Pint of electrolyte drink before bed (e.g. "GO") = no hangover.

shoogy??

# Inner and outer plates optimise shifting over the chainset and cassette
# Outer plate designed to reduce the chance of chain suck

I'm still not sure it's not a joke…

Errr all chains have inner and outer plates! The inner ones are the narrow bit of the chain and the outer ones are the wide bit of the chain!

If you reverse it the bike will go backwards when you pedal.

silly, you just have to pedal backwards!

But then what about the direction arrows on the chain?

Hmmm tricky one.

If you reverse it the bike will go backwards when you pedal.

Is hairspray ok on carbon bars?

On an M770 they are countersunk.

Cable comes up from the bottom bracket area, then over a pulley which is immediately behind the seat tube. The cable sits between a couple of little sticky-out lugs which stop it from falling off sideways. Cable then comes down to the clamp like it would if the cable was top routed.

Degreaser and a toothbrush :-)

I got rid of my (new style) Hope because it didn't keep the seatpost in place even when I had it so tight I needed to hammer it open.

I've got a Salsa now and it works properly.

Mine aren't going to be quite as gay as that.

Then I shall get some.

People will frown, but inside they will be smiling at my gayly coloured cables 8)

now it's lime green or purple…………………again

Oh yes

But does that not put the light up way too high? Does it not get caught on tree branches etc?

Yes it's a P7 torch from DX. I take 2 batteries out with me and swap when it starts to go a bit dim. It's probably bright for about 1.5hrs, but the light on my helmet is MUCH brighter anyway so it doesn't make that much difference!

They are ideal as a back-up / faffing about / riding on the road light.

Me fail English?

That's unpossible.

You could also try mounting the main light on your helmet and the torch on the bars, like what I do…

Unscrewing and bashing the rod out is all you need to do to get at the spacers! But you need to let all the air out so you can fully compress them, and then use an allen key to poke the rod up from the bottom. It's dead easy.

Those CRC ones are probably adjustable to 80mm or 120mm with spacers – that's what "all travel" means.

Just give both CRC and Merlin a call and ask!

The 80/100/120 ones can be adjusted with spacers. OEM forks (e.g. like the ones that came on my old Rockhopper) can't usually be adjusted. Merlin sell OEM stuff so that's what the 100mm Rebas might be.

My 16" mmmbop weighs 28lbs with Vanilla 32s, XT / SLX, Hope Pro 2 / XM317s

mmmbops are ACE

Not ridden the blue pig

182lbs / 28lbs

= 6.5:1

If the forks are OEM you probably won't be able to increase the travel. I had some '09 ones which came on a Rockhopper Pro and I had a go but it couldn't be done.

I didn't need to take the lowers off to get at where the spacers go though – popping the rod through the top worked fine.

Where's that nice new saddle I sold you?! Put it on!

Northwind – what forks have you put on it? Have you got a pic?

I was selling them on ebay in packs of 10 not long ago. I think I've got some more coming my way so keep an eye out!

New shoes on the table!!

you should be able to reuse the rim strips over and over, as long as you don't trim them too close.

That was the problem – I trimmed them really close so when the tyre was off the rim the strip just curled up so it was easier to fit another one.

I'm going to give it another try and be more patient. The one that sealed successfully is holding pressure really well. I let it down earlier and the tyre stayed stuck to the strip.

Stan's

Go down halfords, buy yourself a valve core remover. Also buy yourself either a syringe, or a squeezy bottle with a small enough nozzle to fint inside a Schraeder valve. Simply unscrew the valve core from the valve, and inject some more sealant in! Put valve core back in, pump tyre back up, and hey presto… You've got a load more sealant in, but you never had to break the seal of the tyre and rimstrip to do it.

Errr this is exactly what I've been doing! Remove core, air comes out, tyre comes away from rim, back to the aforementioned 'square one'!

Is that "guru" assuming that UST tyres are being used? Because my (non-UST) tyres definitely don't stay seated on the rim when you let the air out!

Next day put another 20-30ml of goop in

This was my problem though. To put more sealant in meant letting the air out, which meant the bead came away from the rim. So – rim strip ruined and back to square one!

Hmmm I'll try again then! Not sure how I'm going to keep the pressure topped up over several days though. It went down completely overnight when I left it. Will have to take the wheel and my track pump to work, bed etc.

Did lots of shaking, bouncing and riding! I pumped it up to 60psi, then checked it every couple of hours and topped up the pressure. Maybe I gave up too soon with the second one, but the first one sealed pretty quickly (a couple of hours of bubbling at the edges then it stopped).

I want to get it to work because the overall weight saving (compared to using Continental Light tubes with Slime in) was 1lb!

I didn't have a problem inflating them – the one that sealed was done using my track pump. The other one I also tried with a compressor but it was the same – it just wouldn't stop bubbling in a few places and lost all its air overnight. After 3 attempts I had run out of bmx tubes so gave up.

I didn't use any insulation tape on the rim.

Rims are XM317s and tyres are Kenda Telonix 2.2

CHARITY and LANE

What about CUMBERLAND and BROOK?!

I've just ordered one of the AM Carbon bars. 710mm wide and 195g!

My first ever proper ride on SPDs was round the North Face. Managing to do it gave me a massive SPD-confidence boost.

(Some of the boardwalk bits were very icy last weekend)

I got some of those too. They were obviously going to be OEM but I wasn't expecting the massive "not for resale" sticker that they hadn't bothered to take off. Mine look exactly like the pictures i.e. they've got the metal end caps.