I have a individual cell charger for 18650 batteries that gives you a reading of internal resistance and capacity.

I then harvest dead laptop batteries for 18650s, usually only one or two cells is duff.

Then use one of the battery cases from deal extreme or eBay to assemble a pack of cells with the nearest matching capacities and internal resistance.

Be very careful especially harvesting cells, the cells contain a huge amount of energy and will give it up really quickly if short circuited and easily start fires.

Usually the cheap “new” 18650 cells on eBay or dx are recycled cells or really poor capacity. Better to harvest our own from quality branded laptop batteries.

Last of the 26″ Turner flux. Love mine.

Here you go , free OS land ranger:

http://admin.anquet.com/Anquet-Free-Landranger.html

Screen shot / print or use on your phone

best with a cx specific front mech isn’t it?

Weekend or weekday?

Weekends I park at piccadilly place.

http://www.piccadillyplace.co.uk/retail/getting-here

A wood one then you can dismantle and take it with you.

Or for a buyer:
If a buyer likes a workshop / big shed they have one to swing the choice in your direction
If a buyer doesn’t like a workshop / big shed, a wooden one is easier for them to dismantle and dispose of than a brick one.

Build a wood one.

will your insurance not just recover costs from their insurance?

I run 10-42 rear and 42 n/w upfront, can swap to 40 front for hilly rides. Sram clutch mech.

yes, perfectly. You can also use road 10spd shifters and cassette with your 9spd MTB mech.

https://www.evanscycles.com/pinnacle-lithium-5-womens-2016-fork-EV250549

2 sets of dropout bosses
Low rider mounts
410mm a-c
50mm offset
Decent tyre clearance
1.2kg
£60

I have Soma Cazadero 42c for days when a little cornering tread and volume is needed and usually run Vittoria Voyager Hyper 38c.

I ride road and estate tracks with gentle off road on my charge plug 5 titanium. As said 95% of the time a big volume slick is great off road.

The 38c vittoria voyager hyper are brilliant, a bargain at £15 for the shop you love to hate, supple and low rolling resistance, proves you don’t need a 100psi 25c tyre bone shaker to go fast.

I think tyres make the single biggest difference to any decent road or cross bike. Choose supple (120 tpi), wide (38c+), and lightweight (folding) and run them tubeless and at low pressures.

I use these, £3.40

http://www.dx.com/p/303641

Not quite as good as the Oakley M frames they replaced, but very nearly….

There is no such thing as a “free” MOT….

http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/keels-saxon-jacket-large-bwnt

Are they “E” marked?

Why are you taking your car to a main dealer for an MOT anyway?

£27 at kwik fit. Tell them you do all your own work on the car and you want them to show you anything it fails on while on the ramp, that way they can’t BS you.

Are they more than 60W?

If so they are not road legal, otherwise complain to the DVSA

Keela Saxon.

Brilliant, breathable, lightweight, hood that actually goes over helmet (with securing flap), packs small and is acceptable to wear to the pub.

Its bright blue which is good for visibility, and cheap enough you won’t cry if you damage it.

The main advantage of “SUVs” is the commanding driving position for seeing over traffic and looking down on peasants.

No use in rural areas when there is no traffic.

Any hatchback will be fine for country roads, its not like they have obstacles across them.

You’ll get way more dosh breaking it.

Most f the time these things are paid by grant funding, i.e. the grant will be a one off that pays for the trails to be built and the car park to be built.

Then the grant runs out, and to be sustainable they need continuous income.

One way of doing that is to rent a cafe spot, and another paid for parking.

Its expensive parking, but its not just paying for the parking… its very different to a town centre – parking charges are low because you generally go spend a load of money in town / do business. You ain’t spending money in the forest when riding round…. unless you eat at the cafe I suppose.

Maybe the parking should be free, and there should be a gated entrance where every rider has to drop a couple of quid in. This would be nice, but theres all kinds of reasons why it wouldn’t work.

Find a car 2 or 3 years old, ~20k miles, most likely at a main dealer and do it during week 2 of the month.

Negotiate a few hundred off and “free” floor mats. Many times they have sales targets to meet by the end of the month, and looking mid month means the deal can be done and dusted by the end of the month.

Take the further PCP finance incentives (£500-£1000 off and multiple free services).

Call up and pay off the finance the day after taking delivery of the car without any penalty (its in the finance contract small print, but don’t mention you re going to do this to the salesman).

Enjoy for 5 years. Repeat.

mud hugger with extender.

Get a rear one too and have a dry bum.

Bosch rotrak, it hoovers all the grass up too unlike a flymo

Put in a cheeky offer, sounds like they re having trouble shifting it.

Then, every week ask your new neighbour to buy it back.

Circa 1990 Orbit 531 fillet brazed frame, powder coated and then iced with M730

Right, to give closure to this thread I bought these:

https://www.evanscycles.com/pinnacle-lithium-5-womens-2016-fork-EV250549

Steel
Unicrown
2 sets of dropout bosses
Low rider mounts
410mm a-c
50mm offset
Decent tyre clearance
£60

As a bonus they will mate with my integrated headset.
50mm offset means they should be nice with the bike front loaded.

How would you get it off with an angle grinder?

Cut inbetween the crank and frame? Or cut the crank?

If a replacement bolt is available, I’d try to drill that out – but the bolt will be tough so that might be hard work.

Otherwise I’d cut through the soft alloy crank with a grinder on one side of the bolt, and then the other if it doesn’t give up.

Again you need the lot secured in a vice, not waving around on the floor.

Before all that I would try heat. Repeatedly get a blow torch on it followed by a bucket of water. Then use a good tool and it might crack off.

The only crank I ever cut off was a well stuck square taper with stripped threads.

For any job you consider the full package.

I.e. nobody would do an MPs job without the gold plated pension, it just doesn’t pay enough for the responsibility.

What is upsetting is that I agreed to do my job with a good pension, and that has been taken away from me. Had I taken a different job at the start of my career path, I would now be much better off at retirement age.

Its too late really to retrain.

I fully anticipate having to work until I die or no longer possess the mental faculty to. at which point I won’t really care what happens anyway.

The only problem with that is that there will be no jobs suitable for us to do at age 75+

Best get saving now.

No need to change rear mech.

Just need shifters, cassette and chain.

But why bother? Seems a big faff and expense for 2 more gears that I would hardly notice.

You need to do the lot inc chainrings and mechs to take advantage of slightly slicker shifts from the better groupset,

I always got used to it pretty quickly, a bit like driving a LHD car.

Yep, that’s one way of looking at it – I suspose I could spend the rest of my life paying for my lack of attention 20+ years ago, but I choose not to.

Its fraud by false representation, hardly shows good character does it?

Yes, you did it 20 years ago but it sounds like you are still reaping the benefits.

I’d get the other crank in a solid vice so there is no danger of snapping or bending the frame.

However you have snapped the tool…was it a quality brand socket or a cheapy? I’ve snapped a few cheapys in my time working on cars.

Try a good quality branded allen socket. Halfords Professional have a no quibble warranty!

Or take it to a proper engineering place they will have it out no worries.

If the cranks are for the bin then break out the angle grinder.

I don’t think “the market” has ever dropped something so quickly before for no real good reason.

Even URT suspension bikes hung around for a good while and they were rubbish.

My pension was a final salary scheme when I joined.

Then 2 years ago they changed it to a career average scheme when they realised it wasn’t sustainable.

So join up now if you can but don’t necessarily expect the terms to stay the same until you retire!

We are paying for baby boomers final salary schemes, nobody is going to pay for ours.

I find it amazing that all mountain bikes were 26″ and 3x for so long, and now there are none, apart from the buckshaw which has weird big tyres.

There is barely any perceptible difference between 2 and 650b, bizzarre.

Ah well I’m still rocking 26 and 3×9 here.

Yes, new – this post is more out of finding the state of the market than actually buying one……

Why are people always so surprised that businesses want to make a profit?!

It is their sole purpose, unless they are a social enterprise.

Terrible shame about middleburn, but I don’t blame SJS for hiking prices – they have always been the place to get weird stuff usually at a high price – they are just defending their niche. You wither high sell at high volume low price (Chainreaction model) or low volume high price (SJS) – for the latter to work you stock stuff that nobody does or can.

A decent track pump would be a better solution

Great – I’d be interested in what those weigh – any chance you can put them on a scale before fitting?

Also a pic on the bike!!