My lad worked it out shortly after we told him that there was no way the Easter Bunny was going to get him the Wii he wanted.

We’ve done all ours online for the last few years. Much quicker than going to the post office, queueing, waiting.

With reference to the Trek Fuel, I recently had a customer in with a pringled wheel from one of those and there were no replacement rims anywhere to be found. He was prepared to pay for a complete wheel but no-one had the same colours. He ended up changing both wheels so the bike still looked matched.
I don’t think that’s any indication that DT Swiss are phasing out 26 inch, just that they’re crap at spares availability for anything much more than a year old.

I can touch my toes once I’m an hour or two into the day. Straight out of bed in the morning I’m nowhere near.

VW T5 here. Mid thirties most of the time, 42mpg on a couple of very long trips where I rarely went over 70mph.

Just put a pair of Halo Twin Rails on my new cx build. They look good for firm trails and have ‘Puncture Protection System’ written on them in red.

+1 for Justinguitar. I started about a year ago and his site was briliant for getting my head round the basics. The beginner’s songbook is very good too.

For trail centre use I wouldn’t reccommend going fully rigid, unless you plan on running REALLY fat tyres. All that bollocks that used to be spouted about 29 inch wheels being worth 20, 40, 60mm or whatever of suspension travel is just that. A load of bollocks. Big wheels might be slowed down less by bumps but you still feel them through the handlebars, even more so with the steeper head angles 29ers usually have. When I ran my 29er rigid I tried both carbon and steel forks and it was always loads harsher than my 26 inch wheeled Surly 1×1.

Not mine, but I liked the look of it when I saw it on the SV forum.
A good example of what you can do with not too much money.

My lad was fine on a 14inch Merida at that age and height. Three years on he’s now over 5′ 10″ and starting to make his 17 inch Genesis look small.

Some years ago I was in a similar situation on a motorbike. I noted the company name on the lorry involved and made a complaint to them. A week later I received a letter stating that the driver was an agency worker whom they had received a number of other complaints about. The letter went on to say that they had refused to have that driver work for them again and had terminated their contract with that agency.

As above plus the slow pick-up from freewheeling makes any kind of trialsy stuff far harder to get right that with a conventional hub.
I really wanted to like my Alfine 8 but it only ever felt OK when spinning along in not much of a hurry.

I’m a bit geeky about knowing my total annual mileage so I’ve got computers on all my bikes but I’ll save Strava for route recording. On the road bike I’m more interested in the average speed for the whole ride than short sprints and a cycle computer is fine for that. I think off road segments are pretty meaningless as ground conditions can vary so much.

My dad made himself a deep freezer. Wooden framed, lots of loft insulation and the cooling gubbins from I’m not sure where. It sort of worked for six months or so after which he bought a proper one and converted it into a work bench. By his own admission he’s probably responsible for rather more CFC emissions than most.

@wwaswas, just the thing for keeping your presence unnoticed on cheeky trails.

Not this again

Errrrr no.

Did you not take the time to look at my first post or am I missing something very subtly ironic or humorous?

Because if it didn’t it would quack up.

Their paint stands up to a lot more abuse than all the other bikes I’ve had.

Love my 1×1 as a winter snot bike but a race bike it is not.

EDIT: Although I did ride it to 7th placed 4hr Vet in the snot-fest that was the first ever Brass Monkeys race.

My wife has never forgotton the day’s tank driving I got her o the tattoo voucher which she took six months to find thee bottle to use.

Other ideas: Speedboat lessons? Take her back to somewhere that’s been special to the two of you in the past.

Make a donation to a charity on her behalf. Is there anything she might feel strongly about?

You’re expecting people on here to accept that folks bimbling along traffic free routes at barely more than walking pace AREN’T suicidal nutters who should be locked up for going helmetless?

Good luck.

Plenty of parking: Pub up the road, industrial estate.

Plenty of unofficial trails in the surrounding woods including Ringwood Forest the other side of the B3081.

maxtorque – Member

Crag
Will having a big shit make a difference?

Only if the previous nights curry was so powerful to ensure your turd leaves at the 17,500mph required for escape velocity and it to become orbital…….

That would also require you to be taking a shit with your bottom pointing skywards.

Anyone tried it?

The Islabikes Beinn 29 as tested in the magazine a few months back sounds like what you want.

Thankfully he’s now ditched GTA in favour of FIFA13. Next time we have a tidy up GTA may get inexplicably lost.

we let our 12 year old have GTA on the assumption that you could restrict the content that would be revealed. Wifey and I now agree that we should have researched it more. He’s not now allowed to play it with the door closed.
In the same conversation I pointed out that the ‘kiddie friendly’ Lego Star wars he started with is 80% battering other characters with light sabres and ray guns. Does that trivialise violence by putting it in a cartoon?

**it happens.
A few years ago I ripped the sidewall of a Racing Ralph on something sharp first ride.

Mike, Winston, you’ve both ruined my day now. My bonfire has been comprehensively weeweed on.

Some years ago whilst driving past the (now long gone) Pirelli Submarine Cables factory in Southampton.
“I didn’t think there were enough submarines being made in the world to justify a factory that big”.

Obviously not, the factory was pulled down to make way for a shopping centre.

18th 4hr Vet here on my white Tomac singlespeed with red rims. Bikes are so much easier to identify than faces. I remember swapping places a couple of times with john_I on his FF29.

I had a number of slidy moments on the off camber pine needly corners so I’m happy I wasn’t over using the brakes. One huge slide on the short, greasy fire road after the steep pine needle drop just by moving out to pass another rider.

The dragginess of the loamy sections was seriously hard work. I could see the trail dipping and springing back a couple of inches as the wheels of the rider in front of me passed over it.

My 12 year old son did the 1 hour fun race and was in third until a dropped chain cost him 7 minutes or so. He eventually got 7th.

ratherbeintobago – Member

When the n+1 bike comes together next month I’ll be using the tack that ‘I had enough bits kicking around so I just needed to buy a frame to hang them on’, which is partially true.

You mean you had some M5 bolts lying around?..

Thankfully she doesn’t see through me quite as easily as you do.
Chainset, shifter, mech and seatpost is close enough.

When the n+1 bike comes together next month I’ll be using the tack that ‘I had enough bits kicking around so I just needed to buy a frame to hang them on’, which is partially true.

49 here. Been riding and racing bikes since my teens and don’t appear to have slowed down significantly. Playing footie with my son has my hips hurting for days afterwards. I’m not sure if that means I shouldn’t do it or I should do it more often to train the parts that cycling doesn’t reach?

@kilo, I’ll be at the Brass Monkeys too. 4 hours for me. Singlespeed.

Self employment and large amounts of quality time rarely go hand in hand.

I’d do it.

And hopefully before anyone else posts this:

Surly 1×1 winter snot bike
Dean Ti 26er dry jumpy trails bike
Tomac Flint 29er race bike
Merida MTB with slicks and 50:18 commuter bike

40mpg you mentioned tight and loose spots. When you’re grunting on the pedals frame flex will cause loose spots to become very loose spots. Maybe try a narrower chain that will be held straighter by the teeth on the sprockets. 1/8 chain really needs wider BMX type sprockets to work properly.

Three years ago I had a big off on the way back from a night ride with four pints inside me from the mid-ride stop and spent my birthday having my mouth and nose sewn back together. I now stop at three and a half pints maximum.