Idles tomorrow night at The Barrowlands, it’s been a long wait for this one to come around. Hope it’s nice and rowdy. I’ll be turning 50 this year but still not to old for a mosh pit.

Cleopatrick in March, The Wedding Present in May and Pavement in October.

So glad my eldest lad(16) has the same taste in music.

I live in Dumfries and like others have said it’s not great for shopping if that’s your thing. Jobs are limited, especially higher paying ones.

On the plus side I like it for the outdoor life. You have easy access to some good biking. It’s not far to the beach and there are plenty lochs to paddle or swim in.

I’ve really missed live music, doing the online stream thing just isn’t the same.

I’ve got Arab Strap 10th September, The Jesus and Mary Chain 15th November, Frank Carter & The Rattlesnakes 22nd November(if I get tickets when they go on sale) and IDLES 4th February.

Although fully vaccinated the whole covid thing in a crowd is still stressing me out.

TWP are my all time favourite number one band. Saw them live many a time and were my first gig at the barrowlands back in ’89. Really enjoyed their last paid for live stream and have bought tickets the next one.

Stood next to Gedge at the bar in a pub in Leeds many years ago but was too star struck to speak.

Much prefer Gusto over Hello Fresh. If you download the Gusto app it gvives you the ingredients list, recipe and instructions for every meal you’ve ever purchased. Mmmm, love the chilli chicken ramen.

@scotroutes I asked them at the start to collect the forks and also said I’d post them but they said it was easier and quicker going the LBS route as they would have to take the whole bike and sue to covid it would take a couple of weeks to get it collected. At least I’m still in possession of the bike.

@Ramsey Neil I think the LBS has an account and said the sealed damper unit is not available as a part. I might contact Greyville directly though to see if they can help. Thanks.

@doomanic unfortunately I paid with regular bank card.

@tjagain will give that a go, cheers. I see there are a few free online templates that can be used to draft a letter.

These guys have came recommended on here before. Not used them though.

https://www.4gadgets.co.uk/buy-used/mobile-phones/samsung/galaxy-s9

OK then, any excuse. Our foster dog Misty enjoying running with the bikes.

Edit. I give up, can’t post pic from Google photos.

Is there a local rescue centre you can volunteer at? If you’ve not had a dog before it can be a good way for you to learn about looking after a dog as well as helping out often underfunded shelters. It also allows the shelter people to get to know you too. My wife and son volunteered at our local place and we are currently fostering a 7 year old staffy collie cross. She’s a brilliant dog who’s really good with our cats and kids so not all rescue dogs have issues.

Do you realise that your photos have the location turned on? Might wanna turn that off.

Yip. Blocked heads on the cartridges. If it’s not better after 3 head cleans it never will be. Time for new cartridges (or printer) I’m afraid.

My Inbred 853. Had it since early 2008. 26″ rear, 27.5″ front.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/qe7eX33ppFNKvMJZ9

Got a forge a few weeks ago. Very impressed. Keeps coffee nice and hot. Can chuck it on the seat of the van or in a bag without worrying about leaking. Less than £15 from Go Outdoors for the 12oz version.

Aye, there will be no trees left soon.
Drumlanrig for me tomorrow.

Yip, can confirm there’s a sizeable diversion in place taking the you off half way up the elevator climb and finishing by retracing the main fire road back down with one wee bit of single track to finish.

So elevator decent, bad step and rooty bit beside the jump park all missing.

The grand old Duke of York.

He hung out with a paedophile.

There was a lot of talk, the girl sucked his rooster.

He really is rather vile.

Been riding a 2018 clockwork 137 for about 16 months. Lovely to ride on 7stanes reds and cheeky stuff at Ae. The bottom bracket is LOW and I’ve had quite a few pedal strikes. The Revelations seem to suffer from quite a bit of stiction, ok once moving but not butter smooth. The kore saddle went sharpish as it was a right pain in the a**e. Dropper been fine. Race Face cranks need some serious torque to stop them from working loose.

Got to love the mountain mint colour.

Funn Funnduro Stem? 32mm stack height but just 60mm length though.

Sorry to hear you’ve been through such tough times. Wife also had large part of colon removed with what sounds like the same incision. She has a stoma which is being reversed next month which means same surgery and healing time all over again. She didn’t do any turbo work but did do gentle rides round the streets with kids. She did yoga to slowly rebuild core strength. Take it slowly and listen to your body is her advice.

My wife had fairly major bowel surgery back in November. It was about 3 months before getting back on the bike and only managed her first red route at the weekend. Not sure how this compares to others. Suppose it depends on how invasive the surgery was.

I’ve had that with my Kore dropper. What coatesy said, cable had unhitched from bottom of the post.

Most of my driving is around town. “Exhaust Filter Cleaning” message comes on about every 10 days once up to temperature and out on the open road. Takes about 6 miles of driving to finish the regen. I usually drive in 3rd at 50mph whilst it’s doing its thing. Don’t know if this helps or not.

Doesn’t seem to drink Adblue as much now also.

Didn’t read all of the above so it’s probably been mentioned. My Transit Custom was exactly the same, Ford eventually admitted it was a firmware issue and updated it with a free oil change. Been perfect now for 6 months or so. The firmware update also displays on the dash when it’s doing a DPF regen so you know to keep driving until it’s done.

What John says up there about Dumfries town centre. Locals think it’s bad but I went to Hamilton the other day and now have no complaints about Dumfries at all.

New local rider owned swanky high end bike shop and cafe coming to Dumfries soon too so people are investing.

Take a look at Lochmaben. Not far from the motorway for heading north or south, good primary school and I believe Lockerbie Academy is a fairly good secondary. Mabie and Ae within 25 min drive, 45ish sees you at Drumlanrig or Dalbeattie. You also have a nice 3 mile walk round castle loch for taking the dogs and 3 lochs for messing about on SUPs/kayaks if that’s of interest.

Dalbeattie seems to be a very proactive community and worth a look at moving to also. They’ve just built a new secondary school and are looking to turn the old one into an indoor rock climbing and biking centre. There’s even a custom steel frame builder in town so you could treat yourself…..
https://instagram.com/taloncycles?utm_source=ig_profile_share&igshid=1vx2qod9fydry

D&G is beautiful but often overlooked part of Scotland. C’mon up, yer more then welcome.

Thanks folks. He’ll be a happy lad come Christmas.

Thanks Robbo. Kinda what I was thinking.

Quick question for the parents who play this game. Is this suitable for a 13 year old? My son is banging on about wanting it for Christmas. He’s a sensible lad and game time is strictly limited.

Cheers.

A bit hit or miss sometimes but fun when it all works. Older phones/tablets won’t connect so you need to check compatibility.

Home 1

<span style=”font-size: 0.8rem;”>Perfectly placed midway between Mabie, Drumlanrig and Ae. Not too far from Dalbeattie and Kirroughtree easily doable.</span>

The Pu<span style=”font-size: 0.8rem;”>b/restaurant next to this place is amazing, easily the best food in D&G.</span>

Marmalade on toast

Coffee

Constant Snapchat notifications from my son’s phone.

The 3 tokens were on 130mm. Only ever achieving 100mm travel. Will see how they ride on Wednesday. I’ve read elsewhere that the charger 2 damper makes a huge difference, might have to start saving.

I’ve been thinking the same about the Revs that came on my Clockwork 137. Not sure if they are ’18 or ’19 models, got the bike in May.

They feel harsh on repeated hits and never get full travel. Set up with just over 25% sag and 3 tokens. I have stripped the lowers, re-greased the seals and re-oiled the foam rings. I’ve also removed all 3 tokens. I won’t get back out to try them until Wednesday night, hopefully they’ll feel better.

If you want twist and go with a lovely classic Lambretta look then Scomadi might be worth a look.

http://www.scomadi.com/

Cougar

So far it’s been ok. The clock has moved to the left of the screen to make way for phones with notches. Battery seems to be a little better but not by much. The new “gesture” home button is a bit crap. I thought it was meant to have more function like press for home, swipe right to go back, etc but all it does is swipe up for recent apps. There’s still a back arrow on the left of the nav bar when in apps. But vibrate mode is back again although you have to press volume down to access the quick toggle that pops up on the right of the display.

If you want timely Android updates including security patches then I would say you’d have to go for one of Googles own Pixel phones or something running Android One.

Having had 4 Huawei phones in our house I can say they are poor at security updates. Consistently 4 – 6 months behind what Google are pumping out.  Android OS updates are slow too.  Another thing I noticed with Huawei phones is random bluetooth connection dropouts between the phone and car stereo (multiple phones and cars so definitely a Huawei issue).  I also had Strava intermittently stop recording on a few occasions.  I think both these problems are linked to Huawei’s aggressive battery management.

I now have the Pixel 2XL and get security updates monthly and the latest version of android (9.0 Pie) arrived 6 hours after Google announced the launch.  Camera is pretty good and battery life although not as good as the Huawei Mate 9 I had easily get me through the day with plenty to spare.

I’ve had a couple of Huawei phones (mate 9 and p10) and both were well constructed phones with decent battery life and excellent cameras. Two niggles with both though.

<span style=”font-size: 0.8rem;”>The Bluetooth would randomly drop connection with stereo in my van and car. </span>

Strava would randomly stop during a ride. Not always and not after the same amount of time when it did.

I suspect both issues were to do with Huawei’s aggressive battery management.

If you can live with the possibility of these problems then the P Smart or P20 lite would be a good shout.

Something from Huawei or Honor?

I moved from the Huawei Mate 9 to the Pixel 2xl and really miss the battery life of the Mate 9. The build quality and camera are also excellent.

Huawei’s budget brand Honor get some really good reviews too.

All snow free down here in Dumfries just now.  I believe there are diversions in place at Ae and Mabie while they remove the Larch trees.  Drumlanrig was bone dry yesterday and riding brilliantly with bags of grip but jeez it was cold.  Forecast looks wetish for the rest of the week so the roots at Drum could be fun, it adds to the excitement.