Old groupset parts, part-worn tyres, a ridiculous amount of punctured innertubes that were put away to be repaired one day and that day has never arrived…

Now with On One steel forks and less gears (through necessity not upgrade).

Having owned it for 12 years, I often wonder whether I would actually be just a little sad if it got stolen…

Lovely bike. I have a Scandium air9, and built with mid-range 1×9 drivetrain, Stans 3.30s on Crests+Ralphs and a DT carbon rigid fork I got it down to 21.5lb (large size frame with pedals). A few less zeros on the creditcard than yours, but something I’m happy to take out in British conditions. 18lbs is mental.

he commented that the pedal thread felt like a bearing it was that well machined.

Tune must have sorted their manufacturing out then, their stuff used to be pretty crap sadly when it came to quality! 5 years ago I wasn’t aware of anyone using anything that hadn’t broken! I know their freehubs still crack, but hopefully the rest is alright!

My Tune cranks snapped from a crack starting at the pedal thread on the non driveside; 3 years of summer road use only. I don’t think I’d bother with them again, but they did look lovely.

If you need a spare lightly used hexangonal taper BB give me a shout! :roll:

Power cranks

Ditto the merino baselayer + windproof (dry) or waterproof (wet).

I find a Buff worn round the neck is worth an extra layer (for standing round in the carpark), but can be taken off and stuffed in a pocket whilst riding when you warm up.

2. Practice.

Ride (road) fixed in the hills to force yourself to spin at an uncomfortably high cadence.

That will sort out your pedalling style (or kill you) after which you’ll be able to chase the pawls on a singlespeed (on a smooth the road) up to about 150rpm for a minute or two without bouncing.

EDIT: as D0NK wrote whilst I was typing.

Your Ridiculous Thing To Do sense seems to be malfunctioning. London to Edinburgh sounds quite sensible. This is ridiculous:

http://www.londonedinburghlondon.com/

Go for it (which ever one you choose). :-)

I’ve come to the same conclusion as the OP about Brooks saddles: too variable between what should be identical saddles (no two cows identical), too much maintenance required and not worth the half a kilo it adds to the bike.

I have a couple of B17s that I gave up years ago trying to keep in perfect condition. I just drilled, laced and rode them when wet. They survived alright but are both well sagged.

On the other hand I also have a Swift which is like sitting on a rock after 1000’s of miles in all conditions.

All three have been removed and put in the ‘might use in the future’ box in the garage.

I would also agree that my Roberts is nicer to ride on a clubrun or commute with a 200g rather than 500g saddle. Maybe that’s psychological though.

Roberts Audax Custom, built for me in 2006, currently used year round for audaxes and when the weather’s poor for club runs and commuting:

Previous winter bikes (both now sold):

Roadrat fixed:

Raleigh fixed:

Raleigh after respray with some gears (I know, but it was a hack and I didn’t have any other colour tyres, sorry :oops: ):

http://www.on-one.co.uk/i/q/FRSLFTMTB/slingshot-fold-tech-mtb-frame

Call me a traditionalist, but I don’t fancy that much.

But for off-road I wouldn’t trust anything else.

Thanks Ben. I expected that would be the case. It would be for Scottish trails rather than pootling along a road. I understand you’ve got a vested interest but that also means I value your opinion.

Keep a bike up there?

I’ve thought about this quite a lot. I never went for it partly because I’m not always working in the same place but mostly because for the cost of the parts to build something I’m willing to ride (~£500 maybe), I couldn’t leave it secure. Chances are small but not insignificant it would get moved / damaged whilst in storage (at work).

With the S and S couplings I could bring a nicer bike up when I needed it.

Doesn’t sound like there are many other options though.

Be warned about Spotify: it’s free (with ads) on a Windows laptop, but the Android app is pay-only (£9.99 a month).

I’ve just got an android tablet and wanted to do exactly what you suggest using a Logitech Bluetooth speaker adaptor (which works great for the price) and was extremely disappointed to find Spootify had done this having used it for free on the latop for years.

There’s a lot of cars on this thread that are just big-engined, thirsty cars, not really inappropriate.

I had no problem putting a bike or two in the back of my Citroen Saxo, Honda Civic Type R, and now my thirsty 330i BMW estate. None are really inappropriate.

I never bothered trying to carry a bike in the Honda S2000. Just too much effort (and the missus had a Yaris).

MG / Triumph and definitely the Audi R8 are the proper inappropriate cars here I reckon.

I had my sash windows refurbed and double glazed, keeping the original frames, last year. Ended up with a pile of 100 year old (possibly) weights.

I’m hoping they weren’t worth more than a tenner as I left them in the back garden for a month before getting round to taking them to the tip. Never thought of the local reclaimation yard. :oops:

Ah, missed that in you original post.

25 Pro4 Endurance exist certainly, same as the Krylions.

Not spotted any other deals though.

You can’t find Krylions because they’ve been replaced by Pro 4 Endurance.

I’ve used Krylions for years, they’re brilliant. A mate at work has had both the old krylions and the new Endurance and reckons they’re even grippier.

Best of all, Merlin will do them for £49.99 a pair with another fiver off at the checkout.

http://www.merlincycles.com/bike-shop/tyres-tubes/road-tyres-tubes/michelin-road-tyres/pair-michelin-pro-4-endurance-tyres.html

You can thank me later. :wink:

I don’t think the 100k route goes up Blissford Hill like the 100 miles one does (I’m on the long one) and the rest of the New Forest is pan flat, so 17 mph should be a reasonable target.

Then again, Gold Standard is 16mph av, so why try harder? :wink:

(and the forecast looks ok for Sunday after some biblical warnings a couple of days ago)

Mate may have had a dud set but his 3.30 hubs didn’t last long. 3 wet xc races and needed bearings

I was a bit pensive about them, reading the usual internet ‘dead in a week’ type forum posts.

However, I took the plunge to save weight over the Hope hubs and mine have done 18 months of riding, SS and geared, submerged in welsh rivers on loaded bikepacking trips, 12 and 24 hour enduros (although not many of them), and are still running fine.

I have no doubt that YMMV in the very literal sense.

The noise of Pro IIs drives me mental…

The 3.30s are quite quiet compared with my Hope Monos on the road bike and Hope XCs on the 26er.

I’m 4 months away from the due date for our first baby, but provisional reading about ‘travel systems’ has commenced.

Nice to see the STW collective came up with the same two I’ve been drawn to, Phil and Teds or Jane Slalom.

The Jane looks like it’s going out of production though. Can’t think why; it’s the only one I’ve found that I can get a car seat with, instead of dropping another £100-and-something on a Pebble seat. :(

I chose Stans 3.30 on Crests.

Work well for me and ~1550g real-life weight.

Might not work well for you if you’re not doing my sort of riding.

Another vote for ESI chunky grips here.

Rode the Spam Blast 110km on the rigid 29er this weekend; shoulders and a**e were a bit sore at the end but hands were fine.

Softer still? I wrapped my grips with some old Cinelli Gel bar tape that I use on my road bikes for a 24hr this summer. Worked a treat.

Somebody on a forum far far away put a thread up about one of these they’d got hold of via ebay

http://www.switchbikes.com/bikes.php?type=urban

A Dia Compe metal brake lever and a road BB7 was absolutely fine.

In fact, I used to be a bit disappointed with the feel (not the power) of my SRAM dual pivots when I went back to the road bike.

I’ve since found the cheap metal CX bartop levers in the same position on bullhorn bars to be just as good.

further top tip – leave the mudguard about 1.5 times the length of your drop out away from the tire – the wheel will slide back and dropout the drop out easy.

Yeah, but that looks even worse than mudguards with a nice even gap all the way round (which still doesn’t look great I know).

For the couple of rear punctures I had a year I figured the secuclips and flapping mudguard was acceptable.

I once did a CX race on mine and changed it to 1×9 for a couple of weeks up to the race. God help anyone trying to get the rear wheel out with the mech hanger only held in by the QR!

One of the old dropbar frames, run fixed with bullhorns and a BB7 on the front for a couple of winters

I never had a rack and panniers on it, just a saddlebag at most, but what others would call flex you could also call comfort…? 6ft2 and 13 stone so no lightweight.

Sold it last year as I realised I could all the same things plus loads more with a Singular Swift (SS not fixed).

Top tip: use secuclips on the rear mudguard stays as well as the front to assist getting the wheel out for punctures etc.

Saw a fella yesterday afternoon with a amazingly bright strobing front light…Not really sure what the benefit of being able to see someone half a kilometre away really is

So you can have a seizure and run right into him or burn your retinas out and hit a cyclist round the next corner.

My Fenix has that setting. The box calls it ‘Tactical Strobe’. I call it ‘point it at the floor for riding through town’. Short duration use only, otherwise it’s me that’s having the seizure.

Interesting. I’d be using mine for road bikes and MTBs, most with rigid carbon forks including one of the MTBs, so now I’m worried.

Pretty much the only other way to fix a bike to a roof rack involves clamping the downtube. This surely also falls into the ‘not designed to experience those forces’ category?

ormondroyd – Member
I never like the idea of mounting forks onto a rack by the dropouts like that.

Junkyard – Member
I would not fork mount wither as iirc it streeses the forks too much as they were not designed to flex like that

Could you elaborate on these comments? I’ve been considering getting a Thule Outride fork-mounted bike rack instead of the usual downtube clamp one as they looked like a better solution.

I agonised over London or Brighton train options on a Saturday evening this June.

My problem was I didn’t fancy spending 45 minutes late on a Saturday night waiting for the next train at Clapham junction.

In the end I parked the car at Droxford near Hambledon, rode an easy 10 road miles to Winchester to start the SDW about 6am, got the coast train back to Havant from Eastbourne(change at Brighton) and finished with another easy 12 road miles back to Droxford. A long day though!

You’re a celeb, Graham. :wink:

I only put two and two together when I got home – I should’ve realised when I saw the belt drive. I was in the red & yellow jersey in the camp next to yours.

Entered in a team of three, two of which pulled out midweek so I paid my fiver and attempted my first solo 12hr. 8O

Enjoyed it immensely, especially the brilliant course. I thought that much singletrack for 12 hours would get a bit harrowing but not at all (although a dry course may have helped too).

10 laps, 2 hours off the bike 9-11pm with cramp, 31st in male solos. Work to do but I’ll be back fitter & cleverer next year. :D

Michelin Krylion Pro 3s were the answer to all my woes, then they stopped making them and selling them cheap

Can’t seem to find the Pro 4 equivalents in 25mm anywhere.

The new name for Krylions is apparently Pro4 Endurance.

I’ve done thousands of miles of audaxing since 2006 and got in a cold sweat when they stopped making Krylions – the absolutely very best tyre for puncture-resistance whilst still having plenty of grip. At the other end of the scale are Conti hamsterskins – paper-thin and lethal on a wet roundabout.

I’m usually on 25s for the very long distance stuff; definitely adds a bit of comfort.

Lots of threads appearing about this.

I’m yet to sign up, mostly due to team infighting! I’ve not ridden the course before, but if I end up doing it solo I’ll probably chuck my rigid SS in the car along with the geared bike just because this is the year of the anti-allweather course. :roll:

Usually on the german sites.

Well done for thinking about ice tyres in August. Why not plan your Strathpuffer solo entry at the same time to make sure you get some use out of them? :wink:

SS Shep, were you at SITS? I think my mate and I were standing behind you at the pre-race briefing, admiring your Pace (we were both rigid SS 29er niche-mongers too).

My rigid Swift at SITS last week. Those without rigid forks were wishing they had one, although the course didn’t really require any suspension even when it was dry.

Actually, since Sunday morning I’ve mostly been wondering what is the best extreme mud shoe?!

I doubt I could’ve put one foot in front of the other in some sections without a MudX-equipped walking aid. 8O

Me. Singular Swift with a DT Swiss rigid fork.

Changed from pair of 2.25 Ralphs for first 3 laps to pair of 2.0 MudXs. Never clogged the front (clearance is massive), rear clogged to a halt once when I was pushing but I never had to stop and clear it out.

MudXs must have worked ok as well in terms of grip; comparing notes with the other half of our SS pair I never came off at the bottom of the first muddy descent (at the end of the campsite), but with a 2.4 Ardent he slid off more than once (and his tech skillz are definately better than mine :wink: )

Short version: The heavy rain for about 30 mins at 4pm destroyed the excellent fast course & our times went from 50mins to 85mins a lap including about 50% unridable pushing thru mud so after 10 laps we stopped for the night at 10.30pm. Planning a lap each starting about 9am just to say we ‘finished’.

Lee Quarry is where they’re moving it, according to the email I have and I guess the pop larkin has also received.

Not sure about it now…..I was looking forward to nice forest based flowing single track

Exactly my thoughts.