My Genesis:

I’m on about four days with an order still showing as processing.

The frame came to me with most of the paint of it, I just used some wet & dry paper to clean it up and get it all smooth. Then used some Plasticote primer, Graphite metallic paint and then Pasticote laquer on top. All from Wilkinsons. Painted it hanging from a tree in my back garden with bungee straps.

Picked up an aluminium Hardrock frame recently:

A DIY paint job later:

Pretty pleased with it for £20 worth of paint and materials and a few hours work 🙂

I’ve been using one of these lights since October time. Great light for £20, both on and off-road. I had to use a torch style mount, as the one that comes with it is rubbish. Also on my second charger, as first one packed in after couple of uses. Battery life is around an hour, so it’s handy it comes with two batteries. Well impressed though, especially for the money.

Sounds a awful. Definitely stick with the Police and get them to follow up on this. Having witnesses and a reg number are definitely good assets to have.

Got my two 16″ wheeled Specialized Hotrocks. Of all their presents they keep coming back to them and sitting on them. Hopefully take them out on them tomorrow. Think they make great presents, but perhaps Christmas isn’t the best time to give kids bikes as presents with the weather not being great.

Thanks for that, I’ve ordered a couple.

Pretty sure there’s a boys and a girls one left in my local bike shop. Will check on Monday of you want? Pretty sure they could sort delivery by Christmas too.

I wouldn’t worry. The 220-age isn’t an exact marker for your maximum heart rate.

Your resting HR seems high though, when you taking this reading? Think the guide is to read to when you get up in the morning or just before you go to bed.

As long as you’re not getting any pain in your chest or feeling light headed you should be fine.

Records on the front of Kellogs cereal at one point. Can remember cutting them out and playing them. Must have been some time in the late 80’s?

I’ve got a cable running from my router to my Xbox. I recon the one you’ve linked to looks to do the job. Cheap enough too.

Another vote for Elixir’s here. Had a few sets now and they don’t disappoint (even when running 160F/140R set-up on my Stumpjumper). I had a set XTR brakes before the Elixir’s and they were good, although didn’t have the same ‘bite’, which may be a good/bad thing depending on your preference.

Had my two out on the cycle path. They get a bit competitive though and try and overtake each other. All good fun 🙂

Can’t emphasise enough the importance of stretching, especially the ITB. I’m suffering with ‘runners knee’ at the moment and it’s no fun.

Once you’ve got a few miles under your belt you might want to look in to duathlon’s. There’s a few run-mtb-run events around with short run sections and short-ish mtb sections. I’ve put in for my first one in November.

Me and one of the IT guys clubbed together for an expresso/cappucino machine. Had fun making some ‘perky’ coffee, which was a welcomed break from Audit Commission queries.

Not a bad machine for the money: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Delonghi-EC152-Espresso-Coffee-Machine/dp/B003U2SLI8/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1316851060&sr=8-2

Was £53 when we ordered it a week ago.

I spent a few years lifting weights but found it was affecting my cycling too much and have now left it behind. Got to the stage where I could bench, squat and dead lift 130kg’s, which I’m quite proud of. However heavy bench press was giving me pains in my elbows and training heavy on the squats seem to knock my cycling (quads seem to pump up quickly on climbs). Definitely helped me better understand training and nutrition though. Lost around a stone and a half since I stopped lifting. Miss having a bit of size, but it’s helped lots on the bike.

SST – that’s fairly impressive! I’m off to look at a starter kit, sure my daughters would like scaletrix.

Pretty insignificant compared with some of the posts above, but I’m off the bike at the moment due to a running injury. Ligament damage in right knee from too much running. Keep thinking it’s fixed, then try a run or go on the bike and pain comes back after a mile or so. Gutted, got a half marathon in three weeks too.

Rob Warners run down the course has some pretty funny commentary to it, well worth a watch. Danny’s run was amazing though.

Glad you got it back. I live near to Egremont and have nearly lost a bike or two in the past, not nice. Nice to hear of someone being reunited with their bike.

My Stumpy after it’s post-Glentress bubble bath :

ratherbeintobago – Weird that, I had an XT front mech do the same thing.

I’ve found the X9 rear mech on my Stumpy great. Haven’t noticed the difference from the XT mech I had on the previous bike.

I keep meaning to but GT5 for the PS3, but never seem to get round to getting it! I quite enjoy the Dirt and WRC series, but the graphics don’t appear to compare to GT5.

Keep up the good work and stick in. I bought a road bike 2 -3 months back and found it hard to start with. Definitely agree with the comments above about the change to continual pedalling, it’s a big change to mtb’ing.

I download free the weekly Trance Around the World (TATW) podcasts via iTunes. 2hrs of fairly quick music gets me through my running and turbo training sessions.

There’s Shimano roadie pedals that are mtb spd cleat compatible. Would mean not having to buy new shoes. I considered some but ended up getting road shoes and pedals to get the beat combo.

I bought an Allez Sport a couple of months ago and have found it great. There’s some good deals on them at the moment too, with 25% off at some places. The only think i’m not too keen on my Allez is the wheels arent the greatest, however they’re easily upgradeable in the future.

Looks like you had an excellent few days riding. I’ve not been down by Staveley for a bit.

If you’ve got the V5C and the owners filled it in etc, then I can’t see the problem in you signing it as if you’ve bought it and sending it off. All you’ve done is missed out the owner of two weeks. Don’t think you’ll be able to tax it until the new V5C comes back though (plus you’ll need insurance). Other thing you could do is get the two week owner to register the car and then sign the new docs when he gets them back, but it’ll delay things further.

Doesn’t sound the cleanest of situations, but could be legit. There’s a few folk around my way that have transporters and will pic cars up for you if you win them on ebay etc. It wouldn’t be right for them to sign the owners docs for the cars.

Quite a few stores seem to be doing deals on Specialized Allez bikes at the moment. Tredz and Specialized Concept stores are offering 17%. I’ve just bought an Allez Sport, full Sora groupset, alloy frame and carbon fork. Only done 20 miles on it so far, but it seems great.

Hot Lava Java. It’ll put hairs on your chest.

It’ll certainly make your pupils twitch and talk gibberish. First cup is ‘interesting’ 🙂

one_unhappy_hippy

I’ve tried a few bouncers and although I found them good on the downhills (sometimes even a bit of an overkill) they just seemed to be a drag on everything else. A hardtail seems more direct when putting the power through the pedals and climb a lot better.

Might be worth giving Orange a shout. I’m sure I’ve seen them do a polished full suss frame of some description.

Stripping the paint and polishing it isn’t too bad to do, although time consuming. I’d definitely recommend lacquring though as it’s a pain to keep shiny otherwise.

My local powdercoaters have just started doing aqua-beading, which removes paint but doesn’t leave marks on the metal like media blasting does. Might be worth looking in to. Will try and find their number for you.

I’d recommend Endomondo too. Found it good for giving split times etc, which is something EveryTrail didn’t do. Excellent for free.

Borrowdale Bash, Skiddaw Loop and Whinlatter. All have good views depending on the weather.

I’d recommend Hope too. Even when the cartridge bearings do get a bit gritty, Superstar are doing replacements relatively cheap. Not too sure how much genuine Hope replacements are. Plenty of offers around on Hope headsets, usually for £60 ish.

I got some carbon Time shoes cheap from On-One that I found uncomfortable to start with. Think it was because I wasn’t used to the soles being so stif. Once I got used to them I found them great. Think they needed to ‘bed in’ a bit to start with. Always found Shimano shoes comfortable in the past though.

Awful that. Hope they catch the person responsible.