We’ve just gone granite (£££!) after much research. Corian while join-less (its only selling point?) seems to require the most care. I think hot pans will damage it. Granite and quartz can take stain after prolonged exposure if not cleaned off.

All these stone work tops need to be made to order and surveyed and fitted after the kitchen units are in meaning you’ll be worktop-less for several weeks. I think most fitters put a temporary work top down. Laminate is installed by the fitter so no additional delays.

You can have 5+ laminate work tops for the price off 1 off the others so if it gets destroyed its cheap to replace.

Buy 150 pikes and change the airshaft. Just changed mine took 1 hour tops.

Went the other way 150mm to 140mm

Amazon 27.5 160mm Airshaft

Another vote for the eTrex 20/30, great for recording / entering tracks and routes and navigating.

I’m looking at a new five to upgrade my 2011 Five will build as frame, fork(already got) and wheels and keep all the components.

Can’t decide on a SC Heckler Frame (£1299) or a Five (£1600)

Heckler is 150mm travel vs 140 and cheaper.

Music magpie always paid what they said they would. Games in good nick though. Slow to process takes about 3 weeks all up.

peterfile, Thats a good spot. Mental reference updated, thanks.

Best one I’ve seen
RS power bank[/url]

I’ve got one, works really well. Biggest electrical capacity, great for tablets.

The benefits of bolt through outweigh stiffness IMO. The fact that the wheel goes in straight and stays straight is great. QR wheels always had to be ‘aligned’ in the dropouts and have on occasions had them pull out of alignment when stomping on the pedals if the QR wasn’t tight.

2nd Hand?? I have a Rock Lobster Team Ti going spare very soon. Should take 700c wheels with road tyres can verify if interested. Disc brake only.

Size 19″ and VGC

richmtb : PM sent

Thanks andyg drop me a PM with a photo, that would be great

Will probably be tomorrow since I’m out on the bike tonight :D

I’ve got a pair for sale of my old Stumpy commuter, will send a photo if interested. Steerer should be long enough.

120mm Pikes for me. Not that heavy either. Same weight as the OEM Fox 32’s that came off!

No, in fact there is a really a sign saying go back to the old ways and talk to each other

I’ve got a F30 330d rwd and never had any problems in the wet or winter conditions to date. Wet conditions can regularly trigger the traction control so I don’t turn it off!

Can’t comment on x drive but rwd is fine. Had 3series 320ds and 330ds since 2004, got stranded in the snow once with ‘000s of other motorists.

320d is plenty fast enough for most conditions but its not a 6 cyl.

Ah nuts double post!

I’d go for 180 F&R. On long downs (read Alps) I use the back brake more and it can get very hot and the bigger brake helps in keeping things cools. Obviously for a big hard stop you need a powerful front brake but hard stops only last for a few seconds.

I have 180 F&R on my HT ant 203 F&R on my FS.

Cobian Backup Too. Does proper shadow copy backups of whatever files / folders you need. To a backup every night to my NAS in the background and once per month to separate USB HD.

Two teenage boys 17.5 and 16. Will do a good ride this morning and be back before they’re even awake. They’re so missing out but not for lack of trying on my part.

As I said before, measure the wheel. 142mm OK, 135mm not OK. Simples.

Sounds like you got a 135 hub and maxle pulling the frame together. Measure the wheel.

Five 29 from Orange Bikes[/url]

Thats a 142 frame

Measure the over locknut width of then wheel. 135 or 142mm.

135 frames (my 26″ five for instance) have a flat face and no location for the axle.

142 frames (my Trek) have a U shape 3.5mm depth either side (ie. the extra 7 mm) machined in the frame to locate the axle.

Does the maxle screw right into the frame so the thread is flush with the outside.

Opt1 everything is fine

Opt2 142 frame with 135 wheel / axle

Opt3 142 frame with 142 wheel & short axle (yikes)

Plus other combos

Suspect 1

Get an etrex 30x, higher res sunlight readable screen, standard AA batteries. 2500mAh rechargeables last ages. SD card so can load openstreet maps for free.

26″ 150mm Pikes are 532mm axle to crown Spot on. Source :
Pikes

I went for 650b ones on my Orange Five though at 542mm to future proof it.

I’ve stayed in Troutbeck near Windermere. Bike shed has a steel hoop set in concrete to lock bikes too. Accommodation great too.

Is the Pike a 51mm offset?

If not, how;s it compare to the stock fork handling-wise?

Yes the Pike is 51mm offset. I did put a 120mm ‘standard’ SID on there and it handled noticeably worse. (SIDS now on eBay)

The stock Fox forks were the notorious 2013 CTD ones.

Green Pike stickers from slik graphics.

Loving my mainstream Trek Stache (pictured earlier) main reason for getting this (over building one up) was the 142×12 rear axle as well as the longer 120mm forks. Now with Pikes and a Reverb its my ideal bike.

Trek Stache 8 + 120mm Pikes + Dropper Post 27.5lbs with pedals. Love it!

Cheesefoot head ? A few miles out, but downhill to the start. No meters.

I got a caution for not reporting an accident immediately. The wording is “as soon as you can” which given you had access to a phone is straight away or when you got home. The 24 hours bit is if you really cannot maybe an really isolated place or injured.

If you’re set on a Cyrus one (I have an original Two) then try and get the magnesium (I think) cased one. The original plastic cased ones (like mine) work fine but the build quality of the metal cased ones is much higher.

On the old ones the capacitors in the pre-amp can dry out and need replacing. Dead easy if you can de-solder and re-solder. I replaced all the ones on my ‘Two for about £15 and got rid of some dreadful mains hum. Probbaly worth doing as a tactical repair on an old one.

allthepies

If anyone’s interested I’ll stick the latest file on a share somewhere.

Yes please for me too

I had some OEM 2013 Fox Float Evos 120mm on my Trek Stache. Very sticky even with new seals. Either soft enough but would blow through travel or no small bump compliance and and not go through travel easily. Can be upgraded at cost to the latest damper by Mojo.

Probably avoid if I were you. Thinks Rebas are better, but ended up with 120mm pikes on my Stache and they’re properly good.

Thanks for the mention SkillWill. We left Winchester at 6AM dead as a group of 9. We made good time until just before Cocking then our first puncture. Shower of rain here but that soon passed. Another puncture at Washington and a brief rest. After that it was all clear. RobColliver and another (tired) peeled off at Ditching to fulfill prior commitments. After that it was just getting it done and the remaining 7 all ended up at the Kiosk with the 2 CX riders and another group all finishing at the same time. Total time 12:55 5 minutes slower than before, but Strava showed 1h30 stopped time.

Andy G Strava SDWIAD

In the Alps I use EBC red, a downhill pad. Last about 3 days but lever feel the same at the bottom off the descent when baking hot as at the top. No fade, no lever pump nothing, just work.

I use 203 rotors in the Alps.

Lots of black dust to mess up your white forks!!

We as a club (Southdowns MTB Club) are having an attempt tomorrow. Will almost certainly split into small groups as we’re all different speeds.

Doing the Warnford route not Exton and will go up the centre of the QECP. Know the first 50 miles well, the 2nd 50 are less well known to me. I rode it 2 years ago in 12:50 with a puncture so hoping for sub 12.
Nowhere near as fast as njee I know.

Please don’t rain!

Genuine Garmin mounts are fine for Etrex. Never dropped a GPS even in the Alps. Only downside is they’re zip tied on. Use a lanyard as a backup and peace of mind. Cheap ebay ones drop the unit.

Go for at least a 20 and if you can a 30. The 30 has barometric altimeter which means Strava (boo) gives more weight to the actual ascent figures abeit still low.

I use the etrex 30 and talkytoaster OSM maps and they’re great. I don’t think the OS maps will do ‘track up’ only ‘north up’, correct me if I’m wrong here.

Check out the new ‘x’ series with higher res screen

etrex30x

I run a 150mm 27.5 Pike on my 2011 26″ Orange five. 10mm longer overall than the previous Revelation. No problems. The slightly increased fork offset compensates for the longer fork so steering is largely unaffected.

rancid : been away all weekend. To export GPX files from bing maps, click on my places to the left of the screen, this opens the my places editor. Create a path using the “create a path on the map tool”. Use right click to finish drawing and save. Now click on actions -> export > GPX. I have a live account so you may need to create. Hope this helps.

It takes a while to get used to the subtleties of bing maps but works very well for me.

If your stuck I’ll create a youtube video later this week.