unseasoned wood & wood from evergreens (firs & forest parks!) coat your chimney (or chim liner) in a coke like material, which if heated hard enough (i.e. coal + wood burnup) will take off and threaten to burn your house down, or at least a decent chim fire.

I myself, do actually use a lot of sappy woods that are regularly only seasoned for 6 months (need more like 18-24 for really sappy woods), and burn coal. However, chim is swept beginning and mid point of every winter, and coal is burn’t in moderation with wood stacked on top (keeps it under control and ultimately you get more heat out of the load).

Acetylene generator possibly? Either for mining/portable light/car headlights or even home use.

You would need a way of putting rocks in the base, an internal water tank with a valve between them, and a hose connection for venting the gas off, if you have those things, then thats probably what it is.

A 7 year old carbonium frame that was prone to stress cracking (under BB yoke and extending down underside of chainstays)?

IF an OE frame, yeah £100 is probably fair. But having those Sworks written down the side prob makes it worth £200-250 F&F

But before buying any high end road (alu or carbon) frame/forks would want to see it stripped down, cleaned and thoroughly inspected under a decent lamp, as I value my face and collarbone.

sram PC1 nickel – £9 is best price you normally get them for and they last long enough for me to keep buying them (5000 miles of no washing/being covered in gloopy grease).

Brakes – TBH if you are in need of a spare, doesn’t matter whether its easy to get (in the UK) or a wait for hope to make in job, your still in the same boat i.e. in a desert with no hope of getting the part in less than 2-3 weeks. So knock yourself out, having discs & v’s at both ends pretty much covers all bases.
BB7’s are great when they work but a fiddly pain in the ass that you have to ‘adjust’ them every few hundred miles.

Shocks/forks. Coil good, air bad, for obvious reasons.

BB’s. I think I would like to meet you. Seriously. Had at least 3 people in last few months (who go on long international tours) come in and winge about how the cheapest BB in teh shop (£12 deore ht2) has *only* lasted 3000 miles/7 rough plane journeys/4 weeks of bog snorkling in columbia; and they would like a refund + free labour. Wheras you seem to have grasped the concept of you have to pay for a decent BB, and even then, you’ve thought about it, good on you!

Dyno hubs – there is a company who make pretty sweet ones, build quality equiv to hope bulb/pro2. And they have mechanically divorcable (right term?) magnets for zero drag when you don’t want them. Quite pricey at around £180 for the front hub, but if I was building a world tripping bike, that is what I would have on it. Also they have a decent quality invertor that fits inside the steerer tube with a IP rated USB port on the side of the stem cap. Awesome.

swarfega jizer. Dirty cheap, recyclable and its got a funny name. What more do you want!

But seriously, I use this stuff for just about everything. £20 buys you 5 litres (or more) of the stuff, which goes a hell of a lot faster than any bike dedicated/priced up product.

Safe enough on paint (wouldn’t leave it alone eating away at your bike though), and washs off with a hosepipe. Also ecologically sound.

I use it in £5 ebay chain cleaning device and its amaze balls.

Same as old maza stuff is still going, vs new stuff the bush’s are made of Edam.

They seem to have a reasonable write up, though obviously they are not a high quality welder they will do odd jobs that don’t involve finesse or huge numbers of sticks to be thrown down.

I thought about buying one to put new track ends on a very old (and crap) gas pipe road frame as even at £40 they are cheaper than hiring a better welder for just one day. But discovered I really need to braze it to do it properly.

araldite and duck tape.

I went there about a month ago, and felt lost. You no longer park right at the bottom by the road but instead a few hundred metres up.

They now have AMAZING shower/toilet/bike wash facilities, and then a bike shop of some kind (never went in) to fix all the bearings you’ve just wrecked with the pressure washer.
Theres also a cafe, but it looked a little bit too Kew Gardens to me so didn’t bother.

joat has summed up the issue in one simple paragraph and is exactly right. The natural instinct is jam your foot in it when faced with blue flashing lights! Its only human nature.

FTFY

Sometimes you can buy them seperately from mftr, other times your LBS might just have something that will fit floating about*

https://maps.google.co.uk/maps?q=gatehouse+of+fleet&ll=54.957364,-4.231281&spn=0.031393,0.055189&hnear=Gatehouse+of+Fleet,+Dumfries+and+Galloway,+United+Kingdom&gl=uk&t=h&z=14

Thats teh viaduct, head north and towards the resivoirs if you want peace and quiet.

https://maps.google.co.uk/maps?q=gatehouse+of+fleet&ll=54.913971,-4.280033&spn=0.031427,0.055189&hnear=Gatehouse+of+Fleet,+Dumfries+and+Galloway,+United+Kingdom&gl=uk&t=h&z=14
On that route there is a small mountain road out of gatehouse, over the top turn left and there is a rough gravel track upto a transmitter which has good views and then a good descent.

https://maps.google.co.uk/maps?q=gatehouse+of+fleet&ll=54.863605,-4.177938&spn=0.007867,0.013797&hnear=Gatehouse+of+Fleet,+Dumfries+and+Galloway,+United+Kingdom&gl=uk&t=h&z=16
Somewhere in here are bombholes and fun times, mostly swampy though IIRC

Theres a forest literally 2 miles north of Gatehouse, once your into it, head north west and theres an old railway line, it heads off in the direction of Moffat. Huge viaduct up there, and loads of old damns and interesting stuff.
Riding isn’t amaze balls, mostly just very quiet overgrown forest track, but its quite scenic and the viaduct is fun to play on.

Also theres a country house estate within Gatehouse (between the town and straddling the main road) which has waymarked trails in it, its always quiet and once your under the main road (between road and the beach) you generally have the place to yourself. I think there was an area of bombholes which make for hours of jumping chaos if the mood takes you.

I thought high rollers were a summer hardpack tyre?

on one have some very good deals on new (Italian?) frames of some sort, they look pretty good at the price (300). The put some WoundUps or Alpine carbon forks on it and your away.

Also used Ti goes for around £350-600 with a carbon fork attached, and likely a headset in-between for good measure.

They are generally very good, in like 12 years of being around bike shops and as a consumer only had one bad experience (i.e. they wouldn’t do the job under warranty even though they had done a previous job/same item without issue, was a different tech therefore slightly different outcome). However, yeah, been happy with them since, and generally very very quick too.

I think the real reason Fox went to a different coating (and made it bright cold to make a visual differential), is the shocking rate of wear on most of their forks stanchions (unless you do an oil & seal service every 15 hours or something ridiculous).

So being an american company, and terrified of the possibility of lawsuit, instead of admitting fault, they have introduced an ‘upgrade’ to the standard coating pitching it as the answer to all problems.

To begin with I was skeptical, and unless you don’;t get the gist of my argument, I still am. However fox have proved that *most* people buy based on how bling and shiny something is rather than a genuine performance advantage, SO, when it comes to buying a new shock or fork (or having a shock/fork serviced) and you have the option to go for the Kashima for a small £££ increase, then I would go for it….
reasons being..
1) It IS an upgrade in terms of wear charactertics, or at least so far I’ve seen far less (younger than) 1 year old fox forks landing in the shop in a state of buggered’ness due to anodising wearing through
2) THey hold their value better as there is always a higher demand for shiny gold bling stuff than normal stuff.

So yes, damper/model choice I would say is more important for actual use. However Kashima does offer a benefit in terms of wearing better and holding the resale value up.

Also CTD, I sort of get it, however I am an expert knob twiddler and am above having my damping choices made by a pre-tuned damping knob.

Difference in chainring width is tiny, something like 9speed is 1.8mm, and 10speed is 1.65mm
It will still shift just about as well (you have to be German to appreciate the difference) but might wear slightly faster than a dedicated 9 speed.

Another name to avoid (for general road use) is american classics, bearings in them are so tiny and pathetic they only last 2k miles absolute tops. Great for race day and special occasions but not general use.

Most mavic’s are built to be used, and you can get the parts for them upto (I think) 8 years from their new year (i.e. 2010 was the last year for 2002 drive side spokes in yellow etc) and they are fairly sensibly priced, unlike shimano. Tried to order a freehub for an XTR wheel the other day, was an M960 (so not ancient) and the cost was about 7x that of the next tier (XT) at a staggering £120. Wasn’t even tightanium or carbonium. Pathetic.

Take the collar off, clean it out and examine the slot, make sure its the same width from top to bottom. If its narrower (even 0.5mm is enough for fail) at the top then the right seat post will never fit, gently open it up with a large steel bar.

calling Brant, have any 30.9 straight carbon seatposts floating about behind the sofa that need sold off? :p

Theres an ebay company (do car/mbike shock tuning) who did me a price on an RP23 BV + new air body + new XV air can for £105 all in delivered. Which is about £90 less than mojo (who coincidentally IMO have gone right downhill in recent years, still good and honest, but not as good as they should be when flying the Fox banner in the UK).

Avid Elixir brakes are freaking utter total bollocks*

*to bleed.
In actual operation, the higher end ones are actually very nice to use and functional.

I spend a MAX of 40 minutes on each caliper, then give up and send them to SRAM/AVID service centre (who are total legends) as usually its the resivour thats buggered or if they are fitted on a new bike they just sort them anyway.

I had one guy who had ridden his bike for all of two rides within the first 4 weeks of ownership, his brake had around 3 hours of us trying to bleed it followed by 2 attempts by the service centre, and then it was still utter bollocks and (even reach adjusted ALL the way out) I could easily pull it to the bar with one finger.

Current gen shimano deore/slx/xt are amaze balls, ditch the avids and buy a brake that actually works reliably.

from an engineering point of view (on my 2005 ish HL job), bushs are much better than ball bearings, even full compliment or needle bearings for the job of rear suspension.
Put it this way, if you ride it for 5 years, you’ll have saved your self at least 2 sets of conventional bearings (£160 inc labour for a spesh FSR, or about £450 for one of the new Yetis LMFAO), so they are pretty good value really, in the long run, at least thats what you tell the misses

+1. Clean and lube makes things last longer.

If your chain ever corrodes you can knock a fair bit off its life expectancy

I run 3 chains, and would expect a year out of that, so maybe 3k for the lot. Though if you just run one chain then 1500 Max and then have to change everything.

Also people piss me off with getting skipping and slipping mixed up.

Road bike – bob Jackson messina 1973
Mountain bike – Marin attack trail 2007

Do I win some of prize? Also have a 50s bsa bit don’t really ride it so doesn’t count no?

I lost one of mine today in local woods, cue entire extended family searching for dog with doggy dementia who occasionally goes on the bend and dissapears for hours. Soaked and fed up an hour later he wonders out of the woods towards me and isn’t even slightly bothered, little git!

I need a 30.9 crab on fibreseat post, any deals going?

JIZER

If I had option between equiv spesh/trek/giant (tarmac/madone/tcr), it would probably be the TCR with ultegra mechanical on it, really good value, very ‘direct’ frame. The defy composite frame is OK but much softer feeling and very high at the front end (found myself slamming stem and flipping it and still not being very happy with it, but more comfy).

Notes of caution, chains, giant does not warranty chains no matter what your sob story is. If it has an ultegra chain on it (or any POS shimano chain) get the shop to exchange it for anything from KMC/SRAM/CONNE before its too late, am not even joking, I see at least 3 ultegra chains snap/go in the bin a week vs. KMC/SRAM ZERO in the bin (unless worn).

Also to ‘maintain’ the warranty with FOX you have to service them at a registered service centre every 15, yes, FIFTH-TEEN hours of riding (thats every weekend in most peoples books!). The Kashima coated ones are slightly more durable from what I’ve seen

serving cost is REALLY worth looking into properly.

Can’t speak for rockshox, but most LBS can do oil/seal service for about £50
fox we do for about £40 for oil & seal, but ifyou need bushs or anything else weird done then off to mojo and with bushs you won’t see change from £150.
Marzocchi, windwave do themselvs for like £65 inc bushs I think it is, maybe £80 inc the return postage which is hella cheap IMO.

taxi co’s get them 20 at a time for approx £12k for the base saloon with the older 1.9 PD130 lump in them, its what I’ve heard, so yeah, for that price CANNOT go wrong. But, there are nicer more refined motors out there obviously.
Mazda 5 (?) estates with the 2.0 and 2.2 diesels are pretty good if you want an alternative tot he germans.

get a boris bike 1 week pass or whatver they do these days.

I was v.lucky, I found a random spare ‘boris key’ left in a stand right outside the station I arrive in London some point in 2009/2010 just after the scheme was launched. Must be a press key or something as I have used it ever since trouble free, probably dumped a few hundred ££ of multi hour charges on it, yet it still keeps on working. Freaking A 😀

float fluid, judy butter, manitou prep m, motorex open bath oil & brunox are worth having on hand.
Or even just some silicon spray or oil once in a few months to rehydrate the dust seals, but don’t go crazy as it reacts with the open bath oil & fork greases.

Use a dedicated fork oil or grease. Many people have their own way of doing things, but personally (as a workshop spanner)….

I clean everything, then drop lowers off (whole bike in stand, CBA dismantling headset that often), rake out all th oil, check for damage to seals and wear on bushs etc. Take out damper carts (if sealed ones), and hand test, if any play in them, then replace oil and/or bleed them till they are sweet again. Replace carts, clean out lowers with compressed air, lube dust seals/stanchion oil seals with fox float fluid, and the foam ring with fresh open bath oil. Put back together, fill with open bath oil, torque up the bolts, done.

Do that maybe every 3months, and replace the oil/dust seals/foam rings/moving part O rings (damper cart seals/air piston rings etc) about once a year.

Little and often is the way to avoid needing a new fork. Even a garden hose has enough power to push water past your seals and emulsify the oils within causing wear etc.

A geezer brought a bike with £800 fox forks on today, about 2 years old, never serviced, and they are a borderline right off, only thing worth a damn is the lowers and the damper cart, everything else is ****, repair bill is about half of that of a new fork. Vs. a regular oil & seal change every 3 months even at shop prices is only £40 all in, so yeah, little and often.

When my feet get cold (dog chewed my expensive overshoes) I just do a set of squeezes. At teh top of each crank stroke I scrunch my feet up inside the shoe and release on the down stroke, do it for 25 rep’s, then 25 off, then 25 on again. If you feet aren’t warm and happy again then your not doing it right.

Depends where you aim to end up at, but anywhere in Europe and no matter what the problem you are only 24-48hours wait for a parcel of parts to turn up at a given address so I wouldn’t declare discs or 29ers etc out of the running.

personally a Surly Troll or Ogre, 29er MTB hardtail thing, but with an 11spd alfine + any formula or shimano deore style hydraulic disc + beefy wheels on quality (but loose ball) QR or nutted hubs and your cooking. They are pretty cheap too, about £350 generally for most Surly frames, they have all the braze ons you can shake a stick at, and the warranty back up in the UK is second to none as well.

Thorn obviously make nice stuff, but heard many say their recent offerings aren’t quite as ‘up there’ as their 80s and 90s stuff, and the price, best part of a grand or more for an off the shelf steel frame is a bit £££ for most!