Cheers, i over think everything :D

I normally come back off a ride with some kind of injury like slipping off the pedals or getting stung.

My legs used to be nice not scarred.

Last year had a couple of stupid accidents, one at Whinlatter falling sideways landing on my elbow and bruising my ribs, and adjusting the preload whilst moving, I bounced the front to check the rebound and stupidly yanked the front brake on really hard :oops: sent me OTB.

I’m not upto speed with Modern Mechanics like Dual Mass Flywheels etc, but about 10 years ago, I used to sell Saabs with 130k + miles that were 3 years old.

They never had a problem. It was just sat all day at Motorway speeds so not much wear to Gears, Clutch, Suspension etc and it was scary how cheap we bought them for, think they were £20 – £25k new and we got them through auctions for £4 – £5 k 8O

My 2 year old Fiesta has 51k on it and still drives well ( touch wood )

A spare chain is almost as bad! Power Link and chain tool. Why would you need a whole chain?!

Ive snapped 2 mech hangers in a year and wrecked 2 chains as well so I got a couple of chains off E Bay & just chucked one in the bag.

Lazyness and speed of just putting a complete chain on rather than using a chain tool I suppose.

Still got the chain tool and a couple of powerlinks in the bag as well though……. :oops:

I’m guessing you normally have a pack that makes you look like a teenage mutant ninja turtle?

Tools for all eventualities, waterproofs, maps, track pump, spare tyres, 16 gallon bladder?

Pretty much lol – except a smaller pump but I do carry a spare chain, mech hanger, tubes, first aid kit – thats the problem with big bags – you fill em.

No Pub stops as Im Teetotal and Id no Lock with me – round here if got off the bike it would get nicked 8O

Its coming about 6 miles from me on the 10th Sept so Im going to just park the car up and watch them pass.

Im also going upto Shap on the 12th and am trying to get to Blackpool before them to see the end stage.

Dont think I will manage it despite using the motorway seeing the timings !!!

Motorists who creep at lights should have there keys taken off them, whats the point ?

In terms of passing a Driving Test, unfortunatley, the test is not all always about whats best practice, more over what is safe.

For example, on a gradiant at lights, if a driver held the car on the clutch at bite, a fault would not be recorded provided that the driver moved away cleanly without rolling back.

A rollback would be marked under move off control and depending on the amount it rolled, a minor fault or serious would be recorded.

Obviously this is not good for the clutch, sitting at bite for 2 mins or so but all the examiner can mark is what happened not what could even though they know themselves its not best practice.

Motorists who creep at lights should have there keys taken off them, whats the point ?

In terms of passing a Driving Test, unfortunatley, the test is not all always about whats best practice, more over what is safe.

For example, on a gradiant at lights, if a driver held the car on the clutch at bite, a fault would not be recorded provided that the driver moved away cleanly without rolling back.

A rollback would be marked under move off control and depending on the amount it rolled, a minor fault or serious would be recorded.

Obviously this is not good for the clutch, sitting at bite for 2 mins or so but all the examiner can mark is what happened not what could even though they know themselves its not best practice.

I started MTBing proper a couple of years ago and had more guts then than I have now.

I thought nothing of nipping round Healey Nab on my £100 bike with plastic pedals, but now with a much better bike, I avoid it.

Think its the realism of responsibilities when you get older.

Being sef employed is always in the forefront of my mind if I had an accident that put me out of work for a few weeks. Its not so much the money, more the fears of my Students getting bored and going elsewhere leaving me to start all over again.

Dont get me wrong, I dont hang around, but I ride for me, noone else, and if im not sure about a section, I will get off the Bike.

I mainly ride the Bridleways, local woods, and its just big rocky bits and steep drops at the side that scare me.

Only the ones at the crossroads next to my house that have a sensor to detect waiting vehicles. The sensor obviously doesn’t think a bike is a vehicle, as it never changes unless there is a car in front of me.

This is the ony time I will go through and treat it as a give way. Happens a lot in my town, but I wait for a bit to see if any vehicles are approaching from behind me, and if they are, I wil wait for them to activate the sensors.

Had some guy on a Road Bike come straight through a Red last night and I could have easily T Boned him if I was’nt paying attention.

I gave up on my local halfords after dropping a bike in and they didnt have to tools to remove a cassette 8O

My girlfriend lives in Blackpool and to the branch there when I go to see her as they are brilliant, much better than any LBS Ive used.

Then again, I was out the other night and got talking to a lad whilst riding and he was the bike manager at my local halfords and he seemed really switched on so I might give them another go.

I got one the other week, took the Bladder out, stuck it on E Bay still with tags on and got £20 for it :D

Thanks for the tips

Yeah I make her wear an helmet :lol: some of her School friends came along and took the mick a bit about her helmet but thats kids.

She has not used stabilisers on this bike – only on her smaller one – but she is just really wobbly.

Im rubbish at telling people what to do when im so used to doing it myself !! Im a Driving Instructor and it took me ages when I first started to get it over to my pupils what I did to move the car so all the tips are really helpful.

Thanks again everyone :D

Going back to Sustrans, they have some brilliant routes but others are really badly signed.

Yep that can be an issue. The maps help, as do the smartphone apps.

Get involved with OpenStreetMap / OpenCycleMap / CycleStreets and help produce better maps that reflect what is on the ground and help other cyclists find good routes.

I agree. The Sustrans app needs work as well unfortunatly, as at one point, it tries to take you down a disused railway on route 55 thats under 4 feet of water :roll:

All the Manchester stores are good, but I tend to now ring the Chill Factor store before going to see if they have the item in stock and they usually have it in, or they can ring the NCC or Deansgate store and ask them to put it to one side till I get there.

The Chill Factor store seems a good mix of MTB and Road and the other 2 seem more Road based, obviously track as well at the NCC.

Its just the Chill Factor store is 10 mins from me depending on the M60

Going back to Sustrans, they have some brilliant routes but others are really badly signed.

From Preston, think its route 62, its well signed all the way through and theres a really nice section of disused Tramway thats well fast ( well apart from pedestrians ) and it links all through Avenham Park.

On the other hand, route 55 through Wigan disappears completely in places.

Shame really as they seem to have trouble getting funding as it takes ages but they do a good job when they start.

Round here there are loads of off road rides if you look, and Sustrans have done some up really nice.

Theres loads left to be done though, on disused railways etc, so some serious funding will be needed.

That reminds me ORV 1L – Keith Harris on his Merc.

Followed him to the Chippy a couple of months ago.

I dont think this is a personal plate but I found it funny.

This car didnt hang around too long before being replaced….

Awkward.

:-)

Got Elixr 3’s on mine and they have been hit and miss.

I find I get a lot of noise and vibration through the frame with the standard pads so replaced them with superstar and they seem fine.

Had one caliper burst when I was replacing the pads. I loosened the torx screw on the lever to allow a tiny bit of fluid out and pushed the pistons back ( as told to when I bought the bike ) and it popped the seal in the caliper.

Turns out the lever was faulty so It was sent to Fishers for a warranty and in the meantime, the bike shop lent me a Elixr 3 brake so I was’nt bike less ( which was nice of them )

Thats when the fun started with that “loan” brake. It went straight to the bars on a downhill section and I luckily was’nt bombing it and managed to stop on the front brake.

It seemed to need bleeding because it sometimes worked and sometimes did’nt so I took it back to the shop and they bled it and tried to locate my original brake that had been sent off ( turns out it got lost somewhere so I ended up with a brand new replacment )

That loan brake went again on the first ride and my replacment brake arrived the day after so I took the bike in and told them the loan brake was dodgy and he said ” oh i will chuck it in’t bin “

Not very confidence inspiring, the new brake has been fine so far so I will have to see what happens when I have to change the pads……

I had a walk around the park today, driving across the M60 and parking in that new area opposite the kiddies swings.

I’m sure the plans said it was a Blue route, but the bit I walked, level with the motorway, was well steep and I nearly went on my A*** on some of the “rollercoaster” bits.

More like a Red to me – the trails are still barriered off, but there are tyre tracks all over them.

Bit too steep and extreme for me – anyone know if its all going to be like this or if there are sections that are not as steep.

Has anyone bought these off this supplier and if so, are they reasonable quality, or are they likely to fall apart ?

I’ve a pair of Oakleys I use at work, which are brill, but im really clumsy and risk breaking a pair whilst out riding so £20 is a bit better to risk than £150.

Firstly may I pass on my condulnances to the family involved.

Like everyone else has said, its natural to feel the way you do.

I’m a Driving Instructor and I found out one of my Ex pupils had had a crash, fortunatly not very bad, but I beat myself up about it for a while asking myself could I have done anything different.

It just shows that, like myself, you care about what you do.

I went too fast into a corner a while ago and saw a Car coming towards me and instinctivly slammed the back brake on and fell off.

If i’d been going slower, I would have not fallen off so brakes that work in corners are as dangerous as brakes that dont work.

Lose the speed before the corner…..

I’d just got myself a new Hope light last winter and decided to try it out in the “real world” of night riding.

My mate was busy so I went on my own across the Cycle path that runs through the Golf Course, secretly scared about some nutter jumping out on me with a knife or something, but determind to try my new toy.

That went OK as I came out alive, so I got more comfident & went up a Trail thats rocky and absolutly pitch black.

Went fine, turned round and was impressed with my light till I was pedalling uphill and something snapped dropping my feet to the floor and nearly making me speak several octaves higher 8O

I just wanted out of there so I grabbed the bike, and started running ( yeah Im scared of the dark – well being on my own ) and finally got to the road and realised I’d snapped my Mech Hanger

Dont know what caused it, but id chewed the rear gear cable up as well.

Got a lift home and snapped the mech hanger again a couple of months ago miles from home but this was due to my negligance as the jockey wheels were completley worn and id not spotted it :oops:

Cheers for the Link – i will give him a E Mail

Slight change of OP, but I got some cheapo nasty pedals from Asda last year just to get the bike rolling again, and one fell off yesterday.

They had an adaptor, like a step down on a socket set, and this stayed in the crank it was the pedal that came out of the “step down”

I’m going to order some new pedals, but just wondered if anyone had a idea of the thread size ?

On bikes, is there 2 sizes or something ?

Sorry to sound daft, but Im pretty new to Bikes

Another Break !!!!

Im going out ont Raleigh for a bit 8)

I started watching about 15 mins ago as Ive been out since 7.30 watching the Ironman event & bonked badly as i’d only had a Banana all day :roll:

Seems to be more ad breaks than owt else.

Gonna clean the Orange and Polish the Raleigh 8)

I’ve never ordered online from them, but the shop does seem chaos at times.

I think they concentrate more on the mail order side, but then again lot of places like Winstanleys which are on a Industrial estate are the same ( thinking Ribble )

If you are not certain exactly what you want when you go in the shop, they put you on a PC to look through their website and, last time I did that ( think I wanted some grips ) lots of stuff was out of stock.

I’ve had a couple of problems with CRC orders & they have always solved the issues quickly with good communication.

The only thing that I found silly was a Cateye bracket coming in a box that would’nt go through the letterbox instead of them putting it in a Jiffy bag :lol:

Cheers for the advice :-)

My First ever Mountain Bike after always having BMX’s

Used to ride it all the time till i was about 16, then started messing with cars, passed Driving Test at 17, then it stayed in Nans Kitchen till last year when we had to give the house up when Nan went into a Care Home.

Its all mostly original apart from the seat which I split when I was younger and, since this photo, Ive replaced the wheels with simular items as the originals had split.

Use it only when Dry because, its only a Raleigh, but it means a lot to me.

Think it took the lad the mountain rescue helped.

The Ambulance landed in the paddock then went to the Car Park.

Hope he is ok

Hear Hear for another next year.

Only managed to get there today due to work and heard i’d missed a good day on saturday.

Any news on the Lad who was helped by Mountain Rescue ?

Hope he is ok

Garmin Fit on the App Store ( 69p when I bought it a while back ) and plug in charger in the both chucked in the Camelbak.

Get about 4 hours off a full charge, without the charger, and just carry the charger to top up.

Also downloads automatically to Garmin Connect so you can log in and keep track of your rides.

I have a Hardtail newish mountain bike.

1999 mountain bike i’ve just put slicks on to make quicker on the road.

My 1st mountain bike from 89ish which is a bone shaker but love it.

Would love a Orange 5 despite only pootling around and being scared of ICR and San Marino.

Might make me more confident though….

Just been Bolton and they have none in stock.

Been on decathlon website and reserved one in Stockport for £29.99 so just need to pick it up tonight.

My mate’s had his Passat’s injectors done after VAG wrote to him.

His is a 55 plate 2.0 tdi, and he’s only had the car since last September so they must have traced him through DVLA.

Full new set of injectors, and they even washed and vacuumed the car as well.

Nice finishing touch after spending £2000 on a engine rebuild when his oil pump balancer shaft went……. 8O

BTW +1 for Maxxis Advantage in Rivi.

I swapped from Conti Mountain Kings and noticed miles more grip, especially when descending from the Pike and going down Georges Lane.