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Yep, the new homes warranty isn't really worth a thing. They aren't covering the cladding and isulation in our case, because they say that it passed building control and met the regulations at the time it was built.

No, there's nothing special about our lease. In most flat leases, it is pretty much standard for the exterior of the structure to be the freeholder’s responsibility, not the leaseholder's.

We're not quite shared ownership - we bought via the Help to Buy scheme (using HtB mortgage and loan), so we effectively only own 60% of the flat.

We wanted to sell our flat to move out of London, and knew no-one would be able to get a mortgage. We marketed it as cash buyers only, and got a really low-ball offer which we were willing to accept. Target HCA (HtB loan administrator) and Homes England (in charge of the HtB scheme) would not allow us to do so.

Part of the HtB scheme is that you're not allowed to let the property, so we then tried to see whether we could get a valuation for a low value and then staircase so we owned 100%, and then rent it out. We got a low valuation (around 60% of what we paid for it 3 years prior), and so thought perhaps this would be a feasible option. Despite pre-agreeing the valuer with Target HCA, though, Homes England said no to the valuation, and sent their own person to do a valuation. That person said, well if you ignore the cladding issues it's actually worth 100% of what you paid for it 3 years prior, so Homes England said we could only staircase or sell the property at or above that value. If we were to sell it for a lower value, we would have had to pay the shortfall ourselves, in cash.

The argument from Homes England is that our lease states that we need to make any required repairs to the property. However, the lease also states that we only own the internals walls and whatnot. The external wall system and things like windows are owned by the freeholder of the building, and so even if we wanted to, we're not allowed to make repairs or alterations to those parts. After speaking to a property lawyer they agree, so we are considering taking legal action.

For now, though, we got Target HCA to agree to an exception to allow us to rent out the flat. So we're now renting in Derbyshire, and have a tenant living in the flat. We're paying all the stupidly expensive service charges, though. The building insurance has gone through the roof, we've had to pay to have a temporary fire alarm installed in the flat, and are just waiting for the bills for remediation of the cladding. Feeling lucky that we haven't had to pay for a waking watch, though.

The whole thing properly sucks, but we've made our peace with it, and are feeling lucky that we were able to make the move out of London happen somehow.

Yeah, this. I have direct experience of this happening, sadly.

Sorry, I just double checked and mine are actually not the wide fit - just the normal fit. The toe box is really nice and roomy. I've had issues with shoes squishing all my toes together in the past (so have ended up buying shoes that are too big and then having to do them up really tight to compensate).

I'm not as wide as you (toes are narrower than the ball of my foot). At my widest my feet are around 105mm. My Riots are a size 44.5.

I did have to heat-mold them in the oven when I got them, and use a wooden shoe stretcher to make the sole a little wider at the ball of my foot. Even then, on really long rides I still got hotspots. By the time I realised this, though, it was far too late to send them back. They had been absolutely fine walking around the flat. In the end I solved the issue by doubling up on insoles. I have a really high arch so had some Sidas custom footbeds made when I got the shoes. The part around the ball of the foot is really low-profile, though. Sticking the factory insole that the shoes came with under my custom footbeds just raised my foot up enough that my foot was no longer catching on this hotspot. I've been really pleased with them since, especially for the price.

They're clearly not perfect for me, and one day I will give in and order some Lakes, a wide fit Bont Vaypor (or maybe just a wide fit set of Riot+ now that I know they exist). I just really baulk at paying in the region of £300 for cycling shoes, given that I also need a custom footbed. It would end up being not too far off £400 all-in, and I just refuse to spend that much money on footwear!

They're what I'm currently using and they're pretty good. I will try a pair of lakes when I spot a good deal in the future, or maybe if I ever get to visit the USA for work again

Ugh, I've had a ton of this in the last few days. I also had similar on RideWithGPS, for gods sake!

Yeah, good shout. I've just posted a wanted advert here and on my cycling club's facebook.

I wondered about the springs being shared with other shifters. I just watched videos of disassembly of 105 and ultegra shifters on YouTube, though, and the mechanism and springs look totally different. I'll keep looking, though. Surely they didn't design a bespoke ratchet system for this 1 specific shifter model?

Wanted: Does anyone have a Shimano ST-BR 505 right-hand shifter in their parts bin? Mine snapped a spring in the ratchet mechanism last night, so will shift down the cassette, but not back up. Sadly Shimano don't sell the springs as replacement parts, and I'm determined not to junk a shifter that has nothing else wrong with it. I'd happily pay for either a working one, or a non-working one (so long as it's not broken because the same spring has snapped).

In the attached picture, it's the spring circled in yellow that seems to have snapped. The pawl circled is green should be spring-loaded to press back into the ratchet.

Thanks, I will take a look just in case. The shifter moves freely and will move the derailleur. However, the ratchet doesn't catch and so the derailleur just moves right back down the cassette.

Last night my bike wouldn't shift to the larger cogs on the rear derailleur. I pulled the shifter apart this morning and the pawl (circled green) won't engage the ratchet. It looks like the spring (circled yellow) has broken. Is it fixable, or do I need a new brifter?

Current brifter is Shimano RS 505, and I've had the bike since new for almost exactly 4 years. I know it's well out of warranty, but am a bit gutted if it's broken in a way I can't repair!

I'd argue. A few years back with Aviva I had similar where the equivalent they offered had many inferior components so I did a calculation including the upgraded components and they saw my point and increased their offer.

The only place you may run into issues is if you run into your stated replacement value. So if you insured it stating that a replacement would be 1k, they're not going to give you 1500 to replace. They will say you are under-insured.

I've no experience with Direct Line, but based on my experience with other insurers they will offer you an equivalent brand new bike, or the cash that the equivalent new bike would cost

Jesus christ, I really feel for you! I'm living just outside Derby these days. I'm not sure there is, but if you think there might be anything I could do to help, send me a message.

Ah yeah, I feel your pain! Archiving routes is a premium feature. To be honest I might well pony up for the premium account, as I've had so much good use out of RWGPS over the years.

How are you creating the routes? If you plot them by clicking points on the map in the route creator tool then tbt navigation should always work.

The only time it hasn't worked for me is when I've imported a route from a GPS file or similar. That won't have tbt navigation sadly. You need to plot it from scratch, or if I remember correctly there is a premium feature in RWGPS that can fix that.

Some of the other ones they have done are great, but I thought that one was so disappointing for 60k. I'd have been gutted to spend so much for a result like that!

What is it that tells you when to top up with the squirt lube? Do you do that when the chain starts squeaking, or some other signal?

Yeah absolutely. I've got 4 bikes and because I had a bit more time over lockdown, I decided to experiment with waxed chains. Because of the weather and the pandemic, I haven't ridden 2 of the 4 bikes since November.

I've done approximately 400 km of outdoor riding on my winter bike. That chain currently looks fine and isn't squeaking. The only thing I've done to that bike all winter is if it was a wet ride, splashed on a bit of clean water at the end of the ride to get rid of any grit or dirt sitting on the chain.

The chain I've replaced so far was the one on my bike that sits on the turbo trainer. I average about 6 hours per week on the turbo, but that obviously doesn't have to deal with any water or corrosion, but potentially just the odd bit of sweat.

I'm intrigued to see how things change as I start to ride outside more in spring.

Previously I would use Muc-Off dry or wet lube on my chains per the conditions, and would clean it off and replace pretty much every time I washed my bike, so every couple of weeks in the summer. Plus if the chain ever looked yucky or squeaked I'd give it a clean.

I'll also jump in to defend chain waxing for every day bikes. This is my first winter running waxed chains, and I have found it incredible. I have no intentions of going back.

I've not done the most outdoor rides of any winter ever due to pandemic and temperature, but I've done some very wet rides on gritted and salted roads without similar issues. I've just replaced my first chain after 4 months, so was very impressed.

I've only used KMC and SRAM chains, so maybe the chain is the difference? Was the chain brand new or had it been used previously without wax?

Can you tell us more about the products and process you used? For me I've used the molten wax mix applied from a slow cooker. Cleaned with white spirit in a jar, and then methylated spirits as the final clean. That's on a mix of new and used KMC and SRAM chains.

I'm also interested in ordering some of these. Are they as warm or warmer than a woolie boolie? Just want to make sure they are going to be warm enough for winter.

I really like these: https://www.bikester.co.uk/jagwire-wire-hook-for-electric-circuit-black-626642.html

20 x bodyweight squats
60 seconds plank
20 x split squats each side
20 x mountain climbers each side
20 x hamstring curls with feet up on an exercise ball
12 x press up
60 seconds rest.

Repeat that to make a 30 minute circuit, do it twice a week.

Advance warning, it took me maybe 4 weeks to be able to build up to do that for 30 minutes with good form. Don't be discouraged if some of the exercises are really tough at first.

Then once you have that down, add in the following every other week.

20 x overhead squats holding a towel overhead
16 x Bulgarian split squats each side
16 x renegade rows each side
12 x bird dog each side
20 x kettlebell swings
15 x burpees
60 seconds rest

Again, make that a 30 minute circuit, twice a week.

Yep, I did the five minute clearing effort and warmup before the FTP test, and no I wasn't unusually fresh. It was the Monday after a Sunday of no cycling, but I do that every week.

I'm hopefully 5 weeks away from a time trial, but we'll see if it can actually go ahead or not.

I think it probably is psychological. I'll stick with it for tomorrow, and then next week too. If it's still horrible then, I'll drop the FTP down by 10 watts. Thanks for the reassurance, I needed it!

After the joy of setting a new, best-ever FTP value (only by 2 watts, I think, but still), I've suffered the rest of the week feeling my workouts are utterly crushing.

TBH it has been a while since I've seen a reasonable rise in FTP. I just checked TrainingPeaks and I only did 2 x FTP tests in the whole of 2020 (because Coronavirus, so very few races other than hillclimb season).

I took a few months away from structured training from November, and only started back up really at the end of December. When I did that I just guesstimated my FTP as 5% less than where I had been in October. Workouts were feeling good, I was consistently able to complete them with really good adherence.

Then on Monday I did an FTP test (20 minute standard protocol, as I always do), and saw a 15% increase versus my previously-estimated FTP. Since then I've done a 2x20 SS, an over-under, and a 3x10 mins of 15 second microburst interval sessions. The over-under session today nearly broke me mentally, and I just wasn't able to hit the target wattage on the "under" intervals. The other 2 were okay, but felt very close to the limit of what I could do, which I'm not used to for 2x20 SS.

The increase in FTP I think is mainly due to a new routine of strengthening I started back in December. My legs and core are noticeably more muscular. However, as a result I weigh a bit more than I used to, so my watts/kg at estimated FTP is close to, but not quite as high as my previous highest value, which was in the summer of 2019.

I'm looking for some internet opinions, obviously. Is this just normal to suffer this much following a decent increase in FTP, but it's been so long that I've forgotten the feeling? Is this just a shock to my body after 4 weeks of doing workouts where I had underestimated my FTP? Should I reduce my FTP by 10W, do another 4 weeks, and then re-test? Or something else I hadn't thought of?