Dyson handheld here as well, compared to my old Dyson it’s very easy to use, charge, empty, it’s very effective on carpet and hard floors.

Camelbak Volt seems to be discontinued which is a PITA as I wanted to replace my Mule with something that moved the fluids lower as I have ‘dodgy’ shoulders!

@sandwich 99% of these online comps are to get data for marketing. The opt out is a legal requirement either on the ‘site’ or via an opt out/unsubscribe in the emails you’ll get. But the point is they now have some data :-)

Did my first 45 min session – just riding around – and found myself trying to close gaps and even a feeble attempt at a sprint or two!

As I’ve been off the bike for 7 months I wasn’t unhappy with 16.8 MPH average for the hilly course on the volcano island (Watopia?). Just one session in and I can see myself wanting to do more than via the standard Tacx videos etc.

Cheers theotherjonv & stumpy01 I need some motivation because it hurts to use the turbo as my shoulder is not playing nice! Once I’ve had the op to remove the damaged bursa, a subacromial decompression, the bone spur removed and finally the ACJ removed I think I’ll need a LOT of motivation to get on the turbo :-)

Had my ACJ on the RHS removed about 8 years ago and it wasn’t too bad but the surgeon says the above list might smart a bit :-)

I’ll give Zwift a go.

zilog6128 & Pierre thanks I was hoping someone would say that! So far I’ve been doing a 30 min session at 06:00 – 3 times a week with one 60+ min at the weekend which after 3 weeks has left me a little bored so I think Zwift is worth a go :-)

£8 a month is not a huge amount, my colleague spends that in 2 – 3 days bringing Costa coffees in despite us having great free coffee in the office!

Bought a Tacx Vortex Smart trainer as I’ve been off the bike for 7 months with a shoulder injury, looks like it’ll be 3 – 6 months before I can get back to our group MTB night ride.

So far I’ve only done a few of the free Tacx ‘activities’ but I’m thinking Zwift would be more engaging but I’m poor shape so don’t want to try and start racing straight away – is it worth signing up if I just want to ride and get some leg fitness back?

I am currently just about hold the bars on the road bike on the trainer but once I’ve had the surgery I’ll need to sit upright so racing is at least 4 months away.

Any advice gratefully accepted.

Small donation done

I have a 2015 T1-30 Works, a riding buddy has an Bird Aeris 140 and if I was buying again now I’d go with the Bird.

Having said that i like the Orange Four but the lower spec for the money does make it a hard choice.

Decent distance/terrain test rides are probably the best way to decide, one of them will probably just feel right.

Popular in our office is “CockWomble”

I manage several teams and there are clear policies around how many team members can be off at once. Sometimes is hard to give the bad news but it has to be done as we’re an ‘online’ company so we have to have a minimum staffing level at all times.

Another manager, at the same level as me, approved holiday for his much smaller team and they all ended being off for the same week! He then decided that it was ‘unfair’ that he can’t take every half term off because he has 2 children which apparently trumps my 1 child and a wife who is a teacher, it also trumps a third manager who is a single parent! he also thinks it’s OK to be on holiday and be on call at the same time!

Management is not always the cushy number people think it is!

Waited ages the other day to fill up on the right side. My excuse is I’m waiting for a shoulder reconstruction so dragging the pump to the wrong is literally a pain :-)

Best stag do I ever went to was 20 or so cycling mates of the stag doing a pub crawl on bikes. Highlights include riding at full speed into a bouncy castle and seeing who flipped the furthest, arriving at one of the pubs to be told we were not muddy enough so a vodka chaser became mandatory and a decent curry at the end. Simple pleasures made memorable by the people there.

@allthegear Where did you book that? I’m hoping to book a trip to Barcelona, passport arriving in time allowing, so would appreciate a link. TIA

I took my MackBookPro to the Genius bar, similar failure and out of program, and they ended up replacing the whole thing so that might be worth a try?

Local trails are at the Winchester end of the south downs way and can be very claggy which is not much fun. I ride with a few guys on a weekly night ride and we ride whatever the weather sometime if it’s claggy we avoid the worst but most of the time we just embrace it and let the back wheel slide a bit which for 4 of the 6 of us is fun!

I’d have a friendly chat and show them the documents, I would make it clear it’s your land. If you want to let them use your land then the paperwork and a peppercorn rent is essential. What happens if they sell to someone who is less friendly? In that circumstance you could end up with a load more grief.

I had a similar situation and I ask the insurer to confirm that they were prepared to warranty the frame for the rest of it’s lifetime, i.e match the original warranty. I also asked that if they repaired it and it failed what mechanism would I follow to sue them. This resulted in a new bike :-) HTH

2015 T-130 Works here and it’s a great bike, one of my riding buddy has an Aeris and I was impressed enough with Bird (as a company) to buy a Zero TR frame when I needed (wanted) to swap out my HT. I

think the T-129 is also a very competent bike, I’d guess not having ridden one, that the T-129 would be slightly quicker for ‘pure’ XC and slightly slower/compromised for somewhere like BPW. To be fair for me these bikes are all so good that an ‘average’ rider won’t find any of these bikes limits rather it’s about preference and possibly availability.

If it’s still painful after 10 minutes in cold(ish) running water you should probably get it checked. If you have any blistering or opens sores forming you should go to minor injuries for advice to prevent getting an infection which could probably be much worse than the original burn.

I love my ZERO TR it’s one of the best HTs I’ve owned

Great news OP.

We have a 13 year old son, who is now 6′ 1″ tall, who was conceived by ICSI and IVF. In my case testicular cancer prevented any chance of conceiving naturally, the ICSI procedure also ended up with me now being 100% infertile but it did work! We had to fund everything ourselves and due to complications etc the bill was well over £15k!

I know there are lots of people for whom it doesn’t work out but for many it does but it’s super stressful.

This

Amend saying the problem was dealt with and a refund issued

@mikedabear I have a BRAND NEW RockShox Debonair Plus RC3 for sale, it’s a warranty replacement that I don’t now need. I advertised some time ago but got no replies, what sort of price have you been offered?

Heres’ my shameless plug to the shock I still have for sale :-)

http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/fs-brand-new-rockshox-debonair-plus-rc3

Got one of the Dyson V8 Absolute Cordless Vacuum Cleaner over the Christmas break and it’s very, very good. We have a mix of hard floors and carpeting and it seems to cope incredibly well with both. Just about do the the whole house on 1 charge so gave old wired one away!

Orange 5 if it were me, not had great backup from On One personally and my mate has had really great service from Orange so that would swing it for me.

Shoulder surgery – I can’t ride at present so hoping it’s soon so I can get back on a bike again!

Thanks all, @ton always expected to die on my bike but liking the image of doing so

riding up a nice gentle climb, in the afternoon sun

hopefully when I’m well over 70!

All good stuff thanks, I’m certainly going to attempt carry on. I’ve already backed off so when i crashed in June I was at BPW and had survived the day riding mostly blues with a couple of reds. I was feeling rubbish and had no flow so I was not pushing hard but a suspension failure on the access track back to the cafe was what caused my current injury.

Will probably do a skills course but I already know my limits are lower than 5 years ago, my riding buddies will tolerate me being slow and 30+ years of riding do mean I can be off the bike for a period and it doesn’t take long (but does involve pain) to get back on the tail of the group. My 50th birthday year I was outpacing a 38 year old ‘fitter’ guy up and down our local (not super technical) trails but last year I had extra stuff going on at work and home which affected my riding.

Static trainer is coming in the New Year when I’ve decluttered my garage a bit!

Surgery is irritating because my, private, physio is ex orthopedics department physio and told them i needed surgery back in Sept but I had to go through a long process of assessment and reviews etc. Seeing surgeon on the 9th Jan so hoping to be back on the bike by April with an expectation of getting back to some fitness by June(ish).

Thanks all – I mostly just wanted positive thoughts saying “Don’t give up!”

Only must change on my 2015 Works T-130 was the rear tyre (Ardent Race), it’s perfect for dusty singletrack if you don’t mind a bit of rear wheel drifting but as that’s a bout 1 week a year I stuck a Minion on and enjoyed a huge increase in grip for slightly more drag.

I’ve got a 2015 T-130 Works which has be excellent, the only major issue I had was the shock bushing failing at BPW (luckity on the flat run in to the cafe) which ended in a serious shoulder injury. The rest of the bike has been great, it rides incredibly well and copes with XC night rides, BPW, mid-Wales routes, Brecon Beacon routes and it flies around Swinley.

I’ve had to have bot the reverb and the shock replaced under warranty but that was simple with my LBS swapping out the parts to allow me to ride whilst waiting for the parts to be warrantied.

I’d buy another which is the first bike I’ve ever said that about!

All good stuff thanks for all the info.

Not got the details yet but have a few things to look for now, our current cars are an 11 plate C-Max which my wife uses to get to and from school (she’s a teacher) involving ~25 mile round trip with 50% motorway miles in that. I run a tatty 53 plate Focus.

I suspect, looking at the carpark and the slot for the role I’m looking at that I’ll need something less tatty!

Would be paid with salary so info above helps. Seems likely to be only OKish, mileage would be around 50 miles daily as travel aspect of job is non-UK.

My mother committed suicide at age 46 because she was a single parent with 4 children and had terminal throat and lung cancer. I lost my first wife to breast cancer – she was only 28 – after 4 years of trying to fight it. I had testicular cancer at 29 and then skin cancer at 45. My ‘current’ wife had breast cancer at 48 and such severe septicemia that she literally hung onto life by a thread. I have the early stages of prostrate cancer but very slow growing so no active intervention yet.

Given all that I live my life as I’ve always done, look forward not back (except for today), celebrate the good memories not the bad. I try and make or do at least one thing a week which I would regret not doing if today was my last day.

It’s really really tough dealing with cancer, the aftereffects and even more so if it’s someone close to you.

Good luck to everyone who needs it.

33 days including bank/public holidays
Director of Development (software)
4.5 years in current company

Hoping that the planned buyout will leave me semi-retired so hoping for 60+ days in the near future!

I have a Garmin Forerunner 225 which basically I never take off other than to charge it.

Guess what I grew up listening to:

The Clash
The Damned
Stiff Little Fingers
The Undertones

Then I got to listen to a wider range of stuff:

The Smiths
The House Martins
The Beautiful South

Just realised all but one start with ‘the’

I run 32 oval on the front and a 9-44 rear cassette on my FS
I run 32 round on the front and a 10-42 rear cassette on my HT

I’m about to go 34 oval on the FS as I still spin out a bit on road sections and on the longest (straightish) off road bits we do

Not sure if that helps?

This

Shorts are harder wearing the tights.

especially if you crash a lot :-)

Excellent thanks all