Blissford Hill says hi. ;)

That’s just mean! (Assuming that’s the one I think it is).

Haven’t ridden over that way since I was a student in the mid 90s despite it being 4 miles from the office. Seen the amazing work you’ve done with the place online though.

Really needs a pedal up after work when the light evenings return.

And spooky’s post is why it’s such a dangerous job.

Generally they work across from one side to the other starting a bit before the closure time.

Slip roads on it’s usually a bit more binary (certainly round me where they are roundabout fed predominantly).  A truck and some cones.

It’s spooky when you’re one of the last ones through.

There’s no way I’d mix them up.  Very much in the all or none camp.  I wouldn’t want a major mismatch of grip/sidewall characteristics between two ends of 1.5 tonnes of metal doing 70mph.  It might be an intuitive response (I certainly don’t have any peer reviewed research to cite) but it does seem to match the general view of the retailers/tyre companies.

ESP and ABS are brilliant things but only up to a point. Cars still spin and under/oversteer through hedges.

For the driving I do (YMMV) the single biggest risk is being walloped from behind by some inattentive half wit driving so close you can’t see their headlights. All seasons won’t cure that.

I also live a long way South so that probably affects my view a bit. If I lived in Derbyshire or the Highlands I’d probably have a different view but it’d have to be a full set even if I had to sell some part worns to do so.

It’s tech-support@ these days.

@Mark if this is correct the Contact Us page is out of date.

I am back in now and in the end I think it sorted itself out.

Thank you to whichever moderator sent me a message with Mark’s older post.  It’s NOT the same as the Ad cookie / metatag issue.  It’s further up the thread for anyone still stuck this is what it said…

This login bug is another priority for us this week along with messaging. It’s a tricky one because it’s intermittent and only affects some users.

If any users are having login issues, particularly where it says your password is incorrect but you KNOW it’s correct and the password reset email process doesn’t work (ie. you get the email with the reset link but after changing your password it still says your password is incorrect). Then email me directly at mark@singletrackworld.com and I will get you in by sending you a reset link that will work. Put ‘login problem’ as your email title and I’ll make sure to look out for it.

In this case we know what is happening but not the why. Again, intermittent bugs are the worst. But for those that are interested..

There are two ways to login to our site. Running on WordPress as we are there is the default WordPress login system. We use a plugin (Software) called Ultimate Member that does all the user account management and messaging stuff. It also helps us control our subscriptions. Ultimate Member has it’s own login system and we use this one for the site. However, it seems this bug is causing the site to occasionally get mixed up between the two and this is leading to the login bug for a small number of users intermittently. It happened to me over the weekend and it sorted itself out in a few hours. Our mission is to work out what is causing this bug to happen.

I still cannot log in from Android (Chrome, Duck Duck Go) – still getting wrong password messages and I tried both the one I know it is and the one I tried to change it to before getting “invalid” messages.  Fine on Windows on a pc.

Tried clearing browsing data.  :(

Just adding to this, it seems that the problems persist this morning and I also cannot log in on a different Windows device (Edge and Chrome on that).  Also cannot log in via Edge on phone.

I’ve e-mailed tech@ as well.

I still cannot log in from Android (Chrome, Duck Duck Go) – still getting wrong password messages and I tried both the one I know it is and the one I tried to change it to before getting “invalid” messages.  Fine on Windows on a pc.

Tried clearing browsing data.  :(

Logged in on Win11 but on Android phone I cannot login (get wrong password message).

Tried to change password but it tells me my forgotten password link is invalid when I do (tried twice).

At least it’ll stop me spending time on here tomorrow and I’ll get some jobs done ;)

Downfall (although certainly not from my youth!)

I spent ages trying to find it as my son was interested and ended up finding it on dvd/Blu-ray on music magpie 2nd hand.  I seem to recall their might have been a dispute over rights / royalties so maybe that was why?

Cannonball Run (more from my youth).

Can’t believe how long it took to come up with wood burner.

With Rich_s on the whole don’t turn the house into an ice cube approach being more effective for the modest extra outlay.

Oil filled radiator is good for a single room.  If anyone has a hissy then offer another few quid on the electric bill.

As for the two hours thing I doubt that’ll last unless her house mates are very hardy.  They’ll never get laundry dry and the house will end up damp feeling and clothes will smell permanently damp very quickly.

We were pretty tight at uni but allowing the house to be damp wasn’t the answer.

Your own parents should be the ones teaching parenting not society.

Great, but how do we help those who grew up in abusive, neglect filled or plain disinterested households those who grew up in care to do better than their parents?

How do we break those cycles?  Only by engaging with and supporting those people at a societal level.  The cost of this vs. perpetuating the cycle of poorly equipped parents has surely got to bring net benefits.

Pretty sure you can tell Google to avoid motorways and also avoid tolls which should stop it telling you to go on the Autoroute

You definitely can and it stores the settings (or it did last summer when we last used it).

Not to be recommended for a route when trying to travel from Derbyshire to Hampshire via the Motorway network (non EV in my case). Top tip when using it to avoid a major motorway hold up while travelling north, remember to turn it off before coming back south a week later. :-(

Your compass direction may vary.

How do you use 16 pegs on a Tarpstar?

I have a 4 with foot print and pretty sure we use less than that.  If you’re pegging the footprint down separately because the bungee is too short then you could just add some longer ones.

I wouldn’t worry about it personally.

You’re doing a bunch of longer journeys that’ll most likely deal with most of the DPF regens by normal operation.

Unless it’s something special / high value it’s trade in value is probably in the low £000s at best (from recent experience of similar aged diesel).  So replacement seems like a bad economic decision to me for a low mileage car that is often used for long trips.

My old SMax sat totally unused for three months in COVID and there weren’t any major issues from that.  You might see some battery degradation but that’s likely not much more than £200 to sort out.

If you learn/know what a re-gen feels like then just be prepared to go the long way home from Tesco once a month or go for a quick A road drive to let it finish the job once you’ve dropped off the ice cream.

Plenty of people doing short DMF choking trips sat in cross town or slow moving motorway traffic every day of the week in that generation of car.

Is it the ideal tool for the job?  Maybe not but better the devil you know on older cars so unless you’re going to splash a lot extra you could be buying in a bunch of bills that could very much exceed a replacement DPF.

Even if you are not legally responsible it will not stop a participant (or an angry relative) trying to claim that you are through the courts if something goes wrong.

Have you tried (1) joining Cycling UK if you’re not a member and (then) (2) asking them for guidance.

Eaten: creamy chicken and pesto tagliatelle

Drinking: days alcohol free IPA.

Listening: might be Dune 2 going on shortly if I think I can sit up long enough.

My cheeky post night ride store cupboard winter soup:

Diced chorizo (optional)

1 tin mixed pulses / beans

Tomato purée

Vegetable bouillon powder/ stock cube

Chilli flake

Oregano (or basil)

Fry the chorizo in the bottom of the pan add drained pulses and the other stuff to the pan with about 1-2 mugs of water a bit more than covering the pulses.  Simmer for about 10 minutes while you take a shower and put warm clothes on (shower and change of clothes optional if not been riding in filthy winter slop).

Serve with bread or crackers while watching late night telly for an hour or so more than you originally planned ?

Artisan cookery it is not. Low effort and satisfying when you’re fresh in from freezing and filthy rides definitely. Your taste buds may vary.

Fabulous actress and may I suggest if you’re having a nostalgic watch of the old stuff Keeping Mum should get a look in.

I rarely drink a pulled pint any more.

The quality has always been hit and miss ime even when a pint of Tolly was £1.60.  Especially true in pubs with lower footfall or that are rubbish at cleaning their lines.

Although I did think this was a hangover thread – one of those threads asking why is the fifteenth pint always off? Asked in a blur of bleary eyed regret

14yrs old although he looks about 20 !

Know that feeling, got a similar one at 15 :)

This thread is quite timely as we’ve got a London trip planned in a few weeks with our two 11 & 15 and has saved me looking all this up.  Thanks

Daily:

• I try really hard not to rush my first cup of tea when I get up.  Such a simple thing but it’s like a little piece of calm before dealing with today’s issues (whatever they may be)
• Music, listen to some, whether it’s in the car, in the home office or sat on the train.

Weekly

• Something related to boats or bikes. Doesn’t matter if it’s fixing stuff, lugging boats off to events for children, doing a race officer duty or actually going riding or sailing.  This weekend I did some light support for youth sailing then race officer for Sunday’s club racing. I did get to drive the rescue boat recovery tractor though.  Hadn’t done that for a while and was pleased I did it acceptably.
• Learn something new about/for my work.
• Watch a decent film or couple of episodes of something worth watching.

Data leak would be my guess. Insurer, finance company or DVLA would be the obvious ones.

Report to action fraud.

Are they not supplying a router??

Based on the OPs building description I’d say there is a fair chance it will struggle with signal attenuation at max distance from the router especially if the router is located at one end of the house and devices the other.

It might be worth seeing if the ISP router is up to the job before spending but I’m a big mesh/deco fan having done it a few years back.

Thanks all.  Going to give the “cancel/retention” line a go.  It’s got 15+ years of incremental increases on it and if I’m honest we’ve not picked a fight over it before.

I was offered 1GBPS for £72 a month which isn’t much more than current charges but it’s more than we need and a new 18 month contract to boot.

Thanks also for the heads up on line rental – we will check that.

Definitely no fttp here according to OpenReach.

Anyone know how we trigger getting a new/replacement line installed?  I found something on money supermarket about landline installation via your “phone provider” but I thought landlines were being stopped (I know the cable is for both).  I’m not inclined to buy a phone package when we never use the home phone.

We’ve found because we have Virgin media cabling in our street that openreach haven’t bothered with fibre. We can only get fttc rather than fttp as a result. And the nearest cabinet is quite a long way from where we are – so the speeds would be a chunk lower on downloads vs Virgin. Otherwise I’d have moved by now.

I could have written that exactly that!

I think we’ve only fttc available for the same reason as despite checking multiple providers not one offers ultrafast (100+ speeds).

I’d take a wild guess the OP is with Virgin Media. I’ve got 200+meg VM. Every other alternative is about 4mbps. I always haggle but don’t get it near new customer levels. I can see the OP’s point tbf.

That was my immediate guess too.

I am similarly trying to escape from my lovely 200mbps with horrendous monthly cost but having speed/bandwidth anxiety being some distance from the big box of OpenReach gubbins so we have issues with speed/attenuation.

While I have resorted to M&S recently due to previous favoured brands being re-cut and the quality being half decent the normal three in a pack ones are nowhere near as nice as good shirts in terms of cloth etc.  Yes it’s a first world problem but if you’re user to TM Lewin or other suit brands there’s a step down in niceness.

I’m long bodied, normal length arms and a big neck and fairly broad shoulders but I don’t have the gut of someone with my collar size.

Result is I’ve yet to find a shirt that stays tucked in reliably and that isn’t baggy.  Tailored stuff tends to lack shoulder space or sleeve length to give good mobility.

Even when I went to Moss everything they said met those criteria just didn’t.  So yes I’m on M&S but I’d rather something else if I could find it.

Just on the egg scene.  The fact it’s still uncomfortable viewing 44 years after it was released says a lot about it I think.

Why the heck would you stand there looking straight into the egg at the point where you realised it was about to open?!

Run you fool!

Too late. Squiggly face hugger now in position.

Don’t ask me what’s up with the formatting above.  It looks fine in edit.

I put a mini review and fitting pics of the Edge 56’s on an old thread a week or two back for another user (different bike) in case it helps.

Mudguards (yawn) Free Ranger

You will probably find some comments on the PNW ones in the same thread iirc.

I bought a watch tool kit from Amazon for £15 or something, so I could replace batteries in mine and my wife’s watches, but it also meant I could adjust the strap on my son’s new one, and remove them properly for cleaning.

Minor derailment…

@ads678 have you managed to get the strap to stay together using those tools?  I’ve got a nice Citizen watch that was a wedding gift and it seems to drop pins from the metal ‘tank track’ strap as soon as you look at it.  Even Citizen don’t seem to be able to get them to stay in when it was sent back for repair.

Other than that I like the eco-drive a lot.  No batteries to change, light, smart and not ott.

Local papers are the same.  Unreadable.

Luckily in the case of ours they’re also not worth reading except for the odd update on major roadworks.

Road cc is another one that suffers.

Perfect Couple

Agreed. A couple of episodes in and enjoying that.

I think it was on Prime originally but Nine Perfect Strangers is another series with Nicole Kidman that has a nice watchable / quirky what’s going on feel about it.

We’re enjoying Glitch at the moment.

And can anyone tell me does the new series of Umbrella Academy get better.  First episode left me cold, which is a shame as really enjoyed the earlier ones.

There is no bike I have had greater enjoyment from for proper riding than my 2015 Camber Evo.   I’m sure it’s modern equivalent with 20mm more travel would likely be even better.  It’s just very all round capable for my skill and fitness limits.

I am however also really drawn to a nice xc bike and I nearly bought a MK1 Stooge instead of the Camber and that’s still an appealing idea.  I wonder if maybe one of those as well or even both and then I also like my gravel bike but really what I just want is more time to go riding because nothing generates head space quite like a bike ride and all bikes are great except that brown Puch I had once with a three speed Sturmey Archer that couldn’t stay in gear for more than a crank revolution.

“His method of “Zen” navigation, which was simply to find any car that looked as if it knew where it was going and follow it. The results were more often surprising than successful, but he felt it was worth it for the sake of the few occasions when it was both.”

Now that’s a niche literary reference!

@countzero

We had our Focus done earlier this year. 10 years old and about 60k on it.  It was about £1200 including a full service.  We plan to keep it a while yet and everything else on it seems pretty solid so worth spending out on.

Although they will be suggested or recommended please, please, please don’t use a rear mounted rack without proper lighting being visible.

I followed a mini sized car with two bikes hung on the back and no lighting earlier this week.  The visibility of tail, brake and indicator lights was abysmal. Proper hazard to themselves and others.

I’m in a professional services role but also sit as part of our technical group for my specialism that deals with process and legislative/regulatory stuff.

The Checklist Manifesto by Atul Gawande is good.  It’s application is wider than it’s title and it’s very readable.

Says the man still running 8 and 9 speed drivetrains…

If you were running SRAM (and some other) chains I think that’s the last era of reusable/not mushroom pins.  Shimano was probably during 8 speed.

Honestly though I’ll take a quick link over trying to get a nicely adjusted and secure old school pin in ‘just so’.