Surely a Kona Stinky 24 is the best option if the 26″ wheels are a bit big? Seen quite a few for sale on ebay over the years. Will probably hold value well too.

and that’s exactly what puts local independent out of business

So I should buy something risking that it won’t fit, and when I found out it doesn’t and it’s useless just shrug and say “well at least I’m keeping my LBS in business, I disn’t need that £1000 anyway”????

Idiot.

I had the same problem buying a road bike for my wife. She is 4’11” so needs the smallest that a manufacturer makes. No-one stocks them. At all. I was quite happy to pay RRP but every shop said I’d have to buy it if I ordered one in the right size for her….. but if it didn’t fit I couldn’t get a refund. Errrr not doing that then! I know they don’t do sale or return with their suppliers and that must lose them a few sales.
Bought in the end from Evans, where it is delivered to the store and my wife could try it for size and we could get a refund if it wasn’t ok. Since then I’ve used Evans a lot for this sort of thing and been very pleased – never anything ultra cheap but great facility for customers being able to order online and pick up from a shop.

I do think nowadays we are getting tyres that are 2.3/4 that weigh the same as lightweight tyres in the early 90’s that were 1.95’s. I know materials have improved but there is a limit and the sidewalls just have to be thin.

I’ve run Specialized Eskar tyres for a while and never had a sidewall rip.

If there is a God I’m sure he doesn’t give a shit about you riding down the steps!

No he doesn’t mind, don’t worry. 🙂

I’d invite you to ride down the steps at our church, but it was built with no steps for good disabled access, so just kerbs to hop!

EDIT ……with plenty of dropped sections for the wheelchairs if there’s any nitpickers… 😉

I don’t have any experience of this myself, but I do often think of what might happen when we make our first ever house move (we bought the house we rented so it was pretty simple).

I would say if the mortgage company is happy, and you can sort out insurance (surely many companies will do if the house is fine and has the right paperwork? They may just say no because of previous claims..) then it’s ok, as you are probably aware.

However if anything doesn’t stack up, and you aren’t convinced that its not going to be a massive problem/expense in the future, I would just walk away. You’ll lose money now, maybe a lot, but a house subsiding with no insurance will be crippling financially. There’s plenty of other house built properly without jelly foundations to risk it IMHO.

Pretty much yeah, problem?
It’s not my fault so why should I pay up?

Waaaaaaaaaahhhhhh!!!!! B B B B B But IT’S NOT FAIR! 😉

Yeah I know it was probably a lot worse many years ago – “Victorian” is probably stretching it a bit. But it wasn’t just an odd whiff here and there, it was really quite bad. I have to do odour monitoring as part of my job so I’m pretty good as distinguishing what smells are and assessing how strong they are.

I just thought it was a bit weird that people might move there because of the fresh country air and half the year get the opposite!

Suck it up. You don’t know if the stone that affected your car was trailed out from the field anyway. Might have already been there.

Sliding on the mud might be a different matter though..

I have a MASSIVE head – 61cm I think – and the only helmets that fit me ok are Giro, but only the ones where I can choose a L/XL size, rather than a one size fits all design.

I think the main problem with a lot of helmets is that if you have a big noggin you are generally at the extreme end of what it’s meant to fit well to, so how the straps/pads are positioned can be critical. I had a rented helmet in the USA recently and while it was big enough it was really uncomfortable as the pads were in the wrong place for my head.

It’s also worth looking for a helmet design which goes around the head rather than perched on top of it, helps it look a little smaller on you.

I can’t really recommend my helmet as it is a £120 Giro E2 which is out of budget. At the time I couldn’t find another helmet to fit me and the E2 was the only one I could choose. They don’t make it any more and I am very concerned about what happens when I need a new one!

Link to my Saturday – with pics!
Great weather round here on Saturday…

http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/my-longest-day-off-road-with-pics

If anyone says “whats the point of the internet?” or “we’d be better off without the internet!” then point them to this thread. No way it would happen without it.

I follow a twitter feed that posts these, great stuff!

He was probably shattered because he’s a desk jockey normally. Took me six months to get used to the physical side of work when I started in retail, and that was only in a decent sized record shop. My wife works for one of the big UK retailers and one of her colleagues wore a pedometer one day and it reckoned she walked 8 miles every day.

In some ways I miss retail as I could eat anything and not put weight on. Now I eat carefully and because I’m not active it’s hard not to put weight on (in an office 80% of time).

Amazon looks like a decent place to work to me! Especially as a temp job at nights.

Making someone mentally I’ll? Get a grip! I’ve heard of more people off with stress in my current job in the last year than 12 years in retail.

I hit the slabs and the bike landed on top of me! Feel like I’ve been beaten up today….. 😉

Thankfully 25 years of falling off MTB’s meant I had just time to roll rather than do a KERSPLAT on the slabs. 😀

I have been down the Marsden descent on my Kona in the summer…..

Not going anywhere on the Kona in the winter though, too much NOS stuff I can’t afford to replace on it!

Did you get a front Mudhugger too? I like the way they protect the stantions/seals on your forks, which the RRP doesn’t do.

The ride I went on yesterday was quite muddy – wet mud rather than sticky. I couldn’t find my crud catcher so depended only on my RRP neoprene guard. The whole ride I got 3 drops of water/mud on my sunglasses despite being in it for 5hrs+! Brilliant bit of kit and now I won’t bother with the crud catcher.

What amuses me is people on £3k bikes saying “they’re too expensive” and making their own out of inner tubes. 🙄 😆

After spending some time in the USA with friends of ours who run a church in Las Vegas (yeah I know, tough call!) they offered some comparisons with the UK as they lived here for a year. They said its odd to them that kids go to bed so early and they reckon it must be a NHS/government thing which everyone accepts as they don’t send their kid to bed at 7pm (he’s 5). He stays up with them and they all go to bed together (pretty much, school nights a little earlier). We were even going out for a meal then watching the fountains at the Bellagio at 11pm with their kid and he was fine.

And he stayed in bed the same length they did – nice nights sleep.

I suppose we don’t have to copy them but its interesting to me how other countries do things which seem to work for them but we may think is odd.

The first set of slabs you come to?

I think so, not 100% but you’re probably right. I’ve only ridden it in the dry before and and didn’t remember a hole but I suppose it fills with mud when it’s wet.

I generally find people who fly regularly for work purposes are the grumpiest and most awkward. To be fair they probably get a bit sick of problems to be honest but getting narky at staff gets you precisely nowhere, in fact will probably get you worse service.

Don’t be off travelling abroad, it’s an adventure! We went to SF last year on out first foreign holiday (I’m 37 BTW) and we’ve got the big already!

5hr40mins moving time, 5mph average speed.
Got 8.50am train from Brig to Hebden and got home about 3.30pm. Didn’t take any big breaks, just lots of a minute or so as my old bones and muscles seize up if they stop moving for too long. 😉

Did you do the descent down into marsden?

Yes – one of my favourites. However it was very sloppy and muddy and I had very little grip (Spesh Eskar tyres!). Went over the bars onto the flat slabs when my front wheel sunk to the hub into a hidden muddy hole. Hit the deck quite hard and bike landed on me too which was a little scary, thankfully I was ok. Few other sketchy moments too.

Hudds narrow canal was very muddy too.

Nice one. What was the signage like, route easy to follow? I have some time on my hands next week and thinking of doing this.

Signs generally ok, I did check my OS map a few times though, some junctions I wasn’t sure about and I prefer to check to be 100% sure.

I really don’t have the right bike for that sort of ride either, could do with being 5lbs lighter!!

It really was a beautiful day. I didn’t put my coat on until I was on top of the moors past the M62, as long as I kept moving I was warm enough.

5mph average…. Not great I know but I’m happy!

I had to walk from Milnsbridge up to where I live about 1.5miles away as I just didn’t have any energy to pedal up the slightest incline!

Best descent was the one down to Piethorne, loads of fun.

My cellar used to look like this.

Go for it!

Well I ended up not doing it last weekend, got in a grump and sacked it off. Still can’t find my fancy Exposure lights.

Anyway, all planned in again tomorrow, be more organised this time! Ride to Brighouse, train to Hebden then ride home.

Thought it was 20 miles, it’s actually 27!!

So if you see a tubby bloke on a brown Specialized Pitch Pro with gold bits on it say hi to me. I’ll need the support!

Not a very good hairdresser if he suggests wine rather than going to the errrr, hairdresser?

Ta very much – mines going on the other side so its next to the shifter I use less.

a11y – thats a nice setup – I see Shimano shifter but what brake is that? Wondering if my new 2×10 XT shifter set up and SLX brakes will work with the RH lever Reverb (that I intend to mount underneath on the LHS) that I have ordered. Any alterations needed?

7-8k miles a year – pointless getting a diesel. Won’t save you any money, probably would cost more over the fee years you’ll have it. Plus if the inevitable happens with the diesel – turbo or something else goes bang – you’ll find its waaaaay more expensive.
If I didn’t have a free work car I would have a petrol car if I did 8k miles a year.

Where is it exactly? Just get loads of folk to use it, soon won’t be any saplings or a fence!

Depends on condition. Scrappy ones go for £10-£20, £35 for a NOS one like peterpoddys. Depends if you have the original L bend as well.

Dress £350
Bridesmaid dresses £180
My suit £160 (which I still use – why on earth do people hire stuff?)
Shirt and tie for father of bride and best man £60
Church £0 (my own)
Reception (we had wedding at 3.30pm, I’m not paying for everyone’s dinner!) £350 for 70 people. Everyone who went said it was one of the best receptions they had been too – we asked for BBQ chicken, pizza, sausage on stick, jelly and ice cream – everyone loved it!
Band – friends of ours – free
Bar – everyone paid for own drinks.
Car – friend – free
Rings -mine £70 (cheapest ti one I could find), hers £20.
Cake – £50. Made it ourselves from a customized MandS cake – 3 tier!
Photographer – £100. Only thing I wish we’d spent more on as photos ended up being poor. Should have gone with someone else who was recommended who was £300.

Around £1k 10 years ago and so many great memories. And no money owed afterwards too!

Always surprises me how quick people are to just say things are ‘rubbish’ rather offer a critique…

Ok, if that’s what you want!

What sort of video was it? If it’s a lifestyle one with the motorbike stuff it was a bit lame. Didn’t really say too much and I lost interest. Not really his forte I thought – might have been nice if the motorbike bit was half the length as it didn’t hold attention for me.
I know he must be a good rider as he teaches others but the riding bits seemed to make riding in Calderdale look a bit tame, which they aren’t at all. Most seemed to be in the same bit of woods – admittedly there is a lot of that sort of thing round there but it could have been better IMHO.
I have no idea why the bit at the end was there, really jarred with me. A good idea which might have been better spread over the whole video – a slasher theme mixed with riding would be interesting!

And the music – is this really what people listen to nowadays? I know it’s probably not my thing but all videos tend to have a similar sort of music to this now. C’mon! Use a bit of imagination!

Got mine at the weekend. Seem extremely well made and people I rode with on Sunday were very impressed with the light level and spread.
Only used one but I didn’t feel the need to slow down much at all, maybe only on tighter bends where I could have done with a helmet mounted light.

Well pleased!

Did it on my DMR before painting. Cut end off cable stop before filing smooth.

Errr is it just me it was that just a bit rubbish?

And why do all videos nowadays have this crap wet-the-bed type music on them nowadays?

I can’t watch the youtube video at work and sat looking at that picture above wondering why it had been posted…….then I saw the bloke on top of the lighting rig!!! 😯

Did he seriously jump from there???

I wouldn’t go for white as there are loads of white Konas – the one I did above the owner insisted I do it white but as I couldn’t find a match to the green of the company I went for it in the end.

Silver would look good with the Fox forks (if they are silver), maybe even pick a colour off the decals of the forks – blue? – and use that?

Get over to GilM at the bikeshed and he’ll do you some custom decals to match the bits you have. £28 for a full set last time I bought them and well worth it for his quality.