I have a single speed 29er in the garage. I guess a unicycle is the only logical next step. Either that or a beard.

Maybe a unicycle and a beard…

I'm just about to go 1X9 on my Swift. I love it as a single speed but I just feel I could get more out of it with a few gears. I was going to run a 38t chain ring and an 11-34 cassette. I was tempted by an Alfine hub but a derailleur is a damn sight cheaper.

I was thinking of making a donation on your justgiving page but then I thought, nah; I'd rather give it to you in person.

Make sure you post up dates and details of the route you'll be taking in July/ August once you've made some progress with the arrangements. I'm sure I won't be the only normally cynical forum member who'll be moved to ride with you for a while.

ie making them no longer real mountain bikes ?

Not necessarily, but if you buy a £1000 bike these days it is bound to have been made by cutting costs in at least one area. Many years ago when I bought a Scott the bloke in the bike shop said that I had a choice between the Scott (which was capable and decent to ride) with a lower quality frame but good componentry and a lower rung Orange with a better frame but cheap components. For some unknown reason I bought the Scott :roll: and depsite the cheap frame it was good.

It did dent easily but it is still being ridden around by someone local to me in its third incarnation so cheap can last, even with the odd off from time to time.

In order to try and redress the balance a bit (and no I don't work for Halfords), I've bought plenty of stuff from them over the years from lots of different branches. I've always found the staff helpful, especially with the occasional faulty product. I do get the impression that quite a few posters to the forums on STW seem to think they should be able to rag their bike on every ride and then get a replacement for free because they've broken it or just not maintained it properly.

Drop a lightweight bike and it will break or bend. I suspect the Boardman bikes are such good value because the budget has gone into the kit fitted to them and that the frames have been pared down to the minimum to save production costs in that area.

I love riding my single speed mainly because its just good fun.

There are times however when I could do with a few gears to play with so I'm getting a wheel with an Aline hub built up at some point over the summer. As my bike has an eccentric bottom bracket I'll be able to chose between SS and geared on the same bike with only a little bit of work needed to make the change over :D

I've ridden Bromptons a few times and in the end decided to settle for a cheap Dahon just because it rides better. I bought my Speed 7 (not sure where they got the 'speed' part of the name from) cheap in the Evans sale a few years ago. It weighs a lot but came fully equipped with a rack, guards and even a stand, all things I would have to pay a fortune for on a Brompton. The Dahon is also proving pretty straight forward to upgrade.

One of the best things you can do if you buy a folder is ditch the standard folding pedals and get some quality MKS detachable pedals.

Looks like a plastic pile of American sh*te.

Who cares what readers of the Guardian think anyway?

get a life – what a shit comeback

But you do seem to need to…

If there are no spaces legally **** off home! More car parks would ruin an area of natural beauty, as do southerners!

We have a similar problem with ignorant fools from t'up North down here in Devon. Try getting a life.

I've bodged an FSA MTB triple on my Surly Cross Check. Got a Deore cassette on the back. Lovely gearing for the steep bits…

The problem with making helmets compulsory is that they only work for certain types of impact and if you come off your bike at high speed they may or may not save you from a serious injury; there simply isn't a guarantee that the helmet will act as required. To my knowledge there isn't even an accepted performance standard for helments.

With car seat belts and airbags their effectiveness has been proven through years of testing and real life examples and so it is only right that they are now a legal requirement. Making helmets compulsory when it can't be proved either way if they will be effective in the majority of accidents seems pointless. I do wear a helmet but much of the time it just makes me hot and doesn't add to my feeling of well being when cars pass too close.

I guess taking reckless and poorly skilled/ stupid drivers off the road is seen as being too much of a vote loser…

If you drink too much, work over long hours, expect your national teams to do crap in any major sporting event and fully expect to be fleeced by the government every time the budget rolls around, and hate the French, you are probably British…or am I just a cynic?

The angle seems a bit odd compared to normal bars when climbing but don't forget they are more shallow so you can always climb holding onto the bottom of the drops. I love mine.

Every magazine has it's good and bad issues.

I can understand a few requests on this forum asking for more kit tests but I've always liked Singletrack because it always seemed to be more focussed on just getting out and riding bikes than on reviewing overpriced bits of kit. I especially like the way the magazine looks at all aspects of off road riding, including a bit of cyclo-cross, and that while the latest trends are mentioned the main concern of any feature article is what people experience when out riding.

Lets face it, most people can't afford to upgrade their bikes on a regular basis and for a lot of people who read the magazine I'm sure its the riding that matters, not what bike they have. Thats certainly the impression I've always had from the forum. Keep reflecting that mindset in the magazine and you can't go far wrong.

Oh, what a surprise, another spirited discussion on global warming and whether it is or isn't happening.

The dogmatic approach from some of the usual faces on these things always amuses me. For those of you who believe in climate change (and always get all heated over it when people like me poke your ideas with a stick) I'll ask you this; do you?

1 – own a bike made from virgin ores and/ or carbon fibre that was produced in a polluting factory and then shipped halfway round the world?
2 – strap said bike to the back or roof of your car (really quite bad for fuel consumption) and then drive quite a few miles to a manufactured site created on forestry commission land (which was probably once quite useful arable or pasture land) to ride it?
3 – swap components for new salmost obsessively because the new ones are the latest thing even though the old ones are probably fine and have years worth of life left in them?
4 – spend hours typing drivel like this on an energy inefficient computer (that heat coming out the back represents waste)?

If so then sorry guys, you're just a bunch of bike riders and not the sort of people I'll be taking advice from on the issue of climate change.

Had to get that off my chest.

Oh no, not another 29er thread…

For the record I love my 29er, and yes it is a rigid single speed but mainly because it suits me and the sort of riding I do (and no I don't have a beard or feel that gears are pointless). I wouldn't want to go back to riding a 26 incher as I never felt comfortable on my last one (I always felt perched on top of it even though I'm only 6'1"). 29ers aren't for everybody, just as full sussers with 6 inches of travel at each end aren't to everyones taste.

Can't we all just accept that different people like different bikes? The main thing is we're all out there riding. I don't actually think 29ers will be the next best thing as the 26inch wheel format is the most popular wheel format on the planet. Its gonna take quite a marketing push for 29ers to take over the number one spot…

When I bought mine last year it included the fork, can't see any reason why Sam would have changed his approach to selling them. The bike has been designed to work primarily with a rigid fork as I understand it.

I've always felt that the best way to deal with religious extremists is to mock them publically so that they realise that their extreme views hold no interest for the majority of people in the UK. To that end I say that they should be welcomed into Wootton Bassett by John Barrowman in drag hurling bacon at them whilst bearded women in swimsuits offer a beard plaiting and trimming service to all those taking part in the march.

You may think I'm making light of a serious situation but the only other option is for the police to patrol the event so heavily that there will undoubtedly be some kind of problem due to high levels of tension and the the end result (an almightly punchup) will only be used by the extrememists to demonstrate to the rest of the world why they think the UK is a corrupt state. Thats why I say we should let them march but take the p**s out of them for every step they take.

If your brakes are getting sticky after riding in wet weather it may be down to the fact that the wet brake pads have been mashed into the wear indicator line on your rims and have formed a ridge which then gets stuck in there when they are applied.

Its happened to me on wet rides where I've had a lot of steep descents to tackle.

Overcrowding (in much of England)

Yeah, England is generally full of Scots and Irish complaining about how crap they think England is. Be a much nicer place if it wasn't full of people whinging about how useless they think the place is…

Working from home today. The folks in head office are all getting together at midday for mulled wine and mince pies which will be my cue to shut the laptop down until January.

Just spent half the morning gritting the road outside my house so I can get the car out later. I think that qualifies as work :D

All good things have to come to an end at some point and I think that the Top Gear team have struggled to come up with the sort of ideas they used to in the last couple of series. The budget cuts they have had to deal with can't have helped. When you consider that Top Gear is a big earner for the BBC overseas cutting the budgets was a pretty stupid idea as the Beeb must get a decent return from the program.

I suspect that at some point in the near future James May will wander off to do more of his own style of TV shows(which are usually very good) as will Richard Hammond. Jeremy Clarkson has tried to diversify in the past and largely failed. I suspect he could probably afford to semi retire and just churn out the odd juvenile DVD from time to time.

I like Top Gear; its one of the few shows on telly where the presenters aren't afraid to be politically incorrect and offend a few people. We need a few more people being stupid and generally speaking their mind on telly. I shall miss it when its gone.

-1 for big dave same head in sand toss from somebody who has yet to think about what it will mean to him.

Actually I have. I've studied it, been out there in the world and gotten my hands dirty working on nature reserves and even changed career on the strength of my believes but after many years I have to admit that my views have softened, I've listened to the other side of the argument and I have to say that I'm really and truly not convinced. I also grew fed up with under powered weedy little eco cars and the feeling that I was slowly becoming an form of eco-catholic (full of guilt but without the buggery :D)

Science is about having a balanced argument and the almost evangelical tone that some of the posters on this thread have adopted sums up everything that is bad about the climate change movement. The tone of the pro-climate lobby only serves to alienate people who may be interested but not overly familiar with some of the issues as it doesn't come across as open minded.

I work alongside a lot of very passionate people in very high profile delivery bodies and environmental institutions and I have to say that a lot of the time their arguments are well intentioned but surprisingly flimsy when viewed objectively. They are also not always relistic or entirely rational as too much emotion has crept into the green movement over the last ten years.

For my parting shot consider this; you are all on this forum because you are presumably mountain bikers. You ride bikes that in most cases where made thousands of miles away from the UK, you probably always make sure you buy the latest gear and to enjoy your hobby a lot of you will most likely strap your bikes to the back of a car (not great for fuel consumption) and travel sometimes hundreds of miles to ride them in a largely artificial environment which was created at the expense of once natural habitat. Some of you will even fly to Europe and beyond to enjoy your biking. Seriously, are you really the sort of people to be handing out sage advice on climate change?

Thanks for your words of wisdom Big Dave

The pleasure is all mine. I'm just getting rather annoyed that everything we do in the modern world is apparently killing the planet and that there is seemingly no end to the queue of people who are willing to tell me. I think the earth is a bit too big and complex a structure for us to truly damage. Besides, never mind the damage to the environment. I'm still waiting for the climate change lobby to tell us all that the things they want us to change will be sustainable for the business community. Hands up all of the people on this forum have had their standard of living reduced by rising fuel duty, higher costs in the shops as a result and a struggling transport industry.

Just had to sit through Lucy Siegal on the One Show telling us to all turn vegetarian. If we all gave up meat Norfolk will still sink. If she shut up there would be a significant carbon saving right there.

I was asked last week "I've just bought a bike, it's in a box, what do I need to do with it?"

Put it straight into the nearest skip?

Hasn't this issue been debated on this forum before with much the same outcome? i.e. people taking sides and calling each other idiots and questioning the sanity/ intelligence/ motives of the 'opposition'.

righttimerightplace, your views on climate change are noted but whether or not we can actually prove human activity is the major contributor to it is frankly a pointless debate. Climate change can be witnessed in one form or another during many phases of human evolution, as can changes in local climate and natural resources, all with disastrous consequences for those caught up in it. If it is going to happen we will just have to live with it. Lets face it, the human race is growing beyond the resources available to it so, from a totally logical viewpoint, a few global disasters that wipe out a few million people will help redress the balance and spread the Earths resources out a bit more. Sound harsh? Well I'm afraid thats how nature works. As a species we aren't so special and we have don't special rights to survive at all costs.

For too long the climate change lobby has been wailing about how man is ******g up the planet but to be honest they have used the same tired arguments and evidence with no sign of a development or evolution of their ideas. If climate change is happening on the scale that the CC lobby predict then can they please stop bleating about it and actually provide some accurate models of what will happen, when, and just what the impact really will be? I by this I mean models that are accessible for external evaluation and not built upon a bedrock of assumptions and caveats (which is something most of the climate models used at present are guilty of). Its about time the CC lobby started working with more serious intent on issues like how to physically, economically and politically deal with climate change 'when' it happens; taxing motorists and industry more and sticking up a few wind turbines sure as hell aren't going to alter the way the planet works.

To be quite frank, until I know for sure that I'll be taking a boat rather than the car to work I'm not going to be too concerned with it.

So would you be asking them to make a contribution to justify your outlay?

No, they're mates, and I'm always happy to lend tools to friends as long as I get them back in one piece. I' ve used my own headset press enough for it to have paid for itself by now.

Dont forget that fitting a headset requires specialist tools (expensive) and some degree of skill

Well, yes and no. £30 of the interweb for a decent quality headset press and five minutes reading about how to do it and anybody can fit a new headset (even me and I'm a total plank when it comes to waving tools around). I agree that for certain jobs an LBS has to charge because of the time and tools required. I've never expect a bike shop to face a frame for free for example as the tools are so damn costly and a lot of skill is needed to do it right, but if a customer is willing to pay £120 for a new CK headset I reckon the shop should be prepared to fit it for free. Unless of course the old headset needs to be removed and the frame faced, then you're onto a whole other bit of work needing to be done.

My advice to the OP is to buy a cheaper headset, their own headset press and find out about the joy of fitting it for yourself. After you've fitted a couple of headsets over the course of a couple of years the tool will have been paid for and you'll always have mates who will want to use it.

Could be fun. Maybe do something springtime? Wales?

That sounds like a very good idea.

I love mine as well. It may not be the flashiest or most modern looking bike but it's about the most versatile bike I own. To be honest its not really all that heavy for what you're getting and one thing I have noticed is how well it handles when you sling it through steep down hill bends.

Check out flickr.com to see just how many ways you can build one up, the options are seemingly endless. I've got mine built up with midge bars, MTB gears and down tube shifters. Don't ask me why, it just seemed like a good idea at the time.

What was your speciality in environmental services, bin wagon driver or dog muck and sweet wrapper patrol

I do actually hold an HGV licence and did occasionally take a bin wagon out on the road when required for public events. Even managed to crimp the front of a Corsa with one once.

I did know the dog wardens on the council I used to work for. Right weird pair of poo shifters.

Been a while since I've worked for a council though. Don't believe in what most of them are trying to achieve these days as they are too wedded to the idea of meeting their targets.

Is it just me who is surprised that this poorly informed thread is still going on?

XL 2 every time. Got them on three of my bikes, they're reasonably cheap, tough and do the job. They also seem pretty easy to install. I've had one fitted to one of my bikes for 4 years and haven't had a single problem with it. I've been tempted to buy more expensive head sets but can never quite bring myself to do so when I know an XL 2 will do the job just as well.

Thanks Big Dave, you've reassured me

Happy to be of assistance :wink:

But seriously, paradigms within scientific thinking do shift and in my opinion the rather hysterical one we are living through right now will itself evolve to one that is more reasoned and pragmatic. By all means read the research outputs of the IPCC and Met Office. On a personal level I prefer to be a bit more critical of the way some of the messages are presented and formulated.

Anyway, each to their own but I'm certainly not going to loose any sleep over the issue of climate change and I'll definitely keep on questioning the policy decisions that are made on the back of it.

in the next 10-15years the flood defences protecting parts of the Somerset levels (think bridgewater) will be uneconomic to maintain

I always thought Bridgwater was a bit of a dump anyway…

Even more concerning are the views from those who claim to have an environmental or scientific professional background

Why is that Midgebait? Perhaps those of us who work in the field of environmental services have seen most of these fatalistic graphs or heard all of the 'we doomed and the planet is dying' arguments before.

During the last 14 – 15 years I've done everything from embracing the whole green agenda and doing voluntary work, to giving up a fairly decent commercial career so I could go back to university to re-train before starting at the bottom of a long career ladder in the environmental world. I've now come almost full circle dealing with issues in the highly commercial world of recycling having turned my back on the more extreme elements and views of the environmental movement. Why? Well, I hate to say this but the arguments being used on this forum are exactly the same as the ones being thrown around 10 years ago. They haven't changed and, perhaps more crucially, the earth hasn't really changed. Terrible floods, desertification and forest fires are more down to poor resource management and nonexistant land stewardship practices than anything else, and less to do with what comes out of the tail pipe of my car or what sort of lightbulb I use. Even if climate change is taking place I would suggest it is taking place at a rate far slower than the deep greens are suggesting and we should probably focus our efforts on other more immediate areas of concern such as poverty, malaria, terrorism etc.

Bugger me, you lot are still at it? :roll:

If there is one thing I can be certain of after dealing wtih environmental issues for a large part of my career its this; If anything does happen its unlikely to be immediate and there isn't a damn thing we can do about it.

I'm off back to the fridge for more beer…chill out chaps.

I think debate is entirely what is needed, especially when the climate change argument is being used to introduce economic and industrial policies and legislation that have massive impacts on the standard of living we have, the product choices available to us and the way in which we lead our lives. My main concern is that the green movement views some areas of science as bad and, because of the willingness of mainstream politicians to be seen as understanding towards the more militant groups within our society, policies are being made without the full range of opinions being heard.

Give it ten years or so and our main concerns as a nation will be energy generation as none of our nuclear or coal fired power plants are being upgraded or replaced and viable solutions (such as nuclear fusion) are not being properly supported right now when they need to be. Apparently rubbish lightbulbs and wind turbines will save us (they are afterall a guaranteed vote winder for Davind Cameron) but somehow I doubt it.

Ice cores and tree rings are all good evidence but they are hardly the smoking gun that proves that we are screwing up the planet on their own. And besides, even if we are there is nothing what so ever we can do to stop it.

I'm off for a beer and maybe search autotrader for something with a V8 engine before such things are outlawed…

http://www.geocraft.com/WVFossils/greenhouse_data.html

Not my views but I thought a link to the 'other' side of the argument would be of interest. Of course you may not want to agree what this says as it is counter to the accepted view but that is what is wrong in my opinion with the climate change debate; everything is too one sided with very few people entering into a proper, rational debate about it.

Hmm, lets see. My jobs have included: Sustainability consultant, Environmental Project Officer, Environmental Manager, Environmental Consultant, Recycling Officer and now I work exclusively in the recycling industry (less chance of having to deal with hairy legged vegan women in hand knitted shoes). In my time I've worked for national and international organisations on everything from developing assessment methods, implemented environmental management systems and intepretating legislation. I've also done a huge amount of work for the National Trust in my spare time. I also have an honours degree and an MSc in relevant subjects. Though I don't class myself as an expert in anything I think I've seen and done enough to form a decent opinion.

Am I rejecting the work of countless scientists? Not particularly but I do think that some of the most widely quoted research is shonky in terms of methodology and the way the findings are interpreted and presented to the wider world. There have been times when ideas such as eugenics, thalidomide, determinism and even CFC's were considered viable ideas. Go figure.

I've also worked with enough scientists over the years to know that they approach their work with a largely narrow focus and, in todays economic climate, a desire to keep their funders happy. I was always taught that scientific research should seek to prove a theorem by trying to disprove it can take place in reality and I see very little effort to apply this sound and well tested technique on the subject of climate change. Interesting that you stick in links to IPPC and the Met Office. Strange how very few of the climate models they have put forward have predicted the climate over the last decade and that they all have very similar basic assumptions. No body seems willing to move away from the herd and try new research or modelling techniques as they simply won't get the funding or the fair hearing they would need to be accepted into the mainstream.

Sorry Dave but I strongly suspect we'll all look back on this particular period in history in a decade or so and wonder what the hell governments around the world were thinking of.