+1 for Bike Tart

Have you tried using ‘easy outs?

I snapped a torx bit in my rear mech hanger and that got it out after I’d nearly destroyed my rear triangle

The best deal for an iphone is to buy it outright from the Apple store and get a sim card from Giff Gaff.
Which is fine if you’ve got a spare 500 quid hanging around to buy the hand set.

Gift Gaff do a decent deal for about £10 a month.

I got some of the MT500 overshoes and the zip at the back of one of them split on the 2nd time out…

I’ve got Northwave Celsius Arctic’s now. Coupled with merino socks (Wooly Boolies), my feet may get wet but they have never been cold.

I might try taping the tops of the boots this winter though.

If you go to the Exposure / Use outlet shop, they have 2010 Joysticks for £100

Leasing lets self-emplyed people offset the entire lease cost against tax and recover any VAT paid!

How does this work?

I am self employed through my own Limited company.
Can the lease payments for my personal bike be claimed as a business expense from my company?

That would make leasing significantly cheaper than buying for me.

brant – Member
Bought a hamster on Friday with his sister.

Won’t the missus mind that you swapped a child for a hamster?

If this policy did come through though, STW viewing figures would significantly decrease…

Sorry, back to work :oops:

There is a helmet mount coming in November too, which makes these lights even more appealing.

Thanks guys.

Anyone else with anything more budget than the exposure lights?

I have just spoken to someone at Upgrade and Lezyne are going to be doing a helmet mount for their lights soon, so that might be one option.

When my Dad died, we used the “up in the sky” / “with the stars” explanation to my niece.
It confused her greatly (and upset her quite a lot) the next time she went on a plane and couldn’t see Granddad though.

What you need is to separate the light source as far from your eyes as possible, say 150 million kilometres.

That would be too far to run a power cable so you would need some form of self preserving light source, nuclear fusion would work best.

From such a distance it would need to be absolutely enormous, probably in excess of 1 million kilometres across.

This would give the unwanted side effect of having its own gravitational field, causing the earth to rotate around it.

So unfortunately you would only see the light for about 12 hours each day.

I have a computer. Mostly used for trawling STW.

This is my bag, it’s a 2010 Camelbak Mule:

With HUMP
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IMAG0091[/url] by rbannist[/url], on Flickr
Without HUMP
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IMAG0090[/url] by rbannist[/url], on Flickr

I commute with a Camelbak Mule (the old smaller one, not the newer larger NV model). From a quick Google image search, your bag looks slightly bigger than mine.

I tried my Hump cover for the first time on it this morning.

It’s a little bit big but it works.
The Hump shouldn’t fly off as there are 2 elasticated straps with poppers that go diagonally across the bag to hold it on (there are on mine anyway).

I’d rather use the Hump than give someone in a car any excuse to say SMIDSY…

I’ve got a 2008 Zesty and love it.

Pedals up hills really well and goes back down pretty quick too.

I’m in Westhill, so not far away.

Bennachie is great. As much gnar as you can shake a stick at.

The Pitfichie XC loop is great fun (and you can tie it in with the DH track that has previously been used in SDA rounds).

Thursday night is bike night for me, so we may go out for a ride after work.
Drop me a line closer to the time.

Ho hum – Member
What “immolate” means.

Is it what they say in Italy when they’re behind schedule?

Immo so sorrrry, immolate

I’ll get my coat……………..

The Policeman told him only could authorise him to overtake stationary vehicles in these circumstances.

I take it you mean only the policeman can authorise overtaking?

So if there are no police officers about, should you sit and wait for the next one to come along? Could be some time with the recent government cuts, etc… :roll:

The fastest time on the TdBN was actually about 3h47min, so even more stupidly beyond you… 8O

I had a problem with my Lumicycle light last week.

Sent an email to customer.care@lumicycle.com on Tuesday, got a reply within 30 minutes.

– Sent my light off by 1st class post on Wednesday,
– Got an email back on Thursday to say my repair was ready to be shipped,
– Got my light back on Friday from the postman

Definitely still trading, and an exceptional service to boot.

Silverfish and Rocky Mountain Bikes part ways

RM hints at the possibility of taking non-distributor route to market

Silverfish will continue to support the brand while a new distributor is put in place, but will not ship or make available any 2012 Rocky Mountain Bicycles.

moonboy – Member
yep Mr DNS pulled off a massive move on Friday night by trying to down a bottle of single malt off the bar!

I think it was rum actually, but I could be wrong.
For some reason the bar staff were none too impressed.

davidrussell – Member
its neither big nor clever the next day.

It certainly felt big and clever at the time…

Overdid, the “carbohydrate loading” in Fort Bill on Friday night and didn’t make the start line………. :oops:

marionheck – Member
I will take my thick shorts and a bin liner just incase it gets ‘nippy’ i can wear it as a water proof.

Plus we will have each other to share warmth…

Yes, we will be prepared for the weather.
And if it looks too bad, we’ll find somewhere else to ride.

Thanks for all of the comments. They are much appreciated.

I was recently training for a half marathon after far too long of not running.

I had similar pain in my hip.

I went to see a sports physio, who diagnosed an imbalance in the supporting muscles around my hips. I’m right handed / footed, so basically my right leg is stronger than the left; putting more pressure on my left hip.

She gave me a load of very simple strengthening exercises (lying on your back doing hip thrusts, and the like).
The end result was that I ran the half 2 weeks ago with little or no pain.

Maybe give a physio a try.
Your GP may just fob you off to a physio in any case.

Thanks for everyone’s input thus far, it’s been most invaluable.

So if we overnight in the Hutchison bothy, is the only real option an out and back to Ben Macdui?

Also, how long would the ride from Linn of Dee to Hutchison bothy take?

The Hutchison Memorial bothy was on the list as well.
How long is the ride to it if, for example, we parked the van at Linn of Dee?

How about this for a circuit:
– from the Hutchison bothy,
– through the Lairig an Laoigh pass,
– around Loch Avon and
– then approach Ben Macdui from the north
– descent back to Hutchison bothy and back down to the van at Linn of Dee.
Would that be doable? Or am I getting ahead of myself?

Thanks for the review on the bothy Druidh.
Think we might avoid that then…

We’re not set on Ben Macdui, but we do want an overnight ride that we can start on Thursday and finish on Friday.
Any other suggestions?

Thanks chaps (or chapesses…)

I’ll get some of those and report back.

Doing the Tour de Ben Nevis next week and need my waterproof to be waterproof!

Well. I’ve just spent 30 minutes on the phone to a lovely lady from the AA and I am insured. Bikes listed as individual items and covered for accidental damage away from the home.

As a PSA, the timber framed houses common in Scotland nowadays are considered a “standard construction” by the AA so they should be covered with no problems.

@ The Flying Ox How did you get this?
I have just spoken to Halifax and they only cover bikes up to £500 each, even as an individually named item.

M&S won’t insure me, even just for contents, as the house in timber-framed (which all of the new houses are in this part of Scotland).

Has anyone got any suggestions?

Gearfreak, thanks for your response.

Did you just hire a bike out there and take your own cycling gear?
Some of the days out with Lavatrax on their website look great; I guess you’d recommend going with them again if they were able to guide a longer ride for you???

Not sure I’ll have time to go and explore, it’ll depend on how many brownie points I’ve accumulated with her ladyship… so I’d prefer someone with local knowledge to show me decent trails.

I had a downhilling day at Inners with Dirt school recently.

Had a great day with Andy; and Ruaridh Cunningham was on hand to do some demos, which was awesome.

Actually, if a boat were floating in fizzy piss it would sink due to a loss in buoyancy.

I’ll get my chapeau…

Vanman , do you have any photos of your internal bike rack? I’m interested in something for the inside of my van.

My A-Level maths teacher:

“I’m just going to do some photocopying”

…Comes backs at end of lesson stinking of sherry…

I work for a big oil company.

My line manager sits next to me and sends me emails.
Most talk about enhancing efficiency, whatever that means.

On Monday morning, I’m having a meeting to discuss what we will discuss in a meeting.

Where did you manage to get the offset shock bushings from?

I’ve been looking for some for my Zesty but can’t remember / find where to get them.