Saw the RAD sizing idea a while ago. I worked it out and it suggests a 500mm reach. My mountain bikes are mostly around that number, either slightly longer or shorter, not far out. But I still think reach is a byproduct of other measurements and angles that matter more, so isn’t the whole story. Sizing by reach alone is a mistake.

I got about 46km out of a loop of Bedgebury and Bewl Water. Otherwise did a couple of 60km+ rides from Crawley last year. Either south to Ardingly, West Hoathly, Forest Row and back along the Worth Way, or along that to Ashurst Wood, head north towards Edenbridge and back via Dormansland. Southern one can include trails in Tilgate or Dears Leap. Quite nice countryside, at least in summer. Should be easy enough to do those from the Tunbridge Wells end rather than Crawley, once you’re on the Forest Way at Groombridge. Council rights of way maps are quite good for browsing and connecting bridleways.

I grease them. Usually find bushing jockey wheels develop play whereas bearings keep going well after the teeth have worn out. Recently had to get SLX as couldn’t find XT ones so will see how they get on.

This is an absolute fundamental rule, it’s usually made very clear at interview, it will be listed very clearly in the staff handbook and sometimes on your employment contract, it will be mentioned during training and again, first thing day 1. It’s usually given with the preamble of “I’m sure you wouldn’t but…” because to 99% of people, it’s obvious.

One place I worked seemed attract a rather unlikely number of the 1% to whom that’s not obvious. Also referred to as ‘thieving bastards’. Even older people you’d think would know better. Also quite bizarre are employees that think it’s okay to eat in front of customers. One lad sat there eating a tub of ice cream, on several occasions. “It’s okay, I’ve paid for it” “Err, doesn’t matter if you’ve paid for it. That doesn’t look good in front of customers”. He just didn’t get it, and wasn’t the only one.

Not had any issue with *counts* 5 Newmen hubs!

But are they from before or after Newmen changed the design because there were so many issues? 😉

– bikes with remote fork lockouts. Don’t see the need for them. Added weight and clutter as well.
– suspension frames with loads of pivot bearings. Current Norco Sight has 16!

In my experience, if they you can’t remove the play without them binding then the bearings are worn out. New bearings, nice round balls, this doesn’t happen.

They were new straight out the box from both companies, so can’t have been worn out. IMO a cartridge bearing hub that needs a preload adjuster is a bad design. DT Swiss and others have no problem keeping things tight yet spinning freely without.

Cannondale’s Lefty forks…. WHY!? There’s no need and no point and they just look s**t. Funny how no one else has ever felt the need to make a mono-leg. Reinventing the wheel and if it ain’t broke don’t fix it spring to mind!

I think they look great. Leftys are usually structurally stiffer, with better small bump compliance. Although modern forks are catching up. Running on bearings rather than bushings they also don’t bind when cornering or braking. Something most riders don’t even think about, but is happening. Several other companies have produced rigid or suspended struts, most notably USE.

– bikes with upside down bottle cages
– bikes that rattle or creak
– internal cable routing ports that pop out or don’t fit properly
– forks and frames covered in bikepacking, rack or fender mounts like warts
– hubs with cup and cone bearings. Also hubs with bearing preload adjusters that have no sweet spot between bearing play and binding. Older Mavic and Newmen hubs for example.

Used to work with a guy whose lunch was often solely a can of cold undrained tuna.

Also another person who left multiple half consumed cups of tea about their desk until a skin of blue mould formed over the surface.

William B Davis

Jeffrey Combs

Any modern warehouse, it would all be by barcode with a hand held scanner: scan box, get instruction to take the box to location 22 b, shelf 3, etc… and thats going back 20 years from my forklift days, lol!

You’d think so, but that’s not how M&S worked and it wasn’t that many years ago. Obviously not quite caught up with the cool kids like Amazon.

I once worked at M&S. Fortunately all the staff I met were thoroughly nice people. But I used to have to unload fresh stock from cages and stick it on shelves upstairs in the warehouse. Nice simple job you’d think. But the bizarre way everything had been organised only made sense to the one staff member that designed the layout. Who was rather proud of the achievement. Took ages to find the right place for things, unless you happened to have worked there years and memorised it all. And of course most of it was in plain boxes rather than easier to recognise retail packaging.

That’s a lot of dislikes for the number of likes. Think that speaks for itself.

I once ordered a Stumpjumper in early September for delivery that month. Bumped probably a dozen times to various dates and eventually turned up in February. It was being regularly delivered in plentiful numbers to Europe, the US and Aus from the previous July onwards. No pandemic to blame. Based on that experience I think very hard before ordering anything that isn’t in stock. If I do it won’t be something I need or am really counting on to come on time.

I saw two Apaches come over the South Downs a couple of years ago. From a distance I thought they’d be a long way up, but pretty much stayed level so were very low where I was on top above Storington. Beastly.

Had a C-17 go over the house 3 times last week on the way into Gatwick. Not usually under a flightpath. Never seen one before so hadn’t previously appreciated a few things. Firstly it looks nothing like a airliner, secondly the tail is enormous, third the RAF really sling transport planes into tight turns.

They have already lost their trade discount now

That’s got to be a good chunk of any draw to working in a bike shop out the window. And possibly more importantly a big part of attracting the right people to the job – cyclists – people actually interested in the sport and equipment, with knowledge and enthusiasm for the subject.

Is this because greedy Ashley is trying to squeeze labour or because the business is still not doing any better? The former will cause a downward spiral for service and the latter would be a really astonishing failure considering how busy most bike shops and mechanics have been in the last year.

Had a look at the website the other day, literally nothing I want anymore. Loads of Muddyfox crap has arrived. Range of mountain bikes has gone from probably 25 pages a few years ago to 3 now. I understand there’s a shortage right now but still.

The issue with suspension bikes is oval chainrings constantly change the anti squat, so in theory could make the suspension bob. Also where the rider puts the most power in is actually the softest point for ovals/anti squat, which is sub optimal. One of the supposed benefits of oval rings is traction, suspension bikes already help with that.

After many thousands of miles using oval chainrings I went clean off them. Once my leg muscles got used to the way they pedal the benefit was lost, and after a while it actually started to feel harder, not easier. Noticed this most when I went back to round and realised how much leg strength had been lost. I believe oval chainrings, among other things, partly caused knee problems I had a few years ago. It’s something to do with rhythmic changes in resistance and cadence from the oval ring causing a kind of successive impact or strain on knees when pedalling. Others have said similar.

I bent the plates slightly closer together for one mech. There are tiny direction arrows on Shimano jockey wheels if you’ve had them out. Also a ridge to stop the chain getting wedged, in theory. The 12 speed mechs should look slightly twisted to help line up with the chain and chainring in different gears. I had big problems with a small twig getting stuck and bending everything out of shape, bizarrely even the top jockey wheel got warped and had bent teeth.

Has anybody broken a mountain bike specific carbon fork? I hear lots of people taking sharp intakes of breath, but is that because older generations of carbon road forks were poor?

I remember about 10 years ago someone broke a Niner fork. Had one myself at the time. Gave me no cause for concern because it felt reassuringly much less flimsy than a steel one, and also rode quite smoothly.

made a point of giving the levers a good squeeze once or twice a week in passing, just to flex the seals

What’s the benefit of doing that? Not trying to be obnoxious but you shouldn’t need to.

I would have thought they leak all the time? But it gets burnt off or worn away faster than it leaks with frequent use. Sub optimal anyway. Power starts to take a dive after only 2-3 weeks. So it’s bit hard to keep on top of using them enough with several bikes. Not that anyone should have to. This has been going on far too long now, along with the bite point issue.

Currently got three out of four bikes running Shimano. XTR 9120, pistons leak, recently pulled the bike out after a few months without use and the pads are dead, possibly rotors as well. Fuming, bearing in mind the price of these pads and rotors now, plus they are already warranty replacements for 9020s with the same issue. SLX 7100, not leaking but most noticeable wandering bite point I’ve had yet. GRX 600, no leaking or wandering bite point. So I’d say it’s still a lottery.

Maybe undoing partially, or too slowly or not following the correct procedure with this Topeak head. It is possible.

Fact check: Do you really lose air when you disconnect your shock pump?

If you’re loosing air when disconnecting, you’re doing it wrong or it’s faulty.

especially in the era of Just Eat etc

Domino’s will have Just Eat, Deliveroo and Uber terminals chirping away so they don’t miss out.

Weird thing is I had that Topeak shock pump, but non XL, and it let loads more air out than any other. Followed instructions to the letter and tried on various forks and shocks. I’m guessing it was faulty. Ended up with a Lezyne that works great.

Hate to say it, but I quite like the Pizza Hut/KFC popcorn chicken and gravy sauce pizza. More conventionally, normal tomato sauce with chopped up bacon and onion.

Best thing anyone can do with a pizza is not put pepperoni on it. Tastes great but that’s where 90% of the oiliness comes from.

It wouldn’t stop me buying one if I really wanted it, but Saracen will always be associated with Halfords for me, and for being crap but slightly better than Apollo. Madison could have come up with a new name, or Tomac and Titus were up for sale around the same time, before On One trashed them.

Genuinely annoying and disappointing to see SuperBoost. Means it’s now spreading beyond Knolly and a few Dave Weagle suspended brands.

Similar experience with Park, but Topeak cable cutters have been much better. Lighter, smaller, actually cut properly. Or Knipex…

I had this issue about six years ago, and guess what, frame was a Cotic Solaris. Internally the seat tube was significantly oversized. So maybe check that’s okay.

Over tightening the clamp isn’t good for the dropper, although some are more sensitive than others. The Fox DOSS I had at the time would bind if too tight.

Otherwise some kind of shim, or friction paste, or that KCNC double height clamp looks like it should do the job. Could possibly cut a second slot in the seat tube for more even pressure. Some Treks used to have three slots.

Hmm, is it me or are there quite a few mixed signals going around about other cast members returning? Anything definite?

Not even worth watching without David Hyde Pierce.

Even more ridiculous than e-bike specific chain lube. And yes, there is such a thing.

Presumably anyone local complaining about damage to the environment is aware of the condition of Ludshott Common after recent logging? I’ve seen more pristine countryside in photos of the Somme.

The one where Niles tries to learn how to ride a bike was funny. So long as it has David Hyde Pierce it’ll be great.

That Wippermann looks substantial!

Chains on our forklift at work are fairly solid. There are two chains but each one has four plates, so any failure doesn’t cause a problem.

I ended up running normal geared chains for singlespeed. Used proper singlespeed chains for many years before, and they do feel slightly more solid when really cranking, but made no difference to the number of breakages IME.

so any failure is likely to be down to damage (either externally or due to poor maintenance / fitting)

Or manufacturing defects, including poor hardening and pin/outer link tolerances.

Was just going to check how many comments Waverley Beat’s PR disaster post has now, but it appears to have been taken down.

With a fence around them to show which bits of the sea floor they own

The queen owns all of it. You couldn’t make this stuff up.

Very sad that England probably won’t see access like Scotland in my lifetime, if ever. Far too many people obsessed with partitioning off bits of land for themselves and keeping others out. Never been to any other country where there are so many fences, walls, hedges and rules on access.

Why?

Because huge areas of the countryside are off limits to the public in this country for no sensible good reason, just centuries old elitist selfishness. And I don’t mean to build dirt jumps like above, just access would be nice.

Do you want them to chop the trees down to stop kids digging a jump park?

Not entirely sure what you’re saying there but chopping trees down to block trails and jumps doesn’t work, is a lazy way of trying to sort things out and is bad for both the environment and the land owner’s business harvesting trees, if that’s what they do. What’s needed is engagement.

Those woods aren’t someone’s back garden. Think it’s about time landowners had to justify why random bits of woodland are private and inaccessible. That said, I can see why those jumps could be dangerous and how that sort of digging is taking the piss without permission. But ultimately, can’t believe the police don’t have more important things to do. If it was a stolen bike, dangerous driving, dangerous dog, threats of violence, houses that stink of weed, they’d still be sat in their office firing spitballs at each other (maybe not in covid times). Obviously written by someone with a negative attitude towards cycling.