Radcliffe bought at top of the market and it’s all falling apart, which isn’t helped by the fact that Visma et al have caught and overtaken them organisationally (and literally on the road). Problem is that road bike racing fans aren’t bothered about teams, they are rider focused. I don’t bame TP for going but I hope Tarling doesn’t get wasted

Transport for gtr Manchester have green travel teams to help with this stuff, get in touch with them. The tfgm app has journey planners

https://www.thebulwark.com/p/everything-you-never-wanted-to-know

Something for everyone!

Boak

Two; one pair of road shoes, one set of MTB shoes that I also commute in. When they wear out I replace one for one

We have HP elite books through our work, only had good experiences with them

Have a surface for home and I hate the bloody thing it’s so underpowered

If you’re Manchester or NW based, talk to Richard Henry in Stockport, it’s crazy how many people he knows (he facilitated the sale of the Greeny burst to Kirk Hamnett!) and he sells stuff on commission

Derailleur hangers – especially now that a slightly bent one has an impact on shifting and the ability to throw an expensive mech into a wheel, having lots of simple spares on hand will make riding better

I did Hit the North one year and forgot to take energy food so took the apple from the car in my jersey pocket

It was covered in filth by the time I came to eat it

Apples have little sugar content (and no protein or fat obvs it’s an apple…)

They are not easy to eat mid race, I got about half eaten then dropped it

Reader: I did not bother with the last lap

Lunch don’t live here anymore

“My big theory is that there are two, diverging groups of gravel. One is all about aero and power meters and going fast on graded cinder tracks. And the other group is doing 1990s mountain biking. The first group wants smooth shifting and regular cadence, whereas the second group wants lower gears and better brakes… Unfortunately, I’ve found that many of the product developers at both Shimano and SRAM tend to be flat-out-fast ex-road or cyclocross racers who are all about ultimate speed over trail versatility…”

I think Chipps is right and that effectively answers the question about direct mount

I know this isn’t a new bit of the design for this groupset but how does direct mount deal with the issue of derailleur strike i.e. does it mean either a frame break or new mech time, or is there a built in failsafe ?

ooh I’ve just remembered a good one – we made packed lunch for us and the kids as we weren’t sure what we would eat or when

Mrs Ed put everything in my bag because there was space

I get stopped by Manchester security – boiled eggs are completely solid and show up like a potentially hazardous bomb equipment item ! unpack, do another lap, good humoured

first tram is 05:19 is that too late?

mine are 11 and 13, the one thing that I won’t do if this were to happen, is say ‘the eldest is in charge’ because my opinion is that kids are not adults. On a psychological level you are asking them to accept adult responsiblity and pressure when they are not an adult – on a practical level its asking for squabbling !

Back to the OP question, it also depends on the likelihood of you not getting back to the house so if that trip to the shop could be delayed by another 30mins because of whatever, or you go for a run and the route is sketchy that may also factor in the decision as well as the age of the kid.

I have been known to go to the gym late at night when the kids are asleep and it’s a short walk there and back (and yes the kids are properly asleep and screens time-locked :-) )

Problem is that the polling all this time has shown Biden is preferred to all the other options, and it’s too late to swap him out now

for the US media to be banging on about Biden’s age when DJT is as old and even worse physical and mental shape is is hypocritical

Tunnel of Love 😁

Also to answer the question about depth, most divers don’t do anything more than 30m or so. I once did 50m with just air to breathe and narcosis was strong and that’s with preparation dives so I knew what I was doing. Anything more than that needs a mixture of air and helium and it gets very expensive and dangerous if you don’t know what you are doing. Doing 100m is a very rare occurrence.

That Omega with the 300m rating? (Nice watch btw) There’s probably about 20 or so divers who have ever done that kind of depth – regardless of whether standard scuba or rebreather

Rugby; just can’t see what the attraction is… Too many head injuries

Tomatoes are fine just not in a sandwich it’s too wet

I love jazz but have no affection for Metal, I think Biffy Clyro is my heaviness limit

There’s very little parking round there – bus from Manchester city centre is the best bet

And if the organisers haven’t explicitly said what secure bike parking will be available then don’t take one because my Spidey sense says not

(ex) diver here, in practice no one dives with a watch anymore because the manual depth gauges just aren’t that accurate and the time limits are easily missed on just a watch if you are experiencing nitrogen narcosis (when it’s mild it’s easy to not realise you are addled and that’s when errors occur). Proper dive computers are just so much better because they do a calculation of the dive time and depth to give you how long you have at depth and what decompression stops you need to do.

You could take a watch as a backup but it’s not a scenario that I’d be concerned about tbh. Best place for your watch is in the bag with your dry clothes

Not surprised that froome isn’t there. No disrespect but that crash was always going to be the point that he stopped being a contender, did anyone believe IsraelPT bosses when they were talking up his chances

Blimey you lot.

One waterproof yellow for bike commuting and MTB

One waterproof for everyday, a heavy duty waterproof for winter that was a hand-me-down, an alpkit insulation midweight, a tweed jacket for smart and a long black wool. That’s it.

I used to do scuba but it’s expensive and once I’d done a few big holidays in the usual places I sacked it off, tried free diving too and that was fun but eventually I got bored of the lots of driving places to go in the sea or a quarry for not much payback. The red sea was good and Norway was bloody brilliant as was scapa flow

One thing they have in common, the air ambulance is a charity recipient of both in the hope that you never need them

“Nothing will change because people keep betting on the same two horses” this is true, although FPTP means there are only ever two horses. If I was Starmer I’d be getting rid of it as well as the HoL ; and UBI with radical rebuild of taxation ; doing all the things that the Tories can’t unwind when they get back into power because they have no shame in terms of dismantling all the stuff that labour build like the NHS the mass transportation

I don’t think there’s any conspiracy or infighting really because there is nothing left of the tories; 100 or more MPs leaving, theres no experienced heads. Rishi isn’t listening to anyone outside his circle but the last ones are all fighting solo because they want to replace rishi, if they can hang onto their constituency first…

They may be waiting until right at the death to come out en masse, but that will be too little too late, got to love watching them implode in real time :-)

He chose Clacton because it’s where Douglas Carswell was ukip MP but only because he was the Tory MP for years before detecting. I hope LibDems step aside as they have no chance

Alpkit do a half-zip  ?

McDonald’s coffee is particularly disgusting – cheap instant you kind of know what you are getting but for the big chains they really have no excuse, and I can’t fathom why costa/strbuck/nero is poor when it’s their core business

probably just as important to not rag an engine when it’s cold – that applies at all times but I personally would definitely be careful with a brand new one (although tbf I’m never going to buy brand new)

I wear riding clothes and have stuff that lives in the office – getting rained on and sitting all day with a wet arse is not good.

Office shoes, black jeans live there – take fresh pants socks, shirt (rolled up) in the bag with my laptop

showers in the disabled toilets (one on each floor so I’m not taking the mickey using them) which I’m thankful for – however I don’t always shower if I’m clean and not riding daft speed, a towel rub and deodorant can be enough.

There’s another rumour that 50letters are in with the 1922 committee so that would be a leadership contest then a GE ???!

Consciousness

Yeah that’s mad, a load of electrical signals passed through watery protein and … Er….

Simgletrack, some months read cover to cover other months not much at all ..

Had a sub for 12 months to Rouleur and stopped because it just didn’t engage me even though the TdF is a constant in life

Nothing else in the house

Depending on how flat where you live, I’d recommend a fixed gear because a decent second hand one will be a similar price to all the above, but the cost saving of front brake only and the complete lack of everything else makes for super cheap running

Anyone in Macclesfield on Friday night?

My band are playing at The Wharf. Old-school ska and jazzy stuff (Dekker, Toots &maytals, skatalites) from 8 :)

Pyrenees is better for roadside than Alps, not crazy busy and stuck for hours trying to get off the mountain

Middle of AdiLidl?

/tier1online.com/collections/refurbished-laptop-deals-under-300/products/hp-elitebook-830-g7-i5-10310u-1-70ghz-13-3-fhd-8gb-256gb-grade-c

Tier1 do really good refurb business machines, I’ve had these HP models with work and they have been rocksolid

I was reading this, then realised I wasn’t logged in – because the advert was for the Nike Factory Store !!! even the ad algo is taking the piss !

I used to work with a guy with one arm (car accident) and he was a mickey taker, one day he had an office chair delivered so before he got to the office we built it and only screwed one arm on