Not my hometown, but I lived in Lochgoilhead when they filled Restless Natives (previously mentioned in this thread). Several scenes where filmed in the village itself with members of the cast also staying there, and locals acting as extras. Other scenes shot on the ‘Rest and Be Thankful’ just up the road.

A pelago commuter rack definitely fits a Longitude. So does a Racktime Topit. Being indecisive I’ve got both.

I second the recommendation for Godless

To muddy the waters slightly, a few weeks before this my daughter (along with the other student) had received a letter stating they would be taken to court for none payment of council tax. My daughter had had a lot of trouble getting the university on-line system to download her exemption, so when she finally managed to submit it, it was a bit late. The other student just couldn’t be bothered to get his finger out to get his organised, so this went in late also. However, after a flurry of emails and telephone calls a lady at the council said it was all sorted and they did not need to go to court and the matter was closed as the council had the evidence for the exemption. This was not followed up by any letter from the council/court/whoever stating this. As far as we were aware, this was therefore the end of the matter. There was no mention at all that the exemptions submitted were not valid until the beginning of term.

Fast forward to the latest events with the council claiming that they were not students between the end of last term and the beginning of this one (due to the exemptions incorrectly stating that they were first year students with no mention of the qualifying ‘integrated’ foundation year) and that the original bill was still valid – despite saying earlier that this was not the case. As I said earlier, this was totally out of the blue.

My wife is going up to Bristol tomorrow to try and talk to someone in the council who is prepared to actually listen,and also citizens advice bureau and hopefully the lady at the uni who sent the email about the updated exemption being produced. Wish her luck !

So……

update on this. My daughter got an email back from the university stating that changing courses made no difference and as far as they were concerned she has been a student continuously since Sept 2018 and the university were going to raise a new exemption certificate. However, the jobsworth at the council we spoke to said that the university was incorrect but that he didn’t have access to the council information to prove this. He get trying to talk over my wife (who eventually had to tell him to just shut up and listen – not that it made any difference.

When my daughter had rung the council earlier (with the bit about the positive email from the Uni) and explained why she thought she didn’t have to pay anything as the evidence would soon be available , the person at the other end had also insisted that she pays up immediately or the debt collectors would be round, but that she would be paid back if it turned out that she shouldn’t have had to pay. Considering that she only got the letter a week ago stating that she owed them money (probably erroneously) it seems rather heavy handed.

Thanks for the above advice, especially irc.

In turns out that my daughter was on a FY0 course however she decided to change courses and move to a different degree – but still needed to pass the foundation year before being accepted on the new course.

So whether the exemption still applies in this case we aren’t sure. She has fired off the question to the address in the link above. Fingers crossed that it has the right result !

I love the Kimberley. I used to go up there quite a bit when working with the ‘Mighty Hunter’ based just down the road.

I’ve been paragliding since 1987 (so that makes it 32 years) so I reckon I know a little about it.

It can be a very frustrating sport. Getting your CP (Club Pilot) qualification, which means you can be let loose to join a local club can take anything from a few weeks to a couple of years depending on weather conditions. It can be either too windy, no wind at all or perfect wind but in the wrong direction etc etc. Most pilots survive about 5 years in the sport before giving up due to being frustrated by the weather, family commitments, etc.

If you want to do it, find a good BHPA school and have a chat with them. Maybe just go along and watch. Learn on school kit, no point in trashing your own at this stage (at least until doing CP). Trust your school to recommend the right kit (they will probably have second hand stuff to buy). Don’t be tempted to buy off ebay as there is a lot of tat out there (sometimes being sold by people who gave up years ago and kept it ‘just in case’ not realising that things have moved on). Do not be tempted to move up to the next classification of glider (a beginner wing these days (EN-A, or low EN-B) is perfectly capable of doing early cross country flights on and it’s always best to fly a wing you’re 100% confident on, rather than being a petrified blob under a bag of washing).
Don’t fly in marginal conditions, it’s always best to be on the ground wishing you were in the air, rather than the other way round.
Learn to ground handle properly, it’s embarrassing (and painful) to be dragged through brambles at 20mph (trust me on this one, I’ve got the scars to prove it).
Things that can kill you – overconfidence, water landings (avoid!), poor assessment of site and weather conditions, mid-air collisions. It is very rare to have equipment failures these days.

Budget should be roughly £2000-£2500 for decent second hand kit (wing, harness, reserve chute, basic vario)

I think that covers most of it !

The frying pan/lid to my trangia still has the dent in it from 37 years ago, when I thought it would be a good idea to use it under my motorbike sidestand to stop it fallling over on the grass :)

I still use the burner occasionally with a trangia triangle I’ve acquired, but will probably retire the pans.

Road of Bones (The siege of Kohima) by Fergal Keane is a good read. My wife’s grandfather fought there.

I used 4 panniers and a bar bag on my Vaya in 2016. Front panniers were 14 litres each side on a Tubus Tara lowrider, rear panniers were 20s, tent was strapped to rear rack. I did have a low speed wobble but I might have put too much stuff on the front. Will try again this year, although I’m debating about using my Longitude with skinny tyres instead to see how that works as a tourer.

6
Longines Hydroconquest (Quartz)
Scurfa Diver One
15 year old Seiko kinetic titanium beater
Seiko kinetic cheapo military looking thing
G shock 5610 Solar powered, radio sync indestructibleness
£15 casio ‘diver’ for when i’m gardening/paragliding

Saw UFO on sunday on their final tour. Excellent as always. Seeming them again in Southampton next month for the final time ever :(

Bought a Lion yesterday. I’ve already got an Ocelot. Shame that they are shutting.

many years ago I used to wear my late grandfather’s watch whilst at school. Don’t know what was used to lume the hands, but it was more radioactive than the little lump of alpha wave material which used to come out of its wooden protective case during physics lessons. The geiger counter would go mental when I went close to it !

With that, and rolling mercury around the desk, it’s a wonder I’m still here :)

Talking about light bikes, my first tour (1600 miles around Scotland, including the pass to Applecross) was on a Honda CD175. Don’t think that this will meet any of the other criteria of the OP’s however :)

I just changed my 105 triple to a 42/26 double plus chain guard. Running 11-34 10 speed cassette with 9 speed mtb mech.

ton – what shifters are you using – was it a flat bar set up? Did you have to change anything else at the same time?

</The problem with the tourer is it’s over geared and a road triple. I’ve changed the granny from a 30t to a 24t, but that goes 24/39/53 which feels a bit clunky. The reality is that it only really needs about 40t at the top end as it won’t really go any faster>

My tourer was originally a 30/39/50 (105 crank and shifters) and then became a 26/39/50 using a 26T chainring from Spa Cycles. I was tinkering in the garage today and it’s now a 26/42 double – using a 42T middle ring from Spa and a chainguard. I left everything else alone, so 105 triple shifters and 105 front mech. I might try 24/39 later if I’m happy how it works as a double set up.

Couldn’t resist. Just when i thought I had enough watches.

Just picked up a Scurfa Diver One (non date version). The lume on it is incredible !

Motorhead, Hammersmith Odeon 1985 or 1986, was pretty loud.

Also, UFO at Exeter Uni 1981

The pilot did OK – after forgetting to ensure his passenger was clipped in.

Very lucky to get away with it. Failing to clip in has killed many pilots, even experienced ones, over the years.

If you lived in the Southampton area i could definitely advise you who NOT to use.

https://www.dailyecho.co.uk/news/10546604.gambling-addict-threatened-to-blow-up-bank/

This lying toerag owes me close to £400 for a totally bodged repair.

bearnecessities – but an expensive automatic such as a Rolex should be within about 2s per day? I recently sold a Seiko SARB033 which was running 10s per day slow – well within the spec apparently. If it had been running fast, I probably wouldn’t have minded as much.

I’m down to 5 and will hopefully stay that way, although I do find myself looking longingly at the Timefactors website.

Currently got;

Longines Hydroconquest (Quartz as I seem to have OCD about watches running fast/slow and I can’t afford expensive automatics)

Casio 5610 G shock on bracelet

Seiko kinetic militaryish thing on a nice Haveston Fortress strap

Seiko kinetic titanium beater (15 years old, was originally a ‘good’ watch)

Casio £15 ‘diver’ if I don’t want to wear anything better.

I’d thought of the following route to try sometime:

Cycle to Newhaven and cross to Dieppe.

Dieppe to Paris on the Avenue Verte (old railway lines apparently).

From Paris there is a new cycle route to Mont St-Michel (the Veloscenic).

Then home via St Malo.

That’s why I’m probably going to retro-fit good old cable BB7s to my Longitude if I ever do a long bikepacking trip !

Something less to go wrong.

I admitted defeat early on and took the 27.5+ wheels from my Longitude down to the excellent LBS. Getting them set up tubeless to minimise chance of a flat on the trial as I’d never get them off.

Going to get a set of 29er wheels to use on longer trips but making sure I get a tyre/wheel combination that I can separate myself when necessary.

I can’t remove the tyres which came from my 2017 Longitude (wtb trailblazer 2.8s on scraper i35 rims) to set it up tubeless, even after watching the video of the guy standing on the tyre.

Not much use having an ‘adventure bike’ if you’re too scared to go anywhere in case you get a puncture !

My first attempt at bleeding will be next week. I don’t have trouble doing motorbike ones so hopefully I won’t mess this up.

For an ‘adventure bike’ I’m surprised Genesis didn’t stick to cable operated brakes,

I used them the other week for a Racktime Topit rack. Delivery was very quick, less than 48 hours from Germany. No issues.

I think the earlier model Kaffenbacks could take bigger tyres than the Kaff2. I’ve got 28mm Durango Plus on mine and guards. Used it yesterday for the first time in ages and it certainly wasn’t as comfortable as my Vaya fitted with 40mm Nanos. Possibly the 40 psi difference and lack of volume had a lot to do with it !

Debating whether to try 650B on my Vaya also

I agree with most of CFH’s suggestions.

The Pheasant near Salt Lane Car park is also not bad.

The Rai D’or on Brown Street does good thai food in a pub atmosphere  (although I haven’t been in this one myself for ages).

As I’m currently an unemployed person I expect I’ll only be looking :).  Looking forward to it Cap’n.

Captain, you’ve got it wrong. It’s not cheese straws you need it’s Reeves sourdough (preferably cut very thick, lightly toasted with lashings of butter and honey)

Surely red is the colour of mud, so it must be earth ? :)

I’ve already got my tickets booked for UFO at the Brook in April :)

The Brook (must have been about 40 times).

Where’s the Fleece?

I have the same problem as the OP except that I can’t turn my head to the right after a certain amount of time. Happens when I ride a pushbike, motorbike or carry a rucksac. Looking left is not a problem. It feels like I’m being stabbed in the back halfway between the vertebrae and the shoulder socket.

It’s been like this for about 15 years so I’m probably stuck with it :(

I did a long ride over Salisbury plain last year. Anybody who saw me near the end must have thought I had Tourettes. Lots of involuntary swearing when looking over my right shoulder or glancing down at rear wheel to confirm what gear I was in.

Willing to try any (sensible) recommendations from you good folk on here :)