Cheers Scotroutes , I’ll take a trip to my LBS over the weekend.
If anyone has experience of what fits a Pinnacle Lithium though I’m interested to hear.

Before I used to do my own stuff I used Addiktion. Lloyd always did a good job.
Another option is Steve at Harpenden bike spa.A little further but he does do Collection and delivery.

Lots of good advice above.
Definitely use TLR tubeless ready tyres. My first attempt was with non tubeless ready Nobby Nics on Roval tubeless rims. I got them seated with a track pump but they leaked through the sidewalls until I added more Stans.
Don’t assume factory fitted tape is good . My rims leaked until i re taped them.
More recently I got a pair of Mavic Ksyrium UST wheels with UST tyres for the road bike.
With these I simply added sealant and pumped them up and they barely lose air at all.

Just back from a trip with my daughters and their scout troop.
They went in the RIB ride from Menai bridge, did the underground zip wire and climbing at Llechweld , white water rafting , and hiked up Snowdon via Watkins trail.
They enjoyed every moment.

I hired one of these fir a week to take the family up to Edinburgh last year.
I was quite impressed with it.
Great on the motorway,decent size but not too big to get into normal parking spaces and comfortable .

I’m currently tapering in advance of my fist marathon on Sunday.
Is anyone else here running at Brighton?

Similar to you I also tend to start getting niggles once my shoes get to around 400 miles and beyond.
My old ones get relegated to fitness boot camp classes, spare pair for muddy runs and general casual use.

One of our local parkrun venues was on a woodland trust site. It was shut down as they were concerned with the the environmental impact.
The statement about environmental concern over recreation rings true.

For a a time I just used the heaviest kettlebell in my collection with a chain through it linking 3 bikes together.

I have a Defy Advanced and a Supersix Evo. The Supersix is much more engaging to ride and is actually as smooth as the Defy . The Defy is kinder on my back but I do prefer the Supersix.

My dad loves his. He’s 84.It even survived his recent attempt to kill it when he reversed into a wall.

I’m also holding on to a 26” bike because what I’d get back for it would be worth peanuts and it’s still a nice XC bike.
It’s a Giant XTC with Reba forks, full XT with DCL shifters and rapid rise rear mech ,( remember them?), Easton riser bars, etc.
It also holds a certain amount of sentimental value as it was my first proper mtb . It still sometimes gets ridden by my son or taken out on family pootles but mostly it makes me feel a bit nostalgic about times before Boost, plus tyres, 12 speed cassettes and super slack geo!

Have you tried your local Facebook marketplace ?
I got a really nice Boardman for my GF recently for £100.

I’d question if it was worth adding the groupset.
18 months ago I was looking to upgrade my Giant Defy advanced which was a 2010 model. I ended up getting a Cannondale Supersix Ultegra for £1250 in the sales.
If you were to sell your current bike and add the £1000 you may benefit not just from a group set but different geo, a better frame and everything else.

Id considered a gravel bike but instead recently bought a second hand Pinnacle lithium 4 hybrid for £140 and have upgraded the wheels and tyres.
For the £270 it owes me following new wheels , tyres, brake pads and a service it does pretty much what a gravel bike does albeit with flat bars.
A new Lithium 5 is around £500 with hydraulic discs.

Recently picked up some Fabric slim grips for my 29er. Really happy with them.

Available in various widths.

I’ve got some Mavic Ksyrium Elite UST. Managed to pick them up for £360 . Great wheels

I have a basic Tom Tom spark.
Mine doesn’t have music or cardio as I wanted mine purely as a tracking device.
I’ve had mine two years and it has been a really good ,reliable tool for step tracking, logging runs and bike rides to Strava .
Most of my running buddies have the Garmin 235 and my run distances are consistently with theirs.
I decided not to get the one with music as I thought a dedicated music source would be better and the supplied headphones aren’t meant to be much good .I already have a wahoo tickr for cardio.
Mine was £60 new via the tom Tom store.

I’m still getting used to 740mm wide bars…….

Sportshoes.com , Realbuzz or Start fitness are my first go tos for running shoes.
I can normally procure a new pair of Saucony Guides for around £60 if I’m not too fussed about colours.

I can fit a 29er into the back of a mk7 Golf with the seats down and front wheel removed.
So I’d say most conventional hatchbacks would be fine.

Boardman pro 29er from 2016 is non boost.
Could buy a complete bike for £500!

If you’re doing Bangernomics I’d buy on condition rather than getting too model specific.
Also some of the suggestions wouldn’t be cheap for spares.
I’d find it hard to look past a Mondeo for sheer availability and cheap servicing / parts. But it’s also a decent drive.

We’ve had a 916 Spider, a 156 and a 147 and whilst the Spider was a bit of a diva (roof and are suspension bushes) the 156 racked up big miles as my company car and the 147 was family transport for 3 years and last time I looked on the DVLS MOT test history site both the Spider and 147 were still going strong.
Most problematic cars I’ve had were french and my currently golf 7 GTD whilst a great car has had one or two niggles.
So my experience is that they are no worse than many other marques and I’m genuinely considering getting a Giulia as my next car at the end of the year.

Just purchased a pair of Vittoria Barzos to replace the Mountain Kings on my Boardman.
Tge MKs were fine for bimblng in my native Bedfordshire but they weren’t very confidence inspiring when I rode at Leigh Woods.
Will see how I get on with the Barzos.

I once skied in Serre Checalier. Lovely smallish friendly resort.
One of my favourites.
It’s been a while though…..

Dr P ,I feel for you but Weeksy speaks good sense.
I separated from my ex 8 years ago and both of us see our kids on Christmas Day.
Our arrangement works like this. One of us has the kids on Christmas Eve through to Christmas lunchtime then the kids go to the other and the next year we alternate.
We’ve done this for 8 years now and it’s worked well .
I don’t think I ever had had tantrums from my kids.
My ex and I just spun the positives of having two homes to them from day one.
Kids pick up on bad vibes from parents. Stay positive and make things fun and you’ll kids will be fine.
Now in a great situation where my kids get on really well with my new partner and get kids and they just think of them as extended family .

These look worth a punt ?
https://www.polaris-bikewear.co.uk/Am-1000-Repel-Mountain-Biking-Trousers-p/pol01-5323-p.htm

I recently had someone drive into my car and leave no note in the pub car park outside my house.
Pub was reluctant to help, and on looking around the car park a few days k later there was a car showing corresponding damage.
The car belonged to one of the pub staff and perhaps shows why they were reluctant to assist.
No way to prove my suspicions.
The damage looked minor but £2k estimate to fix .
Ended up as an insurance claim.
Fortunately mine is a company car but would have been mightily annoyed if it was my own car.

Having only started running in 2017 I clocked up a nice little milestone this week and exceeded 2000km for the year.

Still trying to beat 23 minutes for a parkrun which was my other target for this year.

Annoyingly finished on 23:00 dead a couple of weeks back and 23:03 last week.

Just started doing a bit of Pilates and a military fitness style boot camp to improve .

I’ll get there soon….

Also signed up for first marathon in April.

My company Golf GTD is just coming up to its second birthday and is just short of 54k miles.

The boot is one of the biggest of that size hatchback and you can gain more simply by dropping the boot floor down to the next slot.

Interior space is fine, I regularly carry my 3 teenage kids and their friends in the back and my son is 6foot and will sit happily in the back.

Its probably the best car I’ve owned. Prefer it in many ways to my 320d.

Comfortable but enjoyable enough to hustle when you feel like it.

I’d prefer a petrol but as diesels go it’s great.

Itll get replaced next year and I’m hoping that some good cars are launched in2019 as I’m currently struggling to think of anything else that will tick so many boxes in terms of my needs.

My old TomTom Spark is working just fine.

sometimes less is more…….

If it’s specifically labelled UST it’s the latest version . WTS means wheel tyre system so that will include tyres , sealant , valves too.

In U.K. money that’s around £430. Sounds pretty good to me.

And ref tyres apparently the latest UST wheelsets from Mavic are supplied with UST tyres. Mavic made a big thing about their own tyre tolerances being  matched to the rims , and so making them easier and safer to set up tubeless.

Online reviews seem  to back this up.

Apparently the Mavic tyres are actually made for them by Hutchinson.

Checked the Evans link above and no stock.

I was looking at buying Ksyrium Elites. There seems to be some confusion on this thread.

To clarify:

There is an entry level Ksyrium (which is the old Ksyrium equipe) . These are circa 1690g and non UST. I have a pair of Equipes, good sturdy wheel but narrow rim profile and not much lighter than the latest Aksiums.

More recently there seems to be a UST version but these seem to have only just appeared .

There is a Ksyrium Elite. Pre 2018 these were non UST but are now UST circa 1550g and supplied with UST tyres and the sealant kit to make them tubeless.

Cheapest deal I have seen on the new UST version was £430 in cycle surgery a couple of weeks back.

There are still some of the pre UST version around and I have seen these on offer for around £350.

The entry level Ksyriums are typically under £300.

Then there  is a Ksyrium Pro which is a higher spec than the Elite. I think k this is what Dez B was referring to .

OR train very hard , are 20kg lighter and 20 years younger……….😉

iI was recently looking at the Carrera Parva as a potential purchase for my girlfriend.

It struck me as quite a sensible ,no frills bike.

It seemed much better for having a simple rigid

fork than some of the clunky cheap suspension forks that some hybrids have and looked quite good value to me.

Certainly good enough to get started on.

The Pinnacle hybrids would perform better but are twice the price.

It’s amazing the difference a few tweaks to saddle and handlebar position can make to comfort.

I’d get it properly set up  then give it another go.

35 miles is a reasonable distance too if you haven’t ridden much and there’s a certain amount of conditioning that you acquire by riding more which will also help.

Simmoz

Jeez No training and 1:34!!

I ran Bristol half , trained my arse off and was over the moon with 1:49:01.

Great event though.

There are some that are obviously like Turboferret and yourself that are genetically predisposed towards being a distance runner……😃