Mary or DHF i find to be equally as good as a front tyre. i like the mary snakeskin trailstar as a UK trail tyre as its pretty light but for the alps a DH carcass minion DHF 3C compound to avoid punctures whilst uplifting.

I went to 2alps and alp dhuez last year running a pair of Maxxis HR2’s 3C up front and dual compound on rear, both dual ply – zero punctures for me.

As has already been said, fixing punctures is no fun and its very rocky at the top of alp dhuez and parts of 2alps.

I run Magic mary and rock razor in the UK for trails. Defo wouldnt run that combo at 2alps. The rock razor isn’t the best tyre for slowing down. Possibly would run the MM up front in the trailstar (or vertstar) compound will get pretty worn on the shoulder knobs as theyre a bit softer than the maxxis. And as its a pretty similar tyre to the Minion DHF I’d probably go for that instead.

Also, the one thing that stood out was the locals and nearly everyone else ran maxxis at 2alps. Other tyre brands were very scarce.

my corrugated steel as mentioned above

ive got corregated steel sheeting on mine – required a bit of cutting of the sheets to match my store footprint correctly but looks good.

Cheaper alternative could be corregated bitumen sheet?
steel sheet

bitumen sheet

edit: looking at your store pic – not much effort to raise the back to give you a straight line for a corregated roof

@jambalaya

To add a few more details – the battery cell that had gone had ‘exploded’ and caused a bowing/bending of the glass/phone as well as other internal damage.

You’re right though if you’re just swapping a battery outside of warranty that reached end of life – its £59

Something similar happened with my old iphone 5. It was literally 12 months and a few days old – took it to the apple store and they saw that a battery cell had ‘gone’ – they did a diagnostic to check/blame me for charging habits. Agreed that my charging habits were fine and the battery was faulty but as it was just over 12months old it was out of warranty – it was cheaper to buy a new one than the total repair costs they quoted.

Hence now on sony androids!

I did a week based between 2 alpes and alp dh’huez and made a day trip to Montgenevre for a change of scenery.

The town as mentioned above is quiet and a nice place.

The bike park however is not up to scratch compared to the other places you’ve already visited.

The black run at montgenevre is easier than the greens at les 2 alps. In fact when we arrived there there was a school bus of young kids + teacher/responsible adult heading to the chairlift. 3hrs and you’ve exhausted the bikepark and i wouldn’t go back for another day.

Don’t get me wrong, it’s worth a day visit to ride somewhere new but to put it into UK perspective – it would be like basing yourself at thetford forest for a change of scenery even though the riding at Wales/Scotland is significantly better.

Serre chevalier is close by but looks like another ‘do in a day’ place.

Alexxx, its more of a case of during the detailed offer process you will walk in and they say how much can you afford to pay on a mortgage monthly.

You say for example £1000, they do their checks/advice as per regulations and recommend a mortgage based on the repayments you can afford. eg 25yrs.

You then cant turn around and say actually you’d prefer a 30 year mortgage because then you would be lying about how much you can afford to pay monthly ie. less the the example £1000

It’s not a personal loans service!

I seriously doubt you’ll have the flexibility of picking between a 20 year and a 30yr mortgage.

Nationwide refused to give me a 30yr mortgage after I told them the monthly payments i could afford equalled to a 28yr mortgage.

love my mk3 penthouse pedals – very robust and a great platform for my big feet.

Papped my pants when the pedal fell off on a practice run of the megavalanche this year after the axle snapped internally.

Don’t worry though – a rare manufacturing fault that was resolved free of charge (well – cost of posting the pedals to them) by the burgtec guys (albeit when i got home). Great customer service, and keeping me as a repeat customer when i need some more pedals!

I run middleburns 1×10 with zee rear mech and have no issues with chain dropping at all in UK trail riding (and even with a week in les 2alpes with a mrp 1x guide fitted). I’m running a wolftooth ring and not middleburns own effort though.

I just used an MRP 1x guide, the seat tube mounted version. Just mount it lower than usual and BOOOOOOM it works for a 30t chainring – successfully i might add for a week in les 2alpes with zero dropped chains

ns soda 2014 model!

I’ve got the syntace one with bits (1/4 inch) and its quite nice – you can always get a 1/4 to 3/8 adapter:

linky

does come on its own though too. Apparantly its one developed with ‘norbar’ for bike specific range of 1-25Nm so not as cheap quality as some that are available

the poc ‘spine’ tshirt – thanks, would be a great help :)

For the person struggling at the back – literally ride rings around them by overtaking, pulling over and dropping back to increase motivation!

it’s useful for returning and getting the vivofit 2 that’s released in a months time

Combine it with other garmin devices like a running watch / edge device and you can track more movement along with your exercise activities

I was in a similar position to the OP in 2012 – 105kg rider.

Used the competitive cyclist bike fit calculator for road bike sizing – easier with an assistant linky

Then looked at the figures vs a few brands i liked. Ended up going with a canyon roadlite as could spec wider bars, stem length and specific cassette range. Really comfortable fit.

Also, agree with the above regarding lycra. Commuting 24 miles one way into a constant headwind with baggies on soon got tiring. Lycra for the win! No shaved legs though!

haha – a packet of Andrex wet toilet wipes 17ish miles into my first 102miler at the Wiggles Mega Meon.

Had just reached the bottom of a long quick descent when i realised the packet had gone – I still had both my socks as emergency backup but in the end I needn’t have worried – dump crisis was avoided

here you go – ti at approx £67 delvered

http://www.probikeshop.com/funn-hyperion-seatpost-layback-15-mm-titanium/99077.html

happy to help Benji.

I bought mine direct from wolftooth in the US – free postage and didn’t get stung for tax, worked out at near on £50.

http://www.wolftoothcycling.com/products/direct-mount-for-middleburn-cranks

I’ve had the xtype RS8s for a couple of years too with no issues. now running it with a spiderless ring up front – a wolftooth components narrow-wide 30t. Looks a lot better than the UNO ring and costs a bit less too.

FYI – both pairs of my marzocchi forks came with a top cap and star nut.

So they are included in some cases

you sure if definitely not your brake pads moving within the caliper? my zee brakes give a slight rocking effect

If cost is no object, go saint.

But my set up with xtr shifter and zee mech is pretty good. The fact i can buy nearly 2 and a half zee mechs for the price of a saint also swung me.

Perfect thanks! black will be better than red!

according to sheldons calculator,

the difference of 32×11 vs 30×12 at 80rpm is 16.9mph vs 15.5mph

hardly much more spinny………..anyway, I’m wondering if anyone else has done this or if I’ll brave it and be a hero pioneer :P

Twas the best and most memorable FF!

take a tub of table salt with you and leave a ring of salt round each slug and let them make their own decision

I did my first 100 miler 2 weeks ago at Wiggles mega meon.

For my 105kg, I had a bowl of porridge and a banana 1 hour before the start. 2 bottles of water with zero tabs in. Ate a clif bar every 50mins and made sure i consumed the liquid between each fuel stop.
Also ate a banana and some jaffa cakes at each fuel stop as well as refilling with high5 energy drink.

i only used energy gels for the last 25% of the distance as i couldnt face eating any more clif bars.

Note: Torq rhubard n custard gels are amazing.

Biggest point to remember is to stay fuelled even if you don’t feel hungry. avoid the BONK!

The first mistake the OP made was assuming there would be no bellends driving on the roads today.

Secondly, sat at lights left foot on the kerb and leaving enough width for a car to pass without hitting the bike or the other stationary car is almost indicating that you’re leaving enough space for cars to pass on purpose.

If you don’t like being buzzed passed, don’t leave the space??

a bit different but how about Middleburn x types with a wolf tooth ‘uno’ ring?

wolf tooth link

blingy and the middleburns have held up well at herts shore with my 100kgs on my nomad

Knolly frames from pricepoint – delivered to your hotel.

linky[/url]

Can pick up the endorphin with fox shock for a grand ($1700) or a little bit more with a CC DBAir.

In the Uk the same frame is £1700 as a comparison

Can wheelie and manual, takes regular practice to keep the distances high though.

i used to run the 9 speed 951 sram chains on my trials bike a few years ago and have snapped 2 or 3 of those.

Since moving up the range to 971 and 991 (normal, hollowpin and cross step) for all types of riding i haven’t had one snap (100kg rider). But as a previous poster mentioned, I am mindful of not laying the power down mid shift.

This is such thing as a bad manufacturing batch and your chain could be one of those ‘part-per-million’ failures.

My recommendation would be replace like for like or go up level (1071). If you have repeated issues with snapping the following chains then it may be down to setup/poor shifting technique.

Jimr80 – mine is a US bought one. you can’t send to Fisher direct – I found a lovely LBS who sent it off for warranty for me for a minimal cost (It’s easy enough for them to do, any LBS that sells reverbs will be familiar in sending them off to Fisher!)

If you’ve topped the pressure up and it still sinks it’s oil migration i’m afraid.

If its in warranty, brand new reverb for you!

do your hands really need to breathe if your hands/gloves are getting soaked in the rain/cold.

maybe if its only a cold day use silk.

Crappy wet weather, Nitrile + normal gloves are better/cheaper than forking out for waterproof mtb gloves.

nitrile rubber gloves FTW underneath normal trail gloves

freeridenick – that is the tyre i’ve been waiting for! cheers! although 50 quid is a bit steep for the 3c. hopefully it’ll be available cheaper soon..