Although I think this looks ok, it’s made of chro mo 4130. Isn’t that as likely to be as heavy and strong as pig iron?

Call me a snob but I like my steel frames to be of Reynolds tubing, like my Stanton Sherpa (Reynolds 853).

I’ve been a wiggle platinum customer for years, but recently my discount stopped. I’m still buying as much kit, so rather than just going to wiggle, clearly i’m finding better deals elsewhere.

The only thing that I could rely on with wiggle was the returns, which has in the past meant buying stuff from wiggle at a slight premium. If thats no longer the case, I can’t see me using wiggle/crc too much in the future.

I’ll second the sentiment about Sigma Sport. Excellent service.

I have had a good experience today. I was replacing a hydraulic hose and realised I didn’t have a 7mm spanner for the bleed port. A quick trip to halfords sorted that. Then I managed to lose the olive. A quick trip to my lbs sorted that. To be honest I haven’t visited that shop since about 1995 when I bought some manitou forks for my Marin but the chap was very helpful.

About 7.2kg for an old Planet X pro carbon and dura ace (I know, I’ll upgrade the frame at some point) and 8.5kg for a caad 12 disc with 105.

whats with the pounds? I thought only Americans used pounds these days.

At least it doesn’t have the crappy adds like cycling weekly that advertises hearing aids, tells me how I can see if I had a ppi claim or how ‘jaw dropping’ someone looks like or what their net worth is.

They look good, and got the logo opposite the valve hole. I always wondered whether it should be shimano or xt opposite the hole though, and settled on xt like yourself.

I would check tension with tyres mounted. I built some wheels using stans rims and the tension dropped by loads with the tyres mounted, so much so the rear nds went pretty slack.

Yep. I’ve got a flat mount frame with post mount fork (Cannondale caad12). Although a bit of a pain with the brake department, the frame is terrific.

I wear spd shoes when touring. Perfectly comfortable and allows you to walk about a bit.

I use speedplay pedals on my proper road bikes though. I find proper road shoes tend to just fit a little more snugly and the interface feels better and less loose.

I bought a load of 10sp stuff because my wheels are 10sp, and as a roadie thought they wouldn’t  fit 11sp cassettes.

when I found out that 11sp mtb cassettes  actually do fit, I then updated to 11sp. No brainer really. I wonder if 10sp might have stronger chains and being more durable, I’d still go 11sp though.

So three contradictory bits of advice! I think everyone needs to find what works for them given their strengths.

Oh, and unless it’s warm (which it might well be tomorrow), layer up on the bike! I finally warmed up on the Slateman almost in view of the finish last year.

My advice (only done three) is to go as quick as possible in the swim (obviously pacing to finish the distance), steady away on the bike and then just pace the run sensibly.

My third triathlon (half iron distance) it was really tempting to go faster on the bike, but glad I didn’t.

I always just use brass nipples and Dt comp spokes. Definately look at the German sites, such as rose bikes. They always work out cheaper for me.

I don’t tend to bother with the mtb. I wear a heart rate monitor, but never look, mainly so strava will give me a suffer score. On the road bike I aways record cadence and heart rate, but to be honest, I can pretty much gauge effort. I really fancy getting a power meter for the road though.

Ive buillt quite a few wheels for myself. I always get spokes from rose bikes, usuallly dt competitions. They sell xt hubs pretty cheap as well, which i recon is a pretty good hub.

I really can’t see how the drive side could get so damaged with horizontal scratches with the chainset being there. The NDS with vertical scrapes maybe.

Left side in particular looks like its been attacked by a dremmel. I think i’d be thinking of returning that. I certainly wouldn’t buy that.

I have several Garmin (edge 810/520 and fenix 3) that all work well. There was a time when I thought I would stick to garmin due to keeping all my data in one place (garmin connect) but now i never even look at connect. Strava and training peaks are what I use. I would certainly look at wahoo next.

Talking of things to look out for, I had the emissions update on my a4. About 20 months later the egr valve/cooler failed. Would have been £900 but dealer fixed it under warranty. Apparently there is a two year warranty for anything emissions related after the update.

im not convinced the update and failure are unrelated and there’s loads of reports of failing egr valves on updated engines.

The road bike goes (2011 a4) with wheels on. The mountain bike needs front wheel off due to the bar width. I guess you would be able to pile two bikes on top of each other if needed.

I have 2.4 mtn Kings. Not sure anything bigger would fit.

Absolutely different helmet. Kask protone for road and giro chronicle on mtb. Just as I wouldn’t wear baggy shorts on the road bike I wouldn’t wear some clunky Helmet with peak.

i suppose I could wear the road helmet on the mtb but it does seem quite light. I prefer a bit more bulk for when I clunk into tree branches.

Been using rose bikes for spokes for years, despite the postage they are still way cheaper than crc. To be honest I recon I spend more now with german shops than wiggle/crc. Still quite like merlin though.

For the first time in many a year I’m no longer a wiggle platinum customer, which must say something since I’ve spent tons on bike stuff in the last year.

fizik arione for me. I have an mtb fizik which is essentially the same thing.

The lightest spare as far as I know is

https://www.tufo.com/en/road-cycling1/detail/elite-jet/

I no longer really use tubs, but never had a puncture when using them through the 90s. I used to carry a spare though unless racing. The time taken to replace it would have made it pretty pointless, and you can ride a tub slowly whilst flat.

To the previous poster, yes it is just glue (best way) or tape holding the tyre on. If you’ve ever removed a tyre you’ll realise its not going anywhere. To be honest I loved the feel of a tub pumped up to something silly psi. Turns out that clinchers pumped up to something sensible might well be quicker!

Some rims loose tension as soon as you inflate a tyre. As previously mentioned, it might have been like this for a while.

i’m not super experienced at wheel building, but built a dozen or so wheels with no issue. A stans arch ex though went completely loose on one side with the tyre inflated. It lost around 20kgf of tension.

I’m normally a bit of a weight weenie when it comes to road bikes, but went with a sherpa. I have never weighed it but given the overall weight of the bike the frame weight is less important.

I will have to weigh it. It has full xt, stans arch rims (xt hubs) and rockshox sids with easton bars/stem/seatpost

I would definitely recommend it, although I expect the cotic would also be similar.

I quite like my scosche rhythm, and always use it for cycling. Usually use a hrm-run for running though.

Makes not difference

It will work fine, but the front mech is a bit higher than ideal. There should really be about a 1mm gap. I use rotor q rings on my road bike where the gap gets quite big, but it shifts fine.

I’ve gone from a 90s 26″ marin to a 29er Stanton Sherpa. The sherpa is great but theres no doubting those wheels are massive.

Also the handlebars are massive compared to my usual narrow bars with bar ends. I’m still convinced I prefer wide bars.

I ran from Langsett to the top of Cut Gate the other day. Dead easy to navigate once onto the proper path. To be honest, I’ve ridden it a few times back in the day, but for me its not a great place to ride, especially towards the top before it tips down toward ladybower. Much better coming down towards langsett than the other way though.

Stunning scenery though.

I have a drum brake rear on my old honda cb100n. It works much better than the cable disk front. There must be some benefit to discs but I recons a well adjusted drum brake works just fine.

Never had an issue with presta tubes. As the previous poster suggested I always use the washers.

I build my own wheels these days, but the last factory wheels I bought were fulcrums. They seemed better specced than similarly priced mavics. Might be worth a look.

I’m usually obsessive about torquing stuff properly but don’t bother with the bb (partly because I have the shimano hand tool) but just basically tighten the bb tight. Not sure if something is rated at 50nm is that critical.

I really rate my norbar torque wrench for smaller jobs (unto 25nm)

I love building wheels (although I’ve only built perhaps a dozen or so). Definitely not as hard as you’d think, and the ones I’ve built seem to have stood up ok.

If the chainrings are worn, and you replace the chain that the new chain will wear quickly which will then rapidly ruin the cassette.

I recently upgraded my old mtb to 10sp (from 8sp), with new chain and cassette. I never really looked at the chainrings, but found there were annoying noised coming from the crank under load. Turns out the chainrings (well actually the middle one from a triple) was totally shot.

Forever. I usually find some use for old bikes, such as turbo duties or an old 90s Marin makes a nice tourer.

I’m looking at a speedmax which hasn’t budged.

I always use kmc chains, but when new I can’t fit my park tools chain checker in, which I presume means the links are quite closely spaced. Always seem to work ok though so have always assumed perhaps my checker is dodgy or that it doesn’t matter.

I bet the chain will quieten down as it wears in.