Picked up one of the smaller bearcats off eBay a few years ago, and while it’s certainly not throw in and forget, it will pull stuff into the main chipper quite happily. Will easily chomp throu 3″ branches although you do need a fair amount of pushing and shoving at times to get stuff into the chute.

The top chute can be a bit of a pain at times too… but overall it’s an awesome piece of kit and blows the socks off the electric one it replaced.

Also, I didn’t know they were made in Fargo… which ties in nicely with one particular scene in that film… 😁

I just use decent linen tea towels in cheap wicker baskets… I did look at buying some bannetons but nearly fell off the chair at the price! I’ll live without the ridges on my bread!

Just make sure the everything is well floured before putting the dough in for it’s final rise…

I usually use wholemeal flour for the dusting, which was a suggestion from one of the many bread books I own.

Asian seafood broth wouldn’t happen to be Laksa would it? Now thinking of that is making me hungry…

I’m trying baguettes from my rye starter this weekend… it might turn into a bit of a disaster…

And sourdough pizza is yummy…

I’ve found a couple of books really useful over the years for making bread…

Dough by Richard Bertinet which describes a kneading method which I’ve used ever since… it’s a pulling and folding method which apparently is how the French work dough, and is good for wetter than normal doughs. Might be able to find it on YouTube.

Bread Matters by Andrew Whitely… this is my go-to book for sourdough recipes and it gives some really good ideas how you can fit bread making into everyday life…

The thing that made the most difference for me was just time spent working dough and learning the feel when it’s too wet or dry… and when is feels right…

How much starter do you have??

Mine, although it is a rye starter, is in a small plastic tub, and only has about 100g of flour in it…

If it’s a wheat starter and you are feeding it every day, but not using it, then either Chuck some away, you don’t need it all, of make some stuff with it. I don’t think I ever had that much starter even when I was baking a couple of times a week!

But in answer to your question, yes you can…

After much refreshing I managed to get a slot with Shipton Mill… the only problem now is that I am gonna fill the freezer with sourdough… I’d forgotten how much I enjoyed making it…

I believe that Audi are using brake-by-wire in their E-tron car, as it allows on the fly adjustment of brake operation based on the amount of regenerative braking from the motors. Also, I think F1 cars use it at least partially.

Both of those are effectively electro-hydraulic as the actual braking is still done using a master cylinder and caliper.

As for it’s use on a MTB? At present it requires more ‘gubbins’ (technical term!) than the simple brakes found on our bikes, and they still require a master cylinder so there is no real benefit to them.

There are different methods for doing this either electro-mechanically, or all electronically, but both would require significant reservoirs of power to be able to operate, which on an e-bike might be possible, but would likely impact range etc, and neither will work with no battery attached!

Now, and ABS unit for bikes might be interesting… :o)

And let him show me up??? 😁

As qwerty said, cheap the dropouts aren’t moving, it doesn’t take much to make the chain slacker… oh and check both sides too, the braking forces can sometimes pull that side backwards…

If you are stretching chains, then try a 1/2 inch chain instead.

Oh, and don’t set it up too tight to begin with that always seems to make them stretch faster…

Congratulations Lee… I’m about 3 1/2 years into it here with my boy. It’s amazing but such very hard work!

I’d echo what orangewinger said above, start reading up now on PACE and therapeutic parenting. Also, make sure you keep in contact with your post-adoption support people, and make use of any courses available to you. The more help you can get the better.

I still remember how it felt to be on your position… it was amazing… looking back on it now though makes us feel a little nieve as really, as hard as it had been getting to that point it really was only the start of the hard work!

Oh, and I know some of that might sound a little negative, but it’s not meant to be, just realistic as to what it was like. Would I do it again? Hell yes as my son is bonkers and brilliant and I love him to bits…

Anyway, congratulations again, and if you ever need any help, advice or even just a shoulder who understands to cry on then am always more than happy to help.

‘Hush subject’? Most of the trails are plastered all over Strava!

Anyway, you could always do what most people I know do, and just ride around and head off up any track you see. You might get a little lost a few times, and head up some dead ends, but you’ll soon get the idea and Cannock isn’t very big after all…

I eventually found the ticket price (£40 + 3) but couldn’t find anything on prices for vehicles or camping…

Oh, and I can recommend Abgo for oil boiler spares… I struggled to find anything in any local plumbers merchants and was eventually directed to them. Ordered a part just before Xmas when the motor capacitor died, and it arrived next day. Which was nice as it was chuffing freezing with an unheated house!

Are you sure it’s actually lighting?

I had a similar issue a couple of years ago where the fan would start, would run for a few seconds and then shut down.

It turned out to be the solenoid which operates the valve for oil into the pump. Best way to easily check the solenoid is to test the resistance of the coil.

Also worth checking the opto sensor which checks that it’s ignited.

Luckily oil boilers seem to be pretty easy things to fix! There’s only about 4 things in ours!

A bridge rectifier is used for converting from AC to DC, so the board needs an AC input, and 24V sounds about right from looking at the supply voltage specs for the device.

As above, get a transformer… you should be able to find an plug in supply for 24V AC, but make sure it’s rated enough for the amp… it’s gonna need to supply about 20A at full load!

Also, amplifier inputs are almost always high impedance, so I wouldn’t expect to see any meaningful resistance there.

Finally, a multimeter won’t be able to measure audio, it’s just not fast enough…

Somewhere on the piece there will be a 4 or 5 digit number… you can then use that number to look up the piece on bricklink or other site…

You might need to look quite hard sometimes though…

Grrr… just types a load of stuff but it then logged me out when I posted!!!

Anyway, it’s just a normal 135mm 26″ rear wheel, as I’ve swapped it out for one of my spares on occasion.

Also, would need to check on my son’s bike, but the current one is supplied with a 32T chainring and 11-40T cassette. And it’s definitely a 9-speed on the Frog MTB range.

I don’t see any reason why a 12-speed NX wouldn’t work, and other people seem to be able to run 12 speed on 26″ wheels…

Mud – Lonely this Christmas
My Bloody Valentine – something

On the BC site they have some Go Ride XC races in Cheam, and also something in Woking in December… no idea what they will be like though…

Also, are you aware of the Mojo kids races? We’ve done a couple and they have been ace…

There are some kids enduro races in the Forest of Dean too…

Flyup 417 in Gloucester have some kids races too… not sure when they are though.

Unfortunately most of those aren’t in the South though…

Are there any mountain bike oriented Go Ride clubs in your area?

I know they’ll likely be XC based, but could be a good place to find out about other races etc…

I’m with thegeneralist on the empty cups thing… after I first noticed it, you end up seeing it everywhere in films and TV… you’d think actors would be able to manage carryingband drinking from cups by now!

Oh, and am not sure what the problem I drinking from a Sigg bottle…

ry33… on discs and forks, I think it really depends what sort of things he is riding and how often.

I relented as he was following me down all sorts of off-piste stuff on Cannock Chase… stuff that I could have ridden on a rigid, but would be no fun which is why I ride a hardtail… it seemed a bit mean to not let him have them too when we were getting getting him a new bike.

One thing I have noticed is that he is far more ‘jumpy’ now on the hardtail than he was on the rigid… he’s trying to pop off everything!!

My son was on a Frog 69 MTB when he was about 8 1/2, although he is one of the tallest in his class. I was a little resistant at first to getting him a bike with suspension, let alone a 26″ wheeled one, until he was older, but having tried one of the Frog 69 MTB bikes at his bike skills session it fitted okay, he could ride it easily, and he was markedly quicker on it than the 24″ Isla bike he’d been riding before, and also significantly more confident on anything technical.

When we bought the bike we did try him on the 62 MTB (the 24″ wheeled one) and it fitted him perfectly at that point, but he’d have been outgrowing it by now and we just can’t afford a ‘new’ bike for him every year… as it is I’ve still got a year to go before this one is paid off!

The next worry is how long he’ll be on the Frog for… he’s already able to ride my bike about with the saddle dropped!!

Overall it’s quite a tricky decision to make I think, and it’s really easy to spend a lot of money changing bikes as the kids are growing up trying to get the perfect size all the time.

I think the Halfords all in one 1600 lumen light at about £40 is hard to beat…

I probably should have said ‘out from Darley Dale’… the one I’m talking about is the rocky horrible climb just after the steep road section as you come out of the village.

I’ve always liked doing the 5-Dales route near Matlock… apart from that first climb out from Darley Bridge that is!!

Just thought… didn’t there used to be a decent shop in Petworth? It’s been years since I was there so no idea if it’s still there or not…

I can recommend Foothills in Sheffield… it’s not in the S or SE, but it is near a pretty decent area for walking or riding… :o)

Anyway, took my other half there to try and find her some boots… I think she tried on pretty much every pair of boot they had in her size, which was most of them! We were in there for hours but there was no push from the salesperson to choose, and they were really patient and seemed more concerned in making sure she had comfortable boots than making a sale.

I think in the end we left about 45 minutes after the store closed (after having been there about 4 hours!), and thankfully she did found some boots…

Thanks folks…

South Africa is certainly somewhere we hadn’t thought of, although that might be pushing the cost a little…

Possible for the Canaries… and it’s probably mostly my snobbery which was making me not think of it before…

Hadn’t thought about Italy either… will have to investigate although as it’s certainly somewhere that I would love to go to…

I shed a little tear when they stopped selling the 26″ Chunky Monkey as that is my favourite front true… annoyed at myself as I bought a Smorgasbord as a spare a while back when buying some other bits, but didn’t get the CM at the same time as it said they had lots in stock…

Considering the company behind it appears to be Thyssonkrupp, one of the world’s largest steel producers, and also a huge engineering company, I’d be more inclined than not to believe what they are claiming…

Now, whether it actually ever makes it further than a few special project bikes will be interesting to see…

I was recommended these after stabbing myself numerous times…

http://www.safetyhut.co.uk/hand-and-arm-protection/ripeur-gloves/?Page_ID=3610&refpid=27725&id=218350

Edit: just seen other people recommending stuff for riding… the above gloves are certainly not riding gloves, and are used for working with spikey vegetation!

Someone needs to put up another one, and then he’d be Tu’plaq’ Shakur…

Okay, I’ll get my coat…

Four may be a ‘bobbins’ answer, but given the question as written, and without adding any additional punctuation, is ‘four’ a correct answer?

I did some bushings once on a set of Zocchi’s, the sizing involved tapping the bushings up and down inside the leg as the surface was slightly tapered…

I made a tool out if some threaded rod and a washer that I cut the edges off and ovalised the centre hole… used this to tap the bush in, but it could also be poked through and used to pull the bush out as well..

Not tried Rock Shox yet… it seems to be something that doesn’t need doing so often on more modern forks…

I had a feeling that might be the case…

I had a look-see for second hand xc hubs, but they seem to go the same now as they did back when I bought these ones!

Might have to try bodging something before spending too much money…

My 9-year old seems to be able to climb pretty much everything using a 1×9 with a 32 tooth chainring and 12-36 cassette which came on his Frog mtb, so you could try that.

Or, you could try it with a 30 tooth on the front if needed for a little more help on the hills.

Google’s Family Link allows you to set up an account for a child, and then gives control over that account to the parent, so you run an app on your phone that allows you to turn on/off the child’s phone, set time limits, approve app installs etc…

It also allows you to lock down apps, allow browsing the web, all-sorts…

Now, whether the parent app runs on an iPhone I don’t know.

The iPlayer app on my PS3 was playing silly b*gg*rs earlier as well… so it might have been Auntie having a bit of trouble…