When I sold my last house, it had a similar arrangement to br, and was nice and self contained away from the house. It didn’t seem that it added any real value, but definately got the interest of all the blokes looking around. The general theme was that somewhere quiet to work from home/ room to knock one off in quiet security is a winner with chaps.

I do an early sunday group ride, and one fella has a Kent frame. He visited Kent for the fit and design brief, as he was traveling out there for work. He seems dead chuffed with it, and reports the whole purchasing process was a joy. Oddly, it was his 40th birthday treat. It looks like a compact ti road frame. It doesn’t do a lot for me, but I’m not 40.

Did he actually go into orbit?

I don’t have much interest in the mag, it’s not really st’s fault, given the limits of the content I just feel every mag is the same just with a different date on it. The forum amuses me just because people take it so seriously.

Skywalker +1

The world would be a better place with the more liberal use of some furious fists, I’m not talking beating someone to a pulp, just the odd slap. You witness the pent up frustration and anger people carry and the fear they won’t own up to reading this forum on a daily basis. The fear, which saddens me the most, is usually wrapped up in the passive aggressive use of over moralising. If folk let off some good honest steam and chanced their arm a bit, I’m sure the overall balance of things would be better.

When you consider new drugs like tb-500 and aicar, I wouldn’t bet my life on any pro rider being clean. But this shadow has always hung over my love of the sport.

According to the rules of the sport he should; I wish him a speedy recovery.

CRC knocks the spots off my lbs, and the faceless cold interface of the computer is far better than that of the disinterested dead eyes of the spotty chimps at my lbs that I have to engage with when I want them to spend weeks ordering in a part I can get cheaper online.

Recovery model for mh, mental capacity act and deprivation of liberty, cpa, being person centred and that sort of stuff, so the personalisation agenda, risk assessment and mdt working, cqc, safeguarding adults proceedures and whistle blowing. I don’t ‘do’ much ld work but a lot of the stuff I mentioned covers all adult user groups. Bit late for prep, but Good luck.

no yes no.

The wedding present
Or
The Fall.

I just think it won’t be long before folk think that being a Rapha clad, stem slammed, Velominati’ist is the only way to be if you want to become a cyclist.

I work in an office with two such people, and in the last few months they have both got into cx, although neither seem to do that much riding. One of them is certainly carrying too much spare to make me want to see him in lycra. As someone who has club raced since being a junior, it would be easy to scoff but they are really not doing any harm and their cycling is as valid as mine, and I don’t mind spaffing a bit on decent kit.

Can someone buy something else off realman

Not sure you will get many volunteers for that! Was the original ‘issue’ ever sorted?

But on the main issue, do people actually get upset by a website that is clearly just a bit of fun, bonkers.

LOL, great photo! Hope your mate’s ok.

Minging tyres don’t help, but overall tidy. Nowt wrong with alu, enjoy it!

Edit – been using some Hutchison atoms on some ultegra wheels tubeless on the winter bike, trouble free but I can say I can tell the difference to running the same wheels with tubes.

I’ve got a totally unused one of these at 350 mm, you could have for 85quid if you fancy it. Could send you a pic of it on my highly untechnical kitchen scales.

LOL, fine work mrsmith!

I picked up a planet x ti sportive about 2 years ago looking to replace my 04 workhorse alu principia training bike. I already had a parlee for racing and best. As time rolled on the planet x got the least miles, it just didn’t have the zip and zing of the principia and in rides of up to 4/5 hours I didn’t find the extra comfort it offered made a difference to me. Compared to the z4 it just felt like a lump. So I ended up selling it on. I don’t think it was a bad bike, it was light enough, stiff enough and comfy enough; but didn’t really shine in those departments either. It just didn’t offer my riding much at all. There are probably better ti bikes out there, but you asked for personal experience.

The short answer to this for me is who knows? This is not to be unhelpful, but until just before xmas my bikes were a parlee z4, colnago clx and a fantastic 2005 alu principia as my general training bike. I did try and change the principia for a px ti bike at one point but the principia was much more fun to ride. Also was the parlee worth x thousand more, yes to me but in terms of performance????
Following the demise of the principia thanks to one of manchesters fine taxi drivers I replaced this with a px alu second hand thing, now this is much more solid, but still fun to ride and I can put a ton on it without feeling that battered.
Earlier this year I had a few weeks in Norway visiting family, and borrowed a Cannondale caad 10 from my cousin and put in about 1300 miles on it, and honestly felt that if that was my only bike I would be very happy. This said my brother has a deng fu carbon frame, well spec’ed out, and to me this feels great to ride also.
I think angles, fit, wheels and contact points make as much difference as frame materials. Perhaps my road battered bum is just not sensitive enough to pick up the finer nuances of some rides, because I hear some people spouting, what I feel is, crap about what they ride and how it feels. Essentially, I think people can convince themselves of pretty much anything if it supports their view of what’s best.

Both the genesis and the giant look fine well equiped bike; if your not racing or ‘owt then go for the one you like the most. I’d push my budget a bit, and get the cannondale caad 10 with 105 for about £1400, I think good alu’s pretty underated.

It’s like watching rats trapped in a maze with no exit 😥

Certainly not my cup of tea!

Don’t take his lovin’ away!

Are you wearing a shell suit?

I’d be getting stuck into the shop expecting them to be fighting my corner with Trek, ime LBS’s tend to want to do the least possible to get you to **** off out the door when there is no money in it for them.

Some middle age blokes turn up for a mid week game of five-a-side in a full Man Utd strip with Rooney plastered on their back. Why? I am not sure, but I don’t think they believe they are Wayne Rooney and they seem happy enough. Similarly some blokes seem to want to wear coats with ‘ferrari’ or ‘porsche’ on, but don’t own those cars. I think they look a bit daft, but I leave them to it. Same with bike team kit, it’s not for me, companies produce some pretty nice non team kit, but hey. I have wondered if there is some mental or genetic link conecting them, or they were just the spoilt kids whose parents let them have everything but from socialising with the team kit wearer’s when they are not wearing it, they seem like pretty standard people.

I essentially see them as similar to some of the chinese ebay seller’s banging out cheap stuff, but knowing that I am probably not paying for much QC or any decent customer service. If the item arrives and it’s fine, all is good and that company is ‘great’. But if there are any problems, then expect very little. They are selling cheap stuff probably on a low margin, and knowing that folk will always want a bargain so they will sell a lot of it. Given the current economic climate I predict they will grow and grow. To be fair, it also adds a little bit of excitement to your purchase, similar to putting a quid into a fruit machine. You want great customer service buy a Hope rotor.

It’s not the bitching or trolling, but when someone like realman can just keep posting after ripping someone off on the classifieds, I could quite happily block the musings of a scrot like that.

I’m in no rush for disk’s on a road bike, but i’ll give them a go quite happily. But that Colnago has made me pitch a trouser tent!

I’ve just been working out shift rota’s with my 52 yo female boss, who is a regular club runner. One of the shifts clashed with her doing the Derby 10k road run, and during the conversation she told me she had done last years in 41 mins 😯

Road crash descending Mount Etna; I don’t really recall what happened I just woke up in hospital a very unhappy bunny, but I guess my front wheel washed out seemingly on a straightish bit?? Took the impact on my face breaking my nose, jaw and cheek bone. I lost 9 teeth, and a lot of skin from a variety of parts of my body. The hospital did a great job putting me all back together, and after a further nose job and some rather expensive dental work my new smile is actually far better than my old one 🙂

This was about 9 years ago; I had about 5 months off the bike, as I could take being rattled about without head and dental pain and once back on it did take me about 18 months to get back into racing fully committed, and every now and again when descending at speed I do have to ‘have a word’ with myself to make sure I keep fully on the gas.

I would shape it, let it dry, tighten it up, proof it and then sell it and buy a saddle that suits the riding I do.

I’m just waiting for the road frame I want to stick it on, and I can’t wait! I’m pretty sure it won’t make a jot of difference to my times. For mtb use, i’ll reserve comment, i’m sure there will be plenty of fuel to power tj’s i’mrightathon.

Born in Wirksworth, moved mid-teens to London and stayed till my mid-twenties. Work gave me a year each in New York, Oslo, Rome and Bergen. Swapped jobs and ended up in Rawtenstall, and a further job move resulted in the last five years have been in Crumpsall. I do wonder where it all went wrong 😉

Lol’s at glittergary, late night tr[list]olling is easy but getting up at 6am to start again is real commitment to the cause.

As soon as parlee route the z5 sl properly for the electronic system, I’ll be spaffing a small fortune equipping myself with one.

If you are an mtb’er looking for a comfy mile muncher then the speccy would be my choice, and if you live anywhere with good climbing the compact and 11-28 could well be a bonus. The giant would be a bit more lively and fun imho, but a bit less comfy on the long haul if the road is not your usual thing.

I’m just coming to the end of a week in brockenhurst visiting my sister and nieces; I brought the mountain bike, but have only really had slots of a couple of hours to ride out from the doorstep for solo runs, and i’m wishing I had come down with one of the road bikes. It’s just so flat and from what i have found so dull. I’m sure with some local knowledge there would be some descent riding, and from what others above have said with a car I could have accessed some good stuff, but I can’t wait to get back to some hills. I feel like l’ve had a weekk off. No doubt it’s a very lovely place to live, and we have done some smashing family rides to, and I have to say the quality of some of the village pubs we have stopped at has been exceptional.

I gave up reading the mag some time ago, so as not to be a disappointment to those writing it. Seems things have not changed.

Will often ride out from a late shift, out and back through central manchester up to 3am ish. Have done the same in London and New York when I was living there, it’s a fantastic time to see any busy city.