The coolant hose in question is clipped to the battery tray but if it’s got the knitted sleeve on it that a few of the other hoses appear to have in that picture then it’s been dealt with.

I think I got a Friday afternoon vehicle to be honest, little things just aren’t quite right.

It was still the best pickup available at the time. Loads of space for passengers, and a decent size flat bed, although the sliding roll top does occupy a bit of the space.

Mine is white. Do not get white. Also check to see if they’ve sleeved the coolant hose next to the battery as mine wore through over the first year of driving leaving me at the side of the road last Christmas with steam pissing out of the engine bay.

Then on the way to morzine this year the exhaust gas recirculating valve cracked and blew out a hose, again leaving steam pissing out of the engine bay.

2 years of not very worry free driving in what was a brand new truck and I am counting down the days until I can give it back and get something else.

Enjoy.

Most of the lakes climbing I’ve done was north. Shepherds crag has a few nice classics and a few reasonably interesting middle grades.

Done a few nice easyish routes on Bowderstone crag, again up north.

South I’ve spent a bit of time in Tilberthwaite quarry, theres a bit to go at in there.

I spent most of my time on Peak Gritstone/Dartmoor Granite/North Devon sea cliffs. Different climbing altogether.

MVS is an interesting grade… not quite as interesting as the HXS that I used to encounter on the questionable coastal crags I used to frequent 15 years ago.

VS is a reasonable grade to consolidate at, once you have a selection of them under your belt it can be better to hit E1 rather than HVS as you usually know what to expect with E1. I had a load more E1s done than HVS before I laid off the climbing.

Lakes crags are quite interesting in themselves. Quite often the polish makes them seem more difficult.

Placebo were bloody good this morning on the breakfast show as well. Must be quite weird having to perform a live set at 9 in the morning!

They’ve also got a great recording of the Smashing Pumpkins from 1993 on the website.

Loving 6music at the moment.

Anyone found a source for xt di2 yet? I quite fancy giving it a go but nowhere appears to have stock of the 1×11 gear set.

Definitely a bit of a gamble on the mtb but the xt price doesn’t seem “too” ridiculous.

I’ve done it on a 2008 enduro using the metal B&Q expanding bolt and knocking it through over a suitable sized socket. It worked but was not as straight forward as I had anticipated. Similar setup to those bearings with nothing to get any purchase on to push from behind. Difficulty is getting the expanding bolt tightened to expand at the right point on the bearing.

Make sure you have some suitable threaded bar and fasteners to press in the replacement. (You could use a hammer but this may cause some binding in the bearing).

Beamers, I was in the ACF at the same time as you, as was my dad!

It is indeed a small world.

Would it be your only work premises?

I still don’t think you can get away with paying yourself rent on it….

Something like this?

Landy mobile office?

That sounds a bit bleak. I broke my scaphoid in 1995 and it was only diagnosed 3 years later as I complained that the wrist had lost mobility. The surgeon carried out a bone graft and it healed over 4 months in plaster but I still have limited mobility.

I guess what I’m saying is- even if they have to fuse it you will still be able to ride, it might be worth riding with a wrist guard/support in the meantime to slow down any further damage through wear and tear.

Hope the solution allows you to ride your bike.

How about this:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/B00C1ZVJA2

You could be the office Rambo!

Yup, I had this on my PX pro carbon on one of its earlier outings. Turns out my descending technique at the time was a bit too “MTB” as I read up a lot on this and the best way to prevent the dreaded speed wobble is to keep your weight low and forward. On the drops or leaning into the bars worked for me, I have never had the issue again.

Real question is how many incarnations of this vole have you unknowingly killed before and has it set up a perchypanther hate shrine in a cave somewhere plotting it’s revenge a la Agrajag !

Had the great pleasure of working here one christmas helping stuff hampers for very well off people. As a bonus they gave us a small hamper of food each at 2am on christmas morning as we finished loading the last hamper on the couriers van.

It was worth working the crazy hours just for the bacon and sausages.

I nearly broke a challenger 2 when I was an army cadet!

We were on a residential with 2RTR in Fallingbostel and out on exercise when the chance to have a go at driving one came up and I jumped at it! The captain put the barrel out to one side at 90 degrees to the direction of drive so that he could stand next to the drivers pit and give me instructions.

I drove forward until an almighty STOP! was yelled through the headset. Turns out if you hang the barrel up on a large tree they can bend a bit…. ah well, good lesson in spatial awareness.

Might be the last time they let a cadet have a go at driving one…

When they drove it over a wreck of a car to show off in the yard it was properly scary. It didn’t so much drive over the car as just make the car thin enough that it didn’t have to go over. Mental. Great trip that.

I put “GoingRapidlyDownhill” I think but if it’s downhill rapidly then yeah, tis me!

Yeah, Bolehills is great for a sunny evening practising jumps and is pretty popular. Rivelin valley is just over the back as well.

Easy to find people to ride with in Greno and Wharncliffe and people up here are reyt friendly.

Crooks eh, what’s your take on BMX tracks and jumping? Bolehills is excellent for a ride around and you’re the correct side of the city for the woods (Wharncliffe and Greno) without TOO much of an epic journey.

Congratulations on making the correct decision. Sheffield is the best place I have lived.

Put myself in for the Ballot but no luck this year unfortunately. Never raced it before but go up to spectate. Will be doing the same again this year I reckon.

Hope the Bradfield pump will be in-situ at the gap jump again! Just hope the drivers do the right thing and pay the meagre parking fee and stay off the road. Then hopefully I might get an entry next year.

I’ve had great service from Laszlo at NLD .

Takes about 2 weeks from first contact to getting the stickers in the post from the 2 times I have used him.

Responds really well to requests and sends images of designs for you to confirm. Couldn’t rate him more highly.

After wandering up to the woods to watch for the first time last year, I want in this time!

Looked like almost as fun to race as to spectate, hope I can get a place in the ballot.

If not then I suppose a few of Bradfield’s finest and some cowbell action will be in order.

Anyone know somewhere that sells bulk quantities of Compeed in Sheffield?

Being the absolute F****** genius that I am I managed to strip the skin off the top of my foot yesterday moving a sofabed…. 2 days before flying out to Avoriaz/Morzine…. Genius.

0/0 stance is…. interesting… I’m 17/17 proper duckfeet. My knees will explode and my feet will hurt apparently… (actually my foot will hurt but that’s got nowt to do with the angles…

Definitely a menace, BAN ALL THE SNOW SPORT USERS EXCEPT OLDER FELLOWS ON SKIS!!!

I thought that generally this view has moved on somewhat, but some of the older resorts in the states seem to have frequent “open letter” whingers that are best ignored.

I think the problem is that of familiarity and predictability, if you’re a boarder then you can get pretty good at predicting what a boarder will do next, and likewise if you are a skier. Generally it’s the beginner’s decision making skills that creates the nervousness about what is happening behind them and leads to unpredictable manoeuvres, always best to give people who look unstable as wide a berth as possible I find. Skier or boarder.

Just learn how to do it. Pretty handy skill to learn and when you twist rear mech cages as often as I seem to.

Also, out of interest, how much more would the chain and derailleur have cost if you bought them from said shop? (If you didn’t in the first place).

In my 10 years of teaching I saw 2 schools that I worked in convert to academies:

One used the sudden boost in funds to invest in replacing previously underfunded infrastructure- a new canteen building with presentation facilities for conferences that could be put to multiple uses, and repair of old and delapidated sports facilities- both projects that would be difficult to negotiate LA funding for because the older facility “will do”. This was a good school with good management that had been under supported by a LA due to its success.

The other school had similar issues but was in a “difficult” area and as such the Leadership team thought they were doing a difficult job. They appointed/promotes additional staff and ended up with approaching 14 assistant head teachers, and the head teacher increased his own pay to c. £100k after managing to persuade the governors that was what was required to get the job done. It is still a failing school, the head has now retired (final salary pension don’t you know) and the new head has had to figure out a way to undo all of the self serving influence the previous head had swayed over the governors.

As in any industry there are good and bad managers, if the school in question has good management with the students’ education at the root of their decision making then the move to academy status could be a great thing in the short term and allow further independent thought in the long term.

You’re all the week before me. The curse of having a teacher for a partner. Try not to slide all the snow off the mountain for us DD & Nemesis.

Also, putting Morzine on top of Sheffield makes Rotherham into Avoriaz. So many parallels in architecture I can see how they tie up.

Thats actually pretty cool GrahamS. Weird how different the actual tracks of the runs can’t be reflected accurately on a piste map. Sometimes piste maps just don’t make any sense when you’re trying to link up long days but I think that site might work a bit better.

I think the provision in resorts is far better for renting good skis than it is for renting good boards.

I used to regularly do the park nights/jumps and rails at Tamworth or Manchester so it was nice to have my own board as it got regular use. I reckon if you only use them once or twice a year they are definitely a luxury.

I wouldn’t say the same about boots though.

Ah, very good. Seem like a decent all round option then. Flows were definitely more comfortable on the front of the boot but the slight movement at the back took a bit of getting used to. Boot dependant of course.

Never went down the route of “board-spd” GrahamS. Didn’t you need to use proper stiff boots for that?

Fnar, fnar.

Do they ratchet from the front then? The tension adjust was all in the flip up lever on the back in my pair, could be adjusted from the front but not ratcheted tight.

I loved them for piste stuff as I could slide off the lift and put my foot in and go at the same pace as the skiers I was with.

Had flows for a while DD. They were great, apart from trying to start anywhere away from bashed piste.

Mine were old and heavy though being from about 2003 and the newer models look pretty good now but I went back to 2 straps and haven’t regretted it.

A longer A2C length slackens the angles and slightly raises the BB so well worth considering if your forks would be suitable. As you say, should be fine for any bikes using similar forks but the A2C might vary for a 650b specific fork.

I’ve done exactly this with a NS Snabb. supposed to be 650b but running my 26″ wheels on it until the rims die.

Actually rides really well, no problems with pedal strikes or the like, even when compared to the old Enduro SL frame it replaced.

Just check the A2C length on your fork and see what it would do to the angles before committing though. I had quite a long fork to put on (BOS Deville 170mm travel).

Good info on the Viking dair86. Perhaps its not as much doom and gloom as I was thinking. So long as I get some boarding done, perhaps some earlier nights might be better for us anyway! Glad the food at the Viking isn’t as bed as the Trip advisor whingers were making out.

Getting excited again now… will see what the next phone call from crystal brings…

The early morning flight out there might get me an extra afternoon on the slopes as well!

Yeah, not keen on being too far out. Ideal would be somewhere with at least an option of an evening or 2 out in the week. Fair point on the apres thing – usually too knackered to actually have a night out but feel that having convinced people to come out as well it would be a bit of a gip not to socialise.

Viking- although it’s in a great location for the slopes I’ve heard pretty bad things about the food and we had planned for eating out.

Personal skidoo might be necessary… or an early morning snowboard run with suitcases would be on the cards I guess…. in the dark….

No car unfortunately, I usually don’t do the package thing but thought it would be easier to bundle it all…. not gonna do that again.

Sure it will still be cool DD – stayed in Saalbach before and boarded Zell Am See. It’s nice down there, and the area links up quite well with buses and lifts.

Always good to meet new people, but not so keen on the weird isolationist hotel at the top of the pleney lift!

Hopefully they’ll come back to me with a better offer this afternoon…. we shall see.

Hi dashed.

They are currently trying to stick us in the viking – which in itself wouldn’t be the worst thing but the pleney gondola only runs until 20.00. Also return flight requires us to be down the mountain before the gondola opens in the morning… so not really great. Especially as I finally convinced some mates to head out and stay in the village with us.

Thing is I’ve checked a few websites today and there’s very little alternative accommodation available.. really just want what we booked – especially as the microbrewery bar over the road is nice.