I have the Ortlieb Top Tube Frame Bag. It feels bombproof and is impressively waterproof. With the zip done up fully its had to push air out, let alone worry about water getting in. It also did a good job of containing a liquefied banana after 3hrs of bashing around on really hot summer ride (i was going to eat a lot earlier!). Thankfully it cleaned up easily with some dry grass!. I use it for commuting too as it’s nice to vaguely lob stuff in there rather than stuffing pockets, and on my frame I can still run two bottles (also much lighter than rack\single pannier).

*Disclaimer: I haven’t done any crazy bikepacking trips with it, just normal riding (varying distance) and commuting.

I would use normal anti seize or grease. Adding more metals to the mix with Ti could potentially lead to galvanic corrosion once you add a bit of water and road salt.

I’ve seen most of a HL2 BB cup turned to dust along with the Dura Ace steel axle in it turned to swiss cheese (unusable after). The bike had been in storage with a bit of water stuck in a the BB for a surprisingly short period of time.

Just a heads up

I push a syringe of fresh fluid from the caliper end to a funnel in the lever.

Empty the funnel of old oil, put some fresh fluid in it and pump that into the now empty syringe. Pull lever> open bleed screw (fluid comes through)> close bleed screw> pump lever a couple of times > repeat until funnel is almost empty. Close the bleed screw and remove the syringe.

Once that’s done I just pump the lever a lot whilst taping the hydro hose\lever\caliper to loosen any trapped bubbles, a minute of that should do the trick if anything is trapped.

Remember to use an appropriate sized bleedblock.

The barely visible crappy light people are probably following suit after seeing people with good quality lights with daytime modes I would imagine.

I use my lights day or night, good quality modern lights with a daytime mode are quite visible in anything but a bright summers day (how many of those do we get?). There are far too many people half asleep on the way to work in their living rooms on wheels, if it catches their eye in between mouthfuls of conflakes then it’s done it’s job.

Constant light on the front for me, people seem to give way more (when you have right of way anyway) if your lighting makes you look like a motorbike (pointed down and not too bright obviously)

Done this to a few tyres that I thought might be write offs and theyve held up fine…

-Get a proper tubeless patch kit. I went for the Velox one, has nice thick\heavy duty patches compared to a regular tube kit.
-Clean the area inside the tyre of sealant and then heatgun\hairdry the patch area in the tyre on low heat to get rid of residual moisture
-Roughen\key the surface
-Clean with brake cleaner\degreaser
-Add glue, wait a bit as per usual vulcanising solution.
-Patch on.
-Apply pressure! – I use a G-Clamp jobby to hold it to the tyre and leave to dry.

There’s other ways of doing it but this has worked every time for me. You could cut some sidewall material out of an old tye and glue that in otherwise, not tried it so I dont know how well it works.

Emailed :)

Cheers Bob. I helitape the crap out of everything nowadays so it’s all good. I wish more bikes would come with it as stock in critical areas.

The Metal guards weigh a ton and completely contradict the carbon frame and weight weenie carbon wheels on my new bike.. but i’m a total mudguard convert and would like something to tide me over until the weather improves at least.

<span style=”font-size: 12.8px;”>Yer mini review would be great please :P</span>

I’ve fitted the Brick Lane Bikes 700c equivalent of those Velo Orange guards before and despite me presuming they would be noisy and not very stable they seemed sturdy to me. That was test riding on a rough road rather than offroad but they seemed pretty decent.

I’ve been very impressed with my Bluemels, about 4000miles on and offroad with no issues and still going strong. I thought they would fall apart on the first section offoard but worked fine, only minor issue is if I take one hand off the bars they can rattle a little. I’m running 35mm guards with Schwalbe S-One 30mm tyres, which is too narrow a guard for the tyre but it looks better :P. I’m running them on a gravel bike so it gets a high speed hammering on the smoother offroad but rougher bridleways I take it slow.

The width of the guards could be a factor in how they’ve worked for both of us.

I’m also looking for more 27.5 x 2 options for my new bike, i’ll let you know if I find anything.

I do bend my stays differently, it probably doesn’t help but I prefer the way it looks.

What he said.

If the threads can’t be re-tapped then the current rivnuts need drilling out and new ones fitted. Most shops will have a rivnut tool and rivnuts (that’s the easy bit), the more fun bit is drilling them out in carbon frames.They are normally aluminium and are perfectly durable, it might be the threads weren’t cut too well in yours or the bolts threads weren’t great.

Haha, I should’ve put two and two together, 40miles + Peak District. Yer do the shorter one, it will still be enough of a challenge with the time\fitness you have at the moment. Maintain your fitness after and enter another event later in the year.

Sign up to Strava if you haven’t already, even just to log and remind yourself of what you’ve been up to. You can’t lie to yourself when you haven’t done enough, plus you feel satisfied seeing it all laid in front of you when you have. Keep the thread updated too, i’m sure people will be happy to give some positive nagging when needed :P

For endurance events\rides (relative to fitness) I find the most important things are fueling and a sensible pace, the rest is mental (positively focus on why you are doing it).

For getting fit do as suggested above really…
-Ride with others
-Do some shorter harder efforts on a turbo
-Or make a short local route where you can try hard on the climbs, recover in between.
-Do an increasingly longer ride once a week.
-Plot a short route with an easy option to extend if you’re feeling like it.

Don’t get too focused on big rides, if you’re not feeling it just get out on your bike and do something, you’ll feel better for getting out on your bike either way.

Smart looking solution. I’ve been running these on my older XT 780 chainset…

http://www.ison-distribution.com/english/product.php?part=CRIDSD06

21mm socket on the Hope hub if anyone needs to know.

I need to document my bodges more often, luckily I took a couple of pics on these.

After experimentation I found two techniques using bog standard tools. I like a challenge!

1: Got lucky on a mm perfect sized socket to drift out the outer race with the socket extension bar and hammer.

2: Reassembling the bearing only using 3 balls. It’s the minimum amount you can reassemble it with, and also a lot easier to reassemble.

-Stand wheel upright as normal, small amount of grease inside outer race to keep balls in place when fitted.
-Install 3 balls loose at the bottom of the race
-Insert inner race whilst holding in place
-Carefully push\rotate other two balls around the circumference so they are all equally spaced.
-Drift bearing out as normal :D

It can be fiddly but it’s worked on different bearings on various places on the bike.

I’ve been using the mens Fabric saddles on all my bikes for the past year or so, I prefer them to the more expensive Fiziks I was using previously. Radius on the Trail full sus MTB, Shallow on my racier XC hardtail and same on the road bike.

It’s 60days, and normally the cost against another Fabric saddle so you can try other shapes. But not typically a straight up refund.

Bontrager do a good range of ladies saddles (width\shape) and no quibble guarantee, full refund available within 30days.

koppenberg… not the drink. Stupid auto correct :roll:

My girlfriend uses my turbo bike fine, shes a lot shorter than me.

It’s a normal road bike but she just uses the straights which reduces reach, and a setback seatpost facing the wrong way so more over BB. We both have our own saddles and posts, both marked to the right height. Drop bars give you plenty of hand positions. You could fit a cheap adjustable stem too.

Yup what Marge says, I used them earlier this year.

If you want classic cobbled stuff then heading to Oudenaarde is a good idea. There’s plenty of signposted routes so you don’t really need a Garmin. The shop is easy to get to from the station, 30euro for a 105 carbon road bike for me and same for a hybrid E-bike for my girlfriend. We followed the well signposted classic flanders cobbled routes, hitting the Kopparberg first, I warned my girlfriend to get off and push if she thinks she might fall off…. she proceeding to drop me hard using the turbo mode on her hybrid e-bike. Which she found hilarious, she’s not a cyclist at all :P

Don’t do what I did last year and take a town bike from Gent to ride the same stuff, I managed to break it pretty quickly pulling hard on the bars trying to zig zag up the same climb pushing max effort with flat city gearing :oops:

Slight thread hijack but might help the OP…

Anyone had long term use of 650x50ish vs 700x40ish on the same bike?.

The Bombtrack im after comes with 650×2.1 but I’m considering a 2nd set of wheels with narrower faster tyres, 700x40ish.

I’ll give you some feeback once I’ve got some miles on mine :D ( pretty much a done deal)

My GT kind of killed my Trek Superfly hardtail this year for local riding, I think the Bombtrack will put the final nail in the coffin. I love my Superfly but my Fuel Ex is better for “proper” mountain biking and I find a dropbar bike more fun, practical and faster for bridleways and gravel.

I’m pretty sure I’m going for a Bombtrack Hook EXT-Carbon, cheaper steel model available (UK stock in November for both). Had a cheeky testride on a pre-production bike, I felt at home straight away and it gobbled up the cobbles I took it over with ease whilst not feeling sluggish on tarmac. I’ve been doing lots of gravelly and bridleway stuff on my GT Grade carbon, it’s been brilliant for a bike with 30mm tyres but this should be able to handle most of what my hardtail does whilst being quicker on most rides I would take either on. I’m attracted by the practicality and hooligan factor, you can fit a rack guards and slicks or wack on some 2.1 knobblies and rag the crap out of it :D

I like the look of the Genesis Fugio too.

First Ride: Bombtrack „Hook EXT-C“ beim Dirty Boar Gravel Ride

Camelbak Podium bottle with a Camelbak “Mud Cap”. They may have killed water bottles for some MTBers but they also make the best bottles by far.

Bontrager RXL Carbon Bottle Cage, use them on 3 different bikes and never dropped a bottle or broken a cage (oldest ones are about 5years old). They do a plastic “RL” cage which is almost as good. Whatever you do don’t buy alloy cages, they fatigue\wear through\bend and don’t hold bottles well.

As above always worth being gentle with preload.

Was it faced by the factory/you/shop?. I wouldn’t trust factory facing personally, if it’s painted then it’s not faced properly. My mate killed a HL2 BB in two weeks on a brand new bike, turns out it was about 2mm out in width on just one half of one side of the shell :S (that’s the worst I’ve seen on a new bike though).

http://garmin.openstreetmap.nl

I’ve used maps from here numerous times. Download the area you want and pop it on a cheap SD.

Good warranty support is important, at least if they make a rare cockup it will get sorted (even the best brands will have failures). I’ve found the user can sometimes be the biggest issue. You know that bloke you ride with, always has problems and breaks things regardless of what he buys.

You wouldn’t be making a bad choice sticking with Santacruz.

Lovvvve!. 30mm S-Ones\Stans Grails\Stans Tape\Orange Seal. 3500+ miles with no flats, no way i’m going back to tubes!.

Went up first time with a track pump, I once had to dump some pressure in when I cut the sidewall on a rock but it sealed up fine. It’s great being able to ride all surfaces on the same bike, road, gravel and bridleways without the tyres letting the ride down. They’re fast on the road but more comfortable than the 35mm tubed cross tyres I had for offroad.

Pretty much 1kg total bike weight difference when I had the same bike with an Alfine 11 build and also 1×10 XT. So slight less differnece if using 2x or 3x and cheaper parts.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Creative-51MF1610AA003-GigaWorks-Multimedia-Technology/dp/B001IZZ2PE

I’ve had these (older version) hooked up to my PC for years. Great sound for music\video\TV for the size and price , especially compared to how much I spent on my Hifi :S. They are active speakers so more than loud enough if need.

Stans goes off eventually. I would just check it every 3 months or so by popping the tyre off to make sure there is proper sealant, not just separated liquid and latex sloshing around when you shake the wheel.

Stans has Ammonia in it to stop the latex from going off, it will eventually evaporate through the pores of the tyre until there isn’t any left and the latex will go off. Like when you leave a pool of Stans in a tyre that isn’t fitted to a wheel, it goes off quite quickly.

I’ve found Orange seal lasts longer and seems to work as well, and it doesn’t contain Ammonia, which can damage aluminium.

Any reasonable cable set like SP41 as above, the finishing touches on the install will get the best out of them. Some cable cutters leave uneven strands once the outer is cut, file these flat. Try and avoid sharp bends in the outer and be careful not to bend the inner when installing (a tiny kink can spoil the shifting).

I tried the workouts but I just didn’t get on with them.

Races are great. I check zwiftpower.com for the day and time that suits me and see what’s happening (worth signing up to that site if racing for results too). Races are a very good way of going very deep and making very good use of minimal time. I found I could go much deeper than a normal solo session.

In general I’ve found doing regular 20-40min sessions enough as you are constantly putting in effort unlike most real world rides. Also keeping rides short I can do it most days of the week if needed without feeling fatigue (unless doing real rides). After a couple of months my fitness massively improved, my endurance at intensity was a lot better as well as recovery. Shorter punchy MTB climbs that needed brute force were a lot easier\faster and my pedaling on the road bike was a lot more fluid and constant at higher outputs. I still need to shift some weight though (5-10kg) as dragging 85kg up climbs fast enough to nick local KOMS is satisfying but my knees aren’t enjoying it!

http://www.argos.co.uk/product/4250090 Same as concept2 for me, it seems to be available under various brands elsewhere. Full power feels great and you really dont have to worry about sweat. It is very loud, but has 3 loudness settings ;)

In general i’d say go for the largest fan possible with different speed settings, if available in specs check the DB level and CFM if you want to get the best compromise.

After using Prolink Progold Extreme for about 3 years on various bikes, about ten minutes a year.

A few seconds to lube it reasonably often, and when it looks dirty I pedal the chain through a rag with some degreaser on it and re lube.

Changed the chain on the roadbike after 3000+ miles recently, still ran fine and looked good but didn’t want to risk chainring wear.

What make\model hub is it?. Does the axle and freehub move freely if turning by hand when its out of the bike?.

Had any new bearings or taken it apart recently?, new bearing fitted but not fully pressed in or spacer missing?.

If it’s not been fettled with recently my wild guess is seized bearing(s).

No probs 8)

A long shot question…..

Has anyone ridden both the V2 Tripster and the Salsa Warbird Carbon and what do they think of them?

Go on http://si.shimano.com for an exploded view of part numbers for any Shimano spares.

http://bike.shimano.com/media/techdocs/content/cycle/EV/bikecomponents/FC/EV-FC-3550-3413_v1_m56577569830799977.pdf
Should have “FC-3550” on the back of your crank

50T outer ring part no – Y1NB98070
http://www.tweekscycles.com/Product.do?method=view&n=3515&g=962075&p=962077&d=124&c=4&l=2&utm_source=Google&utm_medium=Base&utm_campaign=Road%20Chainrings&gclid=CLz2gta27dICFRG6Gwodgs8Bjg

34t is – Y1NB34000
http://www.tweekscycles.com/Product.do?method=view&n=3515&g=962075&p=962081&d=124&c=4&l=2&utm_source=Google&utm_medium=Base&utm_campaign=Road%20Chainrings&gclid=CPTpzq-37dICFVTNGwodZqsEYA

Nope not for me.

Over 3000miles on my RS685s and somehow got plenty of pad life left on the originals, I only checked them as I thought it must be time by now (wet\dry\road\gravel). Only road bike disc brake orientated issue I’ve generally found is glazing of pads when not used in wet\gritty conditions occasionally, light once over with sandpaper fixes that.

Had very minor rubbing on rear when sprinting which was fixed by upgrading to 10mm through axle (DT RWS as above). TBH I would’ve preferred through axles front and rear from the start anyway so wasn’t a surprise.

Strange question but do you run mudguards?. I’ve found it makes a massive difference to any bikes wear and tear if used in all weathers (especially winter when roads are salted). Any type of brakes or gears seem to suffer, anything with pivots or seals. Makes it a lot easier to keep it clean too, which makes a big difference. Just replaced my 3000+mile old chain on the same bike with mudguards, could’ve run it for longer but didnt want to risk snapping or wearing chainrings (longest mileage I’ve had on a chain).

All fairly compact. ^ And the Ortlieb above.

http://www.topeak.com/global/en/products/saddle-bags/686-dynawedge

http://www.topeak.com/global/en/products/waterproof-bags/687-weatherproof-dynawedge

http://www.lezyne.com/product-orgnzrs-caddys-roadcaddy.php#.WMgvaVWLSHs

http://www.lezyne.com/product-orgnzrs-caddys-mcrocaddysm.php#.WMgvjVXyiHs