Did a trip for a few weeks last summer in a lightly camperised transit with no windows. No issues with getting into any campsites. If the campsite is that up themselves they don’t want vans there I’d say it’s not the kind of place I want to stay anyhow…

you’ll need the sportng equipment supplement at the least. Don’t be surprised if they screw you for more at the airport though…

Did it for the first time this year and I can’t say we used the written instructions at all. Occasionally referred to the map but mostly just follwed everyone else – particularly people with gps’s…

Should also say – thank you so much for a fantastic event, will be back next year for sure, especially if you turn on such excellent weather again!

Sam

saddle sores aren’t gender specific so no need to be bashful. If it’s no bigger than pea sized I would say you can treat it yourself. Keep the area as clean and dry as possible. For treatment of existing sores I find anti-acne medication to work best. It dries them out and clears them up, just as they would spots on your face. You should take a few days off the bike.

Prevention is the next part. What has caused it to appear in the first place? New saddle? shorts? riding position? Any of these (and a range of others which might mean pressure and chafing in areas not used to it) might trigger saddle sores. So look at those things first. The other things are just general good hygiene and common sense. Always wear clean shorts, always use chamois cream, don’t sit around in damp dirty lycra after a ride, clean/wash asap after a ride.

I used to get a saddle sore persistently – it’s not a matter of M/WTFU and they’ll go away as suggested above. If you ignore it it’s likely to just get worse and then get really serious. Give it a week of self treatment, and if it hasn’t helped seek professional advice. Once it’s clear address the cause of the problem – saddle, shorts, position, hygiene.

Good luck, they are a literal pain in the arse!

Sam

Not enough room inside the freehub body.

Does that Inbred have a 29er fork? It’d work much better with a 26″ fork – something about 440mm in length is what you’re after.

For it to work well (i.e. sharpish steering) the bike needs to be designed for a 100mm travel fork or more and have a relatively steep head-angle. If you go the custom steel fork route you can make pretty much any 26″ bike work.

Very nice – what’s that fork, Nukeproof?

Don’t forget an $NZ is worth about 16.34p…

I’d like to give one a try, they do look ridiculous though. Would be cool to see one built reasonably proportionate for a 7ft basketballer.

Geared road bikes are great – I like fixies on the road when riding solo but find a singlespeed (with freewheel) road bike just boring. I ride singlespeeds off road pretty much exclusively though. I don’t see any dilemma, get a nice fast geared road bike.

concentrate on smooth spinning while still getting the power down

That’s the truth – a nice even spin is one thing, whirring away like a hamster in a wheel and going nowhere is quite another.

I had an HTC touch pro and hated it. Just really didn’t get along with the Windows OS – very slow. Replaced it with a Nokia E71 which I’m liking a lit more – inbuilt GPS is great. I am using Viewranger which is an awesome bit of software. Don’t know about compatibility with memory map as such, I guess they should be able to recommend which phones it works well with?

My primary rides

Gryphon

Swift

Pegasus

You make it sound all so simple

For anyone with patience, a spoke key and the ability to read, it is.

Things are good – I’m nearly recovered from the heartache of you selling your bike…

There are other good choices for that sort of width tyre. There’s a Panaracer which is also hard to get hold of – forget the name at the mo. Or the Bonty XDX in a 1.8 are a little bigger but really fast. I used one in the back for the HONC and was impressed. Work tubeless as well.

Not through the official channel I’m afraid. Fisher just started doing WTB and they’re not bringing in any of their 700c tyres except the ‘cross & city tyres… I’m amazed WTB is allowing it…

if your 7 speed block is a screw on

Then you have the best solution of all. Screw on bmx freewheel, shift some axle spacers around, re-dish the wheel and you’re away.

How old is your GT? Does it have horizontal or semi-horizontal dropouts?

Poorly built wheel. The most likely cause is not enough tension in the spokes and/or the wheel not having been properly stress relieved during the building process. Time to find an lbs which knows how to build wheels. A well built wheel with quality spokes will not break spokes unless they are subjected to some external damage.

If you’re confident they were in good working order when you sold them then stand by it. I’d be disinclined to refund anything.

I seriously doubt either Jimmy Barnes or Bon Scott consider/ed themselves Scottish. I think they were both 5-6 on moving to Australia. Johnhoo you’re thinking of Brian Johnson, who’s genuinely English. I can’t think of any other Oz rock front wo/men born in Scotland. I guess Reg Mombassa has some Irish heritage somewhere…

To be honest I was surprised their base salary is so low. I know a lot of not especially bright or capable people earning significantly more money than that (in financial services) and they’re not elected officals who we charge with the responsibility of running the country. What’s that old saying about monkeys and peanuts?

None of the above?

Captains for all round use, Racing Ralphs for doing just that, Bonty Mud X for the goop. Lots of good tyres out there now though. Maxxis Ignitors are great, shame they don’t make them anymore. Drop me a line if you want some, I have lots as well as pre-loved if you want the bargain bin (which I assume you do if you’re building a KM ;-)

Sadex, drop me a line, I have a number of lightly used tyres around and I really need a clear-out… Crossmarks would also be a really good choice.

Yes, you can get push email on the E71 – at least I can on mine with vodafone. It’s perhaps not quite such a slick email service as the BB, but overall I much prefer it as a device.

Racing Ralph 2.25 is a really nice fast tyre on hardpack. Also I like the Hutchinson Python on the rear for hardpack, though they are only 2.0.

Phil FTW. Not light but will last forever and a day.

Where do you ride mostly? Hoods or drops? Position it so it’s comfy in your primary position and just deal with it otherwise.

on Bell Lap bars.

IME that’s a good part of the problem right there…. Try out some On One Midges, WTB dirt drops or similar. Or maybe if it’s a more ‘pure cross’ use some shallow drop Dedas are really nice. For mine the amount of drop on the Bell Laps is just far too much. And the ‘anatomic’ bend is not.

I’ve had weirwolves on the back when mounted on a fairly narrow rim, very very tight though.

coffeeking, since when has it been possible to bump start any diesel? I thought they were unbumpable…

Bump started my transit a couple of weeks back and it’s been fine…

Used to have a pearl and quite liked it for what it was, though the lack of decent excel was a deal breaker for me. Did download an app that allowed xls files to be viewed and edited, though it is difficult due to screen size as others have said.

I then had a windows based htc touch pro. Great input, wifi, excel works well, but the whole windows os was a bit of a nightmare, push email was also a bit crap.

Now have a nokia e71 and it meets all my needs. Good ‘in between’ size, usable qwerty keyboard, quickoffice works quite well for creating and editing excel files. Has wifi, intuitive symbian ui and fairly fast and stable symbian os. Inbuilt gps is also great, have garmin software to use as a sat nav for driving, and viewranger with os maps for riding.

Highly recommend trying out something with big wheels (i.e. a 29er), especially so if you want something which climbs well.

Nothing special at all, Mr Crud may well be right…

For mine all have their place. You need to find what works for you. IME a chiropractor is the best for helping immediate pain and fundamental alignment issues. Physio will give you the right work to do to keep your back healthy over a longer time. My issue is having the diligence to do the exercises, stetching and massage regularly once the pain is gone….

I’ll be there, gonna be great if last year is anything to go by ;-)

well they do have something of a history of being a bit mad…

Standard 8 speed SRAM chains work for me.

derisive resignation… but to sharki’s point it’s always been the way

Please tell me this is a joke…

On one Scandal also a good option for a race ready 29er.