excellent. thanks for the advice. Non-ebiker so sounds like  big pedal day out…..but quote happy doing this at Fod so reckon ill give it a go at some point.

Still some of the off piste stuff in LW left. check out strava heat maps or trailforks. Picnic Bench has all gone i think, but as someone before said Rocky Horror is still there, plus the ones in the coombe that goes down to the same place as Picnic Bench….but on the other side of the climb back up.  50 acre is good too, and there is another little trail that leads down to Abbots Leigh and back up from there to the start of 50 Acre.

if you have time spend it exploring the area of LW past the mtb jumps when you go in the car park (head downhill and past a gate / little house) then onto the woods down there. Plenty of that off piste / unofficial is still there.

thanks Downslow….very kind of you. Its in Cambridgeshire…..but i have a mate who lives not that far away who can collect it at some point….but is currently away from home.

looks like most of the couriers will only take boxed bikes.

if you have an apple store near you they are very good at helping getting things set up for you. I bought one for my daughter and had a mare setting it up. Took it into apple and someone sat with us for a an hour stetting it up and explaing the parental / family stuff.

I don’t really want to ride an absolute bucket of a bike…..did that for years (bike was never stolen though!), so was thinking of a cheap brand new commuter. But, i think second hand is probably the route to go. All the ones i find on FB marketplace that seem interesting or half decent seem to be probably stolen though!

I was bought up in St Bees and family still live there….Ive never done it! I want to do it now though. My sister did it last year and loved it. As someone has said earlier you can get your bags taken for you each day so you only have to carry a day sack. My sister said this was really good so you can just enjoy the walk.

i had a porcelain crown done which cost probably about £600 following not long after by an implant for about £2500! (there was also some work to remove a little bit of gum!). the other option was to have them removed which would have left visible gaps. the implant is great. Felt a bit weird initially ( as there is zero feeling from that tooth) but glad i had it done.  It was an expensive year for teeth but worth it in the long run. The dentist offered interest free credit for the work…..i think this is common if you need to spred the cost.

As someone else has said the thing to consider is how likely is the treatment to be successful in the long term. dentist will tell you thins….rather than STW!!!

Take it back into the store and ask them for a refund or replacement. In my experience they are brilliant at sorting out issues. last year I had a probably with a draw cord on an insulated jacket which they offered to replace (i didn’t like the new colors) or fix in the store. I really liked their approach to solving customer service problems.

thanks for the advice. I think on reflection and andys post,maybe wired might be the way to go in terms of having more time recorded. anyone used a Ring system? theres one at work and the guy who owns the office rates it.

thanks Zilog. I am veering more to the side of battery operated as don’t want to sort out a mains feed (but beoynd my capabilities really!!).

thanks Alex. So for the ‘hub’ does this mean that the cameras need to be positioned so they can actually see it in line of sight?

New IOS app is still very glitchy after about 5-6 days. Hoping that it will gradually start to improve over time. Im not even sure if mine is alarming properly even with the settings restored. The constant feed without scanning on the phone doesn’t seem to be very consistent…..and hence im not very confident it is actually doing it, or rather just displaying my last reading. i am therefore still scanning with the phone quite often. Sure over time it will improve….I hope!!

there are some good deals on there. the missis just ordered a Vitus Mach 3 VR Urban Bike (Claris). Looks like a bargain.

I did asee however that wiggle have stopped doing C2W. Anyone know if there are going to start redoing it? Been looking at the vitus road bikes and the C2W makes it all the better!

ive got wide feet and shimano Wides are a good fit for me. Also FiveTen are good for me as they are more like trainers. I have a SPD pair….Hellcat maybe?

i tried loads of lids. The fox ones are really nice but all had a funny fit. The proframe has a nasty mips plastic ring that digs into your forehead!! I found a Poc one eventually that worked on my swede. Like others say, just try on as many as possible to find a good fit.

we got a 6 person decathlon air beam tent. wanted a bit of extra room for when the kids get bigger. its really well made and goes up pretty quickly (20-30 mns max). https://www.decathlon.co.uk/p/inflatable-camping-tent-air-seconds-6-3-f-b-6-people-3-bedrooms/_/R-p-324957?mc=8584571

2nd for a vitus Nucleus. proper mtb. good brakes, tyres, comfortable, fairly light.

thanks Davros. Ill go for the deore one

I went from Shimano RC 701 in a wide fit to dhbs Aeron Carbon Road Shoe. The fit of the DHB is good, similar to a wide shimano. surprisingly stiff soles. they are £70 quid at the moment. well worth putting on your list.

try looking at Vintage Villas. They are a relatively small (compared to air B&B) uk based agency that source villas in Europe. They pretty much all have pools, are in good locations. They chose the areas / regions they have villas in pretty well. we have stayed in thier places in Marjorca, Catalonia, Portugal, Galicia. pretty much all have been great. their website is good too to give an overview of the surrounding areas.

stayed at that bike park lodge a year or so ago. It was good. Really nice place, very secure bike storage, workshop, parking, walk into town. no breakfast through!

I had my licence revoked following a collapse at home – I’m type 1 diabetic. Turns out my awareness of hypoglycemia had deteriorated below the threshold for driving. the consultant said she was compelled to write to DVLA to inform them. I accepted this and my licence was suspended. It was an unbelievable pain to get it back. I used the document that someone else has linked to here that lays out what the criteria is for getting your licence back which i met after 6 moths, but took quite qa qhile longer to get the licence back. https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1084397/assessing-fitness-to-drive-may-2022.pdf
this was really useful. the conclusion i came to was that DVLA need to have medical professional give written support for your licence to be given back. they will not take you on your word….the want to read it (in a letter) from a doctor. Therefore make sure you are talking with your specialist doctors / nurses etc when you need their support to get driving again.
It is a pain in the ar%e to loose your licence but its for a reason. And if you arent safe to drive then its best not to risk causing harm to someone else in the car. Good luck with the recovery, and i hope you are back to driving again as soon as possible.

is there much actuality protection though? I take it its not D30 or anything more sophisticated than just foam rubber??

My company used a scheme which had a £1k limit for quite a while. i used it a couple of times for bikes sub £1k and other small stuff. When I looked at buying bought a pricier bike i realized it was limited to £1k and, as it was YT i was buying from, I needed to use a specific scheme with a higher limit (used GCI). I just spoke to our accountant who simply bought the voucher from them to swap for the bike – there was a pretty basic form to complete too. It seems to me there isn’t any tax/legal reason to prevent you from spending more than £1k. Might just be your finance department are being tight/difficult. Could be they are reluctant to essentially lend you the full price of the bike as it does come up as an outstanding debt on their balance sheets wuntill paid off.

Have a great trip!

get a swimming wetsuit. even a cheap one will be better for swimming than a regular wetuit. ive had a few and even the old cheap ones were pretty good. I currently have a cheap DHB one from wiggle and its great. They help with buoyancy as well as keeping you warm. they are specifically designed for swimming. Not just the arm movements but also around the neck how you tilt to turn as you breath. they aren’t very robust and tend to tear easily so you need to take much better care of them than a surfing wet suit….but then its not intended for surfing, coasteering, generally kicking about on the beach….in the same way a road bike inst designed for a DH course!

Same as what Baser said about taking sweets. I usually just carry my normal emergency jelly beans/glucose tabs. Always carry a bit more than you think you need in case you get caught short or flights are delayed on the tarmac or at the gate.

First of all I hope your son (and you!) are adjusting ok to being T1.

i usually carry my spare insulin and spare pens in a small thermos flask to keep them safe and at a steady temp. I tend to have that in my hand luggage (so its near me should my hold luggage get lost) and as soon as i get to security I take it out and show it to the security staff. almost always they are very blasé about it and just pass it through the scanner after taking a quick look inside. I dont use a pump (I use pens and a Libre 2), and i haven’t had any problems with body scanner picking this up. I think the G6 isnt that much more complex a device than the Libre??

i used to take with me a letter from my GP…particularly when travelling to places outside of the EU. but even then the only place where anyone has been more than slightly interested was in Australia on one or two occasions. A letter could be useful for piece of mind, but generally i have had no real problems whatsoever in 15 years in probably about 15-20 countries. I think most of the airport security staff are looking for quite specific things and will have come across people with T1 and their pens/pumps/scanners quite often.

good luck, but I would think that you will be relieved when you see it generally isn’t an unusual thing for the security and airlines to see.

thanks for all the responses. dmck, did your hire specify collecting in terminal or off the airport? I cant work out if the on airport / in terminal will mean collecting in Gib or Spain!

thanks for the advice. have heard about the queues over the border….wnat to avoid this if possible. Ill try looking for La Linea based hire companies then.

Cheers for the advice. We went to southern campania a few years ago and the beach club things were a bit odd. Found a few that were free that were nice….but not many!
we are staying near Volterra in an agriturismo for a week. near to river beaches so that will probably be good for cooling off. Was thinking about Elba, but it sound like it will be very crowded. Anyone been?

spend money and get them something decent….probably second hand. the then resale values of some brands are so good you wont loose mony.
we had frog bikes for the kids when they were that age (not long ago tbf!). the smaller one got a second hand frog pedal bike that i paid £100 form….sold it for about the same a couple of years later. Daughters bigger frog was used then passed down and then sold for only about £25 less than i paid. They will probably enjoy more a better lighter bike than something thats not suitable or heavy.

got a vitus for the younger one now. great bikes.

Any idea where breninbeener?

the trax system looks good.

cant find any shorter kinetic tow ropes …. al of them seem to be 10m long!

Ive got the roam softshell. defiantly not great for rising. Basically a nice hoodie. not that windproof either!

Cheers Chakaping. I reckon its just a rock up and explore day then!!

welcome to the Libre club!! I’ve been using the Libre sensors for about 3.5 years. Libre 2 now for about 1 year. they really are a game changer. Do you have it connected to your phone so it will scan and alarm to your phone? thats the absolute beauty of the Libre 2 that you can set the low alarms. i suffer a bit from night time hypos so the alarm is great to wake me up as soon as i go low so i don’t stay that way for too long and wake up feeling awful.

I’ve knocked off a few sensors in the past. Every time i have though Abbott have replaced the sensor. I use Rock Tape which is a physio / kinesiology tape made from strong cotton like material that is stretchy and very adhesive. I cut it into patches a bit bigger than the sensor and it lasts maybe 4-5 days. definitely stops it getting caught on door frames etc. another good tip is to shave off the hair where you apply the sensor and use some rubbing alcohol on the skin before you apply (let it all dry out first though). Keeps the area clean and makes it easy for the senors to stay stuck and less uncomfortable to remove at the end of the 14 days.

even though the Livre 2 does bluetootch to the phone for alarms im not sure you can get it to send out a constant reading to a garm or smart watch (i could be wrong). I think you still need to scan to get the reading and therefore not a way around that with the libre alone. there is a Bluetooth device call a Miao Miao you can get that does this. I used to use it and it was very good. Yopu could set alarms etc….but it used some 3rd party software which apple kept on kicking off from their app store.

we had a frog 48 for our boy when he was 4. good bike to learn on and light enough for him to handle./bought a set of knobbly tyres for it so it would be used off road. i bought its second hand for £100. just sold it for £125. if you buy theses second hand….they keep their value. lots of other good similar brans….squish, isla, croc etc. if you buy a Halfords job they are super heavy….pretty cr@p….and have no resale value.

Brilliant. the responses to the OP are peak STW. ‘Sorry OP. I think you have it wrong….this is what you want’!!!

we have the older pure evoke (non-bluetooth). its great. good sound, nice looking.

i dont want a smart speaker in the house at all. dont want amazon and google listening to me all the time! i do use the BBC sounds app though with a portable bluetooth speaker. can be handy….but also nice to just press a button and the radio comes on…..it doesn’t interfere with just using the phone too.

BEntudder, i bought our young un a MX 24….its running 2.0 inch tyres. did think it could take bigger. What tyres have you run?

i think the wall idea could be a goer. we do have a small width where we could do this and it has previously had a new boiler fl;ue put out through it…..so could go at ground level below that.