CX or road bike – doesn’t matter. Flanders’ cobbles are smooth compared to Paris-Roubaix.. nothing to trouble any road bike.

I’ve done it twice on a carbon Colnago with 23mm tyres.

Lots of people will say ‘Oh you must use 25mm or 28mm tyres.. blah blah’ ‘You should use a CX bike’ blah blah..

It’s all nonsense.

This time next week chaps… we’ll be in pain! :D

I started about 7:30am last year and I don’t think it got above zero for the first 100 miles!

… and then it started snowing. It was only light but at least I can say I’ve ridden Flanders and it snowed!

:D

My 13th time doing the full route and I can’t wait!

My 3rd time this year… It was bloody cold last year wasn’t it? I hope its a bit warmer this year.

Emailed ya!

My five 5 Spots over the years:

Spot #1 – a 2006 TNT

Spot #2 – a 2008 TNT

Spot #3 – a 2006 TNT

Spot #4 – a 2009 DW link

Spot #5 – a 2010 DW link

Plus a few action shots… who needs an RFX when the Spot is so capable?

Whistler

Moab

Fruita

Morzine

Turner 5 Spot = Pure Bliss!

Watched it in Cranleigh then hot-footed it over to Guildford and watched them on the cobbles.

Did the same last year. FANTASTIC atmosphere! And wasn’t Cav brill?

Why sell either?

The very small sum you’ll get for either bike (a few hundred pounds presumably) won’t go far toward any wedding cost.

The wedding you’ll enjoy for 1 day – a bike you’ll enjoy on many, many days.

Economise on the wedding – no-one will know or care anyway. Seriously. Your bride to be really cares, but believe me… the attendees at your wedding won’t miss whatever it is you and your bride are planning on spending the few hundred on anyway. It will likely go unnoticed.

So keep both bikes, enjoy the wedding day immensely and have a wonderful time.

I had a Crux (alloy version) – a very good layout/geo for a race bike, great handling, steering etc.

But…. appallingly poor quality welds and very harsh on the road when I used it for winter training rides.

The carbon ones may be better – I would imagine they’re totally different, but the alu version is basically a very, very cheap & nasty frame. I realise that comment will displease some of the Spesh faithful, but when you consider that Spesh were selling Crux’s (frames/forks/headset/seatpost/seat collar) to dealers sub £200 trade price last season it makes you wonder what the actual manufacturing cost for an alu Crux must be… maybe £100 tops including shipping from China? Ask yourself: how good can a 100 quid frame, fork, post, etc be?

If you have the money, get the Crux carbon or something of a similar ilk.

PS – I also briefly had a Cannondale CaadX which was only slightly better quality welds than the Crux… I have a history of buying cheap rubbish! :D

There’s no MTB at all near Wimbledon, and getting on the train with a filthy, muddy MTB from Surrey Hills is a PITA!

The road scene around west London is however, large and growing. Sigma Sport, Pearsons Cycles, lots of club rides (not the geeky/anorak kind), etc. Take the road bike, or the CX for best of both worlds.

The American said: “Knowing I have 0 cred on the doping issue – I still can’t help but think, ‘really Di Luca? Are you that f—ing stupid??’.”

I say: “Really Lance Armstrong? Are you that f-ing stupid to comment on Di Luca’s doping after what you’ve done???”

Shibboleth – to really make people’s blood boil/keyboards all frothy I think you should buy one of each and Crit race ’em both… that way ending this dilemma and providing you with a great means of back-to-back testing which one is better. Not only that, but if you crash one – you’ve already got a spare! :D

Post up pics when you get one… or both.

After this winter, riding virtually every weekend whatever the weather, everything bar the shifters is worn out.. . chainrings, chain, jockey wheels, cassette and wheel rims. Oh, and 3 sets of brake pads.

I know how Wiggo’s feeling… having just had my traditional ‘summer cold’ at this time of year and suffering like a dog on the bike!

This Giro is exciting innit? It’s turning out to be nothing like anyone thought it would be beforehand… I mean:

– who would’ve thought Wiggo would be out of it?

– that Cadel would be on fire and challenging for teh lead?

– that there would be a repeat of the Sky “who’s the leader” intrigue but with different riders?

– that Ryder Hesjedal would implode so badly?

.. and finally, how about that rain???

Exciting times! :D

I for one think its all the more exciting because Brad is struggling. He’s 4th and is within a shout – but he’s going to have to find something very special to beat Nibali.

Wiggo also cannot afford any more mishaps.

The suspense is building … Which is exactly what makes a good race really great to watch. :D

Come on Brad!

About £120 when I drove there in Feb

When I bought my Colnago I wanted to build an ‘all Italian’ road bike but it is not really possible… my frame is made in China, the tyres in France, the inner tubes in China, the pedals in Malaysia, the bar tape ‘who-knows-where?’ etc… I think the only things really made in Italy are the Fizik Arione saddle and Campagnolo Record groupset. Possibly the Deda bars and stem.. but not sure about those really.

What I’ve ended up with is not an ‘Italian bike’ but more of an ‘Italian-flavoured’ bike. I’m happy enough with that. :D

I would think that you could easily get an ‘UK-flavoured’ bike together. There are enough good UK brands in the market to do so.

OP… The Kona Stinky 24 in the classifieds is my son’s. see here:

http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/kona-stinky-24-schwinn-mesa-20

Email is simonpearsonATyahooDOTcom if interested.

Having owned various steel-framed CX bikes (and several Alu ones too) I’m musing over getting Rourke or similar to make me a frame this year, in order that I can get a high-end quality steel frame at an affordable cost.

I used to race (when sponsored and living in California) on Paul Sadoff handmade Rock Lobsters (which are nothing like the Merlin RL’s we get here in UK) and Bontrager CX bikes. Both of these were top quality steel frames, and the ride quality was infinitely better than the steel frames I’ve owned since, like Cotic X, Kaffenback, Pompino….. although to be fair, these budget frames are not comparable to their higher end brethren: they are “CX-look-a-likes” than real CX frame, catering to the commuter/mudguard market.

Looking at what’s available today it seems no-one makes an off-the-shelf decent quality steel CX frame. While some of them look nice (Cotic X, All-City et al) the tubesets are just nasty and IME ride like planks. Some of the geometry from the more MTB-oreinted companies can be very strange too… the X for example is really nothing like a CX bike – it’s a mountain bike masquerading as a CX bike.

Naaah, that’s all bollx. He was on the latest must-have marketing shite: a disc-braked road bike.

Cheers folks – I will try that.

jsm – will try that too.

Sweet Jesus those pics look awful!

If you can honestly, 100%, hand on heart, say they were fine when you sold them then the buyer has fecked them and that is his fault. However, you do acknowledge the rear rim was buckled beforehand and that wasn’t disclosed to the buyer.

In your shoes I’d refund 50/50. He’s fecked the front wheel, you fecked the rear one.

I hate Gels, PowerBars etc.. Marks & Sparks do some really nice Belgian chocoltae flapjack bars, so do most sandwich chains like Pret a Manger, Eat and others, They’re easy to eat/nibble on whilst riding.

Other choices I’ve found work well and are easy to handle:

Fig rolls (I emptied an entire packet into my jersey pocket last weekend when riding Paris-Roubaix and that worked well)

Those round honey/waffle things (Meli) you get in France/Belgium

At the Tour of Flanders I also made my own easy-to-eat savoury cheese/parma ham wraps as you get a little sick of eating nothing but sweet stuff all day.. bought 6 slices of delicious cheese plus 6 slices of smoked/cured parma ham in a supermarket, rolled a slice of each into 6 ready-to-eat little rolls and scoffed those along the way.

SRAM employs 12 year olds in their Marketing Dept.

As Vondally said: Turner’s journal bearings are the best ‘UK proof’ bearing system there is.

I am about to undertake the 3rd bearing replacement in 3 yrs on Mrs Digger’s Spesh FSR.

All I’ve done to my Turner, which gets a LOT more use than her FSR, is occasionally inject fresh grease into the zerk fittings.

In case anyone is interested, one of the two Stinky 2-4’s I have available has sold.. this is the other one:

Kona Stinky 2-4

A ‘build your own’ Kona Stinky 2-4 bundle which in fact is nearly everything required for a complete bike – only parts required are seat, headset, stem, pedals and derailleur/shifter. £350 collecetd for this lot.

– Frame (small amount of play in main bearing and chainstay bearings, could use replacement if fussy).

– Marzocchi forks

– 2 wheelsets: original Alex DM24’s plus Halo Combats, 3 tyres (Halo ChoirBoy, Maxxis High Roller and DMR Moto Digger, with x2 160mm rotors

– Quick releases

– Crankset/BB

– Chain

– XT Cassette

– Kona riser bars

– Hope seatclamp

I have 2 Kona Stinky 2-4’s for sale as my kids have now outgrown them.. will send you an email.

One is virtually new, having hardly been ridden by my daughter.

The other is my sons and has been ridden hard, but has always been excellently maintained (by me). That one also has 2 sets of wheels. £550 for the newer one / £350 for the more used one.

They are fantastic bikes for kids and my son is now completely hooked on Morzine!

I’ve have Campagnolo Record on my Colnago and Chorus on my winter bike this past 3 years.

Prior to this I spent 10 years on Dura Ace and Ultegra.

I just fancied a change after 10 years on Shimano, but oh wow what a change! I’m glad I did. For me, Campy has much better ergo hood feel for my hands, I prefer the positive clicking shifters, and the UT BB crankset is a dream not just to look at but beats Shimanos external BB performance by a significant margin in terms of engineering, ease of set up, longevity and quality. And those carbon Record cranks, well… just look at them. Yum!

Finally, as many have mentioned, my Campy stuff still works sweetly after many, many hard thousands of miles, whereas my previous Shimano stuff was wearing out in lots of places by this time.

Being a high-end roadie gruppo junkie I also bought SRAM Red last year but got rid after 6 months – I loved the feel of the SRAM shifters but hated the shifting performance. I know this goes counter to current hype but lets face it, SRAM shifting is just not on a par with Campy or Shimano and come on.. theyve never been able to make a front derailleur that works properly whether MTB or road. In my opinion, another example of an excess of SRAM’s carpet-bombing marketing rather than actually making a product that works well.

I rode Paris-Roubaix yesterday and am staying a few kms from the Arenberg cobbles as I type this – so will be up in a minute, breakfasted, then out to watch the race.

Blimey – those cobbles are ROUGH! My mates who rode it last year told me they were, but you just don’t get the perspective on TV. It’s an incessant pounding – like holding onto a pneumatic drill.

Everyone says the pave sections are rougher than the Tour of Flanders (which I rode last weekend) but they are also much, much longer.

Rode 2 laps of the Roubaix Velodrome just for good measure and browsed around the museum afterwards.

OMG that was HARD!!!!

I bonked after 6hrs.. just didn’t eat enough (although I thought I had and was regularly stuffing my face). The rest was done at a snail’s pace took me 2hrs longer than last year, and I was fitter, lighter and in better shape. Oh cr@p.

The temperature didn’t help me as my body slows down in the cold, and then it started snowing very lightly toward the end too…

It wasn’t that hard last year – what happened???

8hrs to go…. Am in Bruges, bike’s ready, I’m ready having stuffed myself with a lovely Creme Brûlée!

Plop_pants.. many thanks mate, that is a very kind offer. Don’t want to put you to any trouble and it probably is better if I just get it Sat morning at the stadium.

I’ll be on a black/white carbon Colnago with red Hope hubs on the wheelset and wearing a black & white jacket or rain jacket if anyone passes and wants to say ‘Hi’!

Mine started on a 16″ wheel Mongoose Pit Crew at age 8 – then graduated to an 18″ wheel Hoffman as he grew.

As a Colnago and Campagnolo fan I don’t know how you could even contemplate putting Shimano on it.

It’s beautiful! :D

Plop_pants, I’m staying in the Parkhotel Bruges on Vrijdagmarkt.

Last year I was at the Novotel.. rode out to Jan Breydel Stadium and then started, so know the route. Just seems a bit funny to go from centre of Bruges out to the start, then ride back into the centre of Bruges..! Oh well, it’s all kilometres in the legs. A bit like the first 10kms of Milan San-Remo I s’pose.

Marge – no need to worry about ‘exclusivity’ on the course if you’re doing the 259kms… by the time you reach the hills most/all the people riding the shorter routes will have cleared off.

Annoying.. because I’m staying in Bruges, will have to ride 6kms out to the Jan Breydel stadium, then another 6kms back to Bruges to the Grote Markt (I am right in thinking that’s the main square in Bruges aren’t I?)

Guess it’ll be a long day then!

Just received final instructions.. and it appears it in fact starts at the Jan Breydel Stadium again.

16 in total (family of 5).

I have 5 of my own:

1. MTB

2. DH

3. Road

4. Winter Trainer bike

5. Fixie/SS.. for hacking around & fun

Don’t bother!!!!

Took my car to them which they valued at £3k on website… they said maximum £2.6k when I went there, and after having wasted at least an hour of my time viewing it, taking details, checking this and that and all that crud.

Worse, when I asked why they were offering so much less than the quoted web price despite them not picking up anything – no cosmetic, no mechanical, no nothing fault with the car, they said “Well, prices often change between the time you obtain a web quote and when you bring the car in”. When I then pointed out to them that the webquote which was just 18hrs earlier they just shrugged and said that was the price.

Utter shysters. Total, utter waste of time.

I was given £3k by a dealer on trade-in later that week.

12th time?? Kudos to you plop_pants.

I’m going for the long game too having ‘discovered’ RVV last year. Frankly, I spent the whole last year looking forward to this year’s RVV… can’t wait! :D

Hope I’m still riding it 10 years from now…