5’11” and my dear old medium BFe (26″ wheels) feels just right. Previously ran a set of Revelations set at 140mm, but it’s a surprisingly good all-rounder with a set of Lyriks set at 160mm. It’s my go-to non-fat bike.

Oddly, my medium Soul (also 26″ wheels) feels a bit on the small side, though with shorter forks (130mm Floats) and a longer stem, it ought to feel longer if anything…?

For the seatpost mounted bag – Alpkit Koala with a tapered Airlock inside. Or if only for occasional, a tapered Airlock on its own

Inbred (26″ wheels) – Sliding dropout, pearl white, circa 2006-ish – pretty good, only point to note was a bit of rust staining at the open end of the gussets when I sold it on after 3 or 4 years.

Scandal (29″ wheels) – swapout, raw frame, circa 2013-ish – I’ll be honest, I haven’t ridden this one a lot but it’s looking pretty good with no paint issues. Funny, that… ;)

On One Fatty – early complete build with the Howitzer BB and a Holzfeller 1x crank, pearl white – still looks pretty good, a few scuffs here and there and there’s some cable/hose rub starting on the fork.

Hard to fault for the price – and I’ve had considerably more expensive frames with much poorer paint

Full size? Depending on hand size and arm length, a full 34″ scale length can be a bit of a stretch for some. There are some shorter scale instruments about – Gibson and hence Epiphone usually tend to be 32″ scale, and some of the “student” model Fenders (e.g. Mustang) are 30″. Slightly “out there” suggestion, but if scale length is an issue, a 5-string might be worth a look (play everything one string further down but 5 frets higher up).

Also consider neck shape. As a general rule, a Fender P-bass (Precision Bass) tends to be a not very deep front to back but wide side to side (which can be handy if you tend towards the sausage-fingered), whereas Fender J-bass (Jazz Bass) tends to be comparatively deep front to back but noticeably narrower side to side (strings closer together, so encourages accurate fingering). It’s a personal preference, but I generally prefer a deeper narrower neck on a bass.

The right instrument is the one that the player feels most at home with, as it’s the instrument that’ll get picked up most frequently. So go into a store, try a bunch and see what you get on with.

Any 10spd chain should work fine – I personally avoid Shimano chains as I’m not a big fan of the single use jointing pin. Oh, and if you’ve stuffed a rear mech into your wheel, I’d also be checking spokes for damage, and making sure that the mech hanger is straight.

Got a Fabric Scoop (Radius) on my fat bike and Charge Scoops (which came in one shape, which happens to be “Radius”) on a couple of other mtbs. It’s a shape that my bum seems to get on with. More important than shape tho is the fact that they’re available in loads of colours… :oops:

A standard or “full-fat” will have cruise control for the days you do have to go on an m-way trip

My 182 Cup had cruise control too. My point was more that the lively handling – which made the car so much fun on little roads – made motorway journeys a bit tiresome. Well, that and the noise. This isn’t intended as a criticism of the car btw – as I mentioned in an earlier post, there are days when I really miss the general bonkers-ness of it. However, my circumstances changed, my driving habits changed, so I changed my car.

6 foot mate. I’ve read about the offset steering wheel issues

May work out differently for you depending on where your height is, but for me at 5’11” with 33″ inside leg, I found I couldn’t fit comfortably in a standard 182 – I found the leather and alcantara seats rather overstuffed. The poverty spec (and rather less generously padded) cloth seats in my old 182 Cup made the difference between me fitting comfortably and not.

maybe for me to stick the bike in and go to the trail centre

It’ll be a both wheels off job, and even so it could be a tight fit depending on what you ride. My old Pace RC405 fitted with both wheels off, but it was a bit snug and really needed the front seat forward a notch further than I’d prefer. With modern bikes generally having slacker head angles, longer forks and longer wheelbase, not to mention the general trend towards wider bars… I ended up with roof carriers as the slightly larger Cup spec roof spoiler didn’t play nice with rear hatch mounted carriers, and with the twin pipes on a 182 anything requiring a towbar is a non-starter.

I think it’s basically what cbmotorsport says above, it’s a relatively cheap to run go-kart that’s happy on country lanes/around town/cruising down the motorway

Not so much cruising down the motorway – not a major drama if you’re only doing it now and then, but sitting at a steady 70 on the motorway in a 172 or 182 is not an especially relaxing experience. Not especially relevant to the OP by the sounds of it, but if 100+ mile motorway trips are even remotely regular, I’d be looking elsewhere (and did). That said, the “Cup Chassis” handling tweaks could have been exacerbating things

Oh, and I got better fuel economy out of my 182 Cup than you’re managing out of your Mondeo diesel… :wink:

There are days when I really miss my old 182 Cup. In the end tho, it was a bit smaller than I wanted, my ageing dad found it a bit difficult to get into and out of, it was a bit rattly and generally not a great car for covering big motorway miles.

[edit]Cup spec[/edit] Deleted quite a few bits of spec from a regular 182. I’m not going to go into the differences here, there’s a decent spotters guide over at Cliosport.net.

As for dephaser pulleys – it’s a ~£100 part that, if it’s done as part of a cam belt change, is no great shakes. Mine ran fine for over a year with a sticky dephaser pulley. I kinda missed the big step change when it got sorted when the cam belt was done. Oh, and whilst the cam belt change is at 72,000, the auxiliary belt change is every 36,000. They get their reputation for snapping cam belts and associated top end self destruction from people overlooking the aux belt which then snaps and takes the cam belt with it.

They don’t seem to be easy to get hold of at the minute, but Maxxis Raze’s work for me

…did any of the people responding to the OP about how they provided evidence and got an increased offer have a hire car benefit…

yep, as stated above

…and if so did the insurance co extend the hire car without charge until the pay out offer was accepted?…

it never came up in my case as they repaired rather than paying out. Once I’d shown them quite how derisory their offer was (their offer ~£3k vs replacement cost ~£5k) and they upped their offer accordingly, it tipped the balance from uneconomic repair to economic repair and everything changed. I ended up keeping the hire car until the repairs were completed, and handed it back when I got my car back. And when my car subsequently went back to the repairers to have a variety of shoddy workmanship put right, the repairers provided a courtesy car.

I had a similar situation some years ago – though they were saying that 7 days on the hire car was running from first offer rather than 7 days from receiving the cheque. I provided ads from Autotrader (etc.) as proof of real world fair market value of similar cars to show likely replacement cost. They upped their offer. As it turned out, the revised valuation was high enough that the car went from being an economic write off to being viable as a repair job. So they asked if I’d rather have the cheque or have my car put right. I had them repair the car and drove it for another 5 years.

Being as it’s singletrackworld, I’m going to suggest what I’ve got as it’s clearly the best, so…

I’ve got a lovely Art & Luthrie Folk Cedar – size-wise, the body is pretty much the same size and shape as a classical. I generally dislike dreadnoughts, and find Jumbos a bit bottom heavy and boomy. This just sounds nice and balanced, and the cedar top makes it a bit less toppy than your typical spruce-topped acoustic. I’ve had it around 10 years or so and whilst the finish is looking a little tatty in places – hey, it’s been played quite a lot – it just seems to get better with every set of strings.

Art & Luthrie are part of the Godin group (see also Simon & Patrick, Seagull, Norman). Not a common brand over here – the group seem to have piled their efforts into Simon & Patrick in the UK. Art & Luthrie seem to – or certainly used to anyway – cater for the slightly more oddball end of the market where it isn’t all about a big brash spruce-topped dreadnought. Just my two penneth.

Hoping to make it to Scouse edition if you’ve got room for one more JohnClimber. However, with a work Xmas do on Friday 4th, there’s a possibility that things may go a bit squiffy…

aluminium nipples (probably)

As a general rule of thumb, if it was part of the original spec (or direct replacement for an item of original equipment, e.g. aftermarket wheels, etc…), then it’s part of the car and you shouldn’t be taking it. Stuff like CD’s, a collection of A-Z’s (is it just me these days…?), phone chargers, cables, non-integrated satnav, random crap in the boot, etc. is fair game

Going rigid is an option – and so long as the axle to crown measurement for the rigid fork matches the (correctly sagged) axle to crown measurement for the suspension fork, then the geometry will be unchanged

Unless you bought them as separate items, I suspect it’ll be a “replace as complete item” job despite it being fairly obvious that the handle/trigger is the source of the leak. Do you still have the original packaging? If so, is emptying the tank, repacking it and dropping it off at a petrol station (or wherever your most convenient Collet+ location is) *really* such a chore?

If you try and put tinting on the front side windows or even the screen, the car will should certainly fail its MOT

FTFY

…though I’m worried jaffejoffer has taken all the stock…

Noted that right hand blanking plates now appear to be on 20 days or more delivery, I think your worries may be justified :wink:

As a side note, 2x 2.95 euros (for LH and RH) is still significantly cheaper than the equivalent part I bought to delete the displays on some OEM M780 shifters. Oh, and if you have a part number (and if you click on the exploded diagram link above, then you have a part number), there’s no reason why you should have to order these from Germany – any bike shop that sells Shimano should be able to get them in for you

Just to clarify… the guard shown on the pics above is this one, or possibly a slightly older variant of it:
http://www.muckynutz.com/mudguards/fat_face_fender/fat_face_fender_xl_black
I’m pretty sure it was just called a Fat Face Fender a year or so back when I got it, but is now called a Fat Face Fender (XL).

Been using a Fat Face Fender on the standard steel fork on my On One Fatty – doesn’t stop *everything* but it certainly cuts down the amount of spray.


[edit]Yes, pics show a nice spring day where it wasn’t really necessary – however, it did ride with this all through last winter and can confirm it’s better than nowt[/edit]

Not bike specific, but a Rab Vapour Rise Lite has been my go-to biking jacket for the last three years or so. I’ve tested the crash resistance several times (not intentionally) and it’s still going strong. Nice quiet material and decently lined so it’s not unpleasant against the skin if you’re using it as a summer jacket with short sleeves underneath. Layer it up with a long sleeve base layer and a long sleeve jersey and it’s plenty warm enough for me on all but the coldest of days. Chest pockets double up as effective vents if required. It seems to be in a similar ballpark to the jackets mentioned in the original post, but if you can put up with last years’ colours – and they’re generally not offensive – there’s usually a few bargains to be had

Exploded diagrams for both shifters below. Noted that this seems to suggest the only interchangeable parts are the cable blanking plate and the barrel adjuster.

Clamp mount:
http://si.shimano.com/php/download.php?file=pdf/ev/EV-SL-M8000-3860.pdf

I Spec B:
http://si.shimano.com/php/download.php?file=pdf/ev/EV-SL-M8000-B-I-3948.pdf

If M78x series XT and M67x series SLX is anything to go by, proper retail packed items should come with blanking plates to remove the shifter windows. Unpackaged OEM stuff won’t. According to Shimano, the Optical Gear Display is “removable”:
http://cycle.shimano-eu.com/content/seh-bike/en/home/components1/mountain/deore-xt-8000/sl-m8000-r.html

Having previously adapted a pair of M780 XT shifters from clamp to I-Spec B mount, I’m not sure I’d bother going down that road again. I can live with the extra clamp on my bars which allows me to position the controls where I want them.

It depends agent007 – the earlier versions of the HADECS specs only enabled the cameras when the variable speed limit was set lower than the default speed limit – so if sign was off or displaying NSL, camera was disabled. The more recent versions of the HADECS spec has closed this down so the cameras are enabled at all times.

Another thought – as the question refers specifically to Managed Motorways (or Smart Motorways as they are now officially known), this would imply variable speed limits. So… knowing that they tend to taper the limit down, let’s say you are approaching congestion, get flashed whilst the limit is NSL, get flashed when the limit has dropped to 60mph, and again when the limit has dropped again to 50mph and you haven’t adjusted your speed at all… What then?

barney – that’s a shame – tho given how hard it was being pushed over here (i.e. pretty much not at all), I can’t say I’m surprised. Of course, if it’s now a discontinued model, that’s got to be worth a bit of discount, eh? Making it an even more affordable (relatively speaking) option? :lol:

Isn’t this basically what the Santa Cruz Bantam is for? Same geometry as a 5010 but with simpler single pivot suspension?

a reputation

That’s putting it mildly…

Been a few years since I last bought a custom wheel from them, but all the ones that I’ve had have been good solid wheels that have required minimal attention over years of (ab)use

They all debate from the norm but deviating from the norm should not be considered negatively.

All of us – no matter how “normal” – conform to somebody else’s idea of a weirdo

A triple/double&bash crank would be a better starting point than a “proper” 2×10 crank like the M675 SLX – the ring offsets are different with a “proper” 2×10 crank so you may have to live with a less than ideal chainline if you decide to go 1x on your existing cranks

Along slightly similar lines – well, “what arm warmers…” anyway, can anyone suggest an alternative to the (edit) apparently discontinued (/edit) hi-viz Mavic Vision ones? Don’t necessarily need to be bight orange (or whatever), but I’m looking for something with a decent reflective strip on them – not just a wee reflective logo. Suggestions anyone?

…the way paying customers are treated is a bit of a joke…

^ This is a very important point, and one that race organisers of all kinds would do well to remember. Race organisers provide a service (the race) to their customers (aka competitors)

A set of decently weatherproof Five Tens – my Freerider Elements are coming up to their third winter (though they’re used all year round) and have coped pretty well so far. Put your foot down in something over ankle deep and the wet will get in over the top – and you can’t really blame the shoe for that. Other than that, they’ve kept me feet warm and dry. Oh, and when they have got wet through overtopping, they’ve dried out acceptably quickly by stuffing them with newspaper and placing them near (not on) the radiator.

You could pop into Escape Routes in Pitlochry, buy an OS Explorer and ask nicely if they’ll deface it. They came up with a couple of nice routes when I was in the area a couple of years ago :-)

Fork brace clearly visible in this pic from the Eurobike story on the front page a few days ago

For reasonable life expectancy on commuting duties, R501’s are a good choice. Dunno about the Fulcrums cited above, but I’d steer well clear of budget Mavics – aluminium nipples are not good long-term, especially if you ever ride on gritted roads

Triple and run the ring in the middle position. Proper doubles (i.e. ones that aren’t triples that have been bastardised as “double and bash”) have different chainring offsets and are not ideal for running as 1x