like an fool I booked my car in for a service today
So after getting here* at the crack of dawn to get the car in as early as possible (the bloke looked at me and jokingly said “so your the idiot we have been cursing all week” :lol:) I am now waiting for it to be finished before I can leave

And they had better wash it :)

*our plant and fleet department are on the same site so they are doing the service

The Lamb Inn on the A624 just outside Hayfield is also good

Salsa
I have a black one for sale depending what size you need

the-muffin-man – Member
Renault again (badged as Tag Heuer).

they will be one to watch them
IGMC

Went to Bansko a good few years ago, it was okay for the beginners and me as an intermediate snowboarder
Wasn’t too busy, the lessons my wife had where pretty decent, spoke good English, some of the skiers had different experiences though
Wife broke her wrist half way through the holiday ,the medical attention she got was first class, very surprisingly good
Hotel was good but it was 4-5* standard (and cheap) with decent enough food. Second the heavy smoking though
I did Andorra a few years before, would say they where comparable piste wise but Andorra had a better vibe and has probably developed a lot more,since compared to Bulgaria

Mate had a pair, he cracked a rim and destroyed freehub on the Mega but SS warranteed do them no questions
Main issue he had was getting tyres on and off was very very tight

…and don’t even go there on Canyon’s customer service!!!! I speak as one of the disgruntled many who tried to order in previous years and received a slightly different experience.

I can only assume they have improved, my bike arrived in 3 days and another 3 days later they have said they will refund the sale price, of course time will tell

I’ve a D3100 and lens for sale in the classifieds, very low shutter count

Shoving in the hole to release the little pin that opens the hinge on Shimano brake lever bar clamps so you can actually get them off your bars without removing your grips because you rounded out the 2.5mm lockring bolt trying to use a 2mm allen key ;)
(Speaks from experience)

Not sure if already mentioned but Canyon have 10% off all bikes in their factory outlet
So for example thats under £3k for a 2016 Strive CF9.0 Race (the 2017 model is £4,499)

..and whats more after a 5 minute live chat conversation they are refunding me the 10% on the bike I bought off them last week. Thats customer service that needs recognising :)

This one

What was the wooly hat he was wearing, not the bike helmet the one in between all the riding bits
That was the best part of the series, nice hat, want one. Think it was a Rab but no sign of it on any website

http://www.chainguidemallorca.com

Based in Alcudia
Lovely place btw

LGB ^ read above
Pedalcover or John Lewis depending on your area and the coverage you want
No need to report back, most of us ditched M&S around 2 years ago when they changed underwriters
(Pedalcover, I believe, use the old M&S underwriters and is basically (in simple terms) pretty much their old policy but tailored more towards cyclists, and cheaper)

If your determined to still phone around maybe also try NFU Mutual, others have reported success with AA but I would recommend reading their small print as coverage IMO wasn’t as good as it initially sounded

Rushup
It’s so technical that its deemed dangerous and has been closed over a year ;)

Shame it’s one of a kind, I would have liked to buy 2, his and hers for riding ’round town’

Off to Iceland tomorrow
Forecast is 100% cloud so have next to no hope of seeing them :(

I have bent rails on a fair few saddles, but have NEVER broken an I Beam saddle or post.

Whereas I am the opposite, never bent a rail but have destroyed two ibeam saddles (landed heavily on nose, saddle bent forward and stripped the jagged grippy bits on the beam)
However with an ibeam you can just move the saddle forwards or backwards onto the un-damaged part and continue your ride whereas a rail saddle your probably going to have to stand up all the way home

I never found it any more uncomfortable than a conventional railed system, my carbon Kore layback ibeam post and Formula FX was my favourite combo until I discovered dropper posts

+1 for the Formula FX

I paid £90 for a cable from CRC once
Only wanted the cable but I had a voucher for £10 off a £100 spend….

How much will it cost to enter this year, will I have to start planning the re-mortgage now?

Who ordered the last grey Sasquatch in large..?

That might have been me, along with a blue medium
I’ll keep whichever fits best and return the other. Given I have the older design of the same top from the last time CRC sold them cheap I think it is most likely the large that will be getting returned

Can I extend this topic to asking for advise on photographing the Northern Lights (off to Iceland in a couple of weeks)
I also have the standard 18-55 kit lens (a Nikon in my case) and was contemplating getting a second hand 35 or 50mm lens to complement it

Rickon

I have a Nikon D3100 for sale if your interested
With the standard 18-55 battery, charger, and a camera bag
Its getting on a bit but still produces decent images
Not sure on the shutter count but I can check if you are interested

Will be px’ing it for a new D5500 at the weekend but happy if I can sell privately for a bit more than the part-ex offer which I don’t imagine will be much say £120

theboatman – Member
I have had very mixed service from them over the last……30 years. I always gave them a chance, and some individuals there over the years were outstanding. But never an lbs I would have pointed people to, but it was a bit of an institution and I was sad when their Belper branch shut. I would have recommended anyone go there. Sorry for those that work there, and it will leave a big hole on Ashbourne Rd.

this (20 years in my case)

it often felt a bit cliquey

and this, last few times I went in I struggled to get a salespersons attention as they where engrossed in conversations with others (and not sales conversations, general chit chat, thats fine for a few minutes but when your stood there for 20 mins earwigging on a personal conversation to gague when it might end so you can get served..)

Ive also had, on 2 occasions terrible service from the mechanic, once telling me that he couldn’t fit a Chris King headset into ‘that frame’ (it was the right headset and I did it myself in the end with no issues he just looked down his nose at it), second time I was told a wheel could not be trued and it would need new rim and spokes. I went home and taught myself how to true a wheel and rode it for another 18 months before selling it on

combined with what I felt was a limited range of brands and a look and feel of ‘just another bike shop’ – wall to wall with only a few ‘mainstream’ brands (mtb, road and kids) they never seemed to have what I was after, (even for example tyres or helmets the choice seemed very limited and restricted to a couple of brands) I came to think of it as a ‘chain pub’ of bike shops rather than a ‘free house’

Their website was also appalling, they just don’t seem to have moved with the times and there are other local shops now (Cyclomonster for example and park Bike Works until that closed) that offer more to both casual browser and serious purchaser, for servicing and repairs there are a number of small one man bands (Big on Bikes in Little Eaton for example) set up that seem to be flourishing without the overheads of a large city centre shop

Sorry they have gone as its never nice, especially with 80+ years of history but I think they made the mistake of not offering the customer anything different from the bigger chains

I dunno whether I had the same problem with mine or not….but it definitely didn’t feel anything like the only other dirt jump bike

Maybe because a BFe isn’t a dirt jump bike

so its finished
Gwin’s safe final run prossibly cost me a top 3 position

SJ4000+wifi (it has image stabilisation over the 4000)

don’t get the 5000 it was apparently not as good and they have discontinued firmware updates

Techmoan website has lots of good reviews on all the SJ series – http://www.techmoan.com/blog/2015/2/7/the-big-sj5000-action-camera-review.html
I used these reviews and the advice on his blogs to decide when getting mine

Interestingly no one has mentioned the type of riding they do.

mainly Peaks XC loops, but local part of the Peaks is very rocky
Also done the Mega as said above
trail centres
BPW and Antur a few times
Only issue Ive had with Schwalbe was a small split in the tyre at Antur but Stans just about sealed it so I could carry on
My tyres after a week in the Alps where about ready for replacement, knobs where shearing off but then any make of tyre would have suffered the same I suspect (they weren’t new when I went)

Yes run that combo
It’s been fine for all
Don’t get this about Schwalbe tyres being weak and having no grip, I’ve never had any issues including going the Mega last year on a Hans/Nic combo, rate them more than the Maxxis and Continental I’ve ran before

Yes identical

He has been found now

Got mine from an Amazon ‘for filled by Amazon’ reseller, better returns if it turns out to be fake (which it didn’t) and I’m very happy with it
Sample footage here – https://vimeo.com/163315194 and https://vimeo.com/163315361
Mine is actually the 4000+ wifi

Yes fitted on mine
Got a green leaf, medium I no longer use if interested…

Was racing the Revolution series on the track trying to get enough points for world champs and Olympics qualification this time last year

those Knippex plier things that get good feedback from various pro mechanics

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Knipex-KPX8603150-plier-wrench-150mm/dp/B002A041T4/ref=sr_1_16?s=diy&ie=UTF8&qid=1471532111&sr=1-16

what they have done really sucks
you should take them to the cleaner

Book UK Bike Skills, its worth the 90min (?) drive

Ah standard STW response,someone asks for recommendations in the Peak District, someone else recommends someone in Hertfordshire

Slightly more than 90 mins drive, try 2 1/2 hours with standard traffic, given a course would start @9ish could take longer in rush hour so it’s really an overnight stop the day before (I’ve done it without, I was knackered half way through the day) yes Jedi is good, but it’s a long way from the Peak, and I find there is no substitute for getting coaching on the actual trails you ride the most

My chainline on XTR is not great but thats mainly because I have an older XTR 985 Race chainset with a wolftooth ring (mounts on outside of the tabs not inside). I put BB driveside spacer none driveside to make it a bit better, didnt have any issues shifting to the 42 ring though either way (XT rear mech) it was just a bit noisy before

But are your issues in shifting to largest cog anything to do with you using a 42tooth rear cassette with an XTR rear mech?
I thought XTR where only good for 40tooth maximum

One of the funniest things on TV at the moment

Admittedly competition is thin on the ground

However, excess is slghtly higher – they seem to get around that by signing you up to another policy which covers your excess so all is well.

Having tested the Pedalcover ‘excess protection’ policy, as well as the main AXA cover for a damaged iphone I can confirm both where a smooth process with no issues
In future I am going to go down this higher excess with separate excess policy route for all my insurance, works out a lot cheaper (assuming your not making several claims every year) it’s a great top tip from Darren at Pedalcover