Cycling UK Forum

tyreon wrote:This wont help you...but might interest others.

In Australia many,many flats are sold with a share of the freehold. Common practice. I don't understand why it isn't more common practice here. I thought there was going to be a review of the law on this. But then,the Duke of Westminster(?),might lose out. Last (mis)heard(?) vested interests had pushed this reform into the long grass.

Yes I was getting the idea that the people who now about these things are trying to wind down this whole arcane leasehold nonsense in the UK. I do think it's slowly happening, as in our case the law is that we leaseholders must get offered first refusal on buying the freehold when the existing freeholder chooses to dispose of it. And if there's a majority of leaseholders in a building who want the freehold they can effectively force the freeholder to sell it to them.

Cheers. Obviously a solicitor is going to be involved at some stage in the near future (and I'm presently waiting for a 'leasehold expert' to phone me for proper advice). I was getting a bit panicky last night, but after a bit of digging around, I'm getting the idea that we existing tenants will form a freehold 'company' which will take on the existing leases. I'll still need to top up my lease to (999 years) at some point, but as I'll effectively be paying myself to do so, a quarter of that top up can be written off as there will be four members/shareholders of the freehold. And as me and the guy downstairs have similar times to expiry, our mutual payments will effectively cancel each other out as well, but I'll still have to make a payment to the other two members. Meaning, it looks like it should only cost half of what it would cost to an external freeholder to extend my lease (which can be done at any time). Fingers crossed though it might 'only' cost in the region of 10 grand c/w the freehold.

This feels like a bit of a strange place to ask, but I'm after some (free!) advice on buying the Freehold for my flat.

I'll try to keep this brief. I live in a humungous 1880s built house in London which is now converted into four flats. The two lower flats used to be one large one which was owned by a guy who basically disappeared about 8 years ago due to debts. He was also my freeholder. A local property development company bought his flat at auction and also took on the freehold of the building. They converted his one large two story flat into two separate flats which they initially rented out. They have sold both of these flats on in the last two years with 99 years or thereabouts leases. Now me (top floor flat) and the guy who owns the flat below me (which he rents out) have effectively buried our heads in the sand and have let our leases run relatively low - below marriage value yadda yadda. (I think about 75 years left ). Extending my lease to 99 years is now probably north of £15k which I can probably borrow (against the flat!) but would rather not as it takes away my financial cushion which makes me feel anxious and insecure (leading to more head-burying)!

Still with me? Good. So anyway, the Freeholder is now offering we leaseholders first refusal on buying the Freehold before it gets offered on the open market via auction, We're all up for this, but I've been worried sick I'll have to stump up for the cost of topping up my leasehold as well as the share of the Freehold. I've just put all this to a guy with a PhD in economics and he gave me good reason as to why I shouldn't have to - which understandably made me extrememly happy. But being a pessimist, it seems too good to be true that somehow my (and the guy's below me) potential leasehold shortfall will somehow effectively be written off.

Well, at least that all makes sense to me. (Sort of. . . )

kmc make shimano's chains don't they?

I'm doing a hub swap essentially, with the measurements of the two hubs (except centre to right flange distance) differing by a millimetre or less.

Brucey wrote:depends which brake you use most, and if you think one rim will wear out before the other.... a rear wheel blowout is usually less dangerous....?

cheers

I think that's my question in a nutshell. Is there a general rule for which rim wears out faster?? As I pointed out, I'm sure I put more force into the front brake, and feather the rear brake, but it's probably different strokes for different folks....

531colin wrote:My rear rims always seem to wear faster than the front, maybe because they get sprayed with muck off the front?

It sounds like you will be taking the spokes out of the hubs, and re-using them in different hubs. I'm never sure its worth the trouble.....the elbows will have taken a set to match the original hubs, and I always feel driven to keep the spokes in "sets" of inbound and outbound, left and right flanges......then stress-relieve them again in their new situation.....I'm probably too fussy........

You have a point. I'm essentially a tightwad and like to recycle components if I can, but if there's a danger of the spokes breaking at the bend, then it's probably a false economy.

I have open pros on 10 speed Record hubs and am about to transplant the newish front rim (measures 19.7mm od) onto either a front or rear 6500 Ultegra hub, and buy a new open pro rim to lace to the other (the rear open pro measures 18.44mm od - eek! It's going in the bin). According to spocalc I should be able to use the existing spokes (0.2mm difference in spoke length between hubs). These will be my general purpose wheels with chunky tyres and an Ambrosio conversion cassette, and I plan to whack a couple of bling-ish DT Swiss RR440s on the Records to use for faster, posher rides.

So the question for the panel is - put a new OP rim on the front and relegate the more used rim to the back? (I'm a sporty type of rider who tends to scrub off speed with the front brake first - so perhaps I've just answered my own question!) Or does it really matter?

There is a lot of choice, isn't there?! And I've just discovered that Michelin will shortly be releasing Pro 4 Endurances in 28mm. Demand is going fatwards.

I Know! I'm a tough crowd. And after all this and tieing myself up in knots reading reviews, I've just bought some tuff but racey Gravel Kings! Still, what better way of passing the time indoors is there, than having a good old online natter about tyres?

(Thanks for your suggestions all)

^ Not at £48 a pop! Nice tyres though, and similar to Gravel Kings but the latter are cheaperer. Also for that sort of money I'd probably go with some Open Pavé CGs. (Which reminds me - I used to take one of my old race bikes shod with Open Corsa CXs down muddy and stoney paths occasionally and never had a puncture, so high thread-count open tubulars can be surprisingly tough.) Any way, I just popped into Brixton Cycles and chewed the sales guy's ears about adventure type frames (Cross Check, Croix de Fer, Brother Kepler- a topic for another thread...) and 28mm tyres, and guess what? His commutery bike had Open Pros with 28mm Paselas. I made him find a vernier (!) and they came up at 28.5mm, so they're now a likely candidate. Probably in black though, so that UV won't degrade the sidewalls.

My feeling is that the suggestions you're coming up with are a bit chunkier (as in weight) than I had in mind. (Although it would be interesting to see how PH's Marathon Racers measure up). I guess I'm after some sort of lightish, high volume, folding, performance(ish) tyre which will handle occasional off-tarmac forays without me worrying overly that I'll get a visit from you-know-who within ten minutes*. So not a trekking or commuter tyre per se (as I can bung my Nimbuses on for that), but more of a narrow 'cross tyre with a smooth bit in the middle I s'pose!

*Not the old bill

ransos wrote:I've used 28mm Panaracer Paselas on Open Pros, which are ok for gravelly fire roads and tow paths. They *just* fit in narrow SKS guards and Shimano deep drop calipers on my Thorn Audax.

I had a look at those. Good price and light weight, but I've read too many reports of sidewall blowouts. And they come up skinny again. Apparently.

I just want the biggest, chunkiest tyres that it's possible to squeeze into my old Orbit America frame, Dammit! (Honestly though, I should either visit a shop with me bike, or just buy some effing tyres online and return them if they're not suitable!)

That's an idea. If the bead-to-bead (tyre laid flat) size on Continental is standardized then I could start stroking my chin while looking at their selection of 32s. Open Sports are slightly wider than Pros though, aren't they? So a pair of Tour Rides on OPs will be even skinnier (but not by much). I wish these tyre manufacturers would be more honest in their marketing: I'm sure they bend the truth about true widths just so they can claim a lighter weight for the tyre - in comparison to their competitors offerings.

In a similar vein to the thread below, can anybody suggest a 28mm tyre which is TRUE TO SIZE to go on Open Pros? They're to fit on an old steel race frame (so max clearance is definately 28mm) which I want to use as a path-basher before I steal the funds to put together something specifically designed for the purpose. Looking around on the net, true widths are all over the place, with most 28s measuring only 26mm - especially Conti. (I'm leaning towards something light like Panaracer Gravelkings, Rubino Pro Techs, or even Mich Endurances in 25mm which apparently, or used to, come up fatter). I have an old pair of Spesh Nimbus EXs which are bang on 28mm but they're a bit overkill and too heavy and draggy for what I'm after