The blue does look nice, but I quite like the black as well. Put some pics up when you build it please!

What colour did you go for? Have the funds for the frame and everything else bar the forks at the moment!

Ok. I will check out Friends Life. Thanks folks.

You could just e-mail or facebook the owner if you want to be absolutely sure.

Been told that they can manually apply the BC discount for orders made through the store only.

Ordered 8 items and they arrived from 8 different suppliers. Poor guy had to search through and find a lot of them. Doesn’t seem like the best model of delivery to store. Got a pedal wrench instead of a BB tool. Seems like the supplier has mislabelled it so not Halfords’ fault.

Would probably order again from them, but only if price is better than CRC/Wiggle/Merlin and I’m not in a rush.

It’s a fairytale town isn’t it?

@cr500dom No, that ended on Wednesday night.

CRC are doing £10 off £75. Only reason I went with Halfords is because they had more of the kit I wanted and there may be an opportunity to stack my BC discount. Not counting on it though.

Looks like a crown race installation thingy. I have a headset cup remover waiting for me. Hopefully that will do the removal job if the bearing is seized.

I want one with no cables, and want three lights in total. Two for helmets so I can use them on the road helmet for commuting, come home, swap helmets and be out for a night ride. And one bar mounted light for the MTB.

I can spend up to £1000 (C2W accessories voucher if going for Exposure etc) or £2-300 if buying in a shop/online).

I looked at the Torchy site and the Fluxient looks good. However, the cables put me off.

So what’s the best light for off road riding according to Torchy?

parkesie, you didn’t try for the BC discount then?

I’m knackered of these threads.

Hopeful morning bump?

Mechanic suggested using a rubber mallet and a flat punch to get it in and out. What is a punch? Is it like the cup removal tool?

12km round trip at the moment from Acton to Twickenham. I lengthen it on the way home in the summer a couple of times a week to 32km by adding a lap of Richmond Park. It’s spooky in the winter and the ice crean’s great in the summer!

One of the great things about golf is that we can play at the same venues as the pros

You can do the same thing with bike riding!

Tennis, well, you’d better have chosen rich parents or start working very hard. However, having said that, Wimbledon was a religious experience for me the first time I went!

Cheers. I thought the diagram looked like a top cup, but I’ve never replaced a headset so I’m not 100% sure. Is this not what they call a semi-integrated headset?

From what I remember the bottom bearing did seem to be in pretty tight at the bottom. Didn’t try to remove the top bearing because it looked fine. I’ve ridden the bike through all of last winter so it could have settled in pretty tight.

Will using a 1.5 inch cup remover tool and rubber mallet to remove it if it’s seized risk breaking anything?

I don’t think that Nike making crap clubs is the problem. At the pro’s level a little change that doesn’t feel right can be the difference between winning and losing.

I come from a tennis background and the difference between what’s sold in the shops and what the players use is unbelievable. For example, Roger Federer plays with a 90 square inch Pro Staff 6.0 painted to look like whatever the latest version being sold is. The racket he plays with is a mold that has been around since Sampras was a junior, so going back 20 years now. It also has a slightly different string pattern to suit his play. You cannot buy it in a shop.

If Rory is playing with off the shelf clubs then fair play to him. The tennis marketing is pretty duplicitous because they never acknowledge that the pro rackets are custom jobs. However, if you’re stupid enough to believe buying Federer’s racket will let you play like him then you deserve what you get. If results don’t come through then you will probably see him renege on the contract, or paint his old clubs or whatever.

A similar thing happened with Phillippousis when he swapped rackets (to Dunlop I think?). His results went down the drain. Soon afterwards he was playing with his old frames painted black.

@BadlyWiredDog and Northwind

This is what my headset looks like, so looks like there is a cup there somewhere. Not sure if it is for the top or the bottom.

The bike is in storage at the moment, but I get it back on Saturday. I will take a look to confirm.

Thanks for taking the time to have a look guys!

That is great news! Thanks Northwind. I tried pulling the bearing out, but it seems to be held fast. Should I keep tugging or is it worth getting one of the cup removal tools instead please?

Ah, I have an integrated headset. So no cups.

EDIT: Aaand looks like someone’s bought the last one so I don’t have this problem anymore. Better save up for the Park Tools one and see if there’s an offer on CRC when it comes round!

You bang the bearing in with a rubber mallet?

I think they are supposed to be built with a bit of 4x/dirt jump influence. If you do either then perhaps that will help you make your mind up.

Can anyone confirm if using BC discount and collect from store worked for them please?

The Shan looks great. I’m saving my pennies for a Slackline 631 though.

Let’s put it this way. My riding is not good enough to know how to not keep going sideways in the bog and slither! Agree the course at Frith Hill was not super technical, but it was a bit like wacky races with the rain and clag/mud. Only bit I had trouble riding was a bombhole type thing with a big root at the exit. I think there may have been a little bit to gain if I’d ridden a practice lap. Not much in the rain though! I raced Sport, but was firmly at the back. Could have podiumed if I dropped a cat, but 4 laps is the way forward I reckon. You learn a lot more when you ride with the better guys even if your position in the race doesn’t look good.

People dissing XC riders’ technical ability are morons. The guys at the front in the XC races would definitely put a lot of the DH bikers I see on uplift days on big bikes in full DH gear to shame.

Dave, I don’t think I’m ready to vomit over the bars yet, but I reckon I’ll have you on the Mendips SS ride if I put the training in!

If you said electric shifting would eliminate trim on my MTB then I would go “SHUT UP AND TAKE MY MONEY”! However, the more I ride (i.e: the fitter I get), the more 1×10 makes sense! Really like the “less to go wrong” concept.

If Wellington are the ones with the bike hire/repair place next to the Visitor’s Centre then I’ll pass. Bikes we’ve hired from there in the past have been pretty hit and miss.

Seems to be a bit of a pee-take to take a demo bike out with no intention of buying it 🙁

– Carbon Demo 8 on some of those Spanish trails.
– A Cervelo TT bike.
– A rigid SS Tranny.

It would be really useful for lap times. I thought I heard the missus shout “49 lap” when I went past when she actually said 29 (still slow, I know). Sat up a little bit after that.

Toying with the idea of an Edge 200 just for races. Don’t want to give Garmin any of my money after how shocking the Edge 800 I shelled out for is, but at £84 it would be handy just to have a backup GPS.

Also, this way I have a stick if I look down and clock my HR at anything below Zone 5!

Yes. I have done this. Shoes went in the bag in hand luggage. I have an Osprey bag which has a tab for the helmet to attach to.

Does anyone play the “would I have podiumed if I dropped a cat” game?

@njee20 Think I saw your wife? Rides a Whippet with 650B wheels?

I swapped the pedals over from the full sus bike which had them set low for “bail or you go over a Spanish mountainside” mode. Way too low for the bog at Frith Hil when you’re climbing in the wrong gear!

Does anyone bother with a Garmin and HR monitor? I was glad to not have put it on, but was wishing there was a way to time myself without risking a £300 GPS given the amount of crashing I did.

My granddad is 90 something, blind in one eye and still rides his bike to market. He is still a cyclist to me. As long as I have a bike, I will be a cyclist.

When you have the tension in your SPDs set too low, clip out by mistake on a steep climb and the pedal whips round and whacks you in the knee.

I think it’s only worth doing if you’re trying to get your handling “perfect”. I went from a super long 100mm and 685mm bars to a 60mm and 785mm bars and I was wishing I’d done it sooner. This was about 6-12 months ago. It improved my descending greatly, but I find myself wishing the stem was a tiny bit longer for the steeper climbs and the bars a little bit shorter for more general riding. Consequently, I’m thinking about going to 70mm and 750mm bars for general use and using the 785/60mm combo for DH only.

If a 70mm stem shows up at the right price then I’d give it a shot. Your circumstances may vary.

EDIT: Actually, I’d probably go shorter stem for DH. Maybe a 50/55mm even.

Which cat were you in? Interested in knowing how the course held up over the day.

http://www.pinkbike.com/news/whatwereyoudoingat10-artbarn-video-2013.html

Mine is pure as the driven snow. I judge workmates who hand me their stained mugs. Foul, despicable creatures.

Rollindoughnut, think I had a chat with you as you finished! Last 3rd of the course was an absolute slitherfest, but really enjoyed it once we settled in. Deeply regretting not pushing harder and wearing my glasses for two laps. Could not see a thing through them!
Had a Nic in front and a Racing Ralph in the back. Don’t think any tyre choice would have helped with grip in those conditions.

No, but you must rise above it. It is their inadequacies that leads them to gossip about you.

Like they say where I’m from, people don’t throw stones at trees that bear no fruit. So keep your chin up mate.