Just renewed with AA plus. £7500 for bikes in outbuildings. Underwritten by AXA who were very good when I had to claim. Good price too.

It is a ***hole, but I feel I need to defend the once magnificent city a bit. If you know where to look there is some fascinating history to be discovered which links into significant parts of our countries past.
Not quite what you go away for on a lads weekend though. If you’re with bikes, get along to flyup417 and then spend the evening in Cheltenham.

If you’ve got the standard steel or carbon fork, you’ll need to swap the QR hub for a 15mm type. Add that cost to the Bluto and the Fatty Trail NX1 at £999 looks very attractive.

Took 2.5 months for Canyon to warranty replace my leaking M785 brake. I bought a replacement in the first week as I knew it wasn’t going to be a quick process. This is the downside you have to be prepared for when dealing with a mail order company rather than your LBS.
They ended up sending me a single M8000 brake as Madison don’t have stock of the older M785, which was useless as who wants to ride with mismatched front and rear brakes!?

Spleen injury is one thing to watch out for, as I discovered when I broke my ribs in a 12mph OTB. A broken one is like a leaky bag of blood that can drain your system and then you’re a gonner. Symptoms were nausea, fainting and blood in urine, which came on a few hours later.
For some reason we have this organ tucked just under the bottom rib on the left side, just waiting to be pulped if you fall at the wrong angle.
Unlikely this is the case for the OP, but worth bearing in mind when forumites start saying it’s “just” a cracked rib.

I think legally you are now a salvor and have recovered wreck. You’re entitled to a salvage award up to the value of the wreck. You need to fill in a form and send to the receiver of wrecks. Probably worth no more than the scrap value!
Details here

I’m getting annoyed by those too. Perhaps they’ll listen to this post… Or post it on Facebook.

She bought the wrong seat.
What you wanted was an ibert Safe-t-seat which has all the benefits of being front mounted but without bashing your knees legs-akimbo, because it puts the child over the bars not the top tube. I’m selling one on ebay :D

Duplicate thread from last week. Even used the same thread title as you.

I’m taking the Fat Bike this summer. At low tide I’m going to ride around most of the island on the beaches (Gorey to L’etacq)
The cliff paths are very steep and undulating, I doubt you get much flow. You can easily find better riding in the UK with the exception that you do get some amazing sea views.
I’d hire something rather than go to the faff of taking my bike just for the cliff paths. Try Big Maggy’s.
Sounds like you’re going over with Condor Ferries -good luck!

Citrus degreaser was the answer! Applied it neat to a sponge and worked it into the print with circular motions. Left it for 5 mins, then washed off. Repeated this about four times and they were gone. Took about half an hour per print. Applied some wax over the area and a week later there’s no ill effects on the paintwork. The car was ten years old mind you. Not sure if I’d try this on my white Audi ;-)
Top marks to ^^^ daffy.

footflaps: that video is for a less secure model of the Diskus lock, not that I’m saying the lock isn’t pickable, but as you’ll see in the video (did you watch it?) it requires quite a bit of skill to pick, which your average scroat won’t have.
As with any bike security, you just have to make your bike harder to nick than your neighbours’

I decided to get the best padlocks I could find which were the Abus 20/70 70mm Diskus Plus from Big Red Toolbox.

On-one’s dynamic pricing strikes again… Parkwood’s now £120, still a good price though.

As others have said, the answer is an OO Parkwood frame and swap the bits over. Brilliant bike even if it were double the money. And at £80 in the 7 day sale you are stealing it off them. Dive in.

I found this on the EVOC FAQ

Our BIKE TRAVEL BAGs are not designed for fatbikes, which is why we don’t provide packing recommendations for fatbikes.

I think it’s the wheel pockets that aren’t big enough. I like the idea of having a bag with wheels, are there any other options?

I’m a Squirt fan. Worked great all through the winter in some really dire, sticky mud. Now it’s dried up a bit(!) I thought I’d try Finishline Dry for a change, which had been a disappointing experience and I’m going back to Squirt.

No one’s mentioned yet that these meters are costing us (the consumers) an estimated £11Bn. That could fund a lot of extra doctors, nurses and teachers.

I had exactly the same problem. I was convinced the wheel was buckled but it turned out to be the tyre. Got it replaced under warranty (it was only a few rides old) and the replacement tyre (from a different supplier- non OEM) also failed so got a cash refund and switched to Specialised Purgatory which have been great.
Bit of googling shows it’s a regular issue.

Watch you don’t exceed the maximum roof load for the Smax. The Mondeo is only 75kg. 4x 591 racks and bars are about 22kg plus 4 mountain bikes at 15kg ish and you’re over the limit. There’s probably some safety tolerance in the 75kg (allowing for autobahn speeds?), but you don’t want that lot coming off the roof at 90 on the motorway!

I’m having a similar dilemma with the Isla Creig 24. It’s £700. The Dawes Academy 24 MTB has caught my eye: nice frame, lighter, trigger not grip shift, some better components, but I just know that the Isla is going to have a better resale in 2.5 years when I come to sell, as despite the Dawes Academy being their ‘premium’ range the general public will just see it as one step up from a BSO.

Greenacres near Coleford is one we’ve used. There’s only one shower in a portacabin, but if you’re avoiding the bank holiday, it won’t be busy. They allow fires too, which is what draws us there. Owner looks a bit like Guy Martin.

It stripped the paintwork shine from my last bike. Water does the job for me now.

Yes I’m in the UK! They’ve been on there since last summer and I’ve finally decided to do something about it!
I’m not sure about degreaser, I’m worried it’ll strip any protective layers off the paint.

Islabikes sell 20″ presta tubes.

Generally it’s average with a few blips every now and then, but they seem to be having a bad day today as per theirstatus page

I don’t do the “boys bike” thing. They are just bikes in or house. If I was feeling flush i’d go for the Commencal Meta, which seems to have a great spec for the money.

f_j they seem to occasionally release tickets out of order, so the 20th is available now but the 14th isn’t. it is odd.

I think you’re talking about Virgin Trains.
I came across a similar problem recently trying to book for early May from Dumfries. I called the call centre to book a bike (can’t do it online) and they tell you it’s full. Odd. I called a day later and got a much more helpful chap who said bike space was not yet released, but he didn’t know when.
I then twigged that for some reason bike reservations are linked to the release of Advanced tickets.
So have a look on the Virgin website page ways to save and you can see when the advanced tickets become available which they aren’t yet for the 14th May. I then used thetrainline tickect alert[/url] to send me an email when the advanced tickets became available to get in and book (I was desperate to get my bike on one particular train!).
Once the tickets were released I messaged Virgin Trains on Facebook (sorry) and got a near instant booking without any of the call centre hassle.
It really shouldn’t be this difficult to get a bike on a train!

Half an hour’s drive to Cheltenham where you have Leckhampton Hill.

I got one recently and I love it. It’s great fun and surprisingly chuckable (medium frame, I’m 6′). The grip levels are awesome on the standard Floater tyres, though there is a limit which I found riding up hill in a clay mud wood. It’s not light: 15.6kg with carbon fork, but you don’t really notice this off road. However, road sections are tiresome.
I see it as a perfect winter bike, but I’ll be switching back to my FS in the spring and for trail centre duties and getting the Fatty back out for a few trips to the seaside.

Johnny Cash’s cover of Nine Inch Nails “Hurt” is my personal discovery of the year so far. It was his last recording before he died in 2003.

Just bought one for my missus too. The ‘womens’ spec is a bit tenuous: lighter rims, female saddle and a silly narrow bar seem to be the only changes. I love my Parkwood so hopefully this’ll be just as good.

I blew one of the rim trying to get it to seat properly. My ears rung for a week! Be careful not to over inflate. Once I sorted it out, it’s stayed up perfectly with just a bit of Stan’s on OO rims (ghetto with 24″ cut down tube)

Can you guys give any advice on sizing. I’m 6ft. I’d usually go for a 19″ frame but the fatty is 18″ or 20″. I’ve got an OO Parkwood 20″ which fits nicely, bus it’s a big frame and I do wonder if an 18″ would have been better to save a bit of weight.

You’ve done a great job with the Commencal build blakec. If I was shorter I’d fancy riding that myself!

^^^blakec that Ramones sounds like a great build can you give me some details about the spec paticularly interested in what cranks you used and the brakes for little fingers. Pics would be nice!

I think you may be looking for a solution to a problem that doesn’t exist.
Keep it simple: water and a soft grease free brush if the mud is stubborn.
Ovens, special products, paper towels etc are for when you’ve got some contaminant on the disk. Or you are anal about how your bike looks.

This STW thread from a couple of months ago. No comments from any owners yet though.