A whole internet full of bike people and nobody knows or has previously fitted a banjo connection to an avid lever…. 😉

Current hose exits like this

I’ve been using Swarfega Jizer for the last few years, its about £7/litre, has the same sort of liquidity as muc off etc, but a lot more potent; yet strong enough to degrease a chain easily without ruining your paint.

Its also water soluble. And a litre bottle has done me about 18 months

If you can find one. SUBARU LEGACY BOXER DIESEL!
find one, try it, chances are you’ll like it, they are pretty sweet but they are few and far between and hold their value annoyingly well

Mazda 6 diesel is what I was going to get, but I know several people who have had endless issues with DPF, engine management etc. Rest of them are great though!

V70 D5 (pick any, though my ideal would be a P2 Euro iv D5 manual), the original and best modern estate going.

Had an I40 as a hire car recently, around town and rural roads I was actually very surprised by it, almost liked it, but driving long distance was a chore, seats are pretty cheap, steering is too light & vague etc.

Recent vectra & insignia estates are worth a look if you get the chance, they have absolutely nothing to do with the old vectra’s and cavaliers of old.

I see so many peeps out there with pish weak rear lights, yes kudo’s, you’ve got a rear light and it works, but so dimm/batteries depleted that the charging light on a phone would be brighter.

afterwards lube all your nipples with Gt85 or a penetrating oil like PlusGas to prevent seizing

Valve hole is the largest hole in the rim right? Take off any valve extenders and retaining nuts, put valve hole down stacked up on top of a radiator (drop the pressure to <80psi) and leave em for a few days, it’ll come out eventually

Actually amazing!

Take a good few sets of disc pads, get mudguards,go SS/fixed/ fat tyres, the whole skinny tyres sinking in and finding grip… erm… no.

Take a van or big tent that you don’t mind getting minging, and lots of changes of cloths.

waterproof boots + gaitors are required for survival.

make sure your drivechain is new or nearly new, no dodgy joining links etc.

I think the best weather is prob 0>-5c Cold enough to keep the mud frozen but not so cold you loose toes

1st photo just looks like a run in the anodizing or a flaw in the metal tube before the process – wouldn’t worry

2nd photo – top bush is either dry, not seated correctly or becoming loose – seek replacements

The latest ultegra are like the current DA, with the triple (?) pull system, they are pretty awesome, think you need the right STI lever to pull them though or they might feel a bit weird/ not function 100%

The gen of ult that has just gone out with the standard dual pulls, I think the metal casting is similar between 105 and ult, but its maybe a different alloy? Biggest difference is the pivot has more machined components in it vs. 105 has a few washers, and they have a nicer finish.

105 > tiagra there is less difference. Although as a rule of thumb, tiagra is like old 105, 105 is like old ult, ult is like old DA etc. The technology trickles down, but they cut the cost by using cheaper materials, finish, and removing machined components and substituting off the shelf parts etc.

SLX rings used to same inner ring as deore, but with an XT ‘like’ outer resin/aluminium outer ring. No where near £35 though, inner ring retails for like £9-12 and outer prob about £25 or whatever between deore/xt prices.

Occasionally when they can be arsed they build a good wheel.

But thats it, I’m not going to bore you with my personal experiences or people I know who have made the fatal mistake of using them, just avoid.

Others for the list..
Foffa bikes
Velodrome shop

Just watch the rear hub spacing (OLN) as the more recent stumpies have 142mm which is great, but pretty much the only hub worth a damn that fits in there is a hope evo, all £140 worth of it.

Bite point is quite broad on current gen Deore/XT/SLX, you can adjust it out of them a bit on the XT’s with the tiny BPA on the side of the reservoir.
Or if thats not making the difference you want, then yes, you can over fill the reservoir (and bleed the hell out of them) and you’ll reduce the bite point a fair bit.
On the whole though, seriously good brake, once you’ve initially cut hoses, bled, set them up, 98% chance you’ll never have to touch them again, and they feel great.

That looks too close to me, the chain won’t actually be touching, but as soon as it picks up any dirt/ mud it will be grinding it against the paint? Amaright?

Also with production frames there is a lot of carbon down that end of the frame, I’ve seen fairly high end road bikes with 4-5mm deep gouges missing out of them at base of the d/t and/or chainstay and been ridden on the local rough as you like roads by people who abuse them without problem.

most decent shops sell little sachets of TACX carbon paste for about 75p a hit, its enough to do an aero post with some left over.

Mother India opposite kelvinhall museum is one of the best I have been t in the country PERIOD. Most days there is a que out of the door for takeaway and sit-in, even when its raining, cos its that damn good.

If you want to sit inside and wait, then Chilli’s on Woodland’s is also good, their peshwari naan is the best I’ve ever had.

Yeah just squish the sides of the cage in with some mole grips unless its some pro as funk campag carbon job.
the difference in width is 0.2mm (don’t quote me) between 9 & 10 speed.

x17’s are a narrow xc duty type rim, 2″ is about the max size you should really have on those
x19’s about 2.1 or 2.3 from some manufacturers you’ll be fine.
x21’s allow you to go upto more like 2.4 -2.5

I run 2.4″ fat alberts on mavic 321s and TBH, the rims are just a tad narrow for that size tyre, I’ve rolled the rear one of the rim a few times now (when running less than 25psi)

At polo a few weeks back my mate snapped his seatbolt clamp, mmmm I wonder what else is on a bike that we could salvage that would allow him to play?!

I know, rear v-brake pad! Fitted right in, perfect length, and the shoulder on the bolt sat just so against the frame tab. He kept it on for a few weeks, easy tool free seatpost adjustment innit!

https://vimeo.com/60913289
Seen here in action @ 0.51

what happened to the lifetime warranty? All Marins/Whytes used to have them, now its just 2 years? Lame move I think.

Do it, you’ll love it.

My commuting has been on and off for years (living rural where distancs are just too great for regular bike commuting, 22 miles each way and a lot of ups & downs), but when I moved to a city I have almost completly ditched my car*

**the fact its borderline broken and I need to spend £k on it to get it to a decent condition again is part of that. Also parking in the city is a total ballache, money and finding a space wise.
Driving to work (3 miles) 20-60minutes depending on traffic & parking situation
Riding to work (1 mile less as no gyratorys) 12 minutes, except if I miss the first set of lights, in which case 14 minutes, never ever takes longer***

***Also you know when you get to work, you make a cup of tea/coffee/bovril and around 9.45 you sort of bonk into your desk, yeah? I don’t get that when I ride to work.

Only ideal way to fix that is to replace the tube, nothing else is really that satisfactory, esp when it comes to the front end/headtube joints, defo don’t want anything ever failing on you there, vs. a chainstay/dropout breakage isn’t going to pitch you into the ground.

I’d say if you can pick up another frame for around £200-300 then thats probably about the same price as getting another tube put in, though always worth getting pics and emails to Ti frame builders for a quote :p

You can sometimes find late (2007-2010) manitou minutes 1.0 (the top one?) new old stock in shops for pennies, the ones with SPV, intrinsic or CID damping are amazing if a little flexible, but then if its weight over anything else, thats what you pay for.

THe other obvious choice is current SID’s, again been around a while now but they are damn good, go for dual air if poss as gives you more adjustment, the LATEST solo air’s are great, but last years just blow up on you on the first ride or never, I think there was an assembly problem with some of them.

Yes they are longer!
Rode a spesh camber fsr, only about 100mm of travel but it felt about 9′ long, also trying to get it in and out of car was a pigging nightmare.

erm no, they have to withstand a drop from the back of an artic truck, which is where they are normally thrown off from.

The only non crap (superstar seized after 2 rides in the dry, replacement one collapsed on the drive side within a few more summer rides) ext BB I’ve had that failed prematurely was a shimano XT, an early one about 2006 or so? The drive side went within a few months from new.

Last one I fitted in about 2009, just a basic £12.50 deore and thats been spinning fine ever since, however I basically do not wash my bike anymore, only drive chain & stanchions, everything else stays manky to avoid unwanted water ingress, bikes also live in the house next to a radiator all the time.

We went there yesterday, sort of thought there would be snow and read the rangers report, but still went regardless.

Alarm bells should have been ringing when the car park on an easter sunday had all of about 15 cars in it!!

The snow started almost straight away, but was only 1-2″ and well compacted & grippy until the other colours split away leaving just the red. To begin with it was fine & enjoyable, looked like a few hundred bikes had been through, but as we made our way up the climbs it got deeper and more lethal, one person dropped out after it took us all about 10 minutes to navigate down 1x 100m ice chute, which was probably the wise choice!.

The rest of us carried on regardless, the trails became less and less well trodden until it looked like there had been maybe only 2 or 3 bikes through before us since it had last snowed. ANd the snow was in the 5-10″ range.

Very hard going, and took us 4.5hrs to get around the red. But spooky woods (and esp the bit below it) was still very good, lots of almost fully flat on the ground (and sometimes on th ground…) cornering going on, but crashing was fun & comfortable.

Would suggest its going to be worse as more people ride teh upper sections turning them to ice chutes until it melts fully (maybe 3-5 days from now?)

We went there yesterday, sort of thought there would be snow and read the rangers report, but still went regardless.

Alarm bells should have been ringing when the car park on an easter sunday had all of about 15 cars in it!!

The snow started almost straight away, but was only 1-2″ and well compacted & grippy until the other colours split away leaving just the red. To begin with it was fine & enjoyable, looked like a few hundred bikes had been through, but as we made our way up the climbs it got deeper and more lethal, one person dropped out after it took us all about 10 minutes to navigate down 1x 100m ice chute, which was probably the wise choice!.

The rest of us carried on regardless, the trails became less and less well trodden until it looked like there had been maybe only 2 or 3 bikes through before us since it had last snowed. ANd the snow was in the 5-10″ range.

Very hard going, and took us 4.5hrs to get around the red. But spooky woods (and esp the bit below it) was still very good, lots of almost fully flat on the ground (and sometimes on th ground…) cornering going on, but crashing was fun & comfortable.

Would suggest its going to be worse as more people ride teh upper sections turning them to ice chutes until it melts fully (maybe 3-5 days from now?)

Safely? You probably want to avoid the current Yeti carbon full sussers then, they break when you take them out of the box #pureshite

Yeah I just dumped £175 on getting my bust 200×51 rp23 regassed and new air can, literally 3 weeks ago after holding off for 6months hoping a mega deal like this would come up.

Bought one anyway, and it even comes with teh right bushs for my marin and high volume can (a must on any 6″+ bike), will keep it as a spare, as even a basic regass at mojo is the same price as the shock I’ve just bought.

I use a Lezyne one, used a few cans over the past 6 month, and the last few have had enough for two tyres, so locked them off and then shoved back in bag just to be finished off when needed, never leaked that I could tell. Think it was £14 with 1x can, takes the cheap break seal variety.

I work in a bike shop in the city, will get the guys to keep eyes peeled. We don’t often have scallies trying to sell us bikes, but we do get every now and then scallies wanting us to fix possibly stolen bikes.

I think there is a website called ‘bikeshed’ or something like that, which is google searchable, so if you put ‘green kona stolen glasgow’ in google it will come right up with it. That website has helped us nab back a few bikes in the last 3 months, get it done!

Also worth ringing every bike shop in & around town (as far as paisley/stirling), there are maybe 12? Might take you an hour, but if someone goes into one of those shops with it, then you stand a high chance of getting it back.

toilet roll or piece of rolled up cardboard is what £2k+ frames come jammed in them.

a log

jekkyl – Member
Don’t stay at the bunkhouse in rookhope, the old lady that owns it is as mad as a box of frogs and there are 2 cockerels on site. Also she tried to rob me of a fiver.

+1 and the guy is just as creepy. The first buidling as you enter the village from the west side of the country? We had to rescue two girls we’d met from there as the guy just would not leave them alone. Weird as folk.

Also why are you aiming to finish in Sunderland? Its the fourth most depressing place in England. I lost 5 years of my life to that place, and the finish, the last 10 miles or so from the junction where it splits off to Newcastle or Sunderland should have taken about 45 minutes, instead took 3 hours, so many punctures, so many wrong turnings (stolen signs and pikies ON the track), eventually got to the finish post, stank of piss, nearly stood in a giant human poo right next to the post, then on the way back to the joke of a train station one entrance was closed so missed the last sunday train back to civilisation (for 2 hours), missed connecting train, cost a fortune, epic **** up.
DO NOT GO TO SUNDERLAND YOU WILL NOT LEAVE ALIVE***

***albeit the last 10 miles through north shields & Wallsend is just about as grim, and the finish post on Tynemouth harbour wall also stinks of piss.

The price of chainrings.