OP – just slow down? Over 17mph when you’re just starting off on the road is a fair pace, particularly if its hilly. I just think you’re pushing too much too soon tbh. After a month or 2 that pace will be more than achievable, but just get yourself used to the different physiological demands of road riding for your first few goes before pushing too much. If it was a long ride I’d go along with some of the advice on fuelling, but I don’t think thats you issue tbh. Eat and stretch after. And deffo take and drink water. Of course, once you’ve got yourself used to it, go out and **** yourself over on a regular basis – its what its all about 😀

Sounds **** tbh, and what iDave said.

OK, not under £100 (not far off), but I say go for the Garmin Forerunner 305. Has HRM and GPS as well, so you can monitor distance / speed / pace and review your route when you get back. Bike mounts available for about a tenner (or you can bodge). Had one about 8 months and I’m really really happy with it.

Thanks all for the responses. Just checked and battery is 7.2V, implying its an over-volted 6V bulb (stop me now if this is a bo11ocks assumption). Guess that’s quite important to know. Just had a very quick search and can’t find anything above 10 watts for a 6V, and I think the old one was 22 watts.

Cheers for heads up on the thread wwaswas – the title kind of hid its content a little! Would be really interested in a trout conversion. Did you email him? I’ll drop him a mail as well…

In contrast to everyone else, I really DON’T rate the Lunar R1. It let in rain and died within 3 months. Shame coz it was super bright when it did work. Got a couple of cheap (£6ish) lifeline ones from wiggle – not quite as bright, mount not as good, but sealing seems better.

711 MTB. Moved from 680 and prefer the slightly wider feel. Could go wider 🙂

440 Road

‘To the nob in the bmw / on the road bike / in the baggy shorts in xxxx earlier’.

I love these threads, there such sweet little displays of pent up anger and frustration. Invariably they said nothing at the time and come on here to vent what they were too slow or too scared to say, and allude to previously attained skills in a martial art had it got physical. Sadly these poor souls get derided by all, and probably end up taking it out on the wife / dog / children when they get home. More please! In fact, a whole forum dedicated to these sort of rants, not just around biking, but everything in life! One place where people can come to air these grievances. And then maybe, just maybe, bad mr audi / bmw / road biker or whatever, you’d actually know where to come on the interweb for your dressing down when you nearly knocked off that lonely IT geek furiously pedaling that bike that didn’t even have any fookin gears…

I’d say give them a good bleed and new pads and see what that does for you before spending more money. I’ve got some that must be 6 or 7 years old. Pretty much when they came out. Bled them a couple of years ago for the first time, not because I really needed to, just thought I should do really. made them a lot sharper. Still going strong, although that bike is hardly getting any use at the mo. Have tried newer ones (xt I think) and didn’t think it was worth the bother / expense.

Cheers – those look just the places. Bit galling to pay £4 postage for a £8 jug though. Machine has a tamper already fortunately, and I want to avoid using a thermometer as I never had one when I used to churn them out in a restaurant (always did it by feel of the jug) but good call on the shot glasses, and looks like I’ll be able to find a shaker for my better halfs cappacinos from one of those links.

Done the Col D’Izoard. Twice. In winter. At night.

Ok, I was on a skidoo. It was cool!

I’m also looking at wheels around the £150 mark and have it down to Fulcrum Racing 5’s which just seem to have come back in stock at Ribble for £152 (if you can bear using Ribble that is), or Mavic Aksiums at £140 from Merlin. Both sub 1800 grams. Will probably go for Conti GP4000s at £25 a pop, bringing the whole lot in at £200. On paper this would save about 650 grams off my current set of Miche Excites and £10 Vittorias, which I’m guessing will be fairly noticeable!

Very nice. Not heard of that frame before. What size is it? Oh, and you seem to have forgotten suspension forks have been invented 😉

I’ve got a Tifosi CK7 – its been a great bike, but as you say fairly heavy, and with pretty leisurely geometry. As its a bit cheaper than the others, its lower specced too. Its marketed as a winter trainer / audax bike. Good for the long distance and tour stuff you mention, maybe less suitable for the TTs and sportives. Being fairly new to road riding I found the geometry fine at first, but as your body gets used to the position on the bike I’m starting to hanker after something a little sportier and lighter. From your list I’d go for the boardman or cube. They both have a good rep for value. Shame you can’t get Canyons on btw as they look good value too. I think the grey boardman looks coolest, so as long as it fits that would be my decision made 🙂

I’d suggest Chuck Norris. Casting Director would suggest Mr Bean.

The great irony for me since moving from the West Country to East Anglia is that its so much drier here, but its COMPLETELY FRICKIN WASTED on us because THERE’S NO FRICKIN TRAILS to be lovely and dry. I remember the anticipation of those too few days when Bristol trails weren’t a complete mudfest – ah, heaven. Alas no more. All I have to look forward to is self-flagellation on the road bike on always dry roads.

I have a forerunner 305. £105 from Amazon a couple of months ago. Great for both running and biking (with clip in bike mount kit). As said its a bit bulky, but its a bargain for what it does. I wouldn’t swim with it

Truly horrific. My thoughts go out to his family, friends, team and fellow riders.

Is it a 36t middle ring? Had the same issue (2008). Total design f*ck up if you ask me – if there’s one bike that’s going to have a double chainset with 36t ring its the heckler. I just used an extra bb spacer to push it out and I haven’t died yet. Or you could go down to 34t ring. HTH

Moved here (Cambridge) a year ago. Its a bit of a desert in terms of decent off-road compared to where I moved from. Woburn and Chicksands (45mins – 1hr in car) are ok for SHORT DH, jumps and 4x. Thetford (45 mins) is flat but fine when its not a mud bath. Theres the odd bit of ridable stuff locally (e.g. Roman Road out the back of Cherry Hinton over to Linton) but not too inspiring I’m afraid. I’ve pretty much given up on off-road for this year and embraced the darkside which I’m enjoying a worrying amount. So probably not too encouraging for you then 🙂

I find there can sometime be a data lag in adwords. Having said that, have you refreshed your page? Have you got the right date set in the top right hand corner? (all mistakes I have made in the past!) If its just a small test, I’d set the budget and time period (think you can do this under campaign settings) and let it run, checking in every so often depending on volume / length of the test / spare time. Careful you don’t constantly tweak your campaign as you won’t know what changes are making a difference – can sometimes take several days for changes to have their full impact. As a very general rule of thumb – optimise, leave it to run, review, re-optimise. Also, you might want to look at the impact of having your ads above the fold on page one – likely to have a significant effect on volume, but costs will also be higher – up to you to make that call!

Good luck – hope it works out for you!

My boss was getting on my t1ts. I sheepishly mentioned something to one of our new directors on Friday night. Boss handed his notice in today, leaving immediately, citing ‘family reasons’. Glad I didn’t say I wish someone would just have him taken out…

Cheers – got it on series link. My boy has pretty much packed in Numberjacks and Zingzillas to entirely devote himself to the crew of the octopod.

Try War of Legends for an online strategy game if you're looking for massive multiplayer. Like Evony / Civony, but better. Free to play.

Did a season there a few years ago and have been back a few times since. In terms of terrain its awesome – lots of easily accesible off piste and great tree runs. DON'T go in February – lift queues are horrendous. All other times no issues. Main issue with the place is the snow (ok, can be quite important on a snowboarding holiday :-)) which can be unpredictable as its quite far south, and relatively low compared to Tignes, Val D etc. When I did the season it dumped it down the whole time so it was the best place I've ever ridden, but previous seasons they hadn't been so lucky. In short if you get good snow and MTFU about the drags you should have a great time. If its poor snow, like anywhere, it will be pants.

I've camped at Llyn y Cwn – a lovely spot to wake up. Also Llyn Caseg-fraith other side of the Glyders – between Glyder Fach and Y Foel Goch. You'll have to hunt around for a non marshy spot – they are there – and bring water unless you're going to purify lake water. Great views of Tryfan. Theres also a couple of lovely spots with epic views over the snowdon range on the way up Glyder Fach from Y Foel Goch side. Its all lovely up there – I'm jealous – although I'm off up to the Lakes in October so can't complain too much

Mazda 6 Estate? I'm doing the same search at the mo (though looking for a big family car rather than specifically for bikes) and its the mondeo, passat or mazda. Mondeo and Mazda seem better value tbh, with lots of quality examples around for between 3-4k.

I care about the football. I think F1 is the dullest crock of sh1te around.

Oh, and you would be unpatriotic if you 'feel' Germany would be the better team to support if you were English, not German. Patriotism is a feeling of loyalty to your nation, which you wouldn't be displaying here. I've not checked a dictionary on this but it seems pretty straight forward to me, Fritz 😀

Second themountainbikechalet – stayed with Dave and Caz in winter and they were great – if Dave is anywhere near as good a guide on a bike as he is on a board he will be awesome to ride with, and caz does amazing food.

Just moved to Cambridge from Bristol. Its frickin flat here. Try and put mountain biking out of your mind whilst here (so you don't go mad with frustration) and convince yourself that a road bike is as much fun, in a different kind of way. I'm undecided. The other half tells me of the dramatic sky scapes and beautiful Norfolk coastline nearby – we'll see…

Have heard conflicting things about thetford (its great, no its crap) and fear being ridiculed for being over-biked on a heckler (its my only bike guv, I used to live somewhere where the suspension did something, honest..) Woburn and Chicksands aren't too far away and have some man made features by all accounts.

My other half tells me its won plaudits for being post modern and ironic. Sadly its still got singing and dancing in.

I loved the flor de cana in nicaragua – better than anything we found elsewhere in Central America or Cuba. Found a bottle in spain a couple of years ago and to be honest it wasn't as good as I remembered. Maybe it wasn't 'proper' nicaraguan produced stuff.

As before, Appletons and Mount Gay are pretty good for easy to get rums

I paid £750 for a large anodised with rp23 off here a month ago. The front end was a new warranty replacement, with the rear triangle in very good nick. I thought it was a fair price. I paid the full asking price as it was what I wanted and I didn't want to loose it by dicking round over a few quid. HTH.

Cheers – I will bow to the greater collective wisdom of stw and grit my teeth, open my mind, and give it a couple more listens

GO on my son – get a few beers down you first though 😀

Thinking back retrospectively it was fairly straight-forward when I did it. Felt like brain surgery at the time though. Careful you don't pull the yellow foam wipers out if over enthusiastically cleaning the inside of the lowers – total pain in the ass to get back in. And have some circlip pliars if you want to service motion control – I haven't so didn't. Just a clean and oil change made a big difference to the feel of mine, and you feel smug that you didn't spend £100 sending them to tft.

Cheers all for the replys. Done a bit of research on mtbr, and as unsponsored says, more recent swingarms have the edges of the swingarm around the pivot axle shaved off to allow it. Perhaps some of you guys running 36t with no probs have these more recent ones? Or slx are spaced differently maybe? Anyway, I'm going to try 2 bb spacers on the drive side and see if this works – i'll report back (assuming I survive)…

Steve – it was 2004/5. Front triangle cracked around the pivot bolt weld on one side

(at cynic-al) huh? I've only owned / ridden the pre 07 model – can't comment on 07 +. All IME only obviously.

Coil if pre-2007 heckler. Mine came with a float which I swapped for a DHX coil, and the difference was night and day. The coil could easily be set up plush yet not bottom out on bigger stuff – never could do that on the air.

Have I just replied to your ad in the classifieds btw?

White due in the spring apparently.

As above – these add on policies are not FSA regulated so won't technically come within the 14 day cooling off. Having said that, its a pretty ropey company that tries to d1ck you on this point, even if it is in the small print. A pretty firmly worded complaint, with a hint of taking to the Financial Ombudsman (the next step) if not sorted to your satisfaction, should sort it if the company values their reputation. Having said that, if its one of the small ones that are always at the top on price comparison sites, you'll be amazed at how little shame they have trying to get you with stealth charges (e.g fees to cancel WITHIN 14 days, or to cancel the HP agreement if you pay monthly). And they have no brand to protect if you start making a fuss. Care to name them?