I’m going up there on my tod :(

Hopefully, it’ll be a friendly niche to hang out in. Weirdly, like funkynick, I haven’t been since 06.

Arse-Heaven… *snigger*

What do you want to know about it?

The amount of work available will really depend on where you are and there’s a downward pressure on pay, so don’t expect to get rich.

On the other hand, working with kids is quite good fun as they’re mostly around 10 so they’ve got some character without yet being grumpy teenagers. It’s amazing how quickly some of them can learn, and really satisfying to see their progress. It’s also nice to be working outside and playing with bikes (you’ll find out how quickly you can fix a dozen cheap kids bikes at the start of every course). It’s also great to be doing a job where passers-by will stop and tell you what a good thing it is that you’re doing.

Some parts of the standard are open to interpretation. I know of one company that teaches normal road position as 2m from the kerb, but I prefer a less aggressive 1m. So, it is worth picking where you throw in your lot (or just going independent).

Yep, it was Adam that helped out with the gloves. I just brought the “look at me!” bike.

I guess that would have been you on the Jones, then SSStu. It’s always nice to get a dose of the Midlands :)

The Dyfi is a great event. I’ve been riding there since the first one and it is a fixture every year. From my first time where I had to push the fire-roads, to the year my knees were just about to be operated on, to last year and my attempt to storm it, the dyfi has always been fun. Scary descents and a carnival atmosphere… unmissable.

So thanks to the people who make it happen: monkeys, brass-bands, cheer-leaders, flap-jack hander-outers, and everyone behind the scenes.

That was me on the snow tyres. I don’t know what place I finished, but I think I took about 3.5 hours.

TBH, it’s more fun with clipless pedals, a suspension fork, and normal tyres. But the clown bike did have novelty value and being resigned to a slower time this year I wasn’t half as beaten up at the end.

And I bet no-one else had Nick Craig wanting to try their bike after the race :)

I heard a tip the other day… String. Tie some to your saddle and the clamp (or wherever) at the right extension and you can get the right height even in the dark.

I’ve never tried it myself, but it makes sense.

I’ll be there. Probably on my Pugsley since that’s my best bike for carrying loads of gear.

No planning done as yet though! 8O

I’ve tried Shimano, Superstar, and Goodridge G*. I found Goodridge worked best and seemed to last longest in the wet.

In terms of miles/£ Superstar and Goodridge are probably about equal, but I don’t like changing pads so Goodridge win for me.

The “right” way to do it is with something like this:

http://www.altectools.co.uk/home.asp?cat=Subcategory5+Piece+Screw+Extractor+Set

The best looking ones I’ve seen (but never used) are these:

http://www.epicdesignsalaska.com/?page_id=8

No, I really mean the ratchet. I couldn’t afford to change my bearings so I kept riding when they went wobbly.

Then the bearing cartridge in the freehub shattered leaving bits of metal to gouge the pawls, ratchet and freehub body to pieces. I swapped in a new freehub body from another bike and it mostly worked, but still jams occasionally. Rather than busting another freehub, I decided I should replace everything.

Sounds like it’s going back to Hope, then.

LOL – yeah I started when I lived in the semi-North of Birmingham. Good luck with the event!

You’re too far from the SSer’s natural habitat – posing in the South East.

If you want OS mapping, it might be worth hanging on for the new Garmin Oregon.

FWIW, I really like my 705. I don’t have the topo maps, but I use Bike Hike[/url] to plan my routes with OS mapping. Then the big screen is useful to anticipate where turns are coming.

I do that sometimes. For riding rocky trails like and un-coordinated chimp… I let the front fork sort out the front wheel and the big rear tyre sort out the back.

For a hardtail with generous travel, it makes sense for avoiding pinch flats.

Mine, which has been pretty much dominated by Iditarod training for the past 6 months is here:

http://iamnotasinglespeeder.blogspot.com/%5B/url%5D

Still working on writing up the race itself :roll:

You can just brute them out with a drill too. I had to do that during a very frustrating day a while back. As long as you pick a drill bit that’s about the same diameter as the bolts, and attack it from the the inside (i.e. opposite to the pedal) it works fine.

Answer Me This is quite funny. Just don’t expect them to actually answer the questions!

My girlfriend rides a Rock Lobster and gets on with it pretty well. It’s a nice little bike built up with 100mm Rebas. Kinda stiff, but feels nice and stable to ride whilst being surprisingly light.

I use 33:18 on my XC bike, 44:18 on my commute bike, and 22:18 on my snow bike. All depends on what you need to do.

Having injured myself dragging the fully loaded commuter up some serious hills a few weeks back, I would advise against going for big manly gears too readily.

As a contrast, I have a Karate Monkey too which I mostly use for commuting. I took it off-road for a bit and it was a dog. Could have been setup, but it rode really bad.

It was slow to accelerate, slow to handle, and did feel a bit dead.

FWIW, I had it built up with Surly/Mavic wheels, V-brakes, Maxxis Ignitor tyres, flat bars, and the original forks. I certainly missed my proper tyres and brakes, but I think the frame was a large part of the problem too.

Obviously, Alex likes his though so take both our comments with a pinch of salt.

Hi,

I usually ride the Chilterns a couple of times a week but I won’t be for the next 3 weeks. However, I did upload a nice loop onto bikehike if you fancy giving it a try by yourself. It’s pretty muddy at the moment, but the good bits are still good.

http://www.bikehike.co.uk/mapview.php?id=3002

Another thing you can do is a “try cycling” scheme. The company I work for, Cycle Experience[/url], runs these at companies/hospitals/wherever we’re asked.

We come along with a load of bikes, helmets, and other bits/bobs to loan people for a month. Talk to them about cycling to work – i.e. advise about picking a route, carrying clothes, maintaining their bikes, all that stuff. Then, they can contact us during the month if they have problems/questions. At the end of the period, we collect up all the bikes and have a review of what people thought.

As someone mentioned above, there is also cycle training. This is split into 4 levels. The first (call it level 0) teaches people who have never ridden a bike to actually balance and ride in the first place. The next 3 are national standards. Level 1 is being able to ride in a non-road situation covering: signalling, looking behind, manoeuvring, stopping on a line, emergency stop. Level 2 covers quiet roads: turning into/out of roads etc. Level 3 is everything else: route-planning, dual carriageways, multi-lane roundabouts.

I use mine with a mac, and as mentioned above the Garmin software works. Another useful tip is to use the bike hike[/url] website. I use that to plan routes for free using OS mapping, then download to the GPS.

As for using in bright sunlight, it has a backlight that can be activated whenever something happens (you reach a checkpoint, press a button etc).

Generally, I’m very pleased with it. I’m certainly glad I got one with a screen big enough to display the route on it – that way I can anticipate which way to go at junctions.

Interesting, but I hope that doesn’t mean they’ll stop making ISIS and square-taper cranks!

Emusic is good. You don’t need to get their download software (but it does make it more convenient – you can download a whole album with one click). They offer plain old MP3s with no restrictions, and you can download the tracks as many times as you want once you’ve bought them.

I have a personal one, and I try to write about relatively interesting things rather than getting into introspection. When I’m just riding and hanging about at home, I don’t post on it much but recently I’ve been getting about a bit and trying to get interest from companies to help me do crazy races. TBH, after Iditarod I probably won’t be able afford to even keep my bike maintained let alone race for the rest of the year so the sponsorship angle is an important one for me.

http://iamnotasinglespeeder.blogspot.com

I should be getting around to writing about the Finnish Winter Swimming Championships sometime today

Oh… my mistake then. But wide cogs are still a good idea :)

The other thing to note is that you should use a cog with a wide base e.g. Surly, On-One, or Chris King

Shimano DX can score the freehub body. It’s the Al body that makes them light, noisy, and susceptible to gouging.

Depends on the size of the teeth on the zips. I had some DHB overshoes and the zips broke in no time at all. Endura MT500s have lasted a couple of winters – they’re just dying now. The zips work better with the occasional drop of thick oil on them.

Having had both, I’d pick zips now over velcro but neither is 100% satisfactory.

Yes, the email I was talking about was via Facebook.

They sent out an email last week saying the entries would be out in 7-10 days so should be out really soon.

As others say, you’ll probably get away with it, but you can use an E Thirteen SRS. I have one on a 1×9 DH hardtail and it works really well.

Pugsley singlespeed so close-up that you can’t complain about the state of my fence

I use Velox rim tape already! And I only use a mini pump in the field, the rest of the time is with a track pump.

Grrr… I really can’t afford to be getting new tyres :( But if it’s that or no riding…

Hmm… thanks for the suggestions folks.

The tyre is a little old but has plenty of tread left. I’ll maybe try talc first, then if that fails swap in another tyre.

I’m really pleased with them too. My girlfriend broke her Rock Lobster in a head-on collision, called them up and got a replacement for 1/2 price.

They’ve also been quick and friendly for my stuff, so top marks!

Terra Nova Discovery is pretty good. I used one for a few nights out and my mate did the Pacific Crest Trail (red line on this image) with one.