Kenny, You’re just a Psawhore!

I see what you mean about leaving the sides free. I was looking at a double side door van and wondered what I’d do about a drop down bed. Depending on how it all goes.. I’ll keep that bulkhead in mind!

Singletracksurfer – I found searching for Trafic and TrafFic quite handy ;O)

The old titus frames (rrp around £1600) had a final rub-up with scotch brite and I always thought it spoilt the look of it. I remember the old website or one of the old catalogue’s showing a worker finishing them off and once you unboxed the frames you could see that the welds were nicely laid out but slightly spoilt by scotch brite scuffings going across the welds. Infact,the welds had polishing/heat marks going across them. (poor welder must have been pissed off)

I always cursed this person at the end of the production line. In the above pic,is this still happening?

Tell them to buff up only what’s needed!!

My madcap idea would be to fix an airhorn to the inside of the door just below the handle so that the handle presses down on it if anyone tries to open the door.

It would freak me out if it happened to me and you’d have to be thick as mince to continue the break-in!

Only problem is the initial noise of going into your own garage first thing!

It’s quicker to repair that kind of puncture than fitting a new tube with the likes of a Panaracer tubeless repair patch kit. Leave the tyre on,clean in and around the hole and plug it. Inflate.

Ahh, I forgot about that. I won’t be heading down for it. Hope it’s a good one.

A 2005 Primastar might be coming up soonish. If it does, I plan to have it lined with a drop down hinged shelf (for a bed) and a DIY bulkhead. The extra seats look good, I’d be wanting at least one to sit on/get changed/possibly make sliding out of a wetsuit a bit easier!

Reading about them last week I found folk talking about problems with lack of power along with puffing out black smoke. Something about an egr? valve gone wonky. I suppose every vehicle has it’s problems but as long as it’s not going to get costly with one thing after another,I’m not too bothered about the odd mishap.

The high roof version that you can stand up in is a topper.

Looks good,Druid. I was looking at Trafic/primastar’s last night so to find this thread with your van like that makes me jealous!

So what’s the deal with insurance as far as changing the inside of a van goes? Does plain old ply lined with nothing else done to it have any effect? Between an empty van, and one like yours.. with a fold down bed/matress,how much would you expect the insurance to rise?

and even if she ends up marrying some other guy we should still get an invite (along with OP to point out whose who)

It’s easier to drop the legs and do what’s needed than to clean and degrease the whole drive.Probably quicker too. :O/

Can’t view much on the webcams but I’ll be out in it tomorrow on the bike.

Couldnt see much ice for the dustings of snow. Another amazingly clear day.

I seem to notice orange foci driving around on sundays only up here.

It’s like it’s their sunday best car.. but at the same time,far from a sunday best.

Yeah, I was thinking if 420w was pushing the bike up a hill with no weight in the rider.. this is where it all comes into it!

I remember reading something about Oli Beckingsale a year or two ago, showing that on paper he shouldn’t have been able to beat a lot of the other riders that he constantly did.

To be honest if there’s trainers out there scratching their heads over figures.. and not having a clue about other stuff re: the bike. It’s a waste of time. I’m sure a lot of pro riders have turned up to a race that suited a mud tyre,race a small block eight, but were too obsessed over the weight and speed of a tyre that nothing else came into it. 🙄

I don’t work in miles or Kilometers. I go by hours. 8 hour trips to the north of Skye kills my arse on the bike!

It’s not flat barred but the 2013 salsa veya 3? Around 1200 quid.

Nobody in his family know about it yet :O)

I tell them everything. As far as points and awareness courses go I would tell them everything they need to know as soon as possible (if the awareness course is something that can invalidate insurance).

Some will disagree and maybe tell them when renewal comes up but there’s no way I’m paying £400+ a year for a car worth £200.. that’s not even covered if I don’t tell them the in’s and out’s of my convictions.

I’m not talking three points here and three points there for wee speeding offences. Having driven through the town where I work after my lunch break earlier (at the speed limit with a guy tailgating me as per usual) I managed to brake in time for a kid walking out from behind a bus. I wouldn’t fancy challenging a death with insurance that’s gone tits up over a measly £60 fine and an insurance hike of £0-£50ish quid.

Not worth it.

Edit: I wonder how much insurance firms make out of doing their homework (reading their smallprint and sending people out to check the cars involved with accidents for modifications etc)so they can dismiss claims.. opposed to how much they make trying to keep old customers and get new customers on board.

There’s a small green one in fantastic condition for sale on here and the bay. ;O)

Not long now. I’m looking forward to the snowy roads!

Like B R says,you are now running a disc mount on the fork that isn’t parallel to the disc. The caliper might adjust unevenly to suit.. but it’s not the best option. You also now have a washer on the inside of the dropout instead of the serrated face of the hub.

I removed the door panel off mine (stripped and scrapped the rest of it) and found that the panel’s hardboard core was a bit damp and the panel just crumbled down at the bottom. Hope it doesn’t happen to yours if it gets wet as one of mine will never re-fit. The passengers side is perfect.

You could always fit carbon inserts ;O)

Yeah,for just about everything. With a wage like mine, you wouldn’t wanna use a statement for proof of purchase ;O)

It’s just handy grabbing the box (I keep most boxes for stuff in their warranty period) and heading to the store for a replacement. Like I’ll be doing this afternoon with an electrical cabley thing that has packed in after 4 months. It was £15 quid, without it I’d be splashing out another £15 quid. I can’t afford to do that. Infact,nobody should.

Cruising a diesel car with around 1200-1500 revs for the first 10 mins of its morning drive before getting on the open road has done my one no harm over the past 12 years.I scrape the ice off and get in the car and head off. I used to pour water over the car,did it for years but it ends up putting more water along door seals,window seals etc where you don’t need extra ice holding the doors closed solid. It also seeps into the locks on older cars so it’s a pain for my car.

Some days the temps would be -5c where I live dropping to -15c at the work place for weeks on end so keeping windscreen wash and kettles of water away made it easier. Some days it was so cold and dry you never even had to use screen wash.

A chamois works wonders inside the car too for instant de-misting.

I bivi’d in the hills between Coulags and Torridon and Lochan Fada earlier in the year. Both trips around 6c I was sweating like a pig with cycle shorts/merino base layer in a down bag (suitable for down to around -5c)

I would guess that without a self inflating mat (I had a Vango lightweight mat that inflates to around 30mm thick) the chill from the ground would go straight through the bivi and sleeping bag and you’d soon be wrestling around to keep warm by sliding back onto the mat (also can be a bit tricky when your arms are by your side and you are on off camber ground!)

For my next bivi I plan to make a trough to lay down in.There’s a few small pebbled beaches around Lochan Fada that will hold the inflatable mat well. This should spread the body weight out well without feeling like I’m sleeping on three points of my body at any given time! (like what happened by choosing the wrong spots next to rocks on exposed mountains with rocks digging into my back :O/)

ALso go for a full length mat, your feet will still freeze hanging off the end of a short mat,with merino socks,a down bag and bivi bag between you and the ground. Its bad enough in summer.

Edit: Use ear plugs for a silent night. The stars,sattelites,meteors etc are amazing to watch before crashing.Upon waking there’s no midges (If you plan on coming up here), and the fresh air will mean one of the best nights sleep you’ve had in years – possibly a lifetime so it’ll all be worth it.

+1

Running it straight away and going through the gears is far better for it. It gets everything circulating and up to temperature quicker (apparently)

I run a 2.35 rear and 2.5 front but I don’t know anyone else that does!

Is the front tyre bigger than the rear?

Fair do’s! If you have tried it more level and found it wrong,that’s the main thing. I think a lot of folk set it there without trying it any other way. I have dropped the nose of my saddle a little over the past 6 months,mainly for the climbs with a non talas/uturn fork that’s on one of the bikes and it does make it easier at the likes of Golspie on the climb to the top.. and at the same time it makes no difference for the descent as I’m hardly in the saddle! The xc bike’s saddle is slightly more nose-up.

I suppose I need to work on my core strength like you say.. which helps quite a bit too.

<just had chicken curry,which doesn’t help :O)

Apart from that I love the colour and it looks wicked.

If the seat was level you could afford to drop the post by around 15mm and also find that a whole heap of weight has now been lifted from your hands,wrists and shoulders. You should try it. Every bike that comes in to the workshop for repair with the saddle angle like this is impossible to ride correctly due to so much weight on the front end. We are all build very similar and there is no way on earth that this is more comfortable than if it was higher at the nose by at least 10mm.

The Wonder Stuff.

I have been reading the posts and started to wonder if the anxiety of whether a racer will podium or not leading up to a race is healthy for the ones that are depressive. I just remember the anxiety leading up to it along with adrenalin kicking in but once the gun goes at the start of the race,it lift’s instantly. I loved that feeling. Just to finally be in the race and not worrying about it like I had been minutes before. I may be wrong. I really don’t know if this is good for the mind in a depressive state. Someone set me straight on that one!

But to always have it in the back of your mind (leading up to and during the race) that you will NOT be on the podium,surely can’t help these issues.

I haven’t won much but the races that I have one, leading up to them I knew without a shadow of a (excuse the language) f*c&*! doubt, that I’d win. It was only a few but I knew (and pictured one race) as impossible for anyone to beat me. The speed I had and the mental positivity in my head telling me that there was no way that anyone turning up for that race would be able to go faster down the first straight into the first corner made it happen. I visited the course a week before the race as I had no idea what it was like and the feeling and adrenalin was a bit too much once I visualized myself riding it start to finish. My heart rate just standing there on the track visualizing it must have been around 130!

If someone got all worked up over this and a week later they performed bad at the race I can only imagine this would hit home in a bad way and put them on a downward spiral even more.

You say your goals are nearly embarrassing to talk about. If you want it badly and train to do as well as possible but also have 20-30% negativity or doubt lurking in the back of your mind about finishing half way down the field, you WILL do just that.

I can only guess that the goals you are embarrassed to mention are a long way off winning the Tour of Britain.. but if the goals are set so high and mentally you know leading up to,and during the race that the podium wont be happening, it’s only going to keep putting you on a downer.

Everyone seems to have the right idea about backing off with the racing,enjoying the ride and stopping to take in the scenery and spinning open a flask of tea. By doing this it’s not the end of your racing career. Its just a change. A break from it all to see how you feel. Surely worth a try!

o.k. It’ll be good to find out what it is. Good luck!

a2z are disc hubs. Would be worth a look if they had no disc fitting on the side. 2 year warranty as well :O/

when you talk of puddles/water spray making it worse it sways me towards the older chain on the new casette every time. Did you say that the chain was running fine on the chainrings before you fitted these new parts elsewhere?

I would guess if the rings were running fine with the old chain up until you replaced the cassette it’s either graunchy on the new cassette (even with it being 200 miles) or the chain may have had a few hose downs/not lubed well inside and the moving parts inside are spitting the dummy under load.

I would go for the not so new chain on that new cassette! Can you try a new chain? You’ll be buying one sooner or later anyways.

Why did you soak it in engine oil? Was it pretty dry looking before or? Soak it in finer oil that penetrates under the rollers and ride it for a few easy hours to see how it goes.

If the race is less than 60 mins and he finds time to eat.. then he ain’t racing ;O)

I’d have a normal breakfast (porage – or porridge ;O))with a few slices of honey on toast. Rely on what’s stored inside along with energy drink and gels leading up to and during the race.

If I had bacon and scrambled eggs I’d be wanting to make myself sick riding at race pace in the past. I remember trying similar and it doesn’t agree with me. Don’t go stuffing yourself with heaps of pasta the night before and scoff more of it a few hours before the race – you’ll end up missing the race due to frequent visits to the toilet or performing poorly with all the change that you’re not used to! If you can ride hard for 2-3 hours on a normal breakfast then you should be fine with a quality mix of energy drink and a gel here and there.

By that I mean – Not putting an extra 2-3 scoops of the powder into a 750ml bottle in hope of you performing better. It will make things worse.

Is Talktalk business the same? This is what is used at work and we had a problem last week. Couldn’t contact them til monday morning. (line problem in a shop all weekend and not one number to call)

Or you could wing it and run it til it dies like I’m currently doing with a car.

(just got the service book out lol..)

The last timing belt etc was fitted on 22/08/05 Mileage 132,539 miles.

Its now on 231k miles!

I iz winging it in full effect :O)