or more to the point, is it a total PITA? expensive / surcharges etc?

We can all be dickheads from time to time.

Not all of us are violent thugs though.

The law is as big an ass as the driver. The driver lied to the police, then backtracked when told of the video evidence. Double guilty, should be banned from driving and sent to anger management course at the very least.

p*** poor from the seller. Name and shame? Although you take a financial risk buying second hand from the forum, you also take a risk to your reputation when selling on a community forum like STW IMHO, as a community forum, it’s largely built on trust and respect.

I would not behave like the seller and would expect the same from others.

The older ones did indeed have a wafer thin seat tube, I have one. DMR resolved this by milling out the top part of the seat clamp, unfortunately you still had to clamp the post really tight, which meant that more force was being applied to the post than the seat tube.

I had to shim out the lower part of the clamp, [the half that attaches to the frame] to be able to clamp the post with a normal / reasonable amount of force. Hasn’t cracked yet.

Lovely bike though, not 853 comfortable but much better than the 520 genesis it replaced, oversized down tube keeps it tight tracking for a steel frame, guess thats why they tried a silly slim seat tube to compensate for the stiffer down tube.

buy a single link chain like a charge masher, that’ll solve your problem.

Or, presuming you’re using a thicker ss specific or bmx chain, [as you should be, as a9/10 speed chain will stretch like it’s made of rubber if you run it ss] you can buy an individual single link for a quid or two.

Now’t wrong with black Rusty, matt or otherwise.

Bet your bike looks like a ‘shell-suit’ [girlfriends observation concerning bike aesthetics…made me laugh anyway]

Sometimes it snows….in April.

Regardless of wheel size, frame sizing seems to have become more restricted over the last few years.

My better half likes a frame with a 21.5 inch top tube, which was easy to get from almost any manufacturer until recently.

For example, she wanted to replace her 2004 kona kula 26 “, but for the last 3 years their smallest [14”] frame has a 22′ top tube which is too long. This is from a company famous for offering a wide range of sizes!

After about a year of searching, she managed to pick up a 2010 kona kula deluxe bargain from CRC and is delighted. I’m sure someone will point out that manufacturer x still does the size she was after, but she’s a bit of a snob when it comes to bike aesthetics / brand etc, [nothing wrong with that] and almost any bike she liked the look of had gone too long in the TT

At the other end of the scale, It amazes me how many 29er and 650 b bikes top out with a 19 or 20 ” seat tube, which can leave an awful lot of seat post sticking out, and limit seat post choice if you’re 6’4″ or above. So much for them suiting taller riders. If you need a 21 inch seat-tube, there seems to be more choice in amongst 26″ frames.

Daft.

edit;-

When I refer to bad English drivers, I am not excluding our Scottish, Welsh and NI brethren.

Stayed there a couple of years back, had the intention of hiring some MTB’s. Most of the off road riding is on fire road / doubletrack etc, so we hired a couple of road bikes instead.

Best road riding you could imagine, perfect pot-hole free roads winding through a lunar landscape, proper hills [mountains] and drivers who respect riders, [except the English tourists in hire cars!]

Amazing, amazing, amazing.

p.s. I dont do much roadying in the UK except for city commuting etc.

+1 for putting some stans latex in a tube with a removable valve core.

Been doing this for a couple of years, still had a couple of punctures that wouldn’t seal, due to the pressures being so high in a road tyre. Funnily enough, both times I punctured, I gave it a couple of minutes, rotating the tyre whilst flat to let the stans coat the tyre and pumped the tyre back up and hey-presto, puncture fixed.

Love my Kinesis decade virsa, swap outs for ss or geared, Tange tubing, not as ‘zingy’ as 853 they say, but miles more compliant than the 520 genesis it replaced. I’m a big fella, so I thought 853 would be a bit too flexy for me. slightly oversize downtube, which i think helps keep it on line.

Nice understated graphics as well. Which, as we know, is the most important thing!

Update No. 2

One strip of electricians tape and bingo! tyre went up in an instant. Heard the satisfying sound of the bead popping onto the rim as well, so the tape doesn’t seem to be interfering with the bead lock on the rim either, seems secure, so I’ll think I’ll run it as it is, [certainly more secure than a rim strip conversion, where the bead doesn’t lock and requires the air pressure to keep the seal. I’m a bit nervous of running lower pressures on conversions, particularly on the front]

Chuffed now, as I’ve always prided myself on being able to get any tyre rim combo to go tubeless, [as long as the tyre will fit on the rim in the first place!]

Ohhh Yes. [as Churchill would say!]

Thanks for tips all. Did it before I read your tip Dales rider, otherwise I would have tried that, though me-thinks the bead was a bit too loose and would have struggled to stay on one side of the rim whilst removing other bead. Next time I’ll give it a go if needed, though with tubeless I don’t tend to need to change or remove the tyre till it wears out or gets a sidewall slash, I just top up by removing valve core and using an injector.

update;-

Tried inflating a srecialized captain 2 bliss on the back, unused tyre but 2 or 3 years old, [came on sisters bike but was swapped out immediately.] No joy, think the beads too loose, [air escaping from where the valve is, not even a hint of the tyre catching]

Then tried a newer purgatory 2 bliss on the front , [slightly different graphics, maybe they make them with tighter beads now] and it went up instantly. caught the bead on the first stroke of the pump! just like when I’ve used stans and roval rims.

So apologies mavic for my earlier comments! Although I must say I think the stans bead shelf idea is much more tolerant of variable bead tightness, I’ve managed to get any tyre I’ve tried up and running in a jiffy with them, including 5 year old knackered racing ralph evo’s without any hassle what-so-ever. I can see the bead-lock design on UST rims is a great idea in principle, but it seems dependent on a perfect tyre match.

I’m going to try a bodge for the meantime by putting a strip of tape round the rim until I get a different back tyre. Might sound daft I know, but having done a few rim-strip conversions before on standard rims with no great bother, [except for having to use a more vigorous pumping action]

un-supported side knobs seem to be the problem, too squishy in the turn and liable to tear off

If you’re happy with a basic kit zoom then fill your boots!

The op isn’t looking for a wide angle lens though. he needs a wide apeture to let more light in so as to use a faster shutter speed or lower iso. for shooting bands in low light situations. Also a standard or slight telephoto will be more suitable for the portraiture aspect of his requirements.

You cant get that on any cheap kit lens that i’m aware of [correct me if you know of a cheap zoom that will do standard to tele with a 1.8 / 1.4 apeture]. Shallow depth of field is great when it comes to portraits, its one of the great things about medium format cameras, the larger the format, the shallower the depth of field will be for the same apeture on a smaller format camera.

Personaly, i think a prime lens will always have better optics / sharpness than a zoom at a given price point.

Whilst not as versatile, i believe using a prime lens will generally improve your photographic skills with regards composition, you have to think about things a little more.

Being a little facetious, you can often use your feet to move closer or further away from the subject. Think of the Father Ted cows sketch, “these cows are small, those ones are far away’

Any evidence of this Willber? as I’m often over there.

I picked up a sigma 24mm [works out about 35mm focal length on a DX camera] second hand for £100 and it’s as good as the nikon equivalent IMHO.

Sigma have made a lot of awful cheap zoom lenses but their primes can be fantastic.

I picked up a sigma 24mm [works out about 35mm focal length on a DX camera] second hand for £100 and it’s as good as the nikon equivalent IMHO.

Sigma have made a lot of awful cheap zoom lenses but their primes can be fantastic.

You could go for the nikon AF 50mm f1.4.
It’s 50mm on a full frame [35mm] sensor so works out about 75mm on a Dx size sensor

An absolutely amazing lens, stunning clarity, the ultra shallow depth of field elevates the image to give a real pro look, even with a more basic Dx camera,. Not to expensive either.

Fantastic for portraiture and probably ideal for photographing bands, giving you a closer crop of the action. Future proof as well for when full frame cameras become more affordable.

Cheap zooms suck. Prime lenses rule.

Freeborn act as distributor and retailer for ellsworth and banshee and manage to sell them at a comparable to US price. So you do have to ask why SC, yeti and others are marked up so high.

Had some slx brake hoses that came euro style switched at Harry hall in Manchester a couple of months back….£20 all in for both ends.

Did you rotate the wheel so the hole was at the bottom {6 ‘Oclock position] and let the sealant puddle above the hole, letting the tyre pressure force the sealant through the hole, giving it 3-5 mins to do it’s job? usually works for me. Sealed holes op to 5mm [on tread, not sidewall] doing this, usually have to pump up a bit more 15 mins later.

Using Stans BTW

+ I’m usually pretty generous with the amount of sealant I put in. sod the weight, It’ll all dry out eventually.

Sorry, just thought you may be implying that she was British born so therefore I was talking b**locks!

No. she moved here from India 10 years ago. Though I think you’re right that were she born here she may not have taken the incident so badly, being more grounded in our ‘rougher ways’

Brits and Aussies [like tour average STW forum user] are a pretty hadened lot, used to a bit of ‘sledging’ and banter.

When the news broke it immediately occurred to me that the nurse maybe foreign, [As are a great number of NHS staff are] and she may not have been as hardened to the kind of banter that we are quite comfortable with. maybe she was more easily fooled by the “Rubbish’ British accents that the D.J’s put on. maybe she comes from a background where dignity and respect are held in higher accord, and consequently she felt a higher burden of shame and remorse/responsibility than your average Brit/Aussie might?

The image portrayed of the royals to a global audience is not one that we necessarily recognise, I have often been surprised at how foreigners Imagine our Royals to be ‘untouchable’ That you may be prosecuted or imprisoned for criticising the Queen e.t.c. If you find this idea far fetched, go to somewhere like Africa or India and ask people there for their perception of the Royal family. Even Sarah Palin thought that The Queen ruled Britain as an Absolute Monarch, [don’t laugh] and in many countries, even so called democracies citizens are weary or scared of criticising or offending their leaders.

Think about this when we say ‘there must have been something deeper going on in her mind’ etc. From my experience traveling and talking to people from other countries about how they perceive [and we promote] the Royals, it really doesn’t come as a massive surprise to me that this nurse may have been overcome with remorse and shame.

The OP has obviously thought about this a fair bit before posting and was probably acting on a very strong gut feeling, so give him a break ffs.

I posted similar a while back when I saw a spesh enduro with fox 36’s etc being ridden around my way [central manc] by what I believe I described as a 14 year old ‘Vicky Pollard’ I couldn’t say it was stolen for sure but…

I saw the same bike a few times the next week by various persons, ‘freeriding’ to the corner shop etc. and as I said before, I couldn’t be sure it was nicked, maybe only 99.9% sure. That was my gut feeling anyhow.

I guess I was thinking of the potential ‘real’ owner of the bike and that they may be reading STW to try and track it down.

You’ll be surprised how well brute force can work on steep bits on a ss. Shifting balance to find traction becomes intuitive , and the direct nature of the drivetrain helps no end.

However, the vertiginous and lumpy nature of the peaks will push a ss to it’s limits. You’ll still see plenty of them in the peaks though. [just make sure you put a suspension fork on the front! I did the Peak District on a rigid ss…………….Once!

just use a set of pliers to open an sram chain, though make sure you use them at an angle, only contacting one end of each link plate with plier end before pinching. Always found this works in an instant. If you try and pinch the whole link square on so to speak, you may be there for some time!

just use a set of pliers to open an sram chain, though make sure you use them at an angle, only contacting one end of each link plate with plier end before pinching. Always found this works in an instant. If you try and pinch the whole link square on so to speak, you may be there for some time!

StuE – Member
Purgatory not discontinued,but they have just brought out a new version

The new purgatory control 2.3 looks fatter than the old 2.2 and with a larger gap between centre and edge tread. not as suitable for xc, and probably not as good in mud.

Glad I managed to pick an old stock 2.2 from Harry Hall yesterday!

especially in the Kent Downs near Igtham this afternoon, the bed of leaves even providing a barrier to the mud. A bit slippy, but a quick wipe of the down tube and seat post with some fern leaves and the bike didn’t even need a wash….. which is a first in a long, long time. I could even see the skin on my shins when finished, another first in a …..you get the picture.

Just been out for a ride in the kent downs [leaves providing a great, if slippy barrier to the mud!] and ended up on a footpath by mistake. Loads of walkers about, nothing but smiles and greetings.

Even stopped a couple of proper ramblers to ask how to get back to bridleway as we knew we shouldn’t be on a foot path, they thought i was nuts and began pointing out other footpaths they thought we might enjoy riding on.

I guess it takes all sorts……

looks like spesh have just discontinued the purgatory. Always seems to happen, just when you’ve found the right tyre! Now they’ve got a great range of back tyres [storm, captain, fast track etc. but nothing xc/am for the front unless you go for the full on clutch which is too much for my normal/average riding.

BadlyWiredDog – Member
It’s pure selfish vandalism on the part of 4×4 drivers.
Hard to believe. Seriously though, have none of you ever ridden on golf courses? Or bowling greens? Same difference. Glass houses and stuff.

Different difference.
Seriously though, I’d not ride across a golf course or a bowling green, than would be vandalism. Different difference.

live and let live and all that, but i’ll wager those trails took a lot of time and effort to build, only to be destroyed in seconds by a 4×4. This has got nothing to do with shared use, walker / bikes / horses etc.

It’s pure selfish vandalism on the part of 4×4 drivers.

Amen to that.

Ask Bertie.

soobalias – Member

ive no problem with doping, but anyone caught referring to a rider as Froome-Dog should be banned from talking about the sport.

same rules for Bertie, Spartacus et Al.

Would that be a two year ban? If so, can I apply to the STW moderator to have it applied retrospectively and have any forum comments I made the last 18 months disregarded/deleted, thus being able to rejoin the conversation in 6 months time?

Haze,

fair enough, suspicion tends to fall upon any rider who suprises with their form, I suppose my question is how seriously does the Spanish federation take doping? or does it in-fact tolerate, or indeed facilitate it.

I am not surprised by some of the abuse I will get on here for asking a genuine questio, I remember the torrent of abuse Wiggins got on UK cycling forums for his rant against doping at the end of the 2007 TDF

I understand many cycling fans would rather have all the dope fuelled exciting performances than a clean sport, It’s just that I’d rather see a genuine competition.