Just for info really,

Raleigh EGO carbon bars can be had for £60 if you look around, same specs as the Cotic Ali bars. Bit more back sweep than normal but I have found this alleviates any wrist ache I used to get on big mile rides.

I tried 2 different spec/sweep etc bars I had in spares box on my Solarismax and they didn’t really work with the reach of my large frame 5’11”, with normalish (beer gut) body proportion

The EGO bars are Bob on 👍

BMX 35 years ago, I could wheelie around corners and clear a 3m gap on the ghetto track we built in the woods near my mams house,,, I can’t do either now,
BUT a typical loop nowadays is 40m and I piloted a HT down revs red tracks last year with no probs.

WGAF 😁

I used a roll of low-tack decorators tape and applied it as best I could to the shape of my frame, peeled it off and then stuck it to a roll of scotch guard 3m heli tape and cut round the template.

Hair dryer, soapy water, yadda yadda.

Happy with the result on my steel hardtail but wouldnt attempt a carbon monocoque frame after the experience.

Be careful with the sizing.
I have just bought the newer version in xl/xxl size and its a struggle to get them over a pair of 9.5 Adidas terrex trail cross.

That said I quite like them, they do help keep the feet dryer and warmer.

I’ve seen master cylinder and seal kits for Shimano mtb levers on AliExpress, might be worth a search for road lever spares.

Foam plugs didn’t work for me, full on road works/jack hammer ear defenders work well but not very comfortable.

Best cure if found for the mrs snoring was me under a tarp in the back garden, cracking nights kip.

Think what you will, I agree with hambinis opinions due to my experience of constant niggles and problems with not only the crank but the full sram rival group set.

I’ve always been confused how a £700 group can be found on a low end £1000+ bike, I can’t help but think that the business model is that once you’ve got a sram hydro groupset your stuck with it and you will be stuck with the cost of buying new replacements at full RRP which is far cheaper than replacing all of it for a decent (Shimano) groupset

I will never be a beta tester for sram again, bit of research suggests a fair few unhappy customers.

Engineers opinion of gxp.

Always owned Shimano.
Got my first sram rival groupset in 2017, it was ok at first.
Ive had lots of constant niggles and faff with the groupset and don’t like the crank design at all.

Finally found a 96bcd 44t chainring to fit a spare slx crank and will be fitted as soon as it arrives, I will be using a grinder to remove the rival crank with great pleasure 😈

All kids are different, if he’s experimenting then role with it. If he’s sat in his room on his own getting blazed then that’s a problem.

Don’t do what my old man did.

Checking my pockets every time I came home didn’t work.
Finding my well stashed bong made me even more sneaky.

Reporting me to the police caused a massive rift and my eventual leaving home at 17,,,,,, then I got into proper drugs.

Look after your boy, help him through it with firm ground rules and understanding,,,,,
kids Chong ,it’s more acceptable now days.

hopefully he will grow out of it when he finds a girlfriend, gets a job or Starts riding bikes and finds that new shiney expensive seat clamp more attractive than a bag of green.

I do and I don’t regret my miss spent youth.

Thankfully drug free for almost 10 years.

20mile loop to haigh hall in a bit.

Was supposed to be heading out at 5:30 before the chaos. Mini-mon woke early than usual excited for presents.

Consider old non-boost mtb wheels, second hand market prices are good.

I bought a pair of HH 650 tech enduros that I will be trying on my Gbike when I finally get some new tyres.

Gone all silver hope bits on my latest build to avoid this very problem.

Vodka.

Trust me

Can’t help but would be interested in an update if you sort it,,,,,,,

New Shimano stuff is on my list after 2Years of problems with my first and last sram (rival) group-set.

It’s Anti Israel, that’s all.

Although, as stated above.
If your place of work is not unionised and as a result you only get SSP for time off due to ill health instead of a ‘proper sick pay’ safety net,
then take the hols.

Are you a member of a union?

A sick note from a doctor during a booked holiday should result in the those days being cancelled/returned, by law.

Newly opened hairdresser near me mams mid 90s.

Asked for a short back n sides thinking Noel Gallagher

Got a Bon yed (early Wigan term for chav)

After expressing my disappointment I Walked out without paying

chased by a Vicky pollard type telling me her meatball BF would pay me a visit.

The mrs nearly choked when I got home and promptly sorted it with a No4 skin.

Didn’t see the ‘email’ bit,,,, just flew into a junk mail frenzy

GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR

Good luck with that, I used to get an Asda bag full of menus every month.

aggressively chasing a bloke down the street after you mentioned to him last week AND THE WEEK BEFORE that you don’t want that shite through your door ever again doesn’t seem to work.

I used to live in Wigan town center and would get menus from Ashton,,,, 7 **** miles away,,,,
1/2 mile away was Wigan lane, it has a higher concentration of junk food outlets than it does rats

The next government to heavily tax junk mail gets my vote.

BANKSY, produced a sticker on his web site many moons ago that stated
“if you post a menu through my door I will never eat your junk food ever again”

That didn’t work either as the majority of the junk mailers don’t speak/read or even care to read English.

Don’t get me started,,,,, I’m goin bed

GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR, GRRRR

Dustin kliens gravel adventures.

Good music, nice bloke, lovely views.

Yes but do it CAREFULLY

I bought a second hand 2008 fox vanilla with stripped hose guide in 2011 (eBay got it cheap), MOJO suggested new lowers 😐
Fixed it by retapping the forks hose guide thread and drilled out a new north shore billet clamp by myself for a lot cheaper than new lowers, used the next thread size up TAP AND BOLT. Sold them in 2015 for more than I paid for complete package 😁

Coincidentally I’m concerned that the clamp on my 2019 pikes seems at an odd angle and doesn’t really allow for the correct path for the hose, seems to put a bit of deflection on the tiny bolt/thread interface…. may need to dig the tap/die out eventually 😁 time will tell.

It’s an easy fix if you have any engineering nowse,, if not,,use a zip tie

I’ve dated a few redheads in my younger years, they definitely are fiery and I dont mean just argumentative,,,, I was more virile back then 😁

Their IS a science paper proving that redheads have higher levels of Adrenalin ( the anger kind ) but I can’t find it now……

This will do,,, https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/redheads-genetic-traits-ginger-hair-study-dna-the-big-redhead-book-erin-la-rosa-a8090276.html

Just figured out how to dismantle hub, it’s not looking good.

Have pinged hunt, will up date after contact.

I don’t do Facebook.

Uraltour Bikepacking Set

Not used but reviews/price seems good. Hand made to order as well.

Spent a small fortune on a seat bag😕

For summer BPing I really don’t need a seat bag as I can pack big bar bag, pods and frame bag with everything I need,,,,,,

Endura hummvee shorts come in very handy as well.

Assertive and polite with a menacing stare works well (think winston wolf)

Loosing your rag doesn’t 😉

True, but,
I’m concerned that it may be dismissed as user error.

If end caps loosening has caused ingress of shoite then it could be argued that it is my fault.

If I can service it and all is well then it’s a problem avoided.

In instances like this I find pavements the safer option and I’m sure the traffic behind me appreciates it as well. AFAIK it is not unlawful to cycle on footpaths as long as you are riding safely.

There is a 2 mile-ish blind corner/uphill/narrow A road stretch on my commute that only a loon would Cycle especially this time of year. when in the car it’s a bind getting stuck behind a cyclist using said route and I wince when I see how close some drivers get to riders on this stretch.

Oops, got carried away and didn’t view OP.

I just miss DARTH 😕, want keep memory alive.

I ratted my 2008 ( I think ] Berlngo.
M.O.D stealth black paint and rusted bonnet to start with but it devolved 😁 and took on many guises, we named it DARTH

Me and pal tried lots of different looks,,, on one race weekend, instead of washing it we ‘mudded it’

It’s was used and brutally abused for mainly uplift and bike type trips.

It’s the only vehicle I genuinely loved and miss, went to the scrap yard in the sky as the rear axle (needle bearings) died and to replace was more than I paid for the POS……

Fond memories of
1 gaffer taping the windows ( they stopped working )
2 twating the starter motor with a hammer
3 guessing the fuel as the gauge didn’t work
4 buying lots of oil as it leaked,,, a lot
5 ram raiding wheelie bins in order to find a parking space
6 never cleaning the interior and chuckling amongst ourselves as we dreamed up different ways to make it worse, the fungus growing on a half eaten pie and chip dash board trophy comes to mind.

Lots of fun, one day I will do it again,,,,, one day.

post pics if I can find, suspect they all on the lap top that died

Snake oil,

Don’t do it unless you want to spend lots of money tackling damp problems.

Your house/roof needs to breath.

Leisure lakes had the sync for £185 recently.

It was a faff to set up but program 6 is perfect for my local loops.

No problems so far and happy with the light, the design of the remote could be improved though.

AFAIK the sync doesn’t have TAP.

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My gravel bike, best one if owned (only one I’ve owned😁).

DH bike and 29er was robbed in 2016, fancied something different as I’m to old for DH and its an expensive hobby as far as biking goes.

Raleigh mustang 2016, designed with the help of guitar ted (USA gravel guru)

Can do serious miles on this bike mixing on/off road, really need to get a 27.2 dropper on it as solid post is holding it back.

Full sram rival drive and brakes (shoite, nothing put problems)
American classic TCX wheels (bombproof, shame they went titsup)
Raleigh carbon seat post (recently killed due to over torquing clamp)
Ritchie ventureMAX bars (brought the bike to life)
Original Schwable 35mm G1s died after 8 months, went tubeless with terrene Elwood 42mm (one-on £12 each 👍) ace tyres.

Love it but not used much since buying Cotic Solaris 2019.

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Try again 🤞.

2019 Solaris max, without doubt the best bike I’ve owned. Got this as a midlife crises bike, thought ‘I’m to old to gnar any more, I’ll get a steel 29er’ oh how wrong I was. The bike has gives me confidence to ride down stuff I didn’t fancy before and take on big miles I didn’t think I was capable of.

130mm pikes.
Full xt drive and brakes (had to much grief with sram crap)
HOPE BB,HS, seat clamp, rear IS/post mount and recently floating rotors (in silver, compliments the frame)
Raleigh RSP carbon bars and stem (same sweep/rise as Cotic’s alloy for same price)
old burgtec grips in maroon 🤘
Old charge spoon and race face post (getting a oneup v2.1 for Christmas)
Old nuke proof sam hill pedals (no complaints)

Currently running kenda hellkat front 2.6 which rolls insane for the grip, weight and size.

Rear tyre is swapped occasionally for fun but the hellkat front and spesh slaughter rear is lots of fun in the mud 😁

FFs, send pics when I get head round.

My Solaris,

2 months old and without doubt the best mtb I’ve ever owned.

This,

How did we get to the point when big business tells us that their crap excuse for food is the real deal.

It’s mad, this generation thinks a smackdonalds is a true ‘burger’ .

That said I’ve recently been to a gaff in ormskirk that charged me £10+ for a greasy POS that they described as ‘the beast’,,,,,, thing was smaller than a big smack.🤔

More fool me,,, the mrs had to restrain my meldrew type rant.

Barbour jackets, I’ve got a 15 year old that’s still going strong.
Spiewak jackets (as above)
Marks n sparks jeans and wool jumpers
Clark’s shoes.
Swiss Army knives.
Shimano anything, (SRAM IS SHOITE from experience)

My Purdie’s survived 3 houses decorated multiple time over 18 years until they became ‘not fit for purpose’. On the advice of the Leyland paints bird I know, I bought some of their budget numbers and they are just as good (so far) as the purdies

Seal it and be done…….

You won’t be happy with the cost of asbestos removal.

Edit, that looks just like the floor of my new house (been in 5 year) its a 10mm coat of bitumen over concrete, this, I believe was the norm in the 70s before DPM under concrete slab was building reg.
Problem I had was damp rising through it because of years of carpet gripper rod nails being hammered into it and cracking the seal.

I sealed it with cold pour bitumen and it’s been fine since,,, 5 years and no smell of damp.

PVA not recommended due to it being water based 🙂