I’m an ex roadie, so a fair bit of experience, but haven’t ridden seriously for years. Everything was fine on the gravel rod sections, but there were some downhill singletrack sections that had me ‘concerned’.

I’m going to perservere, but I hadn’t realised it would even be an issue, so quite glad of the sportive ride!

Am I reading the list right, and Marler is in the England squad again?

I did a gravel sportive last Sunday on my cantilever braked gravel bike and I realised a couple of things.

Cantilever brakes really don’t stop you when your 90+kg and used to hydro discs on a mtb.

11-26 cassette on the back is CX gearing NOT gravel gearing on the SDW

I really struggled with the drop handlebars on anything other than fairly smooth gravel tracks. I don’t have much technical ability.

Had lots of fun and enjoyed getting out and riding on trails, I just need to ride enough to decide if I prefer drop handlebars or straight, which will affect the choice of bike.

Thank you for all of the advice, lots to think about!

Cheers, I’m down in Hampshire so it might be a bit of a trek for a demo ride, I might see if there is anywhere closer though. I know cotic sometimes does demo days down this way.

Just found out there is a Kingston store, so I can get there, thanks for the heads up, that will really help!

The cannondale is an amazing deal, but I don’t really like carbon, I know its an amazing material etc, I would just rather a steel or ti bike. I think I am a bit of a luddite!

I’ve always wanted to give the SDW a crack, possibly over two days, staying in a B&B halfway. No way i could do it in one day!

Cheers Yak, and yes I am the Phil you’re thinking of!

PSA Yateley was 10 years ago!

Cheers all, I hadn’t hear of the bike track, definelty one to have a look at.

once I get some fitness I’ll be up for riding with others, at the moment, not knowing if i’ll be able to ride out of the car park at qecp without having to gt off and walk makes me nervous about spoiling other peoples riding!

I’ve got Swinley and QECP both within about 1/2 hour drive. Not sure the Hill at QECP will be fun, but Swinley could be a good shout!

The issue we have in my school, is following the governments advice quite a few staff are required to self isolate (I have two vulnerable staff in my department). Across the school we are getting close to the point where we will have to close because we just don’t have the staff present to teach all of the classes. We can combine classes but then you get other issues.

Add to that the snowball effect of families having to isolate if one person shows any symptoms and its all a bit of a mess!

Current discussion from exam board is to use PPE data as extenuating circumstances if exams can’t be sat.

My school had 30% absence from students yesterday, we think it is far more today, and with pregnant staff ebing told to go home we have about 20% staff absence!

General feeling is Bojo won’t order anything to close, so he can’t be blamed, but when we have to close (not enough staff for ratio) then he can blame malingering teachers for the problem!

You making me awfully tempted to get one Yak! Something that would challenge me, and mean I can be riding with the children at the same time! The only problem is persuading J another bike would be a good thing!

How cheaply do you reckon I could build one up for? (rigid)

No worries Yak,

I wasn’t cold until I rode along the roads back to my house! Then I got freeze brain within about 2 minutes!

Come round, just be warned mos of my games are fos and 16+ rated! However I don’t let my 8yr old play them!,,,

Hi Mate,

Come round and have a play! I am a sad gaming geek so have both, you can get a feel for both systems and make up your mind.

Personally I would probably go for xbox one, just because it does feel a bit more ‘home entertainment’ orientated, also most of your friends have it so you could share games!

I’m a teacher………I’ll get my coat 🙂

Off to my parents for a few days from Christmas Eve! My parents adore my wife, and she loves them so that is good. The children are really excited, and I will be continuing a tradition of drinking a bottle of Kraken every time we get the chance to sit down and have a chat!

The only downer this time is that my Nan was supposed to be joining us for Christmas lunch, but she died last week and we are burying her on the 27th! So it is going to be tricky balancing missing her but making sure the children still have a fun time!

Bits of wolverhampton (when swearing or cross) mixed with RP from Uni and a posh surrey wife!

Hope to move back towards wolves one day to regain my rightful mercian accent 🙂

I always thought we got most of the water we need through food, rather than drinking loads of it! I tend to drink about 500ml of squash through the day then a couple of cups of tea, and a glass of diet coke with dinner.

Also we have evolved an amazing mechanism to control water levels, I am happy to trust the warning part of that mechanism (thirst). I know for endurance athletes a problem has been arising of people drinking too much water, because they have been following the mantra of drink plenty even if you don’t feel thirsty!

I took my 7yr old to watch England play at Wembley as a mate got some tickets and said it would be an amazing experience! Yep won’t be doing that again, wall to wall swearing and offensive remarks, cursing the referee when he actually penalised a player, thankfully my son got bored during the second half and we left. He comment was that football was ok, but he preferred it when we went to watch rugby!

London Irish games, loads of families and children, specific family friendly areas, even outside of those areas language is ‘moderated’ as soon as they realise children are nearby!

I have done a couple of sportives, and am planning on doing more of them next year rather than racing!

I did the tour of the Black Country last year and it was great fun! A nice mix of roubaix style roads and a meandering tour of the area where I grew up! As AA said riding with your mates can be good fun, and they give you something to aim for! I should probably also admit I also do racing on Zwift so I am bit of a heretic

I think you mean, figuratively hopping up and down on the post button. Sorry!

Btw just to keep on topic, I don’t think Trump will resign or be impeached, far worse for Trump is he is realising how powerless he actually is!

I downloaded zwift this week and I thought I would give it a go, I am using a tacx smart flow and pc.

I have managed to do a free ride and a workout, but I am completely clueless about the races! I have figured out I should be in D cat, but when I look at the races lots of them seemed to say you needed to change your name to be included in the results! Not got a clue about how to do that! I thought you could just click on a race and then crack on, but it seems to be a little more complicated than I thought!

I am nenjoying things, I just want to give racing a try!

We have just done our school show, it was incredibly tiring with quite a few weekend rehearsals and evening after school. However it was all worth it, seeing normally shy unconfident children come out of their shells, and discover that they do have talents is brilliant. As a teacher they get to see me as something other than the slightly grumpy Science teacher. Today we are all tired, but they are buzzing!

Schools are about making citizens and NOT grade factories! Sometimes that requires doing activities other than things which get you ready to sit a test!

Cheers for the info everyone!

That boardman sounds good Chapaking, but I think you are opposite end of the country to me!

Time to speak very nicely to my wife about ‘needing’ another bike!

Lose 5 more kg
Manage to complete 12hr solo at 24/12 in a few weeks (not sure I can do that)
ride off road every week and get a bit faster!
Actually stick at a sport, rather than swapping because I am slow and a bit crap!

I am pleased that Philippa now feels she lives in a society where she does not have to hide who she is! That she will be presenting and giving good insights is a bonus.

As for any comment about male/female and Biology, that can only be from people that really don’t understand Biology!

I used to think nescafe gold was posh proper coffee! I don’t have much taste 😀

My wife and I both have jobs that give us the school holidays. We earn less than everyone else we know, don’t have foreign holidays, have an older car and our house could best be described a bohemian (or chabby chic). However I will take all that for the time we get to spend together as a family.

I do work during the holidays, but until I see the long lines of people knocking down the doors trying to get into teaching because it is such a cushy job, I will continue thinking that it must be a tough career, that not everyone can do!

I’m with AA, I was SLT in a big college and hated the fact that I wasn’t teaching, so I took a pay cut, went back into the classroom and am much happier. I am still a Head of Science, but that is the level and job that I love doing!

Good teachers love teaching, but get naffed off with all of the admin, and the expectation that you will constantly go for more responsibility and eventually headship. Much more relaxed when you find the level you are content with.

Don’t have a clue about class, and don’t really care for myself. I do know that if I met someone who was class orientated I would probably find it quite irritating!

I think……….(always a good preface)

That cosmological expansion happened between 10*-36 and 10*-32 seconds after the big bang. aaaaAfter that first rapid expansion the rate of exansion slowed.

By 400million years after the big bang there would already have been huge parts of the universe outside our observable cone (the distance is so great they are receding from us at greater than the speed of light so we can never obesrve them). I think this can happen because no information is being passed by the expansion of space and so therefore it isn’t limited by c.

So I think that 10*-31 seconds after the big bang, the universe was already o bug that there were sections that would never be able to send a signal to each other due to that signal travelling slower than the rate of expansion due to distance. $00million years later our observable universe is larger, but we still have an observable horizon determined by those first 10*-36 seconds. Reionisation was WAAAYYY later than this so is a sperate issue of why we can’t see all the way back through our observable section of the universe.

I think

Done,

Love snakes and ladders, and had my 7yr old riding down snakebites last week!!!!

I worked with a creationist once. He was a nice chap. The thing I couldn’t reconcile was that he was a teacher of Geology!

To be fair the only doping I have ever witnessed at MTB races was of the fragrant herbal kind! Not sure if it is performance enhancing though 😉

Yes I am far more emotional!

Having children, I am now soft as anything, and much much happier for it!

If you have a group of mates to play online with then R6 Siege is great! It is an FPS but very strategic! Think 3d puzzle with FPS shooting!

The pedal2pedal sessions are great! My lad (7) goes and loves riding the trails and working on new skills. There is also a great social side as they ride with the same groups, and so get into a biking culture!

Hannah does sessions at qecp but has done Swinley as well, seeing 7 year olds having fun and doing a full blue lap was great!

My daughter (4) has her first session on saturday, and can’t wait.

Hi,

I think I am helping out tonight, otherwise I would happily show you the red. I don’t really like the first section, but snakes and ladders is one of my favourite bits of trail anywhere!

There is a new blue descent, which isn’t too technical, but it allows you to build up a lot of speed, and is very grin inducing!

Hi Weeksy,

Blue a couple of times is fun, and the final descent of the blue is swoopy and fun. Nothing too technical!

I will see you there tonight, as my lad is doing the class as well. I think yak might be there as well.

Phil

I am a Head of Science in a secondary school. I used to be SLT but hated all the meetings, and just wanted to be back in the classroom, with a bit of management! I love teaching, and thinking all day about Science education. I really don’t enjoy all of the other stuff, and the inability to find staff!