This is the single most helpful thread on stw! My Gaggia hasn’t worked properly for an age, now about to do battle with it with all this new info.!

Thanks Bigginge, I have rooted through the garage and I think I’ve got the headset I need (measured with a vernier and measured up ok!) thanks for the hope reference as I think I will go that route when this one gets shagged through winter! Mines an alloy version too, how are you getting on with yours?

Cheers

What about a Chameleon? You’ve then got the option of swapping between 29 and 27.5

If only it was M/L I’d have had that off you!

Cheers chaps, all food for thought.

Cheers for your update, I’m going from a Spec Enduro and a Whyte T129 in an attempt to have something that covers all bases. I like the modern geometry and I loved my old Cotic Soul so hoping to find something that ticks all those boxes…

I’m looking to swap out my full sus frame for an RC627, what are owners thoughts now its been out a while?

Plus gas and hair dryer, remove bottom bracket and fill the seat tube, leave over night and gently warm.

I’ve not read all the replies so excuse any repeats. To perfect your pedal stroke my tips would be: think about pedalling from the hip and pretend to scrape shit from your shoes this will give a smooth power delivery right through the full stroke. Spin the highest cadence you can so you get those fast twitch muscles firing ( higher tyre pressures reduces resistance massively so worth inflating to over 120psi if trying to spin) Finally get a track bike to use on your rollers and go to some local tracksessions. Fixed will sort any issues you may have with your pedal stroke very quickly and vastly improve your mountain biking. Worked for me!

Recent experience of Halfords customer service has been spot on, used them for a bike to work scheme and they couldn’t have been more helpful! Yes some of the mechanics are questionable even had to help one mechanic with refitting a another customers rear wheel as he had not seen a nutted rear axle before. He appreciated the hand and was keen to learn so everyone’s a winner as I felt good for helping the lad. With the high street having a down turn due to online business it’s nice to see some companies trying to improve service. I know many lbs’s just complaining about losing trade and not upping there game to compete with the likes of wiggle and CRC and running the same old superiority complex when you buy something other than the components they sell…

Hope this helps!
http://m.pinkbike.com/buysell/list/?q=&pmin=&pmax=300&category=2&region=5

At slowoldman I’ve worked for Williams for 15 years so been aware of the gentle decline since BMW so nice to be performing again race strategy aside

Ok quick up date, wife returned the bike and after some sarcasm from the mechanic the wheel was stripped and a large chunk of material was found to be missing from the inboard outer race. Agreeing this was a fault from Cannondale the wheel was kept and my wife left with the rest of the bike. She then went to remove the front wheel to put it in the car and discovered the drop out had cracked on the rear leg! So she returned to the shop where the mechanic said, with a unhelpful smirk ‘have you dropped it?’ which I suppose is fair question but considering the paint was still intact it was clear she hadn’t. The bike has now been returned to Cannondale for inspection and she has chosen a Trek Lexa to replace it (all faith in Cannondale now gone).
A couple of other points: The check list states the wheel bearings were checked and the bike fully inspected, so I can only assume this happened on the first 10 mile ride (N.B. my wife is only 55kg before anyone asks!!)
Cannondale say the issues are the shops as they should have been picked up by them on delivery, and so it continues with lots of finger pointing!

My god, it’s taken 45 posts to finally have someone agree with my sentiment. Cheers Sam I can move on now 😉

When she said clunking I assumed gearing issues so checked them on the stand to check correct indexing at which point I discovered the wheel had lateral play so pulled back the rubber boot which was covered in grease to discover ball bearings missing and the shield out of position. Hope this clears up in inconsistencies

Not whining mate, it’s a forum? Was just looking for feed back…

No swearing at them but they didn’t think not having full range of bar rotation was a good idea ! 😉

Eh? I can’t track stand or x-up I was taking the piss …

Thanks crazy-legs I appreciate the input, I was typical find the first person and rant at them (hangs head in shame) but I quite like my mrs and was pretty pissed off and as I work in an industry where you double and triple check everything before it goes I was comparing that to this!
I will take it up with cannondale as I think there standards should be a little higher.

Nah not really mate text always comes over differently, believe me I pretty chilled. Just some comments for the sake of disagreeing are ridiculous.

No offence…

Again thanks for all the suggestions

Jameso you make a valid point, I guess I do need to calm down a bit, however I was already a little pissed off when the bike was built with the gear cable outers too short and so wouldn’t turn ‘full lock’ so to speak. So that’s dodgy steering and now a wheel with about 20mm of lateral float, I mean if I was trying to kill my mrs I would have done it myself with out the help of Evans mechanical department? Maybe my concerns should be aimed else where I.e. Cannondale but I wouldn’t want a kiddies bike out of there work shop

Ah, yes of course, cheers guys!

Ok, thanks for your help

Gaggia Classic is a great starting point, make sure you get some good quality coffee, ground by a proper coffee emporium if you have one locally or buy the best grinder you can afford and buy beans, it makes a difference.
Took me around a 2 weeks to pull a decent espresso and getting better all the time. It’s a black art!

YEAR-TO-DATE
Distance 2,416.1 mi
Time 138h 33m
Elev Gain 97,005 ft
Rides 143

Fantastic response there from north wind, funnily enough since I’ve been riding road it’s been the mountain bikers who have a problem saying hi or being pleasant generally. I admit roadies can be arseholes but that happens in all walks of life, don’t tar everyone with same brush!

Now to the topic in hand, have a look at specialized allez, bianchi nirone and giant defys. Try and avoid shimano 2300 groupset as it’s pressed out shite! You will become hooked if only by the speed and efficiency of it all!

Not sure where you are based but this might be helpful?
Click here

I haven’t owned a mountsin bike for 2 years!
I own 2 carbon road bikes … Sorry

Starbuck, French Canadian with sub titles, I thought it was going to be a bit **** but turned out to be one of the funniest films I’ve watched recently…

Chapeau

After having tons of bikes including foes, 575’s, souls, PA cannondales and a BfE I’m now down to just one bike…
A Cervelo S1! really missing a mountain bike but kids and wife off on maternity and trying to save for a house has put having another on the back burner for the foreseeable future

Riding 100 miles (in one go)
Building a pair of wheels from scratch

Shouldn’t worry, I innocent or otherwise GCHQ will now be all over it…

Can you not get him riding his own bike?

EDIT sorry that wasn’t what you asked. We have a trailer bike and our 5 year old loves it

If you want a great all rounder that you can convert to TT duties then go for a Cervelo S1 they just seem to encourage you to ride faster! And surprisingly comfortable too

I tried everything, spent some cash and to
No avail! The most effective cure s previously mentioned is more riding and getting better core strength. Yoga can
Certainly help…

The pendentry on this thread alone reminds why I find STW so exasperating most of the time…

I don’t know whether this has been suggested on this thread, but I’m not prepared to sit and read every post so have you tried polishing your lenses with a small amount of fairy liquid? A trick an old motor bike racer used to use on his visor claimed it worked very well…