Ride on your own!
It’s what I have to do most of the time due to self employment & young family.
Just get out on your bike!

Just work logically, he’ll most likely make sure there’s something obscure wrong with at least one bike you work on to try & catch you out-loose chainring bolts or caliper bolts if it’s a split type (old HFX9 etc.) are a classic, along with wrong chain fitted, cable wrong side of rr mech clamp so won’t index etc etc.

I’ve replaced them for other people out on the trail, once somewhere in Wales ( I forget where) when it snapped the cable at the clamp on the rear mech & pulled through, so put a new one in so he could carry on his ride.
Changed inner & outer on Exmoor for a client on a weekend trip as the cables were so dirty & gritty it wouldn’t shift-that had just been into a large well known chain shop in London to be ‘serviced’ only three days earlier!
So yes, take spare cables.

I’m near Mansfield, happy to build a set if you get the bits in & can drop them off. I’m not a fan of posting wheels unless I really have to.
Let me know if you want to have a chat about them, email’s in my profile & a few people on here will (hopefully) vouch for my building!

I think looking at the price of those novotec hubs I think I’m going to have to learn how to build wheels!

If you’re East Midland direction Tom, give me a shout.

Shorter means less weight

And better looking bikes, instead of having to ride a gate 😉
SS hubs do seem very good value, although given the choice I think I’d go novatech-a friend of mine has ridden 3 full seasons of ‘cross on a pair without so much as a service & still going strong.

You’ll be as slow me me one day!
Try being about 2′ shorter 😛
excuses excuses etc etc…

Yep, alloy nipples, built by me & weighed by me on digital scales, no point in using brass nipples with a wheelset like that, built them as my ‘best wheels’ for summer use & climbing days.
Sorry, double checked the weight & they’re 1274g, excluding skewers

Try talking to your LBS, they should be able to get hold of 12″wheels & tyres easily enough, if not from a bike manufacturer, then from a wholesale. I know I can & I’m only part time in the trade.

I use my Uncle John as my winter road bike, it is noticeably slower than a proper road bike, but does the job just fine. Gearing can be an issue but I’ve got slicks on spare wheels with different cassette & change to a bigger chainring if needed (44 to 48)

I used American classics, Alpha rims & revolution spokes (28h for stiffer build) & got them to 1270 genuine weight without skewers. If you built 20 fr & 24 rr you could go lighter still without any problems, novatech hubs to save a bit more cash.

Halfords will get you anything if you talk to them (or so I’ve heard)

I’d ride that, no problems.
(hasn’t this been on here before? or just a case of deja vu??)

On One build? Obvious choice round here really.

Don’t you just love buying used cars!
I had a similar thing earlier trying to buy a Landcruiser, 3 hour drive but the dealer on the phone that morning said.
‘yes mate, really nice clean car inside & out, nothing wrong with it’
To find four bald tyres, leaking gearbox & rusting chassis to name a few faults.

Shimano own SRAM. And rock shox and avidd.

Is this true?

No, Sram own Sram, Avid, Rockshox, Truvativ etc.
Shimano own Shimano, Pro et al.

Works perfectly on mine & has done for 8 months so far, although I’ve got 105 brake callipers not Ultegra.
Shifting is faultless with 6600 mechs (double set up though, not triple)

’08 for me, no tow bar means it hasn’t had the guts pulled out of it ( assuming the back’s clean & not battered)
You’ll find most of them a bit bouncy due to the leaf rear springs, but they’re all like that.
Navara is harder to slide in 2wd as they don’t have a LSD as standard on the later ones where as I believe the L200’s still do.

I do 90% of my riding on my ’09 Giant Anthem which has a 72 degree head angle & haven’t been over the bars this year (yet)
Riding plenty of steep stuff in Derbyshire & Wales without problems.

The last Scottish cx race was at fox lake, Rab Wardell won it. However rob friel was second on an mtb. Punctured on the cross bike on lap 2 so changed to his mtb chased back to the front and stuck with Rab till the last lap.

There’s a video somewhere of this, possibly on Facebook. Friel is an animal on a bike, I went to school with him & tried to ride with him, but it hurt too much!
cross racing is a painful, muddy, cold, wet miserable sport but it’s awesome!
edit video found

That has to be about the nicest thing I’ve ever seen on here.
Well done Sir.

They’re usually pretty good on the Defy’s, have you checked they’re set up properly?
If that hasn’t made any difference, try some different pads before you start spending on new callipers.
FWIW mine are useless on my cx bike, won’t even lock in the mud, but you get used to it.

I sold one in a shop about a year ago, same frame & similar spec.
Like new condition & managed to scrape £600 for it to give you my idea of value.
Nice bikes though, they ride well enough if a little dated now.

I’m sure it will do, I’m a bit of a Giant fanboy usually owning 3 & love how they all ride, just really don’t like the look of a lot of the newest mtb’s they’re doing.

Good ol’ Hope Vision HID on the bars & nothing else as it’s all I own & can’t afford anything newer 🙁

Lots in reality.
If it’s supposed to run a 113 & you fit a 118, you’ll struggle getting the chain to drop onto the inner ring if you’re running a triple,rub on the middle more the normal & struggle shifting to the outer.

robdob – Member
Me riding my 1992 GT Tequesta in 1992

Wonderful people at Retrobike found me a rusty pile of cack standing outside a cash converters in Bradford which I spent £40 on and then spent a few months restoring it to this to replicate that bike:

Rode wonderfully!
Where are you from then? 1st pic looks scarily like Southwell Minster school!

5 mins of road to the Nation cycle network, then straight into sherwood pines. Not the best in the world, but certainly not the worst & plenty of twisty singletrack to play in that most people miss.
Other than that, my favourite ride is 30 mins in the car with the odd trip further afield.
Road bike usually from home, but the occasional change.

can get a lot more brake judder with those.

Not if fitted properly & brakes adjusted they don’t

Why not fit one that goes in with the stem spacers?

Cheeky loop in Derbyshire tomorrow morning.

Yep, internal server error 500 from my desktop mac

Sounds like it’s knackered then!
Take off the circlip that holds the top cap on, unscrew the top cap (24mm I THINK but could be wrong) pull out the compression damper assembly, throw it in the bin, fit new compression assembly, refit top cap & adjuster, job done.

Sounds like it’s knackered then!
Take off the circlip that holds the top cap on, unscrew the top cap (24mm I THINK but could be wrong) pull out the compression damper assembly, throw it in the bin, fit new compression assembly, refit top cap & adjuster, job done.

Great bits of kit,
ONly bike I’ve ever sold & regretted doing so.

When you say the lockout goes all the way around, do you mean through 360 degrees, or from one end of its movement to the other?
If it still stops where it should but doesn’t lock, it sounds like the oil level has dropped, but the cause of that needs investigating as they often drop oil into the lowers also reducing travel or leaking out of the rebound damper

Depends how bad they are & how long they take.
Anywhere between FOC if it’s your friendly LBS & you’re a regular & £25+

I was for 10 years running a shop for someone.
Loved it in the beginning, best move ever getting out.

Really miss some of the people I met, but not enough to make it worth staying there!

Shonky phone pic, but one from Saturday