If your frame is disc can take 40c plus tyres go for a set with 25mm rims. Sometimes XC 29er wheel sets are better on gravel/monstercross/adventure bikes and comparable in weight to one’s not marketed at MTBers.

Just bought a new pair for 7.99 inc postage on ebay- are genuine Apple. Also the high steet shop Tiger does Apple style headphones for 3.99. They sound and look great but with a slightly longer cable.

Getting the vibe that Labour might win at the moment- has been a tight campaign so far, aside from a few pre-manifesto mess-ups. Also, people are bored with Brexit and want to move on but The Tories talk about nothing else.

Bikehike looks excellent- thanks a lot everyone.

Press-fits are ok if you do it right- I have a Litepeed T3 with a PF30 shell. Rather than fitting a PF30 bottom bracket I bought a Hope press fit BB so I could use an Ultegra chainset- it’s been creak free for 2 years. If you do go the Hope route you’ll need to budget for the specific Hope fitting tool.

Sorry only just saw your reply. Just make sure your chainline is @50mm.

Lots of questions- What cranks have you mounted your Narrow-Wide ring on, is it a double or triple crank? I take it you’re using the inner mount? Does the frame have a 68 or 73mm width bottom bracket? is the frame 135mm spaced? Firstly check if your chain line is correct- your’e after a 50mm chain line- swap BB spacers around to achieve this.

Not sure how well 9speed chains work with 10 or 11speed compatible chain rings- I haven’t tried it but I’d imagine they’d be a fair bit of play- might be ok if your chain line is ok tho.

Innovative bikes in the 90s but will not compare to a modern MTB. Old components were rubbish and frames had too short a wheelbase and the wheels were too small. basically, buying a 20+ year old MTB as your main off-road rig is chucking 20+ years of understanding and innovation in the bin.

Running Maxxis Beavers as a winter tyres on my 29 xc bike. Steel bead, dead cheap and work a treat. No experience of Spesh Storms.

Running Maxiss Beavers as a winter tyres on my 29 xc bike. Steel bead, dead cheap and work a treat. No experience of Spesh Storms.

Bel Air on my MTB and a Specialized Romin Evo on my road bike- looks like an S&M device but it’s really comfy, nicely padded and supportive.

One bloke earlier in the pub mentioned some company making hovercrafts now with their order books full and exporting to countries as far away as Brazil….
He mumbled something along the lines of “it is companies like that that will make this country great again”

It’s this sort of nonsense that scares me the most. For me the main problem with Conservative governments is their reliance on a rose-tinted rhetorical image of Britain’s past as a sovereign economic powerhouse that we’ll somehow magically become again if we all pull our finger out. The Britain they refer to didn’t exist.

Not true although it did decline a lot under bLair (not Maggie as zokes suggested before)

Please give me some examples of large scale manufacturing in the UK that doesn’t involve foreign multinationals…

The trouble is the UK only does small scale, specialist manufacturing. We gave up making consumer stuff in the 70s & 80s. Generally uk companies farm stuff abroad, it’s not just about the money these days it’s also about foreign manufacturing expertise. The current situation might be better for luxury car manufacturers, defence and aerospace but the benefits of the low £ may be negated a little- it’s very rare that a factory makes everything under one roof, usually a ‘made in the UK’ product also contains a lot of imported components as well.

I’m really angry about how weak the Remain/Project Fear campaign was; no real Labour support and Conservative MPs didn’t stick their neck out, despite many of them being pro-EU. It’s worrying that May and Johnson (two political game players that stand for nothing) gained from this.

Also note that historically it seems there’s a pattern of protectionism (leading to nationalism and racist sentiment) that happens around large economic downturns- the rise of the rise of the National Front in the 70s and early 80s (I remember seeing ‘NF’ scrawled all over bus stops as a kid), also The BNP gaining mainstream support in the early 90s, winning the Tower Hamlets seat from Labour in 1993.

So that’s 4 recessions in a row that have sparked-off mindless flag waving and intolerance.

Actually- if you grab the innermost/largest sprocket can you feel lateral play?

Never had a ‘cracking’ sound coming from a bike before, just sporadic creaking like everyone else.

Play in the free hub body sounds bad. What hub btw?

Definitely split the bike- Takes more time to photo and list but you’ll get much more money. Personally, I always treat compete bikes being sold on Ebay with suspicion. Not sure why.

Take excellent pictures.

Write a concise item description- if it’s a frame then use the geometry from the manufacturer’s website- do not measure it yourself. Components- Find the exact model number on shimano/sram.com etc and use the info they provide. Always start with at least a para of your own description though. The manufacturer’s stats are only there to reduce the number of “what size is it”? messages.

When you note the item’s flaws be honest but overdo it- it’s either fit to ride or it isn’t.

Don’t set a buy it now. If you’ve done all of the above you’ll get the market value+.

When people ask you for a buy it now, thank them for their interest and tell them you’ll going to let the auction run. Be polite as they might well bid and raise the final selling price.

I’ve done this over 100 times and it’s always worked for me. btw I’m not a business, just a clued up individual.

*must add that a weak £ gets lots of overseas interest. In 2010, during the recession I sold lots of stuff to European buyers- Spain and Poland in particular and never had any problems. One Spanish buyer told me a lot of locals were using eBay UK as everything was so cheap.

People are people and more of them are riding bikes. I don’t expect people to smile and wave at me whilst walking down the street and I don’t see why cycling is any different.

Still use a hand pump for MTBing but use a CO2 inflator on my road bike. It’s a very basic and cheap Bontrager Regulator- takes threaded canisters, has a knob to open/close the valve + a rubber grip to put around the canister so you don’t freeze your fingers. Have been using it for two years now with zero issues.

I haven’t got recommendation for a particular bike but things to look out for when buying a new school CX is a longer front-centre and 47mm+ offset forks. The longer front gives you enough clearance to minimise toe overlap and the 47mm offset give you quicker steering to compensate for the longer wheelbase (over a standard CX frame) and the fatter tyres. I haven’t seen any designs that use true 2.1″+ 29er tyres that are compatible with road chainsets as there isn’t enough tyre clearance at the rear when using a 68mm BB + short chain stays. There’s a few 73mm bottom bracket CX bikes out there but they limit you to using an MTB crankset, so also limit your riding. There’s a few dedicated ‘adventure bikes’ (off road tourers) with very long wheelbases out there though I’ve heard they’re not exactly spritely.

Was skeptical of the horizontal dropouts as they’re a pain if your run gears (which most of us do) but they’ve positioned the hanger correctly- it’s terrible on the CrossCheck as you have to put the wheel right at the opening to get a half decent gear change. Would love to know if the chainstays are shorter than on the old KM Ops. 430mm with clearance for a 2.2 tyre would be nice.

The US is very reactionary, actually the planet seems reactionary at the mo. Someone’s political persuasion doesn’t really matter that much, I see friends that consider themselves leftwing/progressive/liberal also being reactionary; posting fake (and unchecked) quotes as memes and links to dubious blogs that support what they think is their viewpoint, usually without reading them first. I see this happen with pro-Corbyn, anti-Tory, anti-Trump posts as much as I see anti-Trump, anti-foreign, anti-Europe etc.

Also; the Silent Majority which was the backbone of small-c conservative politics for decades seems to have evaporated; everyone has an opinion and they seem to be sharing it on social media. The ‘Angry Brigade’ is no long the preserve of the militant left. We seem to be living in an increasingly binary world.

@teamhurtmore – the left/right access of the political compass shows Liberalism/Conservatism, ‘Liberal’ is short for liberalist- also known as progressive, the opposite to conservative.

Yeah.

@Robdixon, that isn’t strictly true. EDF is owned by the French state. Not sure what the EU stance is on state ownership though its unlikely to be draconian- If a business is failing and it’s in the public interest to buy it out then there must be rules to allow this.

A large share of Lloyds Bank was bought by the UK government in 2010 to stop it failing, Parts of it might still be government owned. I’m sure state ownership of Southern Rail would also apply, seeing as its a service that’s stopped serving. East Coast Rail was also nationalised from 2009 to 2015. The EU didn’t block this.

NHS doctors aren’t the highest paid in Europe, they’re not even the highest paid in the UK. Trainee doctors were targeted for pay cuts for lots of reasons, some deficit reduction based, some ideological- argument being that they should work in the private sector instead, thus weakening the NHS.

Yes our state pension scheme is something to be proud of, considering we’re all capitalist swine.

@clodhopper remember that Corbyn was an unknown this time last year, the same as Smith is now. Eagle challenged in order to raise the issue knowing she wasn’t an electable candidate, Smith believes he his, took Eagle’s lead, Eagle retracted.

Not sure about Benn or Mann, you could write letters and ask them. They will reply.

@robixon Corbyn wants major reforms to services; he believes that businesses that are meant to serve the public but have have stopped serving the public, such as rail and energy companies, should be publicly owned and not for profit. That’s not a mandate for total nationalisation, just applying state ownership to services that have stopped functioning as promised by the reforms of the 1980s.

He doesn’t believe in unilateral disarmament, thinking the UK should set a mandate by setting an example.

Increase the minimum wage to £8, noting that the cost of living has risen.

Anti-Austerity- i.e. increase money to public services such as benefits and the NHS, salaries for public servants such as doctors and nurses should meet inflation.

Mansion tax- people with homes worth millions should pay duty on them, comparable to property rates before council tax/community charge was introduced.

Theres lots more. It’s generally a robin hood mandate, increase taxes on the wealthy to rebalance society a bit. A lot of reforms- in my view some are OTT (the UK is complicated place) but some are overdue.

@clodhopper – Johnson has very few friends in the media- Rupert Murdoch hates him and he’s a difficult character to defend for newspapers due to his extramarital affairs and whatever stuff we don’t know about, yet. The tabloids tend to be socially conservative in their outlook, mirroring the views of a perceived majority and he doesn’t fit within their remit.

My take on Corbyn is I like his polices but the presentation isn’t so good. Leftwing reformers don’t do so well in the UK and it’s not due to polices, more that they always chose to engage on their own terms; i.e, attack the institution rather than focusing on getting specific issues through the parliament. Ultimately their supporters become the ‘angry brigade’which ultimately scares away the less-disenfrancished.

@Rusty Spanner

The political compass is fundamentally flawed.

It’s perfectly normal to hold two positions on two different issues which place you in very different places.

And you can’t average this out, it’s too simplistic because we hold some things much dearer than others.

For sure but it’s likely that someone who isn’t a homophobe isn’t anti-abortion, a third wave feminist isn’t anti-Muslim. A lot of it is about tolerance to social change or having a mindset that adapts to change. So having localised positions on general stance towards politics can be broken down in fairly simple terms. It’s basically a mindset.

Leftwing/Rightwing Liberal/Conservative are 4 political outlooks on two axis. Google ‘Political Compass’; be sure to look at the website of that name though as there’s a lot of revisionist versions out there with a high degree of bias.

The American interpretation of ‘Liberal’ is a catchall term (often used as a slur) for anyone whose views fit within the remit of Social Democracy.

Conservative is an even wider grouping and difficult to define, particularly when you add confusing terms like libertarianism, socially conservative, fiscally conservative, fiscally liberal…

Had a seized aluminium seatpost in a steel frame that I wanted to sell. Applied a lot of force with no joy, turned it upside down and filled the seat tube with releasing agent via the hole in the BB and left it sitting for 4 months but no joy. Ended up sending it to the Seatpost Man who did a fine job, no damage to the frame. Would recommend.

Yeah I like the swift but it probably weighs around the same as my Surly.

Not sure what parcel size you mean as they seem to be done on weight up to a max dimension which I can’t remember off the top of my head. Posting a frameset weighing user 5 kilos inc. box (which is bigger than a set of 29er wheels) cost around 8.50, more for insurance though. Best thing to do is box the bike up and check their prices- weigh the box on a kitchen scale to check it’s in the right price band.

@Shacketon- sorry error on my part. Forgot my fork is actually a 100 not a 120. Haven’t ridden it this season- new CX bike is my current toy.

The Surly has a 72 head angle (was sold with a rigid fork so I’d imagine that’s what the head angle measurement is taken with – not sure of the supplied fork’s axle 2 crown length). Reckon it’s around 70.5ish with the 100 travel fork.

Recently sold a couple of frames on eBay and also sent/return posted a frame to The Seatpost Man using MyHermes. Were packaged in cardboard bike retail boxes and the rear dropouts braced, padded them out with bubble wrap and some newspaper. Everything went smoothly, no damage done.

Yeah the Swift is really nice but I’m not taken with the eccentric BB as I’m not likely to ever run it SS. Only went for the KM when Surly introduced interchangeable dropouts. I bought it for the geometry and fit, not the SS capabilities.

I have lower end 10 series Cane Creek headsets in two bikes currently and the bearings did wear out quite quickly though this might have been caused by over tightening on my part. They did offer higher grade replacements a while back, might be worth checking their website.

Owned both an Intense Tracer and a Santa Cruz Superlight. Guess both of those were iconic. Wish I had photos to share.

Thanks Ton but the Cube isn’t available as a frame, at least not in my size (16″-17″) anyway.

Can’t recommend a specific tool but definitely check what you get is 11 speed compatible as some don’t work with 11 speed chains. My Crank Bros M19 doesn’t hold an 11 speed chain securely enough as the gap is too wide and shallow. My 20 year old Shimano chain tool works fine however.