thisisnotaspoon – thank you!

That makes a lot of sense. I was worried it'd be something to do with the angle of the squared faces. I'll double check the axel thicknesses when I get home.

Campag BBs seem to last forever – "an £11 Veloce BB? – yes please!"

Thanks for the all the feedback. I'm not in need of tons of power.

aracer – I am using with STI levers [though they are only brake levers – it's a fixed gear]. I'm going to go with your philosophy – canti's cause that's the lever they're meant for.

Cheers STW.

I overtook a mate at this years Bristol BikeFest – went screaming past on a climb and gave him a load of banter about being slow etc. Felt like a knob immediately after!

It hurts to think about. : (

Thanks for all the info guys. I will contact the tunnel fuzz [how rude!] and then ride through anyway.

singlespeed

Brant: Interesting – I shall give this a bash.

Excellent – I’ll try above mentioned.

TJ – I have M&S for contents, but they won’t touch the building.

Thank you very much – we’re just there for this weekend – hopefully we can find space!

Cheers and take care.

Just take them out and remove the stick on velcro bits. Works for me. If your head is not similar to the inside of the helmet then you may have a few pressure points.

In which case, take a wood plane to your head and get moding!

2.1 crossmark all the way. Just don’t be surprised if it gets a bit Sketchy McFlav on the loose or wet rooty stuff, but the low rolling resistance is worth it IMO.

I’ve got MAvic TN 719s. Disc specific, strong. Probably not as light as the other rims mentioned above, but you won’t have to worry as much about breaking them!

Dremmel them splines boyo! Don’t waste more than £50 on something you don’t need.

You did well getting that out! If the rotor bolts are tight then bending the rotor itself shouldn’t be a problem. I’ve managed to exert a lot of force on mine before, with no issues. If the slight rubbing is bothering you enough then give it several bends at the point it rubs.

I all honesty, once you’ve done a days ride, they’ll be a different shape anyway. Keep fiddling with the pad position though as with experimentation you’ll learn a lot about how to set them up – and how not to!

The key thing with cable discs is to make sure that the rotor is centred in the caliper. A common problem is that the rotor may be very close to the caliper on one side and as the pad wears, the rotor is pushed against the caliper and you’ll get a nasty metal on metal warning noise.

Best of luck!
ps, the best BB7 set up guide I’ve found is on the park website.

coylumbridge, If your rotors are brand new then it is likely that they are slightly “taco” shaped due to the deep drawing process in which they are made . You can use a shifting spanner or pliers to bend the rotors at the points they rub and that should help.

As far as bedding in goes – just ride them. The key thing is to have a lot of heat, so drag the brakes down a hill whilst pedalling.

I’m on night shift so any questions just fire away!

A classic my partner and I do a lot is tagliatelle with tomatoes, rocket and anchovies.

Just mash it all in together. Tons of carbs, lots of flavour from the anchovies. Of course if your picky eater doesn’t like the little fishes, then you’re stuffed.

Anything with pasta and butter in it generally does the job!

I use a 12-27 Ultegra as it’s about 80g lighter than XT, but more importantly, it was £15 cheaper.

Get train to Fort William, go up the West coast and see a lot of brilliant stuff. Get train back from John O’Groats. That’d be my choice.

West is Best!
ps, pack midge repellent – if it exists.

Everyone,

Thanks so so much for all the responses. I’m a bit shaken up by it and so all the supportive comments – though I don’t know any of you – have been very heartening.

anotherdeadhero – I don’t commute on the A38 reguarly so it may be another rider. With regard to in garage security, we had nothing. The three bikes which were thrown at me were not taken because the theives couldn’t ride them due to missing pedals, saddles or massive frames. They didn’t take my fixie as it’d be difficult to ride and it’s also a gate.

Perhaps we should all be taking our seatposts and pedals off. We’re going to move from this place ASAP as it’s no longer safe and in the new place we’ll be using rape alarms tied onto the rear wheel and anchored to wall as well as some form of motion alarm in the shed and I’ll probably buy a couple of motorbike chains to slow proceedings down.

I’ve got limited access to internet in the flat so if anyone wants to get in touch my work email is: colin [dot] baird [at] csplc.com

Mr Agreeable – Thanks for your blog – I’ve emailed photos and description, but ran out of internets in the library as they were closing. I’ll get in touch with more detail soon.

Take care all – I’m going to sleep soon – I hope!

ps, we live in Henleaze.

Hi, I used to work for a marquee company as an “erector” – honestly! We used the modern, aluminium, clearspan marquees, not the traditional wood and canvas types.

For 500 people, you’d most likely need to have a 15×30-50m marquee for food and beer. I was at the Cambridge beer festival last year and they had a 15x70m marquee and it probably had around 500 people in it.

If you want a chat with someone with A LOT of experience, speak to Grevil at County Marquees – 07957 836029. Tell him you spoke to Colin.

Take care

We did it in July I think. We wrote a little report about it on our website: teamteacake.com

The prevailing wind is going to be S-W throughout the year unfortunately. You’ll get more nasty stormy stuff in Spring, Winter and Autumn. Summer should hopefully be more stable and if you’re on the East coast then you might get a seabreeze from the east, either cancelling out or maybe even helping you from behind! Maybe.

Best of luck!

I’ll echo the above comments. We rode Glasgow to Inverness in about 9 hours and had a nice warm South Westerly the whole way – could’ve been an 18 hour epic in the other direction!

Thanks for the feedback – sorry, I did meant o say “only a little heavier” crossed brain wires!

I’ve just been down there and the plant’s running a treat. Changed the air flowrate and nozzle angle on the blowers so now your Crunchie treatsize are going to have fewer bubbles in the chocolate.

How’s Toulouse?

You seem to be right about the £300. My LBS quoted £300 all fitted to the bike. It seems I’m about 2 months the wrong side of the Shimano price hike.

Can you tell me how the hub is to ride with?

Brant,

Thanks for that. Might have to be a bigger rotor then.

Thanks and take care.

Thanks for the info!

BMW yesterday with snow on all windows except driver and front window. Took a RIGHT turn form a side road, onto the road in front of me, almost taking me out.

BMW = worst drivers on road.

100 miles commuting and about 6 miles xc night ride on Tue. Brought the mtb to work today to ensure snow related slides were stable.

Just gone from 2.4 mountain kings to 2.35 high rollers. The High rollers are probably a little wider, but roll a mile better and have a ton more grip. I doubt the bead will explode off like my last mountain king did.

Conti make poo mtb tyres but ace road ones. Maxxis for mtb all the way!

breatheeasy – thanks for cutting through the chaff!

Cheers for the input everyone.

Use this: http://bikeland.myswitzerland.com/en/routen.cfm

Switzerland is excellent for mtbing. There are plenty of walking trails waymarked with mtb signs. Just pick a route to ride and follow the signs. You can buy “singletrail” maps from bike shops – they are your best bet.

The riding is largley singletrack, but remember that the climbs could be uber. We did a 70k ride which had 1400m of climb and 2000m of descent – then we got the train back. Buses and trains are fine with bikes.

Enjoy!