thomthumb – Member

Have you tried looking at BMX hubs? They’re 120mm

aren’t they 110?

Oops, wakey wakey me.

At the risk of cheapening this thread I’d say that Morrison’s own brand instant is one of the best tasting decafs I’ve had.

700 lumens of Exposure Toro with spot beam Ayups on my helmet is plenty bright enough for me although a bit more spread from the Toro would be nice. I only turn the helmet light on if there’s no-one in front of me as I find the reflected light from anything close is enough to dull my night vision.

I weigh 70kg and have run double butted spokes for the last three years with no problems other than the alloy nipples I originally used going brittle. All nipples now changed for brass ones.

Have you tried looking at BMX hubs? They’re 120mm so may work with a 6mm spacer on the drive side.

I’m self employed (LBS) and have taken an average of 10 days + bank holidays for each of the last 7 years. I’m forever promising myself I’ll take more but in the summer I’m up to my eyeballs in work and in the winter when it’s quiet the weather’s rubbish so there’s not a lot of point closing the shop just to sit at home.

Usually Amazon
Sometimes 7digital for more obscure stuff.
If what I want is not on either of the above then MP3Skull usually has it but is only used as a last resort.

I’ve used an Alfine 8 on an occasional basis (just slot it in on those rare occasions when singlespeed isn’t enough) for the last 3 years and it just gets on with the job. The pick up from freewheeling is a bit slow but for long distances it’s great.

I’d judge it by the cause they’re raising money for. If you sympathise then the challenge is just a minor point.
If the challenge was on the limits of this person’s ability would you refuse to pay up if they failed?

Sounds like I made the right decision to go down the beach then.

Kawasaki KLE500, Honda Transalp, Honda Africa Twin, BMW GS series.

All the above would do the job in ascending order of cost.

91 Kona Fire Mountain – a mate had one and I thought they looked cool.

93 Orange Clockwork – pure lust, as a student I sold my soul for it.

99 Orange Evo2 – I’d spent time on a hired one on holiday.

2003-2005 – just thought it was time for something more shiny and went through a series of mistakes including a Kinesis and an inbred.

2005 – got Dean USA to make me a replica of the Clockwork in Titanium with geometry adjusted for a 100mm fork. Remortgaged my soul. Still loving it…..

Haven’t been there for a few years but last time was fun. We booked a private session with coach who knew all of us and got us on to the more advanced stuff far quicker than an ‘open’ session would.
Coming off the banking full tilt and then grabbing your team mate to ‘slingshot’ him up to speed was definitely a new skill.

If it’s a cold night take plenty of warm kit, it gets piggin cold in there.

Is track cycling fun or just a new world of pain?

In a team event it’s presumably a series of short sprints. Don’t underestimate how much that’ll wear you down when done repetitively.

Good results with Slime here. Dr Sludge just as good but the valves glue up with the stuff quite quickly. Both good against thorns but not so good against flints of broken glass.

+1 for handlebar muffs. Back in the eighties I spent three years commuting 25 miles each way on a Honda CB250RS and they made a huge difference in the winter.

Ten years or so back I hd a VFR750 and the aerodynamics of the fairing pulled plenty of warm air from the engine past my hands at motorway speeds. It was round town that my hands got cold on that one.

500 twins would be a good choice but for that reason they’re pretty poor value for money and in my experience mostly well used when they do come up for sale. You’d get a much better 600 Fazer/Bandit/ZZR for your money. Grey import 400s can be cheap now but mostly 15 to 20 years old. The under 600cc-over 125 market has been largely ignored by the manufacturers for an awfully long time now so there just aren’t that many bikes up for sale in that band.

I didn’t think it looked too different to the Judo my lad was doing at that age. It was competition with an audience, so are kiddies footy matches.

In my late teens I had a bump in Mum’s car and was banned from driving it for three months. In order to keep my glass collecting job at a ‘local’ nightclub I rode the 13 miles each way every Friday and Saturday night on a shonky old ten speed Raleigh with eighties bike lights. This was before I knew that better bikes (and riding kit) existed. After I was allowed back in the car I still did the trip on my bike every now and then just because it felt good.

Focus on something positive that’s going to happen in the near future, even if it’s as mundane as enjoying a good breakfast.
Alternatively think of the worst time you’ve ever had and the fact that it’s been and gone and you’re still here now.

Merida 96. I’ve ridden both the carbon and alloy versions and they all pedal well and give a very smooth ride without any need for propedal fiddling.

Bleeding was dead easy, just set the reservoirs horizontal on the handlebars, fill them with fluid and pump the lever until the pressure’s there, topping up as required. In an ideal world you’d use fresh olives and fittings and drain and refill the fluid. Make sure you use MINERAL OIL to fill the reservoirs NOT Dot4.

29ers are harder work to lift the front wheel on though.

I’ve ridden 29ers with 17″+ chainstays that still hop and pop better than my 120mm forked, wide barred, 420mm stayed 26″. Sooo much more to it than wheel size or CS length.

Perhaps I should have mentioned that both my regular 26ers are short wheelbase woodsy XC bikes and are really rather good on anything trialsy.

Comparing my 29er to my Surly 26er, both fully rigid, I find you still feel the bumps on the 29er but they slow you down less. The Surly is easier on the wrists but that’s more down to the more upright riding position for ploughing through winter slop. The 29er’s definitely faster, particularly on soft sticky ground. The ‘Plasticine Woods’ at Mayhem was a good example of this, in fact one guy I passed commented that all the people he’d seen going fastest through that section were on 29ers. I’m looking forward to taking mine up to Thetford for the Dusk til Dawn next month. 29ers are harder work to lift the front wheel on though.

Liking Ade Wards bike. It’s quite similar to something I drew up last winter when I had a bit of time on my hands. I went for quite similar geometry and elevated stays to get the back wheel tucked in tight behind the bottom bracket. The chain stays were lower on mine with just enough clearance for a 36T chainring and the seatstays were done like the GT ‘triple triangle’ to give the frame a bit of top to bottom symmetry. Shame I never had the money spare to get it made.

Stick the unwanted cogs on ebay or the classifieds here, someone will soon have them.
You could buy Gusset cranks (in many different colours) on their own and a chain ring to suit but that wouldn’t be the cheapest way of doing it. Find them on http://www.ison-distribution.com

If either of you have bought a Hex or similar then take the peak off and throw it away. In a couple of weeks it’ll be the first anniversary of me sliding on my face whilst wearing mine. The top of the peak dug into the ground like a plough, forcing the front into my mouth and then the underside of my nose as it flipped. Result, 12 stitches inside my mouth and another 6 or 7 under and inside my nose. Under local anaesthetic. On my birthday.
The cause is the peak being fixed quite securely at the sides but not at all in the middle.

I made 4 inch long tubes out of wetsuit material a couple of winters ago to stop water getting in my boots and they’re brill. I wouldn’t ride without them in cold, wet conditions now.

Pro Vibe carbon post here. I think it’s intended to be a road post really but with only just under 11 stones of me to support it hasn’t broken yet. Pushing down on the back of the saddle gives an inch of movement and this makes the ride over hard ground laods smoother than any alloy post I’ve tried.

Thanks for all the suggestions, just got to find a weekend when he’s not playing footie.

That’d fit in with a trip to Cenrtre Parcs and we could take in the Thetford trails, hmmmmmmmm.

DezB, I can’t see a link to your photos but maybe that’s just because it’s late and I’m tired. Anyway, please post another for me and all the other numpties.

Clink, someone had an idea about combining it with another event and the owners of the site are keen to do anything that increases their profile. That’s about as far as it went but there’s certainly plenty of potential although everyone’s aware that the event could be spoiled by getting too big.
Personally I think the venue could work very well for a singlespeed event. SSEC13?

Cracking weekend. Rumour has it that it might be even more special next year. Loved the ‘No Foot’ event. As the numbers reduced it became a sort of ‘chess on bikes’. Doing my first ever lake jump was a scary thing but after my ten year old had shown me the way there was no bottling it.

12 posts and no-one’s suggested getting a cat?

EDIT Too slow ——— again.

Good & bad news is that they don’t hold their price like VW (almost half the price, like for like).

I’m not too worried about resale values as I just want a vehicle I can rely on for the next 10 years or so. My current annual mileage is under 4000 and I can’t see that changing in the foreseeable future.

Nearly every Merc van I see on the roads is a rustbucket

I was told recently by someone who should know that in 2006 they started galvanising them, so later ones will be better.

Cracking day out. I was there with my ten year old and one of his mates. We got there at 10:30 expecting an hour’s gentle bimble on closed roads but eventually rolled home just after 5 with two quite knackered kids.
In that time they’d ridden 15 miles (two laps plus home) played about two hours football in the inflatable arena, raced several times round the British Cycling course, roller raced, tried golf and booked a free taster diving session. The live music at numerous locations was good too.

My son’s friend Brandon could be one to watch. Aged ten and a couple of weeks he won the under 16s roller racing by a clear half second. His time of 15.7 would have got him top 20 in the adults.

Great vid, one day I’ll do something as special as that with my son.

as no-one needs 4 singlespeeds, do they?

Errrrr………….

1) Commuter on slicks
2) Rigid winter snotfest bike
3) Summer XC hardtail
4) 29er curious bike, now used on damp summer rides

Happy with my bikes.
Not happy that reading about new stuff leaves me cold now.
This nirvana state is hugely over-rated, it’s the lust and longing that keeps life interesting.