@spekkie we are hoping to be there in 3 weeks. Just about everything is crossed that we can make it.

Fill your boots

Lakeland Gravel

I destroyed a ti frame on its first ride. Mashed the non replaceable mech hanger. Got it fixed but never the same.

I’d park in Llandudno on the street, given its a tourist town with lots of folk staying in BBs for a week at a time a car parked up wouldn’t look out of place. Try church walks. my mate has a house near there and we park there with no problems

https://www.google.com/maps/@53.3255017,-3.8376593,18.17z

I’m done with Coronavirus, after a year and a half of following the rules religiously doing all the isolations when the kids have a case in their bubbles, isolating for 10 days when we came back from France despite the cases been 100 times lower where we staying. We didn’t see parents for 16 months.

This week I’ve had three kids isolating again two for the full 10 days but this time I’m not keeping them locked up. If 65,000 people can go to a football game on a -ve lat flow test, then I can take my kids outside mtbing, running or walking in the countryside after a -ve PCR test plus daily lat flows. I think I’m capable of making an appropriate risk assessment and rather than slavishly following rules that make no longer make sense. In 22 years of schooling between them prior to coronavirus, the kids had missed between them less than 10 days in school but I’m seriously considering not sending them back after this isolation. Currently, the situation in local schools is ridiculous they’ll be isolating again at the beginning of the school holidays.

Broken/Bruised them dozens of times (im clumbsy) usually take about 4 -6 weeks to heal. One of the few times I went to the hospital for an x-ray i was sent home with some paracetamol. The next week I had a chest infection and spent Christmas on morphine and antibiotics, if you think you are developing something get to the docs as it’s bloody sore.

We’ve been looking at this but our ferry takes 36 hours doesn’t leave much room for manoeuvre. Spain currently accept the lamp test which is cheaper than a PCR and you get the results back in a couple of hours. Which gives you chance to repeat if it fails for some reason. We are getting ours done at mcr airport the before we head down to Portsmouth. See if you get it done at Bristol airport.

I’ve just had the worse crash of my life pootling down a country lane with a mate. Would have probably died without a helmet. Fortunately only ended up with a fractured shoulder and a headache lasting 2 months. My first ride afterwards was back to the scene (to complete the ride) still can’t attribute it to anything just a freak accident so you just have to get on with it as there’s nothing I can do to change how I ride.

If I’d done a risk assessment this was probably the lowest risk ride I’d ever do, but without a helmet my brains would have been splattered all over the road and they don’t like that in Alderley Edge or they didn’t appreciate the air ambulance landing in their garden. That doesn’t usually happen after even a load of beers.

I only drink non-alcoholic beer, I’m going to stop buying Brewdog (just ordered to crate of Big Drop to try) now except in a pub if they only is choice between Becks Blue and a non alcoholic Brewdog then my morals will go out the window.

Saw one on the Cat and Fiddle last week probably won’t last long up there and I’ve seen them in Macclesfield before. They are pretty widespread around Leeds these day I’ve seen them in the city centre aew times when I’ve been over.

It won’t be long until it’s in every smartwatch, I suspect the UCI are trying to get ahead of it.

Hopefully, it will be more accurate than heart rate monitoring which is awful on my Fenix.

Apple Watch

I would find this data really useful in a race or on a long ride, when I race I race fat adapted and try to spare my glycogen with little top-ups of carbs along the way but try not to raise my blood sugar too, this could help me manage that.

I had this with a dog walker on the canal. I rode up behind him and he slowed down, I politely said excuse me and he ignored me, I again I politely said excuse me and he ignored me. He then said without turning round “you have no right to be on this path” in a really condescending voice. I’m not proud as he was someones granadad but I went ballistic he got every single expletive under the sun. I was livid at the injustice, as I’d been so polite and I thought he was deaf or something, not just been an old git.

Straight out of my bag from last nights hiking bivi.

Alpkit myti mug
eBay titanium burner
Gas
Ti spoon
Firestone
Plastic cup
Ultralight weight windshield

Aeropress or more recently Coffee rocket which is great slow especially if the grind is the wrong size.

@higgo also make sure she’s got plenty of warm clothes last I swam a few k in it a couple of years ago at this time of year and it was about 9c. I was with a swimming guide, she wasn’t in a wetsuit and she was blue and she does ice swimming.

I went to whinlatter afterward and fell asleep for a couple of hours in the van before going out for a ride. Cost me a fortune that snooze

I’m in the process of building something that could probably do that, though I wouldn’t.

I’m going for a Flat barred Sondor Camino with a double 11 speed XT/SLX 38/22 and 42 at the back and 650b wheels. I probably fit in board bar ends and some mini tt bars to give more hand positions. I already have some vision carbon road wheels that would fit. I’d only do this to avoid taking a road and gravel bike on hols.

This type of bike is always a compromise, in fact I think gravel bikes are pretty crap at riding on anything except forest tracks and discussed railways but that’s what makes them fun ( I have 3). In fact we were riding on the loose gravel tracks around Delamere and the bike wasn’t particularly good at that either.

You’d end up with a modern version of an 80’s Mtb and relaxed road bike. If your riding encompasses this go for it.

I still run a proper road bike for when I want to go fast and a 29er hardtail for mountain biking as I find that even a beefy gravel bike will still get out of depth quite quickly.

I drove over to their Hathergage store at the weekend to size up the Camino I’m building, took three down jackets to be repaired whilst I looked around the shop, and tried the bike for size. Nice experience and the repairs were excellent.

What I didn’t expect was to be able to order the frame as it’s not available online yet. I even had a wobble and after reading a few threads on here, I decided I needed to up the size. Phoned the store yesterday and they’ve sorted it and I should be getting my large sage Camino in a few months.

Managed to pull both of mine walking too far too fast, after shoulder surgery stopped me running. Turned out to be where the Soleus meets the tendon, so the classic tendon stretch did nothing and I have to do bent knee stretches which are horrible. The point being I would have never worked that out myself as the pain refers all over the place, see a professional to diagnose it correctly.

Here a few non honey pot places we go on hols in the UK

Just had a great holiday staying just outside Pickering great mountain biking, walking and not far from the Coast, accommodation for 5 of us £450 so no price gouging there. Usually stay at forest holidays but that much more expensive.

We usually have a week staying on Cannock Chase for a week which seems mad but it’s always a brilliant week again walking, biking and running

Often spend New year week at the FOD. I much prefer these three to Sherwood

We have been to Dumfries and Galloway and is great but I’ve given up on West Scotland in summer having been bitten to death by midges more than one time. Used to go to Arann a lot but I don’t have feel for the costs there as we stayed in a friends families holiday home.

What would folk recommend as a next step up from the minotaur for the kids. The youngest is 9 and has done Cannock, Glentress, Llandegla reds.

I love a good hybrid those two bike my wife had were cracking, the Dr Dew was essentially a flat barred gravel bike before gravel bikes were a thing.

I tend to mountain bike from the house or we usually holiday in the UK at or close to a trail centre/mountain biking area just come back from a week in Pickering. Only choose trail centres as the youngest is only 9 and though he’s been doing red trails since he was six, all the kids prefer trail centres to natural riding at the moment but that’s changing.

When they were younger and we were spending time trying to get them to develop we were driving a long way at weekends for the kids to progress without getting bored. I did find it hard driving from Macc to Coed y Brenin to ride the Minatuar trail or when we have a forest 3 miles from the house and the peak on our doorstep but the trails for young kids weren’t there.

But things are changing my eldest has done the Macc forest classic loop of few times recently (with an uplift to the Cat and Fiddle) and our next holiday in Dartmoor so there will be more natural riding. In the summer we choose somewhere we can ride from the door so last year in was the Massif Central

I happen to have another GT grade. I converted to flat barred for my daughter so it has a shorter stem, I have a 20mm longer stem than the stock GT grade stem (120 vs 100mm) in the spares box I’ll stick in on a see how it rides. I still thinking a longer frame and the same size stem would be better handling or the difference between a large and medium is 20mm and it has a slightly longer effective tt (6mm) than the grade.

I’ll try it and see.

I used my grade for ironman and I’ve averaged over 18mph over 100 miles on it on training so I know you can go fast enough on a gravel bike but I happy to sacrifice some of that speed for comfort and control without going to a mountain bike.

Here are the crazy bars on my current flat barred bike, they’ve just been destroyed in a crash I’m not sure I’ll use the loop bar on the new bike, the ski bar ends were free from the LBS there at the same position as the hoods on my grade.

i’d reply they are riding drop-bared hybrids isnt that what gravel bars are ?

I haven’t posted about my serious crash last week I will. We should all carry an emergency blanket and probably a small synthetic down jacket when mountain biking or a least an extra thermal We got caught out on a local road ride I was 3 miles from home and the weather turned whilst waiting for the air ambulance both me and my mate ended up very cold very quickly.

@ashat I have brand new one in its box that I’m not going use p.m me.

Nick

I was in a serious accident last week involving a head injury. I had no clue where I was (even though I commuted down the road 1000s of times) and there was no way I could have given a grid reference. If I had had w3w I could have just about done that thankfully i was with someone who guided the emergency services to me.

@rOcKeTdOg is that a GRX812

I did drybag on a rack before bikepacking kit was a thing and it worked great just make sure its strapped on tight. In fact I had drybag strapped to bars and another one strapped to top tube with tent in.

I was inspired by that video and have bought a rack, the revalate ones too spendy. ive bought some midi size panniers. Not tried them out yet but I’m fed up with seat packs I’m not sure there’s a benefit for the riding I do.

link

My son’s bike run 11-42 with a 9 speed using a ebay roadlink, works fine. cheap way of going 1x. You can get the cassette from Decathlon for £20. If you hang on I’m breaking down one of the kids bikes soon I’ll send you the cassette and link for the postage to see if you can get it to work.

There’s a railway carved into to the north face of the Eiger

I’ve been gradually building up my kit. I run logic on my MacBook, I’ve got a mini keyboard and a launchpad. But what really like doing is making acid house either with my TD3 or more often on the iPad Pro using GarageBand and Pureacid I could play with that all day. I have no talent whatsoever but its more therapy than anything else.

My youngest has a Voodoo Bakka but I’ve added a first air fork, hydraulic brakes updated the drive train to 1×9 but with a 30t at the front and 11-42 and most importantly added green pedals and grips. He loves it and has done Glentress, Dalby, Cannock and llandegla Reds on it. The only shame is that he hasn’t used it as much as I’d have liked as due to lockdown. I’m going to put it on the classifieds once I’ve build up his new bike in the next few weeks

Something is off in that comparison of the 7 and the 8, looking at my hero 7 footage its way better than in that video. I’ve seen refurbed DJI Osmo cameras on Ebay for under 200 they have dual screen and image stabilization.

@Tom-B There are slx 11 speed mechs on Amazon for £59. I was even thinking of getting another one and a wolftooth tanpan for my gravel bike so I could fit a double at the front. As said above thanks for the offer but they need 11-42

Thanks it wasn’t meant to be a wanted add more could anyone point me to to stock. I knew I’d seen the shifter somewhere so I’ve now ordered 2 thanks @bikerevivesheffield and the mechs. I’ll IM @scotroutes about the cassette. This is great as I can now sell some of kids bikes. Thanks Tom but there they’ll definitely need at least 11-42.

I got the three kids new bikes just before lock down 1, 2 have grown out of them and the other wants a FS. So I’m building up my old prophet and 456 for the bigger kids and upgrading 13inch hard tail for the little one.

They’ll all be better specced than when I ran them at this rate.

Just about to do this on my daughters road/gravel bike. 38t upfront 11-36 on the back. Should suit her perfectly and it will keep it simple for her.

Thanks for the replies, it never occurred to me as I’ve used 30t before converting standard chainsets to NW that it would work. The each crank arm has has threaded hole and the chainring is bolted in from the back.

I don’t see why in this case a flat ring wouldn’t work. Might try to macgyver something putting the ring on backwards and using longer m8 bolts. What could possibly go wrong.

@montgomery what rear mech and shifters are you planning to use ?

On my GT grade I have the bog-standard 40 11-42 I find this is fine for hilly road rides and undulating gravel but when you get to long technical climbs i could do with more gears.

My other gravel bike runs mtb gears 38t/28t at the front and 11-42 at the back. It was built specifically for climbing huge gravel climbs in the Pyrenees where normally gravel gearing wouldn’t cut it for me but also wanted to shove some road wheels in and ride up the cols as well.

I got chatting to a guy whilst waiting for a herd of cattle to pass he was running a 48 tooth singe ring at the front and 10-50 MTB cassette at the back on a tt bike it was SRAM and it wasn’t AXS so it can be done.