And you’re looking for a solution to problem that doesn’t exist

*Feels like trolling but he’s a moderator so can’t be* 😕

I’m very much looking for a solution to a very real problem that very much does exist and I’ve explained that above.

Just send your messages – its their problem to figure out how they receive them.

This is not just about my wife; it is about sending a text message to anyone who has an iDevice. I simply can’t do it and it appears to be because I don’t have iMessage turned on. When I say I can’t send a message I mean I get an error on my phone that says

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

I don’t want to turn on iMessage for the reasons mentioned, buy my hand is being forced. All I want is to be able to send SMS messages. As someone said above, I want an SMS app on my phone. I had one and now Apple have taken it away to all intents and purposes.

ANYHOO, using a combination of suggestions I’ve sorted it. I had to delete the contact AND the conversation then start from scratch typing the phone number in. Not the most elegant of solutions but I appreciate all your input. I’ve not turned iMessage on 🙂

ta

bear in mind I used my wife as an example, but in reality it could be any recipient who has iMessage enabled but on multiple devices. I can’t ask all of them to turn off their other devices.

I don’t even get an option to press and hold to send as SMS because I have iMessage disabled on my phone. My phone wants to send an iMessage because the previous messages for the contact have been iMessages.

Frustrating.

Thanks Jam bo but that doesn’t do the job (I already have that enabled).

The issue is not that I want to send SMS when iMessage is unavailable; I simply don’t want to use iMessage. Why? The reason is that recipients may not have access to iMessage. If my wife, for example, is out but with no mobile data signal, I want to be able to send her an SMS. It’s happened so many times and it’s a pain, especially since the iMessage will get delivered to her iPad which is on the wireless but not with her, so I never get the option to force send it as an SMS.

Tried the AM45 on and didn’t quite get on with the fit (not to mention the lace flap which I can tell would annoy me). The Crossride XL Elite (formerly the Alpine I think) are great so it looks like my feet might be Mavic-shaped. Will try the Scree/H2O ASAP; I think that could be the one to go for.

Thanks for the help so far. Any other practical advice warmly received.

Looks like that Scree is the same as the Crossmax Pro H20; probably just a rename. Mark (of STW fame) raved about them in the last issue.

Never mind poo in the swimming pool, my lad threw up. That was nice 😳

You can easily pedal a comfy cadence at 20mph with 32-11

What’s a comfy cadence? That sounds like a lot of frantic leg spinning to me.

^good point. What I meant to say is there isn’t the breadth of variation so easily accessible as in the UK. Nowhere is far away in the UK compared to the distance between places in Oz.

Kalamunda Camel Farm,

This is the only place I’ve ridden in Oz and it was great, but great in a “this is a good trail centre” kind of way. I didn’t really “see” Australia in the way a good ride round the Peak District or the Lakes shows you some of what the UK has to offer.

I have family out there who ride it regularly but in Summer any riding after 9am is off limits because of the heat. I got the impression that there isn’t the breadth of variation of MTB like you get in the UK, mainly because we’re a small island with hugely varying geography and a temperate climate.

Not sure that helps much 😆

Bottle cages and bum bags appear to be back in fashion, so it won’t be long before 3x setups are en vogue once more.

We’ll be wearing Ron Hill Tracksters and pulling on bar ends next 😉

You first example track didn’t tally with what I expected from your description, but having heard it I’d say it’s very PJ Harvey. I assume you’ve already been down that route but if not, do yourself a favour.

Maybe if I buy a new waterproof jacket it might stop raining 😕

The trails around Hayfield are ace and you’ll certainly feel like you’ve earned your pint at the end. Lovely village too and don’t let the comments about it being small put you off. It’s actually a decent size with more than one pub, village shop(s), cricket pitch, old railway tracks converted to cycleways for when you want an easier ride and some of the most stunning Peak District countryside on your doorstep. I’d happily live there but I can appreciate it must be hellish to commute to Manchester.

Anyone with experience of Suzuki SX4? Look terrible, but the 4grip could be a possibility, they appear quite roomy.

We have one right now, albeit the 2WD version. It’s not remotely suitable based on your criteria. It’s a small car with a high stance which has advantages, but fitting bikes in the back is not one of them. The seats when folded take up a HUGE amount of the boot space and I’ve long since given up trying to get bikes in there (I use an tow-ball mounted rack).

I should also add that the steering is heavy at slow speed, the rear suspension fairly poor and the engine (we have an auto) very noisy. The paintwork is the best I’ve had on any car though and it’s been very reliable.

That said we’ve had it several years and still love it for possibly sentimental rather than objective reasons 🙂 I’d happily sit on motorways, A-roads and B-roads in it but not bad roads.

hate using wet lube, chain is always ends up a horrible black mess

Funnily enough I find this on my road bike but not my mountain bike. I think I’m actually more fastidious with the cleaning of the drivetrain on my mountain bike than the roadie 🙂

Wet lube on a clean chain, leave it a couple of minutes then wipe off the excess. Never get claggy black gunk cos I suppose my MTB chain gets cleaned after most rides in winter.

both

Post-ride I use GT85 for getting water out of the links and preventing my chain seizing with rust. Pre-ride I lube with dedicated chain oil.

it didn’t add much but it certainly didn’t distract so go see 3D if the screen is a decent size.

^this. I thought the 3D was quite subtle, but maybe it was actually really really good and therefore it didn’t stand out (as 3D films often – and quite literally – do)

😆 touche

I think for old giffers like me who were riding in the late 80s/early 90s, XC simply meant riding a bike off-road, whatever that might entail. It means a very different thing now.

I’m never sure what people mean when they say they use a bike for trail centres but it’s ‘too much for XC’

He didn’t. He said

It’s too much bike for XC riding but an absolute hoot on more technical or faster/higher trails.

Anyhow I’m just being pedantic; I know what you mean. For some people their local bridleways are pretty tame but for others – me included – we’re lucky enough to live near some pretty rocky and technical bridleways and other rights of way.

I find motivation is self-generating. Once I’ve got my arse off the sofa and gone for a wet, dark and cold ride I realise/remember it’s great fun and I’m more motivated to do it again and again.

Even after last night’s foggy, dark, damp ride with broken lights and a puncture I still want to go out and ride again. My appalling Strava times are motivating me to get back to the level of fitness I seem to have misplaced 😕

I thought the basic Pitch was around £1100 when it was launched???

Slight hijack, but why did Spesh stop doing the Pitch? Did they simply underprice it? It got fab reviews, was an absolute bargain and I was certainly impressed when I rode one…at least on the downhill bits anyway 🙂

Back to the OP, I think you’ve now answered yourself. Save your money and rent a bike.

I’ve realised that my frustration at the ever-changing standards in the MTB industry is inversely proportional to the frequency I ride my (26″) mountain bike 🙂

If anything I’ve shifted away from road riding and I’m doing more mountain biking now. I love both, I just tend to flit from preferring one to the other depending on my fitness, the weather, the state of my bikes but perhaps more importantly which sport I’ve most recently been following in the media. When the UCI DH seasons starts it will be all about the MTB for me, but I guarantee that come Tour de France I’ll be back out in my lycra.

My bike is less than 3 years old and hasn’t yet been ridden enough justify replacing it. Fortunately it is a tremendously capable machine – despite its 26″ wheels – and I don’t seem to be anywhere near getting bored of it, breaking it or outgrowing it. I’ll continue to spend money on components as they wear out but I’ve got over my faux-anger at ever-changing standards.

I rode in Australia back in October and they laugh at us UK lot getting hung up about our precious 26ers 🙂

Mudguards? Bottle cages? I even hear bum bags are making a comeback! We’ll be digging out Ron Hill Tracksters and bar ends next 😯

What it does do is make something easy but [minor] time consumingly annoying easier to do be it seat post dropping or getting a rucksac off to get things out.

That’s just the thing for me Junkyard, the dropper post undoubtedly makes it easier whereas I see little to suggest the Wolffepack is easier than just taking the rucksack off and putting it on your front. Maybe if I try it I’ll see the light 🙂

Freeloading is where you install an extension (to Safari) that basically acts as an adblocker. It was big news when Apple launched the latest iOS to allow such extensions. Unfortunately I’m pretty sure it’s not supported on iPad 2, since I’m sure I checked at the time.

it was “the best day of my life, Dad”

Words that can bring any father to tears 🙂

We had a family trip to Oz back in October and had a couple of hours out at sea on a little boat. We fished, saw dolphins and even saw sharks. My eldest said it was his best day ever. That memory will stay with me…

nice 🙂

The analogy to a dropper post is a poor one if you ask me. A dropper post very effectively solves the problem of (not easily) being able to adjust saddle height whilst riding, which I suspect few of us are able to do with a QR seat post. Granted it’s a problem many of us didn’t know we had until such a great solution offered itself.

The Wolffepack still appears to require the same number of hands and similar faff to the traditional solution of taking the backpack off and putting it on your front. The more I think about it, the more it seems to be a poor solution to a minor problem.

I had a bite valve cover on my Source hydration pack. It wasn’t the easiest of things to take off and put back on again whilst riding along if I’m honest. I stopped using it but I never had the problem of dirty bite valves to the extent that you seem to be having it. I’m a licker and spitter (*giggles*)

Sram ones do “lock” as such, out on the trail I think you’d find it difficult to undo without some toolage.

I can testify to that. Even in the workshop with a selection of tools to pick from I still had to resort to a chain breaker. No more SRAM chains for me.

Thus i end up getting ill for the rest of the week.

<facetious response>Get your immune system checked out</facetious response>

I think we should do a quick survey for which you’ll all need a stopwatch.

When you get to the door of your house, set the stopwatch going. Don’t stop it until your bike is clean and put away and you’re back inside the house. I’m sure it takes me as long to get the washing stuff out, patio hosed down from all the muck and washing stuff away again than it does to wash the bike itself! 😆

It depends on how late back from my ride I am as to how much cleaning the bike gets 🙂

If the kids are already outside playing in the garden the bike gets a “proper job” (usually with some help):

1. Hose off the loose dirt
2. Sponge off the stubborn dirt (hot and sometimes soapy water)
3a. I have a big brush that does a great job on the cassette
3b. If the above didn’t clean the chain, out comes the chain cleaner and degreaser
4. GT85 on cassette and chain
5. Cycle forks and dropper post with some spray lube whose name I forget
6. Hang bike back up in shed feeling very pleased with how awesome it looks

Usually I get back in a rush and the bike either goes away dirty or at best it’s the hose and some GT85, although to be honest the last few rides have taken more effort to clean me and my clothes than my bike! Roll on Spring (or a proper winter at least).

Shimano probably. Their stuff works, it’s (relatively) inexpensive and ubiquitous for good reason. Not sure I see the point of experimenting with other brands for drivetrain (although I do have SRAM on the road bike). When I was riding with a guide in Spain several years ago, he was full of praise for Shimano having seen lots of other gear fail on his clients’ bikes.

Wadey has made some 400 applications, called definitive map modification orders, or DMMOs, in Hertfordshire alone, including 30 for unrecorded urban alleyways in one district of Bushey.

😯

I’m in work with plenty to do. Fortunately the lack of email and phone interruption is allowing me to tick some of it off.

STW is providing the company and occasional distraction 🙂

Cheers Jambalaya 🙂

One of the big selling points of that Mmm Bop frame was the fact it was unadorned with Ragley decals so I went off and made my own. Sadly it was nicked 3 years ago 🙁 Happily the Bandit is a much better bike 😀