There’s an area not far from mine, they have a Facebook page, I joined as I occasionally work over that way. Everyday a keyless car stolen, top of the tree lately are focus/fiesta st’s, Land Rover evoque things, audi’s I could go on.

Police recommend that you use the old steering locks we had back in the 90’s, leaving your keyless card in the microwave, the thieves have a device which boosts the signal between the key and the car, it then copies the code and they use it to just drive off.

Ford and others deny there’s an issue but it seems there’s a massive issue with new cars.

I wonder if any of the bikes get returned after the initial 12 months and if they do what do they do with them?

I’ve been doing more road as it’s just easier to hop on the bike, 6 miles down the road I’m out the city and I’m the countryside. Plan to road ride Sunday and hopefully trains depending back on the mtb Monday.

Thanks all, intervals sound like a good idea, and there’s a couple of good hills.

Saw a biker out today just riding uphill then smashing down and then up again with his dog running up and down with him.

Diet wise it’s difficult but that’s something I know I need to work on.

Possibly took the wrong bike today, the plus bike is fun to ride and i find it more fun than my camber to ride, but in hindsight the camber would of been a better choice to take out today.

Mines a 6s, turns out the first batch had battery issues, mine randomly died after a full charge, once I plugged it in it showed 70% charge again was a pain.

Here’s the link if yours is included:

https://www.apple.com/uk/support/iphone6s-unexpectedshutdown/

Varying amounts of hellos or had waves from the bars what I’ve found out today is if you have a mechanical no one stops to ask if you want help, or if your ok, and I mean no one.

I had a double puncture hit a pot hole at speed, just didn’t see it until too late, not good!

On the mtb, Wales or Scotland or even just a blast round Cannock you stop have the bike upside down 90% of passing bikers will stop say hi do you need anything, on the road no one.

I remember a day out at Afan, some how my brother blew a tyre, shredded it pieces in one bit, I used cable ties to hold it together, a passing biker had masking tape (no idea why) helped patch it up to get him back to the centre. Mtb’ers always much more helpful and friendly!

Apple did mine under warranty, took them an hour, head phone socket plays up at times now.

Started with trek, as a kid I wanted one, when I got one a few years back it was great a had a 6500, it was the right bike, then got a fuel ex7 but it felt short, tried another a few years later and the fit was wrong. So no more trek’s, so where did I go? Specialized, they just fit perfectly! Currently I have 3, work commute crosstrail, a fuse and camber, my next bike will probably be another speshi.

I aspire to owning an orange 5 or 4, I just can’t justify the money :(

The biggest thing is I started off at 16 now 40, a Saturday job that turned into a career. It’s a pity my degree is slightly out of date, computer science has moved on loads in the last 20 years!

Thanks all, I think sometimes you think I just sell tins of beans but when you break it down I do a fair bit more. Might adjust my cv!

Yep, we saw that last time, one of our night managers got screwed over, ended up staying until the last day but lost his lined up job.

I test rode a stache and the fuse, as I shorty I thought the stache was a little too tall at the front. The fuse is a great bike although I will agree with MBR it can be a bit harsh on the ride. But saying that it’s my go to bike I’ve got the expert version? Green/yellow with manitou forks, they are the best forks I’ve ever had or possibly best set up.

It’s the cost of the electrics which push it up, I paid £275 for mine fitted 3rd party, Citroen dealer wanted that for just the electrics then another £325 for the tow bar, it’s not cheap. I checked my last car the dealer ripped the old tow bar off before reselling it.

My next car will be trying to get it all in one price.

Sometimes you have no choice, our house has a train line intersection at the back fairly busy but has great clear skies at night, probably the first time I’ve lived in the city and and see the stars. The front well 2 streets off an industrial estate. It’s a bit grim, why did we buy it?

The house was perfect for our needs except parking, we could afford it, we spoke to the neighbours they seem friendly enough, if we hadn’t we would of ended up buying a flat as nothing in the last 12 months has come close.

I did but I had to avoid, I do long drives or virtually nothing and at times the car can sit idle for 3 months so I went petrol last time round.

I said before I work for stresco, as a dept manager, just survived the last cull of managers possibly a reprieve until Dave Lewis wants to save more pennies. Hate the job but have no idea what I want to do when I grow up, 40 next year and I have 24 years service, all from a part time job!

I worry about when / if I get made redundant, bumped into an old work colleague today, years ago he used to be my boss, then both on the same level, he lost his job in November he is a broken man, no swagger or confidence all gone, I don’t want that.

Ours are pretty good, except they steal my parking spot but as it’s a road I don’t have a leg to stand on, old fashioned thinking I should be able to park outside my own house!

We have an end terraced house so the one side there’s a 4ft gap, never hear a peep from them as they work nights, whole family does including there son which is a bit odd but they seem happy enough, if they take a parcel in it takes a week to get it back due to shifts. The house other side family 3 kids, 2 cars hence parking issues, old style street with no front gardens well not big enough for cars, council refused dropped curbs, the only peep we get is through them shouting at the kids, a few summer BBQs beers passed over the fence in exchange, they take numerous parcels in for us, and vice versa.

Massive difference to our flat, guy opposite was dealing drugs as was woman in flat below, police raids at 2am once a month, 4 flats per floor, the 3 ours all had kids, varying age 3-10, 7 kids in all, playing football, screaming, shouting, fighting, etc in the hallway, downstairs complained to the council several times leading to us being blamed as we had no kids. Ironic thing about it apart from the noise and issues it was a nice place to live, no burglaries or car theft as we all knew who to blame, as they say don’t shit on your own doorstep!

I took a demo of the stumpy, my previous camber 26er was an impulse buy, wanted to make sure I was right, part of me wishes I had kept the 26er as it’s such a good bike and tbh when riding the new 29er I don’t notice the difference, well just the one and that’s the newer 29er fitting me better, I had a med 26er and now a small 29er.

Anyway yep the stumpy the frame front triangle is the same on the alloy models, just the travel, after riding a stumpy I loved the ride but thought for my mincing round the forests had too much travel, so took a gamble on the camber.

Should of said mines the alu comp version, couldn’t afford the carbon :(

My 2016 has the same internal routing as the carbon one above.

We got a direct train in on Chiltern Trains so have always needed to pay for additional underground usage around zones 1-2, talking to the other half she has 2 contactless bank cards so will use them, saved £12 not much but every penny and all that!

Booked the train ticket ages ago, paid £20 return from Solihull, cheapest tickets, the underground pass was the same at £12.60 on top back in November as it is now.

I don’t have a contactless card. Use my iPhone? If linked to my bank account?

I’ve got the 29er 2016 model, only reason I didn’t get the 650b was it was delayed into the uk.

I’ve said loads of times the 29er is an awesome all day bike, I really rate mine, still bog standard although tempted by some pikes at 140mm mine didn’t come with a dropper but has the internal routing for one.

I’ve been looking at the fiesta, but round my way they are highly sought after by thieves for the st and the eco model, that hikes the insurance up, and as I have a ds3 at the moment was curiously looking at the new new c3 which looks pretty great, and have already found 4 nearly used ones just over £11k which is a bit of a bargain running the 1.2ltr 110bhp engine, just seems a step down from my 1.6 ds3 but saying that can’t see any nearly new cars without these eco engines.

Have a look round for an old focus, should do the job if you find a good one.

Saw these on facebook, the stage 5 looks perfect for my style of biking, I just don’t have that sort of money to drop on a bike, if they do a frame only version or a low end budget one I could be seriously tempted, just depends on cost plus I was looking at a stumpjumper as my next bike and they come in small which the Orange doesn’t they seem to fall out with us shorties on there 29ers!

Running spesh ground control 3.0 on mine, not had a puncture yet, although when the weather changes a bit I move to my other bike will be going tubeless, just need some down time for a bit.

I use John Lewis, no idea’s on claims but they cover my named bikes and house contents, insurance for mobiles out and about usual stuff comes in at £17 a month. Came about as previous insurer Bradford and Bingley wouldn’t insure my postcode when I moved house, only moved 2 miles down the road!

I’m already running deore hydro discs.

Thanks! I had forgotten about those and keep forgetting at its core it essentially a mountain bike design.

So my crosstrail is a hybrid, not gravel? Saying that it’s a great bike, rode 30 miles on the road to Cannock, ftd on it, then back to Birmingham then canals home, surely that’s the essence of a gravel bike?

I remember one ride at Cannock went through a cassette, chain, both jockey wheels, 2 sets of brake pads, it was the most expensive day out biking ever! It was raining, muddy, sandy, great ride but soul/wallet destroying!

Glentress, so instead of turning right half way up the hill towards spooky wood, keep going and the trail will reveal? It’s not on the trail map but looks official rather than cheeky?? Heading that way in the summer! Hopefully twice if I can convince the oh!

Sorry off topic, glentress, as you climb the fire road towards spooky wood as you enter the forest last bit of climb to the left there’s a trail, what is it? Up or down where does it lead to? Always wondered!

Back to topic, Cannock mud destroys a bike :(

I have about 45% of my earnings left after bills, not including food as that changes week to week depending on shift work.

I spend far too easy on, new trainers, jeans (yes over 30!!) lots of rubbish. This year the plan is to save, really save. I set up a save as you earn through work not much but a nominal amount which I can cash in for a new bike every 2 years that’s my biking sorted.

Reason for saving? well we have an old house 1910, it needs work and if I and my OH keep spending the way we are, will never get the house how we want it. Don’t get me wrong its not bad, its more than liveable but we want the attic converted for storage, new bathroom etc.. so savings started this month. We spent all my savings last year on new windows, had the extension fully repointed as it was pretty bad, had the drains repointed as well as pretty sure water was coming under the house.

How to stop? well told the OH no more shopping center trips on days off, we need to do stuff round the house, go for a bike ride or just a walk down the canals, cheap days out, proper together time rather than stupid shopping.

Yep we had to do the same last year when we got ours, once the first payment went out I was pretty much on the solicitors case every day to get the completion sorted.

Turns out the sellers where dragging there heels as they moved to Ireland and my timescales didn’t meet there’s. Luckily? I had one of those solicitors that if the sale fell through I get the next set of fee’s wiped out so they worked to our timescales, last thing they wanted was to work for free the second time round.

I’ve said before I work for the blue supermarket, but cost cutting is a joke on maintenance issues, yet we spend millions on crap like davids hot curry.

Prime example is the main back up freezer door, its a big old door with heated surround, safety exit lever etc…a fair cost. The door has been there 20 years maybe and developed a crack meaning it wasn’t keeping the cold in. We had snow on the roof of the freezer which was nice in the Christmas season. Called the maintenance team out to sort, they sent a specialist company for the doo, the assessment was door needed replacing plus all the extra’s needed fixing as the door was on its last legs.

So what did we do, yep get the door refurbed, £100 cheaper than a new door but likely to fail again within 5 years, crazy cost cutting.

Only visited Lanzarote (8 maybe 9 times) and Fuerteventura, the later was a disaster of a holiday other half broke her ankle on the beach, so I had 2 weeks to myself. Back then my fitness was poor, I had a road bike but with the winds and distance between towns it just wasn’t enjoyable, the beaches at Jandia was stunning and great for a day or 2.

Lanzarote I really enjoyed, beaches yes imported but small and friendly places to be, road riding its doable to do the entire island in a day and then find different routes. The weather in the winter wasn’t too bad. I do recall one day which caught me out, took the hire bike which is really easy to arrange in Lanzarote, rode out of the resort into the volcano parks. The weather changed from stunning sun to thunder, heavy rain, probably the best storm I’ve ever seen. I was caught in a small town no where to shelter, one of the locals took me to a local café, let me bring the bike in and shelter from the rain. Its wasn’t ridable as drain covers popped up and floods across the streets. Its always the terrible weather conditions that make the best rides!

When you say old you mean the floorbase same as c2 or ds3? If it’s the later then yep no problem, I had one and loved it, great car very French and very comfy on the road, why did I get rid? No power! Nothing, it was terrible on the hill climbs.

If it’s the older c2 based one, inside terrible, rattles like a baby’s rattle, but yep will take 2 bikes wheels off.

The Birmingham one got broken into yesterday, a few bikes robbed.