While the frame does look lovely, I agree with cynic-al about the rest of it. It’s hard to tell from the pictures, but aren’t those rims steel? Might explain why the brakes are so awful – it’s a long time since I read my original copy of Richard’s Bicycle Book, but I seem to remember something about steel rims needing leather brake blocks.

Thanks fella. Anyone know if the edale road is clear?

if it indexes properly at one and of the cassette but not the other, i’d be checking the mech hangar alignment

Decathlon do cheapo tights with a bit of hip padding but it really is a bit

Got a Sportive Bianco a couple of years ago and it’s been entirely brilliant, I’d definitely get another Ribble if I was looking for a roadie

All these “think of an hourly rate” suggestions are missing the (very) important “… and double it” step at the end. These things always take (at least) twice as long as you think they will

Don’t forget that, as the bucket is full of fermenting homebrew, it’ll generate its own heat

“Not surprising”? Really? For me it *is* surprising that a real person with some genuine pretensions to politics actually spouts this fascist vapid crap. I’m an affable chap with a ‘live and let live’ attitude – folks are entitled to their opinions however batshit they may be etc etc. But this hateful scumbag is entitled to nothing but a smack in the bollocks

Just pull them off the old cable outer and reuse them

A friend of mine insisted on using the word “furtle” in place of “fettle”. I believe furtle has a very different and somewhat unsavoury meaning.

Fettle’s definitely a verb though and any one who thinks different is stupid

That’s completely awesome and I want one

Did you route the cable correctly when you changed it? Is the mech hanger straight? Did you also change the cable outer – if so, is it the right stuff?

Sounds like the sort of issue you get when the cable outer is compressing when under tension, like it does when some dim wit(*) with a disorganised spares box uses brake outer instead of gear outer, and is too thick / blind to notice.

*, er, ‘a friend of mine’

Mine’s been my main bike since march, mostly on natural stuff. The front end gets really unruley on fast rocky descents and can feel like a real handful once it gets bouncing. But IMO that really is its only weakness. You quickly get used to the gyroscopic effect of the heavy tyres. You do start to ride all bikes like they have fatty-levels of grip, so expect your other bikes to feel weird.

I say go for it, they’re ace

“Nabil has since done his best to make good the damage and has felled trees across the remainder of the trail to ensure it can’t be ridden”

Felled trees? To stop someone riding their bike, to protect a woodland? Am I missing something here?

And why the surprise that they wouldn’t give their names? “You, give me your name so you can be fined £lots”. Seems a bit optimistic to me

I do knobbly. Can we also have a photo of your home made inner tube gators?

I couldn’t be arsed with tubeless on my fatty (on-one rims + baggy floaters with light weight Specialized inner tubes) so I squirted a load of Slime into the tubes. I’ve only had 2 punctures this year – one slow one that took 2 days to go flat, and one inch long shard of slate through the tread that would have punctured anything.

I know slime is horrible stuff but it does seem to help. There are millions of hawthorns round here

Oh, and if anyone’s selling a load give me a yell 🙂

My LBS won’t work on my road bike because it has a Campagnolo groupset, and “Campagnolo is shit”, apparently

Passed Cash Convertors in Loughborough today and didn’t spot it.

Moderators – why are my posts in this thread getting edited or deleted?

Really sorry to hear this Mike, will keep an eye out locally.

Buy a racing car and race it

Danny’s got some nice new 120mm Rebas on his 456, if you ask him nicely he might trade

Danny’s got a point there fella – is the RCT3 damping that much better than the damping in a Reba that’s already at the right travel?

I’d like to nominate (proper) Campagnolo Power Torque bearings but not for the usual reason (yeah, the system’s a bit of a faff). The bearings run beautifully smooth right up to the point where they’re pressed into the cups. Then they’re notchy and stiff. I’ve tried again and again and they’re either incompletely pressed in, or notchy. No amount of arsing around seems to cure it. I guess the tolerance isn’t that good 🙁

I got on one thinnies and plant x thickies. Both wash fine at 30 in a normal wash with the rest of my gear and have lasted fine. The thinnies wear quickly on the ball and heel but other than that they’re both dead good

The on one tubes are impossibly heavy – just changing the tubes makes a big difference. I also put some Slime in mine. No idea if it’s the slime or the thickness of the Floaters, but I’ve only had 2 punctures this year, riding in all conditions with lots of hawthorn, bramble and rose thorns.

Tubeless with Floaters and on-one rims? Good luck with that 🙂

The little teeth on the back side of the non-skewer bit of the QR on mine got rounded off so it didn’t bite into the dropout on the mech hangar. I got it to grip properly by filing sharper grooves into it

Floaters work really well on the beastly mud and oomska round Leicestershire. A bargain at £30 a pop, just a shame the orange ones cost more

I wouldn’t risk it, even pushing will put a lot of strain on it and you’re a long walk to the car. Also, it’ll be cold muddy and wet – you’ve not ridden properly for ages, there’ll be lots of opportunities to crash and make it worse

I’m 5’10” with long(ish) legs and the 18″ feels spot on for me

Maybe I’m doin it wrong but every time I go from well worn to brand new pads on my old Elixirs I have to bleed the bastards

My experience of the Barro sticky compound is that it doesn’t clear that well but grips really well – better on rooty stuff than other tyres I’ve tried. The Gato is the opposite – clears brilliantly but bugger all actual grip

I think On One are doing the Geax Barro TNT for a tenner. The 2.3 is their sticky compound and it’s a really really good tyre. The 2.1 Gato is (in my experience) bobbins

**** me that Mindstorms stuff looks the absolute nuts 😀

there was a PSA a couple of months ago – some army surplus mail order place. It’s worth reading the thread as the seller feller appears to be a bit of a geezer, basically sending ‘whatever’ instead of the size that was ordered

Ingenious. I *knew* there would be a use for Floater packaging. So much so that I keep mine in my spares box ready for when I figure out what to do with it

Just whip out the old chap and start crying. They won’t bother your any more

wwaswas, the mudhugger fat front and fat gut work really well for me – mount them so there’s no gap between the top of the gut fender and the back of the front fender

It’s winter, he ordered them nearly a month ago, he’s not ranting and raving, just wanting lights or a refund. Seems reasonable enough to me

Bonesetter – I’ve got an Ass Saver Wide (the Mucky Nutz version). It doesn’t appear to do anything useful at all – waste of money. The fat front fender and fat gut fender are very good when combined though