As someone else mentioned the Rapha trail fast and light shorts – been using them for a while now as an over short to bibs and absolutely perfect for gravel https://www.rapha.cc/gb/en/shop/mens-trail-fast-light-shorts/product/TAD01XX

They’re stretchy and have a tapered, slim cut.

Thanks. Mine does drop down when the button is pressed. But just wondering if it should retract fully into the recess when not pressed. If I try to push it into the recess with my finger it won’t move up.

@swdan thanks. Can I ask one more favour. When the button isn’t pressed are you able to move the hook with your finger into the recess above it? Just wondering if the hook should move up when the glove box closes.

Can you lock the steady racks in place instead of the swinging action? and what are the chances of pedals damaging other bikes?

I use the muc-off snow foam on the cars and the bikes – no issues so far.

We have a Fabia hatch and we really like it. I find the gearbox a little boxy though. I spent quite a while looking at all the engine options and settled on the 1.2 TSI. The estate version sounds ideal for what you need.

Wonder if anyone can help. I’ve been suffering with some kind of knee problem since Christmas. Before this I was a regular 5/10k every few days without problem. I started to get some knee pain around the outside of my knee and what felt like deep in knee at the bottom front. Initially I didn’t pay it much attention as the pain was just an initial ache.

Then during one run the pain got so bad I couldn’t finish and had to hobble home. For several days I was struggling with stairs and weight bearing. Then eventually it eased. I gave it a couple of weeks. Tried to go out for a short 2-3k very slow pace run, and the pain came back after around 1k. Hobbled home again.

I’ve been having physio the past couple of weeks, but it doesn’t really seem to be going anywhere. The physio says it’s something to do with tight quads and weak glutes. Which is fine, but the pain came on quite quickly even after a couple of years of running.

I just managed a 1k walk/run – I could feel the pain starting to creep in, and resorted to walking. But as soon as I start to jog it starts to build back up. Oddly cycling has no impact – did 15 miles round trip to the physio on the bike yesterday and it was absolutely fine.

Anyone else experienced anything similar or has any additional advice?

If it helps I used to work for Aviva and they’re one of the better insurers IMO. Generally quite helpful and don’t try to wriggle out of their policies.

Is there a temperature? Could be a UTI, or if it’s bottom right it could be a grumbling appendix. My daughter says hers is around the belly button.

A blood test would rule out a large number of possibilities.

If you can get a remote GP appointment they should easily be able to refer you to the local hospital to get one.

I used to get this quite a lot – found some bars are worse that others to trigger it for me. Renthals make my hands go numb the quickest. My current setup is alloy Burgtecs with the minnar super soft grips and no gloves. Numbness is rarer now. I’ve tried numerous carbon bars, but the alloys are more comfortable for me.

Our daughter has been suffering with the same. Belly pain comes and goes. Has your GP done a blood test? Ours has done, nothing noticeable came back, except for slightly low blood sugar. They put it down to a virus that seems to affect the lymph nodes.

I’m a software engineer (mainly web, mobile and some backend) – no qualifications. Completely self taught. When I started there was no such thing as bootcamp courses or Udemy so I spent hours pouring through others source code.

I originally went to art school – final year project was to design a website. But I wanted to get something working for my end of year show, so spent the rest of the year teaching myself ActionScript and built the whole thing in Flash. My tutor submitted my work to some BA student awards run by Mando and it won 2nd place. After that I knew what I wanted to do.

Lots of the younger devs come through now with CS degrees, but they seem to be more theory based rather than practical hands-on problem solving and coding. Although I’m sure more of them could do a binary tree inversion than I could :D

We’ve had some issues with one of ours over the past few years. We ended up reading an interesting article that ome children learn to process their emotions earlier than others. It’s those that struggle to learn how to process these emotions are often seen as “troubled children”.

Our youngest struggled, and still does to process certain emotions such as frustration. For example if she plays a game and loses, it often results in anger. This isn’t because she’s a bad kid, it’s because she doesn’t know how to process the feeling that losing brings.

Some might then let the child win each time, but this doesn’t help. It just means they’ll learn how to deal with frustration later. Often now we talk before we play a game and explain that she might lose. And that when the feelings get too big (even before the game ends) that we pause and try to talk about them. Sometimes she needs space and will take herself off to a quiet place and try to deal with them.

When people talk about “growing out of it” they really mean the child has grown enough to be able to process those feelings in a “normal” way.

I’ve found the trick is redirecting the anger into something else. We have some boxing pads and gloves, and when it gets too much we do a little sparing session. Or in the summer we go for a run together.

Hope any of that helps?

I just used some old bits of invisiframe I had knocking around. Also I only use the rear guard, the front seems a bit too fiddly and wobbly to bother, and I normally wear overshoes or/and sealskins.

I tend to always buy Howies – but they only last around a year before the crotch has air vents.

3k car

3k car sir! Must be private practice… I’m in a 18 year old Octavia with 215k on the clock 😂 worth probably nothing.

Two sir … you must be private practice

😂😂 I all seriousness, I have always thought they’re overpriced, but I like how they ride, along with the warranty. I have a Hightower and a Chameleon.

The Hightower is a few years old now, and I hesitated at the price I paid for the frame back then. They’ve gone up about another £300-400 since then – and I’d be very hard pressed to pull the trigger on another. I got a cracking deal on the Chameleon and built up the frame with some old parts I had around.

Before the Hightower I had a few Transitions. Extremely good bikes, but the finish was poor, and the experience I had with their warranty for crap paint wasn’t great. They’ve probably rectified lots of that by now.

🙋 Overpaid IT worker and owner of two Santa Cruz’s 👋👋

My sister’s new ASHP install was costing her a tenner a day this last week.

Easily done! I turned ours on during the cold spell last week and it was closer to £13 for a days electric.

This is a great thread. Finally got around to asking our installer how to adjust the flow temp on our Daikin ASHP. Seems we were set to 55 degrees!! No wonder it was so expensive to run. Today I did an experiment and set it to 45 degrees – house is still nice and warm and is costing about 80p per hour while heating the house to around 19-20 degrees.

Think I can go further and try 35 degrees flow temperature tomorrow and see what temperature the house settles at.

Bure Valley (from Wroxham) path into Marriotts way and back into Norwich is a good one. It should have dried out by Easter, currently it’ll be a muddy mess.

Peddars way is another good one.

We have a off road loop around Sheringham we do often (with cake stop) – if we’re out the weekend you’re visiting you’re more than welcome to join us. Not sure it’d be great on a gravel bike though. Hardtail mtb would be ok.

@mugsys_m8 My first girlfriend lived in Ashmanhaugh (no mum jokes honest)

When you get near Woodbastwick, there’s a good pub called the Fur and Feathers to get a decent meal and a nice pint. I live around that area, if you need to do any bike maintenance at that point you’re welcome to use my garage. Good luck!

I’ve only ridden there once and it was good fun, bit of a slog to the top but it’s steep and fast coming back down. The loaded chips from the cafe were mega too. If you’re riding reds and blacks at BPW you’ll be fine.

You always, always, always start from full clockwise/slowest, and count out from there.

Sure, but why is it hard to not just have 16 clicks on the dial instead of 27??

Dismantled the lever last night and you guys were right, the piston is a little sticky so will replace with the new one.

Discovered something a little odd though – there was a slight difference between the two levers. The old one had a completely metal port interface (where the barb connects to the lever body), however the other one seems to have a piece of plastic in there with a smaller diameter hole for the fluid to pass through.

The levers are about the same age, one was a replacement for the other while being warrantied for a bad olive fitting. The only difference between them is one was from a Shimano pre fluid filled set, and the other was just the lever in the box. It was the lever from the pre fluid filled set which had the piece of plastic in there.

Hmm, just went back and checked – the issue seems to occur when the lever is fully pulled (back to the bars). You’re right in that the piston doesn’t fully return in this case. Pushing the lever forward seems to help it come back.

What potential issues are there if I leave it? Guessing the lever is never likely to be fully pulled due to pads being in place?

If I did swap levers would I be ok to keep the olive etc on the hose, or do I need to cut and add a new olive/barb?

Full bleed was probably this time last year, and the bike didn’t see much use over winter. The oil that came out was fairly dark, certainly not too bad though.

So, do we think it’s worth changing the lever with my spare (new)? Or is this something I can fix relatively easy?

I’m in the same boat (I started another thread somewhere on here about it) – for the past 2 weeks I’ve avoided all cake, biscuits, crisps, cheese, fast food etc, and am trying to eat as healthy as possible. A side effect is I’ve lost just over a kg – down to 83.5kg.

My parents have both had TIA’s, which has an impact on the docs calculations on how much of a risk it is for me to have one too. They’re both on statins, so it’s likely I’ll also be given them (regardless of if I need them or not).

I run three times a week, cycle at the weekends, walk the dogs every day and generally run about the house after our children. Yet mine is still up at around 7.1

I plan on being around to see my grandkids, so making some changes now for the better.

Mine was the highest my doctor has ever seen. Do I get a prize?

Wow – what was the number? (might make me feel better)

I’ve lost 7kg this year since a January high of 84kg and 3kg since April

Awesome – well done!! Report back if it made a difference, would be good to know.

Cut back or don’t drink alcohol. Reduce your carb and sugar intake.

Interesting, the nurse said my sugar levels and alcohol consumption were fine – instead I was to avoid saturated fats as much as possible.

Thanks for the replies. Think I’ll try to change diet and ask for a re-test at the end of the year – see if it actually makes a difference.

Given family history, I suspect I will need statins at some point and there is not a lot I can do about that.

Yeah, the nurse said they’ll put me on statins before I’m 60 regardless of if I need them or not due to both my parents having TIA’s in the past.

Out of interest, how much side to side play is normal for one of these posts? Mine has a few mm each way and was going to email oneup. But after reading this assume it might be normal?

Starting to reconsider the Karoq – put the bike in the back of my Octavia yesterday and it really only just fits (lay down flat) with the front wheel off – so doubt it’ll fit in a Karoq which has a significantly smaller boot.

Maybe another Octavia is the ticket – I do fancy the Kodiaq but finding one in my budget isn’t going to happen, and they don’t look like they give the mpg.

Thanks all. Off to look at a 2l TDI 4×4 next week in our price bracket.

I might actually be wrong about the caravan weight – these are the specs https://www.gocaravanning.com/caravan-specs/3269/Lunar-Chateau-450-2004.html

And another thought – is 1400kg the unloaded weight of your caravan?
Chuck a load of holiday gear inside and you could be well over that.

Yes I believe it is. We don’t tend to carry much extra in there when travelling other than bedding and a bag of food. It all goes in the estate boot.

Thanks for the heads up on being able to check the previous MOT notes – didn’t know that was possible.