I rebuilt my cx bike last night…and rode it into work this morning.

Get in. 😀

Look out podium, here I come.

It’s not 100 miles.

When you get to 100 miles, have an energy bar or something, you’ll still have a few miles to go (and they’re not flat)

Oh and don’t forget to look at the scenery 🙂

I ought to start doing some “normal” rides so I could see why people might want a 100mm travel XC 29er.

Yes, you should 😉

HE bought me a curry once. Actually twice. It was weird, the curry. It was nice, but weird. Still nice though.

Bikes eh. Weird.

Hee hee! 🙂

Reading those reviews and your tales of woe almost make me want to stay there for the experience!

(almost)

P.S. If she demands payment, eat a fiver and tell her she can have it in a few hours 8)

Nice!
I’d be happy on that through the summer! 🙂

7 now

I’m not going out after work, you’ve upset me too much, I’m going straight home to cry. 😛

3.5 (the .5 is everything).

I may extend my commute home a bit though…to 75 🙂

I think njee20’s got it pretty much spot on.

I’ve done 3 crits now as a lowly 4th cat and have learned LOADS.
It can be fun, lots of fun and the ones I’ve done have seemed pretty well behaved in comparison to what people have described, but you’ve still got to have your head screwed on tight!

Twinklydave, what do you do? I think I’ve seen that one kicking around the office

Admin assist. in the Travel Plan Office ™ at a Uni. We get lots of exciting sounding literature, trying to make commuting sound fun. Most fail, but at least this one has that crossword…

I’m reading Parking News right now and am delighted to report that they have a crossword 😀

Everyone was chatty & friendly
Some good sections out on the moors (thank god it was quite dry…)
Some funny bog bits
Lots of lovely scenery
Happy marshals
Didn’t use the food stops but they looked well stocked

Ride uphill on rough/boggy tracks, then plummet back down on the road? Boo.
More road. Would have been a nice cyclosportive I imagine, but that wasn’t what it was.
Little signage, took wrong turns on a few unmarked bridleway junctions, as did many others.
Event based in and a route that wiggled all round Dalby forest without using ANY of the singletrack?!
Enough road (and fireroad) to genuinely make me wish I’d brought a cross bike.

Awesome!

Was out riding round that way on Saturday (on the road) and didn’t envy you at all!

Seriously well done 🙂

It doesn’t start until about 2 weeks before the race!

I dare you to pull a silly face every time you have to stop at a gate 😉

Have fun!

I tend to do it the other way – from Wray back towards Slaidburn. but then I am kind of odd and like climbing

You can (as others have mentioned) take the circlip off and service inside that bit – but if your mech’s pivots have started to go sloppy and the jockey wheels are worn it might be worth just investing in a new one

Polarbites in Kirkcudbright. Very nice. 🙂

Seeing as I’ve now got the theme tune to rentaghost stuck in my head because of you, I sort of hope you ARE haunted. 🙂

Best bits: Rolling into our pits each lap to be greeted with a full on party, everyone seemed to be having so much fun I barely wanted to leave (strangely this feeling grew as the race went on…).
The way the course sped up as it dried.
A shiny clean bike waiting for me every lap.
All the encouragement from other people while riding – I had no idea that many people knew (or cared) who I was 🙂

Worst bits: The fact that I could barely climb/descent stairs yesterday (and they’re not exactly fun today either).
My lame jumps off the JUMP OF DOOM.
Ripping my shorts on the 2nd lap and having to ride round with my arse hanging out!

In a pair for the 2nd year. Loved it last time & really looking forward to it again 🙂

The course is (or was last time, anyway) the bottom half of the red route – once you’ve gone up the steep bit of fireroad climb, where you’d normally turn left to do the full red route, you turn right and head back towards the D&P.

Forecast is for sun, so the trails should be nice and fast 😀

Any of those three would be fine 🙂

Lancashire’s premier tourist attraction:

The Great Stone of Fourstones.
Fairly minimalist in terms of architectual ‘effort’ I admit, but it’s got steps, so it counts 😛

You’ll be reet.

Heathen! 😉

Dyffers, it sounds like you want a TD1.

You do. 🙂

Whereabouts are you based – if you wanted a decent test ride on one and were somewhere north-westy I’m sure we could sort something out

It’s clever and it’s certainly ‘interesting’!

I wouldn’t go so far as to describe it as ‘nice looking’, but then it’s probably designed more for riding that looking at 🙂

They’re just the car version of those ‘cash4gold’ etc type companies.

I got double what they offered for my last car in part ex (and could probably have got more if I’d sold it privately). You won’t get a good price from them, but I guess they trade on making everything a hassle free way of getting rid, if that’s all you’re interested in.

end of an era – the twinkly dave green machine is gone …. – gone are the days of you arriving at races on an RAC flatbed

Aww don’t, I really miss that thing! Surefooted and tough enough to drive through Glencoe in January past many an upside down 4×4 and (accidently) drive up a bridleway in the lakes past a lot of shocked looking off-roaders 😀

1998 Vauxhall Corsa – shoddy £700 piece of crap that I drove for a few months over one winter, then part ex’ed for £600 against a

2001 Citroen Berlingo – awesome piece of French engineering. Totally bottom of the range, but it swallowed bikes whole and picked it’s own lines round corners…and was therefore ace. It’s lack of refinement/comfort meant I recently (and sadly) got rid of it for a

2006 Vauxhall Zafira – Less flamboyance than the Berlingo (probably a good thing when it comes to handling), more comfortable, more economical, not as great fir bikes (though it got 3 of us + bikes + kit + camping stuff to France last month OK). Has an air of ‘middle agedness’ about it though 😕

I do a similar commute. You’re not really going to get any fitter doing it (working on the assumption that you are already fit enough through riding at the weekends etc), but it should be enough to kick start your metabolism a bit (good) and wake you up much more than sitting in a traffic jam (also good).

If you’ve got tired legs from a big ride at the weekend it can help ease them out a bit too

I’ve got a Raptor. It’s decent enough and the build quality can’t be faulted. There’s a surprising amount of room for something that’s not designed as a massive rucksak…

…but, if using the supplied, hard backed bladder (which is nice in itself, as is the ease of fitting/removing, even when the bag’s full) for a long ride, the combination of rigid bladder and texture of the back of the bag rubs quite a lot – I’ve ended up with a sore back/spine from it!

Never had that problem with any other alternative (camelbak etc) 😕

AS a few peeps have said above: Exotic carbon’s…with the aluminium steerer they’re £85 – I’ve got a pair on a TD1 ATM, seemed nice on a quick lap round the mary towneley loop on Sunday

IF the worst comes to the worst there’s always this method

Chips (at lunchtime)

Can people stop doing Preston down please, it’s a lovely place.

In completely unrelated news, I’ve just discovered prozac tastes really nice if you eat loads of it 😀

I’ve emailed them too.

Whether it proves the leak came from them, didn’t come from them or points someone in a position to do somethng about it in the right direction, I don’t know, but it can’t do any harm I guess!