Price for 105 is a bit ridiculous, but once normal service resumes and the usual 50% off RRP returns it’s a bit more acceptable.

Big fan of electronic, have no issue with mechanical, adjusting gears/cable tensions, but it is refreshing that whatever the conditions, everything shifts perfectly, every time. No over shifting to overcome cable friction at the end of a wet gritty ride.

Downsides of DI2 only – unless you have compatible internal routing, it’s useless as an upgrade. I’m on Etap for that reason as the wireless means it’ll fit any frame.

Still on rim brakes too, never had an issue, still out descend most people in most races. Appreciate the Hardknott comment, but that’ll warp most discs too if dragged all the way down.

The elite ‘colour flip/fade’ paint jobs on the Stantons are one of the closest I’ve found to the old Klein paint jobs. Think they do them on other frames too. Not sure how much it’d cost mind. It was a £100 upgrade when I bought a bike from them.

Firstly, they make special versions of tyres with the same names that are really terrible. I have no idea why they do this – people end up with the impression that such-and-such a tyre is rubbish, but the aftermarket ones are good.

That’s really interesting, had no idea this was the case. Thanks for that, due some new tyres soon so may consider energy savers again. I was tempted to sell the winters/winter alloys and replace with Crossclimates or equivalent, but the MPG penalty at the moment makes it more unappealing to run all year round now.

Car (Leon) came with Michelin Energy Savers as standard. In normal motorway and a-road driving, they give me about 5MPG extra over the Conti Wintercontact winter tyres. They’re also still going some 40k miles later

Downsides – the low rolling resistance, wear resistance and fuel efficiency is gained by having zero frictional coefficient, meaning wet roundabouts are to be approached with clenched buttocks.

Won’t help for games, but I have my broadband router set to auto sleep/powersave at 11pm. Useful for avoiding that ‘oh just one more’ boxset binge. If he’s playing online games this may help though as most nippers won’t have unlimited data.

Screentime is becoming a real issue for an awful lot of people, easier to nip it in the bud sooner rather than later.

Not Noise cancelling but I use Jaybird Tarahs for Snowboarding as my Bose ones were too Bulky and interfered with the Ear Flaps. The Jaybirds were about the smallest ones I could find. The Sony Link buds seems a bit smaller. Airpod pro’s are pretty low profile, but was really unimpressed with the sounds when I tried them.

Wrexham – lovely area, not the nicest town.

I grew up in Oswestry, about a 20min drive away. That was a poor market town but recently undergone a bit of a revival – independent coffee shops/nice food and a bit more Buzz, mostly through Chester and Shrewsbury overspill. Great MTB around there with natural trails at Llanymnech and Nescliffe is rideable in an XC loop without having to drive. Still the same distance to ‘Degla etc and the Long Mynd is only 45min away.

When I left, I vowed never to go back, but visiting the folks over the past few years while living in London/NE Scotland, recently there’s been an ‘actually….it’s not half bad’. It’ll rain more than Kent, so pack some mud tyres!

Equally, if it swells up (hard red and raised) but isn’t a bulls eye, I was advised to go as can still have a reaction – ended up with a steroid cream.

If you’re in Aberdeenshire, I’d recommend heading to Monymusk and chatting to Bike Bothy Pitfichie – they’ve got all the Bird bikes to demo which everyone that has one loves them. They also do Pivot.

Ditto Fire Trail in Aboyne – Nukeproof demo range and the Reactor gets rave reviews around here. Rich is a great guy and knows pretty much everything there is to know – he’ll happily spend hours chatting about which bikes work where around the area and give you a coffee, with no sense that he’s trying to sell you something.

All the time! Examples include…

Stanton Sherpa with the green/purple flip paint job – Ramona after Ramona Flowers from Scott Pilgrim.
Roadbike – Jennifer after the she Hulk as it’s green and white.
First car – Leela – after Futurama because most of the time only one of the headlights worked.
Van is called Henry, because, well, he just is.

Not all are flattering – old gravel bike was called the Steel Pig, because it was hefty.

It is becoming harder with newer cars. Old cars have more of a character to them and thus easier to give names to. New cars are a bit, dare I say it, soul less. Now, if anyone has a 1992 Polo GT Coupe with one working headlight going for sale, let me know!

I bought a LG Ultrawide 34inch at the beginning of WFH – (34wn80c-b). By far the best monitor set up I’ve used. In the office I used to have 2 30inch HP Z-series but always hated the join as you were never looking at the center of the screen, more at one side of one screen. The curved ultrawide is much more immersive, and much easier on the eyes. Also, with USB C, it’s one cable so not desk cable clutter if docking a laptop – assuming your laptop support usb-c charging.

I use it mostly for geospatial and geological interp – lots of long cross sections so the width is great, plus it’s wide enough to have two spreadsheets side by side – ditto ppt.

A 40 inch would be amazing, but word of warning, the wider you go, the more depth you need to your desk to be far enough away from it.

Urgh, Units, my personal pet peeve.

I ride/run/hill walk in km because that’s what maps are in, contours are in, plus having grown up in an era when we ran the 100 m and 400m at school as opposed to yards, I find it easier to visualize. Also, when you’re breathing out of your arse in a race, dividing/multiplying by 10 is much easier. It’s also what your used to. I know what pace a 30kph average speed ride is and feels like, no idea what that is in mph.

All through Uni and post grad, everything was in SI Units, km, m, Mpa, m2, m3 etc. I now work in an industry which is at odds between European companies who work in meters, km, bar, m2 etc, and US companies/drillers who do everything in ft & psi but strangely horizontal distances in km, and volume in the awful and completely useless acre/ft (1233 m3 for those who are interested). You do get used to converting on the fly in your head, but it leads to no end of problems in exchanging data.

On the whole I wish everything was SI, or at least Metric because for me it’s easier and more logical and results in far less conversion errors. Which ever you use, please just pick one, and don’t mix the two!

I lived in Bearpark when I was a post grad. Cheaper than in the city, a 15min ride to the uni, and straight out the door for road rides out towards the Dales. Right side of town for Hamsterley and some nice running on the old railway line or out around Hedley Hill nature reserve. The villages around there (Langley Moor/Ushaw Moor/ Brancepeth/Esh are all nice too)

Prior to that, was in Neville’s’ cross which was the best of both worlds if a little close to work – 10min walk down observatory hill/potters bank. Lanchester is quite nice too. If I was moving back though, I’d consider the work faff trade off and consider being further out towards Stanhope/Middleton in Teesdale just for being out in the country and less students.

Enjoy wherever you end up. Lovely part of the world.

Was that a recent model Allez?

Nope, 2015ish IIRC Allez Smartweld (with not overly smart welds)

Would have made a great crit bike…

2 stand out for me:

Whyte 905 – award winning trail big that always just felt dead/slow/harsh on long days and bored on the type of trail thrash I’m capable of giving it.

Specialized Allez – ok, in fairness this was bought as a winter bike and so was never going to give a best bike type joy, but by ‘eck it was harsh to ride and all the cables buzzed/rattled all of the time. rode it as little as possible thru the winter and got the best bike out again by early march. Then I sold it and took up running November – Feb

I don’t like alu bikes…

Not sure about exact numbers, but I’d basically just copy whatever Cannondale use in their Supersix. Best handling, most comfortable and smoothest bike I’ve ever ridden!

Dream bike – here are the numbers, make me one in Ti, please and thank you!

Fairly common as easy to knock when dropping wheels out etc. Couple of havks that work for me.

1)put the wheel in, do up quick release, turn the pedals a few times so the gears settle on the correct sprocket. Open Qr, close QR. If the mech is in the wrong gear for where the chain is, the tension can push the wheel out of alignment.

2) Put wheel in, do up QR and Brake QR. Undo wheel QR, squeeze break lever then do up wheel QR without releasing the lever.

Finally, an my most common, if you’re sure your wheel is centred, just gently hold the calliper on both pads and push/pull to centre. Bonus of rim brakes IME, so easy to centre, even when out, no need for tools. They’re only held on by one bolt, so a degree of easy movement each way.

Another point, make sure you’re undoing the QR on the brake when dropping wheels out, less chance of dragging the wheel past the pads and knocking it

Announce the permanent end of lockdown and all covid restrictions to commence after midday…

Oh, a whole thread full of sore losers 🙂

Pretty much! 😂 I think in fairness, it was on road.cc which probably tells you all you need to know!

I always pass (same or opposing directions) with a nod of the head, wave of the hand or an ‘areet’! Think it’s quite rude not to acknowledge other riders depending on situation. Don’t have to say hi, as sometimes especially when climbing you’re breathing out your backside!

Probably upsets those who take ‘the rules’ seriously rather than light hearted entertainment!

Sounds like you just go a twerp behind you. Most riders overtake at the same width as a car. Wheel sucking without asking is just rude and should be treated as such. If you catch someone, it’s generally polite to sit off the wheel to the side so more visible – sometimes it’s not possible to go straight past without powering past – also looking like a d**k.

Depend where you live and ride. Some areas are rife for wheel sucking ****ttery (looking at you London Dynamo), others not so much.

As for the saying hi – there was a thread once that said saying hi while cruising past was considered bad form, either way, I generally go for the lift of the hand on the bar and wave/acknowledge.

Surly Karate-monkey? A little Over budget but does everything you’re asking, plus comes with a rigid fork as well as a RockShox Revelation. 27.5 but will run 29er too, rack mounts, sliding drop outs etc etc.

It’s steel, but has a special internal tube treatment to prevent rust.

Rode one recently, lovely bike. Nearly went for one but wanted 29er and Shimano over Sram, bought a Sherpa instead.

Rapha essentials case seems to work for me, dry phone and working car keys even after 4 hours in the rain and a puddle in the Gabba pocket, keeps the phone dry from a sweaty back too.

I was always amazed at the amount of slop/clag/tech pro XC riders seems to tackle with relative confort on effectively a semi-slick. Then I rode a 40mm G-one around some local single track on my old gravel bike and a lightbulb moment happened. Had way more grip than I thought possible, but so much more roll too.

Looking at going full XC for the new Sherpa when it arrives, for late spring – autumnn anyway (tho probably with a cushcore xc, still paranoid!)

Like you I’ve used speedcross, but given that some of my local trails have become a bit more gravelpath/fireroad, I found them a bit on the thin side for the harder surfaces. Just bought a pair of s/lab ultra 3’s – mega light, comfy out the box and have more of a road shoe springy feel on the hard stuff. They’re still mega grippy on mud/forest loam and grass. Obviously not quite as good in clag as the speedcross but mighty impressive.

Scribe 365s – similar to the Hunts, but with endurance bearings and brass nipples so a bit more durable.

Pretty common and often ‘french roast’. Just back the grinder a long way off and use it for press/filter.

You grinder burrs will need a good clean after mind! A relative used to bring me oily french roast coffee over from Canada. Ended up using a cheap blade grinder to keep it away from the burr grinder. Tbf, the coffee tasted like Gauloises so the grind made little difference to the end result!

Off topic, but shows how much UK coffee has improved in the last 15 years. Going to France used to be a joy for the great coffee. Now it tastes shit and I some with me!

Vittoria Corsa – either the control G+ or the standard G+ depending on where you ride. Beautiful tyres, light fast and supple. Had them in both the Tubeless and tubed version and little between the two, just run the tubeless 10psi softer. Seem reasonably durable, about 4000km per set.

Used to use GP4000s which were great. Since they changed to the GP5000’s they seem to be made out of cheese and just had puncture after puncture after split sidewall. They’re also a complete bastard to get on and off all of my rims.

Never tried schwalbe road, other than g-ones on the commuter. Once you’ve tried 320TPi cotton, you never go back!

Hantehon massage gun off of amazon. Basically a raygun rip off and only 50quid

Be prepped for ‘interesting’ amazon suggestions for the following month however…

I’ve got a mains Karcher with the decking brush – no way would the Worx be powerful enough.

Yeah I fear this. I hd a mains karcher but sold it since neither have mains or an outside tap at the new house. I bought the ‘new’ hydroshot with the improved 24bar pressure but still down on the 110 of the mains karcher.

Deck scrubber and elbow grease it is then!

Just bought some Pedals from Bikester in Germany (Couldn’t find Time anywhere in stock in the UK) and a pair of Salomon Trail shoes direct from Salomon, who are based in France despite a ‘UK” Shop.

Both arrived hassle free and no additional charges. FWIW, I think both charged VAT at point of sale and the transaction was in GBP which probably helped matters!

In my case, I wasn’t so much hunting for a discount, but anywhere that was in stock. The set of Sid Ultimates I saw today for €620 did seem too good to br true and liable to be held up.

Based on the interaction with my cat amongst others vs. the ‘humanity’ on display at the moment, I’d probably ban humans first TBH.

Also, be much kinder to the environment if everyone had one pet instead of a child. Adults would be better rested and less grumpy too.

Really don’t like children

In the beginning (not my pic sadly, was nicked before the digital photo age

Then:

Also nicked 🤬

So for the past years:

And just ordered one of these:

Safe to say, i like steel hardtail

What do the pros ride for strada bianche these days?

Whatever their sponsors make them ride. So Conti Pro-Ltd or Specialized Turbo tubulars predominantly! They used to run bespoke FMB Roubaix, but the PR people put the kybosh on that!

Seriously, you’re probably over-thinking this.

If you can still find one in the Sale, I bought my gf a Lapierre Edge AM 827 plus. It’s not the lightest, but it’s nippy as ****, especially on the rangers on fireroads/forest trails. Rolls over everything, good gear range and spec and sensible bar width. Only thing we changed was the saddle!

Ironically, despite you writing them off, I found G-ones in 35 and 40mm, and g-one speeds to be lightening on the road and amazingly capable off it. Certainly fine for most things you describe.

On my road bike, I run 25mm Corsa Control tubeless, max width that’ll fit. They’re excellent on winter and crap roads, wouldn’t take them near anything muddy though as they’re hopeless, same with wet grass and gravel. G-ones blow them out of the water for this, especially woth braking.

@sync aye definitely personal preference. I just had massive reliability issues – 3 mechs imploded, one was faulty from the factory, without taking any impacts, and really vague shifting. Almost like the cage wasn’t stiff enough to take the load and kept twisting laterally. Probably not set up right or unlucky, but shimano seems a bit more durable. Out me off Sram a little. That said, have etap on my roadbike and it’s faultless.

Cheers for the responses all. I thought about a gravel bike, but I had one and didn’t ride it that much because a) my road bike was much faster on the road, and b) although gravel/fireroads/modest singletrack was a blast, it was limiting on all the rocky stuff so prevented me going further into the hills. So the mountain bike requirement sits at the more capable than gravel, less capable but faster than trail – i.e. and xc bike!

I’m a big fan of lollipop rides, and I think the key reason I’ve taken to the road so much, no faffing with driving, roof racks or anything, just open the door and go. Especially relevant this year when you can’t drive anywhere anyway.

I thought about the 2 budget bikes rather than one premium bike, but I’m fortunate to be in a position where a premium is an option. I’ve also noted from other bikes, that if it’s something I love, then I’ll ride it. For example, I sold my winter road bike as it was harsher and less enjoyable than my best bike, so I rode it about 5 times a year in Dec – Jan then switched to the summer bike as soon as possible. There nothing I’d change about my road bike, no niggling upgrade wants, so why not just ride it all year and deal with the fact that stuff will wear out eventually as opposed to having something you love, but having it sat in the shed while your ride something less fun. With this in mind, I was keen on a hardtail since there’s not pivots/less bearings to trash riding through the winter.

@Sync – looked at the Scalpel (Love Cannondales – road bike is a super six), but was put off by the unique real wheel dishing, which will make repairs/upgrades/replacements a pain. The Scott looks great but out of stock everywhere.

Interesting take on the Stooge and Longitude, I had briefly considered rigid – plus the Barny castle article in the last ST mag made me smile about a fit northerner showing everyone on full susses a clear pair of heals on a jones rigid. One of the bikes that made me go misty eyed as a kid was a Green fade Klein attitude with pace rigid forks and full XTR, Think it was in mbr in the early 2000’s being riden around Skidaw – looked mint. Most of the things I ride, I used to ride on a steel 26in wheeled GT with 63mm of travel. Yes I’m older, but the trails I ride haven’t changed. Was a hoot as well, even though it wasn’t overly fast. Fell off less too! I test rode a Surly Karate Monkey which would have fitted the bill with the extra rigid forks, but it was a bit short and too much I’d want to change. – i.e. bin everything made by Sram! Hence again, circle back to the Stanton.

Lead time isn’t really an issue, I’d happily wait for the right bike than rush. As you’ve guessed, I ride on the road a lot, so not like I’ll be bike less while waiting!

– so that will be 1 bike then, not 2…so looks like the Nukeproof is the winner as the other option requires a second bike.

Yeah, I didn’t articulate that well did I! I meant that the Stanton would do everything I’m ever likely to need, and I’d still have budget left for a ‘budget trail centre full sus’ if I felt one was required which is unlikely, rather than buying a full sus and compromising on all the xc end of things!

If you want to keep it simple, ride long bits of road/non-technical then an FS is off the menu surely?

Basically my thinking. Was tempted by full xc, but it can get pretty rocky up here and usually when tired. Though the stanton would give just a toucj more forgiveness over a hardcore XC bike with limited trade off

I’ve got a V1 905 (for sale in fact). It’s not overly harsh, and that’s coming from a steel fanbon, and way kore compliant than an Orange Crush which was my direct comparison. The 2.8’s really help with that and the fork is excellent. It’s pretty aggressive and very long, which is why I’m selling it as I’m more a flat terrain pedaler than a gravity fan so want a shorter more XC focused beast. If trail centres are your thing, then it’s superb.

The Sram GX is shite tho if you ride where it’s muddy. Switched mine to SLX!

As above – ITB band is a prime candidate, especially it the pain is on the outside of your knee. Made worse with all the WFH and lack of mobility. Lots of pigeon pose to stretch, then split squats, single leg bridge and lateral leg raises to help strengthen the muscles surrounding the knee.

I had this previously, physio and gym work completely cured it, ran and cycled pain free. With Covid, lockdown and this stuck at home bollocks and now it’s back again.