Off road toad!

not super cheap

I’d have saved a couple of quid at Bikediscount but they’re the cheapest Pikes I found in the UK, and as you say they’re retail, and in stock.

Good service too. They shipped me the 29ers by mistake. Cotic arranged for them to be collected, then shipped out the 26ers before they received the 29ers back.

Only issue is if you’re in a rush they only post them out on a Thursday.

Let the build commence!

I used to play OFP then ARMA II & III (the proper sucessors to the first 2 OFP’s)

Best thing I’ve played recently is Day Z (alpha). Bonkers, not really a shooter but just brilliant (if you ignore the problems it has – it is an alpha after all).

Mike, I can tell you’re not local. It’s Wuk-i-tn. Land of marmalade and honey.
<jameater>Cleator is a bit special, but then it’s near Whitehaven</jameater> and Maryport’s marina is twinned with Puerto Banus!

Right now I feel obliged to start singing “The river Derwent is deep and wide…Hallelujah…”

Wigton isn’t normally mentioned in the same sentence as “holiday”.

Senor J, I may know you (ex Seaton 20+ years ago).

Essel, there’s nothing quite like Cumbrian home-town pride.

You don’t need it. It may be the latest, it’s not necessarily the greatest. It helps with torsional flex on a full suss rear.

The presence of a 142 rear axle on a HT would not be a key criteria for me, primarily as a more agressive HT frame (like my Evil) just doesn’t suffer from rear flex, and it’s overkill on a lightweight race bike.

I ended up with A Plan after a few recommendations on the T5 forum for my Caravelle. 420 fully comp, 15k miles (3 k business) for me & the wife.

… Fix that rat, that’s what you’re gonna do…

campfreddie – Member
Liteville 301 frame (650b) set up
R/S Pikes
Hope Pro 2 Evo (40t engagement) on Arch EX or Flow EX
Your choice of groupset mix (maybe Zee/XT/RF Narrow/Wide plus Zee brakes)
Reverb stealth
etc etc

all do’able for that sort of money with a bit of ingenuity and effort

Funny you should say that:

Mk11 301
26 Pikes (though just received the 29s by mistake)
XX1 Groupset (Crank, ring, chain, shifter, rear mech
Stealth reverb with the connectamajig
40t Hope hoops with Arch EXs
Hope Ceramic BB & GXP converter
Hope MMX thing
Easton Carbon bars & stem
XTR trail pedals

Cost me £3520 excluding brakes (which I already had)after some judicious “bargain” hunting.

No-one tried a Thomson?

Would like to, and they have a stealth post on the way as well. “Cheap” at Merlin with the extra % off as well.

I have a Reverb (Warranty replaced), will be buying a Reverb stealth.

Ned, that’s a fantastic pic. I need to book a holiday!

Signed.

The new pump track in Osmaston park looks brilliant.

QWERTY, that SpeedWagen from a few years ago was going to be my choice as well!

The English 29er nice as well

One of our road club in his 60s did his 2 weeks ago about 200m from his home after our Saturday ride. He was stuck in the gutter of a blind corner on a steep hill. He wasn’t sure how he crashed, but put it down to the winter crap on the road, and it’s a corner he knows incredibly well.
Luckily a driver coming the other way stopped to help him as he would have probably been struck by a car coming the opposite direction. Surprisingly common injury, and he seems to be on good form now he’s out of hospital.
Keep your chin up and do the physio!

Pedalon had a black last week for 90 something. I went for a hope ceramic in the end for 65.

I got the 3d version for Xmas though having seen the 2d version 3 or 4 tmes it doesn’t add much. Cumming’s crash is horrendous, but God knows how Martin survived his tbh. Excellent film / documentary.

For anyone interested, the cheapest way to buy XX1 I could find at the moment is to get the shifters and chain off Merlin with their extra 10 % discount, and the rest from Starbike.de, though they’re pretty limited on chainset choice.

No major price saving if you go for X01. £672 vs £720. Cheapest way to get X01 was again from starbike that I could find.

Make sure you get the right gearing for you / where you ride though. I went for a 30T because I am weak 🙂 .

Merlin bits arrived yesterday, it’s all retail boxed.

As for paying another £50+ for the XD driver body, just look on it as an excuse for a new set of wheels. Cheapest hoops I found were from Wicked bikes.

One that fits.

Unimpressed by my POC. My Smith Variant is a much better helmet and for me its a perfect fit.

Cheapest I found was Wicked Cycles after someone on here mentioned them a few days ago. Spoke to them earlier and will put my order in on Monday.

New orders come with the 40t.

You’ve already picked holes in your own photography skills so I won’t bother.

Nice bike, though I would say that because I’ve bought one as well. What were the problems you had as I’m waiting for my bits to arrive.

Is it a 140 or a 160?

Is that a reverb stealth? did you get a 34.9 one (if so where from / how much) or have you shimmed it?

Thanks.

You seen these?

http://www.wiggle.co.uk/exposure-verso-headband-with-head-torch-bracket/

I know, that’s why I posted the desktops on the links. Just having a bit of a debate 🙂

“Firstly, a PC will give you much more performance for the same money (or alternatively the same performance for less money).

Agree, thought the OP doesn’t really need performance it’s a bit of a moot point. Price wins, though the price of the i3 laptop is similar to most desktops.

Secondly, a PC will be much more future proof than a laptop, since you can upgrade HDDs, optical drives, memory, et cetera (or replace them if they break).

As the OP is on here asking for advice about what to buy I doubt they’ll do any of the above. Most laptops will allow you to upgrade Memory and Disk. CPU / GPU are usually the constraining items on a laptop and the things to take in to account when selecting.

“Thirdly (and anecdotaly), in my experience laptops can often become unreliable over time, notably at the hinge.”

This can be true, particularly with larger screen sizes, though I’ve only had that problem once on an (old) Evesham.

My point about the laptop with an extra monitor for desktop use is that you get the best of both worlds. Not saying it’s right for everyone and the OP has already said they don’t need the mobility which is why I’ve linked the 2x desktops from OC and Ebuyer above.

Dell outlet was pretty poor when I looked yesterday. Sure there’ll be some voucher codes along shortly.

On the Arias linked above, you’ll probably want to buy a new monitor, keyboard and mouse as well if your current ones are 9 years old (they don’t come with them).

Some to get you going. Unless you need power / expansion or can repair your own machine / plan on upgrading I’d always go for a laptop over a desktop these days (Though I’m sat at a desktop right now as that’s got a nice 27″ IPS monitor attached).

This i7 is a bit overkill, and can read some computer geeks arguing over the minutiae of spec here, but a good choice. You can add more memory later if you’re not happy with the editing speed.

£299 for an i3 laptop makes this a bargain.

If space is an issue or you want to hide the PC case

Just add keyboard & mouse.

Great spec for the money.

Add a monitor (like the 27″ IPS on that same page, though you don’t need to spend that much), Windows 7 or 8 and a keyboard / mouse and speakers any you’re set.

On your “more for your money” question, you’re not really doing anything (gaming, rendering, VMs, Video editing (not trimming) etc) that would mean you see any of the benefit.

A large (27″) hi res / quality monitor would make a difference however.

Do you really need a PC / Desktop? Why not buy a decent i3 or maybe and i5 15″ laptop and have a monitor you can plug it in to?

At least then you have some flexibility in how you use it rather than being sat in one room all the time.

Easily doable for <£600

The go-pro editing is the thing that will demand the spec depending on that rates you’re filming at / converting to. The rest you can do happily on a £300 laptop.

Where’d you order your XX1 from Jamj? I’m on a “bargain”* hunt.

Around £58 was the cheapest I found via google for the driver a few days ago.

Amplebrew – do you not need any adaptors with the CK BB, like you do with a hope BB for example? Is yours just the standard mtn BB?

*It’s all relative

Is that not the main character from the horror version of Ted?

“hug me”. That is indeed the stuff of nightmares.

Cheap = dhb
mid = morvelo (All I buy these days)

Can’t comment on anything more expensive as I’ve not tried them, but the benefit / comfort for me over the morvelo’s would be negligible as I think they’re really good. Also got a pair of Gore windstopper ones in a sale few years ago that have been great, though the liner is rubbish.
Wasn’t particularly impressed with some Shutt 3/4’s I bought last year. Quality / construction was not up to the morvelo’s or DHB IMO.

Well done.

I live about 2 miles outside the boundary. It would be worth asking people when they sign up to say if (for example) they’re served by DDDC. You’ll get some more interesting and useful lobbying stats (unless you’re just going to use address data later) when talking to district and county councils.

You might want to add trails just outside the PDNP area but that provide a useful link to your area of interest as well. (being parochial 🙂 )

Out of interest where’s everyone buying it from. Cheapest I’ve seen is starbike?

Best Italian is Livin Italy by the Canal. Enoteca style, good wine but a more limited menu.

Hope not. Bought a liteville 301 and will be running it as a 26er rather than a 650b as a new build (not swapping bits around). I suppose I’ve hedged my bets (by coincidence) but given the number of 26ers around there’s a market for spares there (Rims and tyres) that’ll keep going for years.

Marko 7 deaths isn’t bad.

I played a lot of BF2 & 3, I bought 4 last weekend and got murdered. Combination of diving straight into the biggest maps and playing conquest.As above stick to rush to begin with.

…and Bromley have already dispatched my new frame. Impressed. Need to sort out one of the post shims and build spec.

Is anyone running a non-stealth reverb? Does it work using the routing (outlet) on the top tube / seat stay area or do you have to use one of the normal cable guides?

I just bought one last night. Ive been wondering what to do re build and might start trying a 150 rev (140 frame) that I can pull off another bike. Lots of the seem to get built up with Devilles.

I went for the mk11, though they have instructions on the liteville site on how / where to drill your mk10 if you want to do DIY stealth reverb routing..

I bought a 13″ or 13.5″ cube acid (can’t remember exactly) for my son when he was 9. I flipped the 6 degree stem but then put a 40 mm stem on it, cut the bars down and shortened the seat post so it would fully drop.

He’s outgrown it this year and (more worryingly) fit’s my 18″ framed bikes :0 , he’s 12!

I looked at on one at the time but they (In-breds) had quite long top tubes.

Cubes had the best standover / shortest TT of anything I could find at the time. He’s loved it but darts are a waste of time really.

As someone said above, women’s specific bikes are a good route as well as they tend to be shorter in the TT with better standover than the equivalent mens’ bike. Names and colours may prove to be a bigger issue 🙂

Magnus Backstedt always comes over really well when he’s on Eurosport.

Warner would be at the bottom of my list for exactly the reason above.

I had one (Frontal JoV) and didn’t rate it at all. Poor ventilation & heavy. Sold it on Ebay.

If it fits though, that’s a good price. Will have to pop in to Leeds (was it Headrow?) tomorrow.

Lets bring some balance. It’s disgusting; and I like cough mixture. My wife makes loads of it and gives it to family & neighbours. She loves the stuff and every year gets me to try a bit. It never improves. She also swears by Aldi gin as the base.

Do t think you have long enough now to make a decent batch for Xmas.

These are good when you’re starting out. V simple instructions to follow.

Just because it’s a fish tank doesn’t mean you have to stick to fish.

Get some shrimp when you’ve done cycling. Wood Shrimp are a good species and can get pretty large (mine are around 9 cm)