For pub grub, in the other direction there’s The Grapes Hotel at Maentwrog. It was 3 years ago but I remember the portions were massive.

DT Swiss freehub ratchet rings or maybe that’s what joshvegas meant?

You should try living in Wales and not being bothered about rugby!

Laax and/or Arosa.

I don’t have a dog, but if I did I would definitely use the tunnel. Don’t worry about the extra driving, as it’ll all be on the French side, which is generally pleasurable compared to driving in the UK. Brittany’s not really that far. Plus you can stop whenever you like, to let it take a dump.

Wolftooth do some nice Shimano HG 12speed compatible rings to fit other brand cranks. I’m happy with my oval version, but only about 100 miles so far. Not the cheapest option though!

Update – 6 months later: Eventually decided which frame to get, not one that was on the original short-list. I think the hive-mind came to the right decision on the forks.

Most parking options are quite small, so just a case of looking around for a space when busy. A couple of options are on verge by bend in road just over the canal swing bridge or lay-by up by the dam. Or if it’s really busy: down the road where the old station is.

When the Dean Forest Railway reopens (1st August) you can get to Parkend from Lydney Junction. Bike hire from Dean Forest Cycles right next door to Parkend station. If you time it right, you might get to travel on a real choo-choo!

Not tried it myself, but believe you need to put the bearing in the freezer for a while, then the spacer will drop out easily.

Reminds me of the time in the early 90s when City sold Michael Hughes to FC Strasbourg for £450K.

Strasbourg announced they had just signed M.Hughes from Manchester.

Premier Inn let us keep bikes in the room and leave the car in their car-park for an extra day&night FOC. They were obviously used to SDW-in-a-dayers staying there. Downside was they didn’t do early breakfast, so on that basis I’d go with Wally’s recommendation.

And the 3rd option is:

Just use it to buy a grand’s worth of components for your dream build. Source your frame and wheels elsewhere.

Rouvy drafting update:

I took part in a beta test of the new drafting feature yesterday. It seemed to do the trick. Felt the loss of tow once I’d been dropped at the front. Then managed to latch on to a few riders in the mid-field and got a decent reduction in resistance. Also returned the favour a few times to avoid being a complete wheelsucker! Finished with a decent “who goes first” battle with another rider at the end, which felt quite realistic.
To give a balanced review: drafting was activated as you passed stationary riders. Also it was quite easy to get barged out of the slipstream by riders coming from behind, when already riding two-abreast. Hopefully they’ll be able to iron out these issues.

On the whole it gave a different dimension to the race, and stopped it feeling like a time-trial effort.

GXP is 22mm on the non drive-side.

I looked into this with a Garmin Vivosmart HR watch and the Rouvy App, and as far as I could find out the Garmin smart watches only communicate with the Garmin apps.

Would be interested to find out if anyone’s found a work around, before I shell out on a separate HR monitor.

If you’ve already got a smart trainer ( or equivalent), you can get a free trial and decide for yourself.

(I haven’t tried Zwift so can’t give you a comparative opinion)

Anyone else watching the Swiss Digital 5 on iplayer?

Just noticed that Nino Schurter is having a go.

Meat Puppets – Too High to Die

(Includes their version of “Lake of Fire”)

Can you ride with another person on Rouvy?

Yes there’s an option to set up races and invite “friends”, or just have open races that anyone can join.

Many of the popular Smart trainers are currently sold out ( can’t think why!), or are attracting higher than usual bids on eBay.

Bikeradar gave it a 4.5 star review, so at that price I’m sure you could do worse.

If you want one, then I’d recommend buying it before someone else does.

I’m halfway through the Tour de Suisse challenge, there’s a 1144m climb to look forward to in the morning.

Cheers!

Ash (not a great start admittedly, but read on it gets better)

Bjork

Chemical Brothers

Deftones

Echobelly

Foo Fighters

Guttermouth

Hawkwind

Incubus

J? (Would have been Jinjer if I’d managed to get tickets!)

Korn

Lacuna Coil

Metallica

No FX

Ozric Tentacles

Placebo

Finlay Quaye

Reef

Soul Asylum

Tura Satana

U?

Veruca Salt

Whale

XYZ?

Thumbs up for the Ergon GS1 from me. Ideal for all-day comfort. They appear to alter the wrist angle vs. standard grips, so I get the comments above regarding bar-sweep as an alternative solution, but haven’t tried that option myself.

Last year I bought a new pair of SPD shoes.

Next purchase was a new frame to match the shoes.

Do they like steam trains? (Who doesn’t?!), if so then it might be worth looking at Parkend, last stop on the Dean Forest Railway. There’s Whitemead Forest holiday park there (never been myself, so don’t know what it’s like). Easy access to the family cycle trail and loads of fire roads. Also at least one AirBnB in the village if holiday parks ain’t your thing.

I tried both of them in the shop and could tell within 30 seconds that the Phenom wasn’t right for me, ended up buying the Ergon instead. Longest ride on it so far as been 6+ hours and no complaints.

The Barzo has a very similar tread pattern to the x king, and I’ve never had a problem with weeping sidewalls on 3 different Vittoria tyres (all with anthracite sidewalls).

Orange. Do it.

Done it!

Very intuative of you Onzadog! But why do I want the orange? Why would anyone want orange?

I’m guessing black will have higher resale value as well.

One way would be more noticeable in your bank balance, unless you’re talking about liposuction.

Anyway Rogue One is best followed by

Empire Strikes Back
New Hope
Revenge of the Sith
Solo
Rise of Skywalker
Clone Wars
Return of the Jedi
The Phantom Menace
Last Jedi

You forgot about Caravan of Courage: An Ewok Adventure!

Pancakes, streaky bacon and maple syrup. Om-nom-nom!

(You didn’t specify healthy)

Scrambled eggs with smoked salmon when pretending to be a grown up.

Thanks for organising @qwerty and nice to meet you!

But Mrs Browns boys is the work of Satan.

Except The Lord of Darkness would be far too discerning to allow himself to be associated with that crock of xxxx.

Mrs Brown’s Boys needs to be added to your list

I concur.

Do we need to be on Strava to join in?