A couple of cm in Saddleworth…as expected causing road chaos. The beast from the east was no match for the trusty Brompton though and Northern Rail is running like clockwork (sort off).

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The beast from the east is no match for the trusty Brompton. No snow day excuses. @bromptonbicycle #beastfromtheeast #brompton #snowday #snowbike

A post shared by Aaron Cousins (@aaroncousins) on Feb 27, 2018 at 12:00am PST

If you’re in the North West give Jake at Snakeskin a shout:

http://www.snakeskincustom.co.uk/

I feel an Instagram mega thread coming on…

looks like your account is private.

Jam bo. You nailed it.  If your account is set to private your links don’t work.  Thanks.

Third time lucky?

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Eek!

A post shared by Aaron Cousins (@aaroncousins) on Oct 16, 2016 at 10:04am PDT

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Eek!

A post shared by Aaron Cousins (@aaroncousins) on Oct 16, 2016 at 10:04am PDT

Not working for me. Any ideas?  This is what I pasted (minus the space):

https:// instagram.com/p/BWX-BqUF4FM1kDkU176wCzcFhjeBx1YKIUXOKc0/

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On the dirt..

A post shared by Aaron Cousins (@aaroncousins) on Jul 10, 2017 at 10:31am PDT

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On the dirt..

A post shared by Aaron Cousins (@aaroncousins) on Jul 10, 2017 at 10:31am PDT

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Cheeky lunchtime ride

A post shared by Aaron Cousins (@aaroncousins) on Dec 8, 2017 at 6:00am PST

To add some balance, It looks and works well for me now.  Quotes look a bit washed out on my shitty old laptop screen but otherwise it looks and feels good.  I’ve been using it on an iPhone and laptop and have the edit buttons, pic/quote insert on both.

I bet Mark feels the need for a holiday after this!

+1 for Google Photos as a basic back up.  The iPhone app works really well and backs up daily, as does the Windows desktop app.  No complaints here.

Airdrop Edit.

I’ve been riding mine since September. Came from an Orange Alpine. Love it.

Our 1800’s terrace with 2ft thick stone walls sits around 50% in winter when the hearings on and sits higher about 65% in summer.

The dryer in our utility room is vented to outside but seams to be kicking some damp air into the room.  Must find that leak!

Mavic Open Pro’s hand built on to whatever hubs take your fancy?

After destroying the factory built wheels that came on my Cotic X commuter/gravel bike the shop re-built them with Open Pro’s. 15,000km of gravel, cobbles and road later and they’re true and reliable. I’ve run 35c cyclocross tyres and 28c road tyres with no dramas. Support you local shop and go hand built…it will be worth it!

I got fed up of swapping tyres in the end and settled on Schwalbe CX Pro which work well on both and have a puncture strip. They can be found for about £15 each.

Wowsers. I thought my Gaggia was producing pretty good shots, until now. I just did the OPV mod and the difference is immense. Lovely smooth tasting espresso.

Six weeks, ten Peak District rides in filthy grot…Eagle GX has been flawless.

Based on using single ply and dual ply tyres on the same bike, I find the extra half pound per wheel results In better momentum (helping the bike carry speed and roll over rough stuff) which for me outweighs the weight save. Surely if you’re climbing at a steady speed the rotating weight of the wheel doesn’t really matter. I can understand the slight reduction in acceleration and deceleration performance but the benefit of momentum must also play into it. It’s a balance.

A sobering fact I was told at a speed awareness course on Saturday (caught doing 36 in a 30 which is embarrassing compared to some of the above)…

If two identical cars doing 70mph and 90mph slam on at the same point, at the point where the car doing 70mph stops (potentially avoiding collision), the car doing 90mph is still doing 70mph. Hitting a fixed object at 70mph is going to hurt.

Basically when braking hard a vehicle sheds a huge amount of its initial speed at the end of the braking phase. Speeding kills kids!

Thanks guys. My current portafilter is an old gaggia one which doesn’t have a threaded bottom – just two small unthreaded holes. I think I’ll treat myself to a new portafilter with a threaded base and get the gauge off eBay.

Incidentally, I serviced the machine last week using this kit. Made a huge difference.

They’d just had a delivery and had new builds ready to ship. Might be bad luck but maybe they were scoped out. There’s only a few hundred in existence so not easy to shift on without being noticed.

As above.

Push the boat out and get him proper Brio, it will get past down the generations and all kids love it. I still have mine from when I was a nipper (which remains at the Grandparents house for when we visit) and we have started buy mini Aazlad Brio for birthdays and Xmas. The only third party stuff we have been getting is the Thomas and Friends wooden engines as he’s a sucker for Thomas the Tank. Nothing worng with the Ikea/Tescos’/etc but the Brio stuff feels proper.

I found the walls of Schwalbe tyres to be very easy to cut betweeen the rim and a rock. Try some tougher tyres.

Cheap PCP deals and easy/irresponsible lending Vs. difficult/impossible to save a house deposit and difficult get a mortgage agreed. Possibly???

IHN. We have this. No idea why it gets louder after the valve has switched. Always done it.

We have a 10 year old Samsung and a 6 year old Sony. Both going strong and both do the job well.

Moana. So pleased when mini Aazlad moved from Frozen to this.

There’s a convenient ‘road train’ that takes you from NRM to Yorkminster. Much easier than trying to walk into the City Centre with a toddler. Mini Aazlad went a few months back (just 4) and loved it. You will have to pass the dreaded shop though. A stroll around York was good with the nipper as the central bit from the minster is all pedestrianised.

I checked Grit.cx out of desperation. Thought a temporary thread may have been running there to allay the boredom. No…nothing on there for a whole month.

WTB for MTB tyres and saddles
Schwalbe Durano road tyres
Rapha bibs, merino baselayers and sportwool road jerseys
Exposure lights
Lake winter boots
Hope hubs
Wainwright for post ride rehydration (Viramin W)
Anything else…whatever.

No wonder I’m skint.

Old bike: throw it in the garage. Wet lube chain just before next ride.
New bike: quick blast with the hose to remove the mud while it’s still wet. Dry and lube chain. Not sure how long this will last.

I don’t get the relative weights issue with components such as this. I really think we’ve been suckered by the industry when it come to marginal weight savings.

In my experience adding half a kilo (i.e. dual ply tyres) to a big travel bike makes very little difference to how the bike climbs. Maybe 20 seconds on a 10 minute climb. But descend on that bike with decent tyres and it rolls better, is more stable and you’re much less likely to puncture if you clatter a rock. I would pick reliability and performance over weight any day (to a point). 11 grams is inconsequential.

Shimano has always been the go to for me. 11speed XT on my previous bike which had several annoyances but was bearable. I put it down to a trade off for 11speed and a single chainring.

The SRAM GX Eagle 12 on my new bike blows my XT setup out of the water. Significantly sharper shifting in both directions. No strange ghost shifts when you back pedal half a rotation. The chain stays on coming down steep rocky descents. It’s easy to set up, it doesn’t need readjusting every few hundred KMs. I can’t compare the wear rate yet but like for like when they’re both worn in and set up Eagle wins for me. I’m a convert. Bravo SRAM.

Both 2018 models have the Charge2 damper
in them. Not sure how much difference that makes. My new 2018 Lyrics are a huge improvement on my old Fox 36s.

JWT. YGM.

I bought one last year from MTB batteries and have only used it a few times. Now running an exposure so don’t need it. You can have it for a sensible price. Email in profile if interested.

Happy to be of service!

Got mine yesterday along with a free mini wet lube and chamois cream sachet in addition to the free 2.5l wash and drinking bottle. All good!

YGM.

Lake Mx145. On their third winter of MTB. Have been faultless. Not completely waterproof anymore but sealskinz sort that. They seem to keep your feet relatively warm. Well made and comfy. Got mine from Halfords for about £85 with British Cycling discount.