I find the 2×10 hard work at times (26/36 lowest gear on a 29er)

I don’t think I’d ever go back to a triple, though – really hated that “click…..whirrr..thunk…spin like crazy” drop into the granny ring (and yes, I did used to shift the front and back at the same time to try to compensate a bit).

Looking forward to getting rid of the bloody front mech altogether. Though the cassette is expensive, the overall price for a top end drivetrain isn’t *that* bad.

Shimano will surely lose out if they don’t develop an answer to XX1 fairly swiftly – it seems like everyone is gradually dumping their front rings and it’s something that you can sell to people that already have a perfectly fine drivetrain too…

Does anyone know if you can get the 29er Rons in Snakeskin in the UK? I’ve never seen any….

ta!

Thanks for the responses. I’m asking because I went back to a HT recently, which I always believed to be the fastest, and my back couldn’t take it. Does a 29er HT have noticably more ‘give’?

Sounds to me like someone asking for help with new bike justification 😉

29er tyres: Bigger air volume for the same tyre size, so, effectively, yes – a bit more comfort.

29er frame: Nothing inherently more forgiving about a 29er frame than a 26er. However, some carbon frames around (mostly 29er) with some give engineered into the back end.

Is the backache definitely from the bumpiness though? I get backache on the HT from pushing a harder gear (the FS tends to make me spin easier gears)

Wind tunnel: Fat guy in lycra vs skinny guy in baggies…

I always get the impression that it’s a lot more fun for the guys at the front as (from XC race reports) – they seem to know who they’re racing against for most of the race. For us guys in the middle, we just do what we can and then see where we ended up at the finish.

Sometimes, if the timing is working properly, you can get a shout: “you’re 1 minute behind the next guy” but you have no idea who that is or what he looks like, so maybe you overtook him already and didn’t know? maybe the guy behind you overtook you? Or maybe that was one of the “male pairs” guys, who are lapping faster anyway. You have no way of knowing….

The races I enter all seem to be graded by age, rather than speed, which is mostly meaningless in MTB. If I enter Big Dog this year, for example, I’ll be on the start line racing against Rob Lee – You might as well put Tomac on the start line!…Mr Lee is going to have to have an awful lot of mechanicals before he and I are in competition!

I think some categories (as MTB is in the US) would be good as then more of us would actually be competing rather than just riding around as fast as we can 😉

I suspect the fairest way to get what you’re after would be for everybody to give a blood sample before the start to be sent off for genetic analysis. Then you could all save the time you’d have wasted riding your bikes and go home to wait for the results.

I always wonder that with time triallists – why don’t you just compare your FTP’s?

“Bicycle grease“? Utter nonsense – Wish I’d thought of it, though!

We’re currently using: “Carlube LM2”. from my local Bunces (DIY chain) a massive great tin of thick greasy stuff for a four quidish.

I have 720 flat bars on a 29er. Love it but it does cause some dicey moments in the singletrack.

Nippon or build a nice patio at the bottom of the garden to tempt them away – ants love a patio

Have no doubt – However feasible it seems it’s either a scam or the person thinking they are pschic is delusional.

Read Darren Brown’s book: “tricks of the mind”. He explains how it’s all done.

Surprised this story didn’t make the Framley Examiner:

http://www.framleyexaminer.com/pages/fron011.php

Not too happy after reading this, though: all I can hear in my head now is: :”Ulysee–eee–eeees, no one else can do the things you do!”

Surfers against placentae

Someone’s gonna report that as some kind of bizarre jellyfish when it gets washed up.

Morocco is flipping ace! Did two two week trips there with Exodus (“Atlas descent” and “High Atlas traverse” I think) a few years back and both were very good (though mostly double track riding) it’s as much a cultural experience as a riding one.

Does your other half ride? A bike is a really great way to see the country, even if you’re just on some kind of “cruising along” type pootling ride. You’re in it all the time, rather than looking at it out of a windscreen…

Once you’re further south, away from the big cities, where they’re not expecting tourists, you don’t get hassled (just by school kids asking for pens). As others have said, for somewhere relatively close it feels incredibly exotic and otherworldly. A brilliantly bonkers place, would love to go back there.

Yes, call your bank and tell them to stop any Paypal direct debits until you tell them otherwise. I’ve done this a couple of times, just explained I had problems with a dodgy buyer and they (coop bank) were fine with it. Just a phone call later to reinstate it again.

If it has worn through the lacquer and paint and into the carbon then i’d be tempted to put some lacquer on there to cover up the exposed carbon. My experience of carbon parts in industry is if the carbon is exposed then moisture can get in an cause delimitation. Probably less of an issue on a bike, but belt and braces and all that.

Nail varnish maybe?

I’ve had a n XT cassette on my HT for about 6 or 7 years and still shifts silently, well worth the money, would steer clear of x9 though, sram cassettes are dreadful in my opinion.

None of them wear out if you leave them in the shed! 😉

As said, carbon frames are usually pretty thick in that area. Looks like just paint damage. I’d stick some heli tape there to prevent further wear. If there isn’t room for heli tape then you definitely need a spacer!

Also check that the pads are evenly spaced from the rotor. If one pad is rubbing against the rotor all the time they will feel rubbish.

“Quiver” is awful.

and from the American forums: “Pulled the trigger on…”

Ron Burgundy: That is lovely, makes me want another one!

Mine’s about 20 / 21 lbs but could drop a pound easily enough – I like a comfy saddle and grips, though and there’s no way I’m replacing a £250 cassette every year, so I just use the “heavy” XT 11-36s.

I had something similar happen on a long descent in Morocco. I was racing another guy down a long series of double track straights with 180 hairpins every 200m down a steep mountainside. The outside of each hairpin was an almost sheer drop.

On each straight I would stomp out of the hairpin and then brake hard into the next. I was up to a pretty decent lick on one of the straights and just hit the brake before the corner when the rear brake lever suddenly pulled right back to the bar. Holy crap that scared the bejesus out of me – I had no idea my heart rate could jump that quickly! Fortunately, I managed to stop just before the edge on the front brake alone and wait for my pounding heartbeat to subside whilst contemplating the drop below.

Checking the bike over I found that one side of the (almost new) rear brake pads had completely gone…just come unglued from the backing plate and flown off! I’m not going to say which pads they’re not going anywhere on my bikes again!

Non riding Friend: “What are you up to tomorrow?“
Me: “Riding in the morning“
Non riding Friend: “How far?” (they always want to know how far….always!)
Me: “About 20 miles, I think“.
Non riding Friend: “Blimey!!! Is that for charity?”

Very nice. I don’t think you need to feel bad – Her snort of derision clearly cut the moral dividing line.

I think you should let your subconscious out more often 🙂

Yes, now that sellers are unable to leave negative feedback, everything is far too weighted towards the buyer and there’s no penalty to stop buyers changing their mind after winning an item. In my experience, after the auction, the fever has died down and the other bidders have largely lost interest, or think there must be something wrong with the item.

I wonder what would happen in a real world auction if I told them I’d changed my mind and didn’t want the item any more?…

You can pursue for an unpaid item strike. Please do… I always do this because I don’t want that person perpetuating the practice.

Buyers that make a habit of this with more than 2 (I think) unpaid item strikes can be blocked by anybody but Ebay don’t really advertise that feature so I don’t think many sellers are aware of it.

Not a saying but a definition I enjoy nonetheless:

A gentleman is a man who knows how to play the banjo but doesn’t.

It doesn’t matter what the tape is providing it’s very smooth. Stans tape is good because it has a very glossy, low-friction surface that helps the bead slide up out of the middle dip into the bead socket.

I think tyres seat at slightly lower pressure without a tube – the tube tends to push outwards from the middle of the sidewall and try to drag the bead into place, whereas the air will give an equal push all round.

At any rate, once you’ve done it a few times, the tyres have stretched a bit and you know what to expect, it all gets a lot easier.

Get your wife to google “how instant coffee is made“. After that she shouldn’t be quite so worried about whether you reboiled the water or not 😉

Alexpalacefan: really? Cripes, I’ve done loads. I don’t breathe in when I’m riding somewhere “stick-y”.

Wish someone would make an Alfine that doesn’t weigh a quarter of a ton.

Why not give Russell Grant a ring and he’ll just tell you what you’ll be doing later?

Why is it so bloody difficult to make a decent sci-fi film? Moon was the last one I thought was any good.

Whatever you do, I’d pop over to watch a bit of the duathlon on Holmbury anyway – Triathletes on borrowed MTB’s can be quite entertaining 😯

My lottery win is already hooked up to the payment screen for one of these…

Though I’m with Dr. Johnson – it’s a tax on the gullible.

I occasionally lurk on some guitar forums and on there, musical god bothering really is the norm for those from the US. Over here, people in bands play in pubs. Over there, people in bands play in church. You also get a lot of the “What delay pedal for praise and worship?…” nonsense.

and how on earth hasn’t this kind of insane, casualty-visit-inducing packaging been banned yet?

Suspension forks where the bearing surface is an integral part of the structure and thus prohibatively expensive to replace. (ie: almost all of them)

JulianWilson: I suppose after 15 years of treehugging, I ought to also read up on and consider the effect of milk, particularly cow’s milk. ie methane and the how if everyone stopped eating cows overnight there would still be a demand for them as milk producers.

You probably know but besides any moral arguments, many people reckon cow’s milk isn’t too good for your health anyway.

Zilog: I really like separate tongs for veggies at a barby. I’m not fussed about veg food being contaminated by meat juice – I just don’t like the way I usually see the meat go on and off with the same tongs 😯