Lots of swearing and magnets to retrieve them. Ridiculous design but you only do it once. I greased the washer to nipple just to stick them together in the end, nothing to do with lubrication.

Sometimes that’s true but sometimes it isn’t. It depends what sort of slop it is, and what sort of riding.

Yes, but either way it’s a lot more useful than randoms on the internet shouting out names of tyres. If you understand how grip actually works outside of marketing then it’s much easier to choose tyres. Wider is literally never better in mud if the mud is even slightly deeper than the tread reaches because the mud slides about underneath your tyre. Thinner tyres get over this by cutting through the mud. If the mud is thick enough that it doesn’t slip then it’s not really winter slop so the question is irrelevant, just wear summer tyres that clear well.

or….borrow £100k @2% and invest it in the stock market for average gains of 7% and pay off the mortgage whenever you get bored of buying bikes ;)

If you want tyres for winter slop then 1.9″ is where to look not chunky 2.6 beasts. Grip doesn’t help in mud, it just acts as a crappy paddle wheel on the surface until it clogs. Thin tyres cut through and grip on solid ground. Ask any cyclocross or cross country rider. Fat bikes are particularly hopeless in mud…

OK so how do I sell second hand bikes? N+1 is all well and good but I need to get in my garage again!

+1 on the carbon Scott, I have the Scale 735 with XTR and it’s just about the perfect lightweight XC bike. I don’t use it a lot though as I also have the Genius 700+ which is nearly as light but more comfy :)

“These bikes do climb well because they are more or less based on road bikes”

Also because a decent one was a lot lighter than a modern bike! Mine wasn’t far off my road bike in terms of weight. Would have been lighter too without the 130mm stem :D

Yes I guess that makes sense for the pro’s. I can’t see your average singletrack forum member doing much of that though :D

Can you think of an example of something it would flag for improvement that you could train against? On the mtb speed is generally balance, pumping, and raw power in short bursts. All of these you’d already want to train for and power numbers wouldn’t help. I can kind of see teamslug’s scenario of a 24h where you’d want to manage your output over long periods, but I’ve got to assume there’s not much gnar in those kinds of races (literally no experience there!). Power is useful on the road as you can consistently apply a given power output during a race without blowing up, and in training on a road you can easily do power based interval training. MTB training for power would also make use of power interval training sessions, but by necessity these would also need to be on smooth surfaces like roads, and you wouldn’t want suspension messing with your mojo so probably best done on a road bike.

I may well be missing something, but I’ve been training with power for years and can’t quite see how it would fit with mtb, and probably not gravel either other than that it’s interesting to see the numbers over time. For the record I also said early on that running dynamics and cycling dynamics served no real purpose and we’re still waiting to see someone explain how they’re useful. Not all data leads to knowledge!

The battery covers on Vectors were solved a long time ago free of charge by Garmin so I wouldn’t let that put you off.
In terms of cheap power meters, the hardware is easy so it’s likely the same strain guage. The firmware is hard so it’s unlikely to be accurate.

Most roadies don’t use the data produced for anything useful, and pedal power when mountain biking is such a small part of why the bike goes at the speed it does, my advice would be don’t bother getting a power meter. It’s interesting for 5 minutes, and then it’s just another number on your screen. I can’t for the life of me think how you’d train with power on a mtb anyway, it would likely involve sprints on a road surface anyway to achieve the short, sharp bursts of power needed for mtb

Shimano won’t stop usin Cup and cone, they’re an engineering first company. Cup and cone is better from an engineering and performance point of view. It might be less convenient, but from an engineering perspective it’s better enough that they will carry on using it regardless of what everyone else does

Creaking was what led to all my issues! A bit of a clean and a grease I thought. don’t half the numbers, just do em up until there isn’t lateral wobble and they are tight. Use blue locktite and then leave it dry and you’ll be all good. mine has been perfect ever since and that must have been 18 months or 2 years ago.

Do not under any circumstances use the torque figures they etched on these parts! I snapped one on my genius frame using a torque wrench. It snapped at 4NM and was labelled 15NM (not the one OP mentioned). I was sent a complete new set FOC and they admitted the numbers were BS. Hand tighten them, all of those parts just need to stay put they aren’t load bearing side to side. Use some locktight and they’ll stay put.

Mine is sewing machine stitched simple as that. UV stable thread and sew the waterproof side inwards works a treat. Literally just cut the corners and added eyelets with a hammer then some bungee cord

I made my own from PU coated canvas and eyelets from Kayospruce. It’s fully watertight up to 8″ deep, shaped to my boot and hooks on to the rear headrests and other hooks in the boot. I never put a muddy bike in it, always wash with a portable karcher so it’s wet but not dirty (cleaning a boot liner is even less fun than cleaning a bike!). I do my legs with the karcher too before changing.
100% agree no external solutions like roof bars. I like to be able to stop places in the car and like to protect the bike inside from 90mph winds on the motorway.

While the UK still sits under EU rules everything has a minimum 2 year warranty regardless what the shop or manufacturer says. Old UK law was really vague and things had to last a “reasonable” time which was based on the item, so a fridge should be good for 5 years for instance. I believe Tacx also extend this 2 years to the US, which is unusual as they generally get a year.

@theArtist it’s not paranoia when you’re part of the industry and see the abuse and how it’s achieved. I’ve also seen systems which raise prices on websites for Mac users because they’re more wealthy. Try having a spoken conversation about a product you’ve never looked up and would never buy. You’ll see ads within hours if you’re running apps such as Facebook messenger.

Nope, bad idea, very bad idea. Today it lets you look who is at your front door. Tomorrow it’s used to prove you weren’t at home for an extended period and invalidate your insurance. The footage could be used to prove you left the door unlocked. It could prove you’re associated with criminals whether you know they are or not by using face recognition to see who visits. That will then lead to your own privacy being invaded as the police start watching you on the off chance you commit a crime.
Are you planning to pay more to store your videos than the insurance company will pay for access to them?
Being in the tech industry I regularly see how the data collected by these devices is abused so video systems and voice assistants are not allowed anywhere near my home and I ask people to swich them off when I’m in other places. Amazon and Google have zero interest in your wellbeing and 100% interest in your data and selling advertising to take advantage of you.

I agree Molgrips, but women equally need such threads to challenge their beliefs and assumptions, and debating between the sexes is probably key to avoid an echo chamber where someone for some reason thinks it would be more serious for the household if a woman broke a leg cycling than a man. That’s clearly not the case regardless of roles in the home, and getting that message through will only serve to give women confidence to get out and do these things.

“ignoring the barriers which prevent women from cycling?”

There are zero barriers preventing women from cycling. How is that hard to understand? Buy a bike, ride it, it’s literally that simple. I know a lot of men who won’t go cycling due to internal mental barriers, that’s not a gender issue that’s a personal issue. Learn the difference and I guarantee you’ll have a happier and more productive life. Men are not stopping you cycling. We won’t do something bad if you’re cycling on “our” trails. We literally don’t care as long as you don’t call us fat in lycra.

Tom it’s not the “facts” it’s the way they are used, and the way “she” used them was extremely discriminatory. Women don’t have an exclusive on being offended by sexist behaviour and statements, and if someone suggests that as a man you can’t raise a family then it’s absolutely right to reject that behaviour. Discrimination is discrimination regardless of how you dress it up, and we should all fight against these trolls to ensure a more fair future for everyone. As it happens I think mountain biking is one of the more equal sports at all levels with very little real discrimination. As for the OP, some people like pictures of bodies, boobs and boners. That’s not sexist, it’s just a picture and the offence is imaginary. Throughout history the human body and its various parts have featured in art on stone walls, caves, tattoos, canvas and bike parts. Making a penis out of marble in Italy is no different, yet it draws the crowds every summer because it’s “art”.

If that’s the case Scotroutes, try Tinder. But wait until the lockdown is over first…

No Tom, I just hate sexist people like Faerie. The statement that women have more responsibility in the home is ridiculous in any stable relationship. Responsibility is shared and if you end up otherwise that’s your own doing.

“I backed up what I said with a link to evidence”

No you didn’t, there is no evidence here, just studies by people trying to earn a degree using statistics to prove their point. You’re not helping either side, you’re just stiring the pot and I’m calling you out on it. suggesting men aren’t capable or happy in the home is just as bad as suggesting women like to wear pink satin and hate mud. You’re not helpful, no matter how intellectual you think you’re being. In reality you’re just a troll like the rest of them.

Faeries assertion is literally the same thing as saying women don’t cycle because they are too fragile. It’s utter nonsense and is entirely the problem. People are free to do what they want, you want to go cycling? go for it. You want to look after children? go for it. None of these things require genitalia to achieve. We need to defend men at least as much as we defend women to move forwards, and that kind of pushback is just harmful no matter how many “facts” and “studies” you care to quote.

BLE is different as it is two-way paired (I think).

No, in this instance they are identical. BTLE is unicast while Ant+ is broadcast. Ant+ is plaintext so anyone who chooses to listen can, BTLE is encrypted so all parties must go though a key exchange before they can communicate. Both are two way – trainer control is a good example of this. Ant+ profiles are generally more standard and reliable while Bluetooth is generally more buggy due to poor standards. Bluetooth uses different frequencies for each device to talk, so has some limitations (recent advances will eventually address this). Ant+ uses time division multiplexing so offers considerably more scale options.
Blutooth is more “private” so for pro athletes it can be useful to prevent others changing their gears or reading their power level (and hence doping levels).

Wow, who’d have thought that the “sexist **** of the thread” award would go to a woman! Or is faery actually a 13 year old boy and helping prove the thread’s assertion? Never read such tripe in my life. If you think women do more in the home that says way more about you than society, please grow up and get out more.

No the cairn thing is because existing ones are navigation points and new ones could cause people to get lost or injured in poor weather or bad vis. Nothing to do with wear on trails since most cairns are on well used trails. If a cairn isn’t on the map it should be removed.

I’ve not tried the Garmin one yet as I’m waiting for the new HRM Tri, but the Polar H10 can do 2 BTLE And unlimited Ant+ simultaneously. I’ve tested this with a Vantage V, Suunto 9 and multiple Garmins at the same time and it all worked great. Polar also sell new elastic straps at a reasonable price (which Garmnin don’t, although they are compatible).

It may be the wrong tool as it’s certainly supposed to fit https://si.shimano.com/pdfs/dm/DM-MAFC002-05-ENG.pdf
https://si.shimano.com/pdfs/ev/EV-FC-M8100-4508B.pdf

It used to be great when toys arrived. These days it’s great a week later after they’ve been quarantined and you can touch them without fear of imminent death :(

The CGT implications from this need to be fully understood since you’ll be selling and buying the same stock within a month. That will get complex quickly. In theory you’re fine inside an ISA, but the system will find a way to spank you, don’t worry!

Don’t forget to include fees in your calculation. You may need to invest thousands to make it worthwhile. If buying on a foreign exchange also budget for currency exchange costs which can be especially bad within an ISA.

You have no guarantee that the price will hit either of those targets in the time allotted.

It’s entirely possible that you buy at 90 and prices plummet to 60 for the next two to three years. Can you wait that long to get your money back?

It’s possible, if not very probable, that the business goes bankrupt. You would then have zero money and a potential CGT offset

Personally I just bought into Delta Airlines who have utterly tanked. I expect them to either go bust or return to normal in two years or so, at which point dividends should pay for the share price I paid and the stock would triple in value. I also plan to buy more Disney when I can. They’ve been hit hard but will recover. The main concern there is a buyout, but they’re pretty big so that would be unlikely. With buyout premium I probably wouldn’t lose money there.

Last but not least, remember that stock price has NOTHING to do with news good or bad about the company. Fundamentally it’s based on PE ratio but in reality the stock moves when players bigger than you do something. They do these things to make money from people just like you. You’ll see in the news right now that buying gold/silver is good. It was 6 months ago. Right now is the time to go long on shares and wait. Once the shares rise to 20% below the previous high sell them and buy property which will be cheap by then. When your taxi driver tells you to buy something, it’s time to move to the next thing, the cycle is shares, property, gold, and the rich are generally one step ahead.

Fe-c (fitness equipment control) is a profile just like cadence. It goes over Ant+ which is the connection so yes any Ant+ dongle will do. Also get yourself a long USB extension cable to get the dongle near the trainer for best results.

Ridden and driven, yes. It’s not the most fun road but it’s legal and should be safe to ride there. Just because there are two lanes doesn’t make it ok to kill another human regardless how badly you need to get to Asda for your 4 pack of Fosters.

Pretty stupid, ignorant and selfish thing to do really. Not to mention illegal.

Yup, hitting an innocent cyclist who is legally riding on an A road is a bit of a dick move. Car drivers definitely need better education on road use and how to be aware of other humans and treat them with respect.

That’s a shame, I love that climb. For an island where tourism comes from sports and drunk brits, you’d think sports would be given an easy time. Shame, I enjoy La Santa holidays several times a year but if the island starts to ban us from roads I’ll switch to Majorca.

https://si.shimano.com/pdfs/ev/EV-FC-M7000-3981A.pdf

M7100 is different but available on the same site.

Thanks peeps, good to see they can get it right when they try hard enough!
I make that a 50% success rate with customers though so they still get a D- “must try harder” 😂

Lol maybe I’m unlucky but Yodel are so bad I would buy elsewhere if I knew or suspected my goods would be sent with them. Hermes sometimes deliver at least. What’s worse is that Wiggle support don’t seem to care, they now have a very much take it or leave it attitude. Competition is needed again, I think the CRC purchase has killed the market in the UK.

it would be good if the goods turned up the next day, but so far they are 0/2 so ordering up until 10pm is the least of my worries. For what it’s worth, this order went in at 9:50AM and still isn’t here two days later despite “guaranteed next day” and nobody can explain where it’s been, having left the warehouse a couple of days ago.