I'm going up from South Manchester on Monday for the day. I was worried it might be too far for what it is but having read this, my enthusiasm is up again.

They don't have to sell anything to you if they don't want to. Their choice.

I'm up for anyfink mate. Breakfast ride or even late dinner ride. I'll bring the candles, the music, the ambience, you just bring you (and Flash) 🙂

Is that even the same bike?

I shout good morning every time I pass the lollipop lady outside Banks Lane Infant School (locals will know it). She has some wicked frog wellington boots. She does everything she can to avoid saying hello back. I've even trackstood while she's helped the little guys cross and they were well into my antics with even the mum and dads watching. Lollipop lady had something in her pocket she couldn't find it would seem. Not a single smile in over 6 years. I go past her at least twice per week. I think she wants me 🙂

You're such a cheapskate! 🙂
Get an old long shelf, fasten it to the wall at wheel height, cut out some slots wide enough for the pink bike's tyre and for that grand young mans' bike tyre (and any others you may have nicked).
Jobs done!
Fancy coming out for a ride?

I've promised my wife I'll remain adult and stay away from the guy. The same can't be said of my neighbour though and they car driver will be regretting his conduct through out this sorry episode when all the legal stuff is out of the way.
It could and should have been so much easier and if the bloke had acted with some decorum and at least checked to see that Ben was OK at the time, he may well have got his cash on the nose rathet than the forehead of my neighbour on his nose (allegedly).

Traffic Police came round after all.
On the record, they wouldn't give anythomg away but did a great job of getting both youngsters on side. They even got to sit in the driving seats of the jam butty cars! I wasn't allowed though. Yep, both sets of parents (and two previously very worried indeed 12 year olds) are VERY impressed with how those two officers dealt with gathering statemets and stuff.
Off the record……I really shouldn't sat anything because a solicitor is now being emloyed by our neighbours but…..PC's said pretty much the sane as you guys. His responsibility to stop, evidence suggests front end impact, no independant witness other than my daughter. Her evidence is valid and can be given if it comes to it in written or video form and basically, the other bloke is an arse and isn't going ot ge tmuch joy, probably.
Thanks everyone.

It's great for beginners, an hour or two if you want to cane it or as a start or finish to longer Peak rides. Think of it as a compact introduction to the type of riding available in the neighbouring Peak District.
Climb up to Mellor Cross and then it's virtually downhill all the way to Strines station and the climbing up to Mellor Cross is fun in it's own right. You're only allowed to unclip to get through the wall at the top of the golf course though.
Enjoy yourselves.

I Bikely'ed my ride to Chester and back on Saturday. My computer on the bike says 84 miles, Bikely said 86.4 miles. It would appear to be actual mileage travelled rather than as the crow flies. In fact, I think a roman road Hazel Grove to Chester would be a sight less than 42 miles.

Police were informed by the car driver last night and my neighbour went in this morning not knowing that the driver had already. They have taken a statement from the dtiver and are coming to our houses this evening. NO traffic police involvement as it's too low key and it's rained quite heavily over night so little chance of evidence of sppeds anyway (apparently).
Both children are petrified of the police involvement because they see the police as major authority figures. My daughter freezes every time she sees one walk by despite my assurances that they're only generally nice people. You should see her when we're going to the match at Man City 😕

Bollacks to all that Captain! How much did they get for the gold?

Everybody using this site could tell you their saddle is the best thing ever but it wouldn't make a blind bit of difference to you as others bottom's are not your bottom.
You have to make educated guesses on what starts to feel a bit more like it. For example, I started off on big comfy looking squishy thing. It hurt. I got something firmer and narrower, it felt better. I got a firmer one with the cut out. It cut me in half, I tried an SLR XP. Hmmm, lovely…….for a couple of hours and then I started to ache. I'm now on completely stripped down SLR's. No cover and no padding. Lovely. Also, very little padding in my shorts if any. Different pads in shorts are often overlooked but make a big difference (to me at least).
My saddles and shorts combo's would (I suspect) be hideous for others.
Take those Spoon things that seem quite popular on here. I couldn't manage 10 minutes on one.

I'm the same as you (although I NEVER call it dar- you know the rest). I'd go with the small and get a longer stem/layback post if needed. I also have a very short reach for a 5'9" er. 55cm top tube would be too long for me.

Cool, not just me then.
If anybody would like to buy mine (it's virtually brand new). chuck an email over. It doesn't have the adjust on it though. Inner and outer cable included.

Well done Terratalk. That's quite a CV of race results you're getting together. Just think, if you'd have started earlier, you could have won 🙂
Nah, well done fella, good on yer!

"is this such a good idea judging by the number of stolen bike sone bay – ooooh look here, its my bike this is where i live (search older threads) – there goes my bike"

You are joking aren't you? I doubt even the CIA could get a fix on the residential locations of the bikes pictured and I doubt the pictures of bikes out in the countryside are left there for safe keeping.

I can get up everything round these parts on a compact double James although a couple of lumps around Chapel, Goyt Valley and the like require a deep breath and a steely stare before I go up. Winnats has me gurning like a gurning champ and on a fair to bad day I've been known to stop and…ahem, admire the scenery for a minute or two.
If I was going to be pulling the trailer a lot for shopping or heading off to the alps a couple of times per year, I'd get a triple without a second thought.

I cut my ride short. Tea time was fast approaching. I've even let myself down this weekend.
I'm on a late start tomorrow so I think I'll head up over Lyme Park way on the way in.

For no other reason than I love it.

Excellent stuff gonetothehills. My route yesterday went from Hazel Grove, Poynton, Mottram St Andrew, Wilmslow past Royles and out through Mobberley and then A51 past Delamere Forest and into Chester and then I pretty much retraced my route home again.
I saw to ladies on a pink mountain bike tandem towing a Bob Yak while I was fixing my blow out. Hmmm, I have a road tandem that needs a stoker (or catptain). Anybody fancy a ride?
I'll have a look what would be nice out to Liverpool. Riding along the banks of the Mersey from it's start from where the Goyt meets the Tame in Stockport town centre out past Sale and on into Liverpool is on my "to do" list. I've done the Cheshire ring twice but that only goes out as far as Warrington. I wonder if another canal would get out to Liverpool. I'll have a look.

The route I'm just getting ready for is:
Holiday Lane (Offerton)
Across the Goyt and on to Dooley Lane
Chadkirk Chapel down to the canal
Marple Locks
Roman Lakes road and straight up to Mellor Golf Course
Left along the golf course up to Mellor Cross
back down to the Fox Inn
Strines station
Across the road up to the canal
Right on to the canal
left across the next bridge and up to Disley
Across the A6 to the Rams Head
Up the side of the church onto the Gristone Trail.
Left at the gate and up to the road that goes toward the Moortop Hotel. Turn right
Right at the crossroads and climb the steep tarmac with glorious Peak District views to Bowstones.
Through the gate and follow the bridleway to the end of the wall.
(It now becomes illegal and quite difficult to explain)l. Some climbing over barbed wire fencing is involved although some of the above is on footpath anyway). I'll email you if you like?
After the naughty bit you come out at the back of Lyme Park and go up and then down past the Pott Shrigley Never Open Cafe and then higher Poynton and on to the Middlewood way.

J – are they out around Roman Lakes and Mellor?

I feel l should Higgo and thanks for being so gracious. I missed todays road ride as well due to "chaos" doing her thing again. A morning spent in Sainsburys, Borders and the park. What fun. I've time wasted two groups this weekend and I apologise to both as well as the others on this thread who offered invites.
If by any chance anybody fancies a late afternoon jaunt through Roman Lakes, Mellor Cross, Lyme Park and the illegal quarry switchback track, I'm definitley going. Just shout up on here and I'll check before I go. it will be about 4 o'clock.

To my shame, Hazel Grove-Chester-Hazel Grove Mr Overshoot. Wilmslow on the way back was just where I'd spotted a sweet young thing which took my mind off being hunted down by MI5. I'm easily distracted :-}
I'd like to turn up next time though if that's OK? I've joined the forum and it looks like you lot have a laugh.

I have the Cube Ltd Race in blue and white. I Love it. Mine was £935 with pedals, bought before the price hike.
I have the 18" where I usually ride 16" or 17" mountain bike frames. I even had to put a longer stem on it. I found it sized up smaller than others but spot on for me now.
I did the Wales end to end on it three weeks ago. It's ace.

I've emailed Higgo with an apology.
Family based bedlam this morning meant I was finally chucking a leg over a bike at 9:20am. No chance of riding 21 miles from home to the meeting point in time. In fact, if I'd chased round your route to catch up, I think you'd all be on the way home by the time I got back to the start.
I ended up doing a road ride over to Chester. I think I might be in the local paper this week. My rear tyre blew off while I was at the traffic lights outside New Look in the city centre. The bang was that loud, people were running for cover! I sloped off down an alley sharp'ish to put a new tube in and I heard Police sirens.
If they're searching for a terrorist bomber, it was me. I was expecting to be pulled over at any time until I get to Wilmslow on the way home.
Sorry I missed the ride.

Sadly a little (and some) too far for me to get to for the start time and I don't drink alcohol so I'd do my usual sloping off to ride home alone thing but thanks for the invite.
I'm looking forward to tagging along with Higgo's mates tomorrow.
Thanks again everyone.

I'm currently wearing this one:

Very nice t-shirts. Nice and soft and sizing is normal. Highly recommended

It was the request for a cuddle that swung it jackthedog. I know what they like.

I'll come riding with you. We can have a lonely bike riders club.

Thanks for all the offers. I'm touched.
What days are these rides occuring? I have now been invited out on chain gang ride on Sunday so Saturday would be my prefered option.
Higgo's kind invite looks favourite as I won't need to bother with getting a train although a car ride with NBT to the dark lands of Yorkshire would be lovely. In fact, I'd like to do them all apart from IHN's as he's from Poynton and they have funny personal habits 🙂

Some great routes there chaps, thanks. I have to ride home the next day as well so I think I'll do two different routes.

thanks whytetrash, I'll have a look at that.

thanks whytetrash, I'll have a look at that.

Abersoch? Have you ever been? The place is mostly inhabited at the weekend by Poynton and Bramhall pillocks with jet skis and Get Off My Beach placards.
I was down in South Wales on Monday. Should have still been there. Never mind.
Thanks for the route stuff Tom.
I rode down to Bristol a while a go via Stoke, Wolverhampton and Gloucester. That was a nice route. I'd go that way and turn right at Bristol? Not much use that, is it?

"It lets you know you are alive"

I use breathing and conscious thought for that.

I did a Manchester To Sheffield on road and back again off road for our local (and UK's largest) hospice that my wife works for so I had a vested interest. She comes home with some pretty heart breaking stories and I'm an emotional cripple (apparently). I only approached companies for sponsorship as they would get some advertising benefit via radio, tv and newspapers.
I didn't ask nor expect individuals to contribute and if it came up in conversation and they wanted to donate, I told them to make a payment direct to the hospice if they wanted to.
I hate people trying to make me feel guilted into contributing and I wasn't going to do it to somebody else.

Pretty much on a par with the "I have no money, I need a bike, can I have your bike parts for free" and then sells said bike and/or parts on here.

What's the name of the guy who did that?

cripes!

ahhh, I see. Where can I buy the fork mounted lock off? I can't seem to find it with a google search.
Peter, I shall email you now, thank you.
Thnaks also to everybody else.

New cable fitted as part of my determined but increasingly frantic attempts to not have to write off my tour of South Wales.
It was just the last problem in a week of problems and I threw the towel in.
I was thinking, if I just remove the lever and cable altogether and set the floodgate so it needs harsh bumps from below (same principle as the Spesh Epic's brain), would that work?

For reasons that seemed very important at the time, I used a jet wash to clean the bike on the way home from yesterdays ride. I'm now deeply regretting that bright idea.
If the fork needs urgent assistance, I can end up in quite a predicament. I'm off to South Wales for a few days (or longer) and plan to be as far away from uninvited people on to my planet as possible.
Unless somebody knows that jet washed water (yep, I think I maybe did get a little too close to the bike with the wand than I should have – if at all. I was in a rush) will have made its way past the seals and is now causing sucking noises and imminent fork death, I'm going to go for my ride buoyed on by the kind words of jonb and TroutWrestler (thanks guys).

The thing is Crikey, he didn't ask "How can I lose weight from my bike so I can ride quicker? For his own reasons, he's interested in dicussing how he can reduce the weight of his bike further. Let's just go with it out of interest and assume he's as slim as he can be without passing out, he's forgotten his pack and he went to the toilet before he set off for his ride.

What's the weight of those Acids?
I lost a surprising amount when I took the Easton EA30 stem off and put a Deda Zero 100 stem on. 100mm and weighs 116grams. They can be had for £30 second hand (Ebay etc.) and if you can flog yours for £15? Is your stem heavy in comparison? I'd have a look at the bars as well.
My SLR carbon S&M saddles weigh 121 grams. No good if they don't suit you though. I have one that's partially snapped that you can have to try out if you like? It should be good for a couple of rides yet. Chuck an email over if you do.
I don't think Thomson stuff is very light, is it?
Are you using tubeless tyres? If not, latex tubes don't weigh much and I'm sure I could tell the difference (maybe I'm just imagining it).