I've always found Hope's customer service to be top notch, but the products themselves do have a few weak areas:

Rear hubs: freehub seals don't keep southern mud out of the pawl assembly
Lights: too many power levels and not as waterproof as some
Brakes: good when new but lever pivots need regular care to avoid rapid wear

A rant on STW –NEVER?

This deserves a BUMP

I had a custom frame built four years ago and went against both advice and the current fashion by speccing a short top tube and relatively steep angles. It turned out to be the best bike I've ever had and last year when I looked up the geometry of Orange's new R8 I found they've used almost exactly the same dimensions as I did.

O' level Astronomy (grade C) — really.

Whats dishonorable about helping people find a mortgage exactly?

Please don't take it personally.
In my working lifetime I've seen maximum home loans rise from 3 times income to 5+ times income and the huge property price rises fueled by reckless lending. It somewhat agrieves me that it will be far far harder for my children to afford to buy a house than it was for me. That means more to me than the fact that the value of my own house has trebled in a relatively short space of time.
I've also found in my experience that the financial services industry pretty much relies on selling people products (finance/insurance) that are far in excess of their real needs.

Also, enough to be dismayed by the amount of typos and missing words in the mag each issue.

Enough to know that education only gets your foot in the door, it's all down to YOU after that.

Edit….but not patient enough to allow the screen to refresh when it's going a bit slow.

I've got six A levels. Took me three years to get them though.

Proper ones then, not modern ones.

Enough to know that education only gets your foot in the door, it's all down to YOU after that.

I've got six A levels. Took me three years to get them though.

Proper ones then, not modern ones.

Is that 'wanted' or 'offered'?

Connecting the syringe to the caliper is quite a messy way of doing the job so I usually only use that method if I am refilling a brake from completely empty. For dealing with just a small amount of trapped air I'll use a syringe with a hypodermic needle on it to inject fluid through the bleed port on the master cylinder. It might take a little longer but not much when you factor in cleaning up time. Pumping the lever is essential to dislodge air bubbles and ensure the fluid reaches all the cavities. Tilt the bike or lever to ensure the bleed port is the highest point of the system while you're doing it.

Yes it is a bit repetitive and over dramatic but somehow compelling watching for me. Maybe it's the scenery or the fact that it's real people living a different kind of life in a real place where real sh1t does happen.

These brakes seem to be a little tricky to get fully bled. You've probably still got a small air pocket in the reservoir. As the bike's moved around the passageway to the master cylinder (lever) piston will be uncovered occasionally, letting a little air in. When you're bleeding and adding fluid through the port in the top cap you need to keep going past the point where the lever feel is firm and carry on until no more bubbles come out of the port. Make sure you do this with unworn pads though or next time you try to fit new ones you won't be able to push the pistons in the caliper back far enough

Aside, strictly speaking 'pump up' is where the brakes lose lever travel up to the point where they lock on, usually caused by excessive heat causing the fluid to expand.

I'd junk it and get a Nukeproof. Your LBS will probably have one ex-demo or cancelled order at a good price.

I'd say it's time to change tack completely and look at a more honourable career while you've still got the savings buffer and I say this as someone who has spent time in the financial services industry myself.

Your bottom bracket looks too low. It looks like a plastic bike that has been left too close to a fire and sagged in the middle. Sorry.

29t will only fit in the middle ring (or outer) position on a 5 arm compact drive spider. 32 is the smallest you can go on 4 arm.

I've just spoken to the Big Bike Bash organisers and it is definitely on, on the 21st/22nd August this year, so I'll be signing up for that one.

It depends what material your frame is. If steel then probably no, but the damaged one may come loose. If alloy then quite possibly yes. Either way a new BB will be the best route to peace of mind.

I found my 'post vasectomy sample' delivery a little unnerving, handing the canister over to the pretty nurse who would presumably be getting the contents straight under the microscope.

Find a local roadie and get him/her to show you one of their time trial routes. That will have been measured to the metre.

The series blurb lists her as "school bus driver and state freestyle motocross champion" but a quick google hasn't turned up any more than that.
The Ice Road Truckers exposure should ensure a lucrative career for her over the coming year.

Cue 'exposure' jokes…….

You will at least want some burly wheels and fat tyres. Even the fire roads out there are covered in stones that range in size from 'pea' to 'house brick'. Most of the trails are steep enough that if you don't have confidence in your wheels to take a few knocks you'll be going too fast for comfort and dragging your brakes within seconds every time you point the bike down hill.

Don't get too hung up on the xc ethos of riding the ups. It's a holiday after all and if you're doing the downs justice they'll be a good workout themselves. I made a point of doing one of the big ups last year and after spending nearly two hours ascending 1000m realised that I was better off letting the lifts do the work and having the time to see much more of the area. If you really want to climb take a road bike and do some of the classics.

Yes

As most of the above say, you're paying the money for local knowledge and convenience.
I took my bike on a coastal package trip some years ago and without a gude failed to find anything other than jeep tracks or unridably steep footpaths in the week I was there. I'd thoroughly recommend the country though.

Ayup make a headband for their lights and the 3 hour battery is VERY light,.
Fraid it'll cost you more than £30 though.

My neighour's reg starts with KN03. One night I'm going to creep over and change the 3 to a B because he is one.

There's loads of singletrack in the New Forest but it's all cheeky trails and mostly quite wet at the moment.
If you want drier but scenic trails try the coast path from the marinas. There's nothing too technical there but the views across the Solent to the Needles are good on a sunny day. There are also several cafes along that way, Milford on Sea, Mudeford and others. Again, they're cheeky trails but I've never known anyone get upset down there.

I'd say it depends on where you ride. If you spend a lot of time on tight wooded trails dodging the trees then you'l find a 29er cumbersome. If you ride mainly open moorland trails you'll be more likely to see the advantages of big wheels.
I've not owned a 29er myself so I am just guessing.

I'd better not show this thread to my wifey, she might get ideas above her station.

We put in a brief appearance at the Big Bike Bash last year. Shame we couldn't have stayed longer but it clashed with something else we'd been roped into. I hadn't heard yet that it was being run again. We'll certainly do that one again.

I'm looking for events that'll give me a bit of XC action, camping and some 'have a go' activities for the boy.

Three years ago when I bought my van there was no tax disc so, like a good boy, I went out and bought one. A week or so later, whilst fitting a stereo I found a valid disc behind the dash, along with £20 and a hundred or more sweet wrappers. I then sent the new disc back for a refund with a covering letter to explain why including the serial no of the found disc. Four months after that they sent me a penalty letter for keeping the vehicle untaxed for that time. When I sent a letter back recounting the events and pointing out that they had duty to inform me if the found disc had been declared lost they relented but didn't make their letter sound anything like an apology.

I really don't feel that that has persuaded me to spend my lunchtime searching for a pair of Raybans to buy.

Am I alone there?

Nothing medical in 2004?
Doctors can write to DVLA recommending licences be revoked can't they?

I've never tried I-anything but I got a Sony MP3 player a year ago and have yet to find fault with it, except that the headphones that came with it don't fit my ears as well as the ones I got with my CD Walkman 10 years ago.
I've bought leads for a few quid to plug it into the auxilary ports of both car and home stereos.

Can't imagine *any* bike shop here doing that

I'd probably draw the line at spokes but I have canibalised new bikes for stuff like seatposts and mechs before. I did once lend a regular a set of Fox forks from a demo bike whilst his were being fixed under warranty. Thankfully his own forks were back on the bike when it was stolen a week later. That could have been a difficult situation to sort out.

£25 per hour is most definitely NOT the mechanic's wages. The £25 has to cover:
Premises costs – rent, lighting, heating
Equipment costs – a workshop full of professional level tools is a considerable investment
Admin time – admittedly most cycle shops won't have their own human resources dept but any business that employs people will have paperwork to be done and no one really wants to do it for free.

Just the same as any business that provides a service….

89 Specialized Street Stomper (sold to the (now) ex father-in-law)
91 Kona Fire Mountain (PXed)
93 Clockwork LX (still here but cracked and rusting)
97 Rock Lobster (sold)
99 Orange Evo2 (sold)
04 Malt 3 (quickly sold)
05 Inbred (also quickly sold)
05 Dean custom titanium replica of the Evo2 (now SS and loving it)
07 Surly 1×1 (for the winters)
09 Merida AM3000 (ex Demo and too good a deal to refuse)

About 20 years sometime this year courtesy of a secondhand Specialized Street Stomper which I believe is still owned by my (now) ex father-in-law. It would have been a year or two sooner if I hadn't spent the last years of the eighties paying out 90% of my wages each month on a mortgage.

I could claim 30 years ago if you count the scrapper I built up in my early teens for riding the local woods and spent two terms of metalwork lessons making suspension forks for.

EDIT

Just remembered the first event I entered. The Isle of Wight Scouts had orgainsed an inter troop kiddies cyclo-cross for us all. I can remember riding a borrowed bike and the course being very muddy.