Yet another hobby I’ve had hijacked by the kids.

The stuff my 5 year old can get up is insane, but taking him means i can’t climb or he’ll just start climbing random bits by himself. It dies help he can get his foot pretty much to his shoulder.

same again but throw some inserts in there?

Toyota avensis, something like this https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202311033623451?sort=relevance&advertising-location=at_cars&body-type=Estate&make=Toyota&model=Avensis&postcode=m333pl&price-to=4000&transmission=Automatic&fromsra

My old (gen 1) petrol auto was shipped out to afghanistan where they apparently run them for hundreds of thousands of miles after the west is done with them

We had our first ever all inclusive holiday in crete, it was fantastic with our 2 boys.  The hotel was right on the beach (with a beach bar) there were activities throughout the day that the kids enjoyed, loads of other kids for them to play with, multiple swimming pools, a decent sized water park at the top of the hill and mini golf, tennis courts and all sorts of other bits and bob.  Food was great too.

https://www.fodelebeach.gr/?gad_source=1&gclid=CjwKCAjw48-vBhBbEiwAzqrZVI4HeuiJoZFKoiZ9q8fipQf4COdzwz95Y1cEOaZA9RLomWpjoz-w_RoCF_UQAvD_BwE

Would definitely recommend

In the extreme i’d say it’s taking my Rallon to the pump track. absolutely no fun at all.

Why might i take that bike I hear you ask? We ride to the park, there are MTB trails and the pump track there, and I can’t help push the 5 year old along on a BMX i can’t sit down on.

Just another excuse to post this https://www.topgear.com/car-news/retro/beast-auction-john-dodds-famous-merlin-engined-monster-sale

If a job can be done by an office full of people in the UK then it could be done by an office full of people somewhere cheaper. I don’t see why it means any sort of security.

I know of at least 3 companies in Manchester that have been on the hunt for engineers to on shore teams that were previously off shored. One of which only lasted ~8 months.

If you’re local to Manchester I’ve got an old trailer you’re welcome to try out.

I really struggle to throw jackets away, i just stop using them while there’s still a tiny bit of life in them left.  Then occasionally they’re the perfect jacket for an occasion.

It’s interesting to think how many things i’ve got SSO’d to facebook

Just phone a couple of local companies. it’s normally about 50-75  quid depending on how heavy the car is.

Yeah, i could have done without the 2 week rape case I was selected for.

Mrs and I wfh together, she’s upstaris I’m downstairs in the garage with all the bikes and the turbo, it means i can fettle bikes while i’m thinking about things. I think that’s a biggie for wfh, something you can do that takes little your mind off work for 5 mins as coffee and a wee takes a lot less time at home. I like my balance board and messing about with kettlebells for similar reasons.

Yoga at lunch is a good one, better if we do it together.

COok more food in the evenings, leftovers for lunch is gooood

HRV was really interesting when i went skiing, despite sleeping ‘OK’ HRV was telling me that something was still up, the altitude acclimatisation explained that though. Really interesting and somewhat useful, i mean, it didn’t help me adapt any faster, but did help to explain why I couldn’t run more than about 3 paces

My new bike is cursed, I used to have Thursday nights for riding with the boys. Since I got the new bike i’ve not been out.

Monday, Middle kid, swimming and cubs where i’m now a leader.
Tuesday, Youngest at footballuntil 6:30, middle one has his tutoring and wife has pilates at 8:30 or something
Wednesday, Kids at tennis and it’s one of my days in the office, at least i get to ride in and home! Wife and eldest probably horse riding
Thursday, This used to be my riding night, now youngest has swimming followed by beavers
Friday, who know, i’m knackered by this point, rock climbing with the eldest as it’s the only thing she’ll leave the house for
Saurday, BMX with the middle one, I learned to fly this week and cleared the big tabletop so i can’t really complain, but it’s a cheeky stolen hour as i’d just be stood at the side of that coaching session watching if i wasn’t riding!
Sunday, “Family time” we’ll normally end up doing something that needs to be done because there’s no sodding time the rest of the week.

Throw in the fact that i’m on call a bit for work as well which resulted in my Sunday morning dawn raid being cancelled and i’ve been a very grumpy version of myself.

Sanity has been rescued, nay, salvaged by doing some Yoga/pilates stuff at home. It’s definitely made me better and stronger on a bmx

I’ve got a small 20″ bmx that i picked up off Harry the spider on here ages ago, it’s perfect for the /very/ compact pumptrack at our local park. Admittedly at the very other end of the scale, my enduro bike is pointless taking, there by the time you can pump the back wheel the front one is going up again!

Thanks lads, you’ve got me looking at an old S4 Avant now

Kale, garlic, butter, salt and a spash of white wine is a staple of our roast dinners!

Yeah, there’s no massive hill, but there’s nothing at all flat, 10 minutes climbing, 1 minute descending, then another climb, rinse and repeat for 10 hours for me doing the 200 :|

We’ve got a dyson v8 with an aftermarket battery. The runtime is significantly better with the flylinktech 5000mah than it was with the factory one. That said, we do have a ‘big hoover’ for the cleaner. I’ll just take myself over to the middle class thread now

Can you not just shim it out to fit an exposure mount?

Mrs S and I went full Planet X for ours, the dry bags kept things dry and everything stayed attached.

Fork bags were great, didn’t notice them at all, held loads of important things like my wifes hair straighteners.

Stem bottle bag was best as a bin for snacks at the start of the day and as a bin as the day went on. Meant no sticky wrappers in my pockets. Most of the clothes went in the bar bags, that was the only thing my wife had on her bike, worked better on mine than hers as I had wider, flared bars and AXS gears. The AXS meant that I didn’t need any inward motion on the shifters.

Negatives, the bar bag harness doesn’t look like it’ll last more than 5 rides like that, but i was having rather a lot of fun off road on a gravel bike.

2 x PODSACS Waterproof Handlebar Barrel Bag Blue

SKU – BAPODWHBB-BLU

2 x PODSACS Tarpaulin Fork Dry Bag and Rack 4 Litre

SKU – BAPODTFB

1 x PODSACS Waterproof Saddle Pack Black Large

SKU – CCPDWSB-BLK-LRG

1 x PODSACS Stem Bottle Bag

SKU – CCPODSBB

The roam is probably the most annoying Sonos product i own. It doesn’t seem to properly turn off (yes, even when you hold the power button down for ages until it beeps) so when I do want to use the bloody thing it’s flat as a pancake.

My wife (not a cyclist, but pretty fit)and I did the west kernow way in october half term a couple of years back. it was bloomin awesome. Yeah, the weather can be a little bit hit and miss but the scenery is brilliant, the hills are all all short, but steep coming out of some of the coves, especially around the Lizard (I’m looking at you Cadgwith and Coverack!) but you can’t beat a bit of Atlantic coast

I do the school run by bike, 8:30-9am i’ll report any and every driving infrindgement in the ~2km.

Some days I would got 5-6 parents on their phones that had just dropped their kids off. On the school pick up today I didn’t see any! Maybe my campaign is working ;)

Just out of interest, what does everyone count as a ‘proper’ pull up?

I can’t do anything other than just hang there at the bottom, so you’re probably doing better than me

Me and the boys were just talking last night about a thursday night mission up to rivi in the next couple of weeks. If you fancy popping over and having a go there’s a SC Bullit and a Scott Ransom you could have a go on. They’re both ridiculous machines which has led me to order an Orbea Rise to try and keep up with em!

Yeah i’m running rival AXS STIs with a GX mech and 10-52 cassette on my gravel bike.

Got me up out of Cornish coves with light bikepacking gear on.

@OSsify

Yeah post their details up, could do with a roofer here in Sale too!

So … any recommendations for somewhere in northern England?

And, would I get more out of 1-1, or a group session?

I had a session a couple of weeks back with Lewis Heap up at Rivington. Was meant to be a group session but the weather was absolutely blooy horendous so was 1-2-1.

Can’t fault it to be fair, covered everything that i wanted (which was pretty much what was on his list of things to cover anyway)  Sessioning a few very wet corners in healey nab.

He does some sessions down at Farmer Johns in Marple which, if you wanted to do more jumpy stuff which would also be great

If you’ve been racing cx then you’ll be fine for 5k, I’d just get out and do it at a gentle pace, then do some speed work.

But I wouldn’t listen to me, i ran 20 miles last Sunday, having not run at all (<10 miles in total) the rest of the year. Surprisingly, I was alright by wednesday and climbing the 10 flights of stairs to the office.

I did the west kernow way with my wife last October and bloody hell, wasn’t ready for those feelings of coming home. I’ve never lived there but did spend 6 weeks of every summer holiday down there at my grans. There’s something about atlantic coastlines that makes my heart relax.

Just riding along the sea front at Marazion with the waves crashing on the beach, recognising random hill tops as we rode past. It was fantastic and can’t wait to take the kids down there.

Elliot heap lives up your way now and coaches, or used to, during his winter months. Top lad and pretty handy on the jumps

Elliot live up in scotland now, but last weekend I got soaked round rivi with his brother, Lewis who sorted out a load of my riding problems! Had me jumping nicely by the end of it and bunnyhops are now much more consistent.

Sale to Ainsdale on the TPT takes me 3 and a bit hours at a reasonably sedate pace. I always think it’s going to take longer and set off early, then end up sat on the beach for hours, eating ice cream waiting for the family to turn up

I’m ‘only’ 42 but two shoulder surgeries on the same shoulder has stopped me playing racket sports for the last 5 years.

This year, having had a go at some yoga and pilates on holiday I think I could probably have a go again, the increase in both mobilty and strength is ridiculous. Considering that previously i’d struggled to get my right arm above shoulder height without a lot of clicking and sticking i’m now not far off a handstand.

There’s no quick fix for getting older, but you seem to have given yourself a binary choice between giving up completely or carrying on as you are and hoping that this time, something will be different?

I’m definitely not a cub leader, just a parent helper.

That’s my new mantra that i was telling myself stood in the pissing rain last Sunday, and while I was dealing with a screaming kid on the canal while night kayaking Monday night!

I just can’t commit to the time with full time jobs that /could/ take me or the Mrs away for a week at a time and leave us unable to do the scouting thing and let the kids down. So i’ve been a parent helper for about 18 months now and probably only missed 2-3 sessions. in that time.

It is great though, and it’s fantastic to get to know all the kids.

I preferred helping out with the scouts, but two nights a week was getting a bit much

I’m about a 33″ waist and a little between the medium and the large, but both fit alright.  Actually prefer the mediums for riding in.

Riding trousers are the best.

Not tried the spesh ones but my Nukeproof Blacklines are what i’ll be wearing all winter, riding or not

I’d get myself up to Habesha at the top of Canal St.  Proper weird little Ethiopean/Ertitrean place above a kebab shop. It’s great eating when you’ve got a few people and can order loads of things and share em all.

http://habesharestaurant.co.uk/

Drying up.

If there’s not enough space on the draining board then you start doing some washing up, not building a breakable tower of babel with your favorite bowls.