Worldclassaccdent – your shed is fantastic. I officially have shed envy.

Another vote for single speed. Chuck some rigid carbon forks on it if you want the weight down further and gear it so you can get up the hardest hill you’re likely to encounter in the filthiest weather. Repurpose your existing chainset to singlespeed with a cheap shimano steel chainring. Hope bb for minimal maintenance. You’ll spin out on the flats but who cares. I love my ss winter snotter and am rarely found with gears unless it’s dry.

Rx100 mk 1. No need for anything else.

Sony rx100. As per previous post – pick the mk according to budget however the mk1 is stunningly good and the cheapest.

Yes, it’s ace. 26″ steel love hate, fixed carbon forks and chunky tyres. Hope bearingy bits and rnr blue to avoid winter maintenance. Now stop talking about it and get out there.
Flickr love hate mud[/url]

Just got me some bolle safety specs from screw fix for a tender. Great quality, work a treat and when I get mud on them I don’t cry. They even do Polaroids for about £25.

Thank you nobeerinthefridge. You have just reminded me there is one beer left in the fridge and there’s an England game on.

Rock n’ roll blue. All weathers, all the time. Ride, hose down, splash rnr blue around liberally, wipe chain, put bike in shed. Repeat. No need to take the chain off. Good for at least 40 miles of mixed mud/slop/grinding paste. I’ve tried all sorts of dry and wet lube and this is the least fuss and best lasting. And it works in the dry too.

Here’s the 1945 Raleigh equivalent. Proper industrial machinery, class and gender inequality, health and safety (not) and gas pipe being welded but unfortunately I couldn’t find the precision adjustments. Skilled workers are required to fit wheels apparently.

raleigh 1945

Bloody hell. Now I’ve got vice envy.

The reason all us rigid single speed merchants keep banging on about how good they are is because they are mighty good fun, minimal mainenance even in the current filth, get fit quick, just as quick downhill if you let the brakes go, climbing goats. And if you go 26″ you’ll pick up a frame and all the bits second hand on here for next to nowt. My recommendation is dialled love/hate.

@deadkenny – when the chilterns are rideable, it’s usually september.

Here’s one of our outings on strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/516328994 It’s about 50% road 50% tracks. If you want longer I’ve got several that go up to 40 miles but they were filthy a couple of weeks ago over near wendover/ great missenden.

I set my SS MTB up so I can just get up the hardest climbs. The trade-off is top speed on the flat. Take your geared bike out on the route and figure out the highest gear you can just grind up the steepest hill in. Then try that gear on the flat and figure out if it’s going to be acceptably non-spinny. If it is – set up the gearing the same on the singlespeed. If it’s too spinny you’ll need a higher gear but will end up walking up the hill until you find a power:weight improvement. If the circumference of the wheels differs you need to read up on gear-inches on sheldon brown. As you get used to it you’ll find you can increase the gearing.

Looking at the cotic site – that looks a thing of beauty!

What I really want though is an air-horn on the bike that plays dixie.

If you’re trying to get fit, and have hills, and live where there’s a grinding paste that trashes gears, and primarily do non-gnarly stuff then give single-speeding a go.

Woops – just what molgrips said at the end.

Re diffusers, on the rx100 you can gently tilt the flash upwards with a finger and bounce it off the ceiling. This softens the shadows a lot.

For ‘normal’ photos put it in ‘intelligent auto’ mode ( camera icon with an i next to it). For difficult situations ( low light, backlit, family dinners, …) put it in superior auto mode ( camera icon with an i and a +) next to it. Put the picture quality to’ jpeg fine’ and maximum resolution. When you take the photo, half press the shutter button and wait for focus to lock on then press down harder to take the photo.

It’s a great camera but complex for a non- photographer. Lots of reading and maybe some hands on help from a local photo guru ( night school class maybe) will improve things no end.

Did anyone point out the watford – arsenal score today?

Ah. So we all like mud and i’m sure the rules say something about no mudguards under any circumstances but we’ve all got them fitted.

Try that photo again….

mud here

Another 57cm here. Loving mine, extremely comfortable, feels quick, starts, stops, climbs, looks great.

Morris k99 waterproof grease. Perfect for your traditional uk mountain biking. About 6 quid for 500g.

Bog standard 9sp deore steel 32t chainring is all you need and will last for years. And a set of short chainring bolts (charlie the bikemonger does those). You’ll need a chain tensioner – push up is better than down to increase the chain wrap round the rear cog (more wrap = less chance of it slipping). Try and make sure the chainring, rear cog and chain are the same width – sheldon brown is useful there. Oh and make sure your chain-line is straight and enjoy the peace and quiet of expensive bits not wearing out.

Another vote for the ritchey road logic here. I bought one from someone on here (not Hora) at the end of last year and I love it The colour is great and you can pick up a new frame and forks for about 650 leaving you 350 to spend on wheels or shiney bits.

I rebuilt a bontragerTLR free hub a few weeks ago. No need for a hex key to get it off – there was a single locknut on either side of the axle so I needed one cone spanner on each side. It seemed a bit odd as I’ve only ever seen pairs of locknuts butted up against each other before. Pop the locknuts off then remove the spacer. After that there’s a circlip buried in the grime in the end of the freehub that needs removing. Then the freehub pulls off the axle like most of the mavic ones. Be careful as the roller bearings tend to fall out and the seal looks a bit fragile. Once off I replaced the grinding paste with grease and it all felt a lot happier. I didn’t touch the sealed bearings within the freehub which is likely to be where any play is coming from but it looked like you would need to drift those out. I did manage to find a doc on the bontrager site explaining all the freehubs – go dig there.

Standard chiltern’s mud. Just get on with it.

chess valley

Another very happy Sony rx100 user here. You do need to rtfm though to get the most out of it.

Ugg. Wonderfully snug and still going after 3 years. Regularly have to be repatriated from the feet of mrs jonwe and various teenage sons despite them having their own ( clearly inferior and better fitting) slippers. The xtr of the slipper world.

Nah. Stuck to a gentle local loop on the mtb with my mate slow Dave. Slower than usual due to the various works events this week and some rather muddy mud mud. All very enjoyable. Then I finished off building the new road bike so I might test that tomorrow but only if it’s dry and quiet, otherwise I’ll just look at it and then go for a run.

Running a solarstorm v2 box. All good with a solarstorm x2. Only down side is the usb output ( good idea) being not waterproofed (bad idea) on a waterproof battery box.

For low maintenance I use park anti seize on the threads and good quality waterproof marine grease in your bearings.

Husqvarna. Bright orange. Ace and about 15 quid delivered.

I use a Nikon 24-85mm AF-S G. Cheap, light and remarkably sharp. If you want to go smaller and lighter and cheaper you could go Nikon 50mm f 1.8 or f1.4 which are very sharp, let you play with shallow depth of field and are excellent in low light. The lack of zoom is allegedly good for your photographic skills. Now for a few hundred you could get a Sony rx100 mk1 or mk2 with a slightly smaller sensor, a 24-85mm zoom lens and it fits in your pocket.

None of these have a massive zoom range mind.

Turbos,bike stands, shit socks and one piece roadie gimp suits (mainly female) in the apsley aldi an hour ago. No sign of garmins though.

I’m using a tom tom multi sport watch. Excellent value now at around £100. Waterproof, gps and doesn’t need a strap to measure heart rate.

So here is the computer and plotter I used in my first job. The part you can’t see is the mighty 10Mb washing machine sized drive under the desk. It ran UNIX of course. Have we had a unixtrackworld thread yet?

Wash with water. Rock n roll blue. Wipe chain with towel. Ride bike. Repeat. No need for taking the chain off, petrol, diesel, white spirit, green citrus cleaners, mechanical devices and the like. Survives 4 hours of the Chiltern’s finest winter mud no problem. Unfortunately the world’s supply of RNR is in decline so I will be switching to UBS which singletrackworldwisdom suggests is the next best thing along the same lines.