Have an echo one and it is a good piece of kit. Think i paid aboot £30 for mine

Keep your exisitng xts and put some big rotors on, 205mm make a massive difference.

Another Sutra owner here, I have done over 6500 miles on it and love it, they are heavy but feel really solid on the road and are dead stable loaded and unloaded which is good on the longer rides, especially towards the end when getting tired. The only changes I have made to mine are the chainset swapped out for an xt with 48t chainring (original is overgeared with 53t top ring!!), forks (craked the p2s!!) and swapped the bars out for some lovely salsa bell laps which are my favourite drop bars ever. Mine gets used most days throughout the year for a25mile round trip commute and longer tours. I did a tour round Ireland last week with blackhound from here, he was on his roadrat, they are much lighter but the dropouts are a pain when running gears and mudguards as the mech hanger is held in place with the qr so comes off when you take the wheel out. The sutra is currently in for a repaint as it was starting to get a bit tired, more photos when it is rebuilt.

Is your mate Stevie Wonder?

Had a gto on my tourer, bearings shagged after 12months to the point where the top one fell to bits on removal. The rest of it is ok though, just needs new good quality bearings.

Last week in Ireland I saw a car being towed on a rope, all perfectly normal until I noticed the car was being towed backwards with the driver looking over his shoulder to steer it. WTF?

Think i would actually break my no gingers rule for her. Very nice indeed

Hi, just fitted one to my ti29er in an effort to winterproof it. Twas a bargain at £154 from JE James including shifter and fiting kit but not disc or cog. First proper off-road ride on it last might and initial impressions are that it is pretty good. Nice slick shifts both up and down the gears, and a pretty decent spread (I'm running 32×18) and can get up everything round here. It also seems to have evened up the weight distribution on the bike as it was a bit front heavy before with a sus fork.
The only downside I have seen so far is that the wheel is a bit fiddly to get in and out with the gear change unit arrangement and the shifter is low normal which will take a bit of getting used to when changing between my bikes. Reckon the SS will be up for sale soon.

Park cable cutters

Think they might have, ordered some stuff yesterday which said it was in stock , no update today and 2/3 of it seems to be out of stock today.
Will see what happens…

I got eaten alive last year when bivvying out up near Hadfield, Bastids were everywhere.

Nothing and never bought a frame that needed facing.
Most stuff on bikes is easy as it is generally just a matter of bolting it on and aligning it correctly.

Today, 12 miles on the way home form work.

Have SLX and XT and ride in a fairly shitty part of the country which normally eats pads all year round. I use superstar sintered, They last and work as well as any other make that I have tried and they are also not too pricey.

Best of luck, you have got a pretty good attitude to the whole thing which is half the battle and you still have your sense of humour.
Keep fighting.
Mark

http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/Models.aspx?ModelID=31357

These are good but nop helmet mount.

Yes but it might get blown off the roof at 125mph :D

They do look good. I was on the verge of getting a pashley tube rider the other week but thankfully managed to talk myself out of it.

IAAF spokesman Nick Davies said the "extremely complex, difficult" test results were not due for several weeks

WTF, I reckon a quick tackle check would sort it out in about 2 seconds!

Some nice little details on there, doesn't look wery me proof though.

Go as large as possible else you will regret it later. Had mine built to 3.5m x 7.5m and it is big enough for a car, 7 bikes, L shaped workbench, beer fridge and load of other assorted crap that has found its way in.

Anybody who thinks it is easy should try it. It was my first solo and must admit it was hard work physically and menatlly. It's the little things that become hard, I had an hours sleep in the night and decided to put some clean shorts on before I went back out, I had three pairs with me and got them all out and found I was totally incapable of making a decision on which pair to wear.

Well done to Rob onb the win, I reckon he must have had a mortorbike stashed somewhere on course though…

I reckon I was faster round the course on the 29er than I would have been on a 26er. The slippery rooty downhill shitfest was definately 29er territory. Ti29er, I think I nearly took you out on that bit, think you commented that you had an on-one ti29er then I lost it and you had to dive for safety? Whoever it was got a photo of me sat on my arse :D

Ti frames are definately not bomb proof but they do ride well until they break :D

Flap flapping?
See you in a couple of weeks :D

Do all of my own stuff including wheelbuilds mainly because i can and i enjoy it. If you are even slightly mechanically minded it is fairly simple with bikes as most stuff just bolts on. There is no substitute for the right tools though and when you have got them you can either lend them out or help your mates for beer tokens.

Set of sus forks and gears on the scandal and buy a steel inbred 29er ss.

Not sure I know what the answer is but I think I might have to move to Copenhagen :-)

Lee, were you on the light blue explosif ss? I was on the ti29er looking like I'd died at the bombhole.
Spoke to rockitman as well, I don't know how he dragged that comencal round there.

Great bike, had a 29er flavoured one and it rode fantastic. Finally succumbed to the great ti29er offer they had the other week though so it has gone.

Loads of funny moments for me including the guys in the woods singing thats entertainment with modified lyrics and the ones heckling on the last climb before the arena near the horse jupms on the last lap.
Apologies also to the photographer who had to dive for cover as I slid towards him on the rooty downhill bit arse first.

I managed to get 12 in on my first (and last)ever solo, I know how much it hurt so how the hell did the winner manage to get 26 in?
My target was somewhere between 10 and 15 so reasonably pleased with that.
Feeling a bit tired today but have the day off to rest and sort my stuff out. Was surprised when I saw my race number (1) but it made for an entertaining 24hours with loads of people cheering/heckling as I went past. All in an enjoyable experience with a freindly crowd both competing and spectating.

Reflectors are on my bike wheels but that is because it gets used on the road and i am actually allergic to being run over

Wet but drying at the mo. It's currently sunny with a bit of breeze which will help. Noisy though as some selfish tosser has a generator going. You are camping, you do not need electricity you cock!

bikechain, thomsons always seems to get people confused, I run them and got slated for fitting one to a ti frame a while back by somebody who didn't know.

Don't bother with the thomson one if you really want a layback stem. They are a lovely piece of engineering but the layback puts the seat in exactly the came place as a normal seatpost as the clamp is directly in line with the centreline of the post, compare it to this to see what I mean:
http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/Models.aspx?ModelID=20568

First time solo for me too. It will be interesting. Camping with mates who are doing it as a team to keep entertainment levels up over the day. Weather is starting to look very singlespeed though

I'm selling an almost complete scandal 29er at eh mo, just needs groupset and brakes.

Mr Nutt wins it for me. I love cheese, and CB is the best. Bonus is that my mate lives in the village and we quite often get a chunk when we go over.

If it's a king headset then it will be the stem moving back and forth over the top cap. Fit new plastic washer in between them and a new o ring in the top race.