Depending on whereabouts in Surrey you are riding into London along the Basingstoke, Wey and Thames is a good flat off road route. I have ridden it from Frimley with my son before, and planning to ride it with my 10 year old daughter in a couple of weeks time if the weather is still good. Starting from Frimley it is 45 miles to Waterloo, and then the train home from there. It is gently downhill which also helps. Mostly off road, but once you get to Putney you have to pick up cycleways in London – which aren’t too bad. I think it is a more interesting route than the Downs Link.

I took a look at the sign in sheets, and 900 seems about right. From a size point of view the event felt more like Sleepless Saddle when that was at it’s peak – which is no bad thing I thought it all worked fine for an event of that size. I may be wrong, but I think at it’s peak Mayhem used to attract 2,000+ riders.

Vertical Climber, in case you haven’t seen them official pictures are now online : https://www.flickr.com/photos/wljmtb76/albums/with/72157709257928442

We really enjoyed it in a team of ten (actually 8.5 people in the end). We finished 4th, but weren’t really there to challenge the podium, just a bit of fun – although slightly annoyingly my wife’s average lap time was 12secs faster than mine, I need to work on that for next year!

I have done lots of Mayhems before and I thought this was a good one, good course with every climb having a reward of a fun descent. The whole event seemed smaller, but the general atmosphere seemed great. I am not sure how the course would hold up in the wet, I could imagine a lot of it could be very difficult to ride – luckily great weather this year.

The kids we had with us really enjoyed it. Most of them raced Saturday morning and then spent a lot of the race cheering people on at various points in the woods. They spent a lot of time at the A/B split.

Planning to go back next year.

Taking the easy option and taking part in a team of ten – I think there are 9 of us ‘racing’. It is five families with numerous kids, so just going for a weekend of camping with a bit of bike riding thrown in. I have either raced or been pit crew at every Mayhem since 2005, it will be interesting to see what the new venue is like compared to previous years. Forecast doesn’t look too bad, but will be packing mud tyres just in case.

I have been using a set of Ican full carbon forks (and frame) for over four years with no issues. Due to a recent new purchase the bike is now my winter bike, but over the years it has stood up to regular use with no problems. Mainly road, but also a bit of light off road use too.

I am going to Budapest next week with the family for a few days, and have tried to plan a few things to keep the kids entertained, mine are 10 and 13. I went to Budapest a few years ago with work (looking at architecture rather than proper work!) so have a rough idea.

So far we have a guided cycling city tour booked – I did look at the free walking tours but my kids would much prefer to spend the morning on a bike rather than walking. We have booked a tour of the Parliament building. As long as the weather is okay we are planning to go to Palatinus Baths on Margaret Island. Probably half a day wandering around the castle area – the kids want to go into the Labyrinth. At some point we will visit Central Market Hall, and also pop into Szimpla Kert one afternoon. Everything else we will make up when we are there.

There are plenty of restaurants around Budapest, so we will just find some restaurants local to where we are staying. Although the kids have requested we find Langos, Chimney cakes and rose shape ice creams – they watch too much YouTube!

I dived in the SETT tank at Gosport quite a few years ago. That is 25m deep and was interesting to do once, but didn’t feel the need to rush back and do it again. I can’t see going deeper in a pool would be worth the effort, maybe with the exception of training dives.

I have dived to around 40m lots of times, only worth it if you are in the right place with something to see at that depth – for example I have been lucky enough to dive with thresher and hammerhead sharks in places were they are only seen at that sort of depth.

I returned my wife’s lease car at the end of last year, after running it 2.5 years. It was in very good condition overall, but had one alloy with curbing marks, a noticeable dent/stone chip on the bonnet, together with the normal stone chipping on the bonnet. The guy who came out to inspect the car produced a report there and then which gave an indicated cost to repair the damage, he was fair in what he spotted. He collected it in the dark, although the car was parked under a street light. My wife signed the paperwork saying she wasn’t happy with the assessment. A week or so later I got a further report from the lease company with pictures of the car in a body shop and further confirmation of the charges which agreed with the guy who collected it. I gave them a call and said I was happy to pay for the alloy to be repaired (diamond cut alloys so would have been more if I had done that myself) but disagreed with their assessment of the bonnet mark – it was debatable whether it was inside the BVRLA guide lines are not, and they where charging me for dent removal and repainting. The guy on the phone was very reasonable and was happy to reduce the charges as much as he could as long as I paid there and then.

Make sure you cancel any direct debit you have, as that way if they try to charge you for any damage they need you to agree before they can get the money.

I would also suggest the Peugeot 208Gti, my wife had one on a lease deal for 2.5 years. A really fun car that was great to drive. Surprisingly roomy in the back. The one we had is now up for sale on AutoTrader https://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201812183353971 We handed it back December last year, and it was in excellent condition – sad to see it go really.

We have replaced the Peugeot with a Kia Pro’Ceed GT, which is a fairly similar car. Between the two the Peugeot is the more engaging drive with much sharper handling. Both cars seem to cope with UK roads well. Prior to the Peugeot we had a Mini Clubman Cooper S which was awful on anything but a smooth road.

I first went to Afan in 2005, and have probably been most years since. I agree it is a shame so many of the trees have gone – it changed the feel of many of the trails. I used to really enjoy the Whites climb, now the lower few zig zags feel quite a grind, I guess partly due to the loose surface and few of the trail ahead. Likewise several of the descents have lost their original feel due to the openness and rocky rough surface as the dirt has been washed away. However I think as a trail centre it offers a good mix of trails, with pretty much something for everyone and well worth visit if you haven’t been for a while.

I am going back at Easter for a few days with the family, the trails have enough variation to keep my kids (10 & 13) entertained and plenty for me and my wife to ride once the kids are worn out.

Like DT78 I rode all the trails (except Skyline) in a day a couple of years ago – that was good day out on a bike!

Mtb Ranger South Wales is worth following on Facebook for any changes to trails.

Here are the current trail updates : https://cdn.naturalresources.wales/media/688239/afan-mtb-trail-08-03-2019.pdf

When I last changed my car I removed the personal plate (physically and with the DVLA) when I was parked at the dealership where I was part exchanging the car. The DVLA sent me the V5C with the changed reg for my old car a few days later, I just posted this to the dealership. I think it was the dealership who suggested doing this.

To put the plate onto the new car I think I had to wait for the V5C to arrive, but that didn’t take too long.

The other way of doing it is to remove the plate now, and then give the documents to the dealership to put on the car before you collect. I can’t remember why but the dealership I bought my new car from weren’t keen in this option – I think it is just more hassle for them.

I bought two rims from them a few years ago. They only had one in stock (the website had said two) so just sent me the one. The rims were out of stock everywhere else so one rim was no use to me as I was trying to build a matching pair of wheels. I gave them a call and they just said reject the delivery and they would refund the money. Which I did and they promptly refunded. A shame they just sent one rim without asking in the first place, but I was happy with how they sorted it out.

I have used them to nice or twice since with no problems.

There is currently a large film set at the top of the hill (on the concrete hard standing) this is all fenced off. Access to the rest of the land is unaffected, however there has been lots of logging work on Frith Hill recently so many of the old trails have disappeared.

I fitted a removal towbar to my last car (Audi A5) it wasn’t too difficult, but as described above quite time consuming due to all the trim that needs removing. I found a Youtube video which helped a lot. Dedicated electrics made the electrics part of it fairly straightforward, and I invested in the cable to be able to reprogram the car to recognise the towbar. I later sold the cable for more than I paid for it, so that bit worked out well!

On my current car (Mondeo)I got a quote from the garage I bought it from to fit a removable towbar, I think I paid them £300 for it to be fitted before I picked the car up, which is what the towbar company charged them. That was for removable towbar with dedicated electrics and seemed cheap to the point I got them to double check the price. It was fitted by Solent Towbars, so worth giving them a try if you are down that way. The one they fitted was an ACS towbar, which I hadn’t heard of before but seems to be as good quality as the Westfalia I had on the previous car.

I always use Shimano M540 pedals, seem to last forever. I just had to replace a set Shimano SPDs (not sure of the model) that I had been using on and off for about 20 years – I had worn through the metal on the top of the pedal, they worked fine and spun smoothly.

I hope the Time pedals recommended above are better than their road ones. I had an axle snap on the Time Xpresso pedals I was using on my road bike. I hit the road pretty hard and very lucky there weren’t any cars around when I came off. Having looked on line it doesn’t look like I am the only one to experience this. Never putting a Time pedal on any of my bikes again.

Definitely less deals than there where a couple of years ago. We have just returned a Peugeot 208GTi that we got for a bargain monthly fee two and a half years ago, we had extended it for 6 months but weren’t alloweded to extend it again. Looking for a high spec fairly quick hatchback, but having kept a watch on the market for the past six months nothing sensible came up. In the end we bought a newish car, and hopefully depreciation on it should be less than the current lease prices. The current emission changes have had an impact as there are less new cars available.

Has anyone got a Citizen diver?

I have a Citizen Aqualand Promaster. I have had it years and wore it diving for many of those years – when I dive now I use a dive computer on both wrist so no need to take a watch under water. Just dug it out of the drawer to see the battery has gone flat. I need to get the numbers on the bezel sorted out too.

I have also never found the need for a watch winder. I tend to wear a beaten up quartz watch at the weekend and then put on a nicer watch during the week. If I put an automatic on in the morning I just wear it for ten minutes or so and then set the time and date when I get chance – only takes a few seconds to set. I have never been convinced that watch winders are actually good for watches, or whether they cause the watch internals to wear quicker.

I had the black face version of the Orient watch shown in the picture above. I used it for a year or so and then sold it to an Egyptian guy who worked in a dive shop in Eugpt while I was on holiday there. I went back a year later and the watch was still working perfectly and looked to be in pretty good condition, although I think he had changed it to a rubber strap. Given they are not that expensive and it had probably had a hard 12 months after I sold it in Eygpt I was genuinely impressed in how it had stood up to the use.

I would happily buy another one.

I have been using a 4iiii crank for a couple of years. The first one I had failed just out of warranty – I am not sure what the problem was as it transmitted cadence but not power. I contacted 4iiii directly and they were very helpful and suggested sending it back to them via the shop I bought it from and they would fix/replace it. The shop I bought it from were pretty hopeless in their support, and although never admitted it I think they lost it in their mailroom – I am just glad I sent it back with a signed delivery. After a bit of waiting the shop offered me a full refund which I took, and then I bought an identical replacement one from somewhere else for less money.

Accuracy seems pretty good, when I have used the bike on my Neo the two power readings have been within about 5%, with the 4iiii higher than the Neo. Battery life is also very good, I checked mine at the weekend and it was showing 75%, this was the new crank fitted in September and has probably covered around 2k miles.

I have had a few pairs of fake Oakleys from China. Currently using a set of Jawbreakers that were about £10 with five sets of lenses, they have been faultless and look like the real thing, just with more choice of lense. I also have a set of racing jackets that must be at least 4 years old, again these have stood up to general bike use without any problems. I had one set of racing jackets that were obviously poor quality and they went in the bin pretty quickly. I do have genuine sets of Jawbreakers and Racing Jackets (plus other Oakleys) so don’t feel too guilty buying copies, the copies are great because I am not worried if they get damaged or lost.

I have just had a look and I still have some result sheets and maps from the Navigator races in 1998.  Amazed that was 20 years ago, that went quick!

Looking forward to the Dirty Santa ride, just doing the short route and dragging my son around.

Mine has always been fairly accurate.   Probably worth contacting Wahoo, I have found them pretty helpful when I had an issue with mine.

Most of the Chinese carbon companies seem to write a lower price on the customs declaration, so generally a bit less than that.   I have had four or five  big package with carbon bits in sent from China over the years, charged by customs on all but one of those.   Normally around £50.

It is already mentioned above, but Puerto Galera in The Philippines would get my vote.   I have been diving there three times and always great diving.   It maybe lacks the giant sized stuff you can see in the Red Sea, but more than makes up for it in the diversity of marine life.

I am diving at The Brothers and Daedalus in the Red Sea in a couple of weeks time, both are fantastic dive sites but only accessible by liveaboard boats – which may not fit in with your plans for a tropical holiday.

I have been using road tublesss for about three years and totally agree with your comments about the Milkit valves, tried some this year and was surprised at how much easier they made everything.   Now slowly upgrading all the family’s bike onto the same valves.

I have found that punctures don’t seal as well with road tubeless compared to mtb.   I have had to fit a tube twice to get home, when sealant hasn’t sealed the hole properly.   Also got home a few times with sealant having worked, so overall very much sold on tubeless on the road.

A few years ago me and the wife stayed at Ty Mawr Hotel when we were riding at Brechfa.   It was a really good place to stay, posh rooms and very good food.   Not really a bikers hotels, more a luxury country b&b that does great food.

I have had a Mondeo for about a year now.   180hp Vignale spec with auto gearbox.   I am very impressed with it all round, I often do long drives in the car and have found it very comfortable and a nice place to spend the time.   I had a Passat about five years ago, so not a fair comparison to the latest version of the Mondeo.

I went for a hatchback, as I preferred the looks over the estate and the boot is massive anyway.  Favourite accessory is the heated steering wheel, never knew how good it would be on cold mornings until I got one!

A referral course would be my recommendation too.  It saves doing the theory and pool work while you are holiday.  While PADI and SSI qualifications are very interchangeable, you will probably struggle to do a referral with the PADI classroom and poolwork in the UK and then the open water dives with a SSI school abroad.  I think it can be done but when I looked into it in the past PADI weren’t very happy with it.   From what I have seen SSI is a bit more flexible in it’s training methods than PADI, but pretty much the same curriculum.

I learnt to dive years ago with a UK PADI school, while the instruction was good I don’t think I really learnt to dive properly.  The open water dives were just about doing the skills in a very murky lake and then heading to the surface. A decent dive school abroad will make the skills part of a proper open water dive.  Although looking back I have learnt a lot more about diving by just diving then any of the courses I have taken.

I have been lucky to dive in lots of places around the world (just back from two weeks in the Red Sea, and heading back later this year for a liveaboard) and have seen good and bad divers from all training agencies.

I have you thought about both doing a try-a-dive with your local shop/club before you commit to an open water course to make sure you are both happy under water?

I have had my Bolt for just over a year now, used several times a week and often used for routes I have planned but never ridden before.  Previously I had a Garmin 800, but changed to the Bolt as the battery life on the 800 was getting a bit short.   Overall I am much happier with the Bolt compared to the Garmin equivalent.

Bits I like:

The screen is very clear, even in bright sunshine.  I find the black and white maps easier to read and navigate with compared to the OS colour maps on the garmin that were often too cluttered.  The maps on the Wahoo have most off road trails (including ones not on OS maps like trail centres) but lack the detail of OS maps. Easy to increase or decrease the number of boxes on the screen.

Easy to set everything up via the phone app.

I find the navigation easy to use.  I normally plot routes with Ride with GPS and it autos syncs with the Wahoo.  If you use RWG it does give turn by turn navigation but the writing on the screen is a bit small.   The scrolling leds for turns are handy but can be hard to see in sunshine.

The customisable LEDS are a big plus point.  I have these set to HR zones so without really looking at the unit I can tell what zone I am in.  Again this can be affected by sunshine, but not as much as the white turn LEDS.

Battery life seems really good, it has only gone flat once and that was when I forgot to charge it for a few rides…  Occasionally I get a reminder pop up on my phone to say it needs charging.

I have had a few questions for Wahoo and they have always been very quick to respond, and I get the impression they are continuing to improve the software.

Bits I don’t like:

No auto logging of laps by location.  Hopefully Wahoo will add this at some point in the future.

No scrolling on maps, or re-routing.  When I have had to divert from a route I have just had to go in the vague direction of the route until I pick it up again.

There is a bit of a bug with mixed metric and imperial units.  I had switched mine to having mixed units, but every so often it reverts back to all metric.  I just leave it in metric units now.

Overall if I had to buy a new GPS I would go for the Bolt again over the current Garmin offerings.

I also need to work out how to send routes to it from my phone, it seems to rely on my home wifi at the moment.

It the route is showing in the Wahoo phone app, then as long as the unit is connected to your phone you will have an option in the app to send the route to the unit.

The gates are still open on Porridge Pot, I am not sure when/if they will be shut.   Maybe when the houses start getting sold.

The key to cheap parking with the official Gatwick parking is to book it very early.   As that isn’t an option for you I could suggest this guy : https://m.ebay.co.uk/itm/HOLIDAY-GATWICK-PARKING/302719011001?hash=item467b7588b9:i:302719011001

I have used him a couple of times in the past (admittedly a few years ago) and always found him very good and reliable.

I have had the same with Scwhalbe One tyres, really tight and seat easily when new, but then seem to stretch which makes reseating difficult.   I have found a couple of layers of insulation tape around the rim bed is enough to make it all a bit tighter and get the tyre to seat – generally still needs use of an Airshot.  Compared to mtb tyres I have found them more problematic to fit, but managed to get them all inflated in the end.   I have just added some Milkit valves to the wheels, which made fitting a bit easier and means I don’t need to let all the air out to add sealant.

Hopefully on the descent you get slowed down on every hairpin bend.   This already happens on one of the hairpins on the London circuit, so they could implement it on the new route.   It would make races  on the mountain more interesting/painful as you would have to accelerate out of every corner to regain speed on the way down the hill.

I am currently off Zwift as I have broken my Neo, currently talking to Tacx about getting it fixed, but doubt it will be fixed before this update lands.

As above openfoot fins are the way to go. I would imagine that any in XXL should be fine. You will need a pair of neoprene boots too. They are also more comfy for diving in.

If you can buy from a local dive shop The CRC equivalent in the diving world is Simply Scuba, but I hesitate to recommend them after a bad experience after buying a set of regs from them.

Are you going anywhere nice?

Use Google to search. Search for ‘Budapest’ and ‘Singletrackworld’. It should bring up a few threads for you.

I have been twice a year for the past couple of years. It certainly feels safe to me when I am there. I normally go for a two week holiday in the summer with the family – usually an all inclusive hotel with excellent diving on the door step. To be fair we don’t tend to leave the hotel much (if at all) but do pick a hotel with lots of activity on offer. Then I have been going back in October for a week dive trip on a boat, so a bit different and don’t spend much time on dry land.

From my experience I wouldn’t have any concerns about going – in fact already got two visits booked for this year.

We have just had a three year Samsung machine replaced under warranty by Samsung. We first spotted the door seal was starting to fail, and within a few days the noise on the spin cycle got really loud. Luckily when we bought it Samsung were offering a 5 year warranty on the machine. The engineer who came out replaced one of the concrete weights which was starting to crack, and replaced the seal. A few days later the door seal failed again and the noise returned. Re-visited again by the engineer who replaced bits again, again it failed pretty quickly. On his third visit the engineer confirmed that he couldn’t figure out what was causing the problem and decided the best option was a new machine. Samsung were a little bit difficult to deal with as they wanted the repair company to keep replacing different parts, in the end they agreed with the ‘expert’ opinion of the engineer that it was sensible to replace. New machine has been fine since. Glad we had the five year warranty! Ours is on a solid concrete floor.

Those of you who aren’t getting nice bread out of the Panasonic bread makers, are you using strong flour and decent yeast? Without any effort we seem to get good loaves out of it.

Our bread maker has been used daily since buying it 5 or 6 years ago (actually it might be longer than that). Fresh bread in the morning, plus it gets used for dough making for posher looking bread, and pizza bases. Ours is a Panasonic and have never tried a cheaper version, but have heard results can be variable between brands – so not sure how good the Aldi option would be.

In comparison our slow cooker gets used once a month.