Officer Dibble

I reckon 50% of the riding I get to do (ignoring the short commute)is road riding so I probably drive to 50% of my rides. But often these are part of a longer trip away (e.g. to the Lakes for a long weekend) so it’s not a dedicated car journey. In the Lakes I then ride from the house, like Sunday – left house near Keswick at 4.20pm just after rain stopped and was on the bridleway up to Whinlatter in 10 mins. Then had a decent ride and home for kids bathtime. I love to be able to do that every day.

I live just south of Nottingham so it’s pretty flat and rides are made up of farm tracks and the very odd bit of woodland singletrack. I like my riding rocky and technical (not that I’m any good at it) so i’m prepared to drive to the peak for a decent ride (if I can get time away from 2 small kids). If I can only get away for a couple of hours then I go on the road bike from the door.

I could live up in the south Peak and drive to work every day – then I could ride from home, but I’d waste hours on the M1.

I’m interested to know how many of the people who ride straight from their door have to drive to work? I rarley do off road rides from home but bike (the very short distance) to work every day. So any driving that I do for a MTB ride is easily cancelled out due to not using the car to commute.

I’m not keen on Fish – people are always telling me it tastes like chicken…so just give her chicken and tell her it’s fish!

That’s what you get when you go hunting on the internet for skinny man porn…..bet you loved it

It’s surprising quick to get there, A38, m6 toll, M54. I used to do it in 1.5 hrs from Nottingham to visit my Brother in Pontesbury (at the foot of Eastridge woods). Eastridge is great it has several downhill type tracks in it; easily enough to keep you busy for 2-3 hours. As I say you can extend rides on bridleways over the Stiperstones too.

When my brother lived there I was always jealous of him living in such a great place for biking.

If the race is in Eastridge woods stay there and ride round them, maybe extend it a bit around the stiperstones – it’s good round there. Or go to the long mynd. No point travelling further when you have such good riding near the race location

16.5yrs is a great age but it doesn’t make it any easier

Going to go home and give my dog a big hug now……….

I’ve got some creative in ear jobbies with those rubber bits that block out the external noise. They are ace for planes and trains but annoy me while running. The blocking out of external noise seems to mean that I can hear my heart beet or feet pounding on the floor.

I put new bearings in (proper Hope ones) did one ride and they are still fine!

But they are now sticking to the axel (RS Maxel) – never did that before. You can see two rusty colour stripes on the axel where it contacts the bearings

Coonhounds can have very large ears:

singlecrack any pointers to where the very very good riding is? i’d really appreciate some gps files or maps if possible. My wife is from Gran Canaria so we go at least twice a year but i’ve never taken a bike. We stay in Las Palmas with the in laws and i want to hire a car and explore but having the kids has always made it difficult

I’ve had this, get it with running too. Best things for me are the obvious like not eating too close to riding (although I seem to be fine if I’ve ridden for a while and then have a snack).

The other thing which really helps me, i mean really helps is to chew chewing gum whilst riding/running – give it a go

We have a 27 month old and 3 month old. When the older one was able to climb out of his cot we moved him to a bed. He didn’t like this at all, screaming, banging on doors etc. We decided to try the controlled crying and it was a miracle. the first night it took about 4 times of us going back in and putting him to bed (don’t speak!), the second night 2 re-visits and that was it! He now sleeps from 7 till 6.30 with no problems (except for when his got an ear infection).

Now we just need to cure the 3 month old of his snot problem (sleeps well but sounds like a pig is in the room with you) and we’re sorted.

P7? they have quite a low BB don’t they?

What about a chameleon?

My job to pay the bills etc. So a bill arrives, I open it and leave it in sight so I don’t forget to pay it. Immediatly she moves it to a pile of ‘important’ papers. this pile can randomly move around the house and contains shuch important things as the free newspaper adverts and vouchers.

We also used to have 3 fruit bowls – 2 are now just bowls with crap in them. But you can’t see all the crap so it’s tidy.

I agree – try a small sample first. I once sanded a pine floor in 3 rooms and oiled it with soem oil my Dad had for thier oak floor. The oil made the pine floor go a nice shade of 70’s orange. I thought it would lighten as it dried – it didn’t and I had to re-sand the floors!!

Nice one, She’ll drive you mad at times but they are ace! We had our second son 9 weeks ago, our first son is sitting next to me and we’re drawing trains 😀

Swoosh – you won’t be worrying about germs in a few months thats for sure. babies are dirty little people, toddlers are even dirtier. My wife was going mad at our 2 year old the other day as he was going into the garden with a cup, filling it up from a bucket of green water and drinking it. She went mental, he laughed and thought it was a great game.

Germs – thats why I said buy a new cacoon thing, then they don’t touch the pram until they are 3 months old – by that time they’ve been licking the floor and all sorts – it’s all good for them.

Never had a problem with stability of 3 wheelers!

tonyd gives good advice; if you might have another within 2.5 years get one that can have bits added to fit a second child in.

Like many new parents we got a travel system (maxi cost mura)2 years ago when the first one arrived. It was good as we did a lot of walks from home with the dog and a lot of walks round the counrty park with slight off road tracks. Our new son could go in the cot bit at first and then in the seat when he was 6 or 7 months. It got used twice a day for 2 years so we had good use out of it.

We also had a second hand silver cross fold up job that we used for going to Spain (Wife is from spain) and some trips to shops.

Number 2 arrived 2 months ago and we bought a second hand Phil and teds. We really only use this one now, #2 in cacoon laying flat and #1 in the seat on the top ready for action. Sometimes we use the maxi cosi wheels and car seat if we are going somewhere where #1 will not be in a push chair. The Phil and teds is great for off road – we did a pretty rocky walk in the lakes and it managed fine – it’s also easy to lift over styles (with child removed).

If I was to start again i’d get a second hand Phil and Teds and second hand folding thing. I’d also get a new car seat and cacoon. So that would cost about £300 and be very future proof.

I got a 50mm long Tioga one from CRC to solve this very issue. The stack height is 30mm!

Alpin – you don’t have any maps or GPS files for the Gran Canaria stuff do you?

We’re regularly in Keswick and I reckon it’s great, one of the more natural feeling trail centres I’d say. I tend to use it for a quick spin the in morning with the Dog (6-7am never seen anyone else there at that time) or as a Sunday morning ride after a big Saturday ride. I think cycling from Keswick, up the bridleway round all 3 loops and back down the bridleway is about 20 miles with a fair bit of climbing.

Your comments about the chain falling off and harsh back end are both comments made by MBR in their latest review!

Are there many middle aged, grumpy, dogphobic, kidphobic, workshy IT ‘professionals’ in Barnsley town centre? If not you might be asking in the wrong place!

EDIT – I missed off titobsessed

Here’s Elmo and his sister, woody. Elmo is ours, woody is my brothers. Elmo is the handsome one, woody has her tongue sticking out. Both are very nice dogs but Elmo is the bestest dog in the world.

We got one for our son for Christmas – he was 18months at the time. He had a go round the house but was not too interested for a few weeks. After a month or so he got more interested, we took him to the park at about 20 months and he saw the older boys on their bikes and was trying to copy them riding off kerbs and trying to do wheelies (hard with no pedals). He’ll be 2 tomorrow and is very good on it now, can go at a speed which has me running to keep up and can do about 3km’s in distance. He doesn’t understand the brake (just jumps off) and I often have to pull him up the hills (I wrap the dog lead round his stem to save my back).

He loves it, when I ask him if he wants to go on his bike he shouts ‘bike, bike’ and goes to get his helmit. 😀
It’s the one toy that he can play with for more that 5 minutes, he’s rubbish at concentrating on inside toys

He eventually gets bored of it and I have to carry it – dog lead helps here too as you can use it to make a shoulder stap to carry the bike. with.

I have a timbuk2 bag, it looks like the Belgium flag, I am not from Belgium but I like it.

I use it everyday for riding to work (sarni’s etc), I use it for all short trips away. Trips tend to be 2 nights and I can easily fit everything in;
10inch laptop
powercable
(pants, socks, shirt) x2
Travel docs
meeting docs/notepad
Magazine
Jumper
3.5inch HDD
plastic resealable bag with bathroom stuff in.

Monday last week in Copenhagen it had room to fit in (on top of the above); 2 * 500ml bottles, 1 muffin and 1 big ham and cheese roll.

I have had this bag for 13 years and there is nothing wrong or worn out on it at all. 3 years daily use at university, 10 years daily use at work.

I think it is the best bag in the world. If you go to smart meetings then an all balck one might be best.

It will be muddiest when it is darkest and coldest, so about 2-3am, aviod doing these laps unless you have a very good sense of humor and don’t mind going for a really muddy 8 mile walk in less than sensible shoes while dragging a 50lb ‘bike’ with wheels that don’t turn.

I’ve just done this, I boarded it out and plastered it…..

Then I read all about that being a crap idea so I pulled it off and rendered it. Render was a sand, cement and lime mix (5:1:1 I think) with sharp sand. Did it in 2 coats, first was a right git to get to stick to the bricks (get them wet) I ended up kind of flickinng it on. Second coat was easy and is surprisingly easy to get smooth. Now it’s done and painted you don’t notice it’s not plaster unless you look and there will be a stove to hide it soon.

Go and knock on the door and take a photo as the dog comes bounding up to you!

Mol – it’s going well so far. #1 loves #2, his name is the first thing he says in the morning and he has to say good night to him before bed. He sometimes gives too much attention and it can be annoying trying to stop a persistent 23 month old from climbing into a moses basket.

It’s helped with me having time to spend so much time with #1 so he has not become too jealous – we’ve been doing some fun activities and it’s been really good. I’m really looking forwards to when #2 is older so the 3 of us can do all these things together.

We seem more relaxed this time round and the little one is awake all day but sleeping all night, which is fine by me!! I go back to work this week, but parents are coming to help out and ease the transition for my wife. I know you’re in Germany so you might not have this opportunity – but it depends how the first one is. Our oldest is big and strong for his age, likes activities and has little patience for concentrating on one thing for more than a minute. This makes thing difficult when you have a baby that you need to sit still with (when feeding at least).

Hope it all goes well for you and I’m sure you’ll enjoy it!

Just had two weeks of dad days with our first son (nearly 2) whilst on paternity leave with number 2 son (nearly 2 weeks old). Today we’ve been for a long dog walk in the morning, then swimming, then riding balance bikes in the woods in the afternoon. I watched the F1 qualifying with number 2 while number one slept off the swimming. I’m knackered now but it’s all fun.

massive thighs!!!!! thats how, or not as the case maybe. Get XTR Ti ones, but if that bends too you’ll be very annoyed

I saw that yesterday, very tempted to update my HL spot!

I’ve seen HL 5 spots with 160mm forks on them on MTBR – sure they were ridden by someone heavier than your wife. Maybe ask over there or do a search as someone will have asked about it there.

I am planning to take the same appraoch as Buffalobill – get something useful to me that can be adapted for the car. So an iPad on a mount or some screans to plug an iPod in to.

Tiff – larger files, not compressed can store other information (camera settings, time of day etc) in the tags