my wife worked really long hours in the textile industry and was fed up with travelling and commuting. She gave it up and did a year training for her PGCE and qualified as a DT teacher (textiles).

First couple of years were great but then the constant pressure of working to deadlines and marking/setting work out of hours meant that she was actually seeing less of the family. Often working all day Saturday and/or Sunday and till 10pm at night.

After 5 years she’d had enough and was fortunate to get a good job back in industry. Last weekend one of my 6yr old daughters said that she was glad mummy was no longer a teacher as she enjoyed doing stuff with her at the weekends. I guess that brought it home what the past few years had been like.

I’m sure other people will have different experiences, for us though the grass wasn’t greener.

Keith, very sad news

For my sins I’m a Tranmere Rovers supporter, one of our players was diagnosed with the same last year and he’s back playing professional football within a year.

Not quite the same story as Lance but fingers crossed you’ll be back doing those marathons and 100+ mile rides soon

cheers

on a recent trip to Legoland

6yr old daughter number 1… “will the toilets be made of Lego”?

6yr old daughter number 2… “Evil Knievel, was he a baddie in Star Wars”?

to be honest we get pearls of wisdom everyday and it’s fantastic :o)

Ian,

I’ve got a Yeti… with 2 children still in baby seats I can remove the middle seat take off the front wheel of my fat bike and slide it in easily with the bars turned (albeit with the seat dropped).

Alternatively with the rear seats either removed on just dropped I can fit any bike (road or 29er) with just the front wheel removed.

Hope that helps.

this is music to my ears!

I’ve always struggled from a slow start, I can honestly say that for the majority of rides I actually dislike the first part until I get my second wind.

Sounds pathetic but in the past I’ve bailed on a ride 30 minutes in and waited for my mates in the pub instead.

similar problem here but now solved…

we have a Skoda Yeti, remove the middle seat and we still have both kids in their car sets in the remaining 2 seats. Take the front wheel off and slide it through into the gap where the seat has been removed. I turn the handlebars and secure the bike with bungee cords to stop it moving around in the car.

That’s how I transport my fatbike as I don’t fancy putting it on the roof bars and we can still fit the whole family in (plus all my bike kit).

Oh yes don’t forget to put your front wheel in the boot as well, that can cut your ride short !

+1 for the Burley

my twins are almost 6 and they still love going in it although its a bit of a squash nowadays

amazingly light and folds down really well and has a MASSIVE boot

would recommend buying the optional extra fold down front stroller wheel, we started to use it as our normal buggy because it fitted in the car a lot easier.

+1 for camp festival

my 5 year old twins love it, loads to do for any age

Waller, I used to take my twins round Llandegla blue in a double buggy running 32:18 now they’re a bit older (5) I tend to just use it for the school run so I’ve gone back to 32:16

Once you start off they roll really well and you hardly notice them

Oh yeah my forum name is taken from that strange train on “In The High Garden”, my daughters christened my bike that when towing the buggy and it just stuck.

I did MIAS and have to agree with monkeychild I’m afraid

The course I did was just to help a friend out who had started doing guided rides. Everyone on the course “passed” irrespective of their knowledge or ability. One girl was doing it to take school parties out but could barely ride herself and couldn’t even change a puncture.

Nothing personal but not really sure I’d be happy sending my kids out with her despite her being qualified. It all seemed a bit of a conveyor belt to get a qualification to me.

Aldi or Lidl might be worth a try when their cycle stuff next comes out?

Hi Jeff,

I’m Bromborough based, a few of my mates and me ride decent cheeky stuff on the Wirral (although it is flat which suits my SS)

There are some nice cycle paths out to Chester which make for nice pub rides

Apart from that we often ride round Delamere, Llandegla or the Clwyds

Drop us an email (in profile) if you fancy a ride

Hi Rusty

I agree with 24/12, I was down there this year supporting a couple of mates (injured and couldn’t ride). In my opinion it’s a bit more chilled out than SITS or MM.

The only downside is that it’s a bit of a trek from up here but well worth it especially if you chuck in an extra day or two to spend on the beaches.

Worth noting they also do a 12hr race to dip your toe into enduro racing if 24hrs is a bit too much.

Pete,

that sounds worryingly like fun and disaster in the same sentence !

If you have a space or two spare any chance I can tag along?

cheers
Mark

I ride my SS round Llandegla no problems and I’m a bit of an unfit choddy, if its your first trip the climb immediately out of the car park is one of the toughest and don’t be put off by the first long climb. It’s a bit of slog but probably about 70% of all the climbing.

Doubt you’ll be riding Llandegla this weekend, even once access is sorted there will no doubt be fallen trees on the trails.

Deffo shut today

sorry NBT I knew Nick was riding a 26er I was just thinking moreso about the large number of cross bikes.

I was really impressed with myself that on the first lap I’d managed to ride all the “rideable” climbs only for Nick to pedal past me as I was dragging my sorry ass & bike up one of the un-rideable ones, ha !!!

really happy with my 4 laps (206 finish)

as a matter of interest most people seem to do between 3-5 laps. I think Nick Craig lapped me twice, did the top finishers complete 6 laps?

Any idea on a very approx number of laps ridden by riders? Just intrigued if the cross riders really do benefit that much.

Once again big thanks to all involved for a great day, roll on HTN 2014

as a few people have alrady mentioned I released a couple of balloons yesterday to celebrate George’s life.

Just thought I’d share them (although they are on the other thread as well).

Thanks to Andy for letting me release them at the start…

Lewis,

I rode at Hit the North yesterday, quite a few people saw my balloons and gave me a nod or made a comment, George was in a lot of peoples minds yesterday.

As you can see I let my balloons go right at the start of the race, as a keen mtb’er I thought you’d like it as something slightly different to some of the other (wonderful) pictures already posted.

Thanks to Andy (Harry the Spider) for allowing me to stand on the start line with them at the begining of the race.

Still thinking of you guys, hang in there…

I’ll email the photos to you when I get a chance.

Absolutely bloody brilliant !!!!!

Massive thanks to everyone who organised, marshalled, supported and cheered

Now changed and clean, would’ve loved to go for a curry but had to get home

Course was fantastic.

Big thanks for everyone that helped with the balloon release, Lewis will be very proud of George’s life being celebrated in such a way.

Rusty, I’ll send you a text on Friday

I’m just going to mince round and have a laugh, will be up for a curry as well like last year.

Yet to decide on my choice of tyres for the car park !

<serious mode> will be letting of a balloon for Spongebob at the start in case anyone else is taking one < >

thinking of you

going to sort my balloons out in the next day or so

mark

balloons received here as well

will double check with harry the spider first but he says its ok i’ll release mine at HTN

Lewis,

I’m riding Hit The North on the 16th, it’ll be the closest ride I’ll get to the funeral. If its ok with you I plan to ride a lap with my balloon attached to my bike and then at an appropriate place I’ll stop, take a moment and release it.

Hope thats ok with you?

Yes from me as well

Can’t even begin to understand what you must be going through

Like most people on hear we’re thinking of you so please don’t feel that you can’t open up

Loads of hugs to you all from the ninkynonk clan

was at Manchester yesterday for my 2nd taster session

amazing fun, just listen to the coach and you’ll be fine. coming from a mtb backround a couple of my mates struggled with riding on the drops but apart from that everyone was riding the top of the banks by the end of the session.

great fun and amazing value considering it cost me £10.50 for track, coach and bike hire !!!

cheers guys, looks like trail-gator will have to wait for a couple of years and I’ll look for a folding tag-a-long

will have a mooch around ebay and see if i can pick up a bargain possibly spokey joe/universal or another brand

cheers

we only have one car which the wife needs for work

my argument/logic is that it would cost £100 per month to get the bus to work but by cycling instead i save lots of money and can justify paying for new stuff due to all the “wear and tear”

well it seems logical to me!

entered :o)

50/50 for the race but 100% for the post ride curry

hopefully wont have to dash off half way through the meal this time due to the arctic conditions !

simple answers for me…

now got a young family so priorities have changed and generally i’m nowhere near as fit as i used to be (not that i was very fit anyway).

obviously the price (entry & fuel etc.)

also i’ve started doing a bit of bivi’ing which is a lot cheaper and if i’m honest i would rather go on an overnighter in the wild than an overnighter at say MM or Sits.

local authority worker here…

we have a secure basement cycle store, lockers, a couple of showers and also a tumble dryer

personally i don’t put my bike kit in the tumble dryer (although it is handy for towels) but no one complains about wet/smelly kit hanging up in the corner of the office and it’s always dry by the end of the day.

i also keep my turbo trainer in the basement for the odd occasion when i can be bothered doing something healthy at lunchtime instead of being on STW and stuffing my face

echo what binners said, bloody brilliant !!!!!

with it being a work night we didn’t get there till primal scream literally walked on stage, perfect timing. didn’t fancy being there all day queuing for food, drink and toilets.

weather gods were kind (and no i didn’t wreck my suede samba)

never been to a gig before were i’ve sung the words AND the guitar notes so much before.

we managed to get back to the park & ride quite early so didn’t have any problems getting off the site. reckon it will get a lot worse though.

seen primal scream “when it mattered” as well

also saw them last year on the screamadelica tour and they were still superb

looking foward to them almost as much as the roses

going tonight with some friends

really looking forward to the occasion if not the vocals, i think deep down a lot of people will expect it to be a bit crap but wont care

looking forward to seeing the scream if we can get through the park & ride in time

<digs out flares and reni hat>

firstly many, many congrats janesy

very similar to yourself 2 failed attempts at IVF ICSI and then hey presto 3rd one worked and we’re blessed with gorgeous twin girls

can’t really add much to above other than personally i ride to work so that helps me “tick over”

i love taking them out in a trailer, pulling two 4yr olds with a SS certainly is good resistance training

what worked for us was turbo training, IF the girls went down (and i wasn’t too knackered) i would nip outside and do a sufferfest. the benefit of this was that the deal we had was if they woke up i would come back inside and help out. that just meant i could still “train” but also wasn’t leaving SWMBO on her own for long periods

i’m know at the stage of getting mine proper bikes and to be honest taking them out on the local cycle path is now more appealing than SITS or MM

congrats once again

the ninkynonk is a very bizarre train in the kids tv show “in the night garden”. i tow my twin girls round in a burly trailer and the term just stuck to anything bike related

deffo yes

my friend rides one for leisure/commuting

Father-in-law starts chemo next week for recently diagnosed liver cancer but it’s not looking good.

My wife is going through the mill with it because her mum and brother seem to be “burying their head in the sand” a little but I suppose everyone reacts differently I suppose.

He’s not in the best of health anyway (heart) so I’m not sure how much of a battler he’ll be. I’m just trying to be there for both him and my wife.

fingers crossed and positive thoughts for everyone posting on here