She’s doing great already!
I think I remember from teaching my eldest that holding their hand or fingers was more stable and stopped them slumping against me so not balancing properly.
If you’re near Darlington South Park must be a good spot to learn with miles of flat smooth paths

I struggle with it, my eyes are not so good in the dark despite having correct glasses. An optician recommended yellow lenses for night driving so I assume that would help riding too.
I previously had bad vertigo and going round corners on night rides triggers this too.
What about just riding less technical gravel type stuff? I rode the old railways paths near us a lot last year, still got me out in the cold away from cars and saw heaps of wildlife!

Fox pewee are good and often cheap at mtx shops online, ours were £12.
Pics of the bike when he’s riding it!

Iran v USA could get a bit tasty

Iran almost to a man have beautiful hair. Very slick.
It’s occurred to me it really can’t be that hot at pitch level as nobody is pouring water on their heads and they haven’t had an extra drinks break?

It’s a shame you can’t hear what the ref was saying but I guess all the background whining and swearing wouldn’t work

Also, how many subs do you get these days?

I watch more rugby than football usually but isn’t that a red for kicking the lad in the head, regardless of whether there’s cover behind him?

Best way round the red tape is create a community group or join with the existing bike club, then register with the council in the way the friends of park groups do- your local councillor will have contacts. You can then register work days, do basic maintenance etc on their land with their insurance in case anyone has an accident.
For our park it’s really simple- one page risk assessment that’s always the same, register the event with a half page form, then get down and start working. To use power tools there’s a basic council course people can do too.

I spent the afternoon with Farmer John yesterday as he’s helping rebuild our local track in Marple.
His view is build it well and they need less maintenance, manage the water well is the key, maybe every 12 months you do a brief top up of surface material in key spots but more importantly you clear all your drains, cut back undergrowth to let light in etc.
There is a trail maintenance course being run at Llandegla for people who look after these sort of places and John is hoping to host one at his centre in Marple for all the local trail centres, pump tracks etc that have sprung up.
Look at Ride Sheffield for the model of how to sustain trails, maybe set up your own local trail support group?

I was thinking the same about sale as poster above this morning, it can’t be a sustainable model however much they pay in wages.
They still don’t own the ground, there’s no hotel, conferencing, casino or community use on the main pitch and if there is they don’t get the income. Realistically the crowds aren’t going to grow much. If the investors go bust or stop bank rolling them it’s over. Sale FC would become the only sale again.
I do like the idea of replacing cancelled games with exhibition games that might generate more interest ala saints v barbarians, I’d also watch tier 2 international v clubs

Gym last night- started trying out some of the hyrox events and decided I don’t really fancy it.
Yoga with Cassandra this morning with a lovely sunrise.

I’m giving this a go as a way to make me do the extras like yoga, walking that help with my various aches but I don’t normally get round to.
16th- swim early, tt bike ride, into a short jog
17th- rollers and short jog with my son
18th- Nantwich sprint tri
19th- 1 hour recovery ride to enjoy quiet roads and long walk with friends
20th- yoga before coffee and 5km zone 2 jog
21st- yoga before coffee and gym later

So far so good but both my kids sound like they have colds already!

Aero helmet and tight jersey would make more difference, then tyres/ thin tubes maybe.
The rolling resistance site is a bit risky as you have to also factor in real world use, puncture proof etc, it’s very tempting to buy the fastest tyres until you realise they’re super thin

I had a fun day with my 2 kids in the arena, luckily with a big umbrella for a bit of shade but the event was a total flop for me
– stupidly small fields and not competitive
– no para event or anything else going on
– couldn’t get near the bits/ team zone from the arena so didn’t see the big name riders until 2 mins before race started
– totally un-necessary helicopter flying about but hardly being used for footage. Makes a joke of the ‘try not to drive’ message
– bit of a boring course, no features in the arena area so we actually paid to see the worst bit of the course
– no access to riders post race except a couple who broke out of their pen to see family
– lots of kids trails, BC coaches standing about and messages about bring your kids’ bikes which we did, only to be told they couldn’t come in the arena or lock outside so had to go back to the car

Will there now be some sort of legacy event using the trail? I’d be up for that, flat and boring suits me!

Ouch! What did you do that on?

I did go to Cannock for the race today and absolutely hated it! Not of fan of the rooty, lumpy nature of those tracks they used, too much of that for me and not enough double track or fire road mixed in. I’m sure some people loved it but for me it killed my back and set my nerve pain off big time!

I’m giving racing one more go this summer and if I still don’t like xc I’m trying cyclo cross or sticking to road

Any rack I’ve tried. They come with adapters for different thickness of rack tube and the lower clip thing swivels to fit any shape of rack. They’re the only one of 3 pairs of panniers in our house that got all the different racks we’ve had

Ortleib waterproof panniers for me. Super tough so still going after 5 years at least.
Brother in law loves restrap seat pack but I didn’t like it when I tried one

What about the chisel? Always come out as quite capable in reviews of xc bikes.
Quite £££ though

I’d love to see combine style tests for rugby players- 30 or 40m dash, agility run, bench, etc.
Also like the idea on eggchasers pod of the two packs standing on a weigh bridge pre game!

Sale v Leicester on itv this afternoon. Sale hitting some form, tigers on a rare losing run! Could be a good game. Weather is good for a change.
Rob de Preez at centre though. Get rid of manu and get someone in with the cash to cover instead of using this guy! Worse hands than me and I’ve got arthritis

Last night I looked on flight radar to see why a helicopter was flying laps of our valley and saw a small jet heading our way. Was about to text my pal in Glasgow and say ‘I never knew you could fly Glasgow to La Rochelle, why haven’t we done that’ when I realised it was clearly the La Rochelle team flying in for the game tonight. Luckily my wife didn’t realise how close she was to Victor Vito for a few minutes or she might have come over all funny

Calshot is a wicked track, my mate Chester is one of the coaches you might come across. The drop off coming out of the banking is quite a thing to get used to! No way I’d race on it but it was fun to have a go on. Chester stood on the edge of the track run off and I was able to get a photo of my shoulder above his head on the banking!

If it did you wouldn’t have indoor wooden tracks- it’s almost impossible to get round on a freewheel! Outdoor tarmac and concrete which are bigger and less steep are fine, but indoor wood 250m or less tracks wouldn’t work.

You’ve hit on my very niche knowledge area with this question. I have no further threads to make useful comments on but ask me about track all day!

I’m interested in the ebike commute as currently I go 3-4 days per week by normal bike and it kills me for Friday- Sunday when I could be riding for fun. I have got fitter since riding every day but still, 6-8 hours a week is a fair bit of riding.
I wonder if an e bike for commutes would mean I’d turn those junk but tiring miles into easier spinning recovery/ base and then be fresh enough to do some harder rides on my days off?

Yeh I think it’s also about even pressure at all times, which leads to more grip for the tyres- if you freewheeled into the banking or touched your brake you’d come down potentially- whereas with fixed you can ride quite slow but because the pressure is very even you keep grip.
We tried riding freewheel singlespeeds for a giggle once and it didn’t work and the GB sprinters did briefly use them for standing starts to work on gaps in the stroke of their power- but they had a closed track to slowly freewheel round and a coach to catch them when it was time to stop!
Also it’s worth noting that top bmx riders had higher max power scores than top track sprinters- Marcus Bloomfield topped the chart around Beijing time (I think, might have Olympic cycles wrong) over team sprint man 1 Jamie Staff who obviously was also a bmx rider in the past, and a good few watts more than Chris Hoy who was aiming at longer efforts and slightly easier start as man 3 uses the bank a little and gets some draft up to max speed.

Started but didn’t finish ronde von chinley route yesterday, run today. Family trip to London tomorrow so might be a missed day

https://www.mayeractive.co.uk/dirty-nocka-2022
These guys have a couple of events on at Cannock in winter/ spring that might be fun. A winter xc with lots of different categories and not all racing together so less being lapped by elites, and a 3/6 hour multi lap event in march

Maybe BC should put effort into supporting a regular organiser at Dalby and Cannock. Ride the World Cup/ commonwealths course has some appeal to me and they’re both venues near some large populations.

We tried finding a venue or venues in our local area and drew a massive blank- it’s hard to find an accessible venue with some existing trails where you don’t need to cross major paths or roads, no bridleways issues and not likely to get your car robbed

Could you not do xc racing at most trail centres using the easier trails and some fire roads? Eg Leeds bike park I rode for 2 hours in summer for xc trg without any jumps etc. That could accommodate a really fun race but maybe at the expense of other users?

The lurgy has finally got me properly. This always happens at the end of my racing/ focus season. I’ll have to add on a couple of days, or does starting early count?
Hoping I’m better to mtb to work on Wednesday and ride ronde von chinley course route on Thursday

They are a lot of ££ but it strikes me so is every similar bike? I’m torn between one of these and more trail hardtail. I can’t decide if one of these will make my local Marple/ peaks trails feel too easy?

I already have a Scott scale that’s fine but has non tubeless rims and rubbish suntour fork so could keep that for xc, gravel rides, marathons and have a new bike for local trails and longer marathons if needed.

Will I regret a full sus given I can’t jump, don’t ride trail centres more than once a year, etc?

6km run yesterday which is longest run for me since coming back to it from severe nerve pain issues. Gym in the afternoon then 1.5 hr mtb spin today round the Roman lakes/ Mellor climbs. Getting a slight cold so I took it easy, enjoyed the sun and getting slightly better at downhills!

Nice place for a walk!
Yoga and physio last night for me and mtb fitness metcon circuits tonight. Doing a big event at weekend has taken it out of me! Back on the bike tomorrow

Thursday and Friday are my days off but as I’ve got a big ride on Sunday I took it easy which feels like a waste of a riding day!
Thursday- cleaned and rebuilt my bike for Sunday, did 30 mins of strength side mobility stretches off YouTube and an upper body workout in the evening

Friday- 1hr10 spin on road bike to loosen up which actually ended up being quite quick and it didn’t rain!

I’m looking to add one of those skateboard style balance boards, a proper pull up bar in addition to my beastmaker climbing holds that I use now, and a weight vest. Those bits should keep me busy for next 83 days!

Heaviest rain I’ve seen for a while yesterday for an hour riding in the dark, followed by more heavy rain on and off for lunch time duty. At least it was sunny and cool to ride home (in wet gear!)

Gym in the sunshine with the worlds road race on my phone for me. Not bad

Group ride for me with two very fast uphill lads and one very very fast downhill lad so 3hrs of pushing it on both ends! Nice to ride with other people for a change, no way I’d have done all those climbs without.

I’ve started this way too hard! 100km sportive at weekend that was really 140km when we rode there and back, gym on Monday, long commute Tuesday and Wednesday so 2 hours a day, fast 5km run Thursday for no good reason and today 3hr15 on mtb. Week on Sunday I have a 95km gravel event so it’d be good to have an easy yoga day next week!
If I keep this mileage up I might actually be ok when the xc season comes back round