So was the valley bottom and turn back up the “wrong” route ? I did see some others tracks going up left before that.

Yes really enjoyed the long route today – being doing it for nearly 20 years and it seemed like more trail. I live locally and still they managed to find some bits I’ve never ridden.

100k roadie sportive in the Cotswolds. The downwind legs were great fun – the last 10k straight into the wind was “interesting”.

Would an Outlander get 3 seats in the back?

Yes it will. I’ve done it in mine for the grandkids.

PHEV also suits our driving perfectly, mostly local miles on overnight charge with the occasional long trip without any range anxiety or charging faff.

As gt says above, done all those things and more. Our son and his family have lived there for eight years, we go about 3 times a year – just booked the next trip. Beaches and surfing are great, loads of easy bike paths for getting around, with some great riding within short travelling distance. Big yes on Joshua Tree, and if heading that way visit Idyllwild and hike up Mt San Jacinto. Big Bear great too – lovely biking and hiking to be done there.

And San D weather is almost always awesome.

Put your fins over your wrists, walk out holding board in front of you until it gets too deep to walk, put fins on, kick like the proverbial to get out further. Never come in closer than walking depth until you’re done.

We had the women’s tour pass near here on two stages a few weeks back. Everyone’s gone down 100 places on the sections they rode. And the men’s tour is coming through here too. That’ll be another 100 down 🤣

What Tiger says. Done it a couple of times. Great if the weather’s open. Your chance to take your mountain bike up a mountain !

I have walked/trundled the bike down the footpath on the north side from the saddle and then there’s a decent loop back around to the start point.

Some of the boys are doing a recce on Sunday. Let’s see what they find.

Still holding my entry for the postponed daffodil sportive as an option !

I gave up on roadie about 15 years ago, for the reasons above. I think general bike awareness by drivers then was significantly worse than now. I’ve been drifting back to the dark side over last two years and now hardly ever ride off road. My view is that in general driving has improved a great deal, but I still get one bad pass a week.
I’ve broken bones twice in bike crashes – both off road !

Nine Below Zero. Awesome in the early 1980’s, still smashing it out now.

Well I have one and I think its bloody marvelous. But then I’m no longer a wage slave so most of my driving is fairly local and done on e-power from off peak charging. It also comfortably fits my biking and windsurfing toys and is a comfortable, relaxing drive.
It’s a good car for a certain type of driving needs, but you need to learn how to get the best out of it.

Getting on a plane to Sydney this evening for a few weeks there, then on for 3 weeks travelling NZ in a camper. Covering part of both islands but had to be a bit selective as trying not to be driving every day 🙁
It’s something of a recce trip for what we would go back and spend more time on.
Enjoy the winter 😆

God, this and the intercostal thread, both of which I suffered with over Christmas. The Co-codamol prescribed by GP for the ribs did a good job on the abscess.
Now laid low with man flu.
Will it never end…. 🙁

True Iain, but I’m not going to get much riding in in the next two months which won’t help. It’ll be interesting to see the impact But as you know, HONC timing is totally dependent on the mud factor !

Got up early for #81. Haven’t done this for 6 years as we’ve always been away over Easter, but did loads of the previous ones. Ridden in everything from blazing sun to blizzard.
Don’t suppose I’ll be getting round in under 5 like I used too 🙁

Much good riding this year, but the best by a long way was Haleakala in Maui on my 60th birthday with daughter who was in Ironman training. Nice steady climb all the way to 10,000 feet, followed by a bit of a hoon downhill !

I wonder if the Ianovated wetsuit [/url] tubes could be adapted to help with this ?
Put all that puffing and panting to good use !
Ian would probably supply some to try if asked.

Can you find a midway point with reasonable signal where you could put an extender ?
I locate stuff based on line of sight connection between devices (assuming the walls are transparent) and about 25% signal degradation for each brick course using 2.4GHz (50% with 5GHz).

A bit techy, but do you have a dual band hub (2.4 and 5 GHz) and have you tried splitting them to control what you connect with ? 2.4 will spread much further through the house, but an extender should sort things as long as it has a strong enough signal where it sits.

I use the “WiFi Sweetspots” app to work out how the signal varies around the house and how to make best use of it.

Watching this live in Mexico. Hope the plane makes it over the wall on Sunday 😀

Sorry…slight tangent/hijack but I’m dealing with similar space constraints.
Anyone know why Strava has 863MB of “documents and data” on my phone ?
Inclined to delete and reinstall.

I bought some of them, but (a) couldn’t get the foot angle right – but I am a bit toe-pointy-out and (b) they wouldn’t unclip reliably. Put bona fide ones back on and the difference was immediate.
The cheapo’s went in the bin.

I had it a couple of years ago when we had an outbreak in the office that infected a number of people. It’s not great to be sat at work coughing until you puke 🙁
It used to be called the 100 day cough, and that’s almost exactly how long mine lasted. I did manage to exercise through it, but not fun.
You have my sympathies.

Me too Lunge. Our son and his family live in San D and we go there 3-4 times a year.
OP’s trip sounds good. Yosemite awesome – if you go there visit Tolumne also on the way in/out, and if you’re going there you might as well swing round to Mammoth Mountain for some great biking. Tahoe also fantastic, and good biking there too.
We’ve used AirBnB with no probs, as well as other rentals. As said above need to book early for Yosemite, and better value/choice staying just outside the park, we’ve rented two brilliant cabins.
LA – avoid if poss !

Next trip to SanD and Mexico for Oct/Nov just being set up…

We have twin children and twin grandchildren. It’s great fun. Crippling to begin with but so much fun as they grow.

We got one of these a few months ago LG Smart TV 42LF652V 42″. £380 from an ebay seller. Nice picture, lots of features, easy to use OS. If only we had decent broadband speed !

Check when it was created. People had plenty of time to back this before the event if they were so concerned.

Vote Leave, then we get some, but that’s bad inflation. What the BoE has been trying to get for a few years is good inflation though so it’s alright.

And don’t get me started on coffee – what a packaging triumph with one of these that I just opened
and it was two thirds air.

The only one he added was San Juan trail http://www.mtbproject.com/trail/7000572

We go there a lot (got family there).
Trails – you’ll need to travel to get anything good.
There are a number of small canyon and ridge sections close to the coast (Tecolote Canyon, Rose Canyon, Los Penasquitos) ok for cruising but nothing challenging, and there’s a small trail park behind UCSD that can give an hour of fun. Mission Trails Park a few miles inland has quite a bit. The locals are a bit protective as there have been access issues !
Nearest decent is an hour inland at Mount Laguna, which has quite a bit of trail, some quite benign, but Noble Canyon is right up there http://www.singletracks.com/bike-trails/noble-canyon.html , ideally done with a vehicle at each end. There’s some decent riding near there around Cuyamaca too.
Travelling a bit further there’s good stuff in Idyllwild https://youtu.be/sW0auLo5bpg and some other locations – I’ll ask the boy for some more ideas. I’ve never had to rent as I use his bikes but SDMBA has some links.

And btw, there’s a good network of bike trails for safe family riding round the bay, seafront, etc.

(posted same time as entry above !)

Come down south. Loads once you get to Edgehill and beyond, and it’s riding nicely after this drying wind. Challenging ? Technically no, but plenty of climbing to turn your lungs inside out.

You wouldn’t believe how many pre-orders we have for the convertible Evoque.
Actually you probably would.
Big Bob’s pet project hits another sweet spot.

Depends on what you want, but yes not much in Banbury but can you ride out on trails from the west side of town and string a load of stuff together. And be prepared for mud !

There’s plenty of riding to do in the area, especially if you don’t mind a short drive first – best to head west. Whichford/Brailes area first, then Ilmington/Campden, then into the Cotswolds proper after Broadway.

And if it’s roadie riding you want, the area is excellent, generally quiet roads and plenty of hills if you pick the right loop !

Yeah, probably golfers elbow.
I have the same in my left elbow, and swimming exacerbates it. My right elbow has similar but on the outside tendon (tennis elbow). Both are overuse injuries from windsurfing. There’s quite a bit of decent remedial advice online regarding stretching, massage, and exercises.
Seeing a sports physio would be the first step. Acupuncture worked well on my right arm last time this happened.

We were there in August 2014. I rented from here http://flumetrailtahoe.com/bike-rentals/ which is right at the start of the flume trail – which is amazingly scenic. You can either take the shuttle up and ride down (which actually has a decent climb at the start of the ride) or ride up and down which is a 50km 1000m climb ride, took me about 3 hours. Completely non technical but a balls out climb in places.
I rode several other days on bits of the rim trail north of the lake. There’s some great wooded singletrack either side of Brockway summit, but it did take me a while to find my way around – get it right and you can string together 30 mins of downhill through the woods.

Heading out for another tasty windsurf session… 😀

You’ve chosen just about the worst time of year to get back into it, especially for inland water, but actually things aren’t too cold this winter.
Not sure you need to worry about 8-10m stuff. I’m 85kg and don’t use bigger than 7m – if it’s not windy enough for that I’ll be biking. I was using 5.2 on 90L yesterday, and my 4.5 got lots of use in December.
Farmoor probably won’t have anything other than learner kit to borrow but worth a check.
I have more kit than I need in my shed (3 windsurfing kids have flown the nest !) so may be able to help with some bits.

Just back in from a nice refreshing session this afternoon – plenty windy 😀
Modern kit is hugely improved in terms of usability and wind range, as are modern wetsuits. Cold is just not a problem.

Lots of really good value used kit, start here on FB https://www.facebook.com/groups/130039663788470/?fref=ts
Mark Gehogan will probably be able to sort you out.

here for chat: https://www.facebook.com/groups/WindsurfAnarchy/?fref=ts (think you may need an invite)

and here for the STW equivalent: http://boards.co.uk , but the forum is a quiet backwater compared to STW

I’m also landlocked, in Warwickshire, sail locally at Draycote (similar to Farmoor but better !) and head to south coast when possible.