Jon, it’s a simple argument. You need a compressor to get your tyres to inflate with stans in them and you need stans in your tyres so you spend your winter riding rather than freezing your bits off changing inner tubes. As a side effect you can also spray paint the garden fence. You know it makes sense.

Has anyone here had any success/disaster doing a full head shave with a proper razor? I’m a professional with a disposable but now you’ve got me thinking…..

Am on talktalk. Was getting 2.5 Mbps down and 0.5 up. Upgraded to fttc and now have 7 down and 1 up. Home to cabinet is 1.2km. Judging by what you are all getting, I’ll be putting a long support call in on Monday.

Chilterns(ish) belsize to wendover and back. Tracks drying out in places though still bog snorkelling around the ostrich/emu farm at chesham and at Sarratt bottom. Many of the hill sections are washed out down to hardcore/flint and there are numerous trees down across the tracks. (What are the legal implications of taking a chainsaw on a ride and doing a bit of trimming en-route?).

The Boot at Sarratt was great as always and very welcoming to two muddy old farts.

Overall ride – best since september.

Loving it. But I think a sports psychologist could do wonders for the slope stylers.

Check blog.backblaze.com they run thousands of drives in their system and analyze failure rates.

Hope bbs with the gxp adapter work for me. Far superior longevity than the truvativs but you need to clean the grime out of the external seals from time to time.

Comic nimbyism. Apparently some people have the audacity to ride up box hill more than once.

Thanks all – much appreciated.

Chilterns. Ss Brit steel hardtail rigid fork + ti hardtail. On my own i prefer the ss, with the gang I need the hardtail to keep up on the flats.

Dialled love/hate. Ace. Seen here sporting her favourite mud coat. Fantastic climbing machine (assuming geared for the uphill bits) and great on the downhill (let go of brakes and steer).

+2 hope

I cleared out the shed recently and found 7 knackered superstar and truvativ gxp bbs. Average life circa 4 months at 20-30 miles of mud per week.

I put hopes on both my bikes a year ago and no problems since.

To be fair to superstar, they do honour their 1 year guarantee.

I’m also in the SE with the same problem. I’m running panaracer fire XC pros 2.1 – fine all-round mud/gloop/slippy root/road tires.

Excellent. Now for the real challenge – come and make me and my middle aged porky mates look good in the middle of this fine british autumn, head to toe in chiltern mud without the use of the long lost yellow thing in the sky. On the plus side there are plenty of scenic pub interiors.

Dialled love/hate. Got mine set up with rigid exotic carbon forks. I initially built this up as my winter snotter but love it so much i take it out in preference to its rather more exotic cousin whenever there’s not a geared gang to be kept up with. Fantastic uphill and down and deals with all the mud the chiterns can throw at it.