+ another 1 for go to a mattress shop and lie on a few. Chose the best one and have it delivered.

We bought an Emma in some January sale or other. It was awful and we returned it less than a week later.

I had a Fenix 5X Plus (the big one) and loved it. It was starting to get a bit tired and they stopped updating the firmware stuff and some of the new gimmicks intrigued me (running power, recovery time, HRV etc.) so I opted for the Epix.

The screen is LOADS clearer in bright daylight and general use. The auto off stuff and tilt to wake works well and the battery life I am currently getting out of it is really good (this was my concern with the brighter screen) at about a week between charges with an hour of tracking per day roughly (running mainly).

I loved the Fenix but the Epix is even betterer.

There’s a “bike park” in Abu Dhabi:

Hudayriat

Looks like a fun little trail.

I’ve ridden up Jebel Hafeet from Al Ain (a fair way out from Abu Dhabi). That’s a good mountain ascent with very little traffic as it’s a top out dead end.

I think there is some kind of bike park opening up in Fujairah (another Emirate up the coast).

It depends quite a lot on what time of year and then what time of day as to whether it’s going to be at all enjoyable though.

@prettygreenparrot

Hamshire is where the hydrophilic sandwich filling comes from.

So, just to put the boot in on the mantra (which is definitely fugly) but also – that suspension design doesn’t suspend the pedals. So only offers rear suspension when seated…

When standing it works instead of suspension forks with the front end/bars suspended by the rear shock. So that spindly cargo fork is fine when standing…

Possibly the worst rear suspension design ever?

@dannybgoode glad the training is going well, I did the Round Sheffield Run on Sunday and it was bloody excellent. Well worth signing up for the summer edition I would say. Half marathon(+ a bit) but with an interesting format.

Was proper boggy on Sunday in places but everyone seemed to be having a whale of a time.

Trying to maintain a bit of momentum this year as various illnesses took me down last year – that being said child 2 is due in May so…

@ernielynch
Sorry for the needlessly abrupt opener to that previous comment. Unnecessarily rude of me.

I think that Johnson is not at all for the working citizens of the UK. I agree that neither are any other Tory candidates that stand a chance of taking the post. But his record in office was so damaging and divisive that they would be insane to bring him back. There is no short term redemption for the Tory party and Johnson will just further weaken their future.

My point was that there used to be people that were capable and would certainly have done a better job. They are all but entirely drummed out of the party – and this is largely due to Johnson’s Brexit purge driven by his debt to the ERG and right wing press.

Whoever picks up the poison chalice should just bite the bullet and call an election. At least it would show some backbone or conviction in their own potential.

@ernielynch

Are you simple? My post was a response to your comment:

And I am still surprised that anyone should believe that another Tory leader would have been better for working people than Johnson.

When Johnson was appointed the list I showed were the candidates running against him. Would none of them have been better for working people?

His purge of the reasonable members of the party meant that there were no credible opponents when his replacement was being nominated. That is different to your assertion above.

@ernielynch
Just looking at your posting regarding Johnson’s performance during the pandemic and how no other prospective Tory leader would have done better… Do you genuinely believe this?
Running against Johnson were:

Gove (Unpopular but capable – certainly more capable than Johnson)
Hancock (Useless and corrupt).
Harper (Who knows, perhaps not enough ministerial experience – also a bit of a right wing headbanger)
Hunt (Probably not popular with the electorate after Junior Doctors situation but less corrupt than Johnson, and far more serious when it comes to making decisions)
Javid (Probably would have at least moved quickly when advised by experts – not particularly popular with the electorate though)
Leadsom (Awful option)
McVey (Even worse)
Raab (The sooner this intellectual void disappears the better, thin skinned and unprincipled).
Stewart (Probably the best option on this list but politically naive. Would have done the best job but not willing to shaft enough people to get the job).

So yeah, there certainly were people running who would have done a better job and not lied, prevaricated, or allowed corruption on such a grand scale.

As above, I don’t think I’ve commented at all on any of your threads during the trip but have been an avid reader. Living a great cycling trip vicariously through you has been a fantastic distraction. Glad the trip was a success and you’ve certainly put some miles in the legs.

Yeah, I get it. It totally wouldn’t be my choice for a holiday destination either. I go out there for work and have a friend who lives in Abu Dhabi. If I wanted to visit somewhere in the middle east that hadn’t just been built on oil money to sustain a potential future tourist industry when the oil dries up then perhaps Oman? But the OP is going to Dubai, and those are a few of the things to do rather than sit by a hotel pool and drink overpriced booze.

And Golf. (urgh)

So most of the interesting stuff has been mentioned. But I think I would emphasise the following:

Dubai Mall. Huge, impressive, definitely check out the ski slope, it’s like no other indoor ski slope I’ve ever seen. Even if you don’t ski or board go and grab a drink in the restaurant with the chalet style balcony overlooking it all.

Deira Spice and Gold Souk. This is great, get on the water taxi boat with loads of other people, get shouted at for payment (it’s not much but make sure you have the cash) walk around the Souk and get hassled to buy weird spices and jewellery – it sounds awful but it’s quite fascinating if you can avoid being annoyed by the hassle.

Burj Khalifa. Go up the elevator to the viewing platform (125th floor), look out at not much, go back down again and then watch the fountain show.

Show at the opera house could be worth it if there’s anything decent on.

Wolfi’s bike shop is pretty cool for a visit, some fancy bikes.

Atlantis for the aquarium and waterpark.

I think an earlier poster pointed out the relevant statement:

“there are no such things as “”boy things and girl things”” as these are a social construct”.

Our son (3) likes to help his mum with the cooking, plays with his doll house – which he wanted from playing with a friends, but also loves riding his bike.

The real problem is the societal construct mentioned above that inevitably steer girls towards “girl things” which will also eventually steer them towards “girl jobs” – for which remuneration has been kept artificially capped by societal expectation (it’s a rewarding occupations etc.)

Let them be their own person by all means but don’t think that there aren’t societal pressures on them and that those pressures don’t lead to eventual perpetuation of societal norms.

@DrJ you are of course correct that even sourcing from elsewhere won’t quickly fix the problem, it will improve the supply side situation by increasing production capacity away from the FSU.

A point people generally seem to be missing is that there is also a huge impact on the energy cost caused by our poor showing on the currency market. Consecutive cock ups and embarrassments have put the GBP/USD down to around $1.20 to the £. Oil and gas are still bought and sold in USD so we are about 20% worse off than we would have been in early 2016. Neither of the candidates to lead us to a bright new future have been asked about currency stability, who knows where that will end up.

Regarding the original question Mark, I think the energy companies are pricing in massive increases with their fixed rates, there is always a chance they are underestimating but they will certainly have hedged in the medium term.

Cost breakdown for your energy units

Although removing VAT would help, it won’t have the impact necessary to fix the situation for the worst off. There needs to be some proper strategic intervention in order to source O&G supply that doesn’t rely on the same locations as everyone else. Increased North Sea production, a supply contract with Tunisia or Algeria, re-establishing pipelines from North Africa to Europe…

But reducing VAT is not a cure to the rapidly escalating prices.

Of course the inevitable conclusion is that the move to sustainable self sufficient renewable energy needs to be accelerated with national investment in infrastructure (not to be confused with begging shell to accelerate green project investment).

I’d say there’s no real benefit to the consumer at all.

The main benefit is to the energy provider in not having to employ people to check meter readings any more.

I have a smart meter and with my provider it is pretty interesting to look at the fluctuations in usage even on a day to day basis – but in reality it has made no difference to our consumption. When the house needs heating, the heating is put on. Same with hot water usage. We’re not massive electricity consumers so there’s not much scope for reduction there.

Bought some Juintech GT-P four pot cable actuated hydraulic callipers back in 2020. They are great, not had a problem with them at all during the last couple of years. Bought from edge sports UK I think, although it looks like they only have some M1s on the website. I’m pretty sure I got them through their ebay shop.

We use a couple of companies at work but the best at the moment is Clearview Associated Funds Ltd. (CASF Ltd.) Super quick response and transactions.

I actually meant this site:

Built Creations

Don’t know about the plyguys but @the_vanco on instagram do some stuff like this and I think it’s Sam/Joe Flanagans’ company – MTBers and all round nice guys. So might be an option?

Surely the obvious strategy is to accept them as they cross the floor and then deselect and replace with a genuine Labour candidate at the GE?
Put the defected Tory MPs up in safe Tory seats to see what they can achieve if they still intend to stand?

I live up o’er th’ill in Ecclesfield and can ride to Greno/Wharncliffe for riding. It’s great. I also like Deepcar and would say it’s generally an improving area – the pubs are good and if you’re not on the main road it’s nice and quiet. The further up the hill to Bolsterstone the better but if you can find a house in Oughtibridge that’s in budget then snap it up quickly as things are really not hanging about on the housing market up there at the moment.
Plenty of people to ride with from either end of Wharncliffe and they’re all good people in my experience. Good luck getting the house you’re looking for!

Had my first Moderna jab last Wednesday.

Dead arm lasted until Friday. I felt pretty fatigued for a couple of days but nothing too serious – still got out for a run on Thursday and again Friday.

Heart rate on my runs was elevated a fair bit higher then usual though, recent MHR had been 170 bpm for most runs but hit 182 bpm on Thursday’s run. So I suspect that was vaccine related. It’s still remaining higher during exercise than usual.

He’s got some pretty good form leading out Bennet to 2nd in the Scheldeprijs, rolling over the line in third and looking like he probably would have been a better option in the finale.

I think we’ll see a good showing from him this season, and the pressure being “off” a bit alongside some free reign from Lefevere will only fuel the fire.

Great to see him back on his game.

Perhaps this:

Chapeltown stereo place

I have one in my GTO but it is working with my apple phone with CarPlay – no idea if the functionality is the same with Android but it would tick most of your boxes (and has DAB).

Just installed a TP-Link Deco S4 system with 3 units. It is perfect for our requirements – long house with thick stone walls and the phone line comes into the house at one end.

It was incredibly simple to set up and a bit more affordable than many of the other options and the stations daisy chain to give coverage across a long building. The app is great and provides a bunch of useful network management tools as well as making the setup as simple as possible.

So the result of my visit to the shop today:

I went home with one of these: Taylor 322e 12 fret It just sounds great, looks lovely, got a decent deal on it and they gave me a good price for the SG.

Well this may be the wrong crowd to ask this question to, but here goes:

I have a 2003 Gibson SG Special faded cherry that I bought new in 2003. It’s nice, ebony fretboard (before they went to rosewood for a while) and I like the way it plays… when I play it. Which is incredibly infrequently as I mainly play my acoustic… which isn’t actually a great acoustic.

I’m considering trading the SG towards a Taylor and have seen a few second hand 300 series Taylor electro acoustic mahogany tops that I want to have a play on.

The question is: Am I daft? Will I regret it? How much will my son hate me when he turns 13? (he’s 1 at the moment)

Should I consider a 12 fret guitar? as there is one of these available (300 series mahogany top as well)

I had the same thing. Bought a Ti Pickenflick frame in the “Fib”onacci sale at £610 (which to be fair is a bargain) but then it was £499.00 a couple of weeks later.

It’s best not to look. I’m totally happy with the bike so happy to shrug it off on this occasion.

Bastards.

Kelvin is right, there was a big ugly house there before, although almost invisible from the road and not even too obtrusive from the sea.

I used to live in a flat on the back of aforementioned house and it is an amazing spot, I could walk down some stairs onto a small beach and paddle out to the point on my surfboard.

The front half of the house was lovely inside with incredible views – but I basically had no views and had to walk outside to check the surf. Terrible.

It is such a shame that the absolute mess of a site is left in that location and the locals are rightly angry about it.

There’s some great stuff to do other than the biking (although the last few trips I’ve just been on the DH biking). When I went with my partner in 2012 we were after a bit more of a varied itinerary as she was not big on hurtling down mountains on burly bikes.

Activities we participated in (all of which were awesome):

White water rafting (company based down the valley below Les Gets all though there are a few locations that offer this). Pitched at the right level to be exciting AND fun for everyone.
Via Ferrata – this was above Avoriaz and was REALLY good. I’m a climber but my partner is not, she still says this is the best thing we did all week. Can be organised through the tourist office in Avoriaz I think.
Zipline – over above Chatel. This takes a bit of time to get over to, but my partner enjoyed it. I wasn’t too bothered about this one so didn’t have a go.
Swim & SUP in Lac Montriond. SUP rental at the bottom end of the lake. Very beautiful and relaxing.
Swimming up in Avoriaz for an adventure/kids pool. Probably not the best but nice outdoor spa type pool section. Morzine pool is nicer but without the views.

There’s loads to go at. My partner also did parasailing above Morzine. She enjoyed it but said it was much more sedate than she was expecting. Exciting at the start and end, relaxed in the middle.

Love Morzine, so much to do.

We have a sprocker spaniel that came from a farmer who breeds a litter every 2 or 3 years. They are almost all taken for working farm/gun dogs and as such they are docked by a vet almost immediately after birth.

It’s not typical for them to be docked any more and to be honest I would prefer that he weren’t.

Dew claws are a bit different. Back ones are a bit pointless and tend to cause more problems than the front ones. Sprocket has his front dew claws but the rear ones were removed at the same time he was docked.

Gratuitous excuse for a photo:

About 2005 I had a Mitsubishi FTO (reasonably sporty car, nice looking and moderately fast). I had a tracker fitted at the time to reduce the insurance cost as it was an import and not very common car.

Went on holiday to Turkey for two weeks in the summer and left the car parked outside a friends house in Northolt London (they were on holiday with us). Received a phone call from my mum (the car was registered at her house) asking me what I was playing at with all the speeding? I was confused, and asked her to go through the tickets. I had somehow accumulated 18 points in the last week and she was understandably concerned.

I pointed out that I was on holiday in Turkey and that I needed to get off the phone to call the police regarding my car being stolen.

The police (I phoned Harrow police station as it was the nearest to where the car was parked and where the tickets came from) informed me that I couldn’t report the vehicle as stolen over the phone, I would need to come into the station with the V5C and report it in person. Obviously with another week of my holiday to go that wasn’t possible. I made them aware that the vehicle had a tracker and where I had left the car parked. I urged them to check with the tracking company for the location of the car. They wouldn’t until I came into the station.

I phoned the tracking company and they checked the vehicles location. Confirmed that it wasn’t where I left it and offered to phone the police on my behalf. The operator “accidentally” didn’t mute my line and I heard the conversation between the tracking company and the police. The police still were not responding to the request to cease the car.

They sent an officer to take a look at the car to see if there was anything suspicious, and reported that they couldn’t see any cause for concern.

The tracking company were excellent and between them and me on the phone (the mobile bill came to £600) we persuaded the police to impound the car until my return. On my return I went to see the car and it was pretty clear that it had been stolen (drilled out door locks and detached ignition barrel). Why the police had been so reticent with regards to impounding the vehicle is beyond me but on that occasion the help of the tracking company was worth every penny.

The insurance company fixed the car as well as possible and it was returned to me. I payed for a further immobiliser and alarm to be fitted, but unfortunately the car was never the same again after being thrashed for a week. The gearbox was crunchy and there had been some twisting of the chassis that was reflected in the handling.

Anyway, look carefully at the car when it comes back (if it does) to make sure that there is no unseen damage that will effect the drive. Consider the pay monthly tracker services (mine was RAC Trackstar plus at the time but this has probably moved on a bit since then) as their operators are excellent and will help as much as possible.

Unfortunately Lazy Nigel is being anything but lazy with his campaigning to get re-elected to the European Parliament. So I’m still catching a lot of glimpses of a campaign going on that doesn’t appear to have a counter campaign. Where are the pro-EU parties campaigning? Why is Farridge holding rallies when the rest of the political class are taking a holiday, whilst partially distracted by impending local elections?

I fear he may be getting the run-up to the EU Elections that he craves, and there’s going to be another “mandate for Brexit” that will be hard to counter.

It turns out that Scotland are polling very well for SNP in the Euro Elections, why did they let themselves down so badly in the 2017 General Election?

As an alternative to the boostinator (which I think is the best option if they support your hub design) there is a more universal option of the problem solvers boost kit for the rear wheel. Just a different spacer that goes outboard of your usual end cap. Reasonable price too.

Worked well with my jra wheels.

Sprocket takes his child guarding responsibilities very seriously when he’s not out in the countryside!

My problem with all this is that the FC are seeming to pander to a few select complainers and dragging out all of the weird justifications they can think of to try and make out that it is a considered response.

Granted @raybanwomble some of the trails have features that are bigger than you would want to hit, same here. But these trails are well hidden and the eyesore comment can only really be levelled at the final jump on Crescendo. The other features are tucked up in the woods ABOVE the cycle network trail that they mention. It is impossible to “stray” onto these tracks. It would take a concerted effort to reach any of the features let alone the top of the trails.

Almost all of the trail entrances are reasonably concealed, stumbling across the trails with the biggest features is almost impossible. It took me some time to find the trails when I moved here 4 years ago and even once I had there are some that I just won’t ride yet… but maybe one day. And that’s the point, the lads that build, and ride, and share these trails with the rest of us are riding at this level and dragging the standard up with them – the quality of the trail building, use of local materials only, and management of a difficult space is second to none. The FCs best course of action is plausible deniability – “we don’t sanction the trails” – they are certainly unable to offer any functional alternatives.

The “dig pits” are typically smaller than many of the drain pits next to the aforementioned cycle network route and so far out of the way that they would be impossible to stumble into.

The area of woods that contains most of the trails is working woodland not the ancient woodland that they mention, and was worked only last year. A situation that the trail builders accepted with mostly good grace as the tracks were flattened and then set about rebuilding this year.

I have ridden here quite frequently in the last 4 years and I am nowhere near the standard required to hit the biggest features BUT I will defend the work and passion of these builders and their sensitive approach to the environment they work in. I would go so far as to say they care more for the conservation of these woodlands than the FC ever will.

I bought a shortboard from secondhandboards.com ages ago when surfing a lot. If you are in Devon then there will be a fair selection of boards to pick from.

Have a look:

https://www.secondhandboards.com/used-surfboards

Bear in mind that a lot of people will be offloading stuff that they don’t get on with, but occasionally people are moving to a different size and want some money back for the old board in the garage. Get a decent idea of what you want by renting boards for a few days first. My first proper board was a 7’10” mini mal from gulf stream that cost me a fortune but was super light and fast compared to the rental chunks I had been learning on up to that point. It did ding easily on those days when the bics were dropping in on you – learning on something with a heavy glass on it might be the safe option if going for a proper board.

Be prepared to spend a LOT of time on magic seaweed when you properly catch the bug. If you’re within 45 mins to an hour of the beach then you’ll be looking for prime conditions all the time.

Just an idea, is the spacing the same on an 11spd Sram cassette as on an 11 spd Shimano cassette? I know one of them has a small spacer to fit on the free hub body inboard of the cassette, and Sram use XD driver free hubs but don’t know if there might be a slight difference in spacing.

Might be completely wrong mind.

@raybanwomble What about the Specialized E150?