It’ll be fine, 75miles is not that far

It’s quite daunting when my average road ride is 20 miles, biggest so far is 42.

With food stops I’m breaking it down to 3 x 25 mile rides, that feels OK!

Just picked up a bargain Gore windstopper active shell jacket with “£100 off” so retail therapy has made me more confident ;)

We watched at the Cow and Calf last year, atmosphere was great! A bit disappointed to see we are covering very little of the Pro route this time.

Family will be meeting me on the front after the ride I think. Plan is to warm up in the van, grab a brew and then fish and chips and ice cream – something to look forward to!

Yup, it’s belting down with wet snow here in Sheffield.
I’m less than enthusiastic to be honest!

I had a KOM before the tour came through, on a 2 minute downhill.

Got knocked down to 11th but am still above Lars Boom!

Thing is he kept up that pace for 3 weeks, I was spent after 2 minutes!

Surprised to see a good 10-15 riders putting their Tour on Strava.

119km / 1600m vertical

About double the distance of the furthest I’ve ridden, all the climbing in the first 60km. I ride the Peak District so often do the ascent, just not the time in the saddle.

Currently that sounds like a better plan!

DT seem to be the ones at the moment. Either EX471 or XM481. The 481’s are billed as more ‘trail’ and less ‘enduro’, wider, slightly lighter so not as tough but still very good and being used on plenty of 160mm travel bike builds.

I have just build some this week for my Patrol. They were great to build and felt stiff during truing. They come with nipples and potentially fiddly washers.

Pike tokens don’t adjust travel, they reduce air volume to change the spring rate, making it more progressive.

Air shaft swap is the only way unfortunately.

Hard to beat bungees!

In my old van I had two in place like this:

In my last van I had one bungy in the middle, just behind the door opening. Permenantly there, vertically. Roll bike in, push front wheel into the corner, pop bungy round the saddle nose and done.

Current one is a kombi, bike diagonal, bungy on headrest posts round the saddle, blanket to protect more than one. Simple and fast – that’s the point of a van. If you are taking wheels off, you may as well have a people carrier or estate!

Decathlon is cheap if you have one near you

About to buy some new brakes and really fancy M8000’s. Been very happy with my old XTs.

Feedback from 2x LBS is good, reviews online are great but I have read a few posts like above. Just wondering how widespread issues are – what’s the verdict?

Hope pro4 and pro2 evo 44t have a good pickup

Pedant alert :D Pro2 were 24 then 40 tooth. Only Pro4 have the 44t.

I don’t mind the hope sound, don’t love it either though. Building Pro4s this week, hoping they sound cool.

DT very tempting for my next build though.

Prime MTB territory

The A57 (Snake) is the main road from Sheffield to Manchester. Looks God awful to ride on a road bike and I’d suggest pretty awful on a recumbent purely due to high speed narrow road and traffic.

Over the bridge to Bamford gives access to flattet terrain but big hills are pretty much unavoidable.

Some good loop potential Hope/Bradwell/Tideswell/Bakewell direction.

Just under 6′, not very long legs and looking for low seat tube to drop the seat for DH days.

Went Large

In theory it’s 23mm longer than my old large that I rode for 4 years.

Too tube is not massive but due to steep seat tube, reach is quite long.

Size guide puts you at the top end of the large
https://www.transitionbikes.com/2016/Bikes_TransAM_Sizing.cfm

I’m not aware of any, but have a large Patrol in the workstand mid build and took good advice I on the size

How tall are you?

One of two things
– clumping, which may restore with a tumble dry
– baffles are fragile and can tear with the weight of the down. A machine was may be too harsh and could have torn a baffle

Mine has been great. Occasionally a little slow.
I haven’t had text notifications come up on the screen last two rides, but it used to do without fault.
Bluetooth connects fine.
Live Track works well.
No HR dropouts at all.
Works really well with base maps for following TCX files with turn by turn. The turn alerts aren’t always bang on but one eye on the map approaching a junction and the map shows you were to go.

If your house is anything like ours, you need to use the inclinometer on the floor first! Our floor are way out. Without checking a datum everything else is a guess.

Used to dream about buying the other 3 in our old row of 4 terraced.

Knock them together – lap pool in the cellar and bowling alley in the attic.

I’m not helping much here, am I…

Hope measures 2mm (1.98mm on my Mitutoyo callipers)

Richer sounds are pretty good and should offer advice or agree a try and return if it doesn’t.

From the Sonos app you can find out what the PlayBar is getting as an input.

I think more modern TV’s are supporting pass through.

But yup, confusing, annoying and not clear at point of purchase so beware.

I have Easton Havoc 750mm in alu and carbon. Can’t feel any difference.

I moved to Sheffield once. I’m still here.

Crooks is what the locals call it…

I use the ‘e’ but only been in Crookes since 1992. Not quite local yet!

Great place to live in general but riding in particular. The only downside is every ride ends up hill! Bolehills is great, official pumptrack reopening tomorrow lunch time so the track will be buzzing.

Drop me a mail if you are struggling for routes or a group to ride with.

The PlayBar is great. It just connects to the TV via optical out and replaces your speakers, so should play all sources.

If you are looking to go full surround, be aware that not many TVs pass 5.1 sound through the optical port, you the PlayBar ends up just receiving stereo and having to upmix, so you either need a TV that passes 5.1, or an HDMI/optical switch. There’s info on this on the Sonos forums.

We started with a PlayBar, now have a Connect, 1 and 5. The 1 is the best bang for the cash and a pair would be great.

As above, Chromecast Audio looks very promising, if I expand to speakers I’ll do it this wayi think.

I have had vans for years since racing DH and sleeping in them.
With the more recent addition of a wee man, I’ve moved to a T5 Kombi and it’s perfect. Twin seats in front, he goes in the middle back and loves the view out on journeys and we load the back with bikes, camping kit, whatever. With all seats in I can get 5 bikes in for mates rides (29ers, full sus etc, just front wheels off, or 3 fully built). The seats then click out and I can sleep in it. We spend days at the BMX track just living out the back of it.

It’s ideal for me, I love it. The Mrs has a very nice car we can use if we want to, but I prefer to drive the van and we often take it away just ’cause it’s so easy to pack and relaxing to drive.

I do have offroad parking at home and a good space at work and the sites I visit, but find it easier to parallel park due to wheel at each corner and big mirrors.

Yes, tell them

Nicely

I was handed a road bike with back brake qr open, stem faceplate loose, cranks not tight (rotor, collar adjustment) and few other things!

The first two were dangerous so I dropped them a line, someone else might not have been so lucky! It seemed to be appreciated.

If you need to pull it through, a gear cable and some tightly wrapped insulation tape will do it.

Push the hose, pull the cable.

If you are trimming the hose anyway then don’t really worry about loosing a bit of fluid from the tip.

You could use an external battery pack, like ones for phones, and a lead, to top up when not filming.

Image quality not as good but the size is very tempting, as is the price.

The main issue with gopros is being honest with yourself. I have hours of footage on a hard drive that I will never watch and no motivation to spend time and hefty PC power editing into something worth sharing.

If you can edit and have power/storage then give it a go, youll not loose much on reasale if you don’t use it.

I do still love it though, it’s great for stills too.

I have Pro2 evo QR end caps for sale…

http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/fs-hope-pro-2-evo-hub-adaptors-various-20mm-12mm-qr

Open to offers! Wiggle are cheap!

This is but to do it.

https://support.google.com/googleplay/answer/1075570?hl=en-GB

I did hear about warranty issues on side knobs, a mate had one replaced – it doesn’t happen to all of them as you can see from my photo above.

I’m going Maxxis for a change though, just don’t know the range well any more so interested in feedback.

Did you give the Stan’s a really good shake? I had a new bottle, put it straight in and couldn’t get a seal. The sealant has particles in, a really good shake and re-application sealed my tyre straight up.

My XT are worse than my SLX but fine for the Alps. The Zee on my DH bike were a bit better though.

What size rotors are you using?

I run HD’s front and rear, Trial and Pacestar, very happy with them. Good tyres in the Peak when pushed hard on rock and work well in Wharncliffe. We never really get claggy mud though, slop or grit, but not much clag. I find them progressive and confidence giving – as an ex-DH racer used to the slip/grip when ragging a set of High Rollers.

I’ve heard about side knobs tearing, but my old one wore like this after 1000 miles, some of which was sideways!

My only complaint is the sidewalls are a bit thin. My new bike with have some Maxxis on, not sure what yet, I’ve asked for recommendations.

My mate built this

Mine failed to drop at all, no matter how hard I pushed my thumb.
Then I realised it was a standard non-dropper Thomson on my hardtail, but my thumb wouldn’t stop going for the button.
Looks like my new build isn’t actually finished and I need to go shopping…

Height, build, bike fit, riding style and preference come into it…

…but I picked up some 730mm carbon bars to repalce the 650’s on my wife’s bike, with the expectation of trimming them. Told her to give it 2 rides then move grips in and see. She loved them so they are staying uncut.

Under 5’6″ with a slight frame, but shortish top tube and not riding too many right tree runs, more open paths and Peaks.

MotoX bars are generally 780-805 so I don’t see MTB needing to be wider. Yet…

Nexus 5x a lot cheaper on Amazon than anywhere else if that helps, I have this in my basket (but just bought Pikes instead, so sticking with my bartered 5 for now)

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/B016B7INC2

Giffgaff are a decent provided but I can’t see the benefit of buying the phone from them at full price. Nexus 5x is pure Android wherever sourced from so no bloat installed.

I have EE for work and Giffgaff for home and it’s swings and roundabouts. At home Giffgaff is better, EE drops calls all the time. Data is about the same, but faster on EE sometimes when not on 4g.

Been with gg about 3 years now and happy.

Giffgaff sim will only cost a tenner to try, find out how it works, use a referral link and you’ll get £5 credit. If it doesn’t work, you can move on. It’s very easy to port your own number in too.

https://www.giffgaff.com