I’d recommend a tour of the Olympiastadion (check when the tours in English are), and also the spy museum, if only for the laser maze at the end! If the weather is clear, a trip to the top of the TV tower (Ferhsehturm) at Alexanderplatz is worth the (pricey) entry fee.

I used Lebara recently for a trip to Canada (dual-SIM setup) and put £5 PAYG credit on it, and bought a £10 roaming data pack which lasted 2 weeks.  No issues at all.  If you download an offline map to Google maps before you go, even using it for in-car navigation doesn’t burn much data.  I had something like 5GB, 100 mins calls, 100 texts for that £10 pack.

A few folks have mentioned taking their pension starting at age 57 – there are some pensions which allow it to be taken at 55 – see https://www.aviva.co.uk/retirement/pension-basics/changes-to-pension-age/ for example.

Tried customersupport.luxottica.com ?

Also received mine, also without decals. I think I’ll just leave them “stealth”.

However, I did remember from last time that you can buy neat aftermarket decals from https://www.slikgraphics.com/shop/fork-decals-rockshox/

I also got some Select+ two years back and have spent those two years regretting not buying two pairs, one to replace the Revelations on the other bike. So that’s that sorted now, cheers :)

Remember that you don’t have to go via Braemar if you don’t need it for food. After the Culardoch descent you can get to Linn of Dee along the north Bank of the river.

+1 for this – I tried that bit outbound from Braemar and it was much nicer than just bashing out along the road to Linn of Dee.

I have also done the shorter variant via Feshie late last August as a solo day trip starting/finishing in Braemar, on my Scandal. That was 9 hours moving time for me, and 3 hours of breaks/faff.

I spent the final hour while winching up over Culardoch thinking about whether to get fish or haggis or both at the chipper in Braemar, only to roll in about 1830 to find it was shut! So plan your meals accordingly!

I actually have some Crest 26 built up on Hope Pro2 Evo (not boost, 135mm rear) which are surplus to requirements. Drop me a PM if you are interested and want some pics?

It may or may not get round needing pliers, but I saw a tip somewhere that you can cut sections off a Biro and use those as spacers between the rim and the valve nut to make it easier to get a grip on the nut.

Not tried it yet though!

Cooltool – I think I’ve even got the neoprene pouch still, unless the mice have eaten it!

I bought some isostar ones which have a cap on them from Amazon
like this one

There were some purple stickers on the classifieds the other day

Halifax do this. You have to specify outbuildings cover, and also specify the bikes.

No pump or tokens here either. But liking the stealthy purple stickers! At least I have some spare tokens from my Revs if there are none actually in the fork already.

I wouldn’t leave a bike on a rack in Edinburgh, never mind the people’s Republic of Leith.

I agree, definitely don’t leave bikes on a rack or inside a car in Edinburgh. I read this week of someone having a fine-looking Santa Cruz ripped off their roofrack outside Decathlon while they were in store.

I also recommend getting something other than Karcher. Mine (K2) lasted 3 years and about 5 uses before lighting up orange inside and emitting smoke. Seems luck of the draw if you get one with longevity or not.

When it was working, it cleaned up the patio flags nicely, but wrecked the pointing between them – too powerful, even with then patio cleaner attachment. I am trying WetAndForget this year instead of buying a new pressure washer.

Anyone had a problem with the mech hanger on the Scandal? I am using an SLX clutch mech and just noticed that my second hanger has now got a chip out of it where the mech pin contacts the hanger tp stop it pulling too far forward. The SLX mech’s pin is about half the width of the hanger, and this portion of it gets broken off – and royally screws up the shifting.

I am loathe to pay another £25 for a hanger just for it to break again – that’s two in two years now!

(edit: I bodged it with a wee zip tie around the bit that’s snapped off, but that will shear through eventually I guess)

I use a 34T chainring with 11-50 Sunrace on an XL Scandal and 116 link chain works fine for me (SLX mech). I didn’t even realise this new cassette existed, and will be trying it next time I need to change.

Another vote for ShredXS ones from Littlepro. Maybe not for winter though. Size M is good for 5-6 year old.

SLX M7000 shifter lasted two weeks for me before ratchet failed on a downshift. Replacement XT lasted two years so far!

Pee in your garden. Seriously! We had a cat visit us repeatedly at night to leave deposits, and we read somewhere that human urine puts them off.

Dug out an old drinks bottle, “topped it up”, squirted around the cat’s favourite dumping spots and – voila – no more cat visits. No more anyone within about 5 metres either ;)

Aveeno all the way. Nothing else cuts it for me. Not tried the shea butter variant, I just use the green one.

@mikejd Send me a PM – I think I have one of these you can have, and some float fluid, for much less than that. Will need to check in the spares box tonight.

https://www.chainreactioncycles.com/shimano-slx-m7000-11-speed-chainring/rp-prod148224 ?

Bummer, should have just hit buy!   No cheap fronts left.

Ah, it wasn’t just me then that got a service then had issues (Reba – bushings had play – “all OK, just needed service” – then gouge on lower stanchion about month later and worse play).  Pity, as the prices were keen vs. TF Tuned etc.

That orange looks really nice built-up – I’m wondering now whether I should have ordered that rather than the black!

Having similar problems, I found that the stretches in this NHS video made a huge difference

Astonish mould and mildew remover. <£1 at Office Depot/outlet if you have one nearby!

Bike thefts are rife in S. Edinburgh just now.  There are now two dedicated officers in the area just on house/outbuilding break-ins (according to a local councillor on Facebook).  I’ll keep a look out.

They seem to be using the windy nights to break into places.  They’re riding around on other stolen bikes, then when they find something better, they dump those.

Another vote for the Rift Zone 3 here.  Very rapid along and down hill.  Pretty much the same geometry as a 2017 Transition Smuggler – just that you’re getting a whole bike (which weighs less) for the price of a Transition frame!

Was easy to set up the wheels tubeless with some tape and Stans.  The stock 130mm Revs are a bit wooden, so like kula72 I also have the Debonair 140mm upgrade planned.

Another vote for Northwave winter boots.  Used them for the past 6 years, only replaced when they’re worn from crank rub etc!  Never had much problem with leaking at the cuff either.

I have one of these http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/topeak-dual-touch-bike-stand/rp-prod28862

Pricey, but sturdy and works well, but obviously needs to contact the roof.  My bars are only 740 though, but you can turn the bike hooks out to get the stand closer to the wall.

For some areas of engineering, CEng is expected, like the power industry.  For me though (microelectronics), I’ve pretty much given up on the idea, partly put off by having to pay the IET every year to be allowed to keep using CEng after your name.  Maybe 10% of the staff here are chartered, mainly because they came from defence companies which encouraged it.

For balance, senditnow were a nightmare to deal with when a frame I posted went missing for two weeks!  They are actually parcelforce but you have to deal with senditnow.  How you can “lose” a frame box and then mysteriously find it again in some corner of a warehouse is beyond me.

At least the frame turned up in the end, as the claims process looked tricky as well.  They refunded the postage costs eventually.

The Decathlon frame-less ones are great, both clear and yellow variants.  A bargain.  They still fog up a bit, but the lack of frame helps the airflow.

I found Bolle glasses to be pretty poor for fogging and weird optical effects at the edges. The Decathlon ones for about £4 are much better.

Cool, thanks everyone for the tips. Will give them a go at the weekend!

@otsdr, thanks for the links, very interesting! I think I did see a small spring under the air piston when I stripped and rebuilt them, so maybe that has worked loose and is preventing the equalisation. I know now to focus on that bit of the fork anyway!