TBH, if you see a bargain, ask them for their paypal address and then pay for it. Then it’s yours. If the seller is in communication with somebody else, and they did the same milliseconds before, then the seller will refund you.

I always stick a courtesy “YGM re the thing you’re selling” up on the forum straight away so that people know that there’s other interest, but I’m not going to claim ownership until the seller says so. If there’s lots more “YGM re..” messages up there, then I make my mind up a bit quicker.

When I’ve sold stuff I’ve had lots of dithery mails, combined, lesser offers.. It’s a pain in the arse to work out who got there first, so the first acceptable offer of paypal payment wins. It’s not that hard to sort out really!

How can I ask this…

When it doesn’t move up, is it stiff, or is it floppy? 😀

If it’s stiff it might be that the pivot that the bolt sits in is gummed up.. If it’s floppy then either the spring’s broken (which is unlikely), or it’s been forced back past the stop, and broken the stop.

I’ve not felt any factory hubs that felt as good as i9. Those on some flows or crests would be pimpier than crossmax imo.

This.

I did a build for a guy with some industry 9 crest 29er wheels. They were absolutely bloody gorgeous. They were about 800ish, not sure exactly.

I got a half price one from Blacks the other day. £20 and very similar to the one I got from Kathmandu about 4 years ago. Not itchy or bobbly like the Endura ones at all.

Taking them apart doesn’t invalidate the warranty.. Tell your LBS mechanic to MTFU!

I’ve repaired a car tyre from a tack with those rubbery string things. Was fine for the next 8 months until it wore out. The tack was only in it for about a mile though.. I could hear it going round, and near the centre of the tyre.
I chucked 100ml of stans in there for good measure though!

Tut.. Get that rear valve straightened up! EDIT: Damn you’re fast!

That’s the first kids bike I’ve seen with sensible forward facing dropouts.. Pat on the back for that designer!

I’ve always used Niceday spray mount. It’s extremely sticky, but it’ll come off with disk brake cleaner. It’s a bit of a job getting the first bit loose though!
If you want to do the job properly, get a couple of turns of tie wire on each end.

I used a 25l Gourdon to keep my SLR in on the front of a sea kayak this summer.. I didn’t test it by dipping, but it kept the wave splash off fine. I’ve got one of the small 20l ones as a bike sack. It’s as good a fit as the Camelback it replaced.
The Exped bags do very slowly seep if left in a puddle (like in the bottom of a boat), but not to any great extent, and probably only because they’re old and tatty. I wouldn’t get the very cheap alpkit ones again though.. they’re very very thin. The Gourdons are a much tougher material
I’d just get a basic dry bag, and wait for the Gourdons to come into stock. They’re cheap and they work.. What more can you want?

I’ve posted to a Surrey/Hants group on Facebook. Thanks for the heads up!

As above. I’d get the wheels re-tensioned and see if it feels a bit better then. Nowt wrong with a bit of spring in the fork!

SSEC 2010

YES!!

well that’s my theory out the window then!

I fixed a Specialized Secteur where they’d bodged it from the factory.. They put in a MTB BB without the spacers and mashed up the sleeve which stopped it turning freely. I did wonder how many other bikes were out there from that day’s production run with the same problems.
The axle length between road and MTB is different, but I was under the impression that the cups are the same outside thickness.. I’ve never measured them though. If they’ve got to accommodate italian BBs then that version would have to be 1mm narrower per cup, so it would make sense that the BSA one is 1mm wider.

front mechs are different pull for road stuff. Higher mechanical advantage, so shorter cable pull.
It’ll work, but will have a baggy cable at the low setting. It might also rub at the extremes, but that’s nothing to worry about.

EDIT.. Sorry, read that the wrong way round.. road shifter and mtb mech.. harder to bodge! Would deffo be worth getting a cheapo road front mech

I think it’s fine if you take out the spacers, and use the old sleeve. The mtb one is wider.

Cheers!
It was pretty one sided, and over very quickly. The Redback was being very efficient in wrapping the Huntsman up. I’d been quick in sorting out the camera, but you can see how much silk it’d already laid down in the first shot.
Those are the best photos.. Click through to the album and there’s a couple more. The Redback was pretty aggressive. It took a disliking to me halfway through and came for me! It was obviously more bothered about it’s lunch though.

Thought you lot might like these I took a couple of years ago, on a geological mapping field course in eastern Victoria. I’d already picked up one rock to find it had a Redback sitting on its underside.. Queue flappy arms, and a squeaked mwahhh noise from me..!
Later we found these 2 fighting it out.. A Redback, and I’m pretty sure, a Huntsman… The fight had already been won by the Redback; the Huntsman was paralysed and being wrapped up. Pics were on a cheapy Pentax compact, but not too bad for it in the bright sun.

phenomenally high ISO (extendable up to 204,800, equivalent)

😯

I’ve used gear oil in mine for lube a few times, cant tell any difference.

Pah! I’ve used float fluid in a Sturmey Archer 3 speed… Will I die?

Larsen TT is a good alternative to the crossmark. Has a little more bite, but is smaller volume though.

I had this with a set of 2008 Reba Teams. They were also feeling spiky, like there was too much compression damping. I serviced them but they were still doing it, so I sent them back to Fishers. You’ll have to do this through an LBS. I had a new moco unit fitted by them.

They’ve got a 2 year warranty (I think!) so if you can get a receipt from the original owner, or a friendly LBS with a creative pen, you’ll be sorted. Try and get it through warranty as the moco is about £120 retail!

Eric Bristowgram?

Edit.. no, can’t be.. would have a 20 at the top for that

The shortest ones do a bit constrictive on thrutchy climbs, but are fine if you keep the cadence up.. The two bikes with 172s just feel right, and the 175s are on the singlespeed, where the extra leverage helps. You can do a calculation (which I can’t remember..) to turn your true inside leg measurement to your ideal crank length.

that’s bloody tiny! If you’re normal height then 175mm is normal..
I’ve got bikes with 170, 172.5 and 175 cranks, and you can feel the difference.

I went to the singlespeed worlds this summer and there were plenty of folks riding the 29er band waggon.. Now, who was I getting caught up behind on the singletrack uphills, as their supposedly nice rolling bikes were unable to thrutch over even the smallest little rocky lumps?

I tried to give a tyre a CO2 blast the other day when it got a hole by the bead.. Didn’t work so I took it off, and there was dry ice floating on top of the sealant and fizzling away!

One thing that DOES make latex polymerise instantly is calcium nitrate solution.. There’s some stuff called Caffelatex Zot which is supposed to help seal up bigger holes. I did some research and I’m going to try making my own. Will report back!

I was just looking at cx tyres for my Pompino..

28″ is where it’s at.

I got a frame for £400 when Giant were clearing out the first ones in 2006. It was a horrible blue, so I got it painted and gave it to my arty mate to doodle over before getting it clearcoated.
It’s now got 120mm Rebas and has had the shock fettled by Pace. It’s great downhill. It’s a bit flexy and heavy compared to newer bikes, but still pedals well.
Some have questioned my colour choice, but it looks great when plastered in mud!

Yep.. I was thinking of taking the £35 hit. I’ve no fears of them still trading in 12 months time.. My only fear is that my current laptop will still be running fine then!

I’m doubtful that anybody would happily swap £350 of real money with me unless they’d definitely decided that whatever they wanted was coming from Currys..

Oh, and the new lappy is deffo going back. The colour quality on the screen is very poor compared with my old one. I’ll have a look at the display one when I go in to see if it’s a fault with mine, but I don’t think they would offer a refund on those grounds, only a replacement.

It does sound like it’s borked inside.. Basically, the first seven, and the last seven are the same range sets engaged with or without an overdrive. It sort of explains it here:
sciencey bit
If it’s not cured with an oil change, then I’d suspect that the overdrive (or whatever they choose to call it) is not engaging.. Speak to SJS Cycles, but I’d bet it’s got to go back to Germany.
I’d make sure though that the shifter is engaged on the click box mechanism at the right point. Turn them both to the shifter and the engagement octagony thing to the end of their stroke and then re-engage them?

I’ll second Stoner on the XTR option.. Ti freehub body too, so un-gougable.. Ti seems to be a bit out of fashion for freehubs these days.

Another option, although it’ll blow the £600 CKs out of the water is Industry 9’s.. They have a CK-esque sound, but come with straight pull alloy spokes and Stans rims. They weigh one half of nothing at all.. They do standard flanged hubs too.

It could be a bent chain tooth.. or it just broke again where you rejoined it.
I never rejoin them, just add another split link.

Have one as a front tyre.. Much tougher than a mud x.. Silly low pressures are possible! I’ve put dents in a Stans 355 using it, and it’s never punctured.

EDIT: S***.. I’ve said it now!

I found it failed on a big thorn once.. wasn’t too impressed, although any sealant I’ve used has only ever failed on Bontrager tyres… Coincidence???
In the end I bought some more stans and used the remaining wheel milk to dilute it to make it go further.
Currently trying Caffe Latex, and possibly Joes next!

Another one for Rebas here. The teams are better, but noticeably platformier. The OEM Recons come with a 10mm travel spacer which you should be able to find if you wanted 110mm out of them, otherwise they’re good at 120, but a little bit flexier. I should have a spare 10mm kicking around if you need one.

A mate of mine did just that.. all around Hampshire with a GPS and a singlespeed!

wheel milk would be better value if it actually sealed holes…

I’ve found shimano freewheels last fine if you repack them occasionally with some sticky marine grease. I’ve never had one fail.. They get retired from the mountain bike to the road bike! It’s quite easy to take the cone part off with a pin spanner. They have a couple of spacing shims inside that you can remove one at a time as they start to develop slop.
All the other cheapish ones I’ve tried have always developed horrible creaky cracking noises.

I think I must be doing this the wrong way round…
I hadn’t drunk for a year, as I was really sick to death of it. I decided a while back that I’d get mashed on new years eve, with some warm up drinks the day before to be sure I remembered how!

Now I can just about see the light at the end of a two day hangover, and I’m bollocksed if I’m going to give myself this much grief for fun in the future. And for what it’s worth, it was blinding fun!

One thing that’ll stick with me from this last year is that it can be just as much fun to be with your mates in the pub when you’re sober. You can still have a laugh, you can still get the rounds in (although the exchange rate for lime and sodas is a little higher!) and you can happily get yourself drunk on company. It’s a state of mind.

So roll on a bright and sober 2012!