I’ve just dropped them an email too. Been meaning to for ages as I’ve appreciated the great work on the Kitchener trail that’s been done in the last couple of years.

Ah. Too slow!

There’s a notice on the FC website saying all the trails will be closed tomorrow due to there being a rally.

Last time I went it was pretty wet and muddy, but the work they’ve done on the trails has made them perfectly rideable now in any conditions.

That’s great. I now know what it is I’m asking for! I’ve even just found a part number, so getting there gradually.

Cheers trail-rat. I’ll give some dealers a call in the morning.

Onzadog – Cheers for the response.

What I’m hoping to find is an adapter so that I can use a standard rear brake caliper (current Shimano Deore). So something like a 44mm to 51mm adapter, which was what I’d assumed was in the picture.

From what I can see from googling, this looked to me like an adapter to enable the frame to be used with a standard 160mm rotor adapter?

There’s something about Schmiken’s Kingdom Supreme (second post in this thread) that’s just so right. It looks a bit like the last Cotic Soda but with a tapered headtube.

Nothing on their website about the 650b version though. Anyone got any info on this one?

Great. Thanks guys.

I’ve had XMM120s on my Nicolai for over a year and have had no issues with them. They don’t take a lot of maintenance. After a few rides they feel really good.

I’ve been happy with them although I am now looking at replacing them with something a bit lighter as the QR15 tapered version is a bit weighty compared to other similar forks from Fox and Rockshox.

Maybe The Mountain Bike Rock School???

I don’t need this one – G3X1RKDECYWVTG

Mine must have gone wrong somehow. 😥

It takes them a heck of a long time to do it though. I filled in the O2 online form and three weeks later nothing had happened. I paid £30 on eBay to get someone to do it and it was unlocked in two days.

Raw does work really well with the ‘industrial’ look of the frame. The trouble I find with Nicolai is there are just too many options.

I’ve recently ordered an Argon CC frame. I initially submitted the order directly to Nicolai in Germany using their online ‘Order Generator’, but they referred it back to Momentum (the UK distributors), who contacted me to say I should order through one of the UK stockists.

There’s a list of UK stockists on the Nicolai UK website, but if there aren’t any near you Momentum can take the order directly.

I’ve got a two month wait for my frame, but they do sometimes have some in stock.

[edited because I didn’t answer your question!]
Not sure about the exchange rate at the moment. I suppose if you can somehow get someone to order for you in Germany this might make a difference.

What are you thinking of getting?

MSP – that certainly is an opinion!

On the whole you’re right about Radio, it is terrible. But I only singled out Zane’s show, and it’s the late night Radio 1 shows which give new, unusual music the stage it needs. I dread to think where British music would be if we only had commercial radio!

And you’re dead wrong about BBC drama. It has to entertain a wide audience so you’re never going to get high art, and it does what it does extremely well. But then maybe I’m just easily pleased.

David Attenborough alone is worth the licence fee, but if you want more reasons – drama like Luther, Sherlock, and Silent Witness, coverage of The Proms and Glastonbury, BBC News, 6 Music, Zane Lowe on Radio 1, Radio 4, 5 Live, and what’s left of the F1 coverage which is some of the best sports broadcasting you’re likely to see. In fact most BBC sports coverage is in a different league to what you get from Sky, eg. Wimbledon, Olympics, football.

CharlieMungus – I know you aren’t trolling, I was just being cheeky.

You make a sound point about ‘yes’ and ‘no’ results being used by the two sides to ‘prove’ different sides of the argument. I’m sure this will happen, I just hope we can make some progress towards getting a fairer electoral system and I feel a ‘yes’ result is the best way to do this.

mrmo – so that’s showing % of votes against number of seats gained? It would be interesting to see the % of votes against the % of seats gained, but I think it shows the winning party and leader has never in that time come close to representing the majority of the country?

You’re trolling, aren’t you?!

Whilst we may not get the chance to vote for PR if the AV vote is ‘yes’, we definitely won’t if the vote is ‘no’. The Tories (and to a large extent the ‘establishment’) don’t want the current system changed and will use a ‘no’ result as evidence that we’re all happy with things as they are.

AV isn’t perfect (or even particularly good) but at least it’s a step in the right direction, and would show that there’s an appetite for change.

Yes, PR would be fine. I’d vote for that.

You won’t get a chance to vote for that for a very long time, if ever, if the AV outcome is ‘no’.

@CharlieMungus – see mrmo’s comments. I couldn’t have stated my position any better!

@johndrummer –

as I understand it, under AV (or FPTP or any other “fair” voting system, for that matter), any candidate with more than 50% of the vote will win no matter what the other candidates do. OK, 49% of the electorate didn’t vote for the winning candidate, but show me a fair electoral system where a candidate winning more than half of the votes fails and I’ll show you some hanging chads.

The current system allows a candidate to win with significantly less than 50% of the vote. Whilst AV is far from ideal, at least a greater proportion of votes will be reflected by the result.

I’m voting ‘yes’ because I see it as the first step towards proportional representation, which would actually be a good solution to the issue of many people having wasted votes.

The danger of the outcome of this vote being ‘no’ to AV is that politicians will use this as a signal that we’re happy with the current system, and PR will move yet further from our grasp.

As it is with the current system, since I was old enough to vote mine has never counted as I live in a very safe Tory area.

Here’s mine. The frame was purchased second hand off the STW classifieds (from Hicksville, I think). I had it fully refurbed by Nicolai including a new ‘Fire Dept Red’ powdercoat, then bought lots of expensive trinkets to hang off it. If I’m honest it’s lately been an expensive ornament!

Pre Refurb –

Post Refurb –

I actually find these a nightmare to remove! I clicked on this thread hoping this was a common problem, but no. I just have to add this to the long list of bike things I’m rubbish at. 😡

And why, if these are so easy to remove, do KMC sell a special tool for the job???

These apparently aren’t Middleburn compatible? Why don’t other manufacturers make stuff this pretty?!

Firestarter – who makes that chainring?

I work in one of the worst hit Local Authorities.

The government would have you believe that most LAs have had their budgets cut by around 9%. That’s total nonsense. They are including money in that which wasn’t previously included (and hence the removal of ring fencing to justify/hide this) like Supporting People grants. For example, the cut for mine was announced at around 9%, but actually will be closer to 17% (£60m).

LAs like Manchester, Liverpool, Birmingham, Nottingham, etc, which have a lot of social problems linked to deprivation are at the moment the main recipients of Supporting People grants. To decide how best to fairly distribute this money now the government has created a new formula. Bizarrely this has seen the amounts for those places fall dramatically at the same time as other LAs like Maidenhead and Windsor, and Dorset (which didn’t previously receive any Supporting People money) have gained. The headline we’re given is that on average the cuts in the Supporting People grant fell by 3%. This might be true, but some LAs have gained when they didn’t need to, and other LAs have had their grants cut by nearly 50%. For us this means something like a decrease from £22m to £12m which had been allocated for working with women and families on the receiving end of domestic violence, teen pregnancy, substance misuse, the homeless, etc, etc, etc.

Apologies if everyone else is aware of this last one – I wasn’t. They have used a buffering system so that the LAs with the least cuts support the LAs with the most cuts. This seems fair enough on the face of it. However… they’ve banded the LAs into four groups based on how badly hit they were!!! So the LA at the bottom of the group with the worst cuts is having to give some of its money to the LA at the top of that group, whilst the LA at the top of the group with the least cuts RECEIVES money from the LA at the bottom of that group!

This government doesn’t care about the poor and the vulnerable, and we’re certainly not ‘all in this together’ by any stretch of the imagination. They are handing out billions of pounds of tax breaks to multi nationals at the same time as taking away from those that need our help the most. And why would they care? Their experiences are only of wealth and privilege.

I voted Lib Dem at the last election (and always have done) but never again. What they are enabling these Tories to do is shameful.

I know he’s not everyone’s cup of tea, but the training pics of Lance Armstrong that came out last year are inspiring – and definitely A and A!

Here you go –

See what I mean?

Orc? Like in Lord of the Rings? Cool.

I thought I’d try the Rocket Rons as On One were doing them so cheap. They arrived yesterday – were the decals on these always ‘cheaper’ looking than on the Nobby Nics and Racing Ralphs, etc? They look a bit rubbish really, and yes I know it doesn’t really matter!

(Not actually mine anymore though)

Glad it’s not just me. Just got over today’s strop after getting home and finding my order from CRC sent on the 28th still isn’t here.

I bought before Xmas and found the above combination the cheapest too – I got hoses, calipers and levers from Stif (£97.99 each), floating rotors from Wiggle (£28.08 each), and adaptors from Merlin (£11.95 each).

However, with the current extra 10% discount at Merlin it looks cheaper to go with their package.

I ordered a Fox RP23 rear shock via their website last year and didn’t have any issues. They weren’t very helpful when I contacted them about replacement bushings recently, but the initial purchase went well.

My copy was just delivered (Nottingham).

Maybe it’s like the lap counter in Formula 1 (which I still get confused by).

I love that Merc. Silver with the red interior, please! Then I can pretend I’m Stirling Moss.

And the silver version was in stock too, which was a happy coincidence! Thanks for directing me to Homebrewed’, that’s got me what I really wanted and saved me money.