Hmm,

Does this make me the odd one out at 6′ with a 32″ inside leg to be riding a large?

It is the old style with the same frame as pictured above.

Rik – just because I don’t have total recall on the model numbers doesn’t mean I could tell the difference between them.

Yes 44 and 55 these are the ones. Thanks for these more constructive contributions.

I assume you have a new 575 as you have a dropper post.

I have the original style 575 (27.2 seatpost) and it does not work well with a 591 due to a cable boss towards the bottom of the downtube. They may well have changed this for the later models.

OK, that’s a good thing I think!

Do you reckon that is a good variant to go for? There are about 10 different versions of the same tyre it seems (OK so just like mountain bike tyres then!)

No Al I really am going there in September.

We will be riding in in the Mendocino area which is to the north of San Fransisco.

I am going on the tyres are on, one of my friends is buying new ones any so wants to know what to go for.

Well yes that is true but after some advice too! :D

Shedfull – can confirm a nice parallel pairing making room for a pump at the valve hole

clubber – checked that and all OK

Looks like it is fine and ready to get on with the tensioning stage.

OK, I am reassured on the inside/outside question and it explains why none of the other variants have collapsed and killed me.

Here is that first picture again and I think this is the spoke people are picking out as 2X:

The red spoke is crossed with the green, yellow and orange in that order away from the flange.

If that is OK then I can proceed to the tensioning stage!

The first cross is very early and hidden by the spoke flange I think.

But happy to be corrected.

Wheelbuilding is a funny one, I have built about 6 wheels now all in regular use but never to it often enough to be certain of the details!

Here is a picture of either side:

Sorry turns out it is a difficult thing to take a photo of!

Yes it is 3X build but I am pretty sure that is correct (no 2X faults) it is the leading/trailing inside/outside thing I am wondering about.

I will post another side on picture in a moment

Tonight cos I am rubbish at getting things done and need to start and finish otherwise I will be walking to work for the next 2 weeks.

Off to the plumbing suppliers now, that sounds worth a go.

TJ and nbt. Thank you very much for the offers – I will keep it in mind.

neil_the_wheel – do you know if they are in operation?? They look ideal, the website has loads of information and the blog/twitter posts are recent but they have not answered e-mails or phonecalls. Seems odd.

Yes I have seen the tandem club page and have tried most of the London ones including Totally Tandems in London but they haven’t answered messages left yet (tried 3 times over the last couple of weeks) so thinking I may need to search elsewhere.

Hmm JD are just miles away so think they are out of contention. I suppose SJS might be OK but not clear from their website if they hire tandems at all.

My friend has a pair as they were one of the few hubs we could find to suit his Mavic 819 rim which had not many holes (28 or 24 can’t remember).

They look nicely made, they were a good weight, sealing seemed reasonable.

But……

Stoner is so very right. They devil is in the detail which is indeed the pawls which are constructed in a different way from the Hope ones I have. There are pawls and they are sprung by a ring around them. This gives quite a light spring which would be fine….

But…..

his hub has a defect in the lip seal, not typical or likely in another one I know but in his it means the ingress of dirt water and dust is more likely and this interferes with the light action to make the pawls stuck down leading to no drive :-(

On the plus side when this happens the freewheel can be removed by hand!

But for him with a damaged lip seal the wheel is hopeless and only suitable for riding in a dust/water/mud free environment (which sounds boring). A new one may well be better but lack of spares availability means this one is heading for the bin unfortunatley.

So what I am saying is they are nearly good!

From what I remember dealing with Taiwan supplier was entertaining but trouble free.

@Melanie – that is a great sales pitch for Oregon! Sounds amazing.

Decisions, decisions :-)

Walleater – that was something I wondered, have you ridden there and had that issue? But then there was a video a couple of weeks ago of Brian Lopes razzing round some Laguna Beach trails and saying what a great place it was to ride. To be fair if I could ride as well as him anywhere becomes a good place to ride!

Bouncing this back to the top for the daytime crowd.

I would say it is an 80% biking holiday.

I actually know the least and have found the least on cycling in California, so if you know more please share. I assume a trip there would include San Fransisco.

Have hitched a couple of times on holiday in Slovakia, Sweden and most recently in a race to catch flight I hitched across Lithuania and Latvia. Involved about 6 different legs. I was doing OK but had to get a taxi for the last leg, I paid slightly over the odds for a ‘fast’ journey. Think we did around 100kph through the border and the driver bottomed it out over a level crossing at one point – all whilst listening to hi-NRG eurodance remixes. I made the flight on time :-)

Hitching is a great way to get around, I think the risks are way overrated and meeting people who would otherwise be having a dull journey is great. I have had worse experiences in taxi’s than hitching.

Don’t drive much myself but did give a lad a ride in the highlands last summer.

Wow this is great :-) thanks everyone.

I watched the sacred rides Peru video – persuasive stuff!

Also listening carefully to advice on time of year. We were in St. George and Utah in September and it was still crazy hot to the point that our rides in Moab were carefully timed to avoid cooking!

ianv – This sounds pretty good as do TheRack’s variants on it. I am not sure I would return to Moab but I could certainley be tempted to go back to Fruita, the riding was amazing and one of my friends missed out there as he got sick. What sort of costs are typical for a flight to Denver?

The Alps traverse looks good but I guess you would be carrying your own kit?

Iceland did look good and has come up in discussions.

b r – Agree on Scotland but I have ridden four weeks there (three in the last 3 years). Of course there is loads more but think we will be going furhter afield for this one.

richc – Agree totally on Sacred Rides, we have done two trips (BC and Utah)- both superb and I would never hesitate to recommend them. We represented the UK well in our riding though the Mt. Severn Psychosis course was way too much for us!! Peru is a possible and would be an amazing destination but I know very little of the quality and nature of the trails. Also think the flight may be a wallet buster.

TheRack – Thanks for offer of planning notes, I may well take you up on that when we settle on a plan. I am not normally one to shy away from organisations (four Scotland trips etc) but there is something really great about joining a group and also riding with a guide that is faster/better than you and who knows the trails, conditions and area really, really well.

What about Oregon? This got loads of mentions in a similar thread I posted three years ago but less now.

Keep ’em coming!

Jambalaya,

Thanks for your post. New Zealand does sound good and I would like to go there but as you say the timing is tricky.

Have you been to Colorado? And if so where did you fly into?

Didn’t see the Nepal one but pleased to say he had not lost it by the time he got to the Congo, it was still a Haglöfs one.

I bought one a couple of months ago, very pleased. Battery lasts about 48 hours of regular use.

I think there is a new version coming out soon and there is also the Defy+ which I think is slightly more powerful.

Mine has CyanogenMod 7 installed on it from the point I bought it (2nd hand). This seems to work very nicely and has none of those manufacturer or network annoyances.

neninja – that looks ideal, on the downside it is Easter Sunday evening we want to eat there :(

I will now check out these other suggestions. Any further recommendations welcome though.

keppoch.

I am following this quite keenly, the consistency of daily distance Mike is completing is incredible and for the moment is way ahead of the competition. I will be interested to see how he gets on in India which I can’t help but think is going to be a different cycling environment!

keppoch.

Have done mine with Namgrass artificial grass. Best improvement to the garden ever. More time relaxing in the garden less time picking cat s*** out of bark chippings (not my cats).

Levelled the earth, created a pegged in wooden frame, stone dust (thick layer), compact, sharp sand (thin layer), compact, weed membrane nailed to the wooden frame, artificial grass down, trim with Stanley knife.

Sounds quick but it took a while. If I was doing it again I would skip the sharp sand and use more stone dust as it compacts much better. Result is great. The toughest bit was getting the 4m roll through a terrace house. So heavy it needed four of us but no space to get it through all the doors and corners.

It doesn’t look natural so don’t fret too much between the different options (I did). Some are quite clearly craply made though so steer clear of those. As I said I recommend using stone dust with at most a 20 level of sharp sand as the top layer.

Certini store has been there since before Christmas. Limited range of pretty good parts Cannondale and Specialized bikes.

Bikeshed is definatley more than 10 minutes walk. I’d say 20.

Thanks, those are helpful points. Seems like a big factor in price is what is on a deal at any given point. Think I need to skim the DIY stores to check – if I can I would also like to get it delivered as it will represent several (potentially itch inducing) loads in a car.

Sharkbait,

Thanks for your response and offer. I think you are probably right. I will get the stuff out of the loft and work out quite how much I have and how much it will cost, I will then be in contact if I decide to go ahead.

I don’t do anything fast as a rule so this could be weeks or months but your advice is valued.

Thanks.

You may live to regret this!

I think there is a good chance you are right however if I don’t give it a go I will either have to move this round a number more times or cash out an amount that is disproportionate to the value of the paperwork!

Thanks for the advice on the scanners.

Good point but I still can’t find something that sounds like what is described – I am quite interested in this for a variety of purposes.

Interested in finding out more about Eyen, but ironically when I searched I couldn’t find it.

Can you point me in the right direction please?

I have an old XT one, suspect the issue is similar.

They sell the bash guard for an incredibly reasonable £8 odd

The bolt kit is a separate item and costs about £16.

I filed some washers down to fit. It has not fallen off after two years of regular riding.

I’m considering one of these but like others not ready for the leap of faith on 11spd reliability.

What deals are out there for a 32H, black, 8spd Alfine?

On-One £149..

I would also consider a whole wheel but it needs to have V-brake sidewalls.

skywalker is probably driving a Jaguar X type happy that he got what he paid for as opposed to a cheap Mondeo or something……

I’ve no experience of X Fusion but what’s to stop them making something good? About 10 years ago there was this company called Fox making suspension forks like Rock Shox and no one was sure about them.

Right you lot this is all great advice. After spending so much time on the rest of the woodwork it seems a shame to take a shortcut at the last moment. Having read your opinions but espcially that that the MDF will never look quite the same as painted wood I am erring towards the pine solution espcially as someone has offered to help me with this whilst I continue the woodwork equivalent of painting the Forth bridge around the rest of the house :-)

I think picking where I buy it from will have a lot to do with it. I looked in a builders merchants and a Homebase (because I was passing) at the weekend. Not only was the Homebase skirting 4x as much but it was cracked, riddled with knots and oozing resin. So I intend to take a look at a few different offerings and get some neat looking pine.

Now tell me how to do the fireplace! :D

http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/chicken-or-egg-fireplace-or-hearth

Don’t worry I have already spotted the potential to pre-paint it all :-)

After all the contortions of preparing the other woodwork in-situ I have no intention of doing that if preventable!

I like the thought of fast preparation of the mdf but as DD says I think the end result will be best achieved with wood so I think hunting for the best most knot-free pine is likely to be the best compromise.

Don’t get me wrong I am not trying to eliminate woodgrain but it would be quite different I think (windowsill in one of the rooms is pine and clashes a bit with the rest of the wood in that room).

Consensus seems to be the MDF then.

Interesting point about putting the pipes behind the skirting! I might take the opportunity to do that in advance as I need to get a plumber in for some other work.

Thanks all.

keppoch