K-Line isn’t hard but it’s easy to hurt yourself on. There’s a big difference between the two. The modern day six inches of skill compensation are getting people in to trouble rather than out of it.

Where the hell else would you make a sandwich?

CZ, the missing word that would clarify this is sure to be “directly”. As in making a sandwich directly on to the worktop. I am a fan of chopping boards, bread boards, and cheese boards, but have still made a sandwich directly on to the worktop once in my life before I realised it was much easier to sweep the debris in to the bin if you use a board of some kind.

HTH.

As above, is there any reason why you can’t reuse the hose, with olive intact?

When I was a teenager I made tomato sauce (for pasta) using lots of fresh tomatoes and basil. Basil, I thought. Mum’s got loads of that growing outside. The recipe called for some. Lots in fact. Spent ages diligently chopping the basil in to lots of small pointy pieces.

Cut my mouth to pieces, that basil did. As it would transpire, it was Bay.

You lot put the to shame, though.

I use my D30 pads for situations where I used to use nothing at all, so that I have no excuse not to wear them.

They do stiffen up on the cold weather so are less flexible, but they also keep my knees warm.

For pointy stuff and racing, I try to use my old Race Face ones that are more substantial.

It’s a shame there’s no in-between. a 30 minute highlights (both for this and the WC DH in general) would be able to cover the exciting bits and most of the runs from the top finishers.

The 20 minute EWS highlight package goes some way towards achieving this balance.

Bonus points for the update,

https://xkcd.com/979/

What was I saying again?

Now the important thing… was that you had an onion on your belt, which was the style at the time.

If you’re trimming of the side knobs off a Rock Razor then it’s the wrong tyre to start with.

Something in the same region but with weedy side knobs (and much cheaper) would be the WTB Trail Boss, which can be got in a 2.4″, so very close to a RR once you’ve taken the knobs off.

equal pay for work of equal value

Which IMO isn’t enough factors to come to a balance. As rene alludes to, this means that for two jobs of equal value and equal pay, the jobs in good conditions will become sought after and the equivalent jobs in poor conditions will become harder to fill.

I never want to be the least visible thing on the road.

Depends on if there’s a queue for the showers. If not, and provided one cleans up after ones self, then no problem. Especially if it’s on the clock.

Lots of people don’t give a shit, especially where someone else’s safety is concerned.

more costly on energy

is it more costly on energy to run an oven or is it more costly to produce and transport an additional piece of hardware?

honest question that I do not expect any of us to answer!

Why a Chariot?

We wanted a buggy & trailer capable of off-road fun, so I don’t think there’s a lot of competition (do any others have suspension??). They hold their value so well, we bought one new in a sale for less than ebay 2nd hand prices.

It gets used at Hamsterley for family rides and for whizzing down to town before getting converted to a stroller to go for a coffee.

Our experience is only short:

Viewed a house with PurpleBricks. The photos were ok, the seller did the viewing and was great – in fact all our viewings the vendors were always better than the agent. It was however overpriced and didn’t sell quickly.

Sold our flat with a recommended local agent. they pitched it well, photos were good and the viewings they did must have been good as it sold for a decent wedge over what we would have accepted. They had experience negotiating and extracting that little bit more. I didn’t.

We love our Chariot, but what @sok said about age limits. We used our chariot as a stroller from ~1 month and it was fine although she’s always had very good head control. When walking you can walk at an appropriate speed and path to keep it stable. It’s great on the rough stuff, rolls so so much better than our collapsible MaClaren buggy.

however I think you should spend time getting more comfortable with your sling/Juno or invest in one that she is happy with.

Whats your location in case someone offers to let you borrow or trial some kit?

not one moan about the price of tickets

I’ll cost, £90 to race, £10 parking, £10 camping per person per night, and they won’t have even cleared all the sheep poo off the course.  It will however lave a smile on your face and you’ll resolve to do it next year until they raise the price again.

That better? :-p

Some frames react to grease and swell, thus making things worse, not better.

exactly what I heard many moons ago. If there’s no standard answer I’ll go ask the frame manufacturer.

that’s it

Erm, no. This has always been a vehicle about engaging children and youf in STEM.

strapping a bigger / more jets

No, no, no, this one has a ROCKET. :-D

I’d like to suggest that we create a new thread every day “ONLY 99 MORE SLEEPS ‘TIL CHRISTMAS” so that Poopscoop knows that it’ll be over soon and can be reassured that we share his struggle.

First private house with electric was just over the Moors from here

That Armstrong fella did have a very nice house too.

Drac – nah, in your area it’s because natural gas and electricity are a middle class luxury ;-)

for the rest of us yes, adding a log burner to a home with central heating is definitely a middle class luxury.

We have sued/are using 2 styles- Smaller fabric slings/wraps for when they’re tiny and a structured/substantial one for when they’re bigger and you want bigger walks. There’s lots of crossover in terms of front/back carry. We’ve variously used:

Closer Caboo DX – nice combo of a wrap and carrier, very snugly front/inward carry, can also go front/front facing.

Ergobaby 360 – step up, can do front inward & forward, also on back. We still use this occasionally to potter round with the little one on the MTB. the clasp at the back can be tricky to reach so I do it up loose, put it on the tighten up. The Baby bjorns are much the same but easier to do up but apparently not so good for the babys hips. Or something.

Kathmandu baby carrier – similar to some of the Little Life ones, was surprisingly good for long walks (we did some 6 hr tramps with a 10 month old) and had integral sun visor (essential)

Deuter Kid Comfort – Didn’t like the shoulder straps, the baby straps weren’t secure and didn’t go small enough. The sun visor didn’t stow so you never have it when you need it.

Osprey Poco – (we’ve got the biggest capacity) dead good but the hip belt isn’t the comfiest, think it just needs breaking in.

We also have a Chariot for doing trips out on the bike (mtb, coffee runs, library trips, bike to town then convert to stroller, all sorts), it’s been fantastic. Black trails are the limit though ;-)

I don’t find ikea that stressful. Yeah it’s busy but then you just play navigate the morons, much like you do at the Supermarket.

Load it up on to our appropriately sized vehicle (we have a Tardis) then take home and assemble.

Once the nipper is big enough to put in the creche, it’ll be even easier :-D

All I can say about Alpkit clobber regarding the fit is…. you’ll have to try one on. ;-D they do no fuss return though so there’s no hassle.

Their fit has got a lot better (more consistent) in recent years and I (36.5″ chest, 5’11” tall) find myself in their Medium kit now if I might want to layer underneath, small if I want it tight (and too short).

HTH.

I have some good friends in NZ who go to great lengths to carry stuff on their bikes, I think they’ve done a delivery of a washing machine on bike before.

The also own a car though!

You can ditch the bars unless you absolutely must have clif (I don’t remember seeing any). You might find something that you recognise. There are some decent enough supermarkets in Thamel to stock up on some generic enough bars and (even better) small packets of dried fruit.

If higher torque is your aim then I’d not be considering Ti. Find a Gr 12.9 and make sure it’s you use antisieze or loctite as appropriate.

Stainless bolts are also available in various grades. Gr A4-70 is more common than the stronger A4-80, you could try hunting some out.

Mech Eng here. Job title variously Mechanical Engineer, Design Engineer, nor just Engineer. No need to escape being an engineer. I like designing things, drawing pictures and doing a few sums to prove it won’t break..

I used to favour the mighty Braeburn however a few years in NZ made me miss the more tart varieties that you can get in the UK. It was tricky making a good crumble when you don’t have Bramley apples available. One would have to add some feijoa to make it more tart and tasty.

The last few years I have been a big fan of UK grown apples and can honestly say that  love the cox :-D

My mum has a Egremont Russet tree growing so they’re a bit of a treat, not an every day eater.

Gala

Y’know, I used to have so much respect for you :-|

I have small hands and struggled to get flared drops to work well in both drops and hoods (this was on Midge bars). If set up well for the hoods, I couldn’t reach the brake levers properly. So I set up mine to be ace in the drops and barely ever used the position on the hoods – I found it too narrow anyway and a funny wrist angle. Being in the drops was so comfy and confidence inspiring I never minded anyway.

The only real problem was, that this handlebar position was so good that I couldn’t transition to ‘normal’ drops on the road bike at all – the road bike felt weird and horrible.

– just read brant’s reply – so now I understand! ;-)

NorthWind is right about most things TBH.

-end of sponsored content-

There’s far too small a market IMO. Also once you’re in to that territory your consumer might be too discerning and capable of building their own. i.e. on my commuter I absolutely did not want horizontal (track) drop-outs, I wanted sliding dropouts to work well with mudguards and the Alfine.

molgrips, agreed – I’d been putting too much emphasis on the commuter aspect. For the very occasional run out and silly comuter racing the heavy tyres and alfine are fine – but for something that is more of an all-rounder you’re going to have to compromise that reliability for performance.

FWIW, doing a decent commute on my CdF killed the drive train in 18 months and I had to do a reasonable clean & maintenance session several times a winter.

However on my alfine commuter I’ve just done a fresh application of Putoline chain wax and I look forward to doing nothing more than pump up the tyres til, ooh, February. :-)

Roadside punctures with an Alfine are a touch more faffy – you need to carry a 15 mm spanner in your pack and disconnect the shifter, but that’s it. You can actually apply a patch without removing the wheel, as I’ve done once.

But on a commuting bike you’ll have puncture proof tyres, surely.

A while back I got my Mrs a Scott Sub Speed 10, which was pretty close to your spec. Do they do anything similar now?

And Canyon did a tarty looking range of commuter bikes which might tick all your boxes but cost £££ for it (or should I say €€€)

pimped out panel vans with spoilers, stickers, body kits etc.  waving to each other down the bypass and constantly stalking about the “scene” it all screams “look at me”

well none of this is true about me or nearly any of the T5 owners on this thread. Maybe you’re trying too hard to get worked up about it? Perhaps a holiday would help. Have you thought about camping?.. :-p

/edit – I’m happy to admit there is a badge tax. We paid more for our van than an equivalent Transit or Vivaro. We’ll redeem some of that if we ever sell.

The plus side of this is the ease and convenience of the community (or “scene” if you want to sound condescending about it).

Need new tyres? Someone will be flogging their factory wheels & tyres for cheap as they’ve pimped their to black alloys. Nearly new wheels and tyres for half the price of new tyres alone.

Want to add a swivel seat? Easy to find a swivel base for whatever.

Want to do a conversion yourself? there’s are loads of flat pack kits to do it.

Want to add naff stickers? Loads of them about too, if that’s your thing.

People who hate T5s are far more vocal about them than whose who have one and just gen on with their lives… ;-)

As for van vs car, unless you’re sure you really want a van then you might get  the same utility out of a big people carrier like a Sharan, Previa or Espace type thing but cost less, drive more like a car and you won’t have people jumping out of hedges yelling at you that your T5 is a lifestyle vehicle and you’d be better off in an LDV. (I joke…)

Oh and my favourite is “piacere”, which is a very formal thing to say on being introduced to someone. Like one might say “charmed” or “pleased to meet you good sir”. Very good for impressing people in a professional context when you know you’re going to be conversing in English for the rest of the duration ;-)