Gatorskin is the ‘compromise’ tyre for me – cost, life, grip, weight are all OK. Tried a hardshell, but it’s no more puncture resistant, and I don’t tend to cut the sidewall, so prob won’t bother again.

GP 4Seasons will prob be grippier, roll better and cost a bit more (not looked at your links for the CRC prices).

Might be worth adding GP4000s to your list as well.

Almost certainly OK then in that respect.

Stumpy01 – you’re not my mate Steve are you? Going into his garage is like stepping into an Aladdin’s cave – RC cars (old and new), planes, gliders, helis just because he can afford them now. He’s currently building his son a scale electric Land Rover….

….I’d also worry about whether your brand new cassette will work with a part-worn drivetrain, and how often you will use each cassette/will it all wear evenly together. New cassette/rings with an old chain will, potentially, skip like crazy.

Do Fords still feel taught at high mileage or do they feel a bit baggy? Our old Corolla feels better than my Astras used to after three years/45000.

Well, I don’t know if this is representative, but currently selling an 06/74000 mile Focus and test drove an 09/8000 miler Focus and there was very little to choose between the two (call that lack of baggy-ness or lack of development on Ford’s part – yoit’s up to you! 😉

Should I just ignore all petrol cars and focus on diesel or is it still an open race?

Can you afford the ‘diesel tax’ over the length of time and mileage you own it? I wanted diesel this time, but for the extra £1000/£1500 that I’d need to pay for the same spec car, it doesn’t make much sense for my low annual milage/short ownership cycle. Will very much depend how your figures stack up though to answer this.

If Marko can’t help you out, call Karl at http://www.procastconcrete.co.uk/ They make concrete posts/gravel boards and supply the local trade – he should be able to recommend someone. Top bloke.

capacious second hand car that costs buttons and will eat miles?

I think you can have two out of those three if your ‘…costs…’ means ‘…,overall, costs…’

Ui2? You mean Ultegra Di2? The D in Di2 stands for Digital not Dura Ace – Digital Integrated Intelligence

yes, yes – I know… and I know you know…. but it’s such an f’ing mouthful and you knew what I meant. Rightly or wrongly, now the mags have started calling it Ui2, I think the war has been lost!

I hope that Campag do get their electronic group out, from what I have read it has some features that the Shimano system does not have. It would force Shimano to react and make an already impressive system even better.

That is true – the CyclingNews speculation review said as much…. but how long do we have to wait? Will Shimano have done a 105 release before that happens? I’m waiting for Ultegra to arrive and will probably take the plunge. <blows raspberry in Campags direction>

What he said ^^^^^ – either it’s uneconomic to make, it’s not as good as Di2, or they’ve pulled apart Di2 and are still refining their system based on what they’ve found. Whatever, Shimano have stolen a march in being first (and second, with ‘Ui2’) to market and the Campag equivalent will cost a fortune if it ever breaks cover.

<….joins queue….> 😆

Let him lead you, don’t push it. You have to be prepared to do it as much as them – dealing with the dirty clothes etc. Top tip – carry spare shoes as well as clothes. Be prepared to stop and try again if it’s really not working, they’re all different. If he’s at nursery, ask them if he’s showing interest there.

Waited and waited and waited with our daughter from her first showing an interest in ‘the big toilet’ to having a go. In the end she was 24 months, but then it was a done-deal within a week.

Haven’t we done this before?…… ah, there ya go…..

http://www.singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/so-looks-like-im-going-to-work-in-western-australia-perth-or-broome

Dauphinoise potatoes, with extra garlic.

Stop it….. hungry now…… 😐

Got about halfway through last night, will finish it tonight. Lots of big names doing voice overs, the scenery was inspiring and very well filmed – the story is what I wanted though, and while it’s just starting to warm up I kinda felt it could have been cut to an hour. At 90 mins feels a bit bloated. Watching them try out the period kit was interesting and I’m a sucker for big mountain docs. 😉

Oh, and if TNF could have squeezed in any more logos, I would have called it a commercial!

….there is nowt more satisfying than splitting logs the manly way whilst wearing a check shirt!

….apart from Jengledow’s solution….

Leaving aside the chainsaw issue then…..

IME, grenades are just a PITA, even when working with free splitting wood. If you’ve been using this and and/or felling axe for splitting, then a decent maul will be a revelation (once you get your eye in).

Whisper it quietly, but the cheapo composite bonded handle jobs that B+Q do for ~£15/£20 are more than adequate for occasional use 😉

It seems a waste to buy a specific splitting maul when a large axe is always gonna be useful!

What are you using your large axe for? If you have a chainsaw for felling and sizing the logs and a maul for splitting, I can’t see how a felling axe will get more use than a maul? Splitting maul and a small hand axe for splitting kindling are all I use, hand tool wise (apart from log tongs, breaker bar, wedges, hammer for the wedges….. oh, the list goes on!!! 🙂

…actually, that’s a good Q – did they do the masking as well?

Ideally, I’d just like to drop off the frame, complete with its current shabby paint, tell them where to mask and come back a week later to pick up the shiney finished article.

Could do with some of the cable bosses moving/removing as well, but that’s another story……

Is it an optical illusion, or can you actually see the front mag wheel flexing in that top pic??

Top stuff fella – thanks 🙂

There and (bare with me on this….)….. in your photo, if you drew a line through the centre fo the dropuout on THE OTHER fork blade, through the centre of the mudguard eye on THE OTHER fork leg, then put an arros head on that line, it would be pointing to the corner I was talking about.

I don’t want to dragged into these details really – you’ve done a cracking ‘man-in-a-shed’ job, so lets wallow in this success and see how it goes, rather than decending into the usual STW bun fight!

Neil – that was done by ICS was it? How much, and did they know their onions when you handed then a frame?

Not at all – I am not convinced it is actually stiffer

It is – there is no way you could NOT increase the second moment of area of the section by doing what you’ve done – the question, more accurately, is by how much is one leg stiffer than the other, or (back to my original Q) is it enough to notice in the real world?

Possibly – but hopefully the carbon wrap along the length of the upper mount is spreading the stress – the mount is actually pulling it down the fork leg as well as away from it.

The corner is so tight on the inside edge of the upper bracket, you’re stress concentration on the surface is effecitvely geometric, rather than material driven. Just keep an eye on it, that’s all I was saying.

Chapeau Al – that’s pretty neat for a DIY job. I never said you couldn’t do it 😉 A couple of thoughts:

– One leg is now way stiffer than the other – do you notice this in the handling?
– Why put the mounts on the front (is it just to keep access to the mudguard eye?)? All the braking forces are putting your handywork into tension
– You’ve got a lovely stress concentration at the lower edge of the upper eye, where the fork section changes from very thick to very thin as it tapers toward the dropout. The caliper brace will add stiffness across the gap, but I’d keep an eye on this area as being the first place to give you problems (all else being equal).

Toys – Its an old alu Airbourne Carpe Diem 700c frame….. pretty sure it’s 7000 series alloy, but would need to check.

Yep, alu frame. Powder coating appeals for the durability and cost (its for a commuting frame, so the maximum durability I can achieve for the minimum cost!!!). Airport is a posibility, seem to be falling off the end of the M5 most weeks at the moment……

life is what happens while your busy making other plans…. or summin’….

Only reason I’d consider using them is that they are a stones-throw from my parents and, as I seem to be down there fairly regularly at the moment for family/work, if the price and quality was right it would be no hardship to use them, even though they’re ~70 miles from home, compared to the usual suspects around here!

I think there is something quite beautiful about wind turbines. Fantastic design aesthetically, imo

+2

The riding is the same 40 miles each day on mostly flat, mostly good roads, so discs would be overkill.

At the risk of kicking this can of worms around all over again, I do 30 miles a day and both of my road commuters use road BB7’s discs. Not going back to caliper brakes – discs make a lot of sense for dedicated commuter bike where dependability is the key.

One bike uses and old alu Airbourne Carpe Diem, spaced at 132.5mm, so it can stretch to 135mm or compress to 130mm. Been running 135mm disc hubs for years and years and has never been a problem for frame integrity, so don’t rule alu out.

If you went Hope for the hubs, could you change the axle from 130 to 135mm as you change frame?

this isn’t going to end well.

it’s already started badly.

Past performance is no guide to the future an’ all, but I do tend to agree….. 😆

D’ya know I’m actually torn when you put it like that – the ‘stealth black and silver’ detailing falls into the former category….. but overall it’s the latter (none taken… 😉

<speechless>……. 😯 ……. </speechless>

It’s actually pretty tidy on the outside (or, more accurately, scrubs up easily as I clean/polish it fairly regularly)…… it’s the inside that’s the real issue – a couple of years of young children/bikes/trips to the tip/DIY have not been kind. Nothing a good clean won’t cure, but it scares me just thinking about tackling it! 😉

Yeah, most places are quoting £5 a seat, on top of the basic, so £70 sounds about right.

Car has a second hand value of ~£3500, give or take. I need to sell it ASAP to make way for a new one, so will £70 a) repay itself in the resale value, compared to a DIY clean, b) simply mean it looks more presentable so sells faster or c) a bit of both?

‘….you would be looking at 30 quid minimum for a mobile one.

Lowest I’ve got so far is 50 for the basic inside-and-out job, hence £14 is appealing…. but I could also do with having the seats cleaned (not just hoovered) as well.

Shimano M183N shoes – experiences?

EDIT: Tooooooo sllllooooooowwwwwww 😉

Required standard is simply ‘clean and tidy’/save me a couple of hours of cleaning/hoovering/polishing….

The above notwithstanding, any mobile recommendations? – would obviously be easier if they came and did it at work (if the price is right 😉

OK – know where you are talking about. Thanks 🙂

£14 ?!?!? – you’ve sold me. Which bit of the A38/which pub?

Ta.