Actually yeah, I thought they came with an e13 top guide on them anyway?

The Unite compact chain guide and the Unite compact bash guard look pretty good to me. All their stuff looks quite nice, pretty solid looking.

I’ve got the one up on my trail bike and it’s been good. Nice and lightweight as well but for durability I think I might look at the unite stuff next. Depends how likely you are to give it a bash I suppose.

I love my GTO but I think it’s gonna have to go. There’s a small person due in October that makes it a fully unsuitable vehicle.

Waited forever to be able to own one and managed to get a good one. Only 54,000 miles on the clock, first UK owner. NO RUST! It’s great fun when the turbos are spinning. Bit gutted to get rid to be honest, will try and figure out a way to keep it.

When I got together with my partner 15 years ago I was shocking with money. Had consolidated debts into a bank loan and was struggling to pay the bills and loan every month. We moved in together and she supported me incredibly and the debt dropped far more rapidly than it could have done without her advice and support.

A year an a half ago she sustained a head injury and has had to leave work due to post concussive symptoms that persist and prevent her from doing her job as a teacher. We now live on my income alone and are fortunate that I left teaching 5 years ago to enter a profession in which I can earn significantly better money.

She feels awful that I’m paying for everything but as I keep pointing out, her support over the years including that first lesson in finance is the reason we are able to keep above water now. I wouldn’t think of keeping financial information from her or vice versa. We are a team.

Back when I was a teacher I’d offer the cake/sweets/snacks/whatever around and the students observing Ramadan would say: “It’s Ramadan sir so not thanks, I’m fasting” Or “Thanks sir, that’s really nice of you”.

None were offended.

Cheers.

Yeah, about £200 quid parts and labour around our way. Including 4 wheel alignment.

There is a slow creep of this stuff getting worse in scale. It is very worrying that these groups have the confidence to be so brazen about it.

I feel that the shortage in police numbers are really effecting people’s attitudes towards crime (participation in on one side, and intolerance of on the other).

2 Incidents that stand out for me recently although not bike related are as follows:

Criminals hopped the fence into the “secure” yard at my workplace and smashed the windows in on a works van to get the locking wheel nut tool. They then took all 4 wheels from the van (smart VW alloys). Dropped the van on it’s sump/discs/exhaust and took off. Left a screwdriver that they used to try the office doors with, and the wheelie bin that they used to take the wheels to the fence and climb over. Called the police and they just sent a crime number. No scene visit. No dusting for prints. Just here’s a crime number, contact your insurance.

On holiday in France, got back from a night out to discover that the house we were staying in was broken into and turned over for cash and jewellery. French police were prompt on the scene to secure the area and check for any trace of the intruders. What got my goat was that the people sharing the gite with us were incensed at the idea that someone had broken into the house but then inflated their insurance claims to include numerous expensive items that they didn’t have… obviously missing the irony of that process.

Theft is becoming acceptable at this level to many in society meaning that the other end of the scale appears to be moving up as well. It’s a worrying trend indeed.

Congratulations. Spaniels are the best! (We have a 6 month old Sprocker).

Toilet training – we started by just letting the dog outside at every opportunity and rewarding when he “went” outside. Had 3 indoor urination incidents and never a number 2 indoors to date. No puppy pads involved.

We are pretty lucky in that my partner currently doesn’t work so she spends a large chunk of her day dedicated to training/exercising Sprocket.

Walking on the lead is the trickiest thing we are trying to master. He is mainly motivated by exploration it seems and isn’t interested in food rewards out of the house/garden. This means he spends a lot of his time at the end of the lead trying to get ahead. He is improving with time as pulling means stop.

Don’t wait too long before introducing the lead and also walk with her off the lead early on while she is too worried to run away – we didn’t do this and now as soon as he gets off the lead he legs it. He does come back once we are out of sight but it is a bit worrying. Hide and seek works well as he wants to know where we are all the time – even when he legs it!

Main thing is enjoy! And take lots of tiny puppy photos as they grow at a phenomenal rate!

Sprocket at 10 weeks:

Sprocket at 6 months:

GTO obviously. Hatchback for bike loading… nice to look at… fast… less than £10k.

I have a pair of their carbon trail dogs with bites hubs and they’re great. No complaints from me and the customer service is excellent. Was a bit easier when they were just over the hill from me but you can’t have it all I suppose.

Sprocket the sprocker on a chilly walk at the weekend.

Sorry for your loss.

Hi there twonks. I have the 2016 Carbon Snabb and absolutely love it. Size wise I am 5’10” with 32″ inside leg and it is fine for my riding. I don’t think the geometry has changed too much between the two but my experience may not help too much if it has. 5mm effective reach isn’t too much, is there much difference in stack height between what you had before and the Snabb? In my experience it is a combination of both these things that makes the difference.

Cheers.

I guess what my rambling nonsense above meant to say is:

Go for it, there is life outside of teaching – and it can be great!

I was a teacher for 10 years and felt that it was time to leave. This was 4 years ago and I’ve never regretted the decision.

I was however quite fortunate in that my degree (Chemical Engineering) and a few connections gave me an opportunity to move to a new challenging technical role.

I really enjoyed the teaching aspect of education.

The treadmill of changes in expectations, shifting demands, changing policies, faddy schemes that seemed to be introduced each year to improve learning, etc. were not so enjoyable.

I was observed 7 times in 10 years by OfSted (not in a failing school or special measures – just frequently inspected) and in that time I received quality constructive feedback that could improve my teaching once. From an HMI that was of the old inspection system and had not changed his practises. He offered advice and then came back the next day to see if my implementation of the advice would be effective. He was right. This is the only positive interaction I had with OfStEd in 10 years. They are a large part of the problem when they really shouldn’t be. They are used as a blunt instrument of judgement instead of a service of improvement – the way HMI used to work.

Anyway, I digress. Teaching is being steadily eroded as a valued profession (in the state sector) and it is a crying shame.

It is worth considering part time but you are right, it tends to mean you are working normal hours rather than long hours and only getting paid for the 3 days contact time.

Has she got contacts that she could gently nudge for opportunities whilst perhaps working cover and picking up some industry relevant PD training?

Now I enjoy a prawn cocktail crisp, without doubt. But those seabrook’s prawn cocktail are just sugar flavour.

So weird.

I worked a couple of Christmases in a factory that had a really nice community staff feel to it. The first year I was there we all got a turkey and a ham the day it shut for the Christmas break. They also gave us all a turkey dinner in the canteen where the managers served the staff.

The second year a new company had taken over and declared the turkey and ham gift to be a benefit in kind and that it would need to be declared. Therefore it was not cost effective and would not be happening again. The turkey dinner also fell through. It’s a shame as it really did bring all of the teams closer and was a significant gesture at a time of year when things could be a bit tight.

Rockwell light?

spike spank 800 are available in 50mm rise if you still need taller.

http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/spank-spike-800-race-riser-bar/rp-prod115996

Okay, but had the group of friends committed to paying for hotel/night out etc, based on a the idea of shared cost and now they will all get stung as a result?

Should the person in question have just said no in the first place rather than the vague “might” attend that you imply was the original answer? I think this is the crux of this issue. Indecision followed by decisiveness is as bad as indecision all round.

Just ordered some GP4000s II 28mm from Canyon. Only £27 each (but postage is a little bit steep from Germany).

Used to use the 23mm on my road bike so looking forward to trying out this larger size now that I have the tyre clearance.

@twiglet_monster you are not the only one. ITV4 played out with that tune on the day he won the stage.

Genius work by the coverage team.

Drac, you are of course correct that the responsibility should be on the vehicle owner. It was just a pleasant surprise to have a garage tell us not to spend money unnecessarily.

momo, you are also correct, that is a feasible reason for an early MoT. Probably the only reason for an early MoT.

This is another reason to know your local garage. My partner’s mini was due an MOT (or so she thought) so I dropped it off with the garage.

On checking the MOT records they phoned me and told me it wasn’t due for another 3 months and asked if we wanted it doing or just to collect it back. Had the oil and filters changed and picked it up that afternoon.

Surely all garages check the current MOT details of the vehicle prior to testing?

Hi Jam bo. Yeah, tried a fit bit and the huawei both with optical HRMs. For them to work their best they have to be done up quite tightly and I already have a weird swelling hands thing going on with endurance running so felt the benefit of it being always there outweighed by the tighter strap compared to just using a chest band when required.

The cost of the fenix with the discount and the fact that it is a bit more wearable as a watch over the 910xt has really won me over. It is a fair bit more expensive bit I don’t feel the need to take it off outside of the exercise situation.

In standard stw style I would recommend the watch I just bought.

I just picked up a Garmin fenix 3 from sports pursuit at a great discount price for what it is! Again, I recommend a separate heart rate strap, they are just more reliable than the newer style optical HRMs.

This hasn’t been off my wrist since first charge on Saturday, has recorded a run and 2 walks, is paired with my phone over Bluetooth for notifications etc. Syncs with garmin connect on my phone, and actually looks like a nice watch. (If a bit big)

So much better than the garmin 910xt it replaced Abd the forerunner 305, before that, and the huawei smart watch I bought.

Honestly quite stunned with its features and performance.

jimdubleyou – Actually now you mention it I may have experienced that double screening before as well… obviously didn’t understand what it was about!

I think the weirdest thing was getting on a flight in south east asia getting settled in my seat, having the guy in front get up and walk off the plane and board the one next to us. He’d walked to the wrong plane and not realised until they announced the destination over the tannoy! That is some interesting security.

oldnpastit – do international terminals have variable levels of security? I only ever see one level.

TJ – unfortunately with the shoe check it seems variable according to the security staff on duty. But as mentioned before, preparing whilst in the queue means that the delay caused is pretty much negligible.

mikewsmith, in my experience we can always get cheaper business tickets through the UAE hub airports to south east Asia and then use the regional airways for shorter flights, Malaysian, Garuda, Thai etc. when in the region.

It always requires shopping between the big 3 Etihad, Emirates, and Qatar, but one of them is always significantly cheaper than the others. I would prefer to fly everywhere through Singapore because the airport is a nice place to be but they are usually more expensive for our destinations.

TJ – Additional security increases over the years have been hit and miss in effectiveness in my opinion. I fail to see how having my passport checked on check-in, then again through security, then again at the gate could improve the situation. It’s pretty certain that if my passport was acceptable at security it wouldn’t have changed by the gate surely?

Armed policemen clearly do make a difference. Liquid restrictions are understandable. And I never minded having to open and switch on my laptop when asked. And removing shoes isn’t exactly time consuming if you’re prepared for it when you get to security. Most delays are caused by people not being prepared for what is now a routine procedure.

The irony being, I suppose, that I could buy a replacement laptop on each journey with the money I save using any of the UAE airlines compared to BA, or any of the large American carriers.

I suppose the solution I would go with would be to take a secure OS only laptop in the hold, and an operating encrypted drive in carry on. If the laptop is lost then no data is lost with it.

Still wouldn’t offer an option to those who work during the flight though.

Is anyone watching Legion ? The FX channel show being run on Fox? Bloody crazy yet captivating.

IMDB[/url]

The Chequers under Froggatt edge is nice if you end up that way.

Smashing Pumpkins – Siamese Dream.
Pearl Jam – Vitalogy.
Sound Garden – SuperUnknown.
Weezer – Weezer.
The Offspring – Smash.
Green Day – Dookie.
Stone Temple Pilots – Purple.

I think that 1994 might have been the most influential year of my musical education. I was 15 and at school in North Devon. Mountain Biking on Exmoor every weekend and listening to amazing music.

I’d echo what ebennet said up there. Zell Am See was pretty good for easy blues, and up the road Saalbach/Hinterglemm is also pretty accessible.

My mate just got back from snowboarding in Lebanon.. pistes look just as you requested if you fancy something a bit different!

If he only boulders then a big bag would be better. If he occasionally puts a harness on then a medium bag that he can put around his waist and will fit a hand in easily would be best.

I get consistently surprised how involved the ” independent forensic consultant team” get with the general investigation including interviewing suspects and generally hanging out with the police while they are investigating… is this realistic?

I still watch it but it seems far removed from the realities of this sort of work and not sure I really enjoy it.

Endeavour on the other hand is excellent. Am I getting old?

Perhaps Sky are pre-empting the loss of Eurosport as it seems that quite a lot of the cycling events are shown on the BIKE channel. Terrible coverage of races in general but perhaps they might step it up when Eurosport goes.

Personally I think I could do without sky. Just would like a freesat HD recorder with decent interface to replace it with. Surely it can’t be that hard to program a box that works!?!

Been getting into this jump bike and skate park malarkey for the last year or so. With the resurgence of BMX tracks and new pump tracks around the area (south yorkshire) it’s bloody good for practising the skills! Also been heading up to Rockcity in Hull which is AMAZING but I have a lot to learn.

I had a DMR reptoid that I have since passed on to a friend and now I have an NS Suburban that I utterly love. I would look at something from NS or perhaps even a YT for the money you are looking at possibly spending. If you’re not sure then second hand is definitely the way to go.

YT

NS

I currently have a large hole in my shin from trying to jump a box and accidentally trying a no-footer… nearly got my feet back on but not quite. Can’t wait to get out on it again!

37 years old and going on 13.

I use a shim with it on the PX XLS. No problem using a proper shim with a seat post anyway.

I’m not sure, if I only wanted it for one bike, if I would bother.

I have one but I paid less than that for it! I think Merlin were clearing some out when I picked mine up.

It works fine but the delay is a bit of an irritation still. Most annoying is trying to set it to an intermediate height, requiring some kind of hover-arse manoeuvre.

Still, worth it to be able to just switch it between bikes though. Means I can use a dropper on my cx bike.

Would be nice to have a more positive single switch and ditch the electric suspension buttons as well but you can get used to it.

I have these:

JRA Trail Dog Wheels

on my trail bike and they are suitably wide. They make my 2.4 Magic Marys look like plus tyres so I suspect they would be suitable. They are excellent build quality so far as well.