It looks like a fun bike. I’m sure that’s what you wanted, not XC speed!

If that seatpost is set up for straight-legged pedalling though, it does look a touch on the small side!

From my brother-in-law (a fireman)

“There will be a battery back up but if the battery is flat they will cheep. It sounds like they are linked and one has an intermittent fault. It’s difficult to determine which is the faulty one so safest thing would to replace both, the detector heads are getting old if they are over 8 years in place. If it’s a rented property it’s the landlords responsibility to maintain fire detection systems.”

No I havemt. Not trying to be obnoxious but pointing out it shouldn’t be happening and hopefully doesn’t too often. Time to take them back?

I recently swapped HOPE Tech X2 for XT and am in love with the brakes.

that depends on the hub witton. Some hubs are much easier to repair / replace the bearings than others.

What wheels are they?

I’ve got a wee ride. It’s the one I had to go for as I didn’t want to clamp a Hamax or similar on a carbon hard tail’s seat tube.

However, with number 2 coming, the new one (in a few months) will be in the wee ride and number 1 behind me. We’ve an Inbred for that.

I do think a fatty ould be the perfect bike.

FWIW, trailers are much better than seats in almost every way. We don’t have one as I can’t source one here in Thailand.

iDeer and an external blue ray drive.

That’s truly incredible.

I’m the same as you Rene, that’s exactly how I imagine I must look!

THose forks will be terrible and you’d be better off with cheap rigid forks for riding on the road. Overall, not a bad bike by any means.

1.Express a point of view
2.Be a dick about it.
3.Repeat ad infinitum.

:)

I always wear a helmet. Absolutely no way I’d let me boy ride without one.

It’s a hard one. Plenty of people here would happily spend £80 just on the tires.

Assuming everything works okay, it still seems a little overpriced to me.

If you need to start replacing bits, the price can quickly rocket too. An example being, if you need a new chain and new cassette (the gears at the back), new gear cables and outers (the black tubes the cables pass through), it could cost another £80.

It is worth remembering that if things break, it can end up being very uneconomical. The cheapest 26″ ‘road tires’ I can find are £10 each. 25% of the cost of the bike!

Take it for a ride.

Do the brakes work?
Do the gears shift properly?
Do the wheels spin freely (listen for grinding sounds in the hubs) and are they true?
Does the handlebar rotate smoothly?

From the sound of it, you don’t even know if you’ll enjoy riding. It sounds like it could be a good bike (Specialized are nice bikes, in general) for you.

From the ‘replace it with road tires’, I guess the riding will be on road. I know these are in Brighton but, for joining the missus on 10 mile rides, I’d be looking at bikes more like these.

http://www.gumtree.com/p/for-sale/raleigh-531-eluxe-2nd-hand-racer/1075745222

http://www.gumtree.com/p/for-sale/universal-hybrid-bike/1078782166

http://www.gumtree.com/p/for-sale/mans-23-inch-vintage-racer/1078747863

Even if not, your friend seems a little (but not massively) optimistic. Photos of the bike might show some upgrades that justify the price…

Happy riding

Some of these replies are shocking!

I’m with takisawa2 – forks, stem, bars and wheels and go for a quick scoot up and down the road.

Very pleased with my Planet X Aqualight.

I only use it very occasionally. It doesn’t have many features but is very waterproof, small and a good fit.

http://www.on-one.co.uk/i/q/CLPXALPJ/planet-x-aqualight-packable-jacket

Thanks. Should have said I was planning on sanding the tube not the post.

I’ve had a look and the inside of the seat tube looks a little dirty; nothing worse. Also, a cheapy Kona post moves easily.

Will get some wet and dry after work.

THanks

Thanks for the link.

Guess it’s a glitch on The V.’s website. Well, I hope so. I did wonder when I saw ads for a book….

MCPH Jr #2 is due to make an appearance on October 2nd.

My parents and brothers have just booked flights to come to Thailand for Christmas; our first Christmas together for 5 years.

I just found a bag of Dolly Mixture. I’m saving them for post Friday afternoon’s ride.

Questions like this make me think of Christopher Hitchen’s reply when someone asked, if he didn’t believe in Heaven, what did he have to look forwards to. He said “I’m off to have an excellent lunch with wonderful company. What more do I need?”

Cheers.

I’ll get some wet and dry tomorrow and give it a clean before a quick spray.

And to think, I was annoyed by my last bike and the way the seat post dropped whilst I was tightening the clamp; not enough friction!

For next time, I use keepvid.com

You can download in mp3, flv, avi etc straight from youtube.

I do a lot of flying, unfortunately. 27 loooong haul flights in the last 2 1/2 years.

By far the best way is to get straight back into the new routine asap. I flew from the UK to Thailand last Saturday. Arrived at 7pm Thai time (BST+7). I had a tough Sunday after almost no sleep but kept myself up until about 9pm on Sunday. Slept through and then felt fine on Monday.

A case of rule #5

Yep, pull that front bit out, where it connects directly above your temples. I’ve only done it once; when I first got it and put a thicker pad in there. I don’t think it looks like it shoudl be done too often.

^^ what squirrelking said ^^

If you’re comfortable using torrent sites then you can easily get a copy of Win 8. Use either cmd propmt or unetbootin to make the usb drive bootable.

http://unetbootin.sourceforge.net/

It looks beautiful. I love the paint matching the Reynolds sticker.

If it rides as nicely as it looks…

OMG, my wife is due in Nov/Dec time – does this mean I’ve only got a year or so to train myself to put things away properly to avoid this?! Faaaaaack.

Our kitchen bin’s now in the toddler-no-go-area at the side of the house. Ever since I thought the bag felt heavy and there was netbook in it!

This is a really interesting thread. Obviously close to a lot of people’s hearts.

It became close to mine about 4 months ago when we were told our 20 week old son (foetus?) had a 99% chance of having DS. Within 2-3 days we were over the shock and coming to terms with the different life our family might have. We didn’t even discuss an abortion, adoption or anything other than preparing ourselves for the situation if it came.

Thankfully, 3 weeks later, we were told that everything was fine.

At 20 weeks, he was already ours. I’d seen him wave and couldn’t imagine him not joining us. There’s no way I’d have wanted to end the pregnancy. However, if we’d been given those statistics when he was a few cells big, I’d have certainly wanted to discuss it with my wife. For me, the difficult thing there is at what stage he becomes my ‘child’. Honestly, I’ve no idea.

What confuses me more is our first son, now 2 1/2, was born with severe congenital heart issues. They weren’t diagnosed until he was 11 days old. Now that he’s ‘fixed’ and ‘normal’, although my wife, son and I had a very tough first year, the thought of not having him in our lives leaves me cold. If, in a medically hypothetical situation, we’d been told days after conception about his heart issues, perhaps we’d have tried again.

TL;DR

I have no idea. There are splinters in my arse I’m sitting so firmly on the fence. Frequently, the people who fall strongly on one side or another of the argument, in this case the Catholic Church and Dawkins, come across as %^$*”@s.

EDIT:

Having seen Dawkins’ explanation, I find it hard to disagree. The difficulty comes when

a) you have a child. Whether or not they have a disability, you can;t imagine not having them in your life and the thought of losing them in incomprehensible

b) at what stage were they your child and not a blob of cells.

Thanks. I really do love the bike. It was a toss up between it and a similarly aged Five; very happy with my choice.

The pillars are structural (a big balcony above) but do add to the tackiness of the tiles, which unfortunately don’t light up, the shiny gate etc.*

Wifey blocked the gate. She won’t reverse the truck into the driveway.

It’s funny how old school a silver rim looks, isn’t it! I’ve got my XC717s (in Lemon, with snowflake build) stashed away for when they become cool again.

Thailand – Phuket to be exact. They’re coconut palms. This morning’s harvest…

*rented, not mine

That was all very easy.

They didn’t need to be bled. I did end up needing a Dremel to cut the olive to access the barb though.

Thanks for hte pointers.

Thanks for the replies.

My 2 year old’s very jet-lagged (bouncing off the walls when he’d normally be snoring) so it’ll have to wait until after work tomorrow.

I’ve got olives but the LBS is out of stock of barbs.

What would work best to cut the hose? Do cable outer cutters work? I also have a stanley knife.

Cheers

the extra two spacers were all it needed.

Thanks a lot.

It was a Rocky Mountain Vortex, it is a Norco Fluid.

I can’t seem to find online if they are the same BB widths.

Thanks for the replies esp. boblo.

Sounds like it works, and no one should be running big cross-overs on their gearing anyway ;)

Could be a waste of money…

Edit: I’ve sold my frame and with it the front mech. It was a direct mount and I didn’t think about direct mount to clamp adapters. The new frame needs a regular clamp.

Are you using an adapter between the caliper and mount? If so, it’s not on upside-down, is it?

Thanks. The forks I have (Marzocchi RC2X, 2007) say they have a 6″ post mount which converts to 153.4mm.

I have Tech 2 brakes on Fox 32 RL forks and want to make sure I can just swap the brakes over. Unfortunately, the forks are in England and the brake’s in Thailand.

Cheers

Couldn’t you get one of those steerer extensions if you’ve your heart set on the forks.

I think it looks good. Certainly better than the Mk I anyway!

Any play in the front hub bearings?

Perhaps stupid, but is the QR (or whatever fixing you have) done up tightly?

Are the pads / pistons returning all thw way?

I had PRK as I had a stigmatism (I think) that meant I couldn’t have LASIK.

The first 48 hours after the procedure were terrible. I was really photosensitive. To administer the eye drops, I had to lie in a windowless bathroom with the door closed.

I wore some kind of contact lenses that protect the eye for 2 days post-op.

After the 2-3 days, I was fine. I went from needing glasses to see the time on my watch to perfect vision. Even though the Dr said mine was one of the most uncomfortable recoveries he’d seen, I’d still have it done again if necessary.

Thanks.

I can’t really move the hinge as it’s one with a long decorative piece on the other side.

Is epoxy a suitable filler?

Haha. Umbrella could be a good idea!

So, any suggestions for the closest I can get to being cool?

What, waterproof and not too hot?

This almost does it, but it’s black

http://www.on-one.co.uk/i/q/CLPXAPRJ/planet-x-aquapro-rain-jacket

Thanks both of you.

I’ll email you now wwas.