nanny state, when soon even good honest people will get fed up and ignore the rules.

I’m on my second camino Ti, (first GRX 1×11 V2.1) and now the latest sram force. it definately feels faster, but still very much relaxed , i’m 5ft11 medium is perfect, and as per shop recommendation. many go large frame

definately a marmite bike, loved by the MTB’ers , not sure by the Road rider

how does the Sedona Ti fit in (gravel race bike)

contact them through social media, i’ve had personal emails of james  and others, I’ll DM you

i’ve always had great service

op, can you confirm who’s paying the policy? if you wife is still paying, then she will be the beneficiary,

if he’s still paying it, he may have changed the beneficiary already

i’m always amazed people do not know what is coming in and OUT of their bank account / credit card statements.. should be checking them at least monthy..

beneficiary will get it.. lets hope he’s forgotten about it.. ;0)

£86 a month for a high rate tax payer, insane value, if only it had been a 29er slash

MSE back in the day was fun, i remember in the last crunch 07/08, there were one or two posters who were adament BOE  rates where going to sky rocket, they called it a little early :0)

if you are into shares i recommended a while ago and got slated for it, tipranks app has all the broker recommendations, £160 a year, but if you get the freebie version you can view 3 stocks per day, set up a watch list, and you’ll get alerts, if a broker makes a buy/sell/hold recommendation and price target, then click on alerts and the analysts name and the info comes up.

today i got  bob brackett from Bernstein giving a price target of 545p on glencore

yesterday biraj borkhataria RBC capital give Shell a Buy 3400p

and cocacola Buy by olivier nicolai from goldman sachs

so lots of up side in my stocks and shares :0) lol

if you look at SHELL (UK) page   -price just now 2693.25p

10 buys / 2 holds /0 sells

highest price target 4000p, low is 2900 and mid 3356.7p

as always DYOR and only risk what you can afford to lose..

if you have a fetish for headbands like me,  saddleback have the castelli £7 and sportiful £6-7 lots of colours

or maybe the warmer merino bandito headband on balfes £12

deviate one is a thing of dreams… saw it at Ardrock the other year

https://www.deviatecycles.com/blog2023/titanium-prototypes

mucoff 30% off sitewide,

not much in stock, highlight is 20 x 10ml chamois cream satchets (mens or womens) for £8.40,

unfortunately they’ll only let you add 2 packs to basket,  [the tub is reduced to £21 for 250ml, so decent price and easy for bikepacking/trips away  etc.]

delivery england wales add £3.50 (more elsewhere) or Free on £30 spend

alpkit 15% off till monday using code    AKLONG15

randomly. 75mile cycle to hull and cross the humber bridge.. i’ll get train back shame TPE require upfront bike booking..

not got any major ones,

thanks @davros i could have sworn the DT swiss on merlin were 25mm internals last time i looked, these are 30mm’s Ideal

thanks all, they certainly look legit, just those wheels  are back order on stif for £1280

@sharkattack only 5 pairs left in a 29 XD   :0)

not sure i have the money, my next post was going to be about tumble dryers heat pump or condenser, tumbledryers seem to have changed alot since my last one which i paid £120 for back in early 2000s

had a look on companies house, may be over for a credit card purchase, those carbon wheels just seem really low priced (compared to rivals)

22 bends climbs, the zigzags, it was actually a nice climb,

a great few days riding and racing (making up the numbers only ;0) )  my x2 shock blew on saturday so went into the bike shop to see if they could have a look, possibly the best service i’ve ever had in a bike shop, lent me a shock for the race, and when i got back mid afternoon sunday they had stripped down my shock and rebuilt, the problem , no grease on it, so seals had failed. (clearly the fox service centre warranty rebuild a few months back wasn’t done very well.)

no crashes but well off pace. a better tyre upfront would have helped, an assegai was useless on s4 and the top half of s5.

lesson learned….

on road with skinnier tyres gp4000s i managed to keep along with a road bikes from madrid to bilbao, we averaged 43-4kmph on one afternoon. 46t upfront, and on uphill it motored along with the lower gearing.

27mm of rain due tomorrow then dry on my weather app..

i had a 2020 topstone 105 carbon, was a great bike on c2w, but i went too big, i’d have another smaller sized as it was rapid. 700x38s

E4s will likely be efficient, one thing i noticed 180 on rear wasnt enough for me at pmba lakes last summer (although i’m far heavier), i put on a 200mm to match front end and they’ve been great ever since, got to be hope rotors with calipers though for me.

kev does like to test :0)  , i’ve only ridden AE the once so dont know that one,  i do like the fact you’ll be passing the car/van 3x in the ride. will be carrying very little, with a supply of food and drink bottles ready to go

yeah scrambled eggs s2 last year is s4 this time, quarry trail s1 last year isnt being run

looks like s1 has a fireroad sprint..

https://www.pmbaenduro.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/5-stage-final-champs-STAGES-550×778.jpg

gravel bike? only 2×12 on google i can find is double pack vinyl.

worth messaging Scott and asking if they have recently done a 2×12 / 2×11 , likely some deadstock from 2020/21/22

the course map is out, 5 stages, 3 look to be the same as pmba ae last year (s2,s4,s6). see rider briefing

its nice and mixed up, we’ve got the long ‘climb of absolute f*cking… Hell’ strava segment split up (s1 & s5), last year they were stage 5 & 6 (252m 5.84km), so went up the same hill 4 time in a row.

could be a little wet 38mm rain due today and 28mm thursday, otherwise dry

thanks all ordered the 500lbs, sounds like the ideal starting point.

thanks all, i’ll go for a heavier spring,

6kg of weight? two water bottles, tools, spare tube helmet kneepads shoes, etc.  i maybe overestimating :0)

details entered as below

https://tech.ridefox.com/bike/general-info/672/sls-and-standard-steel-rear-shock-spring-information

Input Parameters (last two wasnt sure so left as is)

Measurement Units Standard    Metric

Total Riding Weight (kg)  93

Rear Weight Bias (%)   60

Rear Wheel Travel (mm) 160

Shock Stroke (mm) 62.5

Shock Sag (%) 32

Preload Adjuster (n.n) 1

End Coil Effect (%) 60

as above a diverge would be a good option or a cannondale topstone, both gravel orientated, if you have the money got the stigmata

or go TI the ribble CGR is £1k off at the moment, or sonder/alpkit do a gravel race now to fit between the gravel camino and adventure road calibri

been trying to sell a nearly new pike 130 for £300 not many sniffs, a few offers at £220-240.

/\ pilates, I’m only a few years behind started after ardrock last year, 2-5 sessions a week (average 3 x 45mins), i’ve had 6 or 7 different instructors, they are all so different, so mix it up, till you find one or two you like, sometimes i dont feel like i’m improving in class, but on a bike I definately see the benefits of core and stronger legs and my cornering / balance feels so much better.

wish id started earlier.

@euain, yeah i just had the email from tweedlove.. shame i really fancied that, rode thornielee last week and loved riding something different..

Update on our events:

Glentress 7 (XC/trail/endurance)| 24 August | Going ahead | Entries available

Hope Enjoyro EVO presented by Ridelines (intermediate level one day enduro) | 25 August | Going ahead | Entries available

Glentress Family Day (fun racing for ages 2-13) | 25 August | Going ahead | Entries available

YT Industries TweedLove Enduro Series Round 3/BNES final round 2024 | 14-15 September, Innerleithen | Going ahead | Entries available. This will be the final TweedLove event.

<i>YT Industries TweedLove Enduro </i>Series Round 4 | 5-6 October, Yair | Cancelled | Refunds will be issued

Tour O The Borders (closed road sportive) | 7 September 2025 | Going ahead | Entries available

very sad news indeed, no mention if the end of august tweedlove family day and

14-15 sept innerleithen and 5-6oct yair forest events will be going ahead, hope so i’d planned to get a ticket for yair, just waiting on a friend to confirm date is good

vinted is great if you know your size, or the item is cheap and you can just pass it on to friends or sell it on.

not ideal for the op and endura like.

picked up a 7mesh gtx style jacket for £25, rrp was £290 i think :0)

also picked up a pair of medium 7mesh shorts £7 but they were like a parachute..

ok, I’m no expert @IHN i guess i’m mixing up ETFs ucits and other tracker index style stocks.

we all have different attitudes to risk, i’ve got plenty of time to retirement so happy to buy individual stocks and shares, plus i’m only putting in what I’m prepared to lose. had a few dogs, but seeing good compound growth now from mainly dividend stocks.

tracks the market, but a global tracker cannot own every stock in the world, it picks the best performing companies across regions and sectors.

@IHN the broker has his/her client base, they do number crunching and research to pass this advise onto investors to earn commission, that app makes money from subscriptions to its app, it just holds data from all the majors like

citi / ubs / morgan stanley / kepler cap / DZ bank/ BOA / barclays / hsbc / RBC cap / jp morgan / jefferies / berenberg / goldman sachs / dbs/ deusche bank     .. et al

cant disagree with your comment “A ‘tip’ from a broker is not that different from a ‘tip’ from a bloke down the pub for the 3:10 at Epsom.”,

but if nine blokes all independent of each other told you a horse named ‘not a chance’ was going to win at epsom 310, would it peak your interest ??

and how do you think these tracker managers pick stocks?

yes, diversification matters..

@kramer it has brokers recommends on ETFs too. one tracker isnt as good as the next tracker, minimal fees may not always get the best results.

despite them aiming to do the same thing, again IMHO it helps to follow experts

as always DYOR

ps. if you do go down the sipp route, download the “Tip Ranks” app. its £150-300 per year sub, but i’ve found a work around on the free app version which allows viewing info on more than the max 3 stocks per day limit.

setup a portfolio, then you get message alerts for the latest broker recommendations and price targets.. click on the name and it’ll give the broker price target and rating (buy/sell/neutral) and other metrics

may as well follow broker recommendations [who in theory are the rich experts] to invest although it doesn’t help when everything crashes

i have a work pension, they match upto 10%, so i’ve always ensured max contribution from my employer,

i had a few older pensions that during covid seemed to be doing nolt and when i researched them prices were not available, so i setup a SIPP , i contribute a few hundred a month, for £200 a month you get £50 top up 60-65 days later, and if you pay high rate tax you can then claim the additional 20% (of £250) (assuming you have sufficient 40% tax contributions available)

for example if you invested £1k, you get £250 top up on sipp and then can reclaim another £250 in your tax return or if you are PAYE employee, then write a letter to HMRC and they will send you a cheque or bank transfer.

a proforma letter is available on martin lewis mse website, TIP: state gross contributions on letter (not net), as hmrc messed up my refunds (see earlier thread). and i had to reclaim again..

hence for £1,250 investment you’ll have paid over £1,000 and you can claim back £250

= for £750 you have £1250 in your sipp.

ps check fees as they are high than ISAs for example.

pps. have you a steady nerve, I’ve lost a sh1t tonne on stock market since thursday morning, everything has died.

all my stocks have recently issued good updates/profits, huge share buybacks and increased dividends..

ppps one advantage of the SIPP i’ve found is if you get a bonus from work, is you can lump in late march april into your sipp,

were as on a company pension, you have to submit form to put your bonus into your pension, before you know what it is

sainsburys this time, had admiral silver and LV