In. Better the Devil you know and all that. The fact is people who are paid to know about such things don’t know whether the UK will be better in or out, so what hope do I have of coming to a suitably informed decision? Referendum is just a not-very-subtle way of making the people decide so politicians don’t have to carry the burden of getting this one wrong. Let’s face it, whichever way this goes it will be used as a political argument between the main parties for years to come.

It worries me because I believe presenting and acting require a different set of skills. I can’t imagine Chris Evans, Clarkson, May or Hammond being able to act for instance. Happy to be proved wrong, but I’d bet Clarkson would be in the Jeff Goldblum school of typecasting acting.

Still bring a tube, pump, patches.

this

Should I go tubeless

Yes.

and how much will it change the ride?

It depends

There are lots of people who will swear it’s the best thing they’ve ever done with their bike. I’m not one of those people. Do I get fewer punctures? Yes, but I never had that many to start with. Do I get more grip? Probably. Hard to quantify. I went tubeless on a new bike so it’s hard to tell whether the improvement in the ride is down to the new bike, new tyres, tubeless or all of the above.

The upshot is that other than the relatively minimal cost and set up, it’s something worth trying to see if you like it. If you don’t, you’ve not lost much.

Hmm, not sure about this. I like Matt le Blanc in Friends and Actors, but when interviewed he seems about as charismatic as a plank. It’ll be interesting to see which way he goes when presenting.

Compared to the price of Office suites in the past, £75 a year for a 5-device licence for Office 365 seems quite competitive to me and is oh-so-relevant in this day and age of cloud computing and multiple devices.

I definitely prefer Word to Apple’s Pages, which seems to be a page layout tool more so than a slick work processor.

I’m just going along with the general term people use to differentiate between a purpose built trail centre and a ride in the woods on paths, bridle ways and jumps people have built.

Gotcha. For me the local(ish) DH trail in the woods (which is actually “members only”) is much nearer the trail centre end of the spectrum and not remotely natural. That said, I’ve been out myself on bridleways maintaining the trails for mountain bikers (and other user groups, natch) so I suppose the only true “natural” riding is the off piste 🙂

Thanks Andy. I am now lost as to what “natural” riding is 😆

Natural for me. I hate trail centres.

Kinver which has a freeride park or Ribbersford DH…I also enjoy revo bike park.

By my definition of natural you do seem to be contradicting yourself. I think we all have our own image of what a trail centre is and what “natural” is. For me, anything that has been purpose-built for mountain biking is not natural, even if it’s just some jumps built by the locals in the woods. Maybe we need a new genre of riding lol*

*and a new wheel size for it too 😆

I just prefer to choose my own routes which normally involve jumps, gaps, drops and the steepest bits of trail I can find

Your typical bridleway across the moors isn’t going to be over-run with that many jumps, gaps and drops nor will it be that steep. Certainly in my experience of Peak District riding, if I want jumps and drops I’m better served at a dedicated facility like a trail centre or DH trail; I’m not going to get that fix following green dashed lines on an OS map. It’d be interesting to know where you ride Andy.

Ta

i mean what did everyone ride before trail centres came about?

Wade through muddy fields, hike-a-bike, dull linking road sections 😆

I’m being facetious of course, but no doubt I enjoy riding more on modern bikes and modern trails than I did 25 years ago, be it on trail centres or “natural”.

Where I live it’s 45 minutes drive to Cannock or 45 minutes drive to somewhere like the Derwent Valley honey pot. 9 times out of 10 I choose Cannock and this is largely because I know I will have a couple of hours of start to finish fun. To get that much riding fun out of a “natural” ride I’d probably need to be riding for 3 or 4 hours. All riding is good riding, but I just find myself craving the most “value for money” from my rides.

Great practical example was a couple of weeks ago where I went on a local loop. There was some fab off-road riding on it – technical, rocky, fast – but there was also a huge long road slog to get back home at the end. I like road riding, but on my road bike please 🙂

<thought title of thread said “computer” so waded in to start a Mac vs PC argument. Is disappointed> 😆

Since I CBA to dig out one of the many threads just like this so i can copy and paste my answer, I shall +1 the great answer from kennyp above.

What I do miss about “natural” riding is the sense of adventure. It’s so incredibly rare that I get to ride somewhere genuinely new, so those moments of following maps to fabulous new trails often have months if not years between them. I miss the days when every weekend was a new ride in a new place that involved guidebooks and maps to navigate. All my riding these days seems to be either following trail markers or over-familiar routes and this is largely due to not having the luxury of time to explore new places.

Sad news indeed. I read that it may have been a heart attack but not sure if it was the precursor to him crashing or a result of the crash. I hope for the sake of the sport it wasn’t a trick gone wrong.

I feel sadder about this than any of the other high profile deaths 2016 has ushered in 🙁

Sad news indeed. I read that it may have been a heart attack but not sure if it was the precursor to him crashing or a result of the crash. I hope for the sake of the sport it wasn’t a trick gone wrong.

I feel sadder about this than any of the other high profile deaths 2016 has ushered in.

Apologies if already mentioned, but for those who are interested, Cyclist magazine did an article on these devices several issues back. If I get chance later I’ll see if I can find a link.

I suggest it depends on how you ride, where you ride, in what conditions you ride and how often. A weekend trail centre warrior who rarely hits big rocks and mud and fastidiously (and carefully) cleans their bike after every ride is going to have much longer service intervals (and lower costs) than, for example, someone who rides their bike several times a week in the depths of wet, muddy and gritty winters.

My first full susser (Whyte 46 with a Fox RP3 on it) had nothing more than one set of new bearings on it in the 5 years or so that I had it, but I bet my mileage in that time was no more than a single year for a super keen rider.

Bloody love Cannock. Bloody love the Peak District. Sometimes I want to ride one and sometimes the other. Fortunately I’m about halfway between Cannock and the Hope/Derwent Valley honey pot so either is convenient.

I 100% agree with Chainline that Cannock teaches skills – cornering – that a lot of the straight-line Peak District can’t.

I’ve not read all that ^ so apologies if this has already been mentioned, but I read something interesting the other day about divergence making a comeback. For the past few years we’ve seen a rapid pace of convergence where technologies are converging into one device i.e. the smartphone.

Not many years back Apple were promoting Macs as the hub of your digital world, with MP3 players, DVD players, digital cameras and PDAs all connecting to that hub. All those gadgets became redundant for many people when they got smart phones and tablets. The tech industry is now beginning a divergent trend and an example of this is the comeback of vinyl. Brands like Sony are dusting off record pressing equipment and Technics recently showcased their venerable SL1200 deck at the 2016 Consumer Electronics Show. apparently vinyl sales in the US are now worth more than streaming, although I have no idea of the data behind this because it sounds a little suspect.

Anyhow, the point is what someone on page 1 mentioned i.e. the market has matured. We’re looking for our tech fix elsewhere and smartphones no longer give us that satisfying experience that new tech can give; they are just another tool now. I for one am having a hoot rediscovering my vinyl collection and listen to records more than streaming in 2016.

Normally out before 7 for

Monday -climbing
Tuesday – fast club mtb ride
Wed – climbing in winter, sup/snorkeling/kayaking in lighter months
Thus – pub mtb ride or climbing
Fri – pub
Sat – pub/meal out/ friends in
Sun – recover….

A tiny bit jealous.

General routine is feed kids, do homework with kids, bath kids, put kids to bed, give kids a cuddle, put kids back to bed (this could continue for some time), tidy kitchen and wash up, do the odd bits and bobs I need to do for myself, sit on the sofa, bed.

Once upon a time an occasional night ride figured in all this but that seems to have gone out the window this year. One night a week I’m away with work and perhaps once or twice a month I have a mid-week trip to the local ale house. Too much time is spent in the house in general 🙁

Coldplay, who goes to see them live?

I did

That must be the most boring gig ever.

It really wasn’t, although it’s been a while since they did anything that tickled my fancy despite being quite a fan a few years back.

The thing I find with the Stones is so many of their songs start really promising and then just get a bit dull. Sympathy for the Devil is a great example of this; I hear the opening bars and think “I love this song” then 2 minutes later I’m getting a bit bored. It’s like it needs some bigger wheels on it to make it come alive.

Here’s another specific track that I’ve never really “got”…

Hotel California

^no

Completely indifferent to him, with the exception being Life on Mars which I think is tremendous. Personally I thought he had a poor singing voice.

Oh go on then. Still love it, even more so since i had the shock PUSH tuned.

Transition Bandit at the Roaches by stilltortoise[/url], on Flickr

Tried 29er hated it, had a go on my mates new 27.5 he can’t get up stuff we used to get up together

To be fair if there was only 26″ wheels you could still have this experience going from one model of bike to another.

Tried a Stumpjumper hated it, had a go on my mates new Orange Alpine he can’t get up stuff we used to get up together

See? 🙂

Those of you who have a full winter boot, do you wear them year round? Ideally I can’t justify/afford multiple pairs.

A quick couple of minutes of Googling suggests those that do have the Scree in stock don’t have them in my size, but thanks for the tip.

Older siblings meant I got exposed to some pretty good (subjective) stuff in my formative years, but this was the first album I bought with my very own money

Yep, Transition Bandit. It’s so 26 it even says it on the top tube. How cool am I? 😀
That said I do own a 29er too, albeit a very different rigid, single speed beast.

As a couple of people have said above, I’m really not interested in new bike shopping. I’ve had the Bandit 3(?) years now and still love it. I don’t know if this is coincidence (and I really do think it’s fab) or a genuine sub-conscious reaction to the “death” of 26ers.

Tried all the models on that I mention above and the Crossmax H2Os look like the ones for me.

3

My “main” helmet – road or MTB depending on whether the peak comes off or stays on, natch 🙂
Met Parachute – had it for years, never wear it, but good to have for lending out occasionally
Full face – for playing on the jumps and DH

If you want to force an SMS then yes you will need to turn your imessage off, this still allows you to maintain the same thread of messages and imessages if you have correctly instigated that thread by messaging a phone number not an appleID. I have just done that, it works fine.

This is what I’ve been doing and it doesn’t work just fine. It caused me an issue this morning hence why I started this thread.

I know some of you must be doubting my competency here 🙂 but a lot of the suggestions here are things I’ve tried and I think I just need to accept the limitations of having iMessage on or off. It’s not ideal for my needs either way.

Thanks again everyone

EDIT

So apologies OP, it can happen!!

😀

if you go to the contact, tap the message icon next to the mobile number it should send it as an SMS.

nope

its their problem to solve

Well actually it’s my problem because I’m trying to get an important message to someone and I can’t. I use text messages to arrange dropping off kids, picking up kids, when I’ll be back from work or sending a message whilst I’m in a meeting where calling someone isn’t appropriate.

So if something is important you can just call them instead.

I *could* call but that’s not always practical.

{EDIT}

Loads of my regular contacts have multiple Apple devices, I can honestly say I have never had an issue contacting them using iMessage.

I have though, hence why I turn iMessage off

I appreciate everyone’s help, I really do, but I’m feeling like I’m in the minority of people who find, from many bad experiences, that iMessage is a poor implementation of a messaging service and I don’t want to use it. In typical Apple fashion, swimming against their tide can be a frustrating experience, but every time I’ve turned iMessage back on again I’ve found myself in a situation where I’ve found it unsatisfactory for my needs.

Clearly the days of SMS are numbered and I’m fighting a losing battle.

^I asked for that 🙂

Why not just call rather then test?

They might be at work, putting the kids to bed, otherwise occupied…

Genuine question for those who find that iMessage works for you. How do you deal with this scenario?

– You have iMessage turned on
– You send a message to someone who also uses iMessage
– You have mobile data signal as does one of the recipients devices so the iMessage gets delivered (it shows blue)
– The contact you’re trying to message is somewhere with their iPhone but with no mobile data signal so doesn’t get the iMessage on their phone
– You want to send them a message that doesn’t rely on them having mobile data i.e. SMS

Lots of us I’m sure still live in areas where mobile data is not great so SMS still serves a purpose.

The answer used to be to send an SMS but with iMessage that seems to be getting more and more convoluted.

I appreciate the suggestions to get my wife to turn off the iPad, but I can’t do that for all the other friends, family and work colleagues I have with iDevices.

I’m sure the root cause of my woes – which is that I cannot physically send a message to a contact who has previously received iMessages – is because I have since turned off iMessage. I don’t want to turn iMessage back on again

not sure what the problem is

It’s up there in another of my posts

“Cannot Send Message. iMessage needs to be enabled to send this message”

I can assure you doubters that I am genuinely having this issue and not imagining it 🙂

I’ve found a solution for now, but if anyone has a more elegant solution that doesn’t involve deleting contacts and message threads I’m all ears.

Are you by any chance texting them on an email address?

No. This has caught me out before, but not in this case.