Another recommendation for the Howlin Wolf. It’s a great place to spend some time. Food and drink are both good and the music is ace.

I would avoid Waxy O’Connors at all cost. Awful bar.

Pavel Tsatsouline has written some great stuff about kettlebells. The Simple & Sinister programme is excellent as a starting point / foundation.

https://www.strongfirst.com/beginners-start-here/

Severance is utterly amazing.

I’m really happy to see this. I hope this works out for him.

Bump

Done. Great cause. Thanks for sharing and well done to your daughter for doing this.

Eden festival near Dumfries for us this year. It’s a fantastic festival with a wide range of stages and things to do. It’s very friendly, well organised and a lot of fun.

Using a well made, nicely designed, sharp knife is a pleasure. Yes they may be unnecessary, but so are expensive watches, pens or cars. This thread has reminded me that I haven’t bought one for a little while so I’m going to have to remedy that.

I got that Park stand recently too and I agree with everything that weeksy said. It’s a fabulous bit of kit.

I was given A Community clothing jumper for Christmas and it is fantastic. Best jumper I’ve ever owned.

@rocketdog

Merlin have a couple of 130mm forks:

https://www.merlincycles.com/fox-34-float-rhythm-grip-boost-mtb-forks-2021-29-280570.html

https://www.merlincycles.com/fox-34-float-factory-sc-fit4-boost-mtb-forks-29-303656.html

Cotic have another:

https://www.cotic.co.uk/item/outlet_new_fork_revelation_130

And the Alpkit on ebay one more:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/225949133760?hash=item349b9e2bc0:g:EvcAAOSww~1j1qhx

The Trek Slash 9.7 mentioned further up the thread can now be had for £2,340 using code FESTIVE10 for an extra 10% off.

https://www.balfesbikes.co.uk/bikes/mountain-bikes/trek-slash-97-slxxt-29-full-suspension-mountain-bike-2022-in-green__28341

@GeForceJunky if you have any non-drive side ones left I’ll take one please. The hanger is just too nice not to get a matching set, if there are any.

I disagree with the comment about Dell. They are Ok but nowhere near the quality of Lenovo.

Snowrunner is great game for chilling out to. The concept is simple, you drive your truck around various maps completing jobs, such as delivering timber or challenges like driving to the top of a mountain.

You will spend a lot of time bogged down in mud and cursing your own recklessness or choice of route but it’s surprisingly addictive and fun. 

I joined last week. Sim took a couple of days to arrive. Phone number transfer took a couple of hours at most. It’s not the slickest service in terms of communication and so but it’s fine.

I really enjoyed the Thomas Voekler documentary.

@thisisnotaspoon planet x now accept Halfords C2W vouchers

Please count me in for a hanger too. 

I also cracked and bought one of the remaining white Big Al frames. I don’t need it but it looks so good in the pictures in this thread, and I’d kick myself if I missed out.

GeForce – those hangers look amazing!

Thanks for all the thoughts. I do appreciate everyone chipping in. It’s been really interesting to hear the range of views.

For what it’s worth that giga has sold out now so it’s no longer an option. I’m still curious about the idea though, but I think I actually need to try a bike with that much travel and gauge it for myself, as it sounds like whether or not it’ll work depends on expectations, preferences and tolerance.

I’m generally riding on my own so what other people ride is not really a factor.  

The overbiked notion is an interesting one.  I quite often feel underconfidenced on a bike and have to work hard to overcome that. Having a bigger bike lessens that, so being overbiked cancels out being underconfidenced. In recent times I’ve risen a hardtail and a 150mm full sus. I found the hardtail intense and exhilarating, mostly in a good way but sometimes not. I like a little adrenaline, but not too much.

The full sus lessened that intensity so perhaps wasn’t as enjoyable as the hardtail in terms of the pure thrill of riding. However it instead offered more of a slow burn enjoyment and opened up new riding lines to me and was less punishing of mistakes, and on the body. So I’m actually OK with being overbiked – being underbiked would be much more alarming. I’m more worried about whether something like the giga would be horrible to ride for long miles on the flat. 

I tried it, XT levers and MT5 calipers, but I could never really get it to work well. I think that this is most likely due to my incompetence when it came to bleeding them.  I’ve been able to stop several sets of brakes after without a problem, but this may possibly be in part due to the learning from the problems I had with shigura.

Ribble 150mm droppers here at £40, if that’s any help? Only 30.9mm but you can get shims cheaply.

https://www.ribblecycles.co.uk/p/LEOESPIM100BK00A3485/level-hydraulic-dropper-post-w-remote-lever-150mm-black-30-9-x-485mm/

I received a refund on a return yesterday. It all went through without a problem.

Another Noom user here. It worked really well for me. No foods are of the menu, instead you learn how to integrate them into your calorie budget. I find the daily lessons, weigh in and calorie counting help keep me on track. The psychology aspect takes it one step further.

I’m on my second stint now. I lost 15kg first time round. I then kept that off for 6 months – those lessons must have stuck in my brain. I’m now going to lose 20kg. I’ve tried keto and intermittent fasting but neither worked for me. Noom does. YMMV.

Thanks OP. I just ordered a pair of gloves too.

I’ll help.  I’ve got a singlespeed bike that I built up having ‘rescued’ the frame from Ebay.  In all honesty it’s probably my favourite bike but I have several others and this is the one I can afford to lose.  I’ll be very sad to see it go but I can’t hold on to it in good conscience when it could bring some joy to someone who needs it. 

I’ve filled in the form on the website so I presume someone will get in touch about collection / drop off at some point.

I prefer inlines but have had to customise them to get them to work well for dancing.

I was at the skate Love festival in Barcelona in September and just about everyone was on quads. I only saw a handful of people on inlines.

If you do go with quads it can be helpful to have a raised heel boot and small, hard wheels for dancing. Although if you’re just going round and round the rink it really doesn’t matter so much and anything will do, so go with what you like.

I’ve used them lots in the past and they’ve been great. However recently I have switched to parcel force as they are slightly cheaper and can supply the postage label, which has been a bonus as my printer has been playing up. (Paisley freight may also be able to do this, but the price difference meant that I didn’t even check).

Tri-skates (3 wheeled ones) give you the ability to run larger wheels (100, 110 or even 125mm) but in a relatively short frame. The larger wheels give you better roll over and carry speed better – think 29ers vs 26ers – while the shorter frames mean that they remain maneuverable. Personally I would avoid 125mm wheels if you’re a beginner. You could use them but there will be a steeper learning curve, although they are awesome as it’s easier to go fast (although slower to accelerate) and they roll over ground imperfections better than anything else.

@msp I would talk to loco skates. They are really helpful and let you return skates for free if they don’t fit. One possibility that might work for you is using a thinner liner as it may mean that you can fit a 48 shelled boot, but loco can help you with this.

I loved the American version. I liked that they weren’t afraid to deviate from the original, but that’s probably essential if it’s too succeed over there.

I met a guy who drove Attenborough around in a boat filming sea birds for one of his shows. Said he was completely down to earth and wouldn’t have any of the TV crew work in conditions that he (Attenborough) wouldn’t. Said he was one of the nicest people he’d ever met.

Thanks for sharing this @a11y. I’ve just bought one of the Janis road bikes for my partner as her commuter is getting on a bit. It should also be a fair bit lighter as well as far better looking. Cheers!

@hardtailonly I can’t comment on the new Big Al as I have the previous model which is basically the new Marley, although that can take a longer dropper I believe. What I can tell you is that it’s a brilliant frame. It’s lots and lots of fun and almost as compliant as a Bird Forge (made from 853 steel). There is only a tiny difference between the two of them and I think I may just prefer the Big Al because the head angle is slightly steeper so feels a little more direct and involving most of the time. I think the angles on the Marley would be closer to your Big Wig than the Big Al.

If you haven’t already seen it I strongly recommend watching hardtail party’s review of the Big Al on YouTube.

Four months after falling through our old decking I finally finished building the replacement yesterday. It has several flaws but I’m really chuffed with the result.

I quite enjoy Downhill Desire as an antidote to all the gnarr / rad content out there. I can relate to Gordy’s struggles and admire his persistence in overcoming his fears and just getting out there despite them.

It’s well away from any residential areas and you don’t get much in the way of people just walking past because it is a little way away from anywhere. You should be fine.

These are the ones I use. They are derived from algae, which is where the fish get them from in the first place.

https://www.vegetology.com/supplements/omega-3