Posh ‘winter’ bike. My summer bike is much nicer.

:-p

Yep. Fitted specifically for that bike. Long legs short arms. All my bikes look a bit odd

All those points will be fixed soon njee

Cant help. But I feel for you. I recon thats the nicest stolen bike ive seen on here.

Sorry

His appology was fairly half arsed and didnt actually appologise for his threatening behaviour. And in fact still believed the van hitting was a problem. Hence the return email.

But thanks for your opinion

Chinese titanium[/url]

I am not spending much on it. Just frame and forks for now. Got my old Planet X to rob all the bits off. Old 105 all around, cheap shimano wheels, planet X finishing bits.

The internal routing on the planet x has done me proud over many winters. Not changed the cables once. Hence that.

I do think it daft have disk + calipers- but just going disk means new wheels and brakes. Was just going to replace the wheels when ive ground the rims down and then swap the brakes at the same time. Bite the bullet now?

Fridge freezer that must have been worth a couple in its day. Very solidly built. Its cream coloured though so am guessing thats why they lobbed it. Now in my garage.

Also got a load of doors and door handles from down the road when someone was ripping out the original art deco stuff to ‘modernise’. Took some work but came up a treat in our extension. Doors are £200 each and handles £25. Got four of them! Only had to buy one more door (but lots of handles for the rest of our house to match)

Been riding from St Albans to Farringdon for a few years now. Quite a few people do actually.

I vary my routes, but the obvious one is straight down the A5 and cut around Regents Park. Road condition is generally awful. But traffic wise its not too bad as a large part of it is on bus lanes.

The only ‘nice’ part would be from Radlet to Stanmore/Brokley Hill.

Did the Raid Pyrenees a couple of weeks ago.

Would I have done it on a standard- hell no!

Not wanting to sound overly twtish, but im a fairly decent rider and the guy taking us around agreed you would have to be a bit bonkers not to use a compact.

Had a 30 on the rear too. Regularily dropped to 1st gear, even just for the rest sometimes. I’d just get a cheapo one (Tiagra or equivalent) as the weight will be about the same as what you have anyway. You wont need the 53/52t unless you wanted to race down the other side.

Stripped down climbing bike apparently

Ditto what john says. Got one as a replacement to a Kodak one that broke on me twice. This one is still working so id recommend it.

Im a fire starter, twisted fire starter

Is it possible it was the other way round? Frame snapped, forcing the mech in to the rear wheel? Id go with that anyway and go for a warranty replacement on that basis.

Or if you want to mix and match (i.e. bike build) try one of theseRibble

Or this

Planet X

One of these for £900?

Canyon

Id take a look at Canyon too if I were you.

Greeble- I may be generalising a bit for brevity. But it is very fast and swoop on the whole. The only bits I can think of that isnt is the ski run and maybe some of the none signed tracks.

CC is much more technical than FoD. Road drop (albeit its been levelled), the very top section with the two jumps, hairpin right, off camber traverse, root sections… The second half after the road is all man made type though. Granted its not Rheola, but its about as technical as it gets in Wales.

FOD is like a roller coaster/BMX track. Very swoopy, easy to keep speed up, tempts you in to doing things with very little risk (i.e. table tops/doubles). That is until it rains. A skid pan on ice.

CC is much more technical, steeper, natural, loose. Same in the wet as the dry pretty much.

So I say if you can predict the weather go with FoD. As you realistically cant then CC but with the option of going for the red run if it seems too much.

p.s. when you get droppped off at the top- two tips. Wait for everyone to go first. Head to the trail to the right as your first run as the left one has a couple of little drops and one mo fo of a hairpin right round a very shiny root and a drop at the same place.

Done it on a Klein Attitude back in the day. Im still alive.

Much more fun a my Specialized Pitch though. 140-150 would probably be perfect. There is a lot of pedalling around the swiss side invovled.

Exactly what you are worrying about happened to me. Cycling along, not particularily fast, minding my own business. Whack!

3 door BMW convertable with the biggest doors know to man ‘kicked’ open (i.e. he used his foot to opne it as its so blimmin massive and heavy you cant use your arm when the car is leaning towards the gutter). No time to react. Wheel in to door, me through the window (no frame as was convertible), me on the floor surrounded by glass, door bent back to the wing, lots of glass embeded in my face and hands.

No lasting damage, but am now petrified of parked cars. I check every parked car through the window to see if anyone is in it, or look in the wing mirror to see if there is anyone there. If that doesnt work, I slow right down.

Riding the distance of a BMW car door away from a parked car is not practicle. I would have oncoming cars in my face, they are that wide.

Theres a semi secret restaurant where you have to stick your arm in a hole in the wall (there are many holes and you have to know the right one) so that the door will open. Amazing food (at least I was stunned by the dry ice part anyway). But the best bit is the toilets. The urinal is the window and you can stare at the dinners whilst you take a slash. Amazing!

Shanghai is a bit short of touristy things to do. If it was me I would head to the fake market and buy a load of knocked off gear (you name it, they have it- from clothes to electronics). Then possibly head up the top of one of the towers for an evening drink and dinner. Either the Jin Mao or the bottle opener next door.

Have taken my full face countless times plus a large bag that only just fitted in the baggage limit without the helmet. Also taken my ski helmet scores of times. Never once been stopped or a mention even by staff. If they did, I would just wear it like others have said.

No sign of suits on the h+c website

A little vid from last week in morzine

Close to perfect conditions.

26 miles each way.

Once a week winter.
Twice or three times a week summer.

Theres nothing in a house that can’t be supported off a good old 152uc. But if you are a stwer then I recon you might want something niche, how about an asb? Bit of structural engineer humour for you. In seriousness though, unless its barely holding anything up of anything significant I wouldn’t start guessing at it if I were you. If not, then I say 152uc.

Ive always thought the problem with lights is that they are only fixed on one point on your bike which tends to be quite low down and not visible in traffic.

I currently use a helmet mounted rear led, and two rear ones on the bike.

Have currently got some EL wire on order and thinking of going to town on the frame and maybe a saftey belt (i ride from central london out to unlit A roads in the countryside of herts and the darkness is a worry).

EL wire

Im off to the Barbican tonight for dinner round a friends house. Any idea which block/flat he is in? I could go wee in his shoes if yo like?

A 2ft high stuffed Wenlock mascot for £50 from the Olympic park. Impulse buy, but still quite like it.

****head

Thanks for all the info peeps. I guess what I wanted to hear was that the clouds whisked you to the top of the mountains, and there was some gnarly downhill sections on the way back down.

As it is, I have no choice even though Panmacho sounds more my cup of tea. The guys who organised it for us (none bikers) have been saying its a ‘red’ trail and quite tricky etc.. But wanted a bikers view on it who had actually been on it.

ta

Good work Ian.

I missed the begining. Anyone see Liam fall? How was he doing before he came off?

Whos the guy who does the post athletics race trackside interviews? I think hes a really well informed, decent bloke.

Even though Im not doing it Im not sure I can tell anyone still. But Bruce, you arent a million miles away.

Click on the link Jamie. Tells it all. Was supposed to be riding in the opening ceremony.

Im sure 80,000 people would have been happy to get the late bus home to watch our bit.

Weeks of rehearsals, cancelled a holiday, taking leave, building my hopes and telling everyone I vaguely knew that I would be there. Then bang, youre out because we fckd up on the timing.

Not angry, just gutted.