I’ve been quietly in from the start, it started at the end of a very lazy week post biking holiday so gave me the push to keep the training up. Mix of MTB, turbo and walking/golf with a couple of stretching & weights sessions in there. Weekly pilates is on a short break too but starting back next week :)

Interesting chat on the HRV, mine dropped to unbalanced a week and a half ago and is now a couple of days into reporting low. No illness emerging but feeling very tired. Looking at what I’m doing it hasn’t changed at a point of overly high intensity in the 25 days (to that point), the first day was nice and sunny, I had a day off work and just couldn’t get the bike to move forward and cut the ride short. Apart from that I can still turn up on the bike/turbo close to where I’d expect but just can’t shake the complete tiredness. No real point to this, just interesting that others were reporting HRV down at the moment too.

No plans to take a break though as lunchtime walks feel a sensible “rest day” at the moment but wondering if it is going to be forced on me at some point.

I’ve had my Smart #1 Brabus for 8 months now, it has been a while since I’ve had anything that I’ve not played the “what would I swap it with” game after 8 months but there is genuinely nothing I’d swap it for right now. Boot is tiny, lots of other EVs have better range, that’s pretty much my negative list. Usually just me in it, golf clubs fit with one seat forward and tilted. It has done 2 trips into the office this week and some general running around and I’ll charge it overnight tonight. Overall running costs are same or slightly less than an Octavia estate on previous very cheap lease deal.

They were 3.9 to 60 when I got mine so not sure if re-tested or power increased but it is plenty quick. Lovely place to sit, had loads of comments how nice it is and how Mercedes like. With the power it has in Comfort (RWD until AWD needed) it’ll twitch at the rear before the power is cut or front wheels join in, that mode is limited power and is still quicker than most cars around. Overall it is a fantastic cruiser into work, inside lane dynamic cruise, decent stereo, good controls and Apple car play etc, then turns into a proper quick car when needed. I absolutely love it.

Oh and it has a super annoying rattle behind the screen but with something playing I can ignore it easily enough not to take it back. Actually add in the black paint is properly soft, came with swirl marks and difficult not to add more. Benefits of a lease not having to care that much I guess.

Anker Soundcore range is pretty good. I was looking at the Q30 which is spot on your budget but got the Q45 for not much more. The noise of the office just disappears with the noise cancelling and I’ve not had a single complaint about the quality of the mic. Can wander around the house in range and the battery easily lasts all day. Big plus on them is they connect to two devices so could listen to music on my phone and it instantly switches to answering a call on the laptop.

I wanted ones that could be used for personal use into work use, they’re probably not quite as good as a dedicated work calls offering but I’ve found them absolutely perfect for both uses.

Oh and the transparency mode massively picks up what’s happening around you, can be very useful when wanting to hear a conversation but not wanting to be dragged into it (or more accurately being nosey!) or when out on a walk. Actually that’s one negative, the transparency or normal modes massively pick up the wind noise if its a windy day and make full noise cancelling almost essential, not the best if on a shared use path.

I find the power/speed the complete opposite a lot of the time, no one expects the Smart to do 0-60 under 4 seconds and I find a lot of enjoyment surprising them.

Completely agree on the commuting comments though, podcast or audiobook on, dynamic cruise, occasionally grip the wheel harder when it complains at having to do all the work. Lovely and relaxing on what’s normally a stressful activity.

13 speaker Beats stereo should also feature highly on the audio systems question, but not as good (loud) as I’d hoped it would be. Came with a blown speaker and all the settings turned up to max so suspect someone in the delivery chain also wanted to see how loud it would go.

I had a look at the Smart #1 Brabus edition (because I’m basically a child and we’ve driven AWD cars for donkeys years). WLTP range 249 miles. That should be enough to cover all of my needs. What’s all the fuss about?

So I had a look on ev-database.org No idea how accurate they are. They quote “real world” ranges for cars that aren’t released yet, which is a bit of a worry, but at least they try to give realistic figures. They reckon the “real range” is more like 200 miles. Not so good, but then it gets much worse.

My most “challenging” journey would be the annual Christmas trip from Aberdeenshire to East Anglia. Just over 500 miles, most of which is dual carriageway or motorway and of course it’s cold in December. So for that journey I should look at the “Highway-Cold Weather” range and that’s only 140 miles. Ouch! Of course you wouldn’t really want to drop much below 10% to avoid anxiety and once it reaches 80% the charging seems to slow to a trickle. So really you need to look at 70% of that for the distance between charges, which is only 100 miles. That would get pretty annoying.

I’ve got one of those, never seen another out in the wild! Did Bathgate to Blackpool in February or March, cold rainy day. Had only just got it so had a huge amount of range anxiety, stopped once on the way down for a quick lunch break length charge, very slow charge for an hour in Blackpool and a couple of coffee break charge stops on the way home. Didn’t need the last one but it’s a decent A road last section and a charge meant I could stick it in Brabus mode. Realistically even on the coldest of days I’d be pretty confident on 150+ miles comfortable range, still not the best but not as bad as your calculations.

First thought was you’re probably being a bit negative on the range but re-reading it you’re probably not far off in terms of leaving a bit of safety and getting a quick charge, doubt it would be quite as bad as 100 miles but probably a sensible worst case to plan to.

It’s an absolute riot to drive, there is zero wheel spin it just launches and no one knows what they are so never expects it to go like that.

Mine very rarely goes long distances so haven’t tested it in the warmer weather but it shows about 190 miles from 90% and it seems to be pretty realistic.

Grand Cherokee well worth a shout, had the 4.7 v8 with LPG and a 4.0 and the v8 was pretty reliable. Both rated to tow 3.5t, both could drag pretty much anything around that was stuck in the snow.  Mine were both second generation (WJ).

Proper comfy place to sit, with decent tyres not likely to get stuck anywhere, very capable tow vehicle, pretty cheap last time I looked.

Third gen (WK) should be available in your budget, they don’t have quite as good a chassis for off-roading but for your use case should be fine and the diesels share a lot of engine parts with Mercedes (ML320 isn’t a bad shout either).

Another one in the Instinct 2X Solar fan club. Had it a couple of months and it’s never off. The heart rate seems a lot more accurate than previous Garmin watches. Charge wise agree with all others, it lasts for ages, long enough the solar is probably irrelevant in Scotland. Golf app is pretty good too. Only gripe with it is it keeps telling me I’m unfit. It’s right but I don’t need constantly reminded…

Have had a few Vivosctives in the past, thought I’d miss the touch screen and colour but absolutely don’t. Couldn’t shower with the VA on or it would change all sorts of settings, last time it took me ages to work out how to remove the heart rate zone warnings the water drops had somehow set!

Its years (decades!?) since I’ve done the Scotland option, and I have considered going back a number of times in the past 3 years but I keep putting it off – and to be blunt – the reason is that I keep reading on here that its all a bit of a state.

I totally get that if you just want to ride the marked trail centers but if you like your enduro type trails, the wider Tweed Valley is absolutely amazing and definitely worth the visit. If I was taking someone around the area the only trails I’d show them in GT are the off-piste and new ones, but there are days of riding in some amazing places, all on Trailforks. Basing opinions of the valley on the FC trails is a mistake IMO (if you have green/blue trail level riders with you I’d agree with your assessment!)

Thanks for the heads up, started the audio book over the weekend. Really enjoying it. Just at the bit where he goes kayaking with the outdoors trainer who had enough of working behind a desk in his 40s and quit to start his company, properly how I’ve been feeling for a while now. The whole book just seems like a great idea.

The Kelpies in Falkirk are not just a nice innocent landmark, it’s actually a complex transmitter for communicating with extra terrestrials that just happens to look like a pair of horsies.

Earfun are What HiFi approved and 1/4 of the budget. They sound great and if you lose or break them its less heartache.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/EarFun-Wireless-Bluetooth-Detection-Headphones-Matte-Black/dp/B088H7GMHZ

Went on to have a look at these on Amazon and they had a 25% voucher available too so ended up ordering a set, that I didn’t really need!

My fence, well three of the four panels damaged from the storm last week. Knew the middle beam was rotten but turns out most of that part is beyond repair. Now standing upright and held together with old decking boards, couple of bungee cords, any solid old chunks of wood that was lying around and a couple of untreated batons. It’s going to need a professional later in the year along with the decking that I went through when fixing the fence – also fixed the hole in the decking by covering it so I couldn’t see it!

Had a black Volvo 850 T5-R (sold just before the prices started rising) years ago. It was lovely when properly clean but took a lot of effort. Put it in to a mate who was a detailer to properly clean and machine polish it and it was absolutely, mirror finish, lovely.

Then it broke down and sat in the mechanics yard for weeks to be fit in between jobs,  went in to chase them up and saw it under a thick layer of dust. Phone call to say it was done so popped in to pay on the way home “We’ve dropped it off around at your flat for you, don’t worry we’ve washed all that dust off”, walk home was in the fear they’d used the brush lying on the ground which they absolutely had and made it worse than I’d ever had it. Complaint led to them offering to take it back in and “sort” it which I refused.

So yeah, great when it’s looking good but frustrating when it’s not. Next car due later this week is black so back on the merry-go round for me!

Interesting thread. I’ve been having back issues for 15+ years with some completely clear spells and some stopping me from exercising. Latest spell has been pretty much continuous for 2 years despite regular massages, physio, stretching etc. Got an MRI earlier in the year which identified a bulging disc that wasn’t touching the nerve and nothing there that explained any of the upper back and shoulder pain.

Recovery was identified as more of exactly the same as I’d been doing which left me pretty dejected and absolutely ready to throw in the towel but I picked up more physio, swimming, changing stretching routing, etc. Didn’t change much so I randomly bought a book about back pain by Dr Sarno, The Mindbody Prescription, on reading it my pain pretty much went away. There have definitely been real pains in my back caused by actual injuries and bad posture but my back and brain combo have also pretty much got into the habit of believing things will hurt – going out on my hardtail would trigger weeks of pain, it was genuine pain but triggered much more mentally than physically. With a Saturday spent reading I went from Friday unable to hit a golf ball as I couldn’t swing above my shoulders taking cocodamol and naproxym to Sunday beating my mates with a full swing and probably 4 paracetamol and 2 ibuprofen in total since the end of September (that would have been a good day for most of this year). I can now feel the pain pulsing in the usual areas if I’m in a stressful meeting and switch it off with a think about why it is trying to flare. Tried riding my hardtail again and halfway round the usual pain flared massively making me want to stop but saying out loud that I knew it wasn’t real and it cleared as quickly as it came on.

Not saying there’s a magic fix in there but as someone else posted about the brain amplifying real pain levels if your GP has ruled out any real underlying issues having a look into the mental side if stress could be amplifying issues could be worthwhile.

I’d also signed up for physio led pilates before I sorted things out and finding it really beneficial for a base to get properly back into training, it’s kick started lunchtime training sessions again and the pain from squats today definitely isn’t a trick from my brain!!

You’ve got to work with your brain so no point trying to flip it to accepting that you might fail.

But what about setting a different expectation of success, if you measured your success as completing half the event or three quarters and anything more was a bonus how would that sit in your head?

Like Will Ferrell beating his stepbrother’s drum…

Quick, someone post up a link to discounted jeans, he’s in a wild buying mood!!

That’s a great decision for just nipping out into the hills. Do you think you’ve got any trails still to find in the Pentlands?

Last job higher ups were seriously pushing for 4 months of analysis to be condensed into two weeks. It was not remotely possible with any quality and I had that fight all the way up the chain. It all went quiet apart from the odd rumble that we need to move faster.

Came back from a week and a half holiday and the team were three days into two weeks of rapid analysis that got forced through in my absence with reports of people in tears the day before and potentially going off sick. All I could do was help them through it. They got through what they needed to but as soon as it was handed over the quality was slated which came back on our team and no one used what they’d done.

Last holiday sat bolt upright in the middle of the night and shouted “Oh f*** there’s someone broken into my room” then a few seconds later “Sorry Mark, forgot I was sharing a room with you” and went straight back to sleep. Don’t think he was as quick getting back to sleep! Forgot about it in the morning until he told the story at the breakfast table.

Any indoor cleaning, house needed cleaned one weekend and I went out and cleaned the Jeep roof (it’s not moved off it’s spot in the driveway in 5 years), the van roof (no one even sees up there) and washed and waxed the rest of the van. Think I started cleaning out the garage after that. All that outdoor cleaning just to avoid indoor cleaning, makes no sense. The weather wasn’t even that good.

https://www.stifmtb.com/collections/stif-squatch/products/stif-squatch-am-kit?variant=40796683370607Stif Squatch AM Kit – Stif Mountain Bikes (stifmtb.com)

Edit – beaten to it by Trusty by seconds, I’ve also got one but struggling to ride it due to back issues :/

By no means suggesting you should stay but once the avalanche of people leaving started could that have triggered the toxic culture? People turning on each other when some of their best people left rather than admitting they were in a slump and dealing with it? If it’s been like that for years and years it would be time to escape for me but if people talk of better times in the recent past it would spark second thoughts about whether there will be a rock bottom point and start to recover once they get a month or two of no one leaving. If it’s the later holding out could see the start of an interesting time as they get back to where they once were, the former then the place is doomed!

And totally agree that looking after yourself and doing what’s best for you is definitely not quitting!

Stress is also insidious – it builds up on you and becomes the new normal.  Its only really when you remove the stressor that you realise how badly you are effected

This is so true, I worked for a year on a project going from a complete buzz getting up to speed working 10 hours a day to needing to work 10 hours a day to cover 7 hours of calls/meetings and actually doing some work or I’d miss key deadlines. I could probably have reached out for more help but all asks for more resource were met with “there is none” or worse, getting resource with no idea who needed to take productive people out to bring them up to speed, all of this with no change to deadlines.

It ended up making me leave the company. I’m now in a spell where I’ve got that level of work for two weeks in a bit of a peak and I’m knackered, no idea how I functioned at that level for a full year looking back. I still keep in touch with people I worked with and that project has effectively been shelved due to issues I’d flagged up and they ignored!!

If you have a look around you in your current role you’ve flagged there are people doing stupid hours, are there also people coasting? Are there people who have the balance right and are still performing? Are they on performance reviews? If you can try and properly detach yourself from the situation it’ll all look a lot clearer, that could be writing down everything that is right and wrong in your opinion and start to move that around into buckets or perceived or actual so you can focus on what is real and change your internal language on the perceived issues – they may happen, but they also may not and you can deal with them when they do become real…

Rather than having to remove the bulkhead in the Trafic/Vivaro you could get the 9 seater version and remove the rear row of seats. Much more likely to get a tailgate that way which could be handy to shelter under. Would be easy enough to put something over the rear windows to completely black them out. Benefit of a bulkhead though is you’re not heating the storage space so it warms up a lot quicker and stinky biking gear is hidden away!

Really weirdly my sister is there this week and sent pictures of the hills above Bergen piled up with snow. Myrdal Station if that means anything. No idea of the geography or the area but might be worth a check how far the snow extends.

I’ve still got my 1994 Muddy Fox Adventurer and my 2008ish Iron Horse 6.4 and struggle to part with both. The Muddy Fox took a lot of saving paper round money and a lot of lusting after, hate walking through the “biking” section of Sports Direct now.

Guess the brands I currently ride are doomed!

Was in a very similar position to you years ago. It was scary but best thing I did.

Make sure you take them up on any offers of career coaching and guidance, if they don’t offer you anything it’s worth getting anyway if your confidence is low. Being able to put a spin on what you see as just doing your job and having a good CV is really helpful.

Those skills will see you walking into a job, any break you take just make sure you explain it on your CV and/or in an interview. Who wouldn’t take a couple of months out for a trip after a nice payout (you can also spin it more productively if you also learn something in that time or project manage a house refurbishment)!

TJ the nonsense you spoke in the statement below that utterly derailed your own point and has caused all the challenges you’re getting.

its perfectly possible to build and electric 4 seater at less than 500 kg with decent crash protection.

Ariel Atom is bits of scaffolding and two carbon seats, it’s just under 500kg. Caterhams are around 500kg, no fancy bits and pieces there to reduce weight. Original Kei Cars do seem to have been around 500kg but with a tiny engine and no batteries to haul around, wouldn’t like to crash into a crisp bag in them either.

Citroen Ami is a two seater version of what you describe, it has two seats, plastic surrounding them and very little else. It’s 485kg and has a 44 mile range. You say it is perfectly possible to build a 4 seater electric car under 500kg which is clearly nonsense without a single digit range or a hundreds of thousands price tag. Just think where you’d save enough weight on the Ami to add more body size and two extra seats while keeping it safe. i-MiEV mentioned is 1160kg, can’t see many fancy bits and pieces on that.

There are also weight penalties that are very worthwhile on electric cars, like the brake regen technology. If you’d set a realistic number like 1000kg this wouldn’t have gone anywhere near as off track and your real point wouldn’t have been hidden behind such an unrealistic statement.

FWIW I agree that the focus should be on making electric cars as light, small and efficient as possible rather than the arms race of who can pack the most technology into a car.

Would highly recommend the Stif Squatch, wasn’t shopping when I had a ride on my mate’s and bought one when I got home. Wasn’t far off my usual pace on enduro trails and was every bit as happy the next day heading out on an XC ride.

Thought of selling it as my back just cannot take the hardtail at the moment (full sus is bad enough) but it’s the one bike I look forward to riding again when I’ve sorted my back, got fit and lost some weight.

Had a 27.5 Cotic Soul and I find the Stif is a much, much better as an all rounder.

I was out on my e-bike, was going to have a day off the bike but was bored so was doing a quick blast in Boost mode. Proper panicked when the phone went off, thought it was a warning my battery was about to explode!

Had heard something about the test but no idea what date and time it was going off so didn’t remotely link the two, glad I checked my phone before pedaling back with the motor turned off!

Is it worth trying to trick yourself a bit in the restaurant, either by meeting a friend there for a drink and have them promptly leave after one or to arrange dining with them and have them cancel when you get there and sat down, all pre-planned but might change the thought process a bit that you’re going there alone? Guess that depends if that would trigger more anxiety or if you’d be okay once you were there looking at a menu.

I like time on my own but a nice restaurant on my own can be okay when I’m away somewhere but no chance I’d do it locally.

No I coudn’t GAS about the day’s skiing, they’ve got 5 more so will be fine. I do give a shit however about my daughter and her mates being holed up on a cramped coach for 16 hours with not enough food and water, insufficient toilet breaks, and not being able to get out and get some exercise. This is a safety issue. Having thousands of kids stuck at a port with nowehere to go for that amount of time is not safe, end of.

Genuine question, why is that on the French to fix? The issues you describe there could easily be sorted by the British government stepping in if it was causing a safety issue. Pop up toilets, food and water brought in, central reservations opened up to allow coaches to turn around and go home all offer a fix to those issues without having to rely on another country overlooking border controls and seem pretty fair responses in ‘exceptional circumstances’.

No knowledge on the medical side.

I don’t mind the taste of the cartons of Beet It out of the supermarkets but I ended up binning loads of the concentrate stuff as it was vile no matter how diluted. Think I’ve got some of the Cawston stuff in the fridge now which also tastes okay. Tend to supplement that with actual beetroot too so I don’t have to go daft with the drinks. For initial testing I’d go for the ready made stuff first.

I’ve got an Octavia with that 1.5tsi engine in it. Few minor issues from new (lease car so I don’t care) but would expect they’ve all been sorted or was fine with that mileage. Entertainment unit can be a bit glitchy. I can get 60mpg+ out of it on a careful journey, average shows as 45ish. It’s fairly frugal for a petrol and still has reasonable performance. It doesn’t handle sharply but it is always comfortable and quite. Boot is big enough for two large bikes with front wheels off, pretty roomy inside.

Not sure that I’d spend my own money on a secondhand one but its does the job of being a car pretty well.

Can’t believe there’s another mention of Saracen Zen’s on this thread! Picked one up for £50 from eBay in the search for a steel hardtail many many years ago, stuck bits on it from my parts bike. Ended up buying a Manitou 140mm fork for it but almost everything else was spares, it had one white wheel and one black for a lot of it’s life! Rode it every weekend, raced it, used it for absolutely everything leaving more expensive bikes in the flat.

It’s currently sat with a set of very fast rolling tyres on it for a laugh around pump tracks, just need to do something about the drivetrain as it won’t stop jumping despite new jockey wheels.

I was looking at buying one of the various options but decided the place to start was a cold bath, see if I could stick it and see if it helped me aches and pains, especially my back.

Ran a cold bath on day 1, soaked for a few minutes and jumped into a warm shower. Day by day the shower got colder too. Just left the water in for a few days and it was usually cold enough.

Seemed like a good starting point, if I’m still using cold baths/showers in the summer I might look at other options.

I’ve found it hard to get warm the last few mornings after getting out, hoping it doesn’t mean the heating bills rise!

good to see you’ve integrated nicely and non-dickishly into a group of non-ebikes, so you are clearly doing it right.

but what does the new slowest person think about all this?

That’s a good question, it’s a fairly small group with fairly similar fitness levels but can definitely see rides where that can cause problems. If I spot anyone struggling I’ll sit beside them at their pace or give them a wee push but can see from the comments here that might be the worst thing to be doing!

It’s a real tough one from the back of the pack point of view as I was getting pretty close to stopping going out as I hated everyone hanging about in the cold or cutting rides short.

This is a really interesting read. I’ve just got one as I’ve slipped from right in the mid-pack to the fat guy totally unable to keep up. Had a bad run of training and general laziness last year so was really struggling to get back on the training needed to get back up to speed so bought an e-bike, started looking at short travel FS as my back couldn’t take the HT any more but it snowballed from there.

It’s taken me from well off the back to sitting with the fastest climber in eco mode. I very rarely blast up hills in a higher mode and usually just sit in the group. If I’m out with a less fit group I’ll be on my normal bike again.

Interesting to see how that can still be annoying to groups despite getting fitter myself through riding more (until the last few weekends) and not causing so much waiting around on winter rides.

I pretty much gave up trying to be quick on night rides, I’ve just not got it when out in the dark. When I adjusted to easier rides and making them fun it worked a lot better for me. Things like seeing how long I could stay with a slower rider just using their lights (mine off) which really made me look ahead made it a lot more entertaining to me than trying to get down the steep stuff and hating it. Also enjoy just heading up the local steep hill, hard push for an hour to the top, less than 10 minutes down but on a clear night it was just amazing being up there.

I do ride with glasses on but really cheap prescription ones, wonder how much of a difference not having the anti-reflective coating makes.

Really need to get back out there, charged the lights but haven’t headed near the bike at night.

Golf balls are a funny one, I’d be happy to play with anything but a lot of people always use the same ball to ensure they know how it will behave. My dad is the complete opposite and never uses the new balls as he thinks it’s a waste of money, he just uses ones he’s found. Actually need to find where he keeps all the ones he’s been gifted…

I always find the two ball at a decent local course goes down well (bonus that I usually get the other spot!)