Give it a try, velomanic has it right as far as I believe.

The front end tends to be higher so no need for rise on the bars. I put wide low risers on my 29er when new as that was what I was used to, but swapped them with flats which have plenty of backsweep and feels much better now.

LadyAlexMTB – cheers for that. I’ll have a look now. Problem for me is that I work every Saturday and Sunday so confined to weekday rides.

BoardinBob – that’ll be Broadmarsh. A truly horrific ‘shopping’ experience, places like that just shouldn’t exist.

Depends how competitive you are (even with yourslef.)

I bought a cheapo mtb from Decathlon to commute so I wouldn’t have to use my nice bike (ht 29er,) but it felt horrid. Now use my nice bike, but cut over 4 mins from my time on 4 mile commute in the last 4 weeks so looking at a road bike as I’m running out of gears on the mtb and just want to get faster.

Lets be honest, not much off roading around Birmingham so a road bike might not be a bad idea at all

vdubber67 – I moved to Nottingham after 4 years on the North Wales coast, waking up to either sea views or mountain views, so the place does feel a bit lacking.

Happy to meet anyone local who can show me the sights!

The city is fine. The place is a ghost town at the moment anyway so wouldn’t stress.

Edit: can’t wait to get out mind. Place has ruined my riding but the girlfriend insistd we stay here for a year before heading back towards North Wales

Wise? No. Do-able? Yes. Why would you want to? Mental.

Do you need to fill in a v10? Did mine at the post office last week, tax expired a week prior (not long moved house and been riding to work,) and didn’t have to do one. Just handed over the documents and payment and on my way. I did have the full v5 though…

When considering ‘the classics,’ you need to consider the target market, the local demographic, the usp of pub and the style of operation.

Those dishes are still valid, but would clearly need to be executed in a more upmarket fashion. People want to spend their money on something different with the focus on perception of value for money.

If you’re going to do it, do it properly. Sounds like just my kind of pub! Good luck to you.

Why would they have to consult him? They overpaid him and then deducted that amount from his next pay. Fairly standard practice in my experience, just unfortunate.

I only ever used dry lube when I ran out of fork lube. Surely wet lube would just absord filth like it does on your chain?

I wasn’t planning on just upping and leaving, I’m actually too nice for that – just wondered if I had any legal standing if she tried to play out as the contract reads.

I’ve moved from Llandudno after 4 years there to Old Basford in Nottingham – waking up every morning to grey instead of seaside and mountains affects me more than I thought it would!

I found the room on spareroom.com so costs should hopefully be minimal, will discuss with the landlord tomorrow. When I accepted the job, we split up and I moved on my own but we since made up and it is only within the last few days that she has decided to move here so I haven’t intentionally deceived anyone.

Will keep an eye out as I work in lace market and live in old basford. This is why I leave my proper bike at work, 3 locked doors and an alarm to protect it.

It happens. I took offence at someone buying a frame I wanted just to sell it on for a profit, told them as much, received some abusive emails, reported it, nowt happened. People have bought things from the guy and been happy, but it is clear that he is trading to make money and it riles me.

Maybe I’m just getting old.

Brilliant thus far, big contact patch so very grippy. Won’t be as fast as skinny tyres, but very comfy. The fat franks look very similar so should be just as good.

Running schwalbe big apples (2.0) on my 29er at the minute, love them. Roll fast, grip like road tyres in the road, but haven’t killed me yet despite taking grassy shortcuts and bouncing up/down kerbs (cycle paths up my way are primarily on the pavement.)

Done.

Sent a message to tweet me so I can spread the word, good luck.

http://www.mbnw.co.uk if you haven’t already, they’ll see you right

Because buying all the bits to do it yourself gets you enough to service them many times over. Plus you get them back in use in no time at all instead of waiting days.

Really is a no brainer.

Nothing says ‘I am the MAN!’ more than tyres made of wood. On a rigid bike.

Coffeeking – I understand what you mean and I can accept it then. The majority of the time though it is a table of 2 where one person pays pence more than the other. Anything over 6 people we now do not split the bill – it is down to the party as to sorting how much everyone owes. Enforced decision as we would often end up with drinks left over that no-one had claimed upon splitting the bill. Also very time consuming, if I have someone taking 20 seperate payments for a table of 20, then they are effectively out of action for a big chunk of time and service standards can suffer as a result.

As per Cougar, if I pay the bill the o/h leaves a tip and vice versa. That said, I’ve worked in the industry for over a decade now and many of my friends have at some point so when we go out we add the tip then just split the bill however many ways necessary.

It is annoying when groups want to split the bill so they each pay for what they had – Can’t possibly risk paying 5p towards a friend’s dinner! Never known people be as tight as they are here in North Wales.

As far as scenario 1 is concerned, you treated family, you pay the tip. Scenario 2, you pass the bill tray round the table and tell everyone to chuck some change in for the tip.

One diversion towards the beginning and one towards the end, not much exciting missed out.

I had it on Monday. Logged me out on my android phone, password wouldn’t work to log in again on the app. Used pc to reset password via customer service, as my security question wasn’t my security question. Got a link sent to my work email to reset.

No idea what happened, but looks to be ok now.

Konabunny – a fair point and one with which I got confused. That was my belief as an employer of 35ish staff, not as an employee. It was the 1 week notice upto 2 years service I was thinking of, but the important milestone is 1year – you cannot make a claim to a tribunal for unfair dismissal until 12 months service.

The mention of holiday pay being withheld is completely wrong though. You have to legally provide paid holiday leave (currently min 20 days +bank hols,) and you cannot withold accrued holiday pay as it has already been earned. How do I know? Had a chef lose the plot, attacked the head chef and threatened to come back and stab us all – sacked him on the spot but after seeking legal advice was told that we had to pay him any holiday pay already accrued.

I love it. Off there first thing tomorrow infact (only 40mins away.) With how warm its been the last few days, it will be very overgrown, very fast, very tight in places and very much ‘wilderness’ in others. It has bitten me a few times, but bloody hell it was fun.

Did I mention that I love it and am going tomorrow?

Upto 1 year service you only have to give 1 week notice. What your contract says is irrelevent, they can not enforce anything more than the statutory minimum.

On the other hand, burning bridges and all that jazz. The choice is yours.

Edit: probation periods are nonsence. At the end of a 3 month probation period you have exactly the same rights as if you had been there 11 months

Ernie – what era do you live in? Sundays aren’t ‘unsociable hours’ any more so anything retail/hospitality based which the likes of me and kevevs do is just paid the normal hourly rate. Infact, in my trade it is expected that you work bank holidays (for normal pay,) as they are peak trading times – when those that work 9-5 are off, they want filling with food/beverages.

Only good would come of longer opening hours on a Sunday even if it is only a couple of hours. Any opportunity for people to be paid more whilst people are spending more is welcome.

Everyone hated that seatpost when I bought it!

Looking very nice fella. Forgot about the chainstay protecter though, I’ll pop it in the post in the morning.

Very good stuff, but not managed to finish one before it broke though

Saddle rails? My charge spoon creaks like buggery unless I lube the rails regularly

It keeps things running nice and smooth, keeps dirt out of the seals, should reduce friction thus reduce stantion wear. All good stuff. (Spray religiously before every ride incase you couldn’t tell.)

Michael Marshall, Jeff Abbott, Mark Billingham. Also a fan of Michael Connelly and David Baldacci. Michael Marshall – ‘Blood of angels’ is fantastic but the backstory from the prequels helps.

google ‘ bikeradar revelation service’ and you’ll get the step by step guide with pics. It really is as easy as it seems, even I managed to do it and I’m a liability when faced with such things.

I did splash out to do it properly, using fox float fluid, stendec easy glide, and stendec 15wt suspension oil.

Ipa I ended up getting from Maplins for a tenner. When I asked for it (and a syringe for a fork lower service, ) in Boots pharmacy they looked at me like I was a crackwhore.

Link to sale ad

I’ll have pics ready in an hour or so for you. Its a 17″. My new frame won’t be with me til next week and I’m in no rush.

I don’t know how they compare, but I’ve got a Bfe frame for sale in the classifieds. Inc headset, seatpost & clamp, £225 posted.

EDIT: Too slow. The bikeradar link is mine!

Can you not measure the nut? 20mm shimano hub uses 28mm cone spanner as far as I’m aware