I and the Mrs had a day booked off work today. Swapped the planned long road ride for a shorter ride on snowy trails with a nice cafe stop mid-ride.

It was cold, windy with driving stinging snow….but the trails were fun and we were riding mid-week in daylight :-)

We were both on ss, so only frozen pedals/cleats to worry about/kick into submission. Great day off.

For me, as riding time is pretty limited, if i’ve got an opportunity to go i’ll probably take it. I’ll also take bad weather over a turbo session.

I use 105s and the mrs uses keo somethings.
I haven’t a clue which is best, but both work fine and have not thrown up any problems. Both are MUCH better than mtb spds.

However how do you feel about the inbred s? This is because price wise I would be having Hope Hoops, if that makes sense.

This sounds a good plan. A more expensive frame may be let down with heavy/flexy budget wheels. Inbreds are ace too!

what singlespeed shep said.

20t gets you close to a 32:18 equivalent, which is what I and a few others default to in hilly areas instead of 2:1. Its only 1t difference, but it should be significant.

slacklining is all about a nice summers day, in the park/woods/campsite, some sturdy trees, some beers……and some mates who are actually skillful enough to do it!

I’m sure its lovely, and i have driven it, just didn’t stop to see anything :(
It was our own stupid fault as post wedding in Mclaren Vale, we went climbing for a few days in the Grampians (fantastic!)and then leaving it too late we went back via the great ocean road back to Melbourne for our flight. Basically it was a horrible and tiring experience trying to get a big wallowly hire car around all the bends fast enough not to miss the flight… ah well, planning and all that!

Anyway, I recommend some time in the Grampians.

on-one phaart

edit- not screw-on, but so cheap that you won’t feel bad bodging something together.

I got there as well early yesterday for a couple of laps. Dry, if slightly soft conditions, but riding nicely everywhere it seemed. I also crashed on snakebites, but it was definitely my error – was too low on one of the berms and caught the chalk. Next lap i went higher and all fine. :-)

Gravity enduro looks good. Fun cat for me I guess.

I’ve got the 2.2/2.4 cheapo combo.
Thoughts are:
A little small for the stated width, but the 2.4 has enough volume for me on the front.
Running tubeless with stans. Overnighted them first with a tube, then they went up fine. A few psi top-ups in the first week, but basically fine. Running 22ish psi rear and 18ish psi front smooths things out and eeks some grip out of them
They are less grippy than they look.

Overall I like them as i value speed over outright grip and sketchiness is common to me whatever tyres i run!

edit- on a rigid ss 29er fwiw

Good spot!
Edge 200 and 2 tubes of lube – £78.
I’d needed the lubes anyway so the edge was basically £66. Not bad.

Wooden spoon or rubber spatula for the creaming stage and give it some ooomph. This is your chance to get some air into the mix so get yer guns into it! Arm pump at this stage is a good sign.

Then add beaten eggs and flour a bit at the time, folding, and generally keeping it gentle.

Do this and you can’t go wrong :-)

Just back in from a quick lunchtime spin. Great conditions, freezing cold, light snow in the air, but buff and almost dusty ground – v fast!

Soup and toast now.

G-F bread? of the available ones – Genius is ok

Homemade fresh bread – Doves Farm brown bread flour is the one in the cupboard at the mo and makes a nice, if dense, fresh loaf, and then best toasted later.

OP – good luck with gluten and wheat-free eating.
From our experience, from an economy and taste point of view, make as much as you can yourself – cakes, breads etc. Theres lots of good GF flours available now and a little xanthum gum makes up for some the effect of gluten in baking. Rice porridge is ok and if you like it, is a good base for lots of toppings. Of the alternative milks, almond and rice are the ones still regularly in the fridge.

Mrs Yak has rice porridge with plenty of toppings and almond milk. She has way more QOMs than I have KOMs…if thats any recommendation :wink:

Do it – rigid singlespeeds are ace. :-)

Also- flat is no good on a singlespeed- you lose out to geared bikes on the flat as you are undergeared. Hills up and down are where singlespeeds are the most fun. Just gear it according to your local hills and you’ll be fine.

mattbee – sounds good. I have a stash of leftover marzipan so will try this.

Dried fruit- raisins usually and like this:

Oats and a little water in the pan
heat slightly until thick but not soggy
Arrange in a shape of your favourite mountain
Add a lake of milk (any flavour) at the base and add an action sequence of raisins on the slopes

I use a v long 600mm wide (i think) kamei box with thule freeride carriers- one on each side. I forget the model number, but the box was the longest available at that width at the time and overhangs the windscreen by quite a way.

I’ve used this set-up for years now. All perfectly fine, if a bit battered looking now. All from roofbox.co.uk. Give them a call as they are pretty helpful.

Whoa there! Never mind where or from who the milk came from – you/your wife actually make the porridge WITH milk??.

The approved sequence is:

Oats and a little water.
heat slightly until thick but not soggy
Arrange in a shape of your favourite mountain
Add a lake of milk (any flavour) at the base and add an action sequence of raisins on the slopes.

tada! This is, of course, thoroughly sound man behaviour and not open to question.

SIM270 – i’m 5’8″ with just under a 32″ inseam, but ape-positive by +2″. (armspan greater than height)
16″ 26er inbred/scandal geometry is ok, but better as SS as they feel too short sat down with a layback post and 90mm stem with 670mm bars. (i know- too short nowadays :wink: ). On a SS and mostly stood up it’s fine. I reckon an 18 will suit me better but haven’t tried one yet.

edit – forgot about the scandal 29er bent seatpost as NBT said. So does that make a 16″ 29er scandal suit taller folk than a 16″ 29er inbred?

Laptop
Notepad
Pen
Mince pie on a cow-print plate
Coffee
Calculator
Phone
Bowl of blackberries
Mouse/mousepad
Bowl of apples and satsumas
Big pile of drawings/ sketches

Exotics.
Had them for at least 4 years now. There’s a little flex and give, but that’s good.

The first few rides will be a shock, but then you’ll adapt, pick better lines, unweight more, etc. I’ve got a 2.2 tyre on the front at 25psi-soft enough to smooth out the clatter.

No dive is a great thing as is really hauling on the bars and having something solid to work against.

Have fun!

RS20 – only a few months old though – smooth and I haven’t had to true them yet.

Storm
edit- bit more info – does what you are after. The 2.0 is slimmer than you’d expect and digs in reasonably whilst not being too draggy. A bit drifty, but good on the rear. Sort of an all round winter compromise, but not in a bad way.

I’m with Woody2000 – start small as a test- hamster or something similar with a shortish lifespan. No input from you and if it’s dead in 6months then they’ve failed.

2nd birthday for the eldest and a bit younger for the youngest, but only because that’s when the eldest got a pedal bike.

Ours both got balance sorted at about 2.5ish. At that point they went really/ scarily fast and had some huge stacks! To try and reduce the huge stacks, a back brake is a good idea – although that sometimes just leads to a big skid, then the crash…

Scaled – i’ve done that move.

Yeah- miss the rocks and bigger hills, but right now, i’m enjoying the new variety of terrain -woodsy singletrack, QECP, the south downs and lots of events and races both off and on-road in close proximity.

Only change i’ve made is on my ss from 32:18 in the Peak to 32:16 here!

Beer IS better down south too :-)

OMITN- i can’t really help as i have no experience with gyms or personal trainers, but good luck with the final outcome of this and keep us posted. I have similar time, family (and age!) constraints so need to grab excercise/ bike time when I can but have never considered non-specific excercise.

Prior to cycling being my only sport/excercise, I climbed a lot. Given a bit more spare time, i’d like to climb again as I think it would be a good sport to balance the benefits of cycling.

Best pub in the world – check
Singlespeed – check
Cliffs, sea, sun – check
History of falling off cliffs in locality – check

I’m there

We got ours a nikon s30. Bought on supermarket points- can’t remember rrp. Waterproof, shockproof and ok pics. Easy for a 3yr old to use. We got it in black too as she didn’t want one that looked like a toy. (pink, blue etc). Small and tough enough to pinch for mtb duties too :-)

Mrs Yak is 5’8″ and rides a 52 secteur. The shop initially thought a 54 would be right, but flexibility/ arm length etc, made the 52 the right size.

Nice one singletrackmind.

I signed up for it too as a first sportive with my wife. We’d gone for the epic, which was probably a mistake as we’d both been ill all week (excuses…!). We rolled around the course then short-cutted back when we felt too rough for much more – about 70miles all in.

Still nice day out and i’ll definitely do another and go in fit and well and try and set a good time.

In general, most folk at our pace seemed friendly i thought. One incident with a range rover who forced my wife off into a ditch (no bombers/weeing in shoes retailiation unfortunately) spoilt the day slightly, but otherwise a good day out.

I couldn’t work out the mount either :? !

I mounted my previous dinotte light directly to the helmet using the rubber loop, as per bar mounting, so did the same again. Less faff, quicker and solid. On the old light i made a small angled rubber shim to get the right angle, but no need with the V2 – right angle from the off.

Yes i do.

1 – Ok. I mount it on top, not towards the front
2 – Ditched it and just threaded the rubber loop through one of the horizontal bits of the helmet. Nice and low profile and rock solid. Right angle too, but that might be luck!
3 – No

apologies – not like sora as you don’t shift with the brake lever, but its all about whether you get on with the upshift.

I’ve got microshift cheap-something and can upshift fine on the rear from the drops- but it’s not as nice/easy as regular shimano etc. Think sora, but with the upshift lever outside and lower.

I reckon, better than sora, but worse than tiagra upwards.

Rob – the upshift is still a ‘button’ and not on the lever as such.

I haven’t a clue about that particular groupset, but i do run microshift something or other. Just in case you are not familiar with microshift- the main thing is the way it shifts – push the big lever in to shift to a bigger cog on the cassette/chainset and push the small lever on the outside to a smaller cog. Brake lever only brakes. From the pics it looks to be the case on the arsis.

For me, this is preferable to the inside shift up on the sora, but not as good as tiagra, 105 etc upwards. This is because i can hit the mircoshift small lever easily when in the drops, but on sora it takes a huge thumb to do the same.

thats my twopence worth. I would recommend finding one in a shop to see if you like the ergonomics.

hmmmm – need to get another dry lap in as Smiff took my only KOM yesterday :wink: :-) Good work fella!