I dunno, I doubt I ride as well as you. I am now getting older. But I love the mmbop’s stability and balanced feel. I don’t understand why it was such a flash in the pan. Best £150 I have EVER spent. The mmbop has done over 100 hundred miles per week since I bought it.

I think the Ragleys were Brant’s best work and he should be justly proud of this work. I have been mad on bikes for thirty years and I think the mmmbop is the best hardtail I have ever ridden. I used to be a big Gary Fisher Genesis fan previously. Always been a fan of long top tube bikes. I have never owned an On One, though I did have the weirdly ugly but nice Planet X Armadillo.

I too hated the stiffness of the mmmbop’s rear end, until I bought a nice comfy seat, a large volume 2.3 rear tyre and put in what feels like the right air pressure. I still like the look of the Troof, despite Brant’s departure from Ragley. The carbon 456 does appeal to me, and very tempting.. red or raw or black…

You have to say something.

In 2000 I had a house break-in and my GF MT Tam was stolen. Insurance pay out was rapid; two weeks later I was heading down the high street on the replacement. Outside a cafe I saw my ‘old’ bike. I immediately locked my new bike to the old one and demanded to know who in the cafe was the ‘owner’. I was angry, the bike was stolen in a house break-in not from outrside a shop, so it felt more personal, and invasive. Anyhoo…

Just got loads of sniggering. I phoned the police, they threatened to arrest me when I questioned why they were letting all the customers of the cafe go. They handled the situation badly. Luckily I had also phoned the bike shop and they came up the road to help me out. I had a very close relationship with that shop. Anyhoo…

I got to keep both bikes. Insurance company wanted £100 for the old bike. The old bike was in very good condition despite its ordeal. So insurance company got a few quid back, and for £1100 and a slightly higher insurance premium I ended up with £2000 worth of bikes.

Have you got cock grips?

what sort of lifetime could you expect from the 456C?

Have you also stuck one on the seatpost?

I thought the DMR hat like the XTR one they did was smeggy…

Worst embroidery I have seen for ages…

interestung fact about dont push me, im close to the edge, the message…

It doesn’t have grandmaster flash on it, most of the tracks attributed to him dont feature much or any of him..

it was grandmaster melle mel and the furious five…

Don’t do what I do and lose them. I haven’t paid the right tax in 7 years.. have to keep claiming it back..

poster above. I have a pitch pro with no original bits other than seatpost and seatpost clamp. Wasteful I guess in retrospect.. original wheels lasted about 5 rides though!

giant cocks.

Sometimes bargains appear and you have to be fast. Still kicking myself for missing an On One deal where you could get the carbon 456 frame and almost a full XT groupo for £499. my mmmbop frame I picked up for £150.. my Nuke Proof/Sapim/EN521 wheels cost £200..

I look for offers and deals.. have even bought items from Hong Kong and US ebay..

I really like the one I got from Chas Olson for about £75.

Do you have a bit of carpal tunnel developing?

I use middleburn cable oilers in my SRAM shifter set up. Makes em always sweet to push. I prefer SRAM shifter/rear mech setup because it needs less calibration…

I said the lower end of boutique and so I was referring to Blue Pig, Blitz etc., which I percieve to be low end boutique. But you can supplant boutique with just plain old aftermarket.

I currently have an alu mmmbop, alu Garyu Fisher Big Sur, and an alu Pitch Pro.

I just fancied steel. However, I remember a time when Tange Prestige and Columbus True Temper and Reynolds frames weighing less than 5lbs were cheaper and more widely available. Now it seems they are all porky 6lb’ers. Though if the blue pig is just 5.5lbs for an 18in I might still include it in my possible list – since I like the mmmbop so much…

Anyone have a Sanderson Blitz 18in on the scale?

Why do steel frames need to be 6lbs? I still don’t get it. 5 to 5.5lbs would still surely build a steel frame stronger than a 4lb aluminium one?

I just can’t reconcile aftermarket and boutique (albeit at the lower end) with 6lbs of weight.

I have on my bikes tiny saddlebags big enough to carry just tyre levers, patches, and allen keys. I keep a spare inner tube at work. I carry my work folder in a rucksack, together with a small Lezyne pump.

I’m highly disorganised at home, and since I give so much energy to work, I am always knackered and forever put off maintenance. I’ve been riding with a dodgy rumble rumble hope bearing in my bottom bracket for 3 months, yet I have two sets of bearings in a box. Somewhere.

3 bikes. Two working, but I am not on top of my condition monitoring..

Why have spare wheels? Cos you use your bike everyday and you can switch out wheels in case of unforeseen issues.. I have several nice sets.. Evans did me a nice build for £80 inc SAPIM DB spokes F and R.

I know that if I lost my job tomorrow… I wouldn’t find another… would imagine it’s the same for many of you…

Interesting only one person makes mention of David Rockafella.. Nathan Rothschild.. no mention of Goldman Sachs…

I don’t think a lot of you see really what is happening right now or have much of a clue why it’s happened…

I would imagine he was inpotent by the end of that.

At a seriously dodgy backstreet garage where I had some bodywork done I was offered two bikes, a Orange5 and a full carbon full suss race bike- both as new for peanuts.

I said bloody well no.

Would I grass on them? Would I ****. They are the sort of blokes who’d pop you in the canal after a few hits with a clawhammer.

I wouldn’t touch anything stolen as it feeds a criminal economy but also the same with drugs. If you buy drugs you are feeding criminals. I bet theres a few coke and smoking users on here.

So where do you draw the line? Both buying stolen bikes and buying drugs has the same net-result. Of course……there is the pick n mix morality of some though..

lol

A lot of our money ends up in the hands of bankers.. so they can buy Ferraris and prostitutes.. swings and roundabouts…

The drug economy is just one link in a rotten chain.

Report it to the police just so’s you can get a crime reference number which you’ll need to claim on your insurance.

I doubt most folk would really expect much else tbh. Most people I know who’ve bin burgled, the police jolly well have not even sent a SOCCO down to take fingerprints, and basically said ‘there’s not much we can do, other than give you a crime reference number for your insurance claim’. Which is all they’ve done when I’ve had a bike nicked.

I’m not expecting them to perform miracles, and I appreciate how difficult their jobs are much of the time, but public confidence in the police is at a real low, and it ain’t helped by them killing innocent people, being involved in ‘phone hacking scandals, bashing people exercising their democratic right to protest (not to mention using agents provocateurs to deliberately stir up trouble), and using false names when giving evidence under oath in court….

And lots of other bad things.

As for ‘respect’; it’s earned. Putting on a uniform and a badge does not in any way automatically qualify you for such. You need to do something to gain it first.

What he said.

Generally, if asked my number by a person I was speaking to, I would give it out to the person – reality is that its quite often an empty threat from a smart arse … hence the fail of the attitude test so to speak.

Regarding wearing them: There is a set on my black body armour and a set on my yellow jacket. They are always left on. If not, its by accident, not by choice. Contrary to reported opinion, colleagues are decent folks and point out if you’re missing them on your shoulders ( thats if they haven’t turned them upside down that is ) As to whether its a legal requirement, TJ probably is right regarding it being policy.

I think you quite possibly fail the attitude test if you think someone is a smart arse for asking for your number. The police don’t always do the right thing. I have seen numerous abuses by the police and some diabolical police attitudes. I am largely not a fan of the police nowadays. I know the number game you play, the people whose lives your institution has ruined e.g. the shady caution that ends careers just to get a disposal that makes you look good…..

You work for us.

The only special gear I wear are shades, SPD’s, and gloves.. I don’t wear a helmet and I don’t need padded shorts because I choose decent perineum cut out pelvic bone design seats e.g. Terry Liberator, SMP Trk, Spesh Sonoma, and BG…

I wear normal clothes and business attire (under a fleece usually), but I use velcro too keep trousers out of crank..

As for fit for purpose, my mmmbop is fit for commuting. I cycle on the roads in, and take the woodland track back. Close packed fast 2.3 tyre on rear, knobbly 2.3 on front.. kept the 44 outer for little bursts of flat.. I wouldn’t want to commute on a Euro shopper like described. I would however appreciate if Brits could be as pleasant as the Europeans.

My town, Reading, is too dangerous to cycle at peak rush hour 7.30-9 and 5-7. Unless you have a deathwish so the mtb enables me to hop between pavement and road as desired/needed..

I wish I had snapped up one of those carbon 456 and XT kits they did briefly for an insane 499…

Loads of choice, especially with the deals currently on in Merlin and CRC..

Ok.. but both parts are expanding! ?

Don’t all discs perform better when wet? Something to do with bouyancy? Filling the gaps plus incompressibility of a fluid?

Of course the rain under the tyres offsets this mechanical advantage… ?

I hope you get it back, but why anyone would leave a bike like that in public baffles me. Locks mean shit to a bike thief. A pair of bolt cutters is all you need…

why would it expand in only one direction? And will boiling water really make much difference? 80 temp difference between ambient and boiling x not very much length times not very much at all coeff of expansion, then the difference… is it worth the hassle?

BTW I never booked a place but always got a space. However, many times I was unable to load my bike at Reading.. they used to conjur up all kinds of reasons there for not allowing bikes, even with guard trains with cycle provision.. I always got to work with a lot of anxiety but no big issues, but often found getting home difficult when there was strong discouragement about which trains would and wouldn’t allow cycles.. some stations are not long enough for some trains with cycle carriages… so they tell you not to get on.. slower trains usually easier to carry bikes cos you simply go into the carriage by the doors and prop up or stand and hold your bike .. evryone hates you for it though.. the slower trains usually involves hoardes of school kids at certain times..

Nightmare… commuting by train at peak times must be the worst thing about the UK.

I remember having to commute via FGW two years ago. In the end I moved towns.

Be warned, if the muppet doesn’t come to UNLOCK the guards carriage (the carriage at the front or rear of the train with the room for bikes, usually hanging by the front wheel or in a rack) you might lose your bike. In Reading, I watched a train once leave the station with the bikes of two cyclists still inside. They were at the cycle carriage in plenty of time and they called out for the guard. He didn’t show, and the driver left the station with the cyclists running after it, risking life and limb trying to pull the carriage doors as they did so. Shocking. The world hates cyclists. FGW hate cyclists. One of those guys told me the following week he lost his bike, was worth a grand he said. Someone had collected (i.e. nicked) the bike at the next station! He was trying to get FGW to pay for it…

Some stations the trains are too long for you to unload your bike.

The cycle rack trains usually don’t have working straps.. the hand by front wheel trains can damage rims and be difficult or impossible for long wheelbase bikes with fat tyres to go into..

FGW = ****.

but what stops the aluminium from expanding at the ID as well as the OD? Just a thought?

Its possible to get the bearing innner race out without a blind puller sometimes.

Heat the freehub in bloing wter and hit it down onto a hard surface – the shock / inertia might move the race – heating the hub up makes the fit much less tight. you can also sometimes get purchase on it with a screwdriver / drift

The problem with heating both items is that both expand. This will not help free this interference fit appreciably, given the closeness of the linear expansion coefficient of steel and aluminium.. ?

I just bought the hope tools.. my freehub has been fine in over 1000 miles and my 14 and a bit stone.. 15 or16 with rucksack etc..

Are Shimano middle rings offset?

I wouldn’t discount the Hayes Stroker Ace… I think the new Hayes brakes are very good.

From my understanding the Flows only achieve their lightness advantage, compared to say a DT5.1 (EX500) or Mavic EN521, by doing without eyelets. And because they lack eyelets, spoke tension has to be less, less or only equal to rider load I recall reading, which could mean they go out of whack sooner when the spokes lose more tension over time as a natural reaction to time and use?

The Stan’s are overpriced IMO. Which means when faced with Hope Hoop options for example, almost everyone goes for Stan’s because of the percieved saving. I simply don’t see how Stan’s Taiwanese Sun made rim costs more than a French made Mavic. Then again, Mavic is Mavic, wheras Stan’s is Stan’s and Sun Ringle..

I’m just bored reading that everyone goes for flows.. kinda boring… when did eyelets on rims and high spoke tension become a thing to avoid?

I am exactly a UK 11 normal shoes.

A UK 11 is usually listed as 46.

In Shimano DXMP66 and AM45 I found I was an EU 47. So go one size up.

In Pearl Izumi I went for EU 48, but it’s more like an 11, wheras the 47 (UK 12) was more like a 10 and so too tight.

Why not Spesh again with the Clutch SX?

At the moment I run Eskar on one bike and WTB tyres on t’other, I like my WTB Stout 2.3 for mud.. though some think they are too heavy, but they are no heavier than a Maxxis equivalent…