But let’s face it. The last few years must have been an incredibly difficult time to be running a business like this.

It’s been an absolute shitshow from the point we had to start putting customs labels on stuff going to the EU. I now have A Job and have scaled what we do (teeny, tiny business, working from home but it paid the bills and put food on the table) right back.

I was Queue curious last night so went on to channel 601 (BBC red button feed) to gawk at THE Queuers. FML, what a bunch of mournier-than-thou lickspittles. There were people who obviously knew the cameras were on them and they didn’t half make a show of being extra ReSpeCful!!!1!!1! 🤣

Also, in other WTaF news, there was radio coverage of THE Queue last night, as filler just before the England v. India cricket was due to start. It was **** surreal 😵

What the **** is happening in this country? Like if you’re not super-remembrancing from the end of August with shop dummies dressed as WW1 soldiers in your front garden (so everyone can see how remembrancey you are!), or ultramourning over the deaths of priveliged old people you’re not A PAtrIOt!!1!!1!!

Eff that shiz.

There is a live stream of a stationary coffin

The whole thing is beyond bizarre

I genuinely questioned how many of these people are there to pay their respects, rather than to be able to say ‘I was there’ to their mates and family in future. Same goes for all the crowds outside. It’s all a bit ghoulish if you ask me.

I’ll chuck mawkish into the mix as well.

I’ve used Paisley a few times and they’re generally ok in as much as the bike has always got to where it should have been going, it’s the initial box delivery that seems flakey AF because they use APC to deliver them round here.

We sold our tandem a few weeks ago and it was actually easier to hire a SWB van for the day (£63) and deliver it ourselves.

(In dustbin size.)

Obvs!

Peanut Butter (crunchy, obviously) and Marmite on toast with some form of vegan compliant marge equivalent providing a solid foundation.

This. Aldi’s own brand crunchy peanut butter is 100% peanuts (no palm oil, salt or sugar or other bulking agents) and delicious. Also Asda/Lidl/Aldi’s own brand yeast extract is nicer than Marmite. Little wiffle of decent rapeseed/olive oil instead of marge/spread if you fancy keeping it a little healthier.

I fancy trying a savoury peanut butter butty with salad leaves and slices of chili in it, I think that might be quite tasty.

I’ve posted this before, but here’s my mk1 Switchback with a Tongsheng mid kit, rack and panniers-

We’ve also got a trailer that we hitch up for heavier stuff like sacks of taties and that, it works well.

edit- although I am considering buying a cheap-ish Carrera or Giant and putting the kit on that instead and having a nice (single speed) hardtail again…

tubeless, for me, is not a fit and forget solution.

This! I’d still rather have the initial faff of setting up and the bit of maintenance than the (potential) PITA of a punctured tube on my MTB. The e-trundler not so much cos it doesn’t see much hard use.

I gave up on the rear on my e-trundler, to be fair it’s not even a ‘proper’ tubeless tyre, it’s a wired Kenda K-Rad and it has served admirably over the years and miles I’ve used it. It eventually went a bit porous about the sidewalls and not even teeming loads of Stans in could save it. Bunged a tube in and it’s good for another thousand or so km over however many months it’ll take to do it!

edit- I’ve found that proper tubeless tyres and decent sealant last for ages and only need topping up when they start dropping pressure over a week or so.

First time I’ve tried one and I like the sound it makes.
BUT check the Andertons video from last Wednesday to see how similar they all sounded.
Funnily enough I don’t sound exactly like SRV after buying that 🙁 Not complaining about the £20 spend though. Personally I’m happier with the equally low budget MojoMojo from TC.

Cool, thanks for that. I want something to put in front of my Bandit 112 to get a nice bitey sound from it.

@<span class=”bbp-author-name”>eddiebaby</span> Have you had a play with the Behringer TS clone yet? What’s it like?

Prime numbers FTW if you can (37:19 on 26″ here) 🤓

It was smashing, thanks. Brill drop down onto Horden beach, along at sea level to Blackhall Rocks, back up onto the coastal path, stop for a butty at a bit of a pondy thing, pick some blackberrys for pudding and then set off for home. What a lovely day 😎

I am so sorry for your loss, genuinely x. It’s **** dusty in here.

Cheers kids 😎

I did impulse buy an Ibanez GIO something-or-other (looked ace, sounded shit) but was lucky enough to be able to punt it on in time. I can’t think of owt else but there’s bound to be something 🤣

I like it. I especially like the fact that paging up or down on a laptop doesn’t require a tap up or down on the arrow keys to get the page back to where it should’ve paged up or down to in the first place. Good job, well done!

Haha, jolly good.

I got some Lidl lights, they’re ace for my ~2 mile trundle to work and back.

I mean, jebus **** wept, the only people who will actively want this would be dead by the time it passed into law. Actually, thinking about it, the lords’d probably boot it out, wouldn’t they?

Responded. I did get a bit sweary there.

Ok, my experience…

I tried padded shorts (sans pants) and it’s ok for a bit until they get sweaty then I’d get uncomfortable so I’ve gone back to plain old knickers. If we’re out on a long ride I take a spare clean pair with me and change around halfway into fresh pants, which is nice. +1 on saddle angle too, I find it most comfy with the saddled angled slightly down relative to my sitting position (which may not actually be angled down if you look at the bike unsagged from the side) such that it’s just really my arse bones that are doing most of the sitting duties which tends to help keep the, er, area a bit fresher. I think those bits of my bum’s hardened off now though, like a guitarists fingers 🤣

But, yeah, clean pants and change them halfway through a ride if it’s a long-ish one.

Yeah, those cranks in the OP are minging^gop.

@thepodge Is it just a thing that goes behind a threaded BB that has ISCG mounts on it that you need?

Stinger type here too, it’s easy, clean and makes dropping the back wheel out a POP (handy if you have a few sets of wheels for the same bike)-

You can get to the ISGC bolts through the ring with an allen key.

Yes it would be a hassle – but most of us manage to get beyond that to get behind a wheel of a car.

The annual expense and **** on is why we choose not to have a car and have bikes instead. The idea can get in the **** sea along with the **** morons that think this populist shit up.

Type C charging too, which is bonus. Probably not the brightest, but for £13 you can’t go far wrong.

Exactly what I thought! They’ll be good enough for my ~2 mile cycle path trundle down to work and back early/late doors.

I think I’d miss it. Digital-only sub here (plus the Grauniad) for what it’s worth.

I stuck some Warman P90s in my SG. They sound lots nicer than the standard humbuckers 😎

It’s very much about spending smarter and living a bit cleaner. No posh phone, no TV subs, no car (and associated costs/headaches), no holidays (cos if you don’t have all the other shit going on you don’t need to ‘get away from it all’), work as much as you need to and no more. Spend the rest of your time riding your bike, going for walks, playing music (or learning to play).

Life is short and you’re here once. Once.

Good grief, who?

Party Cannon look like fun chaps-

2, cos balls to double tubeless faffitude in the same day.

My OH had a heart attack last year, and probably a few ‘small’ ones before the one that landed him in casualty with a quick stent insertion and couple of nights in hospital. He brushed the small ones off as a pulled muscle (so did the paramedic when she called when he was having his big one).

Get checked out.

Sweet!

Just the one, this on the way to me mam’s in Blyth for an overnighter-

I’ve got it set up as a tourer rather than an e-MTB, so high-ish single speed gearing (42:17) that’s geared such that the assist limit cuts in at a comfy 80-ish rpm cadence which (I think) helps save the battery for when I need it. 100km is doable comfortably on a single charge if I’m not hoofing it on sport or turbo, although it is pretty flat up here so that’ll help with battery life too.

I had a cadence sensing Bafang last year but much prefer the lower powered Tongsheng with torque sensing.

I was there last week and it was re-opened, they’ve tarmac all the way from Ryhope up to the A19 bridge which makes it even more boring.

There’s that view, but there’s also the view that it helps more less-able people use that route and will (hopefully) discourage the arseholes on motorcycles who think they’re Ricky Carmichael or whoever from using it. It’s a shame, cos I used to love popping over the puddles and manualling over them when they froze on the bit before you get to Sount Hetton (heading North from Shotton) but hey ho, if it helps get more bodies out of cars and doing something active then that’s A Good Thing 😎

I like the bridleway past Burdon to the NCR1 path

Is that the one where you can sploosh through the ford after the stony drop down from the farmyard? I love that bit!

+1 for the Tongsheng kit. I love my kitted Switchback 😎

Our council is **** useless with dog noise complaints, we’ve got two spaniel-looking things over the road that are shut outside for hours at a time and just bark **** in-****-cessantly at any-****-thing. I’ve given up and am now waiting for them just die of old age (the arseholes who have the dogs and the dogs themselves.) ****.

It’s the sea front at Seaham, along to Nose’s Point, then to Hawthorn quarry (keep left & head down into the dene, there are some steps which are rideable but sketchy AF) then back up the stairs (hike-a-bike) out of the dene and along the coastal path to Grants Houses. It’s not strictly bridleway as such but plenty of people ride it and it’s not frowned upon if you follow Rule #1 and drop the occasional kindness bomb 😎

edit- there’s plenty to ride along the cliff top from Grants Houses down to Blackhall and on to Crimdon Dene. We do a nice loop heading down from Peterlee to Hart down the line then over the railway bridge and up the other side through Crimdon caravan park (Butlitz) to Blackhall for a watch of some cricket on Saturdays (nice ground & the beer’s ok!) It’s not super-gnar or anything but it’s a nice XC/bimblecore sort of potter. You just make the best of what’s on your doorstep, don’t you?

There are a few bridleways that spur off from the main bit of NCR 1 between South Hetton and Ryhope but bear in mind that the bit of NCR 1 from Seaton to Ryhope is closed for resurfacing (or at least it was a few weeks ago the last time we used it). The bridleway that spoings off at right angles to the main route at Murton is cool, here’s a route we do quite often (clockwise, it’s less fun going anti-clockwise!)-

There’s a bit of road connecting some bits but it’s never that busy. We live in Peterlee and the route takes that into account so you might have to rework it to suit where you’re staying.

edit- The Albion at Ryhope is a smashing pub, the people are dead friendly and the food’s good 😎

TL;DR? Get the OS map (308) for the local area 😁

edited again- Chopwell’s good fun too if you’re happy to sling the bikes in/on the car for a day out. It’s smaller than Hamsters but is denser (if that makes sense) and there’s a really cool pump track there now too.