Good info, cheers! If there’s ever any planned rides I’d be grateful if I could tag along – not at the moment as have the dreaded Vid. But in the future I’d defo be up for it.

@ZippyKona- will investigate haven’t been very adventurous!

So the move has been made, I’ve been down here September last year although we only managed  to move in  to a farmhouse on the Taw valley outside of Barnstaple this March ( the chain collapsed 3 times, twice at completion!) We’ve managed to get a summer Season done and it’s been a learning curve!

I’ve been out riding with the Southfork lot and The Bikeshed and I clearly need to find my climbing legs and dump a load of weight ( living in Cambs will do that to you)

Anyway you lot were right ( as is the way with the Oracle that is the Singletrackworld forum)

– some good road stuff out the door but little to be had on the mtb, forced me to buy a gravel bike courtesy of Soithfork chaps- cheers fellas.

Anyway have a search on google for Stairway to Devon

“He’s still in there. I’m up in the air con ducting like John McClane.”
Shirley a reference to Solid Snake is in order here.

*Jodhpur….

My mate was there from undergrad- masters then phd – I did an MA there.

There’s certainly the Bullingdon type bullshit there in Castle and Hatfield  but tbh it’s easily avoided dependant on course and clubs/societies she gets involved in – you will get the “good lads” in the rugby clubs going head to head with the rowers but that was always a comedic sideshow for the rest of us.

Accomodation is the biggest issue up there- some proper pokey places and if I recall, some of highest rent for student property in the country. Worth bearing that in mind.

Cycling club is  good – lots of decent riding to be had

No chance. Keeping the faith that we’ll manage to break out of this broken two party bullshit that’s **** our country over. If that means my vote is wasted by voting for an “alternative” then so be it

I loved teaching for the vast majority of my time as an educator, had some brilliant and inspiring kids and in comparison to the “real jobs” I had, teaching was great.

I taught for 11 years having retrained when I was 31 after a decade of sales/marketing and then project management. I left the profession last summer as a Head of House and had also been Head of Department. I left due to an increasing general malaise and the feeling that teaching was becoming  an increasingly Sisyphean task, constantly chasing moving goalposts.

Workload can vary, especially as a teacher of a core subject like English. I also taught media so it was not uncommon for me to have three year 11 classes of about 30 kids. Marking was tolerable until November then mocks would kick in and by the time you’d finished marking them and reported the results and gone through errors with kids you then had a second set of mock in February and the process would start again just in time for the final sprint into exam leave. Meanwhile you’re juggling all the other year groups that you teach as well.

The key bugbear is all the actual reporting of data though, strategies and frameworks that are constantly being tweaked and updated for the academy. There is a constant feeling of not being good enough and heavy scrutiny from Ofsted, Academy heads and even SLT, who are supposed to be on your side but rarely behave so until results day in August.

I’ve had a couple of unpleasant behavioural experiences where the school didn’t exactly back me which was disappointing but not the end of the world as the vast majority of kids were great although encounters with county lines were most unwelcome and increasingly common.

Sadly education has become a band aid catching social service overflow, I’ve dealt with a disturbing amount of domestic abuse, sexual abuse, neglect and mental health issues, especially post covid. Working with external authorities like the the NHS to provide evidence for a diagnosis and provide support for those in need was a weekly occurrence.

It doesn’t help when we’ve been shat all over by the press for decades, eroding trust and opinion, pay has consistently lagged behind since I started in in 2011. If results are good we had a good cohort of students, if results were bad then we were shite. A bit of a thankless task all in all and 6 months on I can’t imagine going back.

https://m.pinkbike.com/photo/23227640/

https://m.pinkbike.com/photo/23227639/

can’t get my head around accessing images from a website by phone

The Fens’ finest

So school has been picked- North Devon it is – West Buckland, will be looking at properties within 30 minutes of there, might scrape the edge of Exmoor…

Standard Air bnb thing seems to make most sense. I’ll just Chuck some maps, pump and Allen keys in there somewhere I guess. If I can establish something worthwhile maybe it will develop more of a character…

I guess I was thinking if I was clever for location there’d be something for the family to do while daddy dear goes and rides his bike- from experience in Wales you’d often have to drive to trailhead from bnb unless you were really lucky meticulous in your planning…

Having said that, North Devon isn’t written in stone- it’s likely my daughter will end up in school in Exeter so maybe Dartmoor is a better bet after all.

I think your point is well made and shooting is at odds with many people’s outlooks.
Sadly one of the reasons I entertained the idea of opening doors to them is the seasonal nature of the business; lots of the local estates run shoots during the winter months which will help support the business when everyone battens down the hatches.
Having said that if it runs the risk of a boycott then that in itself is worth considering.

I think the point about racing is valid- the coup in getting Elveden to allow their property to be used for race routes was really something, there were some lovey bits created for D2D over there. That style of trail will never be sign posted on the opposite side of the road- without wishing to sound like some guarded territorial surfer- we just need to go seek out stuff deeper into the forest to avoid the family rental squads and the ire of the FC.

TLDR: If Thetford is too easy you’re not riding it fast enough.

I’ve been riding here sporadically since 1995. I’ve raced in loads of the winter series over the past 25 years as well as the 6hr enduro stylees, a couple of Nps races and several d2ds -blah blah. The trails are massively sanitised and don’t really stack up to others around the country.

No the trails aren’t accurately labelled but as people have rightly said – you get families on shoppers without helmets riding the wrong way round the routes so IMO the FC are right in their “lowest common denominator” approach.

Having said that some of the gravel and “improvements” makes the singletrack lethal.  the berms and their version of trail features are poorly placed and can encourage accidents, launching the unaware into tree stumps etc. – especially as these features are increasingly poorly maintained. I struggle with that, given the price I pay for a season ticket at high lodge.

There is enough gradient in the forest to create something more worthwhile but there is a lack of tenacity to get anything done as the FC is wary of injuries and curmudgeons that lack vision. I can see how that malaise created the sanitised version I regularly ride.

The Brandon side is increasingly overgrown, sadly I only ever really knew the trails there courtesy of D2D courses courtesy of Paul Nibb, again I can see how getting official trails developed there are a no-no from Elveden’s legal standpoint.

Despite all this I consider myself lucky that I can go and mindlessly blat round trails, relatively unhindered by joe public, Twisted Oaks and Phoenix don’t seem to offer the same sort of XC burn from what I’ve seen (happy to be corrected on that) and despite all the whinging it is better protected against winter weather and increased numbers.

It was good enough for Nick Craig  and certainly provides a challenge when you’ve been in the red for 90 minutes or it’s 3am :-).

Careful now Kelvin, think of the holidays. Teachers don’t know they’re born 🙂

“If you are a teacher let’s have your master plan for reopening. Or even online lessons. Give us something.

As a parent all I see is teachers hiding behind the unions finding reasons not to do what they should be doing”

funny old post this…

Teachers aren’t hiding from what I can see, My local secondary closed as a teaching establishment in March but re-opened the next day as a child care facility, expecting over a hundred kids plus numerous primary kids from surrounding feeder schools. They did so gladly despite the fact that no PPE was provided. While doing this the school provided work online, sent work home for those who couldn’t print, provided tablets and IT help for those without tech in the home setting, provided food parcels for those on FSM who weren’t attending school and Safe and welfare checks for those families who hadn’t maintained contact with schools. They then went onto deliver online, live lessons for each class.

Since Monday,  the same school has re-opened to selected year groups and vulnerable students whilst maintaining its online provision and responsibility for keyworkers’ children – again with no PPE and have even been told that it is not permitted in line with academy expectations, the teachers have duly complied, hardly being obstructive or hiding.

The issue is that those attending are those whose parents are forcing their kids in because they either need to get back to work or are conscientious enough to realise the impact this whole situation will have in the future. Sadly, many of those who the government are concerned about simply aren’t engaging or bothered with education.

So in answer to your request Boomer, old chap, the answer lies not with education but with complete social reform, addressing a decline in society that’s been decades in the making. One of the largest factors in this is our bloody media feeding garbage and half truths to anyone feeble minded enough to listen.

If the earlier statistics are accurate then our local secondary must have the lion’s share of decent teachers so I  pity the other schools in the area, they must be dire. Teachers aren’t hiding Boomer.

Off you trot.

19 inch Intense spider from 2007?

Yup – pretty much mint… not sure how much postage would be .. they’re not the lightest

they’re these ones:

https://www.evanscycles.com/cycleops-aluminium-rollers-00104215

It is a Specialissima yes, the irony of an uber light climbers bike in the fens ridden by a fat lad isnt lost on me

6.5kg

https://www.bikeforums.net/road-cycling/452315-hot-r-not-1071.html#&gid=1&pid=6

its the Bianchi but can’t load the picture as I’ve only got my phone

Been riding my mtb-lots of compatibility issues ( who would have thought a front wheel could cause so many problems.)

I spoke to the shop and they claimed that they spoke to SRAM who defined “completed- replaced” as “ assessed and approved for warranty” before being sent off to Portugal for rebuild. The whole process is a bit pony, the main problem is is that every link in the chain is passing the buck and I can’t get anyone to take ownership for it

Now coming up to 8 weeks sans front wheel having gone through several sustained bouts of sunny weather… surely there is a point where I can go “ screw this  give me a new wheel”?

Would have agreed with you except the amount set aside by sram for Postage would also more than cover the amount of time it takes to slap it in a box and give to a courier…

Well to be fair I think that’s what Sram have done – my closest LBS just happened to be a SRAM dealer….and as you point out it’s at no cost to the shop.

Sadly nowhere near as hilly… is DH still going? That’s resilience!

Like for like? Or just a loaner?

And considering I’ve bought years’ worth of kit and convinced friends to spend £000s on complete  bikes from them it’s not as if I’m a random tyre kicker

I’m sorry – Too much to expect some honesty?

Man spends nearly two grand on a pair of wheels, expects brand representatives to uphold their end of an international recall as required by a multinational company- this isn’t a warranty, it’s a recall- there’s a  difference, doesn’t matter where the product was bought or even if you’re the original owner.

Yeah the image has come from the shop’s email  – the reference numbers match according to SRAM who also confirmed the shop have only sent one back recently….

will  give them the benefit of the doubt for a week to allow postage but I am considering calling them out on it – just didn’t want to do that while they still had my property…

So they’ve now sent me an email saying that the wheel is on its way back as it’s fixed ( with a screen shot of an email with refs and everything) so I thought there had clearly been a mix up – called SRAM to check ref number- no, that wheel was received yesterday and has still to be sent to Portugal for a rebuild…..

**** liars…..

Valid point… hadn’t considered that bit tbf.

Agreed -I’m trying  to reach an irkless, swift resolution… doesn’t really seem forthcoming…

/mikewsmith/- I’ve moved house, original retailer is hours away- the only thing my wheel has cost my new lbs is time as SRAM pay postage etc…

Thought about buying new wheel but then not only am I inconvenienced I’m also out of pocket… that irks me even more …

Thetford on Saturday peeps? Dry +cold= quick? Well quickish

You see that’s the joy of cycling – quite easy to work with a group and have absolutely no social interaction whatsoever and people won’t really think that abnormal. Least not on the road 🙂

Yeah aero makes a lot of sense round the fens 🙂
TBH I’ve come very close to selling my bikes at times – even a puncture nearly pushed me over the edge!

New bike?!!! Things have got to be looking up!

JMatlock – I’m Just outside of Newmarket having moved back this neck of the woods following my wife’s rather nasty cancer scare- her illness, being pretty much primary carer for my 6 year old and relocation mean that I’m a proper grumpy barsteward desperate for some group motivation to get out and ride before I stray too far down the path of couchlandria and middle aged spread.
Give us a bell for a razz round Thetford forest or road ride etc- will punt you some deets shortly – Sunday looks cold… therefore Thetford should be …. fast?