We stayed just outside Disney. I quite liked the crazy golf courses and all you can eat breakfasts on International Drive.
I thought Epcot was good (the Lands bit with extreme fruit and veg was an eye opener – 9lb lemons) and the Magic Kingdom is well worth a visit with little uns. Downtown Disney is worth a trip for dinner (or just spend most of it playing in the lego shop like we did).
The waterparks are very good – we went to the Sea World one – i’d recommend it.
Some people say it’s too touristy, but i think all kids should experience Disney once.

ps we went in late October

Like most others on here I’d recommend forward facing. Our little one is so much happier facing forwards.

Molgrips: that’s what I meant. I’m converted to flats for commuting as I find it’s safer/ eeasier in traffic etc

26 wheels on the road are **** comparded to 700c hybrids. I know this having tried it with two konas and a marin. They are slow, the geometry is not quite right and even if you put a road or hybrid chainset on them they feel wrong.

Ps flat bar racer = hybrid + marketing

Pps I own a voodoo marasa and quite like it. Although I did change the bars tyres and pedals. Hybrids are great for commuting. After years on the drops I wouldn’t go back to them for an urban commute.

My thoughts;
don’t sit near the back
don’t sit near the back
don’t sit near the back (especially if there are lots of corners).

I found that you need to read the race, rather than be really really fit. Watch riders, don’t half wheel, stay off your brakes and make sure you get used to doing turns. If you sit in all the time you’ll never be fit enough to do repeated accelerations to close gaps/ chase riders etc.

I knew riders who were much faster than me in time trials, but couldn’t adjust to constant changes in pace so got shelled out quickly. Go for some fast specific training rides. I found 90 minute rides with 10 or 20 sprints, or repeated short sharp hillclimbs to be really useful.

ps crits are quite hard. I got more enjoyment out of road races on the open road.

pps good luck

Samsung S3 mini is a pretty good phone – and you can put a micro sd in it. Just put a 32gb card in mine so no longer need to buy an mp3 player.
Mine is 11 months old and still holds a charge pretty well (2 to 3 days ish).

A vareity of concrete window lintels for the house (and he fitted them himself on his own using a variety of ladders and dodgy scaffolding)
A yellow go cart with pram wheels and axles; it was very fast.
A bike rack out of box section that affixed/ slotted onto a towbar.
A 2 storey tree house
and
A device for holding sheep still whilst you clipped their feet/ got them ready for shows etc (don’t ask) 😯

Flaperon – Member

Falling behind in math(s)? In the global race?

What is this race and is it really that important?

Who actually cares?

It’s not a problem for you ‘cos the till in McDonalds automatically works out the change. Bloody hell, if this is the attitude…

I can work my own change out thanks and i’m sure most of the population can without a till. Children don’t need to be be measured constantly, they need to be nurtured. As a former secondary teacher,I know that constantly measuring performance is relatively pointless.

Joe Hart can save shots all day long on a training pitch, but in a match it you are in a completely different scenario. What’s the point measuring a a child in a classroom situation constantly if he or she is in real life is going to be welding a pipeline under the North Sea or dealing in the derivative market. All we need to know is that they are well rounded individuals when they come out of school and a single exam will not tell you this.

Falling behind in math(s)? In the global race?

What is this race and is it really that important?

Who actually cares?

I’m just under 6 foot and ride a large. Pretty sure that they are designed for 100mm forks. I think you’ll find the medium a bit short as oo inbreds come up quite long.

Polaris Radar pack

I did the PR cyclo in 2012 with a mate. We signed up for the full route, but due to lack of training (house move/ baby arrival/ PhD) etc we did the 74 mile route.

We did the VC Roubaix version rather than the new ASO version. I think it cost us 22 euros – you can pay by Paypal. They run it every 2 years and the next one is 2014. Its a great event and i’d throughly recommend it.

We stayed near to the finish and drove to our start at Wallers colliery. After the finish we just got a train and then a tram to our car. The food stops were great; bbq’s and lots of other stuff. I think there was one every 25 miles. The evening before the event we rode to the velodrome and worked out a route back to our digs. We also got to have a look round at the name plaques in the showers & managed to ride a few laps on the track.

Tips for cobbles; don’t ride slowly, ride on the drops and don’t grip the bars too tight. And follow the yellow arrows. I rode 25mm conti gatorskins on my steel road bike.

ps there are a few sharp corners on the cobbles, so keep your eyes peeled.
pps make sure your bottle cages grip your bottles well.

As long as you change the internals they can be swapped. The upper one generally floats from side to side, where as the lower is fixed.

Deore steel. They last forever.

Enloops again. I leave them in a drawer most of the year and only seem to use them in the winter for my lights. They are one of my best biking investments (along with m520 pedals).

Join the ctc and get access to all their mapping and route planning.

We have an 09 1.6 petrol Focus. Its pretty good really.
Lots of space inside, not too dull, drives well and doesn’t cost a fortune to service.

If your mrs is short (like mine) she may not be able to drive a Golf – with the seat in the right position she kneed the steering column when changing gear (we also found this in a kia and a hyundai).

Bristol biker – just use an easy base and you never need to strap a child seat in again.

Yes.
I used to work for a cycle clothing manufacturer and we didn’t accept unwashed returns. So if I was you in future i’d not accept any unwashed returns.

Save your legs for helvellyn. It nearly killed me. The descent made my thighs burn.
Kirkstone isn’t as bad as people make out, I find winnats pass harder. Just take it steady. I found the bottom bit harder than the top.
I managed to get cramp on the swim and had never had it before, which was quite scary. Bit of foot wiggling got rid of it.
Drink and eat at transition(and on the bike) if you can and just remember that it’s a long event.
Good luck. It’s a fantastic event. Enjoy it.

a – yes – on my mtb and commuter (not on my road bike though).

The Peaks + trails around Sheffield can get quite busy and i tend to use it almost every off-road ride.

un54

Nikk ;If you rotate the split race 90º you won’t have the mud problem.

Mtfu and split the race

Our little one has just gone in a front facing seat and its transformed our trips in the car. He was so fed up in his rear facing seat as he couldn’t see anything. He now loves looking out of the windows and babbling to us.
His new seat is more upright but he still manages to sleep in it ok. We swapped him over at 10 months

Open pro for me. They are great rims. I’d recommend them.

You need to know the ‘going’ and the ‘rise’ when building steps
They are the overall height and the distance to be travelled. Look at building regs for advice. The formula is 2r + g = nlt 550/ nmt 700

We’ve just opted for the Nationwide Flexplus (joint account) at a tenner a month.

No i’m not medically qualified, but a peak flow test isn’t a measure of fitness. Peak flow is about getting maximum air volume out of your lungs fast; you would be better looking at a VO2 max test – this will be a better indicator of your fitness level.

I’m not suggesting you do more exercise/training, i’m just saying that swimming will be very beneficial to lung strength/ conditioning.

I have a really low peak flow but have run a marathon, have completed the helvellyn tri and done the kielder 100. I also used to do lots of road racing too. Don’t worry about your peak flow too much, its not really that much of an indicator.

The best thing you can do is to do plenty of exercise (swimming is best i find) and minimise all triggers as redikus says (carpets/ pets/ dust mites etc); get a good vacuum cleaner :D. I practically don’t take my inhaler now. Also not being overweight/ overeating and not drinking too much alcohol helps more than you think.

If you choose to have a meter fitted you have a year to choose to return to non metered if you so wish.

We’ve gone for a meter. It should drop our bill from £720 ish to about £400.

ps get a shower timer too. And a low flush loo (or just drop a brick in the cistern) and some flow reducer (aerator) valves for the taps.

Another vote for Dow Corning – very good stuff

Buy a good road atlas and photocopy the pages you need. That’s what i do.

I like these Cateye 1100 as the seem to last forever (i’ve had two for over 4 years- i think one is actually 7 years old) and they allow you to have a non flashing and flashing in the same light. They also offer great visibility from the sides, which most lights don’t. They also seem pretty waterproof -i’ve not had any issues with them.

I like ergon, but they don’t reduce vibration, they just fit my hands well.

2 things to reduce hand pain – use standard size bars and stem combo- Oversize bars and stems can be very stiff. Also don’t grip the bars as tight.

I’ve got the Voodoo Marasa and its good vfm. Just change the tyres, as the stock ones are very draggy.

Shimano deore

Linky

Speak to John at Shorelines – he has some Chromag Apertures on sale at the mo. They are £349 instead of £479

My Mrs has just got the One X and its pretty good. Feels nice in your hand and is easy to use. I think the polycarb feels quite nice too and the touch screen is very reponsive/ easy to get used to.

Try Tektro CR 520 or 720’s (or Avid shortys – although some people have issues with wheel removal with shortys- i didn’t though).

One thing – upgrading the pads from the stock one’s often improves the brakes immensely

Approx cost of a water meter

Here is a chart of approx cost – £468 sounds on the high side using this chart.

ps Get a shower saver/ tap savers, low flush loo (or stick a ‘loo bag thingy’ in a conventional one) and a shower timer. Most of these should be free from your water company.

How much were you paying to start with (before the meter) and how much are you paying now?