I am! MSc in Brewing and Distilling in September, really excited about it. Just hope i can find some work to keep me in pocket money between 1st April and the course starting.

I wouldn’t change it as it made me who I am and got me where I am and I wouldn’t want to change that. But i do occasionally wander if I should actually be out weilding a chainsaw or building oak framed houses rather than sitting in an office/lab… There’s still time for that though 😀

I’m sitting here laughing at myself for having started looking at mid-price wheelsets to now considering the bargain basement 😆

They do don’t they.

So should I just save my money and get a pair from Planet x then? Currently only £130

What do spokes weigh? I take it Planet x don’t use nova tech for their hubs – there is a 435g difference between what I have calculated and their weight that I presume can’t be accounted for by spokes alone, esp as they are using bladed spokes and ally nipples… How many times can I go round in circles on this?!

At least the less I spend on these now the more I can spend on something silly later in the year (or actually wheels and suspension for the Swift before Whinlatter but that’s a whole other thread!)

It will be Revs or the equivalent ACIs from Sdeals, although might need to order from else where, I need to check the sizes. I’ll be ordering hubs from Germany, Rose I think, for Claire’s wheels so I can get them all at the same time if Sdeals don’t have the ones we need.

OG – hub wise I’m taking advice from up there^ and I’m more than happy with that choice. The rims are the same as IRD cadence and I can’t find anything particularly negative about them. For the money I’m happy and I’ll use them before racing on them and if I’m concerned I’ll happily race on my Fulcrums.

The intimidating noise comment was a little tongue in cheek. I’m aware that unless there are plenty of others with loud wheels in the bunch it’s a great way of announcing your intentions.

any decisions mustard?

Yep! – well sort of 🙂

I’m going the cheapish option with a thought to maybe getting some 50mm planet x tub rims, if I feel i’m fast enough to warant it, later in the season.

So; Kinlin 300s 2x£40 on Njee’s ebay hubs (I tried an offer on the Dati hubs for a bit more than them but it was declined so again I’ll maybe consider them later) £70. Will decide on spokes when I’ve measured the rims.

I’ll be ordering some stuff from Germany and they seem to have pretty good prices on spokes so I’ll have to see if the builder minds cx-rays 😉 (only if they aren’t much more than revs as I doubt these rims are aero enough to be worth it, if any are, but that’s another longwinded debate 🙂 )

1218g ±a few + spokes for £150 + spokes + wine for the wheel builder

an acquaintance spotted it

does that mean it’s one set of pads for you and one for them?

Arrrrggggghhhhhhh!!!!!!

This hurts! I need to be more decisive!

Not helped by the fact that Dougie was not keen on the Alphas at all. He’s curently running 30mm Kinlin 300s and very happy with them which are tempting at just £40 each for a 465g rim. Of course I could get the alphas for £73 at the moment with CRCs £12 off…

Also found some carbon/ally chinese rims on ebay but they are getting into the weighty category again.

Maybe I should MTFU and get some full carbon tubs and worry about slowing down later 🙂

still weighing up whether to go with planet x/cheap chinese carbon 50mm tubs or some alpha 340s which i can use for training as well

Yup I’m torn too.

I’ve emailed bigdugsbaws to see what he thinks. Googling stans alphas last night, I found he has replaced stans with deep section rims #stalker

I’m not convinced more opinions are actually going to help me though!

Maybe quiet rims are better tactically for road racing – people won’t hear your attack before they see it…

Thinking about those Dati hubs, can’t see anything negative about them (haven’t looked all that hard).

Almost ordered the stans alphas but procrastinated too long last night and have started thinking about deep section carbon again…

Njee – are the Novatecs these ones from SDeals? Bloody cheap!

but I do find that I get a bit of a bitter taste

are you pre-warming everything; runnng hot water through the machine and warming your cup?

6 weeks for a spoke – did they have to make it specially?! – I think 1 set of fulcrums will be enough for me then.

Stans, standard J bend spokes and … hubs.

I think… 🙄

Yep you can run 23s on racing 5s.

I’ve got either 23 or 25s on my A319s too and haven’t died yet…

Think I’ll give the Stans a shot, will do some hub homework tonight. Do you need tubeless ready tyres or any and a splash of gunk?

I should have added that it also took ages to get hold of the Shimano spoke and spoke sleeve (? not sure if that bit was bikeshop waffle or not).

Shimano RS80s

Not keen on Shimano factory road wheels after one of DGOABs spokes snapped and threw the wheel so far out of shape it wouldn’t even clear the frame.

Andy after more research I’ve binned the carbon rim/tub concept, weight is not all, ride seems as good with tubeless (some say better), and tubs may still remain a faff.

this was what I was thinking so I’m pretty much decided on that one.

I’ll happily spend less than my budget (I need wheels and a fork for my 29er too) and I’m pretty sure I won’t be at the sharp end so not too obsesed by weight.

Will look into the Stans, although I am still tempted by the planet X carbon clinchers (I think its a fairing on an ally rim)…

Of course the carbon rims would take 190gm of those builds for similar money

you mean the ones you have?

*brain dribbles out ears*

I’ve been supposed to be writing an essay recently so made time for lots of lightweight wheel research

😆

You are a bad man. I’m telling teacher.

😈

Yay, another excuse to use my favourite smiley!

I wonder if I could fit a sneaky tour in….

Yes, yes you could, sod the weather and do a wee credit card tour of some nice pubs…

I took a cheapie IKEA frying pan with nice deep sides to cook with – stove was another story 🙄 – we had clothes for the evenings, were in Spain and Portugal so every litle bar does GOOD coffee (50cents or less in Portual). Tupperware boxes are very versatile; bowl to eat out of, lid as a plate, store leftovers for lunch the next day etc.

My tent is huge and weighs v little, albeit it is a single skin tarp tent. Tall enough for me to sit up comfortably, in fact they say that four can sit up and play a game of cards comfortably if the weather is grim.

I think carrying a teapot is taking things to extremes though.

I’ll see if i took a before pic of all our kit when i get to the laptop tonight

I knew they wouldn’t be a cheap option…

Home made bread rarly lasts more than a day in our home

I had to stop making it as it’d barely last an hour and anyone else would be lucky to get a look in 😳

as for frame without rack mounts; I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again – freeload[/url] Merida Germany import them so you should be able to get them online from a German retailer if you don’t want to import from NZ

What do folk do for bike bags on flights then?

Cling film 🙂

😆

Wander into the nearest bike shop with a quick spiel scribbled down from google translate along the lines of “could I please have a couple of cardboard boxes from bikes” – trying it in the local lingo seems to be appreciated. I’ve done it twice now and you usually get a funny look and handed a box or directed to the bins 🙂

Half the dough and keep the second half in the fridge until the first is almost eaten then bung in the oven and bake, rather than making one loaf that is obviously too big for you to eat in time and without having to do the whole thing from scratch twice?

I used to find that breadmakers were only good for kneading etc and you get a better loaf by baking it in t oven.

My riding year may be curtailed slightly

you planning on getting preggers? 😆

p.s. Had a good chain going on Sat, kept together all the way in from Aberlady to Musselburgh. Just a bity slower than we’d have liked but at least we weren’t hypothermic by the end!

Police in Ft William, I think it might have been Inverness plain clothes drafted in for the world cup, delivered me to my car after returning my keys that I had dropped in the pub. I had to jump out of their car to throw up while waiting for the local uniform officers to bring the keys out to us. Do not know how i didn’t spend a night in the drunk tank…

I did promise them I wouldn’t put the keys anyhere near teh ignition until the next day and crawled in the boot to pass out on top of my non-inflated thermarest and still packed sleeping bag. – Not my proudest day/night…

Heh – you can always spot the Dutch/Germans; the taps from their kitchen sink stick out the top of their panniers 🙂

IGMC…

Cling film is your friend for flying. We took 1 pannier each as hand luggage and wrapped the other two together, with bar bags, to make 1 piece of checked baggage between us (plus bikes).

Don’t need to carry an extra duffel for the sake of a flight as a roll of the cheapest cling will do the job. Just wrap it at the airport to make carrying easier – the transport police in Madrid did keep an eye on us as we packed outside the airport metro station though 🙂

EDIT – our checked ‘bag’ was still ~1/2 the weight limit for easyjet and had most of our heavy stuff in it.

Panniers if you’re not going for Stoners suggestion 🙂 You really dont need any more capacity. DGOAB and I did a month in Spain and Portugal last year with camping kit and still only had each pannier about 3/4 full (at the start when they were properly packed obviously, once you realise you have excess space you stop packing so carefully).

Mol – check out freeload racks – you have the bike for it!

Much easier for the Groms to get to than having to get their parents to drive them down to the Borders.

glitchy bumby?

Inners/Ae pricing

Uplift Scotland runs a bus based uplift service from the bottom of all the trails, no more pushing!
Cost is £32 per day, for this you can get 8 lifts to the top at Innerleithen or 10 lifts at Ae forest.

Try getting in touch with the guys at Dirt Schoolmaybe? Chris is a UCI commisaire or something like that and he and Andy will have tons of contacts in the local and national mtb scene. Rowan Sorrell is also a trail builder, I think he’s doen a lot of teh new stuff at Lee Quary, so between teh three of them you would have a pretty good resource, if they were interested.

Maybe have a dig about and see what research has been done for the Inners lift and if any of that is useable?

Actually Chris is

UCI Gravity Sports Coordinator 2011 – present
UCI Technical Delegate for the mountain bike World Cup and World Championships (2008 – present)

so will defo have an insight into what is needed to make a comp course.

The slopestyle angle could be a good one too and may be something the centre will have more of an insight into as the inspiration has really come from snowsports and I think they have hosted comps in the past.

If they were to gear up their facilities for bikers the cafe, or whatever they have up there, could also become an information hub for general cycling in the Pentlands which could possibly then be used to encourage more sustainable use of the trails. But that’s maybe getting a bit ahead of ourselves.

as a past owner of a bontrager privateer, a ritchey tubed fisher hookoohekoo, and a explosif every bike ever made, i reckon this type of bike is the best and comfiest riding bike ever.

FTFY 😀

I’m pretty sure it was a minimum of 5w/kg (for men) in the last minute of a ramp test on a turbo.

They seemed pretty aware it’s quite an arbitrary limit for team selection. I think the problem is that it is such a big club so they needed to set something that was easily measurable and comparable, otherwise pretty much every bloke in the club will want a piece of the coaches time.

My target for this years racing is to not get spat out the back in at least one RR.

Off to majorca in a few weeks to get some miles in

👿

Chainline – the plant pot in the background of the second pic of the Colnago made me do a double take, I thought you had a basket on it!

and HarYuken I’ll say it before someone else does Campag please not Campy 🙂

hmmmmm, am thinking about some forks for the Swift but the issues with rockshox keep popping up lately and are putting me off. Need to have a dig about and see what other options there are that don’t involve selling a kidney…might involve buying a new frame that’ll take tapered forks though 🙄 🙂

Odds on him having been torn a new one by Robinson and told to retire before he’s dropped?

Stand-off Dan Parks has announced his retirement from international rugby.

Have you tried the Kask helmets in TBC (if he still does them)? They seemed pretty good, although not quite right for me.

I ended up with a £100ish Spesh. Figure it’s worth it though and they have a reasonable crash replacement policy.

Actually, if you wanted to stick with Giro they have a crash replacement policy[/url] too.

Just because something can be done doesn’t mean it should be done! 🙂

Pain being that caulis are heading out of season

Actually, according to the two camp hairy bikers, cauli is one of the only veg that we never have to import and can be grown year round in the uk.

Cauli Season