You'll need new grips now as they would have stretched and deformed and you'll never get them to stick. The best stuff to stick grips down with is contact adhesive, but as you don't want to use glues you could try this.

With your new grips purchased, degrease the bars (disc brake cleaner works well here), squirt a load of hairspray (the cheap stuff seems to work best) onto the bars and leave them to dry, squirt a load of disc brake cleaner inside the grip and leave to dry, when everything has dried off squirt some hairspray inside the grips and slide onto the bars, blast the grips with a hair dryer until the grips are warm to the touch, leave to set for 24hrs.

How about exactly the same jacket but with a different name on it[/url]

I'm sure you'll look great in them.

As well as being a bit lighter some of the C-Type forks came with less rake to give quicker handling.

I'd give Dave at Stendec a call.

I'm sure NS Bikes will do a frame that can take 160mm forks. Erm, who else can I think of. Have you looked at;

Cotic Bfe? Curtis? Chromag? Transition? Dark Cycles?

Juan maybe right in the future, but he's not at the moment. And to be honest nobody is liable in any road/traffic incident. The person who is liable is whoever accepts responsibilty or whoever the court decides is responsible and therefore liable.

There is a white paper being produced that address's this issue. If the new law is passed it will be similar to liability legislation on the continent (well France and Germany anyway), their law states that the most powerful vehicle involved in a traffic accident is automaticly liable. As I said earlier nobody is automaticly liable in the UK. The current system is based upon either one party accepting responsibility or if neither party will accept responsibility it goes to court.
The new system would mean that the courts would only get involved if the driver/rider of the more powerful vehicle believed there were extenuating circumstances as to why they should not be liable.

I don't know what would happen if two cyclists smashed into each other though. Or what would happen if a 1.7l diesel car was involved in an accident with a 1.6l petrol car, the diesel has the bigger engine but chances are the petrol car would be faster.

A 1991 Cannondale single-pivot. And correct me if I'm wrong but I think they have made a single-pivot bike every year since.

Cannondale and Proflex were both selling bikes with rear suspension before Rock Shox released the RS1. So I suppose they were the first 'off the peg' modern mtb full-sussers. Those early 'dale suss bikes were single pivots and I cant think off a year where 'dale haven't had a single-pivot bike in their range so I suppose that is the longest running design.

I may be wrong but I think it's fair to say that GT's RTS was the first commercially successful full-suss bike.

The Verlicchi single-pivot was an important bike in that it was the first full-susser to win at the Worlds.

Specialized actually came to the 'full-suss party' quite late. Mongoose was the first 'major' manufacturer to licence the Horst Link, I think they just put Mongoose stickers on AMP frames actually. By the time FSR bikes were readily available Turner, Intense, GT and others I've forgot about had all been selling frames with what is now known as a 'Horst Link' on them.

As a general rule of thumb a restricted byway on a hill with a decent slope will generally by 'rockier' than a bridleway in a similar location.

Well that seems to be the case here in the Clwydians.

If I remember right Brant used 'guerilla marketing' tactics when he worked at Bikemagic to get On-One up and running, I think he politely got asked to leave because of it as well.

But yeah AB they do seem to rely on word of mouth and good reviews in the mags to market their products now.

If you sell your products exclusively online/mailorder then you have to run a lot of adverts, if you didn't how is anybody going to know you are there to buy from.

I took an old Graham Weigh road bike out for a spin recently. As I was setting off I was in the same frame of mind as Oldgit. 'Down tube shifters are a pain the @rse, BB area flexes like mad when I'm out of the saddle, even with the stem raised as high as it'll go the position still feels really low, the bars are all curves with nowhere comfortable to put my hands, etc, etc'.
Then at the top of climb I started a long downhill.
'Flexy steel frame is a lot more comfortable than a modern carbon jobby, tubs on 32 spoke wheels give fantastic grip in the corners, modern brake blocks on old calipers work just fine, a steel fork tracks a lot better than most carbon forks, etc, etc'.

Would I swap a modern bike for an old classic? Probably not. Am I going to take the Graham Weigh out for another spin? You betcha I am (as long as there are some big descents ;-).

To be fair Nixon_fiend has got a point.

If Benji had said in the review that he HAD tried the bike with 26" wheels and big tyres, and it handled the same as it did with 650b then fair enough. But Benji didn't say that, he just PRESUMED the bike would handle the same.

Considering how easy it would have been to have put a pair of 26" wheels into the Spooky it just boils down to lazy journalism. Now I think about it 'lazy journalism' pretty much sums up issue 52.

A serious answer would be a High Roller and WTB Weirwolf (named after the man himself). These tyres have a significant gap between the centre tread and the aggressive side tread, therefore they can be easily drifted but you have a lot of grip on the side of the tyre when you want to end the drift. Or words to that effect.

Mark just likes his knobs to push harder after sliding into the brown stuff.

There are no low or high front ends there is just right and wrong for you.

The current trend for low rise bars and few spacers comes from dh bikes. 8" of travel up front pitches the front end high enough on its own so therefore they don't use high rise bars. Also as dh bikes have a low saddle height they don't need the additional height of riser bars to stop their centre of gravity being pitched to far forward.

When you consider that a trail bike will have 3-4" shorter forks and will be ridden with the saddle at a height where you get full leg extension it makes sense that you will need a higher rise bar, more spacers, etc to make the bike comfortable and to keep your weight central on the bike.

If you don't believe me try this experiment. Lower the front end of your bike and drop your saddle right down then go and ride a dh run your familiar with. Keep your weight low on the bike and you'll notice that the bike handles great.
Now do the same run with the lower front end but raise the saddle to normal trail/xc height. It'll probably feel horrible in comparison to the first run. It'll feel as if your going to be pitched over the front.
Now raise the front end and keep the saddle high and do the dh run. The bike probably wont feel as stable and as controlled as it did on the first run but it will feel much better than the second run.
Ladies and gentlemen, I rest my case.

I thought Sandvik made Ti tubes. I didn't think they welded them together.

In my experience saddles either creak or they don't. It's rare that a saddle will start creaking after you've ridden it for a while.

I'd check your seatpost very carefully around the head as a small crack there will first make it's presence known with a creak. I had a NukeProof seatpost crack on me and at first I thought it was the saddle creaking.

my last comment was aimed at grahams.

what i was trying to illustrate is that the highways agency seem to suggest that 75mtrs is a safe distance to have between cars travelling at 70mph. so you could also surmise that a distance between cars in the middle lane and approaching cars in the left hand lane far exceeding a distance of 75mtrs could be seen as contravening the highway codes suggestion that you should occupy the left hand lane when the road is clear.

highway code states 75mtrs braking distance and suggests a thinking distance of 21mtrs. distance chevrons painted on motorways are painted at 75mtrs apart.

trolling zoo fighter – i presume you're a driving instructor. do a lot of your students fail due to undue hesitancy? do you really think the highway code defines a road as being clear when there are no cars on it at all?

trolling zoo fighter – what is a clear road then?

yep 76mtrs would be clear road. in the same manner as 70mph is within the speed limit whereas 71mph is braking the speed limit.

thats why i said 'anything OVER 75mtrs'

GrahamS – How would you define 'when road ahead is clear'? Are you saying that if you can see another car on the inside lane regardless of how far ahead that may be then you will stay on the middle lane?

The Highway Code clearly states that in a car travelling at 70mph you should keep a distance of at least 75mtrs between your self and the vehicle in front. Therefore I would say that anything over 75mtrs between yourself and the next vehicle would be considered to be a clear road.

Have you got any other definition as to what a 'clear road' could be?

GrahamS – Highway Code stopping distances relate to your car, the speed of other cars are irrelevant. A modern car can go from 70mph to a complete stop in anything between 20-60mtrs, thererfore if you are travelling at 70mph 75mtrs(2.4 secs) is more than enough braking distance between yourself and the car in front. If that means that after overtaking another vehicle you only come back into the inside lane for a couple of seconds before you pull back out again then so be it.

If you are not comfortable complying to suggestions within the Highway Code may I suggest further driving lessons before you cause an accident.

scu98rkr – When you are driving you can't control the other vehicles on the road, you can only control your own vehicle.

For somebody to tailgate it requires another car to be in front of them so that they can drive too close to them. Are you following so far?

I would hazard a guess as well that the reason that most people tailgate is because they want to get past the vehicle in front. Would you agree?

So if you return to inside lane as soon as it's safe rather then just stay in the middle/outside lane then you can't be tailgated because there will be at least one other lane in which they can pass you.

You cant stop somebody driving too close to you, but what you can do is make sure that you minimise the amount of time you spend in a lane that could result in you being tailgated. As I have already mentioned if you are driving in the middle lane and there is a gap of more than 80m between yourself and next car on the inside lane then you are causing an obstruction and you are therefore a hazard to the road.

If everybody stuck to the Highway Code I bet that accidents on Motorways would reduce by more than 50%. If everybody stuck to a 70mph speed limit, a 75m stopping distance at 70mph, returned to the inside lane after overtaking and used their mirrors and indicators before changing lanes, then motorways would be a whole lot safer and traffic would move along a whole lot easier.

Middle lane 'hoggers' need to realise that they are just as dangerous as the bloke in the car behind you tailgating. If you weren't hogging the road then they would have no one to tailgate.

It's quite simple. When overtaking you return into the inside lane when you are 75m ahead of the vehicle you are overtaking and not within 75m of the vehicle in front. I'm sure we've all driven on motorways with those chevrons painted onto the road to give you an idea as to how close a safe stopping distance is from the car infront, that's the distance that you should leave between yourselves and other cars. The safe stopping distance at 70mph when converted to time is 2.4secs.

So middle lane hoggers next time you are driving ask yourself 'Am I more than 3 seconds away from the car infront on the inside lane'? If the answer is yes then you are risking your own and everybody else's life.

leggyblonde – to put things into context I live in N.Wales and the main road across the top of the coast is the A55 which is a dual carriage-way. The A55 is busier than a lot of motorways and when you get somebody doing 50mph in the outside lane and not willing to get back over it can cause slow moving traffic for miles upon miles.

leggyblonde – my job requires me to have a clean driving licence so I don't speed. I reckon people who lane hog lack confidence in their driving ability and that's why they do it. Their lack of confidence is probably also the reason why they are going at 55-65mph.

GrahamS –

I don't really see the point in constantly pulling in and out

You probably don't see the point of riding offroad on singletrack as well then, as that weaves all over the place on rough terrain. You probably only ever ride on very straight roads.

The middle lane and outside lanes on motorways are for overtaking ONLY. If your not overtaking anything then get the f*ck over to the inside lane. And if you don't like the way the UK road system works then stop using them.

You may be able to tell that I do a lot of motorway miles and I find people who hog the outside lanes incredibly annoying.

I had an older one (2005/06 100mm fork version) that didn't have brake bosses so it's difficult to say.

I think it's Madison

2010 has the DRCV shock so that you get a coil like spring rate but with the weight and tune-ability of an air shock, a stiffer and lighter front end and an upgraded chainset.

Considering we are being told that bike prices are going to go up from 2009 to 2010 then the fact that the bike will ride better and has upgraded kit should make it a bit easier to stomach.

I thought it's the Fisher road bikes that are US only. I'd be very surprised if there were no Fisher bikes imported at all.

Ringo loves the ride so much he didn't notice the flat tyre and the missing chain, pedals and crank bolts.

brilliant

michaelbug – Nearly all the rights of way on the Malverns are bridleways so you can tell the 'conservators' to shove it up their arse.

Elgar would compose the likes of 'Land of Hope and Glory' while riding a bike over the Malverns. So if it's good enough for one of the UK's greatest ever composers then it's good enough for me

Also Tracy Moseley and Liam Killeen come from round there and ride on the Malverns.

Elmo – If that saddle is at the right height for road riding then the toptube thingy is only a couple of inches lower. The problem is the ground is at least 4" lower than the lowest crank position, so when you get off the bike your bollocks will want to be 2" lower than the toptube thingy will allow them to be. 8O