yep, wet in the peaks on sunday.
Muddy but just not quite enough to spoil the fun. Wasn’t that sticky deep mud you often get.
The puddles on the track top of hope cross were almost hub height

I personally think if they’re a regular poster other than just in classifieds, i.e. they’re probably at least slightly well known, then it’s largely worth the risk.

If he’s found guilty, presumably that’d leave him open to small claims for the damage to tyres/tubes/wheels? Nice

yep, and i like the sound of him having several thousand claims for an average of about £20, rather than one big one. He’d have to employ a secretary to deal with them all.
I hope everyone demands the exact make of tube that they originally had as well, so he can’t just order a job lot.

what works well for this type of thing is have a google calendar where everyone has read access, but only one person has write access to it – that one person needs to be someone who people can email or send PMs to and doesn’t mind updating it when they do.

Hate to be unsympathetic – I really do sympathise, and not that you deserve to be taught a lesson, but hopefully the one lesson it will teach you is to do jobs yourself wherever possible.
I know cutting a steerer down isn’t the MOST simple of jobs, but it is doable. My LBS has got a 4 week waiting list for repairs, and what angers me is that most of that will be people who simply can’t be bothered to learn how to set up their gears correctly.

The only time i’ve let a bike shop cut the steerer of some forks down was when one of the sales guys offered to do them there and then when I was buying them, and it was before I’d paid for them…

Don’t your ears take 13A ones? Girl!

freebies! it’s par for the course in this day and age.

:lol: :D LOL @ your username btw… it didn’t work then i presume :D

yes.
some are not just bollocks but obviously absolute bollocks. ThomasThailand, for example, claims to have not only done a ridiculous amount of miles but not only that – ALL of them at an average of 21.3mph.

B
i also peeled my dalby pass off my windscreen and put that in there as well in case anybody who empties it wanted it ‘cos i don’t rate dalby at all compared to penmachno.

another thing that has pissed me off about JE James:
when I phoned up there and asked if they had something they said “I’ll just go and check that for yourself“
AAAAAAAAAAGHHHHHHH!!!!!!! No! it’s NOT “YOURSELF” !! The grammatically correct term is ‘I’ll just go and check that for YOU’
Why do people in companies insist on using the word ‘yourself’ because they think it sounds more polite and smarmy, when in fact it just makes them sound like an absolute TW4T!?

here you go read this:
http://www.parktool.com/repair/readhowto.asp?id=127

Unless you can walk in & see what you want (& it’s on offer), don’t bother

nail on head.
I only ever go in there as they are sometimes ok just for that, but don’t ever expect anything more than that.

Seriously though, instead of thinking about the impact *kids* have on riding time, what about the impact simply having an ‘other half’ has on riding time?
I wonder how people who have recently got together with someone but don’t have kids yet rate their riding time compared to what it was when they were single.

I propose that in the interests of securing more riding time all parents of kids look towards eating their kids as soon as possible.
This could be made legal on the grounds of easing the credit crunch.

Don’t know what they’re like for ordering on line, but for people in sheffield can I urge you to try langsett cycles on infirmary road – I’ve always had good service from them.
They haven’t got the 4 week waiting list for workshop jobs that JE James have got as well.

BoardinBob – Member

At least JE James don’t show the stuff in stock once you click on the item, but it’s still a pain in the arse

ah – but even that’s wrong.
If the info that you get when you click on it says it is / is not in stock, that bears no relation to whether they have actually got it in stock. Plus, they have stuff in the shop that isn’t on the website at all.

£400 was how much mine was.

Does anybody else share my view that when you buy something online where you don’t know EXACTLY what model you want, you end up getting just too much choice – whereas if you go to a bike shop they’ve only got one or two but which are perfectly good for what you want?

they don’t even know what they’ve got if you ring them up.
I asked about some stuff the other day “er, well we’re showing…”
er… I didn’t ask what you’re showing. I asked what you’ve GOT.
GO and have a look. If you can’t be bothered to do that then you won’t be making a sale will you.

There’s only trails in specific places, but there’s roads all over the place
You go faster
You go further thus see more countryside
It’s more of a ‘constant on’ so the endorphin rush at the end of a ride is greater, even if it may not have the same fun aspect
A good down hill on the road really does feel like a good downhill

i switched to a 12-28 and find it a lot better, the way I see it:
* i’m never going to be using 22×34 – it’s ludicrous gear and as somebody else said you’ll still only be going at the speed of a cat if you’re spinning wildly
* 36×28 is fine on the flat so i’m certainly still never going to need the less than that downhill, probably won’t even need that
* and 22×12 is high enough for flattening off climbs
* so i can just use the granny ring on climbs and the big ring on descents.
previously, with 11-32 or 11-34 the granny ring just wouldn’t get used so I didn’t have as close ratios as I could have had (have now got)

I’ve got one and i’ll be in shef on sat, quite happy to pop round with it
that any good?
whereabouts in shef?
send email ‘cos i might not see this thread.

isn’t cwm carn nearby there?

my headset press has got ‘stepped’ things

like in this picture,

but if I am understanding you right by “flat plates”, I need to use the stepped things the other way round to what they are in that pic?
i.e. so that the NON-stepped end presses against the headset cup?

or by “flat plates” do you mean the little washer type things that also come with the headset press (that i have never so far used – albeit only ever to install semi-integrated headset cups which don’t contain the bearings)

i’m sure it’ll be fine, i have installed a CK before using a botched together headset press – a length of threaded bar and some big washers from b&q, it was a bit shite as the cups started off wonky but straightened themselves out, but that was on a bike that i decided i didn’t like and sold fairly soon after, so no idea how it lasted…
but if i can make it easier for myself by understanding how you’ve done it all the better.

ok thanks. so you want to use the press in such a way that it presses on the very outside bit, the raised ring – rather than the silver internal bit, yes?

get michelin pro race 3s

if it was me it would be (2), but that’s because I wouldn’t have bought (1) in the first place, the fact that you have done indicates that you like that style of riding…

or swissstop green

as long as you dont’ get ones intended for campag, they should fit.

so basically, a single pivot is simpler and therefore fewer bearings to wear out, the trade off being that it allegedly suffers from brake jack/pedal bob but whether that’s true/noticeable is debatable
?

what’s the relative advantages and disadvantages of the design like the orange five, santa cruz heckler (single pivot, is it called?) over the 4–bar linkage system like the cove hustler, kona coilair?

NOWHERE does as good coffee as braggazzis on abbeydale road

It may help if you mentioned what frame it is

sorry, it’s a canyon nerve ES 5.

Honestly – i’d get you’re local bike shop to do it. They can fit the right bearings without damaging your frame – my local shop fits them for free if you buy the bearings from them.

yeah, I am seriously thinking of doing that. It’s not the cost that i’m bothered about it’s the fact that my normal bike shop JE james has got a FOUR WEEK waiting list, and i bet only one day’s worth of all that is stuff that is more than elementary for folk like us.
there’s another one that’s not open on sunday so i’m already going to have to miss an audax i was going to do on saturday in order to go there.
And then i’ve got the fact that they might still say they can’t do it yet.
I suppose it’s the worst time of the year for bike servicing, as all the fair weather bumblers are digging their hybrids out of the garage where they’ve been all winter and finding the gears don’t work. :roll:
If anyone knows any bike shops in the north of england that can do this sort of work that haven’t got a waiting list let me know…moon on a stick yeah yeah i know. but still worth asking

Only problem I’ve had is serious brake judder on the front

i sometimes get that and it’s always ‘cos the pads need replacing

However wise or not it is to LET him go out on his own, he’ll no doubt be more capable of dealing with a future experience based on his experience of today’s.
He’ll have learnt (hopefully) that there’s some times where no matter what you do you have to abandon a ride, and how best to perform the abandonment.
In future, make sure he (a) always takes his mobile with him and that it’s charged, (b) learns about limit screws.

ah nice, i’ve got pikes on mine aswell. like the red wheels!

i had that problem with a2z brake pads
going to try ssc instead

what’s the bit up from north america ruins like
when i’ve been up there (not recently) it was a quagmire, but then the descent from mickleden edge to langsett was brilliant.
Would be a great ride if you didn’t have that, as otherwise you either have to ride the length of mortimer road with its 1 in4s and 1 in 5s or go back the same way you came.

there’s been a major virus recently – might not have been that, but you could blame it anyway.

I’ve used the A2Z pads for years, and not only have I not had a problem with them, they’re by far the best pads I’ve used in terms of combination of stopping power and longevity! And that’s including several trips to the Alps using these pads, where I was getting the brakes stinking hot.

I buy em from the Woolly Hat Shop, about £7 for a pair of pads.

Not that any of this helps you out, sorry! Might be worth asking for a refund or some replacement pads for free though…
i’ve sent an email to dotbike expressing my dissatisfaction…