Might have to a look at an uncle john

I’ve just had my new Uncle John frame delivered and very nice it is too. Plus it was a good price. Just need to find a disc compatible fork for it as the Planet X fork only takes canti’s.

And someone who occasionally does a bit of QC.

The finish is actually a lot better than I was expecting for such a cheap frame although I have read that I can expect the gorgeous metallic blue paint to chip easily.

Got 180’s on both ends of my Swift and haven’t had any problems.

I once cracked a Dawes touring frame (a manufacturing fault not due to me putting heroic levels of power through it I hasten to add) and it was replaced by them with no hassle at all. My LBS where I had purchased the bike even built my bike back up around the new frame completely free of charge.

Some companies such as Dawes do offer lifetime warranties on their frames but then they don’t tend to make bikes that are going to be tested to the absolute limit all that often whereas an MTB manufacturer knows their frames will be ridden hard by the majority of customers.

I’ve had one of their six drawer chests for about a year now. Its good and does exactly what you would expect it to which is hold tools.

Having it has certainly helped clear up my randomly spread about the garage tools.

Quite a handly little cupboard underneath for stashing spare components.

I have a Midge bar on my Cross Check. I love them and I find the hoods quite comfortable to ride on once you get used to the position. In the drops on rough descents they work really well and feel nice and stable. In fact I was out on my touring bike last night which has conventional style road drops and it felt a bit narrow on a fast road descent.

CB is pretty active on Twitter – might be worth asking him/sending him this thread!

Have done, no response just yet but I’m not surprised by that, I wasn’t expecting a instant reply

Soon to be seen impatiently tailgating riders at a bike park near you…

Big Dave – You don’t work for Parcel Force by any chance?

No, why do you ask?

I’ve been a disgruntled customer a few times but I’ve never felt the need to get medieval on them with my torch.

It would have to be a rather big can though…

I think carrying pepper spray is illegal. I believe it falls under a fire arms act. There are some legal alternatives available but they probably won’t be as effective as actual pepper spray.

When the days are short in winter or I’m out and about at night I always carry a small but very powerful torch with a flash function. If somebody tries anything and I have the time to get the torch out a quick flash in their eyes may be enough to dazzle them before using it as a small club.

One of my colleagues was scornful of this approach until I demonstrated the strength of the torch in the pub one night. He was walking into tables unable to see straight for about 5 minutes.

No impressive machining skills were required for this (in fact I displayed no skill when making it whatsoever)and it is functional rather than impressive but I felt quite pleased with what I could do with a cheap fork clamp and a bit of old fence post:

Fits in the back of the car lovely and appears to work OK.

Both Minoura and Saris do internal bike racks although I don’t think they actually latch onto anything like the seat brackets. They are essentially strips of extruded aluminium with fork clamps on them that fit widthways across the inside of a car boot.

They work out quite expensive for what they are (£70 – £100) so I just bought a Sari fork mount off the interweb for £17 and knocked up a simple rack for one bike using a bit of old fence post I found in the shed. Simples.

38 tooth chain ring up front and an 11- 34 set up at the back for me. Bit slow on the steep stuff but pretty useable everywhere else.

I always tend to park in the far corner of any car park I use. I don’t do this on the grounds of a little bit of extra exercise but more to do with my analysis of who tends to park where in a car park:

People who park closest to the shop = lazy sods
Lazy sods = lazy drivers
Lazy drivers = bad drivers
Bad drivers = pillocks most likely to alter the shape of my car.

As I like my car to remain the shape the manufacturer intended I leave the crowded part of the car parks to the morons.

I do wonder why disabled bays are so far away from shop entrances sometimes though.

I’ve got one of these. It shoots in 720p and is pretty good for the money

ATC Mini Cam

The footage and sound can get a bit jittery at speed but the only real downside is my awful editing of the footage I get.

7 seater version of the Chevrolet Captiva is a lot of car for the money. 5 year warranty too

Had one as a hire car a couple of weeks ago. Ganster rap exterior, Poundland interior. Bloody awful thing.

I briefly considered a van but couldn’t find a decent one for sensible money. The tax and insurance can also work out to be pricey, plus they should be driven in accordance with a lower speed limit (I say should as nobody ever does).

After deciding that I would be frustrated by a van, and concluding that I wouldn’t get much for my money I bought a van based MPV instead. A Fiat Qubo to be precise. It is the slowest, ugliest car Fiat do but I’ve got 2.5m2 of load space with the back seats out. My Cross Check is in the back at the moment as I’m off with my bike for the day tomorrow. No pics at the mo unfortunately as I’ve only had it a couple of weeks.

Me, I prefer a Dahon. Bought one a few years back to sling in the boot of the car when going away on business. I’ve ridden a couple of Bromptons and I can’t argue with the fact that they have a superb fold but I just feel a Dahon is better value for money. For around £400 you can get a decent spread of gears, rack, mudguards and bigger wheels. Ok, so not the smallest of folds but still very practical and portable. Had no problem with the QR connections which everybody else seems to think are flexy and I’m a heavy bugger who has even ridden his Dahon off road (not really recommended) and up steep hills (slowly).

The problem is that the general public is made up of morons. As is the government.

I say burn them all.

Don’t waste any petrol whilst you are doing it though..

I changed my Swift from ss to 1X9 and I find it is a much more versatile bike now. Riding it with a ss set up was great but making the switch to a 1X9 drivetrain was cheap and I find I cover ground on it more quickly.

I work from home a lot at the moment and it is great. I don’t have to waste a couple of hours of my life every day stuck in traffic just getting to and from my job and it frees up time in the mornings and evenings to do stuff outside of work that I want to do.

I’m also saving money by not having to use the car as much. I know the situation won’t last forever and that I’m lucky. The guy on the radio was right.

Have never ridden an Inbred but I’ve had a KM for about 18 months now. It’s a great bike and you can do pretty much anything you want to with it. The latest version is disc only so looks a bit ‘cleaner’ than it used to. Truly huge tyre clearance on it.

Victorinox Deluxe Tinker? Not the biggest set of pliers but handy for small stuff. Also comes with a decent phillips screwdriver.

I was looking at getting a van recently but to get a decent one with lowish mileage the prices were just silly. I suspect the lower speed limits for most vans would get to be irritating too.

I decided the best option was to go for a car variant of a van (in this case a Fiat Qubo and much cheaper than the comparable Citroen and Peugeot van variants). It is big enough for me and my bike and the rear seats come out completely. From what you say above it sounds like you only need space for you and your bike for most of the trips you’ll be doing. Why not just hire a van when needed?

All my bikes have bells. For the majority of walkers it works well and usually gets a positive response. In some situations a cheery welcome can work better.

For people with headphones neither works but seeing them jump as I ride past is always fun. Never understood when surrounded by all of the sights and sounds of the countryside some people feel the need to cut themselves off from it with music.

I’m looking at getting another car at the moment and walked past an Up! at the local VW dealer. I was tempted to pick it up and stick it in the boot of my current car. Really surprised at how small it looked.

Sat in a new Panda the other day. The price is a little higher but its got a decent boot, four doors and has plenty of room inside for such a small car.

creamegg – where could one acquire one of these wonderful creations

A place called Fudges in Woolacombe does an all day breakfast pasty. Its brilliant.

It sounds scary but I believe that there are still plenty of treament options for that variant of breast cancer.

The important thing to remember is that the doctors know what it is and that it is still at stage 3. I’m pretty sure you will see them swing into action VERY quickly.

My mum on the other hand was diagnosed with very widespread stage 4 lobular breast cancer back in 2010. By the time they figured out the extent of the cancer it was clear there wasn’t much they could do. There is always hope with a stage 3 diagnosis. Hang on in there.

Death of a very close loved one may leave you permanently affected. Not everyoen can just go back to the way it was.

I don’t think it is possible to go back to exactly how you were before the death of a loved one. Grief is a very strange and quite powerful set of emotions and feelings to have to deal with. Its been just over a year since the death of my mum and I’m still coming to terms with the grief and had a hard time with depression for about six months after her death.

From your description of your brother he sounds like he is depressed, not helped by the demands of your mother. Best thing to do is to get his girlfriend to suggest a holiday or even just a long weekend away. Break him away from the new and rather grim reality he feels he is facing and take him away from the stress.

Your mother is also probably struggling with the grief and whether through anxiety or fear for the future is placing a lot of stuff on your brothers shoulders to try and cope. Maybe you should speak to her first, she may be suffering as much as your brother.

Black Lab = mental. They are lovely dogs but will eat anything. My late grans lab once ate a biro and had a blue tongue for weeks. God only knows what came out of the back end…

Hopefully the Argentinians have secured another battleship by now or the lads in the RN will be very disappointed…

An article I saw recently gave the impression that the Argentine navy fleet is mostly rusty cast offs from other nations and that the naval forces of their neighbouring countries don’t have much better to work with either. I suspect the greatest danger is that the RN would be disappointed by how one sided a battle would be if things got serious.

You can wear terrible shirts and grow more fat

and eat three pounds of sausages at a go

This is me now and I’ve not even reached 40 yet!

I’ve got one in the garage on studded tyres for the snow that never came :cry:. Goes back onto WTB pathways at the weekend. Also got some 2in knobblies in the garage for when I want to terrify roadies (once you get a Karate Monkey up to speed they tend to stay there, god bless 29ers).

I built it up with Midge bars and a short 50mm stem. There is also quite a lot of steerer tube showing which would upset the purists on here. I used Midge bars as they give you a nice wide hand hold on the drops when descending off road. As I’m also running V brakes with bar end shifters the wide spread of the bars mean I’m not always banging my knees off the shifters.

I find it a comfy setup. Not the most attractive machine but certainly a bike I can ride all day on any terrain. Mine is based on a 2010 frame. Don’t have any pics but what with this thread and the Monstercross one of a few days ago I may have to take some.

Drop handlebars place your wrist in a more natural position which is probably find your carpel tunnel problems don’t seem to be an issue on your road bike.

The KM is a great frame. The Cross Check is also very good and in my experience a bit faster on tarmac. It also takes quite wide tyres and is almost as versatile.

Very powerful words. Makes up for a lot of the abusive crap that often appears on this forum.

I’ve got a Karate Monkey set up as a monstercross. Its ugly but comfy and totally relentless once up to speed on 2 inch knobblies. It usually rides on WTB pathway tyres which roll a bit better on tarmac and are tough enough to go off road.

I built it to be a bike that could be used anywhere and it has lived up to expectations. Only really got drops on it as I find them more comfortable. Drops with V brakes off road can be interesting though.

It is quite possibly uglier than Stoners efforts above which is why I’ve never taken a photo of it!

“I see eight people here having to choose between eating or heating.”

They could always try eating the weaker members of the family to cut costs…

Could be the chain. I had a SRAM chain that no end of lubing would keep quiet. The problem was only solved when the damn thing snapped on me :-)

Replaced with the same model of chain and everything has been silky smooth and quiet ever since. Now the only annoying noise is my gasping for breath on the steep bits.

My dad has a 2005 1.2 model. I think it is a great little car. For the class of car it is actually quite roomy with a decent sized boot.

I’m just over 6 foot tall and the space up front is acceptable but not outstanding. You do get used to your left left leaning against the centre console.

Fuel economy is pretty good as is reliablility. The only problem with owning a Fiat is that the dealers are usually pretty rubbish. We’ve had a few Fiats in the family over the years and the quality of service from franchised dealers has always been quite variable.

Lots of cheap ones on the 2nd hand market at the moment so plenty to choose from. I’m seriously tempted by the new one coming out this year. If it is as good as the current model but just that little bit roomier inside my Astras days may be numbered.

A few years ago I offered to drive when going to an early morning meeting with a colleague as I knew he usually spent his evenings stoned out of his mind and I wanted to ensure we got to the meeting safely. He also had a reputation for driving like a plank.

Said colleague promptly got into my car and decided he would criticise my driving at every available opportunity. After missing a turn off because he distracted me by going on about how crap everybody else was at driving compared to him I decided enough was enough. I pulled a hand brake turn to make a ‘directional adjustment’. It was on a busy street and proved quite effective; he didn’t say a word for the whole of the return journey. We also got to the meeting on time. Bad driving can work wonders sometimes.

yes, on cassettes, cranks, forks and stems.

otherwise I tend to just nip stuff up.

Same here.