Undo the cable, and the mech should drop the chain onto the smallest sprocket.

If it doesn’t, back off the end stop screw until it does.

If backing off the end stop screw does not work, then look at the drop out.

I don’t think comparing cycling to football is the best analogy, given what premiere league footballers earn.

I have an mtb tool roll, a mini tool roll (one for on and one for off road) and a pocket pouch, all from: The Breakaway

It’s sad, but a slight comfort to know I am not the only one frustrated by Raleigh’s lack of ability to get their bikes in front of the public.

I completely understand the retailer not wanting to commit to stock they probably won’t sell, and at one point I even had a brief e-mail back and forth with the local area sales manager, but his promise to let me know when the mid season restock was underway failed to materialise.

Like you, I am delighted with my Revelator, I took the opposite route and bought a complete 105 equipped bike with the plan to upgrade it as I go along, and it is already wearing Dura-Ace1380 wheels, for the summer.

I also picked up a NOS Ultrasport 29’er frame recently, but that’s not yet built, it’s just sitting in the workshop looking all black, orange and shiny.

Raleigh are a real Frustration right now in my opinion. They’re making some great bikes again after a while in the duldrums, their pricing is a bit haphazard though (some bikes are good VFM, some a lot less so), and they are doing a very poor job with their marketing IMO. Their Team wins races aboard the Militis road bikes (a bike that’s had some rave reviews) but they don’t capitalise on it.

I spent a long time trying to find the 2013 Militis and eventually e-mailed Raleigh CS to try and find out who had one and where I could see it. Their answer was that they were selling better than anticipated and that the best thing I could do was order one “because we guarantee you’ll really like it” I replied telling them I would not commit a retailer to buy in a £2.5k bike that I may or may not buy.

When the 2014 range was released, I started again, but was equally unsuccessful. Their no show at the Welsh show was enough to convince me that they REALLY don’t want my money.

Got the e-mail just in time to use it on a birthday pressie for a family member.

My issue these days is with the assertion by so many (mostly customers as a result of good marketing campaigns) that anything with a Specialized or Trek badge is somehow so much better than any other similarly priced bike.

I agree with your sentiment, which is in one respect a shame, as my LBS is a Specialized dealer, but when I started to look for a light (8kgs) carbon bike, I did not consider either Trek or Specialized, in fact I actively stayed away from them, as I think brands trying to reestablish or broaden their market offer a better overall package.

My short list included Boardman, Raleigh (if only I could find one), Ridley, Cervelo and KTM.

Oddly, it was marketing that won in the end, as KTM (FLi) were at the Welsh cycle show and Raleigh weren’t, and I was so impressed with the overall quality of the Revelator range, I decided it was the bike for me… and, very importantly, will last me for many years and through many upgrades.

I’ve become a KTM fan since visiting the stand at the Welsh Cycle Show.

In fact, I went straight from the show to a local dealer and bought a Revelator 3500 which is my first ever carbon bike (I’m a retro steel frame fan) and which I am absolutely delighted with.

I have only managed a nudge under 500k on it so far, but that’s enough for me to be thoroughly happy with my purchase.

Pearl Izumi Attack.

Nice fit, good quality, comfy and can be used all year round, although I tend to use shorts in summer.

Just ordered one of their Tactic 29er wheelsets

How?

I spoke to them at Mayhem about 29er wheels. When I got home I went on the web site, and I can’t find any 29er wheels.

I’m sure they are there, but I’m damned if I can find them.

Reading the last few posts I felt I wanted to agree about the level of politeness / friendliness.

I mostly ride at night (mostly) and am not fast, I plug along at a sensible pace, but the really fast guys come blasting past me like I’m parked up.

Everyone wanting to pass called out and I replied “go on”, on two occasions I called back “not yet”, once because we were just getting to the nasty root bit of the downhill where there were small stumps sticking out of the ground, as soon as we were past I called out “now!” and the guy came past and thanked me.

I had something similar on the single track down by the lake, when the guy wanting to pass thought he might just squeeze through, and I thought otherwise; same again, I called “now!” and the guy blasted past and thanked me.

I have to say I was pretty impressed with that kind of behaviour, as I am just a fun rider, enjoying the whole vibe and having a laugh, where as riders like Gee are there to try and win. I’m not sure I would be quite so polite if the roles were reversed (I wish!).

In fact, thinking about it, I didn’t hear one comment in our team, either from our whippet riders, or from the plodders about rude / aggressive behaviour. That’s impressive.

Ride entry was limited to 2,000.

I was going to go until I realised it was the same weekend as Mountain Mayhem.

What an amazing weekend.

I did my first lap at 7.00pm, as both my kids said I should really do a sighter lap, and they were right. There was really no comparison to last years course.

My next two (back to back) laps started at 10.00pm, although my relative lack of pace and difficulty climbing on the second of the two was later explained when I realised I had almost no air left in the rear tyre… DOH!

Our fastest rider (my son) was consistently putting in 37 to 39 minute laps; the sub 30 folks…. just awesome.

Anyway, great success all the way round, including the few traders who stayed open for the whole 24 hours, fair play.

There was plenty of room when I was there an hour ago.

I’ll be back in the morning, as I’m relatively local.

22lbs of steel twitchiness

Looks great.

I will be on my equally orange 92 DOGS BOLX that I rode / pushed / rode last year.

My 305 had a nasty habit of losing all logged data if I went over a bump / rough bit of road, so I replaced it with an Edge 500 which I got s/h for £80 with some mounts and a charger.

That’s not a bad price, if it was all / mostly original.

I have Moon Comet’s front and back on both my regular use road bikes.

Three levels of brightness, flashing option and USB rechargeable.

I’m with the enthusiasts. I started road riding about two years ago and as my son was already using Speedplay’s, I followed suit. He has covered well over 10,000k using his with the occasional greasing of bearings. I have only covered a couple of thousand k on mine, but I like them a lot.

We have had one cleat spring break, but that was on a rough old pair of cleats which my son uses on his daily commuter shoes.

As others have said, dry lube on the cleat springs from time to time and the occasional bearing grease is about the only maintenance we have done.

Keep on Kovers are the American cafe covers, we use them and if you get in touch with the guy who sells them (as opposed to buying them on ebay), the postage rates are a bit more sensible.

It’s all down to weight and bearings really.

If you are thinking Archetype, then you are not looking at very light wheels, so I’m not sure you would feel a lot of difference, although the quality of the hubs would be better.

I paid £300 delivered for a hand made pair of wheels which weigh around 1500g, much lighter than that and it all starts getting expensive… marginal gains and all that.

Are you connected to anyone else on Garmin Connect?

I think in order to share your ride, you have to have someone to share it with.

I’m afraid I use Connect less and less these days, all the site upgrades have made it more difficult to use, at least with my Edge 500 they have.

USE bars, stem, seatpost and skewers, Royce bottom bracket.

I have pretty much read this thread from end to end, and told myself over and over not to reply…. but I just can’t help myself.

There is a local group of cyclists who, every year, do a fancy dress ride for charity. The other day, while riding my horse I encountered several cycle mounted characters from Star Wars. A couple of years ago I came across a large group of cycling Elvis impersonators and we have also had Arab terrorists, complete with vests covered in dynamite.

On every occasion my horse has reacted the same way, or more accurately, failed to react at all.

On another occasion we were passed, on the road, by a large group of riders on mtb’s, again, no reaction, other than to investigate if any of them had anything tasty to eat. An hour later, when I was on a particularly steep and rocky climb, I met the mtb’ers again, only they were now coming down! The riders were excellent and called back to warn others in the group and I rode my horse as far off the track as possible which was fine by him, as there was some yummy grass there.

The point I’m making as a horseman, is that not all horses are potential unexploded bombs and they don’t all spook at the drop of a hat. It also has a LOT to do with the horses rider, and here is where most of the problem lies.

As a cyclist, I often come across horse riders on the quiet country roads I use, for this reason I have fitted a bell to my training bike, a quick PING lets both horse and rider know you are there, and a few words exchanged will sort out if the horse is nervous or not. If it is, I talk to the horse as I go past.

I have met lots of horses as a cyclist and lots of cyclists as a horseman, I’ve never had any trouble in either role due to consideration from both parties.

I was going to suggest Argos.

The work they have done for me has been excellent, but I’d call them and check timescales, as they have a pretty full order book most of the time.

I have X0 9 and 10 speed gripshifters and there is no comparison between the two, as the 9 speed are the older design and the 10 speed the newer one.

I like both, they work extremely well for me, but the 10 speed are in a different league as the are much quicker and lighter to shift, both up or down. That said, I have mis shifted on the odd occasion, but one gear up or down is no never mind really.

I have found that the bezels can rattle and was accompanied by a little jingle on all the faster off road sections at HONC the other week, but I’ll track that down and fix it sometime, it didn’t affect the function of the shifters at all.

I’ve been using grip shift since they were Sachs Waveys, so I’m a big fan, but unlike others on here, I really like the new design 10 speed shifters.

I’ve sent bikes and frames with senditnow.com / parcelforce. All have been well packed and all have arrived within 24 hours… well, the one I sent to Northern Ireland was an hour late, but that’s splitting hairs a bit.

Around £10 for a frame and £15 for a complete bike.

Take a look at Lusso; some special offers out there at the moment.

As said above last years grassy climb, cobbled climb and that mud fest climb in the woods were all a bit silly for mere mortals.

Last year was my first, and I got the feeling from early on that the course setters had got a bit carried away with the new venue. By the look of the profile, they have listened to us ordinary mortals and hopefully the course will be a lot more rideable.

Back with a 10 person ‘fun’ team.

What is the chainline?

Measure from the centre of the seat tube to the mid point between the chain rings, it should be around 43.5mm.

Speak to Malcolm at The Cycle Clinic, he really knows his stuff and builds a mean wheel or two.

I had some Miche hubs (11 speed Shimano) built onto Kinlin XR200 rims which have come out just under 1500g and they cost £302 delivered.

The Cycle Clinic

The £1400 to £1600 price band has a bewildering choice of bikes in it.

I was recently in the market for a training bike in this price range and weighing around 8kg (to match my ‘summer’ Rourke). In the end I boiled it down to a short list of three bikes I liked the look of, a Boardman, a Raleigh and a KTM.

The Boardman looked good, well spec’d and with lots of 4 and 5 star test results. I was not able to find the Raleigh I was after, and having managed to test ride the KTM, I bought it.

The Cube looks OK, nothing horrible on the spec sheet, but nothing special either. If it’s your first ever road bike, then I would strongly advise slinging a leg over one, or something similar and getting some idea of what size bike will suit (mtb’s and road bikes are sized very differently). If it’s definitely what you want, then look at a few reviews and provided the frame is not made of bendy cheese, get it.

Like I said though, there is a LOT of choice at that price.

I rode HONC a couple of weeks ago and noticed a few gel wrappers along the route. There was only one place they came from, and as the whole route was on roads, bridleways and private land (with the owners permission), it doesn’t take a degree in waste management for members of the general public to figure out who left them behind.

There were plenty of bins at the start / finish and at the half way point, that’s were I got rid of my rubbish.

I had this row over a warranty repaired Chris King hub about six years ago.

Unfortunately VAT is payable even on warrantied goods and the only one who can change that is…. The Chancellor 🙁

Cinnamon girl, as far as I can tell, my horses hearing is better than mine and he can hear something coming up from behind, or round a blind corner a couple of seconds before it gets to us, depending on what it is and how fast it is traveling.

However, what alarms horses is fast movement in their peripheral vision.

So the combination of a whizzing or buzzing sound, which not all horses will recognise as being a harmless object (bicycle), and something approaching fast from behind is what can cause a reaction.

As for the roads, it is no different for me as either a horse or bike rider, the advantage I have on a horse is height and size, as it’s not as easy to harass 550kgs of horse.

My advise is just to make sure the horse rider knows you are there with a bell or a call, they will then be able to steady the horse, or in my case tell the cyclist that my horse is fine, unless they are carrying fruit or biscuits which he will assume are treats for him to eat!

As a horse rider and cyclist I can state that there are polite and considerate people who ride both, there are also idiots who ride both, so don’t tar all with the same brush.

Just by way of information, the reason a horse reacts when a bike comes up fast from behind is because horses peripheral vision extend back a lot further than humans, so they can almost see behind themselves. If you watch any wildlife programs about Africa, you will see the lions, tigers and other big cats attack their prey from behind, and so even the best trained horse can react when a bike comes fast from behind, simply because their instinct tells them to.

This was my first HONC, and first ever event of this sort and I had a great time.

I have a friend who lives locally, so we knew in advance that the first climb was going to be a walk.

I managed to miss two turns, the first just up the hill from the ford. I was on my own and in roadie hill climbing mode and just didn’t see the turn. The situation was not helped by my being deaf in my right ear, so I was only vaguely aware of the shouts; it was when I realised there were no bikes in front or behind me that the penny dropped. The second missed turn was only by a couple of yards by the bridge just after the feed station, and was actually caused by a lady in an MX5 pulling alongside me to ask the marshal the way to somewhereoranother.

I finished the 50k in 3hrs 20 on my 1992 Roberts and thought the whole event was brilliantly organised, marshalled and run.

With a bit of luck I’ll be back there in a couple of weeks to do some of the route again, including the first climb, with my buddy who lives in the town.

I had this problem when I started looking for a Raleigh Militis, so I got in touch with Raleigh Customer Service. Their answer was great “Buy one, we are sure you’ll love it”, erm, no, I’m not spending £2.5k on a bike I’ve never seen.

I was then told by the local area manager there were none left in stock and then another person in the sale organisation suggested the same as CS!

I put the purchase off until just recently, as Raleigh were billed as being at the Welsh Cycle Show… they weren’t, so I had a nice chat with the nice folk from KTM who directed me to a dealer about ten minutes drive away. He had the right bike in stock, in my size and after riding it I bought it.

In short, try an e-mail to the distributors of the bikes you are interested in, and they may well be able to tell you where you can find one.

Well done Tom.

I did my first proper ride on Friday, after being off the bike since mid November due to an infection and a bout of gastrosomethingnasty. I managed 14 miles on my road bike.

I’m have to say it wasn’t as hard as I thought it would be, well, after the first four miles it wasn’t.

Glad to know you’re on the mend.

Kt and I are planning our first trip to Woodbury as soon as I’m up to it.

Just looked and entries are up to 1171 at 3.30pm

I was up at 6.15am.

Made the tea, took a cup through to the missus and thought I’d be an early entry…. 606.

Lord, some of you guys must like this event. It’ll be my first time, so it should be interesting.