Going through the parents moving closer process at the moment. They did have a look at the property first though. Move in in 14 days from now.

Full circle for me as I grew up living about 500 yards from my paternal grandparents and my kids are about to have the same experience.

Absolutely, Audacity.

+1 for Zinn.

Actually about +3 because I have updated to new editions as they have come out and my bikes have become a bit more up to date. Also have Bicycle magazines Illustrated guide to bicycle maintenance that I found useful for the road bike stuff and majored on photo series workthroughs, although there is a separate Zinn for road bikes IIRC.

Zinn is text and line drawings but the text is so good that it makes jobs easy even if you have not done them before.

I use a stand built from the instructions in the Wheelpro book. Mostly from scrap MDF. Works great.

Had 2 Miele’s that did about 10 years apiece. Miele also rebuilt one of them – it was a collect and return service that cost about a quarter of the cost of a new vacuum and replaced great chunks of it. Switched to Sebo because the Miele struggled to pick op dog hair as effectively as it might ( despite being a cat and dog model ). Bigger bag capacity than the Miele and so far slightly better at dog hair removal.

Used a humane mouse trap somewhat like this. Then took them on the school run and when the school wouldn’t let them in left them in a local beauty spot 8 miles from home.

Then bought a cat.

Since then become an expert in identifying small dead rodents.

BA should be good at re-uniting luggage with its owner. God knows they have had enough practice over the years. Mind you they are not alone in this. Family went to NZ at Easter with Emirates. Luggage took 2 days to catch us up in Christchurch and they were very coy where it had been in the meantime. Happily they left the flight labels on so it was relatively easy to work out that it had gone Manchester-Dubai-Durban (Durban!!!) Dubai-Bangkok-Christchurch. Lovely chap turned up with it and told us that although he was grateful for our thanks, he was happy to have a full time job returning luggage all over South Island.

Are we talking sneezing ( informal ) or blowing the nose ( formal ). When I do the latter there tend to be mutters of “There she blows” from the family, although they claim that as a result of the loudness of my sneeze they can always find me in a public place. This may come in useful as senility encroaches, although clearly this depends on them continuing to think well enough of me to want to find me in the first place.

Agree that one needs to use thin tape, ideally the yellow Stans one, regardless of whether you use tubes or not. Maxxis Ardent and Aspen plus On-one’s Smorgasbord ( made by Maxxis ) all fit and unfit fine in my experience. Kenda SB8s were never, ever going to fit, Schwalbe’s neither. Only temptation for me in 650B size is I may have the tyres already.

Some of this

ROAD

to get to this

BRIDLEWAY / NON-TECH XC

intermingled with the odd bit of

TECHNICAL XC / TRAIL

This

intermingled with occasional attempts to avoid coming last in my class in the local MTBO league.

— Feedback Sports I think they’re now listed under.
Recommended.

+1

I tried others and found them unstable, faffy or short lived. Feedback sports one has now survived 4 bike builds and lots of maintenance and looks no different to new.

Wilf’s cafe at Staveley is very child friendly, with a bike shop next door just in case you get withdrawal symptoms. Craft bakery a few doors down was good when we were there last year as well.

Lakeland Motor Museun just south of Newby Bridge – on Ulverston road has a good cafe as well.

Grizedale sculpture trails are great and at least one is very easy access from the visitor centre.

Ravengalss and Eskdale railway or the Lakeside and Haverthwaite which run from the Southern point of the Windermere steamer route. The Lakeside Aquarium is there too. +1 for the steamers on any of the lakes as well.

The Beatrix Potter house, Hill Top, can be very busy so try and go early. The National Trust also has a museum in Hawkeshead with her drawings etc.

Biggest variety of places to eat are probably in Ambleside.

The National Park website has info here and also their visitor centre at Brockhole between Ambleside and Bowness has activities for all ages and is worth checking out.

For older kids into Swallows and Amazons, the original Amazon is in Coniston museum and you can have afternoon tea at Holly Howe – correct name Bank Ground Farm, Coniston,

If you google Lake District with Kids you should find a book by David Atkinson which details activities by agegroup and area. It is very good and well worth the price.

Classic NZ

I think the eye gets used to focussing with the lenses after such a long period, and takes some time to re-adjust after the lenses have been taken out.

This is certainly true for the hard lenses – not sur eif they still have these as abandoned them many years ago.

+1 for Rose – best selection and best price that I can find a the moment.

I blagged a day in Hanmer Springs, on the south island, during my honeymoon. There’s some fantastic proper MTB trails there maintained by the locals. Just pop into the shop in town – not the tourist/adventure centre, but the mountain bike clothes shop next door – and the guy there will give you a map of all the MTB trails with recommendations on where to go to get a good day’s riding.

Spent 4 weeks round South Island in March April getting increasingly stir crazy because not riding as much as I wanted. Hanmer was one of the ones I did make. The MTB clothes shop described above did not seem to be there anymore. Hire from the tourist adventure centre was available and reasonable with map provided. Singletrack sections tended to be short 6-8km but linked up well and gave me an enjoyable morning. One of the local cafes was also hiring fat bikes and I can recommend the springs themselves. Very pleasant sitting up to your neck in warm water and looking up at the snow on the hills.

Nelson trails looked really good and about 10 minutes ride from the city. Other duties got in the way.

Kaiteriteri north of Motueka has a new mountain bike park and worth a look if you have your own bike. If you have to hire do so from Mot and not at the spa at Kaiteriteri – totally useless the day I was there.

Family in Blenheim so also spent the morning in the Wither Hills MTB park – steep but well planned and rideable albeit bloody hot on the day I was there. Again hire is from shops within Blenheim but eminently rideable fromn there.

Surly Krampus and Ventana El Rey – should meet most requirements – plus the van to move them in.

Also Nancy Blackett and Titty Walker, who are famous but not necessarily the genuine article

So who are they? Arthur Ransome fangurls?

Not quite. They were twitter accounts set up to accompany the Swallows and Amazons musical[/url] that Neil Hannon wrote the music for and the National Theatre toured last year.

Trailer here if you didn’t see it. It was an excellent kids show particularly if like mine they had read all the books.

Ratadog tweets on behalf of the family. Most famous follower is a tricky toss up between Neil Finn (Crowded House) and Kevin Rudd (Prime Minister of Australia). Also Nancy Blackett and Titty Walker, who are famous but not necessarily the genuine article. Not bad for 18 followers in total. My dog is a dog of influence and is currently exercising that influence from a curled up position at the back of the sofa.

Thinking of a pair of these for my Scandal 29er. Noticed all the above bikes with gears have bar end shifters, is this the only option for changing gear?

As per DrP above I ran mine with 9 speed Campagnolo Ergopower shifters. Couldn’t cope with normal drops – not supple enough – and found these a good compromise when I did use the road bike.

Ride a set of 26er EN521 and a set of 29er Flows. I am at least your weight and then a bit. Pros for the flows are width if you want to run anything over a 2.3, allegedly tublessness is a bit less of a faff if that is what you want (I don’t so doesn’t worry me). Cons are that they can be an absolute pain to get some tyres on – Stans used to have a list of what worked and what did not. On the 29ers, I have found Maxxis to be fine and SB8s to be a complete no-no, so choose your tyres wisely. I built them up myself and found them a bit more of a faff to get right than the Mavics I have built. I have also read that Flows may be easier to dent but suspect that goes with tublessness and low pressures.

521s are pretty bombproof, 30g per wheel heavier and if you are buying as a rim, half the price. I bought one as a rim and one as a hoop. On balance I would go EN521 unless I wanted to run particularly wide tyres but it’s not my money this time around.

Had day off yesterday and spent a few hours in Dalby. Today and tomorrow the Ryedale Rally is running so most of the routes in and out of Dalby/Cropton/Langdale/Wykeham filled with motocross bikes.

Road/bridleway between Dalby and Wykeham only just got vaguely rideable following last year so probably trashed again by Monday. I may cycle up and have a look early tomorrow if only to depress myself.

No, I was in and out and back at home well before lunch. I did notice that with the recent resurfacing one of the points where the red route crosses a forest doubletrack near Givendsale Head has lost it’s marker posts indicating a need to give way and the red route now appears to encourage riders to go straight accross the ride at unabated speed (5mph for me but faster for others 🙂 ). Should prove interesting as it is one of the routes the hounds use every so often.

G-form meet the comfort and protection requirements but they are not cheap. Most comfortable conventional pads I have found for big knees are race face dig – the more expensive ambush d30 ones I simply could’t get on with as they went lumpy in use and dug into my shins.

Ratadog

May appear if I can work out how to link to Flickr 😯

Edit – cracked it

[/url] Rata2012[/url] by Ratadog[/url], on Flickr[/img]

[/url] Ratabag[/url] by Ratadog[/url], on Flickr[/img]

15 years old but still believes she is a puppy and still motivated by the prospect of food.

Velo Ratadog is in

Went with the roofbox company as I had been happy dealing with them before. Took their advice and went for a Kamei Delphin 340. Gives room on the bars alongside for a cycle carrier and swallows a lot of kit. Not regretted the purchase.

Not tried the nukeproofs but have tried both the Race face ambush (d30) and the Race face dig ( hard shell). Sold the Ambush as with the movement of cycling the lower end of the d30 pad used to bunch up and then harden under the pressure before trying to wear a hole in my shin. All in all I found the Digs a lot more comfortable and they are my preferred option.

Other option I’ve tried and stuck with is the G-form. You need to measure up properly to get he right size and they are a lot longer than the standard pads essentially coming up like legwarmers with protection but they work fine both when on and suddenly off the bike.

Last photo in the original post on this thread is a Slingshot

Cannot speak for that one but the modern ones are anything but wallowy and soft, basically using the spring on the cable “down tube” and a piece of Ford leaf spring to produce a soft tail rather than a soft suspension. More recent ones use the same technology and mine rides fine.

There’s nothing like jumping to conclusions,

that you hadn’t asked that question?

Not at all, finding the responses gently amusing.

Currently full of snot and coughing strange green alien lifeforms so not allowed in to work and able to bask in the warmth of love for myself and my fellow scousers on STW.

Accent is boring northern middle class english so if 70% of STW has a stupid accent count me in.

Didn’t agree with Mre T – still think she was a dreadful woman and recommend Hugo Young’s One of Us to anyone too young to remember. Doesn’t mean I wish her dead – just wish she had done the decent thing and restricted her ambition to taking over her old man’s grocers.

As for SAF, have to admire his achievements, his longevity and his prejudice for all things red and mancunian. That was what he was paid for. Just wish other clubs would follow the lead of ManU and not fire the manager every time he loses two in succession.

Aal ryt, aal ryt, caam daown, caam daown!

Exactly.

As I keep telling my son “It’s a game”.

Mind you he was swearing at the referee on the PS3 at the time.

So, any suggestions for my third wish?

First proper mountain bike was a 26HT which I stil have in 456 form. Scandal 29er became the winter bike – although given the recent summers we have had it has become to some extent the all year round bike. 29er short travel full sus has become my other option and if you are looking for something slightly but not too different then like others I can recommend it.

I ruled out the anthem as too racer for me ( I am not a whippet 🙁 ) and the Tallboy as too much bike. At the time Specialised were not bringing the Cambers in to the UK. the Salsa Big Mama was unobtainable and Titus were in the process of going bust.

Partly on the basis of advice from this forum regarding non whippets and suitable frames I went for a Ventana El Rey. Yes it is plush compared to the HTs but it certainly acts as an all day bike while also being OK uphill, quicker than me downhill and fine on the bendy bits.

Now there are a whole stack of bikes in this category. The newer version of the El Rey, the Camber, the Orange, Cannondale Scalpel etc. etc.

On the basis of current value can I add a Titus Rockstar or a Salsa Spearfish/Horsethief to the list. According to reviews the Salsa suspension system, relying as it does on the flex in the seatstays gives a slightly firmer rear suspension which may be what you are looking for and the Bikemonger has some sell outs on frames and complete bikes at the moment which are worth a look if the size is right. I am sure there are others on STW with more experience of the Salsas not least the Bikemonger himself.

On balance I decided that paying an accountant a small sum to deal with HMRC on an annual basis was worth it for the peace of mind.

My answer would be no.

Free options include AVG, Avast and Microsoft Essentials. I also use Malwarebytes as a separate screening tool if I think there is an issue.

Other opinions will doubtless be along shortly.

Edit – See above, and below in doe course.

NB from personal experience McAfee can be set up to stop other virus software loading/working so you will probably need to disable/remove it before loading/starting its replacement.

Deacon Blue – Chocolate Girl

Not for the song or the lyrics but because 25 years ago I was doing a night shift and had to break some extremely bad news to one of my colleagues. Kept it together while I sorted him out and got the work done but then switched the radio on as I drove out of the car park and this was playing. Was going to an interview and cried all the way there. Liked the song and the album till then, but still all these years later find it too painful to listen to. Not unsurprisingly did not get the job. 5 years before I told the Professor who was interviewing me why I came across as not giving a toss.

Rode up from the Pickering/Scarborough road to Dalby, did a bit of the red route but it was still very greasy and icy in places so I rode round crosscliff and out to the North West edge of the forest before coming back home. Made it down one of the local bridleways aptly called The Cliff for the first time without dabbing. Only been trying for 4 years. Still can’t ride up it though.

I am still old enough to stick with desktops. Cheaper to replace the individual bits and upgrade as needed. Used two different companies in last few years. Chilliblast who persistently come near top of best buy lists. Service was good and only issue has been a borked memory chip after 3 years use which the local repairers sorted out cheaply.

Just got a very basic machine from Arbico. Again, good service, decent price. Reasons for not going chilliblast again were a desire to avoid Windows 8 and a very marginal price advantage as they were having a sale at the time.

Happy with both. Both companies do a range of complete systems several of which would appear to meet your requirements.

Trying to remember where I got mine from, and it was not the USA, I think it came from JD cycles and looking at their website they certainly appear to have them.

http://www.jdcycles.co.uk/products.php?plid=m6b0s352p478

Might be worth a call.

As well as the biking Grizedale has some great forest sculpture and quite a bit of it is close to the Theatre in the forest so not too far to go.

Cars of the stars has closed and the cars have been sold but there is a Motor Museum between Ulverston and Newby Bridge, the Lakeland Motor Museum, which occupied our lot for the morning and has a good caff.

If they are into Swallows and Amazons ( or you are ) you can see the original Amazon in Coniston museum and Bank Ground Farm on the opposite side of Coniston Water is the original Holly Howe and does excellent teas in the season. You can check opening times on their website.

Second the recommendations for Wilfs, Zeffs and Beatrix Potter land.

I recently got a Synology 212j and I’m very happy with it. It’s near silent, works with very little faff, and has great forums and customer support.

+1 but not sure about squeezebox.

Synology do a single bay as well. It is only about 40ukp cheaper and I went for the more expensive with a view to adding a second drive when I could afford. All fairly painless and backed up where necessary onto an intenso usb hard drive. Also a fan of network plugs as a way of networking the house. I use the solwise ones and no issues so far.