For the hills we will group on haloric and he will pace us up them.

Finally someone writes the unwritten rule – bloats before goats !

At least this should ensure I’m in touch at the top, …if we reach the top.

Managed to stay with a group just out of my league. The only way I can still be in the group going through the volcano is to go full steam from the bottom of the slope and try not to lose the bunch as they go past me at the top. I wasn’t trying to get away, I was just trying to stay with. Kind of missed the last rise before the finish, but was just holding on anyway, so happy to cruise in.

Jack just missed the break to the group I was in and finished just behind, whilst threatening to catch the whole way. As a stronger, younger lighter rider riding next to me, it goes to show that if you just misread or miss a break, you are in a world of trouble.

Jack thinks he cannot make Thurs TTT, if it changes I’ll update.

I built a 5 x 3.5m workshop, using ebay for supplies and youtube for ideas.

I had to move an oil tank, lay a concrete and rebar base, source the wood, build the frame, the walls, the trusses, the roof, a skylight and cedar tiles, the electrics and the internet.

As a software engineer, this was all new to me, but if you are a little bit handy and you have got the time and the weather, some basic tools then its not rocket science. Be aware it takes a lot of time, and a lot of effort though, especially if you want to go at your own pace and do it your own way.

I think I over-engineered mine, but every time I go in there its a source of pleasure that it has never leaked, moved or got damp.

Something weird happened there. I was adrift from MoreSTW as you caught and passed, but as I pressed to get back on and turned on to the hill I ran through MoreSTW and into STW, it was like you had all stalled.

Didn’t take long for you to push back through but it was quite odd.

Tom ‘The Bomb’ is more used to the sparring ring or the rugby pitch, and detonated after 15 mins with cramp – who says I never give him anything.

I’m not sure whether we are putting more effort in on attacking the hills, or its just me, but I go into the red on every hill just trying (and failing) to keep up.

Enjoyed the ride, sorry couldn’t have made that last hill at a much higher pace, glad there was enough to push on home.

Cheers.

I’ve got 3 oven ready riders, plus me, so we could do a TTT – its a dream team, if you have a very specialised type of dream – but I’ve only two smart trainers, so we can only be deployed in pairs !

Technically Mrs H has my old Direto on her bike too, but thats off limits to sweaty oiks like us.

Jack can’t ride tonight – remote cooking with Mrs Jack !.

However, I’m rarely short of another son, and the youngest – Tom – now plans to fill Jacks SPD’s if thats ok. He has done a bit of Zwifting, no TTT but I’ll be coaching him as we go. He has youth on his side, so we can only hope to hang on to his wheel…

If there is a more experienced rider that wants in, he will gladly give up the place, but for now we have berated him into it.

It’s not quite a board, this is my shed corner. In my mind I took this picture after a big tidyup, but the reality seems different…

Before taking anything apart I would also try a different (but the same!) power supply.

What model is that ? Is there a factory reset on that model – typically it is:

1 Press and hold down the Info button for 2 seconds

2. Rotate the Tuning control until the display shows “Factory reset”,then press and release the Tuning control.

3. If you wish to perform the reset operation, press and release the Tuning control one more time. A full reset of your radio will be performed.

All presets and station lists will be erased.4. After a system reset a scan of the DAB band will be performed

More likely its a blown internal amp.

If the Haloric shed-of-pain was a cup, it did full on overfloweth this evening.

I managed to hang with Jack for most of it but kept struggling just on the brow of the climb, got dropped at least twice and managed to get dragged back on by other stragglers.

For some brain-addled reason I thought there was one more lap, so didn’t quite give it all until I was in the last 200m and realised what was going on !Doh.

Was 2 watt off an increase, so must be coming back into some sort of form.

Any details on the resin you used and where you got it from?

I used water clear casting resin, inc catalyst from ECF Composites
https://www.ecfibreglasssupplies.co.uk/product/water-clear-casting-resin-inc-catalyst

It is expensive, I took the 5kg option and made several things – the hand of fatima came out quite nice too, if I can find a picture. I got the mold off ebay. Learnt a few things, made a few cockups use old resin from some time ago and the wrong hardner – when resin does not go off, its a bugger to deal with.

It’s all about the preparation, and having somewhere you can leave it. Also – fumes are *bad* – don’t try and wing it – was ok once I started rigorously wearing a proper mask, but was very heady for a few days when I did not.

I made a Lego desk light from resin, a cake mold, some scrabble pieces and a usb light strip. I made a couple of other resin items too… if I can find photos.

Your e-mail has not been ‘hacked’, but someone has been able to link the two of you together, either by social media or other method, possibly from an access to your friends account.

https://www.theguardian.com/money/2020/oct/06/amazon-gift-card-scams-it-pays-to-know-who-your-real-friends-are

Advance notice – after the latest update, in a meetup/race today Zwift crashed after finishing the distance – for almost everyone in the event, windows, ipad and ATV.

This was a meetup as we used to run them, with a ‘go go go’ shout.

Other meetups have been reporting this on the zwift forum.

This is either a generic issue in the current release or a problem with the load at zwifts server end most likely.

Re: Rocker Plates – I made my own from marine ply and used inline-roller skates under the center line to get back and forward motion, using bungie co-ords to re-center.

My trainer is a Neo 2.

If you want some photos msg me. Its not a difficult job, I used straight cuts with a circular saw and topped it with laminate flooring, with tennis balls or firm rubber balls for balance and movemnt – cost was the price of two sheets of ply.

Definately a game changer in comfort for me.

I don’t *think* any of Jack or my issues were WiFi dropouts – both he and I were streaming music and didn’t get any dropouts, although that can buffer, and our signal is strong, and 100MB download.

His issue was not a bluetooth dropout either, because he was warming up in the pairing screen and could see his numbers changing. His issue was possibly an issue with the godamn stupid remote, as he tried to leave the pairing screen nothing happened – the game froze, and in further attempts to wake it, we made it minimised, but it would still not leave the pairing screen. Zwift was locked up – in a tight loop or broken error handler. We restarted Zwift and ran a normal TDZ event without drama.

I put this down to Zwift’s shitty handling of errors/events – as programmer this it what is says to me. However it is sus that two minutes later I also had an event on my macbook as described – everyone was there in the pen up until the moment of ‘go’ and then I was on my own. The only way to know for sure is to have a monitor running, which I may do as I have some raspberry pi’s doing nothing useful.

It’s the first time I’ve had an issue on the macbook (top of the line pro). The only other issue I’ve ever had with the ATV is not presenting the ‘join’ button to a meeting event that I am entered for, requiring session restarts until it appears, and sometimes getting left on the start line in a meeting and watching everyone else ride off. This is also not ATV specific as far as I have read, or a wifi issue – because my client is getting data about the race, but not letting me start – even though its giving me power numbers so is paired with the trainer.

If you need more BT connections to Zwift then you can do it through the companion – I do this for the sterzo when needed and it works fine. I have a ANT+ dongle, maybe I’ll try it for the Lulz, I’m also going to hard wire the ATV for the lulz.

That was quite the shitstorm for Jack and I.

After the event had started and 3 mins to go Jack tried to leave the pairing screen on Apple TV to be ready to launch, might have fumbled it, because the app minimised, and then the ATV was not having it. Normally ATV rock solid honest Robbo !.

I was trying to provide fatherly inspirational words of encouragement as you can imagine, to no avail, whilst as our launch time approached I gave the countdown, not convinced anyone heard it anyway and I launched – but was all alone – no other riders, not even a rider list.

Comms over discord was similarly poor, gave it up as a bad job after a lonely first 1k.

Rode the 4th tour de zwift stage to a similar level of pain.

Another update from Zwift coming down the sewer tonight, be ready.

So sorry for your loss, so much joy can only fit into so few years.

Our wire fox terrier is in a similar position, before xmas we thought a visit to the vets would be the last, but she has rallied with a xmas miracle and at 14.5 is on her swansong.

For anyone else going through this we found it useful to keep some lights on in a constant place round the house at dog level, with a couple of dog beds in the same positions, and she can orient herself by the small amount she can see and smell.

If I’ve learnt anything from the above, it’s that I also might have dog dementia.

As soon as this weather/lockdown improves I will be putting my Hase Pino up for sale.

It’s not quite the same budget as those listed above, but it has fantastic carrying capacity and comfort.

It’s not really a mountain bike, but it’s great on normal trails, I’ve been all over France on it carrying kit.

They also are swb and the front retracts fairly well – I used to get mine inside a Chrysler Cruiser (rear seats down), with two adults and kit, any similar sized car should be fine. I haven’t tried but with a bit of imagination it might go on my tow bar trailer.

If your budget stretches to it they do come up on ebay occasionally.

This isn’t me, but you get the picture:
https://www.cyclingabout.com/hase-pino-tandem-info-from-long-distance-tourers/

Epson Eco-Tank, I have the 2750.

Never been so pleased with a printer, the ink is refillable – from a bottle ! Throw no cartridges away !.

Don’t have a windows devices, but macs just see it on the wifi and print to it.

I ordered this in Sept 2018 – and I haven’t had to refill it yet. I don’t know how many pages we print – but I know that by now the ink in any of my previous printers cartridges would just have evaporated/dried up/run off with the fairies.

There are windows on the front into the ink levels too – no last minute suprises.

https://www.which.co.uk/news/2018/07/printers-reviewed-canon-and-epson-refillable-ink-models-can-they-save-you-money/?source_code=911CQJ&gclid=CjwKCAiAgJWABhArEiwAmNVTB7zBehTVwH1tL5mgEMC1IE-MSs3nPMGJs6T_tTXvtMkMl5SvonDlfhoC8loQAvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds

I congratulate you on your new apple tv, and I would have to agree – you are lazy.

However, fear not, I shall take some time away from my precious death-scrolling to help out.

https://www.nowtv.com/devices/appletv

@lerk has a good list above, for diy interest also add

Diy Perks – https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCUQo7nzH1sXVpzL92VesANw

LockPickingLaywer – https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCm9K6rby98W8JigLoZOh6FQ

TechnologyConnections – https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCy0tKL1T7wFoYcxCe0xjN6Q

CaptainDisillusion – https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCEOXxzW2vU0P-0THehuIIeg

Beau Miles – https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCm325cMiw9B15xl22_gr6Dw

SmarterEveryDay – https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC6107grRI4m0o2-emgoDnAA

or just chill listening to Orgmios drive.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCUT_HNpBn4crwBVylT4aBMg

I haven’t played the actual board game, but the computer version of Root is quite interesting, I’m playing on iPad, against computer and multiplayer.

It’s complicated, each faction has its own rules.

https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/237182/root

https://store.steampowered.com/app/965580/Root/

I got two good condition Herman Miller Aeron (B size) chairs before lockdown.

These are known as the programmers chair, for good reason – check reviews.

Both 2nd hand, one for £200 (eBay) and one £250 (FB market place). Prices now are £300+.

If you can find a place to try one, you may never go back.

See what I did there ?.

Start with something you know – (like a spreadsheet or a database or .. anything) and set an an aim that might be useful to you – I want to sum the 3rd column of the 4th table, and start there. It really depends on where your starting point is.

Do you have an editor, and IDE etc, on a mac or windows.

Lots of coding sites like codewars or codeacademy. Start reading/learning what are reddit forums like this:

How to start learning to code when you don’t know where to start from learnprogramming

It’s a great career, and always a useful skill.

Thanks for the ride, I was out of position when we pushed past that team and got caught up with their leading rider – they definitely sped up as we passed, took a big effort to escape them and get on the back and then we were straight into the hill as they then caught back up. Very bad form from them, they never left more than a 5m gap. I was on the rivet anyway and had little left to give, so dropping out was the right thing. I cruised in 3 mins late, cramping up.

I’ve been under power lately, my w/kg is bottom of the group, despite power being mid group – Jack has got the whole family on a big calorie deficit diet since xmas, so hopefully that will pick up as the kgs go back down to pre xmas level.

I do hope that Zwift, when the fix the ZP team tag issue with a proper team allocation method and a proper TTT start also fix the interaction with other teams. The game already knows that some bikes (TT) can’t draft. It seems a small step to make teams not be able to draft each other either. Interfering with other teams would then be a thing of the past. We can only dream.

Yes, Jack will be in – signing up now.

Yes, the explicit links down the right hand side don’t work.

BUT, it appears if you use the category drop down in the search form AND YOU DON’T use a search term, then you CAN browse the category at least.

If you DO use a search term (even though an example does exist with that term) you get the home page, no results, back to square one. Painful.

Bikes like this I give to friends/casuals without bikes – on the basis of keep-forever or give it back, ie. they can’t sell it, but otherwise its theirs to do with as they see fit, if it breaks in some way, they can fix it or give it back.

You’d be surprised how many people you know who are bike curious but don’t have the cash to spare – particularly on my partners side which tends to be less bikey.

I’ve had a few bikes that I’m emotionally attached to that I can let go of on this basis.

They are allowed to pass it on to someone else on the same basis if they get their own bike, or they can give it back, and it can go to someone else.

I’m in, haloric jnr should also be there, and I’m reminding @mbs to check in.

I see the arguments for and against a team finish, I’m ambivalent (and also slow up the hills), but I would not object to the fastest group pushing on in the last 5k, when its clear we are all going to finish, it means that everybody should end up with a good workout, those with power to spare can drag who they can to the line.

Although going solo off the front is bad form, I’m looking at you @mbs…

You are not giving many clues there. The cylinder says ‘Solar’ on it – is it part of a solar heating system ?.

Manuals are here – although your controller looks older than the ones online:
https://jouleuk.co.uk/knowledge-centre/

Nice spoon work. I’ve just resurrected a Neo OG that I got from FB for £50, Tacx had written it off but all it needed was a new internal power cable tickle.

As a long term Neo user I would be interested in your initial opinions.

I lost 50w when I went from an Elite Direto to Neo two years ago.

Yes, looks like no more ZP tags – hurrah.

This is from the ZRL but I imagine it will also be used to TTT

NEW TEAM IDENTIFICATION SYSTEM

Team Tags will NOT be used in SEASON 2

Season 2 will see the launch of TEAM-SPECIFIC-PER-EVENT racer sign-on links and no further use of Team Tags.

When a rider clicks these links, they are taken through the WTRL website where you may be asked to login. The website will identify who you are (by your stored Zwift ID number in your WTRL) and what team you are in and update our race database accordingly. You will then be forwarded on to the Companion App or Zwift.com event sign-on page automatically where all you have to do is select the correct pen. This means ALL ZRL riders will need a WTRL profile.

If a rider changes teams, they will be required to click on the correct link for their new team which in turn updates the race database.

etc etc

Apple TV (4K) for the win.

Normally rock solid, no dramas – quick to power up and use. Any old iOS device for Companion.

The major downside is any event that needs a bike swap – forget that with the remote.

I’m gonna skip this one – A TTT up the Alpe does not hold much appeal for me.

There’s no draft to use, and climbing as a team will be pretty boring for the fitter guys, and quite stressful for those at the back trying to keep up, imho.

Good luck to those that do it !

The Mitchellvi twins enjoyed also.

I was struggling on the 2nd climb, couldn’t get the bike to drop into the granny gear, never normally need it, but was having to stomp at 55rpm to stay with the group, any slower and I would stall, and any higher rpm and I was pulling away again.

Even though we started the first descent together, we soon split, even though I was only super tucking, we hit 105kmh.

Martin was having a similar but more pronounced problem on his watt bike, plus he’s part racing whippet and any sort of rabbit up the road gets him over excited.

Comms was reassuringly awful. I spent the entire race using press-to-talk on the phone, but I think my mic was actually the bluetooth speaker, and my speaker was either getting blown out or too faint/garbled to catch much of what was being said.

Jack took in in his stride at 27, damn him.

Happy Xmas all

@mbs also signing up.

I’ve signed up with my son Jack – although for some reason thats not showing on ZP yet under his ‘signed up’ profile page.

We should both be there, I’ll check its registered later today. We are in the same shed, so if we have a technical drama, we’ll both be gone.