As Peterpoddy says, it is just good manners, outmoded concept thought that may be nowadays.

One shall have ones butler investigate forthwith
I see it's breeding a STW upper class already!

How nouveau riche….. my butler has asked his footman to ask the page to do it.

tracknicko…. I'll give you the point that the fork looks a bit leggy but otherwise, it looks very well proportioned to me. A helluva lot better than my old surly used to look with 26" wheels. The proof of the pudding however, is in the eating and at the end of the day if I had a five bar gate that rode like a dream that would be fine by me. Having said that, tall peeps don't really have any option do they?

Walks off [sobbing]…. it's not a gate, it's not….. see if I care[/sobbing]

Did you all miss this:

I didn't understand where they were coming from.

or is it just my warped sense of humour?

A friend of mine was absolutely convinced that the bank didn't check signatures on cheques so he wrote a large cheque on his business account clearly signed Mickey Mouse. It went through without question and only came to light when he called them up and asked if they seriously thought there was a signatory on the account by that name. Somewhat sheepishly they agreed that Mr M Mouse was not on the list of signatories and they cancelled the transaction. He didn't move his account (the firm had several million annual turnover and has even more now) but they do check details on his transactions more carefully.

Will they quibble about Bob or Rob? Maybe not.

pleb! 😉

TBH most of my bikes do look like gates but IMO this one doesn't…. it looks surprising well proportioned. Well that's what I believe and I'm sticking to it!

Ady YGM

I have got a 51 plate Berlingo. Love it, nice and reliable (only one or 2 issues – a fan belt and front suspension- otherwise cheap as chips to run. Fits loads of stuff and is big enough for me to be comfortable in. Added bonus for peeps with elderly relatives – they find it very easy to get in and out of.

+1 for the beer

eek

my STW persona!!!

Strangely enough I'm not the second picture either but I think we need to become acquainted.

I have got some Raceface flatties in the shed but they may be a little narrow.

Community service cleaning wards at a military hospital. Just a day of it.

probably the best idea yet

ironically, the squaddies might have been equally outrageous themselves at some time (and no I don't mean weeing on war memorials), IME they are hardly a bunch of angels themselves – and doing their job it is a good thing they aren't.

uplink, in which case he should quite rightly be done for being drunk and disorderly and I'd agree. The point is, it just isn't a custodial sentence IMO. Berm Bandit's punishment would be more appropriate.

barnsleymitch…. fair enough I think we have to agree to disagree 🙂

no uplink…. he was responsible for drinking the whisky, he made that choice, but once you become incapacitated by drink you effectively lose the ability to behave responsibly.

barnsleymitch – I do think it was disrespectful, I never said I didn't – you said that, not me. Had he been stone cold sober and pissed on the memorial it would have been different because he chose to, while in full control of his actions. He wasn't, he did something crass and disgusting but are you trying to tell me you have never been so pissed you can't remember what you did?

no jail, put it in perspective with scrotes who get away with far more dreadful things whether or not they are stoned, pi$$ed or whatever. If he had drunk a bottle of whisky there's no way he could be deemed "responsible" for his acts as he was effectively incapacitated by drink. I reckon the organisers are just as culpable. If it was an organised event they should have some control over/responsibility for the actions of their customers/participants. It is all too easy to condemn but how many of us here have been so pi$$ed that we didn't know what we had done until told in the morning? I know I have. Unless you are entirely innocent then you really have no right to call for his (metaphorical) head. Once when I used to play rugby, I was wandering round town after the annual dinner with a very well respected lawyer who ended up pi$ing in someone's letterbox. He had no idea he had done it until one of our party who was only half pi$$ed told him. It was out of order, disgusting etc but it happens all the time. Over reaction of this sort leads to rank hypocrisy.

So… to all you doubters who commented on my handlebar height………

You were ahem…… right! Had a short ride at lunchtime and ended up dropping the bars by four spacers. It is a bit more comfortable now. 😳

Hi Ady

Give me a call or drop me an email and we can organise a ride. An R8 mmmmmmm, nice bikes.

John

MikeT YGM

:eek! He didn't tell me about that!

As I said, I haven't actually taken it out yet so I have still to discover the perfect combination. I have about 6 different sets and styles of bar in my shed to choose from, from flat XC racer type bars to DH ones. There are also 5 or 6 spacers under the stem to allow a decent amount of adjustment. I suppose it is the normal "new bike" thing, set it up one way and be prepared to change it several times until you find the best fit. 🙂

rootes1, I had a long chat with Sam before I bought it. The thing is I have a very long body so everything has to be a bit of a compromise. A mate of mine who is a mere 6ft 1in (I'm a smidge off 6ft 4ins) has longer legs than I do. I had a 22" 1×1 before this and it looked like a gate but it was so comfortable I put up with it 🙂

I have ust been into the shed and had a measure, the cockpit length on the swift is 5mm shorter than on my XL Superlight and the Swift is pretty much identical c2c along the top tube to the Surly. The Surly had less seat post than the swift has so hopefully I'll be ok.

Kingtut – yes it is pretty much spot on (same tip of the saddle to centre of stem measurement as my 26 inch bikes) though I may shorten the stem by 10mm, depends how it goes. I have done the riding round the garden bit and it feels good but it needs some trail time before I decide on the final setup.

It is an XL

We usually get masses of fieldfares in the field behind out house but this year there is sugar beet in the field so we probably won't see them. They periodically come in and strip our crab apple tree.

This replaced my Surly 1×1 which I always rode rigid. I normally ride the Thetford trails but it also saw duty in Wales and Scotland as well as the Peaks. With big tyres (Ralph 2.4s) and carbon forks a lot of the front end grief is soaked up. You just tend to ride differently in the end, different lines, different weight distribution, "light" hands on the bars etc. You just get used to it!

sorted, thanks for your help guys!

Every time I go to Cambridge there's a bike messenger alike bike chained to the railings (outside M&S), spinergy front wheel and last time I looked I'm sure it was a deep section rear. Obviously made to look like a rat bike but I reckon it would fly. He seems to have chains on the front wheel, through the frame round the railings and back, and the same on the back wheel. It never seems to be damaged so it would appear chaining your bike 2 foot or so off the ground is the way to go. Obviously being a fixie it would freak most thieves but I was more interested in the way he keep sthe bike in one piece.

I can remember (may years ago) losing my windsurfing board off the top of my car. I had a series of belt and braces measures to prevent anything bad happening but I just hadn't factored in the whole roofrack breaking apart. It just self destructed and the clamps sheared off. All the nuts and bolts were in place when I retrieved it, the metal had just given up the ghost. The rack was only three months old…. I got a replacement foc but it went straight in the classifieds of the local rag. Lucky no one was hurt although the artic behind me went bumpity, bumpity bump over my kit, my board, masts, sails etc were trashed but the insurance paid up for that. Scared me silly… so much so that I bought a 740 volvo estate for board carrying duties.

+1 for knackered jockey wheels

Off to Mr McNutts? Nah, that's some other poor beggar who can't eat fat.

The Fitzwilliam museum is interesting and free, IIRC they have a lot of Darwins bits and bobs in there. There are loads of shops and yes, it is very compact. I'm not sure about getting into colleges during term time but iirc there may be limited access to Kings College. You can walk along the river, never taken a bike to Cambridge so I don't know about riding. I wouldn't know how to spend a whole day there, I usually pop in, buy stuff and pop out within an hour. The Pickerell on Bridge Street used to be a good pub but I haven't been there for ages. There are a couple of good venues for gigs but probably not in the day time! 🙂

See if you can find the Mutts Nuts on yahoo groups. They are very Cambridge centric and should be able to give you more helpful advice than I can.

The thing about chips is that if you see them cold you wonder how the hell you put them in your mouth in the first place. I dropped some in the drive a few years ago, it was pitch black (nearest street light maybe a mile away) so I decided to clear them up in the morning. When I got round to it I found myself looking at these limpid lumps of potato covered in congealed fat. Sort of slug like. Yuk, yuk, yuk! It was quite some time before I persuaded myself to eat them again. Since then however, I have developed a wicked intolerance to fat and I can only watch while others eat them. Some kind of cruel, medieval retribution methinks! 🙁

watch this space in, shall we say, 10 days time when nothing has arrived. 🙂

I have been going through a "I'm bored with this"phase for a few years now. Still enjoyed being out with my mates but the riding became secondary. I stopped racing, slowly changed what I did on the bike i.e. factored in road rides, hard and fast as well as long and slow rides and eventually all the pieced began to slot back into place. I don't know what I'd do without my bikes – the serve as much of a function as a stress release mechanism as a way of having fun. And, I don't think you need an expensive bike to have a laugh/enjoy yourself. My all time favourite bike for a long time was my rigid SS. I have just traded it in (effectively) for a large wheeled, rigid SS so hopefully I'll have as much of a blast on that.

A rest may do you good, stops you becoming jaded so it could be a good thing, as long as you don't let it last forever………

I had Hornby Minic, the Hornby version (scaled down) of Scalextric. It was brilliant, far better quality. It used to have a lock switch so you could leave one car going round at its' optimum speed and race it, if you were playing with it on your own. Anyway, I left it on (both cars) and went to school one day. When we all got back in the evening the house was full of smoke, the controllers had melted, the plastic was virtually molten and on the verge of catching fire. Cue sore backside, cars, track and bubbling plastic, went in the bin. 🙁

When my nipper was born, I left hospital at about 9am after a torrid night, went straight to the nearest toy shop and bought him (cough……maybe that was me) a Scalextric set. On mentioning it was for my son, the shopkeeper asked how old he was (so we could get teh best set for his age/etc or some such drivel). I looked up and said he was about 11. "What school is he at?" asked the shoppy making conversation as he wrapped it up, "my son is 11, maybe they know each other" (Small town you see). It was then I had to confess I meant 11 hours, not years. He had a good laugh and said he had done the same thing, but he had waited a few months!

A few years ago my next door neighbour (moved away ages ago) cleared out his LPs, and gave me what he couldn't give away. Most of it was dross but hidden away was a first printing (Blue Columbia label – and the right number etched into the vinyl) of Pink Floyd Piper at the Gates of Dawn. It plays well, no scratches or pops and the sleeve is in ok condition – ok the glue has given up, gone brown and dried up but otherwise it is pretty good. I told him it might be worth a few quid but he said he didn't like it so I could have it. I haven't looked recently but it must be worth more than a fiver now.

I ave been riding Ralph 2.4s on X717 for severl years now and never had a problem… mostly riding in Thetford but also Wales, Scotland, the Peaks etc so all round really.

On a 26er I run 34:15/16/17 depending on what I am doing at the time. The 15 is the race gear, the 16 most of the time, the 17 when I am feeling wimpy.

thanks ygm