"Trick" in reference to some horrible gold/purple piece of bike jewellery. I've even seen it used on articles here :x

I rode Whites Level with Schwalbe Racing Ralphs yesterday, and then 2.35 High Rollers today. High Rollers were much better on the downs, but more draggy than the RRs.

Kind of what you'd expect really, but I certainly had more fun with the HRs

That's pretty funny. The second guy didn't seem to have much of a sense of humour, though!

I like the real-life pacman from the same guy…

Pacman

I'm not keen on DIY for this one. I don't think I'd be able to get it strong enough and properly aligned. Roberts are worth a call, though. I never knew where they were based and it's not too long a ride over there from Hampton.

Definitely no to p-clips, it's the eyelet down at the dropout :(

I tried to change model once and they just sent me a straight swap. To be fair, that's what their terms said they would do and the service was quick.

Uh huh. Thanks for your thoughts, guys. Like you, I was thinking it might be quite a delicate job so I'll investigate what frame builders are around (W London).

The frame is steel so hopefully it should be possible!

No chance of a seatpost rack, BTW. I do carry some heavy-ish loads sometimes (shopping is the heaviest, especially when it involves beer).

OK, if you want to be correct, then it's Surrey Hills.

I was thinking of going out on Sunday, but I'm actually free for the whole of next week too. It's be great if you could show me around njee20!

That bike mag link looks interesting (if advert-heavy).

Well, I have ridden around there a bit and I can find my way to this and that, taking in the odd good trail on the way, but I don't think I could easily put together a cohesive long ride there. I just moved down from the Chilterns where I had a variety of lengthy loops straight from my door, but it took a lot of map-reading and riding trails the "wrong" way to find something that worked.

Hopefully someone has already done the work for me! Then I can adjust to taste/mood :)

*bump*

Someone out there must be able to help, surely!

Well, I'm driving down from West London so I'm not too bothered about where I start. I usually start from Leith Hill or Holmbury St Mary.

Open water swimming makes things much more interesting if you want to do distance and enjoy it. No chlorine, no lanes, more fun.

I don't know how popular it is up your way, but there's a number of places to swim in/around London and it feels more like an event than chugging up and down a pool dodging floating plasters and slow people.

It may not work too well if you want to be competitive in a pool though, because you have to change your technique a bit to deal with waves and you don't get to practice turns.

I'm glad Samuri said that, I was feeling quite inadequate. Bunny hopping in a week is impressive.

Page Hamilton from the band Helmet rides. Annoyingly, they delayed a UK tour when he broke his collar bone a few years back.

I've done quite a lot on singlespeeds with 8 and 9 speed chains and they work fine. I run them for inter-operability with other people's bikes and because I snapped a SRAM singlespeed chain twice in the first 3 rides.

From other people's experiences, though, my SRAM SS chain experience seems to be an anomaly.

I tried Uno, and went for a normal spider with a steel chainring in the end. It's the bike I ride every week so wearing out the Uno ring was a problem for me – environmentally and financially.

I'm living in London on about 14k. Just about gets me by. I'm sharing a house with my girlfriend, not really drinking, and not buying any bike upgrades.

Then again, I usually only have to work 5/6 hours a day and 4 days a week so I get to ride my worn-out bike a lot.

That's a 20" and I'm 6'3".

With the forks wound out to 130mm, there's not that much clearance for me to stand over the TT near the front of the bike, it does slope downwards a fair bit, though. It doesn't feel gate-like, to me (the 1×1 did).

I've been riding one for over a year now and I really like it. It's not super-light for a Ti frame, but it rides nicely.

I came to it after riding a Surly 1×1 for a few years and the Voodoo is better for climbing and descending. Somehow or other, I find more grip on the Voodoo (I took all the parts from the 1×1 and use the Voodoo parts on my gf's bike) and it definitely floats better over little jumps, drops, and roots. Here it is in action…

Nice weather…

Not so nice weather…

Yep, I am. In West London.

Sugoi tights are great in the cold. I was a bit warm wearing them at -5 in the dry, and perfectly fine wearing them at -30. I haven’t actually had chance to wear them in cold and wet yet (how lucky am I?).

I have the fancy RS ones, but their cheaper stuff is great too.

Weight is important, but I’m not sure it’s worth sweating the extra cost of an Islabike.

I teach cycling safety in schools and kids do struggle when they have some awful £50 full-sus that weighs a ton, but I’ve only ever seen one kid on an Islabike. We take 10 year olds on rides that can be 10 miles long and they’re usually ok on whatever bike they have. The biggest difference is whether their parents ever take them out riding (which does tend to correlate with them having nicer bikes).

Smaller children will obviously be more sensitive to extra weight than the 10 year olds, but I don’t think you’d do wrong by them if you didn’t spend top-money. One thing to check on cheaper bikes is whether or not they can change the gears. Lots of low-end bikes come with terrible grip-shift that I can barely move myself so the children have no chance. Slightly better ones still have grip-shift but it actually works.

The Gimp

http://www.gimp.org/%5B/url%5D

Free, has clever features like layers and intelligent selection.

Bikeability is what I do now, and I plan to end up doing a mix of that (regular money since TFL have lots to dish out) and MTB skills/guiding. Feel free to email me if you want some names/numbers/opinions on who to work for in Bikeability.

Hey Jedi,

It’s been ages since I last saw you – not been riding any shore in the past couple of years but it was fun to see your patch way back.

I’m just about to go do the CTC Trail Leader course this weekend, and I’m planning to do the skills in September, so I might see you there.

When you say National Standards, do you mean the road-safety course, Bikeability? If you do, I can give you a bunch of contacts in Herts/N London.

I definitely prefer flats for drops and the like. With spds, you have the axle of the pedal under the ball of your foot, whereas on flats your foot tends to be further forward: I have the middle of my foot over the axle – that makes it much easier to to cushion the landing without my heels rolling right down as I hit the ground.

It will take a while to get used to, though, and will make your climbing worse. I ride singlespeed so I can’t make up for the loss of power by spinning a lower gear. Riding the same trails with flats/spds, there are hills I can’t climb in flats but can with spds.

I rode the other day with great big flappy raceface DH shorts and a tight XC top. They were the only things clean so, what the hell.

Probably looked pretty silly, though.

I think they’re good but not quite perfect. I had Hope Minis for a while, then got Avid BB7s for my gf. They were way better than my Hopes, so eventually I switched over to them as well.

The BB7s ran for a few years before the pad adjusters seized. I read recently on here that it’s worth disassembling them from new and greasing the threads inside the pad adjusters to avoid this.

The other down sides were that the cables get manky just like any other cable (even with full-length outers) and that the pad wear could be crazy in the wet. I went through a whole set of pads in one wet day at Afan. Maybe that was poor technique, but my current choice (Shimano XT hyrdros) last longer.

So they’re good, powerful, and actually more adjustable than hydraulics. Maintenance is hard to call, but I’d say they’re more maintenance than XT but less than Hope.

If you’re used to Crank Bros, Time are very similar. I used Time for a few years, then Eggbeaters when they first came out, then back to time when the Eggies kept falling apart.

Time pedals are very tough – good old-fashioned fit and forget components.

If you’re going to spend money on the sport spend it on skills and fitness training instead of fancy bike bits. Torq do courses to help you with figuring out training schedules and nutrition – they have a good reputation. Lots of people do skills courses, I’m not sure who would be best round your way.

I think I found it harder to bunny hop with 170 after being used to 175, but it may have all been in my head. It’d be interesting to try a semi scientific trial to find out the truth!

Well, I think the idea as it was explained to me was that the outside foot would tend more towards being down depending on how extreme the corner was. I’m certainly not suggesting that you should have them flat – the outside would be down to some extent. But if they’re not at 6 and 12, then one of them is forwards.

This advice was given for riding steep switchbacks in the Pyrenees.

Wider can be better if you’ve got a “stand up and honk” climbing style. I only ride singlespeed and when I’ve had narrow bars, I’ve struggled to use my upper body properly and to keep on line. Like the man said, try wide bars and cut them down if you don’t like them!

Interesting… I’ve been using flats for XC for the last few months and I noticed that one ride back on SPDs had me struggling for power as my muscles had adapted to the different foot position. Like the article says, I tended to adopt a central foot position. I did find more zip up the hills on flats by going back to having the ball of my foot over the axle and flicking my ankles down through the middle part of the pedals stroke. Which contradicts what the article is aiming for.

One of my mates was speculating that the different foot position makes it easier to bunny hop properly too. I think he may be right.

The problem with my experiments, though, are that Vans feel squishy so it’s not fair to compare the efficiency so proper clipless shoes.

Another case of needing constant bearing pre-load adjustment here. It just kept coming loose and needing tightening.

I’d never touch them again. The only reason I can see to pay extra is the fast pickup (Pro2 is nearly as fast) and durability (Pro2 has been less hassle). So never again for me, but I’m at a loss to explain people who like them.

I know where I’d rather be ;)

Posted this up a day ago and got a response by email but now my plans have changed and I’m heading up on Saturday morning. Thinking of a 8am start, but happy to flex that time around a bit.

Any interest in the revised plan?

Nearly all the things I used to buy without thinking, I’ve been questioning recently.

Flite Saddles? They’ve changed the design, but the new one’s ok.
SRAM chains? I keep breaking powerlinks but, grudgingly, they still seem like the best choice
Conti tyres? Changing tyres around doesn’t need further explanation.
FSA headsets? Hope have split crown race and work really well for me
Specialized gloves? BG gel doesn’t seem to make much difference so I get anything that feels comfy
Specialized shoes? The new ones soles crack in < 1 year for me, so I may go Shimano

Doesn’t leave a lot.

Park pre-glued patches and Hope hubs are about it.

Can’t comment on cost as I can’t remember how much it was, but I have XT hydraulics on 2 bikes. One with plastic, one with Goodridge. The Goodridge brakes feel much better. Definitely a firmer lever feel and I find them easier to control when you’re on the limit of grip.

I’ve had frostbite on my toes. Treatment from an Alaskan doctor was antibiotics in case of infection (I had continued to race for another 6 days on them so there was plenty of chance for mess) and painkillers – vicadin and ibuprofen.

Then, I just had to keep it clean. Fresh bandages every day for about a month.

Mine was diagnosed as 2nd degree and took 2-3 weeks to stop hurting all the time. Now, 2 months later, the skin hasn’t completely healed. It still has a scab on it, but at least doesn’t stick to my socks every day.

Good luck with the healing!

Sugoi RS bibs for me. I’ve done 24hr solo and a 7-day ultra in mine. No soreness even though I’m cheap and use baby oil instead of fancy arse-lard.