I really like my Shimano ME7, my all time favourite shoe.

I went to find a link, and have now discovered that somehow I’d missed the news they’d been discontinued. Gutted. I’ve not found anything else with the features I loved.

Helpful post, I know.

I’m a 56 a road bike, 54 on gravel.

If I’m in doubt or in between then I’d much rather change stem length and saddle position on a smaller road bike to make it bigger, than changes to make a bigger bike smaller… even more so on gravel.

Curse this thread. Just bought one of those cheap Mongoose off the first page, figuring I’m paying retail for the fork and getting everything else for free (not sure it’s worth much more than that but hey)…

Broken ankles, herniated disc, collarbone:  here I come.

I’d stay in Reims personally.  Plenty of bars and restaurants, nice park, great cathedral.

All of the cellar tours are good really, Mercier, Bollinger and Ruinart were always pretty good, although been a while since I was out there. Moet worth seeing for the scale, about 20 miles of cellars in the chalk, and as the biggest their tours were always really slick (which may or may not be what you’re looking for).

Like most of the wine regions, they are just farmers, lots of planted land, not a huge amount to see or do outside of the big three centres.  For the most part, lots of shuttered properties with seemingly nobody about.  If you drive around though, some nice little spots to stop for lunch, Hautvillers, Verzenay and so on.  The roads are lovely if you’re taking a road bike…

I really, really like Troyes too – definitely worth a visit for a day or two.

iamtheresurrectionFull Member
Best thread title this year. Under appreciated. 🙂
Posted 12 hours ago

Nobody has picked up on this, and don’t want people thinking I was being a sarcastic dick, so I thought I’d better explain that I thought the thread title was a genius play on the subject mixed with Wout Van Aert.

I was tired.

Best thread title this year. Under appreciated. 🙂

If you use TimeMachine, and haven’t ran it for a while, plug it in and run it.  There could be older snapshots there waiting to be backed up.

I can understand that sex is biological, and gender is a concept and as such people can and should be whatever they want.

I don’t understand though, why a biological male who identifies as woman wants to dress like a biological female typically dresses – when does a woman have to dress a certain way. And if sex is irrelevant (ask my wife) because gender is a concept, why does it matter what bits you have?

Just live your life however you want, with the bits you were given as we’re told they don’t define anything anyway.  Unless of course your body does define your gender and the concept stuff is just bollocks (sorry), in which you can’t change it really.

I’m almost certainly not articulating this well, but I don’t know how to. The quicker we get away from labels and just let people live however they want without prejudice the better. Then an any pointless and unhelpful questions I have, and the debates, stop.

I’m recommending a mouse on a Friday night.  Jesus, my life has come to this…

Logitech MX Anywhere. I think they are brilliant.

Thanks everybody.

And please fit a toilet….

We have a cassette toilet already from the previous van, it’ll live under the bed and get emptied in the local campsite when we get back.

Plan isn’t to cook in the van at all, other than boil water for a tea or pasta, I’m not a fan of the left over smell of anything grilled or fried in a small space – I only cooked once in the previous van and that was enough…

So thanks to every body on here, it looks like two options for me:

1. It’s about £1,400 to swivel both the front 2+1 seats, take down the bulk head and replace the plastic trims from VW.  Add the curtain in up there ^^ and you’re knocking on £1,750.  I guess it would give us somewhere else to sit and make the van feel a bit bigger.

2. Add windows and blinds to the sliding and rear doors – opening on the slider – about £900 fitted.

Could you try this, add a mic to one and a battery powered speaker to the other?

Edit: Search Amazon for: VIOY Headphone Mic Splitter, 3.5mm TRRS Audio Splitter Cable for Headphones Jack Adapter Microphone and Headphone Splitters

oldtennisshoesFull Member
Glenmore Campsite, wouldn’t let campers on site if the van didn’t have side windows – not sure if that still applies with the current owners, but worth considering, especially if it’s white.

Hadn’t thought of that, it’s a consideration.  I’ll mostly be wild camping or at race so probably not a problem – if it I I guess I’ll retrofit after the conversion.

Edit: A little expensive, but if I take everybody’s advice (which is kind of the point) and remove the bulkhead then this looks ideal: https://www.trekkvans.co.uk/shop/p/quilted-cab-divider

Thanks everybody.  Listening to the above then, I could remove the bulkhead to use the front windows for light and fit a curtain across to save me fannying on with blinds.  Sounds like I need to find the budget to add spinning seats. I’d probably still fit the maxxfan for ventilation/condensation.

If I need to, I could glaze the sliding door later I suppose.

It’s a fair point on midges…

When you have to sit out a wet day in the van, I think you’ll be grateful for some windows.

I suspect that’s going to be everybody’s reply, which will quickly tell me I really should stick some windows in the back doors at least.  I suppose I was thinking we’d have the doors open for light when we were sat in it, or outside with awning winched out,  and if we were going to close the curtains to sleep well I might as well not have any windows there…

There’ll only be two of us in it at any one time, or often just me.

sharkattackFull Member
Sounds horrific. At least try replacing the bulkhead with a curtain or something.

Yeah, I thought that might be the first response when I typed it out :).  I really don’t want to remove the bulkhead after messing around with window shades and condensation on a T6 I converted, and the sound of the constant one man band behind me when I drove anywhere…

Good shout on the V5, but I’m probably too tight to drop 10mpg between 60 and 70 anyway…

I discovered Tanqueray AF today, I say discovered, obviouslyI knew it existed.

While it stung to £15 for something with no duty it made tonight’t tonic a bit more interesting.  I know I’ll drink again, and want to really because I enjoy the taste, I must say I’m in no hurry – which is a big surprise to be honest.

I’ve got CrossClimate2 on a Golf. It’s like putting Magic Mary Ultra Softs on there but with 30tpi casing. Grip is very good in the wet and snow (what little we’ve had) but noisier than I’d want but…

…they  handle horribly and feel like they feel like they have no sidewall support at all if you’re driving at all with any purpose. I imagine they’d squirm all over on a heavy EV. 

I wish I’d bought Pilot Alpin 5, and will try them next

Still dry here, still not missing it although on Metronidazole now for an infection so not really much choice. 

Not sure what I’ll do after Jan to be honest, probably slip back into a glass or two on a Friday and Saturday night if I want one, and when cooking Sunday lunch after a ride. 

I’m a really bad sleeper, and I’ve had the best month’s sleep that I can remember.  I don’t want to give that up anywhere near as much as I do fancy a nice glass of something. 

I think like passive speakers, there are good and bad examples of both. Nothing about the AE1s on paper looks remarkable, but they sound lovely – definitely worth an audition. Wired up to a Node or Wiim, it’s a very simple, good value and enjoyable listen.

Years and years ago (er, about 30) I bought some Mission 760i speakers – I think they were £150 new. I’m not sure I’ve had a more musical set of speakers since despite throwing a fair bit at it. I wired them up about six months again after they’d been sitting in the loft for about 25 years and they still sound awesome.

I think I just like little standmounts, and try not to let the price get in the way of expectations. Absolutely not saying anybody on this thread is doing that, but I’ve definitely been guilty of that over the years.

edit: sorry, just reread the thread and realised I’d missed your post further down about the Opticons, which renders my post a bit redundant. 🙂

I’m on a pair of PMC GB1i on the end of a decent old Musical Fidelity A1008 amp, and a BluSound Node/Qobuz source.  I’ve never loved the speakers, can’t put my finger on why but sound a bit rigid, but they’ve been in a room with a wooden floor and shit acoustics for 10 years.

We’re redoing the room, and putting carpet down amongst other things, so have started looking at speakers again, and I’m going back to a compact standmount.  Listened to some Dali Minuets last week, they were really sweet sounding and well worth a listen (Richer Sounds have them too, so easy to find a dealer).

It’s either that or sell the amp and CD player and have a really simple set up of the Node (maybe through a Benchmark DAC) and a set of AE1 Actives – which I’ve also spend time listening to and loved.

No doubt there’ll be a lot of car dealers who took advantage of this and rightly will be brought to task. Equally no doubt, there’ll be a lot of dealers who have done nothing wrong, but will get buried in the paperwork proving their position.

If the FCA truly had the best interests on consumers in mind, they’d identify the dealers who worked in this way (easy enough to do, as the finance houses will each know the spread of rates on finance brokered), question the dealers and then compensate the customer upon judgement.

I find it a little ironic that if there are vulnerable customers who were taken advantage of, then the onus shouldn’t be on the same vulnerable customer making a claim.

I haven’t lost any weight, despite riding or running every day since Boxing Day – still too much sugar in the house I think – but I’m sleeping so, so much better. I’ve struggled with sleep for a long time, hadn’t slept through once since September, often only a few hours a night, but done it two times this week so far. The other time I woke up, went for a pee and fell back asleep. Revelation. 

I’m enjoying sleep so much that I’m starting to think that I might only drink in the house on a daytime, which means a glass or two with Sunday lunch not a beer with daytime tv, or when I’m out the house for an event (dinner/work/drinks with friends)  

Strangely my biggest trigger is when preparing a meal at the weekend; I love having a few strong IPAs while listening to some tunes and cooking. That’s today’s test.

I’m with you.  Back from a ride and cooking Sunday lunch.  Big tonic with a load of cucumber, on my second, just want something nice to drink. Nice enough to be fair, but would swap for one nice glass of red…

I think I’m either all in or all out with most things. Sleeping better, but no weight loss (snacking is up, when I’d normally have a glass of wine). 

We have friends around tomorrow night though, and going out for dinner: that’ll be a test of willpower with no prize at the end.

@weeksy That’s our plan too for a bit of biking, and a bit of hiking – hopefully walking distance to some overpriced bars and restaurants  

If you are staying in a chalet, have you booked an airbnb or similar or booked something through an agency? 

If you’re going to select an arbitrary period of time to stop drinking then surely January is the worst possible time? It’s cold, wet, dark and miserable, and we’re confined to the indoors more than any other time of year.

Totally get this. I think I do January because I’ve had such a heavy period of drinking over Christmas I can’t face any more. Same goes for red meat, bacon and sausages. Body can’t face anymore (although sausage normally falls first, by the second weekend)…

Yeah, also in – day two today. Heavier month – and heavier year, really – than it should have been for an ‘athlete’… 🙂

I don’t miss the effects of alcohol at all, but I do miss something nice to drink while I’m cooking and eating. The only think that ever really fills that gap for me is sparkling water.

Meh, trail erosion has been talked about as being a huge issue by ebikes, but in many years of riding i’ve never really seen a huge increase in trail damage in years

i think it depends on what kind of trails we’re talking about. In my local woods, the steeper, loamy trails cut in to the hill are riding very differently this winter and last. Could be the additional rain, could be additional use, but logic says a 10kg heavier ebike, often dragging a back brake to counter the momentum, and carrying more weight and momentum through the corners on tyres generally a bit fatter have to cause more damage. That doesn’t mean I think somebody on an ebike has any less right to be there or any more responsibility to the trail than a regular bike.

To a walker who walked the woods 30 years ago we’re both pricks cutting up the hillside. 

Apple rubbish. Just buy a pixel and catch up.

These threads always bring out the haters 🙄. Both the latest Google Pixel and iPhones are great phones with similar features. By now, you’re normally in one eco system or the other  

My personal phone is a 14 Pro, work phone 15 Pro Max. Outside of a case, the 15 is a lot more comfortable to hold, in a case they are the same.  I prefer USB C, the camera is a bit better (but 14 Pro is great too) and the new Max are a bit smaller than the old ones – and I much prefer the bigger phone. 14 Pro vs 15 then isn’t much different imo  

If it’s non-Pro we’re talking about, and the camera is important, then go 15 for that reason alone. The main camera jumped to 48Mp  you also get the Emergency Assist via satellite free for two years if you’re off grid, and the Dynamic Island (very cleverly done, if not earth shattering functionality)

Do any ebikers accept that using a motorised bike is generally less beneficial to your health and fitness?Or is it just not talked about?

Too many variables, even for ‘generally’. Heart rate tends to be about the same, peak power doesn’t. 

As I said earlier, I’ve only ridden manual mountain bikes this year, and haven’t touched the ebike once.  Generally I’d say I use my road bike, gravel bike, turbo and run for fitness – I just ride my mountain bike to mess around in the woods with my mates and enter the odd race.  

Next year I’ve entered the Fred Whitton for the first time, so might roll the ebike out again and use it in trail and boost for recovery days – and I’ll love it. 

I hate this thread though.  Arguing with strangers on the internet earlier means I left the beef in for a bit too long and it borderline ruined a really, really nice rib. 

Because it’s individual…

…and

The challenge is getting to the top as quick as possible

Yes it is, and no, not for everybody it’s not.

You’re absolutely correct, the climb is part of the challenge for you. Those who don’t view the climbs as the challenge and instead would rather ebike or uplift are absolutely right too.  I don’t think both sides need to try and fail to convince each other.

Beef’s coming out soon, which is definitely more important.  😉

All this crap spouted by some of the early posters about ebikes being better on fire road ascents shows how completely they’ve missed the point. If you’re going up ( or indeed down, or along) a fire road then you’ve picked the wrong route. 😉

Depends on the ride planned, and I’m guessing your emoji means you know that.
There are plenty riding spots that use fire roads to get up as quickly as possible before coming down through the trees. The climb isn’t part of the fun, it’s just an unavoidable necessity. I’ve missed my ebike this year for those days. If you don’t do that kind of riding, then you might not understand. 

There are plenty of other types of riding where I enjoy the climb  Borrowdale Bash and the Lakes generally always come to mind, Glentress Black climb I like as far as trail centre climbs go  – all of those I prefer on a non ebike (for now).

I don’t want anything to assist me getting up ‘that hill’ as getting up and down is the challenge.

I don’t see what’s challenging about slogging up the climb to NYNY for example,  sat there for an hour on a fire road, when you could do in less than half the time – and ride the trail twice in the same time. I’ve done that on a normal bike about a dozen times this year, every time wishing I had a motor.

I spent my 20 and 30s in the wine and champagne trade and was lucky enough to eat some really good food, in some really nice places.

I remember being half way through a tasting menu with a couple of well known chefs, and we all agreed we really just wanted a plate of salty chips and a beer.

There’s a lot of beef on this thread – and here too.

Christmas Day is a traditional for me in the sense there’s always beef, watercress and most importantly tartiflette – with a couple of other variables. 

I haven’t ridden my ebike once this year – I’d have sold it if the new ones weren’t so cheap.

I haven’t missed it much.  But every time I go to the woods, where it’s a case of winching up a fire road for 45 minutes to blast down through the trees for a few minutes before repeating (think Golfie and the like), I realise how much more riding I would have fitted in on my ebike.

They absolutely have their place for that kind of riding, no matter how fit you are. Given the kind of riding you do with Jnr, I reckon this might be you too.  Take the Rise.

My gravel bike has become my most used bike. It’s a road bike for roads and unsealed roads, and it’s quick and comfy on both of those.

If I go out for 30-50 miles, for example, it’ll spend half of the ride on tarmac at 2mph or so less than a road bike, and link up with old railway lines or surfaced bridleways, a bit like @13thfloormonk

A lot of people on this thread sound like they are using their ‘gravel’ bikes off road on trails with roots, rocks, mud and little like old school hard tails or CX bikes. I bought a Kona Jake 20 years ago to do the same, loved it, and then something a bit more capable and more like a drop bar rigid mountain bike in a Salsa Fargo. Neither riding was really anything like the kind of thing I’m using my gravel bike for, and I don’t think that’s what gravel riding is to most people away from this thread.

Has anybody ever looked at what GDP rises by when the site goes down? 

@JonnyCJust out of interest.  If a car is returned under the distance selling act, does that person end up as an additional owner on the car’s log book or will the seller normally wait the 14 days before sending it to the DVLA?

It’ll almost certainly have an extra owner as all the paperwork is done online when buying the car and paying RFL… When RFL stayed with the car after it was sold, a lot of dealers would process the V5 within a week or two, but not anymore.

Motorbikes aren’t that bad actually, weeksy.  There’s too much used stock around, and there are some good deals about on certain new models because the new ‘24 models have just been announced – but most dealers have had a good year.

Businesses have to fail in order for there to be progress.

I think the world is a bit more nuanced than that.
Yes, learning from mistakes should bring progress, but it’s hardly the only way and in no way does a mistake have to be terminal.

Would be competitors who think they can do it better or differently don’t wait for the incumbent to fail first.