Although this is a monster ride for one day, or even two, it should be good for some inspiration.

http://peakdistrictmtb.org/the-south-peak-loop-is-it-any-good/%5B/url%5D

Both the Grangemill and Middleton routes in this book are good options and can be linked to create a bigger loop. If you’re there this weekend you might even see some of the Y Not festival from the High Peak Trail :-) Do bear in mind that the High Peak Trail is a disused railway, so whilst it is undeniably pleasant and pretty, it is mostly flat and non-technical. The routes I recommend above do head off the trail though.

I live and ride around Leek and whilst I’d love to say there’s good options for what you say you’re after, I can’t.

Thanks Perchy. I did wonder whether Alexa was one solution. I assume I could get an Echo Dot and hook up to my existing speaker…

^not read all that, but I remember reading something from one of the teams saying (small amounts of) rear suspension help.

work like a traditional radio

You mean I can press one button and be instantly listening to the radio?

Press one button to turn the radio on.

In the delightful world of convergent technology, I use my iPhone for radio in my kitchen. By the time I’ve turned on the bluetooth speaker, opened the radio app, clicked play, opened up iOS control centre and selected the speaker to Airplay the audio to, I’ve gone through 7 clicks/swipes! And that doesn’t even include unlocking the phone!

<goes on Amazon looking for old-skool radios>

Some good info here http://peakdistrictmtb.org

and the Peak District MTB Facebook page is a good source for recommendations and shout-outs for people to ride with.

Don’t forget Keeper of the Peak which is – quite genuinely – an excellent resource for checking our trail conditions in the Peak.

Good point re the awning. We had a tent that didn’t have a decent awning and it was a nightmare to get in and out of when it was raining. I can only reinforce what the others said above.

I think they’re good tents at a nice price. Whether it’s the right tent for you and your needs I’m not sure.

– how many adults and kids does it need to sleep?
– is it for long trips or just for the odd night or two?
– Is it big enough to keep you all comfortable and occupied if the bad weather sets in?
– it is just going in the back of the car or will you ever need to carry it?

etc etc

We bought one of these last year at a good price. It’s huge, it’s heavy and you wouldn’t want to put it up for just one night, but as a luxurious and comfortable place to spend several nights camping with 2 adults and 3 kids, it’s perfect. The interior space is great when it’s raining and your tent-bound, whilst the awning/porch is superb for having a sheltered place to cook, eat and keep outdoor shoes etc dry.

I used to have a Boxster with the number plate BX02 EZR. Wish I’d kept the number plate when I sold the car

[edit – it came with the car when I bought it]

This thread made me laugh. We’ve got a black car and have just ordered a white one :lol:

I actually think there’s a lot more colour on the road these days. Those Citreon Cactus are a refreshingly colourful sight and I keep seeing lots of colourful city cars like Aygos. In my experience it seems the bigger the car, the less exciting the colour choices less adventurous the owners become.

For obvious reasons this thread got me wondering what – exactly – is a motorbike. My initial Googling told me that motorbike is another word for motorcycle. A couple of definitions of motorcycle:

a vehicle with two wheels and an engine

(source)

a two-wheeled vehicle that is powered by a motor and has no pedals

(Source: I just asked Google to define motorcycle)

This then begs the question of what the difference is between motor and an engine:

A motor is a machine that converts other forms of energy into mechanical energy and so imparts motion.
An engine is a motor that converts thermal energy to mechanical work.

(source)

So, *if* a motorbike is the same as a motorcycle and *if* a motorcycle must have an engine to be a motorcycle and *if* an engine must have combustion to be an engine then e-bikes are….

….

….sorry I ran out of sh*ts to give at that point :lol:

[edit: I’m conscious that the two definitions I provided don’t agree with each other anyway. I shouldn’t have bothered]

I’m thinking of hiring an e-bike when I go to Austria in a couple of weeks. I’m looking forward to weighing in with my opinion after that :lol:

:-P @Pook

would it put you off?

Did it put you off?

Translating your OP as “We went to the local pub and felt a bit uncomfortable” then yes, it would put me off. Unless you want to live your life as a recluse, I’d suggest that friendly and sociable neighbours are a must. Some sound advice above too.

You can argue the line should be drawn differently to where it is at the moment, that would be a perfectly valid discussion – but sooner or later there has to be a line, where does it need to sit in order to be a ‘properly funded NHS’?

Every day NICE and no doubt many hundreds if not thousands of very bright and very professional people have to make these choices of who gets treated, how and when. This line you speak of might help guide that process, but I’m confident you realise it’s a lot more nuanced than “Boob jobs: yes or no?”.

My 8 yo has a 24″ Hoy Bonaly and we’re both really impressed. I’m jealous of the (stock) Small Block 8s he has on there.

I only wish I could persuade him to stand up on the rough stuff instead of being bounced out of the saddle :lol:

A downside to it’s very good breathability is that it is a very light fabric, therefore, not too resilient to wear

OK for road riding then, but not so good off mountain biking (wearing a rucksack, crashing etc)??

I’ve had some recent experiences where the service has been genuinely excellent. The staff have made me feel extremely welcome and have made the experience of eating out considerably more enjoyable than the norm. That is what earns a tip in my opinion. My “norm” might be very different from yours.

The fall in popularity of paying by cash must have a huge impact on whether people tip or not. I tip less often as a result of rarely having cash on me when eating out. I’m not saying that’s right, but it’s a huge correlation.

Some more interesting stuff regarding new features in High Sierra on this page [/url]

Being able to have an iCloud storage plan for the family is very welcome :-)

@Brassneck – Sonos 3 are £299 so similar ballpark to HomePod. Would you consider the HomePod if you didn’t already have a Sonos 3?

Currently she is terrible and get more wrong than right.

I agree that Siri can be infuriatingly poor and have sworn at him/her in frustration on many occasions. However, I do think Siri works well with Apple Music, or at least well enough to be useful.

The party that you think is the best choice for society as a whole…What’s important is that they share the same morals, values and destination with you. Vote for that party.

Mine are shared roughly 1/3 each by Labour, Tories and Greens.
Who should I vote for o wise one?

If you really are pulled 3 different ways, vote Lib Dem :-)

Politicians lie and break promises and we wonder “what’s the point?”. However one of the parties out there will share your beliefs, your morals; they will stand up and fight for what you think is the right way to do things. They may make mistakes along the way and you may disagree with some of the things they do to get where you want society and this country to be. What’s important is that they share the same morals, values and destination with you. Vote for that party.

I wrote this – more or less word for word – at the last general election. I stand by those words, but it doesn’t make me feel any more positive about the political choices on offer.

I think HomePod fills a significant and sizeable niche in the market:

– Those who have chosen to use Apple Music (and not one of the supported music streaming services on Echo, Google Home etc)
– Those who want a Sonos-style equivalent that has some AI rather than a smart(er) hub that plays music. I.e. for those for whom music is more important than the AI/smart stuff.
– Those concerned about the security/privacy issues surrounding the way Amazon and Google use your data for AI. This *could* play out to be a key strength for Apple
– and of course those who just want to keep everything Apple

These differences may be subtle. They may simply be clever marketing rather than objective advantages. However, they are marketable differences and I think they’ll be lots of people who will snap these up.

If Apple hadn’t have launched this yesterday, I probably would have moved back to Spotify and bought an Amazon Echo. If even a relatively small percentage of other Apple Music subscribers did the same, that’s a huge amount of lost recurring revenue for Apple. They had to do this.

no idea about those little talking speaker things they are just toys for geeks.

For me, the lack of such a device was a huge hole in Apple’s line-up that I’m delighted they’ve filled. Assuming the sound quality is good, I’d love one. I still have a big collection of vinyl and CDs, but most of my listening is done via Apple Music. It’s a LOT easier to tell Siri to play something than searching and scrolling through an app, and now I’ll be able to do that without using my iPhone. Can’t wait. I’ve little interest in having the thing talk back to me.

I was worried that this would be another shambles of a race, but when the top 10 or so riders started to come through it was amazing! I’ve never seen Gwin look so pissed off :lol:

[EDIT] although the reason the top 10 was exciting was probably because Red Bull actually gave them some hard decent coverage

I’ll echo everything that’s said above. I love my Chromebook. It’s inexpensive computing that serves the majority of the needs of the majority of computer users, and the more you’re engrained in the Google ecosystem the better. I love Google Docs for example.

Downsides?
It’s not as pleasant to use as a more expensive laptop. For example I will by default reach for my MacBook as opposed to my Chromebook, but the former cost 5 times as much as the latter. The Chromebook tends to be used if I’m concerned the MacBook will get damaged or stolen.

I’ve also come across situations where I can’t get software to do what I want on a Chromebook. Either Google Docs is light on functionality for what I need or Chrome doesn’t have suitable extensions for stuff I’m trying to do. For instance Google Docs is fab for basic test-based work processing and the odd image, but for more sophisticated docs I prefer Word or Apple’s Pages. Likewise photos: I much prefer the better quality monitor and offline photo editing of my MacBook than trying to manage and edit photos on the Chromebook. That situation may now be better with Google Photos.

They’re great for the money and are certainly not 5 times worse than a laptop that costs 5 times as much, but you may find you can’t quite do everything the way you want and prefer. Still highly recommended though.

Just to confuse matters, I’m going to recommend something completely different :-)

Why not combine a ski and sun (and possibly even MTB) holiday in Spain? I believe Motril is a good base for MTB and is less than 1 1/2 hours from the Sierra Nevada and similar distance from Malaga for cheap flights.

My in-laws live a couple of hours from Sierra Nevada (Spain, not USA), so I took my lad up there for a day. Granted kit hire and ski passes for one day is not cheap, but it was a good taster for him in Easter sunshine, whilst off the mountains it was shorts and t-shirt weather. It’s not a huge resort, so probably won’t be enough for good skiers over the course of a week, but if you want to take your daughter for the proper mountain experience and some beach time and potentially some MTB, it’s worth considering.

For those who have answered the OP’s question, do you look for doorstep riding or are you happy to travel? I think a truly classic location *has* to have riding from the doorstep. Where I live in the southern Peak District, the good stuff involves 30 minutes of road riding to get to, so I wouldn’t recommend it as a classic MTB base. You don’t need to go many miles up the road to be in the thick of some great stuff though.

MBR did an article on this a few years back and I think Bristol came out top or near the top.

Great question OP. I’ve ridden in north and south Wales, the Lakes, the Scottish borders, Torridon, Cairngorms, the Dales, the Yorkshire Moors and of course – my home – The Peak District. Whilst I’ve undoubtedly had some amazing days out in all of those places, i never forgot how central a location the Peak District is for great riding (on and off road) *and* for access to all those other fab places. The Peak District is not – IMHO – the best riding in the UK, but it’s hard to beat as a central location.

Thats probably where you failed, attacking the Gatesgarth climb!

I gave up trying to ride it quite early on :-)

Lakeland hike-a-bike May 2016 by stilltortoise[/url], on Flickr

To the naysayers what were you expecting?

Simple. I expected to enjoy it more than I did. The weather was awesome, I was with mates, I was feeling fit(ish). For me it was Gatesgarth that turned a previously enjoyable ride into something that didn’t live up to expectations. Whilst I enjoy the challenge of climbing, that just went on for too long. I then didn’t ride the descent down to Haweswater very well, which pissed me off more. *Then* came the true hike-a-bike. By the time I got to the top of Nan Bield, I felt a bit cheated. In fact half way up Nan Bield I was wondering if I’d be having more fun on the Fred Whitton which was being ridden that same day.

By the time I came to the main descent, the psychological damage had already been done :-)

It could be argued of course that at all times you should be able to stop for an in expected situation

Having been ripped off my bike by a similar incident I can testify to the fact you simply don’t see these things. They are not placed there to be seen.

I enjoyed this 15 miler the other weekend. The climb up to Addlebrough is best done after a dry spell. Nothing too technical on this at all. https://www.strava.com/activities/941491607

The VG guides books to the Dales are a fantastic way to get some ideas and inspiration.

you cannot lump all Android phones together

Same issue for Windows tbh.

You can tell people they shouldn’t lump all Android phones together, but they will. People out shopping for a smartphone or a computer broadly have two choices: Apple or Android and Apple or Windows. You and I both appreciate that Windows and Android are just operating systems, but the OS is useless without the hardware. As many have alluded to, Apple blend both hardware and OS together to make it much harder – nay, impossible – to buy a duffer. That confidence for the buyer is worth the premium.

I did Pyms Chair the other day

Ugh! That climb is tough; one of my least favourite in the Peak District. There are steeper and longer climbs, but that just seems to get steeper and harder.

I like the climb up the B5056 from near Birchover to up above Winster. It’s a nice gradient to get a good, efficient rhythm and it has some lovely sharp bends that make it feel a bit alpine. I don’t do it enough. Shame about the cars.

Games would be the obvious one I suppose.

Is that still as big an issue? I’m not a gamer and genuinely don’t know the answer, but I see more and more games on the Mac App Store these days. Are those that aren’t available for Mac available for a games console? Or, to ask another questions, are there any games that are PC-only?

Or when someone recommends a Skoda should I remind them of the pre-VAG ones?

The thing is – irrational as it might be – there are LOADS of people who still relate Skoda to the “bad times”. My wife is one of them. It’s human nature; unless your preconceived beliefs are regularly challenged they simply will not change. If someone has had a bad experience on Windows followed by a good experience on Apple, the only compelling reasons to reconsider Windows are bad experiences on Apple or money, natch!.

{edit – or a third reason – Windows does something Apple doesn’t. I can actually see that happening and winning people back)

Can’t believe we’re actually doing this again.

STW needs an FAQ section