No worries. It stumped me the first time around too!

My 6 y.o. daughter really struggled to progress on her bike with stabilizers and too big for most balance bikes. I took off the pedals and within 3 weeks she was confidently ‘paddling’ along on the bike balancing for longer between strides. As soon as I put the pedals back on with the first push she was off and biking. Couldn’t believe the transformation.

My 4 y.o. now has a proper balance bike and is almost there after just over 2 months on it. Will be for sale soon so watch the classifieds as mint condition.

You need to get some pliers to squeeze ends together until straight then pull out pin…….voila! After installing pads bend end of pin back up to secure.

There’s a lot of snobbery about Boardman bikes due to the retailer. If you take some time to look around the bike once you get it and check everything you will be fine.

IMO you won’t find a better value for money bike than the Boardmans spec wise.

You could try buying this and diluting with 900ml water in an old Muc off bottle? Works well and only £3.99.

http://www.green-oil.net/Clean%20Chain%20degreaser.html

Im tempted with the giro feature has anyone got one and whats the fit like? or can anyone recommend anything ?

Same here, my heads a smallish 57cm and I’ve tried a multitude of helmets from Giro etc. including the Feature which I hate to say was just as bad despite the deeper coverage provides. Looks really nice too *curses*

Anyone tried the Kali Chakra?

Top stuff, looks like the Numo then cheers

Cheers Shaggy, good to get a users opinion. Does the Numo protect you from rough ground well or can you still feel the bumps etc.?

Sounds like if I want one for biking trips and camping from car get the Numo, if camping from the car only get the Dirtbag – sound about right?

theflatboy – Member
with galaxy you can buy and download music straight to your phone with amazon, which is pretty comprehensive. you can also now use easy phone sync to sync your itunes to your galaxy if you wish, so there’s nothing to choose between them really.

i have a galaxy s3 and love it.

Hat off to you, just downloaded Easy Phone Sync onto current Galaxy S1 and downloaded all my itunes stuff – so easy to do too, recommend this to anyone. Have to say thats pushed me more towards the S3 now.

cynic-al – Member
Most on here are usually tripping up over each other to rave about the stuff.

No Numo users though……yet :)

theflatboy – Member
with galaxy you can buy and download music straight to your phone with amazon

Does this work well now? The early version of mine played up but that’s on the original Galaxy.

I like the idea of being able to download songs / albums directly to the phone which is where the iphone scores well. I had Spotify on my Galaxy for a while but couldn’t justify the £10 p.m. fee to stream offline etc.

Storage is better on Galaxy I appreciate. I would use it for Sat Nav, taking pics etc. but there’s little to choose on that front from what I see. The screen size on the S3 is good but app store on iphone seems better.

Hmmm :?

Carrera TDF also worth a look?

Seems to be a lot of love for the Purgatory tyre, the pricing is sensible too. I will check out the Captain and Sauserwind.

Might be useful to know the terrain you ride on as a comparison.

For lock on’s try Superstar ones around £8 a pair or you could try some lightweight silicon ones from ESI for around £16 a pair.

Good stuff, glad you’re pleased with it ozzie800 love mine, dealt with recent technical Peaks ride well too :D

So, it’s between: Rockrider, Radon Team 6.0, Kona Blast and Boardman Team. I found a store who have a Team in stock and with online sale offers (and British Cycling discount) I can get it for £688 which is a steal.

Boardman bikes are very hard to beat for value for money at any price point

Greggs steak slice, bag of crisps, yumyum and a coffee :D

Cheers Keando – decent price too

ozzie800 – Member
Hi nickswolves well just letting you know that after a lot of test rides and humming and haring I’m picking up my Boardman comp tomorrow

How are you getting on with it? I’ve added some upgrades to mine now, SS nano pedals and grips in green to match frame graphics and a Hope QR seat clamp

shinsplints – Member
This is the most boring & sensible thread on stw ever !

Oh dear :roll: #tool

cinnamon_girl – Member
OK, have looked at the Boardman bikes within your price point but the fork lets it down, imo.

You will struggle to find a better fork and mix of components on a bike for £650 than the Boardman which is often available cheaper than the RRP. The Epicon 120mm air fork is a solid bit of kit at this price point and performs better than most.

The Canyon bikes also represent good value for money as said above.

For £650 the Boardman Comp has got to be worth a shout. Decent air sprung fork, weight and finishing kit.

Another vote for Squirt even after initial skepticism following first application. For dry conditions its spot on.

Been to LBS but they only stock a few Giro and Specialized helmets, both of which come up mushroom like. Anyone know what the fit of the Kali Chakra helmets are like?

Oh dear

Another Topeak Mountain Morph user – highly recommend it, will have your tyres pumped up in no time on the trailside

I have a Montane Dyno jacket which whilst is not 100% waterproof, the Pertex keeps a majority of the wet out with its water repellency coating – packs up small and is nice and soft too with good breathability http://www.montane.co.uk/products/men/soft-shell-and-fleece/dyno-jacket/255

I was given an excellent loop by @Poon on here and repeated by another STWer recently.

That will be me :) Would highly recommend this loop OP which takes in Jacobs Ladder descent. Can’t testify for how good the bridleway descent is as I took the footpath way by accident :oops: I blame the long climb before hand up to Edale cross that made me feel too tired to notice!

I think I will try this loop the other way round next time though.

Ride around Ladybower reservoir? How technical do you want it?

No Shorty121 I did circuit around Hope, Hayfield etc. with Jacobs Ladder (which I rode the path section by accident – don’t ask, I was tired :) )

Big volume tyres and riding technique are your best friends for XC on hardtail. I did a 4 hr ride around Peaks last week and never had any probs on my boardman :)

It’s fine to say somethings pants but reasons would be good? It may well be the case you get what you pay for but in many cases that’s not always true.

The same one as the link shows? What was wrong with it? What do you have now?

Is that right or just marketing BS and riders justifying a higher price tag to themselves? Read a review of Identiti on here that said it was decent but wanted independent opinion.

No, the bike is relatively new (6 mths) and seat post is straight as I’ve checked. It’s just a tight fit and I have scratched the post when moving up/down. Thought some grease would help with QR clamp. Its an alloy seat post and frame btw.

Cheers Shortcut, always useful to get feedback from someone that owns one than a magazine review

I like the idea of Convert jacket being water resistent too with our unpredictable weather. I’ll go and try one on alongside a Gore if I can to weigh up the options.

Curious on durability of the Convert if there’s any users here?

Get one of these http://www.rutlandcycling.com/32634/Raleigh-Accessories-Folding-Workstand.html?referrer=froogle1%3futm_source%3dgoogle&utm_medium=froogle&utm_campaign=pid32634

I have one under a different name and they’re great!

After using several different ones I’ve settled on the Fenwicks foaming degreaser and chain sponge which works really well!

Will look out for the correct path next time, now I know! :D