Am I too late?  I only come for the gifs thread.

As a Hereford dweller I can second pedalad with how bad the roads are here. My road rides always take the shortest route out of county (best bet is wales) .

Solution? People sized drones… but with the rule that for journeys <2miles youre resistricted to an altitude of 50meters. Let the lazy people fight it out in the sky!

+1 for any newish Shimano. I’ve used deore/slx/xt on my son’s bikes as he’s grown, all secondhand. Reach adjust works with a little Allen key and as long as they’re bled the bit point is spot on even when the reach is dialled right in.

Had dogtag which covered mtbing but we’ve now got an annual family policy with the BMC (climbing people). It’s by far the most comprehensive and the annual cover +  it via-ferrata and skiing in winter made it good value.

FoD yesterday for a dad’s ride during the FoDs (awesome) kids club then a ride on the trails with junior before a BBQ. Road ride with junior this morning the a solo road ride this afternoon. Another BBQ and now ready for a long sleep. Tomorrow is an early run then a walk in the hills. Brilliant!

I bloody love the sun, so much more gets done and my general feeling of well-being is off the scale.

Good spot, this would be the best trip ever! Now, I’m sure I can sneak this past our trips coordinator….

Internal di2 wires, cables or (the worst) hydraulic hoses. Arrrrggggghhhhhhhhh!

@Orangeboy on the slim chance you read this ref Di2 draining issues… Have you tried replacing the internal 4 port junction box? That fixed my draining problem (after trying new battery, replacing internal wires (see above), buying diagnostic tool and generally messing about for a fortnight)

Stan’s Grail? No idea if cyclescheme compatible, but tick all the other boxes.

Depends how far the drive is, the last bit is wiggly and slow so if you’re under time pressure perhaps not.

The red loop is good XC trail, lots of roots though so cheeky on a hardtail. It’s certainly not flat either but if it’s dry it’s definitely worth a trip.

There are loads of push-up DH trails which I know are popular, but I haven’t ridden them.

Quickest, the first option (fireroad parallel to beast if burden) IMO.

Great spot. Thanks!

@bsims. No pond close.

@timba. They normally last for about a month. Bit Bit an irritating month.

I’m a closet Ginger (dad was ginger, brown hair, burn at the sight of a sun emoji).

+1 to Sadexpunk. Calypso has transformed my opioopiof sunny days. Apply once, let dry, enjoy sunshine. Not greasy and works. Will last all day unless you go swimming. Smells like an alcoholics top desk drawer biti can deal with that.

Ok, thanks all. I’ll research Midge Magnet, clear our compost heap and, when I have a moment,divert the river.

Will report back if any of the above work.

Thanks Stoner, that looks like them.

‘Larve found in decaying matter’ – compost heap?  Would that be the source?  It’s round the back and well rotted/dry and disturbing it doesn’t cause any flies to appear.

Thinking further afield, there is a sewage works about 500m away as the crow flies but no smell and our neighbours don’t get anywhere near as many as we do.

Back to the dead body hypothesis, we are planning on getting a new patio laid.

Thanks for trying Stoner.

<span style=”font-size: 0.8rem;”>Before anyone suggests it, yes, a flamethrower would work, but it is tricky to control overspray.</span>

Photos here

I got a secondhand KS lev 27.2 seat post which worked well for my son. Saved so much faffing at the top and bottom of climbs, definitely will get another.  Didn’t lose much when I sold it on, I think it worked out at a £50 total cost including a service for 18 months use.

Had a Chariot 1 and couldn’t recommend it enough. We used it loads, cycling, running, in town (with the little town wheels you can get). Our son started in it at 8 weeks but we had the baby sling attachment and padded his head didn’t <span style=”font-size: 0.8rem;”>fall off (he still has his head attached 8 years later).</span>

Transformed parenthood for us, from being house and car bound to having non-car mobility. Best thing we ever bought.

As others say, buy second hand and sell on.  Doing this meant we ”’rented” ours for £100 over 4 years (when we replaced it with a tag along thing).

When he couldn’t/wouldn’t sleep I used to go out running with him at 3-4am, good memories 😃

Good skills M_OAA.

40 degrees, in a pillowcase then spun at ‘ninja-speed’. (your washing machine may not have that setting).

It’ll come out virtually dry and ready for bed! I know this as Rooy (spl? Rooie), my sons toy looks like he’s been 20 years in the Gulag as opposed to 8 years in his bed. Washing once is fine, 20 times is fine, 200 times? It’s going to be noticeable.

A group of us were cycling in Provence and decided to recce the course for the Nice triathlon we were doing later that year. A 5 am start, a 2 hour drive, a quick park and off we went with nothing but a positive attitude and a 1:200000 map of the south eastern corner of France with the course drawn in red pen. 120km later, dehydrated and in a severe bonk we arrived back at the car to find we were in the wrong valley. And we had no idea of where the right valley was.

It was a long evening rescued only by a large pizza from the greatest of Euro inventions, a van with a proper wood fire inside.

I love Afan but every time I go there it hammers down with rain (which I don’t mind) and I set a little mental reminder to fit mudhuggers front and rear before my next trip.

Which I then completely forget to do.

Glad the top cafe has reopened, I much prefer parking up that end and doing W2 and Penhyd with a stop at the bottom cafe before ending with a scoff-fest back at the top cafe. Like others have said, BPW is good but I do like a good pedal.

Need to plan another trip /wanders off muttering about there being something he was supposed to do…/

Gutted. Losing the trees on the Whytes climb ruined it for me, loads more erosion, more rocks, no flow just the endless reminder that you hadn’t actually climbed far and there was still loads to go.

Can only imagine the erosion and therefore rockiness will be worse on the ZigZag DH. :(

Yup, but not if you’re in a rush. I got hydro-di2 levers new but cheap online and everything else second hand. Took me 3-4 months of lurking but got full di2-hydro groupset for £600 (no chainset though).

Kinesis Tracer are full carbon and have mudguard eyelets. Mrs Like_food has a set on her do-it-all bike and really likes them.

I’m guessing he/she already has a balance bike? We’ve bought our son a bike for Christmas every year, he’s coming up to 8 and it’s his first FS bike this year.

There was a Moto G4 on classifieds this week for about £50 I think? Mrs Like_food has one and is happy with it.

+1 jonnyboi.

Google DCRainmaker 2017 powered buying guide for all you need to know.

Of your two options I’d say property. At least it’ll give you something to do when you get bored of being retired (only half joking).

But I’d actually go with Gary M, the third option of investing.

Mega – thanks all. I’m going to pursue online worlds, I can’t believe this is causing me so much hassle – the first true sign of being left behind as the world accelerates away from me :D

All of the above sound good, but I did do the kitchen worktop offcut and it’s worked out fine.

Although to be honest it’s hard to tell as it’s covered with a 6 inch pile of stuff, bits and more stuff patiently waiting for me to tidy it.

Edit. To be more helpful a mate covered his ply workbench with a piece of stainless with the front edge bent down. That seems a really good solution? Not sure of the price though…

Papadums (poppadoms?) Every time!

@fossy. Yup can definitely log into Minecraft under his username.

@jamj1974 that sounds like the way forward. Can you ask how they do that? Do I need an Xbox live account and subscription? Old pass on my thanks to your IT support team!

Still loving this. Agree totally about Tignes Vs Les Arcs. We base in BSM to Les Arcs is so much easier to access (ride from flat to the funicular) but the trails are nowhere near as fun as Tignes/VdI. I’m hoping to get a bit more off piste action around Les Arcs/Piesey next summer as the nipper will be 8 and on a full sus. I am however total crap at finding and then following online trails and I’m always a bit cautious about taking mini-me on trails ‘blind’ after several bad dad moments (akin to the time I took him to BPW in the pissing rain when he was 5).

We did the first section of the via ferrata this summer with our 7 yr old and I harboured a wish that we’d carried on the part II. I’m glad we didn’t now :)

Keep them coming!

+1 for Grails. 100psi all year with no problems (Schwalbe One Pro 28 mm)

Availability is obviously a problem but the Aldi winter gloves do me fine on cold and wet days. About a tenner I think.

Loving this, brings back lots of good memories. Roll on summer 2018!

Thanks fellas, brilliant :)