How long are you getting out of your chains now? My last one did 2 years of on road and a year of off road all year round commuting. I only changed the chain as a precaution and the current one is around 16 months old and is still running fine despite never having been given more than a wipe over and a spray of GT85. I take no notice of chain wear,I just reversed the chainring and replaced the rear sprocket when I changed the chain. I could have reversed the sprocket but chose not to as I thought it better to avoid running what had become a worn and slightly pitted surface against the oil seal although I know others have done this without problems.

Personally I think adding another thing that mud can clog up will have more drawbacks than advantages.

who apologised to who?

Well it’s only the 2nd day of the year and already iDave is a dead cert for a win in the most stupid question of the year award. :-)

And if it’s any consolation to anyone who’s gone through this my wife once stopped speaking to me for some thing I did in one of her dreams!

I’m not going back till the 13th, I usually like to make sure that all that happy new year and did you have a good Christmas is all over and done with by the time I’m back to work.

Not sure if this applies to Alfines, but had a demo ride with a Rohloff and the fluid in the froze at not far below 0, probably not froze solid, but certainly congealed enough to make shifting awkward. Not ideal if intended use is on a winter bike.
Could be what Fieldmarshall had?

If you ride in very cold conditions you can add a bit of the cleaning oil to the hub which overcomes the problem.

I’d go for the 11 speed if you can afford it for no other reason than it uses an oil bath and therefore maintenance should be a lot easier than the 8 speed.

Mine has been fault free and great in the crap weather but for some reason i am thinking about going back to gears.

Same here, however every time I think about it more rubbish weather comes along and I’m glad I’ve got it. What I actually want is a second lightweight bike for nicer days. The on One whippet is top of my list at the moment. As I ride all year round I’ll not be without a hub geared bike although If I had to replace the Rohloff it would probably be with the new 11 speed Alfine due to cost.

If you always travel with a laptop then you don’t need to worry about the 3G or WiFi that the kindle has. If you want to travel without a laptop and are not organised enough to make sure you’ve loaded up enough books before you go the the kindle is the obvious choice. If I were to get one now then I would go for the Sony 350 as it’s smaller than the kindle and will fit in a pocket more easily and I always travel with at least 1 laptop.
The Sony also reads the epub format which is if you like the mp3 of book files.
I’m tempted to buy one but I’ve got a nice pile of books I’ve been bought for Christmas and if I had a reader I know people would buy me vouchers rather than books. I really like getting books that other people have chosen, I’ve read a lot of really good books that I might never have chosen for myself

I came off on Wednesday while trying to ride on sheet ice. No real damage done but being clipped in meant I pulled my calf muscle as I went down. A few words that would get me a ban and banging my other leg into the ground as a distraction and I was ready for the challenge of just trying to stand up. Managed to get back on the bike and eventually found enough grip to start off again. A little further on I lost all traction but managed to remain upright. I then found myself unable to move at all. I was perched on the saddle both feet just touching the floor and it was obvious that whatever I tried to move would result in me ending up in a heap again. It was quite funny trying to decide just how to get out of it. I managed to slide sideways till one foot was off the ice and got off the bike. Then I discovered that MW80’s may be warm and pretty god in winter mud and filth but have no place on an ice rink. Then I had a very short 5M roll downhill back to the road but even that was scary. I ride all winter on wet bare chalk and I’m used to the odd moment where I’m convinced I’m about to go as the front wheel slides out but the ice is something else. The only good thing I find is that your on the ground before you have time to think on no this might hurt.
In your position I think caution is well advised. I avoid the roads when it’s icy after coming off a few years ago and looking up to see one of the work coaches coming towards me as I lay sprawled on the floor. Luckily it was being driven by someone who had the sense to leave a decent gap and he stopped a good few meters short of me.

I’ve a very similar picture of my grandad somewhere I think. I’ll go through the contact sheets and see if I can find it. My great uncle Alec, my grandad’s brother was still riding into his 70’s until some useless waste of space knocked him of his bike and killed him.

Towards the wall is fine if you live in a trailer and sleep with your sister.

We need to introduce those icons next to our user names. The panda which indicates “Mission to Australia” is a particular favourite of mine along with “Ex Masturbator”

The radio times review says it’s a pretty poor adaptation.

How does one proceed? Do you need to start things rolling with a visit to the GP and a chat or is there a more direct route?

A lot depends on where you live. The NHS waiting time where I am is very long so I went private. Start with your GP though as they will be able to give you an indication of waiting times and what local clinics there are.

I ride off road all year round no matter what the weathers doing as it’s how I get to work. I get fed up when it’s very muddy but carry on regardless. The best thing about it though is that you really appreciate the good weather when it comes. And there are still some great days even in the middle of winter and it would be all to easy to miss those if you end up putting the bike away for winter. A hub geared or single speed also makes it all less painful.

But perhaps the people that have forgiven and moved on haven’t posted for one reason or another.

Or they are grown ups who don’t work out how to live their lives or advise others how to live theirs via the internet. :-)

Well I won’t be in the office tomorrow as I’ve got another night in Kiev thanks to the weather.

The reason he is England’s most capped player is that the play a hell of a lot more pointless friendlies than they used to.

That’s what I always assumed but it’s interesting that Bobby Charlton leads the England Goal scoring record with 49 but more than half were in friendlies and Michael Owen and Gary Lineker share the record for goals in competitive matches at IIRC 22. I think there were probably as many friendlies in the past but they didn’t receive the coverage they do now.

I’d love to be looking at the snow out of my back door rather than being here in Kiev looking at their snow wondering if I’m going to get home tomorrow.

I drive a Fiat Doblo – problem solved

I used to have a pair of Madison clear glasses years ago which I used in the winter. As soon as I put them on I immediately felt the bike was another 2 inches higher and riding it was horrible. Things that were just normal became scary. Obviously it had no effect on the handling of the bike it was just a change in perception caused I assume by distortion in the lens but I soon stopped using them.

I’d like to nominate trickydisco’s post in the STW link of the year awards.

Check there is room in the bin.

If I don’t ride I don’t get to work and if I don’t get to work I won’t get paid. I could ride on the roads and avoid the all the mud and water and the hills as well come to think of it but I wouldn’t enjoy it as much. Hub geared or single speed hardtail or rigid bike helps as they require very little cleaning.

and some people think vegans dont know how to have fun

As a vegan I can assure you that we do know how to have fun. That we choose not to is my own business.

Dear MidlandTrailquestsGraham

I am writing to tell you how very upset I am about the lack of courtesy shown in you post. If you cannot be bothered to start your post “Dear All” please don’t post at all.

Yours Sincerely

avdave

I’ll have a word if I see them tomorrow.

And I reckon they may have a word for you as well. :-)

My real answer is Henry Bowers

If I feel inspiration coming on I go and have a lie down and wait for it to pass.

Mud X front and rear.

Friends of mine once travelled from Brighton to Inverness to buy a car.

There could be a fair few 8 speed Alfines appearing on the classifieds or e-bay once the 11 speed versions become a more readily avaliable. I run a hub gear commuting all year round off road and never do more than give the chain an occasional wipe over and reapply some nice and cheap GT85.

If you’ve got time to clean it you’ve got time to ride it for longer. :-)

Thanks ooOOoo I guess I’ll just have to wait until others enter the market. I only ride at night off road on the commute home in the winter and can get by with the old cateye halogen lights I have.

I was riding home a couple of weeks ago in the pitch black, bar lights only which were coming loose. I was just thinking I’d better stop and tighten them up when The Hound of the Baskervilles starts barking at full volume right behind me. I swear I could feel it’s blood tainted breath on my arse. I took off at max speed as the lights gave up what grip they had on the bars and pointed straight at the floor. I had no idea what was in front of me but was quite sure that it couldn’t have been as bad as what was right behind me so I just went for it regardless. Of course it might only have been a Jack Russell but you’ll never convince me of that.

They can be difficult to use. I had well over half a million at one time. I got some tickets for my boss to take his new girlfriend to New York a couple of years ago, he got to impress her by going in business and I got the cash he would have spent on economy tickets. I’m heading back to 400,000 at the moment so hopefully he might want to impress her again soon. I was surprised that I managed to get tickets for NY in December but they were avaliable. I think the real problem is that they won’t release seats for air miles until they are sure they can’t sell all the seats. I think to use them you’ll have to wait until nearer the time and be flexible on dates and times of flights.

ooOOoo are you using the dynamo off road and if so what light are you using? I have a dynamo hub but apart from the expensive Supernova E3 Triple I’m not aware of what else is avaliable that will be suitable for off road.

Anyone else spotted the irony in crashing into Deja Vu. Surely they knew it had already happened before and should have been waiting outside to catch you as you fell.

should have been toughened glass in a shop front.

I think they need to worry more than you do.

Send them back along with an invoice for your handling fee and a postage charge for both tickets even though they’ve both been sent in the same envelope.

Ironic isn’t it that when you are at your most desperate or ill or frightened you’re probably going to be relying on failures to get you out of it.

Lets hope they can at least get something right. But frankly who’d trust the kind of idiot that would put others before themselves.

Thanks all. It’ll be a pain to get to any shops that’ll have a tag remover so I may go with the drill/general violence although it will now be guided with the knowledge of how it works.