I’ve only been there once, and don’t remember it being well behaved, unless I’m thinking of the nearby Newcastle? Dunno…

Sheffield? ANy good riding easily accessible from there?

what? stafford and bristol aren’t connected in any way as far as I know. Cardiff – yep – have emailed some hostels. I also went to one in Torquay last year, that is possible.

The stag lives in bristol – not ideal!

that sounds good – what are these hostels called?

Equal emphasis I’d say! I’d like to think more bike though. Thetford probably a bit tame for us, Cwmcarn good, what’s Ross/Monmouth like? Coed y Brenin is too far.

Anyone know of good accomodation near dartmoor that would have ~7 chaps there? And is not too fancy..

we can live without I suppose

From my recollection, and I think I read it on Sheldon Brown, both alu and steel are built to a certain stiffness, which means the alu tubes are generally much larger diameter (the metal itself being softer).

But you don’t expect an aluminium frame to last forever, as at some stage it will fail from fatigue. I can’t remember about steel but I think it’s fatigue life is better.

“If you drop a feather on an airoplane wing enough times it will eventually break.” According to my old materials professor.

Brant/Cy/Sam etc to the forum please!

well?

Tim – that would be great, I can’t find them on the salsa website.
I did think of polishing up some mavics, I might try it as a last resort but don’t want to invest £60 then not do it!

Those Velo Orange cranks are beautiful…. mmmm

silver thompson kit wins by far

Interesting idea but I’d be as worried about having SLR shaped bruised ribs as I would be about the camera.

Have considered just wrapping it up in stuff but no matter what you wrap it in, if you come off and roll on it, you’re still lying on your camera, the fleece wont support you! Don’t want to risk it really.

Also

“But then, the scheme shoot itself in the foot with the 50% of the bike use has to be commuting. It’s a bit like allowing personal mileage on police patrol cars or ambulances”

That’s nonsense, that’s like saying you can buy a £700 bike but you can’t ride it unless it’s to/from wrk, you’ll need to get another bike for that! Come off it.

Sorry.

It was set up in order to reduce car use, and increase cycling to work, so even if you aren’t using the bike you bought to cycle to work, but are using another, I think you can have a clear conscience.

Also, alot of the bikes bought probably wouldn’t have been bought had it not been for the CTW scheme, therefore rather than costing the government/taxpayer money, we’re actually just helping the bike industry a bit more.

Most people I work with now cycle to work, I think the CTW scheme has helped.

I want SLR quality photos though!

I don’t think any will be better, just buy a few sets of replacement standard bearings off ebay or a bearing supplier, knock the old ones out and put new ones in. Cost ~£5 a set for SKF bearings. you can get a lot of them for the price of a hope BB.

TJ – I did think about that, I might try freezing the cups next time before starting

panic over chaps, everything will be o.k.

wahoo! I’ve got them out!

Now, can anyone recommend me a headset press that isn’t park tool expensive?

Kbrembo – I like it.

don’t see why they wouldn’t laugh when I walk in the door either

erm, yeah, thanks for the encouragement. A headset press is going to be bought. Don’t care how much they laugh as long as they fix it!

rootes 1 that looks sensible, I am hoping to use the old ramped middle ring from the chainset though, will it still work in that case or do I need something a bit sturdier?

Hob Nob – I have a derraileur to tension the chain!

Thanks for the advice chaps – I doubt I’ll have an ISCG mount so will be BB mounted. Yeah the DMR ones look a bit spindly, I’ll see what comes up on the classifieds I guess!

Simon Amstel’s comedy “Grandma’s house” is brilliant too, was on a few months ago.

great, thanks

yep, leaks a lot of oil!

Sorry, don’t know why the pic isn’t working, link here http://www.flickr.com/photos/67832303@N00/5107566274/%5B/url%5D

I live in London. It takes an hour to get to the trails.

Another one for The Rider by Tim Krabbe

I’ve just discovered this (thanks to LCC) – it’s not particularly helpful for you I don’t think but will be worth a look. It extracts pictures of bikes for sale on gumtree and ebay and posts them all up, think it’s constantly (or at least daily) updated.

The makers deserve a beer at least!

http://bikeshd.co.uk/

I can’t for a minute believe there is a one percent advantage in using ceramic bearings! Absolute rubbish.

The bearing resistance in an (adequately maintained) bb is tiny compared to the other things in cycling: rolling resistance, aerodynamic resistance, loss in the chain/gears, the wheel bearings and probably the least important. the BB bearing. Even if there was a 1% advantage in ceramic over SS for the resistance of the BB at a given rotation and loading, on an actual bike it wouldn’t make any difference.

If there was a 1% advantage, every time trialler, mtber and road racer in the world would have them.

Hardtails win then! OCB is the head and seat angle really slack or is that the photo?

Alias that is a pretty serious list, how/why did you get through so many? Not being content with them or did you break them?

Daveyboy, sounds like you still want to change too much for it to be the perfect setup!

I always want to try a shorter stem or lower bars etc.

Interesting number of hardtails, I think these are generally easier to accept as being close to perfect, adding the rear sus and all the shocks/suspension designs that go with it does make you want to try alternatives. Why? Comfort, ok, and to make the riding easier?

Stick with what you have for a while. Changing height and length will move your weight around, chaniging distribution between front and back wheel and also arms/seat, and make it harder / easier to slide back when going downhill. If you ride mostly on road then you’ll probably want a more road style position, ie long and low, aerodynamics are important on the road. there’s no perfect setup if you do different types of riding, it’s all a balance. Also the seat may have something to do with you back problems, fore/aft position and tilt.

More to fiddle with!

Dfs, that is an excellent idea. I’ll get some photos of myself “in front of” reflex now.

Oh god, it’s fancy dress too. I didn’t even know.

I meant reflex more expensive than hell, but posted it too late!
This has wasted 20mins so far, are the tubes running? I hope not

Exactly what I WAS thinking!

Someone must have a better idea?