How many STWers are BC members and have asthma? Got a TUE for that inhaler? I bet I have consumed something that I shouldn’t have whilst a BC member.

Remember, asthama inhalers no longer require a TUE (common misconception!)

That being said, I’m sure there are plenty of examples of amateurs riding mid-pack on medically prescribed drugs which they haven’t gone to the formality of getting a TUE for, or taken something “out of competition” which would never get a TUE in any event.

No matter whether they are pro or amateur, front of the pack or back of the pack, some people are just driven by being the “best” they can be.

Apart from the harm you’re doing to your body, its not really that different to the masses of riders who are well over-biked. They want to find an artificial means of getting one over some of their competitors.

Irrespective of whether you think the National 12 was a “big deal” or not (as someone who can’t win it), if someone thought they were capable of being in the mix I’m sure there are enough personality types that would happily seek all means possible. We all like to win stuff, its just some people are happier to make bigger sacrifices / take bigger risks to achieve it.

Even mid-pack, I’m sure there are enough people who would be perfectly happy to dope to achieve milestones in road time trialling etc.

(For the record, whilst I can understand it, I don’t think it makes it any less wrong. But in the case of mid-pack riders there is the argument that they are only cheating themselves etc etc)

Lake district on the way up to Scotland? As a one off, Helvellyn comes into play (did that with 15 year old, he’s fit and capable, I’m not!), and the trail centres at Whinlatter and Grizedale are on the doorstep. Could be v. busy in the summer though.

Could you not have ebayed them for say ~£100 as “used other” noting the lack of any warranty, but still undercutting the supposed ‘market value’ you’d still be saving someone else ~£130ish and recouping some of the cost of your son’s replacement a bit?

I did think that, but went down the zero hassle route. Though to be fair I did expect them to go back into stock at a price similar to the one I bought them at.

If anyone does need them, I think its fair to assume that the “warehouse” stock item is the set I received, so they’d be a good bet.

And yes, these were Amazon product (at least, not marketplace or other third party sales).

I’m not surprised about it, just nice to see it in action.

I think when I posted the link the product was in stock (not the “used” item), though might be wrong.

Of course, the important thing is the forks are working again!

New only? We had the old style Picasso bought precisely on the basis of having three full sized adult seats in the back to accommodate three car seats.

Got rid of that when we had the fourth (!), but fortunately the first had outgrown car seats by then.

Ended up with a Fiat Multipla which also fits the “three at the back” bill, and avoided having to put anyone in the boot area of a cheap-ish MPV like a Zafira.

Fortunately the Multipla has lasted 8 years now (only one left in a car seat now) as they don’t make ’em any more. Nice wide roof too, so this summer on the way to the Alps we had three bikes on the roof, plus a roofbox, and four bikes on a towball mounted carrier, plus 6 people inside. Suspension travel wasn’t great…

With current regulations (and to be honest, best practice) with regards to child seat safety laws in the UK, you’re well advised to think through the car choice when #3 is on the way. Baby seats fit fine, but the older seats for 2-8 year olds can get quite wide so plenty of cars can’t fit them across the back. I don’t know about you, but I’d rather have a car that can carry my offspring safely than compromise their safety by forcing you to go down the “booster seat” route earlier than necessary.

(I bought one as I couldn’t find a Go Pro adaptor that didn’t end up with the light sitting way too high on the head)

This http://www.magicshineuk.co.uk/bike-lights/mj-6028-helmet-mount-for-mj-808e.html would do the job equally well I’d imagine. Cheaper versions on ebay too.

I’ve got one currently in use on a Bell Super R, works fine.

What bike is DM riding, btw? Other than a Santa Cruz, obvs.

Really good to see the outtakes too – you imagine he can land a bike onto a train rail every time he attempts it; clearly not! Puts into context how hard some of the tricks are to pull off if he’s missing them.

Also, kudos for being able to bale (see what I did then?) so effectively when it goes wrong. If could guarantee baling out like that perhaps I’d be less fearful of 30cm drop offs!

Doubt its the touchscreen that kills the battery, more usually its backlit screen on which is the power hungry use. I can see an aversion to touchscreen if you struggle to use it, but power draw I’ve not heard before as a reason to avoid them.

[Edit: And now, having googled, I find I am wrong! http://www.laptopmag.com/articles/dont-buy-a-touch-screen-laptop Interesting, never thought about this before]

I think its an integrated cup with an interference fit bearing into the cups. Not sure whether it is technically “pressed” or just a snug fit. I hadn’t planned on doing much with it but the bearing came apart when I cleaned it up, so simply expected to be able to extract the old bearing and get the new one in place.

I’ve no experience with this sort of headset though.

Cheers – I guess its difficult to understand some of this “feel” when the parts on the bike you ride don’t change too much, and budget means you’re changing big hitting parts rather than incrementally changing other bits. Good to hear your experience, thanks!

I’m always intrigued (and usually remain silent) when components and their flex is discussed.

Does there really come a point when the flex in the suspension, the tyre and the rim are ramped up to such a high level that there is any genuinely noticeable flex in the bar that a human can detect?

Asthma can kill you, particularly when brought on by exertion.

There seems a lot of love for the Marin trail here, I was a bit “meh” when I went last year. Perhaps I’m just less in love with capable at more natural cross country riding. On the plus side, there’s no single 3 mile slog up a firetrack as at Llandegla, on the downside very few of the technical sections really felt that long.

Having said that, it was being ridden after a long day out doing something else, so perhaps my view is tainted. I do remember the last section raising more of a smile than the rest of the route together.

Got caught out a couple of times last night with 90deg bends on small country roads suddenly appearing due to the lights being a little too focussed on the near-distance rather than the middle-distance. Enjoyably quiet, but in all honesty prefer an evening ride in the summer dusk. Don’t mind nocturnal riding, but it is nicer to be able to see more than just straight ahead.

Well, the only people “liable” are the tenants it would seem – for doing something negligent. But in flats its not always clear and particularly as the damage is part buildings and part contents you may end up with two separate claims. Or maybe you’ll just claim against the tenants for the contents damage, and the LL will have to separately claim against them (or use his own insurance) for the buildings damage.

BUT

Sometimes you’ll find that your buildings / contents insurer will handle the claim for you (in the same way that car insurers will sort your car out and then make the counter claim against the other party if they were at fault). It would certainly be worth asking your insurers if that is a service they provide.

https://goo.gl/photos/d37fDjqfxdUAjGyK7

Hopefully this links to three photos of the current hubs.

Got my Mavics confused – current wheels are Crossone which I think are dedicated QR hubs based on a brief close inspection tonight.

I’ll post photos on the thread in case I’m mistaken.

Cheers, was hoping that might be the answer!

Family and I got caught at the bottom of the Lindarets lift below Avoriaz over the summer as a light rain shower turned into a deluge and thunderstorm.

Whilst it was still a deluge, I decided to run up the road to the car (parked at the Avoriaz carpark at the top). When the lightning started, I decided sticking out my thumb for a friendly native was the best option – rather be in a faraday cage (car) than be the one sticky up thing on a road on a mountainside in a thunderstorm.

(Friendly native family did pick me me, very grateful to them!!)

Windows Movie Maker is simple and effective (and free)

Very balanced and thoughtful. Good effort by WMP.

+1 for the “why do you need to bleed brakes” themes.

I’ve always found anything cable related much harder work. I’m probably incompetent, but that makes hydro discs a much more welcoming prospect for me. Though I probably have crap rip brakes too.

In a spirit of conciliation, I’m sure I’m not alone in having made at least one mistake whilst driving (though I don’t drive buses or anything larger than a family car). It could be the case that this driver has just made his one, in an otherwise blemish-free driving career.

Having said that, I bet Sky’s drivers have all received a memo this morning – and nothing wrong with that.

I suppose its more that the chinguard and the helmet top now look out of sync – whilst it doesn’t “matter”, there’s an argument that it shouldn’t lose colour like that as dramatically or quickly as it has.

If the retailer / manufacturer said “get stuffed” to a replacement, I wouldn’t complain.

I was asking more in case others had had the same experience and perhaps now “knew” that there was some sort of manufacturing issue that Bell were aware of.

Happy with mine (this year’s style), bought in same size as I wear other shoes (8s) and fit fine.

Son had last year’s model which had some nice little bike touches (laces off centre / protected from catching etc), he loves his too – though the stealth sole has now been ripped to shreds after many hours with his NanoX pedals / pins.

I wear mine every time I’m on a bike not clipped in, and they’re great for day to day use too – a bit stiff and flat, but after about 10 minutes you don’t notice that tbh.

Hmm, only had this one since Christmas, its the “infrared” colour scheme.

Perhaps worth thinking about contacting the retailers…

Depends on price point, but I’d buy if I was in the market for broken shifters.

Just the fact that you don’t need to put any force through your thumb to shift the front mech would be enough of a selling point for me compared to the SRAM X5 shifters I’ve got at the moment.

Don’t we need some sort of objective measurement? “According to strava”, UCI has a benchmark for climb categories – average gradient in % x length of climb. If the answer is > 80,000, thats a HC climb, cat 1 is > 64,000 etc. Minimum gradient to be called a climb is 3%.

https://support.strava.com/hc/en-us/articles/216917057-How-are-Strava-climbs-categorized-For-Rides-

Shouldn’t this conversation have a similarly objective measure?

Not long in the tooth enough yet with tubeless in our household, but local terrain is thorn-rich so there’s probably been on average one puncture every 2 weeks on tubes. With ghetto tubeless we’ve not punctured any since, though had a couple of burps and sealant loss which went back up straightaway with a standard small handpump.

Carrying a tube, tyre levers and pump anyway for anywhere where we might be > 5km from the car as pushing for that sort of distance isn’t fun anyway!

Only Froome could look to take time today with a decent as he achieved in the TdF. Predict no change at the end of today.

3 mins is perhaps overkill for NQ to need, but he definitely needs more than 54s.

You might be flogging a dead horse. However, assuming it is a 26 inch bike with a straight steerer tube of 1 1/8, you should be able to pick up a new fork (e.g. http://www.alltricks.com/F-11918-fourches-suspendue/P-66563-rockshox_2015_fork_30_gold_tk_solo_air_26___100_mm_axle_9_mm_steerer_1__1_8__black_poplock ) for less than £200.

However, you might want to test out the equation of spending closer to £400 on something similar to the Calibre Two.Two and trying to sell the Hardrock for £100-ish (don’t know if it would sell at that, just an idea). Whilst the fork you’d end up with won’t be quite as good as the 30 gold TK linked above, overall you’d end up with hydraulic discs, new tyres / wheels, probably a lighter bike overall. More likely to get a smile?

My mother drove into the local car park in her brand new camper van to go to the gym without difficulty.

Trouble was, there was a 2m barrier on the exit side only…

[Space left for blanks to be filled in _____________________ ]

Touch wood, I’ve never yet forgotten I’ve got bikes on the roof. But I’ve usually got passengers when I do so, so 6 pairs of eyes tend to help too.

Google Maps on smartphone now allows offline navigation and downloading of maps (certainly to an area which is perfectly sufficient for cycling). If Google Maps doesn’t float your boat, Nokia’s “Here” maps allows for whole countries to be downloaded and used offline so data access in remote areas isn’t an issue.

A £130 smartphone (e.g. Motorola Moto G4, Google edition) paired with a £20 supplementary battery will do all you need, and a whole lot more and leave you plenty of change to invest in a sturdy and weatherproof bike mount.

Garmins are great for tough weather conditions, but it’s getting harder to argue that their mapping is getting close to keeping pace with that available on smartphones.

Drink to thirst.

Carry a small amount of excess “just in case” (you might be able to help out a fellow MTBer who has forgotten their drink!)

Can’t go far wrong with that.

We spent a few days up at Avoriaz over the last couple of weeks playing mini golf, tennis etc etc. All was very much open and doing good business.

I suspect it’s just open during the summer holiday period, but it was very bustly during the day up there, and we left around 6:30pm when various concerts were starting up and the restaurants were definitely open. Certainly not a ghost town by any stretch, and the car park was ram packed indicating loads of families staying there (you can’t drive around the town so you need to leave the car outside in a free parking area).

But, I wouldn’t stay there when there are so many nicer options staying in a “proper” town rather than a purpose built skiing resort.

Isn’t Prodains only open in afternoons during the summer?

Edit – here’s the opening times – am I misreading this, it suggests that it is open for 2 days in June in the mornings, and then throughout summer in the afternoons, but I suppose an alternative reading could be that it is open mornings and afternoon both for the two days in June and then the summer block too.

http://medias.morzine-avoriaz.com/documents/Ouvertures_ete_2016-2.pdf

Avoriaz is definitely not shut in the summer, having just been up there. But it is just purpose built small skiing apartments in big accommodation blocks. Morzine is a quick up and over, but will be expensive relative to the smaller resorts, certainly.

Somewhere in the Montriond area would be cheaper, and if you’re OK with putting the bikes on the car each morning for a 15 minute drive up to Lindarets you’ll be over in Switzerland before you know it.