I’ve got an Omega and it’s been good for about 5 years, car camping, having changing space in the porch on biking & kayaking events etc. I’ve recommended them to a few people for the same. For me, I’d avoid the Omega just because it has fibreglass poles – I’ve had too many issue with them delaminating when it gets windy. That might just be a personal thing, but it’s a factor I always look at.

I rode as sweep on the Short route, cross with 40mm Nanos, had a good day out. Had a mad sprint to catch back onto the tail riders when a gent who’d been the last dropped out near the rejoin. Caught a 20min deficit up by the Minninglow embankment…

I didn’t think i have any expertise – that would indicate that I thought I was an expert at something, and I’m not.

I’m reasonably good at and reasonably knowledgeable about a fair amount of different stuff, but I’d never call myself an expert, because Sods Law says that the moment I did, someone would come along who knew more.

Not sure who’d buy a bike and upgrade to SLX or who’d buy a frame and fit SLX.

Me, and probably a lot of other people who either don’t have the cash to go higher and/or don’t feel the need to. SLX works fine, doesn’t cost the earth if you bust a mech, and looks okay, why spend more?

There’s elevation profiles and route maps from last year’s ride over on RBC (the organisers)’s page. There may be tweaks and changes for this year, so don’t take them as gospel, but they’ll give you a decent idea.

The Cycling Weekly / mbr Peak District Pioneer 2016

Oh, and I’d say even 140mm was overkill, but ride what you like! 🙂

Not necessarily a put-down of the person in the argument, but a line that killed it.

My Dad had a go at me when I was at school, thought I was ‘falling in with the wrong crowd’ or some such (I wasn’t, but had been partnered with a couple of our class idiots for a project and was being more-or-less forced to hang about with them until the work was done).

Dad: “That Lee lad, he’s a bad ‘un”
Me: “Dad, Lee isn’t **** smart enough to be a bad ‘un. If he had a brain he’d be dangerous, but he hasn’t. I’ve had yoghurts worse than him…”

For once, my smartarse father had no response.

How glad I am to be… Superhuman.

I’d swap…just for one night though, and have a field day touching myself all over whilst singing, “I’m every woman, it’s all in me I can read your thoughts right now…”

The Red Dwarf version was sitting on the sofa playing with your new found boobies and singing “Happy Birthday Mr President”.

The old railway tracks on the Pioneer suit a cross bike nicely. Other bits don’t. Take your pick!

Wedding stuff, private (passworded) preview album on Nikon ImageSpace, then the rest depends what we’ve agreed – usually memory stick, CD/DVD, prints, occasionally a small album.

Other stuff, usually a Dropbox link or memory stick.

Its time to toughen up the stance and MAKE it right.

Thought you wanted to make it middle, not right? 😉

My folks’ 15 plate Fabia had a problem with the water pump jamming that gave them an intermittent overheating problem. Might be worth looking into (theirs got replaced under warranty, apparently it was relatively common)

Glad you all enjoyed it! I waved at a few people from my little tent a couple of kms beyond the Splash and Dash, enjoying the mainly sunny day out on the hill.

Peaks should be a good ride, the longish sections on the old railway trails (High Peak/Monsal/Tissington) favour the crossers, but again, there’s sections where people might appreciate the MTB. I’ll be out there again somewhere!

Haven’t read all of the thread so this might have been said.
One of the Radio 2 shows did a load of stuff like this a while back, got nominations and then voted. If I remember rightly, the one that won on that occasion was the Counting Crows “Round Here”

They also did ‘Best opening line’ at one point, which got scooped by Werewolves of London

No worries, enjoy it! Hopefully we get decent weather.

We’ve stayed at Plas Isa in Dolgellau a few times for weekends at CyB. Nice spot, and not overly expensive – http://www.plasisa.co.uk/

Old Crow Medicine Show, a couple of years ago. Never thought I’d see one of the best crowds of my life bouncing the place (sprung ballroom floors are fun!) to a bluegrass/country band. Been to a few gigs there now, love the place.

Dirtyrider – what wheel size do you need? If they’re 29ers, I can potentially lend you a set for the day if needed.

Cuyahoga – Easier than Monster Miles, most likely. Harder than Peaks, though – less old railway (though the Cinder Track down the coast is old railway, there is a bit of gradient on it, especially up to Ravenscar)

There’s a fairly nasty tarmac climb back into the forest towards the end – Wrench Green, if anyone knows it – the lowest gear you’ve got* would be helpful for that. For most of it, the CdF would be better.

*That said, walking is the lowest gear you’ve got, really.

You’ve been able to do pretty much the same thing with ViewRanger’s ‘Buddy beacon’ feature for ages, but it has the same limitation – you need data connectivity to transmit.

I’ll be there, but you’ll likely not see me. I’ll be out in the middle of nowhere with the event radio kit.

23904 on the world map. Getting ones with signs in helps a lot. Got a blank barren wasteland on one and by sheer guesswork got within 20kms of it.

Cheers, just ripped an old pair of Humvees. Two new ones ordered!

Glentress with friends:
All about company,
Not location/bike.

Regularly meet up with lady friends for a drink, be it tea, coffee, wine or beer, just as my other half regularly meets up with gentlemen friends. I don’t see a problem with it, unless you think your other half is untrustworthy (and vice-versa).

Most of the lady friends I meet up with are from one of two categories, they’re either old friends from a long time back or they’re students that I coach. In the former category, if sleeping with each other was ever on the cards, it happened back then when we were single – if it hasn’t happened by now, it’s probably never going to. In the latter category, if any of them ever came on to me, the first thing I would do is laugh and point out that they could likely do a lot better than a fat beardy git twice their age.

I’d probably get a certificate of commendation from Sam Warburton.

You think he’d care?

Same as Spooky here – last one I got actually ended up as a 404 but the url was
http://us.1dyk0sqn.top/o4dhjjdihsk/index.php plus some spiel about my phone make and model and IP address.

Two big lumps of foam for outfitting my new kayak.

Clearance on the Escapade must be tighter than it is on the X then, I’ve got loads of space.

Everybody get your necks to crack around
All you crazy people come on jump around
I want to see you all on your knees, knees
You either want to be with me, or be me!

I just bought a bottle of the latex cheap in the sale and thought I’d try it out. Lobbed some glitter in as a helper but that’s it, seems to work fine.

I got a pair recently that I’m running tubeless on an X so they should fit the Escapade. They seem to be the genuine decent article, not a lower spec, and they’ve gone up tubeless just fine on my Hunt wheels, even with the cheapy latex I got from one of PX’s random number sales a few months ago. Tiny bit of weeping around a couple of the moulding hairs but that’s been it, they sealed pretty easily just with a track pump as well.

… towelling? Rather…

I’ve got a group of decade-long friends of a variety of political persuasions that I keep on social media because they keep me informed, provide some fairly deep, interesting analysis (a couple have politics PhDs), are much more politically engaged than I am and we get some interesting conversations, whether we all agree with each other or not. You get the of wind-up, but generally it’s good-nature debate.

Two have been binned from FB by me and others in the past 6 months for continued breach of Rule #1, mainly being smug a-holes in the aftermath of the Brexit referendum. They’ve lost friends in real life for the same behaviour, and one of them got laid out by a less even-tempered member of the group on a night out a while back, because he wouldn’t knock the smugness off or change the subject.

It’s not about the point-of-view, it’s about adherence to Rule #1.

E: Pasta and pesto with some nice crispy fried chorizo bits and a sprinkling of parmigiano.
D: Tractor Shed Brewing’s Clocker stout – had their Jinny Howelt helles earlier and it was good.
L: Shovels & Rope (the band, not the objects).

Kielder Cross Challenge, so 40km night ride Saturday, 60km day ride Sunday.

As others have said, up and down in places but generally very good. Although my favourite of his tracks, Oh My Sweet Carolina, is utterly made by Emmylou Harris’ backing vocal rather than Adams lead…

Happy ending?

As a reward? Bit excessive…

If you’re needing a 10-man, the Summmitgear ones Sanny recommended will be right on the money. Just watch you don’t take off if you have to unpack it on a windy day!

Anyone else who needs a smaller, more packable one, the 3-4 man LESS ones from Mapdec are ace and pack down about a third of the size of most of the other options. I bought one for kayak trips and it saved a shedload of space in my dry bag – https://mapdec.com/products/shelter (Sold out at the mo, but worth keeping an eye)

Some tracks, some better than others, some dead ends, some loops, but not a huge amount for the ground area. Some of the tracks marked on the OS maps don’t really exist on the ground, some do. There’s some really pretty places, but some are a hell of a slog to get to.