I’ve never really skied (bar one lesson) but started snowboarding as an adult (although at 19 a very young one!). My take on it is similar to riklegge’s, it’s probably easier to pick up the basics of snowboarding but trickier to get to the point where you look like you know what you’re doing. However, the initial few days of snowboarding have quite a painful learning curve – you will fall down, a lot, sometimes smashing your cocyx and sometimes catching an edge and going down face first and smashing your knees. As an older learner that may not be great for you – I know at 41 I wouldn’t be too keen on it!

I’d say go for skiing, it doesn’t look as painful to pick up and the button/t-bar lifts the dry slope are likely to have are much easier to use on skis than on a board.

The pins on the parallelogram wear causing the mech to flex under load, you can replace them with stainless steel ones if you can be arsed.

Got any guides/vids showing how? Still got my old mech in the shed and given supply issues it might be easier to replace the pins than get a new one!

Stupid question first, is the bolt attaching the derailleur to the frame done up properly? I’m guessing it is, so maybe worth checking for play in the parallelogram – I’ve had to replace an eagle mech before due to play, it wasn’t obvious while shifting in the stand but when moving the mech by hand you could see it quite clearly.

What bike, tyres, terrain, riding style…..? Tubeless or tubes?

+1, and also what weight are you? At ~65kg I run 18 front and 23 rear on a 27.5 with 2.6 tubeless tyres. Riding mostly in the Peak and the Lakes so the extra pressure is needed or I get flats. However the point about gauges is true too, mine may not give the same readings as yours. I believe the accepted wisdom is to keep dropping pressures until you get flats or the tyre gets squirmy, then go back up a bit to reach the best pressure for you.

Thanks. I didn’t have much reaction to AZ X2 or Pfizer booster, but the MIL is hanging out for Moderna having reacted to Pfizer previously… I don’t think Moderna is available locally yet.

FWIW the wife and I had 2x Pfizer as our initial jabs, no issues with 1st ones but I had quite bad fatigue after the 2nd. We both had the Moderna booster last week and both of us had bad flu-like symptoms (chills, fevers, joint aches) within 24h, though they went within a couple of days. So probably no real point waiting for the Moderna jab if she’s worried about side effects!

The Sainz one is spot on 😂

I assume they also have a load of hobbyists saying “you want to buy this expansive, obscure set of tools that need an elaborate rigmarole to operate, which you can only do after studying many hours of YouTube videos” and a pro who says “I do mine using this simple, inexpensive tool that dead easy to use”. 😉

See, also shaving and coffee.

Tbf, if OP is spending >£100 on a knife they’re probably firmly in the hobbyist category and will fit in well with the rest of us nerds 😉.

I’d recommend looking at r/sharpening on reddit as a starting point for recommendations on stones and then buying 1 stone as a starter (probably a ~1k one). I’d then recommend practicing on a couple of cheap knives until you can create a burr and remove it consistently. I wouldn’t bother with a guide unless it comes with the stone, I never used it after the 1st time.

Nice knives btw, I love my Nakiri!

I’d also check the derailleur itself for play as well, I had a similar issue and it was the parallelogram having developed play, was wobbling about all over the place.

We had this happen with our chain last year, our buyer didn’t pull out but they weren’t willing to complete until a tedious rentcharge issue (of £5 a bloody year 🙄) got resolved and it didn’t look like there was an end in sight for a while as we couldn’t get in contact with the rentcharge owner. Our sellers put their house back on the market, turned out they were getting pressure from their seller to do so but still wanted to go with us. Turned out ok in the end but it was a bit twitchy for a bit.

Ultimately it comes down to how much you want the house, if there are other options then threatening to pull out of the sale might call their bluff and they’ll take it off the market. Equally they might just say ‘bye bye’, welcome to the stupidity of the English system!

I have those muck boots and they’re great compared to the faff of tying laces on boots (yes I’m lazy). They do come up very big in size though, I’m normally an 8 and have 7s, but I have to wear thick socks with them and could easily have gone to a 6.

Yep, got it around the start of September and the symptoms lasted at least 4 weeks, had a PCR at the height of the symptoms which was negative. Work has been awful over the last few months so stress has probably been a factor, but I’m still not even close to 100%. The coughing and sniffling has mostly gone, but I’m still knackered. Possibly I’ve had multiple colds over that period though.

But again as demonstrated here, it isn’t true. They’re getting frotted up time and time and time again over things that may indeed disgraceful or unacceptable or shocking, if they weren’t abject lies. They might as well be getting cross about Batman

And then when it’s pointed out to them that it isn’t true they just ignore it and start getting frothed up about something else. It’s the proverbial pigeon on the chess board, they’re not here to debate or engage, just to shit all over everything and declare everyone else to be a woketard.

Castle crag? Aye, I don’t do it any more for that reason. And it’s not actually very good either really

Yep, certainly not worth the cost of a new tyre!

The MEN’s website is awful, it’s like they’re actively trying to drive people away from it! If you’re looking for good journalism in Manchester it’s worth checking out The Mill, it’s subscription based but you can get one article free a week.

Should be more concerned about tyre carcass I tell thee!!

Yup, I’ve only done the borrowdale bash 3 times but I’ve managed to slice my sidewall on it twice! On the same descent. Maxxis DHR 2 as well so not like it’s a flimsy tyre.

I’ve a 2018 Spectral and ride regularly in the Peak, can’t say I’ve had any issues with pedal strikes compared with previous bikes. 2.6 tyres and 170 mm cranks, I weight about 65 kg kitted up, had a Float dps with ~150 psi, now running a coil bomber which has really improved the bike. No idea if that’s helpful or not but it suggests it’s not an inherent issue with that bike in that location!

Nice one, thanks – new pair of free riders too!

Walna is a good option if you want the big mountain feel, just be aware of 2 things:

(1) the climb from Seathwaite up to the pass is a very tough climb compared to trail centres – 400m up over ~2.3 km

(2) the top part of the descent from the pass before you cut off is likely to be busy with walkers

Check the derailleur parallelogram as well, I had a similar issue (and similar frustrations!) and it turned out to be play in the bushings. A new one fixed the issue.

Plus punctures are generally easier to fix tubeless than with tubes – no need to take the wheel off, no need to unseat the tyre, just bung an anchovy in and trim it down.

Grizedale is great, though that route linked above is just ok, there are plenty of bridleways that can be linked up. There are also some off-piste bits that I don’t know much about, but you can see them on Strava. If you’ve only done TC riding before you’ll find it very different – much more technical with less flow in places. Personally I prefer that to TCs but YMMV. Oh, and some climbs are an absolute bitch if you’re used to TC climbs.

I can ping you a decent route if that’s helpful but it looks like I need an email address – can’t see any way to just share the link.

You forgot to put a simile at the end of that statement, so readers may thing you are serious about Aston.

Only seen 1 podium from Seb and that was a lucky one. They’re hounding the bottom rung of the top ten places at the minute!

And we have a taker!

I got a fixed penalty and 3 points ~15 years ago for doing the same, I was a named driver on someone else’s insurance at the time and don’t think it had any effect on that. The points came off my record while I had my own insurance and I don’t recall it having much/any impact on the premium the next year.

Probably more effort for them to package all the (now removed) parts and post everything back safely……

Yeah, it does seem like stripping the components will be the more time-consuming part which they’ll have to do even if I’m building myself!

Is there any warranty moving forwards?

There should be, total warranty period is 6 years from purchase. The email doesn’t say anything about it being invalid if work isn’t done by a qualified mechanic but it’s definitely worth clarifying that with them.

Do you have the rest of the bike or do they?

They’ve got the full bike – I did ask if they really needed everything, but they said they did.

I’d do it myself but there maybe some things that don’t go smoothly, will they supply all the correct shock bushings and any necessary spacers/washers etc?

If it’s like-for-like then the current bushings etc should still be compatible (hopefully!).

If you bought a bike and are getting one bit changed, albeit the frame, that should include the labour of doing it IMO

Yes, a bearing kept coming loose in the seat stay – they replaced the stay twice but the third time it happened they took the frame back for inspection and emailed on Friday to say they were replacing the whole thing. It’s a 3 year old frame and it’ll be roughly a month without it from sending it in to getting the new one (they quoted ~2 weeks on Friday) so it’s pretty reasonable timeline-wise.

I guess I could push for them to do the swap for free, but tbh I kinda see it as the cost of using an online-only retailer. However, if it turns out it’s not like-for-like once it arrives in the UK I’ll definitely push for replacement/fitting of any bits that no longer work with it.

Took my rear mudguard off my hardtail thinking “won’t need that for a while”, sorry guys. Tbf it would have made bugger all difference to how wet I got on Saturday anyway…

I went through a period of smashing mechs which always seemed to happen at the farthest point from the car. That hasn’t happened on my current bike, but I did have the circlip on the base of my reverb break and end my ride – apparently my model is prone to it.

If you’re happy to throw in some of the non-TC trails then I’d go to Grizedale – I can share a decent route if that helps or there are a couple on the flattyres website. Otherwise I’d rate them as Whinlatter > Gisburn > Cannock, though I’ve never done the stile cop bits at Cannock. If you do Cannock you also risk getting stuck in traffic on the M6 post-ride whereas it should be reasonably free-flowing after Gisburn or the Lakes options.

There’s the fire tower trail up in lochgilphead, only done it once about ~8 years ago but I remember it being fairly dull on a full sus so it might be good on a gravel bike.

Definitely a first world problem, and tbh I’m not that bothered about getting vaccinated – I’m pretty low risk and 99% certain I’ve had it already. Just venting as I was a bit frustrated at the waste of time!

Unfitgeezer, if no-one moaned on STW there would basically be no posts…

North Manchester, MMC

Yeah, probably just bad luck but feeling a bit frustrated by it!

I’d guess it was a staff shortage, if a few people didn’t show up I can see how a long line would build up over the course of the day. Amazed other people were willing to wait in it tbh. No idea who was running it.

Thanks all, Moffat sounds good but might be a bit too late in the journey to combine lunch with a walk as we can’t check in to the place in the Lakes til 4. Might work if we decide to do 2 stops though!

Thanks, I guess we can just see how the bladders are doing on the day for Luss vs Moffat!

That’s a good shout actually, we’ve stopped off at the Loch Lomond Arms on the way up to Kintyre before and it worked well!

That’s a good shout, didn’t even know they were a thing! My wife’s managed to rope someone in to help out, so we’ll see how it goes.