If you require the heat output on a regular basis, a good stove is wonderful. Special occasions only, keep with the open fire. A great atmosphere creator.

Casio G-Shock GBD-H1000. GPS and HRM.

The Rose UK website still looks set up to sell you a bike? Not sure when/if this will happen? Seems strange, a good number of bikes must be imported to UK and no other manufacturer is having difficulty?

I got one after recommendations on here. Fantastic. Like a thick Ortlieb material. Easy to sponge down and dry or brush out, whatever you fancy. Very hard-wearing.

If you are not in immediate need of it I’d recommend sending it back to Rohloff. Exceptional customer service and it will be back to new after a service, giving many more thousands of miles of trouble free cycling. How bad would you feel unintentionally running it dry and really messing it up? Sophisticated bits of equipment liked the Rohloff should be treated with the respect they deserve to get the best out of them.

I’m pretty sure that if you live in Scotland and go to Switzerland, then self isolation for 14 days is required upon return. I don’t believe this to be the case for the rest of the UK though so may not affect you. No guarantee that they may follow though.

I use the ordnance survey app. 20 odd quid a year. Had no issues and works off line too.

Lovely looking bike.👍 Covers a lot of bases. Be ideal coming up for winter too I should imagine.

Has anyone any experience with the MAF training system? It looks like a good way to increase ‘base’ fitness. Does the MAF test ideally have to be done on a track or do you just repeat the monthly test over the same ‘course’ ?

Clicked with excitement that I had missed something. 😆I would love a LWB titanium SF.

Thanks for the input. The associated costs make buying used less attractive as I would like to have it fully serviced so I knew where I stood. As it would be an N+1 purchase I reckon it would see 60 hours riding a year May thru October. Do you think an annual service is still required at that usage?

She rides track competitively. Her coach has always promoted other forms of cycling for peddle time basically. This year she and her friends have taken to MTB to supplement their training. I think that it is her cat like handling skills from track that are saving her blushes on the drops rather than any proper form. Hence the video coaching.

This thread has actually inspired me to try higher drops that I would normally skirt around.

@snooze and @tails. Thank you. They look like good instructional videos. With the plethora available on you tube and me not fully understanding what I’m looking at it is good/bad/indifferent it is nice to get an idea of what others have used to gain results.

Outwell Airville here. I really like it. As said previously you still have to guy line and groundsheet it but it causes so much less arguing I’d buy it for that alone again. Also said earlier which is my only downside is the weight of the thing. So much so that if I know that I’m going to a site which does not allow a car up to the pitch then I have a small sac barrow to lug it with. I wouldn’t go back to poles now.

A few UK dealers around. Biff no longer sadly. Not sure what happened there. Both SWB and LWB models remain current. I’ve ridden both the Jones and Stooge in their various forms.   Jones all day long for me and my style of riding and preferences. Other people will tell you different though, often without trying either. Personal preference is the LWB Plus. It feels gangly against the SF but can do all the same things, and over the course of a 40 miler off road ride I’d say more comfortable. It is not without issue though. Run in with 3.0 tyres and chain tyre/clearance is woeful. When the tyres pick up mud you continually drop the chain. Solution is 2.6 tyres in the slop of winter. 3.0 for rest of year. A fair compromise for what is in other ways an outstanding bike.

Wearing a trainer bra may encourage growth in that area.

Individuals store fat differently, men can store fat around their chest areas. Moobs for example? Maybe hiding out there?

From the updated S and S updated version. Sorry if I misinterpreted your achievements. Crossed wires and misunderstanding on my behalf. Give sinister a go. 😀

Occasionally I’ll use one of the monster size ones, 28kg, to do sumo squats, which always ends up in me being ridiculously stiff in the inner thigh area for days following. Maybe over doing it?

Without knowing your fitness level difficult to tell. The fact that you are using bells already and on a cycling forum indicates a level of fitness. So probably not over doing it at 28kg. More likely muscles just not familiar with the movement pattern or general mobility issues. Google prying goblet squat and try with a 24kg. I think you should find a benefit here. Good luck.

A couple of years back before I got into rock climbing I achieved the “Simple” goal of 100 single handed 32kg swings and 10 Turkish get ups in 15 minutes.

Your achievement is very commendable. Excellent work. The level of GPP from this program is amazing.

Only the ‘Simply timed’ standard is 10 minutes for your swings and TGU@ 32kg. Why did you stop when you got so close?

Not having a go, I got myself to Simple but had to stick to the 6 day schedule as prescribed  and push hard to achieve timed after a further 6 week block at 32kg.

At the OP. Purchase the best bell you can afford. In the UK the benchmark is Wolverson new/ DragonDoor/RKC secondhand. Contrary to the above advice, eBay is a very good source if you know what you are after. I’ve just had a look for you and prices appear to be around £3 a kg which is slightly more than normal, but with limited new stock it seems ok and I myself would be happy to pay. You’ll pay more for competition bells opposed to hard style bells. They are different training methods so the bells reflect that methodology. In short, competition bells remain the EXACT same dimensions regardless of weight. Hard Style bells get bigger with weight. There are very specific training requirements as to why this is the case. No one style is better than the other. Just different styles, like MTB and road cycling, both done on a bike but different. If you don’t intend to compete in kettlebells then save yourself some money and go for Hard Style bells.

If you want any more advice or questions, PM me as I don’t want to bore everyone here with my KB love. Currently working towards gaining my SFG1 KB certified instructor.

3 to 4kg of muscle from riding around an hour or so a few times a week. You’ve found the silver bullet my friend. Get a fitness dvd made and you’ll be a millionaire by Christmas.

Seriously though. 3 to 4kg of muscle is hard to put on without shifting iron regular, if you’ve not been doing that, what gives is your weight gain is fat/water retention. Sorry. Probably not what you wanted to hear.

Athose regularly removing chains to rewax, are you reusing the split links, esp on the likes of 11 and 12 speed where they are supposedly single use ?

I went for these:

Makes cleaning easy

I split my chain regular for cleaning. I use them on a SRAM PCX1 chain. I’d say I’ve split around have a dozen times now. I still need pliers to separate so I have confidence they are good.

Knowing now that I’ll continue to use then my next purchase will be a set of Parks master link pliers as they can assist with both the installation and removal.

Think it may well be another 20 odd years before that effort is bettered. Amazing.

Watch this.

I find these videos excellent for home maintenance.

Epic effort.

A Thomson. Some things are worth paying for.

Looking at a Damascus steel Chinese chopping knife. Not an EDC obviously, but my question applies across the knife board. How do I maintain the specified 30° (15 EA side) by hand? It really seems like a black art maintaining a keen edge.

Do you think good socks make much of a difference to your running experience?I wear the cheapest ankle socks from Sports Direct. Never had any issues but wonder if anything better would be good  for foot health etc.

Yes it is price that is holding me back, quite a jump from the original, which I think was one of the most attractive features being able to pick one up for around £200. The new price takes it nearer used Fenix 6 prices and there it sort of blurs into which you would rather have when spending that amount of money.

Do you think the release of the upgraded Instinct yesterday with the solar power and some extra tech constitutes an Instinct 2? to run like the Fenix line? Or just a mid life upgrade to keep current with the 2 still to come? I’m tempted to sell my Instinct for the solar upgrade.

Lezyne Blox 23.

Yeah XT still cup and cone. That’s what I like about them. So so easy to service. After you do it a few times it becomes ridiculously easy. I try and get components that are easy to get spares for cheaply to save trips to the bike shop. Good feeling of satisfaction as well deep servicing your own stuff.

Fit forget and  ride. Unfortunately I must recommend XT. Dismiss artisan and bespoke. Nobody will see the hubs if you are shredding it. 😁 essentially it is high-quality bearings in an aluminium case. No need to complicate. XT wrote the blueprint and the rest seek your attention.

Evoc seems to be the consensus but I’ve always been happy with any decathlon gear I’ve bought. Great VFM.

Looking on the official Putoline website,on the instructions it says to just heat up in the tin? So no need for a deep fat fryer? Could do it in the garden with a camping stove to eliminate smell etc? Does it leave a gum around the cassette/chainrings? I’d rather keep them as mank free as possible.

Park PCS 9.2. Does everything I need it to. Always seems to have a bike in it and does everything I need it to admirably.

Fenwicks stealth. Keeps the drive train smooth and attracts no dirt in the dry or wet.

Jones Plus. The Jones Plus is a bike for riding fast, slow, the rough with the smooth; safely, aggressively, laid-back or raging; with a big load or stripped to the bare essentials; on road, dirt, mud, snow; in the mountains, on the flat lands, around town or across the county; around the world or your local loop; for getting rad or just getting away. 🤩