Surely something along the lines of “I’ve been thinking about your back doors but got distracted and bought a bike instead” – will either prompt her feeling relieved or disappointed?

Shimano

We bought Rothan, oldest son loved it and it was fantastic to see him getting his balance. Hope Youngest son will be on it in a few months. Oldest has moved on to islabike with pedals and started riding having never used stabilisers about a month ago – proud dad moment! As noted expect to get most of money back on Islabikes when boys grew out of them.

How about a bike book? The Hour by Michael Hutchinson was a good read. No space ships in it though!

Thanks Martymac. So cable pull of a 7 speed shifter on a 9 speed mech would act to move it properly on a 7 sp cassette? If so the OCR may rise again!

Surly sprocket and a nice set of spacers from Charlie the bikemonger or Velosolo. I had a Gusset kit on my roadrat and the sprocket isn’t great and has a pretty narrow base. If you don’t want to spring for the Surly then On One Groove Armada are also worth a look and have a pretty wide base

Cheers for that Simon. Leaves me looking at 165mm cranks for 31″ inside leg. 10mm less than current

Not sure what the deal is with these – I struggled to give mine away the other day…

MZD6KY79S7W1

Drop me an email to addy in profile and it’s yours

Is final payment salary sacrifice too or cold hard cash? – ie is £250 at the end of 12 months costing me £250 off take home or £250 of gross salary?

I read yesterday that it was HMRC looking at Rolls Royce scheme that led to VAT clarification/change

I like Merino but find the fibres break after a while causing small holes to appear

My understanding is that HMRC had clarified some issue in the last week or so about VAT and C2W which ate in to saving. Also guidance for Market value of bikes over £5/600 is 25% after a year? I may be accused of abusing scheme as I already share commuting duties between roadrat and knackered giant OCR but am considering swapping OCR for something better – hence the Q

We bought Bugaboo Chameleon. Mostly because it fit in the back of wife’s Micra. It was either spend daft money on pram or change car! Having said that second nipper is in it now and I reckon we’ll get a decent bit of cash back on it when we sell it on.

You almost guessed the right answer but fluffed it.
26″ wheel Cotic Soul
Air sprung forks with lockout
Spare set of wheels with slick tyres

Hope that’s sorted you out

Some of P7s came with adjustable dropouts. Not sure if current version does

I do 25 miles a day commuting. Currently use SS roadrat or giant OCR roadbike. Think you’d find roadbike quite a bit quicker – bigger wheels, lighter, no sus forks to squish robbing you of power. I use shorts and a merino or bamboo baselayer most of the time. Shell jacket if cooler, waterproof jkt if wet. Winter boots, winter gloves and tights when it’s cold

Mine has Bontrager GPX or something on it, bought it complete from Cotic. At some point it may get some
White Industry Enos if I’m feeling flush. Can you pick up some SLX or something similar?

I think you either need a plan with tethering or you jailbreak your phone and add an app to set up a personal hot spot. Think phone companies are robbing basts to charge you twice to download data but realise they’ll do it if they can get away with it.

Not done either yet myself

The fella I feel sorry for is the guy at Birmingham City Council working on regeneration and trying to pursuade companies Brum is a good place to do business. Must have been a tough day when his own organisation made him look like a chump.

It might help you get taken seriously…

That is a lovely thing. A pair of Joe Murray clips and straps is required. The ones with 2 straps per side for true authenticity

Nearest I’ve ever come to a test ride was – I kid you not – riding a Kona Cindercone around the basement of Freewheel in Nottingham. Might be more of an issue with a susser but I’ve been happy with all my purchases. Trek 820, Cindercone, MTRAX Ti3000 thing, Merlin MALT and Cotic Soul. Also bought a roadrat without ever riding it

Nearest I’ve ever come to a test ride was – I kid you not – riding a Kona Cindercone around the basement of Freewheel in Nottingham. Might be more of an issue with a susser but I’ve been happy with all my purchases. Trek 820, Cindercone, MTRAX Ti3000 thing, Merlin MALT and Cotic Soul. Also bought a roadrat without ever riding it

No idea why but there seems a neat divide between those that have problems with disc brakes and those that don’t. Mini mono on one bike and Shimano SLX on the other and both work fine and been fit and forget.

As I see it, peers (of the realm) are in some way representing the rest of us, differentiated by their titles and supposed to be ‘special’. Once a convicted crim, then you’ve shown yourself not to be worthy of this and any priveleges it brings.

I read some study about this kind of thing. Obviously not to this extent but in certain situations after wars, or even in certain US cities due to disproportionate incarceration of black males there can be an imbalance which then influences behaviour of both sexes

Used a Chester based outfit about 8 years ago. Absolutely dreadful service. Since then only use solicitors that I can visit face to face and grab by the throat if situation demands it

Stoner has it almost right he just forgot:

Use a Shimano QR

Timesplitters 2 and various incarnations of Tony Hawk pro skater for me.

My Merlin Malt has morphed into a Cotic Soul. Think the handlebars and rear wheel lasted longest. For a long time I was running some mushroom type grips that originally started on my M-Trax Ti 3000(?). Bike is really always a work in progress, parts getting upgraded when they break, wear out or there’s a deal on something that either tidied it up or is an upgrade. Maybe it’s because I’m so happy with the Soul
Frame but I can’t really imagine just going out and buying an entire new bike, and in a way wouldn’t want to

Got a Soul with 100mm Rebas. It is sooo good for Singletrack

Chill your boots and see what the Cotic Solaris is like in production form. Assuming frame cost is similar to Soul then £2k is going to get you a nice build. BTW what’s with the aversion to steel? A nice steel frame would seem to be just the ticket for the longer rides

GPS controlled gears. Knows where you are and chooses the right gear automatically.

Salsa QR is ace

Champagne, Cocaine and hookers?…..…

Whiskers on kittens and soft woollen mittens, brown paper packages tied up with string, these are a few of my favourite things…

You’ll also have NI and may have employees pension contributions to pay on any back pay you may get

Other people may be less @nal than me, and I know it doesn’t matter, but I wouldn’t be able to have mismatched brakes on my bike. eBay the lot and get some SLX or XT when Ribble have them at a decent price

I’ve got some black Salsas. No pics though