Meant to be longer lasting but when they come to be maintained it’s more difficult and costly. Don’t use it anymore for that and for noise pollution reasons.

Quite an ask for that wage…

Shimano seem to last longer than SRAM. I run a shimano BB on my SRAM cranks with a spacer you can buy on ebay to decrease the non drive side cup size.
Hope didnt seem to last any longer so sod paying more.

We have a one year old who is a lot of work. He’s a bit similar to the Marley and me dog but overall is a real nice dog. Just looking forward to him being a bit older and not needing so much attention. It’s draining.

yeah hoping Liverpool smash them.

Can’t help but think as soon as Pep made defensive changes it was going to go to shit. They’re almost untouchable when playing normally and if they played as if they were then madrid wouldnt have got involved. Same at last years final.

Nice. I have a scrambler and had a multistrada for the day. I only really use the bike to commute 20mins now and again so want something for longer trips as long trips without fairings are miserable. Looking to buy an Africa Twin or Tenere or something.

are you all confusing trail centres and bike parks again?

I still think 38’s and/zebs are ridiculous. If you want that much stiffness/travel just fit a dual crown ffs.

160 lyriks have really impressed coming off pikes. I didnt think i’d notice much change in stiffness and damping but I have.

for a 130mm travel bike anything else up front would be overkill as your rear would have long lost traction.

currently doing so, not fast track, didnt see that option duh. I sent the old passport back the same day so biggest delay was their post room? Not sure why they need a copy of my expired passport. 4 weeks may be a push as the recent news has meant a surge…

Passport printed 28 April 2022
Application approved 26 April 2022
Documents received 25 April 2022
Application received 11 April 2022
Application submitted 11 April 2022

theres a twitter/web page – uk passport waiting times

Scott loves to include a good pedal so youre probably right that a smaller bike will be quicker as you’ll make up more time on the pedal than will lose on the ‘descent’.

I think an xc ht would be the right bike for pippingford

The ones east of milland are flat

i think a lot of the carbon rims were branded chinese ones. difference is that there’s someone to contact if it goes wrong

most non white transporters seem to have aircon. I’d say it was essential but mine hasnt worked in ages.

I have a 1.9pd T5 and it’s mostly reliable, just niggly crap like shit trim and its just showing it’s age tbh. Luckily my mileage is limited

BPW is the only centre to regularly update it’s trails.
Afan etc are too ‘xc/trail’ based and dated (built 20 years ago?) with focus on loops rather than descending which if you look at what bikes look like now, you’ll see what the trends are. So it mostly comes down to funding and ability to provide something new to appeal to visitors.
Personally I have no interest in going to Afan etc to do a loop. much more fun riding elsewhere. I used to enjoy brechfa as it was a nice part of the world, but there’s better riding closer to home.

You also have a lot of less official riding spots that can be pretty busy. There’s only so many people!

The centres at afan helped to bring a lot of people and income to a place that it was needed. Hopefully they can be busy again but the governments need to keep investing in new trails to bring people in. The valley has a lot of potential!

Not sure what the rush is to get somewhere. So **** em.

yep, loads of indoor climbing around Southampton. Boulder Shack in Southampton and Red Spider in Fareham are well regarded.

I’d live near a beach if I could. Not to have to drive to a beach in the summer would be great.
On beaches, Poole wins. Southampton and Portsmouth technically have beaches, they’re not that nice (Hill head etc isn’t bad). And travelling to nice beaches from this way to nice beaches on beach days is difficult.

Regardless of the posts about over development, you’re never that far from the countryside in the Southampton/Portsmouth region (excluding the cities themselves). the South Downs national park isnt that far away.

Not sure i can help on roads and where to go but speaking as someone with a bike with no fairing, riding distance on roads to get places gets miserable pretty quick.
I love that CCM though.

Nukeproof Horizon. Nothing’s lasted as well

Despite the hype, the Soviet victory in WW2, was only achieved with unbelievable losses. It would of been unacceptable or impossible for any other nation.

They lost 45,000 T-34’s alone. Something like 150,000 AFV’s in total.

Not forgetting the huge amount of lend-lease and equipment that enabled them.
But when it comes down to it, the individual is cannon fodder for such regimes.

do aerodynamics really matter on a leisure ride??

Had a gravel bike but sold it. Too poor off road and slow on road.
I dont ride on the drops on my road bike, why on earth they would be any use off road I have no idea!?

I have a steel HT for local south downs type riding. the gravel bike was horrid on them when dry (rough) and poor in the mud. XC bike floats nicely and tires me out a fraction.

If i lived where I had actual gravel roads, like the new forest then maybe I’d consider a gravel bike. But for most xc i think they’re poor. And as you say, if avoiding the road, maybe an xc bike is best

Full suss for the fun when not riding from home.

iPhone 8 is crashing. Most other websites work so just this forum software being junk as usual

I think it’s now better than Breaking Bad. Everyone has got more experienced and it shows.
Can’t wait. Although not wanting it to end.

Mercato food market for day time drinks and food

Frustrating OP hasn’t at least set out his budget and current ride.
5 pages over how long is a piece of string.

Just hoping for new clean ways to generate electricity. Unlimited clean electricity would do away with the majority of Gas and could help to reduce carbon emissions of transport.

Read about using geothermal power, drilling 10k down or so under sites of fossil fuel burning power stations using lasers so the captured steam can utilise existing boilers and grid infrastructure. Seemed doable. More so than Nuclear fusion which still seems decades away.

But whoever argued about reducing energy of usage is on point. Just swapping fleet of vehicles to EV is not enough to reduce climate change and still results in congestion, severance etc. The cheaper transport is the more it is used providing it is still convenient. Which is why we struggle to get people out of their cars.

All your bikes will be fine.
flipping the question, If you had to keep one though i would suggest the blur. loads of xc and you’re close to the south downs, new forest. Cross bike is a bit bollocks on most south down area bridleway and a 29″ is more forgiving and probably faster. Plenty of road riding to do once you’re out of Southampton but the roads are rarely quiet.

The problem that all of these analysis never address is

1. It assumes Putin will make a rational decision to that of a similar western leader and that withdrawal of NATO from surrounding states will achieve some sort of detent or peace because it mistakenly asserts that what Putin wants to not have a threatening force on his border when in reality it’s a zero sum game to him and he will invade as he will perceive it as weakness. He wins; you loose, if that hasn’t been clear before, surely it bloody well should be by now (do we have to make another list of all the countries he done this to over the years, again?)

2. this analysis offers no alternative to the states that have joined, other than to be pawns in a game of “Please let’s not be beastly to Putin”

I normally agree with Chomsky, but I think the NATO encroachment argument is a duff one, and is being used just to make anti-Imperialist attack’s on the US. By all means make anti Imperialist attacks on the US, God knows they deserves critism, this isn’t a sound one though.

Fundamentally i think people misunderstand NATO.
useful – can understand why former USSR countries want to join. also sense Putin knows NATO is limited and is taking a gamble on stealing Ukraine without consequence if he doesnt attack NATO countries

It is regrettable that many Western commentators repeated Putin’s narrative that the problem came from an aggressive NATO expansion aimed at encircling Russia.

Time for a reset of narratives. Here are some simple insights, informed by our work on the game theory of alliances. ? pic.twitter.com/8qtNk7s4L9

— Lionel Page (@page_eco) February 25, 2022

according to the the far right got less than 2% of the 2019 election vote. hardly rampant

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/mar/03/russia-ukraine-conflict-top-10-war-myths-newsguard

tbh it’s as much when you eat as what you eat. Any snack is probably ok but for convenience I use gel blocks or energy bars, try to eat regularly to stave off the bonk. i.e. once an hour, or in a normal ride at the bottom or top of the climb.

Is your hobby riding your bike or fixing bikes? If it’s the former, I don’t see how working in your bike shop would ruin riding bikes… They are not the same job

Ill health is one thing and with older dogs I probably wouldn’t. Our old dalmatian passed last year and the insurance was no use really as vet bills seem to always be magically the same as the excess. Had we operated the insurance would have been useful but he wouldn’t have recovered anyway.

We’ve insured our puppy though. Local person who we bumped into has a rescue and it ate something that required £3500 to be spent at the vets. So insurance is fine for us.

My legs are pretty normal and have never noticed them being baggy around the ankles.
Still dont understand why the pockets are so small though. my other trousers pockets are similar. not sure why.

We’ve done all the above netflix series before bed but we’re back on the Office US. Must be our 3rd run through. always a laugh

Better because them and their bikes weigh more and gravity has more an effect?

Nice choice on the Stumpy Evo. On my list.

we’re quite a few months ahead of you with ours.

Have you got a crate? It’s useful, especially when we go out as he will just go to sleep.

when we got him one of us stayed with him downstairs next to his crate as he was crying but by the third we were able to leave him and now he goes to bed when we do.

We’ve used to give him some treats at bed time and we have still have a kong toy that we fill up with some peanut butter so when it’s time for bed he sees the toy being filled he goes to his crate for his kong.

Get a pillow with a pillow case of yours to put in his crate too. preferably unwashed so it has your smells. This helps comfort them.

We’re lucky that he tends to follow our routine and doesnt seem to mind staying in until we get up.

It’s a quandary for sure. Uphill they’re amazing. take out any effort at all.

But I’d miss the jumping, tech trails etc.

And as others have mentioned who you ride with is key. Much rather ride with friends on a normal bike than by myself on an eeb.

Some day when I’m old maybe. I think keeping fit as I get older is something I actually like and notice the benefits of.

Houses are going above asking price around here in the SE and you need to already have a buyer to make a competitive offer. As if house prices weren’t ridiculous enough. Joke of a country.

Skiing as it’s far easier to pick up and will help you to travel on pistes and make the most out of your time much sooner…

Once you can snow plough and turn that into a parallel turn you’ll be away.

Whereas with a snowboard you’ll be spending at least half your holiday sliding and terrified of catching an edge on green runs. And the trouble with easier grade slopes is they often flatten out and you need to be able to go straight, but as a learner that isn’t possible so you end up catching edges and breaking wrists or walking. The steeper stuff is your friend as a snowboarder but that’s also pretty hard when you can’t turn!

Not sure why anyone thinks skiing is harder to learn to start with. It’s just not. The old adage is that skiing is easier to start and harder to master as you get really good whereas snowboarding is harder to start with.

tbh if it hadn’t been the amount of time i’ve spent in the alps i would have carried on skiing. I love snowboarding and playing off piste, side hits etc but even 1 week a year isn’t really enough to stay decent.

My partner (had not snowboarded for 10 years and was pretty novice) broke her wrist on our last day of boarding a couple of years ago. Snowboarding is fine if you have time to learn. At her level i should have suggested she tried skiing. Would have made our week away a bit easier.

So for a potential weeks holiday learn to ski. much better on Pistes for novices. Dry slopes for ski’s are fine to get an idea. You’ll never go back on a dry slope after snow though. Just get a few lessons pencilled for your holiday.

I’ve done the same a few times with friends. Always an amazing adventure

I had a Transit T350 lwb hi top and it was great. Starter failed but could crawl underneath to fix.
We fit a rear garage, double bed over and a bench bed so could sleep 3 with secure bike storage. ply wood and insulation were worthwhile and not too expensive

Not sure I’d care too much about rust if it has an MOT. If it’s cheap enough you’ll always be able to sell for scrap and it may break down spectacularly anyway. So i’d avoid spending too much (even 5k) as you need to write it off. Split between two to three it shouldnt be too bad.
Just make sure the engine and running gear is as good as possible