I prefer med cage mechs even when running big tooth differences as I know not to go into big ring/bottom sprocket!

Their internet may be jiggered for some reason. Give ’em 2 more days then relist. Don’t bother negging as they’ll retaliate, but you can mark as unpaid.

Try it and see – the worst case scenario is you end up needing to buy a 68mm BB and fit it at a later date! Likely scenario is you won’t notice and you’ll have many happy hours riding.

It’s your bike; ride it your way.

The biggest reason for discs on a road/commuting bike is the low maintenance and longer wheel life. I can’t see why you’d need more power than it takes to skid out for any other reason.

XTR is NOT worth the extra for weight savings alone.

Try a dura ace or other top roadie 11-25 cassette to save weight!

I was obsessed with maps as a kid, as I was with weights and measures. When I have kids I will make bloody sure they can read maps; the thought of people who can only rely on gps on their phone is upsetting.

We stayed at the Generator Hostel which was very good. One of the nights we thought we had the room to ourselves and we stumbled in about 3am. In the early hours of the morning I noticed 3 young girls climb down from the top 3 bunks and leave the room! Hah, we didn’t even know they were there but MUST have woke them up/scared them to death with the noise we made when we all crashed back in!

I THINK we spent about £350 each total. I chucked an extra £500 into the pot as it was my stag and I dragged all my mates out to it :) Tresor was a club experience, as was the pub double decker bus next to it. The segway tour was really brilliant and highly recommended (a thousand times better than the beer bike). German girls… well, you can discover that yourselves.

Oh, and the beer, mmm, love it. Very fond memories of that trip, we all came home converted to enjoying techno music and dreaming about going back.

First decent answer for a while, thanks! So there’s someone who won’t attempt something without adjusting the saddle, obvious benefits in doing it for them. In riding, confidence is a big thing and if something can help that confidence that can only be a good thing.

I admit if I was doing an uplift type of thing where the focus was solely on a big technical downhill, I no doubt WOULD put the seat down a bit. My point is that I am trying my hardest to hone my skills and be able to ride steadily without doing it so will try to leave it alone at all times. This still means I wouldn’t use a dropper post as I rarely do that type of riding. I keep it where it is for trail centre stuff, if DH became something I did then that’s another story.

D0NK – Member
committed saddle dropper here and stuff I normally speed along with the saddle down is taken slower and in less control with saddle up. With that in mind there’s stuff I wouldn’t even attempt with my saddle up, the kind of trail/line that’s on the limits of my abilities. So yeah it does affect my riding a bit.

Even stuff that’s not that technical I can ride faster without the saddle in the way, I can hunker down, lower CoG, more space to move, better weight shifting, hopping and cornering.

Currently manage with QR, really should fit a dropper post.

Am I missing something but does THIS not have any form of guide on it? Maybe it’s just been built up for display and would be ridden with one, I don’t know.

I was going to say brambles usually break off at the tip and leave a tiny piece in your skin when you get caught. I get this almost daily as I work in gardens. Pick them out with a needle and a good eye in a well lit area.

:-)

njee20 – Member
Seriously?

Because if it was ‘proper’ off road, and I use that in the most ironic sense, he most likely wouldn’t have a ‘commuter’ bike, nor would he be using a 44t single ring.

I made an assumption, but I’m going to stand by my assumption that it’s at best a tame off-road commute, and most likely a road one.

The touching pad probably won’t be enough to worry you when riding so I’d ignore it.

The gear skipping is probably cable tension.

If you don’t know how to do it just take it back to whoever built it. It’s two very simple wee jobs to sort out but trying to explain it without knowing exactly what adjustments are needed is very difficult.

Don’t you know what your charge-out rate was when employed? The company must have used it regularly to bill your time to clients. I would be aiming for similar to that, IF everything else made sense.

If you do it you should use a chainring with no shifting ramps, tall teeth will help keep it on. My commuter has recently been changed to 1×9 with a 44T blackspire downhill ring on the front and no problems so far.

Anthems are low-bob machines and you won’t need lockout. Likewise I wouldn’t bother about 9 speed drivechain, I’m happy to say 9 sprockets will always be enough for me! 1×9 is almost perfect for most XC fast riding.

To balance this, I had a stag do in Berlin and it rocked! Seeing a place with the wife isn’t great in terms of finding the party places.

Berlin has some insane clubs, the pubs are great, we did a segway tour and the guide was totally suited to a stag-do (“we get commission for sending people to that museum but seriously DON’T GO it’s rubbish, I’d sooner shoot myself than go and look at marbles in the museum”).

The nightlife is amazing, I love Berlin and the stag -do was wild!

BristolPablo – Member
just back from a long weekend with the wife in Berlin. it was nice but not really very stag-orientated, given the history it was quite heavy. i’m sure you could find all the general stag stuff if you tried but it didnt seem on that kind of place. loads of good cultural and historical stuff though!

went to a stag party in Bratislava recently too, it was expensive getting there (had to fly from london) but when we were there it was a great place. it was a package booked through http://www.bratislavastags.com
our guide was called Natalia: http://www.bratislavastags.com/option,com_zoom/Itemid,556/page,view/catid,5/PageNo,2/key,26/hit,1.html

She was great fun and spent most of the time with us bar a few hours during the day, definately get a guide. they have some good deals with the clubs and things but also know places to suit your mood, eg the good clubs for the evening and the quiet cafes for hangovers…

because its not an obvious choice, it doesnt suffer like Prague from stag-overkill, loads of parties roaming the street etc, thus whilst you are there, the locals are quite friendly and dont give you evils. its a proper party place though, the clubs dont get full until way past midnight and in the summer, they are almost 20 hours of daylight so you can eat out quite late in relative daylight, go clubbing and walk back to the hotel in daylight, very odd!

No hassle from the locals, lots of fun on the dancefloor, just an all round great weekend. I spent the best part of £1000 all in though you could do it for half that quite easily… we had a stretched limo from Vienna (complete with “exotic dancer”), a nice hotel and some extras ( mud wrestling for the stag) and club entry…

Would you speak like this to someone’s face?

I was looking to question what people think, including myself, before riding something technical. I am now stopping and thinking ‘actually, I’m going to try this without dropping the saddle’.

I think focussing again on basic skills is a good thing to do and the less I rely on compensatory devices the better I feel about clearing things.

I think this is the problem – I wasn’t being sneery and condesdending! I was highlighting my opinion on dropper posts. Some people get very touchy instead if taking things at face value :) Enough insults eh?

grum – Member
Your sneery condescending OP set the tone tbh.

Let’s not forget that people here are not just usernames, we’re all humans, so try and reply with respect to all fellow cycle enthusiasts!

It has degenerated into the usual ‘You’re wrong’ crap.

The best book I read was ‘Cycle racing – training to win’, by Les somebody if I remember. The basic fitness for road and mtb training is very similar hence so many top MTB riders make the transition to road relatively quickly.

I assume the OP wants to approach biking for fitness and racing rather than bunny hopping over logs with 6 inch travel and padding on.

Pretty much the only tool I carry is http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/Models.aspx?ModelID=7456

The chain breaker is very good. Mine is about 8 years old now.

Tools for a SRAM powerlink?

3 pairs of powerlinks are usually under a fiver.

Nothing really. I can still ride the same. I do feel a bit ‘safer’ on the bike on technical bits, but for me I’d rather know I can do it all without making adjustments to the bike.

imnotverygood – Member
Ok OP. What happens when you try riding with the saddle down?

Good video. I’d be happy riding everything apart from the gap around 4 mins in! Video example to some of the ‘gnarr’ types here how good skills can see you over decent obstacles.

GEDA – Member
Here’s the Danish xc lads on the local dh track.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uc8aLS4uKa8

Probably easier to have you seat right up on a smooth dh track than a trail with loads of roots and rocks that will catapult you over the bars if your weight is not low down. It is also much easier/possible to drop your heals.

Great post.

You can ride pretty much everything trail centre and general riding without putting the saddle down. It’s just people read about doing it as there is such a mindset of ‘following’ in biking. I am the same as you – coming back to biking after a few years out and have been out a few rides. I am riding with my saddle in a fixed position, maybe a bit lower than the traditional XC position, but if you look not only at pro XC riders but also most top roadies their saddles are lower than you might expect.

I have found you can ride well without losing efficiency with the saddle a good bit lower than normal and thus not have to feel the need to drop it for technical stuff.

A lot of people I see dropping their posts low tend to ride the steep technical bits very slowly. If you attack them, look ahead and use a bit more flow you won’t need to sit on your back tyre.

I wish there could be a discussion on this forum without the patronising and put-downs. People here get so worked up about things, and the basic point of discussion gets lost.

somafunk – Member
A few years ago i sat the Trail Cycle Leader exam then quickly followed it up with the Mountain Bike Leader exam and the instructors at the time tried to batter into me the importance of dropping the seatpost for difficult sections but i had a major disagreement with them regarding this as surely on a ride when your blatting along and you come to a downhill or drop-off section of trail you do not have the time nor stopping distance to halt and drop your post before carrying on, you have to learn how to get your arse over the back of the saddle and feel comfortable and confidant adjusting your body position as you see fit dependant on the trail conditions – where is this rant going?, i dunno really but if you feel the need to drop your saddle every time you come to a tricky section then perhaps you should learn or get taught some basic bike handling skills rather than rely on a dropper post or waste time by dropping it manually.

I’ve recently returned to biking after 4 odd years off the bike (past 2 months riding) and last week i was held up at kirroughtree as there was folk on full suss Lapierre’s and one Giant dropping their posts on the trail before descending Talnotry hill, it’s a friggin trail centre for christ sake, there is now’t on that trail worthy of dropping a seatpost for, i’ve took kids of 10yrs old round sections of the red and black, including Talnotry Hill and Hyssing Syd and they’re on 24″ wheels, by the end of a session they all managed to ride everything without incident with their seatpost in the usual riding position.

Perhaps on a true wilderness ride you may need to drop your seatpost and i understand this, hell… I’ve done it myself descending from hills i’m unsure about but every trail centre course is designed to be ridden at speed, that is why they can be graded in such a way as red or black etc.

Personally none of my bikes have a quick release seatpost clamp and i discourage my mates to drop their seatposts – learn to ride with a saddle in the correct position as you don’t know what the trail will throw at you, i guess this doesn’t apply to the jumpy crowd but then again they would have the confidence and the balls to ride anything anyway.

Lee give us a shout if you want to go to CV – I’m about and had a great day at GT today to whet the appetite :)

I don’t have one to add just now, but great pictures. The best ones, by far, are the old ones, esp. 80’s, and those of you riding well as kids. It puts modern compensatory bikes into perspective.

What he says, but use 1.1mm inner cables. No lube needed, full length outers, for the smoothest most durable shifting possible.

getonyourbike – Member
Get some Shimano SP41 outer cable and teflon coated inners and don’t bother with grease because:
1. SP41 comes ready greased with silicon grease
2. Most greases are far too sticky to be good for gear cables.

Mine’s perfect and has been for quite a while now.

If I were you I’d spend 500-600 on a great second hand hardtail and keep the rest for accessories/clothing.

I am also not convinced of the efficiency/durability of the stihl 4mix engine.

You’ll NEVER sweep all the crud by hand; blower is the only way to go. I do this for a living, and despite the Stihl talk, I have been slowly moving away from them due to various reasons (poor service, spares). Echo are superb for blowers. I guess you’ll just need a handheld, equivalent of the Stihl BG86. Blow the leaves etc onto the lawn then mow everything up. Perfect job every time.

I use a stihl BR600 at the minute as you can knock children over with it, but I’ll look at an echo for the next machine.

If only we could find what the Germans put into theirs to make it taste that much better we could be on to a winner!

Photo most likely for photoshop award of 2012! Look at his wee baby forearms.

My wife looked into all this and decided to get a Kenwood Major. You get so much more power than an equivalent priced Kitchenaid as it isn’t all about looks! I expect the Kenwood to last forever.

There’s no need to randomly change bars for fear of age! Strange concept that one.

munrobiker – Member
How come Ennis has become the poster girl for the Olympics when she’s won less medals than a lot of the other competitors?

Unfortunately our sports media cling on to good-looking girls over and above high-achievers!

My answer to the original question is Farah. The power, pain and suffering it has taken him to get this far and to win those two distance running medals, against the might of Africa, is utterly stunning. The one thing I can call truly awesome (remember what that word really means?).

Who cares if the post and stem brand don’t match! Bikes are for riding, no? Or for staring at in the car park?

I’d go for 60mm something light, Ritchey etc.

I’m not a fan of artsy blurred photos! Come back next week with a pin-sharp one and I’ll praise you left right and centre!

Distance runners dont have an off season as such. When I was racing it was track from April to September then road races and indoor track right through to the next track season. The breaks in competition are only geared towards peaking for specific races. Any of these individual sports based almost entirely on pure fitness require the same dedication and pain in order to succeed.