Ooooooh. I think you’ve all shown me what I should spend my birthay money on.

We did a day trip to Rovaniemi 8 years ago and thought it was great. We had -26 degrees and plenty of snow but after we got back we heard that a friend’s brother had taken his family the week before us and had +4 degrees and rain. Shame our now 13 year old son remembers next to nothing of it!

Probably not what the OP had in mind but it’s light in terms of gears (singlespeed) and cost. It proved comfortable for 325 miles in four days a couple of years back and London to Brighton to Southampton in a day this year.

To the OP. Make sure you know EXACTLY what you want and think about how your preferences might change in the next ten years before you order. In 2006 I bought my dream custom Ti frame which I absolutely loved until I got a 29er. I’d never sell the Ti bike but it’s been by far my least ridden bike for the last couple of years.

With MTB ‘standards’ changing so frequently I’d advise getting a road or CX frame as the ‘bike for life’.

Buy a £15 phone on pay as you go and take that instead. Only give your family the number of the new phone and you’ll also minimise mid-ride interruptions.

EDIT: Beaten by YAK

“XT225 Serow”

Fond memories of three days spent bouncing along dirt tracks on the Greek island of Samos on a hired one with wifey one the back.

When I was in the used bike trade I found 125s a big source of frustration:

Almost daily I’d be asked if I had a cheap one.
95% of them have been trashed in the first three years by 17 year old owners.
Whenever I did get a decent one I’d have to put up with a succession of prospective ‘buyers’ expecting me to let them have it for a couple of weeks pocket money.

Pass your test and look for a 250, there’s still plenty of grey import trailies out there (I imported 250 or so of them) that have had considerate, mature owners. You’ll get a better bike that you’ll be far more likely to want to keep.

Tubeless in 5 of the 8 the off road wheels I posess, sealant in the tubes of those that won’t go tubeless. A couple of the tubeless wheels took several rides before they stopped losing pressure over a few days.

Shame, he had still been performing in recent years. I’m sure a good many folks will have counted his songs in their list of ‘guilty pleasures’. Red Dress was my favourite.

Am I the only one NOT getting the Fatbike love?
I’ve tried several of my friends’ bikes and just found them bulky and bouncy. Maybe at ten and a half stone I’m just too light to keep such big tyres under control? The 2.4 inch tyres I run on my Surly 1×1 feel just right for me for sloppy winter riding.
The only exception was a summer beach ride I did with the fatties where I was obviously expending far more energy to keep going on the soft sand than they were.

Salsa Marmasita with a problem Solver EBB in the PF30 hole does it for me, light and not stupidly expensive.
Ebay carbon frames with PF30 and EBB would probably give you what you want too.

This one

This one

This one too

Oh, and a Salsa Marmasita I don’t have a photo of.

SKS clip on black plastic guards can be had for under a tenner and do the job very well. I drilled my fork (Planet X but same as On One) to mount the bracket and it hasn’t killed me in the 8 years since.

At least once a year I try to get back into running and it’s always painful and rarely lasts beyond half a dozen outings.
Taking my running shoes and a lock in a backpack and riding to somewhere more interesting to start the run than my doorstep helps the enthusiasm.

Circling a roundabout on a GSX Suzuki at about 60 well leant over I cracked the throttle wide open — just to see what would happen?
What happened was that the seat dropped six inches or so from under my arse. I rolled off the throttle and it came back into line smoothly. When I got home I found lots of squiggly marks on the side of the tyre.

I once bet some friends I could turn a scrap moped into a motorised skateboard. I did it and survived riding it. Most others who had a go on it lost varying amounts of skin.

It’s a bit of a catch 22 situation. I’ll only be using apps (mostly GPS, mapping and camera) when I’m out and about. If I’m at home or work I’ll have access to a pc or laptop.

The problem with charging the old phone overnight was that it would sound an alert when it was fully charged that you coudn’t turn off without losing the incoming text alert as well.

“A knackered CX and an outdated MTB”. Exactly how much cash do you think any right-minded person would give you for them?
At best you might get enough to buy a VERY entry level MTB.
Sit tight for now and do the maintenance when you can.
I’d suggest you and her need to agree a ‘personal allowance’ of spending money for each of you every month that’s yours for your own indulgence.

EDIT: For example, how the hell can Christmas and birthday presents to each other be meaningful if they are bought from a joint account?

You can see the New Forest (pretentious Nimbyland) from Totton (Pikeyville just outside Southampton). They’re pretty far apart.

It’s not unheard of for it to be warm at this time of year. Three years ago I got to spend my birthday (October 2nd) sunbathing and swimming in 25 degrees at Milford on Sea, Hampshire. Most chilled out birthday I’ve ever had.

Liking my Slides but the X-Fusion recommended pressures are way too high.

My birthday 3 years ago was pretty special. I got to spend it sunbathing and swimming with the family.

At a British beach

In October!

This year it’s the big Five Oh and the element of surprise is largely gone as Wifey didn’t use ‘Inprivate Browsing’ when booking my present and every time I use the laptop I see ads for similar experiences 🙁

My boat has seat drains so I get a wet arse whatever. On cooler days I’ve used waterproof cycling shorts, unlined waterproof motorbike overtrousers or a thin shortie wetsuit that was £20 or so from decathlon, all with success.

If you’re going to get a custom frame built, make it specific to one purpose and absolutely the best (in your opinion) at that job. A do-it-all will have to be a compromise and like a 27.5 inch wheel, never the best at anything.

Ready Player One by Ernest Cline was superb and hopefully will be made into a film before too long. Set in the near future but with loads of eighties references.

+1 for the first two Hyperion books. Books 3 and 4 went off the boil.

In the UK mopeds are artificially restricted to 30mph. In many other parts of the world the same models (without restriction) will be capable of 40, 50 or maybe 60. Hence a life flat out on a UK moped will be similar to no more than half throttle on the same machine in continental spec, so relatively mild use.

Anyone tried the 2.5 version of Kenda’s Nevegal, the 850g claimed weight and price seem reasonable? I’ve currently got the 2.35 on a Halo T2 (32mm) which I can run down to 15psi. I just wondered if the 2.5 was enough bigger to make the change worthwhile?

D0NK – Member
90miles of along/downhill?

Dropped off at Lindarets at 8am. Pushed up over the ridge and rolled the road to Morgins to collect my entry pack. Two laps of the Lindarets – Chatel – Champery loop with a couple of the more fun runs repeated, big push up near Torgon after missing a sign late in the day then road from Chatel up the valley to get the Pierre Longue and Rochessons to the top of the ridge at closing time to roll back through Lindarets and Morzine then down to St Jean d’Aulps where I was staying.

Looks like our decision to ride the Passportes on Friday was a stroke of genius. 90 miles on almost completely dry and unmolested trails.

Stick with the kit you’ve got then you’ll know for sure how much any improvement is due to training and increased fitness.

We’ve been with Canvas Holidays and Keycamp and found that the British companies seemed to have been last in line when the pitches were allocated. Our Keycamp static backed on to the sewage plant and was very cramped. Otherwise all good experiences.

There’s loadsa singletrack round Lyndhurst, more pedally and trialsy than gravity assisted though. Oh and it’ll all be cheeky. Still better than trying to get in and out of there in a car at the weekend.

8 in our party, riding from Morzine on Friday, except I left it a bit late to enter so I’ll be picking my entry pack up from Morgins.

One of our gang rode the Saturday last year in a motorcycling waterproof onesie. Said he was warm and dry all day.

We must be due for a new chain standard. Half inch pitch has been about for a century or more. Shorter, smaller links would allow smaller, lighter (quicker wear) sprockets or sprockets with more teeth for closer ratios and more choice. Once the new standard is established someone will decide it clogs too easily in mud and develope something a bit bigger but still smaller than archaic old half inch pitch.

Trying to be serious here:

If 29 had been first then 26 would likely be touted as the only way to get fat tyres into normal sized bikes so 26 x anything less than 2.3 tyres would never have existed.

Makes me so glad I ditched the corporate career path.

Wear whatever you are comfortable with.
It’s not a particularly hard day so unless you are very unfit or have had a heavy night before you shouldn’t be losing concentration by the end of the day. You’re not forced down any particularly difficult trails, they’re just steeper for longer than most UK riding so speeds will be higher. If you’re tired you have brakes and a map to plot a quick way back to base.

@chiefgrooveguru, I never said that saddle dropping was wrong for everyone, it just doesn’t fit in with what I want out of my riding. I’ll probably never race an enduro because I’m not prepared to take the risks that would be needed to get the best result but that doesn’t mean that I can’t enjoy letting gravity do the work occasionally.

@Maxtorque, I do move round on the bike, I just don’t find myself wanting to place any part of me where the saddle is. I’ve spent a lot of time XC racing so am used to just hitting stuff without stopping to faff with the bike. When it comes to downhilling I do it as a bit of fun, not as if I’ll be dissappointed if I don’t wring out every last bit of speed or inch of air. As long as I can join in the ‘chase me chase me’ games with the lads I ride with I’m happy.

@chiefgrooveguru, I guess it’s a case of each to their own on saddle dropping. I’m far happier riding with my saddle up and within the group I was riding with (all of whom are veterans of annual alpine trips) I was thoroughly midfield. We all had bikes with 140-160mm travel (140 on mine).

chiefgrooveguru – Member

And I kept the saddle at normal pedalling height throughout.

Why would you do this on an uplift day?!

Dropping the saddle is something else that just feels wrong. I’ve tried doing it previously and didn’t feel I gained anything.