I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but I’m not sure you’ll have room for a dropper post on your Nicolai. I nearly bought an CC a year or two ago but pulled out when I realised the seattube was too long to fit one…that was on a medium too and I’m over 6 foot! I was going to buy an AC last year instead of my current frame and was going to have to have a custom seat tube made.
You need 195mm from top of the seatpost clamp to the middle of the saddle rail. I’m guessing 170mm for the 4″ drop version (for a Reverb).

Messiah – Are you thinking the BB looks too high? If so, that’s just how they are. The Lefty shouldn’t be any longer than any other fork with the same travel. A Rockshox one might even be 10-20mm longer A-C.

That’s on a different bike though (about the shock)! You say you’ve always had your bars set high too…have you tried them lower? Looking at your setup, it will be like steering a penny farthing. You can’t say that you don’t have problems with the front end wandering on climbs setup like that? You can change the steerer on the Lefty if you change frames…leave an extra inch on it though, so you probably won’t have to.

Their own lube rather than oil? Oil is a lubricant??? Any 10w fork oil should do. They say just to soak the foam rings in that too, they used to recommend float fluid for that.

Like Druidh say, it makes more sense to split when getting into the thousands. Someone can go and get a decent new bike from a shop with 0% finance for that…with a warranty too. It’s easy to build up a bike costing 6 or 7k these days. A suppose a lot of those doing so will either keep them for years or upgrade the frames and use the old parts.

When I was in Morocco, it was a mountain biking trip with Freeride Morocco. A van took our gear to each nights accommodation for us. Each village seemed to have somewhere to stay, although these were mostly gites, so you’d need a sleeping bag. Some would be difficult to find, I’m guessing they must be somewhere that lists them all? We passed a few nicer places, I don’t know if you had to book or could just turn up though. A little bit of French would go a long way too. If you want to see some pictures of the trip we did, look up Barry Godin on Deviant Art…he was on the trip taking photos for an exhibition he was doing.

If some oil didn’t manage to escape, the seal wouldn’t get lubricated. If that was the case, the coating on the piston wouldn’t last 5 minutes.

Atlas Mountains, Morocco. Not totally sure on the route as the one I did was nowhere near 500km. It would be much more of an adventure than Europe.

Geetee – Did you not think you would’ve been better not going to that wedding? Rubbing someones nose in it without them even knowing is a dispicable thing to do, especially on an occasion like that. I’m surprised you never got lynched!
I know of a similar tale where the wedding was called off, a big fight broke out and the bride tried to gas herself in her car!

Munqe-chick – I’ve forgotten the name of the company, it shouldn’t be to hard to find if your search for Chile/Argentina and Xmas. I’m sure the bloke who does it is UK based but his wife was from over there. I think they were 3 week trips with a few days hiking too. The terrain looked a bit tame for me, as there were a lot of gravel roads involved if I remember correctly. The trips weren’t cheap either. I would have searched for you but I’m on here using my phone.

David – Sorry, I should have remembered you too. I was the one who rang you last Xmas while I was in Spain!

If you run pressures that are too low, you will still get pinch punctures with tubeless.

thisisnotaspoon – My most accurate results (well they look accurate plotted on the map) for me was a £16 GPS logger off ebay which takes a location every second,

Garmin GPS’ can record every second too. It’s just most are set to ‘smart recording’ which makes the file sizes smaller due to only recording sharper changes in direction.

Troll??? 😆

Convert it into whatever file type you need over on GPSies.

Ha ha! 😆

There’s plenty of places selling the Sombrio Wildcards too…do a search without ‘3/4’ in. That’s the only length they do them in now.

Does their tagline ‘Urban Cycling Apparel’ not put you off? Would you not be better off with something designed for mountain biking? The fact that it says those shorts are designed for warm weather, makes me think they’ll be thin and not hard wearing.

and she knows loads of the people I know as well ( small world!!)

Which is why you should be honest and courteous with folk…you might end up on a date with someone they know next. You wouldn’t want them bad mouthing you to them.
This is all especially true for those who live in small towns or rural areas!

Apart from MTB Kerala, Mountain Biking Spain and another company that does trips to Chile, I’ve found it very hard to find companies that take folk over Xmas.
If you’re going in a group, could you not download a load of routes and do it yourself? Might be a bit lonely if you were doing that yourself though.

One of my mates was doing an 85 mile road event yesterday that started at Keswick. They stopped folk going up some of the passes later on due to the torrential rain and high winds…maybe it was a blessing in disguise?

What’s that story about the bloke who got sprayed with s%^& from his front wheel? After further inspection, he said to his mate “I didn’t know dogs ate sweetcorn?!?”. 😆

Gore Fusion SO Windstopper 3/4’s would fit the bill…great in cooler weather, maybe too warm in summer though?

I found Marrakech extremely claustrophobic, especially after spending a week in the mountains first. That was in Winter too, when it’s way quieter than than a lot of other times of year. I won’t be in a rush to go back…it’s good for half a day if you’re wanting to buy some souvenirs. There are some nice restaurants if you know where to look, I don’t know the names of the ones I went to though.

A reminder to carry duct tape folks! 🙂
Sorry.

Are you sure your cleats are setup right?

deadkenny – Member

Shimano chain? Not sure on compatibility with the powerlinks with them, especially as those chains I think are directional.
Powerlinks are usually fine and 9-speed Shimano chains aren’t directional. 🙄

Anyway, what’s wrong with a cat? 😆

Depending on where you would be keeping it, a rat would be better if it would be in the house. Ferrets stink and can be hard to contain…they’re still great pets if you’re willing to put up with this though.

Freehub slipping?

I’m based in Cumbria, that’s one of the reasons it was pointed out to me. I wasn’t looking to go to college or uni, someone recommended it based on things I do or talk about doing.

GPS + Strava! If you can’t beat others on there, at least you can challenge your own previous times.

edit: beaten to it.

Ha, I thought as much. The money side of things isn’t a worry really though. It sounds interesting to do, but as you say Loddrik, what kind of jobs could one expect from it that you couldn’t without. I’m sure a lot of them you wouldn’t even need a degree for, it even says it would be good for those looking for a career in outdoor instruction! If I wanted to do that, I’d do a relevant course over a month or two plus the first aid. I’m also in my mid-thirties, so already have experience in a lot of the areas it covers (the degree, not outdoor instruction).

I think I’m having an early, mid-life crisis. I need a job with either more time off or more flexible hours. In my old job, I was fairly indispensible and it was a struggle to get any time off. It was mainly contracting for other companies, so had to work the hours/weeks/months they needed me.

bravohotel8er – Link especially for you! 😆

Edit:

mboy – Member

Nothing wrong with people doing a higher education course in something practical rather than academic, and that interests them but the prospects might not be so great work wise as a result.
That’s exactly the angle I’m coming from. I’m not necessarily looking for an academic or high paid job, I want to do something I enjoy. I definitely don’t want to work in an office…I pity those that do!

I think a lot of the above are quite tame compared to some I’ve seen! 🙂

The FSA ones are known to last longer than the SRAM ones. I’d give one a go and if you still have problems, stick an adaptor in and use a standard BB.

smiff – Member

headsets are basically a “solved” problem, as the principle hasn’t changed for so long, they all work.
Just because they all work doesn’t mean they’ll last! 😕

OP – If it’s this Monday you’re coming up, you need somewhere rocky…the rain we’ve just had and more that’s forecast will have turned a lot of the fells to quagmire.

A bin bag or two. Great for keeping gear dry that you don’t want/won’t fit in your bivi or tent. Maybe not an issue if you’re using a tarp.
I would say it will be too cold for midges now? If not, mozzie headnet and make sure you’ve got something to cover your legs. I was somewhere where I was eaten alive, I only had shorts on and my eyes and ears were full of them! It’s making me shudder thinking about it. Oh, and spraying repellant on, once you’ve been bit feels like being set on fire! 😯

cynic-al – Member

Top tube decals are where it’s at, super cool.
Personalised? 😆

Take cans and tape them underneath your top tube. 😀
Squash empty cans flat to fetch back.

Look for for places that do laser engraving…should cost a couple of quid if you supply the cap.