All in jersey pockets:

Tube
2 Levers
Blackburn mini pump
Park patches (the tiny pre-glued ones)
Phone
Debit card with fiver round it (in sandwich bag with phone)
Keys
Few bars/gels
Crank Bros multitool (usually but not always)

And maybe armwarmers/gilet depending.

A couple of things (pump and multitool) are a bit bigger than they need to be but I can’t really justify replacing them.

Most of these solutions are answering the wrong question. what is needed is cars that use less energy – both the embodied energy and the energy in use.

What’s needed more is less dependence on cars in general (although obviously they’re not going to go away).

It’s tricky to give more than one or two enough time to keep the relevant skills/fitness at a level to get the most out of them.

Years ago it was all about climbing and hillwalking for me, now it’s pretty much all biking and the odd climbing trip isn’t great because I haven’t got the confidence anymore. Similarly if you’re only going to get out on your bike once every few weeks I don’t think you get as much out of it ‘cos you’re just not as fit and on the ball. So yes, I think you can have too many hobbies if you want to do any of them to a reasonable level.

EDIT: Wot Grumm said basically!

I think for 90% of people 250 miles/2 hr recharge would do fine 90% of the time. It’ll come though, and people are looking into the renting/swapping out battery thing I think.

You can book your bike online for Virgin/Cross Country here:
http://www.nationalexpresseastcoast.com/

It’s not immediately obvious but it’s there! I always book mine and probably about 50% of the time I’ve been glad I did, either because of particularly officious conductors/platform staff or because of other people with bikes and no bookings.

For more local trains just show up and squeeze on.

In general I’d go for subtle over funky, but in this case I prefer the funky one- the other one’s a little bland.

I’m not sure they are sticky I suppose- I assumed they were reluctant to go back in because of crap behind them (which there probably is anyway) but I guess bleeding is probably the place to start.

Just go round and do it for him Jo, you’ll be here all day else

Actually I’m running out of excuses, so he’s nearly done

so, theoretically, i was right

I also don’t have a file…

I’m not going to let you have this!

in the time it’s taken you to post all this you could have filed that bit down

If I was at home to be doing it, which I’m not.

That’s looking like the best bet at the moment, I don’t have a vice so could turn into a PITA though… Just come across some chainring bolt spacers but not too keen, sounds like there’d be a lot of load on the bolts alone?

I did think about that but I’m a lazy man! It’s probably only about 1mm- less than 2mm for sure.

One of the Boardman hybrids?

Depends on the frame I suppose. My take on it is that a carbon frame can be built to be more comfortable/lighter/stiffer/whatever you’re interested in than an aluminium one, but won’t necessarily have those properties just because it’s carbon. As others have said upgrading some of the other bits on your Allez will probably be cheaper and more noticeable.

That said, if you want one then do it anyway!

Nav is essential, route choice is the difference!

+1 to this! Also force yourself to keep on top of your nav. It’s surprisingly easy to miss/choose to ignore errors if you’ve got your head down and are plodding on with your chosen route, especially on day 2 if the conditions are/have been bad.

I’ve done it and the KIMM a couple of times each. If you do a lot of fell running you probably know most of what you need to, but off the top of my head:

-Be super strict with your kit (but they probably will check you have the minimum)
-plastic bags for walking around camp in your wet shoes
-make absolutely sure sleeping bag etc will stay dry
-don’t try some crazy cooking solution to save a few grammes without making absolutely sure it will work exactly as you think it will in the worst conditions
-practice running with your loaded sack before the event
-don’t expect to be able to dump anything at mid camp

Anything specific you were wondering about?

Nice to see that even the Guardian doesn’t know the difference between peddling and pedalling.

Riding around didn’t work anyway, but turns out a mate has a gear puller which might do the trick.

The

just riding around tip

will knacker the taper.

I know, but the BB’s knackered anyway. It’s a Deore drivetrain that I was running into the ground before converting it to singlespeed, which was today’s job before I stripped the threads! It’s annoying because I was going to use the cranks but everything else was headed for the bin anyway.

I’ve just managed to strip the threads out so can’t use a crank puller- will try this just riding around tip :-(

I’m with ScotlandTheScared. I’ve not done anything to my Rebas in the couple of years I’ve had them and they seem to be doing fine, and I’m not a fan of taking things apart and putting them back together again too often if there’s nothing wrong with them.

Hope it doesn’t kill off the local shops.

People choosing to shop there will kill off the local shops.

Do people hate them? Their size and profits suggest that plenty of people are happy enough to shop there.

On one doofer does the job without any fuss. I’d stay clear of the springy ones personally as they seem to need more frequent adjustment. I like the ones that stay put – much nicer.

Will see how I get on with the doofer then… actually it’s an other doofer and has just arrived :-)

Slight hijack: If I set everything up with the On-one doofer and then upgraded to a Surly one later, might I have problems with the chain length or should it be OK?

I’ve just ordered an On-one cos I’m a bit skint, otherwise internet wisdom seems to be that the Surly Singulator is good.

Edit: I was after one that tensions up too, the On-one worked out about the same as the DMR one otherwise.

Llandegla is doable by train (Wrexham) but the shortest road route isn’t great- you spend a lot of time grinding up hills on narrow roads with a queue of impatient cars behind you.

Speaking of trains to routes, good effort from the guys heading off to the train station after the Crickhowell Merida with big backpacks.

On-one have some but not in a kit.

I like the T-shirt, only complaint is there weren’t any large ones left by the time I got there!

Crickhowell Merida.

I put new ones in the front at the second feed station and chose the best of the rest for the back. Haven’t looked yet but I’m sure they’ll all be gone. Judging by the nasty squealing noises as people arrived at the feed station everyone was in the same boat!

Yep, great event, but my worst effort- bit out of practice so not the best for fitness or descending really.

5/6, with a few educated guesses. Had no idea about ‘pikau’ though.

Is it well above the minimum insert mark when it’s creaking?

Tom Mcrae, I am Kloot, Brian Wright and the Waco Tragedies, the Crimea, Gogoll Bordello, the Frames, Andrew bird, Clann Zu and The Dears

+1 for The Frames, but… Tom Mcrae?!

I’ll be there, white/silver Giant XTC. Probably won’t do anything on the Sat.

Maybe they’re getting it from here:

Death-Defying Stunt Video is Like Parkour for Bikes

‘Stretching’ implies that a single, continuous object/piece of something is getting longer while remaining whole, or it does to me anyway! With a chain, single pieces are actually getting smaller but the combination of those parts gets longer.

the bike as tested was flawed, the pointed out those flaws and also the potential of the bike when sorted, i thought it was a reasonable view to take?

Agreed, also what higgo said. They tested what they were given, said what happened, and acknowledged what Cotic have done about it. Seems fair enough to me.

Oh, and I liked Role Models after going in with really low expectations.