Combustion heating is pretty evil tbh, but it’s our only option as there is no gas where we are. On cold, still nights the whole area is blanketed in smoke and I can pretty accurately predict when my daughters asthma will kick off.
Apart from the cost and the environmental impacts of burning old growth unsustainable timber, that was what pushed me to put on a heap of solar and a home battery and run reverse cycle air conditioner flat out all day. There has been a noticeable improvement in her health as a result, but we are not as warm without 50kw of heat pouring out of a fire!

Looking on whistfully from the pork pie desert of Australia….

Boris Johnson by my reckoning.

This is just a terrible geographic misfire…. Utes / pickups are really popular amongst the MTB community, just not in the UK. The attraction lies in the fact you just throw your rig over the tailgate and keep the mud / dust out of the cab. However they are terrible for off-roading due to the fact the rear suspension is tuned for load carrying. You’re much better off with a Land Cruiser, Patrol etc…. But let’s cut to the chase here, 4wd’ s really have no place in the UK unless you’re a farmer or a planet hating fool. There are no wild places left to drive them and they are unnecessary in a county where all the roads are bituminised.

I regularly used to camp in my Nissan patrol. 2nd and 3rd row seats folded up, airbed in the back, a few blankets underneath and a sleeping bag. I did have to get up as soon as the sun came up or get roasted.

Kangaroos, emus, and occasionally a mid sized child pushing up the trail. Kangaroos being the most hazardous as they never hang around as evidence for your riding mates to witness once you’ve hit them!

My Bike in its entirety, my left arm and my right leg nearly lost my foot.
I got run over by an Isuzu pickup truck at a roundabout in the Adelaide Hills.
The good news is that 6 months later I’m fully watertight and have a new bike!
‘The guy who nearly killed me got a $500 dollar fine!

Looking to go next year with the family, checked air Bnb’s and could only find one! Am I missing something here or am I being geoblocked but to my location (Australia)

I just have a small kids paint brush and use that to remove dust on the contacts on both sides.

So… from an Australian point of view, this is really interesting. I’ll start off with my original calculation. I spent AUD $8000 on the first install – so around 5500 gbp. With that I broke even last year (around 4-5 year ROI) however, times are changing fast. I followed up with a powerwall install a year ago as the landscape has changed significantly since the first lot of solar went on. The key issue here is with behind the meter (distributed PV) generation. Originally, solar was a great investment as there was guaranteed infeed rates so even if you didn’t use it, you could feed back to the grid and get a return. Now the situation is different and may be an indicator of what might be in store for the uk. The situation now is that rooftop PV generates so much output that the grid is overloaded. The distribution networks have taken to either increasing grid voltage to force inverters to switch off, or the newer systems are built in with a function to allowed them to be switched off remotely when the grid has excess feed in. To boot – the infeed tarrifs have also dropped too close to nil.
So, as solar PV gains ground, we find that the necessity of having a battery increases as the dramatic swing from day to night places increasing strain on generators, and therefore peak pricing becomes more polarised. Now – if you don’t use it yourself, it’s really worthless.

You can’t beat the right rubber for the job at hand. I changed from bf Goodrich’s on the Patrol to Mickey Thompson atz p3’s and was really impressed with their water and mud clearing capabilities. Problem however is that they are not so great on the road in damp conditions as the hardness of the rubber combined with the reduced contact means less grip. Guess the same is true on bikes – mud tyres in summer is daft, increases drag and reduces grip. Talking so sticky tyres… pirelli supercorsa p3’s, tyre warmers and a dry track… adhesion heaven!

Koalas grunting in the tree outside my bedroom in summer. Most unnerving.

So, my story I guess… started a few years ago on a Tuesday morning at about 6am.
I was part of a crew of around 3-5 riders, we all worked at the same place and realised that the local trail centre was nicely on the commute between our various homes and work. So a bi weekly 5am pre work thrash around the Adelaide hills became routine. Most of the trails were quite aggressive and as always, people would come unstuck in varied and humorous ways. I was no different and one morning had a particularly hard crash. Bike was ok, I broke my thumb, badly winded.. pedalled back to the car and got my hand fixed up later that day. Over the next few months found that I was going downhill a bit, didn’t feel right and strava confirmed it. Cut to post ride Friday in Feb around 3 months later, I was putting the bike on the rack and I was hit with what they call a ‘thunderclap’ headache. Think a hammer blow to the head/pick axe hind of sensation. Thought nothing of it and drove to work, despite the fact I had no vision to the left. During the day, continued loss of vision and strange stuff happening in what I could see so by 3 I decided to head home (yup, drove myself). Once home, went to use the bathroom and then numbness, confusion, and frightened by strange people in the kitchen (it was the wife). Trip to hospital ensued where it was determined that I had damaged an artery in my head / neck and a TIA had occurred. Whilst they came up with a plan to fix the plumbing, had a lot of cognitive tests which showed a fair degree of impairment which was pretty upsetting. This was coupled with debilitating migraines, loud ringing noises and dizziness. Over the next 12 months made slow but steady improvement and 3 years down the track I’m 99% better. I was well supported with heaps of testing, physio and psychological help. I have to take it easy on the bike as excess strain kicks off those migraines (read ebike excuse) and I only on asprin now to keep the risk of clotting from the artery repair in check. Only outward sign is that my pupils are different sizes. All up – real emotional roller coaster that took me to some dark places, and I’ll never take my brain for granted again, as it’s only become ‘quiet’ in there in the last 24 months.

Peugeot 508 gt. Full waft and will even fit a bike in the back. Typically French, strikes often and at random, but rarely brings the country to a halt.

Only side effect I’ll get is a significant risk of death. Not even a sniff of COVID-19 jabs in Australia for the general public. Looks like we will not be able to escape from the colony for another 12 months at least……

Tyres… I have a rubber fetish and will happily spend a kings ransom on the sticky race rubber for the motorcycle or offroad tyres for the 4wd. On the flip side I spend less on fuel as I often ride (an e bike) to work.

Thanks guys, helped me out a lot here. I think the answer now I look at it is to re-find the ‘wanderingaroundthehillsonamountainbike’ sub genre. Now I think about it, it was only when I came to aus that things got more jumpy. It’s really a function of this country’s piss poor public access laws combined with an absence of pre industrial era roads and bridleways. Maybe I’ll buy a road bike too. 😀

Maybe I need to learn how to love gravel 😂

44 🙁

I’m not riding anywhere. The whole of Australia appears to be burnt to a crisp. If I knew how to post photos I would. My local trails are destroyed and still burning. 😳

No guilt, just more altitude and kilometres in less time. 30k’s and 1000m of climbing in less than 2 hours… not a problem. Keeping up with your fresh mates when you’ve got nothing left, also no problem. If you just want to get out and not work for it you won’t enjoy.

I think the trick is being to modulate the assist, as too much takes the victory away.

Go and enjoy guilt free but keep your regular bike too.