I use Decathlons premium line bike shorts under baggies. cheap and good (Orange5's comment about varied @rse shapes notwithstanding)

+1 for Ortleibs I use one for my commute and both together for light touring

yeah, half kilo is what I calc'd a while back aswell.

on a weight weenie build I can see it being a dealbreaker but not if it's a mainstream weight (25-30lbs) bike.

as for weight balance, a guy I met riding a Rolloff'd nicholai made a good point that we've added a kilo to the front of our bikes with shock forks so adding 5-700gr to the back shouldn't make a difference. I expect it'll take some small amount of getting used to but not much.

I have one on my commuter and they are great. Not sure about offroad tbh as they dont really shift under load at all well (although this would actually be good practice as your deuralliers shift so much better if you avoid loading them during the shift). It's also a bit of an all eggs in one basket solution where if you have a problem with a 3×9 setup you can jury rig a solution to get you home, not so obvious on a gearbox but then I covered 5,000 km on mine last year and didn't have to do anything except tighten the gear cable.

I like the look of the 11sp, it's almost 2×9 gear coverage now iirc which makes it a much more useful spread than the 8 (although my 8 is a fine spread for commuting and touring without changing sprokets)

I assume you're using steel beaded HRs?

they are the most difficult that I've done tubeless but not impossible. On that how-to site they talk about steel beaded tyres being a pain to get seated and the advise is to turn the tyre inside out for 20 mins or so to encourage the bead to spread more. Still, I tore most of what little hair I had left out trying to get mine on. Last weekend I finally got some kevlar beaded ones and they went up nicely.

I'm confused; the seatpost is stuck at the moment but you're not sure how far down? I've never got mine stuck in my frame and have the habit of pushing it right down when descending (but maybe you have a superlong post?)

Sheldon brown has a very long and comprehensive article on removing stuck seatposts from frames

erm. yes I *think* it does, but I'd have to dig it out of the basement to check.

^although good point what Baxter asks. Mines a '03 15" DeeLux if that's any help.

^ like they said; Excentricker / that american solution for retro EBB or a White ind Eno hub (they do a disc and a non-disc version of the hub) Price is about the same for each component except ofc you have to have the hub built into a wheel

Otherwise, if you're lucky you can find the "golden ratio" for your frame. charliethebikemonger has some advice on that. If you're bold, you can also file off one side of your rear axle so it forms a teardrop profile, and you can get some adjustment that way by rotating the axle before clamping the QR. It's a bodge though and doesn't offer enough adjustment to guarantee a solution (less than half a link adjustment) so you still need to get lucky / faff with chainrings and sprocket teeth numbers to get it right.

New drop outs are definitely do-able and probably worth it on a Ti frame, but I would expect 200+ GBP for the work (that's a guess) At least with Ti you don't need to worry about repainting…!

Of the above, I'd probably go with the Eno, but I must admit I like the look of that forward components EBB, not seen that before.

not all carbon frames are back hammers. I have an IBIS Tranny that is amazingly compliant and over small stuff (like Flemish cobbles) you'd be forgiven for thinking it was a softtail. Yet it is fantastically stiff laterally and accellerates like it has a separate power source. ofc wheels and tyres play their part but on that I have a fairly stiff wheelset (Easton XCOne) and 2.1 tyres

Tranny is about as expensive as a de kerf though and not neartly as light as other carbon frames

stucol

Gore windstoppers are excellent. Fine down to just about zero.

They are just a single layer so plenty of feel.

+1 for that except it depends on your hands (but in a good way). I use them for commuting right down to -10 for which they look waaay too thin but what I find happens is during warm-up (first 10 mins) my hands are freezing then I inevitably stop at a traffic light and my heart starts paying attention to my extremities again and the hands warm up. After that all good.

and I rekon you could still be comfy in them up to about 20 deg out, which is a pretty amazing operating range

very good gloves

some good suggestions there, RL 853 probably the best value at a guess. Steel will bring a weight penalty of around half a kilo over an ally frame ofc depending on what you're comparing with what, so bear that in mind

I would add RM Blizzard (Merlin and Wiggle have restricted sizes for cheap atm) and Kona Explosive. One that gets talked up for value and weight but I've never ridden is the Hansom Dog Talisman

but wishlist time I'd be choosing between that Sanderson (OMG that looks lovely) and a De Kerf

I agree with Kimbers but it may depend a little on the *exact* outer diameter of your seat tube. If you can get a vernier caliper it would be useful to crosscheck

OTOH a 27.0 seatpost in a 27.2 frame won't go (at least didn't in my case) it just drops down. A beercan shim works nicely in that case, but I don't think it will help in your case

worst case I suppose you'll scrape the paint of your frame at the clamp….

competition = good

I met a North Cotswold virgin once …. I know what you mean about hellish 😛

Like stumpyjon I'm just the right side of 40

In the looking after myself stakes I'm definitely moving in the wrong direction safety wise while in the right one fitness wise. That said, one may be feeding into the other…..

I love being middle aged though …. MOAR bike budget!

Training weekend is probably the best advice

I went on one at Blue Mountain a small ski hill in Canada a couple of years ago. They had cut a series of regular swooping turns in a green ski run and I went down tht on my own before the lesson started. On my first run I had sympathy with the kids in front who were creaming at each other "why the hell are we on this run? it's sooooo lame duuuude there's no drops or anything"

Then the coach took me to the top of it. He said "looks a bit gay doesn't it? well, what we're going to do is ride just as fast and as hard as we can down this and you'll see something different. The idea is to get it sideways"

Boy was he right. When the curve is consistent and the ground soft and unrocky you can really concentrate on the line, feel what the bike does and what the approach to the breaking point of the tyres feels like.

Sadly I've not seen anything like that run in the UK

But lessons are a good think and there seems to be an explosion in coaching in the UK in the last few years.

maybe ask the physio about biking? If they're not a biker then I'd try to find one who is as I'm sure they can recommend some form of 2 wheeled entertainment that will not stress the elbow.

otherwise sounds like you need to be patient and lay off the DIY

I rekon you're missing out if you don't try it at 100mm. The handling difference is amazing.

still, to each their own. bloody nice bike!

anotherdeadhero

if we were all the same it'd be a boring old life.

^that defines the biggest problem I have with football today.

It's sour grapes I know but bloody hell, when the BBC World Service covered "all the sport" during the rugby World Cup by only mentioning club side football results they really took the p1ss. And when they were hauled up for it their answer was? Popularity; football is the most popular sport out there so it becomes a black hole that sucks in everything around it. As for cycling results … forgeddaboutit. At least I live near Flanders where they can't decide whether they prefer football or Cyclocross!

watch out, soon enough there will only be 2 sports; football or talking about football

cotic Soda, at a guess

oldfart

I used to enjoy it when i was growing up .From about the late 70s it's just full of overpaid media whores !

ha ha ha same!

I was a southampton fan as a kid (70s) then the hooliganism really took off and I stopped paying attention then when Footballers' wives came out it was so close to the truth as to be documentary drama.

I did like footballers' wives though, very entertaining

CP's right ofc

for me I've found shimano's own brand shoes pretty good value and last a reasonable time. comfy enough too.

Already spoke to Steels in Gosforth they're going to send them off to Madison for me.

I shuold think so too. If you said you were landing a jump or drop and they snapped then maybe but road riding? That's not right.

you said "another" XTR crank … you've broken one before?

On-one have 'em and for 300 too but they're QR

nice. Welcome to the club!

I've had mine for 2 1/2 years now and it's just so so good. I have found myself paying money to lighten the bike up without weakening it and that's been worth the effort. Rides up pretty well out of the saddle and is currently my only geared mountainbike so gets used on all sorts of stuff.

It's that good actually that I shelved my planned next bike (an AM FS) for 2 years, I just couldn't think what use I'd make of it now I had the Sov.

as @rsebreakingly expensive as they are, a droppy seatpost is a boon, with the seat right down out of the way the bike really comes alive on technical s-track and descents.

is the fork a TALAS or fixed travel? if fixed, how much (looks like 140…?) I originally fitted a Uturn Pike to mine and found that the handling was much much quicker at the shorter end (in a GOOD way). 120 seemed to be a nice well behaved neutral handling (but really, who wants a well behaved Sovereign?) and 140 gave that extra slackness for descents but slowed the handling a bit much on regular trails.

I believe you (and I) have a piece of mountainbiking history there, a modern classic. And it's got a burning skull on the front. Enjoy!

I have ISIS RS7s with an UNO spider/c-ring and have been very impressed with them.

iirc when I was researching them matched with a decent BB they come out as light as XTR but for little more than XT money (dep on the BB you choose)

then there's that lifetime guarantee … against *anything* including racing, jumping and DH.

These are much more than niche (although they are that aswell) they're are a very high quality, good value and fantastically performing product.

That they're British just goes to show that you can do these things in the UK without "needing" to charge a premium. Should embarrass some other UK manufacturers IMO

coogan

High Rollers. Changing them every season seems nuts to me. Much like having a 'winter bike'.

😆 I agree on both counts

I use HR on the rear and Nobby Nic up front, sized depending on the bike (2.1s on the weight weenie SS, 2.35/4 on the Evil) works for me year round. ofc I could get better mud performance out of a specific mud tyre but these are great allrounders aswell as superb tyres in their own right

as for "winter" bikes, ofc I have one, at least that's what I tell mrs Fascist it is. In reality it's just an excuse for another bike!

Shimmed was the original spec, yes.

mine….

It's a bit tider now I've dremelled out the stops to take the full length outers. It's also getting a 32 TALAS on the weekend (Evil told me I couldn't fit a 36 Booooo), not sure how that's going to work out yet but I got a good price on it and if it's not burly enough I'll put the pike back on and save teh TALAS for the Spider 2 build I have planned later in the year

differences from '08-'09 afaik
dropouts have changed (used to be 2 position and slidey, now 1 position and slidey)

4130 instead of 853/725
now available in sizes instead of just short/long
afaik geom is unchanged, which is a GOOD thing!

Only thing not from the stw classifieds was the rim strips, crankset, rings and chain.

… which on a singlespeed is half the bike 😉

nice one. As already asked … what is it? Dialled Love/Hate? crosspost …

need to straighten that rear hose too. very messy 😉

So long as you're not a serial seatpost adjuster then IME they are fine

I have one on my SS because I never adjust the post on that bike and it's light as all hell (esp with an I-beam I-fly seat) but on my other bikes I either use an alloy one or a dropper. Not that alloy ones don't wear out if you adjust them 5 times a ride but they're less painful (money-wise) to replace when they do start to slip

the other idea you could look at is a "dinglespeed" but that's getting pretty geeky

On one have Rev teams edit, actually they're race iirc for 300 GBP atm, can't recall if they're Uturn though

I have Pike 426s and echo the thoughts above; good, stiff and reliable if heavy. Standard spring is a bit on the light side though, you will want to change it up if you're >80kg or so

oldgit. I hear you on that. a riding mate of mine who's >60 tells tales about TTing way back when. It's sensitive though, changing the TT rules implies that it's the cyclists' fault that they get knocked off and I don't buy that

*but*

I don't think it's appropriate to be racing anything (bike, car rollerskates, whatever) on an open public highway. Alan (my old mate) says the reason that TT has flourished in the UK is because of the unwillingness of the local authorities to do what they do on the continent to facilitate road racing … shut the damn roads. You will find rolling road closures on any given weekend in Belgium (for example) ofc, they're not on major roads like the A1 unless it's a very big event but by closing the roads provides cyclists with a safe venue to race.

there's a whole other conversation to be had about whether 20 hours tuition and a 1 hour test is enough to license a lifetime of driving, but I can't think of a single country that has come up with an organised response to this. The upshot being that most of us (and I include myself in this) don't take driving nearly as seriously as we should.

interesting article here that someone linked in BR. It's written by a lawyer from a cyclists perspective about uneven sentencing. In this case the custodial seems to be roughly in line (2 years) but the driving ban of the same length seems silly (ofc she can't drive … she's in JAIL). I think a ban and enhanced retest should be a minimum for any dangerous driving offence, no matter the consequences. My understanding is that dangerous driving (or indeed without due care) is a tough one to prove unless the car was logged doing some stupid speed.

The article makes the case that we as a society view car offences over-lightly in part because we all drive and so we feel like we're condeming ourselves (there but for the grace of God go I) and I must admit that until IU read it I felt the same.

In the end this teenager will have to live the rest of her life with what she has done, that's the real punishment. If I were her I'm not sure I could ever stand to drive a car again.

Olly

i was refering to the original bike shop blokes retort of "you want hopes"

if he suggested i wanted hopes, i would have to correct him

"no, no i dont, not at all, shush you"

Fair enough, then I agree with you except that anyone in a shop who expresses an opinion about a product that they sell is suspect (but I am 40 and cynical)

Glad they're sorting you out, do make sure the levers are not mushy and they're braking OK (you mentioned something about them not working so well) before you run out of the shop. I fully expect they'll have to bleed the one they're replacing/repairing the lever on but in anycase, have a bounce, you don't want to be dissapointed again

that's a bit rich tbh. Ask for a loaner (either whole bike or just a brake) till they've sorted it out?

On road or offroad? If offroad, I would definitely stick with the rucksack and maybe a frame bag

iirc the toppeak beam racks are restricted to about 10 kgs and god knows what riding offroad will do to them. If you have more cash (and your frame is compatible) you could look at Oldmanmountain, they have racks designed specifically for some FS frames, but 50 quid won't get you an OMM rack I don't think.

Google maps says Moab is 7 hours away by car. you can't get so close and miss out on Moab, it wouldn't be right

who the hell has less than 10% body fat FFS.

roadies, that's who

*shiver*

I shower fully clothed

stick with mineral oil brakes

stick to your louises, that way you save on spare brake pads!

do you mean because of pad contamination? Interesting point perhaps that the servicing of Avid's new brakes (well, elixirs at least) recommends removing the brake pads before bleeding (the spacer block is now double ended so it works as a pad spacer and bleed block)