Using an old one of these here

http://www.deutergb.co.uk/bike/trans-alpine-30/

Tried Aviva?

I have/had 3 sets.

No problems with power, only that the BAT feature is pointless and restricts how close you can set your levers to the bars. They have been always too far away for me.

Non BAT levers can be set closer.

I experimented with different length adjuster bolts (discussion on here somewhere) but the limiting factor is the slot in the plastic lever body, not bolt length.

+1 for rxsport.com here – just about to buy pair #2

Had a problem with my first pair (missed the custom part of my order) and they put it right straight away with no fuss at all.

not sure if this is helpful info but…

I ran a maxle on my 2008 meta VIP – real cycles sorted me out with a the drop outs + maxle.

Then had a hub axle snap (not the maxle) and then the swingarm developed a few cracks too…

I sold the maxle kit and sticking with QRs now. My thinking is that the maxle can’t have added much stiffness given where the swing arm was cracking.

Still love the bike! Realcycles sorted me out with an old meta SX swingarm (had to saw off the seat post stub to fit this but hey…) and that’s what I’m riding now. Prefer the look of it tbh.

mountain bike routes from local tourist office

They do (or did) a free great booklet with route maps in too.

No 6 is great. Some techie stuff but one of my favourite places.

+1 for Venosc too.

Is posing as a private seller something that would interest Trading Standards?

Only if the seller is in breach of the sale of goods act. In that case, they’d throw the book at him, even if he had no company or sole trader status.

You won’t get a BT router to work as an access point

True for the newer black hubs, but possible with the old white ones (WEP only though)…

How to

The powerline adapters didn’t work for me out to my garage – cheap cat6 cable has been doing the job for nearly a year now. Tried the boosters too, not much joy for me but that may have been due to the BT home hub rather than anything else.

And “running a plug to the shed” = laying some armoured cable to a new consumer unit I hope :)

Early Go Pro

Have done both – got Dr’s note (cost me £16) once and had BC membership / race licence thing the other times. Used dogtag for insurance. They have explicitly said they cover the mega in the past (on here IIRC)

caveat – this was all a few years back.

nato / zulu strap? don’t get on with those either.

Had a couple of Darlena waterproof leather straps and been pleased with them. Good value.

Don’t pay those rip off merchants at Tag!

£30 for a battery change at the little yellow watch shop in Clerkenwell London.

Easy enough to do yourself with the right tools too.

Decathlon do a few different sizes too.

You can load pretty much all android APKs on them now. Not a bad android phone tbh.

http://crackberry.com/how-use-snap-blackberry-1021-install-android-apk-files

Quite like the hub, onscreen keyboard is very good, battery life good. Would I have it as my first phone over an iphone? probably not.

How much will it cost you?

Have done it 10 years or so ago. It was doable in a big group but given the choice I’d let someone else take the load. Lugging bikes over barriers in parisian summer heat was a sweaty business.

Also, we encountered a few dodgy types on the train – will you be able to keep an eye on your bike all the time?

Should say, I have friends with the metal frames who are quite happy – seems to be the plastic frames with no rubber.

I’ve got some and they are awful. I forget the model, but they are regular frames with no grippy stuff. …
I’ve bodged a fix with some spacers at the hinge so it fits fine, but I’m not going to bother again with Oakley prescription glasses.

edit – mine are shifter 4.0s.

Shoddy.

+1 for that – tumbler frames here.

@hustler I’m in the market for a new pair of specs… pm me if you’re interested :)

look on ifixit website and decide if you’re up to it

Done this a long time ago – London to Bourg St Maurice sleeper train.

Train goes non-stop in the winter, but in summer Involves lugging bikes across Paris (we used the metro which was interesting) and locking bike bags up in a communal area while we slept in a sleeper carriage. Some dodgy types on the sleeper train and I’m pretty sure they drive as slowly as poss to make the trip last until morning.

It was an experience… but haven’t wanted to do it again!

Lever off with a flat screwdriver IIRC – only held on by an o-ring I think.

If it’s like the 44s, there are 2 tiny allen headed grub screws

The first live gig I went to :-)

Got a hybrid drive in my MBP. It sped things up a bit, but the flash memory is used to cache reads, but writes go to disk. This limits the type of work that will get a speed boost.

I would say avoid the WD MyCloud – have had one replaced as it kept losing its network connection, and the replacement isn’t great.

Depending on your set up you may be ok, but as a mac user and with a BT home hub (for now) it’s a nightmare. Every few days it reports a problem with the time machine backup and that it has to be deleted and recreated.

Check the forums and reviews, plenty of disgruntled owners crying out for a firmware fix.

+1 for aviva – van on a car personal car policy. Nice and simple. Have had to go through a claim too.

Have been with flux and brentacre in the past, not so keen on insuring with the “makerstudy” policy they were selling.

Stick with established companies. Many of the smaller firms come and go very often and your guarantee will be worthless. It’ll be likely you will need them back to tweak a few things so you need to know they’ll still be around

+1 got a useless warranty here.

And make sure you send off the FENSA registration card as it tells you in the small print – if you don’t, then your insurance cover for when your supplier goes bust is not valid… (I’m not bitter)

I rode my bike with a broken axle like that for weeks.

And got an immediate warranty replacement from Hope / my LBS

EDIT – not saying that’s a good thing, but it didn’t stop me riding and it was sorted out.

One of our group a few years back did it on a DMR switchback, but his riding + fitness is at another level.

Do it! It’s such a good event.

Have had 2 things go wrong with ours. Heater as above. Simple enough diy fix. Parts about 40 quid. And also had the wires going up to the control unit in the door wear through their insulation against the razor sharp edges of the pressed steel door inner. The wires should have been safe inside a thick plastic outer but they had either not been assembled correctly or the tape had split due to wear.

Edit – could be same issue if you’re getting a short with door shut. Be careful of course. Mains voltage in some of those wires :)

+1 to that.

Non-voting share in the company. Take advice as to number, class and value of shares that you issue when you start up, can have implications later.

Good luck :-)

Got her some new wheels

Got mine from as a refurb from the Argos ebay outlet 4 years ago – has never missed a beat.

I think it’ll grow as word spreads – good effort guys!

Well worth the visit for me – will keep an eye out for the next one.

Got an exploded parts diagram here – any good?

That other STW post has some good tips. I used Kingspan and silver bubble wrap on my van.

I got an offcut of Altro heavy duty vinyl off ebay. Don’t see how you could have lino on underlay on top of rubber. Either stick with the rubber floor, or fit a new wooden one (extra cost/weight)

http://www.megavanmats.com/ for some automotive carpet for lining the walls. Use the right glue if you don’t want it peeling off first hot day of next summer!

+1 to coffee, posh biscuits and asking nicely.

Got my master socket moved with cable run outside the house from useless position by front door into my kitchen.

+1 on the cardboard experience, but soles have lasted well on my impact lows

be interested to know if new ones have ditched the cardboard.

I don’t like my polarised Oakleys.

Can live with the blanked phone displays at certain angles, but something is not right with them – can’t quite put my finger on why.

Wish I’d chosen normal lenses