I’m seeing the surgical team on Thursday to work out what they are going to do to fix my rotator cuff, the scan showed a significant tear but it’s not 100% clear how much damage there really is. I’ve had 8 hands on sessions of physio with a physiotherapist that has 30 years experience of shoulders and the improvement in movement is tiny but there’s no reduction in pain hence heading to the surgeons!

Looks like with this and a ‘fairly’ urgent bladder op looming I will be out of action until spring!

Obviously slating them on social media but beyond that I’m not sure what options are open to me.

Not sure you can do anything else and I doubt ^ will make any real difference

I live a few miles south of Winchester and have some nice trails within 5 minutes of the house, plus it’s easy to get to other places, Bournemouth, Southampton, Portsmouth, New Forest and Swinley is only 45 minutes away.

Housing is a bit pricy but that’s because it’s a ‘nice’ place to live I guess.

All good stuff and yes I will need to take a couple of test drives. Main though on diesel for towing was to do with diesel’s generating more torque but a suitable petrol would be my preference.

My last drive in an auto was in the USA about 20 years ago and things have moved on it seems :-)

Was hoping to go for something small and sporty but my 13 year old son is now 6′ tall and plays a full size tuba so big estate or SUV type car needed!

Thanks for the comments.

My 2015 T-130 Works was 13Kg when new before I swapped a few bits about, are the 2017 bikes really a whole 1Kg heavier or is the kit on mine light?

At aged 29 I was diagnosed with testicular cancer, had the op and the usual treatments and all seemed OK. By 7 months in I’d had 7 lots of surgery due to cascading complications and lost around 4 stone in weight.

I was lying in a hospital bed feeling really unwell and overheard the consultant telling the more junior doctors that I had liver and kidney failure and he had know idea why! He also said he thought I had about a week or so if they couldn’t get my liver to function!

Eventually the junior registrar worked out that I’d been abroad about 3 months before I was diagnosed and that I had a fairly rare but aggressive bug, the correct antibiotics and fluid regime allowed me to recover although it was another 4 months before I was able to ride a bike!

I bought the Parktools one years ago and it’s still going strong so good value over a lifetime of use?

Did it 21 years ago and it wasn’t very popular then! If it looks like the above pic I’d not bother. If it’s permit and not too many people at a time go very early as it’s a bit of a trek, we did it in just over 12 hours round trip with about an hour at the ‘summit’

I’m having physio for a torn rotator cuff and damage to my neck. I’ve already had an MRI – back in Jan – and I know I have two bulged discs.

When I had the MRI the radiographer said “you’ve got two bulged discs but your fracture looks to be nice and stable” which was a bit of a surprise as I wasn’t aware I’d fractured my neck!

I’d get an MRI if at all possible.

25 + bank holidays best I’ve ever had although my sister works for the civil service and gets 35 + bank holidays!

The bit that shocked me is that the BMI has been negotiating a revised deal for a year and it’s still not agreed and ‘may’ be done by the autumn! How much has this cost and what % of NHS staff are covered by the new agreement?

+1 I love night riding – especially solo

I never really think about it (the risk) I just go out and ride

Results of x-ray show no fractures so still in the queue to see someone from the oddly named Orthopedic Choice!

Started to see a physio, shoulder specialist, who says I’ve got a partial tear of my rotator cuff. Am going to do 2 x physio sessions a week and by the time I get to my hospital appointment he’ll know if it can be fixed without surgery. Had 6 weeks off the bike and looking at another 3 – 4 months as my neck injury also needs fixing :-(

@ghostlymachine sound advice BUT if you don’t have a fracture which requires immediate treatment you get shoved into the queue for orthopedics. I damaged my arm & shoulder on 12th June but didn’t actually break any bones, my referral from the GP (which was like getting blood out of a stone even though I can barely move my arm) has a first review set for 15th September!

I’m fairly sure, from experience, that I have rotator cuff damage but not having private health care I just have to wait. As I’ve had another x-ray to confirm no fracture I can at least see my local sports physio and try and get the arm moving again.

I know, from first hand experience, how good the NHS is if you have a life threatening injury but if you don’t it can take a very long time to get anything fixed.

Where abouts in Southampton is this?

40% of the original cost – sadly the upgrades don’t add a lot in my experience

Personally I would say nothing until you have a written offer.

My boss holds grudges and thinks anyone who wants to leave is dis-loyal so the last guy that did it got his cards marked and ended up on performance review before being ousted!

Mine went well and I did the physio and was back on the bike after 2 weeks doing gentle rides, I had mine done privately and arranged it to avoid the worst of the mud so as to keep the load/strain down. I guess I was back up to full effort after ~6 weeks. HTH

Any update @nsbikescore1?

Is the EVS brace only suitable for sports or would it help my day to day coping with my office job?

I’m supposed to be family camping so would the brace make much difference? Initial diagnosis is vague: mis-sharpen clavicle (bent) and my AC joint is an “odd shape”. Waiting on consultant to review findings.

My 14 year old Focus hasn’t had working air-con for about 6 years, it makes lots of noise because the manifold to exhaust junction moves a bit, one window doesn’t wind down anymore and it squeaks from various places.

I’ve driven it for about the last 8 years but now my wife’s using it as I have the longer journey so I take our diesel car she takes the petrol Focus.

I’ve wanted to replace it for about 3 years, 1 week after starting to drive it and finding out that only the left hand speakers work and the radio often turns itself off my wife thinks it’s time to swap it for something ‘newer’.

:-)

Makes my day look good TBF. I had an xray of my shoulder today for the injury I sustained on June 12th this year, looks like I have a bent clavicle (no idea that this was possible) and an AC joint that “looks wrong”. Eventually got to work and had a really dull day.

Compared to OP and Mboy seems like mine was a near perfect day.

Hope it improves for you both.

Just remember the early diagnosis is key, I had a malignant melanoma on my leg removed 6 years ago and It’s all fine now even though I ended up with a nasty infection because the wound split.

Hope it goes well, try and go to any appointments if you can so you know first hand what’s been said/diagnosed.

Cheers will compare the two types

Bump in the hope someone might be able to help

I love my Whyte FS and my Bird HT and both companies have been excellent to deal with. Worst was probably Cannondale (circa 2000) who took 6 months to acknowledge that the Coda brakes were prone to failure!

Both of my M3s (E30 & E36 so a few years ago) were hard on their tyres, I once managed to kill the rears on the E36 in 6,000 miles although that did include 2 track days!

My 2.0 Tdci C-Max, oh how family life changes certain things, last about 12,000 – 14,000 or so miles on Mitchelns although I don’t go for the ‘sport’ versions.

@pipiom OK not saying it’s not worth it but I too can’t get insurance due to testicular chance 22 years ago and skin cancer 6 years ago!

@pipiom £5.5k is quite a wedge of cash did you have private medical cover?

So the referral letter arrived today – 8 weeks wait for a scan then 18 week wait for treatment!

I know it’s a minor injury and self-inflicted but that’s a long time to have limited use of my arm!

Had an off at BPW on June 12th when the bushing on the lower link of my shock failed and locked up the rear of the bike resulting in me high siding @ ~20mph about 100 metres from the cafe on the last run of the day!

So three weeks later the hole in my arm is nearly healed up, the scraped skin is healing well but my shoulder and arm are still very painful (I’ve had a few broken bones in my time and it’s on parr with that) with limited movement.

The GP has requested an MRI of my neck to check that my existing bulged discs (5 & 6) are not more damaged and an ultrasound for my shoulder/arm to see if my rotator cuff is damaged. Guessing this is the most likely diagnosis – what are the main symptoms of a torn rotator cuff?

I’m guessing I’m looking at a long time off the bike as at present I can’t pull the brake lever as my hand doesn’t work when holding the handle bar!

We have 3 teams on call 17:30 – 09:00 weekdays & 24 hours at weekends/bank holidays and the payments are:

Mon – Fri – Flat rate of £40 per day + 1.5 hourly rate for callouts
Weekend – Flat rate of £50 per day + 1.5 hourly rate for callouts
Bank holidays – Flat rate of £50 + 1.5 hourly rate for callouts + callout time as TOIL

1 team has does 1 week in 6
1 team does 1 week in 4
1 team does 1 week in 5

I do 47 out of 52 weeks as 2nd line/management support with a salary adjustment which is less than the above but still decent money.

For each individual it’s sometimes seems like not much money but the cost to the company P.A. is substantial.

When I joined my current company the on call teams didn’t have any extra payments so the above was/is seen as OK.

Bird Zero TR or Whyte 905

Yep we found this bit “The refurbished Freeride section at the top of the Twrch is running really fast” thinking it was the main trail, rode it 3 times and survived :-)

I’ve got the Garmin Forerunner 225 and it’s excellent, slightly big on my tiny wimpy wrists but otherwise flawless so far ~ 3 months

I have a maxxraxx very impressed

+1

We ended up doing CwmCarn on Friday which was excellent followed by a 6 hour route in the Elan Valley on Sat finishing at BPW on Sunday. An excellent weekend all round despite a suspension failure high siding me 100m from the cafe at BPW – last run syndrome!

Interesting point, a ex-policeman friend says that they won’t bother to pull you over for this as it’s to much hassle/paperwork. The insurance company would probably ignore this unless the police were involved.

I had a bike on my rack with my number plate and lights clearly visible when I was re-ended, the insurers never asked if the lights were working even though the person who ran into me said they didn’t see my brake lights.

Crap we’re there on Sat as part of a 3 day weekend!

We’re riding at Afan on Sat so good news if the cafe has improved since we were last there in Jan of this year. Heading to a B&B so not quite so worried by the showers but agree it’s a bit poor but that’s the cost of the government’s obsession with the deficit and reducing it quickly.