Gravel bike / all road bike / gnarmac bike? Call it what you will. A look in the tripster thread shows how popular this type of bike is getting, but the tripster isn’t the only game in town, so lets have a look at yer bike mister.

Yes, but it’s the best one and when mine arrives and you see it’s titanium loveliness, you’ll be so upset that they put black paint all over yours ;-x

I was going to do that, but 2 x 10 with a super compact 30/46, but decided this week that I really want 1 x 11. I thought all sram stuff was interchangeable, but thought I’d better check before ordering, but now i’m not so sure.

I’ve cancelled my Kenesis wheels as I wanted to be able to run a sram 10-42 cassette, but now i’m not sure if everything is compatible. Does anyone know if the following are compatible?

Sram CX1 crankset
Sram 10-42 cassette
Sram force 1 long cage rear mech
Sram force 1 ergodynamic levers

The wheels i’ve ordered come with an XD driver.

Thanks.

Andy, no I didn’t. I ordered one from Freeborn because their website said they had stock. I kept the order with them as I didn’t want to miss out on the next shipment, but rang and emailed other shops to see if anyone had any. Lovevelo didn’t have one in stock and I didn’t think it was on to try their demo bike when I was buying the frame from elsewhere. I’m pretty sure the 54cm will be ok for me.

I can’t wait. My partner has just become the owner of a Vaya Ti and is raving about how great that kind of bike is.

Does anyone know if the Kinesis wheels are compatible with a Sram 10-42 cassette? Thanks.

I got talked into doing the tunnel, I wasn’t keen on the idea but I wouldn’t go back to going on the ferry now, it’s so much quicker and no feeling queasy.

Thanks. I do have long legs. I’m not planning on any technical offroad, but sustrans routes and as many dirt tracks as possible to avoid roads. I’m quite tempted to do what Somafunk has done and put a Jones bar on it, I just need to have a go on my partner’s Spaceframe and see how I like the hand position. Prologue have still got the 54 and will sell it frame only, but its £150 more. Waiting for Lovevelo to reply.

Thanks. I’ve emailed Lovevelo and Prologue. I’ve been following this thread for a while but have been travelling and was waiting until I was back before ordering. I’m sure I saw more than one shop with stock a couple of weeks ago, but now they all seem to have gone, I’m kicking myself. I’ve ordered one from Freeborn but it’s 4-6 weeks, so hoping to find one in stock somewhere. I’m NW Leics, so Lovevelo is fairly local, going to see if I can get a demo to make sure I’m ordering the right size (according to Kinesis, at 5’7″, it’s the right size for me, but a couple of people on here have made me a bit worried about sizing). I’m a bit unsure about drops, so a demo will help me decide if I want to go for drops or an alternative.

Anyone know of any shops with a 54cm in stock? I ordered one this morning from Freeborn because their website said they had one in stock, but it turns out they don’t. I’ve tried fatbirds and it seems I just missed out, they were waiting for a customer to try their last one out for size this afternoon and it fitted, so she bought it :(

I’ve had a Clio, a 205, a Scenic, a Jazz and now a C3 Picasso. None have had electrical problems, bits of plastic kept falling off the Scenic, but it was the Jazz that gave us the most problems.

+1 to Mad Pierre, I’ve done this before. I’m not voting this time though as I’ve been out of the county for most of the year. I think my mum and dad may have put me on the electoral register at their address, but I’m currently on the south coast (only got back to uk yesterday) and not planning to be back in the midlands until later this month, so won’t be able to.

Good luck. We had a similar problem a few years ago, it took a couple of months or more to sort out and it was much simpler than your problem.

My partner paid for his mates stag do on his credit card and collected the money from all who attended, so it was quite large around £1k. When he came to pay his bill he already had his credit card set up with his bank, unfortunately, he also had my credit card info set up with his bank (both were Tesco). My details were from an old card that he’d put something on before he got his own card. He never checked the details when he made the payment and paid it against my card. We realised what he’d done quite quickly and he phoned Tesco, but they said he needed to speak to his bank to stop the payment, his bank said they couldn’t stop it and he needed to speak to Tesco.

Anyway, despite us both talking to Tesco on the same telephone call and on numerous occasions it still took far too long to sort out. The money eventually made it from a defunct account to my account but put me in credit. We had to pay Tesco again to clear his card otherwise he’d be charged a missed payment /interest. When they eventually took it off my account and paid it back to him, they charged me interest as they treated it as a cash payment or something. This also took ages to correct.

Take a seat – Dominic Gill

+1 for Mike Carter and +1 for Tim Moore.

I think some people on here are just afraid they’ll lose KOM’s to them. I’ve never ridden one, but think they’re a great idea. We were riding around Salzburg area at the weekend and there were quite a few people on them. I hardly noticed any noise from them, so would be surprised if walkers would even know, unless someone was being a loon on a deristricted one. I only noticed when I got overtaken by some old people and looked at their bikes and saw they were e-bikes. If my health/age meant I couldn’t ride a normal bike, I would definitely get one, I love being outdoors and you can get so much further on a bike than walking.

Edit – Never mind it’s just an older article of the one above.

We’ve got a Thule 3 bike one, but I wouldn’t recommend it. Its very difficult to get 3 bikes on it and impossible for 2 fs and 1 ht.

Have never driven anywhere with a road bike, but have taken my mtb with semi-slick tyres in the car to Mickleover and cycled the Pennine Bridleway (sustrans 68?) to Ashbourne. It starts with a 3 mile ride along an old railway line and then country lanes the rest of the way. It probably depends on what your road bike is like as to whether it’s rideable or not. I wouldn’t do it on something racey, but something like a Specialized Roubaix would be fine. You don’t see much traffic. It is out and back though.

Are you Coalville area? From there we used to do Heather – Market Bosworth – Twycross – Packington and back. I think that was about 30 miles. Also, Belton – Hathern – Sutton Bonnington – Kegworth then out to Sawley via Long Lane – Castle Donington and then back via Diseworth. That is a pretty flat route.

Apologies, i’ve just seen it on Facebook. Woohoo!

Chris Carter was a fan and said it inspired him. Countzero, it’s not yet confirmed, but looking likely. Number of episodes will be less than 10.

http://m.ign.com/articles/2015/03/23/rumor-x-files-revival-deal-close-could-shoot-this-summer

Egg Custard

Thanks guys, we’ll look into those.

Thanks. The view finder was one of the reasons why I was leaning towards the A6000.

I’m after some advice too. I’m looking for a compact system camera as I want something smaller than a DSLR. I am a total novice. I was looking at the Sony A6000. I know that the A5000 is aimed at the beginner, but I thought if I went for the A6000, it would save me upgrading in the future.

Enjoy it. We’ve only got 4 months left of ours.

Ours didn’t start as planned when my partner broke his thumb after colliding with his mate in the Peaks. We eventually set off for Vancouver and rode our bikes down to Portland, USA. We wanted to do the Pacific Coast Highway, but as it was a bit late in the year, we decided to just drive the Oregon bit. We hired a car and drove from Portland to Astoria and then down the coast to just north of the California border. We then started cycling again, but with a constant headwind and on mountain bikes, it was a bit of a drag, so got ourselves to Marin County and did some mountain biking. We then flew to New Zealand in November where we have been since. We start flying home via San Francisco tomorrow :( We are then planning on going to Europe.

Leisure Lakes, Breeston?

Timber Trail, North Island, NZ.

Dunn Mountain, Nelson, South Island, NZ

And no bikes, but because it’s such a beautiful place – Abel Tasman, SI, NZ

Camp Tamarancho, Marin County

If you are a couple this is a great place just north of golden gate bridge.

http://www.homeaway.co.uk/p271873vb

If you’re going to be riding its easy to get to Mt Tam, Camp Tamarancho and Repack Road. The owners are really nice and live above the property and are also cyclists.

Yeah, what Jon said about Craters. We loved it, but we’re more xc riders. Looked at the map board today and there’s only one black run and 6 red and at least one of those is up hill.

We bought our book out here.

Only got a week left before we fly back to the UK :(

Got loads with bikes and loads with water, but not many with both in the picture.

Otago Rail Trail

West Coast Wilderness Trail

Didn’t get out on Sunday, but rode Friday, Saturday and today.

Friday – Ohakune Old Coach Road, NZ

Saturday – Timber Trail, NZ

Today – Craters of the Moon bike park, Taupo, NZ

The best ones we did were Parihaka MTB trails in Whangarei. There’s not a great deal of trails here, but they are fun. We also rode at Waitangi Forest, but there was no singletrack. The Kennett brothers’ book recommends those two plus the following:-

-Tutu Trail, Ahipara 27km return, intermediate grade. It says you need to check the tides.
-Kaitaia Walkway, near Kaitaia, 12km return, intermediate grade.
-Twin Coast Cycle Trail, Horeke to Opua, 80km one way, beginner. Sounds like a rail trail.
-Glenbervie Forest, 10km northeast of Whangarei. Bike park with intermediate and expert trails (grades 3-5 trails in the book are graded 1 to 6, 6 being the hardest). Says theres 10km plus of trails. The book is a few years old, so could be more now.
– Whanui Loop, 15km east of Whangarei. 17km, grade 3, 70% gravel road, 30% singletrack.

All except Glenbervie get 2/4 for fun factor. Glenbervie is 3/4.

I’d recommend heading further south if you can to Rotorua and Taupo. Just had our first ride at Craters of the Moon this morning, it was great.

My other half can’t eat gluten and also has a reaction to oats. It isn’t because they’ve been contaminated, as he’s tried ones that aren’t and he’s also not that sensitive (he can get away with small amounts of wheat gluten). There’s protein in oats (avenins), I think, perhaps it’s this that’s the problem. I also can’t seem to tolerate them, I get indigestion.

My partner is in the road cc group and gets kudos from other countries (Hong Kong, USA, Thailand and others). I’m not in any groups and don’t get any other than from people I’ve accepted as followers.

Sunday

It looks from the receipt that his card was refunded with £304, so out of pocket by £25. He then bought a £279 TV for £279, which his card has been charged with and then a refund to his card of £25, so now not out of pocket. However, as it depends on whether the card has been refunded or store credit has been used it’s probably best to do what Andy is suggesting and check your statement.

We really enjoyed that trail from Taupo to Huka Falls, ChunkyMTB. We didn’t ride much else as we went rafting and kayaking instead. Would have liked to have gone to Craters, might stop there on the way back up to Auckland. We’re in Nelson at the moment, only been here for 2 days and not found the MTB park yet, but enjoyed cycling out to Rabbit Island and along the river in the Matai valley, very scenic. I wasn’t a big fan of Wellington. Makara Peak was good, but some of the other stuff was just silly gradients (Mt Vic/Zealandia fence line), maybe I just need to get fitter. Plus it was too windy.

Taupo was my favourite place in the North and it’s not far from Rotorua. I wouldn’t want to live in Rotorua because of the smell. I only arrived on the South Island yesterday though, so not seen much of that yet.

Sorry, misread the thread. What Milky says about clicking the hide button, I’ve done this a few times. At Hicks lodge someone had set up a segment called Hicks at night (or something similar), it was the same as other segments. There’s also far too many on Cardiac Hill at Cannock.

It’s a new thing – annual leader boards. See here

http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/strava-resetting-all-leader-boards