Thanks guys, I have just bought one of those Cube frames for my son. He is starting to outgrow his current 24″ wheel Kona frame. I was planning to build up a 15″ Be-One frame I have in the loft, but the size on the Cube looks better. Plan for the bike is 1×10, Reba forks and Crank Brother wheels, he seems to do well out of my old stuff! Photos in a few weeks.

Normally with PF customs for a day or so before transferring to the local office. The local office will then send you a letter asking you to pay their charges. Like Mike I rang my local office once they had the box and paid over the phone which saved at least a day on the process.

I have been happy with the quality of the build on the road wheels I bought from them. I have done 1,000miles or so on them and they haven’t needed any attention, mainly on tarmac but some off road too. U-shaped rims, Novatech disc hubs, bladed spokes and brass nipples.

I have previously built two sets of LB mtb rims into mtb wheels. So would was also going to build the road wheels, but I was tempted with the solid rim bed and their price to build them was fairly reasonable. It saved me trying to feed the nipples through the rim. If needed I was happy to slacken them off and retension, but the build appeared excellent. I can’t remember if I tested the spoke tensions or not – I probably did.

I almost bought a GT Grade, well technically I bought it but I cancelled the order when the delivery date changed. In the end I bought a frame from China and built it up to my own spec. Very pleased with it so far, it worked out cheaper than the Grade, but with a much better spec. I mainly use it for long road rides, but it works fine off road too.

Does the restricted format of Instagram not bother anyone else?

I take most of my pictures that I plan to put on Instagram in a square format. If I take a full frame picture it doesn’t always crop well into a square.

I filled a similar sized pond in our garden in. Ours just had a plastic liner with carpet underneath. I removed the liner and carpet and then used it as a bit of a landfill site for a few months. We had just moved into the house which needed renovating so I managed to generate a bit of rubble from the house and garden. When it was maybe 30cms or so from the top I levelled it with topsoil and then turfed – looks fine now. Like you no easy access to the pond, so it took loads of trips with a wheel barrow to put in the topsoil.

This is my one : https://instagram.com/jkrob2014/

I seem to go through phases of using Instagram, and then forget about it for a while. Normally a mixture of buildings, cars and bikes.

A few of my colleagues used to work as architects, now they offer design advice to architects on using our products (bricks) as well as presenting CPD seminars – so still involved in building design, but not your typical architecture job. They work on some fairly mundane stuff like movement joint positions, but they also have input into some fabulous projects. I am sure lots of companies who work in construction would valve the skills you have.

I spend some of my working day visiting architects in London and generally they seem pretty busy, with a lot expanding and recruiting. Much better than it was a few years ago.

I had a Subaru Impreza with a tracker fitted, the discount on the insurance was minimal so I didn’t see any point in paying the subscription. When the car got stolen the police asked the tracker company to start monitoring the tracker, but they refused unless we ( or the police or insurance company) paid for a years subscription. At that stage I didn’t really want the car back so didn’t pay – there was also no gaurantee that it would actually work. The police didn’t seem overly surprised at the tracker companies attitude, after all there would be no point paying a subscription if they turned them on anyway when the car was stolen.

I am currently working my way through a bottle of No. 3 London Gin which is very nice. As a bit of a gin drinker I would be happy with any of the premium brands as a present, always good to try something new or unusual. The only one I really haven’t liked is some Heston Blumenthal mixture from Waitrose which was just a bit odd.

I have been using Schwalbe One tyres. Fairly cheap from one of the German bike shops – sorry can’t remember which one. Managed to get a huge cut in one after a few rides and had to bin it 🙁 the other one is still going strong.

I went for the solid rim bed option when I bought my wheels from LB. I got them to build them, and they didn’t charge any extra for the hassle of the solid rim bed, which I thought was a bit strange. I went with brass nipples, so hopefully they last for some time… I have built up a few sets of mtb LB rims in the past, but didn’t fancy the process of feeding the nipples through.

The rims work fine with the tubeless tyres I have tried.

Jason – how much did you pay for the ICAN frame and fork?

Sorry only just spotted your question. £322 delivered. That was for a plain matt UD frame, forks and headset. I bought through AliExpress, search for AC059.

I bought mine as a bit of an experiment (cheap from Aliexpress, but quality seems very good). If there is an aero advantage it is pretty small, the main difference I have noticed is that the flat tops are more comfortable for resting your hands on when climbing, or just cruising along – a bit like Ergon grips on an mtb. Also as the bars are carbon they don’t feel cold, whereas I think an unwrapped ali bar would being chilly on winter rides.

I have taped mine just past the hoods. I find them very comfy without the tape on the flats.

The only picture I can find is on Instagram, not sure if the link will work?

View this post on Instagram

Another morning behind bars.#four4th

A post shared by Jason Robinson (@jkrob2014) on Jan 2, 2015 at 12:53am PST

Does premium let you split times on a segment depending on which bike you’ve ridden? So I can see what the times are for the massive climb up to my house on different bikes. That would be useful.

Veloviewer.com show you this. It was a handy feature to see which bike was actually quicker up and down hill. Not sure if you can see this for free now, as I haven’t used it since you had to pay for it.

My chinese carbon CX bike is about 8kg. That is with an Ican frame (1088g) & fork (426g).

I have built it up as a road spec, so Ultegra 50/34 cranks rather than a closer ranged CX crankset. My old CX bike uses a normal CX chainset, and I always found the small gap between the front rings a bit strange on the road.

I have done a few 100+mile rides in the current set up and it seems fine. Happily mixes with other road bikes when out on a group ride.

Sorry I can’t find a close up photo of the road rims. But here is one of my LB mtb rims, again in matt UD. I would say the road rims have less visible weave.

I have used a set of LB disc rims for a couple of months, I have covered about 750 miles in that time, mainly on the road, but also off road. 45mm U rims, no brake track, UD Matt finish. 28H Novatech disc hubs. Solid rim bed. I went with brass nipples and bladed spokes, slightly annoying they don’t do black brass nipples!

I got LB to build them (mainly because I couldn’t face feeding the nipples around the rim) and the build quality seems very good, and they have stayed true so far. I have hit a few potholes while riding in the dark and I can’t find a mark on the rims. They do run tubeless, the solid rim bed makes this easy, however the tyre bead doesn’t lock in like I would expect a UST tyre/rim to. Saying that they do work fine tubeless, the only problem I have had is spitting a tyre.

Clean:

Dirty:

I have used Di2 Ultegra in the mud, but haven’t raced on it. The shifting seems to work better in the filth than a traditional setup, probably to do with the two way motorised movement. I can’t see it being any more resistant to snapping than a normal mech, although it does have a crash mode that disengages the motor – I am not sure how that is triggered.

If you shop about you can get a Di2 rear mech for just over £100, so about double the price of a normal Ultegra one. If I had a habit of trashing mechs I would have stuck with cable gears.

Pretty easy to shorten. Just like any Shimano hose really. You will need a new olive and insert, although with a bit of careful faffing you can re-use the inserts. I think there are two different inserts, one at the lever and one at the easyjoint thing, one is specific to that fitting, the other can be used in either – sorry I can’t remember which is which…

I mounted a tubeless 28mm Schwalbe One tyre onto a Light Bicycle carbon rim yesterday, it went up with just a track pump. The tyre is very tight on rim and I am pretty sure I will need tyre levers to remove.

I do have a coke bottle tubeless inflator in the garage as a backup for hard to seal tyres. Works really well and was very cheap to make.

I stayed at Sea Gardens in Nabq Bay last summer. The snorkelling is really good off the house reef. I have dived all over the Red Sea, and was more than happy to spend an hour or so a day floating around looking at the reef. Sea Gardens is part of a three hotel complex, while some of the pools are pretty long (50m+) they aren’t designed for proper swimming, you would most likely be constantly avoiding people.

This year I going to Marsa Alam and staying with at a hotel with an apparently really good house reef and a proper Olympic sized training pool. LTI Akassia Beach. The downside is there is only one flight a week to Marsa Alam, or you can fly to Hurgada, and take a 2hr transfer.

Oddly enough it is worth asking you local Volvo dealer for a price. My dad just bought a towbar rack and the cheapest quality one he found was from Volvo, which is a rebranded Thule.

height and wheel size not important here, that is mostly just BS from people trying to have an opinion.

+1

My wife is about 5′ 4″ and happily rides a small (might be XS) Scott Spark 29er, and prefers it to her 650b hardtail. It just depends on the frame design on how much stand over clearance there is. The biggest problem she has found is trying to test out really small frame as shops rarely stock them.

I enjoyed, it was a typical well run Trailbreak ride. The Wiggle tie in seemed to mean very generous feed stations – I thought the Wiggle energy bars were surprisingly good. We started at 9:20 and we rode past the ambulance by the dip, I could see how the ice on the section could catch you out, I hope the rider involved is okay. Apart from that bit I didn’t notice too much ice on the roads.

For me the ride seemed to involve me waiting for my wife on the downhill sections, and then me struggling to keep on her wheel on the uphills… I was riding a cheap Chinese carbon CX frame and it performed really well, it was the first time I have ridden it off road so wasn’t sure what to expect, but it made it round in one piece. Disc brakes were a big help too, looked to be lots of CX bikes on these now.

Saw a few broken rear mechs, I hope everyone made it back okay. Also lots of CX bikes with punctures, I don’t think I saw an mtb with a puncture.

As it looks to be dry overnight hopefully not as icey as it was this morning. Me and my wife are entered in the 80m route, both on CX bikes.

Martin, are you still sending out GPX of the routes before hand? I have only just got around to entering Sunday’s event and wasn’t sure if I had left it too late to get the route for my Garmin?

Looking forward to it. I think I did it the first year you ran it and it was a good mix of terrain. On my newish CX bike this year.

There is a description of the three 142×12 standards here:

http://www.xcracer.com/shop/viewproduct.php?productid=363

Yes water bottle lets it down.

Currently using 28mm road tyres, but 35mm tyres will easily fit in the frame and forks. It is their CX frame so lots of clearance.

The tightest clearance is at the chain stays. I think this was a 32mm tyre I tested in the frame:

I have been riding one for about a month. It sounds like the same frame you are looking at. Dealing with Ican was very good, they were quick to respond to emails, and shipping was pretty prompt with the frame well packaged. The frame and fork quality appears to be good, I thoughly checked it over and couldn’t find any issues. Frame inserts supplied for normal cables or Di2.

I have built mine up as more of a road bike, and have clocked up just under 500 miles so far, including two 100+ mile rides.

Only issue I have spotted is a bit of rust coming from the lower headset bearing, the headset was included with the frame and looked fairly cheap. They are standard bearing, so I will change them at some stage.

So far I am very happy with it.

I snapped the one in our patio door as I didn’t have a key. It broke with very little force and only a few wiggles of the mole grips. Replaced with a much better one.

It will be fine, the impression in the tyre will soon disappear when you start riding. I have had the same set up for the past few years and the bike has only been taken off a handful of times.

We have ones of these:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/B00AHECZMA/

It is fairly easy to fly and pretty stable.. My son was 8 when we got it and was happy flying it around with out many crashes, it didn’t take him long to be able to land it on the arm of the sofa. We are actually on our 2nd one as the first developed a throttle problem, so maybe reliabilty isn’t as good as it could be, but the replacement has been faultless.

5478 miles
420 hours
61,288m climbing
219 rides

Quite a few of those ‘rides’ where on a turbo trainer, so elevation gain seems pretty low.

I bought a new TV last year. I wasn’t planning to get a smart one, but once you get to a certain price point everything seems to be smart anyway. The only smart bit I use is the Netflix app, which is duplicated on 2 or 3 other things connected to the telly so I could happily live without it.

I was in Hurghada last year and can’t remember seeing anything about mountain biking. Even if there was the local area is pretty much flat, I think if you look inland you can see some mountains in the distance but can’t remember. Pretty hot in April, if you do find an mtb place go out early in the morning.

My advice would be to go diving instead 😀

My kids have never had a problem with them? The individual LEDs aren’t that bright, they are fine to look at when switched on.

I have a couple of these:
http://www.xcracer.com/shop/viewproduct.php?productid=26
They have held up well to lots of use, the oldest is probably 3 years old and still works fine.

I normally carry: 29er tube, tyre lever, co2, multi tool, stick on patches. A bit of a squeeze but fits fine.

Is tunnel hill the one with the big parking area and massive puddles?

Yes

How long are the laps?

My wife did a lap of the course last night, I think she said it was just over 7 miles. She mentioned it was quite hilly too.