Replaced with new shifter, new inner and outer space and pulled cable hand tight which has resulted in near perfect shifting. Only issue now is a reluctance to select the lowest gear when in middle ring so need so gentle adjustment.

I’ve never liked tea or any of the ones I’ve tried from the versions listed. I have no idea what is is I dislike but I just find tea unpleasant.

They fit better and they’re the right tool for the job, it’s that simple really.

+1

I’ve worn bibs for well over 30 years and never thought I should swap back to non-bibs. Especially good on chilly mornings/evenings as they keep your kidney area nice and toasty :-)

Waiting for my T-130 Works replacement, insurance claim after it was hit whilst on my towbar mounted rack, and I was very happy riding a medium as I’m 5′ 10″. It’s not unusual that different folk find the same big to feel very different even if they are the same height it really depends on how you like a bike to feel.

I went with the T-130 because the T-129 seemed too big for someone 5′ 10″ and the G-150 is more bike than I need for 99% of my normal year’s worth of riding.

As I’m intolerant to alcohol and can’t stand tea it’s coffee for me too, unless it’s after 8:00pm then it’s water.

Just realised how middle aged I really am! :-)

Recently got an Airshott[/url] which makes tubeless tyre setup very easy, I know that a ghetto tubeless inflator is pennies but I like the fact I’m not worried about it going pop!

So striped the cable out as expected it was sticky so new inners and outers will be fitted tonight. Rear shifter still not working (with no cable atatched) I can get 9 clicks down but only 3 or 4 up, tried lubing it and it seems that it’s slipping going down but jamming going up. As it’s had a very hard life for 3 years I’m replacing it with a new shifter. I might strip it down and see if it’s fixable to use as a spare but I suspect it’ll be a pig to get back together!

Thanks for all the advice.

@batman11 That’s Butser Hill which we went down on Sat at the end of our ride, hit 30.3 mph but was on the brakes most of the way as there were lots of walkers with dogs. Have hit more than 40 down there so next time we do it during the summer solstice ride we do I’m hoping to record over 40mph on the garmin :-)

FYI Butser Hill is a chalk hill and one of the highest points in Hampshire. It is also the highest point on the chalk ridge of the South Downs and the second highest point in the South Downs National Park after Blackdown in the Western Weald.

My Garmin clocked me at 39.2 mph on tarmac on part of the SDW on Sat, was following a couple of riding buddies but not close enough to be drafting. The 4×4 pulling a trailer that was as wide as the singletrack road coming around a corner was fun though!

Was turned to TDS many years ago, started doing club riding and time trials (badly) at age 14! After finding off road riding quite a few years ago I’ve always preferred it but always had a road bike in the collection for either commuting or just ‘leisure’ riding.

Thanks all for the suggestions I’ll give them a go later, trying to get a ride in every day whilst the family are away so hoping for an easy fix otherwise I’ll have to break out the road bike!

Does 7 clicks but 7th click doesn’t move the chain to the correct cog, will try removing cable and see what happens – didn’t want to do that half way through a 27 miler!

@Darrenspink Cheers stupid question I know but logically is a full bleed just double checking before I go for it.

@Eauns2 I’ve got a bleed kit but reverb barb is a great idea.

@ebennett yes been hard but I have my HT but the Whyte was my 50th birthday treat and is so much better than my XC focused HT, all good in the end.

@M6TTF OK thanks I’ve got a new bike, insurance replacement, congrats and wanted to swap out the ring while the rest of the drive train is brand new.

@Dickie Is that a direct fit or one that would fit my spider?

@Jujuuk68
Wow loads of interestingly assumptions you’ve made there.

Basically I didn’t post loads of details because that would be possibly detrimental to my claim!

I guess what I was ranting/venting about was the total lack of communication by the third party until they were given formal notice of the intention to serve papers. I’m more than aware that you can only present papers once but still feel that having to do so to get a response is a bit rubbish.

There was an AMC involved but the car took 2 weeks from being picked up to being returned which I thought wasn’t too bad, the replacement car was a similar car (a C-Max) and my car is under 3 years old. The Whyte was new in October 2014 and due to a neck injury has only done 200 miles so is practically new (I know it’s 2nd hand so value drops) the other bikes were new in June 2014. Due to the other drivers negligence my bikes were written off so expecting replacements seems reasonable?

Anyway all sorted now and hopefully the other driver will pay more attention in the future.

@everyone thanks that looks like the one but not available until 12th June.

Anyone know which oval ring would work on a SRAM X1-1400 GXP crankset?

Most of the oval rings seem to be direct mount but the X1-1400 isn’t which is making it harder to find the right ring.

So I’ve received a call from the insurance company and they’ve raised a cheque to settle the damages. Seems odd that it took a threat of court and a complaint email to get it moving but apparently the evidence I supplied (photos and detailed description of the damage) had to be verified by an independent engineer!

Anyway whatever prompted the call I’m now happy to be waiting for the cheque.

Apparently the Whtye T-130 Works in medium has now sold out so I’m glad my LBS put the last one aside for me!

@sandwicheater True but their customer was totally at fault and has admitted full liability but I’m the one waiting on payment. the bikes total £4k so not keen to shell that out and then wait/hope they eventually pay out.

The main bit that I feel is very poor is the total lack of communication, hence my insurers issuing court proceedings.

Claiming on my insurance counts against me when I’m totally not at fault so not keen on that route.

Regretting not having a sore neck or back now and really fleecing them! I wasn’t injured so I did the fair and right thing by being open and honest shame her insurers don’t do the same IMHO.

No blood on the avocado so still OK in a salad i’d say

From Sun Alliance (RSAGroup) website:

We are committed to:

Delivering consistent and reliable levels of customer service
Acting with integrity, due care and diligence
Communicating openly, honestly and with sensitivity and understanding
Listening to our customers
Handling complaints fairly and promptly
Respecting our customers’ rights to privacy and confidentiality
Protecting our customers and our business from fraud

So I can safely say they’re failing on at least 4 of those :-)

@stever Yes that’s what I was thinking and @ant77 yes good idea

All in all a sh*t experience and through no fault of mine we’re down 3 bikes as a family just when the weather is looking better and my wife 7 son want to ride bikes!

Tried to call Sun Alliance but had massive difficulty in talking to a real live person, when I did they transferred me to the commercial department, as my claim is being handled by my insurers, and they promptly told me to go away because I’m not a commercial customer!

I’ve sent a complaint email (sent on Monday) but have had no reply and am not really expecting a response.

Seems that Sun Alliance challenged the hire car costs but have since paid the repairers/accident management company which seems to be progress?

Very frustrated as the accident was on 28th March 2015 so 53 days ago!

Week or two away – Scotland, Wales or the Alps are all good and it sounds like you’d not be under-biked in it’s current state.

How did you resolve this?

I’ve got the T-130 Works and it’s brilliant a mate is getting the Bird but he’s super fit so for the majority of just riding/trails he’s OK with a bit of extra weight and a bit slacker HA.

Either would be a reasonable choice to replace a 2010 stumpy fsr IMHO, the 130mm of travel with 650b wheels/tubeless tyres feels like more and it’s very controlled.

HTH

Replace the rings and bolts recently, torqued them up but first ride they came loose, torqued them up again and again they’ve come loose. Never had it happen before in > 20 years off road riding.

Didn’t grease them but I may try copper slipping them and see how that works.

Thanks for the replies

Winchester end has been very dry and hard but today’s rain will make some of the surfaces quite slippery I think.

There’s a vey short section after you cross the A272 for the first time that’s not great, once you’ve crossed the road and headed on down the SDW you turn right just after a farm and at that point it’s very very slippery but quickly clear up.

Was there on Monday night and was rideable.

Lets Gets is close, there’s a shuttle bus with bike trailers from Morzine, there’s a XC (slightly more extreme than UK XC) route back as well.

HTH

@thecaptain Worth thinking about thanks

@Hora yes an accident management company was handling the repair/hire. It’s Sun Alliance who are being ‘difficult’ apparently they often ask about whether the hire was necessary and are slow to respond to non-insured losses as they

a) keep their money a bit longer
b) don’t need as many claims processing staff
c) are a big company so don’t need to move fast or worry about the individual

I’m fairly sure that this is all covered by their risk assessors deciding how to load policies to allow for ‘exceptional’ circumstances.

If they refuse to pay out I’ll just go for the other driver, she was driving a company car so may not want someone pursuing them when their insurance company aren’t doing their job :-)

Might take some advice, my sister-in-law is a partner in a law firm so free advice, on pursuing a claim against the driver for the lost riding time :-)

@scrumfled thinking of doing this but have been advised that the other company might refuse to pay out as it’s not a material loss and could be avoided!

@Hora yes agreed they want to hold on to the money for as long as possible but equally don’t want to compensate me for the loss of the use of the bikes! It’s the way of the (insurance) world but I guess I’d hope I’d be fairer than that. We’ve not claimed for any personal injuries, as we had none, which means we’re being honest and fair it’s a shame Sun Alliance aren’t IMHO.

@amedias sadly not as apparently it’s only material losses you can claim for!

I had a hire car for the period that the car was being repaired but Sun Alliance are asking if I could have afforded to fund my own hire car! I’ve said yes I could do but why should I when it’s the other driver’s fault, liability admitted. I didn’t need to hire a car until she ran into the back of mine rendering it un-driveable so the fact I can afford to hire a car seems irrelevant to me :-)

I’m 100% expecting that the bikes will get replaced but why it has to go to court I’m not sure?

The other driver said “I thought you’d be gone by the time I got there”, she’s admitted full liability so it’s seems to me straight forward.

I’m guessing that the £3K value of the Whyte is what’s driving the payout as slowly as possible stance. The other insurers, Sun Alliance, are bl**dy lucky it was a family ride and not a boys (well MAMILs) trip to Swinley when there would have been 4 bikes with a combined value nearer £10k on the rack!

Anyone able to comment on this?

I have a 26″ 2012 Reba RL 120mm travel on a HT, Kinesis Decade Virsa II, 70.5 head, 73.5 seat, 30.5 BB height. If I swapped the fork out for a RockShox Pike 27.5″, RC, 130mm travel running a 26″ wheel would it change the head angle much? If so I’m thinking it would slacken it by a small amount ~ 1 deg.

Reba is great but the Pike is even better hence the potential swap.

Hi Wiggles how easy is an air shaft to fit to a Pike?

I’m also a Hope man I run a Tech 2 X2s, braided hoses on my HT, Tech 3 E4s on my Whyte T-130 Works FS.

Both bikes have 180/180 rotors with floating ones on the FS, not sure they make any difference but LBS fitted them for the same price as non-floating.

I know that Shimano are cheaper and work as well, depending on how much you value feel, but they aren’t serviceable, the only problems I’ve ever had with disc brakes have been with Shimano (and some very old Codas).

For moderate mud I use Maxxis Ardent 2.3 on the rear with a Maxxis Shorty 3C on the front, if it’s really bad (we have very sticky clay like mud near Winchester) I will run a Maxxis Shorty 3C front and rear.

Summer tyre running is usually either a Maxxis Ardent 2.3 or an Ardent Race on the rear with Maxxis Ardent 2.4 up front.

Since getting my Whyte T-130 I’ve been converted to Maxxis Ardent’s as they offer enough grip, go up tubeless easily, wear OK and roll reasonably well.