Thanks for all the replies, especially on a nice sunny Saturday, I’ve just been swimming to burn off some energy and aim to get out on the bike later as well. appreciate the positive replies and good to know others have been through similar.

God to know I needn’t worry about the references, I’ll give the HR of the employer and get some the others down for references.

I think constructive dismissal was mentioned before but I think it’s hard to prove. I complained about him to HR a year or so ago, nothing was done, HR told me it was for us to sort it out, my unuion did get involved a bit but basically said our HR department is useless as they were currently trying to deal with another issue with someone else. I think he doesn’t take criticism well and lashes out, he then gave me the worst appraisal I’ve ever had in my life and I’m sure that was to just get back at me. He accused some contractors recently of making him look stupid as he wasn’t happy with the work they done, yesterday he accused me of undermining him because I was having a laugh with some colleagues.

Not care work btw.

Probably best to keep an eye out and carry on with the thoughts of leaving asap. I saw a few jobs yesterday that I’m going to look into today.

Now, why are we all out on our bikes.

Hasn’t the highway code just come out with the 1.5m passing thing? We had an email at work about driving the minibuses and making sure they pass cyclists with minimum of 1.5m and as they all have cameras it can be proved if we get a complaint.

Madness, quite scary hearing these stories, people are so dishonest, no wonder my insurance is so expensive. My stepfather slightly bumped a parked car, no damaged, just a scuff, then he got a claim which included a new bumper and baby seat!

Fookwits, they going to redeliver tomorrow, again when nobody is in or they take it back to depot with a 2hr journey to pick up, why is ìt so hard to contact them, I’ve already sent 2 emails last week.

Mmmm, no card so no idea where it could be, thanks

My 48 hour delivery has so far taken 10 days, should’ve been here at the latest last week, when I’m at home, back to work today, missed delivery today, don’t know where it us until I get home, hope it’s not gone back to depot as 59 miles away, large parcel. Grrrr

gas and electric is £70 water meter is £25 council tax is £100

Blimey, where do you live, Bulgaria? Our costs are about double that and we’ve got a small 2 bed place!

Grrr, stupid forum ‘error try again in 30 secs’ double post value my privacy 2 times while trying to post nonsense!!!!

I think the stendec easy glide is better suited to sliding surfaces such as forks and droppers, Google ‘red n sticky grease’ a 1lb tub is about £8 and good for bearings, there’s an xtra heavy duty grease by same company or the moly type grease for cv joints would be good too for pivot bearings as they don’t usually rotate much.

Try viewranger as well, free to download, you’ll only get basic mapping, open cycle map or something, then you can zoom in and out of your location and any routes will appear, download and follow, more likely to be proper routes too, I found trailforks to be a bit useless only giving very short downhill segments rather then full routes, maybe different in other areas though

I’ve started to get this now too, started today and I’ve just had it pop up about 5 times in 5 mins!? Please rewind to about 5 years ago when there was no ads (maybe there was but not as intrusive as now) no pages and threads jumping around all over the place and everything was just a lot more fun and interesting. Grrrrrr

Hang on, hang on! So he’s won it twice before but on a ‘normal’ mountain bike? …. Don’t think it’s about the bike really, he’d probably win on a 26in old Kona

Well, the app says I’ve been a sleep for the last 20 hours despite doing 2 bike rides and over 8000 steps and a days work, can’t seem to stop the sleep monitor thing manually, both rides today didn’t track distance or calories, but the steps did record distance and calories so that’s a bit odd. Times on the bike rides are all over the place as well, I went to work at 12.45am and came home about 9.30 am, not too impressed so far! … Just in case anyone is thinking of getting one maybe look elsewhere, I’m  finding it a bit annoying now!

I don’t think the watch has gps but it’s supposed to link to your phone gps, just had a quick look at the blurb on their website and it does say ‘sports tracking’, but again it didn’t track my morning commute and says I burned 1 calorie in 32mins of cycling … no wonder I’m not losing any weight!

I got one of the W3 watches, it’s ok but a few things I find annoying. You can’t alter the time the screen stays on for – 3 seconds –  and it’s quite hard to read in sunlight, so by the time my old eyes have focussed on the info I want to see the screen shuts down and I’m tapping it again to try and find it again. Not many choices in watch faces, not able to change size of text – I wanted it more for HR stuff but that info is pretty small on the screen. Used it during a 2 hour ride yesterday and it tracked no distance or calories used, so looks like the gps/tracking isn’t working, I know it’s on as I also used ViewRanger, the calories used I have no idea about that, but it did track time and HR info. Settings also very limited, nothing for gps so I’ve no idea if that’s on or not on the watch or linking with the phone or any way of testing it. You have to download an app for it to work with which again is a bit basic, it wants permissions for everything otherwise it won’t work, and it’s always on. Won’t work with any other apps – Strava, ViewRanger, as far as I know – my Sony smart watch has other apps come up on the screen that I can select and use.

Otherwise it’s ok, HR tracked ok and the information was interesting, probably not accurate but ok as a guideline. Sleep info was interesting. Maybe some of the things above could be address with new firmware, most annoying thing is the screen time. But for £25 it’s good. Would be interested to know if other fitness/HR type apps would work with this though rather than the one you get a link for.

Can someone explain what the hell this is about?

Morocco – Atlas Mountains. I’ve been 2 times and always recommend it when this type of question comes up – I’m thinking of going again this year. Both times I’ve gone around xmas new year and the weather’s been great, sunny but not too hot, had the odd day of rain. A week of guided, supported, all food, different place to stay every night and flights used to be about £1k. Good to experience a different culture, different food etc. and not too far away.

Hang on, hang on,

(with a fair bit of effort)

I thought the idea of ebikes was that it did it all for you with no effort?

It’s a pain getting older! I can identify with some of this, I seem to be getting more intolerant of certain foods and more allergies as I get older, AS WELL as getting more back ache, cramps and it takes longer to recover from hard excercise so it just makes excercise harder. It’s amazing the difference in just 5 to 8 years of ageing. Sorry, no help but I do tend to look at these threads more these days.

I’m a head brewer at a micro, been kind of wedded to the job the last 5 or so years, and not really had any time off

Head brewer at a micro, sounds great to me – wedded to the job, not really had any time off not so great. maybe you need to get a better work life balance at the brewery, take some time off, have some holidays and go and do something adventurous then going back to work will feel different. Also what makes you think that the brewing world is set to contract in the next few years?

I’m looking for other work at the moment, don’t think retraining will be an idea for me as I’ve no idea what to retrain as and I think in my 50’s I’ll struggle against younger people or the more experienced. Looking around at other jobs locally I’m also surprised at how low paid a lot of jobs are, looks like I’d end up doing something I don’t really enjoy for longer hours and less money!

I’m a technician, plenty of jobs in London and around the UK but we can’t move to London and don’t really want to move from where we are. I like getting the holidays and the money is OK but new-ish boss is becoming a pain, so I’ve been re-evaluating my travelling time, workloads and the hassle I’ve had and wondering if it’s something I want to carry on doing. I’ll just have to suckling it up and keep an eye out. PGCE did that and had a go at teaching but found it wasn’t really for me.

Thanks for the suggestions, a few things there I hadn’t thought of or known about :o)

Back in the day … well, 30 odd years ago, I used to have a whole KFC bargain bucket to myself sometimes, I also remember being able to have a donner kebab and chips and can of coke about 6pm and at 7pm I’d be doing 2 hours of tea-kwon-do. Back then at 19 and 20 I’d be able to eat anything and no weight would go on and it felt like there was nothing in my stomach. Weight goes on now just thinking about a kebab.

Spoke to union, they basically said that the way I’ve been working over the last 4 years is now my current establish working pattern, and that as this has never been questioned until now it has been accepted by me and the employer. Any extra tasks out side of the established pattern are not my responsibility. Also I need to raise a formal grievance immediately outlining all this and the other issues of my break times and being told I’m not entitled to any breaks and the criticism of my work. They would then have to arrange a meeting and the union will be happy to attend that meeting. Interestingly, they said they are already in discussions with our HR with someone else, chocolate and teapot were used in that sentence somewhere.

Anyway, it’s like a weight has been lifted off my shoulders, feel more positive now. (insert smily face – what happened to the smiley face thingies?)

“activate your company grievance procedure”

Possibly, never looked at it but I bet it says something along the lines of discuss it with your line manager.

Not sure exactly where I stand with ‘custom and practice’ and asking for my contract to be reviewed and changed. Can the company (a school) actually just do nothing. Haven’t managed to speak to the union yet, hoping to do that today.

Hi tjagain, I’m speaking to union later, I’ll be telling them what’s happening, what’s been suggested I do and ask their advice or if they have suggestions about what to do … no idea how long this will take though as I suppose they’ll need to get advice from someone who might know more from a legal standing.

Thanks

Thanks all. I’m going to speak to the union later today, hoping they might be able to make clear what no one else seems to be able to. I’ve mentioned my contract several times to HR now and they do nothing. I said I want my break times written into it (not times as such but I’m at work 8.5 hours a day and was told when I started 4 years ago I get 1 hour unpaid, so get paid for 7.5 hours) also I wrote out a list of what I do and showed it to her comparing to what’s on my contract, again nothing. I also mentioned ‘custom and practice’ which someone mentioned in another thread somewhere, as I’ve been working a certain way for nearly 4 years and my line manager is trying to change it all of a sudden, again nothing – I’m not sure exactly where I stand with this, it’s been mentioned by a few people at work too, but my line manager and HR don’t aknowlegde it. I’ve also mentioned that my line manager said I wasn’t entitiled to any breaks during the day, I pointed out that’s illegal to him and HR and again nothing.

There’s a lot more to it then I’ve just mentioned. Think I’ll be doing what theotherjonv suggests and write my own contract and send it to HR and my line manager. I might also contact his line manager to let them know what’s been going on.

I am currently looking for a new job anyway, have been since this all started last year, but they are few and far between, I’m considering something completely different as a stop gap but even then there’s not much around. I live in a south east seaside town, not much going on here workwise other places to work are Brighton and Eastbourne, Brighton’s a pain to get to everyday and there’s not much in Eastbourne unless you want to go into care work or work in a supermarket, nothing against that kind of work but it would be quite a pay drop. Don’t want to carry on working where I am and told HR this, I’ve come very close to just handing in my notice anyway. So in some ways I’m quite happy to stir things up, email whoever, point things out, be awkward – still do my job but question everything.

I said to HR in my last meeting that I’ll only do as written in my contract – work to rule. Of course they have a line saying ‘and any other resonable request’, I said who’s to say what’s reasonable, it needs to be clarified what is a reasonable request as they could ask me to do anything.

Anyway, thanks all for the advice, think I’ll be spending a day or so writing some emails to my line manager, their line manager and HR. It’s a horrible situation to be in, worse things in life I know but it’s stressful and counterproductive, feels like I’m banging my head against a brick wall.

Arrgghh, pain linking copy pasting on a mobile, I’ll try on PC later. There’s a vivaro, bongo and tourneo on autotrader that look like the sort of thing you’re looking for.

Have to admit I don’t like being passed by them when I’m slogging up a hill, I always think ‘cheat’ in my head, but I don’t hate them, I think it’s more about the surprise of someone passing so easily when I’m in my lowest gear struggling and pouring with sweat. But I still like the challenge of getting up the hills under my own power. I’m still getting up the same hills I was 30 years ago, but what I can’t do now is do the same the next day. I have an active job, on my feet all day moving heavy materials and working machinery. 2 hours out of the day is just getting to work including half drive half cycle. So it’s difficult to maintain fitness/recovery/tiredness, I’m worn out by the weekend. The guy on the bike I had a go on was riding offroad from Brighton to Eastbourne on the lowest setting, he was seeing how far he could get out of a charge, he was about 2/3rds of the way and charge was at 49%. It’s further than I could have rode that day, and he could probably ride again the next. My thoughts are keep my normal bikes but have an ebike for when I’m needing the assistance, I didn’t ride yesterday becuse I’m tired and aching from the weekend riding, if I had the ebike I could have gone for a quick 10 mile spin yesterday – seems a shame not to in this weather. I think this is what I’ll be doing in a few years time.

Thanks all. Don’t really want to get there days before, the thought of being stuck for a couple of days surrounded be other campervans doesn’t appeal, might have to rethink it and just find anywhere to see it. I’m taking a bike but other half won’t be. Probably stage 18 and 19 we’ll be in the area.

Thanks all, will look into some of those.

justridemtb might be interested in that, I’ll look at specs info later, but I’m not going to get a chance to get on a PC today so might get back to you this evening.

Basically I’m in my 50s but my mind is still 25 so I try to go fast and hard and find I’m getting tired and not recovering as well as I used to, commute every day and ride mtb some weekday evenings and weekends, but fitness not getting any better, so want to remind myself sometimes to slow down, I’ve tried telling myself to do this but I gradually speed up again, so thought a simple hr monitor would be useful to keep in recovery zones rather than 110 % all the time.

1993, when I got my first ‘proper’ mtb, big Bell thing that looked ridiculous. But, I was riding motorbikes at the time so seemed sensible to get one. Wore one ever since, had a crash last year at about 20mph onto concrete splitting my helmet which would have been my head if I didn’t have the helmet on. It’s not the bike that is a dangerous thing, it’s you and the environment you ride it in that is dangerous. Roads are very different to 40 years ago and we hurtle along trails at 25mph, the roads and the ground are very unforgiving.

Here’s a link to some

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Metal-Piston-Hydraulic-Brake-Caliper-Parts-For-Shimano-XT-M785-M8000-SLX675/272711718802?hash=item3f7ee29792:m:mkRxl8R9U_FjO8as3ZnovHA

My same type XT and M615s have been fine so far so hope they stay that way.

One thing I did recently to the SLX set that’s just started playing up was to push the pistons out a bit, clean them and lube them then push them back in, now I’m wondering if doing this brings out the problem, maybe better to leave them alone? But, I’ve done similar things with older generation calipers without getting problems, my SLX M665 are 8 years old and no problems at all.

Buy in bulk, might just do that!

My original order was for a cassette, never got it and still not had any reply from athleteshop, but my bank – HSBC, were very good, sorted out a chargeback straight away, money into my account within a day and then they deal with it with them, said they might need some paperwork but never got back to me about it so all must be ok. Found the same cassette, same price on ebay, ordered Monday with me Wednesday.

I’ve just got another set of SLX calipers go, that’s 2 sets now on different bikes, both about 3 years or more old so no warranty, its a right pain as brakes are a lot more expensive now than 3 to 4 years ago so can’t keep replacing brakes. My XT and Deores are OK as are my older SLX. I’m sure Deore M615 were only £50 a set a while ago, now seem to be about £90 for M6000

Ah, chargeback, didn’t know about that. Just been onto my bank and they’re sorting it out for me straight away! It’s only a small amount but still feel like I’ve been robbed. Thanks all, and yes one to avoid – in case anyone else searches for the name on here.

I got one of those Lazer Rollers recently, but for a lot less than those prices, Google search, I’m sure it was about £30, really comfy feels as good as my TLD A1 but a lot lighter and lots more ventilation, got it to replace an old Hex that got crash damaged for commuting and I wear it all the time now.

Thanks, not sure I’d like the deluxe nato strap as it goes across the back of the watch and it’s already a big beast, but the nylon TF 2 piece strap looks ideal.

Reading this made me wonder where my old watch is. A friend gave it to me around 1985, he got it in Belize says 6309-7049 on the back. Rubber strap split decades ago and stopped wearing it, maybe time for a new strap, any recommendations?

Aaarrrgh, was going to post photo but forgot what a pain that is! What are you all using, last time I put up an image was with photobucket, what works with mobiles too … why can’t we copy paste?

Interesting info reading all this and has got me thinking. I got a HRM about 25 years ago found it useful but being younger lighter fitter I had plenty of go anyway. Now I find myself shattered at the end of a week just doing short commutes. I’m  51 and about a stone overweight and trying to increase mileage and fitness. Thinking about it I tend to go as fast as I can and sometimes there’s also strong headwinds. Also tend to go for it on off road climbs, noticed that when I’m out with the wife who hates climbs and I go a lot slower I’m a lot fresher. Think I’m overdoing It, maybe time to get a HRM on again and slow things down so I’m not so shattered, but think that will take a bit of discipline. I’m sure on some of my rides I’ll be hitting max for 10 to 15mins on a few climbs, how do I avoid that otherwise I might be walking.