A little above 1kcove’s comprehension. Oh well!

Practice, practice, practice. All this is gobbledygook if you have no base fitness or technical ability. The only way you’ll get that, is by riding as far as you can as often as you can. Everyone climbs differently and what works for one guy will not for you.
You know that feeling you get when you are halfway up the hill and you want to stop? That’s called “pain.” If you don’t like it, you’ll never be a good climber.
Get out and get on your bike because you won’t learn how to do anything reading this twaddle.

You can put lipstick on a pig, but it’ll still be a pig.

The road equiv of an inbred……Hmmmm. That’d be a redneck in a pickup.

I only make my bikes from wood that is cut right outside my back door and turned using water powered machines. Later I assemble the bike using reeds harvested from the marsh nearby. My tires are hand made from my rubber plantation round the corner and my crank is formed from cheese. Oh wait, no. That’s Race Face. (Which is actually cheese.)

Oh, look out for newly cut hedges. Hawthorn will puncture anything anywhere.

If you’re getting flats on the tow path, either you haven’t got enough pressure in your tires, or you are heavy on the bike. Hard to say without being out with you. The tires you have should be adequate.

That would be “They’re fast rolling.”

I’m going out on my bike. You load of whiny biaches can carry on crying about this by yourselves.
Later.

There’s no doubt King is the better product but you still need to keep it serviced periodically. Particularly if you ride in all weather.If you have £100 to spend, you can afford one so there should be no debate.
King is renowned the world over as the be all and end all for a lot of very good reasons. If someone is saying they have one which has failed, they either didn’t fit it properly, or didn’t clean it when it got dirty. No bearing is completely dust and water proof.

King

When you have an XC hardtail, a ‘hardcore hardtail’, an XC full suss, all-mountain full suss, DH bike, ‘play’ bike, 29er – you can select exactly which bike is appropriate for each trail, and sneer at anyone who doesn’t do the same.

Yea, and get your ass pasted by someone on a rigid SS.

Any bike is only as good as the person on it. The question is, which bike are you right for? Not the other way round.

5p won’t do jack. If you’ve got hollowtech you’ll need a larger diameter end on the part of the tool which pushes against the axle and forces the arm off. This is what you get buying tools from such places. A decent park or similar tool comes with an interchangeable end for the majority of different style cranks out there. Your tool may be limited to square taper????

This would do the trick for you.

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3367/3572781814_ce61899ec9.jpg?v=0

I’m astonished that this thread has lasted so long over a completely subjective question. no matter what makes you comfortable on your bike will no doubt bring ridicule and comment from someone else. It’s like asking someone, “what’s the best car?” It’s purely decided by a number of important issues. Primarily cost, and then function, fit, colour, etc. Not forgetting advertising of course. Because nothing is any good unless they tell us it is….

True that, Trail Rat. Spoken in a true Miagi style.

That’s a good idea. I’ll let him know. 🙂

Lol, I knew you couldn’t be only using Tesco. Good choice. I use Candy’s myself.
Cheers,
Graham.

You’re doing a 4 mile commute, and you’re worried about power transfer. P-lease. What a load of crap. I guarantee you’d never know the difference. If I were you, I’d put some flats on and wear my slippers to the office.

It’s a great thing to get a new ride. There’s nothing quite like taking out a shiny new piece of kit and getting to know it’s ins and outs. Hope you enjoy your poo colour bike. lol

They just look like a bunch of guys getting ready to go for a ride to me.

geetee1972 got it right. It’s all about how you feel on the bike and getting your bits in all the right places to make for a comfortable and productive ride. The majority of us are using off the shelf bikes and tweeking things by moving and adjusting the riding position is how we get the most out of cookie cutter bikes.

Sounds like your so good, you should be able to choose one for yourself.