Thanks. A few to look at

A full size up from normal shoe size is required though

thats always my issue. Narrow toe box forces a size up then feel like clown shoes. Trying to buy from UK as inevitably it’ll be buy 20pairs and hopefully not the usual send 20 back!

so many brands obviously use generic chinese lasts with pointy toes / narrow fit. Especially if their shoes are an “extra” in their clothing lineup.

Obvious really, how else can you get the chain off to replace it with a new one?

I think you can buy carbon fibre fuel tanks. I think the bigger issue is carbon being conductive and hence risk of fire rather than serious carbon issues.

as said above I’ve never given a thought to the grease I use other than it being either “bike grease” or something like silkolene. Carbon or ally bikes. So far in 15 years of carbon bikes I’ve not had an issue yet.

dont over think it I’d say. Road sh** in winter will do more damage to carbon / aluminium interface as well as individual parts than any grease will. Unless you grease your disc brakes to stop the squeal!! 😁

Mine have just siezed solid after 250 mls then 3 months in the workshop waiting for bike to get a new battery.

I popped bearings out easy enough but the jockey wheels are soft as cheese and theres a small lip that sits proud of the outer race so deforms with bearings being pressed in. Made getting bearing sit 100% spot on a right faff and even now there’s still a slight wobble. With 12sp being finicky enough I’m not doing the replace bearing in swiss cheese again.

better off doing as escrs says and service the bearing. Much simpler.

or get some after market ones that are designed to have bearings swapped.

Another +1 for talkytoaster.

I use the maps on all my garmin devices and find them easier to use and navigate on than any of the os style.

cheap as chips and a doddle to install without needing to create tiles or doenload chunks. Just copy the file onto said device and “Roberts your fathers brother”.

Argotals i think. But something in me recoils at the paying the same for the bike as it cost to shod my misses Hyundai runaround with tyres!

I’ve used their frame bag and rated it. Nice n slim but still plenty of space.  Agu are good value but Opted not to use the saddle bag. I just find a harness and separate dry bag more user friendly for all round use when load size varies. And / or putting on and off the bike

i went with the Restrap harness pack. I use it for the odd trip but mainly my 40ml daily commute to the orifice.

Rock solid regardless of load and best i’ve found so far for all round varying pack size / putting on and taking off. Have used alpkit, fjallraven and blackburn big seat packs. Each have their own merits but only the fjallraven and Restrap dont flap around. The fjallraven is seriously let down by faff gettingnit on and off the bike.

I had exact same issue on my orbea rise.  Cheap aftermarket bearings (blue seal). Smooth out of the bike.  Notchy and awful in the bike.

i swapped for same BO bearings orbea use and problem solved.  Wych bearings I think as I couldnt wait for orbea delivery times.

if you havent yet get some decent brand bearings with better tolerances. Possibly direct from the bike manufacturer / supplier if you can. At least that way you know the frame is designed around them and their tolerances.  FWIW orbea supplied bearings cheaper than i could source here so ordered spares.

Only yesterday I was called a stupid white man by a person of south east asian origin. An incident arising from something completely their fault!

Does that count as racism too?

As above. I had “semi fat” Rocky Mountain Suzi. Swapped to a 29er with 2.8’s. Such a transformation!

i wouldnt touch 27.5 if i were you. Fat bikes are pretty much over and I suspect 27.5 will go the way of 26” unless mullet turns out to be more than a passing phase.

Kinda thought as much. Thanks.

they’re definitely 37 internal.

think i’ll try the old tyres for a ride ir two before committing to 2.4 or 2.6

Cura 2’s with galfer pads n discs. Quiet as a mouse. Apart from the vented disc sound!

Deore 2 pots with centreline 6 bolt rotors and Superstar hub – silent in dry. Muderous cat in the wet. Awful. Same brakes with Fulcrum hubs and shimano centrelock rotors even worse. Murderous cat in both wet n dry. No amount of adjusting sorts it!

cura 4’s with formula discs – moderate initial squeal then silent when the power comes on.

SRAM force –  Shimano discs = loud squeal. Centreline discs slight squeal made worse by Clarks pads (all i had at the time).

i find i can think alignment is spot on but squeal is horrendous. Tweak a bit and alignment looks sub-par and less squeal.

pistons never push evenly and some setups just seem prone to squealing. my cura 4’s are quieter and brake better when the disc is ever so slightly off centre in the caliper.

I do find squeal is worst when i follow the “centre the disc in caliper method”. I bolt down loosely then adjust until the pads bite evenly, theres no rubbing and the disc doesnt move in a specific direction. If it does you know one side of the caliper is pushing first and likely to squeal. When pads hit at the same time, disc doesnt move squeal should be way less. 4pots you then get leading / trailing edge pushing first  causing squeal. Like having rim brakes with poor toe.

i think my bike with Deore has slightly misaligned brake mounts as I’m using flat to post mount adapters.

once i have the pads hitting disc and pushing evenly i just live with whatever noise happens!

I’ve gone the other way.  Full suss any day of the week now, even through winter, having always been a hardtail for crap conditions to save bearings etc then full susser for better days and spring to autumn.  Given we only get 2 seasons of semi-wet and sopping wet that argument had gone out the window.

Also sick of getting battered on the hardtail.  My full susser is similar weight.  More comfy.  Not noticeably less agile.  More confidence inspiring over jumps, less tiring on a big day out and generally feels more fun as the speed I can get compared to hardtail really gets the adrenaline going when that “come off at this speed and it’ll seriously hurt” thought pops into my head.

Cant bear to part with the hardtail but TBH, struggling to find a good reason to keep it apart from the massive hit I’d take seeling it!

isnt that a circlip on the inside of the caliper so needlenose pliers to pull one at a time off the pin.  If there’s no allen head and no circlips outside the caliper then those little sticky up things either side of the spring look like the only thing that’s holding it all in place.

If it’s rusted on, given you’ll be replacing the pads get some silicone spray on there to losen things up a little.  Then a dose of brake cleaner before putting pads back on.

I’ll second that thought.  Lying in bed this am it all seemed so simple!!  A quick undo of some spokes, swap it all over, quick tighten and away we go.  I was amazed at how much tension there was when undoing the spokes.

Look on the bright side with like for like….as long as you put mark out which side spokes came from and which way round the rim goes at least everything should fit properly :)

Dont know that I’d trust my first wheel building foray on an eBike.

torn.  ERD is too different to reuse existing spokes but the nipples are fairly corroded and had a couple snap so would want to rebuild.

New spokes plus LBS intervention is knocking on the door of £150-£200 plus then annoyance time for bike out of action whilst I’m sorting it.  Feels a lot to resurrect compared to a new set of wheels minus whatever I can get selling the pro4 hubs and aAR30 rims.

But then it feels like wasteful consumerism to buy new and not rebuild the hopes!

Thanks. Thought as much.

+ is Probably a SRAM conspiracy to confuddle the likes of me so we buy a £30 replacement set of wheels instead of a £4 bearing!

Another +1 for anker but dont use a shite charger. I got a higher capacity usb-c charger to charge my anker 20k mah power bank. Charges relatively really quickly.

keep in mind that if you can charge a 20k powerbank to full at a cafe stop you’ve been lied to about capacity on amazon!!.

also keep in mind if you intend to take on a flight then i theory you’re capped at 20k mah in cabin luggage i think it is.

Not sure where you’re looking but i’ve used RXSport for the last 10 years. Cheaper than the high street and they use decent lenses.

never had a goldfish bowl effect or needing to get used to the lenses. Every high street brand I tried before was a month or two of getting used to the lenses. Recently strayed to a high street purchase and had to get a refund. Put them in and felt like i was on drugs!  Something to do with V factors I think.

I had xtraactive and TBH they’re crap. They took about 15-20 minutes to go back to clear when going inside so i looked like a complete *** trying to be cool. Hated them.

stick with the gen 8.  I went back to them and they change way quicker. TBH I cant see the point in the xtraactive.

i think they’re meant to change whilst driving but cant say mine did.

I do cumulatively around 100-150mls a week and find you can take all the pills you want but 3 things work for me.
1) make sure you eat enough food during the day. First and foremost you need to eat to fuel. I think active energy is about 600cals an hour. But you can google and find out for certain. So if you arent eating a little more then you need to. I use a calorie counter occasionally so i get an idea of cals in / cals out. If i dont eat enough fatigue sets in rapidly. That goes for dehydration too.
2) after a big commuter day (40mls to the orifice and back) I use SIs rego. Makes a huge difference to recovery.
3) Vary routes / vary intensity. Monotony makes you tired.

Other than that vitamins and supplements are mostly snake oil if you have a balanced diet.

Vulpine off sportpursuit have been good for me. Fits a size smaller than labelled. And deffo require a wool wash or prepare for major shrinkage.

Or if aldi do them later this year snap up the Crane ones. I got a long sleeve and 2 short sleeve ones. Spot on for the money.

Unless you’re ebiking cura2’s will probably outbrake loads of 4 pots and be equal to plenty of others. Couldnt believe the power on mine.

not a lot of blurb on em but theres a vid or two about them being used on and up to the job of a downhill bike

Jump up to cura4 and prepare for eyeballs to pop out.

Plus Paul at Elro is superb to deal with if you need any support.

Having been there done that I wouldnt do it again. It’d stop me buying the frame full stop.

Bearings are smaller to accommodate the bigger axle so wear out way quicker than 24mm spindle and the RF bearings on the 30mm pf bb are utter poop. Show a bit of water and they wear out in no time. 3 in a winter was death nell for that combination for me.

Wheels do a thread together pressfit BB for 24mm spindles so I’d got that route if you really want the frame. Used that on my old Fat Bike and was flawless. Plus when bearings do eventually go you can just tap them out and press in new ones without removing the whole BB.

Well i need to apologise to the chinese!  The port issue was a conicidence.

if it helps anyone else the issue seems to be related to ipv6. I set up a new ee apn profile in the router and set it to ipv4 only whereas the previous profile was ipv4 & ipv6. All works flawlessly.

Magicshine – Emailed via “contact form”. Response within 3 hrs. Light sent back. No quibbles at all. New light in the post and back with me within 5 days.

sportpursuit – faultless. Email, response in less than a day. Get to keep the item so potential for repair and they’ll replace or refund.

tis not always bad!

What i am finding annoying is the lack of choice locally so dont really have a choice than on line and things like clothes with no consistency in fit or sizing the continual having to order multiple items and return most stuff.

Interestingly my VPN wont connect when via the 4g router but will via my phone 4g.

Downloaded a couple of others to test and the router is stopping them connecting too.

Thats firewall on or off.  I’m 99% convinced there’s something with the available ports on this things.  The conspiracy theorist in me makes me think “normal ports” are somehow reserved for other things and thats half the issue with Huawei a few years ago with the security hooha.

No its not a PAYG. Tis my normal unlimited EE monthly sim.

I’m thinking theres something in port mapping / routing that needs opening on the router but huawei seems to keep a few locked and hidden

Same – 1420.

1420

I remember the days of my qnap servers and tinkering with it but is there anything i can do on the router?  Dont recall seeing any settings.

Deffo the router. Sim card comes out of my phone and gors into the router when we’re away – external aerials on the router and easier to use a router than have whole family tethered to my phone.

i never had issues on a TP-Link router but it was cat 6 so super slow. But at least all sites worked!

Dint bother with the B818 if you’re looking at it. I’m going to get rid if i cant aort the apps being blocked. Too many apps now dont work and its a PITA with kids whining at me!

Well to answer my own question NO I DONT!!

Effetto tubeless strips fitted – quicker than tape.

track pump – no airshot needed and my pirelli’s are holding 80psi virtually before i’ve even thought about sealant and setting correct pressure

thats the way it should be. As someone said above, why we’re we’re still having to put up with tape is beyond me. Especially given all the other “advances” and continually changing standards we have to put up with!

@DickBarton

Despite my post I do love tubeless for puncture simplicity!

Too many sub 5c dark commutes home through a 5 ml section that just eats tyres with all the crap that gets washed onto it. Tubless is dynaplug, bit of air and go and dont even need to take gloves off!  The days of frozen fingers fighting with tight tyres and tubes to find i didnt clear all the glass or nicked the tube putting it back in to have to repeat again.

Tubeless strips all the way now I think. just the latest tyre swap brought out that irrational man feeling of “I’m not a proper man if i cant get tubeless tape set up”….

Has the nickname been consigned to history?

fairly sure it’d be deemed a hate crime these days with a 35 yr prison term.

Pornstar names (first pet name and mums maiden name) alongside nicknames a plenty in my day.

as was organised brawls with one school year waiting for another different school year In the local park.

character building i called it.  Now….blimey….think of the mental health and hate issues that’d ensue from taking a kicking on a friday night!

2 reasons:

1) past valve experience says If its flawed at the outset then sealant wont work. The bikes parked up at work and it gets to the point I cant do a day without pumping up the tyres.
2) despite what everyone says in 10yrs of being tubeless I’ve never ever had sealant seal a puncture out on trail or road. I’m totally skeptical of it!

So many people say “should go up stay up without sealant” i don’t know whether 30psi loss without sealant is indicative of sealant will sort or its not working. And redoing it after just putting in fresh sealant……total PITA.

Doubts set in and I have trust issues!  Wasted too much of my life mucking around with tubeless so tubeless strips just ordered.  I know they’re foolproof!  For a little weight penalty I’ll take that over continual mucking around and mess.

I’m starting to wonder if its tape now tesa is being mentioned. I’m using the tesa black version.  Switched to it years ago when i made the fleet tubless as 60m for the price of 10 seemed a no brainer!

On the road bikes I did have a brief spell with muc-off. Dont remember quite as much faff but I do remember road pressures plus muc-off changing recipe I got spoke hole blow outs too frequently. With their change in recipe I found sealant clogs after 2 weeks, sits in the depressions that start to form making them bigger which collects more sealant clog. 6 mths and the tape blows through.

Switched back to Tesa and the valve area never sealing was the final nail for tape so I switched to tubeless strips.

I virtually certain its the valve seal and not tape coming up as I can influence the air leakage tinkering with the valve. Even when its cranked down as much as fingers can do.

I’m with you on sticky tape but i guess it keeps down wheel building costs.

Think you just confirmed what i’m thinking.

Rim strips it is for my skinny wheels.

I normally do that…then find its gone flat again next morning!

Allergic to faff so torn on whether to do that or just quit and go strips that are heavier but go on and work first time withor without sealant. I know sealant is meant to sort the last few leaks etc but trying to avoid the mess of tyre off, preserve sealant and so on.

is a 30psi overnight loss without sealant normal? Or indicative of problems to come?

Just do the bolts up slightly tighter.

NO DONT DO THAT!!!!  Especially if they’re carbon bars.

Use a troque wrench to torque them correctly.  If they’re carbon then I’d always use carbon assembly paste AND a torque wrench.  all too easy to crush carbon bars if you just keep tightening.