The other Danger Area nearby (to the north, the other side of Pirbright Camp) does not allow any access at any time, apparently there are still too many explosives in the ground.

That is Ash Ranges. You can go in as long as the red flags/lights aren't flying.

Well as of 10am this morning they were only my tyre tracks, maybe others have ridden it later in the day? You will be fine with gears, the snow is still very dry so I wouldn't imagine it would cause gears to freeze up, not that I would know as I was struggling around on the SS.

c_g, it hasn't changed much from yesterday, although the Deer Stalker now has tyre tracks, there are a few fallen trees & branches on the way down so doesn't flow as well as normal. Overall hard work on the single speed, but do able, although expect to be pushing when the gradient points upwards.

I normally leave the camera at home but thought I would take it out for a ride over to Swinley today:

A Tacx Swing will work well with a single speed bike. We used to have one and used a mtb on it with a 32:16(I think) ratio and it gave a nice spread of resistance.

My wife used our turbo trainer loads when she was pregnant. I fitted a high rise stem and bars as leaning forward became a bit of a problem, but otherwise she carried on as normal, obviously exercise intensity was reduced. The one thing she had to buy was a larger size pair of cycling shorts as her normal ones became too small. The book 'Exercising Through Your Pregnancy' by James Clapp is worth a read.

To give you a bit of inspiration, Louise managed a 12 hour solo race 6 months after giving birth, and she even managed to get on the podium. It is amazing how fast her fitness came back after having the baby.

We are in a similar boat. After an expensive trip to Majorca, all our family holidays have become all inclusive holidays outside the Euro zone. Morocco for the past two years and Turkey this year. Like you we are going end of May with 2 adults and 2 kids which is costing us about £2k for two weeks for a decent hotel in Turkey, I doubt we will spend too much while we are there.

I think part of the problem is the travel companies have cut back on flights and hotel bookings, so while demand has dropped so has availability – so prices have stayed high with few last minute bargains available.

We flew to the Philippines (via Hong Kong), with our youngest when he was about 7 months old. We flew with Cathay who sorted us out with bulkhead seats and a basinette cot for all four flights (even thou HK to Manila is only a short journey). TBH all the flights were very easy, he slept for most of the journey and cabin crew were all very helpful. It was certainly easier than travelling with him now he is bigger.

Just make sure who ever you fly with will give you a basinette.

I don't think you can go too wrong with Isla Bikes. My son has had a Cnoc 14 for about a year now, he has ridden it loads and it has has really not needed any maintenance, it is a quality bike.

igm, I know what you mean about the gearing, my son definitely struggled with it when he first got it, although he does seem to spin it out fairly easily too.

The only thing I have changed is the tyres. The standard ones where a bit too slick and he seemed to be struggling for grip when it go a bot slippy.

He is flying now:

I had a problem with mine the first time I used it as I hadn't tightened the bolts sufficiently. However since then, and several 1000 miles later, I haven't had any problems.

Never had any problems with my Paragon sliding drop-outs. I have been using them for over two years.

Are you sure they are Paragon drop outs on that frame? They don't look like the ones on my bike.

I have been to Agadir, during May, for the past two years.

Weather is good that time of year, warm during the day, and not too hot in the evenings. The wind does pick up in the afternoon, which causes a fair amount of sand to be blown about – I guess this varies during the course of the year.

Both times we stayed in a decent hotel (RIU Tikidia Dunas) which was great. We had young kids with us, so didn't leave the hotel too much.
The hotel staff were always very good with the children.

The beach is very nice, it is wide, sandy and clean. However in some ways it is more like a communal park than a Caribbean white sand style beach. Always lots of people wandering along it or playing football. They have just completed a promenade along the edge of most of the beach, which is very nice to stroll along. The beach front hotels all have their own sections of cordoned of 'private' beach. We spent most of our time around the pool.

Have a look at Trip Advisor for lots of reviews:
http://www.tripadvisor.com/Tourism-g293731-Agadir-Vacations.html

Yes they are the ones.

My wife has skinny arms and uses a small pair of Castelli arm warmers, they are tiny in diameter and fit well.

Oxymoron, when my Pro2 SS hub starts doing that it is always the drive side hub bearing that has the play. Whether you want to replace the rest at the same time is up to you.

I have just finished building this up:

It started as a standard Scale 35, and I seem to have swapped most of the bits over. It still needs new saddle, stem & bars. I am sure it is still heavier than njee20's new one!

Cycleops Fluid 2 for me too. I used to have a Tacx Swing, but that ended up wearing out after a couple of years of fairly heavy use. Overall the Cycleops is a better unit.

At 6 foot a 19" frame will be perfect. I am 6 foot and have a 19" Altitude 20, I really wouldn't want a smaller or larger frame.

A DMR Simple Tension Seeker will work. I have used one on a frame with Ritchy dropouts with no problems.

It is these you need:

http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/Models.aspx?ModelID=26899

Hope do a pair of shims that you fit to a normal external BB, allowing you to run your GXP cranks. I think Hope have a video on their webpage.

The bulb is full of gas, but it is the lense of the reflector that will have misted up. I have cleaned mine up in the past, I think I used some sort of clear high temp sealant I got from Halfords to re-seal.

I like mine. I only use it for a bit of a change from the mtb. I have done a few 100mile Sportives on it, and have found it very good. The build quality from Plant-X was first class.

I have been using Paragon dropouts for the past couple of years and have found them very good. In comparison I have had a cheaper sliding dropout frame and a Busnell EBB, the Paragon drop outs have worked better than those.

Just to keep with the theme of pictures:

sssimon, you will want some M8 x 16 socket button screws in stainless. If you are anywhere Guildford these guys stock them : http://www.margnor.co.uk/

I sort of enjoyed it. I managed 11 laps, with time to go out for a 12th, but had had enough by then.

I found it harder than the last two years, not sure why? Maybe the soft nature of a lot of the course. I did the last two years on a rigid singlespeed, but thought I would go with a geared hardtail this time.

I managed a nice over the bars crash on my 3rd lap on the first section of new single track. I went straight over the bars when a stick stuck in my front wheel, and then I face planted in a pile of dust. I have no idea how the guy riding behind me manage to avoid riding over me.

As above I thought the marshals were great, offering lots of encouragement. The bomb holes were all interesting, it was funny that by the end of the night everybody had seemed to work out that it was quicker to take the chicken runs.

I bought a G-Shock at the start of the year as I kept breaking normal watches. It is great, it has taken quite a few knocks – I actually ended up with a watch shape bruise on my wrist after smacking it into a tree while riding. So far the watch looks pretty much unmarked. Mine has a metal bracelet, but they do a good range with rubber straps.

Both of our two have had a couple of hour nap over lunch time, they have always seemed to need it. Even if they wake up after 30 mins or so they will go back to sleep for another hour, you do have to let the cry for a bit.

However I would second the sling suggestion, babies seemed to stay entertain when they are being carried about. If not that get a proper rucksack style carrier, although at 5 months they will be a bit small for it.

My wife cycled a fair bit through her two pregnancies. However she eased back on the proper off road stuff fairly early on, and stuck to tow paths and easy bridleways. She also spent a fair amount of time on the turbo trainer. For the turbo trainer I ended up modding her bike with a really high rise stem and riser bars when her bump started getting in the way.

If you do use a heart rate monitor, stop using it as your heart will not react in the same way as before you and the figures really won't be relevant. Work on perceived effort.

The book my wife found good was 'Exercising Through Your Pregnancy' by James Clapp as a good information source on exercising in pregnancy.

We got a pair of full finger Scott gloves for my 4 year old from Mountain Trax. I see you are in Surrey, so they could be fairly local to you.

I have two Garmin units, both of which I have had to fix.

An extex legend, where the screen and joystick have stopped working. Fairly easy to fix as it just needed some connections cleaning. I bought this 2nd hand so couldn't send it back to Garmin.

A Edge 305, which suffered the common problem of turning off over bumps (seemed more of a problem on the road bike). I have fixed this by hard-wiring some of the connections together, it has been faultless ever since. In my opinion the way the contacts are made inside the Edge 305 really isn't suitable for a unit that is described as robust. I could have sent this back to Garmin, but read quite a few comments on various forums that replacement units would develop the same fault after a few months.

Annoyingly both are common faults on these two units.

I am sure I have bought some from these guys when we moved house a few years ago: http://printing.kellysearch.co.uk/profile/altrades+packaging+supplies/gb/surrey/guildford/gu2+8ha/92036210

I definitely bought boxes from them, and think I bought a few huge rolls of bubble wrap too. They are much cheaper than stationary shops.

I find my Hope Vision 4 fairly similar to my L&M Hid, which in turn I have found pretty close to a Hope hid I have used a couple of times. The main advantage of the LED is the light can be easily dimmed to prolong the battery burntime. Plus the bulbs have a much longer life span.

The spinning around sounds good, but how making it part of a slalom bike drag race. So spin around 20 times, jump on your bike, ride around the barrels, first one back is through to the next round.

The pint-to-pint idea you had this time would be good. How about making it a 2 hour enduro on the xc course, at the end of each lap you have to drink a pint before starting the next one. Should even things up with the race whippets a bit.

Did you really run this year with no insurance? You are mad if you did. From speaking to organisers of other events insurance cover isn't that expensive.

I thought it was a great event. The course seemed just right for a 12 hour race. And how dusty was it! We finished 5th in the mixed pairs, we could have been 4th but as we were a lap off getting on the podium so thought we may as well retire early to crack open the beer.

Nick your were right about your last lap being a bit quick!

For anyone that hasn't spotted them:

Results : http://www.timelaps.co.uk/results.aspx

Photos : http://www.joolzedymond.com/joolzeD/TORQ1209.html

Well done to all the Gorrick team who put the event on.

Well done WCA. A great effort.

The thing is the Planet-X is hardly a super light (despite the name) carbon frame. It is a lot more sturdy than more expensive, lighter offerings from mainstream brands.

Juan, she said she kept trying to get rid of you, but every time she looked around you where sat on her wheel :-) Thanks for making sure she was ok on the night race.

I am pretty sure that on the start line the ladies where told they were doing the same number of laps as the men. My wife raced for three laps in the open category, no one mentioned that she could have stopped after two, although she was helping Juan pace himself around the course. No prize for first (and only) single speed lady, that category disappeared – to think we could be walking around in matching Sue-Me t-shirts.

Yes, racing with Lou – although after the pressure of the Big Bike Bash we are just using this weekend to chill out.

Jo's other half has only raced a mtb once or twice, but he is very quick on the road.

I am in. Mixed pair category with my wife. Seeing as more and more fast teams keep entering this category I think we will be hoping not to finish last. Nick, you might have a bit of competition from one of the THT mixed pairs…

Rear lights will cause disqualification*

*Not sure if that is totally true, but they are very annoying.