Well that was a most excellent twist to end the thread. No winners here – OP feels silly for being a gobshit and the shop gets to feel silly for overcharging.

Best of all the posters defending the price get to look like mugs and those saying he should have grown a pair and said something in the shop instead of bitching on a forum get to learn it’s possible to do both (and then some by the sounds of it).

Nice work all around!

Exceptional summary

OP, I used to race with a couple of weighty chaps. Reality is, unless you are fitter than those around you, you are going to struggle. I would suggest you race on circuits which are likely to have a sprint finish, and, get expert quite quick at being in the right position at the bottom of climbs. The front is OK if you can climb and hold the front, but, if you cant, you might want to be on the wheel of a climber who is sat mid pack and follow his wheel, not that drafting will help that much but the mental desire to stay on will you up, you have to go anarobic for a whle! As you crest, you want to be in the top 3rd of the pack minimum and if you wish, let a few past as you recover but not so many as you get dropped, its an art in itself. Its the only way you will stay on those hilly circuits. Build on your hill climbing aiming at 1. shifting up going over the crest and accelerating away, 2. high speed recovery while cresting

Edit. Looking at what you say about your physique, Id focus on sprinting rather than climbing. Have you tried track racing?

It is true, Ewan M is just an actor, in the same vein, Piers M is just a journalist, neither of them have the absolute answer to anything, either is though allowed an opinion. Trouble in this day and age is that their opinions go far further than they should. In our celebrity deity driven society, I would imagine more people would trust Ewan M than their local MP. Sad times. TBH, best thing is not to watch the program, then ££££ lost through lower viewing figures would drive change.

As scotroutes, are you tightening the top cap fully prior to the stem bolts? Is there sufficient clearance between the top of the fork steerer and the top cap to allow it to bite down?

I reckon a cable inner on a kids bike is longer than 5 minutes to fit. £27 sounds steep. A lesson in life there I suppose. If you ask for a fix it now, it will cost you, if you want it cheap, DIY or leave the bike to be fixed to the shops time schedule.

Sounds like a great idea, it seems from your post fun is more important to you that strava uphill KOMs, so go for it. What can possibly go wrong

I’ve just got out the other side of kids, in that they are old enough to do their own thing and I get some time back. My cycling suffered hugely for quite a while as they took precedent. IME, anything you do is futile. Kids are rightly all consuming!

Edit, don’t ditch the hardtail, I ‘ditched’ my most loved Scott Endorphin and regret it almost continually.

I have a 142 rear, even with that hub width I find that my heels rub on the rear stays. Of course, that’s purely down to the way I ride but and you are probably different, I wouldn’t want wider stays though and I imagine that Boost would create wider stays…?

Bloody hell, get some Spank rims, I did mine with a track pump pumping normally

My point is that if the EU/UK split is not friendly, these contracts for planes, trains, cars could easily go to the US and Asian businesses, that would hurt major players in the EU. I think we will get a good deal which is why May is being quite bullish

I think the UK/US piece will stay together. I wonder if the US will ensure/play a part in ensuring UK gets a good Brexit deal? Obviously at a cost. Probably a new Trump London HQ or something. I was suspicious of the Mexico border tax announcement to Eu being close to the announcements from May about Brexit and a US trade deal (BJ). Source

I reckon this might go away if Germany toes a fair line with the UK. Not forgetting that a large chunk of the UK travel is German owned and, we buy a lot of their cars.

This is old but very relevant; https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2014/oct/12/rail-privatisation-dutch-and-german-companies-took-uk-for-ride

“The latest example last week saw Abellio, a unit of the Dutch national rail operator, win the 10-year ScotRail franchise for running train services in Scotland. Arriva, which is owned by Germany’s Deutsche Bahn, runs five UK rail contracts, including CrossCountry and Arriva Trains Wales, while Keolis, controlled by the French state rail company SNCF, is the joint operator of four franchises, including Southeastern and London Midland. The latter is also shortlisted for the London-to-Edinburgh east coast route in a joint bid with SNCF-backed Eurostar.

For a snapshot of how a public asset has inadvertently transferred profit to taxpayers elsewhere, it is worth looking at a review of the industry’s 2013 finances published by the Office of Rail Regulation. Northern Rail, a joint venture between Serco and Abellio, paid £36m in dividends to its owners after receiving government subsidies totalling £713m. Transpennine returned £21m in dividends to owners FirstGroup and Keolis, having received £52m from the government, which also paid £145m in track grants.”

Seriously envious, hope the ride goes well, have fun 8)

Any company that was planning to expand or relocate will use the Brexit scenario as a justification. It’s made layoffs far easier to deal with. HSBC are still probably smarting with being caught money laundering. TBH, it makes sense to hedge your bets a bit by having sufficient EU staffing to deal with what you expect to happen post-Brexit.

Edit. Shareholders will want to see that bases are covered. But as said above, the press love to make it sound as though everyone is leaving the UK because of Brexit.

@Kimbers, I still prefer the Force, it is far more diverse than principal

I think that Britain is in a stronger position for these negotiations than we imagine. European business has a huge investment in the UK in many differing areas but, a lot in transport. To limit the UK in any severe way will negatively impact these investments.

Chainguide will feed the chain in a little bit when riding off the block, I have a Shimano CD50 that does this on my HT, also of course keeps the chain on ;~)

NS Bikes are nice, I got my son one and it goes v well indeed.

Shandcycles, assuming the same tube shapes (if possible), are pre-CEN top and down tubes more flexy/comfortable/zingy/real than post CEN tubes?

I’m sure you do, I was just kidding, have fun!

The simplest first aid book will tell you not to put cold water on a scold.

Utter nonsense

http://www.nhs.uk/chq/Pages/1047.aspx?CategoryID=72

We have a route. I tend to keep it close to my chest though in case we need to change it

That actually reads: “Nope, no route, we will wing it on the day.”

Have fun, most deffo up for the next one.

I think that if you integrate with a pair of glasses it’d be cool but I think it’d be a mammoth task. I really want a pair of glasses that tells me features in the landscape that I’m looking at, like the name of each hill etc.

Viewranger has something similar to this, and it shows your route on the terrain via your phone camera. Its really cool.

I like the idea but wouldn’t want to ride with headphones in. Also, whilst out on a night ride recently, my phone started giving me directions as I went through an area I lovingly call zombie wood. As it was in my backpack, I shit myself as I thought a zombie had actually managed to creep up on me.

Bugger, too short notice for me to get up from the south, have fun though and hope there will be another

Anyone else traveling from afar and staying over the night before what promises to be an epic funness day?

I still think the biggest advantage that steel has is just how sexy it looks, especially on a hardtail with a big fork.

Aha, someone has sussed the reality of life with a modern steel frame 😉

I understand that modern tyre size, fork travel etc are having a huge impact on handling and feel. But, all bikes have same/similar so, the frame will impact the ‘remaining’ handling feel.

I had a Kona Lavadome in the earlyish 90’s, with rigid forks, 1.9 and 2.1 tyres, the steel feel was very, very real compared to my mates alu Cannondale which was far stiffer.

These days, there must be some dilution to the steel is real mantra, purely because of the huge changes mainly in wheels, tyres, forks.

That said, I still love steel

I dont think it fair to include road steel frames when comparing steel is real in an MTB sense. I have raced steel road bikes, Alu road bikes and steel track bikes, as a road frame material I still rate it for clubmen style racing (i.e. up to Cat2 as was). But, there is nothing wrong with any other frame material IF the geometry is accurate for racing.

My guess is this will rage for decades. Fact is, I think more of the steel frame builders build frames with ‘pushy’ geometries as it allows a differentiation in a busy market and, allows them to build some real fun bikes, the big builders need to sell mass market products to keep the corporate rev counter going, carbon fits that bill.

Year 1 = getting battered
Year 2 = Holding position in the pack and getting to grips
Year 3 = Competing

Geometry will matter, weight won’t until you are ‘elite’ anyway.

Sounds great fun

Some wonderful models on here gents, great effort and very envious of some of the painting skills. I made a Tamiya RC car this Xmas which was fun. Otherwise I do enjoy the old muscle cars

…and a spelling/grammar check?

Pegoretti used to get quite funky

@Core, one handed you say, hm, …impressive skills, could this be ‘free-bimbling’ in action? You sir are a pioneer of free-bimbling, Red Bull beckons. Perhaps the first ever BimBage could be held on Wimbledon Common 🙂

Just looking at my route from the 5th on view ranger, no pictures due to the desire to at least keep going preventing me to go through the aggro of unclipping and getting my camera out, but a very leisurely ride…

hm

I reckon it could be the bearings at the rear. Perhaps they increased friction pulls at the front end causing it to drift? Though you might have thought the suspension would have soaked that up. Fascinating things bike eh

More of a plodder myself in fact. But, my last ride was definitely a bimble with a plod or two en route. It is a thoroughly relaxing past time. First ride since early December when the flu bug hit too. In my books, a plod is either a. getting off and pushing or b. slowing to the point of walking/aimlessly drifting which I suppose verges on the bimble. That said, I see a bimble as a collective for a length dependent collection of plods. Might be over thinking this.

EDIT: @Core, that looks like some gnarly singletrack you’re taking on there fella, you be careful out there 😀

ah, sorry! I think they have just released a new version as I also gained the ‘skyline’ feature which is quite fun.

Tha last thing required is another range of ‘upgrades’. Also, it would come lose and then you could moan about creaking bottom brackets and headsets. My press fit is quiet so Ill keep quiet!

I think viewranger does this. Once you have your ride completed, you can drag the cursor back and forward along the route and see the stats for that point in time.

It calculates

Min Altitude
Max Altitude
Distance
Average speed
Time
Altitude Loss
Altitude gain

All at any point on the route

Found this too, another advantage of Brexit;
http://www.skysports.com/f1/news/12040/10719351/silverstone-considering-terminating-british-gp-contract

Interesting they state the 2016 (?) event fell short of budget

Manor now in administration.

Is that just the F1 outfit or sports cars too? Ill go and google

I reckon the importance of having BC on board is shown here. They have the logistical and communication reach to deliver National events.