Black Elixir 5’s from On One 100 squid a pair including 180 rotors
Can’t go wrong

Actually, I can see them tapering a BB shell to ‘compensate’ for the higher driveside forces….

First time on a mtb for 18 months at the weekend though I have ridden road in the meantime but not enough so that the south downs nearly crippled me.

I don’t think the feeling of freedom the trails give ever leaves you

Ha – good point Donk, yes BB’s are another can of worms, Still at least you can put pretty much any one in any frame – or can you now?

I love bikes and am fairly handy with the spanners…yet I literally fell asleep reading the above posts – reminds me of the endless discussions about integral v ‘integrated’ headsets on roadbikes in the early 90’s. Not the fault of the posters I hasten to add. What is it about the shortest tube on a bike that gets designers/marketeers in a lather and how long before we end up trying to separate the steering and suspension forces altogether leading to a BMW tele-lever set up!

Had a 29er years ago when they first came out (GF rig) and really liked it Only sold it as it was too small a frame size for me and never ended up replacing it so 29er might be a solution.

Seen a Sanderson Life that looks good (26er)but never heard of them and as Brants company seems to be still in business (probably due to a combination of excellent customer service and pricing) there are some Ti 456’s and Titus 29ers that look ineteresting

Looks like DeKerf are still with standard headtubes but can accomodate any size wheel. However the prices appear to have gone up by a factor of 3 since I last looked so too much for me

So what steel hardtail frame for approx £500-750?

Thanks Mike
Don’t care about the whys and wherefores as its all marketing bollox, just want a bike that will last me another 10 years i.e one that can be constantly rebuilt.

So even frames like DeKerf and Moots etc have tapered headtubes and are set up for 650 now?

Sugar Ape!

I was up that way on Saturday. Its rideable but not enjoyable. Forget getting out of the saddle on a climb, its spin city and the descents are slower due to mud. Watch any off camber section as you will have zero grip, even on a nice looking grassy bit as I found out to my cost….

Flippin heck, I’d never thought of the similarity…..

Despite the bricking up of a few windows, window tax was one of the most successful tax systems for working out property size and lasted 150 years!

Footflaps…really? I doubt many people would bother to do that as it would reduce value of the house and cost to remove and to put back. Also just like rates/council tax tec, houses could be assessed and assigned a number of bedrooms one could reasonably expect for that property. i,e to stop someone building a mansion with 5000sqft, 2 acres of grounds and just one bedroom – square footage calculations can also be used

@jfletch

I’ve been saying this for awhile now. Not just OAPs but all housing should be targeted on a bedroom tax. 1 person, one bedroom – anything else gets a sliding scale of taxation starting reasonably high and getting stratospheric. If you are a couple or a family, you’ll still have one spare room free of tax for visitors but will stop people like my last next door neighbour who lived on her own in a 5 bed house

In addition private ownership should be restricted to 2 houses at any one time and all multi landlord outfits should be non-profit trusts
Ex BT ‘Engineers’ should be charged double

Ha – no Friston then

Probably OK to turn left at the top of Ditchling Beacon (coming from the non-Brighton side) and keep going till we run out of ridge

Cheers

Talking heads.

Meanwhile

Tend to stop filtering on mways when traffic gets to 40ish, i.e you are doing 50-55 – any faster and it starts becoming a lottery. Drivers expect bikes to be filtering when the traffic is stationary or crawling but not when it speeds up a bit

Btw, if the post on intersesting light answers was aimed at me I’d love to know your thoughts – I’ve given the matter a great deal of thought my self (same with hi viz)

Full beam on a motorway isn’t needed and just p!!!!s people off – They are mostly annoyed that we are filtering anyway (unless they are bikers too, then they are annoyed they didn’t bring the bike that day!)

However low beam is a must – I only just saw an ‘old school’ biker the other day whilst driving with his ancient twin and no hard wired headlight, black waterproofs etc. And as a biker, I’m really looking out for them too – total nutter

As a scout leader , i’m pleased to report that the rope with a knot/ball game is still going strong. Scouts are still allowed to build massive fires and carry knives (penknives only till you get to 13 then bowies it is!)as well as climbing trees and playing various fairly energetic wide games in the pitch black before coming back to poke sticks in the fire etc

We can’t travel up the M6 in a removal van though……

I’m outraged at this – the Dutch lady has no helmet and appears to be wearing fashonable clothing (for the Netherlands). The chap behind likewise and despite the weather being inclement there is absolutely NO dayglo waterproof goretex in evidence.

Its almost as if they aren’t making ANY effort to differentiate themselves from other road users and pedestrians.

I bet the car drivers and pedestrians almost think they might all be part of the same road using nation… perhaps some of those pedestrians (also not wearing ‘proper clothing’ I see) might just have a bike parked round the corner..with mudguards..and a stand….!

How can that possibly work!!

The bus stop cycle lane idea isn’t inherently flawed but it won’t work in the UK as attitudes to using it (and most cycle infrastructure)are all wrong from every stakeholder in the game.

“no timewasters”

Brilliant – you’ve just told me in two words all I need to know about you, your item for sale and your attitude if I need to contact you afterwards for some reason

I won’t be wasting your time – good day

You will need a neck tube too – the temp just dropped a load over the last day or so

Snapped chain – I ride a folder that is prone to it. Fix it myself
Puncture – Ditto
Bolts loosening – Ditto

Only thing I ever go to a bike shop for is headset replacement

varadero

I believe it is correctly referred to as ‘the sweaty pig in a tutu’

Not the prettiest but I quite like it

Eats fuel though

Its one of the few things about human nature I genuinely can’t fathom -But a lot of UK drivers, pedestrians and horse riders hate (and I use the word hate on purpose) cyclists. I don’t think they even know themselves – its an irrational hatred based on similar lines to racism and misogeny

This based on 25 years cycling on public roads and bridleways

I can obviosly work out many contributing factors – but the level of hatred still suprises and confuses me

and why why didn’t the Violent Femmes end up bigger?

Blue aeroplanes were good – in fact I’ve just stuck on You are Loved as we speak

Not sure if anyone mentioned the Wedding Present yet but they should have had way more success

I’ve got a iPhone with a griffin case – can’t remember what its called but it fell out of my pocket at 70mph ish and its still fine

also dropped into 6ft of snow coming back from a bar in alps and found the next morning still fine

yeah but we all know its not really sailing! – looks like the windsurf crew might break 100kph though!

I didn’t make 30 knots! That was the record at the time. I was something like 21st on 22.5 knots!

Ha!
and even better the crown has been wrestled from the low slung pant wearing tea baggers

Still remember the days when Weymouth speed week was the place to be for speed – even had a go myself with a fully camber induced North Prism on my trusty F2 Sputnik…….that was when 30 knots was fast!

Geoffrey Wheatcroft wrote one called Le Tour – its a bit linear but readable

I know loads of people love it here but French Revolutions is the worst cycling book I’ve ever read

that tattoo gives me renewed faith in humanity………after 101 too many dolphins leaping playfully over the ankle bone and **** celebs with sandscrit up their arms a sterling reminder of what its all about

Very overpriced stella in a crappy overpriced corporate hotel

Haven’t got a license ever since they switched off analogue as we don’t have a TV that can get a signal
Watch iplayer every now and then
Have a dish on the house which isn’t connected
No letters
No visits
No worries!

I think people might be conflating two things here: favourite books are not generally the life changers – The Hobbit is one of my favourite books and I’ve read it many times since I was 13 or so
Still have it as a ‘comfort book’ for when times are depressing or I’m stressed

But did it or has it changed me? No – not sure how it can. Same with Gormenghast – a descriptive tour de force and a wonderful creative narrative means for many its one of the best books they have ever read….but how does it change your life?

“Bandler & Grindler – NLP, this followed on from Unlimited Power, well it was the 90’s and we were all doing it. Now all the techniques have been dissolved into normal working life, but at the time the techniques and philosophies were ground breaking. Show me a successful business man that hasn’t read either of these two.”

You are kidding right? NLP is hilarious at best and a nasty piece of work at worst

I think I’ll nominate The Starship and the Canoe as a book that fundementally changed my perception of life – you can read it at any age but its good if you do it early!

That post from poly is one of the most stupid I’ve ever read on here and its up against some stiff competition (from me occasionally!)

Bike theft is endemic in most of the UK and certainly all the bits I’ve lived in suffer.

Thieves have wised up considerably in recent years as the price of bikes has soared and mags these scrotes read like Sport, loaded etc have had advertorials on the latest bike kit. Even de-stickering and electrical tape no longer works as well as it used to

Even worse, even pub bikes are going as the scum realise that we may build up something quite nice whilst telling ourselves its a ‘hack’

My answer is a folder which goes everywhere with me and anything else never leaves my sight – I’ve wheeled bikes into shops plenty of times with the view that if you want my business…..

If you don’t do it in a van, a landy or on two wheels (with or without an engine)

It never happened!

Only one good song

Still, one more than James ever had

Does anyone still use iTunes?

I got off with Mikki from Lush!

And the hot blonde indy chick was Tracy Tracy from the Primitives – not that Wendy James wannabe

Don’t underestimate the SDW as its about 9000ft of height gain over the 100 mile length and a lot of that is steep. I’ve done both the two day and one day ride and the SDW in a day is significantly harder – and thats without the weather to contend with. As other have said if its windy and wet you might as well not bother as the thing will be an ordeal.

But if you get the sun its one of the best rides in the country…except for the bluddy gates and pedestrians (I know I know they have every right to be there…but there are so many of them!!)