I think the point is the tyre is too narrow to seat on such a wide rim. Getting the tyre on the rim wouldn’t be the issue, as you found out

Ringle Octanes Mags – great concave, bombproof durability and the lightest out there

Octane Mags – 486g (according to their website)
Wellgo MG-1s – 376g (according to their website)

singlespeed.nl seem to have a great range but given the weakness of the Pound right now they are not cheap!

🙂

You need to find a compromise position for your cleat where you get enough float to be comfortable yet don’t have to twist your foot so far you can’t unclip by twisting out.

(I have never heard of someone twisting “in” to unclip before)

Sorry to read about people’s difficulties. At the moment I am about a 3 but should I fail to sell my house (currently underway) and lose my job (distinctly possible in the current climate) I would move rapidly to a 6 or 7.

The downturn in the economy has only hit hard in certain sectors right now. If you haven’t yet been hit you probably feel OK (more cash in your pocket vs last year etc etc). It is only a matter of time and degree though…

Woollyhatshop seem to have put up their prices.

XT 11/34 – £39.95 + p&p

XT 11/32 – £34.95 + p&p

By some standards (check out what they carry on scooters in Vietnam) that bike is under-utilised!

My wife wouldn’t let me get away with that but otherwise I might be tempted 😉

The geometries of the two are exactly the same

Not quite – the 456 has a slightly top tube (apart from the 14″ frame) but there isn’t much in it according to the on-one site

Knock out the old headset with a hammer and an old seatpost (using the seapost as a punch)

Fit the new one with a threaded rod/bolt, nut and washers or do what I do and use a mallet and blocks of wood.

I find a P7 on the bars and a Fenix TK-11 on my helmet (more of a spot than the P7) to be a perfect set up

Function button + F4 should toggle between modes for your external monitor.

Also, you should be able to log in still – your id should default so just type your password and press [Enter]

I find my eVent jacket (Gill Pro Speed) is ‘almost’ breatheable enough to wear as a windproof top layer even when it isn’t raining. I wore it for a 2.5hr ride yesterday in temperatures of about 5 degrees and didn’t overheat/boil in the bag. Anything warmer and I reckon I would get too hot and sweaty.

My riding has definitely got better since I moved to flats on one of my two bikes (although I am still pretty crap in the grand scheme of things). Using flats has forced me to learn to stay connected to the bike better and use “better” technique to bunny-hop etc. I do find it a bit odd for a few minutes when I get back on my other bike with SPDs as the foot position is quite different but that is the only downside and it takes only minutes to re-adjust.

I have only used them once but they seemed great – surprisingly powerful. Apparently the issue with them is that on long rides you may need to manually adjust the pads in as they wear down (they don’t auto-adjust like hydraulics)

I was at Swinley yesterday (gratuitous opportunity for photo, although taken on my phone):

It was pretty muddy, and it has been raining since. I would say 50% of the trails were mud-affected and were a bit of a slog, to be honest. But then again I was riding on 2.4″ Racing Ralphs which aren’t known for their ability to cut through the clag.

I am dreading needing to replace/fix the bearings and pivots on my Blur 4X, but mainly just because I have never done it and have the usual fear of the unknown.

Bleeding disk brakes gets on my nerves too – XT brakes seem to need 5 or 6 attempts to get it right (at least in my hands)

I am about to take them off my Scandal. I quite like them but find

a) my hands migrate to the very edge of the bars and I end up holding the metal “lock on” rings on the grips – not very comfy. I think I need wider bars
b) I just cant get my XT brake levers and shifter pods set up so that I can both 1-finger brake and reach the shifters comfortably

I remember the first time I had to remove a wheel with Campy brakes. We all must go through the same mental question the first time 🙂

Anyone got have a direct comparison for 5.10s vs the new Shimano shoes?

Hope Hoops with DT5.1s

Have a quick search – there was a big-ish thread the other day about bikes around £800.

In summary, Merlin’s various options, something from Cube and I think Boardman bikes might have been mentioned… It would be remiss of me not to add On-One at this point too 😉 (no connection)

Yep. Same here (although I never got to groups of 10, to be honest). I struggle to find a riding buddy these days but perhaps that is just because no one likes me….sniff…sniff…. 😉

“Push-along – Puky LR1” got good reviews when I was looking in to this. I found one 2nd hand for £25 and it has been good so far.

£130 from CRC! Damn, that better be a good pedal…

squin. Drop me his contact details – jamesball AT mail.com

An A6 (or derivative) is a big car but you won’t get 2 bikes in the back of an A4/derivative without dropping the back seats, at least I couldn’t in my old S4 Avant (2.7T). It was a great car though and boring/uninvolving Audis can be improved no end with the right springs/shocks/ARB upgrade at minimal cost (although not the RS6 with its fancy-pants suspension system!)

When I work in the office (not that often) it is 12.5 miles (across London) and I do it 2 or perhaps 3 times a week. I get bored doing the same urban ride every day.

I would have thought a Scandal would have been ideal. Perhaps you can find an 18″ one to try.

My large Blur 4X with Hope Hoops (5.1s), Pikes, XT and Thomson/Easton finishing kit, including flats is just under 30lb. By no means lightweight but not that heavy either.

I haven’t done it but have thought about it. Dont see why it wouldn’t work.

Blur 4X if you can find one

I defintely spend too much time here. Its a fair cop 🙂

But seriously it doesn’t matter what tyres you use at a trail centre. Almost by definition a trail centre is “all-weather” with hardcore or rock-based trails. You won’t find lots of mud so any tyre will do fine.

A sticky stating this will a) save new joiners to the forum waiting for responses to their question and b) save everyone else writing the same old stuff.

But, like I said, have fun at Afan. It is a great place.

Can the Mods arrange for a “Sticky” saying that it doesn’t matter what tyres you use at trail centres? This question must come up twice a day!

Oh, and Any2Wheels – you will love Afan – it’s great fun.

I’m not condoning it, but a mate of mine who is Head of Operations for a small Hedge Fund does this all the time (buys IT/AV hardware and gets a freebie which he takes home). I don’t think it is right, but it happens.

Thanks. I didn’t mean to poo-poo the idea, but I did want make sure I wasn’t missing a big problem with the “just solder it” route.

Rich – so the advantage of the dummy cell over simply soldering the cables to the terminals in the torch is that you can remove it and use a single normal cell instead if you want to? Are there other advantages?

At the risk of being terminally dull and continuing to take this thread seriously, thinking about it the Freshers won’t row very far and you may not get as far as the muddy towpath in which case any old tyres will do.

Keep the stiffee and buy a Kinesis Maxlight or On-One Scandal for racing – both are nice and cheap!

Bizarrely I have something constructive to add to this thread… the river bank in Cambridge is largely unpaved (it is tarmac and then hardcore for the first mile or so only) and gets very muddy. The mud is largely clay and very sticky. I once rode down there on Gravities and they turned in to hoops of mud almost resulting in my sliding in to the river on numerous occasions. Given all the rain we have had I bet the banks are pretty muddy so go for something that clears mud easily.

I should add that I haven’t been there for about 3 years so they might have paved more of it by now.