Cooksons Cycles in Bury service Lefty forks. Not too far from Sheffield.
http://www.cooksoncycles.co.uk

I have two bikes with Sram X9 rear mechs. They have different jockey wheels which won’t fit both mechs. One of the mechs is 2nd generation. I’m under the impression that X9 2nd gen gave to have the odd offset top jockey wheel and nothing else will fit. A minor pain in the arse when trying to remember which ones I need for each. I seem to go through them very quickly as well.

Sadly not Iain. I wonder what happens to items that don’t get to where they’re supposed to go?

I love audax rides. The best road riding I ever do.
I think I get what bikebouy is saying but I think it’s a ‘perspective’ way of approaching it that makes it for me.
My road and mountain bike rides were previously very targeted on getting to point B from point A and back again as quickly as possible. I had no interest in stopping and talking with people I was riding with to the point I would avoid riding with others.
Now, I focus on ‘completing’ a route that somebody else has set. Not doing it too quickly is part of the challenge although for me, this only needs thinking about on the shorter, flatter routes. Certainly not something of an issue on the longer rides. I’m not mad keen on riding with others during audax events which I suppose goes against the ethos of them a little. I speed up or slow down to regain my solitude if I need to and others seem happy to do the same.
I hate sportives though.

I’m going to ride past the house later to see if it’s already sold.
I’m not much liking the greedy desperate person I appear to be becoming

Thanks for the replies (Hi Callum).
A sale of the house was going through apparently. I’ve just had a quick text conversation with my brother. The Will stated that the house was to be sold when my sister (the oldest of us) no longer needed it to live in and the proceeds divided between the four youngest.
I’m assuming she’s died or something? It would appear that the house has been empty for a while and first time buyers were in the process of buying it.
It’s not known between the two of us if the sale has or indeed is going through.
Will the matter of probate hold things up? Even if the Will (it would seem) is very simple and unambiguous :
My sister lives in the house. When she no longer lives in it, it’s sold and the proceeds remaining shared between the four youngest.
For clarity, nobody (even if they’re still alive – I honestly don’t know) would appear to be contesting anything.
My daughter is 18 in June. It’d be great to put 15k into an account for her to get her through university or around the world or whatever she would like to do. I’d also like a De Rosa King if there’s enough left.

What the **** happened to a kick about, 3 and you’re in and 5 a side with ‘rush’ goalie?
Wtf is leader of the clan, elder and kick’er out’er? I blame that bastion of middle class’ness. The Scouts!

In all seriousness, you’re what, mid pack fodder at best in races? Any riding you do, especially with a(n amateur) training plan will help a bit and you’ll perceive that your better than you would have been but at the kind of level you’re at, I’d be placing as much if not more emphasis on enjoyment than ‘training’ .
Think of it this way. Coming back from a ride with your mates at the weekend, you’ve had a laugh on a mountain bike ride and mid week you’ve had a grueller in the road chain gang which is leaving you feeling knackered but rewarded or you’ve concentrated exclusively on ‘the plan’ which has got you on extra lap in a 12 or two laps in a 24 or 3 places up in a crit?
Only you’ll know if it’s worth if to you though.
If on the other hand you were in with the chance of podiums, sponsorship etc……….

‘Yes. The pin, you know?”

Oooh, feeling a little precious at all? I was just asking, dahling.

The retaining pin that holds the pads in?

You really are trying to sell the concept that your daughter not getting her (just) dessert(s) by deprivation by the nursery staff could of……what? Caused some kind of medical crisis?
You’re funny.
“I shall be talking to them tomorrow”
And they’ll be having a right laugh at you on your way out.

You posted this ‘does it really matter’ bollocks on the internet for people to make a judgement and then whine about people being judgemental. Are you sure?

“My child has a medical condition and could have …..insert something….because she didn’t get her pudding for being a bit of an arse as very young people are liable to be”.

They hardly kept her hungry though, did they?

If she whined half as much as you, I’d be expecting a conversation with the nursery very soon inviting you to find another nursery.

One or two water bottles on the bike. C02 air bomb and nozzle, spare tube, tyre lever and £10 note in my jersey pockets.
Gilet if it’s looking ‘iffy’, knee warmers and arm warmers get pulled up or rolled down as needed but they stay on (of a fashion).
House key is left hidden outside the house. I can’t lose it then.
I don’t take a phone. Who would I call? The AA? No bugger’s coming to get me anyway.

Road ride from Marple? Glossop, Woodhead, Holme Moss, Strines, Snake, Chunal, New Mills, Marple. I might be doing the very same myself on Sunday.

Congratulations.
I did it once. She’s 18 in June. I will do absolutely anything for her. I love her to bits.
It was the single biggest mistake of my life. Given the choice, not a chance would I have become a parent.
Very contradictory but that’s just how it is for me.
I notice (yet again) that the mass of responses are all coo-ing, best thing you could ever do etc. but it’s really not like that for everyone.
Like I said, nothing comes close to how I feel about my daughter but given my time again, I wouldn’t.

Some to have a look at, thank you. I have no clue what the PDF etc terms are. I’ll Google it. A 5 door Suzuki Swift has been mentioned by a friend. My wife has the 3 door version. She seems to like it. Any good?

Decathlon do a few different versions. They all do a great job.

20 Trees, Shooting Cabins,, Middle Moor, across the road and onto either i) Robin Hood’s Picking Rods, Mellor Church, Mellor Cross, Roman Lakes or ii) Lantern Pike, Pennine Bridleway, Rowarth, Golf Course, Fox Inn, Roman Lakes. Longer than other’s suggestions but much more fun and very legal.
I’m out that way tomorrow. Try not to knock me off of my Cannondale Flash.

http://weightweenies.starbike.com/listings/components.php?type=cassettes might be worth a look? Do you know what ratios you’re looking for?

160cm (maybe)…I’m very supple 🙂

Oh God! Silver rims and spokes, white saddle? Sell them and buy black. Seatpost. Should be Ritchey WCS not that abomination. Saddle. Where it should be not trying to make its way to sit on the steerer. If that’s where you need the saddle to be in relation the bottom bracket (and the frame as a whole) you’re either deformed or that’s the wrong sized frame. WCS bar and stem. 90mm? It’s a road bike. You’re not meant to have the bar under your chin. Bar rotated forward, not like the cow horns you have it at now. What the hell are those pedals doing on it? Lizard Skin black bar tape. Black outer cables. Cut to the minimum length. Don’t ride it or leave it near me. I’ll nick it.
Do the opposite of what the Badly Drawn Dog says. Banterz!

Same thing happened to me in Marple. I got the best roadie out this morning and it started raining. Went back in to get the winter bike and it started snowing. Decided against the cross bike cos I don’t much like the gearing for road rides. The mountain bike needs a new rear wheel and it’s sloppy as hell round here and the mud guarded up commuter needs a seatpost so I binned it and sat on the sofa eating dairy milk.
This side of the the Peak hills look very white from here.

I was in a very similar position although I have a Genesis Day One for commuting so this purchase was more about a ‘not nice weather’ weekend and evening ride with a bit of commuting….sometimes.
I went for the Defy 1 2015 in medium. I’m a touch under 5’9 and with the stock 100mm stem, short and shallow bars it’s perfect.
I considered the Defy 0 but the chainset on the 1 is better than the 0, I could barely tell any difference between new 105 and Ultegra, they’re not full group sets on either bike anyway and the brake calipers on both are woeful!
I bought some new 105 calipers and a very bright front light with the £100 I saved with the Defy 1 over the Defy 0.
My genesis is 52cm, Colnago cross bike is 52cm, my cannonade SuperSix is 54 (I had to change the stem from 110mm to 100mm) and my Cannondale Flash is Medium if any of those size comparisons help?
It will be a very long time if ever that I’ll be buying a dedicated road bike with disc brakes.

Thanks for the kind comments. I’m quite pleased with a few of them.
I’ve had a few requests for photo’s of the youngsters races as well as people with race numbers not on the Flickr page. I’m really sorry but I don’t have any other photo’s. I arrived late and this is all the photo’s I’ve taken.
Please feel free to let anybody who might want a picture know about them and I’ll send a copy as an attachment so they’ll look better as desk tops, printed off etc.

I’m not putting Shimano back on there. They’re made of cheese, evidently.
I’ll pick up a KMC or whatever they’re called.
I’m by no means hard on my components.
If I had to change every chain after 500 miles, my commuter would be costing me more than one chain per month!

After just 500 miles? I suppose I ought to get a new chain and try it but £25 on pizza would make me happier than £25 on a chain that may not be needed.

“Cheshire (apart from at the border with staffs) cambs and Suffolk are all very flat”

Cheshire (apart from at the border with Staffs, Derbyshire, Wales, Eastern Manchester and the parts of Cheshire that are decidedly NOT very flat. The Cheshire Plain is not all of Cheshire).

Thank you. I’ll have a think.

Thanks for the replies.
“Sounds like the OP is in denial”
“Maybe its all a conspiracy to keep people healthy”
Sounds like funkywhatsit is making huge assumptions again. Knob.
I take so many pils a day I’m surprised I don’t rattle. My GP, in my sometimes skewed opinion admittedly, is being a little hysterical. I’m tired of being tested, given yet more pils, taking yet more time off of work….
I need my Lithium, I need my thyroxine……I don’t think I can be arsed with statins, blood pressure pils and anything else pushed at me but I really can’t face finding a new GP. Change unsettles me, lots. Not in a good way.

“Tooling allowance and clothing” ?
What’s that?

Thanks everybody. Much appreciated. I’ll drop you a line if I may Bigshep?

Again, thanks for the input. I’m really grateful.
She’s been present where 20k or more in cash is being passed between her boss and ‘the artist’ and this is by no means unusual. These are well known, household name celebrity’s. The whole thing seems to operate on a cash in hand basis. She’s even had to text her boss late on Friday evening to remind him to transfer her wages in as he’s in Germany or somewhere at a gig and he’s forgot to do it.
She thinks it’s cool. Her mum and I think it’s beyond dodgy.
So, let’s say for arguments sake, she registers as self employed just to make her income legitimate and her boss keeps paying her the way he does? Any foreseeable issues with that?
I’m trying to make sure she’s not inadvertently heading toward trouble and not causing her rather erratic boss any cause to rethink her position.

Thanks for the replies. She’s in the music industry. Artist management, tour booking, show riders, after show events…that kind of thing. She loves it.
The whole scene appears to be ‘cash in hand’ although it’s a certified diploma apprenticeship. Her tutor who she sees on a monthly basis appeared to show some concern at the lack of payslip on his last visit but nothing appears to have been done.
I get the feeling that it is not beyond the realms of possibility that rocking the boat could see her no longer an apprentice.
Should she register as self employed and declare her earnings that way?

“Weighing in” or “Getting weighed in” round here means to get paid. I believe it originates from the process of the scrap metal collectors taking their wares to the smelters in exchange for cash based on the weight of their consignments.

“Banjo’d” or “Dug him a ditch” (Stockport).

I thought it might help with “I’ve had to fund my own blood tests”. I ask for and get the full breakdown of my blood tests at GP’s and hospital. I have no idea how to interpret the data but my wife does.
I’m intrigued though. I would be really interested (genuinely) to know how you ‘manage’ and your consultant ‘monitors’ your thyroid condition without any involvement with your GP. Not even letting your GP know what’s going on with treatment? I’d love to be able to cut my GP out of my treatment plan (I also have a thyroid dysfunction along with ‘the other thing which is related’).

Can’t you use the results from your bi-annual thyroid blood test that you’ll get from your GP as part of your standard or usual treatment offered? Making the huge assumption that you have bi-annual blood tests etc.

I didn’t suggest going anywhere near nor staying well away from the A65 on the basis that I have no clue where the hell it is.
Mine was 224 miles. London to Manchester. It was hard. I said never again and meant it.
I’m doing Manchester to Edinburgh next Spring.
Some people do more regularly. I wouldn’t.

It didn’t change my wife one bit. It changed me completely. Hateful experience and one which I will never repeat.
“Best thing ever”? The singularly worst thing I’ve ever been involved in!

For my big one day ride, I looked at quiet roads but it lengthened the route considerably so I decided to go direct. It was a long way and I (correctly) assumed that I’d be enduring rather than enjoying so I’d want it over as soon as possible.
Apart from going through the Peak District toward the end, it was a good plan.