Cycling UK Forum

Thanks for all your advice, on the basis of which I've ordered a pair of the city jets.
I normally use the mtb for riding off road so am happy with the nobblies I've got for that. Couldn't remember the type of slicks I had when I used to use an mtb for commuting, hence my post. This will a be my first tour on an mtb (I don't have a more suitable bike with me and I wouldn't be allowed to get another one at the moment), and I wanted to get away from the energy sapping effect of nobblies on road. Forks have a lock out so that shouldn't be too much of a problem.
I'm off to the Blue Mountains and Jenolan Caves, hopefully week after next, and heading up through the Central Plains of NSW to the Thunderbolts Road.
Thanks again,
gareth

I was at a wet Glastonbury - 97 I think. About to go to bed, went to brush teeth weating shorts and tshirt in pouring rain, ankle deep in mud, listening to Massive Attack and Horace Andy with 'Hymm of the big wheel' (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=onPVf-C4m3s&feature=related coming over the hill. All felt right good then despite looming trenchfoot. However, I''ve never danced with a toothbrush before or since...
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Mick F wrote:What we have done, is not store any music on our computers, but leave it on CD. In order to get it into iPod, we upload the album or whatever into iTunes, sync the iPod, then delete the music off iTunes.

Ditto with photographs and iPhoto etc. All of them are on CD.

Pointless clogging up your hard drive with files that aren't used.

I boought my girlfriend an ipod last year, and all the music on the computer was put into itunes and we deleted the original files (wmv I think?). Does this mean for me to load them onto my mp3 player I will have to load the cds onto the computer again? When I used my mp3 I used to put a random selection of music on it. It took weeks to load all the cds onto the computer. I'm going on tour and want to take the mp3 with me but not sure if I can be bothered to load all the cds on again. From your post Mick, it sounds as if I wont be able to use the itunes software to put the music already on the computer onto my mp3?
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I had a fairly uninspiring 150km ride on a drizzly day into a headwind from Verona to Milan. On arrival in Milan, the guard at the tourist info office wouldn't let me bring bike inside, despite the acres of room in there. I was directed to a youth hostel about 10 miles out of town, which on arrival was fully booked, contrary to the advice of the tourist office. Another 10 miles back into town, more glares from the guard, to be directed to an area with 'lots of cheap hotels'. Negotiating peak hour traffic with Italian motorists to find the 'Hotel Gloria' on the third storey of a run down building in the middle of Milan's red light district. Lugged the bike up the stairs with luggage to be shouted at by the hotel proprietor - I think he wanted me to leave the bike downstairs in the street. Non-comprehension was my only tactic and I didn't move anywhere. SUre I paid well over the odds for a dingy room with tepid water in a communal bathroom. Got changed to find that the sachet of jam which I'd picked up from the previous hostel had split, and spread over the crotch of the only pair of lightweight beige-ish trousers I had for off the bike wear. Feeling that lycra shorts wouldn't cut it amongst Milan's designer clad population, I ventured out into the city centre with my sticky red crotch trousers, exhausted, cold, fairly skint,
All was good the next morning, smiles from the hotel proprietor, rested, glorious sunshine - headed to the Med, via Gerona to Finale to spend two days resting on the beach with friends. And I could wash my trousers! But at the end of the day to Milan, I was pretty fed up with the whole thing and just wanted to go home...
gareth

If yup update your preferences for email alerts at wiggle, you get a discount voucher by email. As they're doing free delivery on orders at the moment, if you're ordering over 50gbp of stuff, it might make sense to change your preferences again and again to take advantage of the discount twice. I've 'saved' 20 gbp by placing orders for two items seperately.
(While I would prefer to use a lbs, the same item came in at under half the price using wiggle than it did at my local. And the lbs would hae to order it in with no stock expected in Australia until mid July. Previously when I've used my lbs, they've mislaid my order . It's not a particularly good lbs either in terms of advice or helpfulness).
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Hi all, I've had a good search for previous questions similar to this but could only find heated threads on the difference between Schwalbe and Conti tyres. I'm going to use my mtb for a few weeks on tour and as I expect most of the route will be on sealed roads then I'm probably going to put some slicks on it. Has anyone got any recommendations or horror stories about the various tyres on offer? Or is it that one slick is pretty much like another? Thought I'd ask before spending any money. I'd like to keep it cheap if possible as currently out of work.
cheers
Gareth

7_lives_left wrote:Another possible source: visit a shop that sells rock climbing equipment. They will have belay devices that consist of metal wedges (nut) joined to a Karabina (spelling?) by a wire loop. So long as it not brazed into the nut, you should be able to cut the wire, straighten it out and reuse it. Might be a bit expensive, but it is guaranteed to be strong enough!

Thanks but I think you're answering the original post, which dates back to 2005... (the Rixen Kaul webite recommends a 2-2.2mm brakcable as a replacement for the wire - I'm after the screws.
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Reviving an old thread - I've lost a couple of the cross bolts for the klick-fix mount. Are they a special screw? I took the two I've still got to the local hardware store and he said he had none of the same thread. They look like normal screws to me. My lbs recommended I order a new mount!
Thanks, gareth

pq wrote:Like I said, ask the people who know. Some of the replies above indicate that not many of them are here!

Thanks pq, I took your recommendation and had a look at the forums on singletrackworld - http://www.singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/tyres-good-bad-and-ugly as an example. However, there seemed to be fairly mixed opinions on that site too, or maybe I'm looking at the wrong part of the forum. Maybe this thread? http://www.singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/cough-tyres-cough
Where do those in the know in singletrackworld hang out?

grw

glueman wrote:As a very amateur kind of MTB'er I wonder whether the same kind of flannel surrounds mountain bike tyres as every other aspect of cycling? I mean what's good for a hard baked California mountain track won't suit a Pennine byway in February. Also most of my local rides consist of about 1/3 tarmac with a mix of gloopy mud, hard gritstone, treestumps, gravel and peat moorland making up the rest. How can one tyre be ideal for all those?

Seems that you like your knobbles short or long and from there on it's how far your nerve holds - or am i missing something?

Agreed Glueman, I ride the tyres that came with the bike. If I'd bought a BSO then I imagine that I'd probably need to change the tyres as most mtb BSOs come with tyres with a centre ridge that aids traction on road but nowhere else. My progress on the mountain bike is limited by nerve and fitness and technique much more than it is by tyre choice. Yes I might be able to go a bit faster down the hills, round corners. However, in testing the ability of new tyres, I'd no doubt add to my collection of scars. Not neccessarily a bad thing as chicks dig scars but I'll stick with what I've got for now - scars and tyres.

Perhaps fortunately for me, the bike I bought came with the Fire XC Pro. Although maybe not, if things have moved on so much in tyre technology...

grw

Doris wrote:oooops, maybe not....£3000 price tag!

£3000 for a top spec racing bike? Hardly out of this world though is it? While most people wouldn't consider spending this much for an everyday bike, this isn't an everyday bike. And, as many of the comments to the article have pointed out, many new developments are often very expensive prior to mass adoption, and it is the increasing demand which brings down construction costs and the R&D expense. I don't see the price as the restricting factor - more skepticism as to strength of a "bike made from grass".
grw

There's a hill near my apartment that I can get up on my fixed wheel. I replaced the spds with flat pedals so that I could use it as a knocking about bike. I couldn't get up the hill. Everything else the same - just the pedals. I put the spds back on. I can get up the hill again. Unless I've developed a pedalling style over the last 10 years that is good for spds but not for flat pedals, I can't see what else is causing me not to be ale to get up the hill - all other things being equal.
(Its a steep hill. If I had a range of gears on that bike, I'd be in a much lower one. As it was the only hill of a 30 km commute, I could live with having to get out of the saddle for 15 seconds to get up it).
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sirmy wrote:he asked a question about caravan povision for the 2012 Olympics(!) without declaring his interest

This had me stumped for a moment. I didn't know there was a seperate event for them. Reminds me of a night in my student days (daze?) when I was told by a friend that there was going to be a caravan rally in the field behind our house. 'Surely they'll tip over?'. Not my finest hour.
grw

Nothing comparable in injuries but a few years ago I was crossing a zebra crossing in Tottenham when a car failed to stop. I managed to get out of the way of most of the car but his wing mirror clipped me. He got out of the car and grabbed me and started demanding that I pay for the damage to his mirror. I wonder if he would have asked me to fund the repairs if I'd have bounced off the bonnet...
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rAOHhV1EFe4

ho ho. Does this apply to anyone?
"My one is red"