It can’t count swim lengths to save its life.  Outdoors no issues but laughable in the pool.  Not a major issue if you don’t swim though. I keep it as have a Roam on the bike and just wanted one app to keep track of all activity.

I got a BMC Twostroke 20’’ for my 7 year old boy.  RRP is a bit steep but got a really got deal on it – really impressed with it and now have a 29er matching model for me! Will look for a 24’’ model when he outgrows this one.

Satyricon.

To be honest I wouldn’t buy any bike purely with the intention of racing off road triathlons as there’s so few of them around now they are generally seen as fun off road events. They tried to run a series in the past of competitive and series ranked races but most fell to the wayside. I did Xterra the last time it was in the UK and looking now you need to travel abroad to do the Xterra series to get quality off road multi sport races. I suspect whatever you buy for general XC races will be suitable for any off road triathlon you decide to do.

Orca do a range of open water, as opposed to triathlon specific wetsuits, and one of those is designed for winter swimming. Unfortunately, as above, it will be expensive.

Update is that although I’ve specifically asked about one item, the rest having been delivered, I keep getting the automated reply about general delays. This isn’t applicable as the rest of my order is sat with me and my concern is they’ve advertised something they don’t have/can’t get. Might just send the rest of the groupset back at this rate as I’m not hopeful they’ve got one.

I’ve had everything through promptly except a left hand grx shifter. This will be a problem if they don’t actually have one as it’s been ordered as part of a complete groupset and if it’s not in stock means the rest of it needs sending back as it’s a fairly crucial part of proceedings (I can’t find one anywhere else online either).

I’m not sure the specifics of how my in-laws meter was set up but it went backwards when the panels were producing a lot of electricity. I’ve not noticed any odd behaviour by our meter since our panels went up other than our bills go down quite a bit in the summer when the panels supply most of what we need.

We did 4 weeks camping there a few years ago for our honeymoon with a week spent doing a mini road trip from Copenhagen up to Oslo via Oresend Bridge and ferry back in the middle.

We got the overnighter from Harwich to Hook of Holland and then arrived at 8am and I drove all the way to Ribe which is just across the German/Danish border with 2 loo stops in about 9 hours of driving. It was a bit brutal doing it that way but it did mean we were in Denmark the same day we got off the ferry. On the plus side when we were there fuel was 90p a litre so that helped keep costs down.

Campsites for a camper van pitch were about £25 a night but without exception all campsites we stayed in were very well managed and maintained with very nice kitchen and shower blocks. Copenhagen was great for three days but we did cheat and stayed in a plush apartment there as there were no obvious campsites locally and we fancied treating ourselves.

Silkeborg is their answer to the Lake District and there were lots of marked mountain biking trails there – I ran a lot around there as I had no bike but it was beautiful if not epic.

We should have gone back last year with our little boy until Covid knackered things up but it’s definitely on our list once things settles down. The only change is I’d be doing the cheaper Dover-Dunkirk ferry and then arrange a night camping in Germany on the way up, don’t think Harwich-Hook of Holland gains you enough of a benefit in relation to increased cost and hassle.

Got a brand new set of 120mm travel Reba’s that I’ve never fitted to my bike, could be tempted to part with them, PM me if interested.

We’re Worcester based and used Orillo in Malvern and ended up with Hacker units – really pleased with the kitchen we’ve got, bit more expensive than Howdens but not massively so and they price matched all the white goods we wanted too. Kitchen fitter wasn’t used to fitting Hacker however and took him a bit longer than he expected.

6’1 with a 32 inside leg and long torso riding a large – I did change the stem to a 50mm and that feels spot on now.

Haven’t tried one but looking for a winter wetsuit to complement my summer swim/run wetsuit and considering one too. You may have seen but you can get an ex demo/returned repaired Lotic for £65 which is well worth a speculative punt. The Silverip with fleece lining looks very appealing too.

Zer0cool – just fitted a brand x dropper to my four as per the linked thread, once the outer is threaded through the frame it is a simple installation and it worked well on it’s maiden 3 hr ride, no difference in performance to the Fox it replaced. For the frame I had to buy a three pack of new cable exit point grommets from Orange and if you want one I’ll post one over.

Tenfoot – thank you very much for the offer but I went on line and ordered a pack of three this morning unfortunately (though I did need a spare mech hanger too just in case so have one heading my way) – hoping they fit the four as it doesn’t specifically state they do but they look like they should (famous last words).
I’ll also extend the same offer to anyone that should need the 2 spare ones I’ll have.

It does seem ridiculous that it is such a tricky job just to install a dropper on this type of frame – I would have happily run my old fox doss externally but with the increased standover I was just above the minimum insertion line on it.

Thanks all for advice, I think I may have just cracked it – I used a length of copper piping and fed the outer through leaving about 1cm extended at the bottom and crimped in the direction of the down tube angle. I then dropped the copper piping into the seat tube and it allowed the head of the cable outer to poke through in the direction of the downtube. Brute force then works to push the cable manually through the copper piping and back up the down tube – previously without the copper piping the outer just kinked and twisted as it had nothing to brace itself against. I now have the outer where I can see it at the cable exit point but I’m calling it a night now and I’ll finish what hopefully should now be a straightforward job in the morning. One final query though, is there a specific rubber bung to fit in the exit hole to seal it with the cable or do you just drill the existing plastic blanker that sits there at present? Thanks again.

Thanks, I had a nasty feeling others may also have suffered! Just watched a video with someone hoovering a thread through the frame so that could be the next method I try. It would only take them embedding a small internal guide when the frame is being welded to make life a lot easier.

Thanks, I had a nasty feeling others may also have suffered! Just watched a video with someone hoovering a thread through the frame so that could be the next method I try. It would only take them embedding a small internal guide when the frame is being welded to make life a lot easier.

I ran a single ring setup, 10 speed 32 x 10/40 when we did the South Downs in a day and it did almost break me towards the end (we’d been going for 15 hours by the end and the last third was a significant test of my resolve not to throw the bike into the nearest hedge) – I wish I’d had some smaller gears. Both mates were on double cranksets and were managing the short steep hills better towards the end. Saying that I’m now on an 11 speed with a 30 x 10/42 which may make all the difference though due to a small child I’ve yet to ride more than 4hrs in one go over the last year.

From a slightly different angle we had a long delay between offer acceptance/last viewing and actually moving in and it was clear they stopped cleaning/doing any sort of maintenance in that period – if I was ever in that position again I’d do another viewing when the end was in sight to chase up all the issues that in retrospect we encountered when moving in that weren’t there when we last saw the house.

A few years ago there was a Scott X tri series and endurancelife also ran an off road tri series but they’ve pretty much all stopped. I think in part it was due to lack of entries as some got cancelled with some very weak excuses – certainly now decent ones now are few and far between. There is an off road duathlon series run up around the Nottingham area in October time and there are are couple of duathlons run just outside Cirencester in November and then February which are a bit of fun but you can’t plan a season of racing around off road events unless you plan on doing a lot of driving – we tried and failed.

‘Spit’ by Kittie, a truly awful all female ‘nu’ metal group, I’ve regretted it ever since. I’ll also second ‘Misery loves Co’, bought it off the back of one single and the album was depressingly awful.

ygm with another.