There’s something incredibly ironic about Cameron (who couldn’t get a majority under an electoral system especially designed to give majorities) trying to dictate terms to Salmond (who got a majority under a system especially designed to prevent majorities).

Who on earth does he think he is?

Cameron’s father-in-law is one of the largest absentee landlords in Scotland.

I often use a SOG Powerplier:

It’s one of the few decent-sized multitools that is legal to carry, and the geared pliers are fantastically powerful.

And there’s the problem :-)

Aluminium always cracks, eventually. The fatigue life might be long or short, but it will always crack. Especially with a road frame, there will be tradeoffs of durability against weight, so they can’t be expected to last for ever.

Have a talk to the shop, who will talk to the manufacturer – they may well offer a cheap replacement frame.

Mine didn’t cost that much – about £250 I think – but you’re right that it’s essential to do properly. I’ve fixed several Bromptons where another shop has just hammered in new bushes and pivot pin, and then wonders why it loosens up all the time :-)

It’s not really all that big a deal for mass production, though. Bromptons are definitely not made in small runs any more.

Probably because bearings are more readily available off-the-shelf – there might also be a factor of designers not really thinknig things through.

Bushes are better – in things like Bromptons and Birdys, the bushes last a long time, and the failure is slow and predictable. A bush just gets sloppier and sloppier, a bearing can disintegrate.

Even better are flexible pivots – some use flexy titanium or carbon plates, and of course there’s the Ibis/Castellano flexy chainstay idea.

I plan to be the first person to circumnavigate the Sargasso Sea by bike. I can’t see any major problems.

If you’re able to put up with 7-speed, find an older Shimano roller clutch hub – totally silent, a bit heavier, but the freewheel will last for ever. Plus instant engagement.

I’ve still got a Lego-inflicted facial scar from when I was 7 :-)

Poking about in a mine…

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I mean as compared to buying a frame from the far east and bolting the bits to it…

Advantages of running a bike shop, I can play this game for real – wait long enough and pretty much anything gets traded in :-) (I don’t have all of these, by the way)

Windcheetah – they’re delicate, tend to roll over in corners, use funny single-sided wheels, and are hideously expensive if you can even find one in your size, but for sheer silly-big-grin entertainment nothing beats taking a Speedy down some twisty road.

Hetchins – a daft design that doesn’t really absorb shock at all, and they’re always hideously overpriced, but just gorgeous.

Kona Cindercone circa 1995, or similar – just a simple MTB that is pretty much perfect to ride.

Moulton Twin Pylon

A Starley Ordinary (Penny Farthing) – if it wasn’t for this, we wouldn’t have good spoked wheels, seamless tubing, or bearings.

A 3-speed Humber Roadster – people rode around the world on these things, many decades before the MTB was invented. Mine is 98 years old, almost original, and still works as well as the day it left the factory.

Well, there’s opinions from people who have been building bikes from the raw metal for 20 years, and there opinions from people who read something on the internet once :-)

Ha, true :-) Does that mean I can pimp my Rohloff Disc Bromptons? No tat on them…

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Rohloff Disc Brompton 6[/url] by Ben Cooper[/url], on Flickr

This thread has just reminded me that I’m still out of pocket because of some thieving sod who took a Brompton for a test ride and never came back. Bastard.

Anyhow, carry on…

Interesting – yes, the barcode scanning apps take it to a whole new level, letting you order from somewhere cheaper before you’re even out of the store.

I don’t think On-One are much different – as you say, another online retailer selling stuff cheap, it’s the retail climate we have to work in at the moment.

The stickers did fall off my Mk.1 Tinbred after a week, though – shoddy workmanship :-)

And I’m still wondering what the On-One question was :-)

I’d imagine their primary concern is to make money, tbh…

Well, to the extent that that’s the primary concern of any business. But of course that’s not just about getting the most money for your product, it’s about making sure that you can sell more products in the future, and that the people who buy your products are happy with them, and with the support they get. So the end consumer price is only one part of it.

Shimano (like most other manufacturers) have worked out that it’s better for their own long-term success to have one distributor handling everything, for the reasons I’ve given. As a retailer, it’s always a pain when products shift from one distributor to the other – the new distributor needs time to build up stocks and learn about servicing, the old distributor often punts out stock and seconds cheap to get rid of them, and there’s confusion about what happens to warranties and the like.

TBH, I don’t think Shimano are bothered overly about the end price – they’re probably much more bothered about brand reputation and support. They want their derailleurs to be properly packed in a good box with instructions, for example, not chucked into a sandwich bag.

What was the On-One question?

Pretty much every brand has a sole UK distributor – Ison does Rohloff, Fishers do SRAM, etc etc. That’s pretty much standard for everything, not just bike stuff. How does it favour the consumer? Well, it means the product has one representative responsible for the brand in the UK, the buck stops there, so to speak.

The best deal for the consumer isn’t just the best price, it’s the best package of price, availability, warranty support, spares, etc.

Do you get my point, though? Why is haggling acceptable in some situations and not in others? Is it really because with an LBS you are dealing with a small company who perhaps needs your money more? I’m honestly interested in the psychology.

And do you do a full cost-benefit analysis, working out how much time you spend shopping around to save some money? Is it alwas worth shopping around, or isn’t it often better to just pay the first price and then go do something better with your time?

So you think if I’d shown the Halfords checkout girl the online price, I could have got some money off?

I’ll go into a shop and discuss the price match options

This is the bit I don’t get. Today, my car wiper blade was flapping about. Looked online, and could get one for £10, but needed one right away, so went to Halfords and paid £18. It just didn’t occur to me to ask them to price-match. Perhaps I’m old-fashioned, but to me the price that’s on the ticket is the price. If that price is acceptable to me, I buy it, if it’s not then I don’t. It just seems rude to haggle.

Nowt wrong with a blowtorch – as long as you’re sensible and only bubbling the paint, not cooking the thing.

Pretty much every alu bike I sell has a powdercoat finish from the manufacturers – there is absolutely no problem whatsoever in powdercoating alloy frames.

In fact I’d bet you’d struggle to find a painted alu frame that wasn’t powdercoat – no-one stove-enamels any more, and two-part is rubbish….

Who posted that pic of the tin-clad recumbent – i’d love a go on that!

This ‘un?

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Decorated Alleweder[/url] by Ben Cooper[/url], on Flickr

Sanny’s been talking for at least 5 years about doing an article on offroad recumbents :-)

Powdercoating isn’t that high a temperature – not high enough to mess up heat treating. Or if you just want to shift the paint then a blowtorch and a wire brush…

I think this thread pretty much sums up why you lot are the worst kind of bike shop customers, and makes me happy I’m not running a normal bike shop :-)

The LBS is caught between a rock and a hard place – the real advantage the LBS has is that you can actually go in and try stuff on or take it for a test ride. But they can’t stop you then taking that valuable information and going elsewhere. But then, if something goes wrong, again it’s the local LBS who often has to sort it out.

I guess there are several answers – one answer is that not everyone values money above everything else, and is perfectly fine to pay a bit extra to support a local shop. Not support in an altruistic way, but support so they’re still in business for warranty work, and for the next time you need them.

But hey, my MTB is built around a Tomac frame I got for silly money from CRC, so I’m a bit hypocritical about this :-)

A sensible person would think that it doesn’t make much sense to drive an hour or two to a trail centre, put on a helmet to cycle around a bit, then take the helmet off again for the drive home.

People can be put off cycling, and that’s bad for their health – putting people off driving would be a good thing, so make helmets compulsory for car occupants. Simple. It’ll save hundreds of lives every year.

If helmets were compulsory for car occupants, it’d save many more lives than making cycle helmets compulsory. So fair’s fair – everyone should be made to wear them or none.

In fact it’s been shown that cycle helmets are actually more effective at protecting car occupants than they are at protecting cyclists.

No, because standover height is a function of bottom bracket height, seat tube length and angle, and top tube drop. Seatpost extension is a function of crank length and seat tube length.

I’m happy, without making other people unhappy.

That’ll do for me.

Ha, Freudian slip!

Over the years I’ve been in business, I’ve sued probably every courier company in the UK – take it from me, every courier company is the worst ever :-)

Really, the variation between depots and drivers is much larger than the variation between companies. All couriers seem rubbish around London.

My record is still TNT – they lost a Rohloff wheel for three years before finding it in Milton Keynes and returning it to me. It was meant to go to Australia…

Chocolate syrup?

Normal disc levers won’t fit on the flat part of most bars – they’re 23mm not 22.2mm. You can get bars which they will fit, but there aren’t many.

I used the old Hope remote master cylinder on a bunch of S&S bikes – worked really well, actually…

700+ is pretty bright for a head torch – things like Stenlight and the Petzl Ultra are about 350 which is plenty bright enough for almost everything. You could take a hand torch – a Fenix TK40 or the like – if you need more illumination in the biggest chambers.

Don’t buy anything else until you’ve worked out what kinds of photography you like – sure, you could spend shed loads on wireless flash stuff, but that useless for landscapes, for example…

Ulysees 31 had one of the coolest openings ever:

And what about Trap Door?