psycholist

If you can't get tubing the right colour, electrical heat shrink tubing would be an option to colour the brake lines - it would also allow you to cover the fittings at each end of the brake lines if that's the look you're going for...

I've finally almost sorted everything for the trip - flying out early Sunday morning, flying home about 18:00 on Monday. Still not 100% on somewhere to stay - everywhere I've tried so far doesn't have bike space, but http://www.london30.com looks to have suitable prices and I have one of their reps contacting hotels to find out if they will allow me to keep my bike in my room...

I'm still looking for accommodation - The websites are driving me f**king nuts... Where would I find a decent bike friendly B&B near Liverpool Street Station? Is £110-120 a reasonable figure for 2 days B&B in London?

You'll have to open the freewheel to see what's broken. There's a really good set of instructions including pictures for servicing ENOs on this forum if you go looking.

For someone of your age you're not that infirm... And I know for a fact that you like to watch ... Looks like my accommodation in London will not happen, where is a good place to stay? Preferably really near Liverpool St. Station so I don't have to drag the bike box very far...

No flights from Shannon to London City Airport... The current plan is to head for Stansted, get on the London train with my bike still boxed from the plane (The train doesn't allow non-folding bikes, but says nothing about big suitcases ), unpack the case when I get to Liverpool St. Station in London and leave it in the left luggage in the station, then cycle the 2 and a bit miles to the Shell Centre from there. I could do this as a day trip thanks to the early flight arriving at 8:15 and the late flight leaving at 21:45 - stressful though...

I'm flying over from Ireland, probably with Ryanscare, because at least they have a consistent policy on boxed bikes - Can anyone tell me which airport I'll have better luck getting to the start of the ride from with a boxed bike using public transport? There are loads of flights to Stansted, but I could go to Luton or Gatwick (South Terminal) too... I'll probably fly in earlyish to Stanstead on Saturday and home either late Sunday or Monday depending on accommodation... With the Stansted flights it would be possible to fly in in the morning and home in the evening of March 1st, but I'd need somewhere to keep my bike box for the day and miss Saturday's shenanigans...

I wish I was inside with a video and a cup of coffee...

Just speak like this and you'll blend right in... Better go booking some flights...

That means your wheel was stress relieved correctly after it was built. Chances are the spokes have reached the end of their fatigue life. Rebuild (Lacing the same way from the hub as before and stress relieving the wheel after building) and it'll last years before this needs doing again.

You can't beat a bit of Norwegian hand cream...

14T is the minimum that can be fitted on a standard screw on hub thread. You could confirm for the specific freewheel with whoever you're buying it off anyway.

Park a car on the pedal and get a very long chain whip around the sprocket and lever it off that way. I'd advise trying a different bike shop to see if they can do it if the last one you tried failed. If the sprocket is junk I'd take an angle grinder to it and cut the sprocket from each side to just short of the crank threads and break it off with a chisel.

That's true for all grips though. Mine haven't got loose in the wet yet and I put them on with a little bit of water for lubrication. A friend of mine uses hair spray, which is supposed to hold them in place even better...

Try foam grips instead of rubber ones too - I couldn't believe the difference in how my hands felt once I changed - way less pain, way less blistering/callous forming. I've been messing about with trials for over a decade and this was the biggest change I experienced. I usually wear gloves too as my hands get quite sweaty in summer and it's to cold to be without them in Winter...

I'll second hammering an allen key in to remove the broken off bit. That or get an EZ out and try that...

If you're using a blow torch you run the risk of changing the heat treatment on the aluminium of the stem. Try nitromors first and then sanding before going for a blow torch - keep the torch moving to avoid putting too much heat into the stem if you try that...

This is frighteningly true - it's actually the likes of McDonalds and Mars that we have come to rely on rather than the government for putting money into getting people active without worrying about whether they can bring their country glory at world class level (Which is often dubious in the big money sports, especially road/MTB racing thanks to rampant drug abuse). The question that should probably be asked is whether it's better to have a country where people spend a lot more time watching sport on TV rather than playing the sport themselves...

Have a google for video instructions on how to bleed Avid brakes - they're pretty good - they might be on youtube. Same principle regardless what type of brake - all that matters is whether it's an open or closed system and only HS33 rim brakes are closed system at this stage.

If you're really worried about it get a centre punch and hammer that into the centre of the pin in the link you're joining. This should have the effect of flaring the end of the chain pin, making it a bit harder for it to come apart. Rohloff do a chain tool costing over £100 that is supposed to mushroom the end of the chain pins after joining, but I haven't seen any detail as to how it does this in reviews so I can't decide whether it's marketing hype or not.

How far do you push the pin out when you're breaking the chain? There should be a half mm or so left sticking into the centre of the link - push it out too far and it can flex off line as you start to push it back. Next thing is don't force the pin through, wiggle the chain around and look into the hole in the outer link plate to confirm alignment as you close the chain. Sometimes you'll have to back the chain tool off and reposition the chain slightly to maintain alignment as you push the link back. It should take at most only slightly more force to replace the pin as it took to remove it in the first place.

Just make sure the same amount of chain pin is sticking out of each side of the link you've joined as all the other links, then the strength will be pretty much the same for BMX chains (Where the rivets don't seem to be mushroomed at all). Some chain tools have a second set of pins higher up than pair you put the chain in to open it to allow you to loosen stiff links if the flexing the chain sideways trick doesn't work. For 8/9 speed chains I'd trust a SRAM powerlink more than I'd trust reassembling it with a chain tool, but I've not had bad experiences with either method so far... I wouldn't go back to a 8/9 speed chain on my trials bike again though.

Try Galway in the West of Ireland - loads of rocks on the coast to play on, some class street stuff around the city and everything is within walking distance... There's one trials rider living there too and the cops give no harassment provided you don't cycle on the pedestrian streets... Only problem is Ireland hasn't seen a summer in the past 2 years ...

We flew in to Reus and got a hire car for a trip to Sabadell last year. When we started the car it had 15km on the clock ... Be warned - Spanish motorway signposting doesn't seem to make any sense - bring satnav if you have it.