Can I point to the obvious, while it’s all well and good highlighting the pro’s bar position, they are really rather good at riding road bikes while the gentleman posting the original question is really rather, at riding a road bike, to coin his own oft’ used phrase…”shite”.

Hehehe .. quality

Yeah but their pro’s and they do it every day so a comfortable hand position is quite important…
Just sayin’…. 😆

rootes1
Wiggo on stage 4 of this years Vuelta with a slight angle down 😉
as you say though whatever works for you.

anc – bars used to be like that but most now run flat into the hoods.

Nar far more pro/elite guys run there bars with a slight angle down, have a shifty through the pro bikes on bikeradar. That said its about what works for you. I used to run mind flat but as my flexiblity improved i discovered the angled down bar worked better for me.

Heres Andy Schleck’s bike with a slightly less of a angle to wiggos above but still angled down.

Tilting your saddle up generally isn’t such a good idea on a road bike most would be flat or pointing down a little depending on your flexibility, if you tilt if back you’ll get pressure on your sensitive bits when your down on the drops. If your hands hurt its about body balance and probably just the fact your not used to riding in that position. Also most handlebars are designed to tilt slightly down on the tops unlike the flat position clubber has (but if it works for him thats great 😉 ), a good starting point is having the bottom of the drops parallel with the road. This creates a natural comfortable recess for the hand on the top of the bar and the huds.

This shows what I mean with the bars.

Key is to start really slow, its tough just before the gate so leave plenty in reserve to get over that bit. Also to properly bag it you need someone to open the gate so you can carry on through, having a breather at the gate don’t count as a bag… Thems the rules :-))

Loads of locals have cleared it, if your a good technical climber with average fitness and enough practice you get up.

Yeah our 53 passat leaked prior to this one. Comes through the pollen filter housing usually.

Oh almost forgot the crank sensor went last month that was another 200 notes.

My other cars a subaru impreza sti and its sooo reliable (probably jinxed it now) but for me when the passat goes I’ll be looking firstly at legacy estates then volvo v70’s, ford S-max’s or perhaps 5 series tourers.

Passat is a nice car when it works, unfortunately its pretty unreliable. Parking brake is a pain, ours completely seized over xmas and took the AA guy 2hrs to remove. New motor is costing 350(that’s just one side other will eventually go). Electric keys go wrong on most early ones our’s when last winter that cost 200 odd. The injectors have been dropping like flys and now VW have a recall on them. I hope VW are going to pay their customers who had to pay 400 per injector prior to the recall.
Nar… there are better cars out there now, this one is our 4th VW and definitely the last.

Do the golfs come with the stupid electric handbrake? Steer clear is so, the one in the Passat is a PITA and seized over xmas and took the poor AA bloke 2hrs to free. Needs a new motor which costs £350. Its also just had a recall on the 4 injectors(which cost £400 each) after years of failures and VW charging customers. Electric keys fail also ours went last year. After 4 previous VW’s this is our last! No longer a reliable manufacturer.

Flat coke is a wifes tale, the caffeine may make it worse if your sensitive to it(sisters a consultant), just keep hydrated with water and off the food for 24hrs, then slowly introduce plain foods avoiding any thing your intolerant to.

As said above the Lakes are currently as wet as I’ve seen them for many a year. The Highstreet ride isn’t good in these conditions, to do it in winter you need it to freeze up, which it hasn’t as yet. There are endless rocky/more weather proof options i’d be looking at conditions as they are at the mo. 😉

The main techniques are explained here[/url] but they should only really be used to find a starting point which you refine.

Its also 100mm, so all you need to do is machine the 15mm holes in the QR caps. Mate had it done to his XL’s and it worked fine, only slight problem was it wore the bolt a little at the point it contacts the cap.

Dave Lynskey founded Litespeed then sold it and it went downhill as a manufacturer, its since mean’t to have sorted out these issues. Titanium by its very nature is prone to fatigue failures, so both manufacturers are going to have issues which get published on internet forums now and then, its how they deal with them that matters.

Water leak, there renowned for it. The main suspects some as mentioned above are, sunroof if you’ve got one, battery chamber drainage blocked causing the water to come back through the pollen filter, debris around the bonnet hinges causing water to build up round the pollen filter and get in, dicky door seals, etc etc have a look on vwaudifourum for more. Tends to accumulate round the nearside passenger foot well, you may need to lift the carpet as sometimes if the leak is slight the carpet seems dry on top, but once you get underneath you find its damp.

You sure its not tracheitis or some other upper respiratory tract infection triggered by your hayfever or cold?

Yep one size up is the norm.
Just watch it with the discounted dragons etc with SRS inserts, the replacement grips/lugs are pretty hard to come by, for example CR quoting no stock till late March 2012. There also stupidly expensive at 30 quid a go and wear really quickly. 😕

S-works all the way for me, they fit better, weigh less and they don’t rip you off for the parts which are easy to get hold of.

Ritchey WCS has the same stack height as a Thomson 4x (40mm). As said above Sunline is your best bet.

Used to be my tyre of choice in the lakes… Till I tried minions, no going back now, minions are far better on lakes rock especially in the wet.

PIAA, I’ve got some on the scooby which are 5 year old now still working brilliantly and very quite.

Yes

Bibshorts and knee warmers are far better fit wise IMO.

you’re not from around these parts, are you?

😆

I had mine done 3-4 weeks ago and had to have a white CSU on my light grey forks. The reason being they had run out off the grey 2012 legs and couldn’t give me a date when they would be in.(The white CSU has the logo on the legs) I reckon they must struggling to get hold of the latest legs and you’ve got some 2011 versions, doesn’t really matter as the only difference is the logo.

Yeah that’s what I’m saying, the xl’s came 20mm or QR. He got the QR caps milled out too 15mm, worked as I say but not ideal. But as your 20mm ST’s don’t come with the QR adaptors it doesn’t really help you.. Just saying it is doable. Would have thought those 12 versions will work as all the measurements are the same. Worth checking out.

Good spot that should sort it.

Mate of mine converted some XL’s by milling out the qr adaptors to 15mm, it worked but it wasn’t ideal as it slowly wears the bolt thru where the caps contact the shaft.

No it doesn’t Jedi, not with the ST’s. Mavic sold them as 20mm only or 15mm qr only.

I ride in minus temps myself,

When….? You usually hibernate all winter!! 😆

Yes I know that’s what I do, but you don’t turn the uppers back upright when the lowers are off unless your oil needs replacing. The OP turned his folks and emptied the fluid if you read his post. Which is why I showed him the oil volume chart to get him sorted again.

Cheers_anyway_Drive 😛

http://service.foxracingshox.com/consumers/Content/Service/oil_volumes.htm

Sounds to me if it was full of fluid it is a open bath model. Easy to suss, check the lowers if it says Fit anywhere then its not the open bath model
. You can find the measurements for either in the above link.

Err no, your not meant to turn the forks on a 15hr service. You’ll have emptied the damper leg of its fluid. You need to get on the fox website and look up how much fluid you need to put back in for your model and year of fork. Make sure you check whether its open bath or fit also when looking this up.

Stay a average headset stack height being 30mm(unless your frame is inset) and most stems being 40mm deep. You need about around 70mm on top of your 135mm to be safe.

+1 Ben Ainsle 3 Olympic Golds + 1 silver, 9 world titles, 9 European tiles and a lot more to come.

If you’ve got a Ikea near, their office chair(faux leather one) is excellent and cheap. Its as good if not better than the expensive jobby I had before, definately better on my back.

Sunline V1 All Mountain stems have a 34mm stack height, i’d be looking at something like that and keeping the king. CB stuff is chocolate.. lots of folk have reported very early corrosion issues with their Headsets.

There’s a chance you’ll crimp and weaken the steerer as the top bolt(assuming its a 2 bolt stem) isn’t tightening down on tube correctly. Lower stack headset or stem might sort it.

Is it possible to get a “definitive” view on STW for the best winter tyre…?

No.. we all ride different surfaces, therefore there are lots of tyres which work best depending on where you ride.

Minions all year round for me, lakes.

Koolstop salmons are excellent in the wet and don’t eat your rims like all the Shimano compounds. If you have shimano pads have a look at the contact surface.. there will be shards of alloy(from your rim) embedded in there… not good for your rims at all. 😕