Be aware that ‘The Blue Route’ is not…

Mountain Equipment duffels are absolutely fantastic. Really rugged and can be left out all day in the rain without the contents getting wet. Internal mesh end and lid pockets plus large waterproof pocket for wet/dry separation.
Come with removable backpack straps/shoulder strap and permanent carry handles.

https://www.cotswoldoutdoor.com/c/equipment/rucksacks/mountain-equipment.html?filter=%2526filter%253Dbrand%253A%25281680_uk%2529%2526filter%253Duk_rucksack_type%253A%2528duffles%2529&page=0&size=48

I replaced an Edge 705 with a bolt.

I don’t miss the colour screen of the 705 and almost everything about the Bolt is either equivalent or better for my use.

The only thing I find that isn’t is that when riding along looking at the stats screen rather than nav, a diagram of the upcoming turn doesn’t get displayed for a short while before reverting back to stays mode. If anyone knows whether it is possible to change this I’d be happy to learn! Otherwise the Bolt does me well.

The Bolt is much more stable (never crashed or lost a ride) and easier to program with routes (via ridewithgps over the Internet to phone app then communicated to the Bolt via Bluetooth) and sync (to Strava via the reverse connectivity) than the 705.

They aren’t as cheap now as when I got mine but I’d likely buy another if needed. By using a tether I’ll hopefully never lose if off the bike though. Trying a Lezyne Mega XL would be my only reason to deviate from the Bolt in such a situation but I’m sure I read some negative things about them when researching what would become the Bolt purchase. Can’t remember what these were now though, unhelpfully.

Thanks for observing this to me, Ossify; I’d got the wrong end of the stick.

Can anyone offer an opinion as to the low light performance of these cameras?

Hello everyone and thankyou for your contributions. I realise now that I did not reply at the time as I thought I had! Thankyou again. Unsurprisingly there seems to be a lot of experience in the ‘room’. Shouldn’t be a shock really as this is STW after all.

A few different opinions on what has value and what not.
I agree @jamj1974 that highlighting personal experience and success is key. I feel that I am able to do this but, since my initial post, have spoken with siome recruiters who seem to think my lack of certificate is a disadvantage. I may have been speaking with the wrong people.

The prospect of upgrading a qualification form APM to Chartered status is appealing, so thanks for raising my awareness of this @mashr. I like the option to progress.

Interesting to hear that some experience suggests Agile as not being all that.

Lockdown has meant my free time becoming all but non-existant, Otherwise an online, doing it in your own time style course woudl probably be my preference. As it is it’d be easier to take a week’s leave and do a led course. Not an ideal way to spend leave mind you! All about the end game though…

Cracked powder coat is a prime spot for some environmentally assisted corrosion fatigue cracking to initiate. If you’ve never had a spring snap whilst in use, I can advise that it is not best. Springs are cheap, might be a good idea to replace it.

Get the rest of the spacers from the bag and more air in to your current shock before fretting about buying a new one or upgrade to yours:

Get a pack of RockShox volume spacers and put them all in. Mine needed it to feel anything like reasonable, as the leverage ratio is actually regressive:
http://linkagedesign.blogspot.com/2015/08/whyte-g-160-275-2016.html

Exactly the sort of thing I am thinking of, but don’t want black.

Other colours are available…
https://www.hargrovescycles.co.uk/clothing/long-sleeve?Term=perfetto

What do you want to use it for? On road I’d heartily recommend stretching to get what I have, a Castelli Perfetto RoS. e.g. £120

I’ve just got two sets of unpadded bibs for use with a padded short or tight (if it’s baltic) underneath and am impressed with both:

https://www.merlincycles.com/force-z68-bib-tights-without-pad-166252.html?loggedIn=1
Dead cheap, not hot roubaix but still slightly fuzzy on the inside surface, fit well

https://www.merlincycles.com/lusso-thermal-roubaix-bib-tights-without-pad-48002.html
Slightly more expensive but great quality, slightly odd to put on due to the panel cut but fit well once on, propper fluffy backed (roubaix?) fabric.

Get a pack of RockShox volume spacers and put them all in. Mine needed it to feel anything like reasonable, as the leverage ration is actually regressive:
http://linkagedesign.blogspot.com/2015/08/whyte-g-160-275-2016.html

I like the long front end. It is liberating, coming from a 2010 Foxy.

The bigger issue for me is Whyte putting the bottle mounts too low in the frame so you can’t actually fit a bottle!

This annoyed me too. Why not just put the bottle cage bolts in a more sensible position? A shimano Di2 adapter plate or Wolf Tooth adapter will help relocate if you need. I made my own, grinding down some standard bottle bolts to fit the cage to the plate and using countersunk bolts to fit the plate to the frame (yes yes, the yard needed tending to 2.5 years ago):

Before, with biggest bottle possible (side loader cage)

Plate

Plate fitted

After, with bigger bottle in

I’ve been on 38c GravelKing slicks since ~August, run tubeless. Width on a 17mm ID rim is 39.5 on my cheapo digital verniers.

They feel really good to ride, are pretty light @ ~350g each and are reassuring in the way they grip, even in the wet. From this point of view I really like them.

However, the puncture resistance for me has been terrible. More than a puncture a month means that during ~1/10 rides I get a flat. Most of my rides are commutes from one side of Manchester to the other by going south of the airport on country lanes. I puncture as frequently in that setting as when I go directly across the city. All punctures seem to be of the size that should self heal but don’t. I keep the Stans fluid used topped up, always shake the bottle well etc. to ensure that the little plugging particles make their way in, but to no avail. It’s really frustrating, as I can’t rely on the tyres.

I’m going to give some Maxxis Re-Fuse 40c’s or Marathon Supreme 40c a try before going back to the ultra-reliable Marathon Plus I took off for this experiment. They’re heavy and draggy (extra training?), don’t feel as good or grip as well but it is becoming apparent to me that, for my location/routes/style at least, you either fit Plusses or better be prepared for flats. Gator Hardshells were good for me in the past at ~3 punctures/year but they’re not available in ‘big’.

wankpanzer

Love this. One to file next to tw*t-chariot.

Polaris AM enduro jacket. Regularly available for under £50. I usually wear a short-sleeved synthetic top under mine. A full waterproof will be required when the weather is proper minging.

Edit: currently £35 at Polaris

https://www.polaris-bikewear.co.uk/AM-Enduro-softshell-mountain-biking-jacket-p/pol01-5313-p.htm

Any advice on the sizing for these, scotroutes? I appear to fall on the L/XL divide.

I’m in to my Nitecore NU25, available from a variety of retailers: https://flashlight.nitecore.com/product/nu25

Is it the AT or ATR that have a propensity for cracking? And early versions only?

I’m local and didn’t realise this was a permissive cycle path. Recent change? Could check my oldish OS map later.

It’s a pleasant bit of riding along the Edge.

I once had a run in with an absolutely incandescent farm hand after riding South-North along this path, just before lambing time.
The field at the northern end was full of preggers sheep and a few along the path at the top of the edge. We rode past them considerately and then saw a 4×4 waiting for us as we were descending, where the footpath/’traffic free cycle route‘ meets the bridleway and decided to exit on to Monks Road via a gate 1/2 way down the field. I’m glad we did. The 4×4 came to meet us very quickly, skidded to a halt (uphill) and the ‘hand proceeded to berate us unintelligibly for riding past the sheep. The veins were popping out of their neck. I think if we’d ridden all the way down the field and met them away from the road we’d have been filled in; the 4×4 had 4 other blokes in.
I haven’t gone through the field since, just taken the road for a bit on the way up and joined the path along the Edge. Riding up the field is balls anyway and this way you’re hidden from the farm for as long as possible behind a wall. All my rides come back via different routes.

Ah, thanks very much. That is helpful.

10s MTB hubs will only take the shimano ‘CX’ 11 speed cassettes, not the road ones

What is a Shimano ‘CX’ cassette?

Sorry, I meant to write clearance for 47/45mm tyres, as I’m sure you’ve all guessed.

badstoob

Member

The orange and green frames will come with the new fork from August apparently.

Could explain why Merlin in particular are selling off frames pretty cheaply at present?

Also, the geometrygeeks site has a 2019 tripster listed with an accompanying image seemingly showing the new frame/fork combo:

https://geometrygeeks.bike/bike/kinesis-tripster-at-2019/

If the fork is the same as for the straight pronged full bike version of the tripster they’re doing then it seems to offer an advantage in tyre clearance, on paper at least, as it will supposedly give 47mm over the 45mm of Kinesis’s own curved fork.

I’ve recently acquired my first mechanical watch, a Seiko SKZ323.

I was pretty pleased with it. It wears a bit smaller than the nominal diameter, has a nice weight & a white faced diver is desirable to me but not a common configuration I don’t think. This was until I realised it was losing ~45s a day and then noticed a tiny amount of condensation inside. Sad face.
I guess it’s in need of a service & seal overhaul. The movement is a 7S36, so not posh. Quotes I’ve had in are all ~£200+ or ~80% of the purchase price. This is disappointing.

Can anyone reccommend somewhere to send it? Or is seal replacement on the caseback and timing adjustment something a keen amateur can attempt?

My Monarch has recently started randomly letting the positive and negative spring chambers exchange air. I’m not riding much at present so it’s extremely annoying to set off on my once-every-few-weeks window of opportunity to have to turn back after a few miles because the shock has collapsed and my pedals are hitting the floor.
18 month old shock, problem has persisted for a few months. I done think I’ll have another Monarch as this seems to be a relatively common issue discussed online.

*chuckle* Yes, like curved. I’m just enjoying the word ‘bendy’ today.

I note that the tripster is now offered as a full bike with a different fork to the previous bendy one. Paint job looks pretty rad! I don’t find the bendy forks very appealing to look at, leading to my earlier question, so this is much preferable. I hope that they start offering the frame set in this configuration too.

https://www.kinesisbikes.co.uk/Catalogue/Models/Adventure/Tripster-AT-BIKE

Stain-less doesn’t mean stain-never.
There are a number of reasons for and mechanisms by which stainless steels suffer from various types of corrosion.
Also, as has been observed, run off from pad backers etc. might give the impression of or initiate disc corrosion.

A recent look at grease guns took me to the beta model, available from demon tweeks cheapest.

My reservation with tubeless on the road is the pressures I’d probably use with whizzy size tyres and the ability of the tubeless setup to seal at those pressures.

MTB tubeless at sub-30 psi will seal indefinately for small holes eg thorns. The tunes I’ve needed to repair a hole manually I’ve always had a healed hole blow it’s plug out when inflating the tyre to seat it, typically at around 50psi. As such I’m reserved about tubeless for narrow road tyres being effective enough to just carry on riding as with mtb, when pressures will be around 80psi and the tyres low volume. So I would probably want a 38+mm tyre for tubeless.

Can anyone give some insight in to this? Am I just being a bit paranoid/sceptical about narrower/traditional size road tyres (28mm let’s say) being unable to maintain a higher pressure with healed holes in?

I hope the above was clear, apologies if not.

Make one? I did, after balking at the cost of solutions such as you posted, OP. Mine comprises of the fork from an old Genuine Innovations worm kit that I ‘turned down’ by clamping in a drill and whizzing on a file, pushed in to the inside of a normal bar plug. It’s visible below, amongst the rest of the spares I normally carry on the bike (strapped in tube with CO2 head and canister + pump additional)

I removed the seal from a replacement linkage bearing I’ve recently received to see what was going on. I was surprised to find that there was really very little grease at all in there. You were spot on al/scoop. Shame I didn’t do the same for the full set I’ve already fitted first… I’d expect more of a bearing costing a tenner.

Thanks for the advice, all. That Mobil stuff looks interesting.

Does anyone use a different fork to the factory option on their AT?

Winstanleys now require the expired bearings to be returned before they split a bearing set to send you those individual bearings. They didn’t have any in stock last week and quoted a 2 week lead time. Not great really.

Similarly, I like our Bose Soundtouch 10. The sound is good regardless and astonishing from such a small box. Preset buttons mean that you don’t have to use a phone to start it playing something. Will stream internet radio, local media files, Spotify & other such services, has a 3.5mm aux in. £144 from a few places incl. John Lewis, Currys.

I’m not sure if there are alternatives but I’m not a fan of these adapters. Sure they allow the connection of Shimano brakes to a SRAM shifter but the ergonomics that result are awful.

Five month break

Set off strong

Lungs fell out

If you don’t give wheel building a go I’ve a brand new, unridden/fitted Shimano R500 wheel that needs a buyer.

I did once cut up a heavily concaved road rim that I was retiring. There was a surprisingly large amount of material still left across the thickness of the braking surface, considering the wear. I have no hard info on what the safe limit is.

Scrub down the inside of the tyre with IPA and use a tube to press the patch on whilst the glue sets, overnight (tyre re-mounted obviously).