You won't get a 4 bolt outer ring to mount in the middle position because the support shoulder (the bit inboard of the bolt holes) is a larger diameter for the middle ring.

Middleburn make 48T rings though.

Quoted weight is 135g.
In my experience it doesn't take much flex to make a brake noisy. 180mm Maguras in particular can be very noisy but the same brake remounted with a 160mm disc is now silent.

My DEAN yet again, now I've got the link working.

kiwijohn — I think the problem may have been due to my Fotopic account only having been created the night I tried to post the pic here. The pic url has changed since then, maybe they have some kind of censorship or probationary period for new users or pics?

My Surly again, hopefully with working link this time!

My DEAN again, now I've read the instructions on how to insert pics….

EDIT….But for some reason it's still not working. Can anyone tell me why?

My Surly

http://photos-by-keith.fotopic.net/p62894863.html

My DEAN Custom Colonel.
Geometry specced to be pretty similar to my original 93 Clockwork (and coincidentally almost identical to their new R8). It's absolutely brill on tight singletrack and I have an Alfine hubbed wheel that can be slipped in and wired up in 15 minutes when required.

The sprockets on a 7spd freewheel will have ramps and low profile teeth to aid shifting, so using one of them as a singlespeed would likely result in the chain being thrown off far more often than using a dedicated SS frewheel or sprocket.
If you use the freewheel intact with all 7 sprockets the worst case would be for the chain to ride up onto the next largest sprocket resulting in a bent or broken axle. I've seen that happen several times.

One bike with spare wheels for commuting/touring — sooner or later the mismatch between chain and cassette wear will result in one of the rears becomng unusable long before you'd normally replace the transmission.

Ever heard the phrase "jack of all trades, master of none"?

I've five bikes including a roadie and a 5in full sus, both of which don't see a lot of use but I'd have to be really skint before I'd sell any of them.

Plenty will though.

I found my Alfine robs the bike of a little of the 'zing' it has as a singlespeed but I can convert SS to Alfine in 15 minutes so the Alfine's kept for the occasional longer distance spinny rides now.

The splines wouldn't be a problem for me as I'd never ride fixie on the road — I like leaning into corners too much.

I would be using it with rim brakes.

I had the same problem with my CK singlespeed hub last winter in freezing temps. When I stripped it I found water had got in, probably past the bearing tension collar on the non drive side as this does not have it's own seal. Last autumn I stripped, cleaned and regreased the hub again in preparation and it's been fine since.
I'd say an annual service is essential on these hubs which is a bit disappointing really considering the cost of them.

Weeing on it works as a short term fix!

Looks like I was lucky to get away with only a very minor dose of the trots and that was in the first couple of days when all our meals had been at our hotel in Agadir.

The 'camel hair' blanket I bought from a beach trader ranks as my best holiday souvenir ever, fifteen years on it's still on the sofa to be snuggled under on a cold evening.

The powdery stuff's great, and while all the mud's frozen there's much less cleaning and maintenance to do.

I went in October quite a few years ago.

The Atlantic coast will have good surf.
Marrakesh central square night market had great atmosphere and cheap food.
Hire a car and drive over the Atlas mountains but watch out for snow — seriously, there is a ski resort up there. The Tiz n Test pass tops out at 8000ft.
Take a good map. Exploring random dirt tracks is likely to end up with dead ends at a small collection of houses in the middle of nowhere.
Stop at a hotel in the middle of nowhere, you'll never see the stars shine so bright in the UK.
Take cheap watches and T-shirts to swap with the locals.

There seems to be a gap in the market for a really gunkproof SS specific rear freehub type hub. I've even had 'issues' with my Chris King (water ingress to the hub internals and grit causing the axle threads to seize). I wouldn't touch any of the sub £100 freehub types for serious gunky riding, instead go for one of the screw on freewheel types (Surly, DMR) and invest ine a quality freewheel (White Industries), which will still blow your budget. When you consider that a Shimano Deore rear hub for £35 or thereabouts will easily last a couple of seasons it's really a sorry situation for singlespeeders wanting wheels that look the part.

A fully rigid singlespeed — no worries about frozen cables, trashed forks etc

Everyone in the gang running slime tubes — no getting frozen waiting for others to fix punctures

If you're struggling with keeping the circulation going in the cold try Ginko Biloba tabs from your local health food/herbal remedy shop. They do work in promoting the blood circulation at the extremities although I did find if I took them too close to bedtime I started having the weirdest dreams that night!

About 4500, roughly 50/50 road/off-road. 90% of the off-road were singlespeed.

Look on the bright side, we've now all got excuses for cards and pressies we've forgotton to send turning up late!

Walked to work here in Totton today. Even the slight slopes to dropped kerbs had me sliding towards the road in places.

They've been doing it in the present format for what 8 or 9 years?
I'd give them credit that they're only now starting to run out of ideas.
How many other shows on TV have lasted any longer?

Last of the Summer Wine
Dad's Army (I think)

What else?

Going down the bumpy hill at the end of my paper round when I was 14 one side of the handlebars broke off. I wobbled a lot and almost held it but then hit one of the big potholes and binned it painfully.

1993, a big race down Dorchester way. I was top 20 out of about 300 and three quarters of the way round the first lap when one of my jockey wheels fell out on a narrow bit of course. I eventually found all bar one side plate and got going again but not before I'd dropped to nearly last. The bike (and LX rear mech) was only 6 weeks old.

Question for Luminous:
I don't suppose you'd know how to wire up an early Hope Vision 2 to be either on/off or just hi/lo/off? I never did get on with 3 power levels plus flashing and now the swicth is playing up I'd like to make it a bit more user friendly (if possible) rather than send it back to Hope yet again.

If you're riding on the road you might find that the thin roadie tyres cut through the snow better to find grip underneath it?

70s: The Crunch by the Rah Band

BAE Systems (Southampton) was the worst job I ever had. I was taken on as an engineer but when the project I was involved in had run it's course I was given secretarial work and told that I wouldn't be geting a pay riase until my pay fell in line with the work I was doing. 25 year service awards were ten a penny and I got the impression you had to be there at least 5 years before anyone would talk to you. A friend of mine got similarly shafted there.

Wifey had it about ten years ago. She was regularly market trading at that time and was most gutted that she had to take a couple of days off.
She really did look poorly but insisted on going to work all except those two days.

Marc Beaumont: Sellout to the corporations or another entrepreneur trying to make a living out of travelling and self promtion (a la Charley Boorman etc) and generate money for charity?

Julian Whateverhisnameis: Bitter and twisted and too lazy to realise the charitable potential of what he's done or a rare individual who has resisted the pressure to conform and isn't blind to the inequalities of the world?

There are loads of arguements there but I have nearly finished Marc Beaumont's book and I know who I'd rather go for a drink with.

Slime tubes work well down here. They're compulsory on our winter rides. You must have different thorns where you are.

Pedestrians and cyclists would all be a lot safer if cars had 8 inch spikes instead of airbags……

Mix a non-dairy spread in with the porridge, and top with plenty of honey or golden syrup.

Peanut butter has plenty of fat and protein in it so would be a good sandwich filling.

Failing the above just enjoy a Mars bar for desert after every meal. I expect the dairy content of those is processed so much it's of low risk?

I Alfined my Dean Ti hardtail a while back. It worked fine in a spinny sort of way. The hub will take grunting in high gears but seems to rob the bike of a little of the crisp pickup it has in singlespeed guise, so most of the time I run it SS. I can make the change from SS to Alfine in under 15 minutes though for when I feel I might want gears.
The Alfine went through the monsoon that was the 2008 Dusk til Dawn without missing a beat.

Coloured carbon fibre would make nice bling.

Halo Knobblers are excellent and cheap but will drag a bit on the road.

It's worth shopping around for accountants or asking anyone you know fo recommendations. Like many things in life, some are better than others, but generally, the bigger the firm the bigger the fee.

Oh, and do as much of the easy work yourself as you can. You don't want to be paying someone £50 per hour or more just to sort your receipts and bank statements into order.

I've been very happy with my Dean Custom Colonel for the last (nearly) four years. I think they'd be about £1700 at current exchange rates.

I stayed in Agadir with a friend about 15 years ago in September and didn't have any trouble with the wind. Agadir beach is slightly sheltered and when we went round the headland to the north we found deserted beaches with surf double the size of Agadir. We took a couple of days out from the package and drove to Marrakech in a hired Renault 4 which was well worth doing, with a stop on the way back to hike up Djebel Toubkal, the highest mountain in the Atlas range. Even there we were approached by a man trying to sell us trinkets. Outside the tourist areas the locals were very friendly and keen to swap any of their stuff for your T-shirt or watch, so maybe take a few shirts you don't like any more and cheap watches? Back in the tourist ares there will often be folks hassling you to buy stuff although the better hotels do have their own areas of beach that these people are barred from. At the end of the week I did buy a blanket from one of the beach traders which I still have folded on the sofa.
We took our bikes but without small scale maps or local knowledge we found it difficult to locate any quality riding.