Inbreds

I have a Soul and think it is excellent – I wouldn’t be parted from it. It’s been all over the UK and a fair few places in Europe too (and Morocco). As someone said above, I still think whenever I ride it how much I like it.

Pics please! (once you have it).

Good result, you won’t regret it.

Cheers

Hmmmm. Beer indeed. Not heard of Craft before but I see it is frighteningly close to Farringdon station. A good refuge for when the usual TfL random closures are in place on the way home.

Would make a good venue for another London STW meet-up involving beer. Organisation is absolutely not my strong point, but if someone is and can post up a date/time, happy to turn up and say hello….!

Congrats, have a great day. Hope you get your cheeky ride in though.

Onza – Mrs O was also Jedi’d last year and promptly got a Reverb! And she’s now checking online for those all-important colour-coded grips…..

Happy man here.

I am particularly drawn to the “old rider” article which I will read tonight – hopefully, there’s some inspiration in there.

All I had time for last night was the Majorca article, which I thought was superb. I nearly booked a plane ticket for November.

I was horrified though that Chipps thinks 6am unnaturally early – I leave for work every day at that time! I want a job as a journalist!

Went open-sea kayaking for the first time with Mrs O in Scotland a couple of weeks ago and it was ACE!

That’s all I can add.

Dashcroft – well??!!!

Have owned both. It’s close but I would say orange. The black is classy but is hard to get shiny-clean and can quickly look scruffy.

The price of this advice by the way is that you must post up pics on here once built.

…..and not wanting to hijack, but anything half decent for 27.2mm size (I think I know the answer to this however…)

“scentance”?

Smells a bit iffy….

The only reason pigeon don’t use twitter is the size of their claws, Andrew. Have you SEEN the size of the feet of that one at the top of the page. Proper clown-claws. The giant hand doesn’t have me convinced.

Will he be prepared to live in a windmill in old Amsterdam?

Similarly disappointed with the silence. Other than that, it seems fine after 18 months.

Cheers!

Done it since 2004 (I think) in its various incarnations, although missed last year as I was on crutches (helped out at the start/finish though).

Doing it this year with Mrs O, we’ll do the shorther distance but I have done the full distance before – it is very weather dependent as is any riding in this part of the world – if it’s been wet in the week or two leading up to it, it’ll be hard. If dry, the distance is fine. Hardtail (IMO) is all you need round this way, so long as you can take the bumps through your posterior for 6+ hours.

Couldn’t get the Mint Sauce keyring, so it has to be the last ever Cotic Simple frame (in non-clown size).

Congrats all on a fine thread! Pure quality!

Unfortunately, his view seems to prevail in national and local government (and parts of the media).

My company used to use AL – one memorable trip home from Luton airport, they were an hour late turning up, the “gentleman” on the phone was patronising then rude as I had apparently disturbed him, the driver dozed off and got then got lost, then went a 180 degree corner on the wrong side of the road and nearly hit another head on.

Clearly, it was all the fault of cyclists. I can see that now.

Can I just say that I have walked/crawled through the main section box under the tarmac surface? Amazing experience. Flipping high up though.

(Probably the only willy-wave that I will ever get on here and it’s not even bike related).

Oh yes and Ernie Lynch’s “Hard-working families” one.

I feel a massive rant coming on.

Three:

– For free
– Back in the day
– Like (in it’s endlessly abused and mis-used version).

Aaaaah, sorry to hear. Poor lad.

All the best – if it comes to it you will be doing the right thing.

Nice one! We got enagaged after riding through a very large mud-slick that I assured Mrs O was not cow slurry. It was.

I had been looking for that perfect moment….!!

Great little film, thanks – what a great way to start a Friday. We know so many of the places on there – we got engaged and then married up there, fabulous.

Congrats to you both. Was the enagagement brought on early by any chance by her not being too happy on Nevis….?!! 😉

Just come back from there Rickmeister. We did relatively short and not-so-technical routes deliberately, but had a great time – recommend getting the boat from Mallaig to Inverie and riding up to Lochan Dubh -wonderfully remote and atmospheric. I think there’s a good ride to be had north out of Inverie over to the next inlet too (could see it from the boat out), but we never got back to it. Good little manmade trail at Inverie as well (and a good pub!).

Also found one from Arisaig across north-east to cross the railway line and it skirts down to the southern shore of Loch Morar (it’s obvious from the OS map which I don’t have with me).

Finally, had a great day riding down the east side of Loch Shiel from Glenfinnan – all dirt road but worth it for the views and silence.

Loads of riding up there I suspect, OS map and exploring are your friends! We’ll be back to ride some more.

I hate mud but of course will ride in this weather. I take whatever opporutnity I get to ride otherwise I would never ride.

Yes – the last week of April last year (when it was lovely and hot) I had a fantastic fast ride across the Quantocks with a mate, packed up my bike, went home and went in for ankle surgery.

I didn’t heal well, I tried climbing on my bike (difficult on crutches) with the chain slipped off leaning against a wall and just trying to turn the pedals as I missed it so badly. Pretty much the day I started riding again the rain started. But it makes me appreciate it even more, and the fitness comes back remarkably quickly.

Surely they’re electrical cabinets?

You have without doubt the most impressive garage / shed that I’ve seen on here. Do you live in a mansion?

Damn. I’ve been eyeing up the ad in my LBS for a mechanic and had all sorts of plans to learn some more and then have a career change. Does not compute though with size of mortgage.

Had a couple of cranksets from them. As above, excellent, very quick.

The German Merlin really.

Genesis, Brighton 1978?. My brother took me.

Was also at the crowded house one at the g Mex mentioned somewhere above.

Apologies for slight hijack – irbandito, what are those chaintugs, do they work well in the cotic frame (my current ones don’t) and is it a pain to get out due to the rohloff or the tugs?
Ta!

If you were up for more distance, the WHW between Glencoe and Victoria Bridge is great, then turn right down Glen Kinglass to Loch Etive. The run south down the edge of Loch Etive to Taynuilt is hard though (significantly undulating). Did it with Mrs O a couple of years ago, stunning wilderness ride.

From Taynuilt maybe try to get a boat across to Bonawe the next day, then it’s a quiet and very pretty road round to North Connell. From there it’s 8 or so miles of major road to Oban, but there seems to be a bit of a cycle path being built on some stretches.

Went out on my 32:16 with a mate for a couple of hours yesterday morning, ride of the year so far. Thoroughly enjoyed it, reminded me (if I needed it) why I ride bikes.

Shan’t bore you with stats (which are frankly pedestrian anyway), but it was great for me.

Note though that the maintenance-free claims above are not toally true, as I found out when my transmission started slipping after several years use. A very stretched chain and virtually no teeth left on the rear sprocket seemed to be the cause.

I’ve never really bedded them in either (always thought that was a bit of a myth) – interesting. I may give it a try and see if I get the same result.

Chilterns

Jusat had my M4 caliper back from Hope as i didn’t dare start popping pistons out. Quality job – they charged me less than £15 (and that included a courier back!). Hope are superb.

Don’t want to take away from the satisfaction you have of doing the job yourself, but if I’d tried it would have ended in tears.

It’s definitely the apostrophe abuse that gets me.

Well, I’m with simondbarnes on page 1 on this. There’s not enough hypnosis / mind-altering drugs in the world to make me even consider going off that.

Do I win £5?