Sleaford mods? I’d definitely not go!

I’m meant to be starting a new job is Sydney on the 6th of April. Just the small matter of having to move from the U.K. in the meantime.

What could possibly go wrong?!

🤪

I’m trying to complain about a refused warranty from Berghaus. A zip failed within two years on a £200 jacket which was used only for causal duties. The jacket supposedly has a lifetime warranty.

I’m trying to take it through the consumer ombudsman but, just to add another layer to the onion of my rage, their website is terrible and won’t let me create an account.

I’ve nothing but good to say about v6 hubs. I took a chance on one last year, and have liked it so bought another pair of wheels on v6s.

Recent 50% offer also helped! The mavic 1030 rims are also lovely.

Look up Bob Ross remix on YouTube.

Now beat the devil out of it!

On topic, I have used Bilt Hamber Surfex HD mixed to 3-4 to 1 with water. Sprayed on, brushed, rinsed off. I do the whole bike with it, applying the solution directly to the drivetrain if really mucky, or from the brush if not too bad. For the rest of the bike I spray it one the brush and give the mucky bits (including tyres) a once over.

In combination with squirt lube it’s done 500km + between cleans and lubes in summer and looked after our bikes well. I washed our bikes after a muddy day in Wales today and the muck just rinsed off.

It’s biodegradable, non toxic, with no VOCs. And about £15 for 5L which does me for a couple of years. I also use it for house cleaning, car cleaning, and anything I can try it out on to be honest.

Unfortunately I had to change insurer because of these changes in December.

I feel bad for the pedal cover team because the changes are presumably outside of their control. They said many of their customers have already done the same.

I’m trying laka, with premiums ~50% of the quoted max being charged so far. I’ll stick with them for now.

Got up to ladyb with some friends. Was a bit soggy but perfectly rideable. Lovely day out, and now enjoying a beer as reward.

Funnily enough this is something I’ve thought about too. Remedy 29 with a new front end. The nice part about the remedy is that it only needs two pivot locations, and they’re simple plain holes. The free floater design means no shock mounts are needed.

After receiving a few bonkers quotes (I.e more than a new frame which I’d be more than happy with) I shelved the idea. I looked at U.K. made, and Chinese titanium.

Interested to see where you go with yours. What size is it? Mines the 19.5” I think.

Ombudsman. Mis-selling.

Expect them to appeal, but stick with it.

I flipping hate BT. Not only do they rip people off, but they then won’t speak to you when you want to complain.

Hopefully they’ll go under one day and we can all laugh at them.

Gloaters: are you old, or poorly educated, or perhaps both? In none, do you aspire to be either?

As I may have mentioned at the time of the referendum, the U.K. has seemingly proven that the modal level of education has fallen behind the mean.

There is currently a set of Reynolds Dv 46 clinchers on eBay at £300, no bids and 7hrs left.

They’re a very light set of wheels (~1300g from memory) and come with DT 240s hubs. They’re 10spd but can be updated to 11 with a new freehub for £50 or so. Can also be fitted with a 54t star ratchet for more bzzzzzzzz.

Not mine, but I used to have a set and they’re a good set of wheels often overlooked.

Stif had a box of new 27.5″ Fox 36’s for sale at the Peaty Bike Jumble today for £390. I didn’t look at the spec, but noticed the 29″ performance elites (FIT4) were £480.

Might be worth giving them a call, see if they have any left and what they are?

“Which country gives the best deal” is not (well, should not be) an argument in Europe, as State Aid controls subsidy to 20% (JLR’s 125mil from Hungary raised eyebrows, but has since been declared legit). The content of the 20% is often the differentiating factor – types of finance, timing of support to help business plans, de-risking activity etc.

I’m an engineer and fully support other engineers (and doctors, financiers and other professionals) getting out of the UK for a while. If you have the skills there are endless opportunities elsewhere, in far nicer places to live.

In the mean time, leave the Brexit loons to earn a crust from selling freedom fish to India.

I have been driving a 2018 R estate for the last 20 months.

It’s ok. I’d probably take the GTD if it weren’t for impending diesel bans (like Bristol), or a superb petrol, or a Leon.

It is very fast, too fast really. To have a bit of fun you’re driving at very irresponsible speeds, so I tend to pootle about not making the most of the power.

Practicality wise two bikes with the front wheels off and two people go in quite comfortably. Had two bike boxes in it to the airport too. I like the cloth interior, mine is perpetually filthy from biking gear but if it does get a clean then a Hoover tends to get it good as new. I Spec’d the dynaudio which is good, not brilliant though.

Oh, and regularly get >40mpg on a run which I thought was quite good.

ETA: Mine is the 7spd dsg which I understand is a decent leap from the 6spd. I believe a dsg map and a throttle mod can work wonders too.

I would use our local shops more, but their stock of parts is limited. Loads of bikes in, but typically I’m in there to buy bits to keep current bikes working.

I’ve never been bothered by the proliferation of standards, but I’m sure it is making things harder for bike shops to keep the bits you need in stock.

henry wadsworth biography

This was the first one I lusted over. Mostly because of the Judy SLs, they had to be the ‘95 all yellow version. I was 11 at the time so a £600 pair of forks was out of the question.

Now I’ve got a few quid, I’ve made my own modern pair! 29er pikes now at 100mm.

henry wadsworth biography

EDIT – not sure who Henry Wadsworth is, or why his biography is linked twice in my post…

They came up with the core idea. Stew on it a while.

Excellent info, thank you all.

It sounds like Christmas is not the BEST time to go, but excellent for its own reasons.

Will be looking the links above up tomorrow, thank you for the suggestions.

The new flat top chains are the main reason I’d buy it. They look ace.

I’m a tart 😞

DUB bb lasted me about 1500km. Hope with adaptors has lasted similar so far, but I have had the odd squeak.

I’ll report back with ultimate findings.

No-one has yet mentioned the benefits of a single axle for levelling have they?

I’ve done my iPad screen with an ifixit kit. Took my time on the repair, actually enjoyed the process, and now you wouldn’t know any difference from new.

I’ve been using MapOut. £5 up front. Very good user interface, easy to operate when out and about and the maps are excellent. Seems worldwide as far as I’m aware.

Port and brandy makes an excellent hip flask filling on cold days.

I went out there with my lass in May. We stayed at a small villa outside Port du Pollença, found on Airbnb, for <£400 for the week. Had a nice garden, pool, veranda etc.

I’d recommend staying out of town, cycling in for food and beer. The town of Pollenca (slightly inland) was much nicer to go out in than the seaside version.

We rented a large car (x trail) that would take two bike boxes comfortably. It cost ~£120 for the week but made transfers and food shopping easy, and meant we could go out for a walk or two in the afternoons.

The number of pro kit doodahs put me off in the end – so much so I sold my road bike when I got home! Someone needs to tell all the middle aged fat men they’re not on “training camps”, they’re on holiday with their mates on bikes.

Yep, got a pro version a month or two back. Did 11hrs in two days on it and no discomfort at all.

Having some booze free time here, and sampling the range in Tesco. I’ve been avoiding 0.5% and sticking to those listed as 0.0%.

Warsteiner is reasonable. Free Damm is my favourite thus far. St Peters without tastes like one of our home brews that went wrong.

I tried selling mine before they broke – they leaked for the new owner as he set them up. They were only a month old! They were refunded and promptly binned.

No Shimano again for me, mtb or road (until something drastic changes). I’ve got 2 sets of sram and 2 sets of hope in the shed, both have been excellent.

I have gravelkings. 32mm, tan walls, set up tubeless. ~1000km covered and one puncture, which sealed without needing to be topped up with air or sealant. Bit of wear on the back, but some life left.

To ride they’re fast enough on road, comfy, grippy on road or hardpack. Not much cop on proper off road, but they’re not huge so wouldn’t expect them to be.

I once had a presentation from a company who set up to sell the new batteries required for stop/start tech to the aftermarket. Their business model assumed a life of 7 years for original equipment, so sales of aftermarket would begin to ramp up 7 years after stop/start was first introduced.

Unfortunately for this company, 9 years in and sales were unexpectedly poor. They realised that the factory fit batteries were in fact lasting 10 years or more.

Good for us as users. Bad for them with a warehouse full of the things.

No idea about the starter motor wear.

From a user perspective, I like stop/start in an automatic, but find it a little unintuitive in a manual (sometimes doesn’t restart immediately when you want it to).

So if 24mm spindles “require” a central protection tube why do 30mm spindles appear not to?

Well that is an excellent question. Since it doesn’t come with one I’ll assume it doesn’t need it, or it was too hard to make fit. Either way I’m fine with that.

Well hot flippin-diggety-dang. That’s an excellent result.

This means I can fit said BB and use it this weekend.

Thank you all for your input. That’s saved me chasing up with the vendor as well.

Oh, and already a little grumpy that I needed to buy a special tool and DUB adaptors separately. I’m £97 into a bottom bracket that has not internal sealing…

I don’t like planning. This is how I did it in 2016:

Book ferries.

Ride in a direction that takes your fancy (weather, geography, sights or your return ferry can all influence your preference). Make sure, if you’re having picnic lunches, you pick up 2% ABV Breton cider. It’s like they invented it for cyclist’s lunch.

At around 2pm, when you know what sort of area you are likely to end up in that day, search Airbnb or booking.com for a room. We went in June, there were loads of options.

Cycle until you reach said booked room.

Repeat until it’s time to go home.

We stayed in some amazing places, couldn’t tell you where and wouldn’t be able to plan a similar route.

I’ve got a rear boost qr version (hard to find anything but Hope, and I fancied a change).

Seems good to me. Rolls well, sounds nice, does what a hub should.

Got a replacement freehub in the post a few weeks back because apparently the original was machined incorrectly. I can tell no difference, but it was nice to have something warrantied without asking for it!

Went for a 100km gravelly ride yesterday with my lass. Given she couldn’t walk 18 months ago and still can’t use her right hand, I’m a bit proud of her!

fair number cube[/url]

Sonder frontier, XL frame. Really fun!

I’ve lashed two bikes in boxes to my Buzz Rack 3 bike thing. We were heading from Sheffield to Manchester airport and it was the only way of getting over without hiring a van. Would’ve normally taken the train, but our return flight got in at 1am.

Worked a charm in the end. Two hard boxes, three ratchet straps and one successful round trip. Was nervous to begin with but was fine in the end!

Should also note that I didn’t exceed 60mph because of the potential added aero drag caused by the boxes.

I’ve been using exactly this combo for just over a year. No problems at all.