Tyres and brake pads. Stilton at Christmas.

Camber. Obvious, innit.

Only blue Loctite.
You shouldn’t, ideally, be hanging off a scaffold pole to undo it.
Not if she knows your wife. Even though you’d like to.
Valves and stickers lined up.

I like Hope, but mainly BBs and hubs. Hubs on 7 of 8 bikes. Gave up on the brakes, but by crikey they’re pretty.

I like Shimano brakes and am now putting them on all of my bikes that get hard use. I’m kind of with Richmtb.

I dislike Avids for the incessant faff.

Saturday – Chasing my mate around Cheshire on Saturday for an hour and a half of thrashing on the road.

Sunday – A perfect ride round Marple/Hayfield etc from home with a mate giggling like Smash robots. Out early enough to avoid the heat, horses and walkers, but not the fell runners. About 50 miles then home in time for late Elvenses and child juggling. Flipping marvellous.

Junkyard – get well soon.

Got 2 press fit BBs, but it’s the Shimano verion. They’re seemingly shorter lived, but it remains to be seen if the Hope Press fits are any better – I’d like to think so.

I’ve gone with it – never been a fan of adapters. Things are designed in a certain way for a reason. Like most of the above I can’t notice a difference.

Come to that I can’t notice a difference between bolt thru forks and QR forks, so I might just be useless.

Got 2 press fit BBs, but it’s the Shimano verion. They’re seemingly shorter lived, but it remains to be seen if the Hope Press fits are any better – I’d like to think so.

I’ve gone with it – never been a fan of adapters. Things are designed in a certain way for a reason. Like most of the above I can’t notice a difference.

Come to that I can’t notice a difference between bolt thru forks and QR forks, so I might just be useless.

At 111kg this morning I am going to Arch particularly for the rear and to this end have a new Hoop in Arch for the front of my ‘day to day’ bike. Also if you side load a Crest badly enough it’ll never come true again, but doesn’t snap unlike the Giant rim. They take a bit of work to keep true riding in the Peak.

Good point – I had forgotten about our excellent chums in Barnoldswick. A call awaits – thanks for reminding me of the obvious!

Thanks Tracey. There is one just over the road from the office. Marvellous.

Thanks fellas – that’s some plastic pedals ordered. What shoes is the next question? is it 5:10 super tacky ninja pumps or ‘whatever they’ve got that’s a bit trainery and is lying about?’ My bank balance is expressing a strong preference.

Many thanks

Paul

I liked 24/12 at Newcastleton in the rain. It was ace. It was flipping hard but 95% or more rideable (by time). I didn’t like Mayehm in the rai nas it was a big lot of pushing (maybe 30% by time). I didn’t do SITS last year as a solist in the rain as I just couldn’t face the incessant quagmire.

Is it the case that many of the ‘have a go’ types like me have pretty much had it with solo 24s on courses that don’t look like they can deal with the wet weather? I like bikes but 24hrs on one is a long time and leaves me wanting a nice rest for a bit off the bike.

At my desk this morning’ Was that you?’ ‘Of course it was, it’s my turn, you’re next.’ My secretary can always be relied upon. I blame anti inflammatories for cracked ribs, everyone else just blames me. Which is fair. Farting is funny.

1 and one pending for my kids, who at 8 and 10 can now handle 26 inch wheels but 29ers would just be a bit much not to mention the expense. Gets them out and is all good.

Which baking tray for Spanish rocky technical courses ?

I like bikes. They go as fast as I pedal them.

As to the pressing baking tray issue – non stick 10 inch round for me with a sprung clip on the side to get the sponge out. All other trays are wrong and to be discontinued.

Expect massive Yorkshire Puddings. Ace!

Thanks fellas. I am wondering if they do them in bulk.

I am off to get my spine and hips x rayed today. I vaulted over the bars into Derbyshire at speed. Derbyshire won. Feels like something’s moving about in my lower back that shouldn’t be.

Hope ceramic for me. 17 st, ocasional solo 24s and big days out plus the odd Alpine trip. If it’s gritty lift the plastic seal and hey presto quick wipe and we’re off again. Not ha the probs some have had with Shimano.

Specialized All Condition Pro Armadillo – seconded.

17 st, panniers, only puncture has been a pinch flat (yay for Manchester’s roads) and when I wore the tyre through to the case. Typical week is 100-150 miles communting on roads of varying degrees of goosed/covered in glass

Only downside is after 3 yrs the wearing surface seems to de-laminate from the case.

Grippy but lack in ‘feel.’ I think it’s a fair trade off personally. Recommended.

I’ve got a 25 yr old one – for an ‘outside doing low impact stuff’ jacket it’s fine, when it’s properly wet i.e. ‘Snowdonia in January coming in sideways on the moors’ it’s massively outclassed by modern synthetic waterproofs. My experience has been it rains properly hard you get wet in anything – but you get wet quicker in Ventile, sadly.

On the bright side it is is fabric you can wear without being repulsed by it. I do dislike proper waterproofs.

Falling onto an ice covered road yesterday and landing on one knee.Pedalling 15 miles home with ‘odd’ feeling. Mrs Wife’s horrified face on seeing odd lumps ‘you’ve ridden home?’ Not a good ‘wow.’

Good ‘Wow’ spending a month going round the world seeing long lost chums and family in US/NZ/Statss including dolphin swimming, light aircraft over volcanoes etc. Fabulous sense of well being and general ‘my family is ace’ type wow. Recommended.

My LBSes (LBI?) are lovely. Hello Bikeshak and NWMTB. They’ve put up with all sorts of warranty based nonsense as like one of the other posters I am also heavy, clumsy AND cackahnded. It seems aluminium is surprisingly brittle in the wrong hands. As a consequence I am no longer allowed to use ‘can you just,’ as an expression and they’ve not yet learnt to lock the doors/ pretend to be out. Marvellous.

Ton is not alone. I am going for a lie down in the snow.

Cheers Higgo

I like my Mobi – it’s the blue one. Pressure for clay shifting is only if you wind the thread adjuster in on the jet. You’d never use it to clean paving slabs, but I’ve found it good enough for me in mainly peak grit and occasional White Peak clayey cack.

Rear Mech.
2.5 inch (at least) front tyre
Decent first aid kit. Mate got sent home from the medics in Morzine ‘for a shower’ before cluttering up their place with his bleeding limbs. We patched him up plenty and rode on. Not impressed.
Money – wheel barrows full of the stuff. It’s frighteningly expensive.

Good luck to your lad Ton. Being 21 he’ll hopefully cope with the oddities and unpleasantness of basic training better than most, but it’s meant to be horrid, if occasionally comedic.

I couldn’t agree less with Lifer. Having taken the Queen’s shilling, but had none of the excitement of many on here, standing Armies actually serve a purpose and in most cases over the last 50 years my assertion is that the objectives have been positive.

NY Greeter – seconded – top.

Subway – $2.50 – 1 stop or all the way to Coney Island.

Tribeca Bar & Grill – low key top quality fodder if yo’re not fretting about cash.

Any Piano Bar – whyever not?

The ticket booth on Time Sq for last minute tickets – do a show – might be top, might be hopeless, but it’s funny either way.

Flat Iron building, Grand Central, Empire State, Chrysler, Radio City – iconic architecture – and it means you can watch 20% of films going – ‘we’ve been there.’

Have a great time and do talk to folk – they seem a whole lot more welcoming than they were in 1989.

Yes.

Good pumpkin.

Front doors on houses also seem affected by this. Is there a sciency link?

Blimey – good luck with it. Would a 29er really be a bad thing? If you’re in Manchester I’ll lend you one – I’m 6ft 4, but it’s a choice of Giant or Trek with 3*10 so a ‘fail’ on the niche. The bars are also in the same county as the steerer so you may dislike the sedate handling. 😉

As a bantam weight 16.5 st back from the Alps I recommend SLX/XT and 203mm rotors for Sir’s braking pleasure.

Torq seems least offensive to me, albeit after 18 hrs of a solo 24 it wasn’t staying in so had to go to normal (ish) food. I appreciate TUC biscuits may not be nutritionally appropriate but it was all i could get and keep down at that point. AS the OPs say – try a load and see what you get on with.

Brake pads * 6 I reckon. Pint of midge repellent. Need to get off to a good start or it’s a case of ‘hurry up and wait’ until about mile 20. Lots of queueing on descents which was a bit dull and the track loops onto itself causing a hoofing big log jam. You might want to take some fags for that point.

Too right Will. As an old git I like to ride my bike not push it – but maybe that’s just me and a function of soloing. As a team you go and do it anyway because you can’t let mates down, even as you leave the comfort of the 3 am sleeping bag.

I accept and am content to forfeit my entry and that’s the risk you take with some events where the course is less ‘all weather’ than others. Be good to hear from the locals on Wednesday as to conditions and make an informed view.

Some, myself included enter events in the hope that the conditions will be workable and then don’t ride if the course isn’t going to be rideable and do something else. Granted it’s not ideal but having been a number of MTB events where the course becomes unrideable in the wet I’d sooner lose the entry fee than spend a shockingly bad weekend ‘because I’ve paid to enter.’ Maybe it’s because I’m 42 and no longer target one race as the focus for my season.

Thanks AA, looking forwards to hearing. If ground conditions are gopping I’m not going as the course won’t bear up well, but that’s seemingly the way of endurance racing in the UK.

I like 29ers.

I also like 26ers.

In the Alps last week where it was a bit scary I preferred using 26 inch wheels – as I understand it for a given spoke count and rim type they’re also stronger, also IMO tyres are easier to come by. As such arguably better for ‘falling from the sky’ on.

29ers I have found to be quicker on my local trails – Peak, W Lancs Moors etc. But then I ride with my wheels on the ground, apart from in moments of error or over-entusiasm.

Can’t see any of them disappearing given there are millions of both sizes out there, but do wonder as to the wisdom of the 650b.

Still, ride em all and see which suits you. Happy shopping.

Avoid Crank Bros. Unless you want something that won’t hold air and then on a techy bit of black alpine lodge the saddle where it should not be lodged. Did add an exciting and unwanted element to the riding. The guide was also swearing fluently at his. Foreign travel – brilliant!