LBS have to offer a great service to compete these days as they can’t compete on price. BW Cycling in Bristol are a great example of how to do it right in the internet age, offering bespoke services such as bike-fitting, fitness testing and physio stuff.

I booked up a bike fit costing £90 (money well spent) and two months later bought a new road bike at £2,000. I probably could have got that bike cheaper but the fact that I got really good advice from a former pro-rider, free fitting and got to tweak the spec a bit made the whole deal sweet. This satisfaction was then relayed to many others, several of whom have used their services and bought bikes.

Try some Unicum at least once. Possibly at most once too. But do try it.

:twisted:

I’m with Nationwide, they cover up to £1000 for bikes unless you specify upwards of that, obviously you then pay slightly more for the increased value of the bikes.

I was with Nationwide until July as they changed their bike policy to ‘up to £1000’ but won’t cover any over £2000. A truly shambolic deal given they wanted to raise my premium to close to £600. AA was less the £300pa with all bikes covered home and away from home if locked.

I’ve never dropped the chain with just NW and clutch mech on my hardtail, even when I’ve forgotten to turn the clutch on. Have you checked the clutch is tensioned correctly? Mine loosens itself over time and requires a tighten every now and again.

AA for me to, buildings and contents. Nearly half the price of the quote from Nationwide and with much better coverage.

The teams are picked way before the event so doesn’t take into account late season form. There are a handful of UK riders that might be quicker than Peaty now but just not when the team was selected.

It was an incredible day’s racing though. Gutted for Ratboy and Hill but Gee deserved the win for being both quick and staying upright; to suggest otherwise is churlish.

Right! He’s had half an hour and nobody commented on this. Standards are getting dropped around here.

I need to get a pump for my girlfriend

She’s always moaning she’s feeling deflated about our sec life

Cheers guys. That Topeak looks good. I need to get a pump for my girlfriend anyhow so this solves two problems.

It’s to prepare you for the wince-inducing levels of needless bureaucracy that you’ll have to deal with on a daily basis if you actually get the job. I love the public sector and will fight to the death for its maintenance but when it comes to ‘getting sh*t done’ the leaders of our services routinely takes the most ludicrously convoluted ways of doing it. The cuts are a prime example where my employers will happily waste several thousand ‘soft’ pounds in order to save fifty ‘hard’ pounds. I speak from vast amounts of experience, mostly with my palm of my hand planted in my face.

I’ve used one of those ultrasonic mouse repellers before and they’ve worked pretty well. I couldn’t get the crafty buggers to take any bait from traps but the repellent thing moved them on without hassle.

http://www.mousetraps.org.uk/Mouse-Traps/Whole-House-Ultrasonic-Mouse-Repellent-RODE0034MOUSE

If you go up the Brewery Lane climb then there’s a right turn half way up, which becomes a bridleway up to the golf course.

Mountain bike wise I don’t know of many around Bristol but there’s a decent length climb up through Leigh Woods from the Portway path to the top car park (the one you skirt the edge of 4/5 of the way through the Yertiz trail). can’t find the Strava segment.

Lansdown from Bitton. You’ve got the choice of steeper and sharper (Brewery Lane) or longer and more dragging (Golden Valley Road). To the top takes around 15-20min. The climb from Langridge is pretty heavy going to. I’m in East Bristol and have a few road routes out to Castle Coombe, north of Bath and looping all the way round Bath and back to Bristol. PM me if you want some routes of fancy a ride.

http://www.strava.com/segments/766128
http://www.strava.com/segments/1331605
http://www.strava.com/segments/1224665

Two chimps in a bath. One says to the other
“oo oo oo aa aa aa”
The other replies
“well put some cold water in then you ****”

Two blokes on top of a hill. One says to the other
“look at that flock of cows over there”
“heard of cows” the other replied”
“of course I’ve heard of cows” said the first man “there’s a flock of them over there”

0deg stem, 5mm rise bars and 15mm headset spacers. It puts the bars pretty much level with the saddle at optimum pedal position.

Just don’t buy one of the new Shimano ‘compact triple’ with a 30T middle ring as no one makes narrow wide rings or bashguards to suit the 96BCD.
Why Shimano, WHY!!!!!!!!!

I made the exact same mistake as the BCD wasn’t listed on Rose website. Avoid the M672 cranks like the plague.

I’m running an SLX M670 with Race Face 32t NW ring, SRAM 12:36 cassette, XT Shadow Plus med cage mech and XT Shifter.

I recently bought an XT shifter to replace a broken SLX one. I reckon it’s a decent upgrade; much crisper feel and the build quality is better. A few quid well spent imo.

Nobby Nics shouldn’t be anywhere near a bike as far as I’m concerned. I’d rather have a slightly draggy tyre than one that is as unpredictable (useless) as NNs

Zealous Division.

I’m only 5ft 7″ with little legs and I love my Zealous Division 29er. It took a while to find a 29er that didn’t feel like I was perched on top of rather than comfortably at one with but it was worth the testing and research. I’d suggest you look carefully at the geometry as it makes a big difference to the way it rides. Mine is long, slack (68deg head angle, slack for 29er) and with short chain stays to keep the handling snappy. Other 29ers I rode felt narrow boat like in comparison.

I’m assuming that’s the fireroad crossing point that leads up to the cafe/golf hut? I can’t imagine there will be a huge amount of traffic on it as they won’t park many cars up there and wouldn’t let them in that way anyhow but cheers for the heads up.

The one in Bristol is truly appalling.

+1
+2

They’d run out of my first two choices on the menu, the food was merely meh, the music was too loud to have a conversation without shouting, it was like eating in a supermarket isle crammed full of Jamie Oliver crap. I wouldn’t recommend or go back.

1. Chelsea
2. Arsenal
3. Man City
4. Liverpool

Relegated:
QPR (swamped with ludicrous levels of debt, paying over the hill players daft wages)
Leicester
West Brom.

Top Scorer: Giroud

CL: Chelsea (in ugly, tedious fashion)
FA Cup: Arsenal
LC: Everton

I have a Slide (set at 120mm) and it’s very good. Simple but effective and pretty stiff. Perfect for me as I can’t be arsed with fettling suspension.

Anyone mentioned Ibis? The only reason I hate them is because I will likely never be able to afford one.

I’ve never known anyone to slate Kenesis

I put a massive ding in my rear wheel puncturing on a rock then rolling it off the rim on the following corner :roll: . My advice is run tubeless (almost a necessity unless you want to roll on 45psi) and go burly.

One is custom built this year (this week in fact). Another is last year off the peg with a few upgrades that bump the price up a little. The third and fourth are priced based on what a modern equivalent would cost. I’ll have to ask a few more questions re. like for like etc.

Do you have any other products with them? They asked me about home insurance when I was sorting something on my bank account. I said they didn’t offer sufficient cover for bikes, and they said that they do better deals if you’re already a customer, dunno what, but perhaps worth looking at.

All accounts and mortgage are with them, which makes it all the more disappointing.

I’m with Nationwide, bikes not mentioned specifically….they come under contents and are also covered away from the home, in the boot of the car etc etc….only a max of £1000 per bike, any more than that and the premium had to go up but seeing as i dont have a blingy FS race bike at the moment the £1000 is more than enough for my 456-evo.

I have three bikes over a £1k and one over £2k, they told me they won’t cover anything over £2k. A really poor showing imo as they weren’t exactly cheap in the first place and they ramped up the price while offering a really poor deal.

Anyone got any experience with Admiral or Axa?

She’s a nurse, sadly not a dentist.

I’ve been riding one of the prototypes that was loaned to me (my frame has just arrived in the country) and I love it. I was a big wheel skeptic as most of the 29ers I’d ridden felt like I was perched on the bike rather than rather than fitting comfortably with it. The short chainstays make for a lively ride akin to my old 26″ hardtail but the the big wheels give me huge amounts of grip and far superior rolling ability over rough stuff. It really is the best of both worlds. I’ve hammered it in the Sierra Nevada, raced it at Bikefest, sessioned the downhill trails of the Mendips and Forest of Dean and I’m so happy at my decision to buy one. It handles everything I’ve thrown at it and inspires confidence to hit lines harder and faster. Hell, I’ve even started to get more comfortable jumping, something I’m frickin’ awful at. Sounds like a sales spiel I know but I’m just happy to have found the bike I wanted.

Setup for those interested:
Division Frame
X-Fusion Slide forks 120mm
Superstar Sentinel wheels, 15mm front, 142x12mm rear
Continental Trail King rear tyre, Schwalbe Hans Dampf Front (this won’t fit on the rear)
XT / SLX 1×10 drivetrain
Hope Mini Mono brakes
Reverb seatpost.

We flew with Easyjet from Bristol to Malaga at 6am (ish)on a Friday and got picked up by Pure Mountains driver. After the transfer we had time to have some lunch, build bikes and play around on their track in the garden. Sat-Mon we had full day guiding and on Tuesday we had a half day and flew back late Tuesday night. Worked out around £400-450ish for the holiday plus flights. Not bad when you factor in free food and booze (except for one night). You’ll only need about €40 spending money as there are no shops.

Pure Mountains in Sierra Nevada, pickups from Malaga. Amazing all natural trails, fantastic accommodation and very reasonably priced. What’s not to like? It’s the only holiday I’ve been on twice!

http://www.puremountains.com/

Man get’s lockring tightened at lbs for free, moans due to lack of cuddle.

Anyone who says “speaking as a mother” or variations thereof. Your opinions don’t gain validity just because your body has succesfully completed a basic biological function, it’s like saying “speaking as someone who once took a shit”. The blackbird that lives in my hedge is a mother, let’s see what it has to say on the subject of crime.

It irritates the hell out of me when TV news wheel out a spokesperson from mumsnet on something that has nothing to do with having successfully squeezed a small person out of your vag.

School run mothers. They’re all blinkered psychopaths.

In typical STW style, I’ll recommend what I’ve got: Giant TCR Advanced 2. Not the best on spec on paper but the frame is incredible. Stiff, fast, responsive and handles like it’s on rails.

Loads of routes here:

http://www.morznet.com/account/pdf_uploader/uploaded_pdf
/morzine_road_bike_routes.pdf