That’s it. There is a way to make it slightly longer and add an extra climb and descent.

Dunno about off-piste, but we did a 33km loop up from Durisdeer round Daer reservoir that was good old-school XC, mainly shooters tracks so naff all tech but a really enjoyable ride

That is a good loop!  I saw someone had been round it on a gravel bike recently – which must have been fun on the land rover tracks over the top of the hill!  There is a way to create a monster loop there that takes in Ae and the Beattock forest block.  But probably better as a gravel loop than a MTB one.

Dalbeattie has harvesting ongoing to clear some of the wind blown coupes.  They have made some efforts to open the trails but there are still quite a few diversions in place.  The off-piste has been quite badly hit in places, I’m not sure quite how it has all fared.  Mabie is open, but there has been harvesting and wind blow damage to a lot of the off-piste there too.  Some of the best stuff has been completely destroyed.

I’ve got two pairs of Montane Super Terra trousers I picked up off fleabay for work.  I hardly ever use overtrousers now, they’re excellent trousers, shrug off most weather and when they do get wet they dry quickly.  Tough as old boots too.

I don’t see anyone in the Labour Party I believe who can lead us out of this

To be fair, I don’t trust Labour that much either, but the Tories have consistently proven over the past 12 years that they certainly can’t lead us out of this, that or the other.  I’m not sure there is anyone in Westminster I would trust to get us out of anything right now.

I was working on a multi-million pound residential development in south west London, we were setting out the stud walls for the internal partitions and I told my assistant to round the dims to the nearest 5mm (which was simply a setting in CAD) assuming she knew what I meant.  She didn’t and she proceeded to make it all up and I mean make it up – some of the dims she put down didn’t even relate to the CAD model, I didn’t check the drawings properly due to some excuse about being too busy and deadlines too tight and off they went to site.  It got spotted reasonably quickly but the furore was immense.  Errors like that are hugely costly.  My boss got called to a meeting and promptly disappeared off to the pub the moment he got out.  I was completely mortified and had no idea what to do.  So I decided the best course of action was to put my hand up, admit the error and come up with a solution.  Took myself off to the site office, apologised profusely and promised corrected drawings as soon as I could possibly manage it.  The site foreman sat me down, told me I had royally screwed up yes, but I’d admitted it and I was fixing it which was more than my boss had managed.  We got on like a house on fire after that.  And I always double check everything before it goes out the door now.  I hate making mistakes, I get very anxious when I realise I have.

Glad to hear you’ve straightened things out OP – the wave of relief must be immense!

Even if they were pressure tested it won’t have taken all other cost increases in to account. Energy, fuel, food, clothing etc. I think a lot of people are going to end up in a very hard place unfortunately.

Yeah – if it can go wrong it’s gone wrong.  Our mortgage is up for renewal next year.  It’s going to be brutal.

I too have Mogwai tickets for December at the Barra’s which should be absolutely storming. Though I’m still suffering some from slight tinnitus after Godspeed You! Black Emperor there a week ago. A sheer wall of sound, complete assault on the senses and one of the best gigs I’ve been at in a long time.

I also run a 29er Pike and keep thinking that it’s not that responsive over small bumps – BUT – I’m absolutely flying on that fork.  It’s possibly in my head a bit but I’m pretty sure that I need to do some more fettling on the set up.  I used the Rock Shox app and felt the recommended pressure was too firm.  Keep meaning to fiddle with the rebound and compression over a section of trail and see how I get on.  Think I’m running one token.

My wife is a euro-brat, grew up in Brussels with her parents working in the commission.  We’ve lived and worked in the Netherlands for a while and travelled all over.  Had offers to emigrate to the US, Oz and the Middle East.  Always ended up making the decision to stay in the UK though.  Partly for family and friends, partly for job opportunities at the time and partly because Scotland has always been home for me and I struggled to leave it behind.  The Netherlands wasn’t without it’s issues either.  The grass isn’t always greener.  But we’re now both thoroughly sick of the politics and general malaise in the UK and I frequently wish we’d taken one of the offers to live somewhere else (not the ME though, never regretted turning that down).  My wife really misses the multi-culturalism and vibrancy of mainland Europe, the UK really does feel dour these days.  I doubt leaving the UK would ultimately make that much of a difference though, everyone everywhere is struggling.  I am hoping that Truss is the final death throes of the past 12 years of Tory misrule and we might end up with something better.  And I think it is better to stay here and try to help facilitate that change.

I run with a Petzl Nao+, it’s been flawless for the past 3 years. Done numerous ultras and silly adventures with it. Can adjust the brightness and monitor battery via an app which is quite handy.

I’ve been in jeans for the past week – but only because I just got a new pair and they actually fit for once (my wife thinks it’s hilarious and only taken 40 years) so I’ve been enjoying the novelty!

 but have you considered a running buggy?

Sadly they’re too big for a buggy!  It’s that awkward stage where the younger two are too young to be left unattended and the eldest not yet old enough to babysit!  The comments above are making me thing it’s a good idea – if I can find a decent one for a decent price!

I really hope Roglič is ok, it’s been a cracking Vuelta, it would be a real shame if it was to fizzle out in the final few days.

I used to ride far more road than MTB, loved the speed and going on really epic, long rides.  I’ve ridden my road bike all over the world and have been to some beautiful places.  Always said hello and waved to fellow cyclists too!  But I ended up almost quitting as I got the fear.  One too many close shaves with idiots in cars.  Knocked off a few times (thankfully nothing serious).  So yeah, loved road riding, hated traffic.  It’s all MTB and gravel now whilst trying to keep off the main roads.

HPs really need your own electricity generation to be viable. Do you already have solar?

I agree with this 100%.  Especially if you’re retro-fitting one to an older home that may not be as thermally efficient.

Nothing I can really add that hasn’t already been said. Genuinely shocking news, did a proper double take reading the headline. He’s was very well known and liked figure in the Scottish cycling scene.

We did this at work during the pandemic when everyone was working from home. Seemed to work ok. Few complaints about resolution and screen size but other than that it was pretty successful.

I’d love to see AJ win and set up a showdown with Fury but I suspect Usyk is going to outclass him again. Plus there was plenty of opportunity for Fury/AJ before the Usyk fight, they just didn’t seem to want to make it happen. If we get a version of AJ like his younger and nastier self (there was some real venom in some of his early KO’s) it’ll be a great fight.  Usyk is a brilliant and better boxer though, a fight between him and Fury would be quite something.

I quite liked the Gobi!  Bought a Tundra and hated it though.  Used an Arione for a long time, currently got one on my gravel bike.

I think around 2004 when I was living in London, gravitated from bikeradar I believe.  Answered a few posts from folk looking to find people to go riding with in London – been good friends with them all ever since.  In fact one of the guys I met on here became one of my best friends and we regularly still meet to go on daft adventures with tiny tents in big hills.  Wore my 10th anniversary STW t-shirt until it literally fell apart!

 Scott ultra RC

I know a lot of folk really like them, but I found the stack height too high and the grip level, for the aggressive looking sole, woeful.  And they’re lethal on wet rock.  Terrifyingly so.

Having sat through the entire thing last night I thought Rishi was just playing politician whilst he thinks of something better to do but Liz Truss, wow.  It’s like someone crossed Mr Bean with Jim Hacker and put the results in a knock-off Thatcher clone.  The prospect of her running the country – let that sink in – RUNNING THE COUNTRY!!  Well that’s just completely terrifying.  There really should be an entrance exam for politics.

Liz Truss is on the verge of promising everyone in the country a pony if she’s elected PM…

I have a set of their Classics with 8KO smoke polarised lenses and I think they’re great.  Easily on par with the Oakley’s they replaced.  I did try the Renegades but they were too wide for my head so I was getting lots of reflection on the inside of the lens.  Sungod let me swap them for the Classics with no hassle whatsoever.  They’ll happily exchange or refund if there’s a problem.  I now have a set of their riding glasses too which are excellent.

This is going to end with Boris and Dorries holed up on the second floor of No. 10, armed to the teeth and making ridiculous demands through a loudhailer.  I have in mind that scene in Robocop at the mayors office.

Meanwhile Zahawi reported to have turned on Johnson after accepting chancellor’s job!

I’ve been waiting for the fall of Boris for such a long time and so far it’s been absolutely cracking.  What a finale!  Far more satisfying then Game of Thrones.

Gove a back stabbing, two-faced traitor?  No!  What a surprise…

I recently got a pair of Sungod Vulcans off eBay with their smoke photochromic lens and I think they’re excellent.  Frickin’ massive but the lens is superb and easily on par with the Oakley clear-to-black iridium lens.  Really good eco credentials too if that’s a factor in your decision making.  The arms aren’t too long either so they work with my Poc Tectal which is notorious for not fitting with a lot of glasses.  They’re my only pair of riding glasses now.

Gove & Truss both to busy to attemd PMQs

Got knives to sharpen.

He’s going to get a visit from the men in grey suits telling him it’s time to go.  The Tories don’t half make regicide entertaining!

Boris is hiding in a fridge, obviously

Not quite – he’s on the phone to Ukraine…

We’re with Kennel Club and they’re been excellent, though I only know this as we’ve sadly had to make a fair few claims as we lost one dog to a rare form of cancer last year and another in a car accident this year.  We ask all our staff insure their dogs as they take them with them to work and we insist that they have some form of liability insurance.

I like to think we’re at that point in the Black Knight sketch where he loses an arm only to declare “I’ve had worse!”

Altogether now…

“You liar!”

They’re excellent like that.  I destroyed a pair of running shorts during an ultra marathon and I wrote to them asking if they could be repaired.  they replaced them for free under their ironclad guarantee, no quibbles.  Always been very impressed with their customer service.  And I find their kit to be really good too.

We lost our 6 year old GSP last year to a very rare and aggressive form of cancer.  She went downhill over a 6 month period and we eventually were faced with the decision of trying more and more therapies and invasive procedures or letting her go.  She died, very peacefully, lying in my lap (which was no mean feat considering her size) and it was utterly heartbreaking.  That dog was my best friend, my shadow and I can barely type this without getting misty eyed.  Not long after, my wife found this article which I found helped:

https://metro.co.uk/2020/10/03/my-dog-was-one-of-the-loves-of-my-life-and-now-hes-gone-13344397/

We did, thankfully, already have another GSP, who is currently keeping my feet warm, so we at least weren’t in an empty house, but her loss was felt everywhere for a long while.  At the start of this year, the rest of the family felt ready for a new puppy so we got another dog and went through the whole puppy thing again.

The puppy really helped, he filled the hole left in the house and I was starting to feel better.  Then exactly three weeks ago today my wife was walking the dogs down by a local river.  They got wind of something – don’t know what and bolted off, ending up on the road.  They were hit by a van and the puppy died at the scene.  It was a freak accident, no-one’s fault, just cruel and senseless.  The older dog survived and is well on his way to 100% recovery but my wife and I are distraught.  To lose another so soon and one that was healing the hurt from before is devastating, especially in such a brutal fashion.  I don’t know how we’re coping, or if we even are to be honest.  The kids have taken it better, they bounce back faster I think.  There will be other dogs, I know there will, they’re a huge part of my life.  But it hurts like nothing else when they go.

Buy an inflatable one?  Ours packs away into a carry case and goes in the boot.

Humbly submit my grandfather’s story:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-11168230

I was with him at Leuchars in 2009 and he absolutely loved it.  He was the kindest, most gentle and humble man I knew.  An absolute gentleman, a huge inspiration and one of the few people I would say was a hero to me.  I carry his squadron pin with me on all my adventures.  He sadly died in 2015, upon his death he left a box of war memorabilia including his diaries from PoW camp which he didn’t want us to read whilst he was alive.  My dad currently has them but I’m not sure he wants to know what’s in them.  He only ever told me the fun, boys-own type stories of the war.  As I’ve got older I’ve realised just how much he kept from us and just haw content and happy he was to have made it home to his family.

I’ve been watching with my son and we’re both really enjoying it.  He’s very excited that it’s Wednesday and we get to watch a new episode tonight!  Trying to explain to him that in the olden days, when his dad was a boy, we didn’t have streaming services (or really catch up) and you had to wait and be in front of the TV at the specific time an episode aired or you’d not only miss it completely but have it ruined by everyone at school telling you what happened.  He’s horrified by this and seems to think I grew up in the dark ages.

a WWII wargame

I love Axis & Allies!  Got a very battered set in the cupboard here.

..load the dishwasher.