I’m not sure you fully understand the term shite. They aren’t grippy or especially light.

So we all know that if Schwalbe tyres have a weakness it is that they are not that robust. If you also believe they are not light or grippy, exactly why did you buy them?

Please also feel free to point out another intermediate conditions tyre that weighs less, rolls as fast and has as much volume. I’m predicting a very short list.

Perhaps if it’s a cheap, honest, salt of the Earth type SUV, it’ll be alright. We’ll see…..

No!
There is no reason for a 2wd SUV to exist other than as part of a scientific experiment to determine what proportion of the population are foolish enough to buy a ‘car’ that is worse in every way than a similarly sized estate car.

Excessive masturbation….

Totally worth it 😀

Yes, for about the last 10 years. Although for me its all muscular pain rather than joints and takes a lot longer than 15 mins to ease off.
Understandable if i’ve been training, but is still present even during end of season break.
Tried all the obvious stuff like increased protein intake, new mattress etc.

Make sure to go and test drive.
Having recently had the misfortune to drive a Sandero I question how Dacia sell any cars at all. If the performance/handling of the Duster is even remotely similar you’ll run from the showroom screaming.

lol, Op says he wants trail centres…. every poster says trails are rubbish do natural including actual mountains.

Sorry, I thought 6 different trail centres in 7 days wasn’t a bad effort, i’ll try harder next time 🙄

I got fed up with World of Tanks, it’s just too dependent on people that don’t seem to be able to use a mouse or know left from right (this isn’t being elitist, I consider myself an average player at best but usually in the top 3 on random games). As it’s 15 v 15 you need your team mates to at least have a clue

Don’t bother with descend mode. Keep it in trail mode.

That’s about the only option left that doesn’t involve a large outlay of cash.
If you are blowing travel that easily, Trail mode will still be plenty plush enough anyway.

Your too heavy for it, they seem to design them for light weight XC whippets, not normal people.

Nice theory, but a quick browse round the web says its a pretty common problem with the Float CTD. At <60kg, i’m certainly not too heavy and had exactly the same experience. Standard tune of the shock just doesn’t offer enough damping in any of the 3 modes.

And by shite you mean light, fast and grippy? Clearly terrible characteristics in a tyre.

Sunday – Travel to Kielder in morning and ride a bit in afternoon

Monday – Travel to Peebeles in morning, Glentress in afternoon.

Tuesday – Gypsy glen in morning, travel to Comrie croft and have a lap or 2 of the blue, stay in bunkhouse.

Wednesday – Travel to Glenlivet in the morning, lap of Red and Blue (in that order), short transfer to Aviemore.

Thursday – Either a day off the bike playing tourist, a natural ride, or head down to Witches Trails at Nevis range.

Friday – Travel to Mabie in the morning (long transfer, sorry), ride trails and stay in glamping pods.

Saturday – Travel to lake district first thing and either ride or do the via ferrata at Honister slate mine, travel home after.

If the cut is near the tread area and you’ve sewn and then patched from the inside i don’t see why you shouldn’t go tubeless. You want the patch to be something stretchy though.

If it were me, i’d clean the inside of the tyre, small amount of rubber glue on edges and sew shut. Patch inside with an offcut of old inner tube. Leave to dry for an hour. Larger patch over the first one 20mm overlap. Leave to dry for an hour. Tubeless tyre as usual.

Just checked fox’s guide. Indeed, dont go over 300psi.

I have a similar experience to chiefgrooveguru, and have to get down to 15% to stop blowing through all the travel, and went as low as 12% in an attempt to firm up Climb and Trail modes

A) Are you remembering to set it to Descend mode before setting sag?
B) Try 15% as long as it doesn’t take you over max pressure

None round here, they probably froze or drowned sometime around June/July

Well, forgive me for being blunt, but seems a stupid idea.
If you do 1 sufferfest video properly you are on your knees, can’t see how it would be even possible to do 10.

I’m entitled to it, and usually get it, but the special clinic the GP runs falls 48hrs before Relentless, so will be skipping it for now and try and sort something out next week.

~17 Down, 1.5 Up

Since moving to Oz

That there is your problem.
Anyone that’s had more than a passing interest in online gaming over the years is aware that of the many things Oz has in its favour, internet connectivity isn’t one of them!

World of Warships

Unless this has changed a LOT since release, I have to question what you are smoking. Waaaay too much mindless trading shots.

World of Tanks

That I can agree with.
Has an almost perfect blend of being able to grasp the basics quickly (point and click) with a massive amount of depth to the gameplay so skilled players can really differentiate themselves.
The only real downsides are:
A) the maps were dumbed down around a year ago making it more like ships in that ‘tunnel’ map design makes shot trading inevitable.
B) too many players seemingly can’t even click on tanks – makes you question what hope there is for humanity

Don’t take this as a criticism, as its not, its probably a lack of knowledge on my part

but I have Thimble tomorrow (14x50secs at 127% FTP)

This bit here is why i’m always reluctant to follow generic training plans without having a knowledgeable coach to talk over and explain things.

Now, if I remember rightly, Kryton is aiming for a first peak around March, that’s still >4 months away. From the digging i’ve done, Thimble isn’t performed at a low cadence, so isn’t a force building session which I would understand >4 months out. It appears to be a VO2Max/Lactate tolerance session.

So, can anyone explain for me why TR have added this type of session in the plan so far out from the target peak date?

I have videos aswell obviously but don’t want to come across as a crazy cat ladyboy

Too late, sorry 😛

No experience in that field i’m afraid, but would say if you are loving the study/learning, and can afford the BSc, then go for it regardless of any possible employment options at the end.

Yes, get the tests done.
Speaking from personal experience, once you find and treat the underlying condition (most likely some GI issue), the iron levels will sort themselves out.

1) Arrive around 8.30, and start PC booting up
2) Go fetch coffee
3) Log in, load up email, timesheet, code environment and STW.
4) Ask boss whats in store for the day – “errr”
4b) Enter state of shock if response isn’t – “errr”
5) Alternate napping, coffee and STW until 16:30

I’m not sure a decent cheap rear light exists.
Using one of these at the moment, but would rate it as adequate rather than worthy of a recommendation.

If Stephen Dixon is the most irritating news presenter that ever lived.

@rollindoughnut.
The way you’ve done it shows a real determination and strength of character, and huge thumbs up from me for that.

But the overwhelming majority don’t have that, they probably last 1-3 races of being destroyed and then give up. It’s not a sustainable way to run anything when newcomers are driven away demoralised.

I’d question why, I must say.

Why, for the same reasons as it works in every other sport. There’s no shortage of competetive people, they just aren’t necessarily any good, or have any inclination to practice/train.
By making it point scoring, it puts a structure in place, helps make sure you are competing with people of the same level and helps protect against riders clearly far to strong contaminating these races.

Why must stuff be ranked for those who, by their very nature, are being put off by it all being a bit serious?

It’s not necessarily it being too serious, its the fact the current ranked categories are so far out of reach to the average rider they may as well be a different sport entirely.
Again, just look at the local leagues of any sport you like (Table Tennis, Badminton, Cricket etc etc), and you’ll find structured leagues with many levels and 1000’s of blokes taking it not too seriously, but enjoying it non the less, and maybe getting bragging rights against the team from the village next door for a year.

Does virtually every race not have at least an open/fun category though?

NO, i’m clearly failing at explaining.
I don’t have access to ANY open/fun category races

I know MSG publish a ranking for their open category. Is that not a standard thing?

Again, getting somewhat tired of explaining, but open category isn’t even a standard thing, let alone series rankings for it.

So what you really mean is that you want to have a license and points for Open/Fun?

I think fun/novice would be better left alone and up to the organisers discretion, but yes, as I said about 5 times before, there should ideally be another two point scoring steps on the ladder.

So something like:

Fun/Novice (no license required – for raw beginners and maybe parents that are only really there cos their kids are.)
Intro (For folk that enjoy racing, but for whatever reason aren’t very good at it)
Sport (Similar to intro, but at a higher level, maybe riders that train 6-8 hrs a week)
Enthusiast (Riders that take their racing seriously, but have not yet, or are not able to reach higher level)
Expert (As current)
Elite (As current)

Obviously needs to come hand in hand with a slightly more robust promotion/relegation system, and a major media campaign to drum up fresh blood

Not much use i’m afraid, other than pointing out that an FTP of 0W is probably an all time low – can only improve from there 🙂

I’d focus on hills rather than miles for training

I’ve really never understood that line of thought.
As far as training is concerned the hills are fairly irrelevant.
Sure there’s some slight differences to which muscles are recruited, but basically, pedalling X power is still X power whether its up/flat/down.

Complaining that sport isn’t accessible ignores the fact that there are at least one and possibly two categories below this.

F* me but I swear some people cant read!
OPEN IS NOT A MANDATORY BC POINT SCORING CATEGORY

a) Am I mad?

Not at all, its mostly flat with 1 not particularly hard climb.

b) what sort of level of training would be recommended?

Depends if you want to get round or fly round.
A couple of midweek interval sessions and a long ride at the weekend will be fine.
The key is regularity, getting out 3-4 times a week, not burying yourself and being forced taking a week off to recover then repeating.

On a decent day i’m closer to 2.4W/KG…. which tells me either i need to be 50% more powerful, or start cutting some limbs off

Cutting limbs off certainly helps.
Lets say my W/Kg is far more impressive than my raw FTP.
Although being an out and out climber isn’t particularly useful in the UK, and the lack of raw power really hurts when muddy or very rough.

Fifeandy- but locally we have Fun and Open to cater for them

As i’ve said, we dont actually have those categories, since they are at the whims of the organiser, not an official BC category with license points – if they were, the problem would be much smaller.

As it is, the option for me is a 2 lap ‘novice’ race, and lets face it, at ~3.8W/kg and performing quite well in 7-10hr races then novice isn’t the place for me.

I’m quite happy to accept i’m not good enough for Sport (in my region at least), but at least give me a point scoring category that is at my level.

@Ghost has made quite a telling point – the gulf between the average cyclist and the average racing cyclist is huge, and unfortunately I seem to find myself in some sort of gap in the middle.

The barrier to this working is that you need to be top 15 in the country to get promoted to expert. Which is nuts!

Especially in geographic locations where not that many races are available – you could win 3 races from 3 entries and still not get promoted.

Weeksy, I think you are a tiny bit in denial about how fit the average cyclist is.

I disagree, I think he seems to have a very good idea how fit the average cyclist is (not very), and the entire problem is stemming from the fact that neither Cat4 road or Sport XC are accessible in the slightest to them.

Difficult to tell without getting hands on and poking around with a meter.
Wouldn’t have thought shorting the negative to case or heatsink should be a disaster though.

Not into 2 lap races. Results in 3 hr drives for 40min race.
I’d think that anyone even thinking about racing XC should be capable of riding 90mins.

Ok, maybe £500 not seeming quite so reasonable for two adults and a tiny person.

As others said, seems you are paying too much for meat.

What about special kids stuff? Huggies, wet wipes, etc? Possibly using a bigger proportion than you may think.

If you are feeding 4 i don’t think £500pcm is a hideous overspend at all assuming that includes all lunches too.

It sounds a lot, but averages out to <£1.50 per person per meal.

As already said by others, just make sure you arent buying excess and throwing stuff out.

Jazz is a good call as it has hondas magic seats in the back too i think.

Not sure a particularly economical Civic petrol exists although it does have a superb sized boot. Very nice cars though.

Staying with honda, maybe even an Insight?