Madison are out of stock until early March. I might be ordering some then but that is not going to help now.

I would normally suggest TA rings as they are simpley wonderfully crafted rings but chcikens the distrubtor has no stock for another 3-4 week in the size you want (I just checked the b2b).

I should be able to help. For a quote please contact me on workshop@thecycleclinic.co.uk

Please specify what chain you want Veloce, Centaur or Record.
Mech hanger are specific to the bike not the mech.

BRBL brake pads are veloce pads.

Impact coating in Colchester. The finish is good but youl need to face off head tube and BB shell and tap out all threads.

If you have v-brake bosses mask them up as they didn’t for me and I had to get a file out and remove the paint.

A frame is £30 blasted primed and painted. It will use them again for my road bike which needs doing soon.

Road riding is hard work. In some respects it is harder than an MTB ride, there are certainly less chat stops. I ride both and I am definately faster on a road bike compared to an MTB. Road rides can easily average 18 mph over 50-60 miles. The best I ever managed was 15.7 over 100 miles. Try that on an MTB.

The roadies I ride with are a seriously fit bunch and I need to get more miles in to keep up.

Well if all you have is £250 its better to buy that than a £250 geared bike. Even better to buy a second bike for £250.

I presume you are using tubes that match the tyre width. Use a narrow tube in a wide tyre the tube stretch and is more puncture prone.

I always use Conti tubes and have never had a pinch flat. Conti do the Tour28 Slim and the Tour28 All for wider tyres. For up to 35c tyres Tour28 Slim is fine.

I’d go with the Sirrus -why I stock pipedream and have held the frames. They are nice. Close up photos are available on my website which are not on the Pipedream site so you can take a look at the dropout area and the head tube joins. Never riden or held a Cotic.

http://www.thecycleclinic.co.uk

Is the frame knakered? Surely whatever components have worn out can be replaced.

Well I am always going to say Pipedream Sirrus with its sliding dropouts or you could use the Orange P7.

Any frame can be made into a single speed. Find a frame you like and single speed that. Any bike with vertical dropouts is easy to do without the use of tensioners. I have two.

Well there’s a lesson, check you inner tubes before riding.

Also I don’t think there will be any ill effects but why bother. Buy Presta tubes instead.

+1 very true.

Genuine Inovations CO2 inflators like the ones I sell. The Nano Infalte is compact and the 16g cartridge is enough for 100 psi on 23c tyres.

Who is good for CO2 – me again not ebay. Genuine inovations £2.50 each in my shop including postage cheaper if you want a box of 20. workshop@thecycleclinic.co.uk.

I wish there was a level playing field with parts supply for all shops CRC, Rose and the LBS so the LBS can compete properly. Lack of competition in the distributor industry keeps Madisons prices high. I am surprised it is not against some sort of competition rules. Schawble is one of the few bike brands that I can think of were their is genuine competition between wholesalers as there are so many of them.

But as Rose e.t.c can go to shimano direct or the manufactuer in Taiwan then the LBS has a problem. However the LBS can do things the internet can’t but that only for customers who need parts fitting or are not sure on what parts to buy.

There really is not much money in running a bike shop however that is not why I do it.

Well there are ally MTB’s and even Ally rigid MTB that are comfortable. Steel frames can be “more” comfotable but it depends on the frame design. As I run a shop I am going to recomend the one’s I sell, Tifosi CK1 -campag kit for £900.

Other than that Gensis “make” a decent one (own brand of Madison so they don’t make it just like every other bike brand).

Canti’s are fine of road is you have decent pads. If you have never tired single speed then it is difficult to recomend it. I love SS but not everyone does.

Did you try a penetrating fluid like Plus gas? If you have not the do soand leave it to soak in and then try your allen key . Instead of haksawing I would drill the bolt and use a extractor. Works every time.

The problem is we cannot sourse anywhere else bar madsion or CSN and CSN are not the offical distributor.

Most shops do not have the resources to buy of Shimano direct thats if Shimano will talk to such a shop. CRC/Wiggle probably get better discounts of Madison than smaller outfits or have another source which takes more mnoney than I have.

As for shops and markups – charging RRP’s would be nice but many of my customers know the internet exists. It is better to make 5% of something than 100% on nothing. If you keep your costs down then it becomes viable.

Why not a new shimano XT double crankset? FSA also make some decent ones. In fact they alll work well the differences are in the Q-factor/stiffness/weight/asthetics/price. However these differences tend not to alter how they function -they still go round and move the chain. What Q-factor you want will depend on what you prefer. There is very little data of stiffness of cranks compared by the same test method so weight/price/athestics is all you can decide on in the end. I assume you are not downhilling as you will proabbly not be using XT triple cranksets.

No they should not have told you lies. I certainly would not tell my customer that kind of lie certainly as I have never ordered of Rose bikes as it marginally cheaper to buy through Madsion or CSN most of the time.

Vanilla83, where do they get them from then? I would like to know.

Vanilla83, where do they get them from then? I would like to know.

I would happily use BBB7’s. They are a fine brake and cheaper than most fluid setups.

Tesnion on a front wheel need to about 1000N- no less. On the rear look drive side tension needs to be 1100N. Non drive side tension will be whatever it needs to be to get the wheel dished correctly.

I did run a 1×9 once and never dropped a chain, I did not use a guide. The need for a guide will depend on your style of riding. For me it’s XC in the flats of Suffolk/Essex. Thetford is as techical as it gets.

I live riding my MTB’s but I do get bored of riding Thetford all the time. It’s too expensive to drive to other places all the time (and takes too much time – baby in the house), the local bridleways/footpaths are boring so I only ride my MTB’s nce a week if that. I use my road bike more often.

I have yearning to explore wilderness on a MTB and I would love to do that in North America where you can get to very remote locations. Infact Off road coast to coast of the northern part of the U.S or Canada is a dream.

KMC 10-93, in my shop they are a bit over £20 I forget how much now as I am not there looking at the box.

Seriously KMC chains are very good.

The problem with Rose is that buying at Madison’s best trade price is still more expensive in some cases or only cheaper by a few quid not leaving much room or any profit to match Rose’s prices. Mathcing prices of U.K on line retialers is pretty easy, I do it but I have to take a reduced margin. Trying to compete with Rose bikes is impossible. Is the German distributor that much cheaper, I will have to find out but I don’t speak German.

Well I don’t ride one beacuse I cannot justify/afford/have space for a 7th bike.

Pipedream Scion R853 -if I was going to build a new hardtail this frame would be starting point. I have a couple in my shop (The Cycle Clinic).

Yes wire bead. Folding is a bit more but not alot.

I plan to the Mud Sweat and Gears this year on a Rigid SS 26er.

The new 2’s and 3’s have a five year waranty, the 1’s don’t and use the old style bearing that fall apart. So go for 2’s and 3’s.

Pipedream Scion R853 – steel obviously will take forks up 130mm so 100mm will be fine and it is disc only.

I have a few in the shop you can see details on my website

http://www.thecycleclinic.co.uk/Our_Bikes/Pipedream_Mountain_Bikes/pipedream_mountain_bikes.html
A shameless plug but it may be of interest or not as the case may be.

the 19″ frame has a top yube length of 605mm and seat bube C-T length of 495mm. Cost is with delviery and all that is on the site along with all other frame dimensions.

Malcolm

I am not someone one to ask as I once ran 1×9 until the drivetrain was knackered and went single speed and have never gone back. I ride in the falts of East Anglia so a bit like Sherwood.

You could get the SLX M665 cranks in 9 speed double. They are £120 (in my shop) probbaly similar elsewhere.

New chainrings would be cheaper. If it where my bike I would buy new chain rings as the weight saving will be small compared to the total mass of rider + clothes + bike. Sorry I would buy new chain rings I would single speed it but thats me.

I don’t buy into these expensive cable sets. I use Transfil stainless steel cable wire and there cbale outer with no waterproofing kits. My veiw change them when they need it which will be every year or so (maybe sooner dependging on how often the bike is used.

Given I charge £1.50 for a transfil shimano gear cable, £1.60 for a road or MTB brake cables, £1.20/metre for brake outer and £1.30/metre for gear outer it does not coat alot to replace all your cables.

If riding in thick slop on a regular basis them maybe the these more expensive cable are worth while set but I would stick to the cheaper transfil ones.

If you are seriously concidering a Ti road frame then get in contact with Titan Road sport. These frame are very good and at a decent price.

£800ish buy you one of the Ti frames and I know several people riding them.

Second hand will always be a better deal than new!

How is the bike used as any what do describe as budget? There are plently of cheap wheel set out there how many are not suitable for trail riding.

Well Madison do a range, in my shop;
M-part Front/rear mavic XM317 rim, 36 DTswiss plain guage spokes and Shimano RM60 hub
Total £110

Madsion code WLC404 and WLC 405

There are other two, black jack/wilkinson wheels for example. If you go too cheap you will end up with something totally unsuitable for trail riding though.

workshop@thecycleclinic.co.uk

ebay 200gm hubs. Campag record are 321 for the rear and dura-ace is a similar weight. Are those ebay weights accurate. Also be aware to adding up manufactures claims some of them are not entirley true.

Those Alpha look like interesting rims. Might have to try some.

Well I ride gator skins and so do many in the West Suffolk Wheelers as they are very good, they roll well and they resist cuts and punctures very well.

In my shop I sell them for £22 in my shop (The Cycle Clinic) I really would recomend them no matter where you get them from. I used to run Ultraraces and after one ride I picked 20 flints out the the rear tyre. To say it was cut was an understatment and a bit punctured to!

I use KMC only in the shop and on my bike except the road bike as I bought a campag groupset and it cam with a campag chain.

7/8 speed Z82 is cheap and chearful
9 speed x9
10 speed 10-93
All a good chains.

My single speeds both use vertical dropouts. Neither has any chain slipage, both work really well, infact I don’t ride my geared bike.

The disc equipped one is a 2003 Orange evo 2 and the canti equipped bike is a 1989 Marin Pallisades.

Facing needs to be done is using external BB’s. For cartridge BB it is not essential. Titanium frames can be faced with normal tools but it may damage the the tool. Hense any shop is likely to bill a fair bit in case of tool damage.

Never done one my self so I cannot say how true the this is but titanium is harder to work than steels.