Very sad – we had some great trips to the New Inn back in the day, and I remember some nice chats about MM solo.  Lovely bloke – RIP!

It was losing money. A lot of money, £92mn in 2022. On sales of £252mn. Prices a third lower than the competition? How do you define viable? It’s been loss making for years. And now those losses need to be funded with money that is not free thanks to interest rate rises. 

The £92m reported loss in 2022 was misleading as a large part of that was interest to the previous private equity owners and transaction related costs.  The adjusted EBITDA (trading profit) was a loss of £5.8m compared to a profit of £34.2m in 2021.  Looking back further, 2020 was a profit of £14.5m and 2019 a loss of £0.8m.  2018 was a profit of £12.0m and 2017 around break-even.  So it’s been up and down (and it’s probably safe to assume that 2023 will be worse).

Googling it, I’m a little unclear about who currently owns them, there seems to be a couple of different German outfits named Signa Sports United(?) Or Bike24 (or are they the same thing?) Wikipedia says Bridgepoint Capital (NatWest group) or is that old information?

They used to be owned by Bridgepoint – but were acquired by Signa Sports in 2022 (based in Berlin but NYSE listed).  who also own Bikester and other bike/tennis/outdoor sites.

You can see the accounts at Companies House https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/07862446/filing-history

The big loss makes good headlines, but includes £36m costs relating to the sale, £25m interest (relating mainly to the pre-sale debt when they were owned by private equity), £15m FX losses, £14.5m depreciation and amortisation (of which £10.5m related to goodwill so that’s just an accounting thing).  Actual trading loss was £5.8m (vs profit of £34.2m in 2021).  Still not great, but less apocalyptic…

UK revenue fell from £231m to £156m, whereas rest of Europe fell from £53m to £21m (rest of world held steady).

I still use them fairly regularly (along with Merlin, Tweeks and a few others).  I definitely won’t use Sigma Sports any more after a horrendous warranty experience (I had to circumvent Sigma’s warranty guy and go direct to SRAM to get it sorted).  I thought it might have been a one-off but a clubmate had the same thing (with the same guy) when the chainstay on his Trek MTB failed (the Trek shop in Wilsmlow came to his rescue and sorted it out).  The warranty guy is patronising and doesn’t listen to anything so it was extremely frustrating…

I just use Thule Prorides on the official Tesla roof rack. It’s only very occasional use (one two hour each way journey so far), and four bikes on the roof probably reduced range by close to 50%. For a longer summer trip to the alps, I’ll be putting my road bike in the roof box – bikes on the roof would make a long trip a bit tedious!

If I was regularly transporting bikes, I think about the tow bar rack.

Take a look at https://www.wundagroup.com/underfloor-heating/ – worth getting a price from them.

Generally much cheaper than Nu-heat etc. We’ve had it for about 7-8 years now and had no issues at all (that was an aluminium spreader plate system as we were putting it on a suspended timber floor, but screed or the Wundafloor would probably be better).

https://heartandgraft.co.uk/ (as used by a few excellent local coffee shops in Heaton Moor)

I used to try lots of different roasters but Heart & Graft keep me happy now (Kickback also very good – now my preferred mid-ride pit stop on the Brickworks)

Anyone done this recently?

Need to renew the wifes and have it back within 4 weeks? I’m thinking we’ll need to fast track it.

Definitely fast-track it!

Our child renewals took about 7 weeks recently – arrived the day before we were due to travel so we had a last minute panic to rebook everything/get packed (the whole thing was pretty stressful!)

We did online applications and the advice at the time was 3-4 weeks. The thing with that advice is that it’s always retrospective so it doesn’t take into account surges in demand (by the time it mattered the advice had changed to 5-6 weeks).

My wife’s renewal took 3 weeks, but that was dealt with by a different passport office. Liverpool/Bootle and Peterborough seem to be particularly slow.

We also figured out that there seems to be little “process” in place – turnaround times are completely random and luck of the draw… the helpline is infuriating too as (with one or two exceptions) they are completely unhelpful or just say whatever they need to in order to get you off the line (and that’s if you don’t get cut off when on hold).

On the upside, TNT were very quick and efficient – so they saved the day in our case.

In the future, if we need to renew less than 10 weeks before travelling then we’ll be going fast track!

I’ve had a Lelit Mara X for the last couple of years (since I’ve been 100% remote working and could justify the expense!) It’s been great – looks good, relatively small, and easy to produce consistent results (unlike the Rancilio Silvia I had previously).

There’s detailed reviews of the Mara X and Elizabeth linked on the Bella Barista site, which are worth watching. If large volumes of milk frothing are a priority then I guess the Elizabeth might be more suited.

I’ve just got one but waiting for my wheels to arrive before I use it (wanted carbon wheels but didn’t want to stretch to the race spec). It looks nice! Comes with brakes euro-style but Lauf will cover the cost for your LBS to swap them round.

Richie Rothwell (a long time gravel bike sceptic) got one recently (before the Dirty Reiver and Further East – there’s a GCN video following Simon Richardson doing the Further East race and Rich was riding with him a big chunk of the way) and he really likes it. Fork is enough to take the sting out and improve comfort (and it’s also zero maintenance which appeals to me!)

My Scandal frame had to go back as it had some play in the rear axle. Worth having a wiggle without the wheel in place just to check it’s not that.

I think 34/30 should be a reasonable bottom gear. I guess the 100% rule means you have to experience the full grind effect of a real climb (and stops people just TT’ing it at 0%!) – the main plus point is that it takes some pressure of your backside when you’re having to put a decent amount of force through the pedals :)

I did a vEveresting in the summer on the AdZ. Assume you’ve got a direct drive turbo (as the hall of fame rules require this)? My lowest gear was 36-28, which is a bit of a grind on the steeper sections – so a bigger cassette would be wise if you prefer to spin.

The Alpe is the most efficient way to do it – and the sectors help break it up (not sure I’d fancy Ventoux for this).

Pace-wise, it’s tempo all the way. Somewhere just below sweet spot if you want to do it as quickly as possible or slightly easier if you want to make it more pleasant (I aimed around 85% of FTP I think, which was slightly ambitious but I just about pulled it off on average, with a minor crisis around the 5th ascent). Having people join you is a welcome distraction too (Garry Lager did the honours for me at my worst point).

One of the less obvious things is that you should u-turn straight after the finish line/start line. If you want to eliminate the Race-to-the-Sky lead in in from your time then use the “ride with” option and join someone who has already ridden the lead-in (I didn’t know about this, but read that the guy who just set the record logged in on his wife’s account for the lead-in so that his time didn’t include it).

I was told it was quicker to switch to a TT bike for the descent, but it’s pretty marginal so I got bored of doing that half-way through.

Spend a bit of time researching on https://coffeeforums.co.uk/ (a high risk of spending more, but there’s some very knowledgeable people on there).

I went from a La Pavoni burr grinder to Eureka Mignon Silenzio and it was a massive difference – quicker, cleaner, quieter and tasted better. There’s different models of the Mignon but I wanted something that was good for espresso grinds.

The Niche Zero grinder is highly regarded (and good for switching between different grinds) but they are getting spendy and seem to be sold out for the foreseeable…

No – sounds odd. Is there play when there is no wheel in – i.e. the threads aren’t cut properly either in the dropout or on the bolt, or the bolt at the none drive side can be moved around in the dropout hole? If the none-drive side bolt hole is oversized it sounds like replacement frame time.

It’s the non-drive side and there is play when there’s no wheel in (only a bit but I guess it’s amplified when you waggle the wheel at the rim). Sounds like I need to get in touch with PX (and start cursing again at internal routings…!)

Finally nearly finished on my build and noticed some side-to-side play in the rear wheel (brand new Hunt Trail Wide). After investigating it further, I’ve realised the movement is in the rear bolt through axle (it has play even when fully tightened – like the hole is too big…

Anyone else had this?

Have a look at cloudwater

You won’t find them in the supermarket but some of the more discerning bottle shops will have them and they do mail order (or same day delivery if your in Manchester or bits of london)

These two are low alcohol but still have the hop flavours of much stronger beer (rather than a lot of low alcohol stuff which is just a bit watery

Small pale 2.5%

Small Pale

I was about to say Cloudwater – tried the Small Pale for the first time last night and it’s very close to the normal pale ale in flavour (they’re all very nice and easy drinking). They also deliver anywhere in the UK for free via UPS when you spend £40 (if you’re not in one of the local delivery zones)

Not sure if there’s anything specific about the 12 speed chainrings, but that always worked fine in the past.

On an unrelated note, I’ve fitted the SLX M7120 crankset now and it’s fine. Still not masses of clearance between the crankarm and chainstay but enough.

Just to add to luket’s post above, I definitely agree that good beans ground fresh at the right grind level are the key to getting a good coffee, so that’s where money is best spent.

You can get good coffee from various brew methods. V60 and aeropress are both cheap (I struggled with the aeropress but lots of people swear by them – worth considering if you want shorter espresso style drinks).

A decent espresso machine is a big outlay (and even then, some – like my Rancilio – are pretty inconsistent so it can be great or not-so-great). Nespresso machines are fine if you don’t want the faff and just want consistent decent coffee, but it’ll never be as good as the coffee from a good shop.

I’ve got a Rancilio Silvia espresso machine but using the V60 filter more often. They’re cheap, but make really nice coffee and a decent grinder and goose-necked kettle make the difference.

There’s some decent grinders and decent price here https://www.hasbean.co.uk/collections/grinders

I usually get beans from Union Roasting, which are great – but tried some beans from Plot recently and they were even better (but spendy).

@damascus – yeah, the M7120 is 178mm Q-factor and 55mm chainline. The M7100 is 172mm Q-factor and 52mm chainline.

If buying a new chainset (SLX), does anyone know the best version to get – m7100 (52mm chainline, boost or non-boost) or m7120 (55mm, boost only). I can see the SLX full bike uses the m7120 crank but the GX full bike has a 52mm chainline…

Or does it make no difference? (Not done the boost thing before!) Wheels will be boost hubs.

I can see the chainline for the m7000 boost is 153mm, so the m7100 (52mm chainline) should be ok with 32t round chainring… but I’m just wondering why PX spec the 55mm chainline m7120. Is that just what they had or would it be better?

Just to answer my earlier question on page 19 (in case it helps anyone else) – an SLX M7100 crank won’t fit (not even close – would need 2 spacers on driveside to stop crank arm hitting chainstay, but then there isn’t enough spindle poking through to attach the NDS crank arm). So I’ll have to sell the M7100 crank and get hold of an M7120 (which I assume must fit as PX spec then on the SLX bikes).

I can see the chainline for the m7000 boost is 153mm, so the m7100 (52mm chainline) should be ok with 32t round chainring… but I’m just wondering why PX spec the 55mm chainline m7120. Is that just what they had or would it be better?

If buying a new chainset (SLX), does anyone know the best version to get – m7100 (52mm chainline, boost or non-boost) or m7120 (55mm, boost only). I can see the SLX full bike uses the m7120 crank but the GX full bike has a 52mm chainline…

Or does it make no difference? (Not done the boost thing before!) Wheels will be boost hubs.

I thought I’d try out Shindigger’s promise to deliver within 3 hours to addresses within the M60. Ordered at 17:13 yesterday and delivered at 17:30 :-o

(and it’s tasty beer)

i think it’s straight forward for an employer to DIY (especially for a small number of participants) but you’ll be stuck to the £1k limit unless you have the FCA licence.

It would be a good way to make yourself quite unpopular with your bosses if you got that wrong ;) For example – https://www.accountancydaily.co/sophos-sale-nearly-punctured-salary-sacrifice-bike-scheme

If you want to go over £1k then you’ll need to use cyclescheme/green cycling imitative or similar as they have the FCA licence (unless your employer has the licence already)…

Flanders is great… sportive on the Saturday then watch the race on Sunday (if you go to the spectators area on the Oude Kwaremont then you get to see the juniors, women and then the men’s race 3 times – so far better than your usual cycling spectating). Best to stay in Oudenaarde for logistics (we stayed in Ghent, which is great but made logistics tricky) and easy to book it all independently.

So can anyone provide an explanation as to why Brexit means RyanAir are CUTTING prices ?

Reduced demand for a given supply will reduce prices (assuming the costs – such as fuel – are locked in as mentioned above), i.e. you’d expect busy flights to cost more. The article suggests that supply of UK flights will be reduced in the future though, leading to higher prices…

So I don’t think you can spin that O’Leary article as a plus point for Brexit…

Yep – meet and greet for us too. Never had any problems yet (touch wood)

Here’s the prototype…

A mate of mine is working on some large platform pedals – similar size to the pedalling innovations (I’ve seen the prototype – look very good). This is the website http://iris-cycling-uk.co.uk/collections/frontpage (the overshoes are the first thing he’s worked on, but he has plenty more ideas). So if you’re patient enough to wait for the testing/manufacture, they should be at a much better price point…

Another good one to look at is http://www.silvatimber.co.uk/

I’ve had the same issue occasionally and all the time now. One solution is to press and hold the reset button on your Garmin while you plug the USB cable in (and keep holding it). After a short while, it will enter mass storage mode and you can upload your rides (on strava, you then need to upload from file rather than device).

I had to do it for work Monday evening/yesterday afternoon – arrived quite late at Glasgow airport intending to get a taxi, but there was a massive queue and very few taxis around – so I just jumped on the bus instead. Was quick and reasonably comfortable (and I didn’t have to talk to a taxi driver) and drops off in a few spots in the city centre. Got the bus back to the airport as well as it was easier to find the stop than to try and find a taxi…

We asked that question when we were buying and were told by the salesman that it was used on a one year business lease. We got the docs and the previous owner was Hertz and they had no way to prove it wasn’t an ex-hire car. OFT got very interested but, in the end, the branch manager offered to take it back or give an extra year of warranty (we kept the car and the extra year of warranty). Car has been fine so far (apart from the fact it hadn’t been serviced when we bought it and had low oil – despite it being a “used approved” car).

If we were buying again, we’d probably do the same as the price was good.

Most obvious things covered already I think… Sea wall, English Bay, Kitsilano and just wandering around are all good suggestions

If it is clear, can be nice to have a drink in the revolving restaurant at the top of the Sheration Landmark hotel on Robson St.

If the weather is right and the trail is clear, then the Grouse Grind could be good (but pushing it for time).

Gastown is touristy and always feels a bit soulless… Aquarium would be a waste I think.

Sorry if it’s expensive, but hey – that Ferrari I always wanted is expensive, that doesn’t entitle me to circumnavigate the system and have something I can’t afford. I have the car I CAN afford.

That’s a rubbish example (sorry ;) – what if you could afford to buy it a week later (even though technically you’re not supposed to – but it won’t do anyone any harm and will make everyone happy)?

pondo – I think you’re reading too much into subtle wording ;) It’s only relevant where the parents enjoy it, but it wasn’t meant that this was all that mattered… And “consistent” in no way means a requirement – just that it is a positive thing rather than a negative thing.

I hope we can find a resort that is less busy/less expensive (but still good) during school holidays – as it would be more convenient to go away then when we have to take holidays anyway to look after the kids. Skiing is always risky but I’m guessing not many of the objectors have encountered the battle ground of busy slopes in holiday periods – there’s no way I’d subject my kids to that if I could avoid it.