slimjim78 – Member

Up for a SDW Dune ride collective this Summer chaps?

Other fatsters accepted

Most definitely. Two days and overnight camp? Or a single day thrash?

Just stop calling me a fatster!

Buy Wine? Good heavens! Did you have to buy your own furniture too!

Mine gets brought up from the cellar by my butler.

wilburt – Member

Is anyone keeping count? Whats the STW top five?

Not keeping count, but this is what I’ve noticed as popular

Led Zepp, ‘Physical Graffiti’
Stone Roses, ‘The Stone Roses’
Miles David ‘Kind of Blue’ very popular (and why not?)
Bowie, Hunky Dory beats Ziggy
Joshua Tree.

Might say something about our age

Seems Hunky Dory is the Bowie of choice. It’s a very close call but I chose Ziggy. Maybe the highs are higher on HD but Ziggy is just great all the way through ( and it has Moonage Daydream!)

Burn After Reading
Hot Fuzz
Monty Python and the Holy Grail
This is Spinal Tap
Wayne’s World
Beverley Hills Cop
The Blues Brothers
Blazing Saddles
Trading Places
Borat

And leftfield; Pulp Fiction.

shandcycles – Member

I’d love Ian’s Shand Bahookie up there whatever, but being a fellow rally fan it really is one of my favourite bikes ever.

We did a Martini Porsche one recently too. I’ll see if I can find pics.

Will you just give over, there’s only so much temptation I can take

Nice photography and clearly a beautiful place

Found the presenter a little odd. Struck me as somebody from a privileged background (Africa hence accent perhaps?) and was a bit to ‘head in the clouds’

No mention of difficulties for young folk in the area (which I’m sure are there) etc

6/10

jonnyboi – Member

Dark chocolate chip hob nobs are the fat bike of the biscuit world.

I’m no clearer; is that good or bad?

May I offer the humble Lincoln biscuit? Though you shouldn’t ask me. I don’t like tea 8O and dip them in black coffee

Cut him some slack 8O . No hang the f***er out to dry.

Apparently Hitler was great around kids. Perhaps we should re-assess him too?

copa – Member

The name.
The price.
The marketing.
The fact that it looks daft.

Odd response.

What’s in a name?

Price? Yes it’s a lot of money – but I can’t think of too many similar carbon framed, Eagle /Fox equiped bikes for £3.4K

Marketing? Is it all BS from every manufacturer.

Looks. Well I like it as does the OP I imagine. Presumably you don’t. Your point is?

Forgive my ignorance but I was unaware we had a hall-of-famer posting here. (I assume Repack Rider = Charlie Kelly).

Whether he, along with GF, TR JB and others, invented mountain biking is beside the point. They gave a niche activity some structure and then grew successful businesses from it.

Many of those businesses were instrumental in taking mountain biking to where it is today and for that they deserve, at the very least, our respect

jonnyboi – Member

It has some bizarre head angle/BB height trickery and many, many other huge design flaws that I shall not go into at this juncture

You planning on spilling the beans once orangespyderman has shelled out £3K plus?

deviant – Member

My other hobby is weightlifting

Oh, the irony!

£1k for a drivetrain, or a Calibre Bossnut. Hmmm.

I suspect the OP already has a (very nice) bike.

OP, assuming you have the means then go for it – but get the full drivetrain or nothing.

it’s got the shittest name in the history of cycling. fact.

Surely Cove Bikes have that trophy on permanent display?

Sorry, just can’t think of one. Time to get the card out

I’d go with Shimano. My experience is they are the closest to ‘fit and forget’. Pick one at budget to suit, though simple Deore are cheap and very good

I’ve had decent experience with Formula too

I won’t buy SRAM again after owning Juicys

core – Member

Simple answer OP – because not everyone is as orsumz as you

Core – don’t believe I ever suggested I was ‘orsumz’

OP here, just let’s get a few things straight

1) I’m not ‘awsome’ nor am I gunning for the Olympics. I’m 46 years old, been cycling for many years and am reasonably fit, though by no means at any sort of competitive level

2) My two bikes are an Anthem and a fat bike. Both are excellent climbers. For different reasons both keep excellent rear traction and allow use of bigger gears (uphill) as the rear generally doesn’t spin. I tend to use this method rather than spinning to the top in a very low gear

3) My riding is in the Chilterns where there are plenty of steep slopes – though there’s nothing super long. I also ride Swineley a lot where there are NO long climbs and nothing terribly steep

4) Appreciate others use bikes less suited to traveling uphill on steeper longer climbs

5) What suits me won’t suit everyone else and, of course, it’s your choice what you choose

I guess what I’d like would be a closer ratio 11 speed cassette – say 11-36 (11, 12, 13, 15, 17, 19, 21, 24, 28, 32, 36????). I don’t believe such a cassette is available (road cassettes top out at 32?)

she’ll be one of the first of the 95%

You may joke, but when I challenged her, her response was “if you’re not with the programme, maybe you should join the 95%”.

Seriously folks, this is a good friend of mine, a real person who I care about.

Please don’t be excessively flippant.

Fair enough, and good on you for caring. But really what can you do if she’s determined to follow the ‘mad /implausible’ and is immune to rational argument? You can take a horse to water etc

Has anything happened in her life to trigger this? Bereavement, loss of job, split from BF etc? Does she need to see a GP and could she be persuaded to?

Don’t worry, she’ll be one of the first of the 95%

It’s all music in’it and as long as it sounds good and has something to say, then what’s not to like?

This ^^^^
(Country and Western excepted, obviously)

iPad innit. Or maybe Brexit

I stopped caring before anyone else.

I was there last Saturday. Plenty of puddles on the fire roads, but the trails themselves holding up pretty well. And the crappy weather meant it was quiet in the car park

Much better than my local routes in the Chilterns which are a total mud-fest

Anyone who can’t recognise the genius in Bjork isn’t worth listening to.

You are quite mad.

I’m no fan of PF either but more listenable than that Icelandic tosh

Didn’t watch it all as I’ve better things to do.

Yeah the car was closer than you should pass, but hell hardly that close. Happens all the time, especially if you ride that close to the kerb.

When I was young and rode road a lot I’d bang on the side windows of a car I could reach. Often they’d stop and rant at me. Usually they’d calm down when I showed them my arms aren’t six feet long. Of course I’m more mature now so just give them ‘the finger’.

More seriously it’s the number one reason I started mountain biking. I don’t even own a road bike anymore

It depends entirely on the personality.

I enjoyed the Greg Davies and especially the Sir Ian McKellen episodes. My (late) father was at school with Sir Ian and had already shared a few stories of him.

Other episodes leave me pretty cold

It’s under the fridge.

Yes, probably, but not until tomorrow morning

First family car I remember was an Alfasud in red (KPR 447P). Would’ve have been about 1976, I would have been six. I do remember my dad replacing the front wings and respraying a couple of years later. Haven’t seen one for a LONG time. All long rusted away presumably. He loved it though.

I was lucky to be given a pair of John Lobbs. Fantastic shoes but very very spendy

Caring for good shoes is so important. Keep them polished, NEVER ear two days on the bounce, always use wooden shoe trees (to absorb sweat from them) and get soles attended to before they’re worn through

Most of the brands above should provide many years of happy use if looked after

It was a Trek Farley that opened my eyes to fat-biking. Took a hire one out at Coed-Y-Brenin last autumn whilst on holiday up there. Rode lovely with big 4.7 tyres on it

I’d ordered my Fatty Trail frame & forks (at silly cheap O-O sale prices) within a couple of weeks.

Always thought it would be my n+1 bike but right now it’s my n bike.

I’d still say the Dune is a great bet though for the money. Add £80 for some Deore brakes and it’s a complete winner

Make sure you don’t snap the hanger…
Did you replace them or just bend it back? It will be weaker now so make sure you have some spares with you when you head out.

Bent them back.

I have a spare for my FS which I carry but not for my lads’ bikes.

I’m not over-worried as I don’t believe this is trail damage (I’m a wheels on ground type rider). I think the hangers are getting bent carrying the bikes IN the car with the wheels off.

Me and my mates used to hide in the bushes near the green of a par 3 at the Glamorganshire and steel the balls as they arrived.

A better variant was to pop the ball in the hole. Much looking from the players ensued followed by an inevitable, incredulous shout of ‘Hey Dave, you’ve only got a hole-in-one!’ Probably cost a few guys a few pints!

To my eternal shame I stole a reverse-thread nut of the stub axle of a Mini Metro that had been abandoned in the street outside our house in London. To be fair, it had been there a couple of weeks and was covered in Police stickers. And I did need the nut to fix my mates car. Anyway, the council sent a lorry and dragged it off to the scrappy the next day.

In this day and age you can consider that ‘recycling’

It’s simple, less is more when it comes to a sandwich. Take your bread of choice, add ONE main ingredient plus ONE condiment (or in certain cases salad/cucumber/tomato ilo condiment). For example:

Ham and mustard – either English, Dijon (my preference) or wholegrain.
Beef and English mustard (or horseradish)
Cheese and pickle
Cheese and onion
Cheese and tomato
Turkey and cranberry.
Chicken and Iceberg Lettuce (or a tarragon mayo)
Tuna & Mayo
Brie and grape
Cold lamb is too fatty for a sandwich

Etc, etc

The only one of the above possibly improved by a third ingredient is to add brown sauce (HP!) to a cheese & onion.

Salt and pepper at your discretion.

Bacon or sausage in a sandwich should always be hot (with red or brown sauce)

When our last machine broke down I was told by the repair man to ‘just buy a basic Miele’

I did and that was around 12 years ago. Whether I’m just lucky I couldn’t say.

What I can definitely say is the thing is extremely well built. The outer drum is stainless (not plastic), I’m told the counterweight is cast iron and the steel plate of the outside is tank-like not foil-like. It is monumentally heavy.

BTW, the other advice I was given by repair man was to run a 95C wash every fortnight (empty). Will keep the internals nice and gunk free

Thanks guys

Order one later today

That’s bonkers. What the hell is it getting spent on?

How can the bike need £300 of repairs when you’ve spent so much on it already?

Do you do any maintenance yourself?

Give your day a hug or a call now. And be the best dad you can be.

Definitely.

Shame I put a typo in it :oops:

I’m sure there were some steel SRAM ones going for peanuts (<£5) on CRC a little while back

Not sure on BCD though