Yeah, he already plays competitive basketball but keeps getting injured…hence the move to cycling

I’m not HR but my girlfriend is (and so is one of the best people in the tech company I work for).

In my experience HR are to work for the employee as well and in my current role the HR guy is always fighting my corner.

And in my girlfriend’s company she argues with the partners to try and make sure they stick to the rules etc , not to comply with law but to ensure fairness.

Try chatting to HR people and treating them as humans. By and large they’re actually quite nice people!

I’ve had them for a year or so and really like them. Haven’t had any maintenance issues etc – they just work.

But then I find compared to my MTB everything ALWAYS just works on my road bike – much less abuse…

One thing that is annoying is that if you do ever venture a little off road when out on the road bike (i.e. nipping into a field for a piss) it’s a bit of a faff getting all the mud out of the cleats!

Anyone recommend someone to do a respray on an ibis mojo and maybe an overhaul of the bearings at the same time?

Did anyone else notice that he went through a red light himself?!

I’ve got a very small Abus retractable bike lock that has an alarm on it. The alarm goes off if cable is cut and you can set it so the alarm goes off if someone moves it. To be honest the batteries wore out ages ago but there’s a big sticker saying there’s an alarm and it works well if I’m just in a cafe etc. bit more piece of mind than helmet strap, but that’s what I do when I forget it!

So does a vice kind of work as a bearing puller or do you just use socket set and hammer to get them out?

Don’t really reckon cycling is that good for me! It’s the cause of most of my injuries and certainly my shrinking bank balance. And I still do it. So, yup, would def still do it!

Thanks guys. Really helpful.

Def don’t want to piss them off – they seem like nice folk and we like the house. Hence paying £7k over Hora…

Seems like pretty much everyone I have asked thinks we can move in without doing the work and that the surveyors are just trying to justify their fee re the pointing etc. We might make a bit of noise about the lean to but in a fairly delicate way…Maybe direct to them instead of through solicitors…

They’ve got some kayaks they were trying to sell us for £500 which we turned down. But maybe we just ask them to chuck them in for free and the job’s a good’un ;)

Thanks all – really helpful. Interested in why folk get a survey if the general expectation is that you can’t negotiate on price. Is it just to check out that there is nothing REALLY wrong with it?

It’s been on the market for a while because they’ve had two sales fall through. But there was as lot of interest each time it went on – hence the reason we ended up offering over the asking price (only 2% over though…)

I guess my main concern is that we don’t want to spank a load of money (we’re pretty maxed out) on a house and then have to spend another £10-£20k doing it up.

Thanks guys – useful. In your experience can the surveyors normally put an approximate cost on repairs needed?

Wouldn’t restrict yourself on material…I have a carbon audax bike by Pearson that I love. Picked it up for £800 off here. Quite nicely specced out too

Doing my first roadie thing this weekend – a 100 mile sportive. Think I’m looking forward to it but not sure what to expect!

that sounds ideal mostly balanced. Where did you get it from? Know anyone else that sells them now? Why did you stop selling out of interest?

Cutting a steerer too short is a properly expensive mistake…

Wasn’t sure to start with (previous iPhone user…) but think I’m now a convert. Trialled submerging it too and it works just fine :) . My only fault now is the space bar is of small and I keep.on.writing.like.this…but that’s ok.

I’m not going to say who I work for because it’ll open up even more discussion on the rights and wrongs of charitable giving. But I’d suggest some of you might be interested in watching this Dan Pallotta’s TED talk on charities

Incidentally for those who think charities are just ‘given’ money. Can you let me know how people would know who to give their money too if people didn;t marlet themselves in some way? And how would you propose they get the money to the people that need it? All volunteers I guess. Genius.

+1 for going secondhand…you’ll get something decent for £300 and then you’ll get sucked in and in 12 months time you’ll be splashing a grand on something with no gears or suspension and silly big wheels ;)

Have emailed you as I may be able to help out.

Double post…

Personally I’d do Afan. You’ll get 5 hours consistent riding without needing to plan or think too much…I prefer big sky adventures when I’ve had time to pore over a map with mates…If I wasn’t staring down the barrel of 5 hours of meetings today I’d be out there too!

Leave as was

Ignore zoopla…my folks always told me a house is worth what you’re prepared to pay. And if you offered what you offered its because you liked it that much. It sounds weird but it does kind of make sense. Also the housing market is crazy at the moment. They will probably get offered nar the asking price soon. Does depend a bit on where you’re buying but if it’s within 50miles of London the trend seems to be for people getting OVER the asking Price

I’m hoping to start my ‘Nordkap (tip of scandinavia) to cape town’ epic ride…

The plan is to do the ride is several 2 week blasts and see how long it takes me. This year I’m hoping to get from Nordkap to St Petersburg. Or something like that

So, I ended up removing the .5mm spacer it says not to remove. And now the spring engages with the cam plate just fine. A bit stiff but all connecting nicely. Think it’ll be OK?

You get a cam plate when you buy a new free hub don’t you? I found a German site that just sell the cam plate )(just riding along don’t have stock) but maybe I should just bite the bullet and buy new free hub…

Cheers all

£50 then?

That’d be great if you could put him in touch with me. Cheers!

So I guess you’ve just embraced the lights then eh?! Imagine I’ll have to do the same

How long does it take you? I did a trial run of my possible new commute – London bridge to Tonbridge – and it was 2 hours on a Sunday. Wonder what it’ll be during the week and after a days work

I ride out north pretty often from Hornsey area

Head to Potters bar – that’s the crappy bit, but doesn’t take too long. From Potters bar head towards essendon and then Hertford. Then head out of Hertford towards bengeo, and then make your way to Cambridge via back roads. It’s a nice three hour ride from Hornsey to Cambridge. Then you can turn round and come home again. Or do as I do and just ride to Potters bar and get the train back to finsbury park. That is pretty much bang on 100miles

MTB-idle do you commute that distance through London out of interest? I have a 30 mile commute ahead of me in the spring (when I move to kent) and wondering how you cope with the long slog through London? TBH 30 miles on the open road would be a pleasure – it’s the 10miles of suburbia I’m dreading…

P.s. Congrats OP – keep it up and let me know how the motivation is by the end of Feb :)

This is great to read! I’ve been doing a pretty standard 8 miles ew through Central London for the last year or so but about to move to Tonbridge and was thinking that a 30mile commute was not even worth thinking about. But it seems that a few folk on here are up to that sort of distance. My only concern is the last 10miles through South London – think it might be the thing that breaks me. Just the stop starting etc. anyone got any suggestions for a quick route in from Kent. Office is in London bridge

If weather is truly horrible I carry a pair of ski gloves in my pack but go out in normal winter/wind proof gloves. And when I can no longer handle the numb fingers I move to the ski gloves. But usually only for breaks to get the feeling back…waterproof gloves have never really worked for me

I’ve always sort of thought that was the point of the beater bike…keep riding it until it actually falls apart under you…and then salvage spare parts from your prettier bikes that you would other otherwise bin. Sort of works for me…although admit that leaving it out in the rain every night is now really taking its toll

I bought a ss rigid swift about 9 months ago and love it. Can’t really say why…since on paper it’s no way near as nice as my other bike. It just works. Oh, and get a large. I am the same size as you and started with a medium and then changed up to a large

Any more for anymore?

I kind of wanted to do it in a week to ten days…

I had sort of been thinking about the London Istanbul race and then thought that rather than spending a fortnight killing myself for a race I’d end up coming last in I might as well kill myself doing a stretch of something I’ve always wanted to do. Nordkapp to Cape Town.

Besides 120 miles a day isn’t that unrealistic if you’re travelling light, or am I massively underestimating the terrain?

+ 1 for not bothering about toilet facilities. I’d keep it basic…but also why restrict to 2 berth. Personally I like to ride in a group of 4ish so my dream van would have two seats up front and then space for a cole more mates in the back. Wouldn’t be too fussed about needing to fit the bikes in over night if I was wild camping. I’d sleep two in the van and then two In a quick pop up tent. Last back to the van would get the tent…

Norway instead of Finland could work…I’d want to avoid anything that involved getting ferries etc as I’m trying to do a full land crossing…