Specialized Chisel ltd edition frame with Sid ultimate SL fork and light components..mine comes in at 9.5kg. I can sit in my clubs road peleton comfortably.

Sold my 2018 9.8 last week. Amazing bike, just not using it as much anymore that I’ve purchased a hardtail rocket.

How’s everyone doing? Five weeks out now. Rode kielder at the weekend. Looking good. Very dry and has been cleared from trees.

50% for a year old bike. 5-10% each year after is usually the way to go. Mine was worth 4.8, 4 years ago. Letting it go for close to 1.5. Seen a lot of expensive second hand bikes around like Santa Cruz, expecting they are going to get ~5k. Yeh alright… 😉. As you say, a lot of expensive toys bought during COVID. People must be regretting those purchases now.

Anyone else do f-all work today because of the news? Ending up working late as I can’t set my phone down.

I plan to stop as little as possible, perhaps 5 mins max at feed stops. Don’t want to let my legs cool down and stiffen up 😂

Doing rides at the moment. 100km gravel ride last week. Planning a 130-140km ride this week. Building up to 170km a few weeks before the event. I’d love to complete it in less than 10 hours.

Let’s hope for a dry, calm day. If it pisses down and blows a gale, I’ll ride 130 I reckon.

My sid ultimate SL is on a chisel frame. Limited edition water theme. Went for high gloss black in the fork as the blue was too much with the water theme.

Got the ultimate SL. Couldn’t tell you the difference, but it’s very light and supple. Doesn’t bomb through the stroke either. Good support. I love mine, even though it’s the 100mm version.

Despite my Hunt issue. On my Xc rocket, I have Bitex bx211s laced to DT Swiss xr391 rims with alloy nipples and cx-ray spokes. 1560g all in. Can recommend excellent wheelbuilder if keen. Cost me 500ish.

Just found 5 cracks in my Hunt rims. Less than a year old. I’d probably avoid.

5ft10. Medium here, 80mm stem.

Nails in the inside of fences, edges of shed roof. Clear out the shed. Arm your door so that when they open it, they get covered in paint. This isn’t advice by the way.. 🤣

Apologies for being cynical, but this is a question that has a relatively obvious answer.

If you need to improve in something, do more of it. For what it’s worth, if I want to get better at climbing. I drop my weight by a few kg for an event as it’s a logical given, climbing is easier with less weight.

I also massively build on my elevation by including big hills in my ride. Stopping at them, and doing repititions on them, then moving on.

Sorry bud, this is the answer. There is no magic bullet.

Just buy the bike you want and look after it wel (wash after each ride). Tyres are all that matters. Quality sealed hubs and hydraulic discs. No rim brake shite for the UK.

Not sure how you get a 4 seasons road bike. Perhaps buying into marketing too much here.

Specialized Chisel frame and build on it. My current gravel / trail park / all day cruncher. Favourite bike I’ve had.

Came on my Audi A5 s-line. Been fine and no complaints apart from traction in sports mode at times. Now at end of life and a bit dicey as all tires become. Changing to Kumho ps71s tomorrow.

Upskill in some form or other. Not going far with direct financial investments with £200.

Docker takes a little bit of setting up on WSL / WSL2.. but it literally takes under an hour. Lot of guides online. Be mindful that working on Windows UIs (for example: RStudio) don’t generally notice your WSL folders, so any work in UI tends to need files ported to a file location under the Windows installation to be recognised e.g. documents/ desktop etc.

I’d go completely unix if it was me, unless there is a massive urge to use Windows for some reason. We are given windows laptops for work. Most work is remote on HPCs/instances.

Depends what your use case is. Plenty of cheap second hand laptops about. Take your pick.

Tesla coils?

Never knew STW forum had this many tank commanders, war lords, military strategists and military generals. Great entertainment.

All jokes aside. Carbon Trek Fuel Ex frame.

Specialized Chisel – 1400g. Legs as suspension. 🙌🙂

Endura mt500 spray trouser. Perfect for drizzly days. Breathable. Comfy. On a down pour, I don’t think any trouser will be 100%, unless they aren’t breathable, which would make you wet underneath anyway. Happy medium I believe.

Amazon. I picked up a pair for about 16. Dexshells. Believe they are half the price of sealskinz. They work well.

I have my Fuel ex 9.8 for sale on classifieds (not getting the use out of it as I recently built a hardtail). Had a stone strike, chipped the paint and first layer of carbon just above the BB. Had it repaired last year and sprayed by FibreLyte in the NE. No issues or worries since.

Carbon is easily repairable. The bike market would try and tell you that a new frame is required which is a load of balls. They just want to make money – wise man that repairs carbon.

111 online, phoning takes forever. They’ll redirect you to urgent care. Had to go last week with ankle and leg, turned out to be a sprain. Anyway, took two hours to be seen and x-ray.

I am. That’s interesting. I had some issues a few weeks back. May explain!

https://ambikeco.com/ is the company from NI. Will post to Scotland. Posted mine to England for a small fee.

To add. I have xr391 25mm rims on Bitex BX211s. I run a 43mm panaracer SK plus gravelking. Very fast rolling. Minimum tyre size the rim will take according to charts, but feels nice.

Got hunt aerowides on my road bike, DT Swiss on my Xc race / gravel bike. My Hunt’s haven’t been an issue but I’ve heard of many spoke nipples and holes cracking. Treat yourself to DTS on some Bitex hubs. I can hit you up with a good wheelbuilder operating from NI if you want. Quality builds. 🙂

2.6, pushing it? Comfier, more stable ride but potentially slower if you’ve got draggy, weighty tires. Max I’ve gone with a 25mm is 2.4. lowest is 43mm gravel tyre (1.7). Swings and roundabouts I guess. What do you desire?

Them Panaracers are the nuts. Rode 110km today on the Chisel and they are very fast rolling. Not too bad in the wet and some mud. In the deep mud they do slide a bit, but Kielder is like 98% gravel/hardpack anyway.

Plan is to now build 20km onto my long rides each week. Hands were a bit sore today. Going to get some Ergon grips and also wrap the centre of my handlebars with bar tape. Find I’ve been riding with hands in on straights etc. Maybe a cheap bar cut down too.

Weather was total shithouse in the NE. Went to gym instead, done 30km on peleton then weights. Decided to abstain for the 500 as this stage, given the week ahead of awful weather. Still looking to put in 3-400km in the end.

Most ebikers I know have one bike, maybe some folks should turn the looking glass back on themselves now and again, intead of having so many bikes they need to use the loft.

Hence why it’s going up for sale lol🎣🤡

Road bike, 100mm Modern xc geometry hardtail here. My Fuel ex 9.8 trail bike has been in the roof space the whole year, building it up this week to sell. I’m preferring riding bikes with less at the moment, much more fun, versatile and can travel more ground faster.

Seeing so many people on e-bikes annoy me, not necessarily big travel bikes. I gather you can ‘do more runs’. I ultimately see it as a lame excuse not to get fit. Quite a few fat blokes who ride e-bikes could do with dropping a few lbs in the first place. I hate to think how much waste the e-bike industry as well. Rant over.

Waterproofs and winter gear at the ready for tomorrow. A camelback packed too. Taking the MTB on a 100km round loop. Mostly bridal ways and some road. 6am start…cannot wait…not 🤪🤣

Anyone actually riding tomorrow?

Had work, so only got out on an extended lunch break on the MTB. Was like a quagmire. Reckon the road bike is coming out for a few hours early tomorrow morning.Most days I’ll be doing 60-70km then two longer days chucked in. 55km today, mostly off road.

Me. Done a festive 1000 when I lived in Australia. Much easier given the weather. I’ll be doing the 500 this year. Attempting to do it mostly on my Xc bike. If I’m feeling sore, I’ll be bringing the roadie out to finish it off. Gravel tyres and mudguards on. Recently bought lots of new winter kit, so I don’t have a reason not to do it. Starting with about 75km tomorrow, 50km Xmas morning early then a few big rides after. Good training for the season ahead and the Dirty Reiver in April.

Double post, please delete thread.