Any question answered...

Thanks, actually DR2015 looks more like it...

I've an enforced 4 days off work from 21 - 24 December

Where's good for a few winter slacker miles? Majorca?

is a 1xwhatever tt frame, but I'd prefer to run it fixed

Worth remembering that the axle is positioned in a different place vertically when you swap dropouts for track ends. If you don't need track ends to be track-legal, long dropouts of the Campag 1010A pattern are better for road fixed and they don't mess up your geometry.

Weather lowdown

December is a very cool time to visit Majorca, Balearic Islands, when the average temperature is just 11°C, created by highs of around 16°C and lows of 6°C. The nights can get very chilly, so make sure you pack plenty of warm clothes if you plan on going out on an evening. With only two hours of sunshine each day, around 12 rainy days throughout the month and an average sea temperature of 7°C, it’s unlikely you’ll spend days lounging at the beach.

My GP booked me in for this a few years ago so should yours then.

I do remember the no no trumpeting and that no result because either the machine was broken or I was not so good at this.

Belated smirk. #rep

Where can I get one of these, the cable adjuster for Dura Ace 7700 brakes?

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You need to suffer in Kent like the rest of us.

You can buy me dinner with the savings.

this, in for dinner

Trying again tonight I'm getting sub 400s.

I'm getting sub 400s

At last, something I can beat you at, I'm doing 580 sitting here, without any PEDs. Assuming your PFM is working and you're using it correctly, you definitely need to see your doctor. According to this chart you should be beating me by about 10l.min^-1 even if I was hitting my predicted numbers.

I can't do it consistently enough. I can max out the scale doing it one way and the other way 400s. GP time.

Good luck.

http://www.sjscycles.co.uk/brake-spares-shimano-dept681_pg1/

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It is particularly warm here at the moment - a week of sun and 17/18 degrees was forecast but it hit 23 today, I spent the afternoon on the beach and had a swim in the sea, which was fine apart from being stung by a jellyfish.

But if you're going for riding you're not going to care about sea temperature anyway and 16 degrees is fine. If you get half board like me you don't even need to leave the hotel at night (everything is shut anyway) and the riding in the Tramuntana is amazing.

I'd recommend checking the forecast before you book - I only booked three days before I flew out. It was still super cheap.

@TW Only problem I can see with flying back from anywhere resorty in Spain on the 24th might be pricey flights due to lots of expats flying back for Christmas?

http://www.bikesdirect.com/products/mercier/nano.htm
Google Sillgey, Bruno, Gios, there's lots out there with good frames that don't cost that much and aren't too portly as long as you don't require a folder.

I was given a bike recently and it was in a sorry state. I've ended up replacing everything apart from the cranks and the headset in the process of building it as a geared beater. It's an old 531 road bike and on inspection, doesn't seem to have any signs of a front end impact.

I've set up a front Shimano 600/ultegra front brake, with new pads, new cable (used compressionless outer) hooked up to an old mtb lever (there is also a back brake but no issues there)

The front wheel is a mavic cxp 30 which had never been braked on previously, it is not machines but it has a flat for a brake track. Headset has no play, forks look very tidy, no signs of damage.

In dry performance is amazing, really powerful, great modulation.

As soon as the rim gets a tiny bit wet, when applying the front brake it isn't very effective for a second and then shudders/judders really badly,( like what cantis can do, forget the term) fork flexing back and forth, pretty terrifying.

Can anyone think of an explanation?

I've set up/ridden a heap of steel bikes wth caliper brakes but never had an issue like this before.

I'm wondering if the rim needs cleaning, or if it just needs to bed in, but would appreciate any other suggestions .

Can anyone think of an explanation?

Sounds like an angry ghost to me. Try a seance to see if it'll tell you how to put it to rest.

forget the term

Chatter.

My brother's CX bike chatters like mad if you brake gently, but it's fine if you stand it on its nose. I expect you have the same issue with wet braking, except that you can't brake harder because you don't have the reserves of friction due to the water. Sometimes the chatter can be traced to too much free play in the brake centre pivot (or C-arm pivot if dual-pivot) or free play in the headset. Other times you can have everything perfect and it's just the combination of rider weight and fork stiffness (or lack thereof, with 1" steerers) which just refuses to play nicely.

While the chatter doesn't have exactly the same root as it does on a CX bike, I wonder whether the brake track on an old CXP30 without UB Control is sufficiently far off parallel that the effective change in fork length as the fork bends backwards could create the same brake servo effect by an inclined plane action. It would certainly be worth slinging a modern machined front wheel in there as a control.

A mate of mine reckons he has some bad brake squeal and bad stopping power on his Shimano M485 disc brakes. What could be some "easy win" culprits? A good bleed, obviously, but apparently the stock shimano pads for these calipers aren't good, are there any aftermarket options?

You could try to clean the pads:
Take pads out and either
set on fire with isopropylalcohol
or
heat on stove (outside) for 10 minutes or till smoke stops

Sand lightly.

clean rotor with isopropylalcohol.

reinsert pads

bed-in brake with 10 hard stops

otherwise shimano sinthered/metal pads are quite good.

Failing that, new pads and a good setting up.

I second dirty pads/rotors. Cleaning sometimes works but new pads and a clean rotor is better. If he's not doing anything huge I've found resin pads to be a bit less squealy.

A mate's mtb that he cycled into a concrete pillar had really bad disc brakes, one wouldn't stop, the other was weak as anything.

The front had a pad missing, the rear the pads weren't seated properly and were totally worn down. The wheels were also both buckled.

Replaced the pads, now he can wobble his way to a whip skip so he's happy.

Oddly enough, flights aren't too expensive coming back into the UK.

Journey times to anywhere that might be considered "winter sun" make a four day trip not much point though.

Kent & Surrey Hills it is then.

#1stworldproblems