Sport Pursuit have Alpinestars Tahoe waterproof strides for £29 at the moment. They’re only 8k waterproof and 3k breathable but fine if you’re on an EBike and not getting all heated up.

https://www.sportpursuit.com/catalog/product/view/id/2642546

Lidl do their own version of the Hydroshot for about half the price in their centre aisle section. I picked one up in the sale a few months back for £50 plus £25 for 2 batteries and the charger. It works fine….

No regrets at all. I had pretty much packed up riding, lost all my fitness and desire to get out until i picked up my Mondraker Chaser in January. Been out every weekend and usually twice a weekend in the summer since i got it. I have my mojo back. Took a couple of rides to get used to it though – I went from a 26″ 120mm Pivot susser with SPD’s to a 29″ slack long wide bars dropper posted 160mm with flats bike so everything was different.

I have an SM Core on the eBike. It’s the most instantly comfortable saddle I’ve had in 35 years of riding. A gamechanger.

And as a butt reference my other 2 bikes have an old original Fizik Gobi and an old original SDG Belair from about 20 years ago

We have one of these and have been using it for years. Brilliant bit of kit. Pop up design, packs small, sandbag pockets and you can zip the front up of you need some privacy.

https://amzn.eu/d/gRPbYCc

She shouldn’t really be on a BMX track on that bike…..

It’s handy for keeping the wasps in….

It’s genuine

It’s Zyro Fisher and legit. I bought a helmet from there a few months back. All fine.

I would have thought that as your contract is with the dealer that sold you the bike you need to focus on those guys. It should at least get them doing the running around for you and they will also have a very direct line into Raleigh which you may not have. If they start hitting brick walls with Raleigh then you need to go down the Small Claims route with the dealer. Its tough but it’s their responsibility. Don’t hang about any longer  though – the Raleigh parent group in Europe is in a terrible state financially and this issue is a huge problem for them compounding all the current bike trade woes. I have a feeling they aren’t going to be around much longer…

https://road.cc/content/news/raleigh-owner-accells-credit-rating-downgraded-again-308857

Early Sunday morning is a great time to have a good zig zag around the City of London and Canary Wharf. There’s nobody about -so it’s a very 28 Days Later vibe….

Try insuring the bikes separately with Laka

https://laka.co/gb

I have  a referral link which gets you a discount if you want to use it – just message me….

Where’s the motor?

“Endura owed quite a bit”

We were talking about this last week. Endura (and others) must be fuming, they havent been paid, and then,to rub it in even more, their stock is being sold at cost price, so nowhere else in the Country is having any Endura sales, as CRC are so cheap, hence they are not selling any other stuff to anyone else.

This is only the tip of the iceberg……as well as nobody else selling Endura (as an example) at the moment the public will have been loading up with seasons worth of spare kit at these prices. So Endura will be looking at years worth of reduced sales. It’s likely that they are overstocked at the moment (as are most of the other companies on the debtors list) and they may even still have incoming stock from forecasts that CRC would have been taking it. Oh, and they’ve probably lost their single biggest customer/route to market as well…… You can copy/paste most of the bike trade brands/distributors that were dealing with CRC into that scenario and we wont see the true impact until after the spring of next year as they will be moving a lot less product through this summer/autumn. They rely on those summer sales to float through the winter….

It’s kind of wax based and will solidify pretty quick. The bottle is a bit squishy so just give it a thorough squeeze and roll it around a bit – it’ll soon turn back to liquid. Give it a god shake when it does. It’s excellent stuff….

Mike Ashley now has a ready made global sales outlet with the CRC/Wiggle name. That was he was missing with Evans and what was probably interesting to him.

My money is on Orro going in February…

I had actually given up about 18 months ago after 25 years of hoolying around singletrack. Almost 60, poor lifestyle and condition that isn’t honestly going to change much, knees shagged, back issues, long hours, late nights at weekends and always holding up the regular guys on the climbs had defeated me.

But I’m about to hit the button on an eMTB this week after doing a ride with the chaps from work around the Wyre Forest the morning after our Xmas bash, being sick on a climb (first time ever!), just about hanging with them on the downhills and just having the best time again. I realised that if I get some assistance with the most unpleasant part of the ride (i.e slogging up hills) I can fall back in love with it all again.

So there’s an incoming Mondraker…..although that orange Orbea looks lush 🙂

cough….Kodi box…..cough cough 😉

12 year old son is getting……

An air rifle and targets for the garden
and
A supercar driving afternoon (Lamborghini Aventador, Ferrari and Nissan GTR)

I’ll probably get…..

Lindt
and
Socks

Went through the same scenario 2 years ago for Xmas with 10year old son.

Top tip – buy 2!!!! One each. Its loads more fun than doing it on your own.

I ended up with an Hpi racing Maverick Strada buggy and a truggy too. Also bought a fast charger and 3 spare batteries. The cars are easy to fix when you crash them (you will) – spares are easy to find.

https://www.hpiracing.co.uk/piw.php?partNo=MV12614

https://www.hpiracing.co.uk/piw.php?partNo=MV12613

We had a good year out of them before he moved on to other interests – they are currently sat in the garage. And up for sale if anyone wanted the complete kit – ready to go with a bunch of spare bits too.

I’ve just given back a Hyundai 1.7 CRDi i40 Style auto tourer after 3 years and 96,000 miles (i had a Skoda Octavia vRs estate before that for the same miles/time). i just picked up a Skoda Octavia 1.6 TDi DSG SE Technology estate to replace it.

The i40 initially seemed comfy but after a while i found the seats really uncomfortable for my back. It felt gutless too – loads of spinning engine and noise but not much go, not very punchy at all.
It has shockingly weak headlights – bordering on dangerous (apparently something to do with poorly designed reflectors – even posh bulbs couldn’t sort it)
The satnav screen is too bright as well and you can’t dim it – really distracting at night.
I had numerous soppy problems with it too. Rear suspension bushings both crumbling in 1st 6 months, wiring loom fault that kept dumping the battery and leaving me stranded, rear camera failed (rear visibility is awful without it), both front and then rear parking sensors failed. The local dealer was rubbish and parts are hard to get quickly – there never seemed to be any in the UK and it took 2 months to get the camera fixed.
Good points – its huge inside and has loads of toys as standard and thats about it. I wouldn’t buy one……

The new Octavia is a whole different ball game – comfortable, fast and punchy, lovely seats and a massive spec on the SE Technology edition. The DSG box is sublime and smooth. The car is really quiet and pulls like a train even though its just a 110ps – it feels like a 2.0 150+ps. It costs about 5k less than the Hyundai i think too and has much lower company tax. The Adaptive Cruise Control is a gamechanger too – great gadget. Its early days yet but so far I would spend my own money on this one……

Good luck with getting a decision in 3 weeks – its Christmas week and most of the bike trade will only be thinking of food and riding after about the 18th December. You need to put some pressure on the retailer to sort it.

This is a week long issue in reality – the retailer can easily courier it back to Zyro Fisher in a couple of days if they have the mind to. And the distributor could easily look at it within 48 hours too if it was prioritised. If its a big retailer they should pretty much have the weight/relationship to push it through quickly.

Be aware that the distributor has just gone through a big structural change and are by all accounts more than a little disorganised at present – that may not help the situation if you leave the decision making to them.

We bought a Simba 6 months ago. Its bloody comfy……..

Did a bit of web research beforehand, narrowed it down to an Eve or the Simba. Flipped a coin. Very happy with the outcome.

2 mins of my life i aint getting back there……..

dovebiker – new Lakes won’t be around until at least October 2016 and they really are overkill for UK conditions. The existing Lake MZX303 will run for another few years and won’t be cleared out for a good long while.

Infocrank……….

Left/right so doesnt have to guess what one leg is doing
Waterproof
No recalibrating
An instrument, not a power meter. Designed from the strain gauges up into their own crank design
0.2% error – most others are 2%+
Just about to go magnetless on January firmware update
Just got BC approval too……

Whiplash, get straight on the phone to a claims company! You’re gonna mint it!

Mindcrime is my fave album of all time – i’m a bass player and Eddies sound on Breaking the Silence was the sound in my head. Empire is also very, very good but they started losing it after that and Chris DeGarmo leaving really killed them off. Followed Ryche since the QOTR ep was released and they were videoed in bearskins and swords and stuff 🙂

The new Queensryche with Scott LaTorre singing is pretty good but Geoff Tates version is an embarassment to the name. They even rerecorded some Empire classics on the last album and its terrible – just shows that it was the band that made it work, not just the singing.

Have you checked its pulse?

Its much better from Essex to Kent but still stacking up the other way (although still an improvement)

Yup, i was in it.
And i still havent been squashed 40 yewrs later so it must have worked 🙂

Jagwire have just released a new Elite Sealed cable kit.

Sell them and buy some Whispbars instead.
And more usefully probably, the rubbers should come with the bars you have.

The James O’Brien show has been staple listening for me for years now. I reckon he’s one of the best radio presenters about. Sometimes funny, cutting and always able to provoke thought. Mystery Hour on a Thursday is essential listening.

Ferrari, on the other hand, is a complet nob. As is the Dale Winton wannabe thats on drivetime.

Apple stuff always goes down well

Get her an i Ron

Honda CRV?
Decent on the road for distances and enough of a soft roader to get by in the snow. Bloody massive amounts of room and Honda reliability.
Weve had a 2002 one for 7 years and its been excellent – would buy another (poss with a diesel this time)

New Knog Blinder Road rear

The 625 will be about £20 per month and the 925 about £22 so no real difference really. Heard that the 625 screen is not so good and it seems a bit too big. Think i!ll go for the 925 ( although some have reported poor reception).
Decent camera, battery life and its gotta last 2 years are the priorities.

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