Thanks too, Tim!

Thanks, coffeeking. Will give it a go next weekend.

(I thought I'd defeated the collective wisdom of STW on that one….!).

Great ride yesterday, thanks to all who worked so hard to make it good. Great venue, chaps.

Apparently, he really is Tony's big brother.

Car drivers

I want to avoid post no 666 though.

Yes – peeing down at the moment

@rse. Me too.

It must be any time now……??

Black Park here too. It's not far away and it's absoplutely p**ing down at the moment, thunder and lightning too.

Flaming penguins.

Any sign of page 16 yet?

Isn't celeriac the really ugly vegetable? Really really brutish looking.

Oh and welcome back, Swede. Recovered now?

Vile awful evil stuff. One of the evil trimuverate from hell along with broccoli and spinach. Probably the ring leader though. FACT.

Everyone?

joemarshall – I do work on the train (when I don't fall asleep!) And yes, married 3 years ago, my wife is a lawyer so compared to her my working week is short and sweet….!

Moved out for the biking and space really, in London I spent any precious free time trying to get out of the place with the bike for some peace and quiet. I was too old for it really, I think.

My day is

Up at 6
Leave at 6.25
Train at 6.40
Arrive work 8.00
Leave work 18.30 onwards
Home 20.00 onwards
Dinner 21.00 onwards
Bed 22.00

Repeat ad nauseam (I have for the last few years). Frustrating thing is it leaves no bike time really in the week. Short of living in Central London (tried it once and hated it with a passion) have no way to really reduce it with the job that I do.

October for me.

Alarm still going?!! I didn't know – and there's a band I wanted to see when I was young.

My Soul is around 28ish lbs I think (could build it up lighter if I had some spare cash) at the beginning of a ride. At that last evil, long hill at the end it's about 45 lbs. FACT.

Mrs ononeorange is 5' 3-4" and similarly had never rideen a bike until she met me(!). She has a 14" Orange 5 and also built her a 14" Inbred – she loves them both and they fit well. Probably not much use as Mrs Pixel is quite a bit smaller!

Good luck.

The problem I have with winter is (when it's wet) it's impossible to do anything at any speed and I lose any consistentcy and that makes it a short ride as I'm usually exhausted quickly. Fitness comes on much quicker once the mud starts to become sensible again, so usually don't start getting fit until the longer rides from April onwards.

As others stand all/most of the time uphill on the s/s. I haven't ridden my FS now for ages as standing is a habit I can't get out of, and it's like riding on jelly stood up on the FS, an awful feeling.

Stood up on a hardtail I find I can keep momentum much better.

Good call. Heading down there at Easter with Mrs Ononeorange (but staying at another pub whose name I can't remember). Will call in for a beer at the Plough though.

A ringle of crown races?

Hmmm. That 40 posts per page is clever – I thought it was on size. OK, 15's got my name on then.

tthew – 12.5897mm. Probably.

Did Google say whether the headset came before the crown race or vice versa?

Roger Federer in headset but no crown race shocker!

Can I just say this is the first time I've been on page 13?

And again on page 2!

We must be getting close to unlucky 13 by now surely?

Can't beat Chilterns mud for horrendous gloopiness. Ride a singlespeed in winter (the first winter I rode geared I got through a lot of transmission components), generally have to replace very little now (beefy chain, s/s ring). Having said which, I can probably count on the fingers of one hand the number of times I've been faster than 3pmh off-road over the last 6 months…

Love it though, it's all biking and every condition is just another challenge. It can't all be well-drained trail centres in just-right conditions. Have happily kept going through this awful winter, really looking forward to the mud drying out!

As discussed Tim – me too.

Did we work out a probability quotient of with / without? Is there any correlation with the manufacturer? Who won the Clown Race? There's plenty of mileage in this yet.

I've got dibs on 14

According to his profile he's a student. Of what?

But page 13 might be unlucky…?

EIGHT!!!!

Same experience here. Helpful, good chat, interesting bikes and lots of shiny stuff. And where they really screwed up was selling me just what I wanted and getting it to me quickly – I was so appalled I bought the T-shirt.

OK thanks. My comment came from someone talking about swelling agents (for seals).

Cheers for the advice.

Not sure my LBS will stretch to it. With the car / motorbike stuff, doesn't some of it contain stuff that can wreck the seals?

Pictures?

Did they have headsets or not?