On One Whippet. Hated every mile on it and got rid of it after less than 200 miles.

Kinesis FF29?

Any deliveries Ive ever had made by MyHermes have ended up in my garden. They dont knock, just pitch it over the fence and leave a card saying its been left at the side gate. Which I dont have.

The last one was a set of coffee cups. Now I have a ‘Make-your-own coffee cup set’ instead of two cups.

Should have bought Spesh BG…

Seems you also find them uncomfortable and stiff. Did you not try them on first?

In fairness to the guys in Evans its tricky to look at a pair of mud stained MTB shoes and see, clearly, if they have failed or just treated badly. Given the poor winter we have had they will have taken a pounding and if their build quality isnt up to much that isnt Evans fault and no doubt they get grief if they just send everything off for warranty if the customer wants so they have to draw a line.

Ive no doubt as an ex Elite rider that they werent 10 easy going rides you did, but fairly tough and probably fairly long too. I think your beef should be with the manufacturer as not fit for purpose, not the guy in Evans.

Did I mention you should have bought Spesh BG ones?

Its not really all that imaginative, I’m curious which bit you think isn’t factual. I have two cars. I bought a house with two spaces. One of the spaces is permanently filled by some lowlife’s piece of junk. I don’t think its unreasonable to expect to be able to use my parking without having to ask permission from other people. Perhaps you are willing to pay more for a property that suits you needs only to have some it made unavailable due to selfishness? I do not.

Its not a trifling matter if its happening to you though. Its thoroughly annoying and makes people visiting hard work and unenjoyable if you have to go out and essentially inform your neighbours that you have visitors and could they move out of the way for them. I sympathise with the OP no end.

One of my other neighbours has 4 cars, 2 large (E class merc’s) and 2 small (a mini and a 2 seater merc). He has managed to get all 4 cars on his one car drive by replacing his front lawn with stones. Now none of his cars are even on the public part of the close, blocking no-one in. One day he was moving them round and had left his (engine running) in the road as I was going out, he nearly tripped over himself to move it for me. To me, this is normal behaviour. I offer him the use of our drive when Im on holiday as its beneficial to both parties but he doesnt park there the rest of the time.

Sorry for ranting but when you arent having the problem its easy to look at it and say, oh you are making a big deal out of it, but it is a big deal if you are involved. The OP could well have bought the house for the additional parking, exactly what I did. Two spaces with the intention of two cars. But now I only have one space and no where for a second car.

If you’ve a single solitary ounce of common sense, then the people who you live next door too shouldn’t ever feature on the ‘people I’ve needlessly pissed off today’ list.

Presumably that works the other way round then, ie not parking in other peoples parking spaces when they have asked you not too…

Just a thought 😉

Not sure setting fire to it would gain the result Im after! I considered the moving it into the street option but the spaces are about 30 degrees downward slope so its a tough ask for a car with its handbrake on!

Sorry for hi-jacking OP, if you have a single offender Id definitely go round and just mention to them that you use the spaces on a regular, ad-hoc basis and you would appreciate it if they could leave them available for your visitors otherwise you may have to take steps to prevent them parking there. It could easily spiral out of control and just become a headache for you in your new place.

Last time I managed to get the council to stick a letter on the previous one saying it would be towed in 14 days, 13 days, 23hrs and 59 secs later it was moved, then immediately replaced with the above! Very annoying.

What do you mean about taking ownership, as in getting them to take responsibility? Have tried reporting the untaxed vehicle route with no joy.

I have a similar problem, been ongoing for years with various people. When I tried to point it out to one of the ‘users’ he came round at midnight and started beating and kicking on my front door and shouting obscenities through my letterbox and reported me to plod for damaging his pride and joy Daewoo Matiz with some extra sharp post it notes. Once I explained the issue the cops were fine with it but could do nothing about the parking as its private land.

Currently there is a decrepit Vectra rotting away in the space, untaxed, no doubt uninsured but DVLA, council, police and housing authority are totally uninterested as its not in anyones way except mine…

Mine does this too, I suspect it measures the pressure in the hose rather than the tyre hence only working when you start to pump and when you let air out the hose pressure falls. I did have my dial fail completely on me though and it registered 0psi all the time which Lezyne replaced for me free of charge (and very quickly)

As above, Racing through the Dark is an excellent read. I also enjoyed How I wont the Yellow Jumper by Ned Boulting, an interesting and different perspective on cycling and the circus around the Tour. I also now feel like I know him really well!

If you are following a training plan, then £5 a month spent at Trainerroad.com will be better than any money thrown at Strava

Edit: I see Haze beat me to it, but he is right!

Another vote for the DHB Aeron Pro, comfy, good fit, cheap and nice, subtle styling. Top quality pad in excellent value shorts.

Im in the process of doing just this. Sold a Trek Remedy and a Scott Spark with the aim of replacing them with an Epic 29. Which I would have if Specialized hadn’t run out in anticipation of their 2014 stock…..

A few months back I walked into a shop to buy a new lid and new road shoes and pedals, over £500 worth all told. Had a good chat with the assistant, laughed about the colour choices, discussed what other people thought and bought, had a go on the turbo trainer challenge, chatted about bikes in general. When I got to the till the woman rang it through, then said, Ill knock a bit off for you and gave me 20% discount without me having to ask. I can only imagine for being a nice, friendly and easy-going customer. Its not about being trained in negotiation as njee says, its simply manners and approaching things the right way. If you are nice, they will be nice.

I cant imagine anything more annoying that working in a shop and people constantly telling me things are cheaper elsewhere. Go there then!

I find the Garmin quite interesting to see how fast I was going when I crash. Always disappointingly slow!

Did a day at Brands Hatch as a marshall, fantastic experience, so close to the action, although be aware its a VERY long day, tiring and you arent really spectating, you have to pay close attention to the racing etc. I would definitely give it another go in the future but it just sapped so much of my spare time. Really friendly bunch though, I can highly recommend it as a way of getting closer to motorsport without the cost!

From what I have heard when the batteries start dying it will shift you into the small front ring and as warton says, will allow you the rest of the shifts on the rear but there is an inline LED panel with battery life displayed so cant see it being a real problem. Something like 600 shifts per charge.

Had a quick play with Di2 on a roadie in a shop the other day. Quite impressed although the action of pressing a lever in like a micro switch messed with my head a bit, and maybe not being able to shift more than one each press may be a slight problem for some. As above though, looks awful on the bike, needs to be designed with a seattube battery or something.

No need for amber surely, red or green. You are either stopping/stopped, or moving. If it turns red when you are nearly there, stop. Countdowns for the remaining time on green will just make people floor it. Like the idea of counting down remaining red time though. People already just plough through amber or start moving on red/amber so why bother with it.

Lifted from Ted King’s Strava when he was asked if the majority of the pro-peloton was riding 25mm

nope. I don’t think so. 23 is the standard

Before anything else, be sure to re-enact the Shaun of the Dead scene where they access the ‘locked’ shed. I bounced twice before managing to make it through.

What theflatboy said, got one of these too and its chuffing excellent. The hose is a real blast from the past and stops you bending valves when giving it the beans when the pressure is high.

La Noire if you liked the GTA style of things.

I dont need a bell, Hope hubs seem to do the job pretty well.

Had this on my roadie the last few weeks, took me a while to diagnose but a quick application of toothpaste to the lower part of the post stopped it straight away.

+1 to ashfanman. On my second pair in 6 years, only replaced the first set as I ripped them on a bramble bush after falling.

Got a few pairs of Polaris bibs which are pretty good but just invested in some DHB Aeron Pro bibs and found them to be very comfy indeed. Depends on how much you are willing to spend. I imagine the £150+ ones are great but Ill likely never find out!

I can recommend some kind of cream. Been using the Paceline Eurostyle Chamois Butt’r and found it to be very good. A nice cool feel which seems to last a fair while.

Yep cant rate them enough. Smart enough for work, scruffy enough for the pub. Perfect!

Its all stretchy so I tend to go for the waist fitment to ensure its not all baggy. Worst case order a pair of each size and send back the incorrect ones.

Salmon, wrapped in greaseproof paper with chili, some ‘erbs, onion, garlic, oil and seasoning baked for 20 mins, served with new potatos and some steamed veg.

Very little washing up too!

Yeah a short arsed mate of mine rides a 29er Epic and keeps winning Gorricks!

If you have iTunes, I presume you have an iPod/iPhone/iPad. Couldnt you just use that in the mean time?

Yeah we were the loud group with the two roadies (on sunday)

Ive stayed in the bunkhouse and it wasnt bad, just not great but it did what it said on the tin. Never found it dirty though. The hotel rooms are much better, amazing shower in mine, but at more than double the cost that could be prohibitive.

stumpy01 – i was there, along with a ton of guys from the Sketchymtb forum. The stag looked great!

As for riding I can recommend the suggestion for Betws, nice and central for Llandegla, Coed-Y-Brenin and Penmachno. Plenty of places to stay (we use the Glan Aber which has bunkhouse and hotel rooms) and places to eat in town within 2 minutes walking distance. Ideal!

As above I walked home in the snow this year and last year. 6.5 miles, mostly up on the way home and it hurt. Since then Ive vowed to take the bike!

DHB doing 20% off currently

Got the Atera stuff, works well, cheaper than Thule, looks the same.

Look here for good deals, excellent service etc – http://www.roofbox.co.uk/

EDIT – Just seen your link to roofbox, still worth posting again! 😳