Me, Matt and Rob had a nice blast on Wednesday – thoroughly enjoyed it, but i think I’ll bring a thinner bike next time. And a means to buy beer 🙂

I might be able to get out a bit over easter, kids permitting

Not sure i follow – if the outer bit is missing how did the crank fall off? The outer bit is just so you have something for the inner bolt to push against when taking the crank off.

The crank is held on by the inner bolt (8mm allen bolt). It needs a fair bit of torque – 40mn IIRC – so get a nice long allen key and go nuts. No need for the outer bit at all, till he wants to take ’em off

Scandal – I got a KMC 610HX single speed 3/32ths inch chain floating around in my garage that Wiggle sent me by mistake ages ago – never even been out of the box. Can bring it tonight in exchange for a beer token if I’m allowed to play out

True, and starting earlier won’t help

Might be able to make 6:30, depends on how close the missus is to chucking the kids out of the window. Will post later.

As for route, I was hoping you fellas could show me some new awesome cheeky stuff 🙂

I’m running a narrow/wide ring with no chain guide or owt, and a regular X5 rear mech. Only dropped the chain once so far, and that was when I was ploughing through 12 inches of clay goop and probably kicked it off or something.

Would you need at 40/42T sprocket though? 30T up front, 11-36 on the back, might be enough?

I’d quite like to, assuming it’s from Woodhouse Eaves. And assuming you don’t mind some random stranger holding you up with his ridiculous clown-bike

Mine did the same, it’s a piece of junk and I don’t miss it at all

“forcing caliper from its mounting”, over and over again. Bloody deathtrap

Mine’s got a 100mm Reba and, in terms of handling, it feels pretty much bang on. No idea about safety though

If they’re on the wrong way round the brake mount is facing forward and all the force of the front brake is trying to pull the calliper bolts out of the mount on the fork (assuming it’s a post mount). Which would be a little bit dangerous.

If it’s an IS mount then meh, let him do what he wants

cos I don’t have a front mech or shifter. Anyway, I’m planning to ditch the 17T, not the 11T, so I don’t know why I keep banging on about it 🙂

Seems reasonable enough if you can’t go any smaller up front – don’t think you can got lower that 30t on most 104BCD cranksets

Braver man than me. What could possibly go wrong? 🙂

Take a decent pillow – the one that you usually use

‘Fraid not fella – the kids love the place, we’ve been on holiday there a few times but it’s a 3 hour drive. Not sure I’d be too popular chucking the fatty on the roof and spending the holiday beach riding while the missus looks after the nippers 🙂

Ta, I did wonder if my fatty was particularly evil in this respect as it can be alarming on the road. Glad to hear they’re all like that 🙂

Seeing those Wells pics makes me want to chuck it in the car and go play in the sand dunes

First pic Wells next the sea? Lovely place

How do you find the fork with low pressure in the front? I get some frankly dangerous self-steer with anything under 7 or 8 psi with the same fork on my on-one Fatty

I use a big adjustable spanner clamped over the hanger where the mech attaches.

Get the cable tension set up so it shifts properly on the smallest 2 or 3 cogs, and observe what it does as you shift to the big end. Also look down on it when it’s in the middle of the cassette to see if the chain is straight as it leaves the bottom jockey wheel.

Take the mech off but leave the wheel on.

If the mech is shifting correctly at the small end of the cassette but not moving far enough per-click at the big end, bend it in towards the wheel. If it’s shifting ok at the small end but moving too far at the big end, bend it away from the wheel.

And if you need to, bend it to make the chain line straight.

Work slowly and carefully, re-attaching the mech after a bend to see the effect.

I should add that this has worked fine for me over the years with 1 steel frame and 3 alloy frames with no ill effects, but *be careful*

my non-adjustable one was from On-One, BTW

High or low revs? If it’s low – middle of the rev range my money would be on the HT stuff – coil pack, distributor cap, HT leads, spark plugs. An already weak spark can break down under heavy load

My 100mm 2011 dual air reba definitely wasn’t adjustable to 120mm

I was out and about a little later, I did wonder if the folks climbing the Broombriggs side of the Beacon were you guys, probably not.

I was impossibly slippy in Swithy woods – even my fatty was squirming around all over the shop.

I’ll try and make next week’s adventure – I’d like to try some of these hills that can’t be named 🙂

I’ll be out and about later, but won’t make the start of the ride – if you see a fat man bimbling around on a fat bike, that’s me 🙂

I’d quite like to come out and play but it’ll depend on how naughty my kids are. Will check with the boss later

Blimey, sounds like quite an adventure. Think I’ll have to get a little fitter before joining you on your evening jaunts 🙂

Eh? 17 grand for an old 111S? That’s entirely bonkers, don’t care how shiny it is

Can’t see the Elise appreciating for quite a long time. They’re still considered track day toys, rather than cherished future classics (even the old ones).

They are, however, utterly brilliant and if you’re considering another pointless pass-time they’re a complete hoot on a track day. If you do go down that route, it’ll cost a few quid to keep it running and you won’t get that back when you sell. They’re happy to live outside if used regularly but may need some farting about with the roof and seals to keep the inside dry. A new roof is about £400

For a proper classic, the TR6 (or TR4 / 5) are really really really nice cars and quite sought after if they’re mint. It’ll rot in the rain tho

I’m local too so I’ll keep my eyes peeled. Sorry to hear it fella 🙁

Attention seekers. All a bit sad really, ‘ooo, look at me everyone, i’m sneezing’. If the tit in my office does it one more time his head’s getting smashed through his monitor

Double posting muppet

Got a Sportive Bianco a couple of years ago nearly. Campag kit and wheels. Took 10 days from order to delivery, some supply issue with the cassette i chose but they called and we discussed an alternative and it didn’t delay things.

The bike was built properly, looks ace, rides ace (no comfort issues after 100 miles, except for my useless legs). Was good value too, and I’d definetly recommend them.

Sorry you had such a rubbish experience fella.

I’m 5’11” with long legs and arms, and ride a 54 with a slightly shorter stem than standard, fits great

Check your cassette’s on properly. Mine was doing this and it was down the the lock ring being a bit loose

+1 for the lazy mates suggestions. If they can’t be arsed to learn how to service their bikes (it’s not exactly challenging) and / or won’t make time to do it, why expect someone else to do it for anything less than the going rate?

I’d be inclined to charge £10 an hour / beers / whatever for ‘lessons’ where they work with you and learn how to do that job themselves. If they ask you to do that same job again afterwards they’re taking the piss expecting it for less than LBS money. Tight gits.

Damn I hate your mates 🙂

Had a similar issue with my missus’ hard tail. Changed the bottom bracket and pedals, cleaned the whole drive train and spent ages checking everything but it *still* did it. As a last resort I chucked a new chain on it (despite the old one being hardly worn at all) and bish-bosh, quiet as a mouse.

Still no idea why

Can’t fault my Ribble – loads and loads for the money, look great, nice frames, properly built. The standard wheels are cheap & heavy so it’s probably good that you’ve got your own to bung on it.

Definitely worth checking their lead times though – the told a friend of mine that there would be a few weeks wait for a carbon Sportive frame (that was early May)

My Deore HT2 lasted 3 rides, after which it was siezed completely on the nds. Utter utter junk. The XT replacement is still fine after 4 rides, so is clearly fantastic. Strangely, the GXP on my other bike has lasted 2 years in similar conditions despite being universally derided as junk. Bit of a bonkers system tho (assemble, torque up, curse at amount of play in cranks, disassemble, pack more grease in, reassemble, curse at amount of play in cranks, repeat until bed time).

Gotta agree with the OP though, never had any problems with square taper and really can’t see the point (other than making us by stuff) of these silly new fangled BBs

Deffo 9 speed link, even says it on the side, and I did squeeze the sides together while operating the not-so-magic tool. It’s got me stumped.

As for cleaning, I like to take the chain off so I can clean it properly and get all the jam off the jockey wheels and stuff. I know there are other methods but, damn it, I got a removable link so I would think it should be a removable sodding chain.

Ah well, split the stupid thing with a rivet remover now

I think my missus was going to say something similar but thought better of it when she saw the rage in my eyes 🙂

To clean it

Unfortunately, having a brew and trying again hasn’t helped, neither has leaving it till tomorrow (tried that a few times). This is *so* bloody irritating, to be beaten by something so simple 🙁

I’ll have the last laugh when it’s in the bin and the new SRAM 970 chain arrives (tenner from On One, could be worse I suppose). While I know this is probably just unlucky and all the other KMC chains in the world work as they should, life’s way too short for this nonsense so no more KMC for me