I feel your frustration. Can I refer you to my earlier comments about Spanish bureaucracy, glacial would describe the sense of urgency. 😕 It seems that many people just do the work and sort it out later which is a mistake, especially if they want to sell in the future and the changes aren’t documented in the escatura or nota simple. In the worst case the ajuntament can require alterations to be undone or the value of them cannot be recouped.
Are you on mains electric? We are powered by solar and generators as the cost of connection is huge. A chap locally has a line of telegraph poles which run literally 10m from his house and was quoted €23,000 for connection, we’re a lot further off grid than that!
Mrs PB has Facebook friended you, I’m not into FB. She is talking about us having a trip up north later in the summer, I’ll let you know when.

Once ended up waist deep in a hole that opened up when I stood on a piece of innocuous looking ground. The track that skirts Nant Y Moch res and north towards Mach is a much better bet than the bridleway towards Staylittle. The place has a lot of history as it was the site 500 years ago of a major battle between the followers of Owain Glendower and the English, the streams were said to have run red with blood.

What sort of riding are you looking to do? I live 40 mins south of Salou but could be in a different world, can probably find you a bike to hire locally. Plenty of great beaches but not the resorts that Thomsons etc go to. When are you planning the trip?

Good to read that you’re getting out on the bike, it’s easy to get bogged down with the renovation and loose the real reason for being there. We haven’t plucked up courage to try snails yet, I thought Lleida was the greatest snail festival in Spain?
Doug, I don’t know if you remember me, you kindly lent my mate a rear wheel when his hope free hub disintegrated on a trans Pyrenees trip we did 3 years ago, delivering it 100+ miles from your place was above and beyond.
Once the CAT700 is ticked off I’m hoping to get up to the Ainsa area, just need to get the training in as 5 days self supported over 650km and 13000m of climbing is going to be a challenge.
Good luck Spekkie and hopefully see you soon.

There were 2400 riders on Sunday, not all were racing, many see the finishing as the main goal. They just wanted to ride their bike and have fun. Don’t know if it was a Spanish federation rule but seems daft to me, especially as the implementation seemed variable.

The bike course on Sunday involved 1200m of up and down over 90km on twisting mountain roads so decent brakes were fairly crucial.

I’d agree for draft legal events where riders are in close proximity but if you have to leave a 6 metre gap to another rider, it’s very unlikely that differences in braking efficiency would be a factor.

He’s only a D away from being A Bellend though.

That’s a terrible story about the Portugese property, the first thing the estate agent told us was to ensure anything we bought had a habitation certificate, this goes a long way to securing your rights. It seems a lot of the horror stories involve property in urbanaciones on the coast in the south, notably Valencia, Alicante and the Costa Del Sol. North West Spain, especially inland, seems less susceptible to people acting like it’s the Wild West.

I’m no expert but Teetosugars, I think your car’s on fire. Ordered a couple, let’s hope they get to Spain. Box at our Local PO is our only means of receiving stuff, CRC have always sent stuff RM before but have gone with a courier P2P which may cause problems as the PO is only open mornings 😕

Stardrops is the best if vinyl or cork. Use neat if heavily soiled.

Sorry, I meant single day road events. I’m doing the CAT700 in 6 weeks which is a self supported event, off road, with 12,000m of climbing and 400+ miles but has a 5 day time limit so should be a piece of piss 😯

Actually 9.6km profile Here

Just to whet the appetite if you are still looking for a sportive in the Pyrenees, I was in a bike shop in Barcelona this afternoon and picked up a flyer for This The long version is basically the route of the infamous day of the Vuelta last year which claimed Chris Froome, I was watching at the finish and have never seen so many knackered pros. It’s 145 km and 5400 m of climbing. There’s also a 10k uphill TT on the Saturday before with a mere 820m of climbing just to get the legs warm 😯

Shimano SD CX -70 is the one you want, assuming they’re still available.

I’ve fitted loads of these having built bikes for PX for 2 1/2 years. You need to get a washer to sit on the frame side of the roller and put the spacer with the wider end in contact with the head of the bolt. Also a good trick is to bin the cover as it just fills with crap from the back wheel and stops the pulley rotating. The very best solution is to use a top pull front mech, shimano do a cross one for double chainring which works on 10 or 11 speed. The pulley will stop working unless you lube it frequently as it’s right in the firing line.

That pic above is on the Cliffs of Moher and the bit Hans Rey is on has subsequently fallen into the sea. Barking 😯

Also, employing Spanish builders will make you very familiar with the concept of ” mes o minus” nothing can be done to alter this phoenomenon. 😀

Ditto Spanish bureaucracy, it has taken 6 months for our local ajuntament to stamp our house deeds and return them to the solicitor so our retention money can be released to us. It was “only” €800 but the wheels move very slowly. We have been told that if we want to make alterations requiring plans to be authorised, the official architect works in our area 1 morning a fortnight ! Never mind, the sun’s shining and the trails are in great nick after the bit of rain end of last week has dampened the loose marbles.
You might be interested in This[/url] in a couple of months, I entered a couple of weeks ago.
Salut.

Thisis one of the Classic Spanish Pyrenees events, always well over subscribed but worth a try.

Hi, your story somewhat mirrors ours, we moved to Southern Cataluña last September. Mrs PB and I decided to make the leap before we were too old to do athletic stuff like multi-day mountain bike trips(me) and triathlons (her). We bought a 200 year old finca with 8 acres of almond and olive trees. We joined the local bike club and trail running group, the local people have been really friendly and helpful and despite not speaking much Catalan, we get along brilliantly. Take the last 3 weekends as an example, Easter I did a 3 day bike packing trip, 200km around the El Port mountain range, Details here, following Sunday, a 40km race around the local mountains which we both did and yesterday a middle distance triathlon, wife did the full race and I was talked into doing the bike leg in a team. She finished 2nd female and our team finished 3rd. Not bad for a couple in our mid 50’s.
The people we bought from happen to be British and still live locally, they are amazed that we have already made so many Spanish friends, they have been here 20 years and seem to exclusively associate with ex pats. We are determined to not go down this road, our biggest challenge is that we are learning Castillian Spanish where most people speak Catalan. I’m assuming being in Aragon, this isn’t so much of an issue for you.
I too have made a big effort to get to know the local trails to enable us to show people around when they visit. It’s a dirty job etc. Not sure if we will make this a business opportunity, we have a self contained flat attached to the house which sleeps 4.
Good luck with your adventure, Ainsa is getting a good rep with the Zona Zero trails, that and the magnificent Ordesa canyon should mean you don’t get bored anytime soon.

Try mallorcabikehire.com I built 10 Planet XPro Carbons for them a couple of years ago which are definitely UK setup. Guys name is Phil Axe and they deliver from Puerto Pollenca. Decent price, good service and will let you bring your own pedals and saddle if you’re fussy.

Road or mtb ?

Stayed with a German family in Heidelberg for 2 weeks on a language exchange. Their living room had wallpaper which made it seem as if it was in a forest. My exchange partner was into Pink Floyd and the family owned a chemist shop. Highlight of the trip was inserting fire crackers into the hard boiled eggs that had been given to us for the train journey back and lobbing them out of the train window as we waited in cologne station. My effort landed in a news kiosk and exploded with hilarious consequences. Oh how the teachers laughed..

Don’t drive in it. Suits only hang properly if you’ve not sat in them, that’s why you see reps hanging their suit jackets on hangers in the back of the car. When I drove a lot with work but had to look smart at the customer, I’d buy an extra pair of trousers with every suit, still wasn’t enough to get enough wear out of the jacket before the trousers were shagged. Politicians and businessmen can wear suits as they stand around all day doing naff all.

Whoever they were they’d have to go on a serious diet, the thing that stunned me was how small the hole was that they crawled through. I think the Met needs to start targeting pensioners yoga classes in case of copycat heists.

When’s it going to come out that the detectives cheating wife is actually a man called Harold?

We live in Catalunã with our dog Jasper. We have used the Dover Calais route several times and he is fine left in the car for 1 1/2hours. End of last year we sailed Santander to Plymouth with Brittany Ferries as this is 20 hours they have compulsory kennels which you can visit to exercise and feed the dog. I’d think that for a 4 hour crossing the dog would have to be kept in a kennel as the car deck is kept locked. I’d think they’d take a dim view of trying to bend the rules, especially if the dog wanted the toilet mid trip.

There is no easy answer to any of this.
You need to clarify what type of climbing you are aiming at, your fitness level, etc etc. Generally 38/25 bottom will be fine for general knocking about but if you’re looking to do long steep stuff then changing the small chainring to a 34 will give you less grief than trying to mess with the cassette ratios. Unfortunately you will also need to get a 50t big chainring as the max difference is 16 on most front mechs. By the time you’ve bought 2 rings, depending on the chainset the bike came with, it may be better to get a new chainset, such is the lunacy of parts pricing these days. If you try to increase cassette size, you will run into possible issues around rear mech capacity and chain length without getting the significant reductions you may be looking for.
In a nutshell, it’s a minefield. Best bet would be to get out on the bike and get training.

Started to get slightly worried when I read “the eye still attached to frame”

+1 for sealing the garage floor with a quality epoxy paint, keeps dust down and looks great. Don’t do what I nearly did and paint yourself into a corner 😀

What I want to know is how that Norton chap manages to grow his hair so quickly in the 24 hours between Happy Valley and Grantchester, for a vicar he seems to have a potty mouth as well.

I subscribe to the Groucho Marx maxim ” I refuse to join any club that would have me as a member” it’s worked for me so far.

Recently our taste in fruit has been dictated by my wife’s athletic achievements. A couple of weeks ago se came second in a local trail running race and won 10kg of oranges and a big tin of olive oil and last week won her category in a Duathlon , the prize for which was a box of apples. The daughter of one of our friends won her class in the trail race and got the biggest tub of Nutella I’ve ever seen. We live in Cataluña by the way.

Don’t see the issue here, this is exactly how Planet X’s purchasing policy works.

Also, watching uk tv via a proxy here in rural Spain is expensive, we get internet via satellite and pay €55 per month for 24Gb download. We get BBC and ITV via satellite using a Tooway setup but no Freeveiw stations. No great hardship as we are playing out most of the time.

Shame it’s not a peanut as the solution is to pour chocolate up the nose and it comes out a treat.
I’m here all week. Hope you sort it out.

My first big gig was David Bowie at Bingley Hall Stafford,June 25th 1978, same night as the Argentina Holland World Cup final. I was 17, the guy I went with knew someone at the venue and we managed to get upstairs onto a gantry which ran around the hall where the lighting was. It was the Heroes tour and totally brilliant.
Other memorable gigs were one of the very last Jam concerts also at Bingley in December 1982 and seeing the Smiths at N Staffs Poly students union (capacity about 400) in 1984 when they were relatively unknown.

I think Binners is trying to lift your leg.
I went to one of the best gigs ever in a suit, however it was the 2 Tone tour featuring The Specials, Selecter, Madness and The Beat at the Top Rank Club in Cardiff and it was 1979, I was 19 and fitted in completely. 8)

Next time Mrs PB says she’s going shopping for a new top I’ll brace myself.