@fossy – I’m with you. I do kinda like the darker mornings for some reason, but when it’s getting dark again at 3 it is never good. I’d take everything else about winter if it never got dark before like 7.

@finbar – Yeah I don’t really remember a time in the last few years when it has *actually* been pumpkin-spice weather here in Edinburgh. I think we maybe get a week or so of the trees looking pretty, and then it’s just that uniquely Scottish damp cold where its 6 degrees but feels like your bones have turned to slush.

But nostalgia is a powerful thing I guess when our house is such a heat trap at night and I can’t sleep sweating into the bedsheet!

I am a proper magnet.

We went camping on one of the islands on Loch Lomond a few years ago, from what I remember it was quite neatly groomed unless you went off the main path or area, which I don’t think I really did. Me and my wife pulled 31 of them off me over a few days where she had 3 or something. I’ve had similar incidents over the last year or so and I don’t even wear shorts that much. Statistically Lyme disease is probably in the post for me but I have been lucky so far.

At the peak of my roadie-ness my best was about 32km/h average on 100km (the Etape Loch Ness, which is kinda flat / rolling with a big climb in the middle). Closed roads and “event mindset” helped with that. I think I did a hilly 180km ride with an average of 28kmh once too.

At the moment I can’t really fathom being that quick again, though I’d like to. So it is all relative. Right now I’d probably be looking at a 100km “flat” route at about 28kmh, and a 100km hilly route under 25kmh anyway.

@chipps – thanks! That makes sense a bit more now. I use Shimano generally but for some reason I’ve always been a dork about groupsets. I have let my knowledge slip the past 3 or 4 years!

I’m just glad Campag doesn’t have an mtb kit, then I would really be in trouble.

I’ve completely lost track of what groupsets SRAM does these days. I remember when it was Apex, Rival, Force and Red in 1x or 2x for drop bars and SX through XX1 for MTB.

Now it’s all Transmission, XPLR but also with the other ones that already existed?

Tbh doesn’t really have a huge impact on my life.

Terreno dry are excellent for the gravel bike.

I run the Mezcal rear on my XC bike and I’m also a big fan of that, but Terrenos are quicker on the smooth dry stuff where you aren’t getting gnarly.

I’d say it depends how much you’re thinking you’ll be taken by the bug again. For more “gentle” off-road riding and easier MTB every now and hen I’d probably recommend an alloy hardtail with 120mm ish of fork. Efficient on the road or gravel but can get rowdy if you want it to within reason. If you are prone to “mission creep” though, and think you’ll be wanting to go Alpine riding or hitting up trail centres and harder, then a mid-travel trail bike would probably be the best. You can still ride them on easy routes.

Lol @northwind – On my first hardtail I had the 2.8 Wild Enduros. They looked like motocross tires but absolute joke how much grip they give you.

Was great until for various stupid reasons I ended up bikepacking the West Highland Way on them. I think my calories burned was probably double that of a normal tyre and the gravel sections (so like 80 percent of it) were absolutely torturous.

We have started using it in a limited way for various SEO stuff which is not my dept and I don’t really understand it. As well as that I work with a lot of graphics and images. It is helpful in small doses say if your photo has been zoomed in too much, and you need it zoomed out a bit where you can AI generate the surroundings a bit. It’s impressive but also a bit frightening how good it is getting.

@intheborders – I wouldn’t say Pink Floyd or the Hermitage trails are too full on. Top of Rake & Ruin can feel a bit scary but apart from that I wouldn’t say it’s too bad either. Saying that as a very feart mountain biker.

A few years ago I got a Truvativ Stylo carbon crankset for an old bike on a mad cheap deal second hand. The difference was actually quite noticeable…but I was also upgrading from a SRAM SX with a square taper-like BB. Was probably the half kilo of weight that I noticed more than anything…and I wouldn’t pay full price.

Rainy phone screen on a half-loaded google maps with 8% battery left; that either crashes when I try and zoom in, or the raindrops make my phone accidentally call people from work.

Eventually, watching a downloaded video from a hiking vlogger in roughly the same region from 2021 and desperately seeing if I recognise anything.

And after that, pure guesswork based on vibes and which way the lichen is growing, I think I learned that in a bushcraft class at a music festival once.

@grimep – Agree. I much prefer to buy my outdoor clothing from far-right brands. Or I love me a centrist, Ed Milliband jacket like a Rab – absolutely NOT avocado in colour. That’ll show the bloody woke lefteyes!

Using “Woke” as some kind of gotcha catch-all type of insult has always been hilarious to me. I once saw people decrying the administrative renaming of Snowdon to Yr Wyddfa as “Woke”.

The big hitters like Keegan Swenson IIRC use road shoes for Leadville 100 – they’d be fine for anything where you don’t have to walk or dab.

Road cleats get clogged with mud incredibly quickly and you have to take a stick to them to clean them out before you can clip in again. So I wouldn’t take them out on muddy tracks or anything where you have to put regular feet in dirt tbh.

Rake & Ruin and Pink Floyd from Birnam Hill are classics – not too scary even on my XC hardtail (though in the wet the roots are deadlier than anywhere else in the world at Dunkeld for some reason, and I’m sure it goes up a grade).

Gravel or easy XC / scenic riding – you can make a nice loop up towards Loch Cally and the 3 little lochans behind Atholl Hill, or up towards Loch Ordie.

There’s one particular “up and over” clockwise short section of landy track through a felled area of forest that is awesome fun – mildly rocky and steppy on bedrock and would probably be a blue/red singletrack if it was halved in width! As far as I can remember it descends down towards Rotmell loch from the SW. If I was local I would go and do laps of that regularly on the XC.

You can also ride the millions of forest roads with a lot of climbing from the Hermitage northwards towards Dalmarnock, and back alongside the river on the path there. Can get some incredible views. If you can go past the “Rumbling Bridge” after some rain you’ll be mighty impressed with the waterfalls.

I just got a Bontrager Aeolus Comp on my road bike and I love it. I am a big fan of these snub-nose “boost” saddles and this one was cheap but comfier for me than a Spesh Power Saddle for example. I might get them for all my bikes after a few more months testing. Not sure it would be great on the enduro bike position right enough.

Obvs saddles are the most subjective thing about a bike so take anything with a grain of salt.

I think Pog’s withdrawal from the Olympics is more a thinly veiled way of trying to stick it to the Slovenian Olympic Committee for not selecting Urska Zigart.

I can’t see him going for the Vuelta if it puts his shot at the rainbow jersey in doubt.

@snotrag – I’ve not bought anything yet…but interesting proposition and will keep you in mind!

@dewd – Wouldn’t recommend getting MT200 anything. They came on an old MTB of mine and they were dreadful.

Granted, that was mostly the long lever being big and flexy that you’d change, and you don’t really need “stop dead in the middle of a rocky chute” power on a road bike as with an MTB so YMMV with those. In fact with good pads they’d probably be fine, just heavy and not as durable.

Thanks for the input all. I think I will probably just buy some rather cheap off-model Deore-level calipers or something and plumb them in. Not sure I want to go down the massive rotor route on this bike, 160s will be fine for me.

Gravel bike does sound like the way. My “gravel bike” is actually a CX bike (and more akin to a normal road bike in geometry than the longer slacker things nowadays) but it takes 43mm tires for rough stuff, or I have a set of fast 28mm tires for pure road use.

I descended Carn a’Chlamain on this bike (don’t get me wrong it was awful and I have 2 more MTBs since then, but I managed it), did the Dirty Reiver, and last week I did a 10 mile TT on it. Very versatile. Not amazing at anything but decent at everything.

It’s good to see a weather moan thread (genuinely) that doesn’t have reams of idiots spraying their HIDDEN TRUTHS about cloud seeding and the government plan to cover up the sun, which they seem to have deduced from “something isn’t right”.

Holding out hope for a nice August and September.

@thisisnotaspoon – just to clarify, walking only!

Whisper it but AirPods are great. I have a set from 2020 that are still in perfect nick. I am continuously shocked that I haven’t lost at least one of them.  Only issue is they start to look manky from time to time and have to clean them with an earbud and rubbing alcohol.

I’m late-80s in kilograms – have a bike with 4-pot SLX (enduro) and one with 2-pot (XC). I much prefer braking the big bike on steep stuff, but I generally think that’s down to larger rotors and much grippier tires. Actual braking power is not *hugely* different between calipers and suspect all things equal it wouldn’t be too much different at all.

The 4-pots are deadly though, I’ve never wanted anything more powerful.

This really riles people up doesn’t it. It’s just a video game, but it gets people out and about a bit instead of rotting at home. I don’t see the issue at all – they’re enjoying themselves.

I actually had an idea for something similar except it was an AR game where there were zombies you had to avoid. Like you have a normal google maps if you were nipping to a cafe, and can see red dots approaching, chuck the camera on and there’s a zombie you better avoid him or shoot him or something.

I have a ridiculously pricey mug from Highland Stoneware that has been the only mug I have used at home for 2 years now. I dunno how they do it but I’ve dropped it quite a few times and it just bounces.

It’s actually down from where it was, so that’s a blessing as I was starting to worry it was infected badly. Still a tint bit itchy but easy to ignore and very little swelling.

My allergy must just be kicking up a notch, will need to keep an eye for the rest of the summer or wear trousers. Not that it’s been particularly shorts-friendly weather so far anyway.

I’ve tried so many saddles over the years and not been really happy with any, including a few Ergon models as well.

The best saddle I have ever used is actually an Amazon knock-off of the Specialized power saddle…I had them on all 3 of my bikes for a while. For some reason it works for me better than the actual Spesh one. Only thing is I don’t really like supporting these dodgy industries, and they don’t last particularly well so not great environmentally.

I’m trying out a Bontrager Aeolus saddle now and it is very good indeed for me. I think I just like these roadie boost saddles a lot.

I was slightly panicking last night, as it felt so strange and the swelling just didn’t look right and the bruised feeling was unusual…was convinced I was gonna wake up with Cellulitis but thankfully it has gone down overnight.

I called the doctor anyway and they basically said get some bite cream which I have anyway, and if it gets worse call them back.

I’m heading up to the NW in a week or so and I am worried I will return looking like John Merrick!

Sorry to read this mate. Been on the receiving end of similar once, and I have been the person doing the delivering as well once. Either one of them are crap.

Breakups are utterly shit. You are gonna feel like this for quite a while, but every day you’ll find new ways to cope. Especially right now, you will see her in the way you’ve described: as something amazing you have lost. But after some time you may well start to realise and reflect on certain things you didn’t pick up on at the time, that maybe you were not a perfect fit. That’s what happened with me anyway.

The crucial thing is that over time you don’t let that turn into resentment – it is impossible to be understanding right now but you will be one day. It is better for both of you – honestly – that this happens now and not in five years, or after having to fight tooth and nail to keep this person in your life. You can have the two most amazing people on the planet but they might just not quite have the same outlook.

If you have a network of mates to support you hit them up. Or just vent to us dorks on here.

I’d probably advise against trying to be friends though. May be different for others but I tried that once and it just lead to absolute misery. Cordial yes, friends no.

Last update on this – at least for while.

Unfortunately our only little egg didn’t make it – so that is the end of our NHS funded treatment. Yesterday was a really hard and strange time going between utter despair and a kind of “oh well” feeling. It is gonna take a while to come to terms with this.

We can afford a round or two of private treatment, which we may go for. However with such a low egg reserve for my OH’s age, we are going to take some time to consider it carefully. Don’t want to rush into anything and just focus on supporting each other for now.

For now, we are going to try and have a few weeks “off” and just live our lives, maybe head up to my Mum’s in the NW Highlands. I went out on my road bike last night and it really helped, so nice to feel that feeling again even after just a few weeks.

Thanks for everyone’s input on this over the last few weeks. It has really helped, and the less-positive stories really did help to prepare myself for this. Mountain bikers are awesome.

I watched this when I was a small boy and spent the next year with a neurotic fear of asteroids and mega tsunamis.

I think there was some news report in like 2002 about an asteroid that was forecast to come close to earth shortly afterwards and I couldn’t sleep for weeks.

Ach. Had egg collection early this morning and only one egg retrieved. After this cycle, there’s no more funded treatment available to us. Bugger.

However, all you need is one egg and I’m sure they’ll be able to find one workable swimmer from my sample, so hopefully they can at least fertilise and we will get one shot at it. We will find out tomorrow. Hope is still alive even though the odds are very much not in our favour.

I have a Trek Slash as my bike, the last Gen one without the high pivot. I got it to replace a Trek Fuel EX8 (I’m not a trek fanboy…just what I could find!) and I find it not really any worse to pedal and climb to be honest. To be fair, the reason I upgraded was also because I found my Fuel was a size too small, but also for the increased capability. So maybe not a fair test, but if anything I feel much better on the Slash climbing.

Descending it’s a whole new ball game entirely. That will also be some sizing differences in there too but it’s night and day, even on easy trail centre style stuff. In tech it is a magic carpet ride, and it’s much more confident on steep stuff. I’ve not noticed any difficulty handling a lomger bike after like half an hour getting used to it.

There will probably be starker differences in other brands though. Like I would be super overbiked with something like a Nukeproof Giga

My OH is obsessed with The Last Dinner Party so watching that atm. Good songs, very Kate Bush though.

Oh and Confidence Man are great fun, I was working at Kendall Calling last year and caught them having not heard them before. Kinda weird but really good.

We put on Dua Lipa for a bit of a laugh and ended up watching every second of it and ended up getting kinda jealous of the whole vibe, looked great fun, what a show. So many upbeat dancy songs (including a bunch of “oh that’s who sung that song” moments).

Watching Fontaines DC now. Skinty Fia was my album of 2022, so enjoying it but after watching everyone have fun watching Dua Lipa their aloof posho pretend working class South Dubliner shtick is actually annoying me. Christ.

lookinh forward to watching Soft Play on Sunday. I never paid much attention when they were called Slaves but the 4 songs they’ve released this past year are worldies, I’d recommend to any punk fans (and IDLES fans – they’re similar but a bit more aggressive and fun with their lyrics).

@martinhutch thank you very much.

I don’t know to be honest. I am assuming it does mean that, at least for viability in NHS’s criteria. So many people on waiting list etc…they must have some fertility “KPIs” so to speak to give everyone a fair chance, so I get it, but at the same time it makes the whole thing a bit nerve wracking