Bikeshak in Alty, but tbh I’d always use NWMTB anyway even though you can find cheaper elsewhere. Quality of service and knowledgeable staff who go out of their way to help you are worth paying a few extra £’s for.

Dammit was looking forward to having another bash at the downhill of certain doom 😆

Not Bingley then?

Sale resident here. Apart from heading into Manchester in search of steps and drops, theres virtually no decent riding to be had without getting out of town and up to Rivington, or ideally further up to the lakes. Time it right and you can be in Staveley in an hour.

Thread lock the screws in. I think the hanger is the same as the Blood, and they also shake loose quite frequently..

Stayed at camping La Piscine 3 yrs ago. Good spot, clean, nice pool. Going again in July, it’s about 90 euros for a week iirc.

I’ve just left m&s after 6 yrs. Now with Igo4 instead. Much cheaper and equal cover. All online so no policy documents through the post, but all available on the website.

I sent an entry form off yesterday for a team of four, and we have at least 2 more teams entering from our club 😀

I live in Sale and commute 13 miles in the opposite direction to Warrington, usually only one or two days a week. What Binners said is spot on, except he forgot to mention that in the summer the canal towpath behind old trafford gets so over grown the track is only about 30cm wide, but as long as youve got a towel at work, you’ll be fine 😆

Head to Torbole at the top of the lake and hire a bike from Carpentari bike shop or the greatly titled “Mecki’s Fu****g Perfect Bike Shop (honestly!).

Carpentaris bike shop are closely linked with Luca’s Bike Shuttle uplift service – suggest if you are only riding for a day you do the Mt Tremalzo classic. – van uplift for 45 mins, climbing on the bike for 200metres then downhill most of the way back in to Garda, probably takes between 2-4 hrs depending how fast you go and how many stops you make. Excellent views.

Book the bike and shuttle in advance as they get booked up in the high season.

It’s a fantastic place to ride. Go enjoy.

Vagabond is good, bike friendly, cheap & cheerful accommodation. Has a big lockable shed for bike storage. Often has other groups of outdoorsy people staying so good to mingle with other like minded folk.

Holmesy, it’s ok, I barely get 40 from the diesel 😡

I had a 55 reg one from new for 4 yrs, did 125,000 miles in it without too many issues (cat and turbo replaced early on under warranty, perfect after that).

Usually used boggo 95ron fuel, but did occasionally use Vpower or BP Ultimate, which although ~10% more expensive often gave 15% more miles out of a tank (never accurately tested, just using trip computer etc.

God I miss that car…
and for anybody that says get the gtdi, I’ve now got an a3 with the 170d engine, and it’s far less enjoyable, and barely more cost effective, esp with the high cost of diesel……

These details have been shared across the bogtrotters, Manchester mountainbikers, and Gisburn trail builders forums & Facebook pages too. Hope somebody knows who mr X is and that he’s ok.

PS – if your questions are of a technical nature, it’s best to email Stoner first as I’ve approached him for info myself in the past 😀

Chartered building surveyor here. Geeky questions welcome.

The brilliantly named “pawn computers” in Stockport replaced the screen on my acer. Quite quick turnaround and seemed reasonable value.

I always try and hand deliver party wall notices to allow me to talk through the procedures and the building owners intentions, as in it’s raw form, the standard wording of a party wall notice does tend to make people unnecessarily suspicious, even when accompanied by an explanatory letter.

Google Pyramus and Thisbee club to find out some of the peculiarities of the Act, but also a useful laymans guide.

Entering into a dispute isn’t as bad as it sounds (apart from for your bank balance) as the act serves to protect both parties, with the surveyor(s) representing the Act itself, rather than the people who appointed them.

I use them on my a3 which is the same shell albeit with a different method of fixing the front bar.

I arrived at Llandegla at about 8.30 this morning and found the access road covered in black ice. I was 50:50 whether to try and make the hill, when the car in front of me slid on the ice and crashed into the back of the car in front. I got out to check they were ok, and at the same time saw another 4 cars further up the hill who had all had a coming together 😳

I turned back and told each driver who I saw coming up the hill not to bother, but most decided to try it anyway….

I rode up shortly after and found most of the trails treacherous apart from the bits under the trees. I rode half the red then took the blue back. Bit of a waste of time tbh.

Supplement it with a woodburner / multifuel stove thingy?

Three weeks to the due date? Thats the day my wife gave birth to our daughter.

I’ve just noticed another entrant

John Clayton

Hello, remember my heckling? I shall be there again Sir to heckle abuse at you as you pass

Hora yes of course I remember your heckling!

So whats your excuse this year for not taking part? 8)

Good point. 2pm it is.

This is my commuter.

It was an ebay bargain, bought about 18 months ago, and I wont make you all jealous by telling you the price. (especially as the seller chucked in a set of rigid forks and extra pedals)

Its my favourite bike, a month after I got it I commuted to work on a Friday, raced it at Hit The North on the Saturday, did a lakes ride on it on the Sunday and was commuting on it again on the Monday 😀

13 mile each way commute, perfectly comfortable, and a mate lent me his Kona cross bike which I didnt really get on with so its back on the Genesis tomorrow.

29th is good for me.

My 18″ Alpine fits fine on my 591 rack. If forward facing, the front wheel is right at the front of the rack (in fact the bit the tyre sits in overhangs the aluminium channel slightly) but its done 0000’s of miles like that without problem.

Oh, by the way, the 591 rack is strong. Stronger than the overhead barrier on the Autoroute toll booth just south of Reims evidently 😆

Im both a maker and a smeller 😀

Ecky, Ti, S4R – put me down for the new years ride too 🙂

Our daughter is 21 weeks now and yes the first 6 weeks can be a nightmare at times, but it does get much easier. Getting the feeding sorted seemed to be the key to success for us, as proper feeding = proper routine = more sleep for everyone 😀

Enjoy it and take plenty of time off work and spend it with your new family.

Patches of slushy hail on my commute from S Manchester to Warrington this morning.

I used to work at that Halfords (Preston Docks) at weekends when I was at college (96-98), and at the time most of the people working in the bikes section were all quite experienced cyclists and were good at fixing / assembling bikes (which 99% of the time were complete pants)

Problems arose during busy times when customers wanted to take their new bikes away there & then, and non bikey staff used to build bikes, and the bosses were to busy / fighting with shoplifters / couldnt be ar#ed to check what was going out of the door.

The woman in question sounds like a chancer to me though 😆

Thule 591’s are pretty solid.

Infact, I can confirm that they are substantially stronger than the overhead barriers on the Autoroute restricted headroom toll booth just south of Reims 😆

Thats a mistake I’ll only make once.

Sweaman, Inbred & TeamHurtmore,

Thanks for the useful replies – Ive passed the comments on to my folks. Everybody else – thanks for the usual STW entertainment 🙄

I’ll update the thread in a few days once I know more about whats going to happen. In the meantime, heres a few more pics of Mack from when we last saw him back in August.

Thanks for all the suggestions. Whilst the eyesight issue may have contributed, we suspect there was some other underlying reason.

Sweaman2 – yes, I think that is where they got him from, and they are waiting for one of the staff to get back to them to discuss what they could do next.

Already in place since Monday.

Genesis IO Singlespeed, £350 off ebay a year ago. Gets me from Manchester to Warrington 3 times a week. Strangely, it is actually my favourite of my bikes.

Magicline – I used to have a DHX5 air on my alpine, but got a CCDB 6 months ago and havent looked back. Got the stock settings for the Alpine off Chrismbuk (cheers chris).

It was heavy compared to the air shock, but I got a ti spring recently and it has saved a fair bit of weight.

I spent the first 15 years of my life in Dorset, but over on the slightly more developed side (Bournemouth) and it was a great place to live. You dont mention if you have kids or not, but if you do it would be a nice environment for them to grow up in, although they would no doubt get quite bored with the small town scenario.

Every time I go back to vsit the old folks (4-5 times a year), im always shocked by just how much it has changed for the worse (stag & hen doos, subways on every high street etc) but that seems to have happended to almost all seaside towns. Bridport wouldnt have the same extent of these issues.

Go and have a look, if nothing else its a nice place to visit for a couple of days.

And anyway, you must of had some inclination towards the place in order to apply for a job there??

It was still in a bit of a state in June, bits were rideable although some sections were still a claggy mess 🙁