Anyone recommending a van when you asked for something a bit fun is a total Muppet.

Get a car that you like and that fits everyone in, put a towbar on it and get a decent Thule rack for the towbar. Job done!

I work in an area which relies very very heavily on accurate forecasting to potentially save lives and businesses

We don’t use anything but the Met Office. Best in the world at predicting the weather – they have to be because ours is so variable it’s crazy.

Saying that, the weather at the moment is the worst kind to have to predict. Temp is accurate but you can’t tell if that big cloud above you in the otherwise blue sky will turn into a thunderstorm pretty soon – extremely unpredictable.

I haven’t read any of the above – but I have managed to get a copy of “Make Room, Make Room” by Harry Harrison (my favourite author) which I am enjoying a lot – basically about overpopulation and diminishing resources and is quite scary so far.
Soylent Green was based on it (the film) IIRC.

I just bought the same from Rose bikes but with Ultegra hubs for £196. I got the 105/OP combo for a friend a few months ago and was so impressed that I ordered my set.
I’m 14st and will use them for all sorts of riding including some light touring. They’ll be fine for you I think!

Incidentally, I had some a Planet X and Shimano wheels in the past which were lighter but I honestly couldn’t notice any difference. The new Ultegra/OP wheels feel so smooth compared to the minimally spoked wheels. Love them!

Nice find!

I recently found this 2000 Marin Bear Valley at a scrapyard with miraculously no dents or damage.

It now looks like this!

Person who I restored it for says it rides really nicely.

Thanks for the advice – from what you are saying it will be perfect. We live in the North of the UK so it might get use on the coast in the nicer weather but also down south too. It will also get used down south too but never in very cold weather anywhere.

It will be used for fun stuff, not triathlons or anything!!

I’ll direct her to this page – great advice thanks very much all. I love STW for this sort of stuff!

There’s one in my local shop and I thought it looked great. Understated so maybe a bit better for locking up in town but still look really good. I thought the kit was good for the price and it just looked like a well sorted bike, clearly some thought had gone into it – maybe especially for the UK? I’d have one for sure.

The 1and1 looks fairly simple. Might give that a go.

For what it’s worth, I think the ‘we couldn’t get him on an organised trip’ is a bit weak, had they contacted one of the regimental or ships organisations, or even put out something on twitter, then heaven and earth would have been moved to get him there!

I would have booked holiday off at short notice, driven him there and paid for a top hotel for him to stay in and all the food and drink he wanted.
It still wouldn’t be enough to say thank you enough, but I’d consider it my duty to get him there and treat him like a king for the duration.

i think they are shit, massive road section in the Rotherham store, and they had a choice of 1 tub tyre in stock, then the mechanic tried to charge me £15 to fit it and said it would be 30 minutes,

Nightmare customer alert! Dear me – not many people use tubs nowadays, I’ve not seen any in stock in any bike shops around me so that’s not unusual. And charging for mechanic work? How dare they charge the going rate for labour??? It should all be done for free!!!! Muppet.

We used to sell metal sheds where I worked. I had to make a display one once, never ever again. Total rubbish!!

I’ve just bought Ultegra hubs on Open Pros for £196 from Rose bikes. Lovely!!

Lovely looking bike, maybe Evans?

EDIT: didn’t realise they didn’t make them any more, sorry. Might be worth ringing round the Spesh Concept stores and asking them if they have one. I nearly (and should have) bought a Vita in XS for my wife when I was offered one cheap in one of their stores which was a model 2 years old which they struggled to sell because of the size of it. I ended up buying one further down the range a few months later for more money when is made up my mind!

Hope QR’s are the best! I’ve had a couple and they are the best I’ve ever used.

Latex tubes – after 20 years of wondering if they are worth it I got some for my road bike. Felt no different to normal tubes but deflated themselves overnight, so they can’t even do the one job they are supposed to. Cack.

I am standing on top of a lovely hill in Calderdale (part of my job) and I was thinking how beautiful the view is, watching people on their way to work as the day warms up.

70 years ago at this time I’d probably be either dead on a beach in France or inland wondering if I’d ever see views like I can see now again.

We can never say it enough, and there’s not many left to say it to now, but thanks so much.

Loads of the route is near some cracking bridleways, in particular the Pennine one on day two. I’ll be walking to Blackley (15min walk?) with PeterPoddy and family and watching it there on day 2, not sure about day one yet.

I do like the look of those black SS pedals above but can’t help thinking the edges stick out a bit and could get snapped off or cracked off on the many rocks round here, especially with my belly scraping Spesh. 😉

That’s only 2.5 mm smaller in each direction than the Superstar ones – are you sure that’s noticeable?

Good point, but the SS pedals are very square, the V12’s have cut off corners that might not catch as easily.

Yeah I’ll be selling the old ones. They are the limited edition “root beer” colour. Bearings still smooth, have a few knocks and ano worn a bit but that’s to be expected!

Anyone?

I have been seriously impressed with Rose bikes recently. Bought a few bits and bobs and they arrived surprisingly fast from Germany. Bought a pair of road wheels for a mate which were very cheap and very nicely built. Just bought some Ultegra/Open pro wheels for £196 – you can’t buy the hubs and rims alone for that price in the UK, never mind the SSDB spokes and building them. Service is very professional.

New V12’s are 100x95mm, might be one to try – anyone used them yet?

Either is fine, not a deal breaker either but Hope or DMR both really good – any suggestions welcome though!

And if you can fix a bike you can fix a lot of stuff yourself. Change spark plugs and filters yourself, checking brakes no more difficult than a bike’s brakes. Changing pads is very easy, discs slightly more so but you don’t need anything more than a socket set. I would get a garage to change the engine and gearbox oil as it’s less faff than doing it at home.

Why would you take it to a dealers? No advantage at all now it’s out of warranty (not that it should affect it anyway).

A good local garage using the correct parts I would think should be half that at worst, assuming they don’t find anything wrong.

I’ve been really impressed with my Exposure Flash and Flare. Very very bright, solid mountings that mount on and off quickly. I got the rechargeable set which came in a nice case to keep everything tidy in too when not using them. Very light and small too.

I ordered (and got) a Ford Edge when I went to Nevada/Utah. Got both of us and our bikes in it no problem, would have been plenty of space for luggage too. Got around 22mpg average which is equivalent (when you take into account the size of their gallon/exchange rates) to the cost of 44mpg in the UK. IIRC it had a 3.7l v6 in it and all the luxuries and was ace to drive!

I’m afraid Pigface is correct – just be careful that you stay within the law. The amount you are burning (that is imported from elsewhere) you’ll probably get away with this once but some people have had court action resulting in heavy fines for not much more.

This is exactly why I now have some proper wheels on my bike – Ultegra on Open Pros.

In answer to the original question, I think the timeframe and distance are beyond what I would consider reasonable to expect a warranty replacement. I think it would be reasonable to ask the shop to repair it – one spoke and a few minutes labour won’t hurt too much – but it’ll depend on how much of a value they put on aftercare for customers. I think its possible for them to wash their hands of the problem as really they have no idea how many miles you’ve actually done, over what terrain etc.

My experience of lesser spoked wheels is that once 1 goes, they all start going. If it was me I’d repair them and sell them on to pay for some other wheels.

Would be nice to know which cottage you turned away from and why as I might be going up that way this year and don’t want any nasty surprises!

They should have come with the inserts – I’d be onto the seller to get them FOC. If they are a vauxhall sold kit they’ll probably be just rebadged Thule stuff anyway (at a higher price usually!) and if they are the rubber bits are a standard spare part. http://www.roofracks.co.uk/Thule-Products/Spare-Parts/_/?productID=aero&gclid=CMrIg4G81b4CFUfLtAodE0oAFQ

Crikey, I never thought I would see the day. Quo fan myself, hope that isn’t the source of all his powers!!

Hora – I found that when I put on the same saddle as my MTB (SDG Bel Air) it was really painful. You don’t use the same bits of your bum on a road bike so it does take some getting used to. I ended up with a mid nineties Flite Ti as my saddle. Maybe a good start would be a modern Flite as a standard choice?
Try a specialized dealership – they do the different width saddle and have test models to lend out you can try.
I think the main issue is that you just don’t move round as much which is going to take some getting used to.

I am building up a similar bike but it’s a bit of history. One of the first 100 DMR Trailstars ever made…..

Going to be singlespeed with P2 jump forks and all sorts of NOS DMR stuff kindly supplied by DMR themselves.

One of the big issues for shops nowadays must be the insane amount of standards the manufacturers now bring out. Through the last 20 years there has been some varying standards as there has always been but in the last 3 years it’s been mental. If you want to stock tyres it used to be 26″ and 700c and you could stock a couple of favourites of each and some cheapy ones. Now there is 3 MTB sizes alone, with a million combinations of tread and size of each one. Then you have BB’s, 1/2/3 by 7/8/9/10/11 drivetrains, forks to fit all the wheel sizes, axles to fit all the forks and frames, bar standards aplenty.

It must be a nightmare!

tomhoward – Member
Popular sizes in ‘being popular’ shocker…
Plus most lbs will only get one delivery a week.

But I find this in loads of shops. Even when I go in repeated times and mention they don’t have the popular sizes nothing is done.
It’s as if they order one of each size at the start of the season and never bother to restock.

I never lend, I just give. Mate needed money a while back to fix his car so I gave him £300. Much easier than lending!

Does anyone get this – my local shops stock clothes. Ok, sometimes not the brands I really want but Altura Endura generally good for me BUT they never have anything ok my size. They will always have a small and a XL but never medium or large. And they want to to pay for it upfront to order it in – and I’m never sure if I can get a refund if they don’t fit right. That drives me to go to Evans or similar. Why do they order in the extreme sizes? Pretty obvious that most buy the average sizes cos they are never in stock!!

Report to hotel? Not a blame and claim person myself but that doesn’t sound safe at all.

If I left my LBS to sort out my bikes every time they needed something doing I’d a) never have them at home b) have to sell my house to pay for it and c) ride with 120psi in the tyres.