Last year snow on Win Hill was over my hubs and visibility a few metres

I believe it’s post 2012 (tapered steerer, 15mm thru axle etc). Airshaft, eh? I will look into this…

Yep, zs44 headset / bottom cup if you want it to be invisible. Or, external cup with an adapter on the fork steerer (Hope) which the 1.5 crown race then goes on to. The latter option will have about 10mm more stack height

I’ve an RSP Bravura cromo 700c frame for sale in gloss black with a rust-preventative coating inside, 52cm seat tube, 57cm effective top tube, sloping top tube geometry. It’s one of these:
https://m.ebay.co.uk/itm/RSP-RALEIGH-TOURING-FRAMESET-4130-CROMOLY-D-BUTTED-VINTAGE-NOS-RETRO-NEW/232133418787?hash=item360c3adf23:g:OvcAAOSw0e9UwjD4

Unused with a few storage marks, inc. seatpost, clamp & a headset.

I bought it as a gravel-commute r type thing for it’s niche-ness rather than a planet X or cotic but never built it up.

Email in profile if your’e interested.

Ta

You don’t need to read the whole Telegraph article to get the gist. I signed up for free for one free article per week just to read this one, cos I’m a masochist.

I’m just going to have a moan – was getting into the Yorkshire series as my first proper go at bike racing and have had to have a lay off due to some weird swelling under one of my sit bones. Shame as I was creeping up race by race (I.e. from like 7th from last to 9th last). Hope to be back for York!

Horrible. Good luck.

Pjay – cheers, yeah 5mm here and there is pretty tiny – I was thinking more in the ball park of 30mm, e.g. using a fork of 440mm a-c or less…

This: https://blog.fatchance.bike/yo-eddy-29er-20-rigid

Thanks for the replies – I think a 470mm-ish rigid fork is about normal for a bike intended for 100mm suspension and seems the most common length available.

Reggiegasket – I know what you mean – though when I refer to front end height I’m partly talking about steering. When I ran 100mm forks (coming from a rigid 26er) I found the feel when climbing vague and had to get over the front end lots, hence the shorter rigid fork – the benefits of the big wheels on flat and coming back down are great but if you live in Sheffield without a car there’s a lot of ups before the downs!

Interested to hear from anyone else running shorter than usual forks on their bikes…

Currently 1 X 10, XT m790 triple with M780 10sp shifter, Zee 10sp mech and 34t narrow wide ring in middle position. Thinking 36-26 double on the same chainset. Offered up a few but unsure of tyre/chainstay clearance…

If you’re near Sheffield my (not for profit) shop will take them: http://www.recyclebikes.co.uk

(We can’t collect unfortunately)

Bar end shifters rule. No probs using them compared to STIs. And the levers are often more comfortable without the shifing gubbins in. TRP RRL rule, though you’re going hydro, so Hylex look good. Or TRP RRL with Hy-Rd Cable–>Hydro calipers.

Love love loving the implicit disappointment in this thread that BTL doesn’t pay off anymore. A crying shame 8)

(I also use a 39-53 on an older road bike for pretending I’m Eddy Merckx).

But seriously, I don’t get the massive cassette thing – if you can downsize at the front without spinning out and then use a smaller (lighter) cassette with a (neater, lighter) short cage mech, less flappy chain and closer increments, for me it beats massive dangly mechs and dinner-plate cassettes.

Get a 34 inner chainring. Even better, get 34-46 or 34-48 chainrings: the big ring is much more useable in hilly areas and with a 11-25 or 11-28 you’re less likely to cross-chain, and have closer increments. The front shifting with a 10-12 tooth difference feels smoother and impacts cadence less I find. Personally, I love 36-46 with a 30 cassette on my (heavy) ‘gravel’/touring bike which does road training rides but will go to 34-46 with a 28 cassette or ‘super compact 32-46 with a 25 cassette next.

It’s still cycling, butt, enter CX races… They’re brutal in themselves and the prospect of coming last at the weekend forces you to go out for short, hard rides as long slow miles don’t cut the mustard. For extra nastiness, train on a single speed.

Yeah they’re better than most others and am setting them up properly.
Admittedly used compressionless cables on the BB5s which gives a crisper feel.
Though I don’t mind a slightly spongy brake lever that pulls in further as I’ve small hands. It’s more that a good set up doesn’t seem to last very long compared to the BB5s, which respond well to winding the inner pad in and using the barrel adjuster to compensate for pad wear. I don’t really think the adjustable outer pad adds much over a barrel adjuster.

Haven’t used the MTB ones but the road ones didn’t cope very well with wet and gritty touring – small bits of grit seemed to interfere with the pad holding spring to the point that it got mangled and needed replacing roadside. The Shimano style retention pin would have helped avoid this I reckon.

May recable with compressionless and get rid of the inline barrel adjusters before I whinge about them any more!

I’ve tried mediums from Alpkit in bib shorts (summer models, not the thickys) and they were too tight on the quad. Felt like the leg hole seam was going to split. I’m slim 5 ft 8 30 inch waist…

What does the ‘a’ stand for? Is it an attempt to improve on bb30?

Er… 5600 works with 9 speed MTB mechs

9 speed road shifters work with 9 speed MTB mechs

Older 9 speed road shifters work with 9 speed road mechs

Sora r3000 has the same pull ratio as 3500 (unlike the latest Tiagra which changed pull ratio)

So… probs.

Try it if you have the parts?

I persuaded the store staff to put the knobbly wheels from a pickenflick in a Stelvio. 40c knobblies no good. 35c knobblies not really – didn’t rub but no mud or guard clearance. So not a viable crosser, but nice looking bikes.

I don’t know how to do your fancy quote boxes but:

1. ” Everyone is in the same situation of having to make a living or else go homeless”.
My point is that some people ARE making a living, living frugally and AND going homeless, using food banks etc. I haven’t once mentioned people who aren’t working – we’re both in agreement that people should have to work for a standard of living. You have to accept, however, that this isn’t currently happening for some people. You can’t automatically apply the logic that if someone is not making ends meet, they’re not ‘living within their means’ – this only works in a system where living within one’s means is guaranteed to pay off. It isn’t, for many. I don’t know why you find this hard to accept – I’ve not suggested increasing your taxes to pay for these people’s lives to improve. I’ve merely implied that their lives might be improved through regulation such as rent caps and fines and that housebuilding/improvement programs (not necessarily in presently green areas) would provide greater competition for rental prices. If you feel regulation is inherently bad then I’m flogging a dead horse. Regulation is another word for ‘standards’. Regulation is how we prevent things like the Grenfell Tower disaster, how we stop you getting poisoned by the Ginsters Scotch egg you munch in a jam on the motorway and how we make sure people in wheelchairs and with prams can get on buses.

2. “nobody can judge them. You don’t know what they have been through …”
Laughable. You apply this to the beneficiaries of inherited wealth but your attitude implies not to others less fortunate. Surely the very same logic applies to people who end up in difficult circumstances where they might need some support from society/the state in terms of benefits or regulation? Two people aged 20, both, for example, social workers, bar managers, secretaries (i.e. ordinary, hardworking people) could each have their parents die in a car crash. One could be left with £200k which they invest in property. One could be left with nothing, or even debts to clear up. Neither individual is to blame for or to credit with the state of their parents’ final assets.
But apparently ‘Everyone is in the same situation’ and ‘compassion has nothing to do with it’. Sure. I’ve got compassion for both – their parents got mangled – but in the long run, I’ve got continued compassion for the latter individual.

3. “You don’t have to insist on renting or living in that property. If everyone walks away they will learn, coz money talks”. Hah! That might work in a record market where you can express some interest at £9 for a record, pull a face, make as if to walk away and then hope they say ‘ok, £7’. What if people are already living somewhere and prices are going up all around them at a faster rate than their wages? Where do you suggest people go? If you have a job in location A and live 8 miles from there, but your rent is too high, making it difficult for you to live to decent standard, and the only cheaper properties are 15 miles from your work, meaning you need to take 3 buses instead of the previous one, is that a choice or a forced decision?
I’m incredulous at your use of the word ‘insist‘. It conjours up images of a working couple with a toddler viewing a 1 bed private rental flat with damp which is still more than they can really afford, with no prospect of ever saving for a deposit of their own, saying, ‘We simply must take it. We insist!”.
Again, demand and supply is fine, if walking away is a liable option. It often isn’t.

4. “perhaps the choice might not be up to your standard”. Would you pay £900+ per month to live in a flat full of cockroaches and rats, with no other options as private rents for miles around are double that? Myself and many others have relatively low standards. People don’t demand luxury: they ought to expect, though, the absence of deprivation – e.g. the absence of damp causing breathing difficulties and eye infections.

5. “You made your choice by moving away didn’t you?” Piss off mate. I would consider myself relatively fortunate, but having to move to another part of the country, moving my partner 200 miles from family, despite us both working 55+ hours a week just to afford sub-standard accommodation was not a reasonable choice to have made. We try to kid ourselves it was a ‘lifestyle choice’ but any real choice would have involved staying being an affordable option.

6. “That’s a balancing act that requires delicate touch.” Agreed. It’s out of balance and not being ‘touched’ at all.

7. “Scare away the investors you decrease job prospect”. There’s a difference between (A) people investing in a development which will also benefit the population by providing homes and jobs in building it, which involves them transparently putting up some of the initial costs for future returns, and (B) people adding disused property and land to their investment portfolios and sitting on them until for indefinite periods, which provides no jobs and benefits only them.

8. “Population not immigration. You need to house everyone coz that’s the reality.” We agree then!? Let’s do it!

9. “Everyone’s mental health will suffer without green spaces”. Sure. Completely agree. Lots of people ALREADY suffer without green spaces. What you mean is ‘people who already live in/near green spaces will suffer in the same way as lots of other people already do’. We do bugger all to help people from the inner city access and appreciate green spaces. Programs aimed at celebrating cities’ outdoor potential focus on tourism rather than the existing population.
People also develop depression, anxiety and kill themselves / die in fires due to sub-standard housing.

10. “Countries like Hong Kong and Singapore know that very well”. In 2013 there were an average of 413 people per square km in England – the most densely populated country in the UK. In 2014 Hong Kong’s population density was at 6,690 people per square km. In Singapore, there are currently 7,987 people per square km. Not even relevant.

11. Are you what I believe is known as a ‘troll’? If so, cheers – you’ve motivated me to attend the next lefty liberal meeting I can find and get a Billy Bragg tattoo.

I am fully aware that land space is finite. You want to blame immigration? Fine. Even if it were the problem you imply, rather than the tax-revenue-providing, cheap labour providing, high-skills providing thing that it actually is, and even if we ended or reduced net immigration, what would you suggest we do when the population does inevitably increase, unless you fancy a China-style cap on children, which will do nothing to provide the carers people need as they live into their feeble late nineties? The population is going to increase to a point of national and world crisis, immigration or not. In the meantime, in the absence of fertility licenses, we have the question of how to make this slow march as bearable as possible. Yes, the green belts will need to be built on, as much as I would love to preserve our green spaces and countryside and reflect on this whenever I’m out my bike. But there are also tonnes of unused buildings and land in built up urban areas which could be used for housing if they weren’t owned by a complexity of faceless international investment groups.

You also seem to fail to recognise how it works – people are leaving London and moving to cheaper areas. Your magic supply and demand means those areas get more expensive too, without the economic development and investment that has provided the number of jobs that London and other big cities offer.

You’re a bell piece mate. One of the reasons other places are cheaper is that there are fewer jobs available and pay is lower. My life hasn’t been easier since leaving London. I have a couple months leeway before eviction would loom if I was jobless and a bit more space. In exchange for lining in an area with a far fewer jobs available. People are in a bind where they need to stay where the work is but the living costs in those areas are increasingly unaffordable. Sayimg “It’s supply and demand” is 1. False: when demand outstrips a supply by a certain ratio, especially in essential goods, the quality of the product suffers as owners/producers have no incentive to improve the product/service 2. Lacking in compassion for people who have done nothing different but are in less fortunate circumstances than others. If a person’s landlord is the same age as them and doesn’t own the house through their own graft, but parental assistance, that’s one thing. We know it happens, and we accept it (for some reason). If that landlord has no incentive to keep the property well looked after however for a given price, due to a lack of competition or regulation (rent caps or fines), that is not ‘fair play’ as you imply, and is not how demand and supply is supposed to work. It’s a situation where people have no choice but to accept poor standards of living. Surely demand and supply is part of the free market, in which people are supposed to have the choice to reject inadequate offers, not accept cockroaches?

You think supply and demand without regulation works? Good joke.

Whoops

The selfish part of me says “shit, better save more for a proper deposit on your own property”, which might be possible on my part of the country with some help from family. But it’s nowhere near possible for so many people now and even though rent prices have stalled, they’re still going up in the long term and could still balloon in previously cheap parts of the country as people leave the bigger cities in hope of an affordable life. There needs to be rent caps now and a proper national social housing building program so that everyone can feel that if things don’t go perfectly for them they can still afford somewhere proper if they do things right, that allows them a decent standard of living. Some people ( I hope the number is rapidly decreasing ) still believe that if you ‘do things right’, ‘live within your means’, etc you can have a reasonable standard of living and that anything else is the result of fecklessness. It’s bollox. I knew all this already as I left London for associated reasons to accept much lower salary elsewhere but I’ve managed to ignore it as much as possible since. It’s **** disgusting that a family with a combined income of £40k a year have to live with rats and cockroaches and choose because of 0 hours contracts, the failure to build adequate numbers of council houses and successive governments allowing investors to buy properties to rent out extortionately, fail to maintain due to lack of regulation and competition and sit on as investments.

BB7s on one bike

Cheapest Shimano ones (black, Sora level?) on another. Actually seem to work better and easier to set up than the 105 level ones.

Both dependent on how well installed and quality of lever: quality of cable outer, not too long, well finished at ends. Seem to work better with non-STI levers (TRP levers with bar end shifters), but decent ones – used cheaper Tektro ones foe a while and worked ok, not amazing.

From my limited experience of cx races, having 2 bikes seemed to be the deal breaker. If I had £1000 to spend on a cx bike, I’d cobble together 2 single speed rim brake ones from eBay bits for £800 and get £200 worth of beers/biscuits for a mate/gf to act as pit bitch for the season. (Actually I’d buy one nicer, steel one that I liked and use it for leisure rides and the occasional amateur race, but if I were serious about races, the above would apply)

Having said all of the above, have also found that you can get away with a ‘too small’ gravel/cx bike more so than a road bike due to the extra height given by the forks (usually 400mm Vs approx 370mm), so the bike doesn’t initially feel too small, until you’re on any bumpy descents until you find yourself forward on the hoods, too far over the front wheel.

Forcing down a breakfast is a constant battle even with no kids! Hate sweet cereals. Had a cheese and mustard sandwich for mine today.

The other is… Not a frequent cyclist but improving well! Recent excursions have found me going back down the hill and riding it with them again. I could just put on a triple/super compact and spin up with them I suppose like the nice guy I am
Just trying to add some challenge as it’s me only holiday of the year. Tempted by a ‘dinglespeed’ set up: double front, 2 cogs rear e.g. – 39-20 for hills, 42-17 the rest. I figured that if I’m on singlespeed and loaded up, it might even the playing field so we’ll be going uphill at a similar pace!

After a few ‘all-road’ gravel/cross builds over the last couple years, have sized up, slightly, as the longer headtube and longer forks seem to mitigate the effects of the longer top tube, the bars are higher for using the drops off road and while longer top tube and wheel base feels loads more stable on descents. Also at my height, avoids toe overlap with bigger tyres. Some say it’s not a problem, which it isn’t much, but nice to avoid if other factors also suit.

Only gone up by a bit though, i.e. from a 53-54 ETT on road bikes to a 54-56 on gravel/cross bikes, sometimes with shorter stems.

Note – sod off if you’re going to argue the difference between a gravel and cross bike – I’m talking bikes used for weekend road/bridleway/singletrack rides, not racing, where a smaller frame might have benefits. A cross bike can be used for such.

Beers = need to wee in night loads

How thick is printing vinyl? I’m after clear tape for the main tubes which is as ‘invisible’ as possible…

It’s ral 5003 Saphire blue…

Like the angle, felt too floppy with a short stem. Switched to normal flat bars and a longer stem. less comfy but climbs better

It’s funner to ride on MTB trails and faster on any tarmac/flat sections. Make it SS for max hipster / fun points.

Canti for racing – fine – you don’t brake a lot and it’s lighter and cheaper to fix. For commuting / longer ‘gravel’ type riding, disc is good, though I’m still not convinced by it on my skinny tubed gravel/tour/audax frame – it becomes really apparent that the forks have to be mega stiff compared to the frame, way more than they would be if it were a canti brake fork, and on braking, it’s the frame that’s flexing over the front hub rather than the fork… I’ve even considered putting a canti fork on the front, as SJS cycles do with Thorns.