It doesn’t matter what she says on TV, it will be the statement that she gave to the Police that counts.

IF this goes to court and IF she gives a different version of events there, then the prosecuting barrister will have a field day.

I have MRX and Attack shifters on a couple of my retros and they work a treat.

The problem is the price, Attack 3 x 9 are very expensive and I got mine from Germany in the end, as they were much cheaper.

Bikefood have deals on both gels and bars at the moment.

http://bikefood.com/index.php/shop/

This is a great thread and it’s bringing back some happy memories for me.

My hobby at the time when suspension was developing on bikes was motor racing, both driving and chassis engineering on other peoples cars. I had also been riding and building motorcycles since I was a teenager. I remember having some great discussions regarding spring rates, damping, rebound (all a complete mystery to most cyclists at the time) with the owner and staff of my LBS, who were a Giant and Specialized dealer. Some of those early production bikes were truly risky, or massively over engineered.

In the end I looked at three bikes, the Klein Mantra, the Specialized FSR and the GT STS-2. I rode the Mantra, liked the FSR, but bought the STS-2 (a 97 model) which I still have. It was OK, but was a bit of a disappointment and I went back to riding my 94 Zaskar LE with Marzocchi XC700 forks, which I also still have, and ride.

Why the bike industry did not look to the motorcycle world in those early days is a mystery, but it was fascinating to watch it all happening.

Happy days.

There is also a trail centre at Cannop in the FoD.

Do a search for peddleabikeaway and you’ll find it.

I was there today, on a 15 year old Raleigh Ogre Max…. but that’s another story.

I also failed to find the link I was sent a few months ago, but a team mate found this:

11.4km lap with 380m of climbing per lap, steepest 21.2% up and 21.3% down, average gradient 6.6% up and 6.2% down

Not sure what I make of the 21.2% climb, especially as my first lap will be at around 3.00am!

And a Roberts White Spider frame from 1988.

Nice!

I have all sorts of retrogubbins; you know, cranksets, miscellaneous cantis, more stems than I can ever use, ‘rare’ bits, crap front and rear mechs that should have long ago been scrapped, wheels, rims, not quite knackered cassettes, and all the other JIC detritus that sort of accumulates.

Either of the ‘Zinn and the art of…… ‘ books.

I have had a look through the mountain bike book, and it covered just about everything.

I think it’s important to retain the more natural trails like those in Fiddy Aker.

I’ve been riding mtb’s since 1988 and there was nothing ‘natural’ about 50 acre wood the last time I rode it. I will accept that I was riding a 1990 Roberts White Spider, which is not the easiest bike to ride, but never the less, I can’t say it was ‘fun’ just slippery.

If nothing much has changed, then I’ll give it a miss and stick with the occasional blast at Ashton Court, Leigh Woods and Ashton Hill woods.

The first and last time I rode there, it was a root’n’rockfest and was thoroughly unpleasant.

Is it worth another look?

I like Michelin Pro 4’s.

I have done a lot of miles on mine; they grip in all conditions, roll well and seem pretty tough, plus there are deals all over the place for them.

I did 30k yesterday evening and only one vehicle, a Johnsons Apparelmaster van tried to clip my handlebars.

That’s a result in my book.

I got overtaken by a bloke on a road bike the other day. I was half way up a well known local climb on my mtb when he came past and said “alright mate!”. Naturally, I did not reply, not because I am rude or anti road cyclists, but because I was not prepared to waste precious oxygen that I needed to prevent unconsciousness overtaking me.

It turned out out the guy was doing intervals, as when I got back to my car I saw him go down, and up, and down, and up, several more times. R E S P E C T, once was enough for my tired old carcass.

I also have a road bike.

It doesn’t seem to matter which side you filter, the very act of overtaking stationary cars seems to totally enrage some drivers. After working my way to the front of the queue the other night, one guy overtook me so fast I genuinely thought he was going to pile straight into the back of the next queue of traffic. Needless to say, I overtook him…again.

I also had a young lady in a Ford Ka join me in the cycle box at a set of traffic lights. Needles to say, she was first away at the start of the Commuter Grand Prix.

If you don’t like it, then stick it on Retrobike with those pics and it will be gone.

Canti’s, Lord I’d forgotten how much I disliked working on them until yesterday when I adjusted some on a Bear Valley. No wonder we all bought V brakes.

Both my wife and my daughter teach in secondary schools.

Unless you are a teacher or have one as a close friend, partner or relative, you cannot possibly know how hard teachers have to work.

How many of you get to work at 8.00am (or earlier) in order to prepare resources for the days work? How many of you then work a full day and how many of you then take home at least two hours worth of work to do each evening? Not many I suspect. That is standard practice for all the decent teachers I know.

The best comment I have read above was the one about just leaving things alone for a few years, to let the teachers actually get one with educating their pupils. It would also help if the Govt. would drop the ‘one size fits all’ approach, both to teachers, some of whom are crap but most of whom do an excellent job under huge amounts of performance related pressure, and also to pupils, most of whom are not going to get a 1st class Honours Degree at Oxbridge before moving on to get their Masters and PhD, but who are going to grow up to be ordinary people like us.

My entire bike stable is made up of retros; from the 94 Zaskar LE I built in 94 up to the 2002 Dave Yates.

They all get used, that’s the point in owning them.

My wife just found a 91 Marin Bear Valley on preloved. She had one 20 years ago and has been after another for a long time. I would say from the condition of it that under the accumulated dust of a dozen years of storage, there is a bike that has done less than 20 miles. Is she going to ride it? Damn right!

Here’s my DB, rescued from ebay with a hole in the top tube. Sent back to Chas for repair and respray and now ridden as a 2 x 10. The other bike is my daughters Orange C16R, also 2 x 10 and used every week.

Concorde Astore

Raleigh 853

The bridelways between southwell and epperstone are bad with dried horsey divits making the ways a cobbled pain. TBH i was on the ridgid single speed but the large erroded bogs that the horses have left is dissapointing. Tonyas challange might have to be on the full suss this year.

It’s unfortunate the Bridleways have been damaged, as when they dry out into cobbles they will be as unpleasant for horses as they are for bikes or walkers.

The trouble is, we have just been through the longest wettest autumn and winter just about anyone can remember, and just like Elite athletes, horses must be exercised. As has already been said, the roads are no safer for horses than they are for cyclists, and I have been tail gated, beeped and shouted at and received my (un)fair share of ‘hand signals’ when riding my horse as I have when riding my bikes. The only alternative to the roads are Bridleways, and so needs must when the Devil drives.

As has also been said, all horse are ridden by people, some are ar$eholes, but most are pretty good, a couple of conversations with yard owners and local riders might even get enough bodies together for a combined working party. We have done it a couple of times, and provided the land owner does not object, I have never heard of a ROW Officer complaining about people repairing Bridleway surfaces for them.

I spent the whole of last week riding my horse around West Somerset. I spent 90% of my time on very quiet country roads, despite there being miles and miles of available bridleway. Why? Because the Bridleways are still very wet, soggy and easily damaged by horses hooves.

To answer a couple of misconceptions: Horses are not tame and they are not domesticated; they are trained. They are also far more intelligent than most people (riders and nonriders) give them credit for but they react instinctively to perceived threats and danger. Lastly, their feet are very sensitive to different surfaces, and broken stony surfaces are as dangerous to a horse as the are to a bike.

To my horse, a flappy plastic bag is a fun thing to stamp on, to a less educated horse, it is a scary monster that is going to try and bite it in the belly (as a natural small predator would). To my horse a cyclist approaching fast from behind MIGHT be a predator, and so he will shift (fast) until he can clearly see that it is not. To a less well educated horse, a cyclist approaching fast from behind (road, mtb, electric or shopper), is a predator, attacking from behind, and so it will run, fast in an effort to outrun the predator (lions in Africa chasing Zebra, David Attenborough and all that, ring any bells at all?).

Why do I ride? For the same reason I ride my bikes; because it’s bl**dy good fun and because, when we choose to, we can run at 20 to 30 mph, jumping over fences, logs and banks two to three feet high, and over ditches three or four feet wide without missing a beat.

As for horses off roading capabilities, I have ridden my horse into and out of quarries, rivers and lakes, that I couldn’t even contemplate on a bike and up and down slopes that I could barely manage of foot.

Just remember that America was explored and populated long before cars and roads existed, thanks to horses.

Great thread.

I’m usually a resident on RetroBike where almost anything old is valued, so it’s great to see what people’s wish lists really look like.

Back in the 90’s, I wanted a Zaskar LE, so I saved up, bought a frame and built one. It was and is a great fun bike and I’ll never part with it. Next on the list, thanks to the magazine tests of the time, was a Roberts DOGS. It took another 15 years, and half a year waiting for it to return from a refub back at the workshop of its birth, but now I have one.

Was it worth the wait….OH YES!

Nice to see Greg Fuquay mentioned, I just acquired one of his frames, it’ll be interesting to see how it compares to the DB.

Don’t have much of a wish list, maybe a HOTTA e-stay carbon mtb.

So Mrs Vizzit would be happy if Wiggle got the roads closed for the day?

Nope.

If you look at the link to anorak, you’ll see she has also complained about cross country runners causing ponies to stampede.

She also said she has never seen anything like the stampede before, so I’m assuming she somehow manages to miss the drift, where all the Forest ponies are rounded up.

Neil, did you not need surgery for a level 4?

I was offered surgery, but told it was not necessary and frankly, the thought of people sticking knives into my shoulder is enough for me to live with the bump thanks you.

I sent a pair of handlebars today and the box was ‘too big’, price £11.90!

Not sure if the Post Office are trying to make more money for themselves or for the courier companies.

I suffered a level 4 separation last August. I was signed off work for four weeks, but given a few exercises and told to keep the shoulder moving. I rode a turbo every couple of days while I killer the four weeks until my follow up, where I was told to get back to whatever activities I had been doing before my fall.

It took a few months to get full strength back into my shoulder but it’s all good now, and I am riding mtb’s, road and my horse (just got home from a weeks horse riding on Exmoor).

Been doing a lot of road riding in all weathers for the last few months.

Went out to do 30 to 40 miles on Saturday, just as the freezing cold wind came up. Demotivated? You bet! I managed 20 miles with a few decent climbs and was absolutely knackered when I got home.

Today is a riding day, but the force of the wind alone was enough to put me on my turbo instead.

I don’t mind the cold at all, but there are limits!

After 15 years an mtb’er I bought my first road bike about 6 months ago and love it.

Pro’s: It’s cycling.
Con’s:….. nope, can’t think of any.

As for the lycra haters; have you seen yourselves in baggies loose tops et all? Seriously, skinny legs sticking out of Eric Morcambe shorts is not a good look. I wear lycra on road or mtb and always have done, and my legs are not shaved, nor for public consumption, so remain covered all year round.

He was woken up by what he thought was a burglar, he located and picked up a 9mm pistol, he moved into position to shoot and then took four shots at the toilet door.

And at no point in the minutes leading up to the shots did he speak to his girlfriend?

Burglars in SA are an extremely nasty bunch, I have friends out there, so I know what has happened. But even so…

Guess we will never know what actually happened, there will be his story and there will be the prosecutions story, and one will win out over the other, but there is only one person who knows what REALLY happened.

I had a 1.6TDI as a hire car for a few months (12,000 miles) last year. 60mpg ave, comfy, quiet and sh*t loads of room for bikes. I got three mtb’s and three adults in it for a trip to the FoD.

They are basically VW’s.

I liked the one I had, and would happily have another.

On a group ride, in the FoD watching the younger, fitter, slimmer version of myself, known as my son, tackle climbs with ease that nearly make me pass out from lack of oxygen.

Or, on a freezing cold evening road ride, cresting a 20% climb that I thought I could not make.

Are there any bike recycling places near you? They will have a variety of bitsabikes. Let a little rust accumulate plus maybe the judicious applications of some insulation tape and you should have something that is easily overlooked.

Also take a look at LFGSS, there are usually one or two suitable candidates there.

As for size; I’m 6’1″ with a 34″ inside leg, as is my son, and we both ride 56 frames.

1989 as an additional way of staying fit for my Martial Arts training. First bike was a s/h Saracen bought from a local lad who was saving up for a Kirk. I think I ended up with the better of the two bikes, but mine was not nearly a cool!

Decent baggies

Isn’t that an oxymoron?

I built my first road bike about 6 months ago, having only ridden mtb’s since the mid 80’s.

My first tip would be, trust you tyres and just take a few rides to get used to the way the frame rides. As long as you have half decent tyres, you’ll get less slipping and ginking on a road bike than on an mtb. Second tip would be, watch the road; avoid man hole covers and the like, as wet iron and rubber are not the best of combinations.

Just take it easy for the first few rides, and the bike will soon tell you what is does and does not like.

Wouldn’t that make it a Flying Dryer?

I’m assuming the builders surname is Obree

Why not just upgrade with SRAM parts?

Finding the parts is more fun than riding

We’re going to have to agree to disagree on this point.

The whole purpose of the build is to ride the bike, otherwise you just end up with a museum in your shed / garage. If that’s what floats your boat, fine, but talking to a few frame builders, their feeling is that is not why they built the frames in the first place.

Getting a bit too serious here, but it’s something I feel strongly about.

Find em, build em, ride em.

Dave Lloyd CATS WISKAS I built up a few years ago. It was more fun finding the parts and building the bike than it was riding and breaking them. Sold to fund a more sturdy machine… which I also broke

Nice bike, and hard to find. I’m currently looking for a CATS to add to my ‘stable’.

This is the latest build, a 1992 Roberts DB, with SRAM 2x 10 setup. It rides extremely well and I’m really pleased with it.