EBC Greenstuff pads are very good – they bite nicely in wet and dry, are reasonably hard wearing, don’t seem prone to squealing and don’t produce at much brake dust as some. They’re about £8 a pair and are available for the vast majority of disc brakes, including your M4s.

Hope’s own pads are also pretty good.

8O Seven pages? Seven? Dear God…

I turn mine upside down to remove/replace wheels, but that’s all. It gets turned right-side-up again for pumping up tyres etc (or they’re done before putting the wheel back on). The only annoying thing is the brake levers need pumping like billy-o once it’s back on it’s wheels (Maybe a Shimano-ism? Never used to be an issue with my Hopes) to get the bite point back where it should be.

I try not to leave it upside down for any extended period of time (I’ve seen a fair few cars on the motorway with bikes upside down on the boot rack, for example) as I’m not sure I’d trust the brake reservoirs not to leak.

relliott6879 – Member

… the outside diameter being a knat’s lunchbox away from a 26″ wheel and MTB tyre.

gnat’s, even!

We’ve got a Pure DAB radio (does FM too) that also has an iPod dock built into the top. Doesn’t go massively loud, but it’s fine for the kitchen. A nice feature is that when you turn it on, it automatically scans for available DAB stations and sets the clock. I think we paid about £60.

Somebody Tell Wayne

UEFA

I don’t imagine so, so long as you don’t put the post far enough down to be struck by the shock. Even if you did, it’d have to be a spectacularly unfortunate chain of subsequent events to result in actual death…

Chris Brown Flailed Aimlessly

UCI

speaker2animals – Member

Surely you want a 29er? Singular Swift/Cotic Solaris. If you need a 20/21″ frame and want to run 700c wheels for road touring I really don’t think a 26er is where you should be looking.

??? 700c wheels and slicks fit fine in pretty much any 26″ fork or frame and with clearance to spare, the outside diameter being a knat’s lunchbox away from a 26″ wheel and MTB tyre. I run a set with 23c tyres in my 20″ Kona with no problem whatsoever, they also fitted equally well in the 18″ Kona I had before. A colleague does the same (with 25c tyres) on a 17″ S-Works hardtail.

Ben 10 and Moshi Monsters seem to be my 6 year old Nephew’s current favourites.

TandemJeremy – Member

or the merida hardtails

http://www.thebikechain.co.uk/Merida-Matts-70-D-14.5-201111140914/

Both a lot of bike for your money, both available in a range of levels of kit.

I was told by a bike shop salesman (a salesman in a bike shop, not a vendor of bike shops, before the pedantry descends! :P ) recently that Merida make Specialized bikes and that most Meridas are rebadged Specialized – ie nice bikes but remarkably good value. Not sure how much truth is in it, I’m sure someone on here will have the definitive answer.

Makes the Hotrock 20 we bought for our Nephew at Christmas look a bit mediocre!

Looks like a perfectly decent bike. This http://www.wiggle.co.uk/giant-revel-ltd-0-2012/#more is also pretty nice for roughly the same money. It’s worth noting though that most bike shops will build a bike up for you though if you ask.

druidh – Member

I’ve still never experienced this “bonk” phenomenon.

You don’t want to, it’s truly horrible. You just feel empty, no energy whatsoever. As turtleheading and FuzzyWuzzy said, even turning the pedals on the flat is almost beyond you, the feeling of helplessness (because you can guarantee it’ll never happen when you’re in sight of your house) is all-consuming. It’s not happened to me for a fair few years now and, to be honest, I hope it never does again.

It’s got to be something to do with the way you are fitting or using them, SRAM chains are plenty strong enough.

clarkpm4242 – Member

I have equal access to a Transformer Prime and an iPad 2.

I use the Prime 90% of the time and play with the toy iPad…

Awesome product name! Please tell me they do an ‘Optimus’ version…!

IA – Member

Have you tried flash on an android tablet? Just because it runs flash doesn’t mean it works, or works well in all cases.

If she wants to struggle with her bloody farms and fish and Christ-knows what else on a tablet, I’m going to leave her to it!

It depends on what you want to use it for. We’ve been looking into tablets for a while and have got down to a shortlist of the Motorola Xoom 2 and the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1.

The principal difference between the iPad and it’s main competitors is that the iPad is not Flash compatible, using HTML5 instead. As my better half uses Facebook a lot and the Flash-hosted applications therein, any portable internet access device we bought would have to be Flash compatible to make it a viable purchase – for us, your requirements may well be different. We actually sold a first generation iPad that we won in a raffle!

Apple’s ‘official’ main reason for favouring HTML5 over Flash is that Flash is used for the majortity of spam advertising banners, it is also far and away the most common medium for internet porn! Historically, Apple have always ploughed their own furrow, so to speak, so there may be an element of deliberate incompatability in there, you’d have to pop up to heaven and quiz Steve Jobs on that one though. HTML5 is becoming better supported by the day, probably due to Apple’s clout and the industry accepting it will have to dance to Apple’s tune or be left behind – the iPad ain’t going away any time soon. As mentioned in previous posts, there are more iPad apps out there than Android, this is largely due to Apple stealing the march with the original iPad. Android is catching up fast though, with most popular apps like Sky Player, Netflix etc being offered in iPad and Android versions.

The iPad does have an advantage in the compatible accessory market, with seemingly every man and his dog making stuff for it (both a by product and contributary factor of the global success of the iPad and iPod). The Samsung appears to be increasingly well supported in this area too though.

One last thing to consider is whether you want 3G or WiFi. A 3G device has it’s own sim card and can connect to the internet wherever there is a signal, just like a smartphone. A WiFi device is dependant on WiFi hotspots, such as your home, airports, McDonald’s etc. All of the major tablets, including iPads, come in both 3G and WiFi flavours.

Probably the same unmentionable scum that nicked mine last November, you’re only down the road from me.

Mine’s never turned up, I hope yours does though. I’ve put email alerts on Gumtree and eBay for things like ‘Kona’, ‘Bike’, ‘Fox’, ‘Hope’ and so on, you never know your luck.

For what it’s worth, there’s a secondhand bike shop in Pompey (Southsea) that could be worth checking out. I wouldn’t do what I did and ring them though, I’ve since heard from several different people that they are known to be a trifle ‘dodgy’. If they had taken my bike in off the lowlife that nicked it, my ringing probably just alerted them to get rid elsewhere. You’re far better off popping in for a ‘browse’.

If you send your brake back to Hope, they will strip it, clean it, fit new seals and oil (I think pads may be extra, you’d have to check), bleed it and send it back to you in near enough brand-new condition for £45 an end. I’m sure they’d replace your rounded bolt for pence whilst they were at it, if they even charged you any extra at all.

Deleted, as it was a reponse to the above!

xiphon – Member

relliott6879 – davidtaylforth is a bit of a joker, who likes to bait people….

Ah, I see. Noted, thank you.

Shimano Deore / SLX / XT (almost impercetible performance or weight differences between them) if you’re on a budget or just don’t like spending more than absolutely necessary, Hope X2 if you’re feeling a little more flush or just like nice things for your bike.

In use, both are just as good as eachother. The one thing you can guarantee though, is that if you buy Shimanos you will be mercilessly berated by people who use Hopes and vice-versa.

Deore discs, secondhand Hope stem, secondhand Easton EA70 low-riser.

Chas Roberts DOGS BOLX, Dave Yates DONKIS NOB, Kona Humuhumunukunukuapuaa

Easton EC70 is a nice post.

xiphon – Member

relliot6879 – Registered: November 29, 2011

Yup, he’s new here.

?

Enough so that if you fall off and the bars spin round, they’re not going to pull the hoses so tight they’re ripped out. I leave enough to be able to turn the bars 90 degrees in either direction.

Another consideration is whether you think you’re likely to want a wider bar anytime soon. If so, leave a bit more slack to allow for it.

davidtaylforth – Member

Only chumps seem to ride bikes at trail centres. Why are you spending thousands of pounds on bikes, hundreds of pounds on equipment and then countless hours of your time travelling to these “trail centres” only to turn up there (to ride for about 2 hours) and start getting involved in petty arguements.

Thats not what cycling is about. You spend enough of your working life having to deal with these nuggets, you shouldnt want to do it in your free time aswell.

I’d suggest taking up road cycling. Pure freedom on two wheels.

Little bit narrow-minded there, David. If people enjoy riding their bikes at trail centres, what skin is that off your nose?

I enjoy going to Queen Elizabeth Country Park and Coed y Brenin. I like the fact that the trail is signposted and I don’t have to consult a map or GPS, I can just get on with enjoying my ride. I also like the fact that the trails are one way and you know you’re not going to steam round a corner and run into a dog walker (I have nothing against dog walkers).

I fully appreciate that some people actually enjoy the map thing, feeling that it adds to their experience – that’s fine too, it’s their bag and what they enjoy, it’s not mine and I don’t.

Why have I spent a lot of money on a bike and why do I spend a couple of hours in a car to go and ride at CyB? Because the riding is better than anything I have locally, I enjoy myself when I get there and I drive home happy. Cycling is ‘about’ something subtly different for each and every person, there’s certainly no legislation on what one should and shouldn’t personally find enjoyable.

I don’t want to take up road cycling. I find it boring. I ride on a road when I cycle to work because it is the most efficient way of making the journey (I even spent a lot of money on a high quality set of 700c wheels specifically for this purpose), it’s not something I’d want to do for pleasure though. If you like road cycling, that’s cool. You obviously enjoy it and that’s fine, it doesn’t make you ‘a chump’. Similarly, choosing to ride at a trail centre does not make me or anybody else ‘a chump’.

All the cable discs I’ve had personal experience of (never tried a set of BB7s) have been only on a par with, or sometimes inferior to, a well set up V-brake.

When you say ‘canti brakes’, to you mean pre-V cantilevers, with a central staddle yoke, or do you mean V-brakes? If the former (and you rate those as 1), then I would put V-brakes at 6 and cable discs at 4 or 5.

Of course, you do get the ancilliary benefits of discs over rim brakes, such as a buckled wheel having little effect on braking and the braking surface being more out of the way of flying mud. With hydraulic discs starting as affordably as they do now, however, I can’t really see an argument for buying cable discs (unless of course you are using them on a bike with drop bars!).

Army issue sleeping bag, bivvi bag and rollmat. Sleeping bag in bivvi bag, bivvi bag on top of rollmat. In 15 years and counting, I’ve never had a problem with that setup on countless exercises and deployments around the world in a wide variety of terrains and climates. I imagine you could get all three items off eBay for under £50.

Admittedly the issue sleeping bag is a little on the bulky side, even when packed into the compression sack. If you’re taking your sleeping gear in a car to then camp at a static location (often do this at Dolgellau when visiting Coed y Brenin for a weekend), then this isn’t really an issue. If you’re carrying stuff on a bike though, most of Snugpak’s Softie range of sleeping bags compress down pretty small.

I’m quite impressed with the routing, I have to say. None of those cables appear to be resting on, rubbing against or even touching eachother. I’ve just fitted my new bar and stem this morning and spent longer on ‘deconflicting’ the cables and hoses than on anything else.

Rose Bikes?

As a rough guesstimate, I sent two pairs of (car) alloy wheels from Portmsouth to the Lake District with parcel2go, the all up cost was less than £20. I can’t see a bike costing any more than that, to be honest.

tarquin – Member
A few US websites won’t ship to the UK or abroad, because they already have UK distributors and wouldn’t want to cut their profits right down

Although this does shoot themselves in the foot if you decide that their UK price is too expensive and you buy a different brand, yet they would have got your business if you could have bought from the US….

Which lends weight to the argument for collection in person.

Digger90 – Member

I’d have thought the value of Ti would be quite good when weighed in – worth a call to your local scrappy to ask the £ per Kg.

The only problem there is that one would imagine the frames don’t weigh a lot. Although the £ per Kg may be quite favourable, there won’t be a lot of Kg!

Personally, I’d seek advice from a Ti frame builder on having some form of reparatory gussets welded over the damaged areas (‘elastoplast!’). I can think of at least one such person who regularly posts on here, although uttering his name would doubtlessly give rise to howls of derision and accusations of sycophancy from certain quarters. (Sod it, ask Brant!)

Failing that, as b r says, I’d eBay or classified them, clearly stating the damage and disclaiming any responsibility if the new owners elect to risk riding them unrepaired.

So did they eventually exchange the plugs for you after the snottiness? Or was it “Your problem is just that – your problem. Thanks for calling, bye bye now.”?

skywalker – Member

Second hand On One Inbred or 456 for that money, possibly.

You think he’d find a complete bike at that price point? I know the frames are very affordable, but I didn’t realise there was such a heavy depreciation on componentry. I can’t imagine many people build them up with Alivio groupsets and RST forks, after all. It’s an interesting avenue to explore though, and one I hadn’t considered.

Nice swift editing of your post, by the way! :wink:

skywalker – Member

Orange Five Pro

Find me one for £300 and I’ll buy it myself!

I’m pretty clued up when it comes to assessing a bike’s condition if buying secondhand, but I’m likely not going to be on hand to go viewing potential purchases with him. I don’t think he’d be so confident and would prefer something new from a shop, which is known quality and supported by a warranty. I think his best bet may to wait for the next raft of sales and go for something ‘last season clearance’.

The friend does exist by the way. I may be reading seavers’ post wrong, but I get the impression there is a suspicion that he is a ‘friend’… ie me!