But then the customer still has to find time in their busy schedule to go to a shop anyway – and isn’t the point of buying online the convenience and not having to talk to feckless bikeshop types who are only out to fleece you to enlarge their mansions?

Did you really just suggest a collection service bike fit?

What year are they?
When 55’s first came out (08ish?) I remember some having dodgy lowers where the axle would bottom itself out before fully clamping on the hub encaps.
It’s been a while but ISTR they made a revised axle for them – might be worth checking.

gofasterstripes – Member
DUTCH TOURISTS???!!! wat

Maybe it’s like being a health tourist, but instead a road rage tourist.
Running over cyclists appears to be frowned on in Holland, but in the UK it’s almost a national passtime…

I’ve fitted a lot of both.
If it was my own cash I’d go GX for sure.

Yeah, they’ve always been great with us.

They have different suspension systems too – One Twenty’s are 4 bars, One Forty’s are VPP.

Lifetime warranties.
Regular sized bearings in the link so no need for £££ proprietary rebuild kits.
Internal cable routing works well and isn’t a massive faff.

Pretty light for aluminium frames.

Everyone I know who rides one likes it!

The one downside is they take 55mm bottom headset cups not 56, reducing your range of replacements, but that’s about it.

Must be Lego-Gwin – crankless/chainless run!

barrykellett – Member
Vittoria Barzo

That.
Used to swear by Schwalbe, but since I’ve swapped to Vittoria I’ve had no flats or ripped tyres.

Yeah, all clear according to the BBC.
Who have a history of lying to me about the weather.
So it will probably be biblical!

If the weather forecast is to be believed I reckon (hope) it should dry out ok.
In 2013 it dried out for the Sunday and it wasn’t sunny at all, it just stopped raining Saturday evening.

Can you remember that far back?
I did the first two there and I can’t remember the course at all!

Agreed!
The blazing first few km really helps the morale aswell – it makes you keen to get back out!

Haha, I don’t think rainmageddon helped with the climbability of a lot of it, but no-one was enjoying that cobbled climb!

pete68 – Member
We’re doing it as a mixed pair which will be interesting. Only ever soloed before. First time back since the 1st gatcombe one. Hoping the course is better now than it was then.

Hopefully it’ll be pretty much the course they’ve used for the last couple, which I’ve really liked. I think it works well for a 24 hour.

Anyway, disasters aside I’ll be there in a mixed team of 5,and I’ll be riding my trusty Merida Big 9.

Anything vaguely decent and recent will have a bolt through rear axle.

Are your axle endcaps not swapable?

It’s cos he’s not massively tall isn’t it?
I’m sure I read somewhere that he can’t get as aggressive position on the scale/spark 29?

Cause nice bikes are nice to ride?

Wheels are too small.

That aside, if you can afford it and you like it, then buy it.

The majority of riders in Vets these days appear to be on carbon bikes with 1×11 – I think the only person perceiving you as being overequipped would be yourself.

Luckily my better half talked some sense into me, so we hung around cheering everyone up the ramp into the finish field instead! Hopp Hopp Hopp Hopp!!! 😛

bensales – Member
Midlands XC round three at Harlow Woods today. Good event and an enjoyable course, well done to the Sherwood Pines mob. Proper hard work with the heat though.

Beginning to think I should have entered Sport this year. I seem to over take a bunch of the Sport cat who go off ahead of Open Male, but get comprehensively dropped by the rest of Open Male.

I was there too.
I really liked the course and the weather was amazing!
Just wished I pushed a bit harder – I did the Vet’s race in the morning, and finished with quite a lot left in the tank… so much so I was close to entering the open race in the afternoon too!

Seized on most probably – steel bearing + alu axle + water.

Easiest way to get it off is probably just to tap the axle through from the drive side. You’ll have to refit the nds bearing though.

The fact that she kept writing “commissaries” instead of “commissaires” made me want to pummel myself into unconsciousness…

Typo nazi’ing apart, form a personal POV I prefer less GNAR! courses as I am a) old and b)rubbish at tech stuff. It can be off putting for new or less confident riders too. I’d say there should be a significant difference in tech levels between a regional and a national.

/ramble.

Yeah, I’m doing the Everest one.
Don’t think I’ll have anywhere near enough free time to do the Giro one – what is it, getting on for 700m of climbing every day through May?

Look at what SIDs go through in WC XC!
You’ll be fine!

Where are you?

Scenic Oswestry 😉

Holy shit your 10 courses are fast!
Local one to me is on an awfully surfaced undulating b road. If you were doing sub 22’s here you’d be battering everybody!

In fact I just checked only two people went sub 22 at all last year.

PF30 won’t fit – the bb shell is too small.

Chuck some new bearings in to see if that cures it?

Unfortunately pressfit’s do have a tendency to creak a bit a lot.

For maximum light weight/rolling/grip Rocket Ron/Racing Ralph Liteskin combo.

For more puncture resistance and faff free tubeless setup Vittoria Peyote TNT.

Not all linkages are created equal. Some bikes shock bushes last forever. Other’s get nommed down like an old twix.

I was aware of that, I just chose to ignore it as a) I didn’t want to muddy the waters, and b) I’m actually a massive CXist!

Who the **** is CS?

Perhaps I am and exceptionally ignorant cycle-enthusiast,

Or maybe you’re a filthy sexist pig 😛

As opposed to a sexy pig, which is a whole different kettle of banana’s.

I’m going to retort the only way I know how and buy a bulk lot of Maxxis calendars 😛

You’re late getting lunch, that’s almost afternoon tea!!

Roadie build with *customer supplied parts* taking up my morning!

Anyway, no-ones addressed the initial point – Sexists the lot of ya!

And how does an admonishing for forgetting female riders get a

You guys are just jealous of his skills.

response?

I know it’s got a winky smiley, but it literally makes no sense! You may have well said it’s because of my socks…

The one from Spectre.
And it won an Oscar.
Civilisation is doomed.

If a manufacturer sells to a shop at a price, and the shop’s prepared to work on lower margin to get more volume, why does it benefit the manufacturer to then cut supply to that shop? Other than to keep all their other shops sweet (who might not be happy to work at that margin)

At the cost of competition and us.

It not unheard of if “Shop A” is having cash flow issues and needs to turn some stock ASAP to get some money in they can sell at no margin, sometimes even a loss. It’s not a sustainable business practice, and all it does is reduce the perceived value of other dealers stock. So you can see why “Shop B” may be annoyed.

Not saying that’s what has happened in this case, maybe your local dealer just doesn’t like you! 😉

Well yesterday was a tough race with plenty of climbing and I seem to have survived it cramp free.

I went back to wearing some compress-sport socks before the race and afterwards the socks and some skins longs, which seems to have kept things in check.

I also changed my hydration from Powerbar electrolyte tabs to Torq Hypotonic. Not sure if this also helped, but I reckon the compression wear was key. My calfs were so twitchy post race it was like getting a massage!

Should have done it Steve, it was really good.
Quite a lot of climbing – nearly 200m/lap.
And it was sunny for the afternoon race!

Who else is racing this weekend then?

After my appalling showing at the first round of the WMBS I made the knee jerk reaction to enter the second Run and Ride event at Eastnor.

Anyone else heading there?