Dont count on it. Our 5 yr old has been awake coughing the house down for the last week, nearly as bad as little brother who i’m up with now. Bless ’em

Good morning and happy new year chaps.

Seems this year is going to start a bit like last ended….sleepless!

Kids in bed, Porridge on telly, crisps and nuts in bowl, bottle in hand, me and misses Trowel doing a puzzle. Lovely 😀

If we go the pace of most forum rides i’ve been on, we’ll be lucky to finish 52k by midnight! 😀

Canadian, sponsor the Spidertech pro team.

Speak to the guys at Primera, they’ve got loads in the shop.

Clamp the seatpost

No problems fitting them to carbon frame. Doesn’t matter what it’s made of, they won’t damage it.
Couldn’t get them to fit my Cooper though, lug thing on the brakestay meant the tolerance was too tight even for mk2’s. Apparently it doesn’t rain in Tennessee! 🙁

@colournoise ‘Never really that interested in BMX, but that Haro Pro24 is a REALLY nice looking bike.

What would be the difference between that and something like a 24″ DMR (Drone for example)?’

About 10lbs and some razor sharp handling. Race bikes are ‘lively’ 🙂

Current set up
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My old BMC, that was pretty light but too harsh to be much fun for more than an hour. Pictured with Dr.P’s ss DMR

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b2[/url] by bmclynskey1[/url], on Flickr

Not really for racing, but certainly more fun to ride than the BMC it replaced.

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Had shimano sora shifters on my old trek and they were pretty awful, as were the non-branded brakes supplied and the bonty chainset (08 trek 1.5)

Campagnolo

11 speed – Athena, Chorus, Record, Super Record (record and s.record now available in EPS electronic for silly money)
10 speed – Veloce, Centaur

I think they’ve stopped doing the lower end 10 spd stuff like Mirage (which i’ve got on my cx bike and is ok).

I’ve got carbon chorus 11 on my main bike and it’s very nice indeed. Brakes are excellent and shifting v.crisp. No problems using the thumb shifter from the drops and you can shift multiple gears in both directions easily.

When you get one, let me know and i’ll meet you at Iford bmx track so you don’t get humiliated alone 😀

I would definetely go second hand at that price range. You could get something SERIOUSLY nice for that amount of money.

Like this (a little bit over budget, but it was the first thing that came up on ebay) http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Kuota-Kharma-Full-Carbon-Road-Racing-Bike-ULTEGRA-Beautiful-Italian-Bike-/150721313595?pt=UK_Bikes_GL&hash=item2317b0bb3b
Or this
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Planet-X-Carbon-Road-Bike-Shimano-Ultegra-/120832290486?pt=UK_Bikes_GL&hash=item1c222a6eb6

Baby
Sleep
Deprevation 🙂

‘the most interesting part for me is that you are a bit less in height and felt ok on a Defy medium, yet I am unsure whether at 5ft 10 to go for M or M/L… ‘
Unless you are really short in the leg, the 13mm extra standover height wont make much difference. An extra 15mm in the top tube however is pretty significant if like me you’ve got long arms.

My Lynskey is a M/L and is only a 52cm seat tube, but has 55.7cm effective tt length which combined with a 120mm stem gets me somewhere close to my correct position.
Before i had this, i had a Trek 1.5 and had to have a 56cm frame that was borderline to tall for me just to get a top tube long enough, as the 54cm frame was way too short and cramped.
The madone 3 series have these same measurements, so i couldnt get one even if it was ‘the best’.
Giant TCRs and Defys would fit me much better on paper with the M/L being a 53.5 with a 56tt
Spesh would also seem to fit me with the tarmac 56 actually being a 53 with a 56.5tt and the roubaix 56 being a 51.5 with a 56.5tt.

p.s. i’m 5′ 10″ with 30″ inside leg and monkeys arms!

You do realise though that as none of the bikes you are looking at have campagnolo on them that they are all crap, dont you? 😉

+1 for Gatorskins. Run them year round on mine.

‘Out of the Spesh and the Trek, after closer inspection, i’d go for the Giant Defy looks a belter of a bike.’

I take that back, after looking at the Giant website, i’d get the TCR as it makes the Defy look like a bit of a shopper. Unless you’ve got a bad back, you might as well get a TCR or Tarmac and chuck a couple of spacers under the stem until you get used to bending over.

Out of the Spesh and the Trek, after closer inspection, i’d go for the Giant Defy 😉 looks a belter of a bike.

Nah, she loves it! 🙂

James Corden autobiography from my mum. FFS!
How many pages does it need to say ‘fat annoying pr**k!’

Raced cx in Southampton this afternoon.
Considering how ill i felt yesterday and the amount of chocolate i consumed, i was happy to finish not last and not to puke up. 😀
Conditions were slippery and boggy in equal measures, Nice!

Not sure about the fire thing, we have a LOT of heath fires down here and not sure Dorset fire brigade would be too keen on the idea.
Other than that, there are campsites all over the place so plenty of choice.

You cant go far wrong with either to be fair. Ride both, and if you still cant decide, get the one from the nicest bloke/shop.

My fitting was free with the bike purchase, but £100+ sounds about right if you were just paying for it without committing to buying a bike from the shop.
By all means get out and ride without one, i did (you can do a rough self fitting by feel and looking at where the front hub is in relation to your bars etc.) but i was suprised just how different, and better, my position is post fitting.
If you’re coming from mtb/bmx then you will probably have a tendency to want to sit too upright, which is fine to start with but it’s nice to at least have a good position to aim at even if its not comfortable/familiar to start off with.

Oh, and buy a red one, they are faster 😀

…or if you’re not fussy about labels, get along to Halfords and pick up a Boardman which will probably be better spec’d and lighter than all the others mentioned.

There does indeed seem to be a bit of an anti-bike thing going on down here at the moment.
The echo reports pretty much any negative cycling story the can and the New Forest/roadie issue isn’t great.
p.s. don’t forget the speed camera cops on Bournemoth seafront pulling commuters for exceeding 10mph! Wish they’d get the sodding dog owners who let their mutts run after you and knock your kids over all winter!

I’ve just got one of these, so when it goes pear shaped i’ll give you a call Dr.

Happy xmas to the misses and wee man
Rusty and family xx

I you dont mind (handmade Italian) alu, a 2011 De Rosa Milanino with Veloce and Fulcrum R7s can be picked up for under £1200 now. Gorgeous looking bit of kit.

+1 for getting a fitting. I had one done before getting my first ‘posh’ bike and it highlighted how far off my old bike had been position wise.
I knew i had shortish legs but didn’t know i had long monkey arms as well. Made frame choice slightly difficult as i needed a smallish frame with long top tube (ended up with Lynskey Cooper M/L) and still need to have a 120mm stem to try to reach my optimal position.
They sort out optimium crank lengths drop from saddle etc as well as saddle height/for and aft positioning.
Well worth it, as road bike fit is vital compared to mtb and you’ll only need measuring once.

Scott CR1, top notch carbon frame, not as racy geometry as Addict or Foil.
http://www.evanscycles.com/products/scott/cr1-team-compact-2011-road-bike-ec025491

2011 BMC Pro Machine , lot of bike for the money http://www.evanscycles.com/products/bmc/pro-machine-slc01-105-2011-road-bike-ec026388

BMC Roadracer SL02
http://www.evanscycles.com/products/bmc/roadracer-sl02-2011-road-bike-ec024690#BVRRWidgetID

Something a bit different, Litespeed M1
http://www.evanscycles.com/products/litespeed/m1-sram-apex-2011-road-bike-ec029424

Comfy and quick Spesh Roubaix elite
http://www.evanscycles.com/products/specialized/roubaix-elite-compact-2012-road-bike-ec030133

Cubes got a triple on it, so thats out for a start :wink:.

Personally i’d get the Canyon, although they have a bit of a reputation for being pretty stiff so it might be a bit racy.

Lee Marvin – “Wand’rin’ Star”

Couldn’t be better! 😀

Album was ‘Bridge over troubled water’ another classic

Put me down as a probable (i need to keep a track of MM’s training plan! :wink:).

Right, i cant remember, how do you ride a bike with knobbly tyres again?

Sunny as usual 🙂 New house finished yet or you still staying with your folks?

Nightshift Dr? You still commuting to Pompey?

Its probably trying to resist it in the same way that my stereo won’t allow dance music to be played on it. 😀

Well done all of you! Welcome to the club, great isnt it. 🙂

Hope to see you in the breakfast club thread soon.

6am this morning. After years on building sites, i can handle that most days.