Cook every night, except when we have fish and chips. Often cook 1 thing for us and 1 for the boys. We both think its really important that the kids grow up seeing us cooking the food from scratch, they will then get used to eating proper food and not processed crap (apart form school dinners!) and hopefully eat properly for their whole life. My wife is Spanish and her Mum is very traditional – i.e. stay at home and spend all morning making the lunch for the family, so I think this has had a big part to play in how we approach things.

We normally cook things that last for a few meals – lasagna, Cottage pie, lentil dishes, stews etc. but also do a lot of simple meat/fish and veg, stir frys or even just pasta, sauce and tuna (we make the sauce in a big batch and freeze), also make big batches of veg soup (or pure) and freeze that (oddly a favorite of our 6 year old!). Occasionally the boys will have a pre-made pizza, but often we do home made ones as its easy to make the dough and freeze it. The 4 year old also loves baked beans so he usually has those for a weekend lunch after playing football.

We buy the normal processed/pre-made foods like bread, sausages (from the farm shop), pasta and have things that aren’t good for you too – nesquick, biscuits, nutella. But the main meals are 90-95% cooked by us.

I don’t really see the need for ready meals, they take 5-8 minutes to heat up if there are 2 of you thats 16 – 20 minutes. Stick a Chicken breast or bit of fish in the oven and cook some veg only takes a maximum of 5mins more, its loads better for you, tastes nice and your not eating it wondering if your eating arseholes.

Deadpool
Mr Bourne

are a couple more I’m looking forward to seeing

Draw an out line picture of a house, tree, clouds, sun etc on a4 paper. Then help him to stick stuff to it to make the picture. Eg pasta clouds, beans for smoke out of chimney, matchsticks for walls of house. If you do it with him, help him make the choices about what to use etc he will be engaged with it for quite a while.

Jim, is that Vitus far away or just ridden by a midget?

Re-did the 8 minute test and got 260 which is what I was at before. Guess the sweet spot base is just not too hard. To be fair I’m comparing it to the time crunched plans, which use heart rate and is not trying to build a base

Its a cyclops fluid 2, there is no resistance knob, just the knob to tighten the drum into the tyre. I always have that at 1.5 turns from the initial contact as in the instructions

Ftp test for me tomorrow night then, did do 7 mins at about 320 at the end of a session during the second week so think my first test was not the best

@Mrchrispy – I’ve been listening to the podcasts and they have mentioned lots of time that the weekend rides, especially Sundays, are really there to get more time in on the bike. You’d be fine doing the 2 weekday interval based sessions and then proper outside rides in over the weekend.

You’ve got to train outside for the Whitton as you need to get used to riding for 8 hours in the rain!

How hard should 85-95% of FTP for 20min (x’s 3) feel? Done 3 weeks of Sweet Spot base mid volume and did the above and found it easy, easy enough that I think I’ve got my FTP wrong.

Did the 8 minute FTP test (first ever) at the start of the 3 weeks and it came out at 250, did a couple of sessions and decided they were too easy so I’ve bumped it up to 260. During the 85-95% FTP for 20mins my heart rate was only going up to about 115, my max is 188ish.

Planning on just doing another FTP test tomorrow.

I have an XL one of these, which I got from mboy in June or something last year, I am also reasonably tall at 6ft 3 and have long legs (36inch inseam). I find the bike spot on and don’t really get all these arguments about seat angle as I don’t find it a problem at all (i’m sure in theory its a problem but not for me). I also have 140mm Pikes on it and run it in the slack setting, both of which should make it worse.

Previous bike was an SC Tallboy Ltc (XL too) which got nicked, I ride the Peak, Lakes and Cannock when I’m allowed out, when I’m not allowed out I ride the road bike.

Can’t say I’ve found the Following any worse at climbing than the TBLtc, if anything the suspension is a little less wallowy on the Following and therefore easier to get out of the saddle and power over an obstacle. maybe I have to sit on the front of the saddle on real steep stuff (I’m talking about things like the top of Fermington edge in the Dales, where judging by the ‘ard rock, most people walk anyway) a little bit more but the forks are longer than they should be.

It has less travel than the TBLTc but I’m faster downhill and round corners – once you get how to ride it, it corners very well. I think the faster downhill thing is the additional confidence due to the slacker head angle.

Its heavier than the TB but not by much.

Thats my experience, I love riding it and I feel it makes me better than I am.

He deserves a pigs ear!! Looks good for 13 – our 8 year old lab/Collie is very grey round his chops (still fit and fast though) but looks like he has a very similar temperament!

In the swimming pool changing room, just got a 2 year old and 4 year old into their swimmers. Come out of the cubicle and putting things in the locker when the 4 year old slaps some random bloke who had just got out of the pool on the arse as he walks past! What do you say apart from hold up your hands and say it wasnt me.

Thanks – thought I was missing something.

Thanks, have been looking at the RS81s already. Will have a look at the other suggestions

M1/M69/A46/M40/ rather than the A43 – that way your off the M1 before the massive 50mph section

but it’d probably be faster to drive to the real LapLand! you could get Santa to phone your kids? That was pretty effective in getting mine to behave this morning.

Just fitted 2 of those in-line fans (bathroom and on-suit) to replace the old ones in the loft. The old ones just vented into the roof space and my wife can spend a good 30minsint eh shower!

I have a similar roofline with no gable ends and managed to get it out through the soffit. At first I did not think I’d be able to, but the flexi ducting was squashy enough that I could get it through the gap between the top of the wall and roof, and once through it returned to about 90% of its original round shape.

I will probably replace the duct with insulated ones as I found quite a lot of condensation in the duct I put in 3 weeks ago when fitting the second duct this weekend. The fan is very good, following a shower there is no steam left in the air and just the smallest amount on the mirror

Nice woodland pics Jim

Hmmmm I’ve got an xl that should really go too

Prince of wales feathers on warren street had it 4 months ago but did not have it 2 weeks ago (I have a meeting in London every 3 months or so)

Nipple
or
Burp

Bongo

Chocacocker

Yep, those HV lines will make mental just you wait and see.

Been there loads as my wife is from there but I have only ever road biked there. When we go I’m with the family, staying in Las Palmas so the time I have is limited and road routes are much easier to find and follow. The road riding is ace.

I was road riding at Easter near Frontanales in the north when a big group of MTBers burst on to the road. they were all on trail/enduro type bikes and looked to be having fun so there is good MTBing there but its finding it which is the challenge. Freemotion do guiding but i got the impression some of these are a bit fireroad based?

I have nothing but massive respect for you and everyone involved! Well done, keep it up and kick its arse.

Looks like it could be alteration by fluid moving along a weakness in the rock, but funny how it seems to go over the rounded edges. Also it doesn’t look very slate like in its weathering, slate doesnt normally get rounded like that, it usually breaks along its cleavege and ends up pretty jagged.

I’ve got the one up with 30teeth works well.

Mixture of mornflake jumbo oats and mornflake superfast porridge oats made nice and thick with just water, spoon of honey, handfull of frozen raspberry’s. Love this – jumbo flakes give a really good texture, superfast fill in the gaps a bit, water means no indigestion, honey feels healthier than syrup and the frozen raspberrys defrost in the hot porridge, cool the porridge down and spread their juice around :D

I can’t remember so I looked it up:

Front right 2.2 kW (160 mm diameter)

Front left 2.8 kW (180 mm diameter)

Back right 3.1 kW (210 mm diameter)

Back left 2.8 kW (180 mm diameter)

Right 3.6 kW (280 mm diameter)

I was quite a bit out!

I have a 5 ring induction which was put in when I redid the kitchen a few years ago, the whole room was being rewired anyway but we had a big fat dedicated cable put in (I can’t remember the rating but its bigger than the oven cable and bigger than most cables for electric showers), that went to 2 RCD’s and from those when a fat wire to each side of the hob. The electrician was not happy to rewire the kitchen without some work to the consumer unit to bring it up to date (and it did not look that old).

So I would suggest that you will be replacing the consumer unit and running a fat cable to the hob with an RCD between the hob and consumer unit.

The induction hob is great though, it boils fast, really easy to clean and you can set the time when something will turn off – you want to cook your pasta for 11 minutes, set it for 11 minutes and after that it will beep and turn off. You also don’t need to turn them off – just take the pan off and it will turn off automatically (you have to remember this when you use someone gas hob though!)

I think ours has 8KW on one side and 10kw on the other. The 8KW is the 4 hob side and the 10Kw is a single beast of a ring (I think!)

Don’t give grapes to your dog they are not good for them.

No more pivots that a 4 bar or the majority of other designs apart from a single pivot.

The 3 black circles on the end of the rear triangle (the purple bit) are just bolts that hold the flip chip mount on, you turn the mount over to alter the geometry.

(edit – Brant said it more succinctly)

Our SMAX does it and another 2 in the boot, but that leaves no room for the dog (or just 2 in the boot – they are further away so you can’t hear the winging).

3 Full sized seats in the back makes it possible to fit 5 full sized people in the car and 2 further mini people in the boot. Quite a versatile car that you can stuff a lot in too, but I want a van now, especially after going to the T5 show that was ‘Ard Rock.

Had this on mine, short chainstay 29er, m8000 cranks, one up 30t ring, m8000 11-40 cassette and xt mech. Seems to be better after i spaced the ring towards the frame with the the shims that came with the ring. This did not immediately solve it but a play with the b tension seems to have helped.

This is all in the work stand not tried it properly yet…

Trout: Were you drinking beer with a big ’60’ birthday badge on, whilst standing near the the S3 start gate?

I was a bit jealous of the beer, I might have said I thought you were a dwarf, but it was just the hole you were stood in….

Great event.

Never blinded myself……good shot sir

I got one and unlike Jim didn’t play with it (he can’t help it and that’s why he’s blind in one eye). Every morning and night I’d put tea tree oil on it with a cotton bud, this dried it out and it went in about 3 days!

AS I posted this I saw the news story for the one up XT chainrings: http://singletrackworld.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/oneup-components-offers-narrowwide-for-shimanos-newest-cranks/%5B/url%5D

This appears to answer all my questions. The one up chainring (fitted with spacers I assume) has a 49mm chainline. So its the rings that change the chainline.

I already have a hope 24mm diameter BB so dont want to go SRAM as I’d need to buy a new BB.

I have esure – 2 bikes specified as they are worth over £1500 – buildings and contents cover was £290 for a 4 bed detached. Bike was nicked from internal garage along with a laptop and they paid up no probs – even waved the £300 excess. I had to add my new bike to the policy and that has cost me £50 from now until Feb. Not sure about cover away from home but it is the cover in the house that I want – I insure it when it comes on holiday with me.

Xl Horst link 5 spot sitting in my garage waiting for me to get round to doing something with, let me know if its of interest