The other downside with CO2 canisters is that they are an extremely wasteful way to inflate your tyres. You know, should you care about the “environment” or whatever.

I like my Topeak masterblaster I think it’s called.

Swrve UK. I’ve got a couple of pairs of their shorts and a pair of their trousers, and they’re really good quality. I use them for touring and they look like normal shorts but have a seamless crotch and are really comfy.

Well I think it’s awesome. I’ve fantasised about doing this many a time. I know that I could; I’ve got a pretty strong bunny hop. There’s one street near me where I’d do it. It’s very narrow, with cars parked on one side. Going in one direction, cars coming the other way regularly fail to give way to me when I ride on this street, even though they are entering my lane. They seem to assume I will because I’m on a bike. So I play chicken with them and they stop and I go past.

But I’ve always imagined that as I approach them and they come to a stop, that rather than squeezing past them, I just pop a bunny hop and ride over the buggers. It would be so rad. Maybe I will one day.

Trees always win. Lots of sticking to the bedsheeets ahead I think!

Absolutely smashing the steep rooty berm chute on the Blade at Afan. I love riding bikes.

I’ve got some really bright Knog lights with USB batteries that seem to last one ride home. Some 5 years of riding a Supernova dynamo light setup on my last bike meant I’d forgotten how crap having to charge lights is. I’ll be lacing up a SP dynamo hub this week…

I’ve got a set of Carradice Super C’s. I think they’re excellent. I prefer the looks, and the repairable material, along with the local construction. I’ve ridden with them in torrential rain, snowstorms, hail and the like and, despite what anyone might say about them, found them waterproof. Really excellent.

I used to have Ortliebs, but always found the inserts in the mounts fiddly and prone to falling out. I also found the moment you get a whole, thats it: they aren’t nearly so easy to repair as the Carradice, and aren’t as tough to begin with. My Carradice panniers have survived unscathed in crashes the like of which holed my Ortliebs.

I know it’s an impossible wish, but I really wish mtb could be a little like bmx and leave the technology/standards largely the same and focus on other things.

I’m gonna start riding klunkers. I laugh at the bike industry! 😉

Ultimately, this is the problem with having mtb culture tied inseparably to big corporate companies. We, as riders, should decide what we want from our bikes and our sport/activity/lifestyle. I would argue that a lot of the relentless tech progression is why so many talk about bikes rather than about riding, and why there is so little “culture” (literature, poetry, music, art) in mtbing.

Of course, this has nothing to do with Cy, who I feel sorry for.

/\ That.

If the bike industry was struggling to sell their stuff, there are many ways they could have gone. What about making a move towards BMX, where a bike can be taken apart and built entirely with a 5 and 6mm Allen keys and a hammer? What about promoting their wares outside of the mega bucks racing world and more towards real grass roots events and initiatives, generating real rider goodwill? What about some more genuine geometry exploration?

There are so many more things than an incompatible, fractionally larger wheel size. That ain’t communism, it’s just not cynical and cheap.

The bike industry doesn’t care about what riders think or want, any further than if they can get people to buy their stuff. As riders, we owe them nothing. Frankly, I am excited about a move away from the massive companies by the folk exasperated by the dropping of the original 26″ mtb wheel size. We can buy our bikes from smaller, more core companies, the odd one man bands even smaller than Cotic. The bike industry can go to hell, with their carbon and all that. Pfft.

I fitted some mudguards to my tourer. SKS, all stealthy black. I’m so core.

Funny thing is though, Ison are reporting on their website that they’re getting more Salsa stock in the beginning of December.

What about Ison, are they dropping them? Not heard about that?

I rode the first few years, but have decided not to this year. It took in hefty amounts of cyb trails, and some really good riding, including some particularly good off piste stuff, but I just didn’t massively enjoying riding with loads and loads of people. I rode my only bike: a 140mm FS, all 1×10 (34×11-36) short stem and wide bars. Was, as ever, the perfect bike 😉

I have a Lightwave G20 that I cannot recommend enough. It’s totally bomber. I never have any condensation issues, even in deep soggy/snowy winter, it is solid in windy cliff top gales, and it doesn’t leak. I’ve had mine years now, used everywhere from Spanish mountaintops, Forestry Commission car parks, to UK beaches and fells.

Right, we’ll I’ve ordered a 105 rear mech, 11-32 cassette, a CX70 front mech and hopefully a middleburn crankset with say 28-42 rings. Phew. I shall report back if that works.

Are you running an XT front mech rusty?

Rusty what’s your setup with the 42/30, are you running square taper cranks/STIs?

There’s some good tips here. It seems strange to me tht something as common as touring (is touring a niche?) is so hard to find standard options for.

Jameso – YGM

I’m looking at chain lines now. Jesus.

Still can’t quite figure out what road front mech I would need for a smaller-than-compact chain set setup.

There is nothing on the bike right now, I’m only just building it up now. I have been given some 105 10speed double STI levers, I like the idea of not having to buy other expensive STIs…

Jameso – thanks for pointin out Middleburn, I hadn’t thought of that at all. I like the idea of a closer ratio cassette with very wide chainring range. Do you have that setup with a standard road double front mech?

Aha, cyclocross mech, that’s a good idea. How does your front shiftin work IGM? Can you just space the mtb cranks towards the NDS to get the right chain line?

How do you folk feel about 8 or 9 speed then if I was to run a triple with a close ratio cassette? seems like the advantage of 10 speed is those wide ratio cassettes.

Sorry, she has a 34-50 chain set.

Will a roadie front mech work with the smaller chainrings of an mtb double? Is the cage shape ok?

I’m not so worried about high gears. Coming from mtb with wide range cassettes and fewer chainrings seems more sensible to me.

I suppose the key thing for me is supporting companies that resist throwaway capitalism. So with a Hope with standard spokes you know you can build it and rebuild it and fix all of it, well into the future. I’ve just rebuilt an old XC hub. It was easy to do and made this apparently “knackered” old hub as good as new. That’s the kind of gear I like.

I’ve been mulling this recently too. I always used to have just one or two bikes, but it’s getting a bit out of hand for someone who lives in a rented shared house, and is about to move somewhere smaller.

Obviously, the mountain bike, pride of joy, love of life, etc etc.

The Apocalypse bike (AKA the cargo bike with a hunking great basket on the front that weighs more than the 6″ FS mtb…

Now the roadie rocket ship.

Finally, the tall bike, my proudest bicycle and more awkward to store than any of your bikes, but more badass too. Ahem.

Now I’m building a new bike to go touring on… Not ideal in a flat. But hey, bikes is great.

Cheers fourbanger. What size have you got, and how tall are you? I’ve got an Alfine and I love it; it’s been plugging along without a slip for maybe 3 years now. It’s done thousands and thousands of miles and is on the original gear cable. Nuts.

Surely it’s niche enough that someone else here has one?

Oh well, blimey, that’d be good! YGM!

Any other opinions/experiences greatly sucked up though anyone!

While we’re on the topic of Salsa Vayas… does anyone have any thoughts on sizing?

I can’t find anywhere in Bristol locale to actually try one out, and I’m not experienced at road bike sizing. I’m about 172cm tall, I ride an 18″ mtb.

I’m wary of being at the top end of Salsa’s sizing chart for the 54cm, and the bottom of the 55cm. Any real world fit opinions?

I’ve been riding muntain bikes and bmx all my life. I’ve just started to get into road riding (just did my first audax with some friends!) and truthfully this is the only stuff that puts me off. There’s a lot of elitist bullshit isn’t there?

I smile and nod and don’t race folk (I’m really not competitive), and I think that’s enough. Common sense everyday good manners. I won’t be told that I should learn etiquette from some arcane club. It’s only bikes eh.

I once saw a guy cycle up the inside of a bus indicating left. He scraped past it, just, and we both stopped at a red light a bit further on. I said something along the lines of “It’s a good idea to filter up the outside of vehicles, especially if they’re indicating left, that’s a bit dangerous…” politely, like.

Blokey boy looked incredulously at me and said “Dangerous? DANGEROUS? Do you want to know what’s really dangerous? Riding without a helmet, like you are, you idiot!”

I nearly wobbled off my bike with laughter, but from that point on did promise myself to never, ever, offer advice or critique or whatever, to anyone on the roads.

Introducing another energy system into the bicycle is devolution.

I agree, JCL.

I think electronics on bikes is less a performance issue, and more, dare I say it, a moral, social one. Do we want this most inherently human, egalitarian object to become like so much else around us? Powered, even partially, by coal fire power stations, bicycles might well lose their magic.

No matter how good the shifting, that’s not something I would ever want.

You’re all wrong, of course.

The Pedersen is the most elegant of bicycles: upright, serene and gentlemanly. A real treat.

See, I bought a Troll a few years ago thinking I could take off the mudguards, put on knobblies and go bike packing with it.

What I actually did with it was never really leave the roads. I’d have been better off getting a proper road touring thing like a disc Trucker, but I’m too attached to my orange Troll to just sell it now!

I laugh at all the people who care if it’s faster or not. I’m sorry Giant, I couldn’t give a **** if it’s faster on lap times in your laboratory. I want FUN. I don’t race, I’m in this for a laugh; I want a smile on my face. **** absolute speed.

I’ll bet the overwhelming majority of mtbers don’t race. I’m willing to bet most just want a fun bike. A good friend of mine taught me to evaluate every purchase along the lines of “will this make things more fun for me?”

It’s a good rule of thumb. **** 650b, **** Giant, and **** all the other bike industry arseholes.

One of my questions is how do they cope with trail centres and the bigger hit stuff as i will be trading in my full sus trail eater for it?

It’s a long travel (For a wagon wheeler) steel hardtail, it’ll be fine. Enjoy your new ride when/if you get it!