I’m intrigued by the Ergon saddles as I’ve found their products to generally be pretty well designed but expensive.  So one of their saddles might be a bit of a pricey punt!

Yoga or Pilates (I prefer yoga personally). I found a regular yoga class makes a big difference to aches and niggles.  Plus going to a class helps you get the poses right so you can practice at home. Most of the stretches above are to be found in various yoga poses.

Cycling on Tiree is great.  30mph in one direction, 5mph and pedalling squares the other!

OMM fusion gloves are great for really cold days but for 75% 0f my winter running I use a really light breathable polartec powerdry glove Montane did years ago which I love.  I have a set of pile lined mitts I put over the top if it gets <span style=”text-decoration: underline;”>really</span> cold.

I met Iain Banks at a book signing in Glasgow (probably about 25 years ago now!) and I asked him if he thought they could ever make a film one of the Culture books.  He said he thought Consider Phlebas was the only one.  There was meant to be a compendium of his workings and sketches for his Culture books coming out wasn’t there?  Quite keen to see that happen.

If you live in Belgium this is quite normal

Quite.  When we went to Spa for the F1 there were men lined up against the chain link fence peeing onto the side of the track DURING the race.

I remember when F500 was just a lousy patch!

And a really small one to boot!  I did it one year and the weather was abysmal, I did a century ride in the rain and dark that once I got home ended up with me curled up in the bath in agony trying to defrost my extremities.  I genuinely suffered for most of it but I was very pleased/proud to have completed it only for this **** tiny wee patch to appear in the post.  All felt a little Spinal Tap at that point.

I think most cycling kit is quite pricey these days! Pretty much on par with most brands. Rapha do have some decent kit though, I’ve bought a couple of things in sales and it’s all been excellent. Though when you buy a pair of trail shorts for £40 and they supposedly retail for £100+ you do wonder what the mark up is…

It feels like the one bit of Star Wars that’s properly grown up. Best thing that’s come out of the Star Wars universe since the original trilogy for me.

My house.  It should be in the Canadian Rockies or somewhere like that, but instead I’m in a small town in SW Scotland.  Utterly mystifying.

Probably cheating a lot!

Darcy got folded up right in front of us! Think they lacked patience to just hold onto the ball and work through the phases.

Just back from Murrayfield. Think we have a bit of a problem brewing in the team. Hogg looks generally grumpy and it feels like there’s something missing in terms of team spirit. Then they all come out saying things like they’re happy with how things went. That’s not what anyone in the stands were saying…

I also love how the ground below them is always devoid of other plants.

Shade – it’s got such a thick dense canopy not a lot of light is reaching the ground around the tree.  This means other plants will struggle to grow.  That’s the main reason you have very little growing inside a commercial forest.

Trailrakers were our go-to tyre for mud for years. And if any of the ride wasn’t on mud all that rolling resistance meant you were flying come spring and the lower profile tyres were back on!

It’s all going to kick off next episode, yeah?

Oh wait…

Maybe we’re just so used to Tory regicide right now that we can’t understand why GoT is taking so long to dispose of any of it’s main characters.  The Tories would have kicked off half way through Episode 1 and they’d still be going at each other hammer and tongs by the season finale.

VJ Sport’s are excellent – I have the MaxX which I’ve used for several ultra’s and they’re holding up superbly compared to the Xtrem’s which I found did wear out rather quickly.  Quite tempted to try the iRock’s when my trusty Mudclaw’s finally need replaced.  I’ve tried Hoka (really comfy but the upper was not designed for wet, muddy trails, holds the moisture far too easily) and the Scott RC Ultra (again very comfy with a bombproof upper but for such an aggressive sole they had the worst grip).  I decided that I prefer a lower stack height so ended up settling on Inov8 and VJ Sport.  The MaxX are probably my favourite shoe if I’m honest.

Had a Disco Sport for 3 years as a work car, absolutely loved it, only changed it (for the full Disco) as I felt it was just too small for what I needed it for.  Plus I wanted the air suspension on the full size Disco!  Incredibly capable car, never once got it stuck anywhere (not for a lack of trying).  But the back seats didn’t go fully flat so it wasn’t great for car camping and the boot wasn’t as big as you felt it should be.  We have an estate as our family car, even with the enormous boot we still need a roof box when we go away with the kids and dogs…  The estate gets far better mileage than the Disco Sport ever did too.  If we only had one car a 4X4 estate would probably be my choice, just for the extra ground clearance over a normal car.  I really, really like the full fat Disco, it’s enormous inside, comfortable and will go anywhere – but it’s a stupidly expensive car to run.

Graham Brady has just been seen entering No.10.  Let’s see if he comes out carrying a roll of carpet.

We all just need to be patient. If we can put up with this nonsense for another 16 days it’ll be November 5th and I get the feeling that the country might be up for a little historical reinactment.

Sweet lord preserve us, she now gets her own thread.

Buckle up everyone

Hatter nailed it with his start to this thread. It’s like nothing I’ve ever seen in politics before. She’s so utterly useless and toxic she’s not only destroying the Tories but the word ‘incompetent’ has lodged a complaint about being associated with her.

Reminds me of a Terry Pratchett quote:

There is a rumour going around that I have found God. I think this is unlikely because I have enough difficulty finding my keys, and there is empirical evidence that they exist.

Surely if the last 12 years have taught us anything, it’s that it will ALWAYS get worse with this lot

I’ve now almost got a morbid curiosity to see just how bad it could get. Every time you think, that’s it, barrel scraped, they go and show you just how wrong you were.

 I’m going to do some research on gilets that are 1. Not cut for roadies, 2 are a bit more robust than a single layer of PtFE. 3. Offer some limited level of waterproofing for showers.

Doesn’t Cy from Cotic’s Dad do a line in waterproof gilets that he sells on fleabay or something like that?

Always a joy to resurrect an old thread!  I found this one whilst searching for the forum’s wisdom on precisely this topic.  I’ve been suffering from pain in my hands whilst sitting for a wee while and I’ve tried all sorts to fix it.  It’s far worse in my right hand (I broke a finger in that hand in a crash a few years ago and always struggled with it since).  I tried saddle back, saddle up, bars up and Ergon GE1 grips – virtually all to no avail.  Though bars up improved handling enormously!  At a bit of a loss.  Think it’s gloves with lots of padding to try next.  When I stand up the pain disappears immediately so it’s something to do with the weight distribution when I’m sat down, feels like raising the bar height further might help – but I’ve got no option to move the bars up so I’d be looking at new bars.  I’ve got a set of Burgtec’s on there right now with a 30mm rise.

I picked up a Nukeproof Blackline softshell off the classifieds a while back and it’s been superb.  Kept me warm and cosy in some pretty foul weather (a hail storm at Kielder springs to mind) with the hood fitting over my helmet and leaving me quite smug as others got pounded.  Good all round three season jacket.

I’ve just done my first aid +F course refresher and since I’ve last completed it they’ve changed the CPR methodology again, we were told aspirin and paracetamol were out, tourniquets are in and all of a sudden adder bites are really scary.

I rarely carry anything bar my phone on local rides. I have a small first aid kit I pack for longer days but to be honest it’s probably not that great for dealing with a genuine emergency. I should maybe rethink it. I’ve only ever needed to properly use a first aid kit once, when I trapped my hand in a gate. My dad had one in his car, brand new, never used. His car was VW. I was bleeding quite heavily so I was quite disappointed to discover all the items in the first aid kit were shrink wrapped, unwrapping them was quite difficult… they were also all labelled in German which caused some confusion!!

From the sounds of it Hunt is going to completely tear up the mini budget. He’s openly saying there were mistakes. Makes Truss look even more incompetent. It’s impossible to see how she can recover any authority. I almost feel sorry for her, it’s clear she was just completely unsuited to the job.

This all makes me think of the bit in say, a zombie apocalypse film, where the two main baddies are finally cornered by the zombies and the lead baddie shows their true colours by pushing their companion into the path of the oncoming horde in order to save their skin. Unfortunately for them this succeeds in buying them only a few more moments before they themselves fall prey to the zombies and are devoured, to much cheering from the audience.

Loch Trool is stunning no matter the weather, even if you don’t go up the Merrick.

The Sungod’s don’t go as clear as the Oakley’s – there is a slight grey tint, but very slight and I can’t say it’s put me off using them at night.  I can DM you some pics if you’d like?  I don’t have a way of publicly hosting pics to post here.

I’m watching it with my son who loves it. He thinks it’s quite scary in places. Yeah there are a few issues around pacing and some of the story lines are a lot weaker than others but it looks gorgeous and the last couple of episodes were pretty good. Plus it’s better than the awful Hobbit adaptations and far more enjoyable than House of Dragons.

I use Sungod Vulcans with their Iris smoke photochromic lens which I do find to be on par with Oakley. They claim to have less of a range than Oakley,  but I can’t say I notice that. I always thought the Oakley lenses didn’t get as dark as they claim anyway. The Vulcans are sodding massive though, luckily I have a sodding massive head.

Im against new road building in general but however this is one of very few routes in the highlands and this section is both dangerous and a major bottleneck. It needs a new road done properly

100% this.  In the summer with the tourist traffic it can feel almost impassable at times.  Meeting a coach coming the other way can be an interesting experience!  I’ve also spent many an hour in long queues because someone has parked it into the wall and everyone gets caught up in the tailback.  I think going over the hill is a non-starter.  More than doubles the land take, impact and associated costs and that’s before you look at deer fencing it, SUDS and other bits and pieces.  If the native woodland is their main concern they should look at taking funds from the road project to protect and enhance the woodland and try to return it to a favourable condition, perhaps even look at where it could be expanded.

Sadly I suspect the Tory party will survive.  Unless Labour do push for PR.  Without FPTP the Tories truly would be finished.

How long before a vote of no confidence in the government?  It gets worse and worse every time she opens her mouth. Though to be fair at least she turned up for some interviews – which is more than Boris managed.  Her conference speech is going to be amusing, I wonder if the hall will even be full.  It does feel like we’re watching the death throes of the government, and as amusing as it is watching them flail around, I can’t help but feel it would be kinder if someone would just put them out their misery.

Found a nice locally owned Greek restaurant if you like that kind of thing! (Nikos – I think)

Nikos is great – the owner is really accommodating and will go out of his way to make sure you have a nice meal (he managed to get my kids to eat Greek food!!!).  For a slightly more upmarket experience, Mr Pooks in CD is well worth a visit.  The food there is excellent.  As others have said there is great gravel riding pretty much everywhere in Galloway.  Some of the back roads are rough enough they almost qualify as gravel by themselves!  Heading east from Kircudbright along the B727 towards Dalbeattie then back along the coast road is a really nice ride that you can enhance with some gravel sections.

I get wet and soggy – everyone else sits inside and enjoys pizza…

Yeah, it works just fine!

Yes, but I think it’s better the opposite way round (clockwise rather than anti) – the major climb comes later but means you get a bigger downhill to finish.

If you park at Morton Castle (and want to make it all a bit longer obviously) you can add a climb up past Kettleton Reservoir and then descend either the same way at the end or descend off the tops a couple of ways and return to the castle via the public road.

Listening to that radio performance I’m beginning to think that was the point where satire died.  It’s like Arnold Rimmer has taken charge.