I changed to Code RSC from M6000 Deore (kept the same rotors). First ride at a trail centre I figured I’d wasted my money as there was no discernable difference, but then I took the bike on a “proper” ride with sustained descents. Big difference in lack of fade, consistent feel/bite, and improved modulation/control.

Were they worth more than double the price of the Deore 2pot? Probably not, but now that I’ve got them I don’t regret buying them. Great brakes.

To answer the tech fruitiness question – open to giving most things a whirl. Have both ridden Cavedale/Jacobs/Peaks classics on 120-140 hardtails without death occurring, and are relatively good at knowing our limits. Both now on skills compensating 130mm 29er full sus, so have a bit of insurance there against sustained lumpiness.

Thanks all, some great options to pick through here!

Yep, HaB is a selectable menu item. Would always choose a rideable alternative if available, but wouldn’t strike off a route if some reasonable HaB with worthwhile reward was required.

@thegeneralist easy when you haven’t heard of the devil’s elbow! Added to the to-do list now, ta!

Popped in to the Trafford Centre Evans cycles and asked the question – all the Chiggle stock has apparently gone to three stores:
Sheffield
St Helens
Cheetham Hill

It’s mostly helmets, clothing and some pedals. Apparently some great deals on Kask and Troy Lee helmets in particular.

Happy shopping!

I’ve used Tesco clubcard vouchers to buy Alton towers tickets online in the past, pretty straightforward. Just don’t let the site time out on you, or the voucher code disappears and you’ve a confusing discussion to be had with customer services on both sides!

Had a friend ride Gisburn with no front brake – he’d forgotten to reinstall the top reservoir bolt following a top up bleed, so all the mineral oil was in his boot carpet instead of in his brake. Fastest he’s ever ridden, mind you 😂

I’m assuming it’s the oring on the wrong stanchion for measuring sag following a lowers service

Okay thanks – might aim for Inners instead in that case.

Suggest you get some split flexi duct if you want to avoid disconnecting and re-pulling cables. Personally I’d pop a draw rope in there for future cable replacements, and then tape the split duct shut to minimise dirt ingress that might give you blockages in future. Take photos and measurements from an immovable datum of where you’ve buried the duct, and consider putting a layer of tape 100mm above the duct as a warning in case you dig down on it in future.

Touran 1T2 go for far less cash than they should imo – looks like there’s a few autos available for <£4k. We’ve a manual that just refuses to die, very solid car.

Nope, I talk out loud to myself. Regularly amuses the wife when I’m WFH as I’ll give myself mini motivational speeches when getting stuck into something meaty 😂 she has an internal monologue and thinks I’m insane/under developed..

Thanks all, some great posts here – glad to see I’m not the only SRAM sceptic having had Avids in the past 😂

It’s looking like it’s possibly between the Code RSCs and MT5 Pro sets, both of which come with discs. I reckon the Guide RE will come in at “not cheaper enough” once discs and clamps are accounted for.. I feel a spreadsheet coming on

Yep agreed, Yr Wyddfa is a much better hill to ride than Snowdon.

I found that sunrise was always mobbed, but dusk/sunset less so. The ride up Llanberis path takes anything from 40mins to 2hrs depending on fitness/bike, then you can blast back down Llanberis path in 20mins with a few stops to enjoy the view. Take lights obviously. Rangers is the other usual route, as others have said the Telegraph valley is pretty much wheelchair accessible now but tbh it was always a fast blast back towards the village. Allow a about 40-50mins from summit to Llanberis via Rangers/Tele.

The local bike shop in Llanberis does a Wednesday/Thursday evening ride iirc, could be worth dropping them a message and tagging along if you want company and a guided tour of the local lines around the old slate quarries.

Don’t forget rocket fuel (favourite snacks etc) at regular intervals, that helps them warm from the inside. Sounds like you’re already doing what you can on the foot warmth front to be honest, maybe kiddo just wasn’t feeling it today. We’ve got a load of cheap snoods, skull caps (thin under helmet) and ski gloves from Decathlon which is enough to keep ours happy – had them out for a 2hr ride yesterday and they would’ve cracked on for longer! 4 and 2.5yo.

Thanks all!

I once read that a stack of 2p coins made a great load spreader for pressing freehub bearings home. Worked perfectly. Resulted in a well seated bearing, with a stack of 2p coins trapped inside the freehub by a lock ring that was nigh on impossible to remove as the cassette wasn’t on. Took carefully applied mole grips and a lot of shouting to sort that one…

@matt_oab 4yo and 2.5yo lumps now – definitely a sit and winch on the hills with the extra 30kg haha! Should be my last summer of suffering though, the big one is getting pretty confident on the balance bike now so next year I’ll probably introduce pedals and brakes and send her off on her own (where she’ll likely injure herself almost every ride, ironically given the way this thread has pivoted)

Appreciate everyone has different attitudes towards risk, hence my disclaimer that I wouldn’t encourage others to follow suit. This is an entirely personal choice having tried a lot of kid-carrying options (and combinations of options!). I maintain that in pretty much any crash situation, the kid attached to the macride is in for a much worse time than the kid in the rucksack.

Yes @thegeneralist – having tried both options, I can confirm that kid in rucksack is an awful lot easier to recalibrate the brain to than having an extra wide wheelbase 4ft behind you with an additional degree of freedom. Just avoid low overhanging trees! Funnily enough as you know the L2/L3 MTB leader courses don’t cover child carrying – I mentioned this qualification as a marker of the fact I’m well aware of the risks associated with MTB and have a lot of experience riding bikes.

Ha! Classic STW.

Not that it’s necessary, but to put you at ease:
Don’t worry about my kids being in a rucksack – been doing it since they could walk, they (and I) love it. Have done plenty of MTB rides in this configuration – Peaks, Angus Glens, various trail centre blue routes – never had an issue. If I fall off, the one that’s attached to the bike by their feet on the bike-specific macride seat will be in a far worse way than the one in the rucksack. We take all reasonable precautions (helmets, trail/line choice, I’m also a competent BC MTB L2 leader), so while I’d never encourage others to copy, I’m personally fine with the risks.

I got rid of the trailer after I clipped it on a kerbstone riding alongside the canal and it flipped with kiddo 1 inside – thankfully she was wearing a helmet and hardly even woke up, but ever since then I’ve much preferred to have them within the bike’s envelope. Bonus is that having one on the front and another on the back balances the bike quite nicely!

Cheers for the replies! Kid 1 will be on a macride, kid 2 will be in a rucksack. Wife is unlikely to join for a hill, but might be interested in some of the more sedate options (Mawddach looks primo!).

I had forgotten about Coed-y-Brenin, ha! That might be the winner for a spin out with the kids in an evening.

Octopus installed a smart meter for me as part of the switchover from previous supplier (British gas)

There once was a lad from the sticks
Whose code was ashen-elk-46
He shared it around
To gain £50
And rewarded himself with a twix

Messaged you now. https://share.octopus.energy/ashen-elk-46 for anyone else that’s interested!

The roads… They’re so smooth.

Do it!

First day: ferry Oban-Barra, pop down to Vatersay and then lap of Barra. Camp somewhere near the airport.

Second day: early morning ferry Barra-Eriskay. Enjoy the tailwind up the Uists, make it in time for the ferry from Bernaray to Harris. Camp somewhere near Luskentyre.

Third day: up to the Butt, then back across to Stornoway. Get there before 10pm for a munchy box from the only takeaway still open (Chinese near the ferry). Cheeky camp on one of the beaches, you’ll be up early to catch the 6am ferry to Ullapool.

Bus to Inverness (book bikes in advance if you can), train from Inverness home.

We stopped off any time we saw something that looked worth stopping for (quite a lot). Beware everything shuts on a Sunday.

Ah, looks like they’re sold out, only 27.5″ cheap ones left

How budget were you thinking? There were some 130mm 29er Suntours on Wiggle for £30 last time I checked… Same forks that come on £1k+ Boardmans at Halfords

Call your local Slater’s branch – I’ve had a few pairs of UK14 brogues from them at decent prices. Think I’ve had success with Clarks too previously.

It’s stood the test of several stools today albeit begrudgingly, including a mighty effort from one of the kids that, scaled up to my size, would’ve been like me laying a leg of ham

There’s a part of me that still wants to unleash the air cannon… for science

Right, cling film trick got rid of the brown stuff (for bonus points, flush while the cling film is applied, it builds a nice pressure head to push down against), but the flush still takes quite a while to settle. I think one of said toddlers has deposited something decidedly solid down there that has somehow got round the trap (yes, conceded defeat and stuck hand down – it’s one of those loos where the trap doubles back itself so you can’t get more than a hands length into it). Shoved 2m of brake cable outer down there and gave it a good wiggle, didn’t hear or feel anything which isn’t surprising as I struggled to get the stuff round the bend and can’t discount that it might’ve coiled up uselessly just out of sight.

So, er, slightly successful but needs to stand the test of a hearty entry into the captain’s log, which won’t be till tomorrow now as that’s what got us in this mess in the first place. Only time will tell

I should add that the missus has just left for the weekend and I’m now the sole carer for two sleeping toddlers. Leaving the house for extra equipment is not an option.

Oh, and we chucked the traditional floppy mop in favour of a pump action steam mop, so that’s a non starter

I like the mop idea, but I feel it lacks bravery

I’ve already tried using a cut 2litre bottle as a plunger, with limited success, mostly because I can’t get a great seal with it. Which obviously bodes well for adding 100psi to the equation

May result in a slightly messy redefinition of “psi”

If it does turn out to be 11mm hex, whatever you do don’t tell him he could’ve just used 5mm and 6mm hex keys rammed down together 😅

Completing our first purchase today, fingers crossed. Things I’ve learned:

Solicitors are frustratingly inefficient and were the worst communicators of all (very well rated non-local firm). Generic responses to emails, refusal to let me speak to the actual solicitor over the phone, generally very unhelpful with issues that I expected them to handle. I ended up bypassing them and speaking directly to the vendor via the estate agent to get stuff done.

RICS L2 survey paid for itself twice over by identifying an issue with the electrics which the seller then agreed to sort. Paid extra here to get a surveyor who was willing to take a phone call from me directly after the survey to go through some concerns I had, and feed back immediate thoughts from the survey. It was surprisingly hard to find one that was willing to do this – most refused to agree to talk to me. Was really happy with the surveyor. Usual pinch of salt applies to the report, as it’s their job to cover all bases.

Estate agent is not on your side, they are working for the vendor. Remember this, even if they’re super helpful. The estate agents we bought from were actually really very good, by far the best communicators out of everyone (ironic as we weren’t paying them). We don’t know how they portrayed us to the vendor though – judging by some of the responses we got to simple questions, I think they were likely quite two faced and played us off against each other to their benefit.

Mortgage broker was definitely worth the money, as we had a minor issue that resulted in our first offer falling through from the lender. We wouldn’t have known what to do at this stage, but the broker argued our case and got the offer reinstated which was brilliant.

Only thing I’d change next time would be to spend more on a decent local solicitor, and not be tempted to use a well rated one 300 miles away.

Beau Miles on YouTube

How good is your hoover?

I used a child carrying rucksack until mine were ready for a Macride (probably 18 months ish?).

From memory the nds cap was a bit stubborn, think it involved a rag and a vice/molgrips

I’ve a Marin, bought second hand so unsure if the wheels are stock, but the disassembly process is as follows:

Pull off nds cap, 4mm Allen key into the holes, ds cap reverse threaded via 11mm Allen key down axle

Don’t see how mice/rats could access – bricked from ground level up, and the gully has a grate on the trap.

It is, however, shoddy workmanship to say the least!