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I’m selling my adidas Terrex free hiker gtx boots - they’re just a little small and too voluminous. My feet slide around in them on downhills and my toes bump the fronts. That said they’re great on flats and the cushioning is fantastic on hard or metalled paths.

So - need a replacement. Lightweight, waterproof, mid height, cushioned. Looking at the La Sportiva Ultra Raptor ii mid. Anyone familiar with them, or other recommendations?

You have to pay though for tss and stuff like that though?

What’s the go to analytics app of choice these days? The stages app doesn’t have anything at all (“coming soon…”), I used to use golden cheetah and can go back to that but it feels like a faff copying files about (maybe a newer version is better).

Just power curves, tss, simple stuff

Tried another L200 (think it was £95 with various discounts) and used it today for the first time, just on the commute.

First impressions are that it’s totally fine, which really was the bar it needed to get over. It’s nicely visible, the buttons are good, it’s not laggy, configurable, etc. I’ll have to wait to the weekend to try out navigation but good first impression!

Can’t find the 530 for £200 anymore - I should have bought one a week or so ago - so £120 for the L200 is tempting again.

And edit

Bought another l200 at £115. Fingers crossed.

A younger me is bemused that I’m actually paying attention to prices and not just getting the best shiniest thing

Im now leaning towards the garmin 530 at £200

Reading reviews it sounds like its actually a finished product, rather than the beta tester units that Garmin tend to ship (an approach that the other manufacturers seem to have followed)

Any compelling alternatives?

Yeah, I have power, but I really want something that I can add routes/ courses to on the occasions that I’m somewhere new. The old Garmin was fine for that, so my requirements are low but so is my patience , it’s just got to work (turn on, and not be glitchy, find satellites quickly, not freeze, etc)

Thanks. No, I’ve been prevaricating.

Though leaning towards a wahoo. Just struggling justifying the cost given it’ll be 95% used around Regent’s park..:

Same as rapha/ Albion/ Castelli/ Enduro pro stuff I’d say

I’m 183cm and 72kg. Medium tops and iirc large bibs (as the mediums were too tight on shoulders) which is the same as all my other kit

Spexcel on alibaba are fantastic value. I use them for commute / an hour round regents park, but I don’t think I could tell the difference between them and the various branded/ race/ quality bibs I own in a blind test. Downside is the weeks waiting for them

Thought this article was very interesting on the differences in perceived importance of elections/ power (which feels like an ongoing theme)

https://www.theguardian.com/books/article/2024/may/08/the-searchers-by-andy-beckett-review-the-legacy-of-the-radical-left

The five politicians seem split between those prepared to build alliances and make compromises to gain power (Livingstone, McDonnell) and those playing a much longer game who see electoral victory almost as a side issue (Benn, Corbyn, Abbott). “Elections are a platform,” Benn said on Desert Island Discs in 1989. “People see elections much too much in terms of the outcome.” He told his supporters that his narrow loss to Denis Healey in Labour’s deputy leadership contest in 1981 was “an enormous victory”. Corbyn, similarly, spent months after the catastrophic 2019 general election defeat insisting that his arguments had been vindicated.

With caveats, Beckett subscribes to this Bennite view that politics is as much about changing ways of seeing and thinking as vote-counting. The left, he argues, has won many invisible, incremental battles, from investment in public transport in London to shifts in cultural attitudes. Today, pamphlets on diversity issued by Livingstone’s GLC “read like standard memos from human resources”. True enough, although how much this has to do with the GLC, or even the left, is debatable.

How have you got on with yours after a couple of weeks?

Giant finally got back to me yesterday to say they’ve checked out the unit and agree it doesn’t work, so im back in the market. Despite recent experience I’m thinking of trying another stages to see if the next one works

Yes, it is if it works properly!

Prophetic.

I went for the L200 - arrived today, and it won’t power on. Tried pressing the side button for 1 second, 6 seconds, every other button. Buttons together. Left it on charge (the unit feels warm when charging so something happening), tried plugged in, tried unplugged. Nada.

Can’t find anything online like “my L200 won’t power on”

Remarkable.

Anyone been up Kilimanjaro?

Mrs Cookie wants to do it. We’ve a 10-year so she may go herself while little cookie and I sit on a sofa and watch tv for 2 weeks

Thanks - the L200 looks very good for £130

Cool thanks - that was on my list of possibles so good to have a recommendation.

My comically old 705 has died, again, and this time I’ve decided to let it go to the big gps party in the sky. Must be more than 15 years I’ve had it.

Anyway. Recommendations please.

• mainly used for realtime data while cycling: power, time, etc.
  
• need route navigation: upload a GPX or whatever and then turn by turn please, with reasonable off road (bridleway type stuff) routing
  
• must be able to press intervals start stop (worst case in thick gloves in the rain)
  
• Painless uploading of rides
  
  

That’s about it really. What’s the cheapest best option?

I’ve a week in the Cairngorms in May/June, staying at Braemar.

Any recommendations or tips on hikes? I’ll have a 10 year old with me who’s capable of distance and height (Lomond/ Snowdon type stuff or Suillven last year for example), but I’d avoid anything technical.

Looks like Castelli was bought by Assos circa 1997, and they’ve just got their first product out…

cool - i actually bought from Condor, so it'll go back there.

I'll send measurements over though - its the same pit to pit as my long sleeve jersey (which is hugely stretchy) and an inch less than my insulated gilet.

Any news on when there will be some more rain jackets in the burnt orange colour? (pertex allroad or 3.0)

Mmm - the zoa insulated in medium was the right size for me, but I found the cut very baggy - quite a square shape rather than tapering from shoulders to waist.

Rain jacket 3 in medium turned up today - it’s tiny. I’m medium in everything (including a couple of Albion tops) but I can just squeeze into this if only have an baselayer on, can’t do it if I have a long sleeve jersey over the baselayer - and the arms are an inch short.

Do they normally size up so small? I’m not going to be shocked if someone said there was a batch of smalls that were sold out as mediums.

Is the all road pertex thing the same size as the rain jacket?

Ah, cool, thanks. I’m after a replacement for my decade-plus old assos racecape. The material has worn to the point that I managed to put my hand through the middle of the sleeve a couple of days ago. It’s still waterproof where it matters - around the the shoulders, arms, chest. It’s old school plastic bag where you need proofing and a mesh where you don’t.

Anyway. The time has come. Race cape it is.

Just finished this, picked it up on your recommendation. And yeah, agree, it was excellent. Across the spectrum of action adventure, history and devastating personal loss. I would have liked another chapter on the end.

Thanks!

The Tunnels of Cu Chi is also worth a read for some more vietnam history. As is Dispatches (Michael Herr iirc).

rain jacket 3.0 vs allroad pertex

i assume the rain jacket is more of a roadie cut (tighter, shorter at the front, etc) than the allroad. And perhaps the pertex is more durable and waterproof at the expensive of weight and bulk?