I have a 529 and it’s a sodding lovely bike.  Still tweaking the set up, recently put some higher rise bars on and initial impressions are good.  That’s an amazing price for the whole build on your 627, good job!

Whereabouts are you in the country?  You need to speak to a merchant rather than a mill.  So someone like Euroforest, Tilhill or the like.  They may be able to sell you a wagon load from a recent job.

Flip it the other way – thinking on how big and vast the universe is – the thought that we could be the only sentient life out there is, I think, quite terrifying.

Presumably as when we see their private WhatsApp discussions we’ll realise just how Bunga Bunga this whole government really is.  Any other country would have torched the Houses of Parliament by now…

I also have a pair of the Vivo Tracker Esc boots (thanks Sportpursuit!) and I really like them, I do prefer zero drop shoes and I feel more stable with my ankle closer to the ground.  They don’t have a toe bumper or much other protection so not so good on what I’d call really difficult terrain.

20 year career?  Retiring?  What the…  I remember watching his first Tour FFS, that surely wasn’t that long ago!

If I was invited I’d go – whatever you think of it, its a spectacle that many of us will only ever see the once.  And whatever your views on the monarchy a huge congratulations to monkeyboyjc for getting invited!  I hope you have a fantastic time and savour every moment of the experience!

Is that a legit website?  If so that’s a good price!  I’ve not got a pair of Altra’s, but I do love zero drop shoes so would be keen to try them out.  I’m not a fan of waterproof liners in shoes (or boots really), makes them hot to wear and there’s a great big hole in the top that let’s water in anyway.  Better to be lighter weight and easy to dry out in my opinion – especially running off road where getting wet feet is just part of it.

Excellent, thanks all.  I think I’ll let him choose which version he goes for, but to my mind digital with a subscription probably makes sense as he figures out what games he likes and online multiplayer with his mates will be what he’ll want to do.

For balance, Jo Zakrzewski used to do the local hill races here and always came across as really nice and friendly.  Left us all for dead on the climbs!  I’d like to think it’s nothing more than a mistake.

I am remarkably adept at going to the shops ‘for just one thing’ and coming home with several different things and not the one thing I went for in the first place.  Almost guaranteed to happen these days.  Bike related I can never index gears first time out.  It just never works for me.  Then I go away, leave it for a bit, come back and can dial them in in seconds.

I had a similar issue just after moving in to our house with our kitchen sink. Just couldn’t unblock it, tried nasty chemicals, pressure washer attachment, home remedies and eventually got a rod set with a screw hook. Nothing worked, and I mean nothing. So I thought I’ll have to dig it out. The drain exited the house and joined into the main drain in the garden on a 90 degree angle. I knew roughly where so started clearing the gravel to dig. Found a rodding point buried in the gravel with no cover. The drain was completely backed up with gravel, packed so tight it was rock solid.  Took me a whole day with my arm all the way down the hole pulling out handfuls of gravel mixed with kitchen waste. Was utterly foul. Bought a cover the very next day. Never blocked since! We’ve been here close to two years, I just found what looks like the original cover for the rodding point buried in the vegetable garden.

Alpkit Jura?  It’s their version of a Buffalo or Montane Extreme but with a lighter pile fleece lining.  I bought one for my wife at Christmas and she absolutely loves it.  Easy to vent too.

I tried flats again recently after decades of clips as I wanted to learn better technique than relying on pulling up on the clips all the time. It’s been both frustrating and rewarding! My general descending has improved greatly but my bunny hopping is awful and I’m struggling to keep the power down on tech climbs. Bunny hops i am working on and I can see progress, tech climbs are proving more difficult to master. I’m maybe reliant too much on sheer power and should try to be more fluid and relaxed on the pedal stroke. Either way I’m having a great time learning something in my 40’s and I’m enjoying flats so much I’m not sure I’ll go back to clips.

Unfortunately the MAGA lot are slightly unhinged and have access to military grade firearms.  I could see this getting very ugly indeed.  Fox ‘News’ have been whipping them up already.  It all feels quite dangerous.

I bought a Mous case a while ago as I was after something slimmer than the Otterbox I had previously on my old phone.  At first I found it a bit slippy but once I got used to it I have to say I’m pretty impressed.  It’s more tactile, no longer slippy and probably a nicer thing to hold and use. Plus I’ve dropped my phone a fair few times onto hard surfaces and it’s survived just fine.  I did get the magsafe wallet but hardly use it due to Apple Pay.

Someone, somewhere, once said they should be made to go to work wearing a jacket with all their various outside interests and sources of funding emblazoned on it like sponsorship on football shirts. I think it’s a great idea.

How revlcent was your experience?

I live here!  Got a good view of the felling when I took the dogs out at lunch.  As tom7044 says – timber wagons are using the fireroads which has battered the hell out of them and created a lot of mess.

I’d offer to show you round the local stuff but I’m currently enjoying Covid 2 – The Return so won’t be out for a while…

There’s loads of felling and diversions in Dalbeattie right now. Unless you’re a local you’ll struggle to string together something decent! Ae is heavily disrupted by Storm Arwen and the clear up work too. Mabie is fine though so I guess that helps make your decision!

Feta spaghetti. Boil pasta, whilst it’s cooking chop garlic, chilli (olives too if you like) then when the pasta is done toss it in olive oil, black pepper add the garlic and chill and crumble the feta over it. Mix thoroughly. Depending on the pasta takes no more than 15 minutes from pot to bowl.

I was actually up at 6am this morning – but not through design.  My wife and youngest are both ill and were up on the hour every hour.  The joy…

Congrats on your new addition! I’ve been around dogs (specifically GSP’s) my entire life. They’ve brought so much joy and happiness (and sadly the greatest sorrow too) and really make our house feel like home. Just about to take the younger of my current pair out for his first hill run which will be a nice wee milestone for him!  They’re a huge responsibility and I know they can be polarising pets (especially post lockdown it seems) but I wouldn’t be without them.  Well, when the pup goes off chasing the cat at 4am I’m not so sure…

I did the Kielder 100 (the original MTB race from about 10+ years ago) with the theme tune to In The Night Garden on loop in my head for the entire race.  It was very odd, but not necessarily in a bad way.  Almost therapeutic over that distance.

Thanks all, I’ve got some extraction bits on order, it’s too far gone for anything else now I think. **** annoying as I was wanting to get out this weekend!

I ended up with a Suunto 9 peak (was very close to buying a Garmin). It’s been brilliant and it’s also very slim line. Far better than my old bulky GPS watch. Monster battery life too, I used it for the L100 last year.

How do you clip the claws of a cat who has no intention of letting you do so?

With extreme difficulty.  Best of luck…  My sister got clawed inside her mouth trying to do something similar.

I really hope that pole is the best riding bike in the world by such a long margin that its difficult to believe its a bike because looking at it, it’s sort of difficult to belive its a bike. Dear lord that is ugly.

A contender for ugliest bike of the year already!

We’ve been going regularly for a very long time, so much so that my parents now have a house there and we go once or twice a year for a family holiday (next up the TMF..)  We camped on the island once in October.  It was, er, character building…  We’ve been in the summer when it’s been calm and still and relatively warm.  And then we were there last summer when the rest of the country was in a heatwave.  We sat in mist for 2 weeks, freezing cold!  Pack a jumper.  Or two.

I’m a huge Pratchett fan. Couldn’t bring myself to finish The Shepherd’s Crown because once I had that would be it, no more Pratchett, no more Discworld. I’ll look forward to these and maybe it’ll help me finish the last Discworld novel!

Yeah, filters are brilliant when you’re out and about. All the muck is collected in something it’s easy to bin too so there’s far less faff and cleaning involved.

I’m a big fan of the Makita stuff.  Got a combi drill and impact driver (probably close to 10 years ago now I’d guess!) and since then have added numerous other tools that all operate off the same battery.  It’s been great, worked flawlessly, and since I made the mistake of buying an old Victorian house it all gets used constantly.

Inov8 Parkclaw (or whatever they call it) is also really good for the surfaces you described – though I found the fit to be a bit odd.  Normally bang on a 11.5 in Inov8 shoes but found the Parkclaw’s a touch too small.

We were following my parents car along a road once and saw a buzzard take off out the field next to road carrying something that looked suspiciously like a snake. Which it proceeded to drop onto the bonnet of my parents car. My mum is terrified of snakes. She was delighted to confirm that it had indeed dropped a dead adder onto their car!

All this makes me think is I must be due a rewatch of Nathan Barley sometime soon.

For what it’s worth, I think Rapha kit is pretty good, especially if you get it on sale rather than full RRP. But they’ve gone quite far up their own Tommy squeak hole with this ‘collection’. I believe there was even a launch party. Presumably no one tried to assassinate the prime minister of Malaysia at it…

That’s precisely what I decided to do.  Ended up with a GRX 1X setup (mostly as when I was ordering the bike you couldn’t get a 105 double for love nor money).  I love it, really versatile and fun bike to ride.  Don’t miss my road bike at all!

Watch out though – they can become addictive

I can vouch for that! Booked for yet another in a few weeks. I think the pain level can also depend on the artist. I had some bands done on my forearm where I swear the tattooist was attempting to tattoo bone…

You’re very lucky – they’re proposing minimal clear felling and to use Low Impact Silvicultural Systems (LISS) going forward.  It’s all mixed conifer and native broadleaves so not a Sitka farm.  What this means is they’ll be thinning the woodlands to allow more light to the forest floor to allow for natural regeneration or under planting.  Not flattening the whole thing in one hit and destroying trails.  It should result in a light, open woodland which will be perfect for trails.  I’d say overall it’s a good plan and really positive for the local MTB scene.

http://Deal: Veggie Burger Atelier: Extraordinary Recipes for Nourishing Plant-Based Patties, Plus Buns, Condiments, and Sweets https://amzn.eu/d/h9kXZsO

This book is great, the burgers are all good and the condiments excellent. I’ve been a vegetarian for almost 30 years and it’s once of the best veggie burger recipe books I’ve found.

TV – one I’ve not seen on these pages yet is the BBC adaptation of Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy and Smiley’s People with Alec Guinness.  Absolutely brilliant and still great to watch today.

Film – Alien, for me it’s cinematic perfection.  The pacing, the design, the performances, everything just clicked.  Blade Runner also (The Director’s Cut obviously) as it ignited my imagination and set me off on my career path.  Ridley Scott was imperious for a while there, sadly less so now.  And the first 10 minutes of Up!  It’s incredibly moving,  Pixar are absolute sods for gut punching the adults at the start of a kids movie.

A saddle swap shop is a great idea! Maybe as part of the classifieds section or something. It does feel a bit like a good technical article for the mag – how to find the right saddle. There’s such a huge range with so many different fitting options, idmatch, retül, spine concept… I do feel arsemap is a missed opportunity there.

Think I might cave on price and try an Ergon out, there’s less of them on fleabay second hand so I presume people must get on with them quite well.