Starting to think it’s a wiring issue. I went out and bought another relay to try, I was really sold on it being the relay due to it buzzing every time I tried to indicate. In retrospect I think that was just it failing to trigger, the new relay has a loud click but the electrics still die.

The ground lead looks to be fine, not the greatest test I know, contacts on both ends are OK.

I’ve tried changing the fuse, this fuse also covers horn and headlights both of which are fine. The fuse didn’t fix it, no change here.

I’ve pulled the switch apart, it’s a bit stiff but looks fairly safe inside, no corrosion, lots of grease. It’s a bit stiff but then it’s done 30,000 odd which isn’t too bad for a 125 :)

So I’m left thinking it’s a wiring issue somewhere, which is a massive pain in the arse as it doesn’t narrow it down much. Might just crack and take it to the bike shop :( I do have a multimeter somewhere, really not something I’m hugely skilled with though to be honest :)

Ah cheers, I’ll have a look into it :)

23″ S-Works M5 jobby, can’t decide if it’s too big, 660mm top tube is a big monstrous.

I’ve got an old 21″ 2001 Stumpy HT frame kicking around the house too, lovely thing.

Wow, wish I’d spotted this earlier, I’m sat down at the arse end on 300ish miles :(

Top job on 800 miles!

I use shakes post rides, it’s either that or gorge on 20 muffins the second I get through the door.

I used to just drink chocolate milk, but I’m not hugely sure it’s much cheaper. I’ve got a big 2.5kg MyProtein pack at the moment and it lasts for ages.

I’ve got the mocha flavour, as it was on sale. It gives me mocha smelling wee for a few hours, I’d use it for that alone.

experiences there crap customer service

Wow, where did you hear that? I had a cosmetic crack on a second hand frame, well out of it’s 2 year warranty. Since there was no dealer I contacted Ibis directly. They got me to mail the frame to them in America, offering to send a new one back if it was cracked. The crack turned out to only be cosmetic, but he offered to send me back a super discounted crash replacement deal instead. I even got to change the colour, they even sent it back as a no cost warranty replacement on the shipping, so it came through customs for free :)

Crazy good customer support from that company, far beyond any other I’ve experienced.

Edit: Oh and I should mention, the guy who replied to my emails was Hans, one of the people who runs the company. He replied to every mail very swiftly, even though he had no obligation to bother talking to me at all.

More bikes is the obvious solution, one with 5mm lower bars.

6’6″ and ride a 62cm Canyon Ultimate Al. Great bike, crazy good value.

How many inches of post do you have sticking out of frame?

Oof, this is all getting a bit personal.

Slightly bonkers one, XXL 29er Stumpy built up last year. Few bits have changed. Not quite sure if the XL would have fit better, either way I’ve posted my fastest lap times on this giant monster.

I bought an XXL S-Works M5 Stumpy HT frame at the same time, equally gangly thing.

My point being that you shouldn’t get fixated on the idea of needing a huge frame. Try and see what works for you.

It helps getting the right size though? Your Bianchi has the saddle rammed to the back of it’s rails, you’ve got a 14cm stem and a high seatpost. The only real difference you’d have had with a bigger frame would be a longer wheelbase.

Cannock Chase was fantastic last weekend, it seems to be draining really well at the moment. Couple of minor closures but the rest is riding really well.

I ride a 62cm Canyon Ultimate Al, 6’6″ with really long legs. It’s almost too big, I swapped the stem to a shorter one and it fits great now. Very glad I didn’t get the 65cm, it must be huge.

I was very close to getting a TCR, the compact geometry put me off as I’d need a mile of seatpost on the XL one (58.5cm seat tube).

+1 on Smorgasbord and Chunky. Favourite tyre here too, irrespective of price.

I’ve just used an adaptor like this, all seems fine. It’s just 2 bits of plastic, overpriced but does the job.

My hardtail I stuck a KCNC PF30 bottom bracket in. It’s started creaking within 6 months, I’m less convinced.

Nikon D5200 DSLR
USB-USB cable (not micro/mini etc, full size)
2X NGK spark plugs
Instant gasket gel stuff
Rubbery Honda keyring

Not much bikey stuff, that stuff’s all working!

I just felt so squished on the schools XJ6’s, I’m 6’6″ with long legs, they’re super low seat height. The instructor admitted he thought I’d be better finding another way. The main thing is the angle it leaves my feet in, it’s awkward shifting up or getting off the brake.

I have to admit, I keep pondering going back there to have another sit on them :/

Yeah, I’d pondered an NC700X and V-Strom too. With the other two I’m a bit paranoid about the slow speed parts of the test, tight U turns and things, both are a bit heavier. The Versys comes out a good chunk cheaper than the others as well.

its certainly taller than the v-strom.

The seat is higher, but that’s about it. Much shorter wheelbase.

Any opinions on a Versys 650 as a bike for doing a test on? Can be picked up cheap and look like just the sort of thing I’m after.

Probably not the best bet for trying to do a test on then :) Cheers for the info! It’s deffo one I’ve been eying up!

How are the newer XT660X’s at low speed? I did ponder one for doing an A2 test but there seemed to be loads of complaints.

On my moaning about the full test, if the trainers bikes aren’t great for any reason, you’re stuffed. I have to get hold of one of the A class bikes off here:

http://www.dft.gov.uk/motorcycle-test-vehicle-list/%5B/url%5D

Completely blindly buy one without test riding, sort insurance without even having a license, then train and do my test on it.

If it were my choice I’d get a taller bike like a VStrom 650, sadly I’d either have to run it restricted forever on an A2 license, or it’s completely out the window for doing the test on due to not being powerful enough.

Might just get a DRZ400, do the A2 test and braaaap around :)

I did my CBT and picked up a little chinese supermoto for some fun 6 months ago. Recently also bought a Honda Varadero XL125V8 for slightly more reliable, solid feeling, zooming around.

The local bike teacher’s Yamaha XJ6s and my 6’6″ frame didn’t agree. Apparently my only solution is to buy a bike to learn on, any suggestions? I’d love an F800GS, but fear the low speed test bits on it! In other news, the new licence setup is bollocks! :)

My t5 is a car. The v5 tells me so

Awesome, by that logic, my motorbike is a bicycle, my v5 tells me so. That’s the last time I pedal up that hill!

Really can’t be arsed with top end stuff anymore, I always end up trying to make it lighter to the point where the bike is crap. I’ve owned 2 carbon frames, an Ibis and a GT, both were sent back for cracks, I’ve owned dozens of aluminium frames, I’ve never broken one. I’m 6’6″ and ~200lbs.

Besides, the £4300 Deore model is going to weigh loads, the £5600 model weighs a hardly staggering 30lbs. I’m not saying it’s heavy, but you could have very similar weight/style bikes for half that.

http://www.bikerumor.com/2013/04/02/santa-cruz-27-5-bronson-carbon-actual-weight/%5B/url%5D

I’d get a Trek/Specialized/Giant/Orange or something personally.

6’6″ here, with humongous legs. XXL Stumpjumper 29er and 22″ Orange Five 26er. Both fit really well, the Stumpy being the bigger of the two.

The bizarre thing is, you’d imagine tight switchbacks would be harder on a bigger bike, since swapping to bigger bikes I’m finding them drastically easier. Just having a bit more space over the bike makes a world of difference.

The XL Ibis Mojo I once had being the most tragic, very short wheelbase, I couldn’t climb or descend on it, very simple switchbacks I was embarressingly bad at. Lifting the front wheel was easy on the plus side! :/

http://superstar.tibolts.co.uk/product_info.php?cPath=40&products_id=692

Nexus 10 here, use it every day. Every app I use scales up perfectly, what specifically was being referred to previously in the comment about Android apps not scaling?

Higher res display than any iPad, micro HDMI out, double the ram of an iPad 4, the same crappy 5mp camera. Build by Samsung. Running stock Android is definitely a selling point too.

That said, there’s a new one due to be announced anytime now. They may well even start selling the current ones off for crazy cheap, like they did the Nexus 4 recently.

Or if you’re feeling rich, the official bumper is lovely ;) I was never a fan of the rounded glass, this adds edges to it and a metal strip around. The way they’ve done the buttons is better than I’ve seen on a third party case as well.

Seems a shame to get a stock Android phone, in all it’s speedy, clean glory. Then pack it out with third party apps and shonky launchers.

Music (prefer Spotify to Google Music still), Dropbox (or Google Drive), Maps, Twitter/Facebook, Splashtop for checking things on my home PC while I’m out.

That’s about it for me.

4G coverage is tiny and the cost is relatively high on new contracts. Do you get a decent handset deal with the early upgrade? Sounds like a good deal though.

http://outlet.euro.dell.com/Online/InventorySearch.aspx?c=uk&cs=ukdfh1&l=en&s=dfh&brandid=7&fid=1489

Really rate the Dell outlet stuff, not much in at the moment to be honest. If you hunt around a bit new stock comes in once a week or so. My last one was a 17″ aluminium bodied XPS, i7 spec, loads of memory, for about £500. I kept it for a year, then sold it on second hand on ebay… for a profit.

A lot of the outlet stuff has never even left the factory, they build up custom PCs, the order is cancelled. Outlet!

I’ll try pram zapping and all these other crazy things you iKids do while I’m there though.

Totally not trying to start and argument, but probably doing it anyway. I was amazed how awkward some things were to do in Mac OS, given it’s reputation, it feels very like Ubuntu to me if anything.

I’d assume if you’re just using it for running applications and browsing it’s all very closed off and easy, but faffing around trying to install all the Android bits, get Eclipse going etc. Curiously ended up doing things in terminal as it was more of a comfort zone than Finder.

People at work looked disappointed in me when I asked for Windows to be installed :(

Oh, Mac OS works :) It looks like the white screen is the standard startup screen, but without the Apple logo and progress bar. Maybe this is normal.

I can pilfer the license key I needed from Mac OS now anyway, so I’m happy.

Cheers all!

Fine by me, it was the full Mac experience that prompted the Windows install request ;)

Cheers p8ddy, I’ll give it a go. Just spotted that I can tell it to boot MacOS from Bootcamp in the system tray, giving that a quick try.

Well the rising price and lower wages seems to have changed things around here, loads more people commuting via bike, there’s barely enough room for all the bikes in the office I work at.

If you live in the country, miles away from everything and have trouble affording petrol, tough. Move closer to work like everyone else does.

Keep zooming up in price as far as I’m concerned, it’s a limited supply and the price reflects this. Truffles don’t cost so much because the dogs are on £100k salaries.

Those official specs will never ever happen in real life. The 301 will be going strong after the Mini has been charged twice I reckon and what is the standby time of both

Assuming you’re not running loads of rubbish, the main killers for smart phones are the screen and all the random connections. Losing 3g and it falling back to 2g, hopping on and off wifi etc. All of which I’d guess that Nokia will be doing.

I used to use an old HTC G1, the first Android phone, really not efficient compared to today’s phone. On flight mode, without faffing with it much, it’s battery would last way over a week.

Personally I like HTC One mini but I wouldn’t be touching any of them until they have a talk time and standby time near to Nokia 301 ..

30 minutes? What phone is that?

Nokia 301:
Talktime 3g – 6 hours
2g – 20 hours

HTC One Mini:
Talktime 3g – 13 hours 20 mins
2g – 20 hours 40 mins

Going by the official specs of both.

Converting from 1 lossy format to another is always a rubbish idea. Find something that can just burn cds from the mp3s. Haven’t burnt a cd in years, the last time I did was using Nero which does that fine.

On the 29ers for tall people note before, I don’t think big wheels are specifically any more suited to tall riders. I think the compromises are much less of an issue though. Shorter riders specifically don’t want high front ends, longer chainstays/wheelbases and high standover.

I think the lower center of gravity in relation to wheels works in our favour too.

6’6″ rider on both an XXL (23″!) Stumpy FSR 29er and XXL Stumpy HT 29er. Both bizarrely look very well proportioned, unlike every 26″ bike I’ve ever had.

Also VPP pre-dates maestro and DW.

Yeah, but putting it in the context of a bog standard Giant removes the awe and wonder the seems to come with it having Santa Cruz written on the side.

Given the first link posted was a VPP sales pitch.

I wouldn’t assume the Heckler will be flexy, the new ones have a big 142mm rear axle. Should be quite a leap from the old ones.

Quite a big difference between linkage driven SP and simple Sps though isn’t there?

Only really the curve of the spring rate, which can be tweaked to some degree by changing the shock volume? The “?” on the end is because I’m not 100% sure of what I’m saying, my Meta was really plush compared to my Five :)