Cycling UK Forum

C+ was good in the early 1990s when it really was a universal bikie mag (MTB and road), but now focuses too much on high-end race bikes and serious training and diet stuff. Come on, most CTC riders' biggest question over diet is "banana cake, or cherry cake?".

The proof-reading is atrocious - the figures in the bike tests are frequently mixed up - and the kind of kit they regard as "good value" would lead my wife to slowly emasculate me with a tyre lever, were I to buy it.

Joe Beer, who writes the training articles, has been described as a man whose mission is to take all the fun out of cycling, and Chris Fenn is the Gillian McKeith of cycling

It is usually the saddle or bars.

A word of warning - if you have Shimano SPDs with an outboard dustcap, and without the little splined collar in the inboard side (replaced by spanner flats on recent XTR SPDs), dismantle the pedals at your peril. Easy to take apart, impossible to put back together without a special Shimano tool which is rare and costs as much as a new pair of pedals. The problem is adjusting the outer cone - you just can't tighten the locknut against it properly.

Fortezzas are pretty puncture-resistant with their special rubber layer, more so than most Kavlar-belted tyres. They're also very fast and grippy, but not the lightest. I like them.

The tube can only explode like that once the tyre bead is off the rim first. There are a number of possibilities:

1) Most likely, the tube was trapped under the tyre bead when fitted. It can take a few days to actually push the tyre off - this has happened to me.

2) The tyre was drastically overinflated and/or the rim doesn't have a proper hook bead (rare these days).

3) The rim sidewalls are splayed due to pothole impact and can't hold a tyre properly - more likely with steel rims.

4) The rim and tyre are well out of spec and the tyre blows off easily. This would be really unusual.

Just get a bottom bracket that fits without frame threads (it's trapped between two lockrings instead). You should get the BB shell properly faced first, but any half-decent LBS can do this.

Some mechs have a maximum cog size - check the specs. You could also try and find a longer B-tension screw (that's what Shimano call the one that bears on the dropout).

Get a set of cheap alloy-rimmed wheels and new brake pads. Chromed steel is hopeless - weak, heavy and no braking in the wet.

Are you doing it in damp weather? I only get front brake judder when the brakes are wet from road splash, not when they're dry or it's raining enough to make them really sopping.

I used to give blood quite regularly but (at the time I was running every other night) I found it reduced my ability to do anything athletic for about two weeks. I had to walk up all the hills, because my oxygen-carrying capacity was down so much.

As a regular bike commuter, it just wouldn't work out now. I could pootle OK on the flat, but the route isn't flat.

And the hole may round off, so have a new stainless steel one ready

Measure with calipers; the seatpin should be 0.2mm smaller in diameter than the tube.

My memory failed me regarding the ACI spokes, I'm sorry.

I'd still have DT or Sapim in preference - just avoid DT Revolution, the ones with a 1.5mm centre section. They *are* good spokes, but it takes so long to build a wheel without any residual spoke twist that you'll never touch them again.

Motorists, motorcyclists and mountain bikers who use certain brands of pad are familiar with this problem - I'm not sure it's caused by rust, just poor adhesive (in olden days, they used rivets).

If you'll excuse a link to a car forum, there are some horror stories:

http://www.mx5ocforum.co.uk/viewtopic.p ... sc&start=0

The Dia-Compe ones are pretty useless, and not very well made either. Been there, done that.