@dyna-ti is 2010-2012 stuff retro these days? (serious question!)

I might try splitting my original Cotic Rocket and take it from there, it’s not a full working bike anyway.

What’s the point in keeping it in the garage unused to depreciate further when someone else could be riding it?

Yes, this – exactly.

Thanks for ideas, just need to find time to act on them.

Unless you have a time machine then they are not very valuable at all.

I’m (hopefully!) being realistic in thinking a few hundred quid each for them, maybe 10-20% of what they cost. Enough that I’m not prepared to donate them to recycling place.

What have you got… somoeone on here might be interested. I run a rigid 26″ and a newer 27.5″ – ideal for XC I’d say.

Sorry, this isn’t meant to be a pseudo-ad so keeping it general.

40 posts and no-one has written “Your Mum”. This forum has really gone downhill IMO.

Depends if he did the route over Burma Road to River Dulnain or up and back to Alvie….

I think its just for a couple of weeks between the roundabout at the top of the village and the Calla Road turn-off towards Auchengray, so basically worst possible bit to be shut.

A702 is main trunk road with lots of HGV traffic – would avoid at all costs.

A701 to Leadburn and A6094/B7026 via Howgate and Auchendinny would be my suggestions for a direct route. There’s a decent cafe at Broughton (Laurel Bank) and a good farm shop/ organic place at Whitmuir on A701. Other stops are few and far between, it’s pretty remote and sparsely populated countryside.

Indirect routes – take a right just before Broughton onto B712, past Stobo, over the Meldons into Eddleston is lovely. From there A703 is fast and quite busy but usually OK – side roads if you take a left back towards A701/ Lamancha after about 2km, or a right towards Temple and Carrington and in through SE Edinburgh.

A word of caution on Scotroutes’ suggestion, the A70 is closed for a few miles just NW of Carnwath and the detour is quite a lengthy one – any other time I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend it as it’s a lovely route. Also the Water of Leith is a swamp again, if you’re on road bikes I’d stick to tarmac through Balerno and Currie.

Have a great ride and I hope the wind is at your back all day.

Thanks, much appreciated.

Long term investors like insurance companies and pension funds will lend to short sellers. The borrower pays a fee to borrow the stock which gives some extra income for the lender and the borrower will usually post collateral (basically give you a deposit) so the risks are fairly low. If you’re in it for the long term then the short term fluctuations are largely irrelevant, so might as well make something extra from them.

Water blocks holes on barometer sensor so the air pressure recording isn’t accurate and the unit believes that rather than the GPS altitude (or occasionally flips between the two).

A silicon case makes a big difference in my experience, mine hardly ever misreads now unless its really wet for a prolonged period. Strava elevation correction is available on desktop version – click the m ascent and it’s an option there, not sure you can do it from the app.

As above wouldn’t recommend Avoriaz – not quite dead if you go into the village but certainly looks it from outside. Have a look at Samoens for an alternative to Morzine/ Les Gets – beautiful valley, old mountain market town, loads of walks, bars, cafes, swimming pool and lake, aerial wire course, still feels very French and not like a purpose built resort (because it isn’t).

Bump for the daytime massive

Much of above. Went for a looooong weekend at end of November. Loved it.

If you go to the peak, go for a wander up to The gardens then do Governors walk – nice circuit and much quieter than other paths.

Lantau was ace – boat from central, bus to monastery and cable car back to metro station. Wasn’t too enamoured with Kowloon but loved HK island. Also mid levels escalator and dried fish district, and HK park in Central. Do some team rides. Star Ferry is also amazing and about 25p for a crossing.

Get an octopus card, makes travel so much easier. Works on everything and you can buy stuff in convenience stores. It’s not a big place, we went to Lantau and were back on HK island by mid afternoon, which frees you up to do something else.

And the food. By Christ, the food!

For flight, late flight from Western Europe plus a few drinkies and a film. Noise cancelling earphones were a godsend, enabled us to get a decent amount of sleep in WT+ (BA premium economy – was our own money!). Just make yourself stay up to normal time, then get up at normal time – we were actually not too disorientated.

Shot a quick iPhone video from Edinburgh castle, I’ll upload it tonight. Cracking day for the flight and a fitting send off

Over forth bridges right now.

Heard very mixed reviews of Witchery though haven’t eaten there myself, I suspect there is much better out there.

Timberyard is amazing but doubt you’d get a table; maybe worth phoning even if online shows as fully booked. Aizle nearly as good but about half the price though again you might struggle to get in. Castle terrace is shut for refub until late Jan or I would also suggest that.

In “not selling a kidney” category, La Garrigue is always excellent; also Blackfriars on Blackfriars Street – probably my two favourite places in Edinburgh, factoring in price. Wedgwood on Royal Mile is also good pretty good. Aizle, noted above, is similar money.

Edinburgh’s not so big – if you’re willing to branch out toward the New Town, Honours on Castle Street is maybe 10-15 mins walk, great bistro run by Martin WIshart (of eponymous Leith restaurant). Also Cafe St Honore on Thistle Street, similar distance. L’escargot bleu and blanc on Q’ferry and Broughton Streets (or is it the other way around?) are good and Cafe Marleyne also comes recommended.

I’m hungry just writing this!

Saw this at lunchtime and didn’t have a chance to reply until now. Burgundy is beautiful and as long as you avoid the N roads rural France is great for cycling.

We stayed in Vaux-en-Beaujolais last summer (just south of Macon) and did two lovely rides in the hills between the Saone and L’Azergues rivers – could easily have done a lot more. Hotel was absolutely fantastic and very reasonable for the quality of food and wine. http://www.aubergedeclochemerle.fr/uk/index.php

Burgundy proper also looks good for riding – north of Beaune is hillier than south but once you get away from the wine villages it’s really rural (and even then, as long as you’re not on the D974/ D981 then you’ll be grand). Can suggest some places there too, though tends towards the expensive end.

Champagne is a lot flatter and more industrial if that’s a fair term – wasn’t too impressed by Epernay and haven’t been too fussed about visiting Reims (sorry Blacksmith).

At risk of recommending something completely different to that which you’ve asked for (hey, it is STW you know!), have you considered Alsace? It’s picture-postcard beautiful, quite different from the rest of France and well worth the detour in my opinion. We’ve stayed in a few of the villages around Ribeauville and Eguisheim – flat plain flanked by the Vosges mountains. It adds 2-3 hours onto the drive from French Alps to Channel but it’s not such an issue if you’re taking a couple of days and you’ll save a pile on tolls if you go home via Lux and Belgium, plus fuel in Luxembourg is silly cheap (especially diesel). Alsace wine is also tremendous and superb value. I love the area – if you want more tips just shout.

They are doing Scottish Taxpayer notifications at the moment. Might be something to do with that. Probably have crappy data. It’s single sheet of paper in a brown A5 envelope with a NE98 1ZZ return address.

Yep, been a member for several years. Pretty much everything we have bought has been really good. “The Society’s” and Exhibition wines are great examples of their type. We tend to buy Portugal/ Chile/ Argentina/ Italy for value and them move into classic regions via the Fine Wine “Small Wonders” list, with very occasional excesses (like a ’59 Vouvray Molleux which was actually worth it…).

Enjoying the fruits of a “World Classics” cellar plan we started a few years ago – £28 a month yields 2 cases a year of really good new world and allegedly second tier old world wines, but very carefully chosen examples. Also starting to get a bit of en primeur stuff coming through, which is a good way to buy classics.

We buy wine on holidays and use a local wine seller for stuff (Drinkmonger in Edinburgh who I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend) but Wine Soc is the mainstay of our drinking.

Have you thought about flying from Lyon? It’s not as big an airport as Geneva but has some year-round services, unlike Chambery or Grenoble. Might be easier than Geneva by train, no idea how the railways fit together as always driven.

So the pedestrian runs into road in front of cyclist without looking? Well clear of a junction too which should take away ambiguity. Sounds pretty clear cut to me.

Edit: obviously witnesses will help

If you have BCF or LCC membership or anything similar, start there. Otherwise legal helpline with home
insurance.

Wanmankylung how do you make it 50:50?

Bow Bar, Brewdog on Cowgate, OX184 get my vote. Southern and Blackfriars bar a little further towards Holyrood too.

We have recently moved to a platform that uses four character codes for accounts; the old system had two characters. As accounts are migrated over onto the new platform, the convention is to use “x2y2” so it’s clear that it has a predecessor on the old system.

Gloriously, account RD was moved across, so we now have “R2D2”.

Someone has now set up a new account “C3PO”on the system now, which is causing a few problems because of the “o”/ “zero” thing, and we don’t normally use “letter O”. But once something is set up it’s too much hassle to change it…. I chuckle every time I see it.

10 pence short

Bag charge has made a massive difference here (Scotland).

We had “bags for life” for supermarket shopping and reused most other bags we got but we still had a surplus. Now we are working through that and I reckon I’ve only bought about 10 bags since the charge came in.

The balancing skills of people in Sainsburys and Boots at lunchtime are pretty astonishing too, I reckon if they brought back Crackerjack the Scots would beast it.

Smoking in cars should be banned anyway, on what level does it make sense to let people hold something that’s on fire in a vehicle when they are meant to be concentrating?

Did the Three Pistes Sportive at the end of May. 180km including ride to start and finishing up and a few hills. Haven’t done more than 100km since, due to Real Life intervening. Main thing is to start steady and not go into the red unless totally necessary, and eat and drink from the start.

Did 100km on the mountain bike in January but not done anything remotely that long since.

E – nowt, had pizza earlier
D – Armagnac
L – Last Leg on Channel 4

BUMP – any links to detailed maps for the EWS Enduro stuff? Found a sketch map for day 1 that I think I can follow but nothing for day 2. Was it all on the Samoans 1600 side or did they use some of the Joux Plane side too?

Don’t do it. You’ll end up in a mess. You’ll probably be personally liable to tax in Germany anyway (I doubt they have anything as generous as IR35), plus the UK company you set up (“LtdCo”) will also have a “permanent establishment” there (“PE”) if you’re working for it in Germany it’s probably not got any UK payroll tax/ NI to pay but LtdCo will have German tax to pay on it’s profits from Germany. Follow me so far? Good.

You might not have UK corporate tax for LtdCo if you make the right elections with HMRC but to get money out you’d need to remit it from the German PE to UK head office (simples, relatively), then pay yourself a dividend. That’s probably taxable on you in Germany as well. Some of the tax will be offsettable against other tax but not all of it and if you ever wind things up you’ll have even more fun and games.

have I put you off yet?

Few years back but our old dog had a thing for shoes. Just left ones, it seemed.

Also as a puppy she ate a VHS tape. For a few days after that had to take rubber gloves and scissors on walks as she spooled it out. Seems magnetic tape isn’t too digestible.

Yes, not as developed as Portes du Soleil for MTB but IMO better for it. Some substantial lift-assist missions possible. If you’re willing to explore the VTT map from the Tourist Office shows most of the good stuff – pair that with an IGN and you’re off. Lifts are on the S side of the valley and does get pretty sketchy if it’s wet – heavy clay soil and northerly aspect so takes ages to dry out. Best trails are on the N but plenty of good riding and as others have said you’re 30 mins by car to Les Gets. Some of the local companies will shuttle you over too (try GoMassif but there are plenty).

Olly – That’ll be the Vagnys Lift out of Sixt. Shonkiest chair in the western world. Every time I’ve been on it, it’s stopped and I’ve been amazed when it’s restarted…

Some more stuff here too:
http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/grand-massif-lift-pass

Link to news story about the Joux Plane

http://www.morznet.com/news/col-de-joux-plane-closure-forces-events-in-morzine-to-change-route-morzine-region-684252

Nick, ooh sounds nice…maybe this summers trip???

verbboy – the start of that path is fairly in distinct. There’s a buvette near the end of the 4×4 track, just after that there is a couple of vague paths that go across the meadow. They look really unpromising, little more than cow trails, but join up after 2-300m. From there it becomes more distinct then heads into the trees. Mix of singletrack and double track with switchbacks all the way down to the cirque. If the lift in Sixt is running it’s a good half day ride.

NB The Morzine side of the Joux Plan is closed and likely to stay closed for the summer (though Samoens side is open). Result of some pretty severe storm damage. Lifts from Les Gets up to the Ranfolly will still be running but tarmac route is no go.

If the weather is really bad you won’t get the full benefit of Rannoch Moor and Glencoe. Maybe if you have all day go over Rest and Be Thankful and round via Inverary and Oban – nice coastal scenery. Really don’t need attractions, the landscape is enough!

RichMTB – Atlas went under (or almost) and was bought by the Orkney guys. The brewery in KLL is closed but at least some of their beers appear as “Atlas range” or something like that.

+1 for Fallen – probably the best small brewery in Scotland at the moment. Pilot and Cromarty also do great stuff.

Of the slightly bigger players, Tempest and Fyne ales are generally great and don’t forget Brewdog.

I like this one

“Pedal faster, I hear banjos”.

https://app.strava.com/segments/4697600

If you’ve been to Roman Camps, you’ll see why…

I went from a 4S to a 6 and I think reception is a bit better. It doesn’t drop 3G on the train into work any more and seems to find useable signal in a few places I never used to. Could be a coincidence with new masts coming online around same time as I got the new phone though…

I was fascinated by it. Had a couple of days there on a Denver – San Fran road trip. Bit of a shocker after 10 hours drive through the desert from Moab! Stayed in the Venetian. We were the only ones with TNF duffels and Evoc bike bags at check in!

Just sort of wandered and took in hotels and the free shows, ate well for not much (lots of top U.S. restaurants have a Vegas outpost) and did a Grand Canyon helicopter trip. Didn’t gamble and avoided pool parties and that sort of thing. We did go and see an Elvis tribute show though, which was awesome!

Wouldn’t rush back but wouldn’t avoid it either.