I really enjoy Mabie, not been for a few year now though so not sure what state it’s in. First climb is long but not much climbing after that, other than the stinger.

Some good climbs on the red at Ae one absolute killer that I’ve never made up, the one after the bridge if you’ve been. But bike dependant it’s a bit of a slog.

Kirroughtree is a good way from Dumfries but does have it all, especially if you venture across to the other side of the road after mcmoab. Been even longer since I’ve ridden there though so could be awful now.

I got a Tmobile USA one from amazon, I was to scared to try an e-sim last time so went for a physical one tucked in the back of my phone case, will do more reading on e-sims next time as plenty of choice.

Not sure, if you’re not feeling it at the beginning not sure the tone shift is massively different, but maybe, there’s been some more action. Tension seems to be being ramped up towards the end.

I’ve just sold my road bike and I’m agonising about whether an XC bike or gravel bike would be the best replacement. We have another contender! I’ve always had a soft spot for bromptons, I used to chat to a guy on my old commute who road one 10 miles in to brum and back every day. He was rapid. Would make a great commuter/shopper/explorer

There are a few videos on youtube of the full process, I watched a few and read loads before I did mine, wasn’t an issue despite the fact I’d never ridden a geared bike before and hadn’t ridden anything with a motor on more than 100m.

Mine was

– Pulling away

– U turns

– Couple of other bits, maybe slalom &/or figure of 8 but maybe not, was a lot of hanging around and it was 5 years ago.

– Emergency stop

– Quick ride around the block.

I’ve got a nearly brand new one in my shed that I need to sell. Probably too late this year now I think it’ll be too big for your needs. They’re great bikes for kids, light and well made with fewer fancy bits that add weight with no benefits.

We watched the first one, I enjoyed it, Mrs P wasn’t as keen but I’m hoping she’ll be up for carrying on, similar is occurring with Sunny on Apple TV.

Kaos soundtrack is great, someone is having a good time picking tunes.

I would love to go to the LA olympics, mainly because I love LA. Not sure I’ll be able to afford it, but the sprint canoeing is in Long Beach and I think it would be a grand day out. Hot though.

We went to the natural history museum at easter this year and had a nose a the coliseum while we were there, it was still impressive, and cool seeing all of the old olympic benches dotted around the grounds.

In 4 years time the kids will be 18 and 20, so I won’t have to take them that should save us a bit of cash…

I had bovril on toast at a sleepover when I was kid, I enjoyed it, like strong smoky marmite. Everyone I’d spoken to about it since thinks I was making it up. Glad this thread popped up, might have to get some and see if it takes me back 30 odd years. Not had any since

A mate of mine has just got one for his first bike in his early 40s. Nice bike, feels well screwed together. Hilariously the Indian built KTMs(125 and 390) are more reliable than the ‘proper’ ones.

I’d say a good condition duke will hold its value almost as well as a Japanese options, but they’re a lot more stylish.

I really liked it, I had a quick go, the controls were shockingly light, but could have just been because I’ve gotten used to a 21 year old 1000cc Vstrom. Gearbox is really slick, a great first bike.

Would echo what others have said, they’re very theft attractive, apparently the 390 engine slots straight in so popular with scrotes. Also make sure he leaves the standard pipe on because pipes on 125’s sound shit.

I live in Hednesford, it’s great for working in Birmingham and riding from your door.

Cannock chase is definitely mtb friendly, but not exactly epic, but there is plenty of riding. I can easily get a good ride in for an hour with 4 minutes of tarmac time if that. I only ever ride to the trails.

Train to Birmingham if pretty reliable, certainly better than it was 10 years ago and is very cheap per mile compared to the Stafford line you’d get from penkridge. Return is just over £12 per day. Season tickets are much cheaper. Birmingham is also cycle able if you’re that way inclined, I did it for 5 years on and off until I got my motorbike. 20 miles each way, not too hilly depending on whether you live at the top of the hill in Hednesford or the bottom. Too is nearer the chase.

Hednesford itself is just ok, it’s got some nice parts, some not so nice parts but it’s affordable has a couple of good pubs, the chase is the biggest draw for me.

the other best part about Cannock is that it’s easy to get to other places from. I often think about moving somewhere else, but the ease of being in the middle of the country near the M5, M6 and M42 is great.

house price is well below the national average although it’s catching up. Not long ago you could get a 4 bed detached for less than £200k. Now about £300-350 but you’ll get much more for leamington money.

Love the V7s. I’d have one myself but I love a topbox and it would feel like a crime to put one on the V7. V85TT would suit me I think, but they’re out of budget for me at the moment.

Ive got a very cheap V Strom 1000 at the moment, I’d like to replace it with something lighter and cheaper to run but it’s solid and paid so it’s staying for now. I’ve got used to the power too now so I don’t know how much of that I’d want to give up now.

Not for cycling but I used a lot of interval training for my kayak racing, different length intervals work on different specific fitness which you wouldn’t get with Fartlek training, Tuesday was 8 mins on 2 off target pace is always as fast as you can manage for the whole interval.

Yesterday 2min on 30 secs off, that works on your specific ‘not doing a sick’ fitness.

All of my bike riding is fartlek training, until I bother sticking a different bike on the turbo now I’ve sold my roadie.

I have some Airpods pro 2 that I’ve had since Christmas, no idea on their longevity but if you’re an iPhone user they’re great, and especially good if you also use other apple devices as well. £200

I’ve also had some Mpow M30 for since the covid lockdowns that have been great, still work fine but have been benched in favour of the Airpods. £30ish

I’ve got some soundcore ones too that I use for work that have lasted at least 3 years, P2 or something, they’ve been decent. £20ish

Got some Amazon ones too, also pretty decent, just not as good as the airpods. £40 on a lightning deal, not worth the full price.

We had some of them Taki’s Fuego on holiday, they’re more Sour than hot IMO, didn’t love them.

Walkers Max Strong Jalapeno and Cheese however are god tier crisps. Me and Mrs P have a bag most weekends, with a big bottle of San Miguel, lovely.

I’d definitely have one for £300. I’d have happily paid £450 for one so £300 sounds like an absolute bargain for a general purpose bike. If I’d not just bought a new racing kayak I’d have had one myself.

Dave_h we had an active tourer before the Kuga, also a great car.

We leased a Kuga for 3 years, replaced it with a B Class and then replaced that with a Tiguan both of which had seats that really didn’t suit Mrs P’s back back so we bought another Kuga like the old one.

When I can afford it I’ll replace this diesel Kuga with a PHEV one. Good car. Very Car-y.

2b sticks are huge! I’d go 5a to start with, better to work up to heavier sticks if you like the feel later on, less wear and tear on the drums too.

Nice kit though, very nice. You’d be able to use that even if you did decide to join a band. Maybe not a punk band but would do pretty much anything else

I play, learned on an acoustic kit (grew up in a detached house next door to a pub) and now have both at home although acoustic kit lives in bags ready for gigs. All electric kits I’ve played have been nowhere near as good as an acoustic kit, I’ve never played any really high end e-kits though, but up to £2k it’s still not quite there. I’ve got an Alesis Crimson mesh kit and it’s ok, a bit better than my old super cheap bottom of the range yamaha, but only because I’ve been able to expand it to match my acoustic kit, if I was starting from scratch I’d have been fine with the yamaha one, and was fine for many years.

If you’re in an apartment the biggest noise issue will be from pedals if you’ve got downstairs neighbours they’ll prefer you have the switched type bass drum pedal, but a proper separate pedal and pad is better.

If I was starting now, I’d get a basic Roland kit for resale value, either new or used and upgrade if and when you outgrow it. As others have said, if you get anywhere past a basic standard you’ll need to invest in an acoustic kit to be able to do gigs with the 5 bands you’ll inevitably join. Then the real expense starts.

Here’s my entry,

A single replacement Sandisk micro usb card. Express post from somewhere in Central Europe. Apologies for the poor quality phone cameras have come a long way since 2012

I hate riding it in the wet, but for me it’s the clothes rather than the bike. I’ve got a cheap hybrid I can ride locally when the weather is bad, I’m planning on eventually getting a rigid MTB or HT that I can equip with some guards and use year round and a gravel bike and I’ll get rid of the hybrid. if you can’t afford the gym though and you can’t afford a pure gym then I think running or walking are going to be the best option.

I also race kayaks and I’m happy to do that in any weather but depending on your proximity to a club you might struggle with costs there too. Not sure where you are, racing canoe clubs thin out the further north you go sadly.

I sold my nearly new se 2020 to pay for a battered 13. Its better in every way other than one handed operation (I have short fingers)

Camera is better, battery life is better, screen is better. I had an 11 that I gave to my eldest when I got the SE, I don’t know if the 13 is much better than that, but smallest capacity is 128gb which is better, 64gb doesn’t last long if you want to use apps for lots of different things and have pictures/music on hand.

I’ll get a pro next time though, a telephoto lens would be super useful on holiday.

I had a fenix 6 pro but wanted the newer features of the 7, got a deal on an Epix Gen2 when H Samuel were banging them out for £375.

It’s a great watch, but I prefer the fenix display personally for my use case anyway, battery lasts me about 5 days with the AOD and doing some kind of activity (normally with GPS) pretty much every day.

Brake by wire is the most disappointing BBW.

I’d probably go something reasonably modern – lets face it a forever motorbike isn’t a thing.

For fun and frolics without being silly

Speed Twin 1200

CB1100

R9T

Z900RS

XSR900 if you can deal with the looks, it doesn’t float my boat but the engine is a hoot.

I like modern classics, they already look old so shouldn’t age if you do keep it for ages, and should have 5-10 years before any real issues pop up.

@poly and 5lab – the policyholder doesn’t need to be negligent the insured person – in this case the child – does.

If you do something by accident it could have been avoided it is negligence. There is a vanishingly small possibility of an action by a human that causes damage directly unintentionally being classed as non negligent.

Possibly if the child had ridden their bike past the car over some soft earth, which caused a land slip which damaged the car there would have been no negligence. But if the kid has hit the car then liability will attach. The fact that there has been an accident is evidence of negligence. You couldn’t argue your way out of a car insurance claim by saying, well I honestly thought I’d stop in time so you can’t claim against me.

Also again first party insurance is not a thing. What you are talking about there is generally called property insurance in the game.

If you have alternative documents that can tell me I’m wrong I will withdraw my argument, but I have extensive experience of writing insurance policy wordings so I would be surprised.

Nickjb has answered the thread.

If you have household insurance (contents or buildings) you more than likely have an extension that will cover you as much as you need. If you want to make it easy by having a card to show British Cycling or Cycling UK will do the job and you’ll get some discounts on stuff for the year too. When I was commuting daily I had BC membership because in the event of me hitting a car it would have been less messy than going through house insurance

The home insurance will cover it, unless the kid deliberately damaged the car the kid is negligent and a home insurance policy will have a PL extension for insured family members and pets.

Whether it’s worth claiming on your home insurance is another story, depends on the circumstances (I’m writing this from the POV of someone who has read page 1) and the cost of the damage vs potential increases in your insurance premium and if there is an excess for 3rd party property damage.

Third party insurance covers damage you or anyone insured by your policy (not necessarily a policyholder or named specifically) to a property owned by a third party (i.e anyone who isn’t covered by your insurance) there is no such thing as first party insurance. Unless that is an archaic term for insuring your own stuff, but I’ve been an insurance underwriter for over 20 years and I’ve never heard that in a work setting.

We used budget in the US this Easter, we had to queue for about an hour to collect which has never happened before in LA, the car was tatty, and wasn’t cleaned before we picked it up, in fact the woman who had hired it last was still getting her cases out of the boot when we went to get in it.

Then when we got back to the airport after handing it back they billed us for some random cover that they’d not offered us or told us about, I raised a dispute with CC company which was upheld but they’ve tried to argue the toss again, luckily tesco bank have backed us up as there is no way of contacting Budget US without calling their call centre which was useless while we were over there, not interested in calling from over here.

Wouldn’t use them again or Avis by extension as they’re the same company.

Not been to Ibiza so not sure who you could use there Others we’ve used in the US have been Dollar and Alamo but from the name I’m guessing they’re US only, in Europe I think we used Enterprise once years ago which was fine otherwise  I’ve tended to use the one nearest the hotel.

@the-muffin-man this is exactly the issue with mine, its feeling like a battle at the moment going to try a more local dealer than the big franchise we bought it from. They don’t seem particularly interested now we’ve got it

Lol I’ve literally just got off the phone to the ford protect warranty people trying to put a claim for a faulty heated windscreen on the car we bought 2 months ago. They’re not making it easy to claim, It’s taken a few days to find out what the actual process is, and I’ve only found out today that there will be a diagnostic fee to check that the windscreen isn’t working as it’s supposed to.

They sent a warranty extension quote the other day and I was considering it but based on these interactions I’m going to save the cash and put it towards repairs instead.

Years ago my parents had an inured or sick pigeon grounded in the garden for a couple of days. Obviously it was when I took my (young at the time) kids round that the magpies decided it’s eyes look tasty.

Smart birds, we had a nest in our garden last year (didn’t fill the bird feeders!) it was quite nice seeing the young ones bouncing around. But they are quite brutal.

Condolences A_A

I saw the start of the cartoon and then the direction it was going and scrolled past. Can’t cope with that today, and I’ve never even had a dog!

I just use the free version of MFP ads aren’t that intrusive. Can’t say that I really notice them now tbh.

Unless you need to set macro targets the free one is good enough for me.

Edit – looks like I have used Lose It! in the past too, don’t remember what it was like, might be worth a look.

I’ve also got a Kamei, I think it’s the cheapest one that roofbox.com sell looking now probably a husky, but I don’t remember it being that expensive.

We use ours pretty much every time we go away they’re great things, I can also get a couple of bikes or a kayak along side mine.

The highlights on discovery+ are just the highlights from eurosport in the evening that get uploaded when they’re broadcast. They’re pretty bad but better than they used to be. Used to just be the last however many km’s would fit into 40 mins, sometimes something massive would have happened and you’d only know about it if the commentators mentioned it again it was crap.

It’s still not as bad as the add free coverage of the british superbikes a 5 hour long program that just goes to a holding screen between races and doesn’t even have the features that the TV coverage has, useless.

I didn’t think you were a million miles from me, if you can get over to Stafford I’m pretty sure Jim at Jones and Alcock has some for £3k out the door. If not they’re not a lot more, less than £3500 anyway which is mental.

The only negatives I would say about them chains are poor quality and rust fast, still work but look bad, can be kept on top of though and the tripper is mentally bright when it gets dark before 7pm. I unplugged mine over the winter. Only other change was added the top box so I could pick up shopping and heated grips. Didn’t give me any trouble for the time I had it.

I used to commute to Brum down the M6 from cannock too sometimes, it was fine. Wouldn’t go much over 70 but was happy at that speed, which sometimes made it a bit frustrating because it was so happy at high 60s it felt like you should be able to just nip past something but no chance.

At that price you’d be mental. They’re cool, but the Enfield will do 90mpg and go on the motorway and do 200 miles between £15 fill ups.

You sound like me a few years ago.

Was riding 20 miles each way into Birmingham with a big hill in the middle and the very end of my return route. I started with a scooter in 2019 and hated the small wheels and seating position, I think it’s too different from cycling and feels unnatural despite being the best tool for the job I didn’t like it.

I did my direct access in 21 just as my CBT expired and bought an ER6n which promptly died and was replaced by a Royal Enfield Meteor. I loved it, especially for the first year, I was soo much more confident on that than the ER6 so rode it more often. Sadly it was stolen at the end of last summer so I had to replace it with something cheap and now I have an old Suzuki Vstrom 1000 which is fine.

Commuting in a car is so much worse than the bike, other than when the weather is too bad to ride, I’d rather cycle or get the train than drive.

Advice on good quality gear is goo advice, but 10 miles is short enough that unless it’s biblical you wont get too wet. I rode for a couple of years in amazon riding gear on an 8 mile commute and only got wet through to my office clothes once or twice, and never really got too cold other than my hands.

if your 10 miles is down the motorway at 70 then ignore that and get the best gear you can.

Personally I like riding to work, I don’t ride for fun, I’m certainly no biker but it’s like cycling to work without the effort and a bit more respect from car drivers.

If you want any more details on the meteor let me know I had mine for about 18 months before scrotes took it, turns out they will nick anything, I thought that was safe, it even had a top box on it to make it look extra cack.