mboy: Makes absolute sense – of the times I’ve raced DH, you’re absolutely right in that power means nothing if you can’t get the bike through the tough stuff.

I must admit, BB height isn’t something that’s an issue on the Zesty/Spicy, but was on my Commencal Meta 5.5 – I was forever clouting the pedals on that bike.

@muddyfunster that’s the other thing I’ve also noticed – something that I did wonder would be a benefit – it also helps in that you can get a few pedalstrokes in berms where other people can’t.

I do sometimes wonder if it’s a trick we’re missing – I heard that Gee Atherton runs 165mm on his DH bikes for this reason.

That’s interesting orangeboy; I’m obviously expecting to lose some leverage, which will be noticable on standing up climbs, but as I’ve got older I’m keen to spin more to stop myself mashing the pedals like I used to (and killing my left knee in the process).

Do you find normal ‘riding’ (i.e. give and take riding) is about the same?

@b_r I’ve always ridden smaller bikes – I used to have a 16″ GT hardtail, and my Charge Duster is an 18″ – it’s just a personal choice due to my riding style. I run a 70mm stem on my bikes though, just to give a little teeny bit of extra room. I did have to convince Wheelies when I ordered my Zesty, they wouldn’t have it that I was my height buying a medium – ‘just give me my sodding medium!!!’

I shoved a 104 bcd Renthal SR4 on with no worries.

EDIT: It was for single setup, but it went on the middle without issues.

I shoved a 104 bcd Renthal SR4 on with no worries.

For info: I’m 6′ 3″, but have diddy 33″ legs – I ride a Medium, well, er, everything.

I’m leaning on the unfit faffer bit, but I am interested in how people perceiev crank lengths.

Now I’ve had a read Andy, what you’ve said makes sense :)

I’ll get one of them fancy half link chains, a pair of tight chino’s and deck shoes, pair of **** glasses, shove a couple of pizza leaflets in my front wheel and then fiddle with that tensioner…

Cheers all :D

Once again, some googlamating has got me the answers (and Andy’s link to Charlie the Bike Monger).

Seem 3/32 is thinner than 1/8.

And it seems that a half link is like a 1/4″ reduction on the chainstay, so hence how you might get away without a chain tensioner.

Order going into Charlie tommorrow then :)

Forgive me Andy, for being a bit simple tonight; so are you saying that I could effectively run no tensioner at all, if I use a half link to get the chain as tight as I can get it, yet still slot the wheel into the frame?

And, presumably, if you don’t want to struggle with the half link, get a Surly singlelator with the pushup spring?

Have I got this right now? Feel free to draw in simple pictures and simple words spoken slowly…

Ah, just found my answer: http://www.velosolo.co.uk/faq.html

Quick question on chain width; what do I need, 3/32 or 1/8?

Cheers beans, seems the consensus is chain wrap and the non singlespeed chain.

Andyl, are you saying I might get away without a tensioner? How does that work?

Will drop off the E13 though, thanks. It does annoy me how it ruins the simple looks of the singlespeed kit.

25lbs so far for a Piked up steel hardtail. Not bad.

Well, I would shorten it, but it feels like I’d be forcing the Superstar device too much if I did – it feels like it ‘locks’ out if I were to push ‘up’ any further.

Here you go:

Actually, thinking about it, it might be a 34t. I’ll just pop out and take a shot of the bike…

Scardypants: Just jumping, not dropping off.

I assumed (perhaps incorrectly) that I needed to run a chain guide? However I was pondering over the 10spd chain possibly being the issue.

It’s only skipping under load – it’s like a new chain on a worn system – however, all the components are pretty new (only did a Mega on them :s )

However, I take the motion carried on the 34/16 being quite a big gear – something I’d not pondered too carefully (having swiped all the bits from my Spicy I’d plundered the parts from). Living in Bristol might kill me!

The chain is tensioned by pushing *down* the chain – I can’t see a way to alter this (unless I put it on the opposite way on the hanger?)…

ps, what about the Bristolian lot keeping a list so that we can see what eachother have for sale..?

Really must remember to get along to this; Far too much stuff collecting in my garage!

@stumpy01 Mainly the reason for not hitting higher speeds on the bowl is because, as alluded to in the piece, corner constantly on a fairly significantly angled bowl scrubs considerable energy from the cars forward velocity.

Therefore, you’ll find that all cars lose a percentage of top speed on a bowl test track such as this or Millbrook.

Par for the course, and knowing the Imola track and the length of it’s pit straight before the first left hand corner, and having hit 200mph as a passenger several times in similar cars, I know that such cars can easily hit 200mph in less that 1.5 miles.

That’s all you need to say iDave. If you need more help, email me offline, depending on your location, I could point you to the right team.

Actually Phinbob is bang on – report it to the ISP whom has a responsibility legally to do this sort of thing.

They will put in place appropriate procedures to reduce this, usually by warning the person involved, with further ramifications if it does not cease.

If you get no joy from that ISP, try your own ISP and ask them to intervene, and if you get no joy there, go to the Ombudsman (OFTEL).

To be honest iDave, there’s likely no crime there to be found.

If they were buying stuff on your CC then they’ll be interested.

If they’ve been posting stuff ‘as you’ online that isn’t true (slander) then they will be interested.

If it’s just as you say, they (and I) will, unfortunately, just suggest getting a new online identity and email addresses.

That will make it more interesting. Anything that you have, must be ‘snapshotted’ else it will not be admissible as evidence (such as a PDF).

It will require a timestamp, the FULL details of the site/logs/whathaveyou and then you’ll find that your local plod station will end up phoning their experts in the PICu department in their area as they won’t have any facility to start an investigation.

Expect it to take ages, be very frustrating and likely to not end up in a conviction, as most convictions require watertight evidence, and the process of gathering it for online crime is fraught with holes that defence lawyers relish.

You’ve done the right thing however, just pass it over to them and let the plodnerds (in PICu, usually people just like you and I who’ve ended up becoming plod in order to gain their particular skillsets…)

None at all, il Plod will, at a local level, have no idea what to do with it at all, and most likely unless someone’s been murdered, just park it in the in-tray marked ‘bin’.

Unless you can prove anything crime has been commited, and that you have evidence to that effect, then expect no response at a local level.

At a national level, you will expect the police high tech e-crime department to take it on, by requesting logs from the ISP in question, once they can prove irrefutably that the postings or harassment came from it, and not hidden behind a proxy.

Because of proxying, you’re chances are next to nil.

I would rather look at a social element of the haressment and see if evidence is given away along the lines of ‘I did this, at this time, from here’ most usually by way of a tweet, post on a forum or a picture.

Anything else is just subjective heresay.

Trust me on this.

acjim: With a sympathetic right foot, then yes. As sssimon mentions, get it some beans and it’ll get you there quickly, but at a cost.

It’s an incredible engine, well worth the money to run.

acjim: That 328 is probably about the right price – it’s wearing the right ambered lights and has the much vaunted slippy diff.

However it all depends on how much you like the M-Sport kit – the coupes ALL have the sport suspension kit, so a non sport coupe will still drive as well as the Sport models, but without the ‘council’ looks.

I had a later Sport model and loved the looks (even the spoiler on the boot, but it’s a bit marmite to some). It was a great car to own – I had mine for 5 years – brought for £4350, did 65k miles in it, and sold it for £1250 having thrashed it to death! Never has a car taken so much abuse and just shrugged it’s shoulders.

On the staggered Sport wheels, they can be awful in the snow – although I managed to get about, it was heart in mouth.

I wouldn’t take the M5 out in snow – 420bhp through those 275 rears is just looking for trouble – most BMWs are a bit rubbish due to the wheel/tyre size at the rear.

Slap a set of winter boots on and you’ll be beating 4×4’s up hills.

Buy one and you’ll not regret it – only if you enjoy driving (the interior is a masterpiece in cockpit design) – NOT because you’re counting the pennies in fuel efficiency…

True. But you’re then chucking rather a big soot cloud out the back, and still trying to get all that POWAH!!! through the wrong wheels ;)

(yep, that’s me.)

ETA my 306 was the same. Until the clutch died.

@Molgrips: Any of the older diesels are very bombproof I agree. I had an early 306 diesel – the one with the fiel pump that could be run on veg oil – and it was really good as an engine.

Shame the rest of the car was shite.

Oh and it sounded like a tractor.

And slow. Just like any of the SD/TD early engines will be – 60 something bhp doesn’t go very far.

ps the OP was looking at 3k, so it’s not like we’re looking at uber cheap to run.

Daffy, I have to disagree with you with some of your points: Any diesel will/can have expensive issues. At any mileage. I will agree that a petrol will be more reliable than a diesel, but then whilst we’ve all done 37 to the gallon with the 3.0l engines, you sure as hell can’t do that around town. You sure can, however, do 30mpg plus around town with the diesel. THAT’s the big difference.

I recently picked up my 140k E39 530D SE Touring for £2300. It needs two new injectors.

These will be £100 each fitted by my local specialist Forza West. These guys recently did the Inspection 2 on my M5 for £330 INCLUDING parts, so it’s more than easy to do it cheaply.

Buy wisely and you’ll get a good one, for example – the manual versions of the E39 diesels do NOT have swirl flaps. Nor do they have gearboxes that sh1t themselves after 150k or if you wind more power through the engine. The auto gearbox in the E39 isn’t the greatest, however so:

Try this on for size: If you start looking for a low miler, you’re buying something that has big bills coming up. Take a look for a car that has HAD the big bills paid for – suspension, clutch etc; it’s not rocket science.

I’ve a friend who insists on buying low mileage M5’s saying that they’re better, and won’t think of considering my M5 which now has ticked over 100k. However mines had everything done to it (most previous to me owning it) and is a rock solid example.

He won’t have it though, it’s got to be a <100k miler.

Guess what.

He keeps having to fix things. Whilst I don’t.

Anyway, you CAN find a E39 diesel for less that 3k easily. It WON’T be a Sport however. You’ll also find that a manual is like rocking horse poo. But look and keep looking and they’re out there.

Here’s my two E39’s (the touring was doing what it’s great at: carrying stuff). http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3221/5867177771_9fc86ba1e6_b.jpg

M5 has a black/grey leather and aluminium interior and the 530D has a lovely cream and tree interior :)

E36 estates are teeny, as are E46’s.

Go to the E39 shape and you’ll get a Mondeo sized boot.

As for the expensive to run business, that’s a load of horsesh1t: I’ve run BMW’s for over 7 years now, including an M5, and they’re easy to look after, parts from the main dealers are very reasonable and find a good local specialist garage and you’ll save a mint.

Additionally, Fords are not without their own malladies – turbos blowing, sensors failing and EGRs clogging. BMW’s get similar problems (talking diesels here) – however ALL cars of this sort of age (and newer cars are more prone) will start to suffer from electrical gremlins.

You’ll find, however, that a BMW of similar age, or even older, will be better screwed together, have less rattles and a nicer interior. They’re just a much nicer place to be.

Don’t be swayed by the naysayers – listen to those who actually know their onions when it comes to cars.

The straight sixes, sensors aside, are one of the last truly smooth and sonorous engines.

I loved mine. I often wonder why I still have my E39 M5 V8 – it doesnt sound as good as my 328 used to at full chat (although is bonkers fast).

3 series coupes also came with fold down seats. My 328 Sport had them.

ps also was able to get 37mpg at 70mph out of it too, very reasonable.

Jesus.

A Y reg 325 estate for 3k? That’s huge money.

Great cars, don’t get me wrong, however, you’ll be able to get into a E39 5 series diesel estate for that money.

I’d stick with a Focus or Mondeo if you don’t know your BMWs. We picked up, after scouring for ages, a manual E39 530D estate for £2300, in perfect condition.

They’re out there.

I might well be interested – however my first born is about to appear and I have no idea what hell is about to happen to expect with regard to timings.

Anyone ride from bristol city centre into AC at around 5.30-6?

I’ll add though, they’re bloody effective brakes once set up: You hardly ever need to touch them once setup.

As someone whom works in this ‘area’, I’d take a look here:

http://www.identityblog.com/?p=1201

Did you post this on Pistonheads too?

ETA: And for those who also have the new Shimano brakes.

Oil sodding funnel.

Having just finally figured out the new way to do Shimano brakes;

I’m with you brother.