Had my first jab (Pfizer) on Tuesday. Woke up Wednesday with a slightly sore left arm (where they jabbed me) and no other side effects. Left arm aches a little when I move it now, but that’s about it. A bit disappointed I stocked up on Paracetamol now, but the other half has her jab tomorrow (likely to be AZ) so it might get used if she’s unfortunate.

A few years ago now, but we camped with two young kids near Dyffryn Ardudwy, just North of Barmouth. Beaches are fantastic, and it was close enough to take the kids cycling at Coed-y-Brenin (and for a couple of short solo trips there). Not much entertainment, other than the campsite pub, but loads of space for the kids to let off steam once they got back from the beach. Barmouth was easily accessible on the train, which you stop like a bus at the station, within walking distance of the campsite. The following year we stayed at a campsite in Barmouth itself. Nice enough site and it was a short stroll into town, but we preferred the previous year’s campsite. Beautiful area and the kids enjoyed it, so there must have been enough to do. Some really nice (and easy) bike rides for families along the river to and from Barmouth too.

A bit of a slopfest after a week of rain…

I have the Elite Suito. Big improvement over the wheel on trainer I had before, even if the fact that the power meter is more accurate means my FTP has dropped quite a bit! Setup was easy (with 11 speed SRAM road cassette) and I’ve had no issues with it. It’s also very quiet, connects to Zwiift with no issues, but I agree with a previous poster about the app, it’s basic, to say the least.

I drove to a local forest park with MTB trails 20 minutes from me at the weekend for a solo ride. It was rammed with both walkers and cyclists, but it’s a huge area with everyone disappearing into the wild once they left the car park. The chances of contracting Covid were almost zero, but I nearly ran over two different groups of walkers hiking up the dedicated (and signposted) MTB trails. Luckily my DH speed is fairly pedestrian, so I was able to stop and explain, very politely, why they might want to think about walking elsewhere. They looked at me like I was speaking in tongues, so I just left them to it.

Marcel Schrötter crashing at Siberia, Phillip Island right in front of me!
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Schrötter Crash[/url] by ianswheeler[/url], on Flickr

You can stream the GoPro footage from camera to ground, using what they call an FPV system (transmitter on the quadcopter and either monitor or a set of goggles on the flyer) and most will accept the output from the GoPro Hero 3

I like the fact that the GoPro is pretty tough too….

I use my GoPro cameras all the time, both at work and at home. I quite like the editing, although I’m not great at it, but it is time consuming.

Work

Home

I need to practice the flying a bit more, but this adds some interest to GoPro footage

It looks like HRC won’t take the option to extend Stefan Bradl’s contract until the end of 2014, which they need to do in the next week or so, which means he’ll be out of contract at the end of this season.

Crutchlow is the current frontrunner to take Bradl’s seat at LCR for 2014, although he also has an option with the Ducati factory team as well.

If Crutchlow goes to LCR then expect to see Bradl on the Ducati, as Audi are keen to have a German onboard.

Redding is also set to step up to MotoGP in 2014, possibly aboard the new Honda production racer in the Gresini team, with a guaranteed move to the factory bike in 2015.

With Smith already signed to Tech 3 Yamaha for 2014, it could be a good year for the Brits in MotoGP next season.

I have no idea what happened to cause the second crash. The third one hurt. A lot!

Our only excuse is that it was very, very slippery!

Just spoke to the guy who put ‘The Unrideables” together and he’s currently working on a sequel that centres around Wayne Rainey, featuring the man himself. Not sure when it’s due to be released yet though.

I’ve always found the washing instructions on Lapierre bikes amusing, but then I’m easily amused…

I don’t think Terol is going to be able to ride away from the pack this season, although he will be a championship contender.

The Suter suited COTA, because it doesn’t use the rear tyre like the Kalex (the downside being it doesn’t offer the same level of rear grip, either). The Kalex is still the bike to be on and Terol will need to work hard when the championship returns to Europe, starting in Jerez next weekend, if he’s ;to keep the Suter in front.

Although the crashed out in Texas there’s more danger of Pol Espargaro making the championship boring by riding away at the front than Nico TeroI I think.

it was Jasper Iwema who had the big crash in Moto3 that brought the red flag out. He was knocked unconscious but was otherwise unscathed in the crash. He reckons he has concussion, but how the medics could tell I don’t know, as he never talks sense!

Scott knew his tyres were only going to last five or six laps, so pushed from the start to see what would happen. He knew that even once they’d gone he’d still have enough for a top six finish, so it wasn’t such a big risk. Unfortunately, the tyre also span on the rim, which caused quite a bit of chatter.

The problem with the tyre was so bad that when they cut the rear open after the race, there was only 2mm of rubber left on the radial banding!

Fifth was enough to give Redding the championship lead after Polyccio crashed out, but he won’t have been happy about being beaten by his teammate, who rode a great race apart from the last corner.

Marquez was phenomenal and Cal rode a great race to fourth. Bradl reckoned he was happy with fifth, which is surprising given he’s on a near full-factory bike and got beaten by a Satellite Yamaha.

Smith and Spies wouldn’t have been happy being beaten by a CRT bike, but at least the Austin circuit is long enough that they’d have had plenty of time to think up excuses on the slow down lap!

You need to be fit to ride a MotoGP bike, and you need upper body strength too. Dani Pedrosa may be small, but the bloke is fit and has the upper body strength to stop his face slamming into the screen every time he hits the brakes.

Mental self belief is not enough anymore, not with 260BHP and 160Kg.

Elena Rosell raced for QMMF in Moto2 last year, but she found it difficult. A lot of crashes and no results when she stayed on the bike. To be honest, it was a bit of a PR move by the QMMF.

This year Ana Carrasco is racing in Moto3 for Team Calvo. Her teammate is Maverick Vinales, who is tipped by many as the favourite for this year’s title. It’s early days yet for Ana. She finished 20th in Qatar on her first Grand Prix appearance, but less than a minute behind the winner, which is promising.

The Estrella Galicia team are also developing a young female rider, Maria Herrara, in the Spanish Championship. She also looks promising and, if she continues to improve, may well make the step up to Moto3 with the team in the next few years.

My boss was Katja Poensgen’s manager when she was racing in 250GP. We argue about whether she earned her place there all the time!

As far as I recall the Finn Taru Rinne is still the most successful female in Grand Prix racing.

I think it will be a few years yet before we see a fast female in the premier MotoGP class.

The Mournes from Murlough in Northern Ireland.

The Rock Bar?
Are you a Victoria Cross holder?

My daughter is off to Paris for four days next week, including a day at Disneyland, which cost us £470 over eight months. Our son went a few years ago and thoroughly enjoyed it, so I don’t begrudge paying.

I don’t remember any residential trips when I was at school, but I was in the Scouts and every weekend we’d sign out camping kit, our parents would drop us off at a campsite on a Friday night and pick us up on sunday night.

Do they still allow that in the Scouts?

The only issues we had were a bit of food poisoning from poorly cooked chicken and being slap bang in the middle of a police search for a local murderer when we were the only people on the campsite!

I got one of those DJI Phantoms, mainly because I was in a bit of a rush, had no idea how to fly a Quadcopter and thought the “return to home” function would be handy if it all went horribly wrong.

Used it a couple of times now for filming with the GoPro. Very, very easy to fly, but I need to do some work on isolating the camera from the frame, as the “jello” effect was quite noticeable.

They are quite a few tips online on how to do this, but I haven’t got around to it yet.

The “return to home” function works perfectly too!

You get about 10 minutes flying time on each fully charged battery, but depending on where you buy it from, you get a second battery for free.

It’s taken me over a year to get a claim settled after someone ran into the side of my car. The third party admitted liability at the scene, but the police weren’t involved as there were no injuries.

I took loads of photos, and even included maps showing the various roads (there were no markings, but it wouldn’t have made any difference, because the third party never looked before pulling out). It was a good job I did, because shortly after I sent all this to the insurance company the third party claimed it was my fault.

The damage wasn’t excessive – about £2800 all in – and my insurance company initially wanted to go shared liability. I refused, as it was obvious who’d driven in to who because of the damage on both cars.

In the end a court date was set, but then the third party’s insurance company made a lodgement in court of 50% of the repair costs, which meant if I lost the court case then my insurance company would have been liable for any additional costs, plus the legal costs of the third party’s insurance company.

I refused again to accept shared liability – while muttering about insurance ombudsmen – and insisted that it went to court. A week later the third party finally admitted liability and the claim was settled in full, without going to court.

But, I suspect if I hadn’t pushed my insurance company so hard they’d have been happy to go with shared liability for the incident, at my expense.

Keep pushing them is my advice.

I’m devastated he waited this long to confess. If he’d fessed up in 2004 then Steve would still be a pirate!

Weirdly, Eddie the Eagle is still one of Britain’s best known sportsmen in Belgium, where he is still regarded as something of a legend!

I’ve had loads of bike bags, most of which lasted one or two trips thanks to heavy handed baggage handlers. After the strap was ripped off the last one I bought one of the Evoc bags. i should have done it sooner.

Easy to pack, much easier than the top loading bag and it takes a Large DH bike with space to spare. The wheels go in separate pockets on the outside of the bag, so the axles can’t scratch the frame.

The wheels make it easy to pull around – even when you travel to the airport by bus.

Wouldn’t hesitate to recommend them, even if they are a bit pricey.

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Evoc Bike Bag[/url]

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The Eye of the Devil[/url]

I think we should run a sweepstake thread for how long it takes him to cry. I give him 19m 27secs

Someone has done it for you. Ladbrokes have opened a book on phrases Lance Armstrong may – or may not – use when he’s interviewed by Oprah next week.

Wager your shirt here

I wouldn’t say I was a downhiller, but some of the best days on the bike in the past 12 months have been in Morzine and with the DH youngsters at home.

I don’t have a full on DH bike anymore, having sold it after a trip to Morzine, but a 160mm Lapierre Froggy was good fun in Morzine and is more than capable of ensuring the youngsters only have a short wait at the bottom of our local trails.

Just booking this year’s Morzine trip now!

The “DH” bike:

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P1000007[/url] by ianswheeler[/url], on Flickr

This bloke isn’t a downhiller either, but that didn’t stop him giving the Les Gets trails a go on a €500 hardtail, complete with basket and picnic. It didn’t end well!

I had a BFe (The mark II version) with 140mm forks. Nice bike, but it gave me a bit of a battering on all day rides out in Spain. As a lot of people have already said, it also felt a bit dead unless you were flat out on it.

In the end I sold it and bought a Soul, which I run with 120mm forks. For me it’s been much better for all day rides, especially where rocky trails are involved (Spain) and, on the whole, I prefer it over the BFe.

You can still hit fairly big trails on the Soul, but you can’t really plough through stuff in the same way as with the BFe, but as that’s only a small part of the riding I do I don’t really miss it.

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Pump track action at Blessingbourne, Norn Irn. Hours of amusement! [/url] by ianswheeler[/url], on Flickr

I was the PSI (regular army attached to the TA) with a TA unit around about the time that the TA were being transformed from a drinking club into real support for the regular forces. For many, including the PSIs, it was a painful and difficult transition, but all the “dead wood” was cleared out and it ended up being one of the most enjoyable tours I did with the army.

I was based near/in London and we recruited mostly from the city and the surrounding area. Some of the people in the Squadron had very well paid jobs, with a lot of responsibility and a requirement to put in considerable hours.

A lot of the TA people I worked with ended up volunteering to be deployed with the regulars and did a good job. What always amazed me was their dedication to the TA whilst holding down regular jobs; a lot of them were more dedicated than the regulars I’d worked with previously. I made some good friends in the TA and left there with a new found respect for the “part timers”.

The decision to join shouldn’t be taken lightly, as the commitments are many, but you seem to be doing the right thing by asking for advice from those that are, or have been, in the TA.

Good luck, whatever you decide to do.

I use Twitter a lot in my job (eight accounts and climbing) and Tweetbot is by far the best Twitter app for the iPhone. The translate feature is worth the money alone.

Rossi to Yamaha, Dovizioso to Ducati and Cal to stay at Tech 3, or ride a factory Ducati in a one-man satellite team. That just leaves Gresini, who may or may not stick with Bautista.

*Quite fancied a no-fuss hardtail for the winter months, so picked up a BFe. It was a great bike, but a little too much for our local trails, so I replaced it with a Soul.

*SLX Drivetrain with XT shifters and brakes. Reba forks set to 120mm and an XT/Mavic wheelset.

*Great bikes both!

I rode the Soul for the first time today. A much more ‘lively’ ride than the BFe and a bit more fun on the local trails. I’m hooked!

BFe

Soul:

+1 for Dog in a Hat, French Revolutions and How I won the yellow jumper.

Also The Hour by Dr. Hutch is pretty good.

I’ve done a couple of trips with Sierra Cycling as part of a group and I’ve always found them to be excellent, even when we made Ash ride in a torrential downpour because we only had two days of riding and didn’t want to miss out!

Very welcoming, very accommodating and the free beer in the fridge was very much appreciated after a day on the trails.

The trails are excellent, with plenty of variety, and the guides know them like the back of their hands.

My only complaint is that Alan beat me up every hill, despite being at least 15 years older then me!

We will be going back later this year.

I thought about an SLR for video, but the GoPro is much more versatile for what I do.

Was sat in our local shop car park a couple of weeks ago, waiting for the missus to pick up some milk, and the old guy parked next to me opened his door into the side of my car.

Got out to have a look and there’s a big dent in my door.

“You’ve just put a big dent in my door.”

“No I haven’t, I never touched it.”

“The dent has paint from your door on it and your door has paint from my car on it.”

“No it hasn’t. It wasn’t me. See some sense.”

“Okay. just let me get your registration details and a few photos and I’ll let the insurance company sort it out with your insurance company.”

“If you’re looking for trouble, Ill get my son down here…”

“Ha, ha… Go on then…”

Luckily a couple of other people also saw him do it, so he ended up paying the couple of hundred quid it cost to repair.

Even when he was giving me the money he was claiming it was my fault for parking too close to him, despite the fact that he arrived and parked after me.

I’m sure he’ll do it again, but will probably get away with it.

In the meantime I’m still waiting for the insurance company to deal with a claim from November when someone drove into the side of my car in a car park. The third party’s insurance company is trying for ‘knock-for-knock’ despite it being 100% their customer’s fault. Nightmare.

There’s a place in Bédoin that hires road bikes. It’s right opposite the car park on the road from Bédoin up Mount Ventoux, where the start line is painted on the road (for the timed ascent).