What if you want to stick gears on it in the future?

Fleet Foxes – Shores

Possibly their best yet and a real return to form.

I just repel against the enforced subscription model across as many aspects of my consumption as I can. IMO it’s a cancerous business model because it is so lucrative and powerful for the corporation. I still enjoy finding good albums and buying download files and owning the music. I think I would care less about the music if I streamed it. It would somehow be more background and throwaway.

Shimano AM9s take some beating. Lighter than previous editions but enough water proofing and protection to ride all year if paired with waterproof socks for the winter. Bought a pair a couple of weeks ago and they’re very comfy and easy to live with.

Spot them before you hit them and lift the front wheel over the worst ones. Stay low and loose to deal with the back end movement.

Just spent about £50 single speeding my old Inbred and I don’t think I could beat it if I spent £1,500 on an entry level gravel bike for rides from the door.

I’ve now fitted the half link but it doesn’t sit onto the wide teeth of my narrow wide chainring. Are they not compatible? What type of chainring works best for a half link 3/32 chain?

Gotcha, thanks. You’re essentially replacing a male end with another male end, to join with whatever connector you’d normally use. I’ve ordered a KMC 3/32 half-link to join to a KMC Z1 3/32 chain, so hopefully it’ll run smooth.

I indulged and got a Silca Sicuro Ti cage. Figured I’ll own it for life and transfer it from bike to bike. It’s light, holds bottles well and is a subtle bit of bling.

Remember that this is a relaxing hobby to focus your mind away from the outside world.

My hobby is following this thread, rather than doing any modelling. Far more relaxing 😌.

As an alternative to Putoline, I’ve been using Weldtite from a recommendation on another what wet lube thread and it is definitely the cleanest lube I’ve used that keeps on working through slop. One of the cheapest out there too, especially if you buy it in 1L or 5L bulk.

Just a thought, I’ve only got a 30t chainring on it (with a 17t sprocket). So maybe going 34 x 22 will give more room to push the chain up?

Thanks all. Binned off the osteo and booked some private physio sessions with my local Nuffield hospital. Some great insight and advice above.

Hardtails aside though, to be fair…

Nothing of Insomnia Monster Mix standards then?

Just whether it improved lever feel. I sanded the plastic pistons down on mine over a year ago and they’ve been squidge free since. Just curious over whether to get the metal pistons. Doesn’t sound like I need to bother.

Do the aluminium pistons change the lever feel much?

The 909 has years of design perfection in the frame. Not a gusset or bracing tube in sight and it can take some hammer. Such a shame they don’t do frame only.

Can’t shake off a lethargic feeling I’ve had all year, punctuated by bouts of what I can only describe as a kind of bloatedness. Feeling very slow on the bike. Picked up a shoulder injury that’s sticking around longer than I’d hoped. Riding mates seem much quicker at the moment, despite me being on track for an all-time best year for climbing height. But I’m thankful my wife and I still have our jobs and prosperity. Hope 2021 goes better for all.

One Tree Hill

Made of Stone has always been my favourite.

Second that. Remember buying the 12″ and my mate asking me if I wanted to watch them at Park Lane, Shrewsbury, just before the album came out. My mum wouldn’t let me. Devastated to this day, as the bootleg suggests they played a blinder.

Just get a cheap new alloy hardtail. Far better geometry and you won’t miss the fictional “steel feel”.

What tyre pressures and widths are you running, particularly in the rear?

Hardtails have gone through a renaissance. Evo LLS geo with wider rubber has meant they’re rideable on most UK stuff. They’ve become the one bike do it all with minimum faff IMO. Oh, and the best of the new gen look sweet.

Bit of electrical tape on the mount bracket an she’ll be reet.

I slashed my shin about halfway up (a couple of months ago) and it was just below my knee pad line. So I revisited the RaceFace knee guards, which are a very light pad but longer than the others and I’m happier having the lower leg protection in sacrifice to slightly less padding over the knee.

I would go light fast rolling for the rear. On the trail boss. The new light ones have a slash guard on them so are still pretty sturdy.

No, no, no. The point of WTB’s light grip and tough fast options are you can run the light one up front for grip and the tough fast rolling one out back, especially on a hardtail if you ride fast tech stuff. Their tough fast are dual ply, which if you do ride a HT like a FS on fast trails, is the minimum tyre spec for the rear to avoid issues. Even depending on your weight, you shouldn’t need more than 20psi out back with this setup.

Cheers Binman!

Where did you get new ones from?

These Hope ones look good. Are they the same size as Hope BB bearings then?

Great thanks. Yes, I have the Hope tool. Acc. to Uber the plastic top hats and spacer “just push out”. Hopefully that’s the case.

the tyres are too fragile

Dual ply rear for the win.

2.6” tyres on 27.5 wheels are soOooo perfect.

If you’ve got room, try 2.8s. They’re a bit more perfecter IMHO 😉

Clickbait thread, ennit.

Can you describe the part? Only small piece I can think of that’s easy to lose is the cable grub screw.

You can’t have ‘poppy and fun’ and ‘stable’, the two are mutually exclusive

Maybe we’ve hit peak LLS and winding it back a couple of model years (to say, 2018) might be a well balanced bike? E.g. Whyte 900s of that era with 65 HA and 460mm reach?

beating my Terraduro’s to death over 5 years

Fair dos, they really do seem to be lasting well. Just added a small dab of glue to the sole front of one of mine, but otherwise they’ve taken a fair beating over three years so far. Hopefully whatever they replace with, will live up to the Terraduro’s toughness. Just need to size up!

I still buy music from iTunes and play it through my Android phone using whatever free front end music player of choice.

My bad, I was sure it converted the files to its own type. Looks a bugger to download from if you have a decent sized collection.

Google Play “downloads” are not agnostic and can only be played via Google Play so I thanked my lucky stars I only ever bought music from iTunes and always kept a backup in iTunes. Last month I ditched GP and replaced all downloads with mp4s on my phone’s sd card. If you bought all the music from GP, I’d imagine you’re screwed but if you bought it from elsewhere, go back to the source. What’s Google’s motto, “do no evil”? P#ss off you schesiters.