well we shall all come round and swoon and bow down to your massive legs and pedal mashing then Other people may prefer more gears

If you wouldn’t mind, that would be lovely :-)

I can manage everything on 1×10. I’m not even that fit.

Do you live anywhere hilly though, as around us there are long hills and plenty of steep/granny sections.

Bristol. Yes, we’ve got plenty of hills around here, south Wales and FOD etc. It’s been ridden in the Sierra Nevada to, up some nice 30% stuff.

I’ve got them on my mtb and my commuter, they’re pretty damn good.

So a man that has a job and a house (rented in the case of the London property he lives in) can’t have an opinion on poor people being turfed out of their homes at the whims of private property speculators and use his substantial public profile to rally for their cause? Whether you like Mr Brand or not that’s not particularly hypocritical. Even if there’s an element of self-promotion that doesn’t negate the help for the New Era resident’s cause.

XFusion Slide are worth checking out. Doesn’t have a remote lockout as such but the switch on the top of the fork is so easy to reach you can still lock it out on the fly.

its not about the bike though eh, fitness plays a lot in cycling up steep hills

+1

I can’t get my head around the extortionate price for an extra gear, especially since I can manage everything on 1×10. I’m not even that fit.

Having had two bike fits the guy that fit them said the my saddle height was spot on already, with a slight bend of the knee at the bottom of the pedal stroke. 30 degrees sounds like way too much and I can’t imagine that being remotely comfortable when climbing.

I spent a few days in Skopje, Macedonia a few years back. Strange place with some ethnic tensions between them and the Albanians. I quite enjoyed it though and, though I wasn’t riding, I can imagine it that region would be amazing for cycling. The currency (Denar) is a nuisance though as you can only (or at least when I was there in 2012) exchange it in the country itself. Also, avoid the local plum brandy stuff; it’s easily the worst thing I’ve attempted to consume.

obviously when someone goes to this much effort… maybe it’s time for new strategy?

They couldn’t even be arsed to put an apostrophe where it’s required.

Have you been riding in Leigh Woods / Ashton Court lately? Plenty of scrotes hanging about last time I was out. A few friends have been followed home and burgled after riding there.

El-P – Fantastic Damage.

It was amazing when it came out in 2002, it sounds even better now. Such a forward thinking record that it still sounds like it was recorded in the future.

what is thanksgiving anyway?

Is that Emperor Palpatine getting some bargains front and center?

Thermae spa is rather nice. Works well if you have a lady friend.

The Christmas Market is hell enough to make you want to nuke humanity from space.

Everyone knows the correct answer is to hop on a train to Bristol though.

Run the Jewels
El-P
Sage Francis
anything produced by J Dilla
Aesop Rock
Anti Pop Consortium
Beans
Dels
Sixtoo

Han Dampf Trail Star on the front and Continental Trail King Protection on the rear for me. I quite like the combo, the Trail King being particularly impressive.

Mercifully not raining here but a jaunt around Leigh Woods and Ashton Court was pretty soggy nonetheless. I looked like I’d been to a fete and had my face painted as a giraffe by the time I got home.

Master of Puppets by a mile. The 90’s was a better decade for metal on the whole though.

I used old, bottom of the range, oem Shimano brakes off-road for steep techy stuff without a fault for years. The only issue I had was when one got damaged in a crash and started leaking from the somewhere round the lever. I still use the other one on my commuter. They’re a doddle to maintain and bleed.

Gigs are what sets a great band apart from a good band. It’s relatively easy to write a good album and have it recorded to sound perfect. To recreate that in a venue and engage an audience takes a lot more effort. Awesome gigs from the past include Rage Against the Machine, Will Haven, Queens of the Stone Age, Dalek, Dillinger Escape Plan, Cult of Luna and far far more. The best recent gig has got to be Alpha Male Tea Party playing for free at a venue where 2/3 of the band couldn’t even fit on the stage! Top stuff.

I have completely slick Specialized 23mm on my winter bike. Came a cropper on some cobbles once but I think that would have been the case regardless of the tyres.

You’ll need one of these in conjunction with an 8mm allen key for the end cap on the drive side, then a 5mm allen key to loosen the bolts. Once the non-drive side slides off, you can tap the axle to push the drive side out.

What do you call a chav in a box? Innit.

What do you call a chav in a box with a lock on it? Safe.

What’s the similarity between a slinky and a chav? Both serve no real purpose but you like to watch them fall down stairs.

Why did the Mexican push his wife off a cliff? Tequila.

I managed to true (for the most part) a pretty warped rotor using the adjustable spanner technique recently. Stick a clean rag between the spanner and the rotor to keep it grease free and rinse down and wipe with isoproyl alcohol to clean if you’re worried.

As advised above, it’s worth checking that your pistons are central as well. There’s a video for this on Hope’s youtube channel. It also works for some Shimano brakes.

Get distracted while servicing a rear disc brake, forgetting to reinstall the split pin that holds the pads in. Trying to find said brake pads after their leap to freedom on the side of a dark cycle path was equally something I won’t be bothering with again.

I’ve done around 60% of these!

Never try to steer a BMX using the front stunt pegs.

Rovaniemi is a strange place. My girlfriend was there Jan-Mar a few years ago on a uni placement. It’s only a small town with very little going on beyond tour companies fleecing tourists. The Finns are exceptional at this. Want to meet Santa Clause, it’s free. Want a picture or two, that’s €35. Want to see the Northern Lights, we’ll walk you up a nearby hill and charge you €70 with no guarantee of seeing anything. It is pretty fun being able to walk across rivers and trek through the forest in several meters of snow though.

If you’re using Lynx showergel, she might be concerned someone will find out she’s dating a 13yr old.

It came free with mine, purchased a few months ago.

Always allow 4.5hrs for that ‘five minute job’ on your bike.

After cutting chillis, wash your hands really, really, REALLY well before going for a wee.

Depends on your budget really. Long Ashton is nice but pricey, close enough to the city to easily commute, close to most MTB trails and the Weston Road that runs through it is very well used by roadies heading out towards the Mendips, though it has a ridiculous number of potholes.

If you’ve got a shed load of money you could go somewhere a little further afield like Chew Magna, Wrington, Langford. Pretty, chocolate box villages with 4×4 driving torys and old people living there.

Southville is the city option. Very close to the centre but really still really quiet and close to the MTB and good road riding also.

On the not quite so expensive but a bit bland family friendly front, there’s Keynsham and Saltford (good schools if you have kids), which are commuter towns to the east about half way to Bath. They’re pretty dull though and if you want a few beers in Bristol you’ll get fleeced on the bus or worse a taxi. Good road riding from there though, loads of quiet, winding, undulating roads.

There are a few places to avoid in Bristol: Southmead, Knowle West, Hartcliffe, Henbury, Lawrence Weston, Lawrence Hill (not an awful place, just designed and laid out by a moron with a total disregard for taste and common sense). More affordable but still quite nice areas are Redfield, bits of St George, Easton, bits of Whitehall, bits of Bedminster, Knowle, Totterdown. I don’t like North Bristol so I’m ignoring that all together.

If I could chose and afford it, I’d live in Southville or Long Ashton. I actually live in Redfield, which is nice in a slightly shabby, up and coming, very diverse kinda way but a bit of a pain for road and mtb.

Running 5 miles straight off is pretty hardcore, especially off road. Considering that running does the complete opposite to muscles than cycling does – running lengthens the muscles, cycling shortens – it’s no wonder you’re in pain. Throw into that varying pronation of joints and whether you’ve got suitable shoes to cover this then it becomes quite complicated to just launch into running such distances. Good shoes that suit your foot and pronation, warm up and warm down (this in particular) are very important. I’ve found a combination of stretches and an cold shower on the legs are the best way to ward off aches and pains.

My anti-virus (avast) flagged it as a privacy concern. What’s that all about?

Passing isn’t a problem if you’re polite (and quick enough). There are only a few bits where it’s a little tricky but those are short and the slowest people are generally nice enough to pull over. It’s a well organised and friendly event.

It is a flat out course with short steepish ups and slightly longer but shallower descents. There’s a fair bit of singletrack so getting passed slower riders can be a pain sometimes but as long as everyone is polite it’s all good natured. Hardtail 29er is the weapon of choice.

Specialized for my wide, flat feet. Comfy straight from the box.

Mendips
Cwm Carn
FOD for sessioning the downhill trails (I’d skip the XC loop as it’s pretty dull aside from the last descent)

Leigh Woods / Ashton Court is ok but to find the best stuff you’ll need a guide.

I really like the Slide forks. They’re a solid bit of fit and forget kit, plenty stiff and function without complaint on anything I’ve thrown at it including DH runs at Forest of Dean, rock strewn singletrack of Sierra Nevada and the small stutter bumps and roots of my local trails. Also, the lock out is very good. A friend of mine has the Trace forks on the same frame and really rates them to but the hefty bump in price put me off.

I just do the whole Gok Wann and give an honest appraisal with full rationale. She really appreciates it, and it means that I have to go shopping with her every time too, failing that I get the yay/nay final vote on anything she’s unsure of if I wasn’t with her

Why would you want to go shopping with her? That sounds like a loss, not a victory.

Another for narrow wide chainrings. Possibly the simplest and most effective cycling innovation in recent times.