E – cheese burger
D – Sierra Nevada Tornado with a chaser of Old Pulteney whisky
L – dog dream noises

I’ve got one but don’t use it. Do you get more club card points spending on the credit card?

For me it’s skiing down fresh fluffy powder in the morning sun.

(Not a Dad yet)

The fat dude on a hybrid who parked in front of me at the lights this morning.

Hope they’re okay. I ride that way often. The worst bit is heading towards Salford as traffic accessing Ellsmere St cuts straight across the lane. Most roads crossing the Manc Way have crap cycle lanes.

“Don’t do what I did”

‘Pushima’ air shaft on the shock not strictly necessary either but it’s black innit.

I tore my wheel decals off. I tend to go to great effort to tone down my bike – reverse tartiness but just as bad.

Whisky keeps quite well when it’s unopened. Cupboard will do fine.

Highland Park 12 is only £20 at Ocado. Use the sign up voucher and there’s a serious bargain to be had.

Tesco in Manchester had several bottles of Yamazaki 12 left at £40. I noticed they are going for £100+ online so I bought the lot! Japanese whisky is very good but expensive. Yoichi is a particular favourite.

For the people enjoying Arberlour give Glendronach 15 Revival a try, very nice indeed.

Diesel does the job for me

Abunadh is a lovely sherried whisky and its strong enough to take quite a bit of water so good value too. I visited Arberlour a couple of months ago and treated myself to their 16 y/o sherry cask, which they let you fill from the cask – bloody lovely it is.

I’ve got a Penderyn peated and a Benromach 10 at the moment that I’m really enjoying along with the staple Old Pulteney (bargain at £23 from Sainsbury’s). We should set up a whisky samples exchange thread :)

I bought a pair of 140mm Pikes to replace the horrible Fox that came on my Fuel 29er. I intended to put a new air assembly in and reduce the travel to 130/120mm but it feels fine so don’t think I’ll bother. The Trek was relatively steep anyway so I’m liking the slacker head angle. It raised the BB a bit so that’s something to bear in mind.

Specialized Camber Evo is worth checking out.

It’s annoying but the truth is your interventions won’t achieve anything other than getting yourself more wound up.

I can wheelie but I’m a scally from Wythenshawe – it’s in our DNA.

Ring of Kerry is gorgeous scenery. My Dad has a house in Westport so quite familiar with that region but never took my mountain bike. If you’re over that way Achill island is worth a visit – lovely beach. Carrauntoohil is good for hiking.

I also have a motorhome but have always found the ferry ridiculously expensive. Who are you crossing with and where from? How much did it cost if you don’t mind me asking?

Adil’s

Bento is good for starting out
https://www.bento.io

Codeacademy is good but lacks context

Code school and Lynda are good but are subscription based

I don’t know how good they say they are but my lightweight Gore Path has been doing a good job of keeping me dry for the past 5 years. Packs down nice and small and has retained its waterproofness with the occasional Nikwax treatment. Only complaint is the zip is a bit dodgy so I use it as a smock nowadays.

They aren’t cheap but I find paying extra for Gore-tex or Event fabric is worth it for avoiding boil in the bag syndrome.

Bottle of Ardbeg Uigeadail arrived this morning just in time for the weekend.

I’ve got a 2014 one. Cracking all rounder. It’s not exactly svelte but that’s not really the point of this bike. I may be biased but I much prefer the appearance of mine with the straight forks that are the same colour as the frame.

I caught the pocket liner of my Norrona ski jacket in the zip. I thought I’d be cheeky and argue excess liner made this inevitable. Snow and Rock sent it back to them and they replaced it.

If you intend to ski at Cairngorm regularly, there are loads of places you can hire in Aviemore (Ellis Brigham etc) or The Pinemarten bar opposite Glenmore Lodge.

If you’ve got your heart set on some of your own, I’d go down the 2nd hand route. I got some mint condition Head Titan 1 season old for £150 off eBay. As someone has already mentioned there are people, who like to change their skis more frequently than some of us lot change our bikes.

Jealous by the way, conditions look great at the moment. I was there over Christmas and they only had two runs and the funicular open, so went biking instead. Back up there for some ski touring in Feb, so hopefully it’ll carry on snowing.

Watched Godfather III the other night and Sofia Coppola was particularly bad.

While shopping for a replacement for my pinched 26er I test rode lots of bikes and ended up with a 29er. I really didn’t want one but the proof of the pudding was in the riding. Made sense for most of my riding and I’m a lanky fella.

Hora is right that 29ers can make certain trails easier to ride, but you can still jump, manual and pop off drops. I know that drop off at Clayton Vale and yes it can be rolled but where’s the fun in that? Just because you own a 29er doesn’t mean you stop having fun. Biggest improvement for me was I suddenly felt I had a bike that fitted me properly, which gave me the confidence to try new things and go faster.

Boring answer but try some bikes and pick the one you like and suits your riding.

Pastrami, pickles, emmental cheese with mustard mayo

Roast peppers out of a jar with halloumi and rocket

I’m mates with Vini Reilly but he’s not that famous really. I’ve got a hairdresser mate who does all the big fashion shows and magazine covers, he’s not famous either but he’s taken me to parties with very famous people present.

Inshriach Forest, Cairngorms

Bit early to tell people not to bother going Alps. Snow is unreliable pre-xmas. It could dump for a week and then everything is sorted.

Macclesfield Forest has some good riding and isn’t too far. Start from Wildboar Clough or The Leathers Smithy pub.
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Bit off topic but I was given a a bottle of Suntory Hibiki (blend) for Christmas and was absolutely lovely and similar in style to the Speyside whiskys. I’ll definitely be buying again. Felt a bit sacrilegious drinking it in the heart of Speyside over Christmas.

Thanks for the advice. We went to Skye last winter and it was very bleak and lots of places were shut, but we still really enjoyed it. We’ll give Harris a miss this time and stick to Skye and places on the mainland.

The new 105 one does look nice, but isn’t it exclusively for 11 speed, or does it not matter? Agree that the modern aesthetic of the shimano chainsets can look a bit incongruous with the slim tubes of the steel frame. For that reason I prefer the look of the SRAM chainsets.

East z East on Blackfriars St do a nice curry. San Carlo and Stock for Italian. If you want cheap and cheerful Delicatezze di Bruno in Clayton is nice but very rough around the edges.

Bear in mind you can’t book at Akbars and it gets very busy.

Cruising down a hill no handed with arms outstretched feels like flying. Well how I’d imagine flying would feel like anyway.

Purchased a bottle of Macallan Gold based on the positive comments from people on this thread and have to say it’s a thumbs up from me too!

Specialized Butcher on the front and Purgatory on the rear have been serving me well so far in The Peak.

You could ride XC on them, but then again you could also ride XC on Crests. Arch EX seem to be a happy medium.