How about BREGANTE looks into it

He says he is a copper in this post about another bike theft in manchester

edit – KM not miles, axis on the graph was wrong! Still a fair lead for 8 days

I read this on a site also, not sure how true it is but food for thought……

They will eat and drink their entire body weight every two weeks. On some days they will burn the equivalent of 67 Mars bars worth of calories and be creating enough electricity to power a laptop at work for two years

Mike is leading by nearly 1000 miles now!

I was cone in off 2 days commuting last week! Im not even going to say how far it was but trying to do 1/18th of his mileage (i.e. 1000miles while he is away is near impossible for me i reckon

I have saved the seller so will let folk know when something new and dodgy is listed!

SRAM specced bikes will always be cheaper than the Shimano competition, however factor in the fact that
-Your rear mech will snap
-all the FSA crap it will have on is well cheap and uninspiring
-The Avid brakes you have given will be ace for a month then turn to shit
-Rims are likely to be DT over Mavic

So your getting something that looks good on paper and costs more when you brake it down to component parts, however any serious rider who has rode for years will want Shimano drivetrain and brakes, NOT shimano hubs, Maxxis Tyres and Mavic rims, decent NON OEM forks and finishing kit from someone other than FSA.

Thats my opinion anyway, and dont get too cut up by weight, if you want something dead light get a carbon HT, if you want to have fun get something 130-140mm

i bought the shorts and the tights (the more expensive of teh two types they do) and they are OK but the padding aint great and seems to rub a bit on the tights, more down to the finishing of it where its stitched. They are cheaper online than in store too.

OK for the price but id rather get some more expensive ones in future.

What arent bad for the price, and are better than these are the fake bib shorts that come from China. I got a cannondale road kit with bib shorts and cant see any difference between them and genuine cannondale shorts. Think the kit was £26 posted

Mike has just hit the 1000mile mark in 5 and a bit days which isnt bad considering he has crossed the southern alps and had a 50 mile day due to the ferry crossing at the start.

The first week will be the most punishing on people, the second probably painful but thereafter they should settle into a routine and be able to really crank the miles out.

106 days is the target that i know mike has, 80 days is a 225mile/day average and while im sure all would love to achieve it in reality anything close to 100 will suit most.

Mike has an article in this months issue of Privateer which is something relating to pain so will be worth a read. From knowing Mike for years too, he has never been silly fit, he just doesnt feel pain. Is Sadist the word?

They choose their own and have them verified by guiness worl record folk. It just has to be 18000 miles through two antipodal places and must be in one direction, i.e. east to west or vice versa

Mike is going to east Turkey, flight to India, ride south to north India, fly to Perth, then Brisbane, south to north NZ, across the states, across Iceland and then portugal to home.

The crazy thing is he is planning on being in Perth in 25 days time!

Things have changed a bit since i took part in the pedal car championships

Mike looks damn fast stood still!

I told him REAL men do it in 80 days! He laughed it off but i reckon he wont be far off if all goes well. The distances he has been speaking of are nuts, and the training, brum to cardiff and back in a day, riding to strathpuffer, wales north to south coast in a day………..

Looking forward to following this

and dont forget that if anyone tells the insurance company of the accident but you dont go down the insurance route it will still affect your renewal as you have an accident logged. Worth bearing in mind.

Basically treat insurance companies like mushrooms wherever possible

Helvetica might be worth a watch, Chris Evans was banging on about a book about typefaces but didn’t realise there was a film also.

Saw one last week about food production in the USA which was interesting.

There is also one about the christian folk in the deep south i want to watch but i don’t know what its called if anyone can help out

My washer drier went, well it stopped drying so the mrs said we NEED a new one. Anyhow, multi meter plus google = 55p purchase of a new resistor and bang, fixed.

They dont seem to be complicated, just annoyingly fiddly to get into things.

still seems to be on to me!

Aldi’s business model of just selling 1 of each product and thus striving to make sure its the best they can source for a competetive price is a far superior way of working.

It still makes me laugh that people think supermarkets own factories that make food. But then its similar in the mountain bike world. Take full face helmets for one, strip off the graphics and there are only so many models being made of which a lot are the same.

I live near a cake factory that makes M&S, GU, Asda, tesco, sainsburys etc cakes (and it has a very cheap factory shop too!)

If the holes are in paintwork, white paintwork especially then just smooth over with some toothpaste, works a treat!

Were the V5 not made just to appease the Yank market as they saw the 1.8l GTi’s as being too small an engine, and being american it has to be big to be better, thus served no purpose in the UK?

M&S was always a great one due to their £4k un named items insured on your ploicy inc bikes. This is believe is limited to £1k on bikes now.

I have mine insured on the house cover, 4 bikes, 9.5K and it costs about £80/year.

IME you just need a picture of the bike (preferably with you in) and then you just get your mates in the local bike shop to put a replacemnet price quote together for you, clearly like for like, new for old.

If its bespoke tell them you dont want a replacement as its unsuitable, you want a cash settlement. M&S actually told me they couldnt supply a bike as did the shop they used to supply replacements (who incidently said they couldnt up-spec a bike as they had 800 bikes a week to ship out!!! – all through an insurance company deal!) so they just paid out.

Bespoke insurance is rediculous, its on your house insurance or nothing in my experience

hanging up on a log will do that to most rims, of if not that bad it will still be bad enough to still need replacing

be careful with an 80mm one as it may not fit due to the adjuster on your lefty. Basically as you cant adjust it up and down and the adjuster is directly where your bar will be it may fowl.

I had a 90mm hope one on my max carbon and it just fitted past with a mm or 2 to spare. Any shorter and i would have been riding with the bars set off to the right

Hight rollers are Cheng Shins thats the point

Try google translate

Just click here if you still dont believe me[/url]

cruzheckler – Member
bland? explain?

Cheng Shin, yep that really crap tyre manufacturer uses MAXXIS as its brand name for cycle tyres.

They are just branded as Chen Shin and not Maxxis, same factory, same, process, same rubber, same costs, just not branded so cant charge rip off prices as people wont pay it.

Just goes to prove that they are overpriced and we are being laughed at!

Cheap Maxxis Here

Or, these are the posh Maxxis ones without the branding on, so work out for yourself how much money goes into advertising. All this is is a different tread pattern to the top end maxxis

£17.99 is a lot less than £60!

After a weekender away riding a few weeks back and feeling shit, having a 1 year old with another on the way and then reading this i had the motivation to give it a good old go, that and being off work for a bit which is a sod for having a fag.

Anyhow bought 4 packs of sticky plaster things, used one and not had a fag since, been about 2 1/2 weeks now and feeling loads better for it. I haven’t read his thread other than a few first posts but glad i did as it gave me the motivation to knock it on the head!

Before you do decide have a look at the Oneal Airtech, loads better helmat with new technology as oppose to a 10 year old mould

£110 and comes with the best locking device ever, no messing with d loops! Weighs in at under 1100g too

The two you mention are the same mould as the one Oneal sell for a RRP of £59.99

Try MTB Direct, sure they will cut you a deal

Parcel 2 go will get you a price, i dont think there is a best TBH, parcelfarce are notoriously bad but they all tend to have a weak link.

Ideally go with someone who operates in both countries and doesnt use a 3rd part to do the deliver as thats where it starte going wrong IME. Id prob use DHL

Im just going to be honest and say that being in the peaks today just wouldnt have been fun, persistant rain and freezing conditions, coupled with a decent wind.

Maybe im a wimp but im glad i was out yesterday

If you prefer then get a fake rolex to ride in

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I like the way they point out that it will cause extensive flooding of an err, floodplain, with nothing between it and the sea other than a bridge designed to wash away and a camp site!

there is no riding up in these parts other than at trail centres.

If someone told you otherwise punch them in the nose for lying to you.

(On a serious note all 3 of them places are crap compared to what is out there if you use a map)

let them talk, then tell them you are blind!

It sounds like you will be managing no one soon as the company will go bump and then you will get nothing, or maybes a small share of nothing if you are lucky.

How long can one poor chap with crap equipment keep supporting an office, manufacturing facility, you, the HR woman and the MD.

If he can solely do that then he is either amazing or you have a product with a mahoosive margin. In which case if you joined him you could produce twice as much, and manage the one guy you are left responsible for more effectively as you will be stood next to him.

I think you will be redundant next week, just a hunch

Think some of you are missing the point, that was selling things they dont have in stock.

My local bike shop isnt a spec dealer so couldnt have helped, plus i have issued with their arrogance at any rate so have already chosen not to shop there.

Local shops do nothing for me tbh, i have worked in a shop, can repair things better than them generally and they cost a fortune more than alternatives online.

Selfish but true unfortunately.

The last time i was in EBC for example, two mechanics were re installing a cannondale headshock by banging the top tube with a wooden mallet while the forks were in the workstand. Ill bastardise my own bike for free thanks.

Anyhow its here now, just an email to say it would be 3 weeks would be nice in return for selling me goods they dont stock

Hope hubs, mavic rims and dt swiss spokes is the only sensible way to go, and get them off a good wheel builder. They will last till way past you being bored of them.

DT 240 hubs are great till they crack on you and you are left with a worthless piece of metal

See here (it is an older one but hardly used, google cracked DT 240 and you will see what i mean

Old technology so that is why i suspect its going cheap. Hollowtech are a lot better, id get shot of ISIS and go HT honestly speaking, however they will do you fine dont get me wrong.

Also check their weight first, race face can weigh a ton

19 days later it arrived.

Thought it was only fair to say so

So as i said a bike box is best, otherwise manufacturers would put bikes in a bag to deliver them.

For extra longevity, buy some cheap duct tape and completely cover it, and for maneuverability strap an old cut down skate board to the base.

boxes get dragged around by baggage staff, bags get flung and stacked sideways

I have a bag though as a box wont fit in the loft, however you asked what was best!

Law.

I agree, criminals should work at least a 90hr week!