Did it last year. Great event. Mix of different types of track, from perfect smooth to almost single track to short sections of horribly rough stuff and the odd wee section of road. There is quite a lot of climbing, so it’s is quite a day.  Unfortunately I had a seatpost malfunction and had to skip the last loop as I didn’t have the legs to ride out of the saddle for 15 miles! Would definitely do it again. Would be really hard if the weather was grim.

Nutella jar here too.

Though the very best is out of any old camping mug when holed up in a tent, ideally when the rain is lashing down. Seems to elevate it to a new level.

I have it. Left hand. Which op are you getting? I had needle thing under local a few years ago (they jab the fibrous tissue with a hypodermic needle to weaken it then snap it). It made a big difference, but has returned now. Was quite unpleasant at the time, but the sorest bit was when the surgeon injected the local anaesthetic. Likely to have the full open hand surgery under general in a couple of months (had pre-op, just waiting for date now). Like you putting on gloves is a pain, especially for the motorbike. Doing cut and paste on a keyboard is a pain too as I can’t to control c and v any more! In 45 so quite young too. As I understand it, best to get it done before you’ve had finger bent for too long as you can permanently lose mobility. Bill Nighy has it too apparent.

Edit – just looked it up and I had Needle fasciotomy last time.

Everyone has said it so well above, I’ve nothing to add other than thanks again for all you’ve done, well done for taking the bold decision to stop just keeping on keeping on, and finally for opening up about it here – I think it has made an impact and will help a lot of others (myself included).

I agree with the trim ‘em and enjoy the tasty treats in autumn

Similar. Got a Giga in the sale with 50+% off. If it breaks, so be it.

I’ve got one and it’s really good. Takes the edge off noticeably and no downsides I can see/feel. Obviously there’s limits to what it can do but for the long gravel events I’ve done (Frontier 300, dirty reiver, grand old dukes, etc.) I’ve been very glad of it. Also great for potholes on the road!

I think it depends on the train. The one I got didn’t have the other section, just the cupboard with hangers for 3 bikes.

despite hoping to, I’ve not done it since my post on that thread. I don’t think the trains have changed though. Gravel bike probably fit easier than mtbs (I was in an MTB). You’ll probably manage to squeeze them in but be ready to pull wheels off and have Allen keys handy for spinning bars etc if needs be.

Just keep it! They’re great but quite fragile. I’ve got 3 (all picked up in sales!) so you’re not as bad as me!  I’ve a gore one from when they first came out (still going strong), a castelli one that’s less flappy then the gore but not so easy to store in a back pocket so only used when putting it on from the start, and a gore running one with a hood that I got for a bikepacking trip.

Brilliant thread. Thank you, Kramer!

5132 point here. I didn’t even know about them!!

Happy with 18

Really good. I have one on my old van nic Amazon that I used for gravel, including the Dirty Reiver and Frontier 300, and think it made a huge difference. Just removes a lot of buzz and takes edge off impacts. On the road it’s almost unnoticeable other than again it takes the edge off pot holes and rough surfaces. I just got another for the Camino I’m building up (not at 25% off though!).

Damn. Just bought one at near full price!

Could be a Baker’s cyst. Have a google. My son had one. IAMDNAD!

I have both gabba and perfetto. They’re really good and usually on offer. 50% off in various places just now I think. There are equivalents that are very similar, but not regretted getting the castelli. I’ve also got the convertible one with zip off arms, and that’s great too. I’m 6’3 14.5 stone and xxl fits well

I replaced leaky GRX calipers with deore ones after they both started leaking. Been trouble free since, no compatibility issues and the calipers were cheap. 

So there’s two patent attorneys on here! Who’d have thought. Saved me looking up the section of the act, thanks. Agree – that contract will be unenforceable inasmuch as it goes beyond the patents act provisions xcpootler mentioned, so if an invention had nothing to do with you’re job or a duty specifically assigned to you, and you’re not in such a senior position that you owe a special duty to the employer, it’s not going to be theirs. 

Old chain wrapped around cassette, wrap a rag around the rim, and then wrap the chain around the rag, rusty adjustable on the cassette tool…that was my technique pre-having some money!

Pirelli Cinturato Velo TLR here too. 40mm ish on my Amazon when on commuting duties, and they roll well and seem tougher than most I’ve tried. Also running 25mm versions on my old road bike that also sees a lot of Glasgow commuting duties and they roll really well. 

Looks like the US patent expired in 2021, so they waited a while

My R8000s died a year or so ago. Got no interest in support from Madison and they were out of warranty so binned them a little while ago and moved on. Regretting it now that Shimano seem to have accepted the massive flaw in the cranks. Wonder if they’ll ever recall the endless leaking brake callipers.

Used to love it when I lived in York from about 2006-2011. Pedally, but you could get round pretty quick and it flowed well enough if you kept speed up. Didn’t mind the climbs, they were short enough. Used to do two laps  as training for 10 under the Ben, puffer, etc. I think fitness is a big factor as you had to keep pace up on the flatter bits. And a hardtail or xc bike would be more fun. I’m a bit nostalgic about it. Not sure if it’s still the same route as everyone’s talking about. Cafe was decent too.

I’m hoping to place an order, but getting a test drive has been problematic. The only garage that apparently has them in Glasgow had theirs out on loan as a courtesy car. When the salesman couldn’t give me any idea how long it would take for the customer’s multivan to be repaired because of a ‘software fault’ it did give me some concerns about reliability. That’s been about 3 weeks now and not a peep – must be a bad software fault. Tried to call them again but got put on hold indefinitely. Think I might look elsewhere.

Ah – connect gives you more detail. Here’s my day in more detail. I did do some dishes at about 8.45 am – seemed to get up to about 100bpm.

<p style=”text-align: left;”>The optical HR can be a bit dodgy so wouldn’t trust it entirely. 124 seems fairly high for dishwashing, but not ridiculous – mine can go up quite a bit just contemplating going for a ride! The 137 might just be a blip in the optical sensor. Wear a HR chest strap if you want to accurately track it. Here’s mine – the high bit is climbing a virtual Sa Calobra in the garage.</p>

A company acquires right in a brand in two ways: 1) building up a reputation in the brand can lead to unregistered rights such as ‘passing off’, and 2) through registering a trade mark. The latter gives you far more rights. Dan didn’t do much of that, which is a shame as things would be much easier now. The purpose of a trade mark is to guarantee the origin of goods – you as a consumer should be confident a Stanton bike comes from Stanton, a Whyte comes from Whyte (or your box of Kellogg’s come from Kellogg’s).  The fact that a bike is exactly the same as a Stanton doesn’t allow anyone to sell it as a Stanton if they are infringing trade mark rights – only the trade mark owner (or a licensee) has the right sell goods bearing the TM (reselling or parallel imports of goods already put on the market by a TM owner are a bit complicated, so we’ll leave that to one side). If Stanton had got the registered trade mark he (or the administrators) would have been entitled to prevent those frames going on sale (i.e. marketing goods bearing the TM) by someone not entitled to use the TM. Without the registration, they’re in a much weaker position, being left to allege passing off or some other form of unfair competition. One take away, if you’re investing tens or hundreds of thousands on building up a brand, spend a couple of thousand tying up the TM rights.

I got an Izzo uncaged 7 when they were on offer. Love it. Very light, very fast, very yellow. It does very well on the descents for its 120mm travel, and flies up the climbs (too a point as I’m no whippet!). Wanted a spur but don’t regret getting the Izzo, especially with the spec on it. Just hope it doesn’t develop a crack based on the story above. Almost Giant-like levels of crap warranty there!

Only ever done the staircase heading south (clockwise for you) and it seems to be the ‘right’ way in my mind.  Guess there’s more descent the other way, but mostly on double track unless there’s some tracks in the woods. that way you come down the A82 so slightly less time spent being overtaken by lorries etc than riding up it.

Me too Northwind. Didn’t realise for about half of a Strathpuffer, and spend ages trying to figure out what the bloody noise was!

<p>Trouble is there wasn’t a lot of IP for anyone to own as Stanton only had one UK trade mark registration. Unregistered IP (copyright and ‘passing off’ in this case) are bloody hard to enforce. </p>

The fact they’ve filed for registered TMs for the Stanton brand suggests it’s much more than just a quick buck selling a few frames or a one off. Looks like they’re trying to take over the goodwill Dan has worked hard to build up.

Buying the frames and selling them on is just business, I guess. But the brand appropriation seems be a real issue for Dan. Seems like he is getting proper TM legal advice and looking at options – this is the best thing here – he should make sure he goes to a proper trade mark attorney and not a lawyer who dabbles in IP. It’s a shame he only registered the TM in the UK – an EU or German registration would help massively here. Slightly surprised he only did it so recently when brand reputation is so important for a company like Stanton – getting TMs registered for key model names etc. might be a good idea. Copyright is much less likely to be useful and far harder to enforce. Not what he needs at the present time I’m sure. If Dan needs any recommendations for a good TM attorney do PM me (I’m a patent attorney, and know enough about TMs to know that this sounds complicated and he needs good advice).

Great read!

Is the member discount page down for everyone or just me? Just stuck at loading page. Was like that last night too.

I’ve got makita tools so got the makita one. It’s really good and definitely recommend if you’ve already got a makita battery. Pumps up car tires pretty fast and battery lasts ages. It goes up to 120 psi so I also use it to pump up my Airshot inflator sometimes when I’m feeling lazy!

I have a Fox 36 TALAS 26” 1 1/8th converted to a float (but sure I still have the TALAS bits) with 20mm axle hanging in the garage if that’s of use.

Frontier 300 for me this weekend.

It was a great event. Great weather, great team running it, great food at the finish! Slightly annoying headwind but I’ll take that for dry and dusty conditions. This was my second time. Just under 15h. Very happy with that. Getting to Keilder was a huge relief – that bit seemed to go on for ever. Massive thanks to Nathan who dragged me to the finish as I just managed to hold his wheel for a ridiculous 5 mile time trial effort. Biggest thanks go to my big bro for the massive effort driving and supporting. I wonder if we’ll be seeing a write up from STW’s very own Amanda, who was in attendance?