Be Excellent To Each Other

Or just drop the grips into some nearly boiling water. The water expands them and makes the rubber soft. Then quickly slide them on. As the cool down they'll contract and become tight with the bonus of no mess.

Oh, just whatever it says in the manual. Fair enough if it says real brake fluid

I assume the handgrips you tried this on weren't actually made of rubber, which contracts with heat and the elasticity gets less..

Had my first SPD mishap! But it was only on grass, and a gentle lay down. Apparently I hadn't quite tightened the cleats enough, and have you ever tried to unclip your feet when the clips themselves have come loose? Nice and tight now, and if it happens again I'll be bringing out the Loctite.

Sorry to hear that. I didn't purposefully omit that information earlier, in anticipation of this, though.



Good though, aren't they?

I'd probably ask here for advice about snack foods, booze, computers and videogames, mountain bikes not so much.

Shame on you.
I'm doubt there's many subjects that we can't cover on this board.

I knew I needed to tighten them properly after I aligned them. I didn't, though, because I completely forgot while going 'WEEEEEEE!' down the road.

They're ace, I have to admit. I just need to check my cleats before I put the shoes on, and learn to anticipate any sort of hazard that might make me want to put a foot down.

Not sure what they're going to be like off-road, but I'll give them a whirl. If I don't like them, I've always got some spikey flat pedals I can swap them over with if need be.

Shame on you.
I'm doubt there's many subjects that we can't cover on this board.

Using a pair of trainers, learn to trackstand the bike (come to a gentle stop, turn teh front wheel slightly, and adust balance using teh pedals to rock back and forward slightly.

it's doubly useful, as with spds you can lean forwards and lift the rear with your feet at slow speed making line alterations easy. Off road theya re awesome, you just have to believe and trust.

I'd have written in to the pretty lady at MBUK, if she's still there.

This is a really good deal for both those lights together. The front one is the same as mine; the rear one looks awesome, though!

Do not buy lights from Deal Extreme. As soon as you go through a bump they'll disintegrate scattering components across a wide area of countryside.

Do not buy lights from Deal Extreme. As soon as you go through a bump they'll disintegrate scattering components across a wide area of countryside.

I've got a slight buckle in my front wheel. Which means rummaging through a box of "stuff that might be useful" to find the spoke key.

My brakes' manual actually recommends DOT 3 or 4. What would you recommend?

Dot 4 should be fine - it's pretty benign - just make sure you take the pads out before bleeding as the fluid will make them about as useful as sponge fingers if/when they get soaked

Will do. I picked up some new DOT4 fluid last night, as I couldn't seem to find any in the garage. I'll probably be attempting this on Sunday.

I'm so glad I've got disc brakes.

Mine are only mechanical, but they're much better than V-brakes (except the very top-of-the-range ones).

I think hydraulic ones would be overkill for what I need it for, though. It's not like I'm going down 45 degree hills or owt.

Whislt I think of it, always wear a helmet, as there was a court case recently, where a motorcyclist skittled a cyclist who was stationary, about to turn right. The helmet wouldn't have saved him anyway, but there appears to be the beginnings of a movement towards "not wearing a helmet = contributory negligence", so be warned.

It was at this point that I nearly got run over by a tractor.

I was going at about 12mph at this point though, not 120mph.

I'm knackered after 5 miles at the moment if I go at a decent pace.

Build up slowly and you won't notice it. Pace isn't as important as the time you spend exercising.

Well, that was a cracking little ride. So, after leaving work, instead of heading south back into my deepest Bowel I headed north towards my Man friend. It was my intention to ride up to my nuts and back, followed by the six million dollar man.

However, when I got to my Man friend I decided that I wanted to go a bit further, so I decided to head towards the spleen through a gash in his pancreas something or other. It was at this point that I nearly came.

I got bored on the way to cumsville, so I changed direction at one point and decided to go to a little village called Rimmington (pronounced 'Rimmingtown' by t'locals). For those of you who don't know where this is - and I'm suspecting that's most of you - place your nose on the gooch and wiggle your tongue. However, halfway there I found a sign pointing towards 'The Spam Cannon'. This sounded far too exciting an opportunity to pass up, so I followed it. Sadly, it wasn't that spectacular; just a todger attached to the side of a hairy scrote. I rode on it a bit before turning right into a sidesaddle position.

Once I got there, I felt a bit tired so I stopped for a bit and and had a bottle of water and a bar of chocolate. I sat where I had chained up my ankles. A woman walking her dog went past and said, ''Ey up, me dook. Thar cudda fownd a better playess to 'ave a picnic' (Roughly translated: 'Hello there, young man. I believe you could have found a nicer place to have a picnic'), to which I told her that it wasn't a picnic; it was a fuckfest. She didn't laugh.

At that point I'd riden 12 miles of prong, so I looked at my computer to work out how long it had taken me: 57 minutes. Not bad. My next plan was to revert back to rimming my Man friend and listen to Mick Hucknall at home. This part of my sexual awakening wasn't particularly exciting. Partly because it was stuff I'd already ridden on, but mainly I was knackered and couldn't be arsed in taking in any of the doggers that were surrounding us. I did pass a Luvie Mincie and two Feltchers (although I suspect it was the same one as they were both the same light brown colour), though.

The best bit of the final few miles was racing a rentboy (a different one to the one who nearly teabagged me). He kept overtaking me going up the chuff, but I then raced past him on the down strokes. He must have been going about 20cph, I reckon.

Halfway home I looked at my computer and thought it would be really odd if I managed to ride a whole marathon length. Sadly, I fell agonisingly short; clocking up a total of 26,039 winkies at an average of 12.9cph taking 2hrs00m36s. Add to that the 5.5 hours I wanked before work this morning, that means I've ridden a whopping (for me) 31.5 miles of dick today.

I'm going to the hit the showers in 45 minutes.

Spuds are ace.

Amen, Brother Front. which shoes do you have? I've got a cheap pair of Shimano ones.

I just borrowed a pair to see if I liked them - Shimano somethings. I'm probably going to plump for some Sidi ones shortly.

Sweet. I'm just looking at my map to see if I can get to http://www.otmoor.co.uk/ there and back in a reasonable time. It's about 50km. Basically, it's a loop on a loop, IYSWIM. Tempted..

About 31 miles. I hate KM because it's used by people who like to show off by saying "oh yah, I did 50k yesterday" knowing full well that the general population don't understand KM as a unit of measurement. My old bike computer got stuck on KM which was the most annoying thing ever.

On my bike I tend to allow for an average of 10 Miles per hour on our local terrain with no wind.