Yep, as above my understanding is it’s not allowed.

I’d refer to CAB in the first instance.

Also – even if it was allowed, I can’t see how a calculation would give 0.46p per hour as the correct amount anyway.

Statutory holiday pay is for 5.6 weeks/year (i.e. this is the minimum allowed). Regardless of how many hours worked per week, the minimum hourly rate if it’s rolled-up like that would be £6.50 x 52 (weeks in a year which you have to be paid for) / 46.4 (weeks you actually work allowing for 5.6 weeks’ holiday) = £7.28 and a bit.

But that’s irrelevant anyway as it’s not allowed. They have to pay holiday pay when he/she is actually on holiday – based on the average of the last 12 weeks’ pay (so they can’t say that you’re on a zero-hours contract, get you to work 40 hours a week and pay you for a lesser number of hours during holiday either).

IANAL (but am an employer who tries to play fair!)

Pyga Zero? A bit more trail-oriented than most carbon hardtails – and if their other bikes are anything to go by, a blast to ride.

I believe they can be fitted without using the Hope-specific tool although you will need some sort of bearing press to do a decent job. The Hope tool is best.

If you’re going to ask your LBS to fit it, ask them to supply it too – surely? CRC are only saving you 10% anyway which most shops would match if you ask nicely, or they might charge RRP but fit it for free.

Welcome to the confusing world of BB “standards”…

The problem you’re having is that the Shimano BB92 has a 41mm shell diameter rather than 46, I believe. Best measure the diameter of your BB shell – it will clearly be either 46 or 41mm, no room for confusion there.

Assuming it is 41mm, you need BBPF41SSN.

Merida One Twenty is just over that. Those Orange 29ers on the recent PSA are insanely good value if they’re your size. Second-hand will generally be better value at that price point though.

And yes, it is very flat, and the easterly wind in the winter is a killer.

It’s a much smaller place than Oxford and therefore the University dominates it to a much greater extent. If you took away the University and all the associated stuff then it would be a town rather a city, whereas Oxford would still be a big place in its own right.

It’s a very nice place though, lots going on and has a nice buzz to it. You’d really notice the difference between term times and holidays, and it does get loads of tourists relative to its size, especially in summer. This probably all applies less to the suburbs than it does to the city centre, mind.

Sorry to hear it. We’ll keep an eye out – good luck getting it sorted. If there’s anything we can do to help please shout.

might just choose to take the risk and buy something before I head over

You won’t go too far wrong with the new Transitions but you might like to throw a Pyga One-Ten into the mix too.

Like others have said, try them out. Give us a shout if you fancy testing a Smuggler or a Scout (or both) at BPW…

Any Mavic dealer should be able to sort that for you.

If you like the look of the Pyga, I’d consider the OneTwenty as well as the Pascoe – OneTwenty runs a 140mm or even 150mm fork – Pascoe needs a 160mm really.

If you’re after a Medium we have both in that size available to demo.

We had one in as a demo bike for a while recently. It’s well-specced and a very nice bike – for that money, a bargain.

Some of the higher-end Raleigh e-bikes are very good – we’ve used them in our hire fleet for the last few years. For this year we have the Motus which used a Bosch motor and has an incredible range.

We’re selling off some ex-hire and ex-demo models at the moment. Details are on Bikesoup if you’re interested, e.g. http://www.bikesoup.com/bike/54784f3478341-2014-raleigh-leeds-tour-26-e-bike

Moon Shield or Cateye Rapid X would be my suggestions…

Lots of windproofs and jerseys mentioned above – are you looking for a proper (waterproof?) jacket OP? If so Altura Night Vision Evo as mentioned would be a good call. They’re usually £100 but reduced to £79.99 in a lot of places (including with us) right now – lots of features, decent material, very high vis (although not all are ugly looking). Good value at £100, bargain at £80.

Thanks spicer – glad you liked the shop! Big sale just started if you’re in the mood for a bit of shopping next time… 🙂

We’re based in Hay so relatively local…

Llangors & Bwlch is a great ride but heavy-going in the wet and mud. Rides much better when dry. There’s some good riding in that area though if you’re open to exploring and don’t mind slip-sliding-around a bit.

Foothills of the Black Mountains is more rocky, quite a bit of climbing, but isn’t the greatest to be honest – quite overgrown in places and doesn’t really take in the best trails.

The Gap is fine in any weather, as above. Probably the one I’d pick, of those three.

Lots of good riding in the hills the other side of the valley from Three Cocks, but you’d need a map and be prepared to navigate. The Gap would be the simplest choice if you want to follow a known route.

As above, C17 is wider (same shape as the B17) and the C15 is narrower, designed for road as opposed to touring, really.

We have demo saddles we can post out if you’d like to try one…

Just think how rich you could get if you designed and made a fat bike tyre then. Oh, wait….

Genesis Latitude is available as frame or complete bike. It’s 590mm TT in 17.5″ frame and 69 degrees so don’t know if it’s close enough to what you’re after but I’d suggest it’s worth looking at perhaps?

Merida One-Forty 700:
http://2014.merida-bikes.com/en_gb/bikes/mountain-bikes/full-suspension-140mm-travel/2015/one-forty-7-700-3312.html

I’ve found them to be pretty slippy in the wet, especially on wet grass or roots, and particularly on smaller wheels. They seem to be a bit more adaptable on a 29er given the larger contact patch.

A Pyga OneTen sounds like it’d be right up your street. If you’re anywhere near mid-Wales and would like to give one a go…

Yep – was going to recommend the Core 24 and 26 but lister beat me to it. They’ll be making an appearance in our hire fleet next season for sure.

Sorry to hear this – not nice at all.

As others, I’d sit on it and have a think about what you want before pushing the button on replacements.

Over 100kg the minimum ratio Rohloff recommend is 2.35:1 so 38:16 is fine.

Plenty of people exceed the limits Rohloff set without worries, but given their warranty I don’t think you’d want to invalidate it by doing something they recommend against.

In answer to the OPs question: neither has a lower low-gear as such – it depends on what ratio chainring/sprocket you choose. Rohloff publish a minimum (2.1:1) but it seems Shimano don’t – though for the Nexus 8 they recommend the same as Rohloff (2.1). So it’s safe to assume that the lowest gear you could set either up to give, without invalidating the warranty, is the same.

The difference is that with that low gear, the highest gear on an Alfine would still be very low. On Rohloff it would be significantly higher (as it has a much wider range) although still quite low, compared with a traditional derailleur setup.

Chart shows 12-34 (rather than 11-34) and 24/32/44 (rather than 22/32/44) so is a bit disingenuous (on the part of Rohloff) IMHO – no need as the point is that Rohloff gives NEARLY the same spread of gears and has many other advantages.

You can use a 40T chainring and 19T sprocket on Rohloff if you are under 100kg (and on a solo bike).

This will give you a low gear lower than 22×36 on a derailleur setup. It’s a lower gear than most people would need, on a fully-laden touring bike, riding up steep, loose, gravel roads. You’d be travelling at less than walking speed.

The range is not quite as much as STATO suggests – it’s just over 500% from lowest to highest gear whereas triple and 11-34 gets you 618%. It’s pretty close though – more than enough spread of gears for virtually any application on a bike, provided you pick your sprocket and chainring sizes sensibly. Plus, if you get it wrong, you can just buy a new chainring and/or sprocket for not a lot of money.

I believe all 5-8 speed chains are the same width so it should work perfectly well with a basic 8-speed chain.

Mavic’s new Ksyrium Pro Disc wheels would be right up your street – assuming you want to spend that sort of money. They also do an Aksium level disc wheelset for less money.

The new Camelbak packs look very well-thought-out. Nicely made too.

@simon – the website prices are pretty cheap, to be fair, yes. I can’t see that anyone in the UK will match that or even get close. UK RRP is £829 and the margin dealers are being offered on that is about half what we’d normally expect on a mainstream bike. Such that even offering 5% off would be silly really.

Yep, sounds like Large with a short stem might well be your best bet.

Don’t know where you plan to buy from but if you’ve got a dealer locally surely they’d look after you? We’d not be bothered – on a relatively inexpensive frame – if we sold you a large and you wanted to swap it to a medium if it turned out to be too big (obviously the decision to swap would have to be made before riding/trashing it and you’d have to be careful building it up not to mark the frame etc).

No they turned up here in a stolen Iveco van but it seems like they have a steady supply of vehicles. It was on fake plates though so that’s a bit different to yours.

The real similarity is with the roller shutters – this gang seem to be targeting places some distance from them and always the same type of building – clearly they’ve figured out how easy it is to get in.

@singletrackmind were they heading up the M40 from Hants towards the Midlands? We were broken into in a very similar-sounding way in July and it was a gang from Staffordshire who have been doing similar jobs up and down the country. May be worth getting your local CID to compare notes with Dyfed-Powys police in Brecon in case there’s a link. Our lot have made one arrest at least.

Edit to say sorry to hear about this of course, it’s a right pain in the proverbial and not a pleasant experience for anyone to go through. Hope it all comes good for you.

Hmmm – sounds like we should get a couple of demo bikes built up!

Tend towards shorter TTs is probably countered by tend towards wider bars. What bar width are you running now/would you run on the Commencal?

Sounds good! I think the frames are available in about a month. We’re more than happy to supply frame-only or frame plus a few bits like a headset.

For balance – if you paid for the bike up front then the employer wouldn’t be “holding on” to that money as they have to pay for the bike.

Where rental payments are made via salary sacrifice, there is a cashflow hit to the employer as they pay for the bike in full up front and only then recover that cost over (usually) 12 months.

Obviously there is a NI saving to the employer, plus all the advantages of having a healthy/engaged/motivated workforce etc. But I can’t understand why you’d feel that an employer was “holding on to” or benefiting from your money if you paid up front given the cost of purchasing the bike.