Best: the Shimano one with 5 arms:

Worst: there are some horrid ones once you start looking, these are pretty bad:

I found it easy on a 2022 carbon scale 930. I got this, but removing and then drilling out the waiting unused blank would have worked fine.

https://www.pedalon.co.uk/acatalog/scott-spark-scale-2018-cable-guide-set.html#a266587

I didn’t remove the bb to fit, my approach was a bit of tape on the end of the inner to act like a parachute, shove vacuum cleaner down the seat tube, then feed and jiggle the inner through the head tube end until you feel it being sucked up the seat tube. Then feed the outer through over the inner. Bit fiddly but no scope to really screw up.

Brand x 125 drop worked for me, 100mm wouldn’t go high enough without me getting worried about min insertion.

You can go much cheaper than that. We got a 4.5m ex display primrose awning for our patio doors for about £350 a few years ago and it has worked fine since.

Primrose ex display awnings

Hide it, take an important bit or two, lock it with a lightweight lock, but also leave a dated note taped to it just to make it clear that it is not unwanted and abandoned.

You don’t want anyone assuming that the pedals dropped off or axel fell out and so you decided to dump it rather than carry it home. People like my father in law would assume they were doing the world a favour by clearing abandoned junk from the countryside.

I considered the 2022 930 to be the sweet spot when I paid £1900 for one a couple of months ago :-(.

The 2023 models have a new frame and are more expensive, specs very similar besides the frames.

Who remembers this?

Ignore double post

Sonder dial or frontier? Heavier frames but more customisable. Canyon exceed?

2022 or 2023 Scott?

I was recently looking at exactly the same decision and went for a 2022 Scott scale 930. Very happy with it, but maybe I would have been happy with the trek too. Preferred the Scott’s spec, but also not convinced that the fancy decoupled bit on the trek could possibly be much use. I can see the point for removing buzz from a road bike where the idea originated, but how useful can it really be when you already have a 2.25 tyre smoothing stuff out? Seems like a gimmick on an mtb.

Spec difference between 925 and 930 was tiny when I looked so check whether you think 925 is with the extra.

Tbh, our apparent love of huge alloys and skinny tyres is doing us no favours here. It would cause upset, but I’d like to see an upper limit of say £100 on claims for tyre/vehicle damage resulting from potholes. Can we officially take the position that a tyre profile of less than xx is not fit for purpose for the UK’s roads? It would be fun just to see the reaction on pistonheads.

I find it strange that with all the terrible stuff happening in the world, potholes seem to cause such anguish to so many

Does your car have keyless entry? Insurers have finally twigged that they get nicked all the time.

Reba would be the go-to for me. Serviceable and plenty of them kicking about on eBay.

I bought a flir one for £200 a couple of years ago like Steveb suggests above. Haven’t got round to selling it yet though because it keeps being useful. Friends and family have borrowed it too. Probably isn’t as good as a proper survey from a professional but might be 75% as good for far less cost.

Perhaps Ian at Giant would like to explain in his best corporate-doublespeak whether inserting/removing/adjusting the height of a seatpost is something that should only be done by an authorised Giant dealer as a “service” item. After all, this is something that:

Everyone on here would consider trivially easy
Might be something you do regularly – just to transport your bike
Is presumably something that you’d still need to do if you ordered on-line and your bike was delivered “assembled” by your local Giant dealer
Appears (based on what we know from this discussion) to be at the crux of why Wysiwyg’s warranty claim won’t be entertained.

I would also love to hear someone from Giant explain this one, with the final point being the key bit.

Ok that’s encouraging, I might test that. Still, it feels like some logic like “if the HW valve is shut then only run the boiler at 50 degrees” would be dead useful

Why would that use more gas? If the hot water in my tank is already up to temperature (which is would be most of the time if I run HW whenever my CH is on) then it makes no difference to anything. But if I can turn my boiler down to 40-50 when I am only running CH, I can run at a lower load (more efficient) and lower return temp (extra more efficient for condensing boilers).

Other question: if I do have HW and CH on and my cylinder is up to temperature, am I guaranteeing that the return to the boiler will always be hot because of water running through the tank and not losing heat before returning to the boiler? Or will the HW circuit shut if the tank’s thermostat tells it to? Do I need to make sure the tank’s thermostat is lower than the boiler temp to ensure this happens?

Sorry for the hijack. Maybe I need a chat with a plumber.

If your boiler allows you to set different boiler temperature for hot water and for heating, then set the hw to come on when the ch is off and it will work better and you’ll save money.

Is that a thing that exists? I’d really like that but our boiler temp is set by a physical control on the front. It seems like such a simple and easy win for efficiency if I could set the boiler to 65-70 for HW but 40-50 for rads.

http://minimizedistraction.com/
It doesn’t have the answers but it articulates the problem.

Written by Tristan Harris while employed by Google.

10 years ago.

Its designed that way though. a lorra lorra money is being made by keeping your screen on. Harvesting what you look at and what your interests are.

it IS addictive.
it is DESIGNED to be addictive.

I wonder if one day the social/societal impact will be weighed up against the economnic benefit (to private business) and it will be subject to rules and restrictions, much like cigarettes.

Precisely this. And it isn’t all that unrealistic to restrict it. Suppose there was a law to say that any social media app is required a provide an option whereby ads or curated content are static only with no videos or autoscroll, and not take up more than half of the page. Sure, Facebook would not like it, but it wouldn’t completely destroy the business model and would be so good for society.

I traded in my pixel 4a (trade in value was £200 but that was 6 months or so ago). I got the promised value no problem, even though it was itself a warranty replacement and the battery didn’t hold much charge (but clearly enough to verify that it turned on ok).

The most worrying part was that the post office wouldn’t give me proof of postage for the pre-paid box. I instead got tracking details by email that afternoon.

I think Google do it for the green credentials rather than for profit. I was very happy though.

Thanks for the PSA!

(nod to Ampthill for being first to suggest the Frontier, missed that first time)

Maxxis Dissectors or something with even less tread would probably do the job for you. What tyres are on your 26er?

Maxxis Aspens at the moment, which are useless in the mud but a joy otherwise. And bizarrely puncture proof despite weighing so little.

I expect that I might want to put some lighter tyres on the new bike once I settle into it.

Thanks all for the suggestions, Clink might have a winner. The Frontier is specced with 2.8 inch 27.5 wheels as standard so I had overlooked it first time round, but I will ask Sonder if they can stick some sensible wheels on instead.

Unfortunately the Halfords/cycle2work vouchers are quite restrictive and so anything from OnOne or Vitus is off the table.

Voodoo Bizango carbon pro might have been lovely but nobody is optimistic about there being any stock any time soon.

The Scott and Specialised suggestions would work but the specs look miles worse, I could get a Sid on the Sonder, but it would be Recon or Judy on the big name brands.

Don’t be this guy

Hmm. Shame it took us 20 mins to get going but at least we were playing by the end of the half.

Have you or anyone else checked if this actually works?

Sounds brilliant if it does but I can never understand how a retailer is able to sell the keys so much more cheaply than Microsoft does direct. I’d love to know what the commercial arrangements are that allow this to happen.

Wales have figured out how best to deal with Maguire – let him dribble uncontested into the box and he will forget what he was there for and kick the ball at the corner flag.

Hand tools as suggested above

What is the smallest patch of land that can be purchased? Buy a 10cmx10cm plot and plant a tree

A properly professional family photo? Give up any attempt at the appreciate ove time stipulation.

Some kit that will always be at least a bit useful? Camping stove etc

Lifetime national trust membership

I’ll stop flying when China stops building coal fired power stations.

China will stop building coal fired power stations when it’s co2 emissions per capita come anywhere close to rich western nations where people think nothing of taking flights merely for pleasure.

Everyone everywhere is finding a reason why they should not be the first to reduce emissions, and I don’t see how this impasse will ever be broken.

I wouldn’t call 4% reasonable with inflation at 10.

I agree.

I’ve never understood the implication that an unjust travesty has occurred if risk-free bank savings rates do not match inflation.

If it were the case that risk-free savings rates matched inflation, wouldn’t inflation become an irrelevant thing to think about?

He is not a uniting force for the Tories, quite the opposite.

How about the least dividing force? He is the only candidate who can claim that there are at least some people in the country (however deluded) who actually actively like him.

It’s going to be Boris. I detest the man, but I think he is the only person who the rabble of children that are our Tory MPs will actually fall in line behind.

And even the Tory MPs who do hate him probably realise that the party is too broken for any other leader to have a chance. I’m sure a few Tory MPs will resign but not enough to stop Boris losing his overall support.

Then by the next election all this will be forgotten and we will vote him in again.

And then Trump will be elected too.

Gawd that was depressing to write.

Further prediction: The final clincher to win the day for Boris will be a quick trip to Ukraine early next week for a photoshoot with Zelensky

The problem is that there is hardly a single honourable and competent Tory MP left. There were some, many years ago…

Then half of them left when the Tories decided to actually try to do Brexit
Then half of the remaining ones left when they decided to go ahead with Brexit even though it was obviously going to be a farce
Then half of the remainder left each time Boris was a pillock

And each time, complete imbeciles were bought in to fill the gaps.

I think there is an open goal, and Kier Starmer keeps scoring, but nobody is actually keeping score, and there is no referee to blow the final whistle. The Tories aren’t even pretending to participate in the spirit of the game any more.

Peston asked her to apologise to the party or something like that. May have hit a nerve.

Is it just me, or did anybody else get the impression she walked off because she was about to burst into tears?

Yes. She was getting skewered though and must be knackered. I’m not sure why she is doing it to herself.

Don’t think she fancied sticking about after Peston’s question!

Do we know what the policy is for the prize rate (“interest rate”) being increased? Just opened a Santander account paying 2.75% so is it time to empty the premium bonds account?

Today’s poem is called ‘An Incomplete List of Things More Capable of Running the Country than the Current Government’.

A bollard. A thimble. A beef gravy granule.
A bilge pump. A plectrum. A Pokemon annual.
A doorknob. A chaffinch. An old rusty kettle.
A footbath. A clothes peg. A wine stain. A pebble.
A ceramic spoon holder. A fruit polo mint.
A discarded tissue. A puddle. Some lint.
A used toner cartridge. Some musical socks.
A build up of silt. A stuffed startled fox.
A plimsoll. A wingnut. A set of false teeth.
A novelty wall clock with the face of Prue Leith.
A beetle. A drumlin. A short piece of string.
A packet of Wotsits. A plant pot. Most things.

I have the same chafer grub problem and a local and appreciative badger population too. Lawn is a disaster. I’m playing the long game and hoping that I am allowed to give up on lawn aspirations and turn the worst bit into a pump track next year.