Its not a trail centre its a huge area at least the size of the peak district with some of the existing ROW network waymarked on the ground as mountain biking routes graded for length and difficulty. There is nothing remotely like that in the UK, unless I’m missing something. There may be a couple of small examples like the trails on the long myndd or Sutton Bank but this is an entire national park. Zona Zero in Ainsa is similar maybe even bigger. Having something like that in the UK would remove a barrier to people mountain biking, which is planning and finding suitable routes in an area your not familiar with.

I included the map to illustrate the difference in attitude between the UK and France when it comes to the outdoors it seems they recognise that MTBing brings tourists and encourage it by waymarking ROWs as cycling routes where as in the UK we make it difficult for people or stick them on disused railways

@nedrapier Exactly what I said we are culturally completely different. In France Footpaths are marked usually with destinations and distances, villages/towns can have 100kms of way marked MTB routes you just arrive and ride, and yes you get the red and white markings all over the place so you don’t get lost.

auvergne map Imagine if the peak had something like this every one of the trails on that map is fully waymarked. Months of biking without needing a map.

This site is full of people complaining about lack of diversity in MTB and yet expect that everyone to have map skills in order to cycle round some minor hills Southern England, so yes it is a barrier to entry and one that doesn’t generally exist in Europe. If the King Alfred ways is being promoted as tourist destination then it would make more sense to waymark it.

Whenever i go to holiday in France routes are incredibly well signposted whether that’s mountain biking, road or walking they have a completely different culture to here. In the UK if you can’t read a map or use a GPS then you don’t deserve to be out in the countryside. Which to me is elitist and creates barriers to entry. We complain about the lack of diversity in cycling but then make it hard for people to do it. For example in the month i spent in the massif central in the past few years and I’ve barely had to look at a map as everything is so well signed for both biking and walking and running. Similarly in Argeles Gazost, Ainsa and Luchon. All you need in France is a baguette.

We are definitely coming back at least once in the summer. I may come at Easter as well if the family go skiing in Andorra I’ll come down to Ainsa for a week as I don’t ski. I’m getting knee surgery in a few weeks and don’t want to anything in the snow.

I’ve still not got through the whole thread yet but it looks like we biked on the track past your house a couple of times whilst we were there in the summer. I’ll deffo drop you a line when I know my plans

I’ve just put 11-46 cassettes on 2 pairs of hope wheels one Xc one pro2 evo and it’s worked fine upgrading from 9 speed. I imagine the Zaskar has a replaceable drop out is it bent?

I’ve had three sets of wheels for my gt grade 650b and 700cc wheelsets for gravel and a light road wheelset for winter road riding. I have two cassettes one on the road wheels and I swap between the gravel wheels I do find the gears and brakes need a tweak each time.

On my new bike I’m having the wheels built im planning to get the 650b gravel and road wheels built on the same hubs hopefully that will minimise the faff.

Down to fumes in the car this morning, all three petrol stations in town all had massive queues at them, people are mornons. I couldn’t wait as I had to go to work.

I’m getting it done by a knee specialist, I’m lucky I can choose who does it, I made that mistake with my pelvis using a general surgeon and wasted 6 months, once I got the right consultant and physio I was sorted. We are lucky in the northwest we have access to some top sports orthopedic surgeons. The guy that is doing my knee does Premiership footballers as well as knackered old mountain bikers so I should be in safe hands.

Thanks for the responses. I was seeing a physio at first who was dead set against me having it at first but I’m now seeing a mountain biker and also the ex-head physio of Liverpool who both think I should get it done ASAP. This has come at the end of a horrendous run of injuries and accidents (that’s for another post)and even if it was a marginal call id have it done as mentally I’m shot having been broken for all the past 18 months and most of the past 3 years.

I’ll take the recovery easy, I’m in no rush and I have access to some of the best physios and they won’t let me get carried away just need to be fit for a half ironman in June next year and lose 4 stone.

I spent some time in Tokyo a few years ago and for a country that has been at the forefront of technology, I was surprised how backward they were in many respects. Many shops and restaurants were cash only, I could find a cash machine and could pay on the tube easily with my card.

I also sometimes have to deal with the World Health Organisation and I have to communicate by fax, we keep a fax number going in our group specifically for the 3 or 4 times a year we have to communicate with them.

I’m going if I can get a ticket. It will be fun and surreal, like the last night of Bludot one year with Steve Davis playing deep house, looking like he may have taken something pharmaceutical. It might not even sure he was playing the records but I’ll never forget it.

@gallowayboy I went last week in Stoke I’m a long term fan who didn’t particularly like the the last two Bad Seeds albums. I wasn’t set on going but I listened to the Cave and Ellis album on Hols and loved it. I thought it was absolutely amazing I was transfixed even though half the show was form the albums I didn’t particularly like. It was so good I’m going again tomorrow to the Bridgewater hall which is saying something at nearly £100 a ticket.

@sadexpunk I agree with the stadium thing I didn’t go to the last show at the Manchester arena because of that despite having a free ticket. These shows are certainly not stadium shows there in regional theatres and concert halls. The setting suits the material but the tickets prices are eye watering.

Google auto-translated the page for me, not sure about one of the other stories linked at the bottom, decided it was best not to click on it, hopefully a dodgy translation

National first love boyfriend taboo to fall in love with 7-year-old married sister

Would you trust these type of bags on a plane with a carbon road bike or would you go for a solid case, storage is probably a bigger issue than cost. Is the best compromise to hire one.

Even though theoretically allowed there’s no way I do it with some training but at least there’s no test to do now. @ceept the Caravelle is just huge people carrier not a camper (though you can and I have slept in it).

Thanks, @ceept unfortunately we’d be towing with a T5 Caravelle it weighs 3t alone.

posted too soon in error. The current laws prevented us from buying a caravan (much to by wife’s delight) as I passed in 97 and she refuses to tow one. Just spent the last hour looking at Swift Basecamp

The current laws prevented us from buying a caravan (much to her delight) as I passed in 97 and she refused to tow.

You can pick up a new drive side crank off eBay for not too much I saw an ultegra one last week. I’ve got a couple of spare lefts so it could have worked for me as I’m going 1x but I decided to go for a full crankset for other reasons.

It were me I’d just get a new one one. I’ve bought these as they use a standard BCD so gave more flexibility for aftermarket rings than the series cranks but still let me use my shimano crank power meter.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/203354749041

They sell a 105 build so it will definitely take a double.

Cashews are the crack of nuts

@lardman do you have any problems with gaps between the gears.

Why do most mountain bikes come with that gearing, so should every MTB get off rather than use their easy gear. The bike is been built to ride up some very long and in places very steep (not in the UK) gravel tracks with 1000s of meters of ascent per day but also I may be coming down long descents on the road hence wanting the faster gear, though I’ll probably spin out regardless of the gear.

I often use my gravel bikes in the UK on routes that are closer to MTB routes so a bit more range won’t go amiss,

I’ve not decided on wheel size yet, I’ll probably have both sizes in the end

Good point on wear. I don’t think on this bike I’d be in the small cog that often but maybe 10-50 would be better with 38 up front that would be similar to rocketdogs.

Thanks for the comments I’m not an expert on gear ratios hence question wouldn’t 34 to 9 be the equivalent of 42 to 11 as they give almost the same ratio when divided or am i missing something.

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I asked for advice on gearing not semantics. If I take a gravel bike frame and put a flat bar on it it’s a flat barred gravel bike. But I really don’t give a toss what’s it called I would like some advice whether the gearing will work.

It actually going to be used much more off road than on so I’m not bothered about the gaps between gears and I want the low gearing as it’s for a specific purpose that is likely to need it. I’ve got a nice road bike and a gt grade for more mixed terrain. Why would that gearing be significantly worse than an 11 speed 1x grx on the road

Ignore that I’m looking at 110BCD

I’ve been looking at these this week as I’m planning to use 5 bolt on my new built. There’s plenty on ebay, if you want something quicker Sprockets have RSP cling rings and Superstar have some as well but they are both a bit more expensive about £30.

ROI didn’t count it’s part of the common travel area had one of a group I was with travel back on a uni library card after he lost his passport. One of my wife’s friends got turned away last week for this exact reason and it 9 1/2 months from the issue date. Not 6 months from the expiry date.

Here’s a couple of natural routes I’ve enjoyed in North Wales. Conway mountain upto Drum mountain, just make sure you’ve got fresh brake pads in as they’ll be on fire by the end of the descent.

The big loop round Snowdon from bikefax guide done it twice once in a day and once bike packing over two days adding in some of the Marin trail to spice it up.

From a COVID perspective England is a different country from Scotland. I’ve just spent a month in France and Spain and compliance was 100% and you need a COVID pass to go to a bar or restaurant in France because again it a different country with different laws. It’s no surprise that compliance is lower here,

In England We are 6 weeks into a giant experiment to get as many people exposed to COVID either via vaccination or now infection before the flu season kicks in.

Me and the wife have it through work didn’t use it for twenty years, but one brain tumour sorted for the missus and about 10k in consultants, surgery and physio for me in the last few years has definitely been worth it,

We also have 24 hour GP by video call which has been really useful during Covid.

It will make money laundering harder. I remember as a youth arriving a a local pizza takeaway in a pretty quiet area of Leeds with 7 big black 4x4s outside. This is 30 years ago when they weren’t so common. There was a group of blokes sat around a table and the owner was just dealing out £20 notes to each of the them.

@zippykona out interest what do you get charged for taking a card payment. Are debit cards less than credit cards. I often wonder if using one over the other could save a business money.

The Current iPad Air is almost the same as the previous gen iPad Pro 11. I’ve been using the pro to edit 4K go pro footage which it processes and saves almost in real time. There are fine pretty fancy pc set ups that can’t do that. Fit £350 I’d grab one before that offer ends.

@apedoctor I’ve didn’t paid anywhere near RRP for either the huub suits, otherwise I’d be really miffed. I’m happy for what I did pay but I’ll still look somewhere else in the future.

I’ve got quite a few gigs lined up from September through December. Daft Punk classical at Manchester Cathedral and Nick Cave at the Bridgwater Hall. They should be fairly ok with been seated. Jesus and Mary Chain and Wedding Present at the Ritz will be a bit different hopefully we’ll have more folk vaccinated and vaccine passes by then. They work great here in France. Im not worried about COVID other than I don’t want it in the same way I don’t want flu and end up been sick for a few weeks.

I did the same to a new to me frame on its first ride, clipped a gate and the shifters smashed into the top tube. Gutted as it was someone had kept in immaculate for 10 years and it was a rare frame that was never released officially.

I have two Huub wetsuits, they are great to swim in and run in for the swim run one but they are both pretty trashed after not much use particularly the swim run one which only used less than 5 times, though that did included a full length race.

I don’t think I’ll buy Hubb again when I come to get a new suit.