I’m using the Andel cogs from Velosolo:

http://www.velosolo.co.uk/shopsingle.html

I’ve done 1000s of miles with 9spd chains on them.

Hipster alert.

Sense of humour alert!

Bikepacking with tents (like mountain biking with gears) is expensive and wrong.

A road bike from a fleet of hire bikes I was working with once had the cables routed so badly that the bars would only turn left 8O

Another one had such long cables that they touched the front tyre

Northwind wins hands-down though :-)

I saw the ambulance pull away and head slowly towards the climb back up to the start of Labyrinth… Made me wonder if they were just scouting out the access for potential calls in the future.

But I didn’t want to give them 1000 lumens in the face or distract them if they were recovering a casualty so I stayed away.

I’d be interested to know if anyone had the story…

I wouldn’t plan on putting a lot of weight into a saddle-bag on a road bike. I’ve tried it with a Revelate bag and I had to be really careful not to swing the bike around when climbing as the wagging effect of the bag was making the frame bend in a frightening way.

It’ll probably be fine if you load it with bulky lightweight stuff.

I’m expecting to get my hands on a non-waggy rear bag to try soon, should be interesting.

Don’t forget to check brake-lever angle, too. Your arms should form a straight line through your wrists and down to your braking finger(s).

I thought I had my set-up right, but > 5 hours I noticed that the brake levers are a tiny bit out and making me roll my wrists to reach them.

The obvious options are Maxxis Beaver or Bontrager Mud X…

I agree with the others above: Beaver, on the basis that they work best between the mud and have a more supple casing.

Funny you should ask…

http://www.aidanharding.com/2012/01/a-tale-of-two-forks/%5B/url%5D

I’ve seen two famous Jeremys in The Chilterns:

Jeremy Irons a few weeks ago, Jeremy Paxman a few years ago.

Hopefully, it’ll be Jeremy Vine next so that I can kick him in the nuts!

]Rehydration Jersey

ANAL? On April 1? :?

Edit: Too slow

Aidan of this parish trains for far longer than that. His Strava profile is eye opening

I’m training for rides that may involve >24 hrs continuous and/or many 16 hour days back to back.

My rationale is that for a single 24 hr race you can burn yourself right down to nothing and cross the line on empty then sleep for a week. When you’re in remote back-country and you put 24 hrs to grab the lead, you need to be able to do that and then get up the next day to keep the lead and not get yourself needing rescue.

Proper 24 hr racers train for shorter, more intense periods than me. They weigh less and go faster than me.

If I were to advise the OP, I’d say it’s useful to properly trash yourself on a training ride once to know what it feels like. Not good on a regular basis, though.

You should be training (in no particular order):

Your heart + lungs (road is more efficient for this, I don’t like it, though, so stick to MTB myself)

Your contact points + joints (the bike you’ll race on is best for this)

Your stomach (eating/drinking enough is a skill)

Your brain (completely personal: first time I rode through the night was in my first 24 solo)

Your muscles (important if you ride singlespeed, otherwise it’ll take care of itself)

Your enjoyment (go mountain biking somewhere fun regularly or you’ll just hate riding)

I’m not having a pop, but genuinely interested… Why not carry the phone in your hand?

GlitterGary – Member

Orange 5 plus 1 million

Is that an Orange 1000005? Never seen one of those and I’ve been to Surrey Hills on a weekend.

My Bontrager gauge gives about 5psi difference compared to my Blackburn.

Training your thumbs to feel the right pressure is probably worthwhile, especially for when you fix a puncture on the trail.

Horse riders of all ages.

“You scared my horse by being too quiet. You should use a bell or sing.”

“You scared my horse by being too noisy”

“You can’t ride here it’s a bridleway”

“You can’t ride here it’s a footpath”

Generally a miserable lot, plodding around the country telling people off and not saying thank you.

Strada http://www.stradawheels.co.uk/%5B/url%5D

Not had anything built by them but, talking to them on the phone, they’re pretty fanatical about wheels.

Yep, Air Canada was $50 CDN. One time I booked through KLM as that should have been free but the flight was operated by Delta (I think, certainly some American outfit) and I still had to pay $200.

You pay at check-in so should be fine to pay one way if he leaves the bike here.

I just relied on a yearly travel insurance policy but I’ve never had any damage.

Someone I know had passport problems and they were so busy giving him a hard time about that, they forgot to charge for the bike. A risky plan…

The worst bit is paying $200 each way 8O

That seems to be the settled rate on all airlines into the US.

Other than that, I’ve always used a cardboard box padded with the rest of my stuff. If you can get the right sized box, leave the rear wheel in, then you don’t have to worry about the chainrings and rear mech.

A chain is a chain.

If you don’t clean it, it’ll make horrible noises and then snap.

If you do clean it, it’ll last a lot longer, have less drag, make less noise and then eventually snap :-)

Really? I’ve got a brand new one and the clamp was a faff to get the saddle into, but rock solid once it was. So much so that I had a job tweaking the saddle angle.

500 miles in and it hasn’t moved one iota.

Kryton57 – Member

Bruce – Member
My partner weighs about 8st and she had one crack

This is a bike forum, not a biology lesson.

Best STW post ever :-)

USE Wide Flattie is really nice. 710mm wide carbon.

I’ve been using it with a 90mm stem and (after some fiddling to get the sweep rotated just right) it’s been great.

Hi George,

I’ve got a few I could send you. Much prefer the Chilterns for big miles/hours to Surrey Hills and Swinley. It feels like you’re actually going somewhere rather than linking together a pile of singletrack segments in different ways.

Or you could join me on Sunday for a big day out there. You’re a bit fast these days though :oops:

I’d say you’re probably better off getting a decent suspension fork.

In the worst case, a rigid fork can make the bike a real handful. If the frame is designed for a suspension fork and you put a really short rigid fork on it, the steering will get very fast and it might be bad for your confidence downhill.

Front suspension (even when it’s at the Tora kind of level) gives you more grip for braking and cornering. If you end up panic-breaking into a corner, you might get away with it if you have suspension. You probably won’t on rigid.

For cheap, heavy, and strong:

Topeak Super Tourer DX

£26 on that link.

I’ve carried such heavy front and rear loads with them that I could feel the bike (Surly) bending in the middle!

Hate to say I told you so, but lots of people did tell you so.

I got my M520s with the refund Wiggle gave me on a £100 pair of Time pedals and pocketed the £80 difference.

Those M520s of mine have outlasted 2 frames, a Stans rim, a crankset, 6 tyres, 2 stem faceplates, 2 Ti frames, 2 sets of BB bearings, countless freehub springs and bearings. Believe me, they just last.

Oh, and three cheers for DavidB. Helped to restore my faith in humanity after paying out on last-minute refunds forced me to sell my record-breaking Pugsley to pay the bills.

Also, remember that the event team don’t have a vast army of helpers to re-arrange all of the last-minute changes.

From your perspective, they’re not being very helpful to you.

From their perspective, you’re the 10th contact they’ve had that day trying to get their money back while they are simultaneously trying to sort out all the other last-minute organisation.

Re: beetroot, a lab near me is testing that right now. I don’t have time to get involved myself, but a kayaker I know is involved in the trial.

I’ve tried Rego and Torq. I prefer the taste of Torq, but the effectiveness seemed similar.

As njee says, you shouldn’t need it for your commute. I would recommend that you just take Wednesday off riding to recover instead.

If that doesn’t grab you, try drinking an energy drink during the ride. Not loads of it – as has been pointed out, you’re not burning a truckload of calories. But, I’ve found that dilute energy drink makes “Friday legs” a bit less of an issue.

As someone who only rides a 29er these days, those Bikeradar videos made me feel sad.

If I’m not regularly kicking the arse of riders on 26″ wheels with my magic bike, there must be something wrong with me 8O

Some facts for you, here are the most expensive items from SSUK 2011 in descending order:

Venue
Food (entry bought a substantial dinner)
Beer (2 pints each)
Toilets
Marquee, generators etc
Insurance

Costs, effectively free.

Not sure the person writing the blog would agree with that.

I get the feeling that newspaper blogs are a bit of a lead-in to being able to write for the newspaper proper. And, as MTG suggests, click fodder for saying something absurdly controversial with deniability from the main paper.

My vote goes with the “don’t mess about, just buy Shimano” crowd.

I’ve had Eggbeaters (about 6 months to failure) and Time (about a year to failure) in the past.

I’ve had Shimano M520s for two years now, and they’ve been great. Just about the most no-fuss components on my bike. They’ve done the Divide twice (5,400 miles there), plus all my other riding in that period. And they cost £20.

I thought that lack of float or clogging could be a problem, but I actually prefer the more secure feeling and I haven’t had any clogging.

If you want to spend > £100 and be non-mainstream, I’ll polish the Shimano logo off for £80 :-)

I’ve found Maxxis folding tyres go on pretty easily and I’ve got puny thumbs. With Crests, I’ve used Beavers, Ignitors, and Ikons. All been fine. Bonty Mud-X were a right battle.

Oh yeah, and I tried one of those garmin trackers for a few days.

I got more accuracy and better updates from Google Lattitude on my Android phone. Didn’t like the Garmin at all.

It sounds like you would be best with a SPOT. The batteries last at least 1 week in continuous use, you don’t need to plug them in to recharge, you can just take spares or grab AAAs from any shop.

They’re not an amount of weight that would concern me.

They’re proven to work quite well.

They set up a tracking page for you that you can share/embed.

What’s not to like?

It has the option to enter postcodes that you want to keep private and what radius of privacy you want.

Go to your name (at the top of the page), then privacy.

Put in your work, home etc. Then when people look at your rides, the line will stop short of showing where your shiny bike will be every day or night.