“OK – here it is. Ah wait – this is my permit to ride your mum”.

I’ve no idea what the Shimano Clitoris running gear is like, but £300 for an alloy bike with carbon forks seems like a steal. Tell your friend to bite their hand off 🙂

Yep – they scare me. Most of them move but you always get one who thinks she’s Charles Bronson. I just shout and they move. And I keep on going and don’t stop ’til I’m over the stile.

Now bulls on the other hand…

…I wouldn’t ride through a field of bulls.

I’m in.

Come on lads – get the blood bags out of the fridge.

“The bonk”, or in other words, hypoglycaemia. Yep it’s horrible!

Mondeos are very good value used. And the diesels are bombproof. I have the 2.2 TDCI and it’s fast as anything and very economical. I’m going to keep mine until it falls to bits, then get another.

Reading the last few paragraphs of the Planet-X story in Rouleur last night highlighted why a lot of these issues might be happening.

My synopsis;

1) lots of new senior staff brought in (including from CRC) who have experience of creating a scaleable business of this type.

2) New warehouses, systems introduced, staff numbers increased (CS go from 3 to 23, for example)

3) Intention being once all this change has happened the business will be sold to an MBO/VC grouping.

4) 3/4 of the way through the change existing owner decides he’s not going through with the sale

5) large number of senior managers leave.

6) systems not fully in place, bit of a loss of direction as hiatus settles down.

7) customers get to see the results of internal issues.

I suspect in a few months time it’ll all settle down again…

Good bit of analysis there, and I don’t doubt there’s some truth in it. But the fact is, Planet X have always been a bit “arsey” with their customers, a bit like SQ12345667985433 is being on here. Defensive, denialist, smart-arsed, process-[not result]focused.

About a decade ago, I had a minor run-in with Dave Loughran the owner, whilst attempting to give him several thousand pounds of my money. He was chippy, bad-tempered and difficult. Brant Richards (who lives locally to me) said “yep – some people just can’t deal with us”.

This attitude has always seemed to filter down at Planet X, and it comes out on the phones and in the warehouse. There is one CS call handler in particular (I will not name him here) who should be getting the sack for his appalling attitude towards customers. But he’s probably learned that attitude from the boss.

The funny thing is, apart from that run-in with the boss ten years ago, I’ve never had any problem with my [occasional] PX orders, and I am a happy rider of a PX bike!

I have one of these and use it for commuting, road, touring and MTBing.

Oli, it shows as ‘in picking’ on the system, I’ll investigate tomorrow.

😆

In reality by far the largest number of errors fall into the ‘specification’ category where either customer or customer service adviser select a part based on the ‘best information’ at hand and it turns out to be incorrect either because it has been written up incorrectly, the customer doesn’t know their arse from their elbow or both parties agreed just to try it out hoping it was the right bit.

Y’know, I just don’t see this.

“Customer doesn’t know arse from elbow”, “both parties agreed to try it”. Of the problems that appear on internet forums, it’s not those reasons are all; it’s just that people have ordered stuff and PX haven’t sent it.

But the “customer doesn’t know arse from elbow” defence perhaps is indicative of a culture at PX that prevents them from ever really getting to grips with their “customer experience” problems.

A culture of “customer is king”, rather than “we’ve had a problem in the warehouse so you’ll get it when you get it” would be a big help.

Have you considered not selling stuff you dont have?

That’s the thing though – I don’t think they know they haven’t got it.

Planet X are what they are. They can often offer great value, and they know about and care about cycling as a sport. But in my experience they’ve always been a bit “Del Boy”, especially for products other than bikes. I think they care a lot about sourcing, merchandising and product development (the fun stuff) but have never really cracked the retail experience.

I still use them, though. All bike shops have their foibles. Spa Cycles in Harrogate can be chaotic as hell, but they retain my loyalty because they have gone out of their way to help me on a number of occasions. Similarly Ribble.

Wiggle have set a new standard for slick service, and as they’ve grown and their buying power has increased, they’ve become better value too, with their DHB clothing range etc. However Planet X still has something that Wiggle doesn’t have, though: a carbon bike with Ultegra for a grand. That’s what PX are good at.

I own a PX bike and I’m very happy with it, but for clothing and accessories I’d use Wiggle.

the search continues…

Try the RSP Astrum. Very bright, watertight and cheap. I’ve used mine through winters, on and off road, and they just keep working.

The Calder Valley from Stoodley Pike, this evening

no, because it’s not a criminal act

Criminal Justice Act 1994. Legislation introduced to give the police the power to shut down illegal raves on private land, but could just as easily apply to any person being on private land without permission. In practice, and for obvious reasons, prosecutions are rare.

Has anyone been prosecuted for trespass for cycling on a footpath?

I don’t know but I doubt it. It’s difficult to conceive of a real-life case where a passing cyclist could be held to legal account.

The bridleways round here are gradually being “improved”, meaning sanitised with tarmac and gravel. This is forcing more MTBers onto footpaths. I’ve never had a complaint from a walker. They all seem happy to share the paths. “Don’t ride like a d!ck” is, indeed, the best advice.

Well I’ve been practising for 20 years and I’m still sh!t

Jesus, lordy.

Just. Ride. Your. Bike.

Does my Orange 5 count? It’s mid-travel with 650b wheels but I wouldn’t call it “newfangled” 🙂

That front wheel is £760 at CRC 😮

OP how can your build cost be £1800 when the wheels alone are that much? You must have got some bargains?

What mtb wheels weigh 1250g btw?

Just what I was thinking. Go on OP. Let’s have a parts list.

As for rear you can pick up a Smart 1 watt superflash for peanuts.

These lights don’t like the wet. After having two of them fail on me when riding home in the rain, I replaced them with RSP Astrums and have never looked back.

This^^

My 531 frame wasn’t even the lightest around when it was made, but it was still a very popular (almost staple) choice for club riders. If it was good enough for them… etc

I would recommend trying to find a Reynolds steel frameset (501, 531, 753 even), get it sprayed to your specification, and do something nice with the money saved.

I ride a 1986 531c frame, bought for £30 and renovated at a cost of a couple of hundred. Running Campag Centaur (carbon levers – lush) but a Shimano front mech. Can’t remember why now. But the point is it works.

You don’t have to spend a bomb to get a nice steel ride.

No but you can pick standard mounts up cheaply from Ebay, and probably other places too.

Inception – No idea if you could wright it down, sails the fine line of mind bendingly complex but not over the edge…

Wow. You and I must have seen a different film. What I saw was a generic fight/flight action flick with some sixth-form-common-room sub-philosophy:

“hey – what if, like, when you woke up, you were, like, still dreaming?”

“Wow. Far out.”

None of that embedded dreams stuff matters to the narrative anyway. The film’s only emotional pull is “quick – the baddies are coming.”

Oooh dose baddies. Dey soo baad.

Oh and RSP Astrum rear. Powerful, cheap and watertight.

http://www.7dayshop.com/7dayshop-bike-light-hyper-bright-t6-cree-led-bicycle-light-with-headlight-kit-rechargeable-genuine-cree-t6-xm-l-led?backUrl=L2hvbWUtb3V0ZG9vci1naWZ0cy1saWZlc3R5bGUvY3ljbGUtbGlnaHRzLWFjY2Vzc29yaWVz

I came across the above. It looks like it could work! Anyone used one of these? I looks like the C and B seen set up a bit.

I would be wary of the quality of the battery pack, same as with the Solarstorm. Better to buy single-cell torches so you can cheaply and easily add your own protected 18650 batteries.

Unprotected lithium ion batteries are unreliable as they are easily damaged through overdraining or overcharging.

As someone said above, these cheap battery packs are a pain in the arse.

For commuting I use a couple of
these They are bright enough for off road night riding (I’ve tried them). Make sure you use protected batteries for reliability.

The Solarstorm light is not a reliable option in my experience. The battery pack is so bad as to be unusable (I got one charge out of mine before it decided to die).

There are plenty of good quality Chinese torches out there that offer big power for small cash. Use good quality batteries with a protection circuit and you’re laughing.

Even though it’s only 5mm, it makes a huge difference. You don’t say how big your son is though so it’s difficult to say. Cranks that are too long can cause fatigue and knee problems.

Rode it on Saturday. All good.

1:34 here. That includes Hully Gully but not The Slab.

Nothing wrong with going for a fitness ride and using timings to motivate you/measure your performance.

Dalby Red, with a bit of a play at Dixon’s Hollow. Yep it was fun, but a long drive when there is better riding on my doorstep.

^^What he said

Stronglight road triple here. Spa cycles fitted it for me for nowt, too, 10 minutes after they were supposed to close.

You won’t get a smile or any sales patter in Spa cycles. What you will get is a bunch of blokes who know everything about bikes, have a huge and esoteric parts inventory, and know how to look after a customer.

If you want advice about what you need, options etc, or if you want them to do any quick jobs, like fitting a new BB or cranks or whatever, ring them beforehand and ask if it’s OK. They’ll sigh and then say “yep – come in early”. Then get in early when they’re quiet, and they’ll be more than happy to pass the time of day with you.

Looks like Trek painted up some old steel frames for the UK market and added the 1999 decals

Just looked through an unhealthy number of 1990s Trek catalogues (including unfortunate Lance Armstrong content) but can’t place the bike. A couple of things: I think the model was named “Mountain Track” or “Mt Track” in the US, and seems to have come with a different component spec and different colours. Those forks on yours may well have been an aftermarket buy. I’d suspect the stem was too.

All 1990s Trek catalogues available as PDFs on Retrobike. You know more about the bike than me – you may be able to find it in one of them.

8spd Alivio/Acera? 1in threadless steerer? I call 2000