I don’t think I’ve ever checked brake caliper bolts, or had them come loose. I don’t think there are any bolts I do weekly, or even monthly, checks, come to think of it.

Flexiroam looks great, thanks for posting. I’d been hunting around for a bit for an upcoming trip that goes through several countries, couldn’t find a single plan that covered all of them.

I think I have enough spares to put some bike shops to shame, but I have real envy of scotroutes’ spares wall.

Also, if you go to court and get awarded less than their initial offer, you will have to cover their legal fees

Hmm, I’m no expert in this, but I’m dubious that this is the norm. I think you’d normally go to tribunal, and costs would very rarely be awarded.

I’ve had this with a Pro 3 road hub, and and RS4. The RS4 settled down after a few hundred miles, and still occasionally reoccurs after changing cassettes. Pro 3 always felt off – convinced it was the cause of some hip pain after a particularly long ride – replaced with a 240s.

Had both apart and serviced / replaced pawl springs – didn’t help.

Edit: Also tried the zip tie hack, double springs, lighter grease – never did work out what the problem was.

As for redundancies, if they’re making a certain number amount of people redundant, they have to inform you that positions are at risk and have a consultation period. Can’t remember the specifics, but it’s worth being aware of them – companies often try to skirt on the edge of it. Selection criteria should be objective and transparent, no doubt they’ll massage them to ditch the people they want to, but if they’re dubious, you can use that as part of any settlement agreement negotiation.

I will be getting hold of my employment contract next week but I’m pretty sure it just says statutory

Contracts are unlikely to specify anything above statutory IME. In a way, that’s better for you because it gets paid tax free (anything contractual is subject to income tax).

Yeah, I had a bike shop send me a “new” helmet, without its retail packaging, in a thin cardboard box that it barely fit in.

I returned that, it wasn’t obviously damaged, but I wasn’t happy that it could have been transported safely like that. They subsequently ignored all emails asking them to refund my return postage.

If I hadn’t bought a Stumpjumper last year, I’d be sorely tempted by one of these Epics this year (still tempted anyway).

It’s an XC race bike at its heart, having a dropper post at all is a bit of a crime.

I’ve been fighting a set of R785s for a bit. I’ve changed all the seals and pistons, and somehow the front one still leaks. I’m going to have another go at rebuilding it this weekend, but I think I’m going to end up just replacing the calipers with something not-Shimano.

I hate bleeding brakes. I’m sure it’s simple once you ‘have the knack’ but I sadly do not, it’s been a right faff every time I’ve done it and I always wish I hadn’t started.

I’ve found it much easier with newer brakes.

Caliper side for me, so I don’t need to touch the bar tape. Doesn’t make any odds as far as bleeding is concerned imo.

So logically, the industry needs to turn out worse bikes?

As I said, for me, just having standards settle down a bit would be the answer. I don’t want to spend £1k on a set of wheels when who knows what size rims, hub spacing, or axle size is going to be fashionable tomorrow.

For me, I’ve found that the continual changing of “standards” has made me less inclined to keep upgrading/swapping parts around. Before if I bought a new bike, I’d be happy to swap all the components around knowing I could move them on to the next bike, or I could trickle down components. Now that standards for everything seem to change every year or so, bikes feel a lot more like a sunk cost.

Wasn’t there a thread fairly recently about how Giant wanted you to use a authorised mechanic for pretty much anything, or it was grounds to reject any warranty claim?

Those kind of locks tend to be pretty trivial to pick, watch a couple of videos and have a stab at it.

 I genuinely don’t understand how they could have done this without the thread being less than perfectly cut initially.

I’m struggling to understand how they’ve done it even if the bottom bracket had been crossthreaded by a blind hippopotamus. Twice. Surely the amount of resistance would make it obvious something was amiss. You don’t just keep forcing it.

I think that a frame desperately sold by a dying company as “new” is much more likely to be damaged, a warranty return or a QC reject, as they know that they can take the money and don’t have to answer for the fault. Look at all the London Road frames Planet X sold that had actually been returned to them as warranty claims as an example.

If they were desperately trying to stay alive, perhaps. But when it was a given they were dead, and any funds they managed to raise were just going to go to the creditors, and not save the company/people’s jobs, I have a hard time buying into that theory.

I think the shop has done the right thing in spotting the frame is damaged and offering to put it right in the best way they can.

They didn’t spot it was damaged though. They ran a tap through it and stripped the thread.

If they’d spotted it was wrong from the off and said “what would you like us to do? We’re not confident in this, and we might make it worse” it’d be one thing. But saying after the fact “we’ve stripped the bottom bracket. Must’ve been wrong before we started” is just having to take it on faith.

No. Neither are corn snacks, like Doritos.

If you bought it on a credit card, you might still have some form of protection?

I still think the bike shop should make good, though.

Yeah, that’s a good point, it’s not really worth having a lock that’s stronger than the thing you’re locking it to.

It’s a build to order company, build dates are an estimate

Sure. But prominently stating ready to ride in 10 days and then taking over 3 times that isn’t cool.

Why did you go out if you were expecting a delivery, if you haven’t got an obvious or arranged safe place to leave it?

A lot of couriers seem to have delivery windows of anything from “some time today” (which they tell you at 10am on the day), to “any time in the next week”. It’s really frustrating waiting in all day for couriers that don’t turn up. Going out whenever, when you then normally get a choice to nominate a day, or collect at your convenience, seems like a pretty pragmatic approach.

I’m trying to sell an ultegra equipped hydro braked road bike at the moment, advertised for 300 quid.

I’m sorted now, but I might have been interested for the groupset alone…

I have one of those Litelock D-locks

Hmm, those look great, but a little bit small. Can you get it to lock through the rear wheel and frame to a Sheffield hoop? I guess my preferred method of taking the front wheel off and locking through the frame and both wheels is right out.

Alternatively, if you’re happy with (A) as an option, I might just take a file to the brake pads.

I would open the bleed port on the lever, and try to push the pistons in further.

If you can attach a little bucket to it (like for Shimanos, I’m not familiar with Hylexs), I’d do that, with a little bit of fluid in, to make sure you don’t accidentally introduce any air in the process.

Unless they can prove you or frame at fault (can’t see how they could) it’s their responsibility.

If it was me, and it was a brand new frame, I’d be really dubious if there was any resistance at all putting the taps in. I’d stop and check after a couple of threads, not just keep on forcing it through.

Do they not have a BB tap tool?

I mean, that’s presumably what they’ve used to chase the threads. I can’t think of another way a bike shop would do it. If you’ve somehow managed to completely misalign the tap, and then hamfistedly proceeded to crossthread it in, I think those threads are beyond saving.

Yeah, I’ve never had to chase the threads of a brand new frame – or even most used frames. Maybe it was unnecessary, but it’s still the shops fault.

I’m trying to work out how they’re better than a normal tap set. Does the extended section centre it better in the shell?

All may not be lost, I’ve salvaged BB threads that others (including manufacturers) have **** with a pair of these

Telling us what they’re called might help us google for them

if the solution is an expensive screw-together BB, then they can supply and install one at their cost.

If I were willing to entertain a screw together bottom bracket, I’d want that, and some compensation on top.

I don’t want to fall out with the shop

Um, because of the wonderful service they give you where they ruin a new frame and then expect you to pay for a workaround for the problem?

I’d expect a replacement frame. Even if they’d shell out (pun intended) themselves for a screw together bottom bracket, that’d make any future replacements really annoying and possibly limit crankset choices. Also I’d find it heartbreaking to live with a brand new frame that had a bodge to start with.

Alternatively get something like this ( https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/364707046639?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-127632-2357-0&ssspo=9RtuYQ4-SxO&sssrc=4429486&ssuid=kQvGtg5dTuC&var=&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPY ) and swap it with the T25 bit in a Topeak ratchet tool or something.

Use a 3mm and a 4mm together?

Maybe I’ve just been lucky, but I’m running mostly different hubs, and I have more issues with disc thickness than I do with spacing.