DavieB

A wee birds told me I was the only V40 to finish and that riding Cycling Weakly's bike of the year.
 
Cheers Paul it was certainly an experience and saved a DNS. Reckon would have been OK with just front brake on my own bike as you probably only dabbed the brakes a couple of times a lap.

Hi Chung,
 
Aye I have been on a few of those web-sites you linked to and it makes grim reading of all the efforts to solve an engineering problem which didn't really exist, the cynic in me suspects commercial aspects are driving this along.
 
As a fellow luddite I have long held the belief that if threaded BB is available this should be one of the qualifying factors on shelling out for a new frame. This belief no longer holds for carbon frames however as there appears to be a rampant issue with galvanic corrosion which has rendered a 4 year old Canyon unusable. Canyon's legendary customer service is as reliable as the bonded threaded BB shell and I am losing the fight regards whether they will uphold a warranty claim.
 
For PF30 like my cross bike all I did was knock out the PF and fit a Praxis convertor however the BB86 appears to be resistant to this work around and so needs to be used as fitted.
 
As for possible purchase road frame of neither carbon, aluminium or titanium construction. It is a steel but of the stainless variety. Very tentative at present. 

Hi Chung,
 
Aye I have been on a few of those web-sites you linked to and it makes grim reading of all the efforts to solve an engineering problem which didn't really exist, the cynic in me suspects commercial aspects are driving this along.
 
As a fellow luddite I have long held the belief that if threaded BB is available this should be one of the qualifying factors on shelling out for a new frame. This belief no longer holds for carbon frames however as there appears to be a rampant issue with galvanic corrosion which has rendered a 4 year old Canyon unusable. Canyon's legendary customer service is as reliable as the bonded threaded BB shell and I am losing the fight regards whether they will uphold a warranty claim.
 
For PF30 like my cross bike all I did was knock out the PF and fit a Praxis convertor however the BB86 appears to be resistant to this work around and so needs to be used as fitted.
 
As for possible purchase road frame of neither carbon, aluminium or titanium construction. It is a steel but of the stainless variety. Very tentative at present. 

Aye the first lap was a bit of a farce the usual wee ramp up to the tree was much less of a bottle neck than the slalom thru the trees. Wish I had gone for the mud tyres as cycling is generally a bit easier when you are not writhing about on the ground. A decent off saw me slide about 15 feet past the bike, probably quite an impact as my head and neck is now in more pain than knee. On the bright side the impact did seem to repair right hand brake lever which from previous off was projecting horizontally out from the hood, I can't quite figure this one out as it seems still fully operational...
 
No excuses (apart from the ones about the tyres, the gear ratios, the.....) as was grubbed by the end and just focused on keeping Paul in sight the last couple of laps.
 
Onto Irvine......

Aye the first lap was a bit of a farce the usual wee ramp up to the tree was much less of a bottle neck than the slalom thru the trees. Wish I had gone for the mud tyres as cycling is generally a bit easier when you are not writhing about on the ground. A decent off saw me slide about 15 feet past the bike, probably quite an impact as my head and neck is now in more pain than knee. On the bright side the impact did seem to repair right hand brake lever which from previous off was projecting horizontally out from the hood, I can't quite figure this one out as it seems still fully operational...
 
No excuses (apart from the ones about the tyres, the gear ratios, the.....) as was grubbed by the end and just focused on keeping Paul in sight the last couple of laps.
 
Onto Irvine......

Aye the first lap was a bit of a farce the usual wee ramp up to the tree was much less of a bottle neck than the slalom thru the trees. Wish I had gone for the mud tyres as cycling is generally a bit easier when you are not writhing about on the ground. A decent off saw me slide about 15 feet past the bike, probably quite an impact as my head and neck is now in more pain than knee. On the bright side the impact did seem to repair right hand brake lever which from previous off was projecting horizontally out from the hood, I can't quite figure this one out as it seems still fully operational...
 
No excuses (apart from the ones about the tyres, the gear ratios, the.....) as was grubbed by the end and just focused on keeping Paul in sight the last couple of laps.
 
Onto Irvine......

The 650b tyre (clearance?) seems to be a feature on these bikes. 
 
Only tuppence worth I would say is go for hydraulic disks they are night and day compared to even the best (TRP Spyre) cable pull brakes. Alos a lot of these "gravel" bikes being marketed with 1x drivetrains I would have thought for an all round bike which is going to spend time on the road you would want a double.
 
Not a huge fan of their customer service and practice of hawking redundant brand names as if they are still dripping in Italian/British heritage but Planet X is probably worth a look - any bike called the Space Chicken has to have something going for it.

Finished in 5hrs22mins, FacePlanted, well more like a belly flop in the Bog(that will please you Davie) Utter Madness is all I can say, Totally underestimated the scale of those F**king Mountains and the amount of climbing/walk/carrying/scrambling to be done! I had cramp everywhere from Peak one and even managed to get Butt Cramp!(is that even a thing?) I looked like I been shot in the arse by a BB gun... Full race report in a pub over a beer 

Simons Fell awaits...
 
Good luck and avoid any peat bog face plants.

Better results than I ever got with the sealant, the only puncture I ever suffered on tubeless, a relatively small nick and the slime just oozed out. I pre slimed my cross tubs with latex applied to seal the side walls (pro trick but wouldn't bother) and the slime seems to be rotting the tyre from inside out. Now hate the stuff.
 
If for 3 Peaks run with tubes at high pressure it is not 'cross terrain and anything shy of 70psi will only slow you down.
 
I messed about with tubeless for cross bike but could never really get any confidence on low pressures to attack corners or bumps, certainly not as low as regularly bottoming out which is fine on tubs.
 
Good luck for the Peaks!

Looks like race entries now live....
 
 

Aye later start suits me ...if not at club rooms will meet at top of bow field or thereabouts.
 
Hint...head towards bowfield.

I'll be using 28mm tyres and a cross bike but don't let that put you off...........

I hope to be there as long as Charlie promises to wait for me on the hills.
 
P.S. It is more scenic looking down into Irvine valley going the reverse route.

I hope to be there as long as Charlie promises to wait for me on the hills.
 
P.S. It is more scenic looking down into Irvine valley going the reverse route.

Was good to get out with a group again even though I was popped a fair few times, it is a cracking route even though I chopped the windmill farm section to drumclog out to save my legs.
 
Excellent day.
 
Caught some of the road race as I headed home via stewarton....looked mighty tough, with a fully committed Paul McDonald on the nose of the 2nd group on the road.

Billy, I don't feel your pain, but would agree that the success rate of the rides calendar is woeful. 
 
I am happy enough to ride at the weekend but I will be toiling at the back. 9 o'clock at the clubrooms - you in Billy?
 
As for the Erskine Bridge Wheelers ...away and boil your Pactimo shorts.

Excellent day out. As Geo mentioned it's a new route- one 86 mile loop - and quite tough, especially today with the weather. But, we hardly saw a car all day.
 
Also present was Ian Holms and also Robert Shennan.
 
This sportive is highly recommended. It is also for a good cause - a charity. No one makes any money out of this. They are all volunteers. A refreshing aspect of this event in our over-monetarised times is the fact that they don't take the piss and charge you £60 or more.Rather, they ask you to decide what you wish to pay!!!

I've got a whistle and survival bag unused from 3-peaks if anybody wants to borrow it.....

I've got a whistle and survival bag unused from 3-peaks if anybody wants to borrow it.....

I will go for PR.

Paul,
 
The 3-Peaks would look better on your palmares.
 
Extra points for completing it with canti's where the descent off Pen-y-Ghent will be scarier than the "Big Wan" at Blackpool pleasure beach....
 
D

A fine and productive morning for me ......bearings oot 

I get it Davie, I was going to talk to you about hammering out bearings tonight. I removed the press fit bearings on my propel to replace with SRAM press fit bearings to suit my chainset. It was one of the most nervous moments in my life hammering the drift and thinking 'this carbon frame is going to shatter'. At the other end of the process a large nut & bolt and double washers each end works really well for fitting new bearings
 
One small hint for fitting the new bearings, put them in the freezer for an hour first to shrink them a bit.

Darryl,
 
Been running the hydros for a year on my Kinesis - on initial set-up it was just plug and play as got the system bled sufficiently 1st time out the box.
 
When I transferred them over to the Ridley it took a few go's and some swearing to get them bled, there was a stage of the process I went overboard on to achieve this. If you ever need a bleed kit and some fluid you are more than welcome to borrow mine.
 
Last word on the PF30's any replaceable part which needs to be hammered out of a carbon frame is more than a wee bit daft - had a few trial gos this morning with improvised tool but now waiting for the right tool to try again.
 
P.S. swap any organic pads out with Swiss Stop sintered, they will have you locking up good style and will last much longer.