This sounds daft, but the sensation of the water moving between my toes when pushing down on my pedals is much like someone hating nails scratched down a blackboard.

Don’t mind the cold feet, just the horribly sensation!

You can pick up a Thule 591 on ebay (from a Ford dealer)for £63 inc p&p and a set of square roof bars from £39.00 form Larkspeed.

Best £100 quid I have spent on my bike.

Bought a roof rack and Thule 591 brand new for less than £100. Roof bars – 10mins to put on and 5 to take off.

Bike on and off in 1min.

Only use it for major travel i.e. with the missus and dog to Wales, otherwise just chuck my bike in the boot with seats down and a blanket over everything.

MPG didn’t seem to hit me too much either,maybe 2-3 less, but then I don’t normally drive at 100mph anyway!

My brother-in-law has one and pleased to say neither bike moves when on his saloon.

Not so sure about getting 3 bikes on there though. It was a struggle doing just the two and my paint work came off worse with all the faffing about with the strapping and another bike already on there.

If you get one, make sure you clean the spots where the feet sit on your car, as they really screw up the paint work if you don’t.

Flown to SA with both SA Airlines and Virgin quite cheaply…but never with a bike I’m afraid.

SA Airlines were really good for my bday. They upgraded me to their lounge for free and got me extremely smashed on the way there!

Lived in the ‘don’ for 20 odd years before moving to Brum.

Depending on your money situation, probably good to live in either the West of the City, (Cults,Culter or even Gt Western Roadish) and if you have a car then either Stonehaven or Newtonhill. The congestion is NOTHING like it is in Brum so doesn’t bother me whenever I go back.

Some good riding around Stonehaven up beside the TV mast(if you can find some trails the FC haven’t found),and if you have a car you can try some natural trails over Sauchen way and out towards Aboyne/Braemar etc.

If you get a week or two off you could even cycle over to Skye like I have and get a mate or your missus to pick you up and take you back home! Just not in the Winter.

You can always extend your ride if you start and finish in Brocton Coppice. Not there tomorrow…antenatal classes!

Looks to me like you’ve been using miracle grow…and it has rubbed off on your bike.

I’m ashamed to say my wife subscribed me for my bday so ill be getting it as a matter of course. To be fair all the Cotics get great write ups from the mag. Trouble with frame onlys, is that everyone builds them to their own spec/budget and riding style, so not sure how you can test a frame and create a generic view point?

May not be ‘old’ but still in black and white is Young Frankenstein…cracks me up every time!

We petitioned our employer on the basis of reducing our carbon footprint and meeting some ISO standard (can’t remmeber what standard it is though).

It worked…but they built something that wasn’t fit for purpose and 3 bikes got nicked in the first two weeks…and this is all under the noses of the police who work in the same set of offices as us!

Loving it too…just finished season 3 and waiting for the next from lovefilm. Watch all the episodes the day I get the disc and post back the following day.

+1 for Squirt.

Can go two or three rides without having to clean my chain and runs without a sound and doesn’t rust up either.

Miles better than any other wet or dry lube ever I’ve used. Just need to remember to clean the chain and add the lube a day before you ride.

Think I got mine for £8.

Sorry to intrude…but I take it just add your own decals after?

Bought a Automaxi roof rack and Thule 591 for my wifes Peugeot 307 brand new with delivery for less than £100.

Brilliant for going to Wales with lugguage and a dog, put it all on in less than 10 mins first time and comes off in 5mins. Bikes take 30secs to go on and off (just remember to use a cloth for stopping downtube damage).

Never use it locally as I always chuck my bike in the boot for fuel economy.

Best buy Ive made in a long time (especially after my losing a bike off the back of a rear mounted one!)and no need to take two cars to Wales.

+1 for Pont Scethin and agree with doing it in reverse…just be prepared to walk up some of the very rocky bits.

+1 Cadair Idris – just watch the weather, can get very very misty up there.

+ Coed Y Brenin – Dragons teeth and Beast maybe good (just quite a few fire roads, but ST is good).

Machynelleth is good too – not very busy for a trail centre – but may wish to avoid for obvious reasons.

Cotic advised me a minimum of 195mm for a large frame, so 190mm should fit both bikes nicely. I’ll measure a few times before tho.

Don’t know about you but my build expense is starting to burn holes in the holes I already had!

Get a product with a decent DEET content. I brought a few bottles back from South Africa last year and no issues so far.

Well spotted trail rat! Wondered why it said it would take 5mins to inflate a car tyre!!

That’s looking great already! I’m going for a similar build but in orange. Got myslef a nice pair of 120 rlc fit’s too…but could only find black ones.

What steerer length are you running? I’ll need to cut mine down, but want to make sure it also fits my Ex8

What type of build are you going for?

Ive gone about things arse over tit and bought all the components and cant afford the frame yet!

1981mike – Bought a pair of SLX M675 for a Soul build a couple of months ago (after using M666 on my Ex8 and being very impressed).

Front are 288g and rear 304g (including cables). If you can afford to upgrade to RT86’s rotors I’d recommend it, unless you are using centrelock and you can get the SLX ice techs instead.

The ice techs are a massive difference over the crap rt64’s that came with my ex8.

Try and get a refurbished one if you can. Usually nothing wrong with them.

I bought the one I have now (Acer) with an Core i5 processor for £329.00. Should have £599.00! Been brilliant so far.

I got mine from Curry’s, but PC World, Comet all do the same.

Postierich – Never had issues with Royal Mail…if I’m not in then I pick it up round the corner from the delivery centre…until I forgot to unsubscribe myself from the ‘dropping it off at the neighbours scheme’.

Going cap in hand round 4/5 neighbours who I didn’t know begging for my stuff…promptly unsubscribed and fed back I wished you could volunteer for the service rather than ‘unvolunteer’!

Try activesport.co.uk for Hope Pro 2 with ZTR Flows £285.99

I too have the flat version, so I can only really comment on their robustness etc.

Very comfy on and off the bike. Tons off grips on the pedals, but VERY slippy in the mud or if you accidently dab down on a slippy surface.

Some parts of the sole have started coming away which have had to be ‘re-glued.’ Unfortunately this happened quite quickly too…but a bit off loctite worked well.

They do tend to take a pounding in the wet though either in the rain or going through deep puddles (however if I manualled through them a bit more then probably wouldn’t be so bad!).

Might try a pair of Five Tens next time.

Cheers Harry…much appreciated, saved a small fortune with multiple orders!!

Bought a pair to go with my slx m666 BRAKES (180 & 160) and upgraded the pads to sintered and never regretted it. Was at Coed Y Brenin all this week and the pads are still going strong after several months…no squeel, saved my ass a few times compared to the RT51’s and organic pads I was using previously. I just run normal sintered pads, not the finned jobs.

Unless you’re really bothered by the weight, get a pair of SLX M675’s and the ice tech rotors. I’ve just bought them again from Bike Discount for a new hardtail I’m building.

Ordered a lot of items from them over the last 18 months with no issue. Never had to return anything so not sure about refund /return policy or cost of sending things back.

Usually takes about 5 days to get your stuff by courier.

They also do price match which I have also used(if you’re buying a load of items and can’t be bothered ordering through loads of different sites).

I’m running a 42/32/24.

Thanks folks…my B’day next week…new helmet from the missus coming up!

Received calls from all of them about problems with stocking issues and whether I wanted to continue with my purchases due to extended wait periods. None of them took my money either unless I confirmed I wished to continue.

Obviously this is what anyone would expect, but order furniture or any other stuff non-bike related on-line, then no phone call, no email…sitting like an arse at home waiting for a delivery that never comes after paying for specific day and taking time off work.

Not shit…just produce shit loads of shit!

Freeborn, Mailorderbikes, Bike-Discount de and CRC!

Just bought a pair of Schwalbe Hans Dampf 2.35 EVO’s from Bike Discount de for approx £57.00 (inc postage).

They are pretty light, well protected, super grippy…but maybe not that fast if this is any use?

Thanks folks…one order being placed to the Continent!

Thanks warpcow – I found them on Freeborn earlier, but had no idea that they are from the US and would be charged!

Proline85 – Yours looks brilliant. I’m going for exactly the same type of build but with a black Soul!

Are those white Nano’s? I was debating between white and black, but my red ones have started to fade quite badly after just a few rides on my EX8.

Your bars look fairly wide too…what length are they?

Just a couple more pay cheques and I’ll be in the club…well in theory. I’ll have all the parts and then have to figure out how to put it all together…I was rather good at mecano as a kind tho.