ianc – make sure you get a good deal on a Stigmata because as Stanley mentions above, there will be a revised Stigmata released this year so prices on current models should reflect that.

Also just to mention if you haven’t seen it – if you currently buy a Stigmata CC frame via Stif there’ll give you a pair of Reserve Carbon 35 Dt Swiss 350 wheels for free!! (Rrp for the Reserve Carbon wheels is £1299). Quite an incredible deal!

Breninbeener – hope you don’t mind me asking but how much did the CTR FN2 rear axle cost?

I’ve got an 08 plate CTR FN2 myself and whilst my indy garage for MOT has said the car is fine, my local Honda dealership did flag up the rusting rear axle beam in their car health check 12 months ago. I’ve left it for now as Honda garage quoted me £1900 for the rear beam!?!

I was gobsmacked at the potential cost so have left it for now, especially as the local indy garage have said it’s just the Honda dealership being overly cautious.

How about this then? £9700, 2014 model, 320bhp, 0-60mph 5.1 secs. BMW M135i.

That BMW straight six engine is the equivalent power of 2 x Abarth engines! ;-D

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202302164314733?advertising-location=at_cars&price-to=11000&postcode=le11fz&model=1%20Series&sort=price-asc&page=1&aggregatedTrim=M135i&make=BMW&include-delivery-option=on&percentVehiclePriceDeposit=true

OP – What’s the budget?

Cooper s, Abarth 595 etc will feel rather tame compared to the Civic Type R FN 2, late model Fiesta ST almost certainly the best listed above.

If she can stretch to 5 figures then a BMW M135i could be possible but 330bhp rear wheel drive isnt always best idea for a novice!

If budget no option then clearly a 2023 Civic Type R FL5 on dealership mark up at £52k! :-D

I built up a brand new Cervelo Caledonia road frameset last Summer with a GRX 810 1 x groupset. On that I’m running a Wheels MFG BBright 24mm axle BB so the Shimano GRX 810 chainset (Shimano 24mm axle) fits, I chose Wheels MFG because their design acts like a thread together bb (they get top reviews).

If your mate wants to run a Rotor bb for a Shimano XT crankset then you’d need a Rotor Pressfit 4624 BBright BB instead, should be around £45.

If you’re sticking with the pre-installed Rotor BBright 4630 bb then a 30mm axle crankset such as Easton EA90SL Cinch, or Race Face Atlas Cinch cranks should fit.

You’d have to pay me £14k just to walk out the shop with a Trek… They must win the award for blandest bike brand on earth. Ultimate Meh.

Mega LOL at BigJohn turning up to the Dick thread! That’s made my day. Thank you BigJohn. :-D

I do find it strange that the STW Skoda brigade get all shirty calling out a fun car suggestion as peacocking, and yet those same people wouldn’t think twice about putting some Hope purple anodized disc brakes on their bike!! :-D

Easy. Honda Civic Type R FK8.

One of the best cars ever made. Just go and check any review you like. Fairly easy to pick up for £26k-£27k although you have to be pretty quick on the trigger to get a decent one below £25k, they’re getting snapped up quickly. Massive boot space if you need it. 40mpg motorway drives. Comfort mode for local journeys, Sport mode for some B road action, R+ mode for weekend track days.

Yeah it looks like an 11 yr old designed it… blah blah blah. :-D

Lol, what’s with the 7 Stanes killing Vyron batteries, that’s 3 down in a single thread so far! 🤭

Can’t comment on the new one but I have a V2. Had it on my XC race bike and it was great to have and I liked the cable freeness of it – alternated between using the Vyron & a static weenie carbon post depending on what type of course I was racing.

Saying all of that the main battery packed up half way round a lap of Kirroughtree 18 months ago and since taking the Vyron off I’ve never put it back on the bike. Make of that what you will although to be fair I didnt race during 2022 so didnt really miss just having it laid up in the spares box.

This thread reminds me that I need to contact Magura UK to enquire about a new battery pack to bolt on! :-)

@joebristol Started my own ‘work towards 4w/kg’ at the start of December. Using a base of a 8500km 2022 but have not been xc racing since 2019 (top 10 overall regional XC series). Plan is to have my first season racing in XC Vets cat for 2023.

Start of December baseline was 268ftp / 86kg – I’m 6ft 2 so there’s a decent opportunity to drop some weight. Coincided with having a smart trainer for the first time so started Zwifting at start of December also, has been a godsend for Winter.

As of this week have bought my FTP up from 268w to 297w and dropped 3kgs down to 83kg, pretty pleased with that in 8 weeks. Been working mostly on building up power as the endurance base was already there, however as I get towards end of Feb am then going to focus more on weight loss, I’ll be happy to eventually get to 78kg / 305w ftp (I’m realistic that the fast initial power increase is now flattening out so it’ll be hard to increase another 8-10w from here) so a smidgen below 4w/kg but I think I can maintain that without too much sacrifice once I’m there.

In terms of time spent on this so far, Ive averaged about 8hrs/ week on Zwift since start of December.

My Cervelo Aspero GRX1 came with 650b x 47mm set up which was fun for hooning off road around on. At the time also had a second road wheelset set up 700x 35mm for broken road / dusty & smooth conditions.

After 18 months I sold on the Easton EA70AX 650b wheels, got a set of Roval Terra CL Carbon 700c x 40mm now. For me that’s a faster set up than 650b and considerably lighter weight which makes the bike feel pretty rapid tbh, the Aspero is the racy end of gravel as it is.

Well, well, well. Probably only right and proper to report good news not just moan when things go wrong.

In a rather sudden turn of events (in a good way), my new Fox forks arrived in the post yesterday. The 30% off RRP 22/23 Fox fork purchase turned out well in the end!

Sounds simply like seasonal atmospheric and Winter fuel changes to me.

My hot hatch does 41mpg with Shell VMax Unleaded in mid Summer – I.e. Higher Summer weather temps = better aerodynamics + Summer fuel produces better engine economy results vs Winter fuel.

As a contrast, in mid winter the same car does 35-36mpg and that’s probably with more conservative driving style compared to more regular Summer b road hooning here and there.

Still without the forks but minor update is that Silverfish now have the model back in again as of yesterday. Maybe the 30th December arrival with the retailer is now a genuine possibility…

Another vote for Cervelo Caledonia – I built mine up as a frameset in the Summer with GRX 812 1 x 11 groupset, Hunt Carbon Aero 50 wheels, 32mm GP5000 TR S tyre setup in the delicious oasis colourscheme.

It’s an ace bike, am well pleased. Nicely speedy enough but really versatile. The paintjob is too pretty for Winter filth though, hehe! :-D

Mister-P – Interesting you should mention this. Last weekend I was intending to try out the Tissington Trail + High Peak Trail to do a Ashbourne – Buxton – Ashbourne out and back but due to the lingering fog and cloud decided to sack it off – part of the appeal of the ride would have been to have enjoyed the views so no point if I was stuck in the clouds!

I’ll do it at somepoint as I’ve done a few glorious hikes around that way but not cycled the Tissington / High Peak Trails, probably best to avoid a weekend as the trails get busy. Looks like that out and back ride would be approx. 78km.

Just picked up a brand new Saris H3 for £404 (£390 if incl. cashback) and it included a home trainer kit for free worth an extra (£40), i.e. sweat proof fold out floor matt and a sweat net for the bike.

Bloody great deal considering the Saris H3 RRP is £749.

Utah being one of the best in the West – I didnt see that coming, so much for tanking! Really enjoying the team hustle so far, having been written off I think the squad has a back against the wall mentality.

Lakers being completely sh*t is a joy to behold, especially as their draft pick goes to the Pelicans so even if Lakers end up worst team in the league they won’t benefit from it.

Nets in a complete mess, don’t feel any sympathy whatsoever although I do like Nash so a shame for his coaching career.

Been an avid NBA fan since the 1993-94 season, still follow it every day just like I did as a 14 year old when I first got it into it!

Been a long serving Utah fan ever since I first played Techmo NBA 91/92 on my SNES during 1993. This will be my first season that I actively want Utah to tank the season and absolutely stink. Ainge has absolutely loaded the Jazz with a massive haul of 1st Rd picks over the next few seasons and even if we don’t bag Weybanyama next Summer there’s still some great talent to hopefully get hold of.

With Kris Middleton back from injury I’ll go for the Bucks to win the 2022/23 NBA Championship.

Mordant keeps on looking across the bench at Truss, she’s clearly concerned about her current state. Something major behind the scenes is most certainly up.

IATR – really interesting to hear your ownership experience. Out of interest how did the FK2 stack up against your FK8? I’m keeping one eye on FK2 also as they seem to be £5k-£6k cheaper but it seems a matter of being a good car vs the FK8 being a historically great car.

The Haunted Pencil completely fabricating the truth on R4 right now. Now trying to disconnect the mini-budget from anything that’s happened. Talking absolute shite.

After 38 years of following F1 pretty closely I’ve boycotted watching the 2022 season after the 2021 season ending farce. What have I missed?

Red Bull benefitting from F1 rules not being implemented properly you say, quelle surprise…

Truss’ acceptance speech – pure cringe! 😆😆 Tory HQ audience members not sure whether to stay silent or clap.

I’m yet to meet them in real life but there’s quite an active dogging club of some kind near me. They take group ‘action’ pics and then bizarrely print them out on black and white A4 paper and then proceed to distribute the home printed A4 pics in the local hedges for all and sundry to see??!!

It’s bizarre, especially being out cycling and at times of their prolific activity there’ll be home made dogging po×n placed in the hedges at 200-300m interviews for a mile or two! :-O

The Chinese Communist Party will hold its 20th party Congress in October where the leader will be voted in. In all likelihood it’ll remain Xi Jinpin but all being told things aren’t exactly great for him at the moment and he does seem to be facing increasing internal pressures.

The Pelosi visit was a poke in the eye to Jinping and in the lead up to the Congress it’s the last thing he needed. We now have a frankly ridiculous Chineze over reaction to reassert power and they’ve given oxygen to Pelosi’s visit.

SC Blur CC frame here – 148mm rear axle and spare rear mech hanger was included.

#BlueOnBlue

This is terrible.

This Tour is not even a competition anymore, Pogacar just beasts everyone. It’s only Stage 7 but the predictability of it is starting to ruin the racing for me personally.

Pogacar launched his cancer research foundation today, the parallels to Lance grow day by day…

This ‘care taker’ cabinet is as bent as Boris’ previous cabinet. I’m currently listening to James Cleverley on R4 continuously not answer questions, he simply won’t answer the questions put to him. Oh but guess what, the only question he did answer was that he thinks Boris & Carrie’s wedding party at Chequers on 30th July should be allowed to go ahead…

Seriously, what the effing chuff is Boris now doing?! He’s now announcing a new Cabinet. Greg Clark, James Cleverley.

Just do one Bojo. You’re a disgrace.

Braverman proved last night on Peston and again just now on R4 how much of a wack job she is. Completely and utterly delusional. And as of right now still sitting in Boris’ cabinet??!

Ministers continuing to resign mid R4 Zahawi interview, bonkers times!

Zahawi on R4 right now putting out yet another car crash interview. Can’t answer a single question with a straight answer. Terrible.

Climate Change protesters have also now stormed the track on Hanger Straight so that could add an additional delay.

Covid positive first timer here tonight.

Felt bit tired this morning but ok, by lunchtime quite a painful headache right above the eyes, then by early evening completely wiped out with lachey knees and shoulders, red raw throat, and minor tickly cough.

LFT tonight went positive within 1 minute of adding the sample!

I’ve attended 3 public meetings as part of work during the past week so am certain it is from one of those.

£25 here for April.

First win since a £125 prize in December.

Spire of St Thomas Church in Wells, Somerset just got taken off, seriously hope no one was underneath that when it fell. :-O