Thanks for the quick replies guys. I will try the chain and see what happens. Don’t really want to buy anything else on this bike as it is only seeing road work right now. The superstar cog I have on there also has really short teeth kind of like the XT one advised against in Charlies vid so maybe that has something to do with this problem

I did Rome marathon couple years back and didn’t prepare properly and suffered more than I should have. Follow a structured training plan leading up to game day. I was running 12 miles quite comfortably before the marathon and it was not sufficient to prepare me for the nightmare of 26 miles. My shirt rubbed the skin off my nipples and the resulting sweat dripped onto the open wounds for the last 10 miles which is a pain that will stay with me for the rest of my days. That said I have been looking forward to doing it all over again

My boys age 6 and 9 got the galaxy tabs for christmas too and I ran into the same problem. Ended up using an app called funamo that filters the internet and youtube as well as blocking access to any important controls and settings. You can log onto the funamo website and check web history and application activity to see what they’ve been up to. I tested it by googling on the internet and youtube “boobies” and “titties” ect” and I was unable to see anything awesome so that was a result. Seems to be working well, only drawback is that it costs $20 per device

I would say take highway 2 east from Seattle on your way to Montana and stop for a few days in Leavenworth Washington. You can do just about any mountain sport here including some phenomenal riding. Check out Das Rad Haus for bike rentals and the free map of the local trails. The hotels, restaurants and bars are also excellent. Another option I would highly recommend would be to take the North Cascades highway accross the mountains and check out the towns of Winthrop, Chelan and Stehikin. They are all resort towns that are excellent bases for riding and other sports.

I’ve been trying to learn Italian for 2 years now and it’s not easy. I used Pimsleur audio cd’s levels 1-3 and rossetta stone levels 1-5 and I highly recommend both. These will get you to the point where you can ask for just about anything and have a vague clue what people are saying to you, but that’s about it. You’ll get to a point where you’ll need to be around italians to keep learning. If you can, stream an italian radio station (RTL 102.5 is a good one) at work or in the house so you get used to hearing the language as it’s really spoken, which is quite different from how you will learn it. Another thing I do is read and translate an italian news article each day which has seemed to help loads. The hardest part is not giving up. After a while it all starts to come together. Good luck!

“So your riding style on a HT and component failures = bad frame?”

Absolutely not, It’s a great frame actually, but a crap first ride and and if there’s anything I have to blame it would be the revelation fork which took a Sh=*& in the first five minutes of use. Also, it was the first time on a hardtail with a long fork and it just felt a little wierd coming from riding full suspension bikes!

I live in Pisa and there is some good riding around. As far as lift access goes, Abetone gravity park/Cimone are your nearest options from Perugia. Abetone has a cable car and five marked runs that are quite good. Definietly worth checking out if you are already in tuscany.

The western europe map came with france on mine. Before I bought the extra maps, it only had the Uk on it. I was in france in November and the maps worked fine. As I recall, when you load it up with the pc suite, you have to specifically select which countries you want by clicking or highlighting them. I remember this only because I could not fit them all on my 1 gb sd card and consequently had to de-select some regions to make room.

It might be ok if you get an alloy carrier cassette. Just had the same problem from using a SRAM 970 and I just popped a 990 on there which has the wider splined carrier. No problems since.

what year is it? I have a 06 fuel and have had no end of main pivot bearings working themselves loose. I believe I made it worse by not fixing mine straight away. If you have the slip fit bearings I have on my 06 be sure to use loctite 638 or something similar when you fit new bearings

“where is there to ride in Seattle”

There are the trails under the freeway http://evergreenmtb.org/colonnade/ which are super cool and stay dry year round and starting this summer there will be the new stevens pass bikepark which is going to be awesome! There is also a little place called Leavenworth that has some really cools trails around the town.

“Not the best move to post up a thread on the internet before they’ve even had a chance to respond IMO.”

The post wasn’t a rant, just asking for advice to see what a reasonable expectation is in this situation.

Will have to try and control my euphoric joy next time I get a new bike and actually inspect it rather than ride it I guess!

Same here, smashed XT shadow into a rock on my Trek fuel and the cage snapped off on one side, leaving the mech useless. Switched over to SLX to cut down on the cost and performance is the same, just doesn’t look as flashy and is a little heavier which I could care less about! I did bend the SLX’s cage the other day, but was able to bend it back

FFS. what is with you people's little wet dream that a bunch of American's are over there blaming brits for the the disaster? Obama couldn't have handled it better by holding BP accountable and yes, and if you have any knowledge on this oil spill you would know that he has blamed his administration for not regulating the oil companies.

Very nice, what was the build cost? Looking at making something similar

rode it back at the NPS series in '08 and loved it… been waiting to make it back up there and ride the other trails

Italy, where everything is always "domani"

Mine has just the plastic plug on it too (HFX model 2006). The guy at my old LBS gave me a little metal scew to put in there, as he reckons it's a common problem for the plug come out. The hole where the plug fits into is rubber lined, so shouldn't be hard to find a suitable screw to fit in there nice and snug. Only set of brakes I've ever bled, so don't have anything to compare too, but it wasn't bad after I bought the bleed kit from chain reaction cycles. There's plenty of instructions that are only a google search away! Good luck.

Haven't tried any of the guide services, but I do occasionally go to the Abetone gravity park located about 1 hour from Lucca and its always been a great day out. Abeone has 5 marked runs with about 1800 vertical feet of decent serviced by a high speed gondola.

encountered couple having what appeared to be fully clothed sex or just drying humping in middle of single track. literally rode around them through the stinging nettles. 30 minutes later on the way back out they were still there.

tried running with my edge 305 in an armband and it didn't work. Don't think the signal is good enough unless it sits right on your handlebars. Let us know if it works though

Sorry to hear this buddy. WTF is wrong with people. Where did they steal it from?

The DHB windproof ones. Around 12 pounds from wiggle. Plenty warm enough for me and well cheap

What's the nearest city to these trails? I live in Pisa and would love to check this place out. I Like the switchback photo with you all riding down!

they also end up in sub woofers sometimes. worth a look maybe. We pulled 5 hot wheels out of ours whilst looking for the sky remote

Mine was found this morning (after two days) in the garage right next to the torch they had just used to look under the sofa for it…

Also just got road shoes and pedals for christmas. After testing them in the garage for cleat position, unclipped and discovered the hard plastic cleat on the bottom of the shoe doesn't grip on concrete very well. ended up busting my a$$ on the floor and haven't even been out on the road yet!

wouldn't suit me for the mountains i ride. If/when I move back to thetford where there's smooth, flat and muddy trails I think I will give it a go

Wiggle customer service won't sort out the rotor and are saying its not included, so sending back for a refund. Lesson learned: read the whole description of what your're buying! Looks like it time to stand in line at the post office…

The rotors are not included with the wheels. My fault for not checking this. Just think its ridiculous that wiggle sells the wheels and not the rotor they require to work. From now on I shall go to the LBS!

No snow here in Italy at the moment. It just looks cold from those pics organic! At least the muds frozen. Had nearly a foot up on this mountain but only lasted a day or two.

I've had two chains snap in the last 3 months, but it was my fault for shifting while hammering down the pedals on a climb. Each time the snap happened the chain went slack, my knee thrashed into the stem and then caught a gear snapping it.

Probably the worst is the time I sharted 5 miles from home. I will spare you the details…

I would suspect there's more to the story. Would they really sack her if she was a valuable asset to the school? She was probally a religous nutcase and this was their oppurtunity to get rid of her. And isn't it convenient that she is mates with the nurse who got sacked for the same thing? They're obviously looking for publicity for their cause.

Wow, nice bike porn! I'm after something like that for my next ride. I'm tired of screwing with suspension linkage and loose bearings!

Done em on both of these rims and no probs. Bit tight but seal up well tubeless

I notice the noise to but just figure the seals are doing there job since every time I clean them the bearings are relatively clean. The parts are all replaceable in the hope so you can replace just the bearings which is much cheaper than buying 2 bb's each winter.

Here's the link, they look awesome, but I've never really heard of anyone riding one

http://www.bikesdirect.com/products/motobecane/fly_TI_09.htm

Are you guys doing 20 plus miles doing this on road bikes?