Day 31 already.

Grabbed an hour at the trails yesterday lunchtime – athough that was reduced to 30 mins riding time due to being socialble

Today I’ve done a few bodyweight things while I could and adding in a 15 minute evening yoga session.

This is the convertor https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B09KN9N724?ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_fed_asin_title

Brave. And I say this only partially in jest.

I know any component can fail etc, but there is no situation where I would be wiring cheap electrical tat from amazon into a vehicle I care about.

Have a look to see what your local auto electrician can do/supply.

On the topic of tubeless repair kit. Get one.

If you get a good one it is significantly quicker and easier than putting a tube in. If there is a hole big enough that the sealant cannot deal with it, ping a bacon strip in there, give the wheel a spin and put some air back in. Sorted. I have the peatys one and it’s bang on.

If you take a tube, be ready to spend a few minutes removing thorns that you didn’t know were there (because with tubeless they simply don’t matter) from the inside of your sealant coated tyre. Or having to re-air your tube every ten minutes.

Along with things like how they have to balance up the fact that Kyle Strait managed to **** up a trick badly but didn’t spanner himself. I mean fair play it was an incredible ‘save’ but how do you get points for that!?

That was a really odd observation, especially when you consider the first run Semenuk did this year.

Consider this.

You can buy a cheaper slide scanner if you want. The resolution will not be as good as getting them professionally done and you will have to put in a good number of hours to actually do the scanning. I have done it. The process is nice at first but soon becomes a real chore and rapidly becomes something you want to get over with. I didn’t even have that many to get through.

Personally if I were in a similar situation I would pay the money for a professional service. The results will be way better than you would achieve and you wouldn’t sink a good proportion of your time into doing it. The end result would be a collection of digital images that you are fresh and ready to look through.

I don’t put shopping in the boot of my car, therefore my shopping does not fall over in the boot of my car.

(Footwells)

If I did have to put the shoppingin the boot of my car, I’d just stick a plastic box in there and use that.

Ultimately if BPW say no ebikes are allowed, that is their rule of entry and it doesn’t need any legal basis.

The reasoning behind it is almost certainly going to be related in some part to what they have specified to their insurance providers. I expect some element of this is down to the fact there is a publicly accessible car park.

I could be wrong, but I think phone night photography is more developed than proper cameras as they enhance the picture.

For the most part all phones do is hold the shutter open longer to gather more detail, then do some clever stuff with local enhancements to bring the exposure up.

I can do the same with my camera, but get a lot more detail and control over the final image.

You can tell when a phone has done processing as the overall image looks smudged – the colours are really bright but there is a softness to it all. A camera with a much larger sensor can gather more light, so is more capable of getting the individual movements of the aurora because a shorter shutter speed can be used.

Last night my phone struggled to get anything, but with a 1 second shutter speed on my camera I got a shot or two.

So is there a chance that CAPTCHA are going to be using AI and they need to train it? Yes.

Is their use of AI to try and improve their offering to make sure it can detect and beat AI trying to use their service? Also yes.

Can you bill them for your time? Well you could try, but the reality here is if you decided to go down that route they would just block you from using their services. Now you may be thinking that puts you onto a winner but you would be wrong, because then the websites which use captcha would be unavailable to you anyway.

Little catch up post.

So far this week 2x yoga sessions, bodyweight session and an extra dog walk.

Today was supposed to be a ride but is now looking like I’m working late. Sad times.

The real question you want to be asking now is whether you want to have to deal with a parent who is willing to go to those lengths to lie about their child’s age.

Worth noting that the 30, like other Saracens, is running superboost. How much of an irritation that is will vary from person to person

This absolutely ruled Saracen out for me some time ago.

Shame, because I actually quite like what they are trying to achieve. But I also have wheelsets I would like to be able to use which are ‘standard’ 148 boost. Which is absolutely fine on a trail bike.

Neh mind.

I use a Thule 568 Topride which is a fork mounted one. Properly solid and works a treat – just need a wheel bag for the car.

I’m going with 21

I agree with the 15 for the journey and bike, but I’m going to add a seat reservation for each train.

Edit: Curses, just after the actual answer!! Should have hit refresh before reply.

It’d be a very significant rule change because, as things stand, the TRANSMISSION of data from a rider to “others” (including the team car) is banned. You can talk by radio, that’s fine. However the team car cannot access anything from the rider’s head unit or any metrics around HR, body temperature etc.

If there was a strong enough desire to do something about it, a solution which improves things without any significant rule changes could be rolled out reasonably quickly.

Maybe not actual transmission of data though – because that requires each rider to have adequate data coverage for the entire duration of the race. But it would not be a massive undertaking to have a transponder based system and an increased number of checkpoints throughout the course. The checkpoints are responsible for transmitting data confirming each rider as they pass, and automation in whatever passes for race control would be able to flag up a missing rider reasonably quickly.

Sure, it wouldn’t give the same positional accuracy as GPS, but would at least provide an early warning that something is not right.

(They may already have this, if so, just put more checkpoints in?)

Good quality image that, certainly seems like a nice angle you have it at now.

Was that chest mount or helmet chin?

Also, how do you find the editing of footage? I am used to gopro so just downloading files and chucking them into Davinci but I understand the insta360 needs some work before this?

Also… was that 60fps?

Another day on the bike, today was messing around in the woods with a couple of mates.

Started with three back to back winch up plummet down runs so I could tick the ‘this is exercise’ box before heading to the sketchier stuff.

Photo of the bikes because the riders looked miserable AF despite having loads of fun!!!

They day is a good day when a new Danny MacAskill video drops.

 

Day three of decent weather. Day three on the bike.

This time an hour at the local doing jumpy stuff then a cheeky run down the back of the hill on the steep section.

Wasn’t feeling it today so decided on a local bimble. Had a go at riding with a camera in my hip pack, workout out alright, didn’t really feel it much but meant I could get a few shots on the canals.

Photo rides are now a thing, love my small cameras :)

Thursday was the local group ride with added delivery of a parcel slightly on route. Absolutely destroyed myself coming back up the hill to home and still ended up 15s off my PB from a couple of years back.

Wednesday the best I managed were 3x 10 minute sessions of stretches and body weights in between meetings.

OK, starting with mobile internet. My contract is not the best but I still get 15gb per month for just over a tenner. For under £30 a month you can get unlimited data.

A livestream is going to use approximately 1-1.5gb an hour and considering my normal monthly use is considerably less than 15gb I could get 4 hours streaming and it wouldn’t cost me a penny extra in data.

So then it comes down to the camera. You can just mount your phone on your person or bike and use that – but it’s a bit clunky. Folks who do it probably have a gopro or similar. On a gopro 7 or newer the gopro quik app has an option to livestream to the main platforms (facebook, youtube, twitch).

They even have instructions https://community.gopro.com/s/article/How-To-Live-Stream-From-Your-GoPro?language=en_US

You know, I might try live streaming my next ride to see how it works.

Is that Cycling Mikey out of business

Yep.

His entire youtube channel became popular not because he was filming people doing naughty things, but because he would confront them.

Soon as the confrontatoin drops off so does a good number of his views. He then needs to choose between engaging for the views, or quietly reporting and going to court.

Honestly sounds to me like the legal system cannot keep up with the steady increase in submissions. So they would rather let motorists get away with it than increase capability to prosecute in line with desire to offend.

Good PSA

That is an absolutely lovely track, really enjoyed it.

Currently perched on a WTB Koda which has a nice cut out but it extends all the way to the back of the saddle.

Does become a bit of a water lake in wet conditions though, kinda wish it had a hole.

Just a shorter yoga session today.

Had a hard time doing anything after a thoroughly shyte day. Better than nothing though.

Some food options here – both the opposite side of Sherwood Pines to Mansfield…

Limes cafe near Blidworth is very popular and for good reason – decent breakfast grub for not a huge amount of money.

Sunday roast – I’d be getting booked in to The Lion in Farnsfield and booking is pretty much essential.

Something different? Still in Farnsfield you have The Rustic Crust for some proper italian pizza.

Things to visit? Rufford Abbey is pretty nice for a mooch around or Clumber Park a bit further north.

Currently showing as £29.99 on my amazon

Day 15 was an extra hound walk along with loads more greyhounds followed by an hour taking photos of greyhounds.

It was a good day. Does it count as exercise? Yea, my thighs are screaming about the number of squats taking photos so I’m taking it!

I can easily tighten tighten the plastic shimano preload cap up properly.

I can certainly tighten it up enough that the bearings don’t spin as freely. Then back off under a quarter of a turn and it’s done.

Every issue I have seen where a shimano crank has fallen off it shows all signs as being a result of incorrect process used to tighten them up. You need to pop the clip down and then tighten each pinch bolt a little. I tent to do a a quarter of a turn tops on each one until it’s at torque spec.

That burgtec cap isn’t solving any problem other than the shimano one looking like crap. Much the same can be said of a few other burgtec parts. Didn’t stop me buying them for da blings

Day 13 was an few hours or doing sketchy stuff in the woods.

Terrible photo of terrible drop technique as proof.

Day 11 got skipped as I was driving back home and absolutely exhausted after the number of thunderstorms which hampered my journey somewhat. I plan on banking that and doubling up another day… see how that works out.

FIrst time trying some yoga today.

Now I understand why folks keep recommending Kassandra

So for my penultmate day on holiday my activity is (once again) in Forest of Dean.

Today I had a blue day with a lap of the blue followed by a ride up to descend countdown & launchpad.

All before the rain started, which is nice. Just got to decide what my final fod outing this visit will be.

At risk of being a stuck record… another day at FOD.

This time I rode to the top and down the blue as my added half hour then a few uplift runs. The last bus also coincided with the run my body told me I should finish on. Beat my PR down sheepskull, cleared some of the tables at the top and hit the GBU drop in for the first time. What a place for progression!

Sixty miles a day for five days on a bike designed for the job is a pretty big ask for most people who don’t ride a lot

But to then do it on a raleigh chopper?

Even with a proper saddle and ‘modified handlebars’ which are really just the handlebars from the latest chopper its not going to be a breeze.

Will raise loads of money though, to the average UK citizen it’s a huge undertaking so will raise a wad of cash..

So I’m having a proper heart vs head arguement with myself right now.

My heart says buy an Edit.

My head keeps asking me stupid questions like ‘is the the bike for most of what I ride?’, ‘Am I riding at a level where a hooligan of a bike makes sense?’ and ‘Look at the new Trek Fuel EX, it’s got adjustable geometry and frame storage‘

I’m genuinely looking for a bike that can do a bit of everything. I like to go and find steep stuff and see if I can get down it – and so far I’m doing OK. Having a good amount of fun in FOD this week. I also love getting the wheels off the ground but this is still work in progress… I know the Edit is great for these. However I also want to be able to bang out a 25+ mile loop in the peak or a 40 miler more local to me which is flatter but means I can link up some of the sketchy woods nearby.

Other than actual workouts I am trying to trim down to one bike for all my ‘leisure’ riding. One bike to get used to, know how it feels and be completely comfortable on. I’ve done this with my current bike and it is helping me progress no end. I don’t see many people who have an Edit talking about the pedally part…

For the folks that have one how is it to live with outside parks and winch & plummet type riding?

(I’m going to demo one in the next week or so anyway, but if my heart is wrong I’d like to know sooner)

As expected, weather today was grim too too. Thirty minutes of riding in a pure downpour. Fireroads only as the only trail I attempted was a river – wasn’t even a proper mtb trail! Might not have trained the body, but absolutely increased resiliance a notch.

Saw my first wild boar though, so that improved it a bit.

Sounds like Red Rat rampage.

Probably sucks for them that is clashed with Bollys Skyline.

Sucks for me I was already booked for a week away when both were announced!

Filthy session at FOD yesterday. Only had a couple of hours and there was an MTB festival on so would have been rude not to look around – even though it ate into riding time.

Cleared the last table on the red jump line though. Small victory but a victory none the less.

Today is going to be rough, been hammering it down all day here. Was going to hit the uplift but honestly it was grim yesterday!

I found the bontranger ones quite annoying in use. You have to get the pressure on just the right point on the saddle for it to drop – miss that and it just sticks.

Maybe they have got better recently?