I’ve followed all of these threads and been very touched despite not knowing Chris or even conversing him. I haven’t posted as I’ve not known what to say and still don’t, really.

All I can say is that after reading this I’ve booked a couple of days off work, told my girlfriend to do the same and will spend the time riding and visiting family.

Right Now?

Probably Shipbuilding by Robert Wyatt

One occasion where I might actually want to be holding an iPad in front of my face.

You, my friend, are looking for a ‘bike skirt garter’. Don’t ask me how I know.

Ridiculous human being… In the best possible way!

For me it’s the way you can imagine his internal monologue,

“Aw, cute… He he, here he goes… wow, he’s… wait… what… Uh…”

All equal (outside of specialist applications) but, like anything, there are manufacturing tolerances and differences from machine to machine etc.

As long as you still get good engagement between dropouts and axle it shouldn’t make any odds once tightened.

If you’re talking about the consumer part of the technology spectrum, as the car industry analogy suggests, I’d say no.

Electric shifting isn’t here other than on a minute number of professional rigs and ultimately the actuation of that drive train is still mechanical, we’re not talking about something along the lines of the switch from carbs to FI on cars.

Suspension is the more interesting area for electronic trickery, I think. I think most would say that faffing with forks and shocks mid-ride is a faff at best, automating that process would appeal to a lot of people, I reckon.

Right on, Jenn.

All the best and keep it up.

All Star Bowling could work well, posh/retro bowling with nice drinks and food.

If you need a few other bits from them, they’ll probably do it for nowt. Last time I went to my LBS the mechanic sorted the crown race and star nut fitting FOC as I bought some tubes and brake mounts etc. at the same time.

Otherwise it’ll be a fiver or so if they’re being reasonable. It really is a two minute job with something approaching a suitable tool, so it’s going to be chump change either way.

Sounds to me like you want a fairly light roast low acidity bean. IME acidity is what gives those bright, fruity flavours (that I’m personally not a massive fan of) and the dark roast have the darker flavours that err towards bitterness.

I tend to find that a lighter roast is more forgiving while you get the brewing process dialled in as well, which is a bonus.

Lovely, ta.

Did anyone happen to Strava the ride or make a GPX or something? Still trying to gather riding plans for this neck of the woods.

Bit knackered for a long ride tonight, I’ll try and be out next week though, have a good one.

the Pennines to the north and north east of Manchester are riddled with trails

Ssshhh!

Hasbean Unleaded is great for making post afternoon/evening rides that won’t keep me up into the night.

Decent for latte etc. as well.

Plenty of these today, please. Slow day at work.

How have we got this far without someone mentioning tyre logos/valves?!

Those Santa Cruz designers sure know what they’re doing with their felt tip pens, huh?

Flat bimbles are my superpower.

I’ll come again to provide the comedy low speed offs. I can string something together if needs be, will just need to work out something of the right distance. The talk was of Clover(?) taking us over to Stoodley Pike though, if I remember right.

Thoroughly enjoyed that, thanks everyone.

Isn’t Great Rock doing something similar to this Hebden-based this summer, details on his website, I think.

It’s a sweet-ish Scotch ale, right? That being the case then a darker Belgian beer f should go down pretty well, usually one or two of those in a decently stocked supermarket/offy.

P.S. I have no useful contribution to make!

It doesn’t really sound like you’re genuinely interested in anyone else’s pov, though. Every time somebody disagrees with your model, you jump in with, “remember…”

You obviously have a business model and it looks like that’s working for you, more power to you. But your threads here smack of astroturfing, whether they are or not.

This site has a lot of users in the high earner bracket, this probably isn’t really your demographic and as such you’re going to get a lot of disagreement with your pov.

I think I’m going to turn up to this, if that’s OK. Be rude not to being as it’s five minutes up the road from me. I’ll be the fat bloke looking nervously at his bike and begging it not to break.

Home made energy bar that you can make at home and take in. My current mix is quinoa, almonds, natural peanut butter, prunes with honey and chocolate topping. You might want to put some carbs in though.

Went to Universal cycles early 2000’s I think and then bought by Mike Ashley’s Sports Direct to supply badge engineered crap for his stores, same as has happened with Karrimor, Lonsdale and a few other legit sport/leisure brands that got into financial difficulties.

Have you checked vertical clearance between largest ring and mech and/or cable stretch?

Sounds similar to a few issues I’ve had from time to time with a similar drive train setup wearing in and developing problems. Couldn’t identify anything in particular so I end up doing a ‘sort the basics’ routine and it seems to sort it out.

I wish it had been, instead I got three foot of cotton wadding up each nostril and sinus which, after a few days congealing in blood and fusing with my flesh, was pulled out a foot at a time over three days. Stung a bit, that one.

Forks delayed. Eta end of July.

is wot ‘e said.

Go and get it checked.

I broke my nose when I was a kid, knew all about it as it bled profusely but didn’t twig it was broken.

Went to a doctor few days later due to headaches and continued pain, he said not broken. This carried on for a week or so with no improvement, went to a different doctor who found it was broken and also infected.

Rushed to hospital to have it rebroken, set and cleaned. They told me that the infection was ‘eating the flesh upwards from the bridge of my nose and would have eventually reached my brain’. 8O

The rules are stupid tongue in cheek taken far too seriously by try hards.

FTFY

Yep, day two for Littleborough. Riding over here from Manchester won’t pose a problem as far as road closures etc. are concerned.

The route is passing through Littleborough, albeit not the village centre. Top of Cragg Vale is the spot in question.

As it’s a nice slow point due to the sharp bend at the top I will be riding up early doors with a picnic and sun cream/waterproofs as appropriate. If anyone wants to come along and call it an informal STW event I’m happy for that to happen. :wink:

If we wanted to get up really stupidly early we could have a ride about the place first and then plonk down on the route and play the ‘Will-The-White-House-bother-opening lottery’.

It is very different to riding clipped in, ideally changing for an event isn’t the best course of action. You’ll need to be aware of the need for a change in technique when making the moves you mention but there’s no quick fix really.

The ‘sticking’ is a combo of the pedal pins (usually) shoes with the right sort of sole and correct technique for manuals/hops etc. (bodyweight movement rather than dragginf the bike by the pedals).

I understand that the major benefit of these systems is the auto trimming front mech.

Only on STW could nigh on a grand’s worth of gear be justified by saving literally half a click! :wink:

Personally I’m looking forward to the flood of cheap ‘old’ XTR gear on to the classifieds when this is released.

The only time I’ve had late deliveries from CRC is when I’ve paid for next day delivery. Have always got the delivery cost back from them but not much consolation when the bike is sat indoors looking sorry for itself.

You need to talk with your wheel builder if you’re continuously getting wheel failures as well. Unless you’re really ham fisted then anything half decent should stand up to a lot of abuse in a well built wheel before failing in the way you’re describing.

I have! Didn’t change the route at all but missed out the optional ‘off road’ options.

At the time I rode it on a Cannondale Synapse with 23mm (kevlar reinforced) tyres and didn’t have a problem at any point. Vast, vast majority of it is on road/paved cycle routes.