Met my wife on match.com 10 years ago… To be honest I went through a couple of phases, first I tried going for women whose profile seemed to fit what I was looking for, and whilst I went on a lot of dates, nothing lasted more than a handful of weeks. Then left for a about a year and came back and decided only to go for women that I thought I would try it on chatting up in a bar i.e. not so fussed if they were into the same things, met my now wife not long after. I figured all my previous g/f’s pretty much I had met in nightclubs / bars etc.

Funny to see no-one has really mentioned Match, it was the main website when I was trying. It was before Tindr but even back then the paywall factor seemed to remove the piss-abouters to a large degree and was worth it.

I recently rolled my eyelids on receiving a bill which stretched into 3 figures for dinner at out local restaurant, it turned out I was partly to blame – 4 pints of the blonde beer cost £7 each…

However (and bear in mind this was 10 years ago), I think the record was ordering 4 pints of Guinness in a ski resort and being asked for 48 euros.

One thing I have noticed in the UK recently is that whilst beer hasnt gone up so much, the cost of soft drinks seems to be rising to the point where a large coke is the same as a pint of beer.

Notice UAE are using rim brake bikes today… Disc brakes to wait another year for their first win?

I have a couple of carbon road handlebars.

An FSA K-Force New Ergo handlebar on one road bike – really nice feel / comfort although def not “compact” so puts you in quite a racey position on the drops. It replaced a Deda Zero100 alloy bar and gives noticably less road buzz which is probably the main advantage. I got it for about £120 at the time (2016), think they are pushing £200 now.

On my other road bike, recently bought a 3T Tornova carbon bar. Slightly wider for the same stated size (42cm) than the FSA. Like the round drops, again not compact – this is probably the best bar I have for riding in the drops. Not 100% taken with the “ergo” flattened tops, and also the internal routing – the outer ports just did not feel like they were in quite the right place, meaning the gear cables in particular go around more bends than I would like, although they seem to work ok. I tried routing the gear cable both round the outside but settled on inside (using 2013 SRAM Red shifters). Of course would be no issues with di2.

It’s not a reason to lock down, but it is a reason to continue with relatively low impact measures such as mask wearing/some social distancing.

The problem is when it comes to mask wearing or social distancing, the impact it has is to a degree down to someones opinion. Social distancing has not been low impact for me missing my parents or my parents who have only seen their 2 year old grandson a couple of times. Mask wearing means living in a world of increased isolation. Maybe these are necessary measures in the short term but trivialising their impact is probably unhelpful.

I’m wonder if the changes in the waring of masks will make that much difference

The problem with a policy that was never brought in on the strongest of evidence is that it is also quite difficult to prove they are not required. Whilst I have gone through the motions, I have a lingering suspicion that putting non-airtight bits of cloth over your face is little more than a placebo measure. I wont be wearing one beyond the 19th by choice but would still respect e.g. a shop owner who asked – it will take time for everyone’s perception of risk (and what mitigates that risk) to level out.

I remember The Lakes being very good

When I saw the thread title I immediately remembered The Lakes. I remember being a bit fascinated by how differently it portayed a part of the country I was spending sunny holidays at the time

I am glad my wife is not here to see me wiping tears away!

I think there is such a thing as cycle of exhaustion… Personally I have gone through phases of anxiety, so I dont sleep so well, so I drink lots of caffeine all day to wake up, then get to the evening and feel I need to wind down, so drink beer and then sleep badly again etc. I think the pandemic is having more of an effect on a lot of people than they are fully conscious of, maybe its not affecting a lot of people directly, but its just the removal of a lot of small positives in life which has a cumulative effect.

As others have said, when I get into this sort of cycle its about getting back to basics – eat well, make sure you go to bed on time and get a good nights sleep, put all internet / news access away in the evening, read a book instead of doom-scrolling. When you can get out and exercise enjoy the moment rather than thinking its part of something bigger.

Disc brakes on road bikes

There also now seems to be a push for 1x on road bikes as well. I know, let me spend lots of money to have bigger jumps in my gears and a higher friction / faster wearing drivetrain.

(Wondering when the triple MTB chainset will return as the new amazing way to get more gear range)

Also note of course you can take unused annual leave to shorten notice period

I’d say dont in any way escalate it. I resigned from a job and there were multiple attempts to get me to stay / crossed with a fair bit of attitude that I was ruining everything (neither my direct manager or site manager said goodbye on my last day). I just stuck to being professional and not responding to any jibes about the situation. I thought bridges were probably burned, but less than a year later they were ringing up to persuade me to go back and (almost) name my price, circumstances werent right but its good to keep those sort of options open…

I have found their main use is to go back to your current insurance when they supply you with a take-the-piss increase on your renewal, and say the competition is doing this, can you match? I had RAC quote me £180, all I did was ring up with rival breakdown cover quote and they dropped it to £95…

We went to La Rosiere last year just before the pandemic hit, our (then) 3.5 year old had afternoon lessons learning to ski and loved it. There are a lot of travellators and tame runs, although there are a few tows. Main runs back to resort are easy blue and have high speed chairs.

Firmly crossing fingers about skiing again this winter. We missed 2019 as our 2nd son had just been born, first year missed in over 20 years, I swore I wouldnt miss another winter in 20 years, and now missing 2021 as well… First world problem I know, but as a lifelong skier its the thing I look forwards to most. Hurts even more when you see how good the snow was this year.

I bought a gravel bike a couple of years back (a Surly Straggler), and have to confess I am erring on the viewpoint thats its a jack of all trades and master of none, well 1 trade and that is (no surprises) compressed gravel tracks (e.g. New Forest). I rode it on Sunday, blast for 2 miles along a gravel farmers track, great, hit a load of dried cattle-trodden lumpy mud, suddenly I was being shaken to pieces and wishing I had the MTB instead. I think its fine if you pick your route, but in terms of “adventure” I am becoming more reticent to use the gravel bike to head off to the unknown as it too easily gets out of its depth (and having to push is not fun as far as I am concerned). It also is much less fun to ride on the road than a road bike unsurprisingly.

If there is one redeeming feature I notice about riding the gravel bike its that it beats me up much quicker than the MTB, to the point where I find after 30 or 40 miles of mixed riding I am actually thankful to get back onto a smooth road and starting to avoid off road sections, which kind of defies the point. It has re-kindled my interest in off road riding although future £££ will be spent either upgrading or replacing my XC MTB with something a bit lighter. Overall I guess it partly it comes down to the terrain around you.

For me where the gravel bike does work well is for lunch break / quick evening rides, say 1 hour where I want to ride quickly on the road to some known good gravel tracks and back again.

Having been mostly a roadie the last few years, and getting a gravel bike a couple of years back, I have actually dusted off the MTB and spent more time offroad on the MTB than I have for a while during lockdown. Mulling over a new hard tail….

Another shout for the Saris H3, bought one in November as no Kickr-Core’s in stock at the time. Very happy with it.

Surely the smart TV has an standard TV aerial connector? Cant you just get an indoor TV aerial (can buy for under £10)?

Or (if hes old enough), go to the pub?

I have a Skoda Superb 66-plate, I guess very similar to Octavia. Very nice car, however the coolant pump did just fail over b/h weekend and cost £600 to replace (included timing belt also as they said they had to take it off anyway).

If I have one irritation, its that although its big, in the boot its not big in any one direction (cube-like I guess), which means its actually harder to get a bike in than my previous Ford Focus Estate, which was wider but shorter, I could fit bikes in sideways with the wheels off, or a bike box. Cant do it easily with the Superb unless the seats are down.

To me a bad film is made worse if there is an expectation that its supposed to be good. A couple from the last year of lockdown film watiching:

JoJo Rabbit – 5* must see movie on Now – I just didnt get it, some of the “humour” meant to be poking fun at the Nazi’s just seemed to be offensive.

But special prize to Joker – never felt so let down but a film, boring, highly irritating, trying to spoil what is essentially a cartoon baddie by trying to provide a logical reason why they are bad. Plot a direct copy of Taxi Driver. Made soooo much worse by the comparison with the Dark Knight Trilogy (or even the original Batman film from 1989).

Another vote for the FollowMe Tandem – it works really well keeping the towed bike upright and is very quick to attach/detach. Its pricey but should have excellent resale value. Have used both on 130mm and 135mm QR mounts, I think thru-axle kits are available.

We had a Trailgator that was given to us for free – speaking as an engineer it is an awful design, weight applied to the bike works against every mounting point, with the usual result that the bike ends tipped 10 degrees to the side, and chunks of paint taken out of the mounting points from how tight it needs to be done up. Our son refused to use as he was scared of the tendency to lean. Usually ended up putting him in bike seat and just using it to tow the bike on its own…

Irritating, I bought a Wahoo b/w Bolt only a few weeks back and spent a lot time trying to justify the extra £££ for the Roam with its colour screen, but in the end went for a Bolt. Now the Bolt looks much closer to the Roam… Its a great computer but the nav isnt great (still tend to use my Garmin Edge Touring if I have no idea of the area I am going)

BBC are reporting that 3 people in charge of running the cable car apparently aware the emergency brakes have been disabled for weeks. Stops sounding so much like an “accident” and more the predictable consequences resulting from a set of human choices.

I have two road bikes a Ridley Helium SLX and Kinesis Gf Ti V3. I would have the Kinesis over every carbon bike I have ever ridden – it is simply sublime riding experience in comparison (its also no longer available, the Kinesis GTD is the newer version, with disc brakes and unfortunately I see a bit more £££ these days). Honestly if someone stole all my bikes and I had 3k in my hand now, I would get a GTD frame, maybe an ultegra groupset, budget out the rest of the bike and upgrade over time. Or maybe look at a something like Fairlight Strael, or a Ritchey Logic, should be able to do frame + carbon wheels + Ultegra on those for 3k.

The Helium SLX is a very impressive carbon frame but I would think out of budget.

I ordered a head torch battery from TrekInn last November, by the time it arrived it was no longer dark in the evenings… Still I have it for next winter!

Awful news, especially the child who survived who would appear to have lost his parents and sibling…

What is bad here is that (from the news reports) it was a double failure, the pull rope clearly broke, but there are also emergency brakes either side of the main cable that are supposed to grip if the weighting load of the pull cable is removed. These have clearly failed.

Having gone skiing for my whole life I have been on many thousands of lift journeys, I hate to read something like this but the risk is small, probably lower that the car/bus journey up the mountain.

I have a Cyclist subscription, but have become rather dismayed that it seems to be morphing into a gravel bike magazine – every advert is of a gravel bike, more of the reviews are of gravel bikes than road bikes. Ability to go off road seems to be the only thing that matters, which would be fine if it wasnt a road riding magazine. Annoying as I got suckered in a couple of years back and bought a gravel bike, which is brilliant … on gravel, but a lot worse than my MTB for most off road, and totally incomparable to my Ridley Helium SLX on the road…

As someone who spends their working life staring at a computer screen, I would much rather flick through a real paper magazine sat out in the garden though.

look west of Winchester plenty of quiet lanes, BW’s and BOAT’s.

If I have learned one thing its that those plus-symbol lines on the o/s maps (i.e. BOAT’s) usually harbour a pair 3 foot deep trenches on each side, often with an awkward smaller trench in the middle (from the Moto-X bikes). Usually passable, but often awkward!

Arrived at campsite after hellish 8 hour drive to Yorkshire for a weekend of watching the 2014 Grand Depart + some cycling. Open boot, realise the only footwear I have is the smart black work shoes I was wearing at work earlier in the day…

I live locally to that part of Hampshire. I rode my MTB last weekend, and although the odd section was damp it was still a case where the rain is being absorbed by the (what has been) very dry mud, so it was fine, nothing like what it was in the winter. The SDW has largely been surfaced with gravel between Winchester and Warnford anyway. The byway heading north out of Warnford can get a bit muddy (it has deep tracks from 4x4s). The middle of the three bridleways heading north between Hinton Ampner and Alresford has just been re-gravelled by the farmer. Three castles path back from Alresford to Winch should also be fine.

Worth taking a look at this thread which covers some similar ground:

Thanks useful thread. Being a 29er I am not wholly convinced its obsolete, the main limitation is the 135mm/QR rear.

Compatibility issues aside, have the alloy frame constructions changed at all? The rear end of my Scale is ok but not plush. Is that likely to be the same with a 2021 alloy scale? Do the steel bikes feel noticeably more compliant?

It was a 29er frame, originally with straight steerer, however when I replaced the original Suntour fork I could not get a non-tapered, so I replaced the ZS bottom headset with an EC40/44 that allows me to run a tapered steerer (at the expense of 12mm extra crown height / slightly slacker geo)