I notice quite a difference, many don’t. You won’t know if they are better for you unless you try them. You could get some 170mms and ride them until the chainrings wear out. I doubt you’ll notice enough of a difference to really hate it for a season and if you do, you can sell them on. One advantage, other than being quicker to spin, is that you get more pedal clearance.

I’m never sure glass metal is the best material to make hi-fi stands out of. I would certainly have a careful listen before deciding that’s what you definitely want. As mentioned, Richer sounds for cheaper stuff is probably best. Or even Ikea – Linn used to recommended the Lack table for their equipment, although it wasn’t really the best sounding.

Or make your own? Lightweight wood is the way to go imho.

I commute on my race bike during the summer and used to during the winter. However, I wanted a race bike first and didn’t buy it purely for commuting. I had previously been using a 1″ slick shod mountain bike and the race bike knocked several minutes off my 9 mile commute and made it far easier to do everyday.

If I was buying a purely commuter bike then I’d probably get an Audax or tourer bike. The commuting bike gets quite some stick.

Most people wouldn’t be able to tell the difference between XTR and LX in a blind test, so the extra is for the sticker

My guess is that you have never used XTR as there is a big difference, even from XT. The shifting action for a start, is much lighter and takes quite a bit of getting used to as it’s quite different from the rest of Shimanos groupsets IMHO. Not to mention the huge weight difference. I know many people who prefer XT due to the different feel of XTR.
Of course, you are paying a premium for the top of the range, but to say most people couldn’t tell the difference is utter rubbish.

Surely the fact that it’s a ‘road bike’ is totally irrelevant. Gears is gears..
My guess is that it’s just catching the front mech. Try adjusting the high screw on it? Or is it catching on the frame?

I’m still not really clear on what you want. But I’m guessing something like an Anthem X, Cannondale Rush, Trek Fuel etc. i.e. more a XC-trail bike than a pure all out XC race bike. Going more burly to the pure trailbike/enduro type side of the market seems to give you more travel and weight and is perhaps getting to close to what you are calling your freeride bike, although I’m still not clear what that actually is either?

Like I say, geometry and strength dictates what a bike is for, not rear wheel travel. Loads of choice out there for you.

Surely geometry and weight have far more to do with the way the bike rides and therefore it’s purpose than how much travel the rear wheel has?

Probably not the best thing to say, but just one thing to remind you, that although you are obviously very attached to the house and would love to stay there, at the end of the day, it’s just a house and it’s not worth making life so hard for yourself to stay there. As soon as we get over attached to material things, we make life much harder for ourselves and our happiness suffers.

The north/south card gets played (more London/Rest of country) because the stereotype of a Londoner is someone aggressive, unpleasant and self centred. Threads like this do little to dispel this myth.
The original poster took action to deliberately hurt someone because he didn’t agree with his actions and this is somehow being justified. Think what you like of drafting, but you could easily have just let him go on his way. Personally I think the original post must be a troll anyway.

A long time ago, I was going to organise a club trip to the dogs. Someone pointed out to me that it was cruel and in somewhat disbelief I researched a bit of what they were saying. After all, dogs love running and I know and I know some race dog owners who love their dogs.

I never did organise that trip and now decline any office trips to the dogs. The “industry” has done a lot to try and clean up it’s act but it’s still something I choose to avoid.

Comparing milk to just shows ignorance. There is no money in dog meat, if there was then maybe things would be different (although you would get much money for a greyhound!!) Stupid analogy.

I would say it sounds like it is you who doesn’t know how to ride a bike and was rude and aggressive. Following someone’s wheel is a pretty standard practice, if you don’t want this, then put in a sprint and lose him, or fall back, it’s simple. It is a standard practice for the person in front to be indicating any dangers ahead, such as potholes, parked cars etc.
Locking your wheels is an absolute no-no and a really stupid thing to have done. There is no reason for you to have done that, other than to have been aggressive towards the guy, and it just sounds like you then didn’t if when he gave you stick back. Considering you could have really hurt the guy by your actions, a bit of abuse shouted back seems like a minor thing in comparison.

If you are going to ride a bike on the road then you really should learn to. It is you who are a “menace” going on the description of events you gave.

They gritted by us last night (NW England), but still the roads were very icy this morning. We had quite heavy rain last night, which probably washed away the grit and then the temperatures dropped mid way through the night. There is only so much they can do.

I cycled in but had to walk a bit this morning up a hill and also had a scary moment where the bike just went sideways while I was travelling in a straight line! But I managed to stay upright and off the tarmac. Saw a van in a ditch and a couple of cars that had run into the back of each other. Nice bright morning though.

All depends on what your non-cyclists are into really? There are plenty of activities such as white water rafting, climbing, walking etc. It’s a lovely area, but if they are more after a holiday complex, lie by the pool by day and do out drinking by night then they’ll be very disappointed.

Yes, with bike village you also can cycle up hills but you use the lifts also. All time on the bike is good. I had one stay there and enjoyed it, it’s a nice area and they’re nice people

They maybe comfier if you are running thicker tyres, but running the same tyres, then I find my road bike far comfier. It’s much quicker, handles better, stops better and is generally a much better machine to ride on the road. If you were just road riding, I’d say get a good comfy road bike. Where the cross bike is brilliant is at adding bridleways, tow paths etc into a route. A great machine for exploring on.

I find road riding several steps above mountain biking in terms of danger.
Glad this isn’t much worse and wish her a speedy recovery.

Looks good but I cannot understand why you haven’t been out on it yet. Cross bikes are for when the weather gets like this..

Cross bike geometery will be quite different from a road bike as their intended usage is very different. Interestingly, I know quite a few people who are very tall, are really good bike handlers on the road, but just cannot get the hang of cross bikes.

Or lad at work has got his wires crossed?

I suspect, boxelder, that you haven’t clicked on the link. That links to an offroad challenege, rather than the road sportive named the "lakeland loop" which you’re thinking of.

Anyway, not done the think you’re linking, but I have done the similarly named sportive.

Merlin or Paul Hewitt.

Usually on trainers, the resistance increases as your wheel speed does. So if you are finding there isn’t enough resistance, I am guessing that you are running quite low gears – eg using a mountain bike?
Some trainers try to give a good road ‘feel’ so that you don’t feel like you’re pedalling on sand, where as others try and give you a bit more resistance for building strength..

sDb actually…

The Cannondale has bottle bosses but doesn’t have eyelets for mounting a rack. The Trek X0 that was mentioned above does have eyelets.
The Cannondale is supposed to be a very nice bike but I do wonder about how little mud clearance it appears to have through the chainstays. Still, as terrahawk says, the Wheelbase lads always seem to do alright on them. This probably won’t be a major worry to you if you are not interested in racing.

I’d agree that an Audax or lightweight tourer would be the best option on what you describe.

UCI regulations state that a bike has to be heavier than a certain weight. However, many bikes are sold well under this weight and many of the want to be racers are very happy to get their bikes under this weight. If disk brakes gave such a great advantage to people, then you’d be seeing disk brakes at every sportive across Europe.

I really wonder how these small lightweight disks are going to cope with stopping a bike travelling at high speeds down an alpine descent?

Hybrid bikes travel at very different sort of speeds than race bikes so disks on these are a different question. I still think it’s done for image, just as cheap ‘mountain bikes’ that you get in Tescos have suspension for looks, rather than function.

The weak thing is made up by meat eaters so they can have a laugh before suffering a heart attack/bowel cancer. You’ve got to laugh at something.. ;)

I also flirt with it now and again and also feel physically really good when I do. I think it’s good not to get too set into eating the same things so I don’t get too wound up about diet, just make sure what I’m eating is healthy and that I enjoy it.