Thanks all, I can probably get away with not driving it till it’s sorted but might have to on Wednesday so good to know it’s not a really bad idea!

Holy thread resurrection!

Just wanted to say thanks to Ally G, I used the star fangled nut trick on the pivot bearings on my Heckler and they popped right out 😀. Was genuinely surprised they came out as easily as they did, had already mentally prepared myself for a long day of swearing!

Yeah, thought the lead bit might be flashing but google images wasn’t confirming it! It’s been painted black previously on ours and is now peeling and tatty, but it looks like it might be a bugger to repaint as it would need stripped 1st.

Simply by asking, he was making a judgement.

“how can they?” “he’s an Uber driver” implies a judgement.

Most of us couldn’t care less what others earn, how they live their life or make an judgements on how others spend their own money.

Ah, but now you’re making a judgement about the OP, aren’t you? 😀

Carlos +1, not a great loop IMO. This is probably better and should be fine. Plenty of options to add onto it too, could go down Hagg Farm and then back up, repeat Gore’s, etc.

Edit – and you can park near Fairholmes at the top of Ladybower v easily and for free.

Thanks all, some great advice!

Thanks Milkie, that’s really helpful! I’ve heard good things about Bear Back but we’ll probably only be spending 2 nights in Whistler so might only be guiding I’d need – however, I’m leaning towards playing in the park for the day at the moment!

I was not too fussed about the bike park stuff, I really wanted to get out and explore around Whistler.

Probably a daft question, but can you access non-bike park trails from the lifts? Currently off the bike due to injury and not quite sure how much fitness I’ll have for going uphill!

if you’ve never ridden one before, you’ll spend most of the day learning how to ride it.

That’s kind of what I thought, but looks like it might limit me a bit in choice of hire places (based on a quick google). Would be fun to try it for the day, but probably not somewhere I’ve never ridden before!

The first ride after an injury where you don’t feel any niggles or issues and everything just works as it should.

The bum wiggle my dog does when I get home and he’s so happy to see me he can’t contain himself. Seeing my wife napping on the couch on a Sunday afternoon.

We’re flying with BA, have to connect in LHR unfortunately but it worked out cheaper (and the dates were better) than doing it direct with Air Transat. Plus the idea of a budget airline for that distance makes me a bit twitchy :)

+1 also for Vancouver Island – went with my parents when younger and, even as a grumpy teenager, it was amazing!

We’ve just booked flights for this year, £1150 for 2 from Manchester. Haven’t booked the car yet but looks like it would be about 600 for 19 days. Also haven’t looked into hotels but will be budgeting ~100 a night, would be nice if we’re able to do it for a bit less though!

Also – you take her out to do her business, she doesn’t, and then wants to be let into the garden later. Any reason why you can’t just let her into the garden before bedtime?

You can also train her to go on demand if you spend enough time on it (follow her round and when she produces add a word of command to it – “Be Quick!” for ours – and a treat.

+1 – If you praise her every time she goes and associate the same words every time she should learn to go on command (if she needs). Ours knows that ‘good’ means he’s getting a treat, so any time he does anything we want him to learn we say ‘good XXX’. You do look a bit daft repeating ‘good poo’ to your dog in the park though!

I’ll not deny that STW harbours quite a few misogynists, but unless there have been posts that have been deleted there’s no evidence of any on this thread. Possible sexism in that most seem to have assumed you were male OP, but I can’t see anything gendered in any of the responses.
Frankly, you’ve been the most antagonistic poster on this thread OP. If you think this thread has been vitriolic you should definitely steer clear of any of the politics threads 😂

Well it seems that Rutland, in addition to everyone else on this thread, took you saying “You might want to do a bit better than that” as a request for compensation rather than a better apology and a pledge to do something about their service.

Cougar +1, though my interpretation was that you didn’t place an order for the pedals, you had just asked for them in lieu of the points?

In fairness I don’t agree with others that it’s great customer service, but I’d still have been happy enough with getting the £20. They’re human after all and it’s probably easy for things to go missing in a warehouse. They shouldn’t of course, but everyone screws up now and again.

Thanks all, that’s pretty much what I thought. Might see if we can get some friends and go for a boozy Saturday lunch!

Thanks all, I’m going to try and get a code for the lock nut remover and see if I can get one, failing that I’ll probably just ask the garage that does the service/MOT to see what they can do as it’ll be due a service soon anyway so can do it all at the same time.

I’ve never tried a Strive, but went from a 160/150 single-pivot Heckler with Fox 36/X2 to a 150/140 Spectral with 34/Float this year. Uphill, the Spectral is easier as it’s a lot lighter and has 2.6 tyres vs the 2.3 on the Heckler. Downhill it doesn’t flatten out the trail quite as much as the Heckler did – it’s just as fast though, but I feel closer to the limit of control. Some of that is probably due to the difference in suspension though and I reckon fitting a better rear shock would help. However, it’s much poppier and more fun all round.
For your question, I’d probably stick with the Strive and fettle the suspension if it’s relatively new, but if it’s a few years old and you’re getting the new bike itch anyway then crack on!

We put our pup on it after a month or two as his poos were awful on the dry stuff, mr whippy style mush *blergh*. Sorted him right out and he’s been on it ever since, just the frozen stuff from pets at home. Wife reckons his coat is glossier as well, but I’m not convinced!

I’ve always found them well organised and fairly efficient, but then it’s always been centres in cities I’ve gone to (Glasgow and Manchester). The Glasgow one was better as it had Teacakes for after! The website can be a bit temperamental, but there are usually a couple of appointments available after work if I check a few days beforehand – presumably from people cancelling – so I just wait until I have a bit of flexibility in my schedule and then book in.
If anyone does donate in Manchester (Norfolk House), they’ve got a bunch of new staff in and quite a few trainees. One missed the vein last time and I had to get re-stuck on the other arm (which was fun), but it’s the 1st time it’s happened to me in about 25 visits so still a fairly good record! Trainees have to learn on someone of course, but I might be saying I had my turn last time if I get one next time I go :) .

As a starter you should consider getting the OS maps app for your phone, it does navigation from gpx files and you can buy the maps (or get a subscription) to use them offline. I use it as a backup when I’m unfamiliar areas like the Lakes after getting the file from flattyres or similar. Bit of a fiddle having to get the phone out your pocket and unlocked, but you can mount your phone to the bars easily enough with something from Amazon.

I had been thinking about getting a dedicated device for gps, but after doing this it works well enough that I can’t justify getting one for the 4 or 5 times a year I’d actually use it.

I guess it depends why you’re fainting, i.e. is it physical or mental? My wife was prone to fainting, but it was primarily physical as she’s close to the lower height/weight limit for donation. She’s found that drinking loads of water in the day beforehand (not just immediately prior to it) and having something salty an hour or 2 beforehand (like a bacon sandwich) has stopped the fainting. Not sure if that would work if it’s more mental, but there might be some sort of placebo effect!

I like this one, quite a dry curry mind:

INGREDIENTS

2cm cinnamon stick

4 cloves

2 tsp fennel seeds

4 dried birds-eye chillies

1 tbsp coriander seeds

1 tsp turmeric

2 tsp salt

800g beef

2 onions, thinly sliced

25g ginger, grated

4 garlic cloves, finely sliced

1 chilli, finely chopped

1 tbsp red wine vinegar

15 dried curry leaves

4 tbsp oil

350ml water

INSTRUCTIONS

Grind the cinnamon, cloves, fennel, chillies, and coriander to a fine powder, add turmeric, salt, half the onion, ginger, garlic, chilli, vinegar, and half the curry leaves.

Add the beef and plenty of black pepper and leave to marinade for a few hours (haven’t tried overnight).

Add water to beef and place in oven at 180 C for 2 hours, covered.

Remove from oven and boil off remaining liquid.

Fry off the remaining onion in the oil, then add the remaining curry leaves and the beef. Stir fry for a few mins then serve.

He’s listening to the NME top 200 albums one after the other and rating them and compiling playlists of his fave tracks.

Is it bad that I like that idea? But then you really need to listen to some albums a few times to appreciate them (every Radiohead album apart from the bends for me). Maybe you could calculate a # of listens / rating ratio? Ooh, there could be spreadsheets and charts and…

*loses rest of day*

Total nonsense, and that’s from someone who will benefit (just). I have no time for lazy folks who can’t be arsed working and are content to claim benefits, but let’s be honest, that’s a tiny minority .if you earn 50 k you don’t need 500 quid extra a year. Another reason I will never ever vote for the tories.

I don’t like paying tax, but am mindful I am in a very privileged position to have to do so. I work hard, but no harder than folks getting paid half what I earn.

+1

I had an entire town open fire on me last night after I accidentally trampled one of their pigs with my horse. Then after I escaped some hillbillies took a potshot at me, I gave chase to give them a stern talking to, and I fell into a pit they’d dug. After escaping that and shooting them in the balls, I set up camp following a nice relaxing hunt and 2 more hillbillies came and threatened me for camping in their territory. So they also got shot.

It’s almost like the game wants me to murder people!

Yeah, the garage I use for servicing pick up / drop off, but then I don’t use the main (st)dealer for that so not sure if they even do it.

Yeah, diesel. That’s what I understood RE software, but the garage closest to me said it would take all day. However, they’re bloody useless – managed to forget to get the MOT done when I first picked it up…

Na, it’s a Mazda. Thanks all, I was wondering if I’d be cheeky if I asked for pick-up/drop-off and it seems it probably would be – hadn’t thought about asking for a loaner though, think I’ll give that a try!

In my early teens I decided to make fried rice. Assumed you could cook rice just by frying it without having boiled it first (google was not a thing in those days). Was a bit crunchy 😂

Sigur Ros – the whole of the Takk album

Is it better than season 2? I enjoyed all of the Marvel season 1s apart from Iron Fist (obviously) and Defenders, but the season 2s have been a bit pish.

Sram yes

Shimano no

Not due to wear, but I had 2 SLX shifters fail on me in the same way, but both developed play in the lever before failing so there was at least a warning sign. No such issues after going XT.

I had similar on my commute home, 7 km of angry drivers and breathing fumes. I used the website here to try and find an alternative as I wasn’t familiar with the area, works quite well and allows you to select quietest or balanced. The quietest route is only 3 km longer than the fastest route, but it’s so much nicer and less stressful.

50s – Kind of blue, Miles Davis
60s – Let it bleed, Rolling Stones
70s – Dark side of the Moon, Pink Floyd (What’s going on, Marvin Gaye as a close 2nd!)
80s – bit of a black hole for me music-wise, maybe The Stone Roses?
90s – Can’t pick between Endtroducing (DJ Shadow) and Mezzanine (Massive Attack)
00s – Can’t pick between Funeral (Arcade Fire) and Antics (Interpol)
10s – The Suburbs (Arcade Fire)

IMO the bit after cut gate in that route for the next ~10/15k is bobbins, if you want a big day out from Castelton I’d be more inclined to go up the broken road and over Mam Tor to Hollins Cross, down to Greenlands, through Edale and up Jagger’s to Hope Cross, down the Beast, up and over to Gores/Lockerbrook, then do cut gate as an out and back.

From there you can then go up to Derwent edge / Whinstone Lee Tor and down to Ladybower Inn, loop back up to Hope Cross, back down Jaggers, up to Hollins again and across to Rushup Edge, down Coldwell, up and over Jacob’s, back up to Mam Tor and then head across to go down Cavedale and back to Castelton.

It’ll be a big ole day out though!

Can’t say that I felt any noticeable difference at the front vs my old bike, IIRC it’s maybe a cm or 2 taller but I haven’t noticed that on the trail as a negative thing. No issues with my chain stays but mine are carbon. Did see that about them when I was researching at but from what I’ve read it was an early production issue that’s been sorted now.

I was mistaken it is a 2.4 inch HR2, the 3C MaxTerra EXO model. I typically run it around 27/28 PSI on a 25mm rim.

This is probably the difference – depends what weight you are, but that seems too high for a front tyre, so if you’ve gone to a bike running something at a more appropriate pressure you’ll notice a big difference. I’m ~70kg kitted up and I run 19 psi on a 23 mm rim on the front in pretty rocky terrain (minion DHF). Recently changed bike and the new one came with a Rekon in 2.6 on the rear and it definitely didn’t have more grip than the HR2 I was running on the old bike. Might have been a case of needing to drop the pressure more on it (was running 22 psi vs 23 on the old one), but felt less grippy than the HR2 to me despite the extra width.