Its a very slippery slope, I did exactly the same as you (except I had a geared 125 varadero). IME don’t kid yourself that you’ll stick with the 125 once you’ve passed, I’ve now got a DL650GT after a string of other bikes.
One thing I would say though is that its good you’ve done your CBT and got some experience, thats the way I did it, I can’t fathom how daunting it must be for some people to go from nothing to direct access and be out on a big bike a week or two later!

Just go for it, but be prepared to be saying things like “its safer as i’ll have more power to get me out of trouble” and “i’m just getting annoyed with the feeling i’m holding traffic up even if i’m not”! :lol:

Damn, just beat me to it corroded! :lol:

Bikes DON’T come out of your luggage allowance, they are free and extra on top of your allowance.

erm, yes they do, its only golf clubs that don’t…

EDIT: No, really they do!

Cheers for that, the wife uses the Zero tabs, and was saying the other day we needed some more! :D

Took mine to Melbourne last year as was over there for a few months with work.
I read a lot of horror stories online before going about people having their bike impounded and having to pay for a steam clean etc. but thought I’d just go for it anyway.
I spent a few hours giving it a good clean, making sure there was no mud anywhere, including under the cleats on my shoes.
Then packed in soft CRC bag, pipe lagging around frame, took chainset off as was easy and meant frame wasn’t sat on chain rings. The airlines normally say to remove pedals anyway so might as well take the whole thing off!
Also, I bought some new tyres to avoid hassle of cleaning mud from the tread.
Plenty of bubble wrap and most importantly spacers in the dropouts. I used a piece of 15mm plastic pipe in the rear, my forks had a 20mm axle which I forgot to tighten and they were squashed when I unpacked the bike (they did spring back though and aren’t bent at all).
When I arrived at melbourne, had to wait around 10 mins at the oversize baggage claim, bike came out and I went to que for customs. I was sent to another que and the bloke just asked if it was a MTB or road bike, when I said MTB he just asked to see the tyres, when he saw they were new he just waved me through, no hassles.

Coming back, nobody wanted to see anything, imagine my surprise when I found a koala on my seatpost back in the UK! (erm, that bit may be made up).

In other shorter words, go ferrit if you can be bothered to clean it up a bit and I highly recommend getting new tyres for minimal hassle!

EDIT: oh, and its not expensive, I flew with Emirates specifically for their baggage allowance as your bike just comes out of your total allowance, no extra cost. It did mean taking some clothes as hand luggage but they’re pretty generous with that too so I managed to just scrape through in total, and that was taking enough stuff for 3 months away!

Daft question, but did you swap the crown race over from your Recons onto your Rebas?!?

Dont forget its chinese new year so if you order anything from DX it’ll take even longer than usual to get here, it’ll probably be light on an evening by the time it arrives!

Been up there today, was actually dryer than I expected, just a little slippy in places but certainly not the bog fest of grinding paste it can be this time of year! :P

Just noticed this…

Were the rims stans no tubes compatible? if they were then they are tight to get tyres on, the stans site explains the trick to it, you need to have the tyre in the central void to be able to get it on all the way round. I swapped my Racing Ralphs from my fulcrum red metals, which they were very very tight on over onto my sun ringle chargers, I dont think I would have got them on without sitting the bead in the central void.

Bit late now though!

Thanks for the replies, sounds perfect for my purposes. :-)

Glad I sorted it yesterday now! 8O

Out of interest, I know that they recommend using some finishline Fiber Grip on the cones on the clamp, does that come in the box too?

Avid sale on Merlin might be worth a look.

Interesting site, even comes with tube profile schematics!

They also make specialized! :lol:

Got a stem, hold my bars in place. Hasn’t broken and cost f’kall so it gets 100%. :lol:

Got a very quick response from wiggle. They confirmed that the price should be the lower one (the one advertised on the product page).

Order placed, they just said that they’ll deduct the £10 once I have an order number.

Also used the £5 newsletter signup voucher, so £175 all in. Only around £10 more than getting it from Germany and it means it’ll have both levers. :D

Just need to figure out how to explain its arrival to the wife…

IA, I remember there being a thread on here somewhere where someone had put measurements of the post on.

I belive the travel is 100mm, they’ve released a new version with more travel in the larger sizes this year.

I’d love to buy one, however when I add it to my basket on wiggle the price is £10 higher than it says on the product page!

Turns out I’ve had to email them anyway. :cry:

It was the remote on I was looking at so hope its not optional!

I’ll drop them an email, was hoping to get one ordered before 2pm hoping it’ll arrive before thurs.

One problem also maybe (only my thoughts) is perhaps they are using different manufacturers for the batteries, chargers and the lights and as such the connectors may not been be from the same company and tolerances not the same.

I have similar problems when using DC power sockets and plugs. Unless you use the same make they are not always a good fit.

Just my thoughts

I reckon you’re spot on there, I think that the internal diameter of the connector on the light is slightly smaller than that on the charger, so it squashes the pin slightly on the battery connector. That would be consistant with the solution of opening the pin slightly with a small screw driver, but would also mean that it’ll squash back down slightly once plugged back into the light head! :roll:

I’m the same, best fitting gloves ive found are gore. Also cannondale used to do some 3/4 length ones that were good but havent seen any around recently. Also find royal quite good for long fingers.

some frame designs, particularly full sus mean that the clamp needs to be lower, so you’re limited to either a top swing or e-type.

Just fitted my Christmas sun ringles…… I like ’em. :D

Trout,

Do you reckon this upgrade is DIY-able like the vision 2?

I’m handy with a soldering iron but can’t do any machining of the lamp housing if thats required.

Also, if its not DIY-able, what timescale are you looking at at the moment for the conversion?

Cheers.

I’ve got some of the 26″, still in the box though as not had a chance to fit them.

I believe the hubs are cartridge bearings so you can most likely just drift the old ones out and replace them if the do go pap.

I’ve heard the freewheels are a bit rubbish, its deffo very clicky, thats the only observation I can make so far!

Me too

I recently used an alloy hoover pipe worked well

+1

The sticker on the chainstay says its from moonglu, LBS in Ripon. They will most likely remember the person who bought it, I assume thats the dealer whoever contacted?
Also, if it is pinched you’ve not got far to go to get it back!

Cracking, cheers.

(I’ll no doubt be covered in sealant some time later this evening!)

Yes, according to the Garmin website you can use the discoverer maps on it, it may need a firmware update but I think thats only the early ones and it’ll sort that out once you plug it into the computer.

Looks like a bargain to be honest, dont forget the bike mount too, I got it from go outdoors and had them price beat amazon.

I’d probably get on it quick, not many left looking at the store availability. :wink:

Wheelset and grips ordered christmas day, grips arrived ages ago, wheelset dispatched today?!? :lol:

The connectors on my vision 4 batteries are the same, had a new charger from hope but its the same.

The charger connection fits into other same size sockets fine though, so I now think its the batteries not the charger, but the batteries fit fine with the light head.

I reckon if anything then the plug on the light head is slightly oversized and opens the battery socket up slightly allowing some play when the charger is then plugged in.

I just find a position it works in and hope for the best, but to be honest my cheapy magicshine batteries and chargers work better!

I think though that the HR and Cad are limited to being shown in a data field though, I dont think the etrex will do the virtual training stuff that the edge does.

I guess it depends what fucntions you’re after and what your budget is!

As a side, if anyone did miss out on the edge and wants the extra functions, these are available on the etrex 30 too.

What do you mean? It’s not ANT+, so it can’t do the sporty/bikey things.

The Etrex 30 is ANT+ so it can do the sporty/bikey things. Not too clear on the garmin site but page 46 of the owners manual states that it is and the same HRM and cad sensor are listed for the edge as the etrex 30.

And the etrex take AA batteries so easy to carry a spare set incase you run out of juice on the trail (think the edge has internal batteries?)

dont know much about the dakota to be honest, but seeing it in the flesh next to the etrex, it is quite a bit bigger so maybe not as nice to have on the handlebars.

As for loading maps, its very easy if you pay for them, rather more involved if you don’t!

Yes.

As a side, if anyone did miss out on the edge and wants the extra functions, these are available on the etrex 30 too.

Yeah, the mount is advertised as being for the Dakota I think but it fits fine and is shown on the Garmin website as being the right one. There’s also a RAM cradle for it thats out in the USA but not available here just yet, think i’ll see how the garmin mount holds up and go for the RAM if its a bit wobbly. Looks good enough though.

Also just got Mobac working to create 1:25k os maps thanks to the edge 800 maps thread, not tried them on the etrex yet though as at work but garmin say its compatible with custom maps so should work fine.

I thought the cold water thing on the superstar recommendation was so that you knew you’d achieved a decent temperature, not part of the bedding in process per se?

Does it deffo have to be shimano?

these are a bargain!

If it has to be shimano maybe try rose bikes?

I was considering the SSC braided hoses but was put off by the reviews.
If you’re after something to add a bit of colour I can recommend the clarks hoses (usually cheap on CRC), the performance is as good as standard hoses and they look nice. They’ve also recently changed their fittings (on the hayes hoses at least), they’re good quality. I’ve fitted three sets and they’ve always bled spot on first time.
I then decided that the bright green hoses I had didnt suit my black and white frame so went for some braided ones, hence looking at the SSC. In the end I went for the universal hope ones (kit 0), worked out around £50 all in for both brakes from merlin with their VIP discount. The hope fittings were a bit of a faf to erm, fit. The hardest part was fitting the olive over the braided part of the hose after removing the plastic coating, I opened them up slightly with some long nose pliers. Overall it was worth it as the hoses are tasty, as said above i think they’re made by goodridge.
If I were to buy braided hoses again i’d probably go for goodridge to avoid the hassle of the hope fittings but if I couldn’t stretch to the extra cash for goodridge I’d buy the hope again (if that makes sense).

One other thing, I noticed that there’s some very cheap braided hoses on disco brakes, they come with fittings already so wont’ fit all brakes and I only noticed them after i got the hopes so didnt look into it that much. May be worth a go though!

or you could get this…

Not sure if it’ll do the top cup though. Maybe contact a cyclus dealer and ask if you can get the heads on their own.