Well, you have Otley Chevin – and a nice fancy bike shop at the bottom of it. Riding is mostly wood trails – plenty of climbs/descents but not too technical

Then if you fancy, Ilkley is about 6 miles away – And there is a bunch of seriously good trails on Ilkley Moor .. There’s a debate as to whether cycling is ‘allowed’ on the Moor but no one has ever shouted at me for it! Some very techy stuff around there can be taken at speed .. some long blistering downhill sections – not too steep but quick

There’s also another awesome shop in Ilkley JD cycles … but it’s a bit hidden.

Seems like the ignorance of some mechanic could’ve caused you a serious injury!

The exact same scenario befell a friend of mine.. except his fork legs fell off the day after the “service”

Can I get some handles for forks?

One gear, one brake(!)

20.1 lbs IIRC

Lovin that Fat Chance .. yum

But I seriously doubt the 19.5lb

It’s a cycling fundamental “Don’t **** with Trucks”

Too many cyclists ride oblivious to the traffic around them, you have to be alert + not take risks. Cycling on the inside of a Truck is not something one should do – unless there is 1. plenty of room .. 2. A long straight road!

Chipps Draws First Blood – Updated

looks like 15-16″ to me

I think the 17″ had extra metal on the seat tube .. thus

Sorry to hear about your mate. I hope he recovers soon.

Do you know where / how the accident happened? I ask because it helps to draw attention to accident ‘black-spots’ so the council can make it safer for cyclists imperiled by ‘bad roads’.

I cycle into central london daily (for 3 years) and if you pick a good route – use a cycling superhighway for example, and obey the rules of the road .. it shouldnt have to be a risky activity.

Not using the tube keeps me fit and TBH paying London rent, I cannot justify spending an additional £130+ a month on public transport.

I’d class about 3 of the bikes above as ‘lightweight Single Speed’

The rest are ‘lightish by virtue of being a singlespeed’ 😕

Bloody nice Cotic BTW … And the GF Carbon would be nicer with a Carbon Uni-crown type fork (Niner) and by taking the gash fakenger card out of the front wheel* 😛

*Unless it’s some deceased loved-one or something profound 😐

Without going custom I don’t think you’ll find a 25.4 in that width.

I think it’s a matter of stiffness. Surly 1×1 bars are 666mm but they;re pretty back swept

So no-one got invited to both sales I take it?

No invite here .. And I’ve spent about 500 quid with them over the last 6 weeks!

👿

I think Carbon Fibre is pretty swell, but I trust aluminium stuff more.

I owned a Carbon Hardtail for 2 months before it developed a 3″ long, bloody great crack in the bottom of the down tube! Some sort of stress related thing – never crashed.

I don’t bother with Carbon bars anymore as the weight saving is usually about 20g and every time I ‘torqued’ them correctly the damn things would spin lose on descents .. that’s a heart-in-mouth moment on a rock-stewn DH !

Thanks for the tips chaps. I wonder if I can find an m970 on close-out .. hmm.

Although they made the saints lighter didn’t they? the m810 looks beefy enough!

aracer, I don’t think there’s much difference on the flat .. but I like to sprint up hills and when I’m out of the saddle ‘giving it some’ I can feel the difference.

On my CX bike I was running 1×10 with a 40t ring … which was pretty spinny – I changed chainsets and moved down to a 39t ring – (cos that’s what the new one’s came with) .. To my dismay it was a fair bit harder to push a 39 than it was to push a 40 with the older cranks! Seemed pretty conclusive to me.

I used to have some Carbon FSA cranks that also transformed my last bike.

In a double blind test on identical frames?

I don’t know if I could be bothered p*ssing about with “tests” but I have changed cranks on a bike before and noticed a definite difference

I ride a lot of single-speed so it’s more obvious than if I was twaddling up hills in a granny ring 😉

Oops, didn’t mean to open a can of worms here!

I don’t ‘feel’ cranks flexing personally .. but I certainly can feel the extra drive that a stiffer pair of cranks provides.

I only need a single ring.

don’t fancy anything that widens the Q factor like bmx stuff

How do people find the DEUS cranks from raceface?

cough cough

http://www.singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/new-650b-wheelset

IMO – in the next 1-5 years

Electric bikes are gonna be BIG .. as driving gets pricier.

650B designs will emerge as longer travel FS designs and phase out 26″

1×11 will arrive

Far eastern sellers (i.e the guys who make the stuff!) will gain more respect as they become more orgainsed .. and people will increasingly see cheaper-products on ebay that looks just like the one that costs 3 times more with a “known-logo” in their LBS

I always fancied the Kinesis dc19 forks for mine …

http://az15862.vo.msecnd.net/dbr/ProductImages007/p7827m01_800.jpg

Clean, disc-only looks – and only a ton

I think CRC distributes actually!

+1

I had the look pedals for a while .. not very good IMO

You have to faff about with shims to build up the cleat, and thus could never quite be sure if you had it ‘right’.

Plenty of float but vague and un-convincing release .. kept getting my feet stuck in them!

Also – the cleats are poor – most of the front edge snapped off (on my pair and others I’ve seen) after a month.

Eggbeaters are OK but you need stiff shoes or you lose a lot of power. Candy’s are better .. but nothing beats SPDs in my experience

Although many of my riding buddies swear by Time!

IME of 1×9 .. using a shortened chain AND a long-toothed, unramped chain-ring … I would still lose the chain frequently.

Not saying it can’t be done, but you’ll need to get lucky setting it up .. and bear in mind it only takes 1 drop to scar the heck out of your cranks or chainstay – I speak from experience!

Success !!

Cheers for the help guys .. steered me right on the path!

http://techdocs.shimano.com/media/techdocs/content/cycle/EV/bikecomponents/SL/EV-SL-7900-2872_v1_m56577569830651603.pdf

It seems I need a ‘Lever boss cover – for light alloy frames’ Hurrah.

I’m sure madison will be able to get me one in .. oooh 6-8 weeks.

*EDIT – The van man .. that would be much appreciated !! – I need the ‘flat’ kind it seems

Ooh Clubber, your ‘spacer’ comment led to a interesting google search …

I think I’m looking for a sl-7900 friction cap ! … maybe 😕

I only need 1 – for a dingle-speed experiment … will gladly buy off someone here if they have a spare

Looks like a coffin!

Anyone would think you’re towing a vampire to his summer castle

I have this problem when taking my bike on trains … all that shuddering and leaning often leads to a couple of falls per trip.

However, I got around it because I use BB7 cable brakes … and am able to ‘dial’ the pad right in to clamp the rotor without even touching the lever. Same principle though.

Rooney’s latest party trick … parachuting onto the pitch – ends badly

As the cessna neared the grounds, the co-pilot attested Rooney’s final words were something along the lines of “parachutes are for f**kin’ poofs”

here you go

Love Jazz.

Some of the older Glenn Miller / Big Band isn’t to my taste – nor is the totally way-out avant garde.

I think a lot of people listen to jazz on “lo-fi” equipment .. Home radios / in shops. I couldn’t enjoy jazz until i got a half-decent hifi – then it sort of fell into place … The delicate balance of rhythms and percussion is usually obliterated by a skwarky saxaphone on anything else … I find jazz is all about the ‘sound’ of the instruments, the texture and the interplay between musicians… You can’t get that on a 59.99 argos special ‘hifi’.

(I’m not advocating audiophoolery – but even a 400 quid system would be a thousand times better than that bush in the kitchen)

How could someone dislike this …

Is that headset fitted correctly? Looks a bit weird in the bottom pic

People who use road bar tape on mtb flat bars (eh?)

People who buy titanium frames (fair enough) … but then go stupid and buy Ti Bars, ti seatpost, ti stem (if there’s one thing you want in bar/stems it’s stiffness – not flex!) Pure mis-guided vanity

😆

psychle, I’ve seen a young girl in Islington riding round on a land-shark roadbike – converted to a fixie! 😥

I think most people flirt with the idea at some point, I have never considered it seriously – although my ex-girlfriend nearly pulled it off.

btw it’s “hanged” not hung