The more bite-sized Sarn Helen Trail could make another good location for a GDR-style event. Given the distance, it could well be do-able over a weekend

LOL! Took three of us 7 days of bloody hard riding, staying in B&Bs. None of us were slouches either. First day took 10 hours…. I suppose you could give it a go though.

Flaperon – Member
Could it be he was looking for somewhere safe to leave a parcel?

The demise of public toilets strikes again 😆

I think you'd struggle to find anyone who knows everything about every bike.

OK but it's a flipping aheadset! She shouldn't be working there if she knows that little! I'd understand if you went in asking for an Italian threaded bb or a cotter pin or something slightly obscure….

Looks a bit steeper to me (although considerably less muddy). Blood-thirsty crowd looks familiar though!

Leggyblonde – that site is brilliant. Check out this guy:

After a grim commute that cheered me up perfectly. Great. Plus the guy in the background takes a tumble at the same time!

The OP is right you know. None of us takes this forum seriously enough.

Mods – can we change the user-names for a simple numbering system?

😉

Flite question- Are you guys light/heavy, using them on your mountain bike?

I'm medium-ish weight, used a flite for years on road and off. ALthough they look narrow, the part you sit on is the same as most apparently wider saddles. Also the rails are so flexible they really provide some cushioning. Not tried any of the new style flites.

Flite no question! In particular the transalp! Don't know what I'll do when this one dies.

Angel – Jimi Hendrix
Dicks Hate the Police – The Dicks

Many many more could make it on a different day but these will do most days!

Short and to the point. I like it. Thanks.

Awesome bike, my first proper mtb. I now commute on an even more ugly Kilauea in dark blue, with the same pannier bag but in bright yellow!Makes a hell of a racket descending through the woods on the way home, but the dog walkers hear you a long way in advance 😆

Thanks for that. Makes me think I've done the right thing. I've just ordered an 18" of the same today (that's an 18 innit?). Going to Alfine mine up. What length travel fork do you have on?

multirelease have the nasty habit of pulling out at inopportune moments, I hate them, and have only used them when I bought them by accident… Just get standard release and get on with it. Much better. FWIW I didn't fall off when I started using them, although I've seen many others do so.

that's were not we're…. 😳

F***ers!
Will keep my eyes peeled but doubt they'll end up Otley end…

Hope they we're insured.

Just take 'em out on a 'normal' ride. If they like it they'll be back. I started with the Hayfield-Edale loop in the snow…. come to think of it, which sadist took me out on that?!…

You sure taught him a lesson he won't forget 😆

Tread stopping compound?! Never had that one in all my years working in bike shops. But then, I'm an idiot too 😆

I wear a woolly jumper on my lower half, with my legs in the arms and tackle hanging out of the neck hole. You get a few odd looks but if you need a dump it's quicker and easier than lycra bib tights.

bauhaus- bela lugosi's dead

Awesome song. And it sounds like it shouldn't work but Sepultura's cover of said song is also truly awesome!

32, Doctor of Rock(s), Leeds Uni.

I've worked in two well respected mtb specialsits. We used to do free CK fitting and try to price match etc. Both shops went bust. Busy but no profit!

In most cases you can get hold of past exam papers and get to grips with typical structures. I worked out answers to these and figured out the likelihood of certain topics coming up. I did put in a lot of work to devising ideal answers so it wasn't just 'reeling off memories'. I went over and over my ideal answers, so that I could pretty much write out answers, including equations, chemical formulae etc etc without batting an eyelid. As I said, i can't recall any of that now!

I use my middle finger only, and have done since v-brakes first came out! (although they required 2 fingers, or even 3 in the wet!). Don't use index finger 'cos that gives you a 'narrow' grip compared to using the middle finger if you see what i mean? (not sure even I do) 😆

I know that some of my exam answers were/are used as examples of 'high first class' ideal answers (Earth Sciences stuff). In fact all my undergraduate exam results were A- to A+. That's because i worked like a bastard for the week or so before them. I honestly could not tell you anything about the content of the exams now. To do very well it's all short term memory (and a little bit of brain power) and therefore utterly pointless. Coursework is the best way, but I probably wouldn't have done so well with that! 😉

Sorry but the bike in the OP just looks terrible. Extended headtube AND pointy-uppy stem? I don't think so. Dura-ace triple, straight forks and discs? Could not be further from nice if it tried.

djglover's is more like it, whereas flatboy's is closer to the reality of commuting (at least my reality)!

He's still around. I cycle through the Chevin Forest near Otley on my way to work, at around 6 am I might add. I generally don't find it too scary. The other morning though, I got a flipping puncture on a very dark bit of singletrack through the trees. It was very foggy too. I'm not 100% sure but I think the Wolfman was watching me fix it.

The message is: you'll be fine as long as you keep moving…

Academics are not **** useless. They are very important and very busy, with barely any time to sit and read STW 😉

Straight through gear cable guides (for full length outers) – more cable drag and don't last longer in my experience. Invariably need a newer inner cabler if you wish to clean them. I know you just use a ferrule adapter thing but still..

Under the top tube cable guides – for extra shoulder pain when carrying. Solution to a non-existent problem.

I've used them for a long time and find them to be 'ok'. As above, big shoes are required and in properly foul cold weather I wear overshoes too. One of the best things for me is that I can put wet horrible spd shoes on for the morning commute and not get wet horrible feet straightaway (Can't keep up with shoe drying at this time of year!).

That bracket is crap. Doing what beaker says will help. I took mine back as the light died and the bracket allowed the light to flap up and down. Got given a new style light with stretchy rubber bracket. What a pile of crap. The rubber started disintegrating after a month of commuting, and won't hold the light steady enough off-road.

Add to this crapness the fact that my little DX torch which cost less than 1/4 of the price makes the L&M completely redundant. you wouldn't even know it was turned on.

Oh, and the battery mounting velcro strap thing is pants.

Biggest waste of money ever!

but metal bands; they ALL without fail, look like those up there… Why?

To Quote SFB:

We have to do something twixt birth (whether breastfed or bottle) to all-to-soon demise, so why not?

Actually, if you are sad enough to look at the data, and perhaps stick it in excel, you'll see the number of casualities has drastically decreased from the 90's. There was a tiny rise in 2008, and the first 2 quarters of 2009, but these are pretty insignificant if you look at the big picture (e.g., avg of 24,385 casualties/year from 1994-1998, compared to 16,297 in 2008!).

I'll get my coat, and my spreadsheet. I'll be in the Packhorse if you need me.

Just go to the shop, buy some wine and stop being so lame. This is why (most) emo is so bloody awful. A bunch of nancy boys in Cheshire worrying about what wine to buy FFS.

😉

You've all missed the vital point:

"Philip Laing, 19, from Macclesfield"

He's a Macc Lad.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mtIj1WuoZD4

You've got to think outside the post box here.

Very rarely do I laugh out loud when on this forum, but this was one of those rare moments! Brilliant.

LOL, riding in a shed in the dark. Actually, I laugh because I do it too! And to the SFB types – it makes you quick and fit – which makes mountain biking more fun in my opinion. Plus the endorphin release after intervals makes you feel good!

There's a lot of crap talked about wheelbuilding! I built wheel in shops for 5 years or so, and built my own before that. I built wheel for downhill teams, road teams and everyone else. It's not an art, there's no mystery to it, you don't even need a jig, just run your bike upside down. Screw the nipples up, true the wheel, stress relieve, repeat. There, takes half an hour and I haven't trued mine up for 3 years. I don't keep fish and I'm not a househusband.

Great pics SFB! I can't believe all the nay-sayers on this thread. According to you lot my bike would needs a complete strip down and rebuild 2-3 times a week in winter! As for HTII dying after riding through a ford – balls. They are rubbish in comparison to good old square taper – which I've reverted to, but they can take a little more than that. 😆

The main human interface on my turbo is the saddle. And it hurts!

Otherwise I just have a cable operated resistance changer on an old Tacx jobbie. I use an old fixed gear bike on the turbo but only ever use the easiest setting (happy spinning resistance) or the hardest (unhappy spinning resistance, for intervals etc). That's all I need.