Upgrading my i23 rims to i30 made quite a noticable difference. I can now run my tyres (2.5 front / 2.4 rear) at the pressure I <span style=”text-decoration: underline;”>want</span> to now without fear of smashing up my rims, and they’re much more supportve in corners at the same pressures compared to the narrower rims. It’s given me a big confidence boost.

I recently upgraded from a 180 to a 203mm rotor on the front (SLX 2 pots rotor running metal pads). Power when braking is now there in spades, and is much more immediate. Who knew an inch would make such a difference! I only weigh 75-80 kg, so if I went to four pots it’d be more for show than go (…or stop) but If you’re coming in heavier you’ll probably see the benefit. Unquestionably however, I’d run them on larger rotors. It’s a big power upgrade for very liitle money and hardly any extra weight.

Those are both indeed Richard Mille watches (and as has been noted, perhaps an acquired taste).

Half a million – that’s not even close to the ceiling of RM watches: https://superwatchman.com/fernando-alonso-richard-mille-rm-50-03-mclaren/

A horrific crime, and awful to think that you could be putting your life at risk just for owning something that your hard work afforded you.

The typical going price for fitting a door is about £50-70. I personally know my limitations, so wouldn’t go any where near trying to fit a door myelf, but even if I was bit more handy with a chissel, £500 for a job well done, and not bodging £1,400’s worth of oak doors is money well spent.

I love my fat bike. But fat bikers… a lot of them seem to be a bit weird, no?

Quite obsessive when it comes to rolling resistance, and seemingly hell-bent on proving that their bikes are as fast as an aero road bike.

No ‘Ding’?

@ turbo1397,

If you like, DM me your postal address. I’ve got an un-used roll of Stans’ finest brittle yellow rim tape in 25mm flavour (although as has been said above, you might want 27mm tape for a 25mm rim)

It’s about 30 deaths per billion miles compared to 2 per billion miles in a car. It’s not a massive risk.

It’s not just the statistics for me… Yes, in all the years I spent riding country roads I’m still not dead. I just don’t find it that relaxing any more, so hung up my disco slippers about four years ago. Perhaps it’s age, but to me it feels that in recent years driving standards have gone down, and volume of traffic (and general contempt for people from tribes other than your own – i.e. cyclists versus cars) has gone up. Increasingly my rides would be “punctuated” with “an incident” which meant rather than returning home all zen, I’d be irritated. And all of this on country roads flanked by major A roads, so typically only local traffic.

Yes, as far as I’m concerned they’ve won. The X5s and the Range Rovers can have the tarmac. I’ll take the singletrack, thanks.

When I was fifteen I really wanted some ti bar ends. Don’t buy him this.

Gloves if you’re not feeling spendy. Gucci pedals if you’re feeling spendy (OneUp / Crankbrothers / Burgtec).

Left-field choice… some tuition (but acknowledging that he probably won’t be able to take advantage of it until the weather gets a bit less crap, in which case you should probably throw in some gloves too).

Basically, gloves.

Sort of, there are 3 models (we’re all talking about – there’s loads of 100% gloves)

Brisker = fit normal
Hydro’s = come up small
Brisker Hydo = possibly fit normal (no idea not tried)

Yep – Briskers and Brisker Hydros are their winter gloves (the latter being the ones I’ve just bought in size L, and can barely get my small/medium hands into). Hydros are their more a trail-weight waterproof glove.

So, what I can conclude from some of the above posts is that sizing for Brisker Hydros is basically all over the place, with some people saying they’ve fine, and others saying they’re tiny. Sounds to me like this is probably a “Support you LBS” jobbie then.

Yep. Another fan of that Pace right here. However it’s an indication of what’s happened to pricing lately when one looks at a £682 hardtail and the reaction is “you know what, that’s not a bad price”.

I blame Santa Cruz.

My road bike is sitting unloved in the garage for this very reason. I love getting out on the road bike and hearing the hum of tyres on tarmac, but I refuse to become a statistic. As a cyclist I experienced too many close passes, and as a driver I see too many instances of drivers who don’t know what to do when faced with a cyclist.

9/10 I don’t think it’s aggressive behaviour. It’s just a general lack of awareness.

Yes, I have every right to cycle on the roads, but there’s no point in being right when you lying on the tarmac next to a Nissan Qasqai that’s parked on to of your bike.

From our experience earlier this year, I’d avoid sofology like the plague…

Oh, darn. I just spent 20mins on their website looking at their range too.

Shame, as they seem to have some nice stuff. I’d always avoided them in the past, assuming they were some sort of DFS slash Furniture Village like outfit, as they’re often found rubbing shoulders in the same sorts of faceless industrial estate (along with a Carpetright, and dirty burger van).

Do you have an old rigid bike kicking about? It sounds like practicing some old-school trials skills (proper ‘squeak-squeak-hop’ trials. Not the Danny Mac sort of thing) might help improve your low speed agility. You can practice that sort of stuff anywhere, and it’ll really help build your bike-strength and confidence in moving the bike around with accuracy at short notice.

Another +1 for the Dissector. I’m running a 2.4 on the back paired with a 2.5 DHF For me that offers the best compromise between aggressive, but no so aggressive that climbs and singletrack become a chore.

Answering your question a differnet way. Would I want to go back to mountain biking on my 1997 Lava-Dome. Hell no! Your description pretty much nails old mountain bikes – road bikes with knobly tyres.

On my first couple of LLS rides I had some moments where I had the front wash out due to my old-skool tendancy to weight the rear when cornering hard in decents. So it took a bit of reprogramming to do the opposite of instinct, but once you do, you begin to realise how much harder you can ride the bike (safely) and I now end up looking ways to generate speed where previously I’d have been grabbing and handful of v-brake.

Do it! And watch this:

Here’s my view on the matter, which is obviously worth sweet FA.

I wear a poppy (and drop a pound or two into the noisy cup) because the RBL support all of those service personnel who, if push had come to shove, would’ve been willing to put their life on the line for my freedom. And I’m proud to wear a poppy to show the world that I’m thankful, and that I don’t take their selflessness for granted.

If people confuse a slightly-built, half Malay, spectacle wearing man in a pair of Bertie boots for a far-right nationalist, the problem’s with them, not me.

I’ve nothing but praise for DIY kitchens. We sent them a plan and they made the basket up for us to check out with. Great price and fab quality. A friend of mine who sells overpriced German kitchens to people with more money than sense was very impressed.

My first thought when I read your OP was 32 hole EX511s laced up to some DT350 hubs and the 36t star ratchet driver. I went through a similar journey looking at Hunt, Hope, Stans etc and settled on a DT Swiss combo (28h XM481s on 350s). I’m exceedingly pleased with them.

As with everything these days, stock will be your issue. I called around a few people before getting them built overseas by fitwheels and most people were saying no stock of DT hubs, but would you like Hope Pro 4s. By this stage I’d done my homework and was set on the DT setup. I’ve nothing but praise for fitwheels (they even accommodated the stupid +3mm dish on my rear for no extra charge).

ETA – ignore everything I just said and do this:

Dt ex511 from Mike at 20 twenty https://20twentystore.com/collections/wheels

Half of Aberdeen/ Aberdeenshire will be on his wheels  by now.

Ranty stuff

on second thoughts, please don’t pay a visit to any of my local bike shops. I don’t think you fit in very well.

Pretty much every bike shop around here (Milton Keynes) has got stock of bikes, including the Trek store. Might be worth popping into your LBS but recognise that you’ll be paying sticker price and will have to be less choosy.

Agreed – something doesn’t sound quite right. I’ve got effectively the same fork – Revelation with the C1 spring and the Charger RC damper. Mine are running at 140mm and at 75kg I see 20% sag at 83psi. Rebound is 11 clicks from fast. I recently dropped from two tokens to one and they’re super-plush over everything right now.

I think my first port of call would be a lower leg and air spring service.

So far – all the same places as my trail bike. I bought mine as a winter hack to save the wear posher components and linkages. I might go and ride it in the snow / on a beach one day just to prove I can.

As a local(ish) rider I’d really welcome this. If you search Google for “Map of UK Mountain Bike Trail Centres” there’s a black-spot that surrounds my house for about a 50 miles in every direction. This would be slap bang in the middle of that.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m very grateful for the trails that we have here (Woburn, Rushmere, Chicksands) but variety = spice of life and all that.

If you’re laying tiles you’ll need to put down self levelling compound. This being the case I’d go to the extra effort of removing the old tiles to know that it’s a job done well and not a bodge. As has been said before tiles come up pretty easily with an SDS / Bolster.

I like Jabra kit but they seem to be AirPods money. The ones Joe and Kimbers posted are in top spot.

Uncle Jeff has the model down in a funky colour for £49. As per the time honoured tradition of recommending what you’ve got, I quite like my non-active ones for the money. Apparently these ‘Active’ ones have an integrated motion sensor. Oooh.

Jabra Elite Active 65t Earbuds on Amazon

^^ I hear you on that. I don’t know about anyone else, but for the past few months it’s always been in the back of my mind that if I stack and break a componant (a derailleur, a brake lever etc) it won’t just be the cost of replacing it that I have to worry about. A crash (and a broken componant) could see that bike out of service for weeks until I can source a part. I don’t see that concern going away for a while yet.

On both my bikes I’ve got my internally routed R/H shifter running around the L/H side of the headtube, and my internally routed L/H mounted dropper running around the R/H side of the head tube.

For the sake of neat-ness, it’d be nice if my L/H brake lever followed the same path as the dropper, but alas both are American frames so I have to have them routed through interal cable routing on the L/H side of the frame (and suffer the inevitable horrid kink). My logic is that brakes are hydraulic so it doesn’t matter what crazy route they take down the frame, but the cable driven shifters / droppers need sympathetic routing.

I actually prefer the routing of front brake hoses on a UK setup (R/H hose crossing over to the L/H leg).

I’m really glad I don’t have a Scott Genius

A brexit voting mate of mine

Sorry. Does not compute.

As an aside, I recently bought a new set of wheels from fitwheels.eu. Apart from having nothing but praise for their service one thing to note is that they were (…are) UK VAT registered, which meant that my wheels arrived in no time with UK duty already covered. I’m surprised that there aren’t more overseas companies doing this or following TradeInn’s model of having UK distribution to allow them continue doing frictionless trade with us and the rest of the gammons.

I spent the whole of last winter trying to stop my bottom bracket from creaking. It ended up being a stem bolt.

If you really think it’s you BB, healthy smear of grease on the frame threads, and a layer of PFTE tape on the BB cup threads (don’t forget the reverse thread on the drive side).

I went though this journey.

The aftermarket (non Apple) ones all fall short of the mark in my opinion. I spent a lot of time trying to find something for less £££ that wasn’t an Apple keyboard. I either found them to be a bit crap, or they’d be okay but then the BT would fail after a few weeks and I’d have to send them back for a return.

Also, I know you’re looking for it to hook up to your iPad, does it *need* to be bluetooth? I never have to worry about my wired keyboard running out of charge (unlike my Magic Touchpad). I never feel like the wired aspect holds me back.

On that topic, by the way, get a Magic Touchpad.

Good choice. Out of interest, are you going to get a hacksaw out on that fork steerer? It looks like you could pick up Radio Luxembourg on it.

I’d buy the Norco. Their support is superb, it’s a very versatile bike (more so than the Spesh in my eyes) and it’s in stock right now. You could be thrashing it this weekend. Conversely you could be waiting weeks or even months for the right s/h Status to come up.

First up, well done for putting yourself first and handing your notice in to an employer who clearly didn’t value you.

Mental health  >  Career

Whilst not quite the same, but I was fired (scape-goated) some years ago from a job in which I was bullied daily. During my tenure there must’ve been at least 5 times where I was on the brink of resigning. It played havoc with my mental health. Having my hand forced for me was the best thing that ever happened. I wish I’d left sooner.

Now that you’re on notice, stop giving more f*cks than is necessary. Just do your job the way that you know it should be done. And use your networks. You’ll be back at it again with an employer who respects you in no time.

And lastly, don’t forget that the best form of revenge is monumental success.

How is “locking up” the measure of any brake for flip’s sake??

I’m kindof with you on this. I’m going to caveat the following with “I am not a physicist” however I see it like this:

When you apply the brakes what you’re trying to do is turn the kinetic energy of your bike moving forwards into heat …and in the case of Hope’s, lots of noise :-D.

When you lock a wheel all you’re doing is prove that you can very quickly turn the kinetic energy of a wheel’s rotation (but not the bike’s kinetic energy) into heat. It does naff all to disperse the kinetic energy of the bike (and more specificaly my mass perched upon it) as it hurtles towards a tree. In fact all that happens is that the kinetic energy of the bike is transfered into heat build up of the now-locked tyre scrubbing along the ground.

Now, are there any physicists in the room to tell me exactly how flawed my logic is?

I picked up a pair of these at Jabra earbuds JL recently for £40. No stock left left online, but worth checking out your local store to see if they have any. They retailed at £150 when they first came out a couple of years ago and reviews at that price concluded that they were _okay_. At £40 they’re about right. If you think Beats make good heaphones though, these will not be for you – they’re not super heavy on the bass (although there’s app you can dowload that lets you tweak the sound signature).

The advantage over the usual cheapie wireless earbuds is that the bluetooth connection’s actually pretty solid. I’ve found on some cheap ones the BT an be a bit ropey at times (drop outs, lag…). Also FWIW I was happy enough with my Anker earbuds until Mrs RRM put them through the washing machine.

https://www.johnlewis.com/jabra-elite-65t-true-wireless-bluetooth-in-ear-headphones-with-mic-remote/black/p3629750

I really don’t understand the Hope love. Someone in our group recently asked on the WhatsApp chat if anyone knew any tips for setting up Hopes. I held back from suggesting he throw them in the bin and buy Shimano. I rode with him this weekend and his his brakes were frankly terrifying.

I know Hope can be rebuilt, and Shimano can fail, but when they do fail they’re cheap as chips and supply is plentiful.

Do you still have the old cranks, just to see if they offer up as they did when the BB was in your old frame? I must say, when I read your OP the first thing that sprang to mind was BB squareness.

One of those pictures looks like someone’s had a go with filler (to me, at least). To answer the question though, cosmetic damage on a metal frame wouldn’t cause me any concern if the price was right.

^ ^ If you don’t mind the extra weight, maybe look at an Assagai? Like a DHF but more supportive in the transition.

FWIW I had a play around with pressures this weekend the DHF up front has gone from ‘mildly terrifying’ to ‘perfectly adequate’. I’m certainly not worshipping at the alter of DHF yet, but I can live with it for now and will continue to tweak my setup to see if I can achieve that moment of epiphany that others seem to find.

These mortgage brokers and IFAs aren’t magicians and they don’t have access to any secret rates that aren’t available to the public.

I recently remortgaged. The broker I spoke to said they could get me 1.39% on a three year with a £500 booking fee plus his arrangement fee (something like £200). When I told them I could get 1.14% on a 5y with no fee (30s of Googling to get that) he miraculously told me he could do that too.

Just sort it out yourself and use the “arrangement fee” saved to buy coke / hookers / bike parts.