What? No one??

Warm , sunny, dark, cloudy, mildly damp, plenty midgies, very fast and quite good fun! (in that order)

I soloed it – 9 laps which I was happy enough with considering that until yesterday afternoon I was looking forward to doing it as a pair!

I am know very tired, pretty battered and suffering from a Hi Five hangover.

Got a Dolan Preffisio from Merlin – £720 with VIP discount and delivery……….

link to Dolan (Merlin Cycles link wouldn’t work)

Its the only road bike I’ve ever had, so nothing to compare against, but I love it AND it’s British – well at least designed in Britain.

Comes with mudguards – so winter ready, but easy enough to remove for the summer.

Tiree – road bike, do a lap and go up the (only) hill with the satellite thingy on top for some views.

Coll – road bike and go and find/hear some Corn Crakes – they should be starting to crake away now…..then go and have some beer and seafood in the pub!

12 laps is quite an achievement – I’m impressed. Managed 6 here, timewise could have fitted another one in, but bike needed new rear pads and an extra 1 1/2 hours in the pub, at that point, seemed like a much better prospect.

As mentioned above the guttery bits were more or less rideable if you got a clear run at them, but any traffic and they were horrendous. The really wet bit was taken out on my second last lap, and both were out on the last lap which was a nice way to finish – although had no rear brake for the last lap which made it a wee bit more intersting.

Must admit, wet and cold as it was I enjoyed it, well I say enjoyed – I think it’s one of those things that you endure for 1 day of the year, and enjoy for the other 364……… 🙂

YGM (to your profile address)

Only got the pairs & solos

The Torridon Hotel – very nice hotel with loads of riding/walking right from the door.

NB – There may be a slight smell of burning in the air since Liathach burnt down a couple of weeks ago…….but that aside it’s a stunning place.

IME – Sudocrem fine for shorter rides (1 or 2 hours), but usually use the proper stuff for anything longer – especially if lots of pedalling involved – as it seems to have better staying power.

Try it and see – you’ll soon know if it doesn’t work!

For external application only btw……. 😆

Are they wrong compared to what is stamped on the bars, or compared to what the seller said they were on website/whatever? Seems there are many bars with similar names that have different width depending on rise, material, whether xc or AM version, etc, etc

Pretty sure its the width as measured post bend ie the straight line tip to tip – every set I have ever measured has been this way and have been as per specced. I think!

Just emailed you solos and pairs – hope that’s what you need.

Cheers.

Sorry no Scan – Just a link

Yes, pretty sure you can, certainly the majority of them, but be prepared to queue a bit in the morning when it all kicks off – otherwise should be fine – IIRC!!

As above. Hopes – reliable, and if you do have a problem easy to get parts for, and easy to work on.

M4s have plenty power.

EDIT – and they’re British – so you’ll be helping the recovery……..!

Lazy Crofter[/url] – Hostel in Durness run by very nice people.

Are you planning head towards Lochinver and up, or from Lairg towards Laxford Bridge and up?

Nice campsites (from a picturesque point of view at least – never camped there) in Achmelvich, which is just north of Lochinver, and Scourie.

Also This Place[/url] in Inchnadamph if you don’t go as far as Lochiniver.

I would recommend going west from Lairg past Ledmore and up towards Scourie – much nicer IMO than the road that goes from Lairg to Laxford Bridge.

100 ish +ve, about the same or a little more -ve, 13st, 150mm Revs.

Get full travel most rides at some point.

Had a problem like this with an XT hub last year – no matter what I did as soon as I put it back on the bike and started to use it, it would “self-adjust”.

I finally figured out that it was the Freehub that had come a bit loose (small movements back and forth on it’s thread leading to “fine tuning” of the bearing preload) was causing all my grief – school boy error I know, but worth checking if you haven’t done so already………….

It was driving me bonkers before I discovered it!

It was as cold as it looks – no t-shirts here either……..

Balblair, Bonnie Scotland.

Try Loco Tuning

Avoid Brora!

I waited – and now it has arrived – my £10 CRC discount voucher has landed and is about to be used……….only 2 weeks of patience required 8)

Just tried the retailer search engine thingy – it did pull up the one local shop (in Inverness) where I can still seem to get the mag, and confirmed that it is indeed the one local shop where I can still get the mag!! Good work.

But also pulled up the Borders Book Shop which has been closed since they went TU a year and a half ago or whenever it was……….luckily it’s next door to the Tesco where you can get the mag, so wouldn’t have been a wasted trip 😀

Thanks for the offer FR, but it’s a CRC only option (Black DT Swiss Competion Spokes – 2 wheels worth). I’ll wait patiently for CRC to oblige – well I’ll give them til Sunday before I bite the bullet!!

Haven’t got one – but I’d quite like one……….as I have a purchase to make that comes to just over £50 and I’ve been humming and hawing about it.

A tenner off would seal the deal CRC, if your listening…………

Any of you evening folk got anything to add??

I’m on my second. Very rufty tufty, only reason I had to give up on the first was because it was so old that Casio no longer did replacement straps for it, but got a good discount on the new one as a result and still have the old one – just needs a battery!

Cheers for all the feedback, I’m kind of swaying in the direction of the “Bolt-In” variant – but just wanted to be reassured that it wasn’t a gimmicky, lighter, but crapper attempt at a solution.

Can’t really see any major benifit of the Azonic axle (in the context of a Pro 2 hub), the SS 10mm QR does have a small convenience appeal although I don’t see using an allen key as that much of an inconvenience.

The weight would only really be of concern if that was the only thing that differed between them. Main two concerns are how secure each option is (do the bolt-ins come loose etc) and whether there are any reliability issues which would rule out one over the other??

Using tools not so much of an issue, although allen key probably more convenient than spanner(s).

Lunchtime bump……..

Would agree with lots of the above, but avoid finishing the auction on a Sunday evening IF the following day is a public holiday……..lots of good up-bidders out on the raz!

Cheers for that guys – anyone know of any major downsides to any of the above, or is it just a compromise between stifness/convenience??

Out of curiosity are the Bolt Through and/or Bolt in options a 2 x spanner/key operation ie one on either side??

Great report – top photos – makes we want to be on holiday!!

Cheers guys, sounds like I have Mk2s then.

But the replacement bushings, from the CRC Mk2 kit, do not seem to be as “snug” on the axle shaft – quite a bit of daylight between. This puzzles/concerns me.

Maybe this is how they should be, but it would seem to allow much more twisting on the bearings than I would have thought healthy for them.

The old bushings – although now tight, seem to be of a much closer fit.

Any suggestions??

Rainbow – “Since you’ve been gone” and/or “All night long”

And ACDC/Hells Bells (esp. the intro and with amp at “loud”)is pretty damn good too for making you feel like an awesome axe-god!

Anyone tried this tubeless with Stans liquid or similar – eliminating the tube would seem to be quite benificial – no pinching, no extra layers required to protect from screw heads, lighter, etc – or am I missing something obvious??

In reality if SC had kept the Heckler at the same price point as the Butcher/Nickel, they would probably have stopped selling Hecklers.

By dropping the price SC can still sell Nickel/Butchers to the folk who would have bought Hecklers etc, but now also enter an entirely new market segment of people who weren’t/aren’t prepared to pay that extra premium – and still make money out of “old tech”.

SC (at least until now) has been an aspirational brand, now many more people can now “aspire” to an SC – albeit a mere SP bike( 😯 ), and they clever thing is they (and the people who used to buy Hecklers) will still have aspirational hankerings for APP and the APP crowd will still have aspirations for VPP, etc,etc.

Marketing genius really…….

IMHO!

If Orange are currently making less margin on a Five, than SC are on a Heckler as alluded to somewhere above…….

…….then until quite recently, when they dropped the price, SC were really “ripping the punters off”!!

SCoundrels that they are/were………

I must still not have enough -ve air pressure because I was trying to get all the air in quickly and detach the pump before I lost all the pressure!

You shouldn’t lose air with the pump attached unless there is a fault of some sort – yes if you detach/reattach the pump you will get a drop from what it was before – but should not keep losing pressure.

Should be able to inflate without sealant to start with – but you may need lots of almost neat fairy liquid “painted” on around the bead to get it to seal enough to inflate.

EDIT – In my experience that is………..

Cheers Loco – I’ll have a wee survey next time I take the forks apart.