I’m a product designer working at a design consultancy and i’ve been in the same situation . Both ways too. Enjoyment to money and then back to enjoyment. I worked as a design engineer for 7 years at a medical company and they loved a process/guidance/SOP/ etc..

I wont go into what I done but I can offer the following:

Packaging design is boring as **** on the whole imo.

You can always go back to corporate design world towards the end of your career when your experience alone helps you get past brown nosing.

I would try and put in place and cash goals with the design consultancy so as their business grows its reflected in your pay.

Moon Shield for me. Super bright, nice mounts and USB charging and the battery life is impressive.

I cant see it, if something like a Zee shifter is anything to go by. Annoying thing with the bar mount is it has the gear window which they dont give you a blank to remove it.

I just need my 10 speed to last until january when i go 11 speed with the i-spec b.

Available January unfortunately from what ive been told.

I ride a 2014 Alpine, last of the 26″, nearly as long as the 650b’s so still pretty long. Mine has monarch plus RC3, pikes, flows on 2.5 minion exo, 2.3 Hr2 exo, 1×10 with (11-36 and 32t but i’d probably be ok with a 34t) zee cranks, zee brakes and 203 discs and a dropper and saint pedals.

Not the lightest at 14.9kg but it pedals just as well as my previous bike which was a lighter 2013 150mm Spesh Stumpy evo. The plus side its easy to service, costs nothing to replace bearings and smashes the descents. I ride everywhere around South Wales. I could run it lighter but i prefer having the reliability when uplifting or riding some of the steep stuff/dh stuff etc..

There’s probably better bikes for same/less money but i like the simplicity.

Every time I see brendogs run I’m amazed he didn’t podium. That triple canyon gap is nuts.

Unfortunately it seems he has to flip something to get a podium.

Whites with black run, wall, blade then penhydd/blue scar. In that order imo.

I find it funny Afan Off Piste mostly uses trails outside of Afan Valley.

Im riding everything in South Wales as live mid way between Afan and BPW. Ride places like machen, wyllie, castle coch/garth etc.. as well as the usual trail centres when the weather is bad.

I ride a large 2014 26″ Orange Alpine

Large 26″ 2014 alpine, so nice and long wheelbase with a Thule 591 and some aero bars. Its probably on its max adjustment as the shock mount stops you from gripping the down tube at the correct angle.

No issues tho, and i drive round south wales with it on every week and the road are shocking.

https://instagram.com/philwarrenphoto/

Wedding photography, a lot of awesome VW T5 vans for a local company and random other iphone photos and general photography.

Give me google maps every time. OSM satellite view is poor at best in my area. I couldnt care less for standard or terrain view.

Obviously the contrast is good, its a black and white screen. Not even greys for gradients/areas/info etc.. which will make maps hard work

Nokia called, they want their 3210 screen back.

I’d rather pay the difference for a 520 to have a far superior screen and smaller size.

That thing looks like they took 5 years to develop it when the Edge 500 was king.

At least someone is trying.

This thing rocks

– my go to commute light and I carry it as backup for mtb .. it’s bright enough on high to use for mtb as a main more or less anywhere. All in one design too, it’s great value.

Thanks for that! Awesome light fair play. Bought that and a Moon Shield rear light for 55 quid. Well happy with that.

Have they? Still looks ugly as sin to me.

Im on the look out for some lights for my commute, never done a winter commute before so need front and rear.

Any reccomendations? USB rechargeable for both and something to light up an unlit cycle path for about 10-15 minutes.

Thanks. 🙂

Yeah, lower leg service included in that price too. I think its worth it, slightly longer and slacker if that’s your thing.

Only cost me 60 quid to do it so for that amount of cash i thought it was worth it.

Twrch is completely closed.

Trails at trail centres i’d be looking at:

Day 1: Cafall twice, second time round do pedalhounds or once and get some pay per uplifts on it. Second time round i’d take the fire road up to rapist tent section tho, coz im lazy.

Day 2 BPW.

Day 3 Whites with black run and drive to Blaengarw.

You do realise stiniog is MILES away from afan and BPW?

Stay away from a zee if you have large chain growth. Ive bent three in a year. Always the same way, the backbone metal body twists making the cage point away from the bike.

This is on two different bikes too.

I went to the same medium cage mecha, and SLX, which has been fine as it can deal with the chain growth more. Having the clutch on whilst climbing doesnt help too.

Its all about ratios.
As stated i’m more than comfortable climbing in 32t chainring and 36t cassette, i could swap to a 34t chainring and would be ok.

What i would like is more gears top end. So if i keep the climbing ratio the same, which im happy with it would be:

32/36 10 speed setup is 0.88888
38/42 11 speed setup is 0.90476

Be hard pressed to tell the difference.

But what it does give me is on the descents, obviously an entire gear. So in some where descents are slower ill be further up the cassette closer to a straight chain line and more tension on the chain.

Its places like BPW where im averaging over 20-25mph on the descents this would be perfect for.

Why?

Even if i don’t use 38/11 much it’ll give me a better chain line for the majority of descents I do along with getting more chain tension because i’ll be up the cassette.

Yeah 26″.

I do a lot of uplifts and im living in 32/11 and often spin out at places like BPW.

Thanks.

Not far off same ratio as a 32/36 to climb in and I’d probably ok with a 34t on a 10 speed if I had one.

Gives me loads extra when pinning it! 🙂

From now on ill be being frame only on credit with a decent depsoit then a mix of new and second hand parts for the rest of the build.

Both acted like dicks imo.

Im running a 2.5 exo DHF up front and a HR2 2.3 EXO which is weirdly not far off the same size. Trail stuff theyre awesome, but when it gets steep and natural stuff the HR2 can slide sideways a bit, i think the DHR2 would very similar, centre knobs and spacing look similar to me?

Compound lifts for me.

Squats, deadlifts, bench, curls, etc.. Covers most bases.

I truly believe its stopped me from getting seriously hurt having the extra strength.

My routine, which ive been slacking on should be a ABA BAB split of:

Workout A
Exercise Sets Reps
Squat 4 8-10
Bench Press 4 8-10
Barbell Row 4 8-10
Military Press 4 8-10
Seated Calf Raise 2 10-20
Weighted Sit Up 2 10-20

Workout B
Exercise Sets Reps
Deadlift 2 10-15
Leg Press 2 12-15
Incline Dumbbell Bench Press 4 8-10
Dumbbell Shrug 4 8-10
Barbell Curls 4 8-10
Standing Calf Raise 2 10-20
Hanging Knee Raise 2 10-25

No satellite view on IOS.

The explore map on the app needs satellite view badly.

It seems to be fine in 3D printed form. It could do with being coated with Acetone to seal it and further strengthen it tho,

Stevied, please tell me you got one?

Would anyone be interested in it? I’ll cost it up if anyone does. I’ll also look at making it work with i-spec and i-spec II mounts.

Stevied, i might look to simplify it for machining but the angle kinda ruins it unless its made in two parts with the diameter turned then screwed to the mount part which is bolted to the brakes.

Yeah his was mounted to the bars not the i-spec mount. I took his idea a little further. 🙂

I got told..

Straight back, ass slightly out to help straight back.

Head level, not looking up too much, stop posing and checking yourself out.

Shins close the floor. Push feet through the floor then push hips forward. Boom!

Reverse hands.

Oh, I love deadlifts. Probably my favourite thing to do in the gym.

Specialized road bike, superstar nanos, 5.10’s, trail lid and baggies. Regularly overtake roadies on my commute. They dont like it. lol.

You can download it from the site.

http://www.velothon-wales.co.uk/en/route/route-information/download-route/

Twrch at Cwmcarn. Loads of hard work for 3 minutes of descent.

Blade. Badly made, some sections still haven’t bedded in, not much flow, always seems to be ruined with little climbs which kills it, and the fact they got lazy and used old Skyline sections given the fact they got loads of money from the windfarm to do it.

I’d like to say Penhydd, but I think that would be unfair given the purpose of the trail, which is an in introduction to the trails at Afan. But after hearing much hype about the original i thought when it reopened it was pretty poor. They should have called it something else. lol.

Wonder how good the batteries are, tempted to get that to use with my solarstorm if the battery pack is decent.

Cheers.

203 front and rear. No issues. Wouldnt run any smaller now.

What do you mean he got robbed? Voting hasnt finished yet has it?

Awesome shots by LCE, no doubting that, but i wanted more of a story than a highlight reel of images. Some of the others i thought were better at capturing what goes on at Whistler or telling a story. But what do i know, not like im a photographer..