I took the skinny tyre commute bike out for a gentle spin on the road late last summer and on my way past the entrance to the local woods a bunch of expensive bouncey-bike pushing body-armoured teenagers started shouting abuse from the pavement.

I rode on without biting. I mean, how were they know that ten years previous I was building the trails they'd just been riding?

Nice to meet everyone. Good ride, good company, nice way to spend a saturday.

Looking forward to the next one. Cheers to Pook for the organisation.

I can't send a link or a gps route, but for something different than the usual Porter Valley route try the following to get into the Peak and back.

Town – Hillsborough – Beeley Woods – Wharncliffe Woods – Transpennine Trail – Penistone – Ecklands – Langsett – Cut gate – Ladybower – Peak – Stanage – Redmires – Wyming Brook – Rivelin Valley – Malin Bridge – Hillsborough – Town

I've done it but it's a long day.

Obviously by rights I should say my current bike, as it's the most up to date, by far the 'best' and I bought it because it fits the bill for me perfectly.

However that's boring. So I will answer in a more interesting way.

I have two favourite bikes.

One is an old mid 90's Klein Attitude in Red, with Girvin Vectors and green Wildgrippers, as it's a setup I saw used in a race back when I was a young lad and my jaw dropped at how gorgeous it looked.

The other is a Yeti Lawwill Six with Boxxers and Ringle anodised kit, Cook Bros cranks and yellow half carbon HED rims, as it was the bike that used to make me drool when flicking through the magazines.

I remember turning up to a NEMBA weekend in about 95 – I'd be about 14 and I entered both DH and XC races on my £250 cantilever braked rigid – and it was the first time I realised that normal people owned such exotica. Before then I had assumed only those sponsored californian types rode that kind of machinery, and suddenly I found myself on the start line in my local woods surrounded by the stuff I fantasised about.

Now I'm older and earning a wage, it's all affordable and within reach, and somehow the magic is gone. Which is why no modern bike really excites me. Back then, in my young schoolboy eyes they were akin to the Lamborghini Diablo, the Jaguar XJ220 or the Ferarri F40 – Utterly unobtainble and endlessly exotic.

Now I can order any bike I choose and spec it just how I like, the magic has gone from the machines themselves. Devalued by their availability and obtainability.

I sometimes wonder if those few who can afford their dream cars feel the same – I'm sure nothing ever lives up to the desire you had for it when you couldn't have it.

The bikes I've mentioned above would ride like dogs – badly dated, surpassed by much better machinery like my current fairly unremarkable trailbike which will easily outperform the both of them in their respective disciplines.

But as long as I keep my bank card away from the Retrobike classifieds and ensure they remain nothing more than a dream, they'll continue to be my favourite bikes.

Good link Danny – those Tyvek things are ace.

If they ever do a Harry Beck London Tube map one (rather than that Vignelli-defying NY subway one) I'll be all over it.

Cheers Jo:

This is why – Oh yeah…

+1

Jack, if it's been raining will the aqueduct be in full flow

I imagine so, yeah.

I have a jimi wallet they are okay but will not hold the bank card AA membership card ID card and money and change.

My jimi currently contains a bank card, an RAC card, a pikey PAYG topup card, an oystercard, a couple of reciepts, a cinema ticket, two old train tickets and (best of all) a tenner! 🙂

Best of all it survives getting soaked in my pocket every day on the commute, and in the camelbak every weekend in the peak. Love it.

Not very classy though, if class is your thing.

Blimey!

Aye np.

Good call James, I was going to suggest that little section. I know it as the aqueduct track (no idea why cos it's not really an aqueduct) Bit of a quagmire in places but it's better than the road.

Jimi. I love mine.

It's not in any way cool or in any way a respected machine among the dirtbike crew and so it'll get laughed out of existance like the TW200 did, but for general commuting with the occassional bit of dirt I'd look at the Rieju Tango.

Sounds like Chinese monkeymetal but they're an established Spanish manufacturer. The new Gas Gas Pampera is a badge engineered 125 Tango, and one of their crossers is made by Gas Gas.

The Tangos look good, the 125s have Yam engines, they're narrow, not super tall, and they weigh next to nowt. I'd fancy the 250cc but the engine's an unknown quantity, not being from Yam, so I'd like to hear reliablity reports before going for it.

If the main use is on tarmac with the occassional bit of dirt, and you can cope with not looking harcore like you would on the metal posted above (although I think you can spec the more traditional phallic MX fender if you wish) they look just the ticket.

Vid of someone messing around on an mx course the 250:

Not managed to blag the lights this week 🙁

Extreme – Pornograffitti
David lee Roth – Yankee Rose
Motley Cru – Girls, Girls, Girls

What's with the spindly swingarm?

Is it a Home Welded Abhorrence rather than a Marin?

I'll be there for this one.

If you can remove the shifter windows then you can switch the position or the shifter and brake levers round which means you can keep your shifters where your thumbs can reach but have your brake levers as far inboard as bar diameter/sweep allows.

Excellent outcome 🙂

Put a wanted ad on retrobike

http://www.retrobike.co.uk/forum/

They did a good job but looked rubbish. I like the look of that magura shock thing with the rubber gaitor thing that was on the ST homepage a while ago, but not seen anything of it since. Much better than the 'bellows' look of the traditional type.

Must say though, I'd happily run them on the bike over the winter, rubbish look or not.

The best security measure we could all take is to stop buying cheap parts off ebay and on the classifieds unless we are completely happy that the source of them is kosher.

Ride a Harley? Drive a VW camper or other old classic? Perhaps a Land Rover? Or are you a mountain biker? These hobbies all have two things in common:

Customisation is common.
Theft is rife.

It fuels itself. Whilever there's a demand for cheap second-hand kit, our kit will go missing to supply it. Scrotes aren't stealing our bikes to use themselves (though I did see a spotty spliff smoking chav on a 5 spot the other week) – they're stealing them to sell.

Ebay and internet classifieds pages are a dream come true for the scrotes. Yes, a lot of bikes get stolen and sold for a few quid down the local, but ones like those mentioned here aren't being nicked from the train station or from outside the uni campus on a whim by an opportunist. They're being specifically targetted.

If we all stopped buying cheap second hand kit unless we were 100% positive that the source was totally pukka, we wouldn't need all these ground anchors, chains, alarms and insurance, and we wouldn't have threads like this.

The whole thing irritates me beyond belief.

Kill ebay and make internet classified pages available only to those with high post counts and those who can be vouched for by others. That would go some way to stopping it.

But no. People like a bargain when they're shopping for their American classic and XTR shod titanium hardtails.

/rant

Yes – chaintugs work. I recommend you use them.

Literal lol at all the fail.

Ask her to make a donation to a charity instead – the real spirit of christmas. If you don't want for anything, why ask for anything?

lol @ skidartist

I've noticed this at home on Safari but not at work on IE.

Oh my god yeah – Bodhi in Point Break. Gooooood call.

I'd quite like to live in the world inhabited by The Dude in Big Lebowski.

Lounging around in jelly sandals and a wool cardigan, being generally out of it, occassionally going bowling, drinking a beer, talking to Sam Elliot about nothing in particular. Looks like waster heaven.

not sure I'd like a marmot being thrown in my bath though.

Oof bloody hell coogan, love that.

I use two – spent years downhilling on knackered V Brakes and got used to it that way. Recenlty tried setting levers more in-board to try and encourange one finger braking but it doesn't feel comfortable.

The first time I even considered how many fingers I grabbed the levers with was when I was told off during my motorbike lessons for using two finger clutching/braking.

All four fingers? What are you supposed to hold onto the bar with?! You end up controlling the bike with the heels of your hands – it's wrong.

Early warning for this Thursday (26th) in Hope at 19:00hrs.

Still happening? I've managed to blag some lights!

The same way the tie fighters can stay aloft in atmosphere with their vertical 'wings'.

It's not just down to front end height. Trail and head angle are the biggies for twitchiness.

Remember PJ and Duncan.

Nobody wants a "Geoff Man, a canna see" moment.

Brick Lane Bikes stock Pauls stuff.

here

http://www.singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/best-bodges

Some guards come with a fitting to be used on frames that are without seatstay bridge. I assume your SKS ones dont.

There was a bodge thread on here recently where somebody had posted a picture of a reflector bracket attatched to the seatube below the front mech, and the guard was bolted to that. Looked fairly tidy.

I ran a Defender for 4 years as a daily driver, they're fine. Actually they're more than fine, they're the best vehicle in the world.

I'd still run it but for the fact that all Defenders at some point suffer the same problem: They get stolen.

Myself and 3 riding friends all have these jackets, we rate them well.

We also look like a set of coordinated idiots too, but that won't be a problem for you.