Some St Emillion earlier, left from Sat night, really lovely.

Sadly not enough left to satisfy but can’t justify cracking open a second bottle as I’ve got an early start in the morning to go to The Smoke – looking at weather forecast might as well stay in bed :-(

Are UST tyres just as prone to punctures as running standard tyres with tubes?

No. Pinchflats are a thing of the past, and thorn/nail punctures seal themselves assuming you run sealant.

If you get a puncture on the trails is it just a case of removing the valve and popping a tube in?

No, not necessarily. If you use the ‘sticky string’ type repair kits you can seal the hole externally without having to unseatthe tyre from the rim, or even remove the wheel from the frame. You can be on your way within a few minutes.

You can still get pinchflats, though it is quite hard, you really have to slam it hard into something lumpy (I got one a couple of weeks ago). I’ve had about one or two punctures a year since I went tubeless, vs one or two a month before.

And being a cupid stunt I’m never carrying my sticky string which does work in most cases.

Tubeless really is The Future.

Just as a counterpoint, I’ve been with Direct Line for about 10 years now.

I’m not stupid – every year I check a few direct insurers, some comparison sites and a couple of brokers but seems to work out that I just stick with Direct Line. They have rarely actually been the cheapest but they offer me decent cover and when you look at the detail of what you’re getting then with the extras to bring the bargain basement policies up to Direct Line level there’s so little in it that it’s not worth the bother of changing to save a few pounds.

I sold a brand new unused pair for about 75-80 quid, with 160 rotors. I suspect they were too cheap as I had about 5 people chasing them within hours of listing on here.

It works. The 2007 Pikes don’t have a Maxle 360 as standard by the looks of things. The Maxle 360 works just fine though. Hurrah.

“devs – Member

Quite a lot of people got caught by them in Canada when they collapsed too. I’ve noticed by the adverts on TV that they are back but I don’t think I will be using them any time soon.”

Flyglobespan have never collapsed as far as I know. Zoom went bust (who did a lot of UK-Canada routes but they were an entirely separate airline and AFAIK nothing to do with Flyglobespan.

Sweet. Was just talking about this last night. Not the same when you don’t get it in real time with the suspense, but still a classic!

We need to bring back:
– Owned with Bombers (i think this was oneeyedwilly referred to above)
– The Badger/ Yestubes.com/ Pete Fagerlin thread
– The Fat Simon thread

Yes, they are fine, have used them a few times from Edinburgh to Malaga and paid the £15 and that’s been it.

Bike in soft bag with padding but nothing else hasn’t ever been a problem – I would be surprised if it’s less than 16kg but I have never been challenged on it.

MrNutt – how do you get from £999 to £450.23?

£1000 down December ’07 (Cost to my employer £825 because they pay no VAT)

£851 cost to employer as VAT is pre-vat price x 1.175 (851 x 1.175 = 1000). This assumes they have complete recovery on their input VAT as well. If your company makes any exempt supplies then they won’t get all their input VAT back so some of it will end up as a cost. It’s impossible to guess what that would be though.

12 monthly payments of £74 off gross salary. (ie employer picks up 12×74 = £888). (Why the extra cost?).

The extra is only £37 (maximum). Could be interest, overheads of running the scheme, anything really. It’s only 4.3% of the £851 they pay out for the bike which doesn’t seem unreasonable.

Cost to me = 12 monthly payments of approximately £44 (after tax and NI) = approx £528, plus the final bill (I just got) to Cyclescheme for £57.

Meaning I paid about £585.

My employer appears on the face of it to make about £63 gain, (888-825), and also picks up further from not needing to pay their employers NI contributions on the £888 which they didn’t pay me. (How much was that? – It doesn’t matter to me much).

£37 gain (max) as above. They will save another 11% (I think – not looked at employer’s NI for a while) on the gross salary you’ve sacrificed = about £80.

So I don’t know why monthly was £74 (gross) rather than £69 (= £825/12). Was this some sort of charge to cover my employers accounting costs?

Possibly, plus finance costs – they are shelling out £851 which they get back over the year so they will have to cover that somehow.

Finally, the bike seems to have been given over to Cyclescheme, who are valuing it at 5% + VAT of it’s purchase value, so a final cheque I’m about to write to Cyclescheme (not to my employer) for £57 will close the deal. So is this £50 where Cyclescheme make their money?

Possibly, they have to make some money somewhere along the way – will probably also charge a fee to your employer and make a margin on the bike (buying for less than RRP but charging RRP to your employer, for example) – they are a business after all.

Effective cost to me will be somewhat over £585 because last years (meagre) pay rise would have been a percentage on my £888 reduced gross salary. Perhaps additional £15 nett PA. I’ll account for this perhaps over 2 or 3 years before it equalizes, and so guestimate an extra £40 for this cost. I lost nothing on pension pot(which I would have done with money purchse) because it’s (remarkably) still a Final Salary set-up here.

Do they really do pay rises on post-sacrifice salary rather than notional annual salary? That sounds bizarre to me

So for £1000 bike, effective cost will be approximately £630. Not exactly 50%, but I didn’t expect that.

Can anyone shed any light on the holes in the above?

And before anyone asks, – Yes I do use it every single day!

At the end of the day you’ve got a £1k bike for about 600 quid. Your employer doesn’t have to offer Cyclescheme and probably isn’t making any money out of it, and if they are it’s not much. They are possibly paying out slightly less cash overall, but have taken on the costs, risks and hassle of running the scheme. Ultimately you’ve saved £350-400 (assuming of course you’d have bought a similar bike anyway!) and it’s probably break even or small cost saving for your employer relative to paying you the salary. WIN/ WIN I’d say.

EDIT – forgot about Capital Allowances. That’s quite hard to calculate but could be about 28% of the bike’s price saved in Corporation Tax if you work for a large company, less if you work for a small company, but probably won’t get all the tax relief in the first year.

Hora – it’s snowed, gone and snowed again since you’ve been there.

GT was absolutely ace last night, best night ride of the winter for me (with the Pikey Soul which rocks!).

Did Blue + Deliverence/ Redemption. Scattering of snow above Buzzard’s Nest level, inch or so by the bottom of Spooky Woods (we didn’t go any higher than that). The first bit of Deliverence was quite interesting/ alarming as it’s a bit off camber (not that you normally notice!) and with a couple of inches of slush on it there wasn’t a lot of grip, but the rest of our route was fine. Pretty warm today so I guess the thaw will continue.

As Stu says, if it freezes overnight then there’s a good chance it will be icy first thing but wasn’t really any ice around last night, just slushy snow and not deep enough to be a problem.

Thanks all. On investigations this evening, it would appear that my Pikes are 2007 forks so the damaged one will be a Maxle 360 anyway. Which would mean a new Maxle 360 will be just the ticket. Ahem.

Yes, fine by me. Start and target would be fine by me. It’ll be another motivator, though if I’m not in negative weight loss this week then I’ll be amazed.

Still, no Xmas sweeties left any more and I’m not buying any more…

:-S

Christ on a bike.

Can’t believe no-one has said that on this thread.

What is the difference between religious belief and mental illness? Discuss.

Go and look at how much the Garmin maps are and have a grumpy face for the rest of the afternoon :-p

You can only use Garmin TOPO maps or Citymaps.

Sad day for RBS today, but while the shares are still trading on the stock market they can still go down.

Remember that kid that put his life savings into B&B shares thinking they couldn’t go any lower?

So sad.

For those that don’t know, Raasay Outdoor Centre was (amongst a large number of other things to a large number of people) the home of the Raasay Rumble, probably the coolest bike event race weekend thing in the world.

The only positives I can see are that no-one was hurt in the fire, and that the enthusiasm and energy of the people behind the centre will see it rebuilt.

See also:

http://raasayhouse.blogspot.com/

Nowt. But did get out on Friday, and rebuilt my Pikes today.

Black is worth the effort if you’ve not done it before, more remote and quieter than Red. I wouldn’t necessarily recommend a rigid HT for the Black (I certainly didn’t think that was "comfortable", quite the opposite probably!) but other than that, the main thing would be to have a bike you’re happy to climb on.

I generally prefer FS on the Black (took my Prophet MX round most of the Black on Friday which was awesome fun on the Boundary Trail and Deliverance) and HT for the Red, but despite the impression you may get from people on here, there’s no byelaws on what bike is permitted on what trail.

It’s all good fun.

Ace thread.

Prophets rock, and while they aren’t pretty bikes they look so purposeful and ready to go.

Bit late now, but if you’re staying anywhere half-decent that would been the time to call on the concierege. Colleague in a similar situation ended up with a suit from a 24 hour hypermarket. Not the sharpest threads, but a good icebreaker at the meeting.

But golden rule is hand luggage for the win (especially if going anywhere other than London City). I can do a suit week on hand bags no problem, if it’s an overnighter you should be ashamed of yourself! Just wear the jacket if you’re worried about it getting crushed in bags.

Happy with that

There is a gusset under the downtube, linking to the headtube, on mine – you just can’t see it from that angle with that dodgy exposure. It always felt underforked with Pikes, reckon it will be well sweet with the 36s.

You can see the gusset on bristolsurfer’s pic – runs from headtube to cable guide. It’s not massively obvious but it is there.

[/url]

Prophet MX1 frame (medium)
DHX5.0 Air
Fox Float 36RC2s
Hope Bulbs on XM819 rims
Maxxis Ignitor 2.35 LUSTs
M970 XTR mechs, shifters, chainset
Avid Juicy 7s with 203mm rotors
Thompson seatpost (410mm Layback)
Flite saddle
RF Atlas Bars and Thompson X4 stem
Ergon Grips
Time Xen Carbon pedals

Never weighed it, but if more than 30lb it’s not much more.

I rode the route in late April March last year solo with a scran stop at Fortingal, was ace, highly recommended.

I’d probably be on for that. I’m not doing the event though – £54 is a lot of beans to ride on what are nearly empty roads anyway :-)

http://www.thedailymash.co.uk/news/celebrity/emma-thompson-to-decide-where-you-go-on-holiday-200901131507/

Glen Lyon / Loch Lyon is all rideable out to Auch (yeah I know it’s not marked on the map but it’s there – an estate track all the way around LL)

So the the track on the north side of the Loch and Allt Kinglass join up? Excellent news, will remember that!

I had some shonky recollection of it all being trackless but must be a dozen years since I was last along there, and can’t quite remember whether it was that glen or Glen Corallan/ Abhainn Ghlass we walked.

Short answer – yes, they make a big difference.

Illustrated example – my winter commute in is about 6miles through traffic and takes about 25 mins on CX bike with Spesh Houfflaizes on it (knobblies), and about 21-22 mins with Borough tyres (slicks with a little bit of tread on the edge). Both weigh about the same and both have a 32mm nominal size. Extrapolate up to 20 miles and you have about 10-15 mins difference assuming you’re putting the same effort in. I normally run the knobblies so I can take a long way home, or do some cheeky cut-throughs that miss out the worst of the bottlenecks on the direct route, which makes the whole thing so much more pleasant.

CX bikes rock massively for commuting – FACT.

The most rideable route would be from Dalwhinnie southwest to Loch Pattack, north the west following the River Pattack, down the side of Lochan na h’earba, NW towards Laggan Dam, S down the strath ossian road to Loch Ossian then from Loch Ossian to Loch Treig (the path running NW from loch bypassing station is better IIRC). That’s all landrover track and reasonably easy going. From Loch Treig it’s about 6km of on/off the bike to Meanach then you can follow the Loch Eilide track to Kinlochleven.

From Kinlochleven could go S over the Devil’s Staircase to Kingshouse, then WHW past Ba Cottage to Loch Tulla, W to Glen Kinglass and SW to Taynuilt – again that’s virtually all rideable – top bit of Devil’s staircase (after you leave the hydro road until A82) would be a bit on/off but rest is fine.

Could go via Lochs Ericht and Pattack to Culra bothy then Bealach Dubh, trackless to Ossian then pick up the route suggested above. Harder, more mountainous but probaly half the distance of the rideable route. EDIT – just realised you’ve done that, d’oh!

Assuming you mean with seats up so the bike is completely concealed?

I’ve got a Passat estate and can just squeeze my Soul into the back with wheels off and seatpost out. On my Rush I have to either whip the mech off or loosen the stem so the bars can rotate a bit to get it in. I’ve tried it every which way and that’s how it has to be.

Passat estate was much bigger than Golf estate so I reckon no chance of getting a bike in a Golf boot without serious dismantling.

Obviously seats down is a different story – 4 bikes, 2 1/2 weeks kit and a several of cases of wine in there, easy!

Cheers, just taken that. Might help. I’ve had 3 of these, last one quite regularly.

# Fixed occasional issue with Edge shutting down when Mode button was pressed while following a Course.
# Fixed issue where user could not change vertical zoom scale for a Course profile.
# Fixed issue where sometimes the most recent History would not be written out to XML until disconnecting and reconnecting USB.

yes, mailed Marsdenman – 4lb down this week but probably not all lard as was off the bike for almost a fortnight before this week! Still, in right direction and as long as doesn’t go up next week will be happy.

10 at Kirroughtree is a more fun course but I think 10UTB is a better course for solo.

10@KT a great course for riding because you’re either climbing or descending on singletrack so little respite and with the exception of the last descent there aren’t really any long climbs or descents on the course, also nowhere you can ease off and eat or drink for a minute or two. There’s almost too much singletrack for a solo endurance event, they could spare some for SITS or Mayhem :P I found it harder to pace myself and make sure I was eating and drinking enough because it’s just good riding all the time.

10UTB is better for a solo effort – it’s got a better “vibe” partly because the entry is bigger and partly because I guess it’s No Fuss homeland! The course is largely a bit of down, one long climb, one long descent with a sharp climb in the middle and a gradual climb back to the start – longer segments suit me better I think. Also got some level forest road for whacking a banana/ energy bar/ gel/ rock of crack to keep you going.

For a team I’d say definitely 10@KT – solo it’s really hard to call, fortunately I’m planning on doing both this year again!

Cheers Prophet2.

The ice sheet at the bottom of Poet’s Glen (edge of Pentlands) has gone now. If it stays “warm” (+5C on edge of Edinburgh this evening) we will probably give it a go on Sunday.

I’m mostly in agreement with coffeeking on this (though a bit less of the anthropomorphising the hound). If dog’s happy in himself and not in pain or any suffering, or has no signs of imminent demise I’d keep him until he gets to that point. That might be now, or might be when his eyesight goes to the extent he can’t navigate round things, or when legs go to the point he can’t get around the house or go for a big steaming poo in the garden.

Only you can tell when that time comes. Then you can be glad he’s a dog and not a person so can be put out of a miserable existence with a bit of help.

If you think that the time is now then you know what to do, but I’d seriously reconsider doing it without discussing it with the missus. It’s upsetting to say goodbye, but gives a sort of finality which makes it easier to come to terms with the demise of the pet. It’s not the sort of thing you can undo, and might help you decide what to do. When the time came for “our” dog (very different circumstances so as easy as those decisions get), even though it was really my gf’s dog (and the dog thought that too!) and she’d had the dog longer than I’d been about we made the decision together – I’d have been gutted if she’d gone it alone.

Yup – night ride from the house, just out for an hour or so though. Was barely below freezing here, and been above freezing all day but not by much.

So that lose-lose scenario of wet sheet ice and slushy mud. Still a giggle though.

right now – Kings of Leon, Aha Shake Heartbreak

Going for The Plan A Diet which works without fail, the total detox/ freak diet never works, it only lasts a few days.

Plan A Diet is an “eat less sh*** and exercise more” sort of diet – thought I might as well give it a name!

So riding into work an extra day a week and probably a longer road ride at the weekend which I need to do anyway should cover off the exercise more.

Small changes in diet going OK so far, things like:
– porridge with a tsp of honey for breakfast instead of crappy cereal or toast which doesn’t last
– nothing from the chocolate machine when I get into work (I have a box of mini Toblerones in a drawer, one of them will kill the chocolate craving which is far better than a bar of Dairy Milk)
– salad bar instead of a hot lunch at work
– black coffees instead of lattes (can’t stomach a skinny latte)
– a banana and tea when I get into work, maybe a Nutrigrain if I ride in. So no toast or (worse) bacon or black pudding roll
– a couple of oatcakes before I ride home for an enduring energy lift, keeps me from getting the munchies in the evening.

Stick to that and I’m down 1-2lb a week. Where I struggle is keeping the weight off once lost…especially in the autumn/ winter when riding less…