I recently bought a Mobius dash cam for my car. It is pretty small, and with a bit of thought the wiring can be hidden away. Mine is setup to constantly record when the engine is on, and it just over writes the oldest data. If I want to save some footage, it is just one button press.

Setup is a bit more fiddly than some of the more expensive units, but once set up you can just leave it permanently in the car.

I did look at more expensive options , but decided all I actually wanted was something to capture video footage, which the Mobius does really well.

Sorry I think I was wrong about Collingbourne being the fun bit! Although by the 2nd lap the first bit of the woodlands wasn’t actually too bad and a dry line had appeared, but the 2nd half was getting pretty hard to ride. I was using Maxxis Icon tyres and they were slightly over whelmed by the mud…. although fast everywhere else. Apart from Collingbourne it was great conditions for the rest of the route. If we had had the choice I would have rather down the East loop twice rather than the West loop.

We did the 80km in about 5hrs, including a few photo stops, these show the variety of conditions yesterday:

That sounds right. So West anti-clockwise loop first, then at the 30/50 split head right to do the East loop, then at the 50/80 split head right to re-join the West loop. The fun stuff is at Colllingbourne Woods so you get to do that twice on the long route.

According to Stava lasts year’s route had 1,300m of climbing and covered 89km. A mix of bridleways, tracks and tarmac, with a few nice sections of single track. The long route does repeat it self. You basically do the best bits of the first loop again.

Here is my write up of last year’s event (It isn’t me in the pictures)
http://www.xcracer.com/Gorrick-Test-Valley-Tour-Hot-Challenge-2013-Vernham-Dean.html

I don’t think they have had a GPX download for the event before, so unless you plot the route yourself it won’t be on your Garmin. I am planning to follow the arrows, in previous years it has been very well marked, so haven’t really had to look at the map while riding.

Dragging my wife around the long route tomorrow.

We have an LG sound bar with wireless sub. Part of the reason I bought it was that it fits under the TV and integrates into the LG TV stand. Also the TV remote controls the volume on both. I think it was £250ish from Richer Sounds. Very pleased with it, the wireless sub is great as it means no trailing wires. Sound quality seems good to me.

My 8 year old son is quite excited about Mario Kart 8 being released next Friday. Hopefully it arrives early in the morning as he has invited several of his friends around to play it.

As above all the old Wii stuff works on the Wii U. There is a bit of software you can download that neatly transfers all the saved game data from the Wii to the Wii U.

You can’t talk about great architecture without including Le Corbusier’s Ronchamp Chapel. Sorry not a great picture:

Not relevant to this thread but the internal view is better:

My daughters passport arrived this morning, I think it took 4-5 weeks. That was the renewal of an expired passport. Oddly we had a letter last week from the Passport Office asking us to explain why the old passport was damaged, and they couldn’t send a new one until we told them. I am sure it wasn’t damaged when it left us, a long wait on the phone and the lady said just to said a letter back saying it was damaged with juice and that would be fine. Did that on Friday and the passport arrived today.

Don’t just fill it with filler, as it will probably sag and look a mess. Try to stick something about the right size into the hole first, a bit of wood or plasterboard. Either screw or glue fix. If the hole goes into the ceiling void and there is nothing to fix to, then stick a baton behind the hole first and fix your filling material onto that. Hopefully you then only have a shallow void to fill. I find the ready mixed plaster you can buy from B&Q works well for these sort of repair, although any filler will do the job.

I have a few different ones, and overall I think the Thule 591 is the best. The only thing I don’t like is the fact the front wheel can wobble a bit as it is only secured by the strap around the rim. I also have a Altera Giro, which is also pretty good and this has a moulding that holds the wheel and stops it wobbling. However I think the clamp mechanism is better on the Thule. Also the lock failed on the Atera pretty quickly, however the locks on all these racks are very poor so no good for security anyway.

All of the ones I have one just slide on and off the rail with QR style clamps to fix them into place, so don’t take too long to fit.

The new fencing on Ash Ranges looks to only be in the section that backs onto Ash Vale, I had assumed it was to stop dog walkers getting onto the ranges when the flags are flying. I have seen several walking inside the fence with the flags flying – I know there is no live firing on the perimeter road, but even so they shouldn’t be there. The new fencing looks to be fairly dog proof. There are no cattle in this part of the ranges. The fencing in the more ‘remote’ parts of the ranges was unchanged last time I was there, although notes on the gates saying they will be locked when the flags are flying.

Plotaroute.com might do it? I only discovered it the other day but is handy for planning routes and you can upload existing routes directly from you Garmin to modify.

I have the original version of these wheels and from memory the free hub just pulls off. You might have to pull off the end cap first.

I use a Mobile Juice Pack http://www.amazon.co.uk/PowerGen-External-sensation-Thunderbolt-Blackberry/dp/B005VBNW2G

It works fine on a Garmin 800 without having to modify the cables. The connections aren’t waterproof so it needs a bit of thought if it looks wet. I used it at Exposure24 last year, and when it was charging put the Garmin and BatteryPack into a waterproof triathlon style top tube bag for a couple of hours while it recharged.

I bought my son a Madison branded junior saddle from Evans. For the money it is a reasonable little saddle and not too heavy.

I live a couple of miles from the centre of Farnborough, and think I have been into the town centre once or twice over the past 10 years. Once you get away from the centre there are plenty of nice areas. Funnily enough I was born very near Ramsbottom, and while I go back occasionally I have never felt the desire to fully return.

The posts above sum up the local riding pretty well. Lots of twisty rooty tree lined single track, no rocks, fairly small hills but plenty of fun.

The section on the Tunnel Hill Troll website about single speeds and rigid forks was a bit of an injoke at the time. Plenty of people do ride them and keep up okay.

Well done. good effort. A slight correction the field was at least 52.

I was in the Open too, and also ended up in a bit of a pile up on that very short climb. Short race for me as I then managed to pick up a 2″ nail in my rear tyre somewhere towards the end of the first lap, the sealant in the tyre sort of sealed it but it wasn’t holding air properly, so I bailed before the end of the lap. I guess I could have stopped and fitted a tube, but didn’t find the course enticing enough.

It just needs a bit of thought and common sense.

I managed to fit a slim roof box with three bikes on my roof:

I moved the bars overs to the drivers side a bit so that the out side roof box clamps were on the out side of the roof rails on the car (otherwise they hit the bar/rail clamps) the box still sat on the rails and didn’t overhang. The outer bike rack was fairly close to the edge of the rails, but the actual fixings were all a bit inboard so I was happy with that. I couldn’t open the roof box once loaded with bikes , but that was fine for the journey.

I drove to the Med and back with this setup and we all survived, although I did drive a bit slower than normal.

It looks sufficiently different to keep it interesting compared to last year – I was worried the course would be just like last year, but in reverse. We won’t know how good it actually is until the day.

I think their elevation graph might be wrong. Last year we started at the highest point on the course, this year it looks like the start is in the same place but this time it is the lowest point on the course? I think they might have started that graph in the wrong location.

I bought some Panasonic ones a year or so ago. Thankfully I don’t have to fly too often, but when I do they are great. They work well out filtering out the airplane hum, wouldn’t fly without them.

I recently had a similar amount of money to spend on a watch (I think it cost around £300) and went for this :

I have a few other watches, but wanted something fairly plain and simple.

I think Tissot do a leather strap version in the PRS516 range.

Si, sorry to hear you are off to Germany.

If you do start looking at Passat Estates let me know as the lease on mine runs out in July, but I have the option for me (or someone else) to buy it before that. I haven’t looked at the current settlement figure, but should be close to market value now. 2.0 TDi Highline spec, Dec ’09, 93k miles (I have had it since 10k), full VW service history, never given me any trouble at all, in very good condition and I am happy to point out all the bad bits. Let me know if you want anymore details.

I’ve not booked this type of Holiday before – whens the best time to do so with 2015 in mind?

Thomson and Thomas Cook normally release their following year holidays in April/May. We (4 of us) went for 2 weeks to a 5* All-Inc in Turkey last year for £3k, I booked it early summer 2012. Nearer the time the price rose to about £4.5k. If you book early there are usually free child places available, together with more choice of flights. Off to Eygpt this year on a similar holiday for a similar price.

This should help:

I have just double checked and the one you originally linked to is the one I ordered from CRC and fits my Epic fine. The back of the lever does have a taper to it to fit the frame recess. And yes a spring inside to so that you can reposition the handle when tight.

I am pretty sure that is the one I bought for my Epic (also with the 142+ rear end). It fits fine.

I have the other style of 142×12 axle on my other bike, that uses a Shimano axle and they aren’t interchangeable.

We had the rear windows in my wife’s Clubman tinted by Fleet Autoshades, from one of the posts above it sounds like you may not be too far from Fleet. The guy did a very good job, and had the car for about four hours or so. I think the tint we had was Dark Smoke, basically one down from the really black limo tint. My wife has managed fine and hasn’t had any issues with it being too dark. Overall I think it has improved the look of the car, but it is a pretty pimped up mini, so maybe not to everyone’s taste.

It is hides anything you have in the boot if you don’t use the pull over cover.

Got a Mini Clubman, but haven’t tried to fit bikes in the back. I am pretty sure it would fit with wheels off – once the rear seats are down it is a fairly long luggage area, with good access through the rear doors.

I had it done about 10 years ago. My prescription was about -5 with astigmatism. No problems so far, in a way I regret not getting it done sooner.

An expensive way to overtrain to injury

You don’t have to do every one at 100%

Hopefully doing it. Although I only get back from a work’s trip early Monday morning so will miss the first two days. Currently planning to 3 sessions on the Monday to catch everyone up. Rubber Glove, ISLAGIATT & Revolver back to back should be fun…

There is a single track group on TrainerRoad : http://www.trainerroad.com/teams/156-singletrackworld

I upgraded all our Euro lock cylinders a while ago, one of which I had lost the key for. I was amazed at how easy it was to break open…

My turbo bike is an old 26″ mtb set up 1 x 9. It is setup with a 46t ring on the front and 11-25 cassette on the back, which gives a good range of resistance, although I hardly ever pedal it in 46-11 – maybe for a 10/10 sprint at the end of a Sufferfest workout. That is on a fixed resistance Cyclops Fluid Trainer. If I used a normal sized front ring I would be spinning madly all the time.

We have owned a Cooper S Clubman for a few months now. It is an 2008 car with 35k on the clock. MPG is reasonable, we don’t do enough miles in it to worry about it really. Surprisingly practical for a mini, rear leg room is actually pretty good, I am 6 foot and can comfortabley sit in the back. The boot is okay, but not huge, however the rearseats are very easy to fold down, which then creates lots of space. The club door seems to divide opinion, it suits us as my wife parks on the drive with the right side of the car facing the house so it is easy in the morning to load the kids in, if you are parking on the road and need to get kids in the back it is maybe a consideration. The spec level on our one is really good, I think the only things missing are heated screen and built in satnav. I spent ages trying to find the right one, while the extras cost a fortune when the car is new, they don’t have too much impact on the 2nd hand valve – although well specced ones sell quicker. When I was looking diesel had generally a lower spec and more miles for a similar price to the Cooper S. I was surprised how cheap insurance was, cheaper than a 10 year old Golf TDi we had before.

We have 18″ alloys which do give a pretty harsh ride. If I had found the right car with 17″ I would have gone with that.

Depending on age & mileage you can get Mini TLC or TLC XL service packages which makes the servicing pretty reasonable.

I found a few bubbles in the paint on the rear doors, which a bit of internet searching shows to be a common fault on a certain production run of these cars. Only affects the rear doors. BMW are replacing the doors under their 12 year anti-corrson warranty, without any cost to me.

Keys upstairs for us now.

We were unlucky enough to be targeted for our cars a couple of years ago. Our front door was forced, my wife’s handbag (which was downstairs) with both sets of keys was taken, and then they made a quick get away in the cars. I was woken by the alarm on one of the cars and almost caught them, but couldn’t run fast enough. At the time the area was being targeted for certain cars. The police’s advice was keys out of sight, and it would have been very unlikely they would have come upstairs. These were only after the cars rather than opportunist burglars.

Like many above I haven’t dived for a few years. A couple of hundred dives, qualified as PADI Rescue Diver. A bit of UK diving but mainly overseas: Red Sea, Cyprus, Gozo, Thailand, Philippines, Maldives. For a few years all our holidays were diving based, but then the kids came along and meant holiday focus has changed a bit. Oldest son is now 8, and is doing a PADI Seal Team course at the weekend, which was his birthday present. he is desperate to go diving – which I am pleased about. Hopefully dive trips will restart in a year or two.

Game seem to occasionally list the Mario bundle at £199.

I bought the Lego City bundle with Rayman Legends from Amazon for £199 on their Black Friday deal, and then got £20 back as the Amazon description mentions the Nintendo Land game in the description, but it isn’t actually included. I had an online chat with them and they were surprising quick to give me a refund. I don’t think they have updated the description yet, just in case you were planning to buy from Amazon…

I have just bought one for the kids for Christmas. We already have a Wii, but all the new games coming out now for the for Wii U. I have had a quick play with it to make sure it is ready for Christmas Day, but haven’t used it properly. Graphics are much better, the tablet is nice to use, overall it just feels more up to date. I am expecting the kids to make use of the fact that games can just be played on the tablet, with the TV turned off. The fact we can still use all our existing Wii stuff was a big selling point.

I managed to get one for a really good price from Amazon.

They haven’t sold well, I don’t think Nintendo have marketed it very well, they haven’t really marketed the fact that it is a totally different console to the Wii. There are some good games coming out for it at the moment so I would imagine sales will increase.

If you hit the bottle neck of the 2hr really depends on the lap length and when you cross the line compared to the 2hr race starting. I think I finished my third lap at 1:50 so didn’t really have any issue with the two hour riders. For the next round the lap will be a different length so who knows if you will get caught up, it evens out overall.

Well done Gee, you were flying. You did have an impersonator out on course, someone passed me on my 3rd or 4th lap shouting ‘Leading 4hr rider’ which confused me as you guys only lapped me on my 7th lap. Looking at the results he didn’t even finish in the top ten, cheeky git obviously had a problem in the lap before. 🙄

Normally all the rounds sell out so expect similar numbers and enter early.