I don’t intend parking up and riding round anything. I’m intending riding through all the trail centres, linking them up with ‘natural’ stuff, bikepacking, and riding a representative route at each centre (preferably with the gear still on the bike). Mix and match, compare and contrast; no doubt pontificate on the differing experience and cycling culture encountered en route.

All the progress and innovation you’ve missed has gone into making those who want to ride faster and harder, ride faster and harder – and safer.

Lakes MRTs have highlighted a significant increase in callouts to mountain bike incidents. Just sayin,’ like.

Still arguing…off to the Quantocks for an overnighter now. Might not be going to Plymouth at this rate!

Reasonably central – about 35 minutes walk from bus station.

‘Kin hell, she’s still banging on at me two hours later.

Hmmm, I thought I could sell the idea of us all hiring a combination of tandem and ebikes from the first link above, cunningly presenting it as a legitimate ‘family activity.’ Cue massive argument…

As per tillydog above, it was just a lower leg removal job in the end. Foam rings were filthy and dry but had done their job – not too much crud to clean out, and the forks are now working much better than from new, to the point I wish I’d done the service before I even put them on the bike. Will try that Putoline oil for the damper next time, thanks.

As above. Only reason I want a new front one is that I’ve been getting twitchy about the ones I’m currently running, which are at least 16 years old. I personally wouldn’t buy a second hand skewer. Let me know if you want to split that new SJS set.

I could do with a new front skewer – want to split this set[/url]?

Just the job, thanks all. I’m hoping it’ll be a simple job as per last reply but won’t know until I open them up.

That is a pre-07 headset – I had the bearings & cups pressed into the frame, but I’d lost the bits pictured above, so contacted Hope on the chance they had some lying around – and they did!

Do you mean the top bit in this pic? Hope sent me that lot for free back in December, just needed a seal for the bit I think you’re referring to. Might be worth sending them an email.

Do the ride S-N and take advantage of Devil’s Staircase and Bwlch y Groes going in the harder way, respectively E-W and S-N.The latter has a mental number of chevrons on it, giving some insight into the suffering it can entail.

Once you eliminate all the actual and wannabe racers, there’s a large pool of people who want a bike that gets them “out there”, a bike you can ride miles to the trail, follow it across a mountain, come out the other side, and then ride home. A bike for scenery before Strava.

That’s what I do. In fact I’ll be doing it today (and tomorrow). It’s why I increasingly think of my bike (just what I had lying around, bolted together) as an ATB rather than an MTB. When the frame breaks it’s all obsolete – 26″, straight steerer, etc. At which point I’ll be looking at these bikes very carefully.

No. I don’t consider myself a road cyclist, I just knock out road miles to keep fit. Switch off, look at the view, avoid getting hit by cars. I look at the current roadie scene and it has no interest for me. Golftastic.

Tee hee. But I DID pay £400 for it.

Anyone who goes to a cafe stop on an expensive carbon bike can’t ride steep hills?

Of course they can, some of them – and I have respect for that. Fat knackers on expensive bikes, though? Lose 10 kilos, climb some hills then come back and ask for my respect. Why is that even controversial?

repeating a 25% hillclimb just for the sake of it is as pointless as a 50km ride with coffee and cake at the end

The difference being, I can do both. I’m always trying to improve my fitness on climbs. It’s an entirely personal, almost meditative process.

Road bikes – simple, simple tech. No point spending lots for anything other than cutting edge racing level – it’s all down to the engine in the saddle, which constitutes by far the biggest proportion of the total weight, even with a cheap bike.

Mountain bikes, now, are different…

Buying Ti bolts will to F all but dropping significant bodyweight will help

Isn’t that kind of the point? Work on your fitness rather than spending money on your bike? I’ve just come back from bashing out the local 25% hill climb on my £400 road bike, while the MAMILS are hanging out sipping lattes in Cheddar Gorge Costa admiring each other’s carbon wonderbikes…

Box Hill – does 5% even count as a gradient?

I’ve just straight-swapped all my components (except stem) from a cheap steel frame to an old but expensive aluminium frame – significantly faster uphill offroad. Less to do with weight, more down to stiffness, I think.

http://www.sjscycles.co.uk/tange-passage-ov-1-1-8-inch-threaded-headsets-black-prod22106/

Stack height 35mm

I held one of those together with a jubilee clip round the knurled top ring for months. SJS is probably worth a look –

http://www.sjscycles.co.uk/headsets-1-1-8-threaded-dept584/

Both my breaks were stupid slow speed crashes on tarmac. This might be of interest, although it may be out-of-date now.

Collar bone’s just a circuit breaker, right? Better that than the forces transferred higher into your shoulder (I was very, very drunk).

I’ve broken my right wrist (got back on, rode to hospital, back to cycling in a cast once they’d pinned it up) and left thumb (popped bone back in, taped it up with gaffer tape, went to hospital next day to get it plastered). Neither were that painful, and I found the challenge of adapting to having one hand/no thumb quite interesting – and a useful insight into what getting old(er) will be like.

*googles* Hmm, cable running all the way into the front mech – yep, that’d work. My front mech is ancient, didn’t even realise those existed. I wonder how tolerant of mix’n’match gear set-ups they’d be.

I’d agree that frame/wheel failure wouldn’t be a trip ender now – just order a new one on the internet, sit back in the nearest town drinking beer for a day or two waiting on the Fedex shipment. Kind of takes the fun out of it.

I wonder whether today’s mid-range MTBs will be of much interest to future adventure cyclists though – e.g. quite a lot (new Marin Pine Mountain) which would be useful are missing all the fixings for a front mech.

Found a new local track during the winter. Ends eight minutes ride from the front door. Been waiting for it to dry out for two months – oh, the anticipation….rode it for the first time yesterday on my nine year old 26″ hardtail. It was ace.

The linked article would be fine as a personal blog entry, but I hope he’s not getting paid to write that stuff.

What I’ll be looking for in my next bike when the current frame goes. Surly have some obvious contenders – I might even wave two fingers at the bike industry and just swap my existing 26″ components over onto a Troll.

Also might be worth looking over this list[/url] posted a week or two back.

Yeah, my Swiss Army knife has an awl, too…

What are chain pliers? Another name for a chain breaker tool?

Other stuff I’ve used in the last 6-8 months:

chainring bolt peg spanner
cut-off length of plastic pipe (to seat a non-split headset crown race on the forks)
Hope drifts to replace hub bearings

I’ve been using the small screwdriver blade on my Swiss Army ‘Climber’ knife to adjust limits screws, V-brake spring tension etc for the last 25 years…

Having sold on my last headset press a few years back, I recently installed a headset with one of these DIY set-ups (big threaded bolt with plate and nut on each end). Savings not worth the associated stress, I’ll be buying another headset press.

Nice list. I’m now on an old alu Trek frame, so I’m already looking at what comes next – a do-it-all steel bike of some description. Longitude would be nice (without the aluminium fork), as would an EBB-less Swift. something like that.

My bikes just kind of came around by chance and evolution. The front end came up as I got older (and wiser), and bar ends slipped away once I discovered Mary bars. The full pannier set-up is no more, travelling lighter via first just two rear panniers, and now a bikepacking setup. It’s generally been a case of adapting my existing MTB frame with rack (Raleigh Monsoon, Clockwork, P7) or buying a cheap steel frame (old Marin Muirwoods, Inbred) to do the job. But equally I’ve taken expensive aluminium frames (Klein Attitude, Trek 8500) out too – and they did fine, just what I had at the time.

Clockwork on the Chinese/Pakistan border:
[/url]Khunjerab Pass, 1995 by tracksterman[/url], on Flickr[/img]

Marin Muirwoods in NW China and Tibet:
[/url]Karakul and Muztagh Ata, 2000 by tracksterman[/url], on Flickr[/img]
[/url]Tibetan army convoy, 2000 by tracksterman[/url], on Flickr[/img]

P7 in Cambodia:
[/url]Crossing the Mekong, 2002 by tracksterman[/url], on Flickr[/img]

Klein Attitude in NW China and India:
[/url]Shengli Daban 4080m by tracksterman[/url], on Flickr[/img]
[/url]Penzi La summit by tracksterman[/url], on Flickr[/img]

Inbred in NW China:
[/url]Summer in the Chinese Tian Shan by tracksterman[/url], on Flickr[/img]

These days it’s gone back full circle to where I started, and I’m more interested in ragging a bike round the upland UK on multi-day trips, so a rigid 29er with minimal kit just makes sense.

Thanks for all that. Re: tensioners above, I’ve used Surly and Rohloff tensioners in the past (living in the Lakes) and, so long as you had the chain wrap right, they were fine.

This is all useful, thanks. I’m looking at new frames when the current one goes. The Singular Swift is a contender but I’ve always been a little wary of EBBs.

Sub-2kg tent and inner; bike left while I went for a walk, but with care you can pull it in behind you (did once on that trip on a pikey Ayrshire site). Generally, though, I take off the front wheel, stick the front end of the bike under the edge of the flysheet and cable lock it to stuff, with the wheel balanced on top.

I’ve just swapped components over onto an old 26″ 8500 frame I had kicking about, following the demise of my Inbred.

It rides fine but I’ve never liked the aesthetics of piles of spacers under the stem. I guess I’ll be biting the bullet and buying into the 29er thing when this one breaks, so at least that’s one problem solved.

For those of you who’ve swapped from 26″ frames to 29ers, would it be fair to say you’re running fewer spacers under the stem, or a lower rise stem than you did on your 26″ frames?

Road bike, BTW:
Cannondale CAAD8 Sora 61cm by tracksterman[/url], on Flickr

I’m with Jekyll. Pictures I’ve seen don’t inspire me and, as an offical ‘thing,’ I suspect it’s mingin’ busy. More interesting routes to do, but that’d require you to do your own route planning…

It’s the 23″ I’d be interested in…

What’s the catch? Other than the straight headtube, why’s it so cheap?

I use one on the left, always have done, and keep using it because it works. One of these[/url] now, after earlier DX/XT models. Ergonomics are OK, bit vulnerable to crash damage. I doubt I’d buy them rather than Rapidfire now, especially for a 2x setup.

Salsa Anything HD cage.