Got close to a foot in the garden here in Dalbeattie. Still snowing too… They did plough the road, but you can’t tell anymore! Just going back into the garden to finish off the igloo we were making!

My daughter has become a right wee parrot. Every time my wife or I are driving the car we have to watch our language as our daughter will then repeat any swear word or rude phrase she hears when she’s in the back of Grandma’s car. Much to Grandma’s amusement…

Arrrgghhh….

I’ve got to STOP looking at threads with Turner Flux in the title as it just makes me want one (again). I used to have a HL one which I stupidly sold to fund a more svelte like racing machine. I do miss it and can see me getting one again when the funds allow.

Second that about the Endura Stealth – I sold the one I had as it was just too hot for me – I hardly ever used it as a result.

Worst of all, it’s green and my Bianchi is dark brown…

You have a brown Bianchi?! Now that is against the rules…

Is it acceptable to just remove the peak from my MTB helmet

Actually – a peak on a helmet when on a road bike can be a pain as you’re body position is lower down so may find you strain your neck trying to look up from under the peak. My neck’s stiff today from racing with a cap under my helmet on Sunday (it was snowing at one point)!

Don’t tell anyone but my helmet is actually a MTB one with the peak removed, luckily no-one has spotted it yet…

Enjoy the new bike!

If he has HD then yes!

I had the Sky package, dropped it and tried to get by with just the BBC, but found the highlights packages were really annoying and that Sky had definitely poached all the decent presenters. So I went back to Sky… It is actually pretty good and I can only see the beeb coverage getting more sparse as they lose interest/money.

Take the fight to them!

I used to run a compact with a 11-23 – had decided that a compact with an 11-25 was probably the best combination (though to be honest I never really struggled with the 34/23 gear on anything). But I started racing this year so went for a 53/39. Just so I looked more like a MAN on the start line 8) Not because I got the chainset cheaper than a set of replacement rings for the compact…

Generally these people tend to be evil, genius masterminds who are very good at chess, and very bad at being ignored. Honestly, I thought people on ebay were angry until I couldn’t be arsed playing email chess with some people half way through the games. I even told them I couldn’t be bothered and they were sending me death threats!

Something similar happened to me too… Also didn’t matter what I tried they pre-empted it. I strongly suspect they were using a chess engine. But they were damn persistent and it stopped being fun.

Practice really is the only way, though be prepared to lose a lot of games!

Maybe we should start a STW online chess league?

Cigarettes?

The bike will be used on short XC (I’m signing up for the Scottish Xc series), but also for longer distance xc events.

I’ll see you there 😀

On my 26er Scott Scale! I very much doubt it’ll make much difference to me what size of wheel I use.

Can but try. I’ve had a mixed experience, all my old Endura kit was bombproof, lasted years. The newer stuff has all had loose stitching and the sizing has suddenly gone all over the shop (I can’t fit my legs in L Singletrack shorts for example but can take a size M jacket!) Having said that, the warranties dept were excellent and they’ve repaired a few bits of stuff for free. Though I suppose you could argue they shouldn’t have to have repaired it in the first place!

I had Zipp carbon bars and stem on my road bike for a while, but ended up selling them and going with Easton ally bars and stem. I can’t say I’ve noticed any discomfort or increased road buzz. I have a full carbon fork so that takes care of most of that I think. Plus I imagine tyre choice is a big factor too. Easton combo worked out as pretty much the same weight too. The bike tart in me keeps wanting to get plastic to look more pimp, but it’s a few hundred quid that I simply can’t justify. I’ve done many imperial century rides and never had a problem with comfort or fatigue.

Having said that – I’ve got plastic bars on the MTB! Sometimes the tart wins 😀

Anyone else think Justin’s House would fold down perfectly onto a flat bed lorry to be hauled around the UK on tour? I am dreading that… Though thankfully my daughter isn’t that fussed about it. She is currently obsessed with Cloudbabies and Peppa Pig. Both of which drive me up the wall. Cloudbabies especially. It’s beyond awful.

Oakley photochromic Radars are the only riding glasses I own. I use them for everything, night and day. Practically flawless. Only grumble is that they don’t go that dark in bright sun. but i live in Scotland so that’s not a problem.

I literally just got hold of a Ribble steel winter bike. First impressions are it’s heavy, but it is pretty! The ride quality is actually really good, I was worried it was going to be a tad rough and feel cheap, but it doesn’t. Handling seems good too. For the money I don’t think you can complain really. All that’s going to happen to it is it’s going to get trashed on the roads up here.

Yeah it’s no Baum or Enigma, but not too bad.

OP are you familiar with the handlebar/front hub fit thing?

Yup – I had read that if you widened your bars you should shorten the stem, but I just wasn’t sure why.

I don’t know how your controls are spaced but you may have a bit more room on a wider bar to have more of a 1 finger braking position than the older 2 by moving your brakes inboard of the shifters

They fit ok on the 580 bar (bit tight with bar ends).

I’m hoping a wider bar will be better for sprinting as at the moment I find the narrow bar just a little too narrow to properly haul on.

580mm is old skool! Thanks though, I’ll just keep the stem the same and play with bar width for now. I only asked as everyone seems to have their bars sat on top of the steerer tube these days and I thought I was missing something.

Beard I used to commute down Green Lanes as well! I would have been on the number 73 bus from Stokey.

Much happier now I don’t have to do that!

Tell me about it, I don’t miss it one bit! Not sure how I used to manage riding through the traffic either. These days if I see more than 3 cars it’s gridlock!

This is mine:

Admittedly not quite as good but damn better than heading down Green Lanes into central London each day like I used to!

I’m in a similar position – ideally I’d like some GTX boots and ideally they’d be yeti compatible – which soles are yeti compatible these days? Been a long time since I needed to buy boots! My old Scarpa Manta’s are still going but showing their age (1996/97 I think I got them!)

Got a Canyon ultimate road bike and love it. Canyon UK have been really good when I needed to get in touch with them too. So all positive here!

The orange S-Works is gopping too!

Now the debates we had about that. Is it orange or is it meant to be red? It is bloody horrible though.

Don’t get me wrong, the Sclae is a lovely bike but I have a Cannondale fetish at the moment. Think the Flash 29ers just look spot on. Lefty forks – so wrong they’re right!

Talking to the mechanic at Merlin, he said they get loads of Fulcrums back for warranty replacement/repair but hardly any Shimano.

Funny, when I was looking for a set of wheels I got told the opposite. By a mechanic at Merlin.

For what it’s worth my best road wheels are a set of Mavic Ksyrium SL’s which are just brilliant, but they should be for the money. I also have some Fulcrum 5 CX wheels for commuting and winter riding and they too have been brilliant, really tough and survived the worst I could throw at them. Fulcrums are hand finished I think, I’ve been very impressed and would buy their top end wheels now.

I’ve tried both and prefer the pad on the Assos by a long shot. Didn’t like the pad on the Castelli shorts over long distances. Though just to throw the cat amongst the pigeons I was given some Rapha shorts at Christmas and I’m seriously impressed, really top notch kit, fantastic cut and pad. Silly money though.

Mark Oliver Everett AKA E from the Eels. He gets my vote. His early solo albums showed promise, but once he started turning out Eels albums he’s been pretty much untouchable I reckon. Too many stand out songs to list.

PJ Harvey would be another strong candidate along with Cave and Waits as previously mentioned. Laura Marling too.

p.s I don’t think it’s fair to include Leonard Cohen – he’s simply sublime as a lyricist.

I went to a Iain Banks book signing when I was a student and we talked about filming the Culture novels and he himself said that he though Consider Phlebas was the one they should start with.

Though you’d struggle to fit any of his novels into a 2 hour film.

I’d like to see Alien 3 remade more in line with some of the original concept scripts – I think there was something about it being set on a monastery spaceship rather than a prison planet which sounded a lot more interesting.

And all the anecdotal size evidence is meaningless without the effective top tube plus stem length of those different bikes/frames mentioned

Agreed, I should qualify that the Canyon online fit calculates these for you – it told me I should take a 62cm Ultimate frame with a 110mm stem and it was pretty much bang on.

6’2″, I ride a Canyon Ultimate, used their online fit thingy wotsit and it suggested a 62cm frame, it’s pretty much spot on. Very comfy.

I’m waiting for the bit where he tugs at a nations heart strings by telling how sport saved him from going off the rails as a youth and ending up in a downward spiral of drug abuse.

Oh wait…

I commute 13 miles on very quiet rural roads. Only real traffic is farm traffic on a lot of it so the roads are in a right state. Broken up, pot holed, filthy and frequently flooded. I use my CX with full guards. It’s taken a hell of a beating, drivetrain has pretty much had it. Jockey wheels seized on the way home last night! I’m considering SS or getting something hub geared. This winter will kill the current bike!

I was planning to give it a go. I have asked for SW Scotland to be desaturated for the duration and I’m practising my posing. I don’t have a retro steel road bike but I can grow a moustache.

Patrizia…

Thermal bib shorts, then choose either knee warmers or leg warmers depending on the weather. I got the dhb ones from Wiggle and they’re doing the job nicely.

Series 2 just finished on Sky Arts, it was absolutely excellent. Think it might still be available on anytime.

Northwave Celsius Artic GTX Boot

+1

Mine kept my feet nice and toasty this morning whilst the rest of me froze… It’s my hands that really suffer. Yet to find gloves that really work for me.

I wanted to be a LUMBERJACK!

And that’s sort of what I’ve done.

Fully trained and paid up member of the architecture profession (all those who say they’d like to be an architect – one of the lowest job satisfaction rates of any profession apparently!) who got fed up of it and I’m currently now having a bit of a career sabbatical working with dad in his forestry firm.

With my best girl by my side I’ll sing, sing, sing…