The weather was great, couldn’t believe how hot and sunny it was. A bit of a brief visit for us, but out of what we did I preferred ‘Inners’, having a little bit more of a natural feel to it.

Put your feet up now, you deserve it!

Well done Rob!

I know that TJ, I bet there is some lovely secret/locals’ stuff. Was fun 🙂

First time visit to GT for me over the holiday week just gone, surprised how ”smooth” everything was. The ‘Bitch’ was more like it for me, but only lasted a few secs or a min or two. Fun but waay over rated imo. Inners was a bit better.

They’re all fairly much a muchness with the Welsh centres from my experience. Probably won’t go again, and unlikely to visit a trail centre more than once a year – there is very good riding just on my doorstep I’ve concluded.

There’s not much after the concrete dew pond just a short scrubby run back to the Uni.

Wild Park is near Coldean/Lewes Road end of Brighton, should be on a map.

Just had a look at Charge too, the top tube dimensions do seem very short – got a feeling they are centre to centre and not virtual readings like On-One etc. The smallest frame is near 16 1/2 though. Emailed them, I’ll let you know.

Have a good one Rob, shame we are arriving in ‘inners’ as you are leaving – save some of the good weather for us!

I’ll be reading with interest, as I’ve not even been to Scotland let alone ride there.

I bet you’ll be researching the local beer industry too……

Well done Albanach, that is the shortest top tube yet. 14″ frame though – may be ok. I’ll check out the RM I do recall they come up short.

Her current bike is a 16″ Trek WSD which has a weeney 21 1/4 virtual top tube, gets on well with it hence getting something similar geo wise wouldn’t be much of a risk.

ART – yep I can understand why, custom would be the ultimate but at 1k average you really really have to want one. Anyway, the On-One seems to work for you.

Thanks for the replies but all those frames come in at 22 plus top tubes.

I think that is part of the problem, finding a short top tube similar to the women specific bikes out there in alu which, are just over 21″ in that frame size.

Blimey – good luck and well done!

Mine are wearing again but I’ll happily (?) pay the £60 to get the wheel back to Germany and let the Rohloff chaps do it again (every two years)

Yup! some folk choose a classic for that reason I’m sure. Some examples of what people have done to keep their old cars alive in my galleries below

http://www.peterflynnclassiccars.com

I’m sure you can spec drop-outs and geometry of course on the Ti frames. Other than that Ti isn’t really my thang so that’s about all I can say.

🙂

That’s it rewski without wanting to sound too pretentious – if I haven’t done so already! 😉

The standard Ego’s are TIG welded although they do still offer the fillet braze alternative for a bit extra.

The one above was a bit of a one-off to show case what they can do, and has different drop-outs (Joe Breezer style) and a disc brace – old skool style, where as the newer versions have no brace and a Paragon steel drop-out. The chainstays are different as well, my one has the Colombus Life ‘blade type’ and the TIG version has ‘Nemo’ still Colombus though.

You can spec what you want of course.

It is indeed issue 59. I ordered my copy through the mag back issues dept £1.99 delivered!

I have the actual frame featured in that issue and I’m in the process of building it up into a bike again. I’ve resprayed it at work as the satin black wasn’t doing anything for the fillet brazing! 😉

Here it is…

I wish there were a few more mtb frame builders going….be worth the trip if so…

Nice bikes fellas!

If anyone reading this has a pair of suspension corrected IF rigid forks to dispose of email please. 🙂

I’m not interested in all the stats – is it safe now?

I wouldn’t support the CTC and certainly wouldn’t want them representing me! After long discussions with them at the highest level, over taking over our local forests, my conclusion is that they offer nothing bar the third party insurance for their £68 yearly fee to ride their ‘controlled’ areas. If they had their way mtb’ing would require a permit like a fishing rod licence, you would need one by law at 68 quid per year to ride off road anywhere in the UK.

The local DH group subscribed (were forced) to the CTC to continue using the tracks they had created on FC land. Out of the £68 CTC yearly fee, only £2.50 – £5 went to the local club. Again the CTC are not providing anything other than the third party insurance.

If I were a roadie or touring cyclist then I could see the benfits of this organisation.

The reason we’re not seeing mtb frames in stainless is that the manufacturers aren’t producing the butting profiles suitable for mtb frames yet. As it is a new (difficult to believe I know) material for bike frames, all the manufacturers have started by producing road tubing only. There is no reason other than economics and market testing as to why mtb tubing isn’t produced in the suitable butting at the moment. It will happen.

On the frame builders forum there are a few custom builders who have started to incorporate stainless into mtb builds, but they are using a mixture of steel and stainless to produce a frame of the correct butting strength. Another issue these builders have found, is that the tubing isn’t as easy to bend and shape (chainstays/seatstays) so again it is necessary to wait for the correct tubing to be manufactured with the tyre clearance for mtb’s.

The ultimate would be to fillet braze the tubes with silver solder – none of this vulgar TIG welding! 😉 Again it boils down to cost.

If you love it then that’s all that matters.

”if you’re riding your single speed and nobody sees you, is it still cool” is another question 😉

Get it blasted, it’s the only way you’ll find out!

Maybe it will all turn full circle, and we’ll start visiting those buildings in our towns called shops.

I used crc right after this thread started (hadn’t read it) and so far touch wood nothing dodgy ‘appears’ to happening with my bank account. I hope I haven’t spoken too soon 😯

I couldn’t get on with the gobi either, thought it was going to do me an injury in the flagpole raising dept! I get on with Rocket V, but still looking for something more comfy/less uncomfortable on big rides. Thought of trying a Bel-air too………..

Any car of that age and rust/bad restoration will be a concern, plus the on-going mechanical repairs needed. You WILL have to fix something most weeks! If that floats your boat then why not. The Vitesse which is a 2 litre Herald to affect would be a better choice, but either being good examples will cost you the same as a newish car.

I’ve ‘done’ a few Spitfires but haven’t updated my galleries lately
http://www.peterflynnclassiccars.com is me 🙂

Bollox! used them this morning before reading this, not had a problem before [crosses fingers]

Cheers for the heads up

I’ve got three headsets on bikes, only one I bought new and that is the oldest, 12 years and now out of warranty. The secondhand headsets are worth 45-50 – I’ve just bought one. I wouldn’t buy any other headset, but you maybe ought to consider secondhand if worried about the outlay.

My original Kona

my new to me frame

paint by me

Buy new, and Sthil for £250. Easy to use and spares are available easily.

I’ve had one for fifteen years for firewood logging, still going strong. You can get almost any part for them from Horsham Fencing – half hour from you. They stock all the new range and everything to go with it too. 🙂

If you step up the range they get bigger and heavier, not what you want by the sounds of it. All of their stuff is proffesional so no durability issues.

Wow where did you hear good things about Bedgebury? It’s all waymarked and there is only one route, the rest being out of bounds so to speak. Great for young families, there I’ve said something good about the place. 😉

Give it a try you might see it differently to me.

I didn’t realise people your age posted on here. All the best with your dilema.

Boxelder ‘decent’ £100 mark

40mpg – I paint frames too and I just had a look at your profile to see if you are local before putting myself forward – clicked on your link and who do I see – say hello to Nula for me (Pete from Horsham)! Glad she kept with the mtb’ing 🙂

Ford Olympic Blue – there’s someone who owned/lusted after a Mk1 RS2000! 😉

Can you get nice food at inners?

168 on my petrol Vectra, still doing the job, 40mpg and I’ve just got a new Mot on it (96)! I had a Cavilier before that that I scrapped at 180K, burnt no oil, better on fuel than the Vectra, body went home in a few places – wasn’t worth repairing I thought.

Thanks Gavin

One last bump for the weekend

ferrit is cool :-), ferrit32 is a different person on here, unfortunately ferrit32 posts as just ferrit on Retrobike. Confusing I know, apologies for any mistaken identity, and thanks for looking out for us seanodav.

late afternoon bump

The usual suspects keep croping up above…

🙂