properly built handmade wheels are always the best value.
spokes are easy and cheap to replace.so are rims.
cup and cone/cartridge has been done to death,about once a season.
either wait for the next discussion or search for it.
lx is nice and shiny,only a bit more than deore.deore is great stuff.
pickup is lower on deore and lx,not sure about slx,but xt has double the pickup.(good)
but it’s not that much of a difference.

gutermann,ah.and so many colours…
but yo’re better off doing it yourself.unless it’s a big job.I find all my mtb stuff get holes in it from thorns ripping bits off my top and arms.
you can get a lot of strange stuff.like silicon thread,for stitching elastic stuff.or a sort of elastic thread.but I think it’s made for sewing machines.
and get a thimble.you’ll probably have to special order a man-sized one.or get a bit of thick leather and make your own.

and come up small.
perfect tyre.

still,those michelin dh tyres are worth a look.
heavy as fk,don’t grip for shit.
last well though.
and brake well.in a straight line

yeah,you’re right.I thought the sitting down would convey the movement.
squatting as on the loo might have been better.
git your weight down.even clearer
still.ironic,I accuse you of not reading my post,when it was me not reading yours!ah well.sorry.

fingerbanger has had more grand tour wins taken away than anyone else.
If you want to read some good analysis
you’ll find none better than
http://captaintbag.tumblr.com/

I suppose we are spoilt,in a sense.by the fact that so much of the tv/sports work done is so good that when it’s average,it’s crap.
look at the progression in mtb films,over the last 10years.
still,a strong ego grows through criticism.

most things in spain are below par
in catalunya they’re below par and expensive.
can’t say it though.I think that’s why so many things are like they are here,because the take any suggestion/complaint as a personal attack.
the cover on some small italian stage races is better than the vuelta coverage.

christ,some needle and thread.nylon thread is stronger.but two goes of thinner thread is better than one of thicker.
a stitch in time and all that.
is true.

the best braking tyres I’ve used are the michelin dh tyres.
I said the sit down motion.ie compressing yourself into the bike.not to sit down.
read it properly.

might want toget something a bit wider than a 317 on the rear.
mavic rims and shimano hubs are by far the best vfm.
though I’ve had good luck with sun rims as well.

towards the end.
larger wheels roll better.

there you go.
but russian soviet prams
none of this decadent western bourgeois consumerist built-to-sell-designed-to-fail prams.
look at the schwalbe catalogue,now you’ve got the pos,in any case.

by that rationale,I don’t ride with 4 wheels either.
and the smallest wheels I have are 17″ on the folder.
but don’t let reality cloud your rhetoric.

sit down when you brake.don’t really sit down.but lower your arse back,roll your hips,keep your chin up.
or get the 2 brakes on one lever?
or just ride fixed off road.with a 3sp hub you’ll have all the gears you need.

fixed if you really can’t stand noise.
or just keep pedalling.
or shimano.

depends on how big she is.
5 foot not much lasses I knew biblically were comfortable with 520-580.

well, nobody has any doubt about god being ‘merican.

your head explodes like a badly sealed ghetto tubeless road tyre if you try and go up and down the size scales when looking around you.
Even more so if you also add in the time factor,so you have two directions,the size and the time ones.
our experience is pretty limited,not quite like when you were smoking behind the bike shed and didn’t know you had had to inhale.
but nearly.

shame most road frames can’t fit something larger than 25s,as the ride is so much better.
& the descents.

readthepostby doug at basquemtb he says it’s the same.

ha,other way round for me,not ridden the road bike for about a month.not really been on the road bike reg for about 2months.
too hot,I go out at 9pm and ride until 2-3am,feel more comfortable doing that on trails than roads.
don’t live where you do though.

seule la force garantira la liberté, Blanqui 1870 (Paris commune)

grahamS thanks.
I doubt I’ll ever need to make one,but you never know.more hassle though,you’d need to weld little sharpened tubes,with nails or long tacks you can just use a strip of tarmac paper type thing.
still,if a job’s worth doing..

the countryside is great as well,if you’ve got a car,
castellina,radda,gaiole in chianti,for ex.
I used to love driving in the summer,at night from castagneto to volterra,san gimignano(towers) then florence.spend about 2-3hs in each place then drive on.you can do it the other way round and end up at baratti,nice beach,as well as estruscan burying site,castle as well,but it’s later.
in florence itself I’d reccomend da mario,
http://trattoria-mario.com/
lucca is nice,but pisa has more to offer,less atmosphere though.

good restaurants everywhere mostly.

you’ll be exhausted from all the looking at museums so factor in some rest periods.otherwise it’ll all become a blur of rinascinmento-etrusco-medioevo.

fit some bar ends,you could even fit some inboard of the shifters.
looks a bit like antlers,but works quite well

landmines.
or just the sign.
I’d lay two thick electrical cables across the road.
I remember setting up a flash next to the edge of the road,under a bush,with a remote cord.
only works at night tho.but works pretty well.
obviously you could spread oil on the road in front of the flash so that they hit the oil when braking.
I only just though of that,though it might come under the excessive label.
you can make those pyramid nails if you can weld.
or just a strip of something with nails in it,like the police use.

still better than a headmaster friend of mine suggesting we roll bales down the hill onto the road…

Never thought I’d have so many answers!
thanks,though I felt a bit of a troll.
I do 50 a day,I find the palms away easier,though it’s harder to grip the bar.
I dunno if my technique could be better,but I find it easier to do sit ups and then pull ups rather than the other way round.
(you can keep on fightin’).

climate,I suppose.Was thinking about andalucia,but remember the summers there as terrible.I suffer here in barcelona as it is.so I looked at the year round weather stats and it seems great.
I’ve met quite a few people who relocated there from barcelona and catalunya,they seemed to think it was a change for the better.friendlier people.

It should be q bit cheaper than BCN,as well.

I’m worried there won’t be much of anything,if you go to a smaller island,or just be another city,if you go to tenerife or gran canaria.
I went to cabo verde and It looks similar.nice for a week,but after two I’d gotten bored.

just thinking aloud,mostly.I think I’ll keep on looking.

thanks for the replies.
(my grandparents had a bar,I don’t think they ever closed it for a day in 38years,so no chance of my going that route)

some good shit here,leather has a grain thing going on,so it will stretch more in one direction than in the others.
I dunno about staples,if you have a thin carbon shell (like on an slr) I’dnot use them.though I’d like an ex-coffin trimmer’s staple gun.
have a look[/url]

gforms are great,got RF flanks(good),661 evos(a bit worse)661 race,good but uncomfortable)ixs hammer(as comft as hard ones are going to be)
I’d buy the gforms again,I’d not say that for any of the others.though there are none I regret buying.

you can use anything.ripstop,fabric offcuts,ripstop nylon.seen some denim ones,but remember it’s going to get grubby sooner or later.so something dark will be best.
besides,leather makes it more comfortable.

Hi,I hd written a long reply,but it seems to have got lost.
So.
I read a thread on pinkbike 4 years ago and decided to give it a try.
done a few now.
weight-adds 30-100g depending on leather thickness.
comfort.makes quite a difference.
technique.
contact cement works best.
I only use real leather.the thinner it is,the easier it is.
warm leather stretches more(good)
draw a rough outline.with opverlap.
if your saddle has those plastic covering things at the sides and back it’s easier.
start with the nose then do the back,then the sides.
it’s fiddly,a pain to get perfect,and you’ll need to do a few before you get them perfect,but it’s not difficult.
have a look at busyman cycles for inspiration.

don’t be afraid to peel it off and start again.
toptip-cut little triangles out of the overlap,like those cardboard models you’d buy as a child.
cotton bar tape makes a good scuffguard on the sides.if it’s thin leather.the thick stuff can be a bitch depending on saddle type but it holds up amazingly well.

have fun.you’ll be picking little balls of contact cement off your fingertips for a day afterwards.
there’s a bloke ion the us doing pretty crap work,he has a website,good example of how not to do it.

not got any pictures,did one dark green,another tan leather,creases in the leather look pretty good.
if you have any questions,I’m happy to help.
if you’re good at arts and crafts type things then I’d reccomend it.otherwise just buy a new saddle,it takes me about 3-4 hours to do a saddle.
remember,stretch the leather as you go.some small pliers help.

.

just finished august,by and with anthony hopkins.
chekov set in n wales.I thought it was very good.

that seems to be the case for most mtb films.
thanks to youku

in america by jim sheridan is great.
belrin alexanderplatz is great as well but it’s about 9hs.
Solaris,both versions are fine,but tarkovsky’s is a masterpiece.

toni,la grand illusion,une partie de campagne- j renoir
kubrick.all.
truffaut-all.
tarkovsky.all.

Ozu,kobayashi,mizoguchi,kurosawa.

wong kar wai

saw a few of robert hamer’s recently.

chabrol is good.

rivette,

Have a fondness for lang’s Dr mabuse

Got a hustler,it’s great.had it for 4 years.
But mk1 is right.

Cheapest is probably a square taper (solid) road crank with a 28 in the granny.
I’m running a truvativ AKA with a 28 bling ring.works perfectly.
Can’t turn it around like the hbc rings but:
a-chainline is much better.
b-I’ve ordered 2 hbc rings 3months ago and still no news.
running 11-34.

I find traction is better with lower gears,My knees are fckd,I do 7-8h rides,Terrain is steep,there are 2 30minute climbs I just can’t do with a 32,was limiting myself to 2-3h rides before I got the blingring.

running a 22-32 with a 14-28 cassette on the other bike.low gear is 21″ on both.

i’ll probably get hellore to make me an adapter for 74bcd ch.rings.so that I can use rings that are half price and then turn them around.more choice too.Not usre if it’s going to be less stiff though.those mrp rings are really well made.plus they come with stickers.

colournoise,will you be uploading them?
I’ve seen half of mudcows,with polish voiceover.

My fave mtb film is Elemental.

there’s a shop here you’d like.They had me wait 10 months!
I was told it would take a while,about 3 wks.I got them to give me one of theirs,even though I paid new for SH and they didn’t even give me a discount.bastards.it was a bicycle saddle stool thing.

you going to use rim washers as well?just got some for my alpha build.
The rear hub was ordered &paid for 3months ago and it still hasn’t arrived.

one cross less?though it always seems there’s a 11mm diff between crossings.on 700c.
weird crossing pattern?