Sorry no idea, I got Light Bicycle to build them up. I have built up a few of their mtb rims in the past and was planning to build these, but thought threading the nipples through the rim would be a bit time consuming. I think getting LB to build them only cost £20 or so more than all the bits cost of the bits. I was prepared to re-tension them when the arrived, but haven’t touched them as the build seems pretty good.

Jason – what rims are they?

Light Bicycle 45mm U-shaped rims, in matt UD finish. Seem good so far, I ordered them with a solid rim bed so no need for rim tape to run tubeless.

Here is my Chinese bike with them on:

The benefits I have found so far are a very light braking action, but plenty on modulation. Nice to finish a wet ride without the rims covered in black paste. I havn’t ridden them on proper dry roads yet, so tyre traction has really been the limiting factor on my stopping speed. Agree about the longer hoods, I got used to them very quickly, and have used a slightly shorted stem than I was originally anticipating.

The only downside I have noticed so far is that in the wet they squeal a fair bit. Fine whan the pads and disc are dry, but a bit of moisture makes them quite noisy. I am currently on standard Shimano pads and discs, but might try some other pads to see if that improves things.

Yes they are the same.

falkirk-mark – Member
Nice that they allowed you to video the plane landing. the companies I fly with make you put your electrical stuff off

The CAA rules on this changed a while ago. You can now use phones and tablets during takeoff and landing as long as they are set to airplane mode, although I am not sure if all carriers let you.

I use a Mobius. I have had it for about 8 months now, it has worked perfectly so far.

Fitted the warm white LED strips to our kitchen a few years ago. Just one strip under all the units. Original adhesive worked fine, and they are still stuck there, that is despite some of it being directly over the kettle. Very easy to fit, only hassle really was going around corners. Only problem I have had is one of the transformers blew after a year or so, the replacement was pretty cheap. It looks great and much nicer than individual lights under the units.

I reused the inserts, and I had some spare olives. The connections at the lever only took one pair of hands so were easier to refit than the ‘easy joint’ connection.

Confusingly there are now two different inserts for the BH59 line. One for the normal connection (at the lever), and one for the ‘easy joint’ connection. I think the easy joint one has a slightly wider opening. You would have thought that after years of making mtb disc brakes Shimano would have this sorted by now.

I gave the brakes their first real use yesterday – 100miles on damp roads, very impressed with them. Very little effort required to brake.

Four4th Scorpion gets my vote too. Hides away under the saddle, lots of modes, bright enough to use in day time and the battery lasts for ages.

I have a Westfalua detachable too. No noticeable movement when a bike rack is fitted on it. When it is removed you can’t tell the car had a towbar fitted. Mine also came from PF Jones.

Mine are fairly hidden under the bars:

Internally routed cables in the bars too, so I had to redo the connectors into the levers as well…

I am pretty sure the rear one was almost long enough to fit without using the easy joint bit. I think it was only a few cm too short.

It seems to be an OEM thing, although no idea why?

Also don’t forget to put the rubber nut covers over the hose before you connect it up. They should by packed with the levers somewhere.

I fitted some of these a couple of weeks ago. Mine are R785 from CRC and were supplied in the same style. If you need to shorten the cables then it is a bit pointless really. I had to shorten both of mine so it still involved cutting the cable and then fitting the little insert into the end of the cable, attaching it into the ‘easy-joint’ fitting and then re-bleeding. With a bit of careful cutting you can re-use the insert, although they are probably only a £1 or so.

I also managed to slightly tear the white cover over the end of the cable as I was feeding it through the frame, so even if I hadn’t had to shorten the cable I would still have had to re-bleed.

Also make sure you push the cable fully into the fitting before you tighten. I had to redo one of mine as my assistant didn’t push it in far enough…

Overall I would prefer if they had been supplied with normal cables.

With the right bits the brake where very quick and easy to bleed.

Both fine here too.

Bikes now back in working order. 2 pairs of brake pads on my bike. Wife’s bike needed 2 sets of pads, new rear tyre and a new bottom bracket.

On the bottle front I have a bottle carrier I leave in the pits, I normally have a plastic crate that I leave a few spares in, and put the carrier on top. In the top picture above you can see my green box and carrier. As long as it is dry the free cardboard wine bottle carriers from supermarkets do the job. For longer races I take a table as it saves bending down to pick up the bottles.

For me it was:
Compression base layer
Team top
Gillet
Arm-warmers
Lyrca bib shorts
leg warmers
Woolie Boolie socks
Summer shoes – at least they let the water out!
Windproof gloves

I went for the wet and warm approach rather than trying to stay dry. Also a good coating of warm up oil on my legs before the start.

I left a waterproof in the pits just in case I started to get cold.

Temperature wise I was fine during the race, it was only when I got home and was washing the bikes that I started shivering a bit. The drive home was too short to really warm up in the car.

For my 4 laps:
About 500ml of Accelerade (a 750ml bottle but I didn’t finish it)
About 500ml of High5 Energy Source
750ml of High 5 Extreme
A bottle of water on the last lap (didn’t drink much of that)
3 gels I think
Half a Torq bar (I dropped the other half, and didn’t fancy it once covered in mud)

Seemed about right for me.

I think that is where my wife ripped her tyre, she said it was about 2miles from the finish. A Specialized tyre in her case, but I am sure any tyre would have torn there.

I think I sort of enjoyed it? I managed 4 laps, I did have time to go out for a 5th, but my rear pads were down to the metal, and if I stopped to sort them I wouldn’t have crossed the line before the 4 hrs where up, so an easy decision really. Bike washed down and it now doesn’t look too bad, hopefully it is just the front and rear pads that need replacing.

Glad I switched my tyres to Ground Controls before the race, generally I didn’t find grip a problem, but did have a couple of offs in the filth. Managed a huge muddy slide down the section with off camber corners, I lost the front wheel, hit the ground and just keep sliding!

Appreciate the fact that the organisers re-routed parts of the course as the race went on. Lots of events would have just left the course as it was, but the removing the worst bits actually made the later laps bearable.

Thanks to Gaz of KTM who sacrificed his race by lending my wife his bike after she ripped a tyre while leading the ladies 2 hour race. She wasn’t quite able to maintain her lead on the big bouncy bike, but she is very grateful.

I don’t think there has ever been a proper wet race at Monley, so who knows how the course will hold up. As Gee says it won’t be craggy, so proper mud tyres won’t be needed. There are plenty of fire road sections that will hold up fine in the rain, and the singletracks drains well, so hopefully not too bad just a bit slippy.

It has rained in the past during 12hr races at Minley, and one year it was fairly waterlogged at the start, and I have just run normal tyres (probably Rons or Icons) and haven’t found the lack of grip an issue.

My son has both. 2.0 is better, visually as well as the Toybox section.

In both versions the Disney Infinity software just gives you the Toybox, this lets you build a world – a bit like Minecraft. 2.0 seems to have more going on in the Toybox (I have never actually played it). If you actually want to play a game then you need a Playset piece, this unlocks one game. You then need characters to play in the game. The games are actually pretty good for kids, and seem to be a sort of story with lots of missions. The starter sets come with a Playset piece and characters. 1.0 has a better starter pack as it unlocks three games (Monsters Inc, Pirates of Caribbean and Incredibles) whereas 2.0 only has the Marvel game.

Yes you can buy the 1.0 characters and play with them in the 2.0 Toybox mode. I was in a Tesco’s the other day and they had lots of the 1.0 stuff about half price. From what I have seen the best part of Disney Infinity is the Playsets so if their is one your daughter really wants I would get the version that that works on. I am not sure if all platforms are the same, but on the Wii U once you own 1.0 you can download the software for 2.0, not sure how much it is, but cheaper than buying a new starter pack.

While it could be really expensive, my son seems pretty happy with a few bits for his birthday or Christmas and he has spent a lot of time playing on it.

The age rule is different for Brass Monkeys, I think because the series is in two years. So age relates to your age on the day of the last race.

For anyone planning to enter today is the last day to pre-enter, no entries on the day.

We upgraded to a WiiU last Christmas. I got a really good deal from Amazon’s Black Friday sale, I think it was under £200 with three games included. My 9 year old son loves it, his favourites seem to be Mario Kart 8, Lego City Undercvoer and Disney Infinity 2.0. Super Mario World is pretty good to. For kids it is a really good console, the Nintendo games are really good to play. The console is a huge step forward from the Wii, for whatever reason Nintendo just didn’t market it properly when it was first launched.

4hrs Vets for me.

Crosshair, I tend to pace it on how I feel, but a quick look back at previous 4hr races and I seem to average 85-90% of my max HR for the 4hrs. At the start I probably ride out of my comfort zone for 30mins or so and then settle into a steady pace.

Hopefully no more rain between now and Sunday.

Like it or not I am sure electronic shifting will become more and more common. I am building up a new road/cx bike at the moment and decided to go down the Di2 route. The price of the mechs didn’t seem too bad, I think the rear Ultegra Mech was just over £100 which considering all the stuff inside it seems reasonable compared to a mechanical version. Shifter/brake levers we’re the same price as mechanical. The bits I found expensive for the system were all the additional stuff needed, 6 x cables, 2 x junction boxes, battery and charger, that was about £300.

Shifting will be far more positive in the mud, so I can see it’s place off road, The rear mech has a feature that disengages the motors in the event of a crash. I am sure this is also in the XTR version, and could be handy as the only time I have damaged a rear mech is when I have crashed.

In case any one is confused here is a video on how the ‘Synchronized Shift’ works : http://e-tubeproject.shimano.com/synchronized_shift.html. Surprised that it is supporting 3×10.

When the mtb version gets to XT pricing I will be interested.

Clearance is pretty good, this is with a 34c Vittoria tyre:

Fork:

Seat Stays:

Chain Stays:

Pretty much the same as mine. I weighed them as 1088g for the frame and 426g for the fork with cut steerer.

Ultegra Di2 with Light Bicycle wheels. Nearly finished now, but waiting on LB to send the wheels… In the past I have just bought rims from them and built them up myself, and they have always been quick to post. This time I thought I would get them to build the wheels – partly as I am going for a solid rim bed and it seemed easier to let the have the hassle of feeding the nipples in the rim. It seems to be taking them ages to finish, hopefully in the post on Monday.

I watched the first two seasons while on the turbo trainer earlier this year, so might have missed some of the finer points in it. I thought the first started well and was pretty creepy at times, but by the end all the ghost just seemed to get a bit too friendly. I enjoyed the second season, although some scenes were uncomfortable to watch. Interesting to have a totoally different story, but with the same actors.

Season 3 is now on Netflix, so will probably watch that soon.

SPAM’s Erlestoke 12hr race is normally on at the end of May, although that is ‘only’ 12 hours not 24. Gorrick 100 is early May, that is 100km so 6-8hrs for most people.

With the exception of Strafpuffer I can’t think of any 24hr races early in the year. Exposure 24 didn’t happen this year, I think due to the 24hr Worlds a week or two ago, and I am not sure if it will actually go ahead again due to low numbers last year. That probably only leaves Bontrager 24:12 and Mayhem for next year.

There are lots of overseas stage races early in the year if you are looking for a challenge.

I went with a 55. The top tube is slightly longer than my current CX bike, which has always felt a bit short.

I went with the Matt UD option rather than one of their brightly painted frames. I am building it up as a road bike that can go off road and race cross, rather than a full on CX racer. This is how it looks so far:

Any chance you can post a link to the frame and forks?

How long was the wait posted? postage? customs?

I have just bought a very similar (although different) frame from China. I bought it via Aliexpress, search for AC059. Surprised at how quickly it got here, (it was in stock when I ordered, but for some reason took a week for them to post it) It was finally posted on 31/10 and arrived on my doorstep yesterday 3/11. Frame, fork and headset was £320 delivered. No bill from customs yet… When I have bought rims from China before I have always had to pay before the goods where released, hopefully I won’t have to pay for this one.

A bit of a gamble buying from China, but communications where good, and I am more than happy with the quality of the frame and forks. I am still waiting for several boxes of bits to arrive before I can build it up and actually test it out. Obviously future warranty support is debatable, but thought I would take a chance.

I was at the receiving end of this style of crime four years ago. We had a Subaru Impreza and a fairly high spec BMW 1 Series stolen of the driveway. Front door was forced and my wife’s handbag was taken which contained both keys. I heard the Subaru being started as it’s alarm starting beeping (it had a complicated alarm) which woke me up and I stupidly ran out to confront the guy trying to drive it away. Luckily he drove it away before I could properly try and stop him.

At the time there was a spate of this style crime in the area. The cars where typically dumped somewhere in SW London for a few days to check they didn’t have a tracker before being used for a crime. The Subaru had a Tracker but we hadn’t paid to keep it live as it didn’t reduce the insurance price. Once it was stolen it could be turned on but the tracking company refused despite being asked by the police.

The Subaru was eventually used for an armed robbery in London, it subsequently out ran the police and was then found dumped a few days later. The 1 series was never seen again, I would guess it is still being driven on cloned plates.

It has taken us a few years to go back to having nice cars again. House security is improved, better locks and an alarm system. Keys aren’t specifically hidden or locked away, but are always out of view from the front door.

Hopefully Planet-X can sort you out with some compensation for the extra weekend of use the bike has now had

I assume it is only on one leg? If so it sounds like a warranty issue. It is caused by air leaking from the compression chamber into the lower leg and causing the seal to blow out.

The same happened on my wife’s Reba and they were fixed by SRAM.

Mine was for a 2013 A5. Most of the A5s are pre-wired for a towbar, so the Westfalia kit really is just plug and play, it is just a case of running the wiring loom from the towbar to the right hand side of the boot and plugging in. The holes are already in the body work, and the wiring loom has grommets pre-fitted in the right place.

Typically I found my car wasn’t pre-wired for a towbar… although the same kit is used, and it took about 60mins to do, it mainly involved adding a few wires from the fuse boards found in the boot. The instructions were pretty clear and easy to follow.

The car software also needs updating with VAG-COM, I have a VAG-COM lead, so that was straight forward too. I would imagine a dealer would charge an hours labour to sort out the software.

I fitted a Westfalia towbar to my Audi. It is the towbar that Audi fit as standard kit, but cheaper without being Audi branded! I would guess VW would use them as well? I got a removable one, when it isn’t fitted you can’t see any sign of the towbar. Works well with an Atera bike rack.

I bought mine from PF Jones who seem pretty good on towbars. I think their website has links to some of the fitters they recommend.

See if you can find some endangered newts on the site, that might slow it by a month or two.

With the current push for (and increased price of) housing I would be amazed if the development could be stopped at this stage. I deal with small housing developments on a daily basis, lots do get delayed slightly, but they all seem to go ahead in the end.

Sport is a bit quicker than Open, plus you get the bonus of an extra lap 🙂 There are less of of the slow riders who make up the back of the Gorrick Open races, and the start line tends to be lycra and bottles, rather than baggies and camelbacks.

I have raced in Sport when the timings has been convenient for other stuff I had on during the day. It generally doesn’t have the bottle necks that you get at the start of the Open races, so the pace at the start is quicker without any hold ups, however a some people really start slowing down on the last lap, so if your endurance is good then you will do okay. You won’t end up riding by yourself as Sport starts straight after Vets and Masters, so you do pick up some of the tail end of these fields. Plus you have the fast ladies catching you…

No idea where you will finish – but I would rather be last in Sport than 1st in Open.

Mt Zoom gets my vote too.

This looks like a pretty good deal on a focus:
http://www.cvsl.co.uk/car-leasing/ford/ford-focus-diesel-5dr-titanium-navigator-16-tdci-115/62106/

The way to look at is the lease on soemthing like is that would cost £1,371 + (24×152) = £5,019 for the two years. You could buy the car new for about £17k, and I guess it would depreicate by more than £5k in the2 years? plus you wouldn’t have to find the money up front going with the lease option.

I get a car allowance from work and part of the deal is that I have to lease. I have always found it cheaper to lease an ex demo car. Current car was 6 months old with 2.5k on the clock when I took out the lease. This seems to give a big saving on the lease price. Although not all companies deal with leases on used cars.

My wife’s car we own, and generally buy a 3-4 year old car and run it for a few years so depreciation isn’t too bad, although we have had a couple of big bills for repairs out of warranty over the years that makes me think the fixed cost of a lease on a new car does make some sense.