In my Sheffield commute days I regularly attracted drafters along the Abbeydale/London/Queens roads and the first few times it gave me a fright as I did the look over the shoulder to find a face only 4 feet from mine! After that I looked behind more regularly and if I found a wheel sucker and I was in a less than charitable mood, I aimed for all the potholes (mtb with knobblies), braked heavily (discs) or tried to drop them on the short hills. It made the rides a bit more enjoyable! (for me).
Now I only ride the quiet roads and off roads of Aberdeenshire so I never see ANYBODY!

I had no exact idea what I was buying. I HOPED it may have been something from a right hand crank only right up to a drivetrain groupset. 3.74 kg weight indicated it could have been something big. I took a chance, I thought I was being crafty, it didn’t work out! Ebuyer sometimes have very low priced items which may or may not be low priced because of someone’s inability to get the decimal point in the correct place. As it turns out, whoever listed the item on ebuyer’s site just googled X9 red and couldn’t be arsed to check any further.

Hmmm, I ordered this:
X9 red
But got this:
x9 red
Oh well, just entering the refund process…
I had visions of a whole X9 red groupset arriving! The basket weight came up at 3.78kg.

tell you Monday, I have no idea what’s going to arrive! I have a hope it’s something I can use though! It can always go on Ebay if not, I suppose!

Take a look at Yeti SB95 alloy or carbon if you’ve got a load of cash to spend. Are Yetis still ‘exclusive’?
I once asked about Yetis in a branch of Evans (Castleford Snowdome one) and was told rather snottily: “oh, we don’t sell ‘niche’ bikes, sorry!”

you can’t order from a macdonalds drive thru whilst sitting astride a bike either, even if there is no one behind you in the queue, they refused to sell me a milkshake but i was welcome to walk into the restaurant, i informed the manager (who just happened to be there behind the poor guy serving) where he could stick his shake, that was 11 years ago and i’ve never darkened their door step since

We have Mark Thomas to thank for that one. He dedicated a whole episode of his Comedy Product programme to taking the p!ss out of McDonalds. Used the drive thru with a clown Car, tank etc. Someone will be along in a minute with the youtube link…

I may wait until what I just ordered has arrived! (or at least has left the building…)

i’d just like to add: avoid the Specialized stuff. I bought 2 bottles – poured the thick gloopy muck away and cut the bottoms off to use the bottle as a handy funnel for inserting Stan’s fluid into my tyres!

I have a29er with 120mm rear/140mm front and it rides as well as my old Nukeproof Mega with 140mm rear/160mm front.
It all depends on what feels right. But ideally you need to ride a bike a good 2 weeks before you can tell if the bike’s right for you or not.
I say MORE TRAVEL as long as the bike is designed to ride ok that way.

Hans Dampf TS front and PS rear. Run at 25-30 psi on my SB95.

I want one!
I’m going for the latest Tmars but I’m a bit worried about the flimsy looking saddle rail clamp.

Buy a new hub, nick the body off it, sort it all out when you get back.

I keep referring to:

Rolling resistance test[/url]

Looks convincing.

It’s on a link in the article in a previous post above, I’ve had it saved for a while now.

concert_ici_trecnoc – it’s a palindrome

I seem to remember that the front hub is the same, it was only the rear axle that was beefed up due to a risk of breakages. Basically, Hope didn’t see 12mm rear coming and had to redesign the rear axle and swap the bearings for ones with bigger ‘holes’. 20mm front is a relatively old standard. The normal and Evo front 20mm adapters are both held on with circlips and the 9mm fits inside the 20mm axle so no need to change design.
Yes, I say!

Duplicate post!

I found some RonHill trackster clones by Karrimor. In fluo yellow! Part of my Retrobike outfit along with fluo yellow Bolle Edges I picked up NOS from a dusty old sports shop.

The new bt sports tv package says ‘selected Redbull programming’, so maybe they’ll be showing some?

I used a ‘clone’ grip collar on an ODI insert, I just had to trim the lip from the ODI grip. When I remove the grips from the bike, it comes apart but when on and bolted up, tight as a tight thing. I made a Yeti grip, using a yellow grip collar and turquoise ODI grip insert.

I have used Pharos Parcels and Collectplus. Pharos use UPS.

Anyone got a SB95? Or SB66?

EDIT – were you being chased by ruffians intent on doing harm to your person or that of your child’s face?

YES!

A bunch of Pikeys were burning the insulation off a pile of cable right by the canal. I had already accelerated to get past them. As I saw their German Shepherd bounding towards me, my thought was: Increase Speed! I didn’t want to find out if the Pikeys and their dog were friendly. Call me prejudiced but I assumed not! Plus I was on my own on a 3k bike!
The dog ran in front of me, I t-boned it, it bounced off my front tyre and I decided to put a bit more speed on! There were some shouts behind me. I never looked back!
I brought this incident up to demonstrate that if you’ve got enough momentum (200lbs me, plus 30lb bike at 20+mph) dogs just bounce off your front tyre.

I’m a bit scared of dogs arriving unannounced on a trail in front of me (I was bitten by one a while back). Also, I’ve ridden through enough dog turds in my life so far and don’t want to ride through any more, especially at trail centres. Dogs, to me, are 4 legged biting sh*tting things and all the dogs I’ve met so far whilst out biking have had the stupidity to wander in front of me while I was moving.
True story: A German Shepherd dog decided to wander in front of me while I was cycling along the canal (Tinsley area) about 4 years ago. For various reasons (mainly safety) I was travelling at speed (20mph+, on 575). I hit the dog amidships and kept going.

I just asked the two oil and gas hydraulic engineers next to me and they both said “eh, do what? The hose will split!”

A 185mm Avid rotor (ebay) – in a jiffy bag with no protection against being bent! Looks flat though, survived the trip.
2 off 185mm post mount adapters from CRC – in an enormous box!

Weird packaging decisions…

Quite emotional seeing the Athertons after Gee knew he won!

It’s ONNNNN! wooooooooo

I just hope my crap computer doesn’t get an overheated processor again!

Thanks! I’ll watch it via my pc, headphones on, banished from the lounge. I might get all kitted up and ride my turbo trainer for the whole duration of the race!

Moab
Go on the Yeti factory staff ride in Golden, Colorado.
Attend USA Yeti Tribemeet
Organise a Retrobike gathering at Mt Tamalpais (Charlie Kelly and Joe Breeze post regularly on Retrobike forum, hopefully they may attend!)
that’s it so far…

Request sent…

Anyone notice how poo the prizes are this year? (compared to last). They’d have to pay me to wear that awful Sombrio kit!

I used to laugh at my sister’s 1980s ski suits, looks like Sombrio have just hired Nevica’s head of garish designs dept from 1984…

Ok, maybe I didn’t ask the right question!

“Will a Hans Dampf fit ok on the back of a SB95 alloy?” There, that’s my question asked properly.

Managed to immediately go and buy one from Bikewagon in USA!

I thought a Hans Dampf might touch the sides? Does it clear the stays ok? (Not picking my frame up until next week, just assembling the components in advance)

Tell him what you found and you’re not happy. Let him offer recompense. Depending on his response, then leave feedback.

I would have done a bit of ‘tyrekicking’ before completing the sale though. If the police had stopped you, it’d be you that had got done. It’s the driver’s responsibility to check the road worthiness of the vehicle. I wouldn’t have driven for 2 months without checking the tyres. I check weekly, especially with the poor state of the roads these days.

Why is the death of Stuart Cable in the top ten of most read BBC news articles?

Well, security.
Let me see. I’ve got autoguns, Rottweilers hooked on the taste of Pikey’s blood, Private Military Contractors patrolling with NVGs and M16s. Oh, and a Predator drone on constant watch.
That do?

Tesco had Isla Negra on half price again – so I’m drinking (drunk, all gone now!) best red wine under a fiver.

All of my good Strava segments are off road steep uphills. My fully rigid 29er Inbred limits my downhill performance somewhat! Saving hard for a SB95 – then we’ll see!

I got one last month after noticing a really slow ride with plenty of walking and pushing had me at 5th out of 17 on a 1.2 mile segment with 515 ft height difference. Right! next day it was off with the Dampfs and on with some slightly narrower, lighter tyres (starts on fire road then goes into wide singletrack for last 1/2 mile) and I was off! Almost blew a lung but I did it! It’s probably easily beatable so I’m keeping schtum!

and afterwards:

I’m standing in the shower
thinking of you, so fair

I’ve drawn your face on the soap
and now you’re kissing me ‘down there’.