yeah mine sometimes drops off onto the 'granny' ring when i'm in the middle ring and largest sproclet. I just stopped using that combo.

stoatsbrother +1

I've gone to checkout a couple of times on their site and remembered they dont ship 1st order to an alternative address :-(

you'll probably need gears for the big rideable climbs in the lakes – walna scar, garburn pass, climb out of sadgill, then theres the tan hill climb.

I've done it a couple of times now and have always been glad of a granny ring for the lakes!

edit: i'm assuming its the off road c2c st bees to robin hoods bay, not the sustrans one?

its done! removed all the old oil from both sides, fitted new seals and assembled it without any problems. I think….. :lol:

They feel nice and smooth and still bounce up and down with no nasty noises which is a good sign in my eyes.

The new seals werent very easy to press in place though, but they seem to be fully seated all the way round. Any tips for this for the next time?

One thing i did notice when i removed the old wiper seals was that the inside if the lowers was quite rough where the seal or foam ring had been touching it, sort of looked a bit like mild corrosion or something. Stanchions were ok, and the rest of the lowers looked fine apart from this one bit. (on both legs)

Thanks for everyones help :-)

Have temporarily abandoned the job until i have more time tonight!

When i cycle the damper circuit do i do this with the lowers back on?

thanks! I should be banned from doing jobs like this :D

ahhh bollocks, i tipped my bike up the right way to drain the oil out :oops: was trying to avoid making a mess and thought it would be easier to catch the oil this way.

So do i put the full volume in the air side then? And will all the oil have drained out of the damper circuit as well or is this sealed in a different part of the fork?

most tyres with decent sidewalls will be ok. I've used cont verticals, high rollers, spec purgatorys (i know quite a few people riding with these as well) and Spec fast traks (in the summer) with no problems, all tubeless. Only ones i had problems with were some Mud-x ones where they seemed to get cut up by the slate quite easily.

is it only unreadable if the sun is behind you or shining directly on the screen, i mean can you turn around and see it better? I like the look of it and the home screen widgets thing + its cheaper than an iphone but not had a chance to play with one so not sure how much of an issues the screen is in general use

cheers chris, just been looking at your website, i may well be in touch very soon! And if you can do stuff from Wheelbase even better :D

i wasnt that impressed with mine – the fabric is very lightweight material and after only a few outings mine had a few scuffs and tufty bits in the fabric from just putting it on the ground and riding through narrow forest tracks. I think the Camelbak material is stronger… but then again the camelbaks are heavier.

its more to do with the metabolism of the paracetemol in it i think. Alcohol + paracetemol puts a much larger strain on your liver if i remeber correctly

how do the cameras work at night?

I assume they have some sort of IR illuminator or flash, but wont the headlights be so bright as to stop the numberplate being seen? As you can tell i have no idea how they work lol

molegrips – not at all, 1) i didnt think they were any crappier, and 2) the buyer can see the tyres that are on it before they buy.

Coffeeking – ahh well that shows that cheapo budget tyres can be just as good as big branded ones…admittedly crap big branded ones!

Anyway i'm no car enthusiast as i said above, but i think for normal driving my budget ones are fine and i'd get them again. Actually they got 4 stars out of 5 on the black cirles site i think. :-)

i've just put the cheapest possible tyres i could find on my car as i'm selling it in a few months. Got them from black circles and they were only £50 each fitted for 225/45/17. (£36 unfitted!!!)

Anyway after a few hundred miles on them i can honestly say i cant tell any difference at all between them and the Pirelli P6000 things i had on before. They corner fine, stop ok in wet and dry and are no noisier. Only time will tell about how long they last but i'd definately buy budget tyres again!

Should add though i dont really drive like a loony. My car is pretty quick when you want it to be (2.0 TDI 140bhp golf) but i dont rag it around all the time so maybe if i did then i'd notice some difference but i gave up dirving like a loon a long time ago! But i reckon if you've got a fairly normal powered car and drive normally then budget tyres are fine.

i'd quite like a heated steering wheel as well or should i just MTFU :oops:

i wonder why other cars dont have them as well. Only seen them on Mazda's and Fords.

regarding the VAG TSI petrol engines, on paper they have good eonomy, but the one i drove for a few hours i found i had to drive it very 'careully' to get the published figures, unlike diesels where i just tend to drive relative to the conditions and trafic and it gives very good mpg.

I've also had a few VAG car dealers telling me that the economy on the TSI isn't as good in real life. Now this could be because they are new engines and a lot of them havent 'run in' so ecomony will improve, or could need some tweaks to the ECU on them as they are new technology.

must depend where you drive ie lots of traffic etc?

I have a 2.0 TDI which gets me average 54mpg, but the petrol car i drive, a 1.4 vtec thing that i dont rev the nuts off only gives me about 42mpg. (both in fairly traffic free rural areas which is most of my driving) Of course the computers could be lying to me!

what sort of bikes do you lot ride? Looks like from the photos that a few of them are fully rigid touring bikes?

Just curious as the pics look good and i'm after some routes for playing around on my cross bike on. Might try out some of your rides :)

hmmm i guess i've found them seeming faster then as i dont really rev cars that high as i'm used to driving diesels, so i'm probably not revving the petrol ones high enough to get to the max power of them.

edit – hold on hadnt read all the replies :D

That 1.5 – 2k doesnt all go in the dentist pocket you know!

My sisters bf is a dentist i had a similar conversation with her a few months ago. His implant course cost him 10k, then about 30 days off work on the course so thats maybe 6-7k lost income, then she says it costs the dentist about 5k to buy the equipment for the surgery for implants, then they have to pay a lab to make the implant things and the cap or bridge which can be over £500.

So this cost and the training costs, and equipment etc all have to be recovered Then theres busines overheads, staff wages, they pay extra insurance costs if they do implants, and theres general material costs as well like the impression stuff, filling stuff, all the disposable eqipment which is thrown away after each patient to prevent cross infection.

Thats partly why medical / dental costs are so high! People just dont tend to realise so much cos they are used to the government paying for it all in hospitals etc. But yes there is ££ profit in them, just not as high as people think. I respect my sisters bf, and my own dentist (NHS), they do 5 years really hard work at uni. People say you never see a poor dentist, but then again, you dont see poor hospital surgeons, or GP's (most of whom earn more than NHS dentists) Its just you dont pay them direct so it doesnt seem to annoy people as much!

And if that implant thing lasts you 10-15 years as well then its not really that expensive is it, no worse than mountain biking, or my gf spending £40 quid on her hair every couple of months :D

DickBarton –

the faff with the yeti and a roofrack would be its height, its about 169cm high + than a few cm more for the bars and bike carrier, so not sure i could lift it to that height comfortably myself.

Honda is definately roomier than the fiesta, but a bit duller.

off to play with them again this afternoon with my bike, but i think they Yeti :-)

yeah i think Skoda Yeti is winning, i can always get a tow bar rack if i dont fancy putting dirty bikes in the back.

Really nice to drive, not quite as fun as the fiesta but its probably a lot more practical, and its a lot nicer inside.

DaveyBoyWonder – the 1.4 TFSI is supposed to be pretty good, quite quick and also economical.

Seemed ok in the golf i drove, and its the same engine in the A3

http://motortorque.askaprice.com/news/auto-0906/volkswagen-14-tsi-wins-engine-of-the-year-2009.asp

A3 sportback 1.4 TFSI – 0.60 9.6 secs, economy 38 urban, 57 extra urban, 47 combined

ok well honda was bottom of the list anyway so i think i'll cross that one off!

yeti actually looks like this for the production model!

But i like it :D

shovel snow all ruond their cars so they have to dig them out :-)

ah it comes up as £105 for me before discount cos i'm a platinum customer then i get the extra £20 off…

But hold on i might know a way for everyone to get platinum prices :-) i'll just check

i was in the car this morning with all the flooded roads and got turned back home by the police, but i soon stopped smiling when i saw the houses by the road at troutbeck bridge with water flooding under the doors and a guy in the street desperatley trying to clear leaves out of the drains to try and stop the water pouring into his house :(

but does the increased boiling pt of 5.1 make it better than 4 for mountain bike use, or am i unlikey to reach the limits of dot 4 on the bike?

mine are still on too!

I like the option of riding on the flats but still having good stopping power. Some of the tracks i explore in the lakes look ok to start with but then have dodgy unexpected rock sections in and i like to be able to stop quickly whatever position my hands are in. I use them less if the terrain is smoother and flatter like if i'm just riding on the fireroad tracks.

Maybe they're like bar ends or lycra on an MTB… unfashionable but still very functional :-)

bump! i'm wondering about these too :D

glynP – is it the endura windchill?

Looks like a great jacket, and a lot cheaper than the Phantom… BUT…

Check it carefully before you buy one, i looked at some the other week and all the ones in the shop (5 or 6 of them) all had dodgy stitching on the cuffs which unravelled at the slightest tug.

cheers everyone, some tyres to go look at there thanks.

James – yeah, i was thinking when i saw the spesh that it looks loads grippier so cant wait to ride it, but i guess i'm already wanting to upgrade from the vertical because it just looks feeble in comparison!

I'll try it spesh on the front and vert on the rear this weekend and then decide about the upgrade!

trouble with chocolate milkshake is i'll just drink it way before i've even done any riding! At least with the slightly odd taste of rego etc i'm not tempted to have them until the end!

thanks drnick, if its a bit cooler than the phantom i might get one for those milder damp rides

can i drain the left leg completely and refil from the bottom as well? Might as well do this at the same time if i can.

ah ok i'll drain it all and top up from the bottom then thanks :-)