Travis – it costs £4 for a service at your LBS? I don’t think it will be around much longer, especially when you say

when I get my bike home I have to adjust it properly

Are they actually doing anything at all???

Update – picked new wheels up from Barnsley store today. Thanks very much to Brant and the PX head of customer service for sorting things out.

Update – picked new wheels up from Barnsley store today. Thanks very much to Brant and the PX head of customer service for sorting things out.

A running shop near to me got repeat business from me – I was a complete noob but they took the time to explain things to me about shoes etc. They said they charge £10 for shoe fitting because they get a lot of people who do it then buy off the ‘net.
I have since been in a few times and they have been very helpful whether I’ve bought anything or not, so when I needed some more shoes they were my first call – they price matched their own website (could have been cheaper on other websites but I didn’t want them to match those, only their own!) and provided great advice again.
Great example of how it should be done.

Endura Humvee – classic and works for me. Made much better nowadays too.

You can ride any bike any distance you want as long as your legs can keep going.

Big head here too – Giro seem to be the best for me as they are comfortable when set at their largest. I think they look better than Spesh helmets on big heads too, sit “around” your head rather than perched on top which makes your head look even bigger!!

Now that’s doing it properly!

Report to council as well, if it’s over a transit can size load let the EA know too.

And don’t go anywhere near it obviously.

I met a couple in the USA who paid $600 a month for an average healthcare plan and they still had to pay the first $10,000 of any costs incurred.

YOWSERS!

I’ve just ordered some Ultegra on Open Pro rims from Rose bikes for £200. Sick of the factory built low spoke wheels, they just aren’t durable. Proper wheels ahoy!

I could do with knowing this too. Your method sounds correct but I’d love to hear from someone who’s done it!

Looks like a 26″ inch bike – must be a monster!!

The main problem with very narrow tyres on MTB rims is that the profile of the tyre is stretched accross the wide rim. This makes the tyre feel a lot stiffer as there’s no give in the sidewalls. A similar size tyre in a narrow road rim would feel much better.

If I were you I’d get some 2″ semi slicks – I have Halo Twin Rail tyres which are very nice – as they’ll be comfy, fast enough and look a little more in proportion.

Andyrm – many other companies do the same thing but don’t have the same issues. There seems to be a problem wit the expanded business in terms of inventory accuracy, the picking process but the most crucial thing is that problems occur but some of the customer service people just don’t seem to be up to sorting them out.

People just want things delivered in a timely manner when ordered, and are willing to accept problems may occur sometimes as long as the company sorts things out quickly and efficiently. That isn’t happening at the moment in a few cases.

I think a lot of people like Planet X/On One and have a lot of goodwill towards them but this isn’t going to last forever if the processes there aren’t improved.

if you can’t say no to your kids, then grow some balls and bring them up properly.

+1.

It’s a small child, you are a large adult and you have the money to pay for stuff. It’s not as if they have a gun to your head.

Sainsburys haven’t had them at the tills for a long time, nothing new.

Mind you it’s hardly difficult to tell your children “no” when they ask demand sweets, and it won’t make a difference to adults (speaking from experience!).

I have now dropped my wheels off at the Barnsley store and they are going to be swapped with a new set.

Brant has offered me this which is very nice but the guy in customer service/returns (I have his name but won’t mention it) is, at best, very slow to answer emails.

Seemed to be a lot of people working in the store and while it looked very nice it must have cost a fortune to fit out – it’s the old One Day Sale cycle shop refitted so I saw it beforehand. Some very fancy furniture/display methods!

Those pictures are just beautiful. There is still an England like that, sometimes it’s hard to find but it’s still there.

There is an ebay seller doing a pair of Ritchey Z-max Evo tyres plus tubes for £18-19ish delivered. Some of the retrobike guys have them and they are great tyres, and at that price an absolute bargain. Think he does them £2 cheaper without tubes.

I would have thought there is a good chance that the cranks are now damaged in some way. I’ve never used Campag cranks but even I know that the tapers are different and you should not mix them.

He really doesn’t know what he’s talking about about and may have cost you a lot more money that if you had bought the Campag BB tool in the first place!

I’d also say Dysons. Don’t know anyone who thinks they are any better than a standard vacuum. Eye watering prices, not really made very well either. Easy to fix but they need to be. We switched to a £80 Hoover bag less which has been faultless and works just as well (lighter too!).

Parsnip and carrot in crisps?

This is why this country isn’t the powerful nation it used to be. Standards people!!

My wife works for M&S and I have been sampling a lot of their crisps for some years now. I have to say a lot of salt and vinegar (the crisp lovers go-to choice I think you’ll find) crisps have lost their edge over the years but the M&S varieties such as their twirly ones can pack a real punch and have a proper crunch too.

I think I have the right to comment on such things – I’ve done my time eating crisps on an industrial scale over the year, including going to a nearby 24hr garage in slippers and dressing gown to spend my last few pennies on 11 packs of Pickled Onion Monster Munch at 3am in the morning and eating every single pack one after the other without stopping. Perfectly sober too!

I’d live to ride to work every day but I unfortunately I need the car for my job. I can ride from Hudds to Leeds quicker than some of the journeys by car, but the M62 changes have improved things a fair bit.

I love Vittoria tyres but I prefer the Rubino model, they seem to have been around a long time and are very popular. Mine have never punctured despite lots of cuts on them and wear well and grippy too.

Got to be worth a try at £16, people will always say more expensive tyres are better but as long as they are of decent construction they’ll be fine!

Feel like an idiot? Depends on which convertible.

BMW/Audi, yes you look like an idiot.

1960/70’s Alfa or Merc, no, that’s doing it right!

Update – seems like Brant is sorting my problem out and making sure spokes are in stock from now on – hopefully that’ll help others out.

I’ll let you know when it’s resolved.

Take two photographs. One of you sitting down in a t-shirt (not pulling all the flab in with your muscles), one of you side-profile.

Put them in a frame next to your computer monitor. Every time you look up, there’s your motivation.

It was some similar pics of myself that shocked me into getting fitter. I still wince when I see them in albums.

I wish I had done that when I started so I could see the differences between then and now, it’s a great idea.

MFP works exactly the same as WW and I think is a good way to do it. They will make you lose weight if you stick to them even if you don’t exercise (as long as your are honest with recording!) but exercise either allows some more food or you can bank it as a few more calories burnt.

My overall goal was to get to 12st from 16st as I thought it would be cool to say I’d lost a quarter of my body weight! However that goal was put under “never going to happen” a long time ago as it was too much to hope for…..

I went for half stone goals, that seemed to be easier and you can lose 7lbs at a time within a month or so and there is a real achievement with that. I am 13.4 now and want to weigh 12 “something” as my next goal – thats only 5lbs away.

Rob thats what i feel like but every time i try something it just seems to last a week. Then its a bag of chips or something. It feels like everyone else finds it really easy.

Some people find it really easy, that’s true. I don’t, it’s miserable and hard and painful. I was at a point where I was miserable about my weight and was eating to feel better. A lot of people on here won’t understand this but I know what it’s like and it’s a hole that is very very difficult to climb out of, it affects you mentally.

I would say if you are hungry – go and eat something – but get something that is a bit better. A good example is crisps – I love those deep ridge salt and vinegar crisps but they are over 200 calories and a lot of fat. A lot of diet crisps are nasty but I found that a 25g of Hula Hoops is only about 125 cals and not much fat (close to the diet crisps actually). As a 30 min run might only burn 300-450 cals then that is a change in choice that will make a big difference.

I have had to find things that fill me up but are healthy. For lunch today I have had some slices of ham/carrots/watermelon/crisps/banana/0 cal jelly and a diet choc mousse. I’m pretty full now!

However you don’t need to feel “full”. You just need to feel “not hungry”. Once I realised this it really helped me and now I don’t like feeling full as it’s uncomfortable – when I was heavy I didn’t feel like I’d eaten enough until I had to undo my belt a bit – crazy really!!

Jambo – I edited that pretty fast but I knew someone would spot it!

2 years ago I weighed 16st (I am only 5’7″) and realised I had to do something when I got out of breath going upstairs in our house.

I started doing some running – I could only run for 20s without stopping to have a minor heart attack.
I used to run in the freezing cold, my muscles screaming for me to stop and my belly wobbling up and down, with tears in my eyes chanting to myself “I don’t want to be fat”.
It was the hardest thing I have ever done.

I used MyFitnessPal to track my eating and it worked very well, losing 1-2lbs a week. I say no to everything that is offered me at work (cake and biscuits) and I’m used to it now.

I’ve had a few hiccups along the way, went back up to 15st at one point.

Positives:
I now weigh 13st4lbs.
I ran my first ever 10k race in 59mins, can now do 5k in 26 mins.
I have stopped snoring (I would have done it all just for that alone!)
People keep saying how good I look.
My wife thinks I’m more attractive.
I now wear medium clothes and I am hoping one day to wear a slim fit shirt!
My riding is more fun as I can get up the hills with my friends.
I can’t eat as much now so it’s easier to keep the weight off.
“Bad” food tastes AMAZING – when you do have a treat it’s so much more enjoyable than when you are scoffing it all the time.

Negatives:
It’s so hard. It really is. Running in agony with tears rolling down your face is not a nice place to be. There’s a lot of people on here think its easy but they may find it easy to keep weight off and stay fit. I don’t. But the feeling you get when you stand on the scales and you’ve reached a goal you’ve set, or you notice your trousers are massive on you, or someone doesn’t recognise you as you’ve changed so much is worth all the effort.
You do get into a routine but it isn’t always easy to keep to it. People say first few weeks are the hardest but even after a few months you can have miserable periods where it’s hard not to reach for the chips. It happens so you have to just accept it has happened and get back to what you know you should be doing as quick as you can – DONT GIVE UP COMPLETELY.

My tips:
No fad diets. Track what goes in and the exercise you do. Simple as that. You need to change the way you eat on a permanent basis and quick fixes don’t do that.
Do what works for you – some people like early morning workouts. I just can’t get up and do that so I run in the late evenings. A very experienced runner friend of mine says the best time to run is when you want to – yes sometimes you have to force yourself out to do exercise but if one time of day works better then just do it then.
Lose the fat before doing muscle work – yes more muscle burns more calories but don’t make the mistake of building load of muscle which still has 10cm of far covering it – you’ll just look like a beer barrel!
Weight yourself when you want to – I weigh myself twice a day as that works for me for motivation. Might not for you so try different things.
TAKE RECORDS NOW – photos/measurement etc. I didn’t do this but having a “before” pic and numbers can help you see how far you’ve come and remind you to not go back there!

I am aiming for 12st eventually – 25% weight loss and 8 inches off my original waist size of 40inch. I need to get rid of my larger clothes now so I don’t have anything to wear if I put weight on!

Please could you forward me the email.
brant at planet x dot co dot uk

Have done so, thanks.

I’ve given up on PX/OO now. Need a spoke for my PX wheel, they stock them and they are on the website but not in silver, only black. So I asked via their inexplicably complicated contact process and got the reply that they don’t stock them at all as the wheels aren’t made in the UK. BIZARRE being as they have them listed on the site for mine and many other of their own wheels.

That’s the kind of video that just needs to say at the end “so what’s YOUR excuse?” 😉

I didn’t notice the lack of leg straight away as I was watching on a small phone screen, then WOW!

I think the OP has a point in a way. All out proper road bikes are great. I love them. Audacity bikes are great too. However there are a lot of people buying bikes for the first time that are being advised (or thinking that’s what’s best) to buy a lightweight speed machine then buying seatpost racks, huge saddle packs, crud guards etc to make the bike work how they actually want it to. Maybe take a waterproof or sandwiches or a lock. Unfortunately the bikes that are best for that aren’t as sexy and you don’t see Wiggins riding one so they aren’t as common in the shops.

I like a fast road ride occasionally, and also like to put a rack and flat pedals and full guards on for a gentle tootle with my wife. The only bike that did this when I got mine that wasn’t a full on tourer was a Kinesis Racelight which has been excellent and able to change with what I want to do.

Thanks. Some good stuff to look at. Was looking at the Topeak TourGuide handlebar bag:
http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/topeak-tourguide-compact-handlebar-bag/rp-prod37975

I bought one of these for my wife’s flat bar road bike and I can really recommend it. Smaller than most bar bags but most of the time I find my bar bag too big. The attachment system is very solid and secure, the bag very well made with individual pockets inside and a rain cover too.
The bracket also comes with a clip on bit to replace the bar length you have lost – useful for a computer or a light if you have narrower bars.

If I buy another bar bag it’s definitely going to be one of these or another Topeak one.

The old threaded XT headsets are amazing quality, I had an XT NOS one recently and it was superb. The XTR ones are just astonishing quality. It is a real shame they don’t make ahead ones in the same quality as I’d have one in a heartbeat.

I will be selling my 9104 very soon as I’ve just got a new car with a towbar and have a towbar rack now.
There is no way id ever have any other strap on rear rack as it has been amazing, and I have had experience of a few of them. No fabric straps, solid as a rock and fast to fit. There is an initial setup for it to fit your car but that only needs doing once.
I never used an extra light board as you could see my number plate and lights anyway. I did consider one but never bothered with it.
Only issue is that I couldn’t post it, I am in West Yorks.