They might be good under trousers but not with shorts. I prefer to wear shorts and use repellent for the flies

. Luckily we don’t get ticks here on the trails but trousers would be very uncomfortable in the summer heat . I managed to get a good two years out of my Troy Lee trail knee pads but I think I will be very lucky if these last !

Thanks for replies. I think these pads are the latest  MkII type so maybe Endura has put lighter backing mesh on the rear this year? They have made lite pads for a few years but I guess change material or design every few seasons.

. The hole has got worse but I think I will try a blob of silicone on it which might prevent the hole enlarging more.

Great article… very interesting background information which I would have otherwise missed .

The real problem is not training enough doctors. The reason is lack of proper funding . The restriction is demonstrated in the ridiculously high entry requirements for medical schools. Obviously required grades should be of sufficient merit, but they are actually set so high that only the very top academics can be considered. Will an elite level academic perform better than a very good academic? That along with other barriers to entry such as having related experience means the UK has a shortage of doctors and has to import many qualified doctors from overseas.

It’s a tough one to treat as none of us can stop walking but the  reduction in the activity what actually caused the injury is really important. Mine was triggered by walking and impact.

To treat it , I made sure always to wear cushioned soles, and found Crocs indoors very good. Orthopaedic Insoles worked we for me. I bought a number of relatively cheap ones for all my shoes . The insole arch seemed a bit big at first but I guess it had a bit of a massaging effect too. Mine took about 9months to go and hasn’t returned since a few years ago. If I’m walking any distance now I make sure I’m wearing proper walking shoes.

I Should also add my best wishes to OP for a swift recovery as it’s a painful condition and not a thing that gets better fast as it’s really hard to give the plantar fascia enough rest to recover .

Agree we are a totally car centric society in the UK.

The “rights of cars on the road” and car owners freedom is seen by many as the equivalent of American right to bear arms.

Dare to criticise or comment on an individuals driving and you risk verbal or physical assault, even from otherwise well behaved people.

Possibly Giant are toughening up on warranty claims as they are experiencing financial difficulties as seen in the news articles about them delaying supplier payments etc.

What I find strange in many videos is how there seems to be a trend amongst pro-bikers not to wear gloves at all. Obviously their skills are brilliant and they don’t crash much but when they do it must be terrible especially with rocky trails.
The human hand with all its nerve endings and functions isn’t a good thing to damage.

Making do with and enjoying what i have and not falling for every single new marketing ploy. I’m not sure how some mountain bikes have got to 10k. Buying good bike clothing.

Or maybe you’re trying to get a work experience placement with them.

Anyway it’s nice to see water company ambassadors here!

By the way the water companies do reward their investors rather well 😉. Severn Trent has risen 30% over the last 5 years and United Utilities by similar . Both pay annual dividends of around 4% too so some nice returns. Unfortunately Thames water is privately owned by sovereign wealth funds who know a good bargain when they see it.

Yes I’m summarising and didn’t take the time to write a complete essay which maybe you would prefer.
Yes water companies do take a lot of water from rivers too. My point is that they Shouldn’t take so much water from natural resources they don’t control. They should be building reservoirs. I’m not going to discuss planning.
The rainfall in the UK is not falling and is likely to increase with higher temperatures. Many areas in this country are regularly flooded, leaks are common and often left …
You talk of rapid population growth and agriculture demand …is that really an unexpected shock or just another planning failure? you say the water companies are not charities (pleased you realised) no they are monopolists created by a stupid political mantra that privatisation is always the best. Monopolists want the price of the commodity they are selling to rise , they also like to convince the market of the scarcity of their product to keep the price high.

Standard tubes are best for nearly everyone and tend to be more reliable plus easy to repair. Paying loads more for incremental weight loss is just not worth it for most people.

Water companies drain aquifers rather than build new reservoirs. It’s way cheaper. They make a lot of cash for their directors bonuses and pay big dividends to shareholders. The water shortages we have are just due to lack of investment. It’s not rocket science building reservoirs, but fixing leaks and new construction would eat into the big payouts.

Nurses are obviously very underpaid. We also haven’t trained enough doctors for decades due to claims that training is too expensive! It seems to be far cheaper to train doctors than lawyers.
I guess that’s partly why medical colleges set ludicrously high grade requirements for students. The NHS pension scheme is a joke . It encourages many senior staff not to work or reduce hours otherwise they would have to start paying penal rates of tax on arbitrary pension contributions.

A great and almost instant solution I use for clearing is putting powerful descaler on the jets. It can be done either with a small paintbrush or using an empty biro tube as a pipette. The best descaler by far is Kilrock-Mega K . It’s available on Amazon and fantastic for descaling the kettle too.

I agree that Individuals filled with hate have always existed, however what our ubiquitous social media does is allow their views to propagate on a mass scale and therefore seed (create) other hateful individuals by giving weight to their distorted beliefs. People aren’t born hateful they pick that up in their lives. Social media a hugely amplified version of the individual with megaphone in the town square. The trouble is that social media is poorly moderated and the people preaching hate don’t get booted out as fast as they might in the old town square.

Social media seems to continually create obnoxious synthetic characters like this man. With the help of this media and absence of proper moderation these characters manage to make a living from their revolting sociopathic behaviour and extreme ignorance.

I have Brand X and Reverb and also prefer the Brand X and find it more reliable despite lots of winter abuse.

Terrible owners of those dogs. Must admit I thought I was good to have an incident on my last ride in the snow with a dog that actually turned out very well.
I was approached by a very large fast running pit bull looking dog which the owner later told me was an “American Bully “. It certainly looked like the body builder of the dog world. I was initially a bit nervous due to its size and jumped behind the bike, but then realised from it’s bark and snarl that it just wanted to play. It jumped up quite a bit but luckily I’m quite used to bull breed dogs after having Mastiffs years ago. When it got close I could see it’s winter dog coat had a label “friendly dog”. That was totally true and it was a gorgeous 18th old youngster who just needed to be trained not to jump up . I did advise the owner he might be better to keep him on the lead especially since there are often kids in the woods. The owner was a nice guy and friendly and we had a good chat. I also made good friends with his dog.

I liked that . I enjoy Matt Jones’ channel he also seems to have a great sense of humour in his videos which always comes through.. he doesn’t seem to take himself or anyone too seriously which is nice……but obviously is a hugely talented rider and very entertaining!

As well as spreading from human activity like biking and walking I’m sure wildlife such as squirrels and birds and insects spread diseases just as much. Containment just buys time.

Very nice bike . My only concern would be with the idler design and whether that brings extra wear or maintenance issues. Wish I could afford one!

Traffic is the thing that spoils road riding and in Hertfordshire where I live, drivers also tend to be very aggressive.
During the pandemic I started using my road bike a fair bit, but this year I have only been mountain biking . On every road trip there seem to be near misses from cars and that takes away the enjoyment for me .

I’m not surprised some people want to go back to 11 or 10speed. I still use 10 speed an have far less issues than riding buddies using 12speed .

Asking a rear mech to shift such a huge range of gears we see on 12s cassettes means that the extra large mech required is very vulnerable to trail damage and wear. The back wheel of a mountain bike takes most impact too, so adding the big mech and cassette to the “unsprung weight“ isn’t good. Obviously the most expensive group sets such as XTR and SRAM equivalent get over some of these weaknesses but only at totally ridiculous cost.

The 10 tooth small sprocket on most 12 speed cassettes will not last as well as the old 11 tooth rings either. I personally prefer the older 10 and 11 speed set ups plus the ability to run a bash guard. My recent new XT cassette cost £65. Still a fair bit but way less than 12 speed.

Smidge has worked well with us for years . Without it I get bitten a lot. The good thing about it is that it doesn’t rot your clothing like Deet.

Thanks very much Jeffi that is really great! I just used Strava’s data to correct the ride as you suggested 👍👍👍😊

The climb went from 500ft to 1600ft so shows how silly the Garmin stuff is!

Thanks for your explanation. . It seems on this unit there isn’t the option to choose between the altimeter or GPS in the settings.

As it’s just the basic very small 130plus possibly it might not have an in built altimeter?

Forestry England don’t seem very interested in opening / maintaining trails if the very long closure of the once highly popular Aston Hill bike park near Wendover is anything to go by.

Agreed amazing person and a real inspiration to those of us who have been around a long while 👍😊

One thing that helped me was adding a bit of weight training to my fitness routine. Weight training burns loads of calories and doesn’t take long like cycling and can be done at home if you have space.

I ride twice a week but the weight (excess fat) I gained during the pandemic wasn’t really coming off enough despite trying to improve my diet. I started weight training a few months ago and it’s really made a big difference. I tend to do two or three short weight training sessions per week in between rides. I’m careful with exercise form and don’t go mad with weight.

Many of the biggest and most popular funds are index funds, that’s why there has be a huge rise in the number of ETFs (exchange traded funds). Fees are generally lower and that makes a big difference in low yield markets.

The idea touted in an earlier post that people would be “safer picking a concentrated selection of their own stocks” and “managing their own risk” is very dangerous advice and not suitable for most people.

For non professional investors using funds tends to be the safest way of investing.

However the biggest and absolutely crucial thing is what the fund actually holds and what their strategy is.

It’s really important to do your homework and realise that with more reward comes more risk.
Taking responsibility for your investment and decisions is very important.

Nothing that pays above average return has below average risk. Diversification is key to managing risk.

Unfortunately people often believe there is some secret in investing that will magically produce huge returns.
This is why we often see investors blindly buying useless assets simply following a rising price trend. Unfortunately for them such rallies in non productive assets always end in sudden and unforeseen corrections which can be very severe.

Probably why they are quiet at the moment is fuel cost plus the pandemic making people less likely to stay overnight. I guess that combined with the dry weather might be keeping people local at the moment. I’m sure as the summertime arrives and Covid recedes there will be plenty of people going back to Wales. Coming from Hertfordshire I’ve done Cwmcarn a few times in the past for day trips, but enjoy staying a few days for a tour much more.
I have been based in the Highlands for my bike adventures in the last number of years so I really look forward to riding some of the new Welsh trail centres especially BPW that are often talked about.

What happened to the prawn?

I prefer the more traditional thread locking dumbbells which last forever and you can always buy extra weight as you need. Over the years they have been very useful to get over injuries and I’m also do some home weight training.

This store is good and stocks lots of free weight options
https://www.fitness-superstore.co.uk

I would also say it’s worth buying a set of exercise bands . Obviously they are space saving but that’s not their main advantage. They provide resistance that ramps up into full stretch which can easily be adapted to work the full range of a muscle. This is sometimes harder to do with free weights.
I have found them incredibly useful for shoulder work and injury rehab. They are colour coded for resistance levels. If you buy a set make sure you get a decent range there are plenty of offers for sets on line .

Will be interesting. I’ve had many a good bargain from them over the years. Particularly their transmission sales and some forks.

I remember them as a big wheel custom builder a long while ago but that seems to have changed over the years as factory wheel sets became the norm.

I like DMR V12s . Have them on a few bikes now . Nice wide shape grippy and reliable and not expensive either.

Another plus for shoe insoles which I believe cured mine . I bough a few pairs of insoles with good arch supports and that eventually cured it for me. I think mine was brought on by poor arch support from old shoes…. A very painful condition so you have my sympathy