132km for me this year. Also dragging my wife around. Both on hardtail mtbs. I did the long route last year and thought it was a good ride.

My wife has been riding her Whippet for a month or two now. It has a triple chainset. I modified the inner ring slightly and so far it has been fine – if you find an earlier thread you will see a picture I posted. If I had left it as it was I am fairly sure it would have marked the frame. I would have thought that any BB92 frame will have the same clearance issue if running a triple chainset.

It does seem a very capable frame, she has done pretty well in a couple of xc races on it, and it survived a long weekend at Afan/Cwmcarn.

No, it was a Felt Breed with weird handle bars.

I did the one over the winter and I thought it was fairly good. They managed to make goods use of the roads to link up the better bits of off road in the area. A real mixture of bikes.

I was one of the people with a puncture, a snake bite on one of the descents an hour or so into the course.

I was on a SS CX bike and found the road sections a bit spinny, I am planning to do the longer route from Wantage and will probably take the geared mtb.

I got mine from Bikegoo:
http://www.bikegoo.co.uk/product.php/494/truvativ_chainring_36t_4_bolt

I didn’t bother testing out other options as I had already ended up with a spare Shimano ring…

I don’t think so. I have just tried to fit a 32t Deore ring onto a Truvativ chainset and it doesn’t fit. The bolt spacing is right, but the chainring fouls on the lugs by the holes. A bit of time with a file would sort it out and make it fit.

I have a G-Shock GW-1400DU with solar charging and auto time updates. Like Ross mine has stayed on high for the two years I have had it. Out of the box it was on medium and then went to high on the first sunny day. I guess eventually the internal rechargeable battery will need changing, but they seem to last for 5+ years. It does go into sleep mode if it is kept in the dark(or not moved?), I can’t remember how it works but the hands both point upwards, and then realigns itself when moved – this caught me out on a 12 hour solo race in the dark, at about 2am I though it had broken as it was no longer displaying the time!

The automatic update is very good, and you forget it does it. Mine has a daylight saving setting, so when the clock shifts it does that too. The only downside is if I go out of the regions covered by the time signal I have to dig out the manual to adjust the time as I never need to adjust it normally.

I don’t think I would bother buying a ‘normal’ watch again.

For the sector of construction I am in (bricks) it is pretty much the going rate across the industry – maybe that is why I have had little negative feedback. We have had some hefty increases over the past few years due to gas prices.

We are having a 6% increase on our prices from Monday. We manufacture construction materials. TBH most customer have accepted it without any problems – most people seem to have realised that the cost for everything has risen over the past year or so, you only have to fill the car up to spot where the increases are coming from. Although saying that I am sure I will get a few calls next week asking me to keep the price as it was… We announced the increase a month or so ago, so gave everyone plenty of time to order goods if they needed them.

I have a set on the bike I bought from Planet-X. I have been very impressed with them. They have survived a battering over rough roads and have stayed totally true. The bearings have lasted well. For the money I don’t think you can go wrong.

A lockring tool will take that off:

http://www.velosolo.co.uk/bbblock.html

you will obviously need a chain whip too.

I am sure some sort of protective patch will be fine. Lots of bikes are like this. Braided cables tend to be a bit more flexible, so work better on tight routings – although they are a bit more abrasive on the frame.

I have been using a set of Cobalt wheels on and off for the past 2 years. I have had one over the bars incident caused by a stick going through the front wheel, that was during Dusk 2 Dawn in 2009 – no damage to me or bike, but I got a face full of dust. I then struggled to see for the next nine hours as my eyes were full of dirt. I have also picked up the odd stick while riding, but nothing else big enough to cause a OTB. A couple of friends also use Cobalt wheels, and I don’t think they have had any issue.

Personally I think this style of wheel has a ‘slightly’ higher chance of a stick going through the spokes and causing an off. However the difference between this and a normal wheel is fairly marginal, and personally it doesn’t cause me any concern.

jonny m, my wife is 5’4″. The seatpost is at the same height as she has it on her 16″ sliding drop out SS Inbred, so will probably stay the same height on this one.

As far as I can see any BB92 frame is going to have the same issue with a granny ring. On-One say on their site that the frame was designed around a 2x drive train. The granny ring may have been fine without trimming (although in Barney’s case it obviously wasn’t), it only took a couple of minutes with a power tool to improve the clearance and make it not an issue.

Shortcut, just wait until next week, you better have your fast legs on!

From that angle you can’t really see the chain ring clearance to the frame. Between the big ring and the chainstay there is about the width of a chain, and more between the middle and chainstay. I have checked and it is about the same as on my carbon Scale – although the Scale has a metal plate in the area, which would have been a nice addition on the Whippet.

I haven’t finished building it yet, but here is my wife’s 16″ Whippet:

It hasn’t been ridden yet, first ride this weekend.

When I was putting it together I was a bit concerned over how little clearance there was around the BB shell. A couple of minutes with a Dremmel on the granny ring helped things out. It seems to be the problem with running a 3x drive train on a bike with internal bearings – as the granny ring wants to sit over the bearings:

Sorry, I meant the inside circumference (the part that rotates around the BB shell). It would have been fine as it was, but I took a dremmel to the inside part of the bolt hole on the granny ring to improve the clearance. I hope that makes sense? if not I can post a picture up.

I am just building one up at the moment with a 3×9 drivetrain. I have fitted a XT direct mount 9spd front mech. I haven’t had chance to get the gears fully set up yet, but it seems to work fine.

It does need a small shim (1mm washer) between the mech and the frame to make it work – On-One have just updated their website with some info on this.

The only other issue was the granny ring was very close to the BB shell with 1 or 2mm clearance, so I filed of a small amount of the granny ring to improve the clearance there.

I have had one for a few years. One of the original silver 853 framed ones. It is a great frame. I have used it for all sorts. It has done a couple of 12hr solo races, 24hr team races, several xc races, Welsh trail centres, Lakes etc.

The comments above about the weight all correct. As steel frames go it isn’t too heavy, but is still heavier than alu/carbon offerings. Mine seemed to end up with lighter and lighter components, in the end they didn’t really seem to suit the frame. I managed to get a good deal on a carbon Scott Scale and swapped all the lighter bits onto the carbon frame to use as a xc bike. I then built the Genesis up as a more do it all bike – it even gets used for towing my son on his trailer bike.

I wouldn’t worry about the mech hanger, you are unlikely to bend it, and if you ever did they can be bent back fairly easily.

As far as I can see, size wise it is exactly the same as a classic Inbred, so if you can find one of those it should give you a good idea on size.

I don’t think there is anything else on the market at that price with a full carbon frame. Plus the Whippet appears to be more appropriate for UK conditions that a lot of the main stream carbon frames, massive rear wheel mud clearance being one reason.

You could try dropping Pants (of AYTE & Brass Monkeys fame) an email. Last I heard he was planing to go, and will probably have an army wagon of some sort.

I have sold two cars on there. Both a little bit niche; A mk1 Toyota MR2, and a Westfield with a fairly unique engine. Both had lots of watchers and not much bidding until the last few hours. I did have a few offers, but thought I would let the auctions run their course. It was a slightly nerve racking few minutes as the bidding shot up before the auction ended. Both were collected by their new owners within a day or two. Both times I got a price I was happy with, and no hassle with tyre kickers.

If you are happy with the offers go with them, as long the offers are similar to what other cars have sold for you can’t go too wrong.

I have a Felt Breed that I often ride around Swinley and the North Downs. It is generally fine, some bits I can ride faster on a mtb, others I am faster on the CX. I wouldn’t want to get too airborne on it, but apart from that it is fine.

Have you got an alarm? We were broken into last year, all they took was the two cars once they found the keys 🙁 We had an old alarm we didn’t use, but now have a all singing and dancing new one.

If you won’t be in the house long have a look at the Yale wireless ones, they are easy to fit and you can remove them and take them with you.

I had a cracked Ti frame repaired by Vernon. A titanium Inbred that cracked on the seat tube/top tube junction. He did a pretty good job, given that Ti isn’t easy to weld, a picture here : http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v54/JasonR/Bikes/Tinbred/PICT3914.jpg

Six months or so after it was repaired I sold the frame, since then it has cracked on the other side too. The new owner has had it repaired by Vernon again. I think I paid about £30 or so for the repair, which was a bargain compared to other titanium welders.

Depending on what you are planning on doing I would be tempted to send the frame to someone like Argos who can do the work and respary too.

I have used Tech X2 and Race X2 brakes, when set up properly both work well. However I have found that both pads need to hit the rotor at the same time for them to be effective, if they don’t they can feel soft. Have a look at the setup video on Hopes webpage. Also there is a final stage of the bleeding shown on the video that is important.

I am very impressed with the one I have. I got it as a present just over two years ago. I was fed up of breaking normal watches and wanted something a bit more solid. So far I have worn it none stop and it hasn’t missed a beat. Not long after I got it I managed to bash it into a tree while riding, hard enough to leave a watch shaped bruise on my arm, but the watch was unmarked.

Mine is a GW-1400 which is a metal one with solar charging and automatic time update, both of those features have worked very well.

I don’t think you can go wrong with them really.

I thought the event worked pretty well. The off road sections were generally good – I guess being able to include lots of road miles meant they could cherry pick the better off road section. With a normal off-road ‘sportive’ you inevitably end up with some fairly tedious off road bits, put in to minimise the road riding.

I got one puncture. It happened after the 2nd proper downhill bridleway, a snakebite, but strangely it didn’t go down until I finished the descent and had been on the road for 100m or so?? Looked to be lots and lots of punctures, on every descent there were generally several people mending flats. Saw a few bikes being carried back to the start too.

I went around on a single speed CX bike, which was a bit spinney on the downhill road bits (especially the first 5 miles) but was ok on the climbs and off road. Although one of the road climbs near the end did seem to go on and on and on. A geared CX bike would have been better/easier.

winterfold, I am friends with his sister (who is also a pretty good mtber) so no queuing involved.

I have been taking my son out since he was 3. Initially on a like-a-bike and now he is his 2nd pedal bike. Where I live the trails are a bit flatter(Nr Farnborough) than Surrey Hills, which I think is a good thing as he seems to struggle on the up hill bits.

I normally find something that looks fairly tame to me and let him play around in it. It doesn’t need to be too technical to make it fun, probably the sort of thing I would ride around with thinking about.

I find naming the trails is a good thing, even a short bit of singletrack becomes an adventure if it is called something interesting. The problem is trying to remember what it was called last time!

We often go out on a tag-a-long and this works well at doing some of the more interesting off road bits, but is hard work on the up hills.

Don’t blame Steve, he seems to do a good job in getting kids interested in the outdoors. Plus he gave my son a signed copy of his book last week.

We made the mistake of buying a large tent that was way too big. It filled most of the car boot and took ages to put up, so we used it a couple of times and then sold it as it was too much hassle for weekend camping trips, which most of ours are.

Last year we bought an Outwell Nevada M, which is very good. It doesn’t take long to put up, and has plenty of space inside. We bought an optional front extension which really gives a lot more versatility (especially in the rain!).

I will be spinning around on a SS Felt Breed. Looking at the map it is a shame there isn’t a bit more off road, but I am sure it will be fun.

For races with single speed categories have a look at:

West Drayton MBC Black Park Race
Bristol Bikebash
Are You Tough Enough

I tried to buy a pair of football boots off them for my son. The first pair of boots they sent was an adult size 12 – despite the website saying child size 12, the 2nd set turned up with no studs and the remains of one of the studs stuck into the threaded hole. To be fair they were cheap, but rubbish both times! Would not use there online store again.

It is not easy to say what you need to change without seeing you selling. I have been in sales of one sort of another for about ten years, and I still have trainers out with me occasionally criticising (normally in a constructive way!) what I am doing.

Where most people seem to go wrong is not listening to customers and what they really want, as opposed to what you think they want. Does your ‘geeky interest’ mean you force your opinion on your customers?

Good questioning skills are important, lots of open question – most people buying are happy to give you lots of information, you just need to ask the right questions. Find out their needs and then fill their needs with the features and benefits of your product/service. Then ask for the business, what can go wrong?

If you drop me an email I will send you a copy of my company’s crib sheet on sales. It is only one A4 sheet but has some good reminders.

Peter, if you find anyone good let us know – I am waiting on Dave2.9 to get back to me with details of one of his mates who is a tiler. Tile shopping this weekend, luckily sort of owed a favour from a local tile supplier, so hopefully something decent at a bargain price!

In our old house I got somebody in to do the kitchen floor, we were using expensive tiles and they were being laid at 45 degrees, the kitchen floor ran into a built in larder, which meant lots of awkward cuts. The guy we used, sub-contracted by the tile shop in Aldershot, did a very good job and got ever cut right first time. My view was if I managed to cut several tiles badly, I was wasting money on tiles, when it is better spent on a pro to the job. The only problem was his floor tiling put my wall tiling to shame… Annoyingly I didn’t keep the guys details.

In our conservatory we had a flat concrete floor, which I laid some bargain floor tiles from Homebase on. TBH they looked ok, but not up the quality of the professionally laid kitchen floor.

The Velosolo ones seem pretty good. My wife has been using one on her single speed since the summer and it seems to be wearing well. I don’t think you can go wrong with it really. It is being used in conjunction with a singlespeed chain from them too, although I can’t remember which chain it is?

I would 2nd the suggestion of Spinerval DVDs.

I have a turbo trainer that gets a lot of use. My wife and me both ride a fair bit, and with two young kids a lot of the time is spent on the turbo trainer.

The spinerval series are a fairly easy introduction into it. There is also some good advice in there too. If you are starting out any of the aero base builders ones would be a good. I do prefer the Sufferfest series of videos (better footage and music), but for starting out Spinervals get my vote. To get the most out of them a HRM and cadence sensor are needed. The DVDs are fairly expensive, but do hold their value and sell on easily 2nd hand.

Bolted straight to the post mount on the front it will fit a 160mm disc.

Click on the link to Gorrick, you can enter from there.

http://www.gorrick.co.uk

Or if you look at the details for each event there is a link to on-line entry.