There isn’t a set time,  but you will here the noise change when it has pressurised the bottle enough.   As the co2 bottle becomes empty it takes longer and longer to get enough pressure.

@Timbur It is very easy to use.  Fill the bottle to the line.  Screw bottle onto the machine.  Hold the lever down twice and you have sparkling water.

It works best with chilled water, we have found tap water tastes fine when sparkled.   We did start by using filtered water, but really couldn’t taste the difference.  The thread connection for the water bottles is the same as the soda stream bottles, so you can use those if you want.

Find the best way to buy the gas that suits you.  SodaStream and CO2you both have schemes that work out at £10 per co2 bottle.   Both these schemes are cheaper and easier than buying it from a shop and then taking the empty bottle back for a refund.  I would guess that one co2 bottle will gas 40-50 bottles of water, although never really counted.     If you can justify the initial outlay then you can decant CO2 from a larger cylinder which works out much cheaper.

I am also an Aarke Carbonator 3 user.  Had it for just over a year and very happy with it, it is in the Hammertone finish and looks great in the kitchen.  Before buying I did look at the SodaStream offerings but they all seemed to be very cheap plastic.    Aarke do have some reduced products on their website, hidden under the ‘Archive’ section.

For gas I refill the Soda Stream gas bottles from a 6kg large CO2 bottle.  It works out at about £2 per fill.  I did have to invest in the first 6kg bottle and decanting connector, but that didn’t take long to pay for itself as we get through a sodastream gas bottle in about 2 weeks.

My suggestion would be to ride most of Penhyyd, but towards the end take the newish (old) Genesis trail that lets you cut through to the fire road which takes you up to the start of the Blue Scar descent.  I think it is all sign posted after Rocky Rebellion.     That is normally the route I use for a final morning ride after a couple of days at Afan with my kids.

I used to drink way too much coffee, not sure how much but when working from home would make countless cups of instant a day. Several years ago I thought it was time to quit, so went cold turkey and developed the headaches for a few days. I think after a week they cleared up, and I did feel more alert first thing in the morning. Over a couple of years I have reintroduced coffee, have now bought a decent machine and grinder, and just drink a couple of espressos first thing, and then maybe a longer V60 drink later in the morning, apart from that just water during the day. No instant coffee in the house anymore. For me this level of caffeine seems fine, no impact on sleep as far as I can tell.

Interestingly there seems to be a reasonable amount of research on the benefits of coffee in a diet. The ZOE podcast series has an interesting episode with James Hoffman. Worth a listen if you want to justify your coffee intake!

I wear a Descent Mk2i as a daily watch (basically a Fenix that has been beefed up for scuba diving). It did feel a bit large to start with, but forget it is there now.  I wear it for lots of activity and can’t say it is noticeable at all.   As mentioned above the tightness of the strap can have an impact on the comfort level.

I have done it theee times without any problem. Dealers were Ford, Kia and JLR.  Everytime paid off within a few days on getting all the paperwork confirmed.  The most recent was JLR and I think with them I just settled the finance online, I didn’t even need to speak to anyone about it.

from my recollection, legally they can’t impose a financial penalty if you cancel the contract and pay the owing balance.  They can charge interest owing to the date of settlement, but can’t add on any other charges.

I will send you a message as my son will be interested in this.  He is in his first year at Uni on a software engineering course.

I normally go to Egypt a couple of times a year and usually end up around Hurghada for a bit of time.

Anywhere close to Hurghada won’t have good snorkelling from the beach.  The beaches close to the city tend to just be sand, so if you want to go snorkelling you need to head on a boat trip.  Diving is the same with no options for diving from the shore.   However depending on the age of the kids a hotel like Jungle Aqua Park has lots to offer in the waterpark, we stayed there once when the kids were young and just went out on a one day snorkelling trip.  Generally the further south you head from the centre of Hurgada the better.

The hotels around Makadi Bay are better and have some snorkelling from the beach/jetties.

My personal favourite is The Breakers at Soma Bay (about 40mins from Hurgahda).  Which is a diving/kite surfing hotel and very different to the normal Egyptian AI experience.  It has a great house reef, a very good dive shop and just a general chilled vibe.   I have been there a couple of times and heading back next summer for a few days.

El Gouna is also worth a look.  It is far more relaxed than Hurghada with nice hotels.

If you are staying in Hurghada and planning a week of diving check out Steve and Emma at DiveUKHurghada.  They offer well priced packages with accommodation and diving, and offer diving for kids.

On my road bike I use a PRO saddle that has a screw in mount for accessories underneath.  I have a GoPro mount fitted to this, then a short extension arm, then a Varia mount with a GoPro fitting in the back.  This way I can use a saddle bag, and have the Varia firmly mounted behind the saddle.  Works well for me.

My Aarke has always been great at fizzing.  For the supplied bottles I normally just give it two shots – holding the lever down until I hear the air release each time,   It only struggles to fizz when the gas bottle is getting very low.  I also use a small SodaStream water bottle and that only takes one lever pull.

I have always used fridge cold water, apparently that fizzes better than room temperature water.

It is surprisingly dry at the moment. I rode there on Wednesday for the first time this year, and only a couple of small puddles. There has been a bit of rain since then, but the ground is fairly dry so most puddles will disappear during today. Parking is normally easy before 10am, but get busier as the morning goes on.

Nice to see a bit of trail maintenance has happened over the past few months, with Stickler being resurfaced and rerouted, and Labyrinth being tidied up after the tree felling/clearing.

Would happily join a speedy ride around Swinley, but I am away on the 30th

I bought an Aarke Carbonator a couple of weeks ago. I had a look at a few Soda Streams and the Aarke is a far nicer thing to have in the kitchen. Bought to replace buying plastic bottles.

Currently subscribed to a Soda Stream postal gas exchange scheme, which works out at £10 per cylinder. I have signed up to using 12 cylinders and then depending on usage will probably look at buying a larger cylinder and decanting CO2 into a Soda Stream cylinder, which will probably work out at around £3 per cylinder.

We had a 208GTi for a couple of years, this was when they were first launched and there were some cheap lease deals about. I thought it was a decent car and fun to drive, well suited to UK roads, no issues in the 2.5 years we had it. Before that we had a Clubman Cooper S, handling on it was ruined by large alloys. It also suffered numerous mechanical issues despite only having 30k or so on the clock.

We now have a 2018 Kia Ceed GT. Owned since nearly new and it has been totally reliable and still has a few years of warranty left. Straight line speed is very similar to the Peugeot, trim level is maybe slightly better. Although overall driving experience of the Kia is slightly dull and it doesn’t have the sporty feel of the Peugeot or Mini, but still a nice car and driving experience.

I have the Cisa Astral locks mentioned above. They work with the key in the other side of the lock. I think the smallest I have is a 35/35 and I am sure that works with a key in either side of the lock. Also bought from Barnsley who have been great in supplying additional locks and keys.

I normally go to Egypt twice a year diving. It has been a while since I have done any courses, but both my kids have done a few courses over there. All the courses they have done have been further south towards Marsa Alam which has great diving but is a bit of a pain to get to at the moment as there are no UK flights to Marsa Alam, so it involves a 2.5hr transfer.

Close to Hurghada I could recommend Breakers at Soma Bay it is a great hotel and very different to the normal Egyptian all inclusive resort. It is aimed at backpacker who have grown up, and has a really nice atmosphere. I stayed there for a few days last summer before a liveaboard and am going back again this year. They have Orca Divers on site who I did a couple of dives with and they have a very good set up and seemed to be giving good instruction.

You could try my mate Steve at DiveUKHurghada, he has a small business in Hurghada and is very passionate about his instruction. I have dived with him, but never been on a course with him.

In Sharm I would suggest Camel Dive Club, although it has been years since I have been there. They often email me with good deals on dive courses and accommodation.

Emperor Divers always get good feedback and have a centre in Sharm

I would agree with the suggestions about doing theory and confined section of the Open Water course in the UK before you go. That way when you are on holiday all your diving is in the sea.

I have had one of their machines for a couple of years. I bought it on the £1 offer. Downside is the capsules you have to buy on the subscription are at full price, whereas if you have just subscribe without the machine you can get around 20% off the coffee. Once you have bought enough full price capsules you can switch to the reduced subscription.

It is fairly easy to delay the subscription deliveries, I am not sure what happens if you keep delaying them indefinitely.

I have had to contact Lavazza twice due to issues with the machine. Both times I got through to someone who could help with the issue. First issue was about descaling and the chap I spoke had all the answers. On the second problem they switched to a video call, diagnosed the problem and agreed to send a replacement machine under warranty. I was really impressed with the service both times.

You are limited in the range of capsules for the machine, but I have found the range good enough. Capsules are also compostable, which is the reason I went with it.

I have had one since November last year, mine is a D200 MHEV, so newer engine compared to the ones you have mentioned. I have covered just over 10k miles, most of the miles have been long drives on the motorway. On a long run it is fairly easy to get over 50mpg, I think the best I have had is 55mpg driving steadily for a couple of hours. Loaded with three bikes on the back plus roof box and bike on roof it does around 40mpg on the motorway. Short journeys around town, or stop start driving tends to be around 40mpg as well.

Great car to drive. The interior of the newer model is a big step up from the preface lift model, and worth considering if it fits within budget.

I have used them a few times and always had quick delivery. I did have one issue with a power meter I had to return for a warranty repair. I sent it back, and when I chased them a week or two later they had no record of receiving it, luckily I had sent it with a proof of delivery. The signature and name was a bit vague, but eventually they did just refund the money for the power meter. I have used them since, but if I had to return anything I would make sure there was proof of delivery.

I had a new driveway laid a couple of years ago. The guys working on it did a good job, and pretty much worked non-stop for the five days it took them. There were four of them working and I gave them a case of Stella each on the last day. Seemed to be unexpected and well received.

We have been to the St Davids area for the past two summers and we are heading back for a week in May this year. The comments so far give a good summary, things we have done include:

Walks along the coast path. Try to include a visit to the top of Carn Llidl which gives great views over the peninsula, the section of coast line heading East from there is stunning. Depending on the time of year you can look down and see seals in the sea. It is also worth a visit to the top of Carn Penberry which has great views as well.

Speed boats trips to look at wildlife. We have done this twice and seen some great stuff around Ramsey Island. Both times we have used Voyages of Discovery who have been good.

Coasteering. The Blue Lagoon are is great for this. We have used muuk-adventures who seemed a well run set up.

Sea Kayaking. Although last time we went this had to be cancelled due to sea conditions.

Surfing. A few of the beaches rent boards.

Lots to do in the area if you like outdoor activities.

Well done on the recovery. It sounds like you had a very similar pelvic fracture to the one I had at the the start of 2020, I managed to break my superior and inferior pubic ramus due to a crash on the road. Recovery was lots of pain killer, and try to be as mobile as possible. I did slightly ignore the doctors and got back on the turbo trainer sooner than they suggested. Overall my recovery was very good, and I actually ended up having a good year cycling despite the bad start to the year. Looking back it probably took 5-6 months until I was at the point where everything felt fully normal again. I am just glad the recovery was to be active, if it had been bed rest for months, I would have found that very tough.

I think the key things are to ensure that flights and accommodation can be cancelled at short notice if needed and that you have insurance that covers Covid issues.

We have a fairly big family holiday planned for the summer. We are heading to Egypt for a couple of weeks in August. A few days in a hotel, then a week on a boat diving in the Red Sea, then a few days in another hotel to finish the trip. All booked independently. Hotels are booked on Booking.com and I can cancel those a few days before if needed with no penalty. Flights are with Easyjet, who I have found have been very good at issuing refunds for flights that don’t operate, or they can be rearranged if needed. The dive boat I can’t cancel, but if needed they will roll the booking over to next year – this year’s trip was originally arranged for 2021, but obviously we couldn’t go at the time so they moved it to 2022. The travel insurance I have offers covers us if one of us tests positive 14 days before we go – although at that stage everything could be cancelled or moved to 2023 so in my case it wouldn’t really offer any additional protection. It also covers us if ones of us tests positive while travelling and need to delay our return.

If the trip can’t go ahead I do have a fallback UK option, but really hoping we can have a family trip abroad this year.

I was in Egypt last October, and plenty of European’s were there, and generally everything felt safe. The UK has had a very restrictive travel policy for the past 2 years, so I think people are feeling nervous about travel.

Interesting topic!

I hadn’t really given this any thought before. The company I work for has a culture of cameras on in meetings, there hasn’t been any mandate on it, it is just what people do and I can’t recall anyone questioning it. As a business I like to think we have a friendly culture and seeing your colleagues face to face seems to help with that. I manage a sales team of remote workers and it has been good for colleagues to get to know each other a bit better. All the other sectors of our business seem to operate in the same way with cameras on by default. Anyone who doesn’t want there real life background showing just uses a virtual background. It is only in large seminar style meetings where the message is to turn cameras off. I regularly chair meetings for my team and find it much better when I can see peoples faces to see they are picking up on the key points, if I am presenting and can’t see peoples faces it is harder to see their engagement.

Dress code has been an interesting one. Typically office dress code is shirts and no ties. At the start people seemed to match this dress code in Teams calls, but fairly quickly this disappeared, so most people I have meetings with are casually dressed – which seems far better. The exception would be customer calls when we expect the sales team to be slightly smarter dressed.

As a slightly different option I bought a Lavazza Modo Mio Desea a couple of years ago. I have been impressed with it. The downside is you are limited to Lavazza pods and a only a few after mark brands, but the Lavazza pods are compostable, so seem less wasteful than the Nespresso equivalents. I normally just use it to make a few 60ml expressos during the day, but the machine can also steam and froth milk and can produce a reasonable latte drink as well as hot chocolate. They do make a couple of smaller machines that make coffee only.

I had one issue with the machine after a year or so. Lavazza’s customer support was very good.

I have about 2 miles left to ‘finish’ the challenge. I don’t really think I have completed it as most of the miles have been on Zwift, it just makes it too easy to rack up the miles compared to riding outdoors. I was away with family over Christmas, so only started on the 28th, then had more family around on the 29th, so have really had three days of riding, which has made it a bit tougher. Did a 4.5 hour session this morning on the turbo starting at 5:30, had to stop just before 10am as the wife wanted to use the turbo at 10am. Heading out for an mtb ride this afternoon, so will get the 500km done.

I hope they stop the virtual rides counting next year – although I think it has become to much a part of Zwift for Rapha to want to stop the linkup. Maybe a Real Festive 500 and a Virtual Festive 500 are needed.

Well done to everyone who has got the distance in outdoors over the past week, weather has been pretty rubbish. I was planning to get some of the distance in outdoors, but took a look at the weather a few times and took the easy option of turning the computer on.

I sold a car this week through motorway.co.uk It was very straight forward, I uploaded photos on Friday, car was listed on their website Monday morning, sold in the afternoon and collected by a dealer on Wednesday morning. Price was higher than I was expecting, and much better than WBAC.

I have found the Camelbak Forge range very good. They keep a hot drink hot for a long time, and easy to drink from without letting the heat out. I can see they have brought out a new version, haven’t tried that one.

My son started a digital T-Level in September. He is very confident that he wants to go into a career in IT in one form or another. The other option would have been doing A-levels in probably maths, physics and computer science, but he/we felt the A-levels would have been less relevant to his future ambitions. We did quite a lot of research and also looked at university options post T-level, a few universities expect a maths A-level for computer courses, but most are happy with T-level qualifications.

So far he seems to be really enjoying the course and is very engaged with it. It helps that he enjoys all the topics on the course. We haven’t got as far as the vocational part of the course yet, so will have to wait and see how that plays out.

Looks like the damage caused by badgers. We get similar on our lawn, I bought a night vision wildlife camera and managed to catch the badgers doing the digging. They seem to randomly visit our garden.

In the past year or so GoPro seem to have gone down the route of focusing on direct sales Ono, so there aren’t really deals from other sellers. If you want to buy a 9 new you are best to keep an eye on the GoPro site, the offers do vary from time to time.

We had our driveway replaced last year. Before we replaced it was broken concrete, which looked to have been laid at various points over the last 20 or so years and looked a real mess. After lots of looking around we replaced it with block paving, we went with a tumbled grey paver in three different sizes. It cost a bit more than having it laid with standard herringbone pavers, but looks a lot better. A year later it is looking good, minimal amount of weeds so far.

I am caught up in this at the moment. I put a deposit down on a new car a few months ago, at the time I managed to a great price through an online broker. Originally the car was due this week, but due to delays blamed on chip shortages delivery has been pushed back several times, it is now due at some point in September – although I am not holding my breath on that. At the time the dealer I am buying from gave me an indicative trade in price for the car I want to PX, but wouldn’t commit to it until closer to the time my car was ready. Since then my current car has increased in value by about £2k, so if 2nd hand car prices stay high I have done well from the deal, but there is no certainty over when the new car will arrive. Normally I change cars every 3 years and buy a low mileage ex-demo, but looking around lots of those are being sold at near to new prices due to a lack of new cars coming through.

Chip shortages on new cars seem to be blamed as the main cause of a lack of new stock coming through which is then pushing the price of 2nd hand cars up. Also the likes of WBAC seem to trying to change the balance in the 2nd hand market by buying up lots of stock.

Yes you will still go past the bike park.

The trail diversions at Afan don’t sound too bad. I wouldn’t let them put you off going if that was your original plan. I have ridden there and CwmCarn with the family quite a bit recently. The woodwork on Goodwood has been closed for a while, if it is the same diversion then it is the damp trail to the side of the woodwork. The first top loop of Penhydd was shut while we were there, the rest of the trail was open and running well. It is a shame 373 is shut as that is a great trail.

CwmCarn is always good for a day out. Typically we ride both trails when we have the kids with us. My daughter is 12 and we normally take the easy option of the tarmac climb to the top of Twrch, as the single track climb is a bit of a challenge for her in places. I would say the trails at Cwm Carn are more xc style single track, rather than jumpy trails, very similar to Afan really. Well worth a revisit if you haven’t been for a few years.

Just checked and the 200 hour service for the Ocho is £199. Mine was just the 100 hour service, and thinking about it the did replace some bits under warranty while they had it (I think that has happened on the 1st service of every Lefty I have had…) so maybe that is why I wasn’t charged anything for the courier.

I have always used TFT, never had any issues with the quality of their service. They have serviced several of my LEfty forks over the years. However TFT can’t service the new Ocho forks, these need to be sent to CSG via your LBS – when I had mine serviced I was surprised at how cheap it was to service, I think it was £80 including postage to and from my LBS. So it would be worth trying your local Cannondale dealer to see the price they quote to send it off.

I have done this twice in recent years. Once with Ford, managed to negotiate a good PCP deal on a nearly new car with the dealership, then also got them to take of a further £2k that Ford were advertising on their website as a manufacturer deposit contribution. The second was on a Kia, with a deposit contribution of £500. I settled both within the cooling off period and just had to pay a small amount of interest. Neither have affected my credit score, but as mentioned above I don’t know if it affects my attractiveness for future PCP’s.

One area it can affect is the sales person’s commission. Hence some of the comments being made about having to make one or two monthly payments, at which point the commission would probably be paid out to the dealer – although this seems to vary from dealer to dealer. With the Kia the sales guy didn’t seem bothered and has sent me several messages since buying the car to make sure I am happy with it.

I have just upgraded from a 7 to a 9. Stabilisation is a slight improvement over the 7, and horizon levelling when using the Max Lens Mod is very good. The front screen is also a welcome addition. Like all GoPro cameras it works best with blue skies. I have only taken it out on the bike a couple of times, but here is quick edit I put together from a ride last weekend when using the Max Lens:

https://gopro.com/v/JbzPaLqnP0agn

That was put together with the GoPro Quik app which is surprisingly easy to use, but is ultimatley limited in what it can do.

I have had one issue with the camera so far when the memory card generated an error, I am hoping this was due to the spec of the memory card being too low, rather than the camera as I haven’t replicated the error on a higher spec memory card. The card with the problem was the one GoPro bundled with the camera. I haven’t had any problems with the 7 and it had lots of use, although mainly scuba diving rather than on the bike.

I have been using them for about a year. Tubeless in 25c size. Seem good for the money, not too tough to get on, inflate easily and are fairly puncture resistant. I have had one puncture that struggled to seal, but I wasn’t far from home so just rode the five miles home and didn’t need to put extra air in. Sorted it out once I got home. Grip and rolling resistance seem fine, can’t say I have noticed either being particularly good or bad. When these ones are worn out I will probably get the same again.