No kids here, not one regret. Mind you I hate the little bleeders.

+1 for checking the cleat position.

The ball of your foot needs to be more-or less central over the pedal spindle, give or take. You should have a bit of lateral float but make sure that the cleat positioning isn’t twisting your ankles unnaturally.

If you don’t want to use the car, make use of the train – head North out of Victoria and into Calderdale (Todmorden/Hebden Bridge/Burnley area), or South out of Picadilly and head for the Peak District. Both areas are riddled with the natural. Arm yourself with the correct OS maps and go exploring.

The car will give you more options – the Yorkshire Dales are only 1 – 1.5 hours away, and the Lakes or North Wales 2 hours.

A selection of hammers and a colourful vocabulary.

come back when your looking at a new clutch , turbo and drive shafts – wont be long going on my experiance of other vehicles having a “simple ECU remap” a friend had similar done at a skoda dealer on a fabia VRS – within months the above failed and skoda wouldnt warrenty it despite their dealer saying that they would as the approved dealer did it…..

usually other reasons other than economy and tightfistedness for the designers to reign in the power – after all everyone loves power.

Unlikely. The later (post 2001) R version was rated at 300bhp at the crank straight out of the factory. As they share a drive train (albeit with an uprated gearbox in the R) with the ordinary T5s There’s little likelihood of sub 300bhp having any effect.

If you want to improve the cornering, fit a strut brace at the front and lower 30mm all round. Makes a hell of a difference. My old P1 T5 went round corners like it was on rails. It’s hilarious watching spotty yowths trying to keep up in their souped-up roller skates :lol:

Just got some BiBike ones from Sport Pursuit for £21. http://www.sportpursuit.com

However, when I mentioned it to my wife…she said I was overreacting and should take the compliment.

Is my wife practicing double standards or do I need to get out of this PC environment for a weekend and eat raw meat on a hillside somewhere.

Oh god. You’re in BIG bother. You told your wife? And she said you were over-reacting? 8O

Do you know NOTHING about women??

Clearly your Womanese filter has failed – what you heard as, “you’re over reacting, take the compliment,” was actually, “right brother, that’s going in the file marked “irrelevant snippets that can be trotted out at any time in the future to be blown out of all proportion.” Just you wait…”

I’d pack your bags now and move back in with your mum…

OMG like seriously.. why are some people using like, bicycles when, they could be using motorcycles or whatever already dude..?

Why are you using a computer when you could use your crayons?

Point? Missing the?

there you go.. somafunk has elegantly communicated exactly what I would have liked to have said.. only my attempt would have come out as..

NNNNNNGGGnnfff f f **** off

Probably down to your lack of vocabulary and inability to drag your knuckles off the floor and towards a keyboard, by the sounds of it… 8O

I think it was your use of the word ‘already’ in your thread’s title. STW Wordists would have preferred you to have written ‘Why are a lot of people using rigid forks?”

Ah – mea culpa (and no, I’m not Roman…).

Unless they’re telling you your wrong for not using them whats your problem?

Haven’t got a problem. Just interested.

Like I said, it’s each to their own, and I’m genuinely enquiring about why people want to use them.

For my part, I’ll never use rigid forks on an MTB again.

That said, the only “for” arguments I understand/can empathise with at the moment are “simplicity” (but then I don’t find suspension complicated) and “weight”.

Lots of people drive classic cars, which have suspension systems that are absolutely terrible compared to a modern car. Why do they do this? FUN!

Yup, that I understand – but what I’m getting at is, if you had two (hypothetical) modern cars which would you go for? The old-tech that handles like a puppy on wet lino or the comfortable, controllable version?

are you American ?

Your point being?

And no, it’s worse than that – I’m from Lancashire.

Beware the 12 x 135mm Hope unless it’s an EVO hub… they break regularly as there is not a lot of aluminium left.

Bobbins. Old-style Pro 2 here, two years abuse and counting.

Are you talking about the pawl springs for the freehub? If they’re genuine Hope kit, I can’t see it being an issue.

It’s true we aren’t called pie eater because we eat a lot of pies, it’s because the minors of wigan were the first go back after the general strike in 1926 and were said to be eating humble pie

Child labour was still a major factor in Wigan until well into the 20th Century… :roll:

My mum and her mates used to go up Cross Fell and Fountains Fell ski-ing in the 60s.

Is that safe? Will I die? Not usually worried about this stuff because I generally speaking have an iron stomach, ill eat anything in most conditions but chicken makes me nervous! What do you think?

As long as it’s cooked through it will be fine. If you re-heat it make sure that it boils for at least 30 seconds to kill any nasties.

If you’re storing it, better to freeze it if you can.

You can drink it.

Not more that twice though (for the same wee) as the sodium levels become toxic.

Always go for double-butted (DB) regardless of the application – plain gauge might be cheaper but ultimately are more prone to failure at the head because they are inherently less resilient.

+1 for 18″.

I’m 6 foot and all my Oranges have been 18″ frames (Subzero, G4 and Alpine 160). All been perfect.

I’m thinking about going 1 x 10 myself.

Currently my lowest gear is 22 x 32 giving 17,9 gear inches; going to a 32 x 36 will give me 23,1 gear inches so whilst it is higher, it isn’t that much higher, and TBH it’s very rare that I use my very lowest two gears anyway – I’m usually off and walking by then!!

Highly recommend Feet First in Chesterfield. They stuck some dotty rubber on a pair of Inov8 boots which are working a treat in the snow!

Seconded. They put some on an old pair of my Nike 6.0 Mogans. Hey-presto! Sticky bike shoes at half the price of a pair of 5-10s

I think if you’ve got it, £2k is actually a sensible (ish) amount to spend! with one caveat: only spend a max of say £1500 on the actual bike. With the remaining £500, get yourself properly kitted out for a UK winter (mud, rain, 3degC etc) as lots of beginners have just given up after not enjoying themselves trying to cycle through a british summer, let alone a UK winter! And, if you’ve got £200 left over, get yourself to some skills coaching, a blinking good day out, and will really make you want to push yourself and learn new stuff, not just pound the pedals round!

This is probably the best answer you’ve had so far. Heed this advice.

Running

…should be punishable by summary execution, unless being employed as a method of survival/capture evasion.

Persons who run in the road should be tortured, then executed.

Your Fuhrer has spoken.

I have a Canon Pixma iX6550. It will do up to A3+ (oversized A3) borderless and the print quality is astonishing for a “cheap” printer. £149 all in. Five separate ink cartridges (Cyan, Mangenta, Yellow, black (photo) and black (text) which work out at about £9 each. You can replace individual cartridges as and when rather than a full set at a time.

Surely at prices as low as that a photo printer is the daftest purchase ever

Depends what you’re doing with it. For holiday snaps, yes. But if you’re turning out large-format, high quality photos and fine-art prints on archival quality paper it’s the cheapest way of doing it.

You are not new to it even if you have been out for a bit you know what it takes to go riding.

That’s true. Plus you’re probably not as unfit as you think you are if you’ve done it before…

First up, who gives a $h!t what anybody else thinks? If they have a problem with you, that’s their issue, not yours. Don’t let it get to you.

Secondly, do you have one or two friends who you could ride with, who understand your issues and can offer you encouragement and support? If you don’t, I’m sure that there are folk on here who would be willing to help out until you feel confident enough to ride with others. If you’re in my area, I’m always up for a trundle!!

would they be able to strip the frame too?

Some will, some won’t. Best to Google powder coaters in your area and try calling a few. Even if they don’t you could ask them if they know of any bead blasters who could do it for you.

Make sure that if you have the frame blast-cleaned it’s done with glass bead, walnut shell chips or soda. DON’T get it shot or grit blasted as this will rip it to bits. Alternatively get it chemically dipped but make sure that they use a process which won’t attack aluminium.

I had some alloy wheels stripped and powder coated last year – it cost me £20 per wheel for stripping and £80 to get the lot powder coated. Stick to plain colours, it’s cheaper (i.e. black, white, red, yellow). Wet paint/enamel gives you more options as far as colours and finish are concerned but will be expensive.

Forget anodising. Chances are that somewhere the frame will have some steel inserts for bottle bosses, pivot points etc. Unless you can remove them it FUBARs the whole anodosing process and you will be saddled with a hefty bill.

^£650 for four winter tyres – what size? I looked around in the summer for winter tyres and wheels and found a set of new steel wheels and good quality winter tyres for just over £500 – bearing in mind my normal tyres are 19″ – yours must be enormous!

Cheapest for mine from BlackCircles at 225/45R17 are Yokohama W.Drives at £95 each fitted. Mid-Range Dunlops are £125 each.

For the three days of snow and ice we get every year (and yes, I do live in a rural area) it just doesn’t make economic sense.

I have 2 sets of wheels, one with all-season Falkens on which I use in winter and are more than adequate. The other set is shod with Yokohama Parada Spec 2s which go on in April and come off at the end of October.

Never had an issue in snow with this system. But then I do know how to drive.

UnderArmour ColdGear here. Normal 30° degree wash with Ariel. No pong issues. Same with my HH.

I just just giggled like a naughty school boy at my desk when reading that and all my colleagues are looking at me…

My work here is done…

surely the latter is just minor royalty?

“Someday my Plinth will come”

?

I’ll get your coat for you… :roll:

Flange
Plinth

Have to disagree. Flange and Plinth are the King and Queen of words. And working in engineering I get to use both. Regularly. Without feeling self-concious, used or dirty.

Flange in particular is a much maligned and misunderstood word. Much like cock, thrust, ring and plunger.

how anyone can be proud of a factory that churns out third rate baked goods is beyond me.

You’ve clearly never been to Baxenden. If you had, you would know why they are so proud of Hollands… 8O

Is llandegla the best??

Not by a long shot.

Kirroughtree, Mabie and Dalbeattie all beat it into a cocked hat.

And the natural beats them all…

I’d recommend not to put cheap bearings in. My mate has down that with his Hope hubs recently and it’s lefting him changing bearings every month. He’s never doing it again either. Just get some high quality SKF or INA bearings and you’ll be fine. If you’ve got a bearing supplier local to you then go there.

This.

But…Hope reckon that they use Schaeffler bearings exclusively, and Schaeffler own both the INA and FAG brands…

It’s SKF all the way for me, from my local bearing factor. Who happen to be these guys…Bearing Factors (Nelson)[/url], but I always go to the trade counter.

I honestly don’t know what the fuss is about Hollands, they’re nowt special. They sell them at Turf Moor, which is where Delia Smith had one and had a load shipped down to Carrow Road for the Canaries.

For my money Haffners are far superior.

Alfa GT or (early) Brera?

I work just round the corner from Stanforths in Skipton – pork pie heaven!!

They go for about £150
If you don’t want it, someone else will, but don’t ‘give it away’!

There’s one just gone on FleaBay for £80…

I can smell diesel and I’m in Lancashire. Oh wait, I’ve just filled the car up… 8O