I bought a bottle in the Alps last year as a last resort after I picked up a puncture that the latex sealant (Joes) wouldn’t seal and the tyre’s been fine ever since with about 50ml inside.

Some of you obviously don’t have enough work to do. Your bosses should be informed and given bigger whips.

Nearly 70 posts in and no-one’s mentioned that if the new bike’s the same colour as the old one then it’s much less likely to be questioned. Or even spotted!

freeagent – Member
I personally think 4 bikes should be enough to cover all bases

Really???????????

If you mess with the drive side spacing you’ll run out of clearance for the cassette.
If you mess with the non-drive side you’ll wrerck the disc spacing.
So the answer is ‘no’ unless you want to run with rim brakes. Then you’ll have to re-dish the wheel if you manage to take enough off the non-drive side.

Fixed enough bikes to nearly pay my tax bill.

If the indexing’s ropey change the gear cable.
.75 is where you should usually be able to change the chain and keep the cassette and rings.

32:18 is a very common combination used on 29ers.

Nice tribute on the Stranglers site from JJ Burnell here[/url].

I remember seeing him interviewed on the Girlie Show (90s late night Channel 4) and telling Sara Cox and the audience “I may be f***ing old but you missed some great parties”.

The hybrid I hired in Zakynthos last summer. Two wheels that could roll on tarmac or dirt and an island to explore in an unhurried manner.

For commuting you don’t need a big, fast bike. Most bikes 250cc to 500cc with a fairing will keep up with UK traffic, be comfy enough over the distance and cost a lot less to run than the big bikes.

Elastica by Elastica
Menace to Sobriety by OPM
American Idiot by Green Day
Fresh Fruit For Rotting Vegetables by The Dead Kennedys (already mentioned I know)
Most early Stranglers albums and the last two
Non Stop Erotic Cabaret by Soft Cell
American Idiot by Green Day

Not cycling but I’m hoping to do the Round Hayling Island Kayak[/url]

Any reason no-one’s mentioned the Hyundai i40 yet. I’ve no direct experience but have been impressed with Wifey’s i10 and the i20 hire car we had on holiday.

Failures I’m aware of:
XT M756 rear hubs had problems with the drive side cones and lock-nuts coming loose. I sold 4 bikes fitted with those hubs and all suffered.
I’ve seen a couple of Deore hubs strip the thread for the internal bolt holding the freehub to hub body. One under regular use by a 20st rider though.
My own Chris King rear broke at a spoke hole in the flange – sorted under warranty. Thankfully.

Have a search for World Class Accident’s ankle thread. Different joint, similar problem. You’re right, it could be a lot worse. At least you will still be able to play footie with the kids.

I’m currently awaiting treatment proposals for a couple of snapped tendons in my shoulder from a diving mishap.

I’ve done enough pedal powered riding this week so when I finish work I’m planning on digging out ALL the winter kit and taking the motorbike out while it’s dry.
Have a day off and go tomorrow when it’s less windy.

We’re hoping the Hyundai i10 Wifey bought new the year before last will still be with us in 10-15 years. 20 months and 15k miles trouble free so far.

I recently built up some 48mm Onza trials rims to use on either my Surly 1×1 or my old Dean. A Conti X-King 2.4 measures 63mm inflated on those wheels and can be run at 15psi front and 18psi rear (for me at a little under 11 stone).
I previously used the Conti on a Mavic 717 but needed 30psi to keep it stable.

lemonysam – Member
Walking’s a nice excuse to take the motorbike out. Ride somewhere pretty but a bit further away than I’d normally cycle to, park up and walk for an hour or so, then ride back with a cosy glow.

Sounds like you’d love dogging then.

Tell me more…………………

Walking’s a nice excuse to take the motorbike out. Ride somewhere pretty but a bit further away than I’d normally cycle to, park up and walk for an hour or so, then ride back with a cosy glow.

Or singlespeeding

Three pages in and no-one’s mentioned gripshift?

Before you spend/waste any money on the FS option, go to your local bike shop and demo a good quality modern hybrid. Not all of the many thousands of commuters using them are wrong.

Thanks for all the replies folks.
It sounds like some of you are having/have had a far worse time than me.
Running a bike shop single-handed and spending 5+ hours a day doing repairs seems to have been quite beneficial.
Three weeks ago when I found I could raise my right arm over my head for the first time I got a bit carried away and did it a couple more times. Cue twanging sensation, big pain in my shoulder and a numb forearm for an hour after.
A couple of weeks ago I started sleeping better, although 5 hours without waking still appears to be the limit.

Nobeerinthefridge – Member
You can look forward to many more dislocations unfortunately.

I’m hoping that never again diving from 12ft up will be enough to keep my shoulder in place in the future.

I’ll look forward to hearing how much grief the bottom bracket gives you when you try to get it out of the frame.

Very dry but not notably hot here in southern Hampshire. Good riding weather, mediocre beach weather. Most years I’ll have ridden the 40 mile round trip to Milford on Sea for a swim several times by now but this year I’m still waiting for some proper warm weather to coincide with my days off.

As above. SOAP’s garden doesn’t look much bigger than mine and I’ve been quite happy to use a push mower for the 20 years we’ve lived there.

As a bike shop owner, the main obstacle to used bike sales is finding people with good quality, well cared for bikes that they don’t want any more and are willing to let go of for half what they would fetch on the internet.

Oh, and with proof of ownership too.

Occasionally I get lucky, but not often enough for used sales to be anything more than a bonus every now and then.

I’ve got a regular customer who buys job lots from the police unclaimed stocks. He’ll maybe get one quality bike for every 50 well battered BSOs.

I’ve got a 4.5 metre Flysurfer foil you can have for that sort of money. I bought it lightly used maybe 10 years ago and flew it a few times but it’s sat in the shed since then. Some of my friends at the time were getting into kitesurfing and I had ideas about following them but never did. It’s a ram air design and claimed to be water relaunchable by the manufacturer although I’ve never tried. Being a flat foil it’s supposed to generate the same pull as a 9 metre inflatable arch style kite. Make me an offer if you’re interested.

A20 past the Stack was VERY slow Wednesday mid day last week and cost me well over an hour on the satnav eta. Whichever way you go leave plenty of time as spaces for latecomers are not there. Arriving 10 minutes after last check in for my booking last week meant a 3 hour wait for the next available space.

EDIT:
Despite arriving 2 hours early for the return trip we left half an hour late due to rearranged crossings.

I was robbed!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I paid £25 for mine in Asda.

I use mine as a ‘ride phone’, only family and close friends have the number. It takes pictures, does Strava and the battery life seems reasonable. Personally I don’t see the need to spend more.

Milford-on-Sea or Barton-on-Sea, SW Hampshire. Expensive and full of old folks but good views across to the Isle of Wight, a kind climate and easy to reconnect with civilization without having to run the gauntlet of the A31 Bournemouth car park road.

My wife did it for both her parents. Nothing that required more than a bit of patience.

Last week, sliding a LARGE paving slab onto the top of a wheelbarrow I caught the skin on the top of my thigh between slab and barrow.

Also that week. Carrying a piece of flat pack furniture to the checkout in Ikea my right hand slipped off the end of it causing the item to pivot on my left hand and whack me on the ear.

Get one. Then spend a bit of time researching local off-road Strava segments that are reasonably smooth and flat. Even at a stone overweight you’ll pick up plenty of KOMs. Until someone else living near you reads this.

A couple of pints nicely loosens the legs for a bit of ‘hamster on steroids’ spinning action.
Last night: Out of the pub, up the hill and into a 0.4 mile gently downhill segment. Result riding 29er on 34:18, new KOM a couple of seconds better than the previous time I set on my geared cross bike, average 21.1mph. Willy waving linky

I’ve had three VW Transporters over the last 15 years but before I bought the last one I demoed a Bongo. It seemed very wallowy compared to the VWs and reading about the 22mpg typical fuel consumption on Bongofury was enough to put me off.

Politicians exaggerating or even inventing ‘facts’ to further their own agenda.

What a novel concept………..