I’m with TJ, well said!

In my experience hire cars ith the major firms are often serviced in house under an agreement, and will not get stamps in the book or be on record with a dealership. This might not be the case for your car, but if it is a hire car I’d steer well clear, in pretty much every insance they are driven very very hard from 0 miles and redlined regularly, which can’t be good for them… not that i’d do such a thing… :oops:

oh, and definitely consult her! I made this mistake once, colour is very important, well it was/is to my wife!

I’d agree with Stevemenmuir, 16″ would probably be too big, she’d most likely appreciate the shorter tt of the 14″. My wife’s 5’5″ and rides a 14″ inbred if that’s any help. The 456 is a pretty weighty frame though, ahwiles might be right on an inbred or scandal, lighter people tend to notice the frame weight more than larger people like me as it’s a greater percentage of their bodyweight… :roll:

YGM chapaking

much better with a 120mm fork than a 140mm in my experience, it’s designed to be slack with a shorter fork, so not really optimised for a 140mm fork (sorry ton!)
Frame’s pretty much a blunt instrument though, not much of the legendary steel flex going on! ISCG mounts are nice for running 1×9…

Will keep my eyes peeled in Filton! might be worth a trip to Southmead police as they have a pretty on-the-ball cycle crime outfit…

Ok, sold on the idea of a Cannondale CAAD, and sorry to appear to go over the same point again, but should I go CAAD8 with 105 or CAAD9 with Tiagra?

Just had a look at 10sp groupsets and scared myself! Is there that much difference between a CAAD8/9 frame?

Thanks again for everyone's advice!

Thanks for the ideas guys, will be going to try a few out of fit over the weekend. Like the idea of buying a good frame worthy of upgrading, as a constant fettler this seems sensible! CAAD9 seems to get excellent reviews, but am I compromising too much on the stuff hanging off it with this model:

http://www.evanscycles.com/products/cannondale/caad-9-tiagra-compact-2010-road-bike-ec020238

My main worry is going 9-speed, how much will this limit me in the future when upgrading? Sorry if this is a dull question, I'm very out of touch with roadie stuff!

Yeh, needs to be under £1k as my company hasn't opted to get a consumer credit licence, annoying that! Thinking Boardman team at the moment, not the carbon one, as it's £200 to get a carbon frame from what I can see with no other changes really, and based on my 200lb weight I don't think a bit lighter bike will make that much difference! Trek 2.1 looks nice too…

Must admit I don't like the look of the secteur, not sure why, but being in bristol I might go see if I can demo on from the concept store. Thanks!

Planet-X charge a £100 admin fee!! so they're out really. Ribble look out, but not such a good spec as boardman, what do people think of this…

http://www.genesisbikes.co.uk/bikes/road/equilibrium/equilibrium/technology/

??

Thanks guys, hadn't looked at ribble before, will go have a look. Bit worried about boardman as it can take a while for vouchers to come through with my company and don't want to be left with a voucher and the bike sold out as has been the case before! Any other ideas?

Dunno, will measure when my wife gets home, or tomorrow morning, pretty sure it would though, will get back to you…

How about a renault grande espace, 7 seats if you need them, but rear two remove when not needed. great diesel engines and pretty affordable. You'd get the new shape one with a 1.9DCi engine for your £5k.

We've had an older shape one for a couple of months now and it's great for biking!

:)

No problem, the DHX air is off the bike at the moment so you're welcome to borrow that straight away, would need to source a bushing, or swap it across from your current shock.

And the DHX air felt pretty good on mine, yet to try the coil out in anger so can't compare yet.

yep, on fox piggy-back shocks with a schraedar valve for the boost pressure the valve hits the frame, which is why spesh specific shocks don't have the valve fitted.

Where abouts are you based? If you're near bristol I have a DHX5 air you could borrow to try, or a DHX5 coil(8.5 not 8.75) you could try. drop me an email if you're interested… :D

My 2-penny worth, they're a great bike, had my '06 enduro pro for jsut over a year now and has been absolutely brilliant. It's taken some fairly stupid riding from me, mostly in error, and saved my bacon more than once!

I bought it in pretty much original spec and it weighed about 32lb, I got it down to 31lb with some flow/proII wheels and lighter tyres, but up to about 35lbs now with DHX coil, 36Vans and a joplin post, but hey it's all about the downs with a 150/160mm bike!

Overall I'd strongly reccomend one. If you keep an eye out in magazines, there's still professional guys riding them on shoots, last time I saw one was in am article on ibiza I think?(or some similarly small rocky island). They are a very well regarded frame. And a mate who rides pro downhill has one as his XC bike for the long rides!

that's really cool! not sure about price, but a friend recently sold a 2009 five, pretty much standard kit, in perfect condition for £1500, hope that helps. Best bet for most dosh seems to be splitting, but it's hassle. :D

That's lovely! my wife's going to regret not getting one if I show her that picture!

i run 26" wheels on my roadrat, BB is quite low, but you quickly learn to be careful, have only caught my pedals once in about 10months. drop me an email if you want to discuss further :D

not got an exact pic, but there's a similar one on the stolenbristolbikes website

zestybeard, based in filton, if you need someone to help you recover your bike let me know. If you spot an airborne ti bike on your search also let me know please, my wife's was nicked a few weeks back. Cheers

Mountainmonkey's other half has one, sure they'd be willing to share some advice, otherwise I can only recommend the forum they used to buy theirs which was

http://www.bentrideronline.com/

Si! I knew I'd been in touch with someone on here, had forgotten who, will drop you an email :D

Perhaps a bit harsh to kill them, but I feel his pain, Police didn't even get in touch when my wife's bike was stolen from our garage, best I got from the reception was "you might get a text message in the next couple of weeks when the case gets assigned to an officer".

Now I may be ebing cynical but if someone stole a car worth £800 they would be interested, but not if it's a bike?! Now I know that they are very busy etc etc, but considering the nicely itemised council tax bill I get which details what goes to the police it would be nice if they could at least show their face!

Sorry, rant over 8)

retract this while you still can nick!

Bugger, not another one! Will keep an eye out during my searches for my wife's stolen bike! Well worth popping inot as many bike shops as you can stomach in the area and giving them a flyer, most are really happy to help, recommend Bike Workshop as the place to visit, they're very good but seem to have a reputation…

All sorted now! :D

Thanks Hairy, much appreciated! I'm a bit stumped as to what to do if I caught one of the locals riding round on it, don't like to think about how angry I'd be!!

bump

maverickboy, please can you reply to my emails!!! :(

Yep,26mm socket, or a large adjustable spanner (carefully). you anywhere near bristol? no fluid to change.

Mike, if you want to swap the damping unit(moco unit), i.e. the bit in the fork I'd be up for that, have sold the remote unit, but these come up regularly in the classifieds, drop me an email if you're interested. Cheers

bump for the weekend :D

Cool, thanks Crash, never know where it might turn up!
If you need a lift with anything while your recovering give me a shout.

Crash, taht ones my old bike, decided I couldn't jsutify it so sold it, so we were down to one widow, now this!! and yes we were a bit sad with matching frames, but they rode really well!!The stolen bike has 700C dics wheels off a roadrat.

That's a right bugger about your spine mate, once your back on the bike and fancy some gentle cycle path stuff let me know, always up for bristol to bath and a pint at saltford!

If anypone does see the bike around and about please get in touch with filton police or myself, would be great to get it back!

bump

bump for friday! :D