Be aware that the Crit Air sticker appears to be necessary for the Peripherique now! For the sake of 3€ plus postage I’d be getting one. I’ll echo what’s already been said up there, though. I’d not be driving in Paris unless it’s an actual emergency. I’ve hit the Peripherique at rush hour once before and even as someone who lives in the Netherlands and is therefore HYPER-aware of anything on two wheels, it’s mentally exhausting watching out for the various scooters, weird trikes, and full-on superbikes lane splitting on all sides at 100+ kmh. But they’ll have their hazards on, so that’s okay…

You forgot their utterly demented interpretation of Christianity, Alpin. But yes.

@10 the very idea that Prisoner is lacking cred! It’s one of the best debut albums ever. I utterly love it.

I build EVERYTHING 1×10 now, as after years of frequent meddling with 3×7 through to 2×10, 1×10 feels like the absolute sweet spot. Providing you use the right stuff, of course. Which is a PG1050 cassette, KMC chain, and XT M786 shifter and mech. Multiple shifts both ways is glorious, and the proper positive shift action just feels so well engineered. I hate sram shifters as I’m autistic and using my thumb for both up and downshifts is horrible. But their cassettes? Fab. I’ve got 6000km on one of them, and after a good clean it still looks new.

To quote Phoebe from Friends when she was an owl who’d just broken up with a horse, “when you’re wearing rose tinted spectacles, all the red flags just look like flags”.

My first ‘proper’ relationship was seriously abusive, and it was pointed out to me by friends and family who could see it for what it was. I had a bit of reparation to do with them after it ended, and now I’ve recovered I can spot an abusive relationship a mile off.

I also know that it’s not easy to see when you’re on the inside, and the best you can do is be supportive. I’m losing one of my best mates to his alcoholic wife right now, and it hurts. He’s already admitted to me that if they didn’t have kids it’d be over…

Poland was Alyson Moyet in disguise, right?

WTB? And you managed to get them on?

2 Cellos covering Thunderstruck is brilliant as well.

Everclear’s cover of Brown Eyed Girl

Cake’s cover of I Will Survive

Ragley Piglet. Supposed to be 27½ plus and 140mm front, but I initially built mine with 2.25s and 130mm up front and it was the lively, snappy, nutter bike that doesn’t seem to exist anywhere now that everything is long, low, and slack. Running 2.8s now as I scored a cheap pair and it’s tamed it a bit. It’s almost certainly the best bike I’ve ever built.

Nowhere near as inventive as any of these, but my last repurposing was using a garden sprayer as a pressure bleeder.

Rubber or strap type oil filter wrench and a big bar is probably your best bet if you don’t want to kill the seatpost. Wrapping an inner tube around it then trying a big pair of stilsons might just work, too.

Quite like those IKEA clocks. We got the boys one each, popped the faces off, and gave them a pile of coloured Sharpies to go wild with!

Such a good idea for a thread! Last week was a write-off for me, but today I’ve had energy to actually do life shit. Several rides out to the cardboard bins, one to the bottle bank, a whole pile of dead branches dealt with, and a couple of loads of washing done – and, crucially. put away – and I am knackered but feeling worthy again. And I managed to beat Leader Cliff in Pokémon Go! Best Monday in ages.

The only time in 35 years of riding bikes I’ve ever had snapped spokes is when I’ve ridden on wheels where I’m over their weight limit.

Borders*

Also no, no more than usual.

I’d have to drill and tap the downtube for those, though! It’s this sort of thing I’m after, but with three holes:

https://www.ticycles.com/ticycletubes/tcf-tubes-routing-ti-w322-internal-ports

Yeah, alloy frame. The cable guides at the top of the downtube are part of the frame, but the bottom one has a bossed hole – for want of a better term – with a threaded hole for a screw to retain the guide.

Oh, and yeah, they don’t seem to be on Alpkit’s site, and I haven’t had a reply from them yet!

Hamburg is better for traffic these days, tbh. Although there’s a regular ferry that crosses the Elbe further up now if you don’t fancy the gamble, and also fancy some non-Autobahn driving.
We’ve used the Kiel-Göteborg ferry a few times as well – it’s incredibly relaxing and gets you into Göteborg just after rush hour.
Two weeks is loads of time, and with kids I’d go from NL to the Elbe ferry, up to Billund for a few days and have two days in Legoland and one at the forest park nearby. Next day would be my heading to Sweden – either by the quick ferry to Göteborg, or across to Århus then the ferry to Sjælland Odde and down to the Øresundsbroen. Copenhagen is pretty in places but I have never warmed to it. And it’s not great for kids.
What is great for kids is Sweden’s west coast – lovely sandy beaches turn rocky around Göteborg, Trollhattan has a great science museum and the SAAB one has a huge Scalextric track. Norden’s Ark is a brilliant wildlife sanctuary where you can stay over if you like. We did in the off season and they just handed us the keys!

It’s a great city for walking as it’s very flat! Most of the suggestions have been excellent, but I’d also add the miniature city museum by Alexandraplatz. Take the U-bahn everywhere for a good feel for the place, and a Trabi Safari is also well worth doing. Got great pics of ‘our’ Trabis by the graffitid remains of the wall!

They are excellent. My only concern was that they’d feel a bit plasticky, but nah, they feel like shot-peened alloy. I’ll be sticking them on everything I build from now on.

Christopher Brookmyre’s done a sci-fi one now. It’s good enough, but it’s also just corrupt Parlabane in space.
Recently re-read The Bridge and totally missed the Culture references, so I’m going to have to read that again…

Depends entirely on what it is. Stuff I’d kept from upgrades went on the replacement for my stolen Explosif, which kept the cost down and got me going again quicklier.
Its old back wheel is now on the bike I’m building for my youngest. And as said up there, selling reasonably low value items is a draining pain in the arse. The bike I built to replace my stolen Explosif? The stem, chainring, and temporary seatpost came from my neighbour in exchange for a few bottles of tasty German beer. I’d like to think I’d pass that karma on. So yeah, there’s my answer. Keep.

Because there are always pregnant women, the average number of people wholly in people is never below zero.

Find out the seal sizes and get yourself down to Pirtek. The foam you can ‘wash’ and re-oil.

+1 for old inner tube and cable ties. Replace every two years as UV affects them. Although curious about roadie bar tape now…

@welshfarmer, yep, that was very much the impression I got too.

Fantastic. German sense of humour. :D

I’m sad that on a forum of IT professionals, nobody’s questioned ‘why dial-up?’ unless there’s a retro trend I don’t know about going on and people are actually using Netscape Navigator again.

I built up a 2006 Zaskar a good few years ago. Toras, XT everything, and 26×2.5 High Rollers. Felt like I was at Laggan on it every weekend! I loved it so much. Rode it once again about five years ago and it was the harshest and most cramped feeling thing ever. It’s currently on loan to one of my pals. Got a 2013 Zaskar 29er on the cycle to work scheme and it was shit.

Ordered the Reverb yesterday, except from Wiggle as CRC wasn’t letting me progress to the payment page. Used the extra10 code just fine as well so it ended up even cheaper. Ace.

If you’re going to put a red bulb in one of your reverse lamp holders, make sure it’s the – literal – right one. I had to swap my fog and reverse lamps over when I brought my car to Europe.

All trains here in NL suspended from 1400 tomorrow!

In the grand STW tradition of recommending what you have, you should be looking at a Ragley Piglet.

A 27.5(+?) Zaskar. Ball burnished and anodised, obviously.

Interested. I’m similar, except for me it’s when people whistle. Even thinking about people whistling makes me unsettlingly angry.

Just binged – well, mostly – Dogs in Space. Cutesy animation with a terrific voice cast and a storyline that develops really well. Chidi Anagonye as a dog works so much better than you could ever imagine.

Of the two latest ones, the one with more green is my favourite. The other is a bit Dunlop tennis shoe.

We’ve just binged the first series of The Witcher. Fantasy nonsense but really enjoyable.