Drivers that fail to stop before the white line at traffic lights but stop with their vehicle straddling the line.

I have a set of unused, boxed, non-boost, 27.5” Pike RCT3 to sell if you are interested.

I bought them a while ago for a bike rebuild that never happened.

Edit: photo posting still not working. Drop me a dm if anyone would like pics.

@Tom-B I’m about to sell my 2016 medium Trance 27.5

Full XT drive chain (1×11) and brakes.

Stan’s rims on Hope Pro4 hubs.

Yari forks.

Drop me a pm if it’s of any interest to you.

I had an off at Cwmcarn in February ‘23: dislocated R shoulder that fractured the socket on its way out, rotator cuff totally separated, torn bicep and fractured collar bone.

Big operation to repair it/bolt it all together, nerve checks and lots of (blinking painful) physio and 15 months later I could comfortably ride for more than an hour.

After the op’ my arm was useless. I could barely move it and had no strength in my hand. There were some dark days when I really thought it would never work properly again, but regular physio and doing the recommended exercises at home mean I’m now back to about 90% movement. It probably won’t get any better and I have an almost constant low level ache in the top of my arm but it doesn’t stop me from riding gravel and xc (at 59 I was considering giving up the techy stuff anyway).

Good luck with your recovery, @james-rennie.

Stick with the physio, do the exercises and you will be back mountain biking before too long.

I’ve got a couple of frame bags – a small Restrap one (2.5l) and a larger expandable Blackburn Outpost one (5.25l/6.95l).

I sometimes use the Restrap frame bag instead of a top tube bag and the Blackburn frame bag for longer trips or if the weather is colder and I need to take extra clothes. The problem with the larger frame bag though is that it means bottle cages can’t be fitted so then you have to use an alternative method of carrying water.

There’s quite a lot of compromise in bikepacking depending on how long you’re going for, the terrain (road or off-road), weather/temperature, whether you’re going to cook or not, which bike you will use

This was my first bike packing set up. A mixture of bags from different places/manufacturers: Alpkit tail pack and top tube bag and a Blackburn Outpost bar bag.

The bar bag held my tent, down quilt, inflatable mat, down jacket and a thin fleece sleeping bag liner, all rolled tightly together.

The tail pack held a change of clothes, waterproof jacket, cooker, food, pillow, towel, head torch and a first aid kit. Snacks, tools and a few spares went in the top tube bag.

Having kit, especially tent and sleeping bag/quilt that packs down small is the key to maximising what you can pack.

This is everything (except food) that was in those two main bags:

That set up worked pretty well but I had too much stuff/weight in the bar bag. It was fine on the road and flat off-road but any climbing that was slightly technical/rough meant the high centre of gravity badly affected the steering.

I have gone through several combinations of bags, including panniers over the last 5 years or so and have now settled on a Tailfin Aeropack, 5l fork bags, a top tube bag and a stem bag. This set up works well for me for a 2 – 3 night trip.

(The Tailfin kit is expensive but will hopefully outlast me. Most of it was bought by asking family to chip in for Christmas and birthdays.)

I thought the first two were rubbish.

’Boom’ was good and ‘73 Yards’ was very good.

’Dot and Bubble’ was ok but will go right over the heads of those it was taking a shot at (if they ever stop watching pretty white people on social media, put their phones down and watch it).

The Brecon Gap ride is great for this, the view north down the glacial valley from the gap is spectacular.

It certainly is.

Well done. Kramer.

100km is a great achievement, especially if canal towpaths were involved.

I have done a few metric centuries and a couple of imperial centuries and the hardest was a 100-miler from Newport to Brecon and back almost entirely on the canal tow path. A nice, gentle incline/decline sounds like it should be easy but you never stop pedalling and it becomes hard work over a long distance.

Whichever Schwalbe tyres you go for (and Nobby Nics are my choice) do NOT buy Performance line.

They are the cheaper versions. OK in the dry but hopeless in anything more than slightly damp.

Alpkit Soloist XL, or the new Ultra 1 if you have a larger budget.

Kia EV6.

South Wales to Heathrow and back last weekend (250 miles) on a single charge. Got home with 3% left.

77.9kWh recharge at home costing £5.99 on Intelligent Octopus Go.

That’s 3.2m/kWh. Not bad considering it was all motorway driving at 60 – 70 mph.

We were there last weekend and had a great time. It’s definitely one of my favourite cities. It’s lovely just to wander around, checking out the architecture and stopping in random cafes, bars and bakeries.

Did the old brewery tour at Home of Carlsberg. That was excellent and really interesting, as was the beer tasting session afterwards. The restaurant there (Madklubben) does a great lunch as well. There is also a smaller version of The Little Mermaid (The Little Mermaid’s Little Sister) at the site.

Rosenborg Castle was good to visit for a bit of culture and history.

Nyhavn was nice to walk around and we did a canal boat trip that was interesting and informative (and very, very cold!).

Had a cracking lunch in Aamann’s Deli. Expensive but absolutely first rate smørrebrød.

Tivoli was a massive disappointment. You have to pay to go in but then once you are in everything is an extra and the cafes and bars in there are very expensive.

We stayed about a 5 minute walk from the central station on the edge of the Meatpacking District. Very handy for the Metro and S-Line and about a 30 minute walk in to central Copenhagen.

What do you mean by “to deal with..”?

Are you buying coins from the Mint, applying for a job there, planning a visit/tour, representing a foreign government that wants new coinage minted?

You could try one of the Wolftooth B-Rad Mounting Base options.

Anyone use a Restrap Bumper Bar to keep bags from moving down and interfering with cables?

I bought one, fitted it to my gravel bike and it interfered with the cables and hoses!

Turning the handlebars meant the (sharpish) edges of the bumper bar rubbed across the cables and sometimes snagged one of the brake hoses. I didn’t fancy a cable or hose being cut so removed the Bumper Bar.

The problem is the Bumper Bar ‘length’ is fixed but there are different length stems, putting the cables & hoses in different positions relative to the Bumper Bar. It’s a pity it didn’t work for me as it is a simple, neat solution to keep bar bags away from cables and head tube.

I have since bought a Jack The Rack. It’s not cheap (bought using Christmas money 🙂) but works really well, both for holding a bar bag/pack away from cables and head tube and as a lightweight rack in its own right.

Everything above.

If it is your first time in NYC then I’d recommend staying in central Manhattan so you can easily and quickly get to all the main attractions.

4 nights is a good length of stay. Time enough to see all the touristy stuff and have a bit more relaxed wandering about.

Flying in to/out of JFK is most convenient as it’s quick to get in to/out of Manhattan by train, and cheap. As SSS says, Airtrain to Jamaica and then in to Manhattan from there. No need for a Metro Card now though. Tap & Go was introduced at the end of October 2023 so now you can just use for phone to pay for travel.

I am 6’ but have relatively short arms and legs (31” inside leg) and swapped from a M Defy to a ML Revolt Advanced a few years ago and have found it to be a much more comfortable ride.

At 5’ 10” (~178cm) you are near the top end of the M and inside the ML range according to the Giant size chart. There is quite a bit of reach adjustment available by moving the saddle and/or flipping the stem but you really need to sit on/test ride one to determine which size is best for you.

For what it’s worth I have found the Revolt Advanced to be a great bike. Fast enough on the road, stable on gravel and good for bikepacking. In fact I am looking at replacing it with a new model soon as I would like GRX and the extra fork mounting points.

A few cracks appeared around spoke holes in the rear rim after about 18 months of use but Giant, in contrast to some of the posts on here, replaced the wheel under warranty without any quibbles and told me to keep the old wheel as a spare.

mattrockwellFree Member
Next week I’m hoping for a least 3 pages on… “Anodised purple, not as 90s looking as I remember it looking in the 90s”

Well let’s get on with it then…

I have a Blackburn HB Roll & Dry Bag that is a very neat fit around the stem.

The quick release bracket keeps the harness away from the bars and cables. The only issue you may have if using with drop bars is the width of the dry bag (355mm) as it might not fit between the drops.

You’re correct, molgrips. My mistake. I’m sure I read somewhere a while ago that they were fed from the 12V battery but have just checked and it is indeed the main battery that powers them.

Anyone got a Cupra Born or EV6 GT?

I’ve got an EV6 GT Line S and love it. Had it since late September last year and no issues so far.

It’s really nice to drive; comfortable, spacious, smooth and has all the toys.

Seat and steering wheel heating was great over winter and run off the 12V battery so have no negative impact on range.

Was getting around 235 miles from a full charge over winter but as the weather temperature is increasing so is the car’s range. Now up to 275 miles.

Ohme charger and Intelligent Octopus Go tariff means 7.5p/kWh to charge overnight so cheap enough to run.

@pictonroad – drop me a DM if you have any questions.

I did exactly the same as you, @deft about 18 months ago. Had a load of parts in the spares bin so wanted to use them.

I already had a Sonder Broken Road and fancied something similar but cheaper for commuting and general hacking about. Bought a Frontier frame and built it up. The only new parts I bought for it were the chainset and headset spacers. It has been great and for the money I don’t think you can go wrong.

Nice write up and photos.

Thanks for sharing.

As mentioned previously, take decent, comfy shoes for walking. We went last October and walked 54 miles in 5 days.

Third time in NYC for us so we have done all the usual tourist things. Would second most things already mentioned above except MoMA. It was massively disappointing when we visited a few years ago.

Last time we saw more of ‘Down town’ and really liked it. More relaxed and fewer high rise buildings. Brooklyn was nice and we’ll probably stay there if we go to NYC again. Cheaper than Manhattan but now has plenty of good bars and restaurants.

One of the newer attractions is SUMMIT One Vanderbilt. It’s next to Central Station and has a great viewing platform and a bar overlooking the Manhattan skyline.

We had a very boozy evening in a bar called The Liberty NYC on W 35th St. It’s run my a Welshman and serves great Moscow Mules as well as decent bar food.

A visit to The Intrepid followed by a walk along the High Line and food from one of the many eateries in Chelsea Market is a good way to spend a few hours. Los Tacos No.1 gets rave reviews and has long queues for good reason.

It’s a bit tacky but you should have at least one diner breakfast in somewhere like Junior’s just for the experience.

Have a great time. NYC is a brilliant place to visit.

Sonder Camino Al Flat bar is currently on sale.  You can get the whole bike for £949 with SRAM Apex groups.

Frame and forks is £499.

(Sale ends this weekend.)

Had my goal setting session this morning: 1 was already decreed by the company (do some Ethics & Compliance training that has absolutely no relevance to my job but a couple of bigwigs got done for bribery a few years ago so now everyone has to suffer). The other 4 I randomly selected from my objectives over the last 5 years and reworded them slightly.

Utter waste of time but it keeps senior management happy and gives HR something to do.

Not an EV, but my last car was leased from Zenith. I asked for a price to buy at the end of the lease and they came back with a price that was nearly as much as the local VW dealership was asking for a similar age and spec car.

Zenith wanted £19,950 for my 3 year old Tiguan. Local dealer forecourt price for similar was £22,000.

When I pointed out that the dealer had probably paid about £15k – £17k for that car Zenith dropped the price to £19k for me and said they were confident of getting that at auction!

I declined and now have a nice EV on lease (Kia EV6).

Had I really wanted to keep the Tiguan I would have paid what Zenith were asking at it was a bit cheaper than a dealer and I knew the full history of the car.

@phil5556 – Go to Apple Menu > System Settings and then click General on the side bar. Click ‘Storage’ on the right and that will show you what type of files are taking up your HD space.

It will also give you options for optimising storage and clearing up the drive.

If it’s a band-on shifter, fit that first then fit the brake lever. It’s a little bit fiddly but easy enough to do.

If you position the brake lever for efficient one finger braking the shifter will be positioned ok as well. This is mine:

People (customers) who ask “Can I get…?”

No, you can’t. The server/assistant/barista can get it for you.

That looks amazing.  What a trip!

Thanks for the photos and write up.

I haven’t read it but how the hell do you take 5 months off work to pedal around just because you’re a bit fed up? Is he a city banker or something?

He was a journalist at the time working for one of the big papers in London. The Guardian, I think.

Mike sent weekly articles in to the paper as he cycled around the coast line. The book is all those articles put together in one volume.

Sonder bikes and frames on Sportspursuit:

https://www.sportpursuit.com/sales/sonder-mar24?sp_nav=ct-2.ev-25542.&utm_source=ac&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=w-sp.e-ds.d-20240301.st-UK_EU.a-15_Friday.

I also have a Frontier MK1 which I call my wrecking ball. Snap it and throw it away basically but just can’t snap it.

I’ve also got a Frontier I built up from a bare frame (mainly using the parts I’d removed from the BR when upgrading). It was intended to be used as a winter bike to ‘save’ the BR but I’ve only ridden it 2 or 3 times as I tend to just grab the BR whenever I want to ride MTB.

Going back to working in the office a couple of days a week soon so the Frontier will probably become my commuter bike.

I replaced the stock wheels with Hopes and now run 2.6 tyres rather than 2.8s

Is that with 27.5” or 29” wheels?

I use 29 x 2.4 tyres on mine and the only time I thought a wider tyre would be good was descending from The Gap fully loaded for bikepacking with rigid forks fitted. The arm pump was horrible!

Anyone tried one with a 120mm fork? Make it a bit more MTB.

@vww – I asked Sonder about this as I fancied increasing the travel on mine a bit. They recommended against it and said 110mmm would be ok but 120mm is probably a bit much.

I love my Broken Road. As mentioned above it’s a good all-rounder.

I use mine for the majority of my riding and never had an issue. Good for blue and gentler red trails, comfy for long distance/multi-day rides and with enough attachment points for bike packing and load lugging.

Alpkit/Sonder are great to deal with as well and will build up the bike to whatever spec you want. You can specify components and they will source them or you can supply the components for them to fit. When I bought mine they only used SRAM parts but I wanted Shimano and they were perfectly happy to do that.

Feel free to drop me a DM if you have any specific questions.

Same on Safari on iMac.