Thank you for the recommendations. I went to the Merlin website as suggested. Looking for Mavic All Road as suggested. I can’t wait for the Hunt wheels nor can do with the faff of the rear wheel that was kindly pointed out.

I bought Hope wheels.

Crikey. She often refers to “That properly good looking guy who was at the velodrome with you”. Please stay away or all of this could be immaterial

Pension people want a copy of the marriage certificate. I’m cutting down on my work hours and under the Pension Freedom Act 2015, I can access my pensions early.
Some very good points up there. If we and in turn “they” can’t prove we are already married, we surely can’t be prosecuted for doing anything illegal, like getting married again…… can they?

Thank you so far
Condolences to the poor man who’s wife has died.
Just do it? We would but both of us would really like to stay out of prison, if possible.
I’d opt for the Divorce – Remarry option but I’m not confident she’d agree to the 2nd part.
I have absolutely no desire to ‘mix it up’. I hope she’s of the same opinion.
Sorry. I don’t get the ‘grooming’ joke.
All with a smiley face.
I recall that the person conducting the ‘service’ was Mrs Karaoke. You’d think with a surname like that, it’d be easy to find but Hujambo! Harabi. Polepole is still very much as far as I’m getting.

Thank you for the confirmation Cougar. I was interested in a certain person’s assurances that the police can use force to make you comply which is, very clearly, a load of rubbish.
Also, thank you for the interest in the outcome of my event.
I wasn’t trying to be a “smart arse” deliberately to wind the police up despite this accusation that one of them made. Having been Sectioned a couple of times with the assistance of the Police, I really wanted to stay off of the radar.

I asked them eventually if they had reasonable suspicions that I had committed an offence and was I being detained? Both responses were negative so I advised them I would be on my lawful way and off I went. I don’t think they were particularly happy.

No force was exerted by the Police to force me to comply. Still a little manic now but I’m managing to get some sleep so I haven’t had any further interactions.

My take on the video. The driver was within his rights to do what he was doing although he could have kept his calm better and the Policeman was very much out of order and had a duty to keep his calm better. “You’re getting a ticket for something!” is pretty damning.

“ obstructing an officer in the course of his duty”

A couple of weeks ago, my Bipolar was keeping me awake. A bit manic. No sleep for two days. I went for a walk in the early hours of the morning. Two policemen in a car went past, u turned, stopped by me and got out.
Hi
Good Morning. Where are you off to?
Nowhere really. Just walking.
Why? It’s the middle of the night.
Can’t sleep.
What’s your name?
Why do you ask?
We have a right to know!
Know you don’t…
Yes we do. What’s your address?
I’m not going to tell you
What’s your name?…
To and fro for about 10 mins…
Was I obstructing an officer in the course of his duty?

I’ve never bought or sold in Scotland but I’d be backing right out of the whole process very quickly.
Offer. Survey. Confirm date of exchange. Propose and agree potential completion date. Exchange, Complete. I’ve moved four times in England. As soon as the above process begins to deviate, we advised we would and indeed on one occasion did remove ourselves from the sale/purchase.
Buying and selling with a mortgage is far too stressful as it is. There is no way I would agree to any of that stuff they’re stipulating. What a nightmare

I hadn’t thought of the Chinese frames. Thanks. I’ll have a look.
I think the Santa Cruz frame will be out of my budget. The only other frame that I’ve ‘broken’ was an Orange Sub 5. I had it two months from new and Ben at North West Mountain Bikes found a crack in the seat tube / BB joint. It was replaced under warranty.

The Niner frame would take a lot of self persuasion, as nice as it is. Eye wateringly expensive. I’d like to keep my budget to not much at all over £1k

Whoops. I knew I’d forget. 29” wheels and 100mm fork.
Isn’t the Giant XTC a little weighty? I’m sure I read somewhere that they’re quite hefty. Thank you for the suggestion though. I’ll look further into them.

I’m grateful for this thread. It’s brought about some motivation to discuss my Kemadrin prescription. I think the cure is worse than the side effects of my Quitiapine and my wife can’t take much more and I don’t think I can, either.
This may ease your worry a little, Houns although I don’t mean to make light of what your experiencing. This morning’s delight was:

As real as my hand in front on my face. Around 3:00am. I woke up suddenly. The bedroom was as bright as a hot, cloudless summer day. At the bottom of my bed stood a huge man. Similar to Robbie Coltrane’s character in Harry Potter (I don’t know the names- I’ve not watched any of them). His long unkempt beard was actually a crawling nest of large wasps. He slowly opened his eyes which were eye sockets without eyes. He gently blew out and the wasps swarmed into the air. His face, now empty of wasps was pock marked and full of small holes with white grub things beginning to crawl out.

My wife said it took at least 10 seconds after crying out, I didn’t realise I had, to end it. Yes, enough is enough.

It doesn’t sound to me like hallucinations. More like a heightened state of imagination. Your mind working overdrive, if you like.
I get hallucinations, visual and audible from the Kemadrin I take to offset the side effects of Quetiapine. They are much longer lasting and are very real. Definite voices when nobody is around and people and things, sometimes horrifically frightening things, that are visual for 10 seconds or more. I really ought to stop driving. Not that I drive much anyway and the visual sights are mostly late at night or very early in the mornings.
I digress. I’d strongly suggest a heightened state of mind. Are you particularly anxious?

Just leave it until end of tax year IMO, they won’t refund now in case she suddenly earns a wedge and needs to pay tax.

My daughter had this exact issue last month. She called HRMC, a two minute conversation and she got all of the tax back that she shouldn’t have paid, she doesn’t earn enough to pay tax, in her pay this morning. It was that easy.

Standard DPA practice. They’ll ask your daughter some security questions, one of which will definitely be her NINO and then she can advise that she gives permission for you to speak on her behalf. It only stands for that call though. You’d have to repeat the process should your daughter need to call back.

My daughter had this exact issue last month. She called HRMC, a two minute conversation and she got all of the tax back that she shouldn’t have paid, she doesn’t earn enough to pay tax, in her pay this morning. It was that easy.

My favourite is from Roman Lakes (Marple). Starts at Strines Station up to The Fox pub, turn right on the road then left up alongside New Mills golf club.

I much prefer Linnet Clough, right at the junction, left on the singletrack through the trees (sadly, a get off and lift at the wall at the edge of the Golf Course) and then up past Mellor Cross.

In the Peak Park though, I’d say mine was the Roman Road from Hope, including Hope Brink, all the way past Hope Cross.

Deleted.

Elemnt Bolt and Ride with GPS here. No problems at all and highly recommended. Very easy to follow. Much like a car sat nav.

That’s what I was thinking but I have no experience. I suppose I could take them off and put them in the boot while I’m riding but that then kind of defeats the object. I only have a small car and I don’t want the faff of putting the seats down every time I’m out with my bike. I’d have to do that, I think, if I was putting a double Rock Bros carrier in the car.
Bikes are not allowed near my wife’s T-Roc.

This is all great information, thank you. You’ve all been very helpful. Any recommendations on who to buy from or are they all the same? I’m going to order some this week.

Great stuff. Thank you very much for the info

Thanks for the replies. Very helpful.
I’ve not ordered one yet. Any recommendations as to who to get one from? I’m looking at the Rock Bros on Ebay but there seems to be so many. I’ll probably go with the double fitting.
Is it easy to switch between the different axle fittings? Both my wife and I have bikes that are 100mm qr and 15mm thru axle so we could find ourselves needing both fittings to be 15mm at the same time, qr at the same time and even one and the other at the same time.
Thanks again.

We’ve all got to go at some point 🤪

I have those WCS flatbars on my mountain bike. They’re fine. I got down the Golf Course decent in Bakewell yesterday (and countless other technical climbs, descents and bimbling around) hanging in to them.
I took a chance and so far, I’m winning. I also have some branded as Race Face Next which have a really weird upsweep for what should be a flat bar. They’re comfy though.

My wife is a big noise in Macmillan in the North West of England.
Ring your area Macmillan team. They’re very good. They’ll offer huge support.

“it misses the birth place of King Alfred by three miles, avoids the site of his greatest triumph in battle by around one mile and misses his Somerset Levels retreat by nearly 50. It also heads in the general direction of Westbury and manages to avoid Edington by a handful of miles.”

So it’s really quite close to a few Alfred themed things then?

I’ve been mulling this over with a warm glow of success and I’d like to thank everybody who encouraged me. There were times when I thought about throwing the towel in but a quick scan of your replies egged me on. Thanks everybody. In perspective, it was nothing huge. Quite a minor thing but it was the principle. Yes. Thank you to everybody who encouraged me on.

Win! The Facilities Department insurance provider is replacing my locks!

Perfect! Thank you very much and thank you for the heads up. I know the Goyt Valley and Macclesfied Forest areas very well. I always considered them to be Dark Peak. I never knew.

I ride my bike with a bob trailer to the council tip in Marple (Stockport), a couple of bin bags at a time (I have a nutter on my row of houses who I’d really like to not have another stand off with) once a week. Nobody has ever objected in the slightest. Are all local authority tips run by Virdor?

Just to add my own (very expensive) experience.
I bought my daughter a Mac Book Pro for her 18th Birthday -£2k. She loved it. I was the best Dad in the world etc.
Then I bought her a Mac Book Air – £1K as a graduation gift. She loves it. I’m the best Dad in the world etc.
The Mac Book Pro hasn’t seen the light of day since she got the Air and she’s planning on using the Air for her MSc.
The Mac Book Pro sits on the bookshelf like a very expensive ornament.

Half way between a mountain bike and a motocrosser. I like a hard climb under my own steam with the only assistance being gears. I have no hatred for them but they’re not for me.

The person (site manager) who responded to my initial request for information as to who decided to break the bike locks is now stating they had nothing to do with it but when asked, has not advised who did (maybe this person genuinely doesn’t know but they certainly new ‘why’) and is not responding to my request as to who I should escalate this to.
Do I now concentrate my efforts on the overall site manager above the person I was initially directed toward or to the department itself, if that is even possible?
I suspect the belief was I’ll shut up and go away so ignore him. I suggested legal action in the 4th of my emails and that got a response where others were ignored.
I’m not giving in.

Most of the neighbours are around 110 years old.* This was the worst of it, to be fair. Some of them were really getting worked up about it. I’d be happy to sort this bit out. The old boy next door but one was in the tanks in the war. He’s very quiet. A real gentleman in every sense of the word. A complete opposite of the clown on the far end.
I’ll see if I can find out what went on today and who the agency that have been were up to and what their involvement was. Seems like I missed some entertainment.

*Or somewhere near.

The gate on his side is actually blowing in the wind. I can see it from my back door. I wonder if the latch has been removed so he can’t lock it?
It’s a shame theres still two rows of bright orange fence panels spoiling the garden views. It otherwise backs on to fields.
I think I might get a solicitor to write to him. Hopefully this will be the end of it.
What a carry on indeed.
Now then. My locks…..
Edit: That fence video is hilarious. 😂

Haha! Just back from a glorious day at the beach and….. the concrete base for the offending panel has gone as well!
Help The Aged UK or some such charity stepped in and also, somebody’s Grandson “came in his van. He’s a builder” and “Oooh, it was a carry on”.

Fingers crossed this is the end of it. I’m guessing what happened. Hope it worked. I’m guessing the Grandson is bigger that the idiot.

Too stressful for me, all this. I’ll have a look at Glossop.

:-)

The company own the building and the racks are set well back but I get your point entirely.
I know who issued the instruction.
As above. It’s the principle. I’m not bothered what comes at me. I’m tired of being bullied. I’ll see this one through, regardless of the outcome.

No option to leave the bins out front. We live on quite a steep hill and the front doors open out on to the road. Albeit a very quiet road but a near single track road. Cars trying to negotiate past each other, rather than one waiting for the other to clear the narrow road is sometimes quite the spectacle. Bin day usually results in chaos as it is.
I think I’m the youngest on the row. It does sometimes feel like OAP central.
Clearly this situation can’t remain. The man is a bully of the highest order.

Yes. The access path is right outside the back door. There are Some very elderly people. Covid is proving very challenging for a few already. This is distressing them even more.

The damn fence needs another gate on ‘our’ side if not flattening completely! This can’t carry on.

OK. So not a huge injustice in the great scale of things but in relative terms it is. The concept that somebody can just decide, quite out of the blue, after 6 years in fact, that the rules have changed, no warning, no opportunity to get your belongings before they casually destroy them. Like I said, it’s the principle.
Sorry Cockeeeeaaaa. You’re not winding me up. Can’t speak for anybody else.
Please feel free to carry on.