You have to have some heat coming out of a certain amount of non-TRV radiator.

That was my point. If you have a thermostat, you don’t have any heat coming out when the house is warm enough, and the moment the temp gets high enough, you aren’t wasting any energy the pump.

If you just run the boiler, even on a daily timer, then you waste heat on the non-TRV radiator. You have to set the timer to be on for a long time each day in case of a cold spell when it’d cool down quickly.

If you’re going to leave the house uninhabited for any length of time, even with the trvs all set, you’ll still be running the boiler pump, and wasting heat on the radiator that has no TRV.

External thermostat is a 20 minute job to fit, and they cost about fifteen quid for a wired one, or £40 for a cheap wireless one (we have an ECO ET-4, and it works okay). You don’t have to go into the gas bit of your boiler (the sealed box bit), so as far as I know it isn’t covered by gas safe regs (don’t quote me on that obviously, but I can’t see why you’d need the training to to connect two wires to a switch).

th a normal road bike position, even shoving your weight as far back as possible, the most you can manage before going over the bars is ~0.5g, which should easily be achievable with a decent road tyre.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bicycle_and_motorcycle_dynamics#Braking

Hmm – looking at that, it seems that you’d have to have your centre of gravity below something between 50 and 60 degrees from the front wheel contact patch, which does seem unlikely. Although it only takes a slight change in coefficient of friction for that angle to change a fair bit. Possibly the times I’ve had it happen, it might have been slightly gritty or something.

In the old days, everyone used to ride 10 speed ‘racers’, which were pretty much touring bikes, often with 1″ or 1.125″ tyres. They were fine on tow paths. My 10 speed at home was used all the time on the tow path and never had anything done to the wheels except new tyres / tubes.

It’s only a modern idea that you need a mountain bike with a massive fat tyre to ride along a tow path. People have been riding tow paths for years on just whatever bike they happen to have. Even my proper 23mm tyred road bike is fine on tow paths really, although the very slick tyres are not ideal if it is very muddy).

If you find you’re puncturing tyres all the time stick a touring tyre on it – I always used to use Schwalbe Marathons on my 10 speed. They come down to 25mm width which will fit on pretty much any frame.

I meant having the front tyre just at the point of losing adhesion
How do you propose to manage that on tarmac?

Keep your weight back?

If you don’t have your weight right forwards, you shouldn’t go over the bars even with brakes full on – can skid the front wheel no problems assuming a good front brake. Obviously if your bars are super low, and your position is right forwards, it is harder to get your weight back, but you should be able to brake fully or more (ie. to the point the front wheel skids) without going over the bars.

In some ways it’s a skill worth learning – I emergency stopped so hard I did a front wheel skid at 70km/h once – I was trying to achieve a maximum speed during some pretty stupid road descent to a tight corner (at the bottom of Dyers Pass Road in Christchurch, NZ for anyone who knows it), and whilst the brief skid was scary, I’m sure as hell glad that I had the instinct to get my body back rather than putting myself over the bars at high speed.

Wife has a ladies one. It is nice looking, and very slim, but it does scratch very easily (and costs £40 + waiting 8 weeks for new glass to be fitted) so she wants a new and more durable one at some point.

Obviously that doesn’t say that all of them have easy scratch glass, but I wouldn’t buy one unless it specifically says that it has some kind of special scratch resistant glass.

Just get him a pedal-bike and remove the pedals.

Dedicated balance bikes are a good idea but a waste of money imo.

A 12″ wheeled pedal bike that has low enough standover for an 18 month old with the seat at it’s lowest? Not going to exist is it?

Not many bikes that are low enough for much under a 3 year old.

So only a waste of money if you don’t want to buy a bike when your kid is that young. And if you’re going to say wait longer before getting a bike, you might as well say that any bike for a kid younger than 15 or so is a waste of money, as they’ll only grow out of it.

Oh and strider also run events for kids, races and bmx track sessions and things, which I can really recommend, even if you have a different brand of balance bike.

Rose has a strider [the brand not the raleigh strider)

It’s brilliant – lighter and lower seat than the other 12″ ones, and just seems really well designed – things like perfectly sized grips, good stepover so it is easy for her to pick up, and a special child friendly brake that she is just starting to understand at 2 and a half.

Small enough that she was standing over it at 18 months, although she only got into it at about 21 months, was riding fine by 22 months, nowadays she rides to and from childminders on it, and is good for a couple of miles riding on a good day (and loves the bmx track!).

Oh and it comes in lots of colours and you can get a bar bag for putting important stuff (sticks and pine cones at the moment, but sometimes small bears and ambulances)

Even the top of Leith Hill near the tower was fine – lady comes and tells us we can’t camp there, but only at 8am, so no problems.

Woods. Or dips in the hills a bit away from roads / paths

Basically anywhere you can’t see a path is fair game.

Or just pitch late and start early and you can go pretty much anywhere you please.

I’ve bivvied in deep woods about 20 metres from a busy path without anyone spotting me. Oh and just off the thames path, on an edge in the Peak District etc. Always been fine.

Unless it’s somewhere with a lot of rangers / on a farmers field or whatever, it’s unlikely anyone will care anyway.

S’funny how there is always failure to learn, but never failure to teach.

What, so it isn’t harder to teach people who speak a second language, or who are behind in their learning partly thanks to a poor background? Or it isn’t harder to teach people who have behavioural problems in part due to a disordered home life? Or who find it hard to concentrate because they are always hungry as their parents can’t afford food (we live in a society where schools are having to set up breakfast clubs to ensure their kids are vaguely nourished at the start of the school day – how screwed up is that?).

Not that this necessarily rules out some kind of performance related pay, but it does make it obvious that crude mathematical measures based purely on results are somewhat flawed – I mean it is obviously way way easier to achieve good results with an easy set of kids at a selective school, than with a random set of kids at an inner city school, and only some of the factors involved in that will be reflected in individual child measures of the previous level of their attainment.

Many of my neighbours and friends are teachers and I have yet to experience a working day when I either leave home after them or arrive home before them. Never mind the holidays….

And you get home and do another couple of hours work too, same as them?

Was thinking about this yesterday, because we have friends who are teachers (and some ex-teachers), and in my experience (as the child of teachers), nowadays they work way harder than teachers used to. Current ones seem to be 8-5 plus 2 hours many nights, plus time at the weekends. It just seems like there is so much extra around the job other than teaching that takes time nowadays. Not sure why – I guess part of it is the obsession with auditing teachers ‘quality’ in ‘measurable’ ways maybe.

I’m certainly no fan of the banks’ methods but why on earth would you want to “get rid” of the industry which contributes the most to our GDP?

Depends how you measure it, and what you mean by ‘banks’.

Typically when people are moaning about banks, they mean investment banking / hedge funds etc, which are only a small part of the things that go on in the city, so are way less financially productive than (for example) manufacturing, ‘creative industries’ (games and films and music) etc.

Even if you consider all the city stuff, ie. All banking but not wider financial stuff like your high street accountant or whatever, it is hard to find a measure that puts it higher than manufacturing.
Eg.

http://fullfact.org/factchecks/does_the_city_contribute_14_of_gdp-2397

To add to that, given the level of state subsidy and rescue of major banks over the last few years, not to mention the damage their reckless actions and insane risk models have done to the wider economy, it’s hard to argue that the investment side of banking has had a net positive effect on the economy recently.

Dare I say it – 1:20 100s and 7m 400m – are a good indicator of this (again from personal experience) and more obviously a need to think about pacing. Most swimmers go off far too fast and fade very quickly a a result. These numbers are very common.

I think for me, they’re a reflection of the fact that my pacing is terrible. Although I did the 6:57 pacing off a beep per length, so the pacing was fine but I could probably have pushed harder overall if I set the beep quicker. I think it might have been 1:10 now I think about it, so I’m even worse than you think! Although th e shorter time was after an hour long 1:1 coaching session (i was one of only a few to turn up whilst some olympic event or other was on).

Thinking about it, I can’t remember if I even did flip turns on the 7 minute one either, I just learnt them quite recently. Hmm. Have managed to miss the last two training sessions too which is annoying.

Annoyingly, flip turns have revealed that I also appear to be allergic to chlorine, so I have to learn to swim with a nose clip next.

My current swim challenge is swimming outdoors every thursday. It is already starting to get chilly – the Derwent this morning was pretty fresh, not surprising given the air temp of 11 degrees and the rain! I doubt I’ll swim very long distances in December and Jan, even if I go wetsuited.

I’m about 1:20 for 100m in a hurry. Just under 7 minutes for a 400m.

It’s all about technique not fitness – I’ve always been pretty fit, but a bit of coached technique work has massively improved my speed.

Technique with breathing and turning and things really helps with distance, as most people find they are not so much tiring out, as losing their breath.

Swim clubs (or triathlon club which is what I’m in) are quite cheap, really good way to get better at swimming.

Joe

Washing up liquid gets quite a few things out (bike grease etc.)

Alcohol hand gel rubbed in wit_a toothbrush also worth a try (gets out dried on blood).

I remember there was a kid in class at school who didn’t have a TV, unfortunately a lot of the other kids ripped him a bit for it and he was obviously left out of any “what was on last night” conversations. Then again a lot of stuff is on iPlayer and the like nowadays so having an actual TV isn’t a necessity.

Yeah, that was me that was. Whilst I can see the advantages now, I certainly got bullied about it at the time.

We haven’t got one right now, but we’ll see – she does watch TV on iPlayer, at child minders sometimes too. If it becomes a pain with her wanting to watch things at particular times in future, maybe we’ll buy one. Hard to know whether kids will be all about iPlayer in the future anyway.

Joe

I’d recommend you read the specifications very carefully – my old pentax one was fine with depth, but was only capable of immersion for 30 minutes or something. Completely failed after I took it on a long swim*.

It is a bit like watches, where ‘waterproof to 50 metres’ is the only rating that is any good for swimming or anything where it’ll get immersed, whereas if you read the small print on ‘waterproof to 25 metres’, they suggest that you don’t swim with them.

Brilliant fun while it lasted. Used for all manner of things as well as purely outdoor stuff – filming canoe rolling practice, swimming stroke analysis.

Some of the newer ones look a bit more rugged than my one, which looked pretty much like a normal camera.

Joe

* this swim:

We only shout when it is something dangerous, like riding her bike into the road, or undoing the straps on her car seat. It obviously has a lot of power, because she bursts into tears when you do it. Makes you feel terrible, but she mainly doesn’t ride her bike across roads without looking now.

We also do ignoring (if it is something annoying), or leaving the room. Like at bedtime, if she won’t put on her pyjamas, I say okay, night night, see ya tomorrow, and start to go out, and suddenly she wants pyjamas and stories and all that stuff.

Still have some moments, usually when she is super tired, where she is just mental, and I just have to go and sit outside and wait for a couple of minutes until she calms down and then come back in.

Oh and another thing I’ve started doing is getting up 10 minutes earlier. Just not being in that much of a hurry to get out makes life a lot less stressful, and in practice it seems like we leave 15 minutes earlier than we would when we hurry!

I bet it’ll be harder once she’s older, but right now it isn’t super stressful, which is all I can really hope for I guess.

I’ve seen a “High speed USB2 15M active repeater extension cable” but with a warning that some isoch devices won’t work. Does that mean I’ll be losing sound quality?

No, you won’t lose sound quality by using a usb extension, not in an audio sense as in the audio will sound worse. However with cheap USB extensions, it maybe just won’t work at all. You may get complete gaps in your audio or similar rubbish. Isochronous devices means audio and video devices, ie. exactly what you’re trying to plug into it, so it may well not work.

Having said that you’re only bunging out one channel and don’t have anything else on the USB extension like a hub, so you might be lucky.

Stupid question, but I think no one has asked it – I take it your amp doesn’t have optical or spdif inputs, as that’d be a much better way to deal with this situation than running big USB cables, and a USB soundcard supporting it would be dirt cheap.

USB 2.0 provides for a maximum cable length of 5 meters for devices running at Hi Speed (480 Mbit/s). So be prepared for more expense as you pay for the necessary amplification , and the subsequent drop in sound quality!

USB is a digital signal – if you use an extender that supports high speed devices, there will be no drop in sound quality, as the digital to audio conversion happens after the USB lead. If you use an extender that doesn’t fully support high speed devices, all hell will break loose and you’ll get no sound or gaps, pops and horrible noises. You’re unlikely to get any situation in between.

You need the Kennet Brothers New Zealand Mountain Bike Rides book. There are a bunch of rides on the way down that you could do. It is a big book with much of the good riding in it – certainly enough for a road trip – once you’re in Chch, there is more local riding than is in the book, but it is pretty easy to find.

Other good bet is to ask on vorb.org.nz – which is a good New Zealand bike site for this kind of thing.

Nice bike park in Wellington at Makara Peak.

Lots of nice riding near Christchurch.

In between – Queen Charlotte Track is a nice tourist attraction which just happens to be rideable – nothing technical, but amazing scenery (and nice swimming in many places along it should you like that kind of thing). Check the dates it is open to bikers though.

Joe

Though it doesn’t seem to mention in that blog how the 4yo it was for got on…

I have seen vids of 3yos on a unicycle, but whilst it might be easier to learn for somebody that young (which is doubtless true), the issue is still whether they have the dedication to learn – learning to ride a unicycle involves a lot more failing and falling off than learning to ride a bike does and I don’t think even my 5yo yet has the dedication needed (though admittedly some kids are better at sticking with things than him).

Yeah, we’ll see. I’ve only bought one because she was asking for her own one, and it seemed like a fun idea. I know of 3 year olds who learnt to ride, so it must be possible. With the balance bike, she got it quite early (18 months) had a look at it, then didn’t really play with it for a few months, then suddenly got really determined at about 21 or 22 months, and was riding well at 23 months (to the point that at 2.5 years it is probably her main way of getting round our small town). I’d expect similar with the unicycle – she’ll have a play, put it away, but then at some point decide she wants to ride. The good thing about a 12″ being that with a bigger seatpost / frame it’s an okay learner for up to 6 or 7 years old anyway.

Incidentally, there is a guy in the Netherlands (Simon Koorn) who does unicycle teaching who says that 2 or 3 is the best age, because they learn much quicker, as they have the balance skills, but haven’t learnt much about physics and gravity and don’t have the general intuition that a unicycle shouldn’t be possible that older kids have.

Joe

The rides are through Audax UK

http://www.aukweb.net/pbp/index.htm

Some kids I’ve known with balance bikes have gone straight onto pedal bikes without stabilisers.

I don’t think pedalling is that hard once they have the leg strength / leg length – our kid is fine on her balance bike (good for a couple of miles now), and has a cheap tricycle in the garden too which she appears to have just got the legs to pedal, pedalling doesn’t appear to be very difficult.

I can’t wait till she’s big enough for a pedal bike – she’s already talked about wanting pedals, but is too short still but we’ve talked her down to ‘when I bigger I have pedals’ along with various other things filed under ‘when I bigger’ – ‘when I bigger I drink wine’, ‘when I bigger I drive car’, ‘when I bigger I go flying people’ (she wants to go paragliding).

There is also the other wheeled vehicle option – you can get a unicycle for 35cm inside leg measurement, which would fit most 2.5 – 3 year olds. Apparently it is much easier for little kids to learn than adults. http://www.unicycle.uk.com/blog/small-unicycle/

Joe

I’d still like to avoid using anything web-based.

Think they’re pretty much all web-based nowadays. However a lot of programs will let you export GPX files, meaning you can use whatever software you happen to have to analyse them.

The only real advantage of non web based things is that you can use them whilst you’re off the net if you take a laptop out places with you. Whilst online things might not be 100% secure, you surely trust the internet with far far more important data than how many bike rides you’ve been on – your email account for example. Something like endomondo with all the privacy settings on will be just as secure as (say) email – ie. you’re completely at the mercy of whoever operates the server as to whether it is secure, but it is very unlikely that anyone else will get your data.

After all, you are using the gps tracking software on a device that is constantly connected to the internet, you only have the word of the software maker that it isn’t uploading your every move to the whole world anyway.

so adding more variation is good isit? why not say here is the bar, if you can do x, y or z in maths you get whatever grade Then enforce this with the exam boards. (or just have one)

Which is what we’ve done for years. And has led to grade inflation. So either
a)people are getting cleverer,
b)teachers are getting better at teaching people the underlying concepts that they need to understand in order to do x,y and z and hence get the grade, or
c)teachers are getting better at teaching people enough that they can answer questions about x,y and z without necessarily fully understanding the underlying concepts.
d)exams are getting easier

If we assume that people aren’t just getting vastly cleverer very quickly, then either b, c or d are true. So we have a situation where the same grade from different years is in no way comparable as a measurement of what the person is capable of. Whereas if we just say ‘this person is in the top x% of their year for maths’, the grades are comparable, and we remove a vast amount of variation which is introduced by differences in the measurement tools and variation in the quality of teaching as teaching practices change.

Grades as opposed to just numbers also add loads of time to moderation, as people moderate borderline marks up or down to avoid appeals.

Having a cap on numbers per grade would mean a different grade for some students than if they’d been born the other side on the arbitrary 1st September cut-off for school years, or if they took the exam early/late. For those students, that could make a huge difference to their future.

It may not be statistically significant, but it is to the individuals.

But there’s already going to be some random variation between exam years as to which paper is easier for which student. Not to mention differences between individual examiners, moderators etc. And different exam boards offering the same qualification. All those things mean that someone who is borderline can go either way.

Moving to a system where high grades are essentially centile indicators (which is what a fixed quota of A, B grades implies) makes no difference to the fact that random factors like what date of the year you are born can make a difference to your grade outcome.

You could argue that we should just publish raw grades or centiles or whatever. Which probably makes sense (and is already effectively the case for some university degrees, where people looking at graduates want to see a grade transcript), but I can’t see it happening any time soon because it is quite a big change.

The other downside of centile based things I guess is that it removes the idea that qualifications relate in any meaningful way to a particular level of knowledge and understanding of a subject, and rather leaves them as being just a score for comparing students’ ability at that subject.

Do you think the Chinese kids are bleating about their exams being difficult or parents complaining that little Johnny should have got an A.

They’re sending their kids over here to do university in massive numbers in part because they don’t trust the quality or integrity of qualifications awarded by their own universities and schools. Obviously at vast expense, so only the rich have a chance of getting a respected qualification. So I’m not sure they entirely have a great system that we should emulate.

Although from the article above above school teaching in China, it suggests that at earlier stages, they’re investing loads on teaching the less bright and less advantaged kids, rather than having the emphasis on the A and B grade types and creating a ‘pass/fail’ marker for university entrance etc. So doing things that the current government would probably not approve of.

I think BMX clubs require full face helmets, so I guess there are ones that are okay for little kids. They don’t look too heavy.

No idea what they are, but if no one on here is any use the local bmx club will know.

I always thnk Australia is really foreign, odd people, odd animals, and pretty strange scenery.

Whereas living in New Zealand (south island) I found it was a lot like Scotland – big mountains, not many people. Not as much riding than scotland (no open access laws), and more driving to ride, but if you either surf or ski, there are probably better places in New Zealand for it.

Canada I’ve only visited briefly but bits I’ve been to (Vancouver and Nova Scotia) seemed okay. Any Canadians will hate me for saying this, but if you like the USA, it has so much in common that you’ll probably like Canada. Obvious advantages (state healthcare system, much nicer cheese), but it does have a lot of the same stuff and a very similar feel. I do like most of the bit of the USA I’ve visited, so it is a nice place in my opinion, but it does make it quite different to the UK if that’s a problem – way more than New Zealand in terms of culture. If you worry about people saying dude and thinking that their country is awesome, and prefer a self deprecating sense of humour, it isn’t a place for you.

Personally i’d always go for Australia over New Zealand, as it’d be a real foreign experience. I’d move to a small town in Scotland before NZ – most of the same advantages and disadvantages, but a couple of hours away from big cities and less than a day away from other UK friends and family vs being on the other side of the world.

It has been British Shorts Time since 25th March, it’s still British Shorts Time until 28th October.

And I went swimming outside yesterday, that’s how balmy it was here in Derbyshire.*

Joe

* actually it was 11 degrees air temperature, and the lake was blooming freezing, took a bit of time to work myself up to getting in once I’d put my speedos and goggles on!

It really depends on how much data they have gathered about a particular area. In many rural areas it’s a sprinkling of nondescript lines on a blank grey background. No contour info either which is rather unhelpful when cycling.

If you set it to ‘opencyclemap’ rather than ‘openstreetmap’, you get the contours. And bike / footpaths drawn nicely etc.

Works pretty well in rural France and UK in my experience (and have used it fine in Canada and various parts of the USA, New Zealand etc.).

Not as good as OS or IGN (in France) or NZTOPO (in New Zealand), but good enough for most things and you can’t argue with free.

Joe

If you’ve got £350, then you could buy an open pro + shimano rear wheel and open pro + dynamo hub front wheel and a B+M iq cyo dynamo light. Be lovely and strong (fine on potholes) and a dynamo light is just the perfect commuter light.

If it’s a university, they may be advertising outside, but have an internal candidate who they want to get the job. That is pretty normal in my experience – you have to advertise outside if you make a new job, but people may have a particular person in mind.

However, being a large organisation like a university, they are also often quite careful about actually going through the whole process with anyone who applies. I know of at least one person who was promised a particular job, then a job description perfectly tailored to them was advertised, and someone else external applied for it who was also the perfect match, and clearly better at interview/presentations, and got the job. Whoops. So sometimes it is worth having an application in the system anyway, even if the email contact is not encouraging.

Our both ate anything at that age. Wait until they are 4 and if you have no problems then you might have cracked it!

Yes, for sure, right now we’re just thanking our lucky stars that she is a good eater. But I figure that even if it is the case that she goes fussy at four, we’ll have had three and a bit years of not being stressed out at dinner time, whereas if we were doing all the ‘one more spoonful then you can have pudding’, we’d have had three and a bit years of fighting with her, worrying about whether she was eating enough etc.

To be honest, I can’t see how we’d win any fights anyway – the level of stubbornness she displayed when she decided to potty train herself was more than any of us (or her very experienced childminder) could resist – She made a sudden and slightly inconveniently timed decision that she didn’t want nappies any more, and then later on suddenly decided that potties were a no no, and she’d only wee in a proper toilet or outside under a tree; Both times no one could convince her to pause a bit; she is extremely very stubborn when she wants to be. I was pretty stubborn around food as a kid, hence all the fights, and I think she is pretty similar in that respect.

Oh, and we have family meal times, usually all of us if we manage to get home in time, otherwise whoever is at home eats with her. I dunno if that helps anything.

having tactile food like wraps and loading up a lazy-Susie with salads and veg’s for them to pick at makes it all fun.

What she calls ‘Dinner on a broomstick’ (aka meat kebabs or vegetable brochettes) has been a big hit in our house the times I’ve tried it.

I was a complete fussy bugger as a kid, and had a million fights over finishing stuff, not being allowed to get down until the meal was finished, not being able to have pudding till I’d eaten my first course.

My wife was always allowed to eat as much as she wanted and stop, and to have pudding even if she didn’t want all her first course. She turned into someone who is completely unfussy about food.

So with our daughter, we’ve always just had the rule that we provide a meal, and she can choose whether or not to eat it (and what parts of it to eat). We never nag to eat a mouthful or whatever. So far (only 2 and a half now), she seems fine with that. Some days she doesn’t eat a full meal (or much at all), other days she eats tons, she seems to know what she needs and how hungry she is.

If you think about it, if someone came round your house, and you offered them a meal, and they said no thanks, I’m not hungry, you wouldn’t sit there saying ‘oooh, go on, just one bite’, so it seems a bit odd with kids.

Also, when you say ‘fairly simple’ and ‘not overpowering flavours’, have you tried them with strong flavours and curries and things? Some kids seem to like exciting flavours more than they like the bland kiddy food. Our one’s first food was dal and rice (not super chilli hot, but actually spicy), and she loves pickles and chutneys and things like that.

She also quite likes extremely chilli hot things for about 1 second, then the burn hits, she goes ooh ooh ooh and screams for a cup of milk, then the minute it stops hurting, tries again, ooh ooh ooh, repeat until food is taken away – I have to surreptitiously put the tabasco sauce on my scrambled eggs or cheese on toast or else she will insist on torturing herself with it!

To be honest, I think it may well be luck that she isn’t super fussy so far, but having the system of not hassling about eating things makes it very unstressful for us even if she doesn’t want it – we just cook an evening meal, we all sit down to eat, and if one of us isn’t hungry or doesn’t want to eat it right now, then it isn’t a problem. Sometimes if it’s something particularly nice like paneer curry (my favourite), and I have spare room in my tummy, I’ll check if she’s finished with hers and see if I can tidy it up, at which point she sometimes decides she does actually want it after all.

If you want to know how to make them sit at the table through a whole meal and not run around, then I’ve got no idea though – she is up and down between courses (and sometimes during a course), and often on her mum’s knee / climbing up her back or whatever. I figure that will come out in the wash at some later point.

Joe

I dump gear all the time for swims, and have done for long rides too. Usually I’ll just bung it in a well hidden bag in some nettles a little way outside town (in woods / on a riverbank or whatever).

Not had anything nicked yet, even left laptops and phones a few times.

Obviously don’t do this in city centres as some idiot might think you’re dumping a bomb or something, but just outside town is usually fine.

In cities / towns have left gear with pubs (in case I came back late), and had no problems. Kind of prefer an out of town gear drop for swimming though, as you come back dripping wet always!

The strider gloves:

http://www.balance1st.co.uk/accessories

fitted my 2 year old, and they reckon they’ll fit larger kids.

Haven’t got a pair to look at how stretchy they are or anything though.

Joe