Two towels, press stud kit. Fasten them together around a short side and down the long sides with enough room for your head to poke through. Fasten together when needed, pull apart when needed. No sewing required, just some measuring and a hammer.

Sabre Wulf
Knight Lore
Underwurlde

Games to keep you entertained.

My mum finished Sabre Wulf before I did.

Insulate the walls as well while you’re at the ceiling and floor. It will pay back all year round and reduce the energy you require to heat the place.
Gas or wood fired heater. Make sure it’s certified for inside a wooden building and that you have sufficient ventilation otherwise carbon monoxide will be your friend.

Here’s a starter for your energy requirements

https://www.homesteadcaravans.co.uk/customer-services/buyers-guides/accessories-electrical/how-to-calculate-solar-panel-requirements-for-caravans-motorhomes.htm

Sounds very uncomfortable indeed. The short reach and mahoosive drop to the bars would see you squished up into a ball while you tried to turn your legs.

FFS 11+ should be the minimum standard for any service.it is not fitness but desire up to that point.

No it shouldn’t. Absolutely not required. Even the Army has moved away and does a more relevant fitness test these days.

Maybe it doesn’t exist because it’s a bad idea.

Train the dog not to pull?

Unless the dog is in a pulling harness there’s no reason for a dog to keep pulling.

As a former rottie owner this is a serious point. That’s a big strong dog.

Since most lights are designed to be mounted at bar or helmet level and throw light out and down, you’re going to limit the light you can actually see by. It won’t throw as far. I’ve always thought low mount lights are OK with other lights and when you need to be seen more than see.

I came here to say RAF blue waterproof ones. I’m 6’7″ and they are plenty long enough even for me. I can get them on over my size 12 AltBerg boots. Surprisingly good, slimmer fitting than regular Army waterproof trousers.

Here’s a link to the Army surplus smock. Seems well liked. Other suppliers and prices are available:

British reseller

What are they, out of interest? Asking as an owner and daily wearer of a Buffalo Special 6.

I found them to have relatively longer sleeves so better for me with simian armspan and on the bike when they are necessary.
Forearm reinforcement.
A fleece rather than fiber pile at the hem and cuffs. The lack of bulk there is very noticeable in daily wear and seems to not wick as much moisture at the edges.
The vents in the pockets do more to help me regulate temperature – they seem to go deeper into the jacket.
Getting the hood with it instead of buying it as an extra.
Collar is higher and fleece so more comfortable.

Here in the US you have to tell your home insurance company if you get one. They will then hike up your home insurance because of every accident mentioned earlier in this thread.

If they don’t properly go after Trump, all those who followed his lead will get punished and he won’t. I’d throw Cruz in there as well, but the instigators need to catch as much of the poo as those who did their bidding for them.

I have to echo Montane. Just a better jacket because of the refinements. I’ve had them for decades now and the Extreme jacket is my go to for sub zero riding with just a wicking layer underneath.

Have a look at military surplus for the British mil buffalo-ish smock. My friends still serving like theirs a lot – lighter construction but cheap!

Been looking briefly at stuff like heat pumps and not convinced they’ll give enough heat

You’ll be fine. I moved to the US and have an air source heat pump for both heating and cooling and it gets both hotter and colder than the UK here in Virginia. Since you’ll likely have one more for heating than cooling, the tech there gets better every year. They are less efficient at extremes but very good in general.

As I said 99.9% of people wont let their dogs off the lead if they aren’t safe to be off their leads

I think your numbers are a little optimistic. Too many people assume everyone else is comfortable with their dog running up on them, trying to hump other dogs, barking at strangers and generally not being suitable for off-leash exercise.

I have no issue if they are well trained

Thing is, you never know that until it’s too late.
It’s not about the well trained dogs. It’s about the idiot owners who haven’t trained the dogs and it’s about everyone else who has had a bad experience. I used to be pro trail dogs. Now I’ve had too many bad experiences solo and with a dog on a leash.
While your dog might be the best trained dog in the world, all the idiots have made it where I will not take ‘he’s friendly’ as an assurance.

Go and get professional help. You’ve had multiple injuries so no amount of well-meaning advice on here will solve the problem.

I got a road bike fit a couple of years ago because I’m tall and they had an offer on. I’d always suffered a little bit of knee pain on longer rides but shrugged it off as ‘need to pedal more to strengthen up’.
My right foot was moving more in the shoe than it should. A couple of slim shims under the insole put it right. Also, my knees were going up and out on every pedal stroke. I’d not thought about the narrower Q factor on road bikes and me being tall means I have wider hips than most.
Now I have the shims and use Candy pedals with the long spindle and washers and no more pain.

You have had injuries, your legs aren’t the same as everyone else’s. A fit might be useful for your flat shoes as well as anything to do with clips. I really recommend proper paid-for advice so you don’t make things worse by riding uncorrected and the additional damage that might cause.

Top Tip

get a 2nd wheelset. A pair of those unfashionable pre-Boost-but-bolt-thru mountain bike wheels you’ve got lying at the back of the shed. Perfect.
I got a Canyon Grail AL and had an old wheelset hanging up. More knobbly on one set, slick and wide on the other. 2 minutes to swap out and I’ve really got the most versatile bike I’ve ever had.

I ran Sora 9 speed brifters for years and have been very happy with them. I went to 105 and it wasn’t that much of a difference. There’s no way on earth I’d go back to having downtube shifters now. It would be like going back to bar top friction shifters on my mountain bike. Not happening.

If you build it up over here in the US and ride it, you could bring it back as sports equipment, possibly, perhaps.

Trump has a world of legal pain ahead if he can’t hide behind being the POTUS. It will almost be open season on him then.

THE WIND POWER EQUATION The wind power equation is expressed as follows:
P = 0.5*ρ*A*V³*E

Where: P = Power in Watts ρ= Air Density in Kg/m³ (about 1.225Kg/m³ at sea level, less higher up) A = Rotor Swept Area in m² = πr² (r= radius or blade length) V = Wind Speed in m/s (cubed) E = Efficiency in percent

Matt OAB had me confused. Cube of the swept area is the biggie here. The bigger the blades, the better.

I was involved in testing portable renewable energy sources a few years ago. Portable wind just isn’t worth it, portable pico hydro too heavy and too difficult to use for most, portable solar not much use if moving. Bigger batteries are still more efficient than generating.

I found an Ortlieb Messenger Bag Pro on eBay years ago for not very much. The Fakenger selling it was also selling a barely used fixie!
The bag stood up to 3 years of commuting and is still going strong and waterproof another 7 years later. I prefer the big square shape and 100% waterproofing for commuting and prefer something else for technical riding.

I’ll echo the reach thing again because it is important when comparing bikes with different seat tube angles. 6’7″ rider here.

I had an XXL Turner Sultan and it was a great fit. Snapped it eventually, needed a new bike. Oohh, look at those long reach frames!

I bought a Guerilla Gravity Trail Pistol in 2018 – alu, not their current carbon – cos it had some of the biggest stack and reach figures on the market. It’s a great bike, but it isn’t any longer than the Sultan was because of the much steeper seat tube. That angle is fantastic for climbing and keeps my weight well centered and not over the rear axle like slacker tubed bikes. What it does mean is there is very little cockpit lengthening going on when you put the seat up where we need it.
So, long doesn’t necessarily mean long like it used to for us tall people who put the saddle right up.

If you like Buffalo jackets, try the Montane Extreme jacket or smock.

Like a Buffalo but betterer.
I’ve had 3 of them over 2 decades and they are the best thing I’ve owned as outdoor jackets.

Have a look at Altberg. Fantastic range footwear in all weights and sizes. Even better if you can get to the factory in Richmond. I think they are the last British boot maker.

Going to have to call that out as rubbish, sorry. I see a fair mix or male, female young old moneyed and not so moneyed.

Mostly white, yes but not exclusively but mostly.

Rubbish? I’d like to hear your idea of a ‘fair mix’. Look at who writes the magazines, who presents the YouTube channels. The vast majority of riders are white and male. I didn’t say they are racist, but just to look at ourselves and think about it. I’m not accusing all us white menfolk of racism, just that we need to see ourselves in context.

Whether you think mountain biking ‘is racist’, have a look around you and think on what it looks like. It’s always looked like male, middle aged middle class and white to me, and I’m right in that demographic.
So why is that? Some great points raised on here that got me thinking more. I’m now in the US and It’s been great to see more Latin and African American faces on the trails, but that has been very recent.

Look for second hand Herman Miller chairs – like the Aeron – on Gumtree, Marketplace etc. Tough, comfortable and spares are available if required.

My missus has had us get 2 different Roombas over the years.

I’d rather vacuum myself. The annoyance of the Roomba going around, it’s something else that needs servicing and maintaining (very small capacity), it does a meh job, it won’t replace a vacuum cleaner so it’s something expensive that isn’t bike related.
Just get a decent quality vacuum and / or a cleaner every couple of weeks. Much better results.

Surely if she had evidence of fraud the thing to do is prosecute the fraudsters. Trying to shut down an organisation because office bearers had their fingers in the till just looks political.

The NRA is registered as a not-for-profit in New York state. NFPs have a raft of compliance to follow, including what they do, how they do it and how they spend their money. This is likely a normal part of the proceedings when dealing with a NFP in New York state.

The NRA went from a profit to deficit with the difference being $64m over 3 years. Reporting on the corruption has been going on for years. This is likely the culmination of years of investigation. Gun owners are stepping away from the NRA and have been doing so for a long time, so this won’t get them more members. Also, Biden is a practicing Catholic and a gun owner. Trump’s noise won’t go far beyond Fox and all the viewers there will vote for him anyway.

I have a Bluefin Cruise 15′ – 2nd year of ownership. I use it on rivers and lakes – on my own and with the family. It’s not an every weekend thing but its a couple of times per month. I weigh 250lbs and am tall so the bigger board was necessary. I’ve no problems paddling it on my own.
Upgrading to a good carbon paddle is a massive improvement. It makes everything so much better.

No butter? Ugh, throw it away.

Marmalade needs specifics. Bitter? Yes. Sweet, NO!

Also, toast allowed to cool enough so butter doesn’t turn into a salty lake.

https://geometrygeeks.bike/

Buy a months subscription and get all the data you need for the bikes out there. Well worth it to populate your own spreadsheet for your own specific needs.

Wider is most certainly better, but you need those supple tyres for that smooth ride. I have a spare set of wheels for my gravel bike and have some 42 wide Soma tyres on there. Just the most fun of a magic carpet ride on rough roads.
Depends on how wide your rims are and your frame clearance.

I got the Canyon Grail AL with GRX 2x setup. I’ve been nothing but impressed with it and enjoying it everywhere I’m riding. Shifting is close to my 105 road bike and the braking is superb. I’ve been down some silly hills and never needed to be in the drops since braking from the hoods is enough, and I weigh 250lbs.

Having 2 sets of wheels is excellent – 1 with knobblies, 1 with some 42 slicks. 2 min to swap them over for more off or more on road. Big tyres on the road and it’s a magic carpet ride!

You need to know how damp that concrete is. If damp is getting in from the basement walls or, worse, there is no DPC under the floor, then sealing the floor could lead to bad things. If moisture is permeating the concrete and has nowhere to go, then the sealed floor will create problems below. Best to know before trying anything.

If you want to see a leader of American police, look up Bob Kroll.
There’s your sign.

We’re seeing a lot of shocking footage coming out of the US currently, but how representative are they of the force(s) as a whole? Many surely are good people trying to make a difference whilst running the risk daily of being shot dead after stopping someone for a speeding offence.

There wouldn’t be protests and demonstrations in every state if it wasn’t widespread.

Also – this isn’t spread evenly across everyone the police deal with. That racial element is what stands out in most all statistics I’ve seen.