Thanks, I suspect Canary Isles will end up being the best option given noone wants to deal with rain!

I stuck a Rimpact v2 in the rear wheel of my full sus beginning of last year, don’t think I’ve had a flat since then. Less pricey than the other options at ~£45 a wheel, but still pricey for a bit of fancy foam! Personally I can’t recall more than 1 front wheel flat in the last 10 years, so I’ve not needed one in the front wheel. Have since bought another Rimpact for my hardtail.

Just to add my 2 cents to the posts above, really really REALLY do not piss about with this and treat it like the early warning sign that it most likely is. You sound a lot like me at this point last year, and if you are you’ll end up keeping on pushing through because on some days you feel fine and you don’t want to waste them. I’ve now been diagnosed with LC, have done no exercise since last November, have been on <20h per week at work since Feb, and am leaving my job in a few weeks to try and fully recover.

I’d suggest taking some proper time off exercise (~4 weeks) and then only going back to doing 50-70% of what you feel you’re capable of. If that doesn’t trigger the PEM, slowly increase the amount (e.g. 5-10% per week) and if you get PEM again dial it back until you find a level that works for you. Best case scenario, you feel fine but do a bit less exercise than you wanted to and you think all those forumites were doom-mongering. Worst case scenario you end up in the same situation as us – you really don’t want that, it’s horrible.

It’s like Adam Curtis is directing one of my cheese dreams

Bet those are actually interesting though

Oh wait she found a real one

How long is this assasins creed looking bint gonna ride this robo-horse for?

Thanks all, some good food for thought. The main thing that worries me while recovering is finding myself at the bottom of a hill with no energy and having to get up it to get home. I’ve had that once or twice out on walks where i thought i was fine, and then suddenly your body goes into limp mode. For that reason my something with a decent amount of power available if i need it is probably best. I have been looking at the Orbea options as well but the most recent models are a little spendy.

Wasn’t the point of it to try and land the planes on it rather than creating a super accurate model? He pretty much acheived that, technically they’re more crashes thand landings but if you’ve ever seen footage of WW2 pilots trying to land on carriers it’s not far off! I thought it was vaguely entertaining for 5 mins or so which is the point of most youtube content creators.

Yes, that’s part of the problem – we have competency matrices for all of our non-senior roles, but not for the senior ones, so it’s not possible to see what additional tasks they may need to take on with the promotion. Based on what I know about our current roles/targets it very much feels like a title/salary bump with minimal changes in day-to-day expectations. I may be completely wrong about that though and will be discussing with my manager once he’s back in.

Thanks all for the responses, it’s good to get other perspectives as I was a bit emotionally labile yesterday with the long covid anyway. I’m better symptom-wise today and am less annoyed about it, but I still feel it should have been handled better – if it was one of my direct reports in a similar situation I’d have given them a heads up in advance and explained why they weren’t getting promoted and what they needed to do if they wanted it.

If they’ve gone from Ferret Wrangler to Senior Ferret Wrangler and nothing else has changed, why should you care?  Did it come with a salary uplift which has passed you by?  Were there junior staff to backfill their roles but not in your case?

Yeah, they’ll now be getting paid more to do effectively the same role while I’m not. No-one was promoted to fill their previous roles so  that’s not a limiting factor.

I never asked about one, no – tbh if it does come with more responsibility then I’m not sure I want it anyway. So it’s a bit silly of me to be annoyed about it, but apparently I am. I think it’s more the fact that 3 people with ~1.5 years in the same role as me have been promoted while I have 3 years in role and it’s never even been discussed with me.

It’s an unusual situation as well as I’ve worked with the company founders for basically all of my career in this industry (~14 years) across different companies, and my line manager was a friend before he was my manager. When I started here there were about 30 of us so everything was very informal – so it’s maybe that my expectations/the line management relationship is no longer fit for purpose now that we’re 3 times the size.

Good question, we don’t yet have proper job descriptions for the senior roles (stupid, i know), there may be some additional responsibilities but i doubt it as there’s nothing relevant to our departments that we don’t all already do. E.g. when i went from my previous role to this one nothing massively changed, i just have targets now (which i hit). Promotions are often more about making sure people feel like there’s a sense of progression than there being any real step-change in responsibilities. From my position it just looks like they’ll be getting paid more and i won’t.

I’m probably over thinking this and there’ll be a reasonable reason for it, it just feels a bit crap when everything you’ve been told suggests you’re doing at least as well as others (better in some cases) and then they’re rewarded and you’re not.

You’re probably right Kramer, and i may well feel differently tomorrow as my symptoms haven’t been great today which may be affecting it.

“If there are 3 roles, which of the other people do you think has stolen yours?”

Like i said, thats not how it works in my place and i don’t begrudge any of them. It’s more the poor communication around it that’s annoyed me – if I knew any of my line reports weren’t getting promoted and their similarly performing peers were, I’d make sure I discussed it with them before the announcement went out as I’d expect them to have questions.

Yes, had an end of year appraisal and it was very positive, no mention of any issues. I could have raised it then, but we’d discussed previously that we needed to sort out our senior job titles/roles as they were a bit vague and aren’t aligned with out clients – I’d assumed nothing would be happening til that was sorted. Also the LC was getting pretty bad at that point so i wasn’t exactly keen to extend the meeting.

It’s maybe just different management styles, but i make sure my line reports know where they stand RE promotion and what else they need to show if they’re not ready for it in the next round.

Not yet, just announced today and my manager is away this week. I will be raising it once he’s back.

That sounds crap Aldo, hope you manage to get back to some semblance of normality. Sound advice vs work vs health, have decided to take a week off to start and see how it goes from there.

For those who took time off work to recover, did it help? I’ve been experiencing long covid like symptoms since November following a virus, I’m going through the process of ruling things out with the GP at the moment but the fatigue and brain fog are making work really challenging. It’s a desk based job thankfully but it’s mentally challenging at the best of times, and if I take time off most of my tasks just won’t get done, making it even more difficult when I do go back.

Hope all those right wing MAGA politicians realise now how Russia deals with its opposition.Hope all those right wing MAGA politicians realise now how Russia deals with its opposition.

Problem is, that’s how they’d all like to deal with their opposition so they’ll just see it as him being a strong leader.

I’m also out 20th July to 3rd August, the Mrs. and the dog will be coming but they don’t ride so I’ll be on my tod. Will probably ride every other day (she loves nothing better than spending a day with a book, a sunny spot, and a nice pot of coffee) which should hopefully be better than last year where my hands/wrists were the limiting factor when riding every day!

Also driving (from Manchester), we’re planning on taking an AirBnB somewhere around Arras(ish) for the overnight as the dog kicks off if there are noises during the night if we stay in a hotel. Doesn’t look too expensive and means the bike can come inside as well.

As others have said, just do it yourself, it’s dead easy once you have the kit – ours get a storage wax after every trip and then the next year I just scrape and brush them. If the edges get really bad they get done in resort, but it’s pretty hard to mess them up that badly when we’re just riding one week a year!

You can buy direct from Santa Cruz as they have a shop on the UK site.

I’m guessing it’s a US site that converts to GBP as they want £32 for shipping! Leaning towards the Lockjaws at the moment…

As I have no need of new knives it’s nice to have a look at all the pretty pretty blades. There’s a nice stainless nakiri and a carbon one as well – carbon needs a bit more care as they’ll rust if left wet for too long, but I’ve had no issues using mine for an hour or so without cleaning/drying it. There’s also a rather lovely stainless gyuto though it may be a little above your budget.

There’s a knife nerd subreddit that may be helpful here, has recommendations at various price points. I’ve bought a nakiri and a gyuto based on this in the past and i love them both. I think general advice would be not to get a block, they’re apparently not good value for the quality of knives you get. If you’ve already got a chefs knife you like then I’d suggest a nakiri with a slightly rounded tip so you can rock chop if necessary – mine is probably my most used knife now. I’d also agree with either getting existing knifes properly sharpened or getting some stones and learning to do it yourself. It’s not that hard and it can be quite a nice mindful way to spend an afternoon!

Thanks both, I’ll give one of them a try!

There’s still a few Yellow S3s in the Expert spec.

Damn, now I’m even more tempted. Dumb question, but how do you charge them? Bikes live in a shed with no power and it’d be a pain to have to run an extension out after every ride!

Probably just as well they don’t have any left in my size, very temping!

Fair points all, already had the replacements booked in but as it hadn’t lost pressure at any point even after the screw came out I did wonder if it was worth £350!

It’s more on the tread than the sidewall, but it’s at that point where one becomes the other.

Logistics are one thing, but I’d think carefully about the welfare of the dog as well. Dogs generally like their routines and such significant disruption twice a year could be bad for some dogs – some would be absolutely fine, but others could become an anxious mess. We have a Cavapoo, and while he’d probably be fine with being in different locations, he’d really struggle with airports and flying.

I just replaced the gear cable on my eagle with shimano as i had it lying around, it’s fine so far.

Thanks all, it’s a client meeting so work are paying and it means cycling in is a no go – will be in a suit (plus leaving a bike in Manchester all day doesn’t appeal).

I think I’m leaning towards driving, been looking at Google a bit more and public transport means at least a 3 h round trip with the possibility of it being longer if there are delays (which seem inevitable at the moment). If I drive it’s between a 1.5h and 2h 20 min round trip and I’ll park up at Trinity.

Sorry, I’m in Prestwich – so basically in Manchester

We’re meeting at The Office Group – No. 1 Aire Street. Yeah, the M62 can be crap coming from Manchester, but on the other hand I’d need to travel Bury New Road driving into/out of Manchester which is almost as bad.

Thanks all, I’m coming in from the SW via Whitehall Rd, which looks like a fairly straightforward run in. My main issue with getting the train in is getting into Manchester to get it – that alone is about 45 mins each way by public transport, and if I drive it leaves me trying to get out of Manchester around rush hour on the return leg!

Saw the physio today, he reckons it’s an insertional Achilles tendon issue as suggested by a few above, hopefully the exercises he’s given me sort it out!

Thanks all, I’ve booked in with the physio on Friday so will see what they say!

Could be plantar fasciitis I guess, just strange that there’s no pain at all in the sole of the foot. Hopefully a physio can shed some light on it!

Yeah, that’s my concern, don’t really want a long term achilles injury! There was no apparent cause with mine either, just started hurting one day.

Ta, it’s going to be in the shed so I’ll see how it goes – no power supply out there so would have to run the extension cable out.