6ft, 31″ leg and have an 18″ 26″ inbred and it is a perfect fit, my other mountain bikes are/have been 19″ so I tried a 20″ Inbred and it was far too long. Another mate is same height as me and prefers a 16″ Inbred as finds it has more “chuckability” as he is a less “wheels on the ground” rider than me.

I seem to hear this regularly in work, in overheard conversations in public and on TV numerous times a day, often it seems to be nonsensically inserted into conversations and it irritates the hell out of me.

“It is what it is”

Started suffering recently too – tried a variety of things, – changed bar position, tried a different length stem so I was putting less weight on my hands, got some new gloves as others were well worn and gel inserts seemed less effective than when I first had them. Felt slight improvement, but that might be purely psychological. Recent thread on here had a a number of people extolling the virtues of ESI silicone grips so going to give them a go next.

Pinnacle Ramin 3+ £750

A bloke I shared a house with when I was a student had a bedroom in a converted loft, the street light was literally about 6 foot from his bedroom window and shone right in – he remedied this by leaning out of his window and smashing it with a scaffolding pole he had acquired. We must have had a high ranking council official in our street as he did this twice and both times the council replaced it within 2 days.

During me moaning about the wife buying more shoes that she will rarely wear she said “well you’ve got 6 bikes” – fortunately I had the good sense not to say “no, I’ve only got 5 actually” so now reckon I can buy another one without her noticing :-)

Whilst cycling into work in London last year a white van pullled up alongside me at traffic lights, bloke leaned out of his window and shouted at me
“oi mate, is that a mountain bike?”
I nodded politely and said “yeah”
“Are you lost then? This is the A206, not Everest, you dozy c**t”

Him, the other passenger and the driver roared with laughter and at the next set of lights the Oscar Wilde of the building industry shouted jubiliantly at me “I mugged you off good and proper, geeza”

Would be interested in seeing photos of your upgraded wazoos

I have an interest off-set mortgage with RBS called the One Account which enables the creation of virtual folders so imagine they might offer something similar with a current account too

Ah I saw what I assume was you guys stopped near ice cream van near Ainsdale beach entrance last Sunday, there were about ten of you on assorted fatbikes, looked like you were having fun. I’m very fat curious, very tempted to get a cheap wazoo and leave it at my Mum’s to use when I stay up in Southport.

Think it is a Halfords Bandit as a mate had a silver one.

Picture of a silver one about 1/3 way down this page (sorry couldn’t work out to to post photo.

http://www.volkszone.com/VZi/showthread.php?t=765726&page=5

Portmerion is worth a vist for a fairly relaxing day.

I was tempted to get a woodgrain SE Lager single speed a few years ago, in hindsight I’m glad I didn’t.

Invasion of the Bodysnatchers

If I was you I would either write or tell her face to face that if she does not pay you the agreed sum back in 30 days you will take her to court, call her bluff and tell her you have been told by a solicitor that the evidence you have will be sufficient to ensure you win.

I’m confused why you agreed to go halves on the expense of flights, hotels etc if you knew she was insured and her insurance has coughed up for the whole sum (less any excess she had to pay) – Might be worth mentioning that if she does not pay you and it goes to court you will want to be recompensed for your total outlay – currently you are around £1200 of pocket and your ex has made a nice little profit and is taking the pee. Don’t write the money off, everytime you are skint it will eat away at you for being taken for a mug.

Cops

North Greenwich tube car park is £11 all day although will probably be full, but if you can get there extra early or even in morning then you can get a space.

No idea how long WWE events go on for, but if less than 4 hours you can park in cinema car park which is opposite the Emirates Airline ski lift type thing entrance, order a cinema ticket online from Cineworld website and you get free car parking for 4 hours. We have regularly done this and have had no issues parking there, we live about 20 mins drive away from O2 and have Cineworld passes and pay £16 a month for unlimited cinema trips, so it effectively costs us nothing when we use their carpark but don’t actually watch a film, and just go for some food or a gig/event there.

Do you live on the coast? Reminds me of what happened to older cars in my old home town on North West coast, the sea air would speed up any corrosion

Thanks for all the input – have a cheapish pair of Shimano wheels on my existing geared 29er so might stick them on the inbred and upgrade ones on geared, then can always buy SS specific hubs at a later date

Was contemplating Salsa Cro moto grande or Surly Karate monkey forks rather than the Swift ones a few of you have recently mentioned. Any thoughts on best option?

I expected this thread to be about peeing on your hands to warm them up – an old walker me and a friend once met in a pub in the lakes told us this, I did think he was taking the pee so have never tried it but I suppose it could work.

Midget bar fight from Jackass 3

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w8e_DwSpelI&sns=em

Great book on the American Indie scene

“Our Band Could Be Your Life: Scenes from the American Indie Underground: Scenes from the American Indie Underground 1981-1991” by Michael Michael Azerrad

Terrible hair metal band but one of yet most hilarious books I’ve read

Motley Crue – The Dirt

He’s a bit of a knob, but has done a few great songs is totally bonkers but his autobiographies are brilliant

Head On/Repossesed – Julian Cope

Decent book on the post punk scene in UK

Rip it up and start again (Post Punk 1978-1984) – Simon Reynolds

Ex-NME journalist’s hilarious autobiography on working at his early life working in music press

Cider with Roadies – Stuart Maconie.

He also wrote an excellent book called ‘The People’s songs’ which relates British historical events to big hits of the day. His non-music books are great particularly about “Pies and Prejudice” about the North of England

SilentSparky – Member 
I also brought one of the Rutland £140 ones.

Building it up with XT Groupset (Merlin), 120mm Recon Gold (Merlin), Superstar Tesla wheels, Exotic stem, Superstar Bars plus a few bits from my spares box.

Just need tyres and a headset and on that note, what reasonably priced headset do I need for a tapered steerer? last time I brought a headset was for straight standard 1 1/8th.

Was looking at below headset for £19.99 from On One
http://www.on-one.co.uk/i/q/HSFOITA/fsa-orbit-ita-headset

Interesting to see a few of you opting for 120mm forks – was looking at 100mm but guess 120mm will be fine (and give lots of alternatives)

Not sure why they haven’t created some long spears so they can just sit on top of the walls of Alexandria and leisurely kill tons of zombies by leaning over and stabbing them in the head.

Contemplating buying the frame as my first 29er, what forks has everyone gone for ? Thinking Rock Shox Reba SL 100mm but hearing about a lot of issues with them, any alternatives around same price or lower I should be looking at ? Hoping to keep the build spend around the £1000 mark (deore groupset, cheap and cheerful finishing kit and superstar or shimano wheel set)

On One Pompino £499 for complete build, or get the frame, forks, bars, stem, headset, seatpost and saddle for £199. Love mine

Surprised he hasn’t got a lefty fork.

I’ve never been even though I’m only about 8 miles away – is it worth a visit?

Went about 10 years ago. Memento Park is well worth a visit – coach takes you a few miles outside of the city where they have loads of the old Soviet era statues that were removed from the City centre after the country was liberated.

The food was generally awful and very limited – on last day we found a Pizza Express which felt like heaven after several days of eating goulash.

If you are going travelling with your SO who owns a flat, why can’t you also move in with her instead of having the discomfort of living in a van for months? Where is the significant cost saving ?

Northumberland and Wales are good choices, have a look at Southwold area in Sussex, Dorset and Cornwall too for good seaside locations.

If your Mrs isn’t prepared to rough it, be prepared to pay a little more and choose somewhere with decent facilities – showers, proper toilets, bars, shop and kids playground etc. Campsites these days are far superior to what they were 20-30 years ago

Longleat Safari Park is brilliant and very close – book online for cheaper deals.

Assume it is still free for under 2 year olds on planes if you have them on
Your lap and it was a couple of years ago? got lucky the 3 times we did as there were spare seats on the plane so kids got seats anyway.

Best off getting an appartment/house/cottage if you can afford it so once you have got the kid to bed you have another room to go in or even a hotel room with a balcony.

I’d recommend a short flight (South of France, Spain/Balearics) where the weather is likely to be decent, take an iPad with some of their favourite TV shows or films on it and some colouring

I never ask my barber to make me look older, balder, fatter and greyer but that’s the look I always seem to leave the place with.

Moyes inherited a team who had just won the league under Fergie, spent £60m on Fellaini and Mata, then LVG spent another £150m, it’s not as if LVG took over Scunthorpe. If Liverpool, Spurs or even Southampton had put together a half decent run at the end of the season then Man Utd wouldn’t have got into the Champions league. United fans are deluded if they think LVG should not have done much better this season.

I think LVG will get a shed load of cash to spend this summer, but not convinced he’ll win the league anytime soon, particularly if De Gea leaves.

Name me a manager who rocks up and wins something with a squad he hasn’t built, in his first season?
Pelegrini won the Pl and league cup in his first season. Di Mateo won the CL and FA cup in his first season. Benitez won the European cup as an interim manager while being booed by the fans at almost every game.

Benitez also won the Champions league in his first season at Liverpool and Ancellotti won the league and FA cup in his first season at Chelsea. Don’t recall any of these managers spending north of £100m in their first transfer window either.

Whichever way you look at it Van Gaal has spent a lot of money for a 6 point improvement on what Moyes achieved, was embarrassed in domestic cups and not had the distractions of European football either.

During a commute, through London a white van pullled up alongside me at traffic lights, passenger leaned outt of window and said.

“oi mate, is that a mountain bike?”

I nodded politely.

“Are you lost then? This is the A206, not Everest, you dozy c**t”

Him, the other passenger and the driver roared with laughter and at the next set of lights the Oscar Wilde of the building industry shouted something jubilantly along the lines of ” I mugged you off good and proper geeza”

Am I correct in thinking that the Longitude frame is virtually incompatible with suspension forks ? Is there a workaround ?
Really like the bike but would probably like the ability to switch to suspension forks for some rides. Would I be better opting for a High Latitude frame instead and sticking a rigid fork on it?

Stayed on a static caravan in the Haven park in Hayle near St Ives. Less than 10 mins walk to a lovely beach which my 2 girls loved (were 2 and 4 at time) and it’s a good place to base yourself, the on-site entertainment looked a bit tacky but spent very little time on site. Were tempted to go again this year but it was about half the price to go to North Wales instead.

Edit – Haven Park was called Rivière Sands

I’m 6ft, 32″ leg and I had a 56cm – not exactly an obscure bike so I’d think you could try one out – Evans always seem to have at least one size in if you are near any of their stores.

To be honest, unless you are buying a discounted model from last year, they aren’t very good value for money and this article might deter you

http://road.cc/content/news/119280-whats-britains-most-stolen-bike-answer-will-surprise-you