It’s entirely plausible that someone whose done their theory can drive just as badly as someone who hasn’t. Just an FYI.

@mrlebowski I don’t disagree – and as others have noted, there will always be some who are aware of the rules but choose not to comply with them. Was just making the point that there’s a significant proportion of drivers out there who took their test before the separate theory test was introduced – myself included. Whilst the theory test in it’s current form isn’t perfect, it surely has to be a better test of knowledge than being asked to correctly identify 3 road sign plates having made it back to the test centre as I was. Assuming most licence holders will have changed from paper licences to photocards which need renewing every 10 years, I really don’t think it would be too difficult to require applicants to take a theory test…?

I wonder how long it will be before an insurance company will offer a discount for people who’ve re-done their theory test.

Or, for those who got their licence pre-1996, “ever done a theory test”

As you mention it’s a flat, I’m assuming it would be sold as a leasehold? Any ongoing charges (e.g. ground rent, service charge, etc…) to a freeholder to consider? Are there any arrangements in place for maintenance that might make this expensive, or difficult to deal with in some other way?

I ask this as my partner’s mum owns the flat she lives in, and the management company that look after the block are a bit of a nightmare. Any work required has to be arranged through them, awarded to their pet contractors at, seemingly, way over market rates. And generally appears to be a half-arsed job. However, as the occupier has no direct relationship with the contractor that has done the work, any snagging or re-work also has to be arranged through the management company, which makes getting *anything* done very long-winded.

No specific recommendations, but experience suggests that forks with a straight steerer, that take a QR wheel and have disc brake mounts are getting a bit harder to find – especially if you want mudguard mounts. Hence when the LBS mentioned the Tour de Fer fork they had going spare at a sensible price that would require no other components to be changed, I didn’t need to think too long about it

2011/2 CdF (i.e. the lower end 525 model). A 40mm will go without mudguards, but it’s *very* close at the front – wouldn’t take much gravel/twigs/mud to jam the tyre on the bottom of the steerer. The fork has since been replaced with a Tour de Fer fork (£10 from a LBS that had a few spares following a recall), so now good for 40mm at either end without mudguards, or 35mm with mudguards.

…you’ll get dodgy bastards in council planning whatever colour hat they wear…

BBC are reporting that Scottish Government overruled the council:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-tayside-central-59742106
…which aligns with what the OP told us in the first place:

…Yesterday the Scottish Government announced that they had given approval to planning permission for the area to become luxury housing and a 6-hole golf course…Stirling Council rejected the initial application but the Scottish Government determined it to be in the national interest and have ridden rough-shod over local residents…

I thought braces were supposed to rise up from the hinges?

Does it depend whether the bracing is in compression or under tension?

I think most modern ‘classical’ guitars have the thicker strings in wound steel and the thinner strings in nylon.. but I digress..

The thicker strings *are* wound (to bind together the multiple cores – typically nylon threads – that form the core), but usually a softer metal, such as brass or copper. Unlikely to be steel on a classical.

Also if it is classical, get it strung up the day week before, as classical strings stretch, a lot.

FTFY ;)

Been a while since I bought strings for a classical guitar, but I seem to recall there being much less variety/choice of gauges? So, OP… is it nylon strung (classical guitar) or metal (usually steel) strung (acoustic guitar)? Bonus question if nylon strung – how do the strings attach? Are they wrapped/knotted at the bridge like this:

or ball-end type attachment through the bridge like this:

/edit
one of these days, I’ll figure out posting pics, promise…
/endedit

Oh – wahoo’s service? Is that needed in addition to zwift/etc?

Wahoo Systm is basically an alternative to Zwift, Trainer Road, etc… There’s a roundup of training apps and compatibility here: https://uk.wahoofitness.com/media/downloads/KICKR_App_Comparison_Table.pdf
See also the DCRainMaker grouptest/comparison thing mentioned by someone else above.

Epic also a lot smaller field (200 racers vs 850 on Sat and 800 on Sun looking at last year’s results) so whether that’s because it’s simply not as popular or they don’t have capacity I’m not sure

I wouldn’t read too much into the number of entries. The Epic in 2020 (subsequently postponed to 2021) was supposed to be more of a “Mountain Marathon” type event on a completely separate course when we entered at the back end of 2019. With everything that’s been going on in the world, the organisers seem to have decided that sorting out a separate course was too big an undertaking and offered Epic entrants the choice of either a refund or ride the full Enduro course on Friday. Most of the Epic entrants I know took the refund option as they didn’t like the format/wasn’t the event they entered.

Considering they changed the steer tube to taped it seem odd no to alter the seattube as well.

27.2mm seatposts still widely available. Straight steerer forks not so much – a frame that’s limited to using straight steerer forks in this day and age is severely limiting. And if you do have a straight steerer fork you want to use, crown races are available for various headsets to run a large bearing on a straight steerer fork, so easily accommodated.

y’all new around here? Into the 2nd page and no mention of binners’ P7?https://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/colour-dilemma-lets-see-your-steel-hardtails-then

@Daffy – are you sure the hose is identical? I understood the BH59 and BH90 hoses had different internal bore diameter – hence the need for a different barb size. Could be wrong though.

Now I’ve had a really close look at the plain wire strings on the HB, there are black patches here and there – Maybe a bit of corrosion/tarnishing perhaps(?) – I guess this isn’t going to make them feel very nice?

Yep, sounds like a bit of corrosion on old strings – fresh strings of same gauge may well be the answer. Re: scale length, accepted wisdom is heavier gauges for shorter scales – tho whether that’s a particular issue between 25.5″ and 24.75″… I just run Ernie Ball Skinny Top Heavy Bottoms on everything (apart from the acoustic)

10-46 is “standard” for a set of 10’s. 10-52 gives a slightly heavier bottom end – I kinda like this, and they’re generally my default gauges. Are both guitars the same scale length? That can make a difference to string tension, and you might find you prefer different string gauges depending on the scale length – “Fender” derived guitars are typically 25.5″ scale (apart from Jaguars and a few models that were historically deemed “student models”), “Gibson” derived guitars are generally 24.75″.

I’m not sure changing form 10-52 to 10-46 would make a huge amount of difference as I generally find that if my fingers are getting shredded, it’s the high strings that are doing it. That said, I’ve been playing for many more years than i care to recall so guess my fingers should be toughened up by now.

Sonder Frontier? Think that ticks most items in the list (incl. rear rack and cable/hose routing for a dropper). Available as a rigid with triple bosses on the fork legs, or hardtail with front suspension.

After years of SH51 use, I accidentally bought a set of SH56’s. Unclipping when you don’t expect to isn’t pleasant.

It was pointed out to me yesterday that DJ Shadow’s Endtroducing was released 25 years ago

Bit disappointed by the gardener’s bothy tbh. They seemed to make very little use of the existing building, especially once the wee lad decided he wanted his bedroom in the new build – I’m assuming something had go (or be relocated into the old building) to free up space, though it wasn’t really covered. So, day to day, the old building is a porch, the wee girl’s bedroom and a spare room…? I felt the extension was a bit out of scale compared to the old building. I would preferred to have seen it clad in something that would weather a bit to blend with the existing a bit better. Relieved to see that they had managed to sort the garden by the end of the episode though

Spacemen 3 reunion?

The latter yes you legally need one (and reflectors etc etc etc which we all conveniently ignore) to ride in public

Alas it’s not quite so simple. You need to consider seat height. If the maximum safe saddle height (i.e. with seat post at minimum insertion) is less than 635mm above ground level, then a single brake (operating on either wheel) is legal. Fair point on the reflectors tho ;)

As others have said, carrot and/or celery can be useful to replace the bulk and texture, but sometimes the resulting flavour can be a bit lacking. It’s worth checking if onion and garlic are as problematic if just used for flavour – leave them in big enough chunks that they can be fished out.

I like the sound of AXS but that Canyon still seems to have a lot of cables sticking out of it. 2 for the brakes, sure, but what are the others? Remote fork adjustment?

2021 Canyon Luxs had remote lockout fork and shock for 2021 model year – my assumption would be that whilst the shifting and dropper have gone wireless, there are still has 2x cables for suspension lockouts and 2x hoses for brakes

As with many classic amps, if you want to get the classic sounds out of them, you need to be able to turn the controls way up to antisocial levels – remember that most of the classic valve amps didn’t come with a master volume control. Some later iterations did come with master volume controls – but they’re never quite the same. Other alternatives include attenuators (turn all that volume into heat), or just getting a smaller amp and running that hard.

I say this as former owner of an early 1970’s Marshall, a late 70’s Fender Twin, a 90’s Fender Twin, a 00’s Blues Deluxe Reissue and a Chinese Vox AC30. Amp de jour is a wee Vox AC4TV which is more than loud enough to be antisocial in a domestic environment…

See how you get on with the supplied bars – bar shape is a massively personal thing. Note also that control position along the length and rotation around the bar makes a big difference on drop bars too. Some dislike flare, some like a little, some like a lot.

https://whatbars.com/ is worth a look for comparing bar shapes

Or alternatively, if you can see the ride in the Garmin (History -> Rides), you might be able to force it to upload that specific ride…?

I had an 810 that started getting stroppy about cabled connections – it started doing this a couple of days before I was about to head off on a multi day trip and struggling to transfer gpx route files into \Garmin\NewFiles\. Eventually managed to find a help article on Garmin website that gave info on forcing the device into mass storage mode – if I recall, the procedure was to press and hold the lap/reset button when you powered the unit up to force it into mass storage mode, and then plug it into the laptop – the laptop then picked it up as a drive so I could transfer the GPXs on.

Might be worth trying this, and then having a nose around in \Garmin\Activities\ to see if you can grab the *.fit file to see if you can transfer that to Garmin Connect, Strava or wherever…?

I think @LAT has it – we’ve become accustomed to the convenience of just jumping in our personal motorised transport and driving wherever – whether that be the local shops or the other end of the country. Instead of focussing on increasing range of electric vehicles, increasing charging speeds, increasing the number and availability of chargers so we can continue living in the way we’ve all got used to living, perhaps we should start to consider if continuing to live the way we’ve all got used to living is really achievable. Appreciate that this may not be palatable to many, change is never easy but perhaps we need to start making some serious grown-up decisions about our lifestyles.

Why did they put the ramp in place – most, if not all, the women jumped clear of the ramp anyway

Haven’t watched the ladies race, but would this be the same ramp that Mathieu van der Poel was expecting to be there (but wasn’t) in the mens race yesterday?

Hopefully stating the obvious, but as the car will be sitting on its’ tyres, you need to ensure the tyres are properly inflated and also that if tyres are unevenly worn, you’re basically wasting your time

If I go via my (car) insurance I’ll pay an excess and my premium goes up. Given the builder’s attitude I can’t see him just rolling over and paying up.

The excess should be reimbursed by the builders liability insurance as an uninsured loss?

Thanks for organising Rich, hope all is cool with you and the farmer – he didn’t seem best pleased when he rolled up at the field on Saturday morning as we were leaving.

That sucks @beagleboy but good to hear you’re feeling a bit better today.

Yes. Send .gpx file from Strava, Komot, OS maps etc to Garmin Connect…

Alternatively, download the Komoot app from Garmin Connect IQ Store onto your Garmin device and access any tours you’ve planned or saved in Komoot.

Late and slightly out of tune?

Baa-tish dum?

What the hell speed were you doing for it to take two years to process an SP30 and net you an £800 fine? Were you driving an F-15 up the M6?

Pedantic point, but surely in that case it would have been an SP50? ;)

Actually that’s only true for solidstate power amps – with valve amps (v common on guitar) the impedance needs to be within a 2:1 ratio, so an 8 ohm output will work fine with any speakers from 4 to 16 ohms.

Experience says this may work in some cases, but not others. Similarly, it seems safer running into a higher than anticipated impedance (though it will lead to early overdrive). I’d also suggest that older amps tend to be a bit more robust all round, they generally didn’t skimp on the output transformers. Newer amps where every corner is cut to get it down to a price – well, good luck…

All that said… I ran a 70’s Fender Twin Reverb with a pair of 16 ohm Celestion G12H’s in it for several years – it came to me like that, so goodness knows how long those speakers had been fitted. 8ohm effective load vs the 4ohm the amp was expecting. Sounded ace, but it wasn’t a typical silverface Twin noise…

This is true. The guitar I spent £120 on 25 years ago (MIM Strat) is worth three times that now.

Also true that what it’s worth is a hypothetical figure and only really important if you’re looking to sell or if you need to replace it. I have a Rickenbacker 330 that’s probably worth quite a bit more than I paid for it, but it’s going nowhere in the foreseeable…