We’re down to 1 over here in Oz as I can get to work on the bike or bus, it’s only been an issue about 3 times over 2 years when I needed it and my wife needed it as well. It wouldn’t be an option in the UK given where I had to go to work though.

Just saw someone down my street drive 200 metres this morning to meet a friend so they could walk to the bus stop together :roll: Seems as if some people can’t contemplate the idea of self propulsion….it is noticable how car centric it is down under – very few roads in the ‘burbs have footpaths.

I carefully cut the barbs out of mine to re use them and used some magura olives that I had lying around. All seems to work okay.

Mad Pierre – Member

Someone did it to me once. Fortunately for them they just got through the lights just down the road before I got there..

It’s not funny from the receiving end. I had to go home and get changed and be late!

Were you just called Pierre up until this point? :D

Just seen this, get well soon SFB!

I’m using a North Face Borealis, it’s very light. At a push I’ve had laptop, trousers/shirt/towel and shoes in it. Damned heavy with that lot in it but still pretty secure.

Only lets a little water in when it’s properly biblically torrential, but given that that’s only about 10 days a year where I live it’s not an issue, but I’d get a cover as well if you’re riding off road, as it’ll just keep it in better nick for longer. Having said that my North Face Hammerhead hydration pack always comes up grand in the washing machine…

My god, what an abomination :roll:

I’ve just bought a Discovery 3 down here in Oz, lovely bit of kit and far nicer than the D2 it’s replaced. If you can get hold of a commercial one of those the it would fit the bill I think. I’ve always found defenders a bit too cramped, even though I love them, I couldn’t live with one as an only vehicle, if you can live with one then Surely a double cab 110 is the way to go?

Check out disco3.co.uk for what to look out for there always appears to be a lot going wrong when looking at forums, but no one ever posts about a car going well and the parts prices are coming down to a reasonable level now.

The old adage goes “if you couldn’t afford to run one when it was new, you can’t afford to run one when it’s used”

Having said that – you do get a lot of car for the money but be prepared to write it off as an economic loss if you get something big going worng.

Have a look at what car and honest john’s reviews for good/bad and ugly pointers. Then frequent a forum of merc to see if there are any quick fixes (bear in ind that forums are never frequented by people with no problems to fix though!)

I’m not jealous, no…really….

….git!

2 years into our stint in Perth (did someone mention drinks? :-) )and we’re applying for permament residency but still have this feeling that we may go back to the UK. It ultimately depends where you’re life is going to more comfortable/flexible IMHO – no point moving somewhere to make it harder on yourself. The main draw back to the UK would be family and friends, but if it works out over here then unpaid leave can be taken and big holidays to go with it.

I do miss my UK riding buddies and mud though, I can understand the stuff and ride on it, pea gravel is the devils work, makes you feel all comfortable then suddenly dumps you!

It’s probably a bad earth on your head unit, hence why the battery powered units are okay and anything else powered from the car creates the feedback…just create a new earth point to sort it quickly, rather than trying to trace the loom to its earth.

Despite my small monkey moniker I’m just over 6’2″.

If I was a midget I’d call myself something like…err..tootall or something :D

Better to not risk stuff and be able to ride the next day IMHO. If I think I’m going to do myself some harm trying something I leave it alone, got a family to support and I’m sure my employer won’t look lightly on regular sports injuries!

It is noticeable how much longer it takes to heal though, I’m nearly 40 and notice all the scratches and bruises taking more than a week to go away now….

Check out aulro.com, it’s the aussie owners site but contains so many threads about everything that your bound to find what you’re lookking for, no matter what the subject.

It’s saved me $000’s in stuff I’ve been able to do myself.

Good spot, after 20 years of twisty use I’ve had to think far too hard about changing gear on my new bike with triggers. Only the cost of the new grip shifts was holding me back so happy days :lol:

It’s also amazing how much they will put up with re rubbish cables.

Cutting Marcus, that hurt :wink:

That’s a pretty sizeable area of forest they are going to build on, when taken in the context of Delamere being reasonably small in the first instance. Why aren’t the lodges built just outside the forest somewhere? The very thing that attracts people is the forest, by reducing the areas available to recreation surely there’s an increase in usage pressure and the potential for a lot more friction between users?

I’d imagine that the residents of the old sanitarium aren’t too happy about it either.

It all looks as though it’s going to get exceedingly busy around there, more like a leisure park – what is the remit of the FC nowadays? Is it to provide amenity and green spaces or turn their land in to commercial enterprise areas, over and above the commercial logging?

I probably won’t know where on earth I’m going next time I’m around there for a ride…..

Went for alloy over carbon due to price and the fact that on an fs bike the suspension is taking the buzz out. Went carbon for my hard tail though.

Mike makes a good point – come on over if you want to see something different, don’t if you’re expecting the UK but warmer.

Also, as said above, go where you’re going to be better off. IMO wherever you can be free of a mortgage earlier is the place to be, then you get some real flexibility with your lifestyle choices…

Been over here in Perth for nearly 2 years, it does look a lot more expensive but if you’re earning good money then it’s not much of an issue.

The key is really doing your homework on what you can get paid and look at the cost of things in a “how long does it take me to earn that meal/ticket etc.” – when I compare my “time earing ratio” (TM) to the UK I’m happy. You can always buy pricier items over the net (important bike bits etc. – sometimes the price gap is too high to justify supporting the LBS – can of GT85 for $18!)

Eating out over here is expensive – very easy to blow $130-140 on a meal for 2 adults and 1 child. There is a lot of stuff over here that you can do for free that you’d end up paying to do in the UK. The parks and facilities are consistently great and weather gives you an opportunity to take advantage of them all year round.

Renting/buying a house is the worst expense, followed by purchasing a car if you bring your pounds over expecting UK style prices!

Like Mike says, fuel is cheap, water/gas/electric are laughably cheap after the UK (even though people over here are complaining about rising costs!)

Beer ain’t too bad if you drink at home! But a $10 pint ensures that you don’t drink that much when you do go out – so there’s a health benefit again!

Using a bell sweep here, visor off for road, back on for mtb……

Cool idea, for added awesomeness I think it needs some holes drilled in it somewhere and some purple anodising incorporated into the colour scheme…

It’s a very clever simple idea. I think the tracking issue is probably lessened by the through axle?

Pretty sure you can, I think it’s trickier increasing travel. Have a look on the SRAM website for the technical/workshop manual

Maidenhead…

It will, mine looks like its a 26er does under most people, I didn’t realise my 26er looked like a clown bike until I saw side to side photos of me on them :lol:

Yes, IMHO, I tested a Niner Jet 9 with 80mm on the rear and 100mm up front when looking to buy a 29er and came to the same conclusion that Clubber mentions, it does feel like more travelthanit is with bigger wheels. I ended up with an Rocky Mountain Element 970 with 95/100mm and it glides over stuff in a manner not unlike my previous cannondale Jekyll, which had 135/130mm

“I’m sorry. I panicked, and out of the 2/3 pedals I had at my disposal I chose the accelerator and then decided to drive over a wall and some people…”

If someone is liable to panic on crowded roads, is London (or the UK in the whole) really the place for him to be driving around?

It makes sense, I think the best pit shots are the overhead ones anyway, the rest can easily be done from the pit wall.

Gary Anderson made a good suggestion on his BBC column, there are currently around 20 people on the car in a pit stop, so you can’t see much anyhow, he’s suggested limiting the number of people who work on the car to get 2 wheels changed at a time, this allows people to see what’s going on more, slows the stop down by about 1.5 seconds and gives the lollipop man more time to check it’s all done and make a decision on the release.

I rode around in temperatures over 40 degrees last year – I wasn’t particularly good at that temp but my bike frame seemed okay with it…I wouldn’t worry unless it got to around 100 degrees C, by then you’ll have stopped worrying about the bike though!

All the mountain bikes are quiet – the one that really infuriates me is the road bike. It’s the one that doesn’t get bashed about yet the drivetrain is always noisy..

Something in the region of around 8-10k if you have a full clean license I’d imagine. There was an article in Evo a few months back when the owner of a Pagani Zonda discussed its running costs after he’d sold it (for a vast profit) I think that was something in the region of 20k a year to insure, and that was worth around 700k?

Hmm, it’s easy enough to just loosen it with an 8mm allen key – worth doing just to clear it up. The axle won’t take kindly to being ridden around on loose – you could use it as a haggling point. A rubber mallet will also tap the chainset out easily enough so you can check the bearings.

Have a look at cellbikes.com.au and also on cyclingexpress.com.au., they have some pretty good offers on at the moment.

My only look at the reid bikes were at the retro ones and TBH the frame quality was awful, so go and check it out carefully. If you do get it, as said above, you can always keep the gruppo and upgrade the frame if you do get into it a bit more. Also, pay attention to the wheel build.

It depends on what colour the rest of the building is TBH. Darker window frames tend to look better on light buildings IMO, admittedly these are usually the aforementioned aluminium frames but it could work.

It could just be a shot bearing. If the play was allowing the axle to slide in and out then its a wavy washer/preload issue. Up and down/side to side will be a totally goosed bearing in there, so that will require a change (assuming that the axle moves with the crank and it’s not the axle and crank interface that’s at fault)

Me too Zokes, damned infuriating isn’t it! Although I do find that the insurance companies are very quick to buy you a new bike when knocked off in circumstances where you have a lot of witnesses..

I really like pearl izumi select shorts, minimal padding and really comfy over several hours. Not outrageously expensive either.

Can you judge the class of a person by the tv programmes they appear on?

Bypass the shoe stage and just wee through the letterbox?

Human nature – if you’re good at your job your boss will be more flexible. If you’re inefficient, unhelpful or difficult to work with, then your boss will be less flexible – especially where it’s a less formal thing (rather than a formal clocking system).

Sometimes people are too good at their job and managers get frightened by staff that will outshine them. This insecurity then means that your role gets diminished and no credit gets oven for your work, I’ve seen that happen before…

It doesn’t seem that much considering I paid 800 quid for a 350d kit all those years ago(8 I think), I’d have gladly paid another 200 notes for the video etc. back then