a couple of nights, then headed over to Tulamben for the diving.

Whilst in Sanur, we went for one of the guided bike tours based out of Ubud, the company we used was Bali On Bike. Great way to see the rural way of life and get a taste for things, with a great guide. Lovely food provided at the end, and Bintang practically forced upon you included in the cost.

Diving in Tulamben was amazing, but if that’s not an option for you, at least do some snorkelling. Some great life to see right from the shore. Would have done much more had I not perforated my ear drum diving with an ear infection. Still, saw a barracuda and a large group of bumphead parrotfish on the dive when it happened. So worth the pain.

It’s a bit weird getting used to the amount of litter around the place, and the sellers/taxi drivers/etc don’t seem to understand “no”, but other than that, a lovely island with lovely people. We certainly want to go back.

Off to Newcastle airport in a couple of hours to catch a flight to Amsterdam, where I’ll then be getting on another plane to Bali. Slight improvement on driving a van around in the snow.

There’s been snow around the Consett/Stanley area, though to be fair nowhere near as much as the worse areas that have been on the news. The roads are all fairly clear, including the back roads and estates that the council never bother trying to clear.

A colleague of mine was also up in Alston yesterday and got around fine on back roads, though couldn’t comment on any of the off road tracks up there.

Unfortunately can’t use mine for biking as it’s a work vehicle on a “work use only” deal, plus the racking in the back would prevent me getting bikes in anyway, but there would easily be enough room for a couple of bikes and kit if it wasn’t loaded up with tea and biscuits.

As for the vans themself, they are great vehicles. Work run a fleet of about 150 of them, and we’ve no complaints. Nice to drive, comfy, good on fuel (most of the fleet are 1.6 Bluemotion). If I was to get one myself I’d possibly go for a Maxi to have more room for camping gear etc too.