its all relative really, what price can you put on enjoyment, if i added up the money ive spent on curries n strongbow over the years, and how much a pint costs these days, i would probably stop going out, doesnt really matter how much you spend, as long as you get the enjoyment out of it, then its worth its weight in gold, the memories alone are worth the expense.

my thinking on this is, mountain biking is no different than any other sport, i do alot of sea fishing, and how many fishermen use top of the range zziplex rods, and then cant cast them properly due to their skill is not good enough to use what are usually competion casting rods, plus there will always be bikers that think that if you havnt spent over 3k on a bike , you cant be a proper biker, there will always be people that justify why they should spend that kind of money on a bike that so they say will last the test of time, there usually the ones, that in 2 yrs time have the same bike up for sale, so they can have and need the latest new thing, biking is only expensive if you want it to be, slx kit is all most people will ever need,but they still justify to them selves why they need xt, i think todays bikes are far better value for money, and are better and last longer than anything ive bought over the last 30 yrs, as in most sports , some people have to have top end kit to make them look good or feel better.

NO, i use bolle safety glasses from screwfix, ive used alot more expensive glasses in the past, only if you are a bike tart, ive also dropped quite a few pairs and ruined them, so for £10 bolle glasses are a no brainer, they are slighty tinted so good all year round, wouldnt use anything else

saw one today, i have to admit compared to my team boardman, they do look rather fragile in the tubes, only time will tell though.

its things like this that help turn future customers away from lbs,s, its not rocket science, there,s plenty of help on line for most jobs, if you put the effort in, once you have the right tools and done a few jobs your confidence will build and you will soon be stripping down your bike and doing all your own servicing, its far better in the long run and cheaper and less hassle, just remember google is your best friend.

since when is riding on the pavement an offence, if your drunk i can understand, so long as your not being stupid and creating a nuisance of yourself i cant see the problem, as for lights, at least he had the common sense to stay on the pavement, why should that be a problem though, riding with out lights on the pavement, i dont see pedestrians walking around with head lights, ive done it a few times, ridden home in the dark on the pavement without lights, due to me visiting my son, and staying longer than i intended to so had to ride home in the dark, there is no way i would ride on the road in the dark, but staying on the pavement and doing 8mph i cant see the problem, ive also been knocked off my bike 6 times on the road due to **** in cars, i didnt see the coppers being vigilant then , even when i gave them the cars reg number, so my attitude is f–k the police, i would rather pay a fine, than risk my life on the road, just because some jobs worth copper thinks i should be on the road, had this argument with a copper recently, soon told him to sod off, i mentioned how many times does he ride a bike on the roads, and may be before lecturing me he should try it first, i used to be a strong supporter of the police but not any more, plus ive seen quite a few times police officers riding their bikes on the pavements.

rocketddog, quote. this is only a recent thing, there used to be a lot of in fighting, different factions in one team, even working against each other on the road
well obviously they have a good manager then, maybe british cycling should be looking at new management,
the only thing the british mens team actualy did as a team was give up on mass, and sit in the team bus. as an ex pro rugby player, i was always taught you never give up, no matter what, giving up is an amateur trait, and thats exactly what the brits showed today, they acted like a bunch of amateur,s

if wiggo doesnt ride in the rain ,what the hell was he doing there, as for the brits doing their stint, what the hell was that, they all gave up, thats not what i call doing their stint for the team, take a long hard look at the italians, both the womans race and the mens, they burried them selves for the sake of the team, that seems to be the probelm, as soon as the italien riders put on a team shirt, they ride as a team and not a bunch of individuals, i cant think of any pro sport that when the going gets tough the team just gives up, lizzy armestead had no chance of winning yesterday but she kept going and finished the race, she puts the brit mens team to shame, thats the trouble with this country they make too many excuses for these highly paid sports men, you only have to look at the england football team, great individuals, but never seem to be able to play consistantly good as a team, too many ego,s lol, pro cycling is no different to any other pro sport, you just dont give up, how many times have you seen england rugby take a battering, they dont just walk off, they man up and get on with it, if the british cycling team cant man up and act as a team, then they shouldnt be wearing the british jersey. if i was teh manager of the britsh team i wouldnt be happy with any of the men, doestnt matter what they have won in the past or what title they have got, if they cant race as a team and work for each other, then dont wear the team jersey, simples, the rest is just crap excuses.

my thoughts, pretty poor show by all the brits, if nibaly can fall and then still catch up and get a medal, what the hell is the british lads excuses, about time they got their ego,s out of the way and started acting like professional bike riders, its no good people saying i dont blame them for giving up, their pro riders, they dont get paid to just give up, i didnt see costa with any team mates around him, so froomes excuse was crap, my opinion, the brit lads have done them selves no favours at all, ffs there was a romanian still riding near the end, where was his team mates, he did it on his own.

not exactly a big shock that video, any disc cutter with a good disc, will cut through any lock,its just a matter how long, ive seen places where they have just cut through the railings instead, alot easier

it was good watching them come over caerphilly mountain today, at least the sun came out, and the mountain cafe had a busy day, never seen so many police bikers though, at one point i thought they were having their own race.

why not just fit what you have already got, then when it wears out upgrade simples, theres no huge difference anyway lol, its not the end of the world isit?

why not try these guys, ive used them no probs , does exactly what its says on the tin and a good price .http://www.epicbleedsolutions.com/images/kits/gallery/xl/avid-c.jpg

i recomend the lezyne valve adapter, that screws onto the valves, got mine from chainreaction, never had a problem since, easy to use and works with both valve types, idiot proof.

my pennies worth, sunset or a bit further out skenes, both are good and get my vote.

i think the only good thing about tubeless, is the fact you can run lower presures and not get pinch flats, apart from that i cant see the point, theres no difference in weight, i use latex tubes, 135gr each, run them for nearly a year, only had one puncture, big shard of glass, which btw was easily fixed with a park super patch in 5 mins, and when i change tyres i dont have all the bother of messing about with the fluid, and sealing the tyres, too many people think its the holy grail, i know just as many people who still use tubes, you still need tubes when you run tubeless, just incase you get a bad puncture on the trail, all i carry is two boxes of park super patches job done, and because i dont need to run my tyres at silly low presures that advantage doesnt apply to me, so from my point of view i honestly cant see the point, but like most things its each to their own lol, some people think they have to run tubeless to keep up with the crowd, overated if you ask me, i was running tubes over 20yrs ago ive not died yet, so if it aint broke dont fix it, the only place i can see a real advantage is when your doing alot of downhill or you like running low presures, apart from that cant see the point.

made to have a tatoo of a bike on her forid, n underneath, they dont pay road tax, stupid bitch. definately should be sterilised, no point in breeding more of these morons for the future, we have enough as it is.

i use the ergon gp3 grips, they have made a big difference to my cycling, no more hand pain, when doing the longer rides over 35 miles, they give you various hand positions so you can move your hands around on the grips and they lock into position, best item ive bought for a while.

ive used them this year, they are good on tarmac, roll fast, okish off road, but my biggist gripe, they dont last very long, the centre tread soon wears down to bare rubber, and then they start to get a bit sketchy, also not that puncture resistant either, ive gone back to a specialized crossroads armadilo on the back,there really bombproof and last ages, but there heavy, but no problems for me, they keep you fit, i use a kenda small block 8 on the front

specialized crossroads armadilo, absolutely bombproof, ive ran these tyres for over 2yrs no punctures and they still have loads of tread left, they roll well on tarmac and do ok when on bike tracks, only downside they are heavy,but when they are this good who cares.

specialized crossroads armadilo, absolutely bombproof, ive ran these tyres for over 2yrs no punctures and they still have loads of tread left, they roll well on tarmac and do ok when on bike tracks, only downside they are heavy,but when they are this good who cares.

never take anything for granted, when it comes to dealing with halfords, just google halfords auto centres, all depends which branch you use though, some are ok, some are abysmal, its the luck of the draw, but i would never take my bike into a halfords or car, my boardman bike took me about 40 mins of work to get it right, even after their pre delivery checks,those checks arent worth the paper there written on, i would always advice someone who bought a bike from halfords to check it throughly or get a trained mech to checkit, dont rely on their staff to be competant, there about as good as their customer services, which are notoriously bad, try ordering spare parts and you will soon see what i mean, its a shame cause their bikes are good, but halfords wont invest in training their staff to high enough levels, thus why their reputation is crap.

because everyone has to be there 2 mins ago, same as car drivers who have to get one car in front of you, even though it doesnt get them anywhere, apart from next to you at the next junction, and more crap excuses, its their life, it they wanna risk it thats up to them, but usually theres more than one person involved when the shit hits the fan, they get no sympathy from me what so ever, what goes around comes around, sooner or later their luck will run out, law of averages, then its other people who have to pick up the pieces.

ive made a few pivot bolts for friends in the past as im a tool maker by trade, if you talk nicely to some people on here, im sure some one would gladly help and make you one up, the main problem ive found with some of these oem parts, is that the thread tolerance is not that good, so sometimes even with threadloc these bolts will in time loosen off, especially on full sus bikes, where the linkage takes such a hammering, all it should take is a quick check over the main areas, ive had no problems with re-tightening of bolts with loctite on them, then coming loose due to breaking the loctite hold as you put it, loctite is used to help stop bolts vibrating loose, its not used as a glue,ive found using plumbers p.t.f.e. tape works just as good, especially on some of these cheaply made parts, where the threads are not exactly made to tight tolerences.

ive taken disc rotor bolts out numerous times and reused the original loctite and havent died yet, so long as there is still some loctite on the threads there should be no problems, using the right torque settings is more important than loctite, ive yet to see any bike mech re-loctite a thread ,just because they tightened the bolt, all bolts on bikes will slacken off a bit due to vibration, thats why as a user you should regularly check all bolts, specially vital areas, loctite helps, but ive still seen bolts slacken off even with loctite, especially on pivot bolts, they take such a hammering.

i changed from small block 8s, to shwalbe sammy slicks 2.1, they give you a bit of bounce on my rigid mtb, plus they are fast on road, also a bit of grip off road on dry single track, and only 1 puncture in a years cycling, mind you it was a big shard of glass, which would of gone through most tyres.

its very dusty where i ride on the bike tracks, so every so often i use the jet wash in my local morrisons, only a quid for a short wash, just make sure you just use the water rinse setting and not the wash wax setting, doesnt help your disc brakes much otherwise, and avoid spraying directly on your bearings, brake disc calipers.

NAH, love it lol, did 160 miles last week, but i have the option to ride in the morning, not so warm then, just a matter of dodging all the nutters walking their dogs off the leads on the bike paths, right next to a large open field,they amaze me these so called responsable dog owners, instead of walking their dogs off the lead in a perfectly good field, they choose to walk them down a bike track, common sense obviously isnt one of their strong points, and before peeps start criticising, im a dog owner and lover, but i would rather walk my two dogs in a field, rather than on a bike path, ive got more respect for my dogs, than to endanger them on a bike path.

bolle contour safety glasses from screwfix £10, they have a bit of a tint, but are the best value for money glasses ive ever used, why would you need to spend more, they do exactly the same job, as more expensive glasses ive had previously, and when you drop them and scratch the lenses, for a tenner its not the end of the world.

depends if you have a nice friend with access to a machine shop, oversized bushes, re-machine the arms,and if needed a couple of shims, ive done similar for friends, but then im a tool maker by trade.

seriously, are you still thinking of taking your bike to another shop, half n hour on you tube or googling, it will show you how to fit the parts,or even park tool website, then you wont have to put up with lbs bs, and also next time you can do the work yourself, quicker and cheaper, i used to work 12-14hr shifts in engineering, i still wouldnt take my bike into a lbs to be fixed, the time its taken you to take your bike into lbs,then wait have the hastle ringing them, then post on here, you could of easily have fixed your bike, dont want to seem like im having a go, but it seems a better solution to me,better time management lol

my halfords special is as quiet as a mouse, a boardman urban mtb team, mainly because ive serviced it, rather than let halfords mess about with it, having your bike making creaking noises, its just a matter of elimination, and patience you will get there in the end, if you grease and lube enough parts, i had a creak earlier in the year turned out to be the charge spoon saddle rails where they go into the saddle, a quick spray of gt 85 hasnt made a noise since.

what about the cycle lanes, that suddenly stop for no logical reason,you have a 300m long road and after about 120m the cycle lane stops, at that very moment the car drivers start to pull in closer to the kerb, thus pushing cyclists into the kerbs, which lunatic thought that one up, it would be safer with out the cycle lane, than have one that suddenly just stops, again council logic.

i had this with my hardtail. tracked it down, and it was the saddle, sprayed some gt lube and its cured the creaking, its a charge spoon btw

buy 2 pedal taps, or if you know a friend who works in a machine shop use theirs, ive done plenty for friends as ima tool maker by trade and have access to a engineering work shop, just make sure you use the left hand thread tap, on the non drive side crank, cheers steve

i do on average 100 miles a week mainly on cycle tracks on my mtb,as of next week will be totaling an average of 140 mls a week as i now have more time, on average anywhere between 25-40 ish per ride, depends on weather and what time i have, ive built myself up to those miles over a period of 3 months, when i first started 20 miles was an effort, but now 30 miles is quite easy, i put my headphones on and you soon see the mileage rack up on the computer, when your enjoying yourself lol, plus because i ride off road, i dont get stressed with idiots in cars, just dog walkers lol

freeagent, totaly agree, im not that shallow a person to be worried what people think of me or what names on my bike, i dont have any need for xt,xtr everything,or niner stamped on my frame, my bike rides just as good as any £1600 bike ive owned or ridden,i would challenge any one to find a new mtb with a rigid carbon fork with a similar spec, that weighs just over 22lb, for £600, thats what i paid for my boardman on special offer, i couldnt find a rigid mtb when i looked, there all mostly hybrid bikes that have rigid forks.

nice one crazy legs, good to see that sometimes these idiots get what they deserve, unfortunately its a rare occurance these days, ive been knocked off my bike 6 times, on various stretches of road, luckily no real damage, more or less it was me being pushed into the kerbs, lucky for me these days i dont need to travel on roads much to get to the cycle trails.

they maybe cheap in some peoples minds, but they are deffinately better vaue for money than any, specialized, gt, or cannondale that ive owned previously, ive owned bikes twice the money i payed for this boardman, and in one case three times the price, non of them were any where near the value for money that the boardman is, theres nothing wrong with boardmans bikes, they have better customer reviews than most, the problems start when you have to deal with halfords staff, its a shame cause i like halfords the shop, just there staff lets them down, im always amazed why chris boardman ever used halfords to sell his bikes, but then ,look at the amount of distribution halfords have, he is obviously happy with the arrangement, its a pitty halfords dont invest in better staff training, btw who,s being self righteous, if anybody is being self righteous its certain people on here who make crap comments,but then thats stw all over lol, i just posted the facts, as i and halfords and the insurance compay saw them, and btw ive recieved another email from the insurance company, they said they were willing to insure the bike with only the numbers we could read, so this post is totally null n void, sorry for wasting peeps times, bloody insurance companies, i bet we all have had problems with insurance companies though, be it bike or car related, the reason i wanted to get it right, is because i know that once the insurance company has taken your money, any little clause they can think of, to not pay out in a claim, they will, maybe some people will find that out to their cost, if they make a claim and they havnt recorded the frame numbers, i hope not peeps, but it always pays to be vigilant when dealing with insurance firms.

it amazes me that certain people on here are so quick to say that it wasnt halfords at fault , when they have already admited it was, and so did the customer services team, although it did take some quick talking from me ,to get them to own up lol, also how would halfords manage if i made a warranty claim when they didnt record the frame number, i could take a friends bike in so long as it was same make and size, and they wouldnt have a clue it wasnt mine,not only would the frame number on the paper work connect the bike to me for the insurance company but it would also cover halfords backside, btw ive checked the last 4 bikes ive bought for me and my family from skenes in cardiff, every bike had the frame number on the booklet and the dealer stamp, deffinately sounds like good business practice to me, if it were my business i would deffinately record all frame numbers, to stop people possibly making a claim with a similar framed bike, when you have a business you do every thing you can to cover yourself against dodgy claims by certain customers, cheers steve fullstop lol. ps when you buy a bike from halfords they are supossed to fill out a service check pre delivery form, and in the top corner is supossed to be the frame number, this is to stop customers making a claim against halfords for the bike not being properly built and checked, didnt work in my case any way, because when i got the bike home, i spent at least an hour putting the bike right, so in my book halfords mechanics and their staff deserve all the bad press they get, like i said earlier you cant blame the staff, they havnt been properly trained, you pay crap money on staff training ,you and up with crap staff, simples FULLSTOP