We have CCTV in my government office building, they’re probably noticing me on STW right now – eek!

I have arthritis in my hip.
Drs and physios have variously suggested the ‘adapt’ approach, along the lines of – “okay, so you’re used to running 70 mile weeks and winning races, but if you can jog 3km twice a week without pain, why not do that instead?“.

Doesn’t suit me at all, jogging round slowly holds no attraction whatsoever.

So I’ve stopped entirely except for a few “treat” runs a year, when I say to hell with the pain/additional damage. So far in 2024 my running has literally totalled three runs: one parkrun on New Years Day, one 10km race and one 1500m race.

It seems like a collosal waste of time and money* to advertise train driver trainee jobs externally, if they’re only going to recruit conducters/signalpeople etc

It wouldn’t cost them much to whack the job listing on the website, surely?

No, but reviewing and rejecting 11,800 out of 12,000 applications would be a few man hours – and we know the industry isn’t predisposed to using AI ;-) .

Lame. I’d rather ride a mid 00s 29er.

That sounds insane. I’d have stabbed someone by now (probably myself).

It seems like a collosal waste of time and money* to advertise train driver trainee jobs externally, if they’re only going to recruit conducters/signalpeople etc. They must take some folk who are green on, surely?

*Yes, I know wasting time and money is probably a KPI of most UK train operators…

Would be great to ride back to back a 1980s pro bike with a modern pro bike. Probably no difference in weight or position just a huge difference in comfort, shifting and braking.

I’d say the difference in aerodynamics would be the key one.

I’ve done two crits and two road races this year on a bike from 2008, with exposed cables and shallow wheels (because that’s all I have).

I feel like I’m genuinely at a disadvantage in sprints – but that might just be because my sprint is rubbish :D .

Person on mountainbike forum shocked that some cyclists take training seriously ;-)

The disc brake Pompino was called the Pompetamine.

Cheers, thinking I will have a go at some point if I can find one similar in shape to an Arione.

Do they not (a) fill up with mud and (b) shred your shorts really quickly?

An individual who is not a financial planner or tax accountant is unlikely to structure their financial affairs as efficiently as possible

Statements like this are akin to someone asking about truing a wheel or bleeding disc brakes and being told “ooh, you better take it to a bike shop, doing it yourself is too risky”. IMO.

Like others on STW (and probably opining on this thread), I spend as much time reading investing and personal finance forums/blogs as I do mountain biking stuff. It’s honestly not too mystifying for the average PAYE-paid individual.

If you’re self-employed we’re probably talking more rear shock servicing levels of complexity ;-) .

It’s really covered in this thread. Not sure what an independent advisor can offer, unless the sums are so large it’s worth rerouting them via an offshore company in the Caymans…

I think you would need to pay CGT on any increase in the value of the shares that took place after the inheritance date.

protect ya ‘lec(trics) ?

I Inspectah Deck-ed my car and it had 36 errors.

(sorry, weak, but your pun deserves acknowledgement)

Quite a few threads on weightweenies about it if you want some inspiration.

Something cheap and preferably second-hand that you can ride into the ground and not feel guilty about.

That sounds wild. I’d have thought you’d have absolutely mullered the bolt head before snapping three tools?

I set up a GRX 2*10speed bike a few months ago. I read Shimano’s new setup method as put the chain on small-small, routed through both derailleurs, with just enough length so the rear derailleur is lightly tensioned. That’s working well.

https://www.merlincycles.com/felt-broam-40-tiagra-gravel-bike-317203.html

This looks decent for the same price of £650 if you happen to ride a 51cm.

Almost every bit of the top 600m is harder than anything

Yeah, I walked up Ben Vrackie the day before yesterday and above the tarn to the summit is a stone staircase. Riding up it would be impossible, riding down it would be brutal.

Everything up to the tarn you could smash on a gravel bike.

Guess we’ll see in a few years. It’s very possible I’ve got it dead wrong.

They care about developing a franchise that will attract paying viewers, paying teams and advertisers, which really ain’t working out.

I can see the ambition from Warner bros / ESO to make the sport more elite money 

FTFY. Sad for the sport but I for one am glad Warner are reaping what they sowed, not that they’ll really care, sigh…

I’d think about weight, rather than stiffness. Heavy road shoes feel gross.

Get a wheel clamp and start charging him £25/day for storage, clamp removed on payment. Simples :-)

Or alternatively, do wax your quicklinks, they’ll be fine (at least, it’s never caused me any issues in 4/5 years of waxing chains).

I’ve been swithering. One of the bikes I’d use it for would be on an indoor trainer. Does anyone have experience of waxed chains indoors? I’m particularly thinking about how much wax gets thrown off onto the floor (though the trainer is on a mat).

Indoor training is literally the perfect use case for putoline IMO. It lasts for absolutely ages, and no fling or drip.

I wouldn’t bother with any more fancy/esoteric waxes indoors.

It turns out that the dozen or so individuals who decide what the STW political consensus should be

Pot, have you met kettle?

My favourite is a big Starbucks one too, which I stole from a Starbucks outside Chesterfield :scratch:

It’s the perfect size – big enough to hold a proper drink, but no so big it’s got cold by the time you’re two thirds through (Mike Trashley XL Sports Direct mug, I’m looking at you…).

The frame is looking distinctly haggard round the slot now, I think you’re in frame repairer territory….

 It is such a relief.

I agree. This morning I turned on the Today programme in the 8am ish political interview slot and for the first time in years didn’t immediately feel compelled to stab the radio.

It will suck, but as soon as possible, break off contact with her totally until you’re genuinely recovered (which will happen, eventually). Still sending text messages “as friends” or whatever will only prolong the grief.

Double chainsets are underrated on WUTBCBDTMTANCGBLAMTIFABPSWSCNNBBGOOFATFTBAHHTSM bikes, nice choice.

Just realised I’ve stayed at the AirBNB Jack Moir was at in the video up there :D

(Really REALLY dark inside, wasn’t great for £140/night or thereabouts)

I’ve had two pairs of Pegasuses (Pegasi?) in the past few years and found them quite wooden. I like Nike’s other shoes, hence me trying them twice.

If you can run in those you can probably handle anything! Dunlop Green Flash?

I wish you all the luck in the world @northshoreniall. I can empathise with the stressful and intrusive nature of the process, and I’ve only got as far as pre-approval training.

My local authority – which is a metropolitan area of almost a million people – only did 17 adoptions in 2018, and 16 the year before. They wouldn’t share a more recent figure, but said it had gone even lower during covid.

I was blown away by that; I suspect the number is so low, in part, because the process is so hard and takes so long that a lot of children get older than most adoptive parents are looking for, so wind up in care instead.

Really personal question, but why?

Not at all, thanks for asking. I too have big respect for those that adopt and foster. There’s a lot of factors that make it different to, and potentially harder than, parenting your own child.

In the UK, it’s not like the 70s and before when children were regularly taken from birth mothers for no other reason than they weren’t married.

Nowadays, the courts view removing someones’ parental rights as up there with the most serious impingements of human rights that exist – akin to life sentence without parole. We also have free and comparatively easy access to abortions in the UK.

In practice, this means the vast majority of children in need of adoption will have been either removed from their parents under duress, because social workers have deemed the child to be in material danger (e.g. due to domestic abuse, sexual abuse or neglect), and/or because the mother is too affected by substance abuse and/or mental illness to care for her child. That brings with it not only the massive trauma of being removed from your birth mother, but also often foetal alcohol development syndrome, neonatal abstinence syndrome (=opiate withdrawal in newborns), impacts of malnutrition and elevated cortisol during pregnancy, etc etc.

It’s a lottery whether any of these issues affect the child, but statistics indicate they often do. I have recently undertaken the pre-adoption training offered by my local authority, which had a variety of opportunities to speak to adoptive parents. Two had good experiences, one said it had “in a way, ruined her life”, another told stories about locking herself in the bathroom to hide from her five-year old son because she was tired of him hitting her, one talked frankly about how they weren’t sure if they actually loved their adopted child.

You’re also signing up for ongoing engagement with the birth family, often mandated by court order (usually via letters , but could be meeting grandparents or parents themselves), with social workers, and maybe difficult conversations with schools on topics like “why did your child have a meltdown in today’s exercise about family trees/making mother’s day cards?“.

So yeah – huge respect for people that do it, but it’s not for everyone.

I’ve been canvassing long enough to know that huge swathes of the population couldn’t tell you which party is in power

I come across this all the time. And/or people confuse whichever party runs their local council with the Westminster govt. I think this was a factor in the red wall collapse in 2019.

We went through four years of IVF and it never bastard worked.

She is now hell bent on adoption and I am, it’s fair to say, not – so it’s probably the end of our relationship.