Just as an update, I’m refunding the chap when he sends what he has back and I’ll deal with it my end.

I’m a nice guy, and don’t want anyone out of pocket. But it’s probably gonna be me instead.

Oh well….

I’ve had regular payrises, I keep changing jobs. It’s the only way to get a decent payrise these days.

£2.99 and awesome. Huuuuuuge tube. Will last a lifetime.

http://www.on-one.co.uk/i/q/TOBYSLG-1000/nrg_bike_gp1_sliding_grease___1000g

I bought a Mavic h20 about 2 years ago, used it a hell of a lot. Muddy rides, icy rides, summer rain.

Never leaked once, it has pit zips, foreamn vents and the most genius front zip vent.

It looks brand new after a wash, absolutely. Its brightly coloured, incredibly light and fits really close so it helps wick properly.

I can’t recommend it enough, or all the clothing for bikes I’ve bought this is the best and would replace it tomorrow with another if I needed to.

Bikeradar gave it 5 stars too.

http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/mavic-hc-h2o-jacket-2013/rp-prod78952

Ah, what I meant is I’m a full time employee for a non-IT company, and the new job is for an IT consultancy.

I’m not looking to go contracting.

From richmtbguru’s profile

I suppose I’m like the ray mears of the biking world!

Proper lol.

I’m guessing the ‘new’ Hope hubs are the Pro2 Evo 2014…. with 40 instead of 24 points of engagement:

http://forums.mtbr.com/wheels-tires/40-tooth-ratchet-hope-pro-2-evo-hub-876077.html

I’ve had my Pro2 Evos for over 2 years, done a number of races on them, including a 24 hour. They were secondhand too. Ridden in awful conditions.

Not changed the bearings, no play at all, although they are starting to now have a little notchy feel when you pick them up in your hands, but not on the bike.

My old Pro2s were needing new bearings every month or so, which was rubbish.

I went from something like 8 bikes to 2, a road bike and an MTB.

Never had more money, and never been happier with the bikes.

N+1 works great if you *need* another bike for a significant reason, e.g. road riding vs mtb, or cyclocross, or singlespeed for the winter. But if it’s just because you want less travel, or a different type of bike for the same purpose…. it’s a bit want than need, that’s when it gets expensive and stupid 🙂

Each to their own though, if you’ve got the money, and like buying bikes – go for it, it’s not like you can take your money with you when you die.

it’s now a question of which tubeless tyres to put on them

You can now read all of the horror stories of getting X tyre on Crest rims 😉

Surely you don’t mean tubeless, but tubeless ready.

Personally if it’s racing only, I’d recommend Rocket Ron evos front and rear – paper thin, but very light, and great for racing – on one have them at £15 I think too :).

If it’s for varied riding, I’d recommend Conti’s MK2 front and XK rear. If you want less grip, a Schwalbe NN front and RR rear do the trick in Pacestar compound. If you want a floppy tyre on the rim, Maxxis have tyres too 😉

If you’re after a bargain, and a decent tyre for trail riding, I’d recommend the On one Smorgasboard.

They’ll work totally fine. All rotors work with all brakes. Simple.

I’d not buy a bike to compensate for a particular area, I’d buy one that matches my style and enhances my riding 🙂

I.e. if you a bit of a porker and find it hard to climb, but love hooning downhill, why would you buy a 100mm travel race hard tail?

Play to your strengths, damage limitation on the things you’re not so good with.

Given my facial injuries, stitches and open wounds, obviously I’m very good at falling on my face. I’m not sure there’s a bike for that.

I’ll recommend my own bike, and say a Turner 5-Spot, or Burner 🙂

No full sus pedals well stood up really, otherwise the suspension wouldn’t be working. But… the DW-Link pushes the bike along instead of wallowing in the travel when stood up.

Proper stiff, proper tough, easy to maintain, long and low.

I only have one bike…. Which I *really* look after.

I also have one gnome.

Who is going to manage the service, and the infrastructure?

I’d be looking to see if SAGE provide a SaaS (software as a service), or looking at Cloud based offerings from Amazon or Azure through a 3rd party vendor providing the support for IaaS (infrastructure as a service), and managing the service for you.

It’d be best to look at all the options before splurging the cash, and then realising that either:

– your performance is poor
– you have no support
– you dont have the right licence
– your scalability for the now 300 users isn’t achievable without spending a whole load of cash (I know you said 50, but is that the realistic maximum over 3-5 years?)

My big question would be…. Why have you been tasked with providing an IT solution when you clearly don’t have much IT solution experience?

Has a business bod asked you to buy a server to run his application for his workers? If that’s the case, then you need someone to provide a managed service really.

You could just look at the minimum specs, licence model, and then buy a piece of kit to fit – but that’s only part of the solution.

If you like, I can point you in the direction of a consultancy company I’ve worked with recently to provide a Cloud solution for a distributed IaaS cloud offering, which was a managed service. Let me know your email address and I’ll put you in touch, they speak plain English, and are very reasonably priced and flexible.

(I) think I might have settled on my ‘brand for life’

Totally agree. Even though my Spot was a bit neglected by the previous owner, it’s so easy to work on and replace parts or hone.

Plus it’s by far and away the best feeling bike I’ve ridden, I been through a Zesty, Trek EX8, Giant Reign, Ibis Mojo, Pace 405, Santa Cruz Heckler, Whyte E-120, Spark, Anthem…. loads of bikes. And the quality, engineering and feel of the Spot is epic.

Organic355 – my missus is 5’7 and that’s her Sultan in my first photo, she looks in proportion on it, and absolutely loves it. Forget any notion of it not being a quick turning bike, with a 70mm stem and 710mm bars with a low ride, and a slammed stem, it is very quick to turn, incredibly similar to my 5Spot.

It’s not as playful, which is why I wouldn’t have one, but it does make things feel easier.

A few more after popping a new MountainKing 2.4 on the front and back 🙂

I’d you wanted a UK shop to sort you out, give Merlin cycles a bell in the morning. They’re tip top chaps and can sort out fast delivery. Usually have forks at very decent prices too.

£64 now 🙂

CRC 😉

That was Mike being Fraped on Facebook by some idiot. He was always game.

In a serious note it’s really likely to be the seat rails moving every so slightly against the clamp.

Most of my saddles do it after a dry spell, and ti seems the worst for it. You rock the saddle backward and it cracks and push the other way and it cracks again.

Its just movement in the saddle rails, take the saddle off, clean the rails and then wipe some grease or carbon compound on the rails. Reassemble and toruq up, it’ll be fine 🙂

Thanks for the comments everyone. I’m not used to making mistakes, I’m usually very diligent so finding it hard to resolve this with myself.

I’m hoping we can put something in place to clean things up, or at least reduce the cost to put things right in future. also to make sure it cant happen again.

I know its not life or death, but id rather keep my job and actually be good at it, rather than be known as the moron that missed an obvious piece of work.

I’d be looking for a bike which has excellent backup from the dealer, as you may be either unlucky or a bit harsh on your bikes.

A good LBS, and a good setup from the distributor is what you’ll be after, legendary service…..

Drinking booze already…

The problem is that the one line is completely fundamental, but only stated once in a document, and doesn’t actually appear within the context of anything.

And, this particular thing has been implemented before, but again, in the same way that I have. Which probably suggests that it wasn’t clear enough in the first place.

I think it’s generally assumed that I’m in a position that should know what I’m doing, and these kinds of mistakes just shouldn’t happen. I think the fact that I’ve been doing the work of at least 3 or 4 people probably means that mistakes are going to happen, I used to post on STW all the time, now I never have the chance as I’m just far too busy in meetings and doing stuff.

Sorry – it was on Christmas Eve they ducked out.

Looks like the friend is expecting to stay here….

As above – 2011 Kashima coating was a weaker colour, with a slight more difference in variation between each leg. 2012 onwards was rich gold, and had Kashima stamped on them.

The colour makes no difference IIRC, it’s just a dye.

Is integrated a standard, so 1 1/8 steerer for any frame will have the same headset upper?

Cheers brakes, I thought brant may have a option on this? …. 🙂

Cheers Rob,

How do you rate it? Does it feel planted on descents? Do you have anything you could compare it against?

Thanks

Butty

Trudi Canavan… there are three series now – very good.

Kate McIntosh…

A good idea is to go onto Amazon, go to the Game of Thrones books and have a look at what other people bought, and the recommended titles. Buy some secondhand, and boom – loads of books bought cheaply 🙂

Thanks everyone – I’ve had lots of differing opinions on this, someone I know at an estate agents is saying to not tell anyone, as they’re no real need…

Thanks Tom – still more than what I was looking to spend really, after seeing the Merlin prices at less than £400 – with discount – I was trying to find something similar.

Really do appreciate the offer though

Butty

crftom – ideally 120mm 15 Maxle, any model really – RCT would be preferred.

Om nom nom 🙂

They’re u-turn Rebas on the Flux? How do you find it at 100mm over 120mm?

From the geoemtry it looks like the 17.5 Remedy is actually a little longer than the 17.5 Reign I used to ride…. so should be spot on.

I’m a bit confused about the 2012 geometry, there are 2 types for each size… but they have very slightly different ETTs… whats going on there?

EDIT: Got it, 0.5 degree slacker with an angleset or possibly 5mm more on forks. I’d be a 17.5 in 2012 I reckon, going from what size my big bikes have been.

140mm Fox RLC Kashimas, Sram X0 mech and shifters, XT double, Crests on Hope Pro3s, Monkeylight bars, Hope Race X2 brakes, ESI grips.

Pretty damn light, and ridiculously fast and inspiring downhill. 140 feels perfect for all day riding.

KS post, locks in position after a few minutes of not being used.

That said, there are loads of threads about with people swearing by KS posts and them being awesome. I suppose the key thing is to make sure you’ve got a good service agreement, and someone to contact if things go wrong.

I think it’s just a very tight threshold product to make and one of two are bound to have issues – sorry to hear about yours Legend 🙁 From what I know about LoCo he’ll be gutted to hear of an issue, and will get you sorted out pretty damn quickly.

I still fancy one…..