A hole you say?

Hmmm …

I’ll look into it.

IGMC

Plenty up in Scotland last week. Not had any down here (just south of the Dales) this year but they were pretty bad on the Saturday night/Sunday morning of the JennRide.

Currently so windy the buggers are probably plagueing the oil rigs in the North Sea!

Something I just remembered, it’s back on-topic as well. The shell material that a bag/quilt is made of can have a big effect on how compact it packs down. Most of the ultra-light stuff uses 10D material or even 7D in some cases but you have to treat those with a little care.

That costs because those lightweight materials are tricky to work with which is why the mid-range and cheaper bags use 15D or 20D fabrics which also just don’t pack as well.

Your list doesn’t look too bad but as ever the devil’s in the details.

An Alpkit 600ml mug will hold a small gas canister and stove like the pocket rocket, that can save quite a bit of space. A lot less space than a Jetboil.

Are you carrying the items like the tarp and bag in their own stuff sacks? If so then that wastes space, just stuff everything in while trying to keep “wet” and “dry” items apart – you may need a dry bag for this.

Decant the dehydrated meals into “Pour and Store” bags – they won’t go off in the day or two you are away. The packaging is designed to give them a long shelf life in store with people handling them, you don’t need that.

Here’s a shot of my bike setup for an overnighter in the Dales:

The front bag is 8L, the rear is 5L. They’ve got all the bivy kit, spare clothing, cooking stuff and food in there. I’m carrying a Camelbak Lobo because things have been a bit dry in the Dales and needed to ensure we’d enough water, I think the only item other than water in there was a lightweight waterproof.

Have a read of this https://www.bearbonesbikepacking.co.uk/tls-the-revolutionary-packing-system/ and see if you can adjust things. I know when I started bikepacking I really struggled to get all my stuff, or what I thought I needed, packed on the bike without needing to take a rucksack as well. Now I know what I can get away with (and have over time replaced worn out kit with lighter, more compact stuff) it’s not a problem.

Getting a bit off-topic here!

The Alpkit Numo is basically a Lilo! Might be comfy but has diddly squit insulation properties. But yeah, a good insulating mat will go a long way to improving the sleep you get with any bag/quilt.

Remember that bag/quilt ratings assume you are wearing a thin thermal layer or pyjamas.

My summer to early/mid autumn kit is:

Exped Hyperlite Synmat (the long wide version)
Cumulus 150 down quilt
Sea to Summit pillow

Then either Borah Gear bivy and Trekkertent DCF tarp or my half of a Big Agnes Copper Spur UL2 tent.

The main issue with synthetic bags is that they really, really don’t like being compressed repeatedly, the fibres that trap the air get broken and so the material doesn’t insulate as well. Probably too early to tell about the latest generation of products.

What’s “minimum stuff” and for what activity?

Lamb really isn’t popular in the US, their annual per capita consumption is 0.4kg compared with 4.7kg for the UK.

Mountain Hardware Lamina bags tend to be a common suggestion over on Bearbones. There’s a range of bags rated to different temps so just pick what you want. I’ve no personal experience of them, prefer down myself.

Escape Bikes had the 11-46T in stock a couple of weeks ago, £70. If you’ve a medium cage XT or SLX derailleur it will work just fine. There’s just 50g difference between the X8 & S8 versions, we stuck them on a set of scales to check. That mass is also close to the hub so it’s not as bad as sticking a heavier tyre on for example.

Had a couple of 502 (Bad Gateway) errors on Monday night, a page refresh “fixed” them. Can’t say I get that more than with other similar sites. The 502 error can be due to the server (or one of the servers in the chain) being overloaded with requests, it’s not really a problem with the site per se.

Like a lot of this sort of kit when you go superlight then so does your wallet! So it’s a case of balancing how light you want to go with how much you want to pay.

My lightest setup is a Trekkertent DCF tarp and a Borah Gear bivy bag, sub 400g including pegs and pole. Eye wateringly costly though.

The Alpkit Rig 3.5 is suitable for one person (we’ve used it for the two of us but it’s very cosy), you need to work out the best pitch for you.

At the same weight as the Rig3.5 is the SMD Gatewood Cape which is sort of the Lunar Solo without the inner. Since I got mine I’ve not used it as it means prying it out of my wife’s hands.

Also look at DD Hammocks for other tarp options.

For a bivy bag, consider if you want to use it just with the tarp or also on its own. For the former you can get away with much lighter bags, they aren’t “waterproof” but they don’t need to be since the tarp is doing that job so they are more about keeping draughts and bugs at bay. If you want to have your mat inside the bag then you need a bag that’s a bit wider, something around the size of the Hunka XL will be fine.

It’s on my todo list but things keep getting in the way. Since it’s an Alan Goldsmith route there’ll be some hike-a-bike in there. Most likely candidates are Black Sail Pass and Scarth Gap (about 3mins into the video) but it’s likely that most will be pushing up the top bit of Walna Scar among other bits.

Probably the hardest of the 200km ITT routes.

More info at https://www.selfsupporteduk.net/lakeland200

We’ve the Big Agnes Copper Spur UL2. With the footprint it weighs 1500g so split between the two of us it’s 750g each. I’m 1m80 tall and there’s plenty of room to sit up without my head brushing the ceiling. Comes nowhere near your £200 limit though. Also it’s an inner first pitch but in practice that hasn’t been a problem. It’s very similar, but slightly taller than the MSR 2 man Hubba.

The Jaran 2 is Alpkit’s version of it. https://alpkit.com/products/jaran-2 which is in your budget.

It’s worth seeing one in the flesh as things like headroom aren’t apparent from diagrams. A friend has the MSR 1 man Hubba and it’s too short for me to sit up in. Also check things like your sleeping mat(s) can fit inside.

There’s been research done on the rattlesnake’s rattle (bear with me on this), apparently it will increase the frequency of the rattle to trick humans into thinking it’s much nearer than it really is.

With a nice clicky hub, just do a quick backspin or two and the tone of the clicks increases and walkers think you are much nearer than you are.

I’d love an Onyx hub for the fat bike because of the near zero engagement but they are the same cost as a full wheelset.

Just keep asking: “What was the question?” except when you know/suspect it actually is a question.

His way being North Shields or North Korea?

I did mention G-o-S as part of the 20min limit. The other villages around there are worth looking at: Lindale; Newton-in-Cartmel; etc. Cartmel itself is worth a look but can be touristy at times and it takes ten minutes just getting to the A590. That sort of rules out Cark and Allithwaite as well.

Most of that area acts as a feeder to Dallam School (the Arnside area does as well) so there’s busses to handle that.

Yeah, the A590 is a pain – two serious accidents (plus others) at Gilpin Bridge in the last month. Oddly the filling station at Newby Bridge is also an accident blackspot.

And still no one’s said Barrow…

A bit more than 20mins from the M6, about 45mins according to the matrix sign on the link road.

Just paid £70.00 for a Sunrace 11spd 11-46T cassette from a local shop. CRC have it at £69.99.

So I guess my premium is 1p!!!

A job “near the Lake District” could be just about anywhere to the west of the Pennine watershed and from Manchester up past the Scottish border. A little bit more detail would be helpful, I wouldn’t want to be driving over Shap in mid-winter if I didn’t have to.

Twenty minutes from the M6 is also a pretty wide corridor – somewhere like Ingleton or Kirkby Stephen are on the edge of that.

SE Lakes, that 20mins would see you anywhere south and east of a line from Grange-over-Sands to Newby Bridge to Staveley. Another area that might not currently be on on your map is the Milnthorpe, Sandside, Arnside area.

I’m not as familiar with the northern part of the Lakes (I grew up near Newby Bridge) but the Eden Valley is pretty quiet but still handy to bigger towns.

Things like shoes, it’s local every time. Other stuff it does depend. A lot of bike stuff isn’t that much more expensive locally than on-line, 10-20% or so. Does depend on the manufacturer and the deals they do with both on-line and bricks&mortar shops.

Then there’s how soon I want it – I’ve paid well over the odds for some things when I’ve broken them and needed them for the following day or even that evening.

Another crash at this junction this morning as I was heading over. Happened just before 0900. Looked like a car and a van on the Kendal bound carriageway, the drivers were out and talking so probably not serious though the driver of the BT/Openreach van was probably wondering what to tell his boss.

While everyone generally slowed down it didn’t stop a numpty in a BMW estate from racing past at 70mph.

The error is: “API Key has been blocked by Administrator” which doesn’t say if it’s explicitly OS related but since they stopped using Google Maps in favour of OSM because of Google’s change of terms it’s likely.

There’s this JavaScript error: OpenSpace is not defined at mapPack.js:129 (anonymous) @ mapPack.js:129

Which is this line (my bold):
var gMap,osMap,extBox,bOpen=false,mSrc=”MAP”,findPt=0,gMarker,gdir,gpl,opl,undoMngr,sCur,eFlush=false,startMarker,endMarker,gMove=false,osMove=false,bOSEdit=false,dragEditor,ctrlKey=false,hpID=0,hpIcon,seed,rteIcon,sha_lib_loaded=false,bLogon=false,lastRname,lastRdesc,mapState=0,distance=0,rData=[],ple,reqInProg=false,ou=’mph’,path=[],lastPt,eleGraph,eBuffer=[],hPoints=[],xcnv=0.62138818,eludist=[],eluspd=[],eldist=[],eluheight=[],ycnv=3.2808399,prRte,prId,prReq,prMkrArr=[],mflg=0,hvMkr,adClicked=false,gridProj=new OpenSpace.GridProjection(),BO=detectBrowser();function mapLoad()

OpenSpace is the Ordnance Survey Javascript library. It was replaced at the start of this month by a new API – https://www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/business-government/products/openspace

Anker or RavPower. Whatever capacity you decide you want, halve it and get two of that size, i.e. 2 x 10,000mAh rather than 1 x 20,000mAh. Gives you redundancy in case one fails.

Those times I’ve used my iPhone to “locate me” it’s been pretty accurate, within 10m or so. Not tried it in tree cover (I’ve a Garmin for actual biking use*) but it works in city centres which can have similar problems for GPS systems.

*I think I used my phone once earlier this year to record a ride, I’d either forgotten the Garmin or the battery on it was flat.

Someone on another forum mentioned that they work for one of the big bike manufacturing plants in Shenzen in China and they’ve just started a third shift on the production line. I’d imagine Shimano and Sram might be aiming to supply an extra X thousand groupsets to there rather than the consumer market.

62 here and heading out for an overnighter bikepacking trip in the Dales.

Looks like a bit of infighting going on as well – https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/blogs-the-papers-58372596

The government have been utterly shambolic on this, they were told to get Afghan interpreters and others who’d assisted them out of the country some months ago but chose not to do anything.

Of the current crop of distance runners Finlay was most likely to be close to or better than KJ’s time. Certainly in the Dales it was very warm yesterday which might not have suited him. Not sure if Rob Jebb still has a fast time in him, well faster than his 14hrs30.

The first post on this page – https://forum.fellrunner.org.uk/showthread.php?24227-Kilian-bg-attempt/page8 is about Kilian’s attempt, note that he spent several minutes sat down before Honister, I think it was about eight which roughly tallies with Finlay suddenly “gaining time” around there by that amount.

At the bottom of this page http://www.bobgrahamclub.org.uk/index.php?page=records is a drop-down list to select various “records”. Doesn’t have this year’s attempts added but with Finlay’s time there’s only 11 under fifteen hours.

Systems do crash but they tend to be edge cases rather than the norm. Yesterday I set off for a ride and thought that rather than drive down to the village, get my ride snacks, drive back then ride off in the opposite direction I’d call in at Morrisons and get them from the filling station there. Except their systems were down and they couldn’t take card or cash! Ended up at the shop in the next village.

At the café stop, their ordering system was down so it was paper slips only (the computer has “blown up”) – the payment systems were working but only at the counter, the mobile card readers weren’t.

The mobile card readers have their own power supply so they can take payments but the shop/café can’t transfer the details of the transaction immediately but they might be done as a batch at the end of the day anyway. I’m fairly sure the download of details of fraudulent cards is done daily so uploads might be as well.

I have a UPS for my home computer (we get fairly regular power drop-outs) – I’d imagine most supermarkets have something similar, more likely a generator, to take over in the event of a power cut. There are the freezers and chilled goods to keep going for example.

OK, maybe a bit late but the attempt was deliberately under the radar until a couple of hours ago. Finlay Wild is currently attempting the fastest time on the Bob Graham Round – live tracker here – https://live.opentracking.co.uk/fwbgr21/ He was going to try it earlier in the year but broke his arm skateboarding!

Doesn’t look like he’ll do it, he’s about 12-13mins down on Kilian Jornet’s time. Assuming he does finish then it will be the second fastest time and only the third to better Billy Bland’s long time record (from 1982) of 13hrs53mins. There’s a small chance he might be under 13hrs.

The £100 contactless limit will come in in October. That’s the “legal” limit, card companies/banks don’t have to raise their current £45 limit to the £100, they could go to £75 for example but it’s more than likely they’ll go to £100. Then each shop can have its own limit: £100 limit at a newsagents?

Both the Indian and Chinese takeaways in the village are still cash only, that’s just about the only time I “need” cash, so I’ll get £20 out, pay for the takeaway then over the next couple of weeks (we don’t do takeaways very often) will just use the rest on small transactions.

I really can’t remember the last time I wrote a cheque, not even sure where the chequebook is. I’ve had to bank a few, one of my regular jobs doesn’t have a decent internet connection – poor enough that banking sites crash – so he pays by cheque. The others just have my bank details and pay direct into that. Similarly for trades working on the house: “here’s my card with bank details”

It’s been a bit of a subconscious switch TBH, I’ve certainly not done it deliberately but nor have I fought against it. I’m 62 BTW so not an age thing.

Brilliant! Take it steady and I hope it goes well for you all.

PS: A little dusty here.

I go with the external width. By the time you’ve pushed the tape into the well it’s “narrowed” to the effective internal width. We’ve just done a wheel for my wife, internal width is 35mm, supplied tape is 37mm.

Having raised a bug – see a few posts above – I notice that the reporting page has been updated a bit. It should be possible that you get an automated email to say that the report has been received – other similar (to the user) systems do so. It would help assuage fears that the report hasn’t just disappeared into a black hole.

If your signal strength is zero then I’d get a standalone signal checker to verify if it’s the dish/LNB/cable or the box. As with anything in a chain, test one bit at a time as suggested by cogglepin.

Note: DVB-T and Satellite use different frequencies, the linked meter is for DVB-T

Sometimes the box will just get confused, as fettlin says, turn it off, leave for a while to let the electrons go to sleep (sort of kidding) then power it up.

The outers on cables can degrade over time and small cracks appear that allow water inside. We had this on an old system – a bit dicey to have a couple of cm of water inside a TV!

Some things are seasonal or cyclical, so to see Saturn’s rings with an offordable telescope they need to be face on to earth, they swing round on roughly a 30yr cycle, the last maximum was in 2017 and the next minimum is in 2025. Similarly with the ice caps on Mars, plus you’ve the varying distances between Earth and the other planets – things are obviously easier when they are closer.

I’ve one of these – http://skywatcher.com/product/dob-6-traditional/ and can make out the gap between Saturn and the rings and if I’m lucky the major gaps in the rings. A quick look round shows it’s around £300, the 8″ is £100 more. They are a bit unwieldy – it stands about 1.5m tall and is fine for carrying out of the house but I wouldn’t want to pack it up to drive anywhere.

Check out your local astronomical society, they’ll have regular meets and you’ll be able to try out different models.

Have done, 😉

Have done Mark. Looks like this:

The links still work, they just aren’t very pretty!

While you are here – the menu link bar at the top of the forum is messed up, there’s no margin or padding between each item so you have “OverviewBike ForumChat ForumMembers ForumNews ForumHelp”

Brand awareness does depend on the target audience – a company like McDonald’s have huge brand awareness, I doubt there’s anyone in a western society who doesn’t recognise the yellow M. Get into niche territory and it’s more complicated, there might only be one or two players so it’s a mixture of maintaining presence whilst trying to gain market share.

In the case of McDonald’s, yes I know you exist, I have only ever had one of your burgers and that was enough for me to never darken your doors again. So in that case, it doesn’t matter what their brand or presence is, I’m not biting (sic).

There’s a pyramid matching the graphic Mark posted – to get a sale you need X people to show an interest, to get those X interested you need Y to have seen your adverts. The proportions of Y to X to sale will vary but it will be there.

There’s also “partnerships” – there’s a list in the bar to the right of STW’s shopping partners, which is perhaps much more straightforward in that you/me click on the link, buy something and Mark/STW get a kickback, sorry, commission.