I’ve got XTs and Elixir 5s. I’m considering changing the Elixir 5s for another set of XTs when funds allow, so I’d vote for XT (or maybe SLX, but I’m not sure what the differences are).

Does this[/url] fit the bill Al? Prototype Ti Pompetamime?

I just stumbled across this on the On-One flickr page. Seems to tick all of the boxes (except perhaps price). Presumably lighter than steel, got disc mounts, and seems to have rack mounts for touring duties too.

No idea about the background though – hopefully it is possibly going into production.

WTF is a derestricted trunk road?

I meant a main route where the restricted speed limit doesn’t apply, so NSL applies instead.

I rode a couple of short sections of the A9 last year. Ballinluig north for about 1k on the dual carraigeway was the only bit where I was “concerned”

I hadn’t seen your other post before – I enjoyed that. Obviously you had a good reason to ride the A9. I’m just a big wimp when it comes to riding on main roads out of town though – I don’t find it particularly enjoyable if it is busy.

We’ve ridden sections of the A9 as well, because the cycle path frankly isn’t suitable for road bikes.

I think this is true for the vast majority of long distance routes. Most NCN routes have at least some sections which you would want a hybrid for rather than a road bike.

I’m sure some drivers mean well, as they don’t understand that the cycle paths are often inadequate, and think they are helping you by alerting you to the presence of a cycle path. It’s probably hard to distinguish the well meaning drivers when they are passing at 30mph+ though.

I occasionally see cyclists cycling on the A9 between Inverness and Perth, and if I was of a shouty persuasion (I’m not though), I might have a word. Not because I’m annoyed that they are on the road, but you would have to be suicidal to ride there, as the cycle path would be a lot safer than a derestricted trunk road.

I can see your point OP. Cycle lane design in this country is awful. Get yourself a t-shirt made up for the commute, and write to the road department at your local council.

I hate with a passion the posturing that goes with either branch of the sport so refuse to label myself as either.

I had a cheap secondhand road bike briefly. I rode it in baggies (the only shorts I had at the time) with a helmet visor and was probably frowned upon by certain roadies.

I’m probably also frowned upon by some mountain bikers as I occasionally wear lycra and don’t have a 6″ travel bike.

I didn’t really care though – it’s all about riding bikes. :)

I’d describe myself as a mountain biker, but don’t care if people refer to me as a cyclist in conversation.

Mountain biker here (although the mug on my work desk says cyclist).

I don’t own a road bike, and my riding on the road is only to get from A to B, to get some miles in close to home, or to get to some off-road riding.

What if I get a CX bike though? Would that make me a cyclist?

I’m going to have to erarse your post from my memory now trail rat or I’ll be crawling around everywhere nervous about my forks.

Rustler – I’d definitely recommend tubeless for cushioning. I run a 2.1″ Nobby Nic up front between 30 and 40 psi (I increase it to 40 if I know I’m going for a blast with lots of tarmac) and it definitely soaks up a lot of the bumps.

“Even if he is innoncent”

Well he did try to claim he wasn’t involved in doping for a good while, but yeah, he has now given up on that argument.

I agree with the above. I have Pace RC31s on my steel SS, so it is light and low maintenance. It takes no time at all to clean the bike down, and I don’t need to worry about grit damaging my fancy forks.

I ride mine round semi rural paths around the Edinburgh area, and round trail centres (normally Glentress, although I’ve been round Lee Quarry on them too). On long bumpy descents at trail centres my hands hurt a bit, but I don’t think I notice that as much as I used to (probably helped by now running tubeless too).

I’d say go for it. It’s hard to tell how much trail buzz they remove, but even leaving that issue aside, the weight saving (over similarly priced suspension forks) and simplicity is worth having if they are for your second bike.

Good luck – sounds like an intersting one to follow. You sound like you are well prepared and know what to expect. Rather you than me though (especially in January!)

I currently have two mountain bikes (a rigid singlespeed for round town, quick blasts, red trail centre routes and muddy rides) and a full-sus for XC racing, remote rides, and anywhere I think a rigid singlespeed would struggle. I could get by with one, but I’d be chewing through drivetrains, and the forks would need serviced far more quickly on the FS. I can also wash the singlespeed in about a third of the time it takes to clean out the suspension bits and gears on the full-sus, and I’m slightly less worried about leaving the singlespeed chained up to railings. I’d say that on average, the singlespeed gets ridden 2-3 times a week at the moment, and the full-sus goes out once every 3 weeks (more in the summer).

However, if I had a CX bike, I could probably get away without the singlespeed. I’ll get shot down in flames for this, but I do think that too many bikes can be a disadvantage, and just means that you have far more work to do to keep them running. If you head out on one bike on Monday night, and the other on Tuesday for example, and discover that the front brake rubs slightly on both, you now have two bikes to fettle with on Wednesday.

Back to the original question, if you have a middleground MTB (do it all hardtail or full sus) and just ride it at weekends, I reckon you could happily get away with one bike, provided you aren’t using it for everything from XC racing to downhill.

Thanks Sharki – I enjoyed that. I think most people on here can relate to at least some parts of your post.

Have you got the rest of your photos on flickr or something?

On the basis of price alone, they should be nations of teetotallers. It is down to culture more than price alone.

I agree. IMHO, minimum pricing is just dodging the issue, and will have no meaningful effect. I am totally against tinkering with prices in the mistaken belief that it will suddenly cure the nation’s ills. The same thing is mooted occasionally regarding taxation of less healthy food.

I don’t see why I should be penalised by higher prices for mars bars or alcohol (my usual tipples wouldn’t be affected at the present suggested prices, but no doubt these would creep up over time), because the government wants me to eat/drink less. I eat some “junk” food (primarily too many choccie bars as they are handy to throw in a rucksack), but then go and burn it off on the bike, and I drink in moderation. Why should I pay more to line the pockets of the local supermarket, or more in tax, because some other unhealthy individuals eat too much unhealthy food or drink too much alcohol?

Just stick an allen key in and move it up or down (not left or right), depending on which way you want to go. Mine have always moved easily enough.

Once you’ve exhausted all of the above, the last resort is to get the drill out and start drilling the hex hole, increasing the size of the drill bit gradually. The spindle should disintegrate sufficiently before you get too close to the crank arm threads.

A proper CX will have greater mud clearance, different gearing (losing a few gear off the top and bottom end of a road bike), knobbly tyres, better brakes (with better mud clearance), and possibly a chunkier frame and stronger wheels. The geometry will normally have shouldering in mind too (often with a flat top tube).

Having taken a road bike down short track sections before, I’d be a lot less nervous of breaking something if riding a proper CX bike I think.

+1 for the Punch Bowl. I’ve not stayed there before, but had a lovely lunch there a couple of years ago, and I am thinking about going for a long weekend later this year.

Edit:- link[/url]

Looks pretty tidy – good work. I’m sure it’ll be pretty zippy for fast flowing trails and climbing.

Your frame size doesn’t look too bad with 29″ wheels – everything seems to be in proportion. I did see a teeny tiny Specialized Stumpjumper 29er yesterday, and it looked decidely odd.

you are turning the pedal in the right direction, aren’t you?

Do you mean the left? :-)

OP – Pedals unscrew towards the rear of the bike, but hopefully you knew that already.

The only time I couldn’t get a pedal off, I took it to the LBS and they made it look easy with a proper pedal spanner, but that’s not going to help you. As you say, oil and heat might help just enough, and a long allen key might give you some extra leverage.

I’ve had some Oakleys for about 6 years now. They are pricey, but I doubt I’d have kept some cheapo ones for so long, and if I average it out over £ per use now, it’s not too bad. I’ve got Halfjackets which are handy as you can swap the lenses for rainy days etc.

Not sure on cheapest places as I got mine from my LBS.

Looks a bit mad in Killin there Matt. Dry and sunny (but breezy) at Glentress today. Yesterday’s rain meant the off piste sections on the Glentress Duathlon were a bit slippy though.

Hope you get back on the bike soon Ton.

I’ve currently got an itching for a CX bike. After a planned house move, it will get used for commuting, the odd bit of touring, and CX racing next winter. I think that is reasonable justification. Currently I’m looking at building up one of these (without the white tyres and bar tape), as there isn’t much available that meets all of my requirements.

Not unusual, although £70 would be pricey – presumably that is for something interesting / full-sus?

You have to bear in mind that as soon as a bike is ridden, they have to knock a good chunk off the price to be able to sell it in future. Most shops will probably give you your £70 back if you buy though.

Edit:- slow fingers!

Sorry it’s been a very long week, but it’s nearly the weekend now

I clearly should have use the tongue-in-cheek smiley in my original post.

Have a look at the opening post on this thread and TJ’s opening post in his ‘An end to A&A / Friday Kylie please’ tread, this thread was started with tong firmly placed in cheek

Yes yes, my post was tongue in cheek too. I’ll get my coat. :(

Ach – you’ve all seen mine before!

Surely that photo is a commute, not a tour druidh? Is that the bike chain lunch supplies in the bags?

Love the irony of someone getting all self-righteous over someone else’s ‘self-righteousness’.

I also love the irony of people complaining about TJ’s attempts at censorship, but attempting to censor TJ. :?

Just to clarify, it’s not a competition and there won’t be a winner.

I think that is the best approach. Voting becomes a pain, and I do enjoy a good old fashioned photo thread.

Sounds like a good excuse to bring up this again:-

or this classic story. :-)

Was planning on resorting to the mobile if I get a chance (I don’t have a compact, so it is SLR or mobile), but my phone camera is pretty poor. Wasn’t aiming for one-upmanship – my photos aren’t particularly great from mobile or the old SLR regardless. :|

Grrr, too late Graham – I cycled under the Forth Rail Bridge last night, but I’m taking the SLR in for repair tomorrow. I like the idea of a photo challenge thread. Would be fun to have something similar once a week.

Could be any number of things – bars, stem, headset, bottom bracket, pedal. Just because it sounds like it is coming from one place, it may well be from somewhere totally unrelated.

Check the obvious places are nicely tightened up, but then try to ignore it. You could spend hours looking for the problem!

Essentially, I’m looking to register a company name (well, two), and to use that name (well, two names..!) to be ran as a small company. i don’t want to be VAT registered, instead the VAT will be declared at the end of the year (I’m not expecting a big turnover to be honest, it’s for personal locum work).

First off – income tax etc:-

I’d speak to an accountant to check if it is worthwhile setting up a ltd company. It is generally only worth it if you have a turnover over £X amount, or there is a chance of people suing you (in which case the company gives you something to separate yourself from to a certain extent). Otherwise, the cost of companies house filing every year, more detailed accounts required etc would outweigh any benefits.

If you are just receiving a few £1000 per annum for services, you would be better just operating as a sole trader. I receive a small amount of funds for software work I used to do, and just do a tax return at the end of every year.

Separately, VAT (it sound like you were confusing the two in your first post):-

You do not need to declare VAT at the end of the year unless you are charging VAT. You only need to charge VAT if you are VAT registered, and you only need to be VAT registered if you are above the threshold (around £68,000 or so), or choose to be VAT registered (perhaps because you are expending a lot of money on items with VAT on, and want to recoup that VAT).

Really? So the cash machine sucks the money back in?

Yup. I was always a bit dubious, but when the cash machine I used got confused the other day, this is obviously what it was checking for, and the bank confirmed this when I phoned them.

Yes, unless somebody grabs

I’m sure this happens pretty often. I guess if I saw some money left and couldn’t see the original person using the machine, the fairest thing to do would be to stand around to let the cash go back in without getting nicked, and when the original person realises the error, they just need to hassle their bank to ensure it gets sorted.

I haven’t weighed my bikes (I like a lightish bike, but I’m not weight weenie), but my cheapo Inbred feels light enough, partly because the lack of gears and the rigid Pace forks more than compensate for the heavy frame. As you would expect, it is noticeably lighter than my geared full-sus (Giant Anthem), both to pick up and to ride. You notice it most when out of the saddle, either sprinting, or up short, sharp hills.

For me, my singlespeed is my hack bike, so as long as it isn’t so heavy that it is a dog ride, I don’t really care.

Chased a guy out of a train station once after he left £80 in the cash machine. A couple of days later someone ran after me after I dropped a tenner. Some people are still nice!

I on the other hand got ripped off by a cash machine for £20 the other day. It’s been over a week and I’m still waiting for my bank to sort it out.

If you had left that £80 in the cash machine, it would have gone back into his account anyway. What if you chased after him, but lost him? You’ve then just denied him his £80. 8O

I’ve not done any proper touring, but I took my Inbred for 3 days of Sustrans routes (quiet roads and tracks) last year around Inverness and Aberdeen.

I ride my Inbred singlespeed, so just changed the cog at the back for something road suitable (32-12 I think), put on some 1.5″ slick tyres, bolted on a pannier rack and set off. You can get away with most racks because of the way the brake is mounted, and I didn’t have any issues.

I have carbon forks up front, and had both pannier bags at the back, so it was a bit tail heavy to pick up and put on trains etc – there were a few comedy moments. Handled fine to ride though.

No photos here, but I’ll try to stick something up tonight.

Cheapest option is the On One spacer set, currently available for £2.99 with the 16t cog, which will get you started (you can get another cog later once you decide how you get on with that one). Even cheaper than a bit of pipe from B&Q probably!

-1 for Time machine. Had two and they both died.

I was referring to the software rather than the drive thing.

Anyway, it seems that Time Machine isn’t what the OP needs. Some sort of cloud storage would be more useful, What about Apple Mobile Me service, or something similar from google etc?

+1

I don’t use Time Machine as I don’t have a spare external drive, but when I have used it in the past, I’m sure you can set it up to only backup certain folders, and you can change the frequency etc.