Ton – if you can’t find an XS one to try let me know and I am sure we could have a day out to leeds to show you the Vita.

BTW she did a 3 day tour with panniers on no problem.

If you’re small and light you don’t need a hefty steel thing, alloy is fine unless you’re going all camping gear over a long period and even then not really.

There aren’t many manufactures that will do bikes that small.

Tony – my wife has a Specialized Vita and she LOVES it! She is only 4’11” tall and the XS is absolutely diddy but fits her perfectly.
It has rack and low rider mounts front and back. Hers doesn’t have much tyre clearance but can fit 28c and guards on, but I think more recent versions have more clearance.
All the kit on it she loves – saddle/grips/controls/gear ratios so I haven’t had to change a thing.

I am buying a touring bike and I’d saved up for it – had the chat with my wife – I knew she wouldn’t mind as she knew I really could use one. I thought I’d sell my road bike as I didn’t really need both but my wife surprised me by saying that I should not sell the road bike as what if I wanted to go on a fast road ride?

She’s ace!

But I don’t have much space to keep all these bikes…. :-/ 😀

The stores I have worked in have the same policy. It’s not nice as a first aider to come an incident where a kid has tipped over a trolley – the tendency is that they hit their head in the concrete floor first then the massively heavy trolley lands on them.
You then have a badly injured child and an adult in hysterics (understandably). Thank fully I never had any bad injuries to deal with in my stores but I met colleagues who had seen very badly injured kids – fractured skull in one case.

Unfortunately 95% of the parents who let their kids sit in the main part of the trolley don’t control them and go wandering off letting their kids hang out of the trolley so the wheels start to tip.

I used to ask them to put their kids where they should be and if they didn’t I would explain the sort of injuries they can get. I seem to remember someone storming out of the store when I was insistent about it – I didn’t care, I was nice to them and at least I’m not going to have to scrape their kids skull off the floor.

I was in a DIY store most of my retail career and you also got the parent letting their kids play with the garden chemicals/axes/saws etc. Beggars belief it really does.

Same happened to me riding up Saddleworth road – we were riding into a headwind and it just hit us. Not for as long as you had it but oh my word I’ve never been so cold on my face. We ducked down towards Barkisland to roll downhill a little but I had to go about 5mph and almost face backwards it was so cold. We had a sort of icy hail blizzard.

That Kemo USB module looks like a good idea….

http://www.maplin.co.uk/p/kemo-bicycle-power-charge-controller-usb-n18dd

That CTC article is amazingly useful. It also seems to be suggesting that 1.5v would be fine for an LED lamp, and would cut the drag in half (with lights on)

I get the feeling a lot of people worry about drag but I think modern dynamo hubs barely drag at all, and most reports I’ve seen on the net have said it’s not noticeable at all.

I think we all have worries they are going to feel like one of those old-fashioned bottle dynamos that run on the tyre!

Waiting for this….

Errr no. If you need a 50cm then a 60cm is never going to fit in a million years. Unless you have wear stilts or something.

It’s going to be more difficult but no idea if it’s doable by yourself. I think the more complex shapes need thinner leather or professional expertise!

Whitestone – no idea. I got the offcuts from a fabric shop. I chose the medium thickness stuff as it would be tough enough to withstand scrapes but not so thick that I could stretch it round the curves on the saddle. Just picked up a few bits and chose what I thought was best.

One advantage of everyone using Garmins for walking and cycling is that there are loads of OS maps in charity shops and people give them away.
There is no technological tool that is better than having a huge paper map out on the floor and “seeing” the landscape through the contour lines. You can see so much countryside in one go in front of you in such detail it’s amaZing.

My stack of OS maps is now a metre high. And THEY ARE ALL MINE Ok? :my precious:

Cycle paths in West Yorkshire are downright dangerous. Not many shared pavements, they tend to just white lines on wider stretches of road filled with road filth, glass and rubbish. Then when you need them the most, eg when road narrows or at a junction, they disappear completely, often leaving you in the most dangerous part of the junction.

I’ll use them if they don’t put me at more risk than being where the cars are!

Saddle 2

Next step was to remove the foam very carefully, it managed to come away quite easily to be honest

Then to prep the saddle hull I used sandpaper to smooth out the edges where the leather would be wrapped around and remove any final staples and old glue from underneath as best as I could manage.

Saddle 3

The same was done for this one, but the foam seemed to be stuck tightly on so I did the prep with it still there, just had to be a bit more careful.

I’m going to cover this one first as its my favourite. It’s going to go on a red bike so I’m going for red leather on this one, a nice even colour this time rather than the distressed stuff I used last time.

Roughly drew a shape and cut it out of the leather.

Next step – GLUE!!

Waiting for this.
I’m waiting for you, waiting for this. There’s not much of info available along the lines of a review. Please let us know how you get on with this bike.

I know what you mean, absolutely nowt on the Internet bar it’s original release. I think the sort of people who buy it aren’t the sort of people who do reviews on the Internet. Or go on the Internet at all.

It’s a Croix de Fer, a bike loads of people like, but more relaxed, so it won’t be bad. Never had a touring bike so I am a little concerned about what it will ride like but I’m sure it’ll be okay.

Waiting for this.

Not many around so I’ve been told. Excellent spec for the money and exactly what I want. Will be converting to flat bars and hydraulic brakes, so I’ll be selling all brakes and controls.

I’m trying to forget about it but it’s very difficult :sniff:

Original Stif was my fave – Perry McCarthy http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perry_McCarthy

Always seems to be a lot more sideways and sketchy than his later incarnations…… read his book and you’ll realise why – always on the edge!

Sorry for the delay guys, not managed to get back round to this since the first posts….

I suppose you thought you would ignore this warning on every classifieds thread, in bold red letters in a red box….

“PayPal Gift warning

We strongly advise that you do not use PayPal Gift (also know as Personal Payments) as this service is intended for friends and family and does not provide the protection of standard Paypal transactions.”

It’s harsh, but if you don’t pay for the ability to get some protection, you’re not going to get any. Anyone insisting Gift payments should be avoided like the plague, they’re only doing it so the scam pays off….

It ain’t slander, quote them this…..

“Under common law, to constitute defamation, a claim must generally be false and have been made to someone other than the person defamed. Some common law jurisdictions also distinguish between spoken defamation, called slander, and defamation in other media such as printed words or images, called libel.”

I went through a worrying period last year when I was all mouth and no trousers. I was doing very loud farts, some of extraordinary length and tunefulness, but there was no smell.

Initially this was a plus as I could deploy the brown shout for comic effect with no lingering odour. However after a while I began to miss the ability to deploy a cunning SBD or let rip an eggy squeaker. This went on for a few weeks and I was getting worried.

Thankfully normality was resumed eventually. Phew!

Hi guys – interesting thread! So much to read…

I’m thinking of going with a dynamo setup for my new Tour De fer which I have ordered but I’m not sure what to get. I like the USB charging thingy but that thing that attaches to the stem (somafunk has one) seems very expensive when you add the light and the hub/wheelbuild on.

My brother (peterpoddy) saw the Busch and Muller new range and pointed me towards a light in here: http://www.bumm.de/fileadmin/user_upload/Katalog/B_M__Catalogue_2014_15__English.pdf

The Lumotec IQ2 Luxos 179U is suitable for the road and looks good on mild offroad too (I won’t be going proper offroad, maybe sustrans routes and rough lanes at the most), has 90lux output (no idea on lumens), handlebar control, cache battery, USB charging , daytime running light, standlight, daytime sensing (yowsers!) and rear light connection monitoring. I think he said it’s about £130 but that seems like a bargain to me!!!

What do you think?

Also, I have no idea what hub to get…. any ideas?

I’ve worked in retail for a long period before my current job, and there is no way on earth I’d ever set up my own shop. Ever. For so many many reasons.

Looks comfy…

Globalti – seen that before but I prefer the leather!!

No problem at all, glad to help. You certainly built that up very fast!!

ton – Member
on my 3rd surly. started with a 56cm to small, then a 60cm, pinched, now a 64cm perfect.

would love a genesis.

I’ll pop round to your work to show mine off when I get it! Sorry it doesn’t come in your size….

fourbanger – Member

People that actually go touring and carry a lot of gear (weight)
are doing it wrong
Why go touring and carry all the clutter of your normal life with you?

I’ll take my Vaya with 7Kg over your Inbred for repeated 200Km days camping thanks.[/quote]

People who are doing 200km a day are doing it wrong…. 😉

40-50 miles a day max, lots of cakes stops and sitting on benches admiring the view is my kinda touring… Sounds like what you are doing is more like Audax type stuff?

Saddle 2

Started peeling the cover of this one off on the way back to the car…..

Bumpers off

Peeling off….

I wasn’t happy at this point as it was clear that this saddle hadn’t been “recovered from new” as the original cover underneath had holes in it. Grrrrrr. I don’t like being lied to so may take it up with the seller on principle…

Same method as the other one, slowly and carefully with a scalpel. The glue had dried a bit more on this one so it was slightly easier.

Done – although the foam isn’t as good as the other one – but it’s saveable. Its a Ti-railed one so it’ll be worth it.

I don’t think I’ll keep both, one will be for sale I think as I don’t need both of them……….

Next step is to decide what colour leather on which one…

I started on Saddle 3 at home first…..

Took the plastic bumpers off – these are good seats to try with as these plastic bits hide the hardest bits to glue down so if it doesn’t look very pretty when you do the gluing it doesn’t matter.

Rails are slightly bent…..

Some needle nodes pliers used to pull the staples out but its fiddly.

Foam looks ok….

After about 30 mins of careful peeling it’s off! I use a scalpel to gently tease the glue away from the foam as I peel it off as the foam is delicate and a little bit of glue can pull big chunks out…

Even the edges are pretty good.

Only bit where some foam pulled out a little was the channel section. The leather I am putting on is thicker than the original cover so this should be invisible once covered – Saddle 1 ended up being lumpy as I wasn’t as careful pulling the cover off.

Some of the pics may be smaller as I had to use my wifes phone after my battery died…

Drac – Moderator
Surrounded ring the subs bods they will assist you. The number is up there.
Robdob sorry I wasn’t aware of that.

So I got a free one month “P” from STW to make me see what the fuss what about, and then they baited me with a £5 off deal to subscribe but then STW won’t take my money. You couldn’t make it up. 🙄

The offer email I got didn’t mention is was DD only, so I spent an hour trying to pay by card, then emailing them to ask what was wrong to be told then it was DD only and my card wasn’t accepted.

Genesis Tour De Fer. I’ve just ordered one. 🙂

Emulsion paint. Easy to clean but you’ve got to act fast, gonna be very difficult to recover once dry.
Carefully scrape up the excess paint that you can, being careful not to push paint further into the carpet. Then water, water and water is your friend. It’s water based so just keep using water and cloths to dab it up into. You really need a carpet cleaner while wet to “suck” the contaminated water up to get a perfect result. I

Drac, already been in contact with Subs people, they said its DD only.

I tried to become a Premier user as I was sent an offer for £5 off for the whole year after getting the free trial. But it seems I can’t pay by debit card to get that offer. I do not like direct debits for this sort of thing so it looks like I’m still not going premier. I can’t help thinking STW doesn’t want my money!

My brother – Peterpoddy on here – works for a Genesis dealers and has bought a 2015 10 for himself. Fitted mudguards no problem.

Have a look here: http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/2015-croix-de-fer-1st-ride-at-last

The 2015 models have much bigger clearances on the fork compared to the older models I think, that may sway your decision.