Pretty sure the Wiggle ones have all gone now, last time I looked. They were a no-brainer at that price (shame, what with a Gold discount, BC click-through discount and £15-off-over-£100 deal they may have had to pay me!). Cheapest I can see at the mo is about £60 per wheel from CRC

kcr – thanks – my last experience fo BB7's on an MTB involved swearing at that the red plastic inboard adjuster for just the reason you describe. Glad to hear that area of the design has changed….

druidh – useful stuff. Pretty much confirms what I thought. Review of the Amazon when you've built it please….. it's top of my wish list to replace the Carpe Diem when it eventually dies (though that doesn't appear to be anytime soon sadly/fortunately….)

Currently running 700c disc-only P2's (cheap and bombproof, but very harsh and they look a bit wierd as the frame needs a fork with an integrated crown really), but am going to swap to the new Kinesis DC19 soon as these seem to do exactly what I want at a reasonable price and will make fitting the mudguard stays a whole lot neater with the discs.

Oooo – something new. Will have a look- ta.

Edit: http://www.bikeforums.net/archive/index.php/t-496235.html

A sample of 1 user I grant you, but he's less than impressed. As he says, they do look pretty and a 140mm rotor may be all I need. £40 per wheel is attractive as well. How do you find them Funkynick?

Thanks HH – all good stuff. The words 'heavy' and 'underpowered' seem to come up alot in relation to the R505's….. currently leaning towards the 2010 BB7's in ano black which, as an added bonus, would match the rest of the finishing kit!

http://www.singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/chimmney-liners

precisely zero chance

With tongue wedged firmly in cheek, I would ask you to produce some evidence of that statement!! ;-) I'm pretty sure my crystal ball is as good as yours and I can't tell which way I'm going to ride home tonight, let alone what will happen many years down the line.

EDIT: Actually, look at the clock, time to find out which way the wind takes me….

TJ – IIRC the inclusion of parts of Sharia law in the UK judicial system came up as recently as last Feb.

Paraphrasing a few archived pages from the BBC website, it was postulated that as the prevalence of Muslim communities practising and abiding by Sharia law in their own community grows, to the exclusion of the UK judicial system, it would be better to include some of it within UK law. The aforementioned 'weirdy beirdy one' (Rowan Williams) chipped in that this was an afront to the majorities common national values (whatever they are)and in doing so not only opened the can of worms, but proceeded to drop kick it in an effort that one J Wilkonson would be proud of. Being clearly a political hot potato, the government had no real answer/was not prepared to make comment so the whole thing died on it's ar$e.

Therefore, there is evidence that the issue it out there, it's just resting for a while before the tabloids pick it up again.

Ours used to nod off prety much instantly with the dishwasher on in the background….. but I like Joe's idea….

Secure customer bike parking and access for bikes through the shop to the workshop is a good one. Those two really used to annoy me when I <cough> used to actually shop at a shop </cough>

I was going to suggest that if he specifically wants to drive and Aston, you might want to look into hiring one for a day and doing some miles on twisty roads in the middle of nowhere…. but it appears these things kick off at ~£300 a day…….

Looked interesting enough that I've recorded for a quiet moment in the future – encouraged by the positive review.

As said, building regs specify the requirement for hearth that the stove must be mounted on. You can bypass this, but you have to demonstrate the how much heat is conducted through your hearth material.

If you plan to use the existing gas vent pipe as your flue, er, don't it won't be up to the job.

There is recent thread on here discussing the flue pipe requirements….

Have used Photobox for canvas prints before – as others have said, came up slightly dark, but other than that was very happy. Turn-around can be slow when they are busy, so I'd check before ordering to see if it'll turn up before Xmas.

Got my tub from here http://www.mgocaccessories.co.uk/acatalog/MGOC_Accessories__Grease_176.html
Trust me when I say that, if you only use it for brake seals, this will be the only time you buy a tub in your lifetime!!! Came in a proper Castrol tub, but the photo doesn't appear to show that now….

Didn't know about the Wiggle discount! How do you claim that!?

Log into the BC website using your licence no and password. There's a portal there to take you through to Wiggle which automatically applies an extra discount.

Yeah, I keep forgetting to use it! There are click-through's to discounts on other (potentially less useful) stuff as well – it's not that well advertised….

He mentioned a 27.2 post – he could use 25.0, that'd give a *bit* more insert material to play with

That's true, but for the 'neat' fix, you are clamping the seatpost into the insert and then relying on the adhesive bond between the insert and the seat tube to take the riders weight on the saddle, plus any fore/aft or lateral loads….. if the OP is prepared to do this as a back-street repair then the best of luck (a pro job is goign to cost as much as he's paid already), but I don't think I'd want to ragging down a mountain only to suddenly find the insert floating about inside seat tube and the existing crack has propagated all the way through!!!!!!

Wiping of the adhesive – if you were designing the joint properly, you'd taper both parts specifically so they don't slide over each other during assembly, and for the BB shells you would use a much bigger clearance between the parts so that the adhesive acts as a filler as well as an adhesive so the shell can be aligned independantly of the reamed hole. Here, as Cynical-al alludes to, the wall thickness of the shim will be a couple of mm, which limits how thick the bond line will be (to f-all!)…. plus, the shim is goign to have to be at least 200mm long and proabaly as long as you can get away with.

Even if you fit a sleeve inside the existing reamed slot for the post (I'll digress a bit here – stay with me – not sure even it's clear cut how you do this…. the new sleeve will have to be a slight clearance fit to a) fit inside the seat tube and b) optimise the bond line – assumign you epoxy it in….. but the act of sliding the new insert in will wipe any adhesive off the insert. I would go against using and interference fit as a) you will introduce tensile mean stresses in the seat tube which will accelerate your existing crack or any other stress concentrations in the area and b) the inside profile of the seat tube MAY not be constant all the way down, so you may have to get the seat tube reamed out anyway) there is a difference in stiffness between the material above and below the existign crack. Your sleeve is going to be pretty thin, so even if it is bonded in perfectly, it will still allow the crack to flex and the crack may propagate further (the seat tube has basically no bending stiff left based on your picture and assuming the crack is the same on the other side). The tapered sleeve to allow clamping also sounds like a dodgy plan as you want to concentrate the clamping force at one location so the rest of the tube isn't stressed…. and your brittle epoxy bond also isn't stressed.

Structurally, there are so many reasons why I don't think you'll ever end up with a 'neat' fix.

EDIT: al wins fastest-finger ;-)

400 deg C is low temp for an alu weld, but your still going to be heating it. What do plan to do about post-weld heat treatment? Is this even applciable – what material is your frame (suspect 6000 or 7000 series).

As others have said, you are filling the crack with something different to the parent material. The applications listed on the website are pretty vague/non-structural. I woudl imagine that, evne if you fill the crack, it'll be back again soon enough as either the frame material local to the crack has been weakened by the heat or the filler is softer than the material around it.

Prob not what you want to hear, but if 'brazing' (because this is effectively what it is) aluminium was such a good idea why isn't everyone doign it this way? Sounds like snake oil to me, for this application at least.

I've been waiting for it – allthepies wins for an honourable first-mention!

Do everything else with gloves off, then put them back on for the final act?

Failing that, how about making tubes of rolled up corrugated cardboard – if it's good enough to stop thermo-nuclear coffee melting your skin it'll do a similar job when the temp is cryogenic. May have to experiment with how much to use.

NB: – cardboard may not play nicely with the rain scenario you mention…..

I know a couple of people at GCHQ – one is '..currently out of the country…', the other isn't really high enough up the food chain to be useful. Pfft – call themselves bloody friends, eh ;-)

Thinking laterally then…. any "spooks" on here care to do a phone track for me? PM me for the number ;-)

but all these services will require you to accept the service via a text message to the phone

Yes, that could be more of a problem….. ****.

Hmmm – has got some battery left, so that's good – one did say that even -f the battery is dead it will provide a 'last known' position, which would be good enough. None of the sites I looked at said it needed GPS enabled, but I'll go back and check. Ta.

Drac – yes mine too (was doing 14 hours from 4 months, so you win ;-)….. but she got a D+V bug for a couple of weeks a few months ago and hasn't really got back into the habit again. I don't mind her being up so much – it's just we thoguht we'd 'cracked it', but things seem to be even more unpredictable (and louder) than when she was a newborn.

Drac – having heard the 'cough…. cough….. cough….. blahhhhhhh' noise a few times already in babyBB's short life, I feel your pain…. :-(

Pfft – wait til the teeth start coming through, esp when they get a bit older and really work out how to scream….

BB – dad of 14 month old, not had an unbroken nights sleep in 3 months….

Ooooo – I really like those roof windows (makes note for imminent loft conversion.

If you have access to the fire wood (you obviously do) how about a wood fired hot tub for the court yard. Something like this http://www.forestflame.co.uk/wood-fired-hot-tubs.php, but I have seen all-in-one clay ones which look very nice (until you see the price!)

EDIT: iDave gets there first…

Happy Conti Ultra Gatorskin user here – waiting for my current pair to wear out so I can try some of the new Conti Hardcases (or whatever they are called) – supposed to have even more puncture and sidewall protection that the Gatorskins….

I'm with you – the Ridgeback looks the best of that lot (apart form the tensioner….)

Slightly off-topic – I'm after a pair of those Alex XD-Lite 700c rims on the Ridgeback. Anyone know who sells them?

When I'm looking to shift a few pounds, then yes, I do the coffee-and-out-the-door thing and have brekky at work. This does work, to a point – I do lose weight, but don't really have the energy to ride very hard on the morning commute (it's about 15 miles each way).

As a general rule, I'll have tea, OJ and cereal within 15 mins of heading out the door. Don't seem to have a problem keeping it down even though there are three 'big' (well, at 6:30 they're big!) climbs in the first first 15 mins and defo have more energy.

Pulls up chair……

<waves> Me – answered a call from a client this morning saying that the info I need to move his project forward is delayed…. plus he's off home sick for the afternoon…. oh, and BTW, tommorrow is a national holiday in Switzerland so don't expect anythign then….. and there is nowt else on my desk at the moment.

Twiddles thumbs… surfs web… finishes Xmas shopping on-line…. STW forum for the rest of the day. May 'work from home' tommorow…..

Having used kit from both camps, my personal opinion is that Shimano's low/mid range groupsets work better/are better value than the Campag equivalent.

If you're going to wade in at Di2/Super Record 11 level though, I don't think you'll be dissapointed either way…. just very poor!

Ordered the last few things at lunchtime…. first time ever it's all been done before the usual last-minute scramble on Xmas eve. Feel slightly empty already…..

Used to use Muc Off, then went to Sh!t Shifter when the LBS didn't have any in stock one day. Have found Sh!t Shifter to be just about as good at cleaning/degreasing, but seams to be kinder to seals/bearing/anodising etc so I've kept on using it. Just my experience – not looked at COSHH sheets or ingeient lists to see if it is actually "kinder".

Cheap carpet is false economy and FFS DO NOT go to Carpet Right. Seriously. You have been warned.

Have to agree – I will NEVER use Carpet Right again. I could recount the whole sorry tale, but the swear filter would collapse and I'd need to take a day off calm down.

<wanders off to think happy thoughts….>

As reported ont he BBC this morning, the £1.5bn bonus is for the whole group – £900mn is set aside for the bonuses in the invesetment banking arm, which is where the vast majority of the profits were directly generated.