My two daughters have become big fans of D&D over the last 6 months. They have both learnt by joining in online sessions run by a guy called Lord Foxley. It’s pretty inexpensive and my two girls have loved it! He runs starter sessions for various age groups. His website is here: https://www.lordfoxley.co.uk/
Not to knowledgeable on the details as my wife has organised it all for them.

Thanks for the reply’s all. Thanks to Lockdown and the trails round here being soaked the bike probably won’t see daylight untill spring so may just send it back to the shop and ask them to take a look.

Probable reason no one bothers is that you can get better corrosion resistance and better results with a chrome effect powder coat. Also something like a frame is going to be an absolute bugger for leaks and staining after processing.

Rather than start a new thread – what are you using to protect your frame? I havent botherd in the past but i would like to keep this one is as nice condition as possible. Invisiframe or just a bikeshield kit?

I went with the Team AXS – 2020 model. Found it for discounted and couldn’t really say no. I did see on ebay a size large Scott Spark RC World Cup AXS that is unused and on offer for a fair chunk off but decided it was a bit too much for me vand i would rather have the warranty.

Well that’s helped, Barzo and Mezcal ordered ready to go straight on. The stock wheels are a bit pants but they will go through winter and I will sling some DT Swiss on in spring.
I watched all the reviews on the Lux and it was a close run thing – I have a scale already though so I went with the Scott. A nice problem to have really. 👍

Well i finally decided after procrastinating for weeks! Pushed the button on a Spark last night. I allready have the scale and have tested one before whilst the others are all a bit of a gamble! Now for the wait! You can all look forward to a “what tyres” thread next!

I was tempted by the Epic Evo Comp, never been a fan of brain shocks!. It would be the AXS spark so cables would be a little reduced.

Just to add a little context in my defense! I usually ride Thetford and Tunstall – not many rocks to worry about there! Also my bike is a 100mm carbon xc hardtail so I definitely won’t be risking Antur. Well that and a lack of skill doesn’t help! 😂
As another update we headed to Bwlech Nant Yr Arian today and I rode the Summit trail – really enjoyed it! Made up for my mare at Coed yesterday.
Also stuck around as a family and watched the red kites being fed, well worth a trip to see. 👍

I wish they lasted long enough to see mud. Split and spraying sealent within 2 miles of the start! Managed to get a tube in then nursed around the blue route! There for 4 hours this morning. Managed 1 hour of riding!

Update!!! Well took a chance and threw the bike in the car and headed to Coed. Beics Brenin had the lever replaced within 45 minutes! Awesome service from the lads and ladies there.
Unfortunately the rest of the morning didn’t go quite as well. Do not use Rocket Ron’s there, it will end in tears. Trust me.
So massive thanks to Beics Brenin and to everyone for you suggestions. Going to try the Mach trails now. 👍

I did think that’s f buying a Clarks brake from Halfords. Then realised the bloody shifter is ispec.

I think that’s going to be my best bet. If they can’t sort anything then it’ll be bike hire by the look of it.

I have just switched a pair of these out after 2 rides – thought much the same as you. Save yourself the hassle and run the Mezcal from the beginning.

Seen you do worse! I quite like them.

At a tangent – if you do want to paint anodized aluminium then get it hot water sealed.

When parts are originally anodised they are etched, in fact i would bet that most bike parts are chemically brightened as well in order to get a good shiny finish. Both of these processes remove the substrate, but you are talking microns, not mm’s. Ah well, have a look on Google, there will be a little one man band platers somewhere near you who could strip it in min’s for a few quid if you are that bothered.

Where about’s are you? Anywhere near the South East?

Shouldn’t have an affect. If it’s merely decorative the anodic film will be 25um, so it’s not like your removing to much of the substrate. I would lacquer it though, or it will look a bit poo very shortly.

Polishing it off is going to remove more material than chemically stripping. If you keep an eye on it you’ll remove 25um to strip the anodic film with caustic. I’m pretty sure an angle grinder will be alot more. But you would need to polish it after anyhow to get a decent finish, Green Scothbright pad is what we use.

Sold one on e-bay a couple of months ago for £600 if that helps

I reported back further up – stan’s worked fine in the gatorskins I was running, just they where horrible things to ride.

I ran the Continental Sprinter Gatorskin last year and they lasted well, punctured a couple of times but nothing that some Stan’s sealant didn’t fix. I then went to Vittoria Corsa Elites – these are a cheaper version of the CX, i think they where £28 or something. Lasted up until this Christmas without a puncture and no need to add sealant. But the ride compared to the Gatorskins was night and day, I can’t see the point of Gatorskins as they take away half the reason for riding tubs – the ride. I have since switched to 25mm Pave’s – the newest version. They are expensive but ride lovely, thing is they don’t ride twice as well as the Elites, also due to the latex tubes in the pave’s i don’t feel as confident putting sealant in them. The elite’s use butyl tubes so it’s not a problem, I will be going back to the 25mm elite’s once the Pave’s wear out – which i don’t think will take to long looking at them.

that sounds quite high, we run at 121-127DegC. For bolts and stuff that’s a low grade stainless we just give them a quick etch to remove the chrome from the surface and then whop them in till they go black. Some higher grades may require blasting before hand though, you need to get through the passivated surface.

Zinc and black is not colour fast so i’m pretty sure that’s not the process they use. You would pretty quickly have greenish brown spokes, probably black on stainless, it’s just controlled oxide onto the spokes, pretty simple to do and purely cosmetic.

Well looks like i shall bite the bullet, maybe a quick e-mail offering a 50/50 split would be worth a try?

Customers will come in when i’m mid post …….
I am leaning towards putting a new one up myself – but hesitating as it’s a rented property. I may be a bit petty but i’m not sure I should be paying for the upkeep of a property he’s making money off …

Nice job and £70 is a bargain – especially if that includes the blasting and masking!. Bear in mind that if you have an anodised frame and strip it you are removing material, the blasting will remove material, the brightener will remove material and the re-anodising will also remove some. Add fluid entrapment, burning and all the other bits and bobs in and it’s not as simple as it sounds!

If your on about the one in Norfolk then no.

I would say it’s probably not sealed properly. Most places will use a metallic based dye for black that is pretty colour fast, I know we do. If the anodic film isn’t sealed properly after dyeing then the dye can leach.

Didn’t buy a Scott frame but did purchase my TCR from them a few months back. Great to deal with – even shipped on a 24hr courier for me to make sure i had the bike for the weekend.

We had a real Kune Kune pet pig a few years back – we called him Nigel.

They work fine together, i replaced my original bryton strap and sensor with Garmin units. As long as they are all ANT+ then there isn’t a problem.

Losing 50um of substrate from anodising takes some doing! Though our boys manage it with alarming regularity at times…

Stainless nipples would gall up as soon as you look at them, you can coat the threads to prevent this with copper but you still only get 6-12 make and breaks. Wouldn’t worry about the strength of them – 13Cr is used alot for couplings, crossovers and hanger bodies on undersea pipelines.

The Eddie at Thetford belongs to Howard who owns Spoked cycles in Lowestoft, I also know it’ll be up for sale in the new year :wink: It’s ridiculously nice to ride and a stupid weight, 16.5 lbs i believe, know it’s lighter than my TCR Advanced SL road bike!

Same as every D2D “Plan for the worst – Hope for the best”

See you all there.

This is probably a load of rubbish and me being silly but ho hum. I was collected by a lady in a 4×4 last month, she knocked me off and rolled over the left hand side of my bike and also my left foot as i was on the floor. Now apart from a sprained ankle and heavy bruising thats still causing me problems now i got away lightly. Looking at the shoes i was wearing, a pair of carbon soled spesh road shoes, myself and various other armchair experts are pretty certain they helped to protect me from a lot worse. The shoes are trashed and as i said probably talking hairy ones, but I will be replacing them with exactly the same thing, just in case.

I don’t dare buy it in case my children forget what i look like.

Looking at the Kashima coating it’s just a specific seal, probably a ptfe variation. When you anodise something you build up an oxide film on the surface of the part, this film is a honeycomb like structure with the pore in the combs reaching to the substrate. In order to provide an effective coating these pores have to be sealed, either with something, ie Nickel acetate, dichromate coatings or you can hot water seal which deforms the coating to seal itself. Looks like the kashima coating is a hard anodic film with a developed seal.