self-fulfilling prophecy is self-fulfilling :-)

depends, road bike size is best used as a general guide as all manufacturers size their bikes differently and will have differences in angles and tube lengths so one brand’s 56 could be very different to another brand

if you’re happy with the fit of your Carrera go for the Trek that mirrors that best, even better go and sit on the Trek if you can to see what it feels like

i’m the same size as you and the 58 would fit me better, but i’m not you

i can thoroughly recommend staying in Ghent, it’s a lovely city to be in even if you weren’t cycling with tons of restaurants and bars, shopping and culture if you want that sort of thing, and it gives to easy access to quiet roads and the cobbled sections

as mentioned a ride down the wide bike path along the Schelde will get you to Oudenaard and the Ronde Centrum museum where you can pick up a map or just follow any number of well signed routes from there

i went there late Summer a few years back and it was far nicer than pretending to be a hardman of Flanders in the cold and drizzle of the Spring :-)

as an aside, how many is ‘us’, i might be able to help if you want looking after

a bit too short, probably, but as long as you don’t go big/big all the time (which some would say is bad practice) you’ll be okay

that Coldplay review is very very poorly written, using swear words to the point of boring to compensate for the author’s lack of imagination, it’s not a quarter as clever as it thinks it is   :-)

“So, why the hate?, well it could be just for the reasons I’ve stated.  If you’ve spent your time and energy getting better on the bike, and getting fitter, you might find that someone with a bigger wallet being able to do the same without the work in to do it is frustrating….”

you could say that about anyone on a more expensive lighter/better/more suspension bike, you’ve always been able to buy performance at some level or other

“Then there’s the weight.  They’re not exaclty light and as such they will do more to churn up already winter beaten trails, perhaps.. I dunno.”

there’s no evidence for this, and if we go down this route are we prepared to settle on a maximum combined bike + rider weight, because there are some people on normal bikes heavier than others on their e-bike

i’ve been on this forum ages and i still find it hard to spot the wind-ups from the genuine idiots :-)

*swoons*

if the roads are dry you’ll be fine, if not you will be mostly fine and i’d worry more about how windy it was

another vote for some HyRd calipers and some decent compressionless cables (these make a difference you will appreciate), i’ve had this combo on a bike for quite a few years and it’s not a temporary option by any means

upgrading a 8 speed claris groupset bike to anything better/more current is going to be expensive and a fair amount of trouble, best ride this bike until it dies and then upgrade to a whole new bike with all the speeds and hydraulic doodads

i’ve always had good longevity out of my Assos overshoes, probably on my 4th pair in about 30 years, the zip-pull came off one of them once, that’s all i can remember going wrong, they’ve generally just worn out

worth hunting down a bargain, Assos have their own on-line discount store

they’re both similar sorts of bike, and not detracting from the Kinesis at all but you can see where the extra money goes on the Bokeh, it just seems a lot more refined, from tubing choice, to details, to finish. whether that’s worth £500 is up to you

i’ve not been on a Tripster but i’ve had a play on a Bokeh and it’s a lot of fun, you won’t be disappointed, and it comes in orange

(looking on the Mason site, pre-orders are for bikes due March to May, depending on size)

if you’re having your free bar-tape replaced every day by someone else (who’s also doing half a dozen other bike’s tape so is looking for the quickest way) and aren’t bothered about your hands wanting to unravel the tape over time then that’s fine  :-)

most everyone else, including World Champions, go from end to stem

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uz1HUFVtWmk

yes, yes you are (see above)

my life all of a sudden seems remarkably uncomplicated :-)

i’ve had a pump of some sort or other strapped to the MTB/CX since i don’t know when and getting contaminated with crud has never been a problem (current mini-pump has rubber bungs top and bottom, 10 year old frame-fit pump fires any mud out the hole with half a pump), and taking it off to clean it is about 10 seconds of faff, if you can call it faff when you’re spending considerably longer cleaning your bike and clothes etc

and going full Four Yorkshiremen CO2 is an expensive and wasteful way of putting air in a tyre, if you’re Top 10 in a race and puncture then maybe…

get some tyres that you don’t need a vice to get off the rim (i’d do that anyway, even if i was just doing short rides from home, no-one needs that risk), run tubeless, take some spare tubes

for my 40th i treated myself to that custom Columbus steel road bike i mentioned, was a lovely thing, rode the crap out of it everywhere, lots of great memories

for my 50th i treated myself to a ride across Europe on an off-the-shelf titanium frame, less of a lovely thing – more of a tool for the job, rode the crap out of myself, lots of great memories

the frame material has been largely irrelevant :-)

i’d be more worried that they haven’t appeared to have greased the BB threads myself :-)

you won’t be disappointed with Columbus Spirit, it’s a lovely steel to make a bike from (i rode one for quite a few years, made by the man who is now Reilly Cycleworks when he was at Enigma)

i feel i should point out that there are plenty of UK framebuilders that will build you a nice Columbus Spirit frameset

Lighter and with a similar ride to what sort of steel, and using what titanium?

the only really tangible way that titanium is ‘better’ than steel is that it’s more resilient at resisting knocks and dents, and a naked ti frame will scrub up to look like new for years to come, steel is ‘better’ in that it’s easier to mend, so much of the rest depends on the variables of tubing used and the geometry, the difference in weight between good steel and good ti are pretty minimal

if you want a bike to ride like a steel bike, get a steel bike, if you want a frame material that somehow bridges the gap of both good steel and good titanium (all variables considered) then maybe have a look at stainless

what’s your definition of ‘better’?

do you mean lighter, stronger, stiffer, longer-lasting? broadly speaking there’s no such thing as ‘better’ when choosing between steel and ti as either can be built according to how you want them to ride using different sized and shaped tubes, although frame angles, wheels and tyres can also have a great influence

have you been training for the last six months to win this sportive or is it just a bike ride? do your own risk assessment based on this

(in similar position, road ride half-booked for tomorrow but cold conditions and non-muddy off-road seem to be gaining the upper-hand)

that’s happened to me loads, i put it down to user error, the bike standing still long enough for a puddle to form at the bottom of the tyre and then go solid over time as air leaked in somehow

i tried Caffelatex and went back to Stans

“It’s a term people use to describe a thing, get over it.”

i’m more then happy for it to be a thing, and for it to be described correctly, it doesn’t need to be used to grandiose the simple act of riding a bike into work :-)

“Unless something has changed the reccomended time limit for ‘fasted’ rides is around an hour”

i must have been reading different recommendations, anyone and any body can exercise for at least an hour without the need for food beforehand relying on what’s stored inside, anything over 90 minutes would count though…

but i guess ‘fasted’ sounds cooler and more like you’re invested in some complicated training regime than ‘i had breakfast once i got to work’ :-)

you’ll be fine

and calling riding for under an hour without breakfast ‘fasted’ is somewhat epicising the whole thing

this is one of those instances when (gasp) you’ll actually have to ring around and ask yourself, if you have any friends that have seen a physio ask them for recommendations, especially for one that understands the sport you do (not necessarily a sports physio)

bear in mind that the initial appointment might be longer and more expensive than any follow ups because they’ll need to ask a lot of questions and poke you around a bit to try and ascertain the problem

(a quick google for a random Newcastle physio puts an initial 30min assessment at £37.00, knees (even second hand ones) are considerably more)

don’t MTFU, go and get it sorted
knees are generally a poor design and all sorts of body issues work their way out through them, it might be something that just requires some simple stretches or exercises to make it better, however if you’ve left it for a year you might have some work to do, but a physio will know better

if it was me i’d go and see a physio off my own back, especially if the issue had been that long-standing

ignore all the advice on bike set up you might read (for starters you don’t mention if it only happens on/after a bike ride, and i suspect you haven’t been astride a bike for a whole year so it might not be anything bike related at all), it will all be anecdotal tales about what things fixed other people and about as useful as throwing a dart blindfolded over your shoulder at a blackboard of solutions as a way of pinpointing your issue

go and see a physio

depends

have you bought just the brake blocks or the whole blocks/holder/bolts units?

if the latter then you might be able to bolt them on, depending on the make of brake you’re using, it’s likely to be a bodge
if you’ve just got brake blocks then it depends, probably not as V-brake pads tended to be longer and thiner and fit a different holder

one of those ‘We’ll need to see pictures’ or ‘you’ll just have to find out yourself’ things

sounds like the old days when you could go to the bike shop and custom build your 6spd block from a selection of cogs on the wall :-)

viable? yes

in reality i find the gaps between the gears really bloody annoying and find a lot of my time wishing i was in the gear between the two options i have, YMMV obvs

as an aside i wouldn’t be putting a Mason Bokeh or Open UP in a place i’d just had a bike stolen from, no matter how secure it was or wasn’t

maybe they’d figured out that the relatively niche sub-£1000 cx/gravel bike market wasn’t for them as they did quite well selling £500 commuting bikes?

Little Boots sued to perform with a Tenori-on (i had to google the name) which looks like a drum machine but with lights in the early days, maybe that

your problem was ordering a ‘white’ americano

“And all the while, there is a dedicated cycle path following the river, not 50m to the side of them on the road.”

sorry to be pedantic and overly specific but this isn’t actually a dedicated cycle-path, it’s a shared route gravel track that’s quite off-road in places, potholed and frequently puddly and muddy in Winter months.

i use it a lot, and if i’m on my CX or MTB i’ll ride it because it’s a nice quiet corridor, but if i’m on my road bike i’ll avoid it for all but the driest months, and then i’ll use the pleasingly meandering road on the other side of the river to the A283, but that’s out of personal choice rather than to be ‘considerate’ to the heavy traffic on the main road so it can go about its business without other people ‘getting in the way’

“I was under the impression that bikes are ridiculously over-priced anyway!”

go in saying this and see what happens ;-)

if you’re a regular then just ask, make sure you do it nicely and politely, and don’t have a huff if you don’t get as much of a discount as you might like
if they can’t discount the bike to your requirements then see if they can do a deal on some bits/upgrades

if you *have* to mark the dates you’re passing the time wrong

i don’t think i did anything special on the day but filled the whole 40th year as an excuse for doing fun stuff with friends, i can’t remember now