you can get 112 or 113 octalink bottom brackets. Theres only one side adjustable from memory isnt there?? I always loose fit the bearing cup (as a guide for the axle), then the axle and other cup and go back and tighten adjust the other side… (this is based on the XTR bb – dont know if others are different).

Does sound like the axle will be too long but dont know how much diff 5mm will make.

Been using a Timbuk 2 courier bag since about 1995 – still looks and functions exactly as it did the day I bought it.

been using my timbuk2 bag now virtually every day since 96.. the abuse this thing has suffered and its still going strong – years left in it…

Wouldnt recomend anything else…

They don’t do 17”!

Might be better to go over to Retrobike forum and get some solid advice.

they def made 17” frames Ive got two of them – one being an orig hei hei… check out the uploaded kona brochures on retrobike, they show 17” frames..

im 5ft7 – my 17” is a perfect fit.

mister P you need anyone to hold a spanner say er… next august at all…?!

thanks for that – Ill cross fingers and hope im lucky..

anyone know if there will be any chance of getting tickets if you didnt get them in the ballot..?!?!

anyone in any doubt as to whether this course is too easy should have seen the bike I did on saturday – chainstays snapped at the bottom bracket shell… A lot of comments from the riders mirrored what a lot of us have been saying, for a long time – its a hard course, not one id like to race on personally.

Just sad now that I couldnt get tickets for next year…

theres a couple on ebay at the moment, cyclesurgery has them in stock – am I allowed to post links here??

http://www.cyclesurgery.com/tacx%20real%20life%20video%20world%20cup%20mtb/training/bikes-components-bikewear/fcp-product/19449

the beauty of this system is that if you want intensity you race yourself – do one ride as test fastish and save it. You can now choose yourself as an opponent to race against next time. Very good for motivation and you can see when youre improving, but its a bit of a pain when you look at it and think flip me im fast up there and you cant keep up! aerobically its no different to racing every weekend, and the varied resistance is brilliant.

– I currently have about 8 me’s on one of my two hour races (you can join the courses to make longer ‘races’), I definately keep me on my toes!

ive got one of the tacx vr trainers – and a couple of the real life videos – the world cup mtb courses are really good.

I normally do 1.5 to 2 hours turbo on a sunday (normally 5.30 6amish) and my usual ride to work every day and the odd saturday with my son over the downs and thats got me fit enough for top 15 finishes in 2 hour xc races…

but if it does come down to seconds tomorrow – can it be won on sunday..?

from the Guardian live blog

A protester dressed in medical scrubs, holding a pretend syringe or blood-bag sprints alongside and administers an impromptu “blood transfusion”, getting a punch in the face from the Spaniard for his troubles.

lol

cant he be disqualified for hitting ‘fans’..??!

frank is gonna attack on the last mountain and tear them all apart

thats my worry too – hes done nothing the last two days…

I dont think dull is a word to describe evans after the last two days..?!?!

bigdawg – you asked that question on both forums ! lol

yep and you guys beat bikeradar which updates quicker than eurosport..!! I think we’re all a bunch of closet roadies..!

thank you – and cheers CF ill give that a try…

for those of us without visuals – where’s evans..??

i never understood the whining wheelsucker comments from previous years either… Just go back and take a look at the ‘great’ climbers he was supposed to have sucked wheels from and then go to the list of dodgy riders that have been busted for drugs in grand tours list and note how many names are the same…

Ive always had a longheld belief that evans was one of the few clean riders in top twenty – Id be whinging too if I was beaten by dopers every time I trie to win…

But back onto today – whats the betting yesterday was a huge bluff by the schreks – wear everyone down, frank sits on teh wheel and today he goes whilst everyone dies in a meltdown of legs…

id love to see conta ride to the win tomorow on the alpe…

steak tonight then…?

thing is bigdawg Cameron has shown very poor judgement and has lied – or is massively incompetent and runs an incompetent office.

Unfortunately the same can be said of the previous two prime ministers…

Im no tory or labour lover, not really enamoured at any of the current parties, or their representatives tbh, Theyre all as bad as each other… But milliband just comes across as weak and chasing soundbites its ridiculous… He hasnt actually mentioned why he was at brooke’s wedding as he..??

Also she’s got a reputation as a bit of a ball breaker (quite literally) if she doesnt get her way…

Yeah… interesting to see a few people in parliament grow a pair all of a sudden. Too little, too late

There are a few MP’s who come out of this with some credit. But no-one who’s ever been near a cabinet office, that’s for sure. With the possible exception of Vince Cable, who must be laughing his tits off at the moment.

Brown probably comes out as bad as Call-me-Dave. Having a tirade against Rebbecca Wade doesn’t really cut it when his wife organsied her wedding reception! Hypocrite!!

Interesting article in the Guardian this morning by Ian Katz. Saying that James Murdoch and Rebecca Brooks constantly bragged that they didn’t have to go to number ten to have meetings with the PM, they just popped round

Unsurprisingly, Call-me-Dave is somewhat reticent of divulging exactly how many times they ‘popped round’ in the last six months. Quelle surprise!

I think that’s a question that isn’t going to go away though

there you go corrected for you… Milliband was also onthe list of vip’s for her wedding… Funny how not many are mentioning this…

Both sides are going to come out of this with egg on their face and prob not a lot more.. Any thoughts of the PM resigning over it, as much chance as me winning the next £161million euromillion jackpot…

wow that was as bad as my little girl got…

Ice cream is the answer though… 😀

I thought it was about to become MMRC, a four in one jab..

My two had it recently (3 and a bit and 1 and a bit less), both sailed through it tbh, in fact we had people we hadnt heard from in ages ringing up asking if their kids could pop round..!

tell her to check her last renewal notice – that would have had the terms conditions excesses etc.. on…

They have to send that out by the way automatic renewal or not…

You missed out, as long as your not an Arab

because its not true of the whole country… I’ve seen palestinian teens and young adults coming over and spending time in clubs, parties and outside raves (I guess they were) – everyone was mixing freely having fun, no one actually cared if you were from israel or sneaked around / over/ under a fence or baricade to be there.

Theres hope in the youth of both countries…

Next time Im over there I hope to take a ride over to jordan and petra, looks amazing…

without turning this into a row israel is a fantastic place – Ive been there loads of times (my other half’s dad lives there) and have cycled in most places – there are some great trails in the mountains (usually used by the 4×4 clubs there) – but you were wise to go with the cab idea – being stuck and stranded miles from anywhere in 100plus heat is not ideal…

And if anyones interested your average israeli is just like you and I, I dont think Ive actually been to a friendlier country. Dont judge everyone by what you see on the news or read in the papers…

why on earth are you giving him more time?!?!

Hes abviously doing this deliberately, he hasnt notified them of his change of address (an offence in itself) so he’ll claim he never recevied the reminders when he’s stopped.

Before he has an accident or hits someone do something – tell him now (or even show him this post) that if he doesnt do something about it youll report him to the police – if he again tells you its none of your business call them – I don’t know why youve waited this long

Mainly because Tyson’s first professional fight was in March 1985

not seen the footage of tysons olympic fights or from when he was 14 then..?? Haye still wouldnt make it past the first minute he has no chin to take a punch.

If you can find one LOCT – but I dont think theyre in business anymore – rear seat on a full suspension could cause numerous problems

the raze is surprisingly good for wear… my rear has been on since sept and has loads of wear left (will easily make this sept) and the one on the front has been going for 18 months now and has more tread than the rear still.

Thats with a daily 6 mile road 2 mile off road commute (each way)

Im sure weve done this every month since that video was released…!

Ive ridden the course (unoffically!), Ive raced xc for the best of 18 years now and I wouldnt like to race on with some of the loons inthe local series let alone world class whippets, i doubt also that most of the knockers here would be able to ride the rock garden after examining it for a few minutes and then getting back on their fs bike and bumbling down it, let alone at xc race pace on a hardtail.

Oh and the video does not show the whole course – theres approx another mile or so to be added to it.

This is not a trial centre its a xc race course designed within the confines and limits of both the UCI and the Olympic bods, and its the latter that make most of the demands, which is why it is where it is and looks like it does… It is not designed for bimbling about on and stopping for cake halfway round…

Its funny how all the pros and journalists that have ridden it rate it as a good course – I think its more about the locations (and the fact that most people havent / wont ever ride here) – its essex it must be rubbish because i havent been there!

Its a good job that gary fisher, tom ritchey, Joe Murray and co werent put off when they were told those fat tyre bikes will never catch on by the narrowminded people that had never tried them…

And if anyone really fancies trying to ride this fast with a cyclocross bike Im bring a camera – ill easily get £50 off youve been framed

the postcode carries no weight at all – I live virtually on top of the course and I ddidnt even get women’s tickets – of which there are apparently some left…

total cock up – im sure the delivery peeps are patting themselves on the back deciding what to do with their bonuses….

How is the LOCT different from the leco? I take mine off road on the weeride and the leco but only on mildly bumpy stuff, how far can you go really?

the loct consists of the seat and stirrups (adjustable to the height of child) and the bar that connects to the seatpost and steerer stem. The child is not strapped in or fixed to the seat – and the stirrups have a solid / fixed footrest with rubber loops – these are as ive said adjustable and are a lot lower than the downtube which gives a much more natural riding position.

how far can you go – id quite happily do anything other than jumps – when I pre ride cross country courses my son quite often comes with me, dependig on what youthink ofthe olympic course weve ridden most of that (using onyl one of he getout routes), the alps.. At the end of the day if he thinks Im going too fast he’ll tell me and ill slow down – but he’s normally tellnig me to speed up so he ca nput his racing eyes on…(long story involving lighning mcqueen!)

Its also taught my son how a bike handles, I quite often find him now leaning into corners ahead of them and standing up on drops and bumpy decents, in fact at the end of our local ride I let him steer and change gears and brake on one of hte open parts (off road) – althoguh we generally end up going round in a big circle half a dozen times…

toys – the manufacturing involved in them demands the price – I wouldnt says its about going nuts with the kids but its the only option Ive found for safely riding off road – and the extra weight makes for good training !!

My little boy is about to get his own bike (already manic on a balance bike) but as we did a couple of weeks back a 7 hour ride through the new forest may be a bit more than he can do..;-)

LOCT are not in production any more and after conversations with the owner/designer I don’t think they ever will be again.

thats a real shame – what was the reason..??

until their neck is strong enough to support their head properly, then and only then can you think about a helmet, but even then Id wait a month. But with the high backed seats a helmet pushes the neck and head forward already putting strain on them before you start pedalling.

Where do you live where the drivers are so bad then?

Southend.. I used to live in straford (east London) and I felt safer riding round here than I do on the road here. Back roads are usually down to single lanes due to two lots of parked cars so are actually a bit safer than the main roads, unless you meet a complete tosser coming the other way that doesnt recognise you as a valid road user (or even so you!)

MikeD – dont want to sell that LOCT do you?? My daughter is old enough and wants to go out with us now and Ive been hunting high and low for a second one…

The process is about evaluating risk,

Exactly, Ive been racing for the best part of 20 years – I know my limits and that ofthe bike- but Iwont go anywhere near those limits when Im riding with my son, but because I race Im a lot fitter than most people I ride off road with and as a result can easily ride with them, way within my limits, with nearly two stone perched on my top tube… Although hills tend to slow you down a bit more but when youve got your own onboard cox (theyre catching us up daddy, we’re going very slow up this bit… etc…) it kind of motivates you…

I like the idea of an outrider with the trailer but unfortunately even that wouldnt work round here – theyre likely to get squeezed or pushed into the kerb..

So because you haven’t had that particular accident, that means it’s never going to happen?

yep and I could get struck by lightning, have a tree fall on me, get hit by a drunk driver in a car park. – they havent happened yet either.

I dont ride mountain bikes on the road unless its to get to a local trail and fortunately Ive got about ten miles of cycle path to get me to the nearest – any further and the kids will get bored and ill drive. I bought the LOCT seat so I can ride off road, thats what I (and my little boy) love doing.

I dont like / enjoy riding on the road any more, the drivers round here see through most bikes and think nothing of brushing you when they go past and then blame you for bad cycling I want to enjoy my riding and not spend it patching up bruises and scrapes and arguing with idiots who cant drive. Ive seen too many accidents and commuted for too long to think that one day Ill wake up and drivers will suddenly become considerate to cyclists.

Re trailers on roads Im with you all they way, locally it is far too dangerous. Im assuming the people that are supporting them dont live in town or city centres and the drivers are a bit more considerate, I wouldnt risk my children’s lives to prove a point if not…

If you hit something you could be thrown onto the kid and squash them, that’d be my worry.

Rubbish – Ive somehow managed to ride round numerous xc race courses, trailcentres, the alps and even most of the olympic course without squashing my son, and we dont ride slowly or look for the flat routes, but you obviously take care in what youre doing. And if I did hit something hed fall off as well, not strapped on with a loct seat.

I wouldnt have been able to ride half the things ive done with a rear seat or trailer – safety aspects aside theyre restricting and not practical.

And trailers personally scare the bejeesus out of me – on the road (esp round here) you wouldnt last five minutes.

And that thread was really asking for the ‘varied’ opinions on here….