which out of these two Schleck or Hyserdal? Hysedral had a nasty fall in the Swiss tour – is he fit again now?

I’m in (with both Sagan and Cav), but what’s with Garmin not declaring it’s line up yet?

2 by 10 XT is great

if you don’t like em, don’t do em!

also dont whinge

If the berm is quite big (say a 180 degree right hand turn with about 2 m of drop) is it good to enter it with a slight left to make sure you are at the top edge of the berm ?

@robarnold – thanks, you are obviously better informed than me!

Sounds bad and like more than just robbery. Assault/ mugging etc. hope plod takes it seriously

my LBS has three otherwise identical bikes with the 3 different wheel sizes next to each other on a sales stand and most people cant actually tell which is which between the 26 and 650b, unless they compare the wheel sizes very deliberately. If they weren’t next to each other only the officianados would know which was which

The 29er is obviously different.

But if you believe Santa Cruz – it’s not them deciding this, it’s the customers telling them that that’s what they want

Hey I sympathise with how you feel, but that last bit about customers demanding 27.5 is bollox

Had my Cannondale since 1996. Frame, fork, XT front mech, v-brake cantis, and Coda stem and bars stil original. Everything else has been changed several times.

so if I use the dishwasher to strip all the grease of a chain, what should I then lube it with ?

People are still buying but it seems slow. I saw another two 29ers at the weekend at the event I was at, but everyone else was still riding 26ers. I also saw a couple of 650bs at the LBS last week alongside 26 and 29 versions of the same bike

seems like 29ers might have been the Windows Vista of the bike world, here comes Windows 7 (650b) probably only to be spoilt with Windows 8. How not to make friends and influence people’

too far for one day, but a good trail

apparently HG61 is 50 grams lighter than HG50

I usually just get the Shimano one for compatibility

but this is almost impossible for the average punter like me who gets through so few cassettes.

I am trying to choose a 9-speed road cassette just now and have a choice of ultegra 6500 @ £35 or SRAM PG970 @ £40. Does anyone really know how to choose?

there are some really good examples in this vid:

can it be done with rim brakes or are discs needed?

if it aint broke don’t fix it

smoke/dart combo 🙂

ask the manufacturer to measure it and see if it really in within the specified tolerances – it looks wonky (for want of a better word) to me

like the mini though:-)

a bit hard to tell from the not very clear photos. The chainstays don’t look to be the same (i.e. symmetrical), but is that distortion in the photo? If they are different and its a new frame maybe take it back and ask them

Iceland?

or Joss Naylor

I have felt a bit the same with my max HR dropping to quite a bit below what it used to be, so that if I am trying to go at the same speed as before, then I am closer to max effort.

But I suspect that losing just 3 kg (never mind 10!) would make a HUGE difference to you. So maybe set yourself some goals that aren’t too far out of reach and see how you get on from there.

BTW I am probably 10 years older than you from the sounds of it. 40 is way too young to think about stopping

tony greig, alan lamb, zola budd….

e-bay often lists them, unless you are after something extra special?

well in anycase Uran could well beat Froome in the Tour

Yep, pretty much:-)

The struggle is tough but eminently do-able. Wrynose is easier (at least from the West) but Hard Knot is much harder both up and down. I ran out of brakes near the bottom and had both wheels locked up but skidding and not stopping me. Had to let the brakes off and just let it fly, but got away with it:-). Have fun

Great video – BC is fantastic – even in the rain

must go back

move my arse back a few inches on the saddle. Especially for corners I find.

there will come a day when your front washes out and you might change your mind

Actually, I liked it a lot. I was there at Easter. Tend to agree with you about the climb up to the start of the hells teeth though. I hope they might develop a link/extension to take you out north onto the moor and back just to make the loop longer. But its well worth the craic

How does the Hammerschmidt actually work? What happens when you shift ?

I use a phoenix phlighter. It fits easily in a pack or on a bike rack. About 1.5 kg. room for two at a push:-)

Train to Penrith, ride into Lakes – maybe old coach road to Skiddaw house then down to Eskdale, over Black Sail Pass and back towards Windermere via Coniston:-)

Rode my road bike with SPDs for a few years. It was OK but for me proper road pedals and road shoes are so much better. They let your feet relax and spread the load instead of causing your foot to try to wrap itself around the SPD . Must be something about road riding (same position more pedaling pressure for longer I suppose) cause I never get the same problems off road

Are you certain it’s not referred pain from your back? When I prolapsed a disk in my back I thought it was my pelvis and the GP agreed. It was only later that a physio diagnosed it properly,

when I looked at Toasty’s bike I thought the wheels were 23″ 😆

this is going atm:

classic

grum wrote:

It’s amazing how sensitive/aggressive the 29er evangelists are. It seems to get them very upset if you don’t immediately spaff over every single 29er. Apparently riding a 29er and not liking it proves nothing – riding a 29er and liking it proves everything.

29ers coming nowhere in a race proves nothing – 29ers winning a race proves everything.

Spot on! And actually there’s only a very very small number of real 29er evangelists. – it’s just that they are really persistent.