The Japanese language has no word for “paper cut”.
And neither does Englih.😉

I had a double pack cross weekend. One race on Saturday and one on Sunday. This is the first season I have been able to get a German racing license and am racing with people my own age (50+) rather than the open race which is always hectic with a lot of overly ambitious people wíth no idea about racing that I had been racing in previous years. The race on saturday was on a course I know well and after starting my first race last week on the back line and finishing 7th I was able to move up to the third row on Saturday for the start. Finished 4th which meant I was even further up the start grid on Sunday which was on a brute of a course on the side of a hill(think the steepness of the Koppenberg) and usually used as a MX track. A lot of very slick off camber grass turns which caught a lot of people out and some serious climbing and decending (300m of climbing after 6 laps)and managed the first podium of the season! Got 3rd. Still a long way to go to beat the first and second riders ; they put a good minute and a half on me over the 45min races.

I bought a Senseo machine for our holiday flat guests. Procured it recently while our all singing machine was being repaired and was pleasantly surprised by the quality of the coffee. The German discount supermarkets do good alternative pods, too. Wouldn’t recommend the cappuccino pods though as they taste rank.

Probably best to have a look at the German websites seing as it’s a German company. Put in a search for ‘Grohe Siphon für Waschtisch’ and you should see a few websites that you can try. If you have a product number it will be even easier.

那你还是开始学中文吧！😉

I’ve just come back from a ride wearing one of those thermal jerseys. Really well made kit and perfect for this time of year.

Head towards Sparkbrook and the Balti Triangle
This^

Come to Leipzig!;-)
No seriously it’s quite the place to visit these days. You have the old historic city centre, loads of museums (a bike buddy is the director of the natural history museum), the zoo is one of the best in Europe. Then the cafe and bar life is great. Lots of Germans say that Leipzig is a mini Berlin. Then there is the new lake area to the south of the city where you can go swimming, sailing or windsurfing weather depending and there is even a theme park (Belantis) if that’s your thing. It’s only an hour to Dresden by car and there are alot of historic centres all within an hour’s drive (Weimar, Naumburg; Freiburg on the river Saale a huge wine area, Meissen and Erzgibirge Mountains, Saxonny Switzerland). Ryannair are starting flights again from the UK to the local airport.
https://dam.destination.one/922972/30e03bf8adba7e02c82464a51edb5321db166dc71c35fdd5b1975a55b9200d89/altes-rathaus-leipzig-mit-stadtgeschichtlichem-museum-museen-in-leipzig.jpg

https://img.theculturetrip.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/bastei-bridge-3014467_960_720.jpg

If you are going to do the museums I would suggest booking tickets online before you go. I personally enjoyed the graffiti/ street art museum at the NDSM wharf (an ex-shipbuilding area converted into an arts enclave). Also if you run out of things to do in Amsterdam then Haarlem is well worth a visit.

Used to have a T3 camper back in the day. Felt more refined than my previous campers (T2s) but you still have the problem that the crumple zone is your legs. I would think you are into collectors territory, too so you will be paying over inflated prices for a decent one.

I was also doing a lot of building work a few years ago on our house and found a twin—axled trailer to be far more useful and a cheaper option.

Never been riding in Finale(my friend who went to La Gomera goes there at keast 4 times a year) but in January/February it can be wet.

A friend of mine who is a DH/Enduro racer went to La Gomera and came back raving about the trails there.

Some dealers might sell it on commission basis ie they sell it for you and you say how much you want for it and they add on their commission ( usually a couple of thousand). Some prefer doing that as there is no risk for them actually buying the motor home.

Have you tried looking on Komoot? I use the discover section when I am in a new area.You get to see routes posted by other Komoot users in that area. I have had some pretty good rides following them. You can also edit the rides to start/stop at differet places or if you want to miss out or add in other interesting parts.

Fuerteventura has the warmest climate of the Canary Islands as it is closest to the African mainland. I went there in April at Easter time a long while ago and we had temperatures in the mid 20s. Plenty warm enough to use the swimming pools in the hotel. On one day I can remember I even ventured into the ocean but it was fairly cold IIRC.

Fun fact. A school friend of mine was a presenter on Get Fresh and later was Scally the dog on ITV kids shows. I can always remember the college principal asking him exasperately ‘Just what are you going to do with your life?’. ‘Writing and presenting a TV show for Janet Street-Porter!’ was the answer.
He is now a she and is quite a big shot director in Hollywood.

I’ve been racing bikes since my mid 20s. I am now 53 and what I lack in top end I make up for in being able to push hard for much longer than when I was younger. The classic analogy is my engine is more diesel than petrol. I do more miles now than I did 10 years ago, too (half od my kids are of adult age now so have more time for non family stuff).

I personally found 1×11 too limiting. Where I ride locally is flat so I only used the last three rings but when I got to the mountains the big rings weren’t big enough to get up the steep stuff. I changed to 2×11 with a Shimano DI2 XT shifters and mechs and am much happier (I use the syncro-shift function which automatically changes between front rings), though I would be happyto change to 1×12 if buying a new bike.

Based on my experience ( based in Germany so mainly go to Austria) the ski resorts I think are good for beginners are
Serfaus-Fiss-Ladis ( a high resort so there is snow from the car park and lots of long wide blue pistes with even pitches with access with gondolas or chairlifts aa drag lifts can be difficult for beginners)

Saalbach-Hinterglemm ( again long wide pistes and gondola access and a huge ski area including Leogang and Fieberbrunn.Another ski area you can ski down relatively easy pistes to get to your car. Not cheap though as it’s one of the top ski resorts for rich Germans)

Zillertal Arena. ( another huge ski area. The best part for beginners is Gerlos. Again wide pistes and a or chair lift access access and a lovely blue Piste back to the base station. The town is over 1000m high so has permanent snow through the winter months.)

I’ve never been skiing in Italy but have some German clients who only go there as they say the pistes are better prepared and the weather is better. As others have said the in winter holidays the resorts are packed so if that’s the only time you can go then the bigger resorts mean less queuing at the lifts. If you can manage just before Xmas the pistes are generally empty ( most come after Xmas to the new year but you run the risk of crap weather plus it gets dark at 4 pm.

83 Cafe Miami Otterwisch by M. SCHULZ[/url], on Flickr

Cafe Miami in a village outside of Leipzig is iconic in the local cycling community. Nobody actually goes in they just take a photo of their bikes outside.

Another iconic cafe is 60km south of the city in a town called Rochlitz. It has the highest hill in the area and so the cafe is a popular mid-ride meet up for all the local cyclists. They don’t do cake but their Italian style baguettes and open sandwiches are great to get you through a long ride. Their coffee is great, too and they have a water filter to top up your bottles FOC.

https://www.rochlitzer-muldental.de/uebernachtung-gastronomie/gaststaetten-restaurants/item/1964-mr-expresso-1964

I know they are terribly expensive but our middle son is very happy with his iPad Pro. We got it for him after the Microsoft detachable screen laptop he was using for his ‚sixth form ‚ studies died for no apparent reason one month after the warranty expired with Microsoft offering no help. He’s now just started uni and he can take notes on it in lectures and with the extra keyboard can write essays on it too. It’s so good our daughter wants to sell her MacBook and get one too!

We were camping also in Gaasper Camping earlier this year. It‘s a five Minute walk to the train station on a direct line to the central station. Took about 25 minutes. There was not a lot happening around the campsite as it was mainly residential flats but a nice park and lake behind the campsite. The wash houses were well insulated so I would imagine it’s open year round. We tried to get into the Sport Campground which was much nearer the Centre but was fully booked even in May. It seemed to be popular with young people in tents and was quite basic but everything new. It’s directly next to a huge sports centre.

https://theartsdesk.com/sites/default/files/styles/mast_image_landscape/public/mastimages/806b6e1806566ad52df50ee6cecd90ef.jpg?itok=9mDEPzEp

In the first couple of weeks living here in Germany I found these nice nice tight trails in the woods near the center of the city. I found out fairly early why these trails existed. I rode along there one evening to find a young male pair involved in the act of sodomy with an audience of what seemed like hundreds watching on with their tackle out. I was so speechless that all I could muster to say was one of the only phrases I had learned in German at that point… Viel Spaß noch!

Our daughter went from wanting to do her whole year again because she was falling so far behind because of depression brought on by the lockdowns back in 2020 and last year to having the best grades in her year! Her school have been really supportive and the head teacher had told us that she would be accepted into the IBL Programme irrespective of her results.

Sit on his wheel. It’s much cheaper! ;-)

I regularly ride singlespeed in the mountains in this part of Germany wich are around 900-1300mtrs and take about 20-40 minutes to climb to the top of each one. I have taken my singlespeed to the Alps and found the steepness and the length of the climbs 1-2 hours just didn’t feel particularly conducive to a singlespeed set up. Ended up doing a lot of pushing which I hate having to do.

Back in the day I used to be involved in promoting at a local large venue. We had the Australian Pink Floyd who were amazing ( turned out an ex of mine was together with the bass player). Had a super chat with them on how they got started; all in other bands but couldn’t get taken seriously in their own right. At the time they were all living in Crewe! ( poor sods ). We also put on the Brazilian Beatles. They really looked like the fab4 and between songs even sounded like them, too. Tried to have a chat after the show but none of them could speak English. They had just learned the lines and accent for the shows.

I’ve had coach built vans with both Thule and Fiamma awnings and have been happy with both. Surely with a high top you can simply bolt the awning to the side of the extra roof?

Another vote for the Rohloff chain tensioner. I’ve been using one on my SS Scandal for a couple of years and it’s worked fine.

Personally I find Innsbruck a bit meh! It doesn’t have the charm of other Austrian cities. When you say near, how near? You are about 30min from Zillertal or Achensee which both have uplifts and smallish bike parks.

We’re taking the mobile home to Sardinia. Probably going to stop a night or two at Lake Garda (it’s almost a family tradition) and then onto Livorno and the ferry across. We have been to Corsica and Elba but it will be our first time on Sardinia.

https://lp-cms-production.imgix.net/features/2015/12/Maddalena_cs.jpg?auto=format&ar=16%3A9&q=40&w=1920&h=1080&dpr=1

We have one. We installed it ourselves after buying the fibreglass pool from Poland. We don’t have a heater or counter current system as it is essentially a big cool off tub, so the electricity bill is only for the pump and the LED lights built into the pool. I use chlorine tablets which cost around 60 euros for a box and a box lasts about 2 months. I just put one in the skimmer and put the next one in when the last one has dissolved. We are lucky that we have a well in our garden so we can fill the pool ground water and also top it up as our pool doesn’t have an overflow drainage system. We have a sliding roof for it which keeps the water temperature higher and stops all the garden crap getting in the pool, too. So in answer to your question , not that much in terms of money but quite a bit in terms of time.

Does anyone else find it a bit weird that nobody knows how many children this guy has?
The answer is N+1

If you have your own car, you are not that far from north Italy where everything is much freer whee mtbing in concerned. Friends of mine who are into the DH/enduro scene really rate Merano. Lots of gondola access.

Sorry for your loss. Dogs do become an integral part of a family. I would suggest getting another dog ASAP. Just like having children a new dog will never replace the part of your heart you old dog had but you soon build a new relationship with the new member of the household.

@argee thanks for the offer!😀 The lbs is pushing for a replacement wheel but the people in charge at Saddleback are on holiday until Monday….. something to do with an old lady being 70 or something 🤷‍♂️😉
If they are not reciprocal then I’m pushing for a full refund.

Not radio but what about GCN Deutsch?

*looks out of window over German city* No nothing here! 😉

Quite a while back I was out riding with a mate and were decending down a grassy bank at speed when my mate who was in front of me gave out a scream. He jumped off his bike and started dry wretching. When he turned round I realized that he’d ridden through a great pile of dog diahrrhoea and it the front wheel had sprayed it up the middle of his shirt, up his neck and up the middle of his face! It absolutely stank! How I laughed at his expense!! :-)