I have personal experience of garages being broken into for targetted MTB theft.

An alarm does work. Get a proper domesic house alarm, with a loud siren, a strobe and a back-up battery. As soon as it went off they legged it, this happened three times, including the last time when the mutants drove a 4×4 into the garage door that I had rawl bolted shut!

And this is in a very nice, quiet, rural area, not the back streets of a city.

And before people go on and on about garage security being too much hassle and they'd rather just have insurance. Just try getting insurance when you've had four break-ins in 18 months. Even after you've moved house!

Personally I think we get so used to good service from CRC that when they do mess up we think it's worse than it is. I ordered a big box of stuff on Monday and it all turned up correctly today and I got great prices on all of it. I'll keep using them.

I imagine Fabien Barel would be quite defensive about his Kona Stab too!

If you operate through a Limited Company then it is a separate legal entity to you. Having a Limited Company means you have Limited Liability, hence your liability is limited to the investment you have made in the business. It is the business which becomes inslovent, not you personally.

If you have a limited Company you're unlikley to go personally bankrupt unless you have personally guaranteed loans, for example with a charge over your house, although if you have then there's little point forming a limited Company in the first place.

If a business has enough assets to pay its debtors then the Receiver would usually do this (although it's normal for a business to go into a period of administration to see if it can be saved before liquidation). But most businesses are well past this point by the time they are forced into administration/liquidation.

Unless the court feels there has been some form of negligence, when your limited Company becomes insolvent the worst case for your personally (apart from losing your income and business, which clearly is bad) is likely to be that you could be barred from becoming a company director for a period of time.

Cyclesense are 100% brilliant. You can be sure they'll look after you.

Here's the problem though with asking people for opinions on stuff, like brakes…

Late last summer I was fettling my bike in the car park at Dalby. A guy pulls up in a car next to me, pulls his (fairly decent) bike out of the back and starts to fit his wheels. He turns to me and says 'have you got a spanner I can borrow' I say sure and point to my toolbox. I glance down to see what he's doing, just in time to stop him from undoing one of the bleed nipples on his front caliper. When I ask him what he's doing, he tells me he's just 'letting some pressure out' so he can get his wheel in, because the brake levers must have got pulled while the bike was in the car.

And I bet he goes around telling people that the brakes on his bike are crap.

It's easily worth upgrading to the M4s for the £40 Orange ask. You should get plenty of stopping power with the X2s but the M4s are great, lots of power and great modulation, especially good if you're likely to take your bike to the alps or similar.

180 rotors should be fine.

Whichever you get, just remember to bed the pads in properly and you should get great performance and long lasting pads. It's likely that the brakes on the test bike you rode weren't bedded in properly, and have probably been cleaned with everything from car shampoo to washing up liquid if it was a demo bike, it sounds like it if they were noisy.

What a joy-filled world you must live in njee.

Why don't you find something positive to put your energy into instead of just trolling on internet forums?

we would always take Mars bars etc for the dog

Please don't give chocolate to your dog. It contains a chemical that causes their heart to beat very quickly, which can be fatal.

Hope the dog has recovered, they'll follow you to the ends of the earth. Loyalty.

If you've soaked it with penetrating fluid like WD40 or GT85 you'll need to replace the bearings, you'll have stripped the grease from inside them.

Finish line Teflon Dry lube. It works great, it's clean, and you can lube your forks with it too.

I use it year-round.

I'm building up a bike with an E2 head tube at the moment, and the headset is the biggest pain of all.

Traditional 'external' headset cups (either 1 1/8" or 1.5") won't fit a tapered (E2) head tube at the top or the bottom.

An E2 head tube will take a normal 1 1/8" Integral headset (where the cups press almost flush with the frame) at the top, to fit an ID of 43.95mm, but the E2 head tube has a unique ID of 55.9mm at the bottom so needs a specific cup and bearing.

You'll then need a reducing crown race to run your 1 1/8" fork. Which should be available.

The Cane Creek XXC that came with my frame works, but I'm finding the reducer crown race (part no HD 1406) really hard to get hold of, even Cane Creek in the States are out of stock.

A specific E2 headset, with a reducer for the bottom end produced by a decent manufacturer would go down a treat.

Follow the step-by-step instructions that come with Shimano mechs (they're on the Shimano website if you haven't got them) and you shouldn't have any problems. Just follow the steps and you should have super sweet shifting, it's all pretty straightforward stuff.

If you can suspend a horizontal bar/plank/pipe etc between two posts/fences/trees/tables/chairs etc and hook the nose of your saddle over it (lower your saddle all the way if you need to) it should work as a makeshift workstand to get your rear wheel off the ground and allow you to rotate the cranks and rear wheel.

Enjoy finishing the build, it's always a really satisfying time.

Oh, and the one thing you will need to get your drivetrain really fettled properly, a beer (go on, make it two). A very chilled way to spend an evening I think.

Yes, on the frame, particularly if it's powder coated. Get even pad wear, less noise and better lever feel.

And apologies sofatester, that's not the way to centre your pads. Watch this video on the Hope site to learn how to do it properly

http://www.hopegb.com/page_mep_force_38.html

You'll get much better performance and much, much better lever feel.

I'm an experienced kayaker and I'm a more than a bit concerned by some of the 'advice' and ideas in this thread.

'Canadian' canoes require specialist handling techniques, and they are not really suitable for use on the sea. Properly handled though, on inland water, they are a great way to get young kids out on the water. But they can be very, very difficult to recover should they capsize, pin or broach in even the slowest of moving water.

'Outfiting' a central hatch in a sea kayak for a small child is a frankly frightening thing to consider. Imagine capsizing in a tidal current and not being able to swim back to the boat to free your child. Don't do it, don't even think about doing it. Even if the tide was running at a very modest 3-4 Knots you would become separated from your boat very quickly.

I've never seen a drysuit for an 18 month old child so I'd be surprised if it's an option. A wetsuit is only designed to keep a person warm when they're wet, they have limited thermal properties when they're dry.

The water is a very dangerous place. Several kayakers have died this week alone. Get some training. More importantly than anything, join a local canoe club. Get some advice from well trained, experienced paddlers and don't go out on your own until you are confident that you know what you're doing.

One of the great dangers with kayaking is that inexperienced people can't spot the hazards, because they don't know what they are. All you see is a sunny day and some pretty water. You need to understand tides, wind and weather at the very least.

If you're just, as you say, messing about in good weather and rock-hopping very close to the shore in sheltered bays then a three-person sit-on-top would be ideal. Stable, easy to paddle and very bouyant, and importantly you're less likely to get trapped in it when you capsize (unless you're using thigh straps).

A bouyancy aid is simply a given, don't even think about getting in a boat without one.

Kayaking is an amazing sport, that can take you to places you wouldn't even imagine. It can be incredibly rewarding, for all the family. But it's really not something you can just walk into a shop, buy the stuff and go out and play. Seriously.

Just do it right and enjoy. You won't regret it.

Drop me a PM if I can be of assistance.

True, although I'd still want some kind of protection should the company go bust, it'd be a bit of a kick in the teeth if you lost your job and lost your savings.

I think there's more in it for the Company than the employee. I bet the interest rate they're giving employees is way less than their cost of capital.

It sounds like a bit of a gamble to me.

How do you know what the share price is likely to be in five years? Who would have guessed five years ago that the financial landscape would look like it does now? You may well end up paying substantially more for the shares in five years than they are worth (unless they're virtually worthless now, in which case investing in the company is probably risky anyway).

Also, you'll have all your eggs in one basket. If your company goes bust you'll not only lose your job but you'll lose your savings too! I work in construction and know just how quickly even major players disappear. If we end up with a new Government next month then construction spend in the UK could well be decimated and lots of companies will be at risk.

Schemes like this are often offered to employees because it makes you less likely to leave (what happens if you want to leave in the next five years?), they get some free investment, from their employees, and you're more likely to work hard as you're protecting your own investment.

I'd get some advice from an independent financial advisor, I'm just a simple Accountant.

Okay, I know I must be missing something, but I've been riding bikes for a long time now, and I ride a long way, back to back days, loads of miles, in the sun and in the rain, on the MTB and on my road bike…

And all I wear is a pair of padded shorts, Altura, nothing expensive, with a pair of baggies over them. And there you go, no chafing, no discomfort, absolutely no need for Assos/Udderwhatever/Nappy Cream/Sudocrem/Petroleum Jelley Buttplug.

Is it just me? Am I all on my own? Am I one of nature's freaks?

I just get on my bike and ride, it all just works, and given the thought of having to smear god knows what all around my bits, I can tell you I'm pretty glad.

Anyone else? No? Just me then.

I couldn't find a non-towbar rack that didn't interfere with getting in the back of the car so went for roof carriers (Thule Proride 951) and haven't looked back. I don't know how I ever managed without them, and they keep your bike up high away from most of the road filth that would get them on the back of the car.

Awesome bits of kit.

GT85 does make the shiny, but Juice Lubes Fork Juice makes them uber shiny. It's a dream for the polishers out there, and it stops as much mud sticking to your bike.

I've been using Fenwick's FS1 (1:10 diluted) to clean my ano bikes for ages and they come up like new.

I walked into the shed and realised I've got a lightweight full-suss XC bike, a very bling long travel all-mountain bike, a very desirable hardcore hardail, a full-on DH bike, a nice light road bike, two pub bikes, an amazing girlfriend (who has five bikes of her own and bought me the DH bike) and we're just back from the pub, just having booked our early summer DH holiday in the Alps and looking at Whistler for August.

It's looking okay from where I'm sitting.

I love this.

Irony is not dead.

Brilliant parody! Just brilliant!

Like it or not, some people just don't care about, or believe in the things you do.

We're all different. Do your own thing.

They don't hibernate, clearly. And it's a present that will last… It's not unusual for a Parrot to live for 75 years.

Like they say… A Dog Parrot isn't just for Christmas.

I really hope this intelligent bird is going to be looked after. Far too many people buy them without a clue what they are taking on.

It's very, very far from getting a budgie.

Assuming this isn't a joke and I'm missing the point (which somehow I think I must be) Dalby at this time of year for an MTB newbie on an old skool bike will be a complete nightmare.

Anyone who can do the Red in 1.5Hrs must be superhuman, anything under 3hrs is a good time, especially in the current conditions.

But like I said, I might be missing someting here (the bottle of Longrow and several pints might be partly to blame).

In York try the Royal York Hotel, especially if you're arriving by train. The Dean Court Hotel by the Minster is good quality and Middlethorpe Hall is rather nice, if you don't mind being just outside the city, and I mean 15 minutes walk outside.

If you're bringing your bike give me a shout, York has some great olde worlde city riding, oh, and there's some pretty good countryside around too.

Enjoy!

Good skills.

I ran for 30 mins or so for the first time a couple of years back, shortly after someone let me into the secret that when you run, you don't have to run as fast as you can, all the time (I know, it's obvious to some people, just not to me).

It's a great thing to have when you just want a quick hit of excercise and you don't have much time.

Keep up the good work!

I've had the same experience of the RSPCA…

Stray dogs, they don't want to know. Injured dog/cat etc lying by the side of the road, they don't want to know. Neighbours mistreating their dog, they don't want to know.

I think they quite like swans and stuff, especially if there's a TV camera pointing at them. Sometimes I think that if people knew all the stuff they didn't do (which people seem to preceive they do) then they wouldn't be one of the richest charities in the country.

I've never been able to get them to do anything.

Cheers Buzz, I owe you a pint/cream tea if/when I bump into you out on the trails.

Thanks.

As previous (obviously un-noticed) post…

Can anyone enlighten me as to where the Chimney is, please? I'm sure I'l find it eventually but as a Yorkshireman far away from home I've probably ridden right past it, or even down it, and not realised.

A leg-up with directions from another friendly rider would be much appreciated. I'm sure it's not true what they say about Southern riders being unfriendly and keeping all the best trails a secret from visitors 😉

Numpty question alert!!!

I ride in the Qs quite a bit but don't know where the fabled Chimney is, can someone point me in the right direction please, it sounds just my cup of tea.

Cheers.

Don't stop drinking then.

Simple.

If you can let me know where there are mountains in the UK that are as steep or as continous as the Alps then I'll be very happy. I don't think there are in most people's back yards.

It is steeper, you'll be doing more descending and you'll gather speed much, much more quickly than you will on your usual ride in the UK.

If you're riding all day XC epics then a full-face will be too much. If you're riding the lifts then get a full-facer, unless face surfing the trail won't spoil your holiday (or youthful good looks of course).

How about picking up the phone and explaining the problem to them? I've always found the guys on the other end of the phone very helpful, friendly and keen to sort things out when they do go wrong.

Probably the best place to start.

I don't know what all the complaints are with Eggbeaters, Candy etc are about. I've been using them well, for as long as I can remember, on all my bikes, I've never had a problem and the first set I bought are still going strong.

I don't really know how you can suddenly have a pedal completely fail out on the trail when it was 100% fine when you set out, surely you're going to know they are becoming loose/stiff/rough etc during your usual maintenance routine, well before you have a complete fail with them.

Maybe part of the issue is a lack of routine maintenance?

Having said all that I've probably completely jinxed myself now and will ride back home one-footed tomorrow.

Those CRC prices are great and I'm stocking up on Candys.

I've just come back from a week in Spain running a direct mount stem on my Fox 40s and I have to say I found it to be absolutely brilliant.

The steering and feedback through the bars is so much improved and the feeling of security it gives encourages you to go harder, in my opinion anyway.

BTW I'm running a Point One Split Second stem and it's a beautiful piece of work. Thompson quality easily.

Easyjet works great. Because of the way their conditions of carriage are worded you can have a bike up to 32Kg (the maximum weight for any bag) and a hold bag up to 20Kg (subject to a maximum total baggage weight of 50Kg, the max allowed for any one passenger). As long as you've paid for a hold bag and paid the extra for your bike.

Paying for sporting equipment with Easyjet usually ups your baggage allowance to a total of 32Kg, but cycles are exempt from any excess baggage charges relating to the weight of the bike.

It's all explained here…

http://www.easyjet.com/en/book/regulations.html#baggage

I've carried my almost 40lb DH bike loads on the roof with a Thule 591 and haven't had any problems. It's over the stated weight for the 591 but then if it can handle my other bikes in 70mph side-winds (which it has, without problems) then I think the safety margin must be good enough.

I think about going around corners a little more gently with the DH bike up there, I don't even think about it with other bikes.

I've never had a problem with it and I've done lots of miles with the DH bike up there.

Off the **** scale!

I've said it before and I'll say it again… When I die I want to come back as me.

Life couldn't be better.

Hmm, an internet forum where people don't know what they're talking about, surely not?

Simple, if it's easy then you're not going fast enough.