Search results for:

Not following live but I’ve enjoyed the Gothamchess reviews on YouTube.

I followed the candidates a little, but this is my first time following the world championship. I don’t know why but I’m sort of rooting for Ding to overcome his doldrums and win his first match in almost a year.

Our 3yo knows most of the words to Boom Boom Boom and Wiggle Wiggle by the Outhere brothers. I don't think she quite knows the NSFW sections yet but she was adamant that I wasn't to remove them from her playlist.

She also takes great joy in shouting "Bugger off Dudley!" at my Mum's dog 🤣.

I’ve been away bike packing, what stages of the tour should I watch to catch up. I think the last stage I saw was Cav’s 35th stage win.

Soil is one of the most hotly debated topics in bonsai and one in which I think I am still a complete novice. I only just received my first bag of akadama which I had planned on putting in my soils this spring but it didn’t arrive in time.

Anyway, bonsai soil needs to have 4 properties, it needs to provide stability to the plant, it needs to provide water, it needs to provide nutrients, and it needs to allow the tree to breathe. Purely organic soils (regular compost etc) tend to hold too much water and can compact leading to the roots not being able to get enough oxygen. Most bonsai enthusiasts tend to opt for a largely inorganic soil with excellent drainage. This means that soil doesn’t become waterlogged but can mean that you have to water very often (maybe up to several times per day in hot weather). Akadama is a dried clay from Japan that is favoured for it’s balance of water retention and drainage however it is expensive, often difficult to come by and can break down if you live in an area prone to frost. Many people therefore look for alternatives.

I currently have several trees in a mix of composted pine bark (an organic component to add water and nutrient retention), perlite (for drainage), and cat litter (made from molar clay, an akadama replacement with reportedly similar-ish properties). I think my mix is 50% bark, 25% perlite and 25% cat litter. This mix is probably more organic than most would recommend (I’ve seen people using 1:1:1 of the same ingredients) but I’m lazy and like that I don’t have to worry too much about watering. Currently the trees all seem fine.

The tldr is that you don’t NEED akadama, and there are alternatives, but I’d be a bit cautious about regular garden clay - if it’s anything like what I imagine, it will turn into a dense stodgy mush and suffocate your tree. You want something that will retain its structure.

Molar clay is readily available from Amazon under the name sanicat pink or kitty friend https://www.amazon.co.uk/Sanicat-Pink-Cat-Litter-30ltr/dp/B00SJX82SW. Perlite and composted bark are both readily available at your local garden centre. I then sieved all to remove fine particles (<~4mm) and dust before mixing my soil.

a rich old couple who will include me in their will

This is in the adverts??

Tailfin sending out a replacement axle 👍

@user150481 and @Kimmo

Perfect thanks

Quick question I need to buy a spare gear shift cable but everything has got much more specific than I'm used to on my older bikes.

So, am I correct that all Shimano shifters use the same 1.2mm gear inner cable? Specifically I need a cable for a Shimano SLX M7100 12-speed shifter.

Having some difficulty with a Tailfin through axle...

When installing the Universal Through Axle, I followed these instructions through to Step 3 "Attach Correct Thread Section”. When I do this, the drive side section threaded onto the non-drive side section fine, but when I stopped at 5nm there was still a substantial section of treaded section still visible on the NDS section. From the images in Step 6 (no step 5?), it looks like the DS section should thread all the way onto the NDS section to form a flush join. I therefore unscrewed the two parts a couple of turns and retightened. This time, the DS section screwed a little bit further onto the NDS section, but again when I stopped at 5nm there was a substantial gap. At this point I began to wonder if something was wrong, so went to disassemble the parts completely, however when I did so, they had become seized together. At no point did I tighten beyond my torque wrench’s 5nm setting but they now seem totally stuck. I have not tried to mount the parts in a vice to apply heavy pressure to separate them, but they are definitely seized tight to conventional hand pressure and certainly beyond the 5nm applied.

This doesn't seem right to me... the two parts of the axle should fit together flush right?

Any recommendations for clear tape to help stop bags rubbing carbon frame/paint? I saw a few kits, but think a roll would be more useful.

Perfect, close enough is fine.

If a phone has a battery capacity of ~2k mAh, and a power bank has a capacity of ~10k mAh, am I right in thinking that the power bank can deliver approximately 5 full charges to the phone? Or doesn’t it work like that?

Elite's app costs money (£20 annually so not too bad) and I've been enjoying the simplicity of just using a head unit or watch. If this doesn't work out I think I'll try golden cheetah, but that means going back to using a laptop on the turbo.

Super thank you I'll try that tomorrow. The best thing is if it also works in custom workouts. On Monday I tried a new set of intervals - these were specifically designed to be more challenging than the intervals I've been doing recently and for a multiplicity of factors (including a lack of sleep and work stress), it was immediately obvious that the targets were too high. On Zwift I'd have just hit the "-" button and knocked 5% off, but I could find no way on my 965 so just cancelled the workout and did a free ride for the remainder.

When doing a workout on zwift there are little buttons on the left hand side that allow you to adjust the intensity. So for example if I’m riding at 150w in erg mode and my hr starts to drift, then I can reduce my intensity by a few percentage points to compensate.

I just cancelled my zwift sub and am now using my garmin (either 965 or 530) to control the turbo. Is there any way to adjust intensity mid workout in a similar way on either of these devices?

As ever, I’m totally in awe of, and grateful for all you do for us. Thanks VB

Excellent, thanks will try them then.

Anyone have any experience with aftermarket quick fit straps for garmin watches (lots on Amazon) ~£40 for the garmin version vs £9-20ish for aftermarket. I’d just get silicone, it’s just I like the ability to switch straps easily and sometimes put my watch on the bars.

Because of a recent heart diagnosis, I've been training almost exclusively by HR for the last 6 months and I typically define Z2 as 80-90% of Threshold HR. For me this works out as approximately 75-85% max HR. 70-80% LTHR (65-75% HRMax) is closer to zone 1. I believe it is also important to stick WITHIN Z2 and resist the temptation to ride at the top end, so I typically aim to keep my HR as close to 85% LTHR as possible and use 90% as a hard upper limit.

I've also seen people say that HR is not great for defining Z2, especially among relatively untrained athletes. I believe this is (a) because of variability between subjects in terms of their HR curve, (b) because HR is slow to respond to changes in effort and (c) because of drift. For this reason I also use the talk test to verify Z2 effort by reciting Burns poetry to myself 🙄.

All this correlates well to my power zones and has worked well for me .

What are the free alternatives for driving erg mode on the turbo? I mostly just do my custom workouts anyway.

Yeah I feel a bit conflicted. On the one hand (in my time as a tt-er, so all of the 2010s) it was always about the bike, from nick bowdleresque fairings and xav’s homemade helmet and leg aerofoils, to sawn off bars and drillium in hill climbs. I love the slightly mental nature of wringing everything one can out of a bike. But the problem is that previously it seemed that most of these madcap innovations were “relatively” affordable. Real enthusiasts were out home testing different positions, but it seemed more about an investment of time rather than money. Last tt I did, a near rival turned up with £10k+ of new gear and tunnel time and beat me by 2minutes. It feels like there is nothing I can do with a 2004 bike and second hand parts. Maybe the older hands will say it was always thus but it just feels like a money game now.

Then again, you’re only racing yourself, right?

My sister (a national level junior swimmer in her time) has been known to overtake particularly annoying slowpokes in the fast lane by fly-kicking underneath them on her back.

I saw the previous post, and now this, what is supposed to have happened?

I can’t imagine swim making it worse. I used to get cramp when i swam with an injured ankle but that’s about it. Some zero impact movement might help get some blood to the area and help recovery?

I fully convinced myself into being sensible and getting the 955, then found a 965 on sale and bought it on impulse. Already slightly regretting it, but I like the lairy yellow. The screen better be nice 🤣.