Another (more expensive) option would be to use someone like Byway Travel that specialises in European rail holidays.  Used them last year as we wanted some backup and they were excellent.

How about Sandy Balls?  We took my two there and they thoroughly enjoyed it.

How about somewhere near Peisey-Vallandry?  You’ve got easy access to the lift network with the ‘lobster pots’ up to Vallandry itself and then you’ve loads of options ranging from blue upwards with plenty of lift access.

My company supplied us with Microsofts modern wireless headsets.

The wireless range and battery life is good, I charge them about once a week and they mute when you flip the mic up which is handy when walking around. There are some teams specific buttons on them but I’ve never bother with them.

Can’t speak to durability as I’ve only had them 6 months.

They’re about £64 at Amazon.

Got to be Viv Stanshall and Terry keeps his clips on.

One of the few remaining sleeper services in the UK operates between Edinburgh and London, https://www.sleeper.scot/

Brasher Country Classic walking shoes are what I use for this.  Usually pick them up from Go Outdoors when on sale.

I spent a fun afternoon yesterday trimming and refitting the hose that connects the fan unit of the shower extractor fan to the external vent.  Went up to get the Xmas decorations and everything was wet.  Looks like the builder had attached it with tape which dried out and fell off at some point.

Every time someone showered it was blowing wet air into the loft and this cold snap meant it was all condensing up there.

I’ve used tape for now but will get some proper hose clamps ASAP.

I’ve been using the bullet journal method https://bulletjournal.com/ for a few years now.  Paper based send to work better for me when trying to stay organised.  You can buy special notebooks like this https://www.leuchtturm1917.co.uk/bullet-journal-edition-2.html if you really want but any notebook with a to grid layout will work.

https://poets.org/poem/just-say?mbd=1

Well I’ve never ridden that path but I did walk it in May this year.  The navigation was tricky and even in May involved skirting some very boggy areas.  If it was me I’d stick to the bridleway.

I have a similar issue, tried varifocal sports glasses but they have issues, takes a while to get used to them, the bike feels about a foot taller when I first put them on, a very weird effect.  I mostly just use something like these https://www.eyekeeper.com/products/tr90-unbreakable-sports-half-rim-bifocal-sunglasses-th6186.  Gives enough magnification to allow me to read my Garmin.

For a really cheap option to try a search for bifocal safety glasses, for a few £ you can see if they are an option.

I really like the look of the PNW Pebble tool, the problem is by the time they’ve added in taxes and delivery it’ll cost you just shy of £100.

I’ve stayed at the Speech House which is not far from the trails and is dog friendly.  They have some dog allowed rooms and dogs can go with you in the orangery restaurant.

You can get a set of Clark M2 brakes with rotors for £60 from a number of places.

For anyone interested in ethical clothing (if such a thing exists) or just a different view on history I can recommend this https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/313012/worn-by-thanhauser-sofi/9780241389539

I’m part of a group that going to be in Peisey for a week from 30th, we have a Coolbus booking for the 3rd with some spaces available.  I’ve sent you a PM with details on how to contact the trip organiser if you are interested,

I had exactly this same issue with my varifocals, first ride with them (at FOD) I had to stop and take them off.  Persevered with them and have now gotten used to them, in fact when I tried to ride without them one day the bike felt really small and close to the ground!

The effect for me seemed to be confined to things that are close, like the front wheel, looking down the trail helped a lot.  Made realize how much I stare at what’s right in front of me.

How about an Airdrop Edit?  The current model is the V4 so there are 2nd hand V2\3 around.  There’s an Airdrop owners Facebook group where people advertise ones for sale sometimes.

I got a leather strap for my Fenix 6 of a seller on Etsy and while the seller I used isn’t an option at the moment there are lots of others offering handmade leather straps for a fraction of the Garmin prices.

The strap I bought came from StrongHorseCraft and they are based in Ukraine and as such have been forced to stop trading.  They have an ‘Email me when we’re back’ button on the site if you can wait…

Is there anyone local to you who does engine rebuilds rather than shelling out for a complete new engine?

Next thing I’d check would be the rear hub, I’ve had dodgy shifting as a symptom of a snapped axle in a Hope hub before now.  NB: On XT mechs there may be a B screw setting guide on the top jockey wheel – a little line marked 51T to align with the cassette.

I’m using the OS mapping on computer and phone for planning and then a Garmin Fenix 6 watch (with talky toaster mapping installed) for most of my navigation. It gives me 3 options, watch for 99% of the time, get the phone out if better resolution needed and a printed route with OS mapping for when a solar flare kills the GPS satellites (or my batteries die).

The Fenix has coped with all day rides with no issues but you do have to remember to download the OS mapping into the phone before you start.

NB if you have some newish paper OS maps they come with a code that allows you to download the map into your phone in the OS app.

Brasher Country Classic work well for me, comfortable to walk all day in (for me anyway) and well inside your budget.

Like a lot of things cookies started out trying to solve a problem, in this case the problem was that HTTP is a stateless protocol, each time you send a request to a web site it knew nothing about your previous requests and this made for a bad user experience.

So Netscape invented the cookie, a small file placed on the client that could store some state information that persisted between each request. For a while everything was lovely but then people started seeing ways to abuse the cookies to do things like tracking and then we ended up here.

On my Windows PC I use Privacy Badger to help control tracking cookies:

Privacy Badger (privacybadger.org) is a browser extension that automatically learns to block invisible trackers. Privacy Badger is made by the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a nonprofit that fights for your rights online.

It doesn’t work on Safari but there are alternatives

OS do a free 7 day trial. Your best bet might be to signup for that and try it?

How about a 5 door Mazda 6? For that budget you’d get a 2014/15 model at < 90k miles and if it’s important to you a ULEZ compliant one. Example

I always enjoy a trip to The Rock and Roll brewery. Just watch it for it’s limited opening times.

You could try Kate Smith who is based in the Jewellery Quarter in Birmingham. Get something bespoke and a bit different.

I used the Aircast A60 for 2-3 months over the summer when my ankle started playing up. Was fine with all my cycling shoes (flats and clips) and walking boots and didn’t really notice I was wearing it most of the time. It is showing a little bit of wear now – but it was given a fair bit of abuse both on the bike and walking in the Lakes.

For what it’s worth I’ve just had to replace the damper on a 2016 fox fork (slight snapage issue when doing up the foot nut and crush washer after a service (note to self – use the torque wrench)) and I’m now quite glad it broke! The new damper is noticeably better than the original.

Rode it on Friday afternoon and enjoyed it. Nothing technical on the blue but lots of it is fun. The new red sections are good too. There’s 4 different ways to get from the start to the top of Stegosaurus and it’s easy to loop round and try them all. The new red with the step down and jumps was probably the best.

The main issue will be maintenance, it’s going to get hammered and while it seems well built, it even looks like proper drainage had been thought of, big soak aways filled with stones can be seen in the video. Time will tell as with all these things!

There’s the Cosmo Communicator.

So I’ve got the OS maps app, lots of OS maps, a Garmin Oregon and a Garmin Fenix 6 S watch with the TalkyToaster Uk maps loaded and since I started using the watch the others don’t get a look in.

These days I carry my phone and a paper map and compass in my back pack but do 99.99% of the route following on the watch. Very occasionally I’ll open the OS app to get a bigger view but that’s really rare.

The watch lasts fine for all day epics and if you get one of the newer solar ones it’ll even recharge when you are out and about. You can pick up a 2nd hand Fenix 5 for under £200 I think and it will do route following no problem.

A friend has been looking for something similar and the issue has been what’s in stock. They ended up looking at the Saracen Ariel 30 as they are actually in stock. There’s even a review on this very site! See Ariel Review.

@Kryton57 – I was thinking the exact same and google lens says it’s one of these: Banshee Titan or maybe a Prime – but definitely looks like a Banshee.

Like so many things there isn’t a problem with the tech there’s a problem with people. Just like the rest of the population there’s 1% (my guestimate) who can’t somehow avoid being a dick when out in public.

Riding an ebike is still new enough that this level of dickness hasn’t disappeared into the background noise of MTB idiocy plus it gives new riders new opportunities to annoy people in old ways. (I’m talking to you ebike rider who buzzed my bike wheel up the hill until I let you past and then stopped in the middle of the trail at the first vaguely techy downhill). But that’s people not ebikes.

We, as a group who want to use the same trails for ebikes and non ebikes, need to work out what not being a dick looks like for both populations because nobody wins if this becomes an us versus them thing.

You could try installing a Wifi Analyzer app on the laptop or your phone. That will show you if you have contention on the 2.4 and\or 5 bands. If you do you should be able to switch bands in your router.

If your router offers both 2.4and 5 bands it’s also worth checking that your laptop is connecting to the 5 band. I have 1 device where I had to go into the device manager and tell it to ignore the 2.4 band. If you click the connection icon in the toolbar and select properties can see the details if the connection.

The PNW Rainier has a 125mm drop.

I live in dread of the day that there isn’t anything new (to me) to discover in the 20 mile radius that most of my biking covers. But between OS maps and sites about trig points, underground structures and local history it still seems a way of. I suspect my legs will give out first.

Only last month I ‘found’ a new bridleway that in never ridden down. It was a rubbish muddy field boundary slog that went nowhere but just finding it cheered me up for days.

So, my take is this is a good thing.