Haha, the 411s were for the commuter bike (which I took to the Alps), they were superb for that, but these are definitely nicer, I approve of the Tune hubs though – that’s what these are built onto!

The 411s were fine, but they’re nothing special. These are lighter, stiffer, more aero and IMO look better. I was totally underwhelmed with road tubeless too. I commute into Central London on these, and they’ve picked up some damage somewhere in the 3 and a bit years I’ve had them, which aside from aesthetics has had absolutely no discernible effect to date. Not sure I’d call them dodgy really, and rebuilding on 411s would be a huge retrograde step IMO. Glad you like yours though!

Can I have your bin? Bet it’s full of potentially salvageable parts for those of us with more lackadaisical approaches to personal safety!

If it was the front I’d definitely be more keen to change it, or if I rode in the Alps. But for the flat lands of Sussex I don’t think death (or explodey sidewall calf stabbing) is imminent.

Mmm, that stuff does look interesting, as Al said it’s stronger than fresh air if nothing else, the only conceivable risk I can think of is that it gets hot, melts and then things get all sticky, causing more problems, which was what TINAS mentioned to be fair.

Probably just a code brown moment, unless you were braking into a sharp corner then it might hurt a smidgin as you fly off box hill in a ball of flames, with splintering carbon fibre shards killing any baby robins in the area.

Pfft, there’s a huge baby robin overpopulation issue around Boxhill anyway, I’d be helping.

Inagine you’re doing 40mph ish down a big hill and the brake pads goes through the rim – doesn’t bear thinking about.

Yes, I did imagine exactly that at the weekend. It wasn’t much fun, although it was only a passing thought.

You definitely need a new bike, preferably one with electronic shifting and hydraulic disc brakes….

This one’s got electronic shifting, and I’ve already got one with electronic shifting and disc brakes. Dead up to date me. But yes, a nicer one with discs and Di2 seems the obvious longer term solution.

I popped in to see Ben at Sharp Precision Wheels with it earlier, because I pass them on the way to take mini-njee to nursery. 1) top bloke, never met him, but he was totally happy to chat and proffer an opinion. 2) he thought it was probably a void in the rim where there was an excess of resin, and given it hasn’t got that much worse in a year he said he’d not have any immediate concerns about. 3) he sent me links to a load of rims he’d recommend, or said if I procured another FarSports rim he’d happily build it. Absolutely no connection to them, but was really impressed with that; actively told me not to spend money!

Then why don’t you fix it dear njee, dear njee?

if you have water, a stone, a knife and some straw it should be an easy fix. Assuming your bucket is in better shape than your wheel…

Amazeballs, well done!

Interesting thoughts on the temperature of Araldite curing being an issue TINAS, hadn’t really considered that. Would any sort of shrinkage actually do more damage though, or just render the ‘repair’ ineffective? I can see that if it became soft that could add some ‘fun’ to proceedings.

Stevious – it’s been there in some form for over a year, but yes it did play on my mind a bit as a hauled on at 40mph on unfamiliar roads at the weekend :s

Jonba – great insight, thank you. It’s a FarSports (Chinese) rim, so I imagine even consulting Fiber-Lyte would be more expensive than a replacement! Great bunch of guys though.

Obviously I’m nu-school in my thinking, so there’s only 85psi pushing out on it. But yes… agreed.

Perfect excuse for a new bike perhaps with discs?

Half the reason I CBA to replace it is that yes, I am continually flirting with replacing the bike with something with discs!

I think the risk that it might be worse would have me replacing it. And TBH I’d rather avoid it happening again on alu rims too. You’d think i’d have learnt my lesson the first time…

Mmmm, I imagine carbon shards to the heart and all that. I don’t think the rim is about to explode catastrophically. But that’s what they want you to think.

It’s only the rear. What’s the worst that can happen? Big skid? 😉

If it was a front I’d be binning it straight away.

That was a significant part of my thinking frankly! :oops:

Also leaning toward the Araldite thing, there’s a definite groove as you say, circa 2″ around.

Funnily enough, there are real tradesmen, who do real work, for real cash, so constantly have a few grand lying around that they don’t want the taxman to get his hands on (allegedly).
Buying a car with it seems like a good way to get rid of some of it.

So we should all take cash to support tradespeople’s tax evasion? Seems reasonable to me.

Becky Addlington, since I heard her saying that people needed to better acknowledge her results (she’d just come 2nd IIRC) because swimming was harder than every other sport.

That seems a bit harsh; it appears to be a joke, his choice of words is perhaps not ideal – he could have said “the only good thing” or something like that, but to classify him as a knob on the back of that seems pretty excessive.

He’s always seemed to me like a decent bloke. I raced alongside him as a junior, although can’t profess to have ever actually spoken to him!

**** hell, that’s insane.

So you asked new members to contact you first, but what would you have done that would have given you confidence they were legit, given everything they actually did appears fine, and you still think you’re getting ripped off…? :?

I was going to say 5 miles, so yes, sounds reasonable. Not particularly nice roads around there for non-cyclists though, IMO. I think that would be a much easier case to make in a busy urban environment, not a rural one where there’s not really that much traffic, probably plentiful parking etc.

Driving in the ULEZ zone will be similar to the congestion charge zone, you’ll be able to go in… for a fee.

It already is… £12.50 a day.

Oh and although it won;t affect this year West Sussex council have just been given half a million quid to resurface large parts of the Downs Link so it’ll be a gravel bash soon than anything too off road.

Really? It’s basically gravel anyway, particularly the Sussex bit. What are they going to surface it with? The Surrey section north of Rudgwick is the muddier bit.

54kph isn’t really all that fast. It’s bloomin fast to hit a wall but not particularly quick for taking one hand off for an under the armpit snotrocket which I presume was what he was doing. Group riding on the road you do a lot of hand signals with one hand off the bar at that sort of speed, indeed searching around in your back pocket for food too.

Do you? At 34mph? Even on a fast chaingang that’s descending speeds, I don’t know many people who are rummaging around for food whilst descending, it’s needlessly reckless. Most groups naturally (and sensibly) spread out on descents too, I’d not be expecting the usual gamut of hand signals either.

It’s evident from that clip with Poels that they’re not going that fast, it’s not a race pace effort, therefore at 54kph that was a fast section, and I totally agree that’s a weird time to blow your nose. Not to say that people don’t take their hands off at those speeds (even going to the drops you potentially go no handed for a second obviously), but it’s not routine IMO.

I toyed with the replacements, but I just bought a new caliper.

OK so that’s my point. If I go out and avg 200 watts (on feel of what 200watts feels like on my smart turbo) I only avg around 16mph. So why is so low?

Do you weigh 67kg?

SSDs seem to be plummeting in price presently, a Samsung 1TB SSD is £110 on Amazon, “no name” Chinese ones are £80.

I agree that it’ll make a far bigger difference day to do than a marginally better processor or RAM.

MMF – your killing their education.

Hope you have someone come in to help with the English lessons ;-)

So….. how much for a PC that’ll make it run looking like that?? Welling to sell a child to pay for it

Ha, that’s exactly the conversation I had last night. I shudder at the thought.

Cool! Used to love FS back in the day.

Never particularly large sums, but I’ve always used TransferWise or World First, both of whom have been excellent.

Screen 1:
– Speed
– HR
– Distance
– Elapsed time
– Time of day
– Gradient

Screen 2:
– Average speed
– Di2 Gear
– Di2 Battery level
– Speed
– Distance
– HR

I do have an MTB profile, which had different fields (and none of the Di2 ones) but I never use them.

Thunder Burts are super fast. Weirdly grippy in cornering (they’ve still got some side knobs at least), it’s braking where I find them lacking, but you adjust.

Childcare Vouchers are (/were) the opposite – capped at £124 for higher rate tax payers and £248 (IIRC) for basic rate.

No you wouldn’t as you’d drop below the 40% threshold and subsequently pay tax at the base rate.

He said at the point you lose your tax free allowance, which is £150k. If buying a bike takes you down below £150k taxable you get your tax free allowance back (a part thereof) which further offsets the savings. Above £100k the effective savings are better because of the extra tax free allowance you get, or don’t lose anyway.

I can’t add anything to this except to say ‘good thread’. I enjoyed reading it and glad it all seems okay.

+1

And now I want to take an old petrol mower apart to see how they work (having never done such a thing).

Bloody hell. I wondered if there was were going to be more about that bloke who cut his boot on the lump of graphite in ep4.

yes it will help. 38-11 will be spinning out at around 25mph so it should suit,

Whaaaaaaat, no it won’t! 25mph will be about 90rpm, and you could comfortably pedal 38-11 until >35mph.

Yes, it’ll make a significant difference. Easy enough to try.

I dont have a budget yet

something a bit cheaper than a top fuel 9.9

So you do have a budget…? Gizza clue – are you looking at £500 or £2000? Whilst it’ll be diminishing returns the more you spend the better you’ll get, particularly if you want something very light.

I’d echo Matt OAB’s comment though, there’s not that much in it really, I’d have a “worse” bike that’s not trashed.

What a fantastic five hours of TV. Right up there with the very best of recent years.

Hear hear, absolutely stellar. I love me a good post script at the end of a TV show, and the Chernobyl one was superb, in a terrifying way.

Yes, they are.

The only thing to watch out is that some DT freehubs have the bearing cover for the outermost bearing integrated into the freehub (it can be removed), whilst some wheels have it integrated into the end cap. You obviously can’t fit 2 bearing covers without everything going very tight (I assure you of this fact), but the freehubs usually come with an end cap, so just make sure you’ve got the right combination.

28 days unattended I presume, which it’s not.

The bag point is an interesting one, because there’s generally no restriction on large luggage, so ironically if you turn up with a massive bike bag (which takes up more space), you’ll probably be fine.

The issue with consistency is that the trains are not consistent – some may only have space for 2 on a busy train, some may have space for 10. Personally I think needing to book a space is a pain, it makes spontaneity much harder, or if you’re riding some way to the station (rather than it being your home one so you can commit to a specific train).

I have no issues with bans on peak time trains not allowing bikes, but wholly agree that discretion is crucial, and everyone can get on far more harmoniously if there aren’t jobsworth **** working on the train!

Was that his actual shipping address on the eBay order, or did he send you a message saying “can you post it to this address please mate?”.

If the former, and you have proof it was delivered there then you’re in a much stronger position. Take screenshots of that tracking now.

It sounds a bit like click & collect, but I’ve only sent those to Argos shops. Always a bit twitchy when it’s something expensive!

272k views on one video? A few hundred quid if he’s lucky!

Daft pillock.

Yes for me. They do eventually wear out, which means lots of accidental releases, but they’re still very good.

SwissStop Black Prince +another