CurtisRider

Do they actually work? I have never used them before

Haha yeah, as annoyingly unreliable and expensive as it has been, I really have loved owning it. Everything just felt so right when driving it and I think they are one of the best looking saloons of their time. RIP

I get along with the fellas at the garage, I let them know and they said it was absolutely fine as they have a ton of jobs to catch up on!

Nah this is the cut off line for this car, it has cost far to much over the time I have owned it and it has very little value in it as a complete car. In parts it is worth LOADS more, so the embarrassment of driving a Golf is unfortunately a necessity

Not exactly the fix I'm after.... I now have a mk5 golf to use until I finish my PGCE, then it's car hunt time with no money.

I see, this isn't good MOT is tomorrow but i'm seeing little point in bothering with it now. Clutch is £200 with a slave (integrated release bearing) and £600 with the DMF which sounds likely to require replacing, then it'd all need fitting. Eurgh.

Why does my clutch slip like feck in 5th at 60mph+ yet hold perfectly fine in any other gear even when flooring it?

Cheers for the offer but my post is 30.9! I ordered a shim so I could run my 27.2mm FSA CF post, now my seat drops nearly all the way down, certainly enough for the kind of riding I do! Took it for a ride at the weekend and it was REALLY nice, very happy with the way it rides. I'll respray it when I go home for summer as i'm not keen on the red/silver

There was a set of Ultimate arms with XTR levers that went for £50 a few weeks back...fricking steal!

I had a similar mini issue....this came to me needing new sills apparently Ended up needing just about every panel replacing Worryingly I have another one to do when I get time...

Get a wire wheel in there to really remove the grot, you will be amazed/disappointed with how much metal you actually have left afterwards!

Dodgy earth(s) would be my guess, got a multimeter?

Those frames were pretty crack happy, so inspect it carefully

Lower the saturation and contrast, it'll look far better.

I didn't want to as any shorter and it'll feel twitchy as hell upfront. I already have a 65mm stem and thats pretty quick on the steering, I really don't want to be running something like a 40mm. The other reason I wanted to change was because I wanted to be able to run the seat lower on the fun stuff.

If you can squeeze out an extra tenner, then these are well worth it: http://www.carboncycles.cc/?s=0&t=2&c=84&p=940& I have some MG1s as well but they don't feel nearly as nice as the exotic flats! And the weight difference is pretty minimal

£150 is still way out of my budget unfortunately, hence wanting a scope. Right now I'll just have to make do with buying a shim for my 27.2 CF post (current post is stolen from my girlfriends Specialised as the Giant one has been trimmed). I'll keep an eye out on ebay for a dropper post but they seem to make rather alot used too. What length are the actual posts that go inside the frame? I have 200mm to play with in the frame I don't use grease in my outers as it dries up and goes sticky, I found I replaced my cables and outers far less often when just using some finishline+shifting is slicker and lighter I have a low clamp top pull mech, the reason it fouled is because i'm running a 36t ring, so of course i'm mounting it lower to suit. It functions fine where it is now, so I will leave it I only wanted to fit the Manitou as the giant shock has signs of light scoring on it, so i'll look out for a spare trance shock to replace it with.

Cheers I guess I will have to sell the Rockrider, even though I actually still really like it (if only it was a smidge shorter!), they seem to make ok money so along with the Manitou shock I should be able to recoup the money I spent buying the Giant A few friends have Reverbs/whatever and seem to really like them, but there are many other areas on my bike where money would be better spent I think...if I had any spare!

For £130 complete with Shimano cranks+bb, Wellgo MG1s, nearly new sram 11-24T cassette+chain, deore front mech+shifter, seat+post and some other bits and bobs I am certainly not grumbling! Manitou shock wont fit Giant shocks supposed to be pretty good anyway so meh!

Just went for a little ride on the road outside my house...ohhhh my it is a little nice to ride! The shorter front end is so much more comfy for me, and with the seat dropped it is still just about manouvreable enough to huck about. I'll give it a ride around some woods this weekend and see if its comfy after a few hours of use. Now to my Manitou Swinger shock and neaten the cables up Post dropped Post at my proper height Rubber Queens may be a little tight for this frame... Reverb is slightly out of my budget! I don't really need a dropper post, I don't ride enough to make the most of it (and it would cost more than the frame did!)

Cheers for your feedback chaps I decided to try building it up Swapped over the bits tonight (not fitted the cables properly just incase i swap back to the other frame). All seems fine apart from the post. at maximum height it is just right for fit, the only trouble is doesnt go down that far due to the seatube having a bend This kind of defeats the idea of going to a smaller frame! I guess this means sourcing a telescopic post but I don't know who makes them other than Titec with the Scoper? There used to be loads around a few years ago! Ideally not wanting to spend much, cheapest new I have seen is £30 posted from the states: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Titec-El-Norte-Scoper-MTB-Expert-QR-Seatpost-30-9mm-350mm-FR-DH-/271111618978?pt=Cycling_Parts_Accessories&hash=item3f1f8301a2 Seatpost issue aside, it seems to feel right just from balancing in my living room. Frame weighs about 500g less than the 6.3 which is another bonus. I may have to go single ring as the front mech sits too low with a 22/36T and the lower linkage fouls the mech but I had wondered about doing that anyway. My Blackspire Stinger also cant go up as high as I would like as it fouls the lower linkage too! It will need some modification to tuck up more.

Pashley has seen a few upgrades, on a budget of course Swapped some forks with Sharn for some Octane Chemical bars with 2.5" rise Got a Thompson stem for £10 off ebay, bit of a luxury (and blooming hefty!) but I like the look of them Got an XT V brake free off a guy as there were v bosses seized into them (soon sorted that!) Got some wellgo MG1s free with an XC frame I bought Had an old Mavix XC rim kicking around and built it onto some spare spokes with an 'Axis' hub that I got for £4 off ebay Superstar size zero grips £12...feel a little guilty about buying these and i'm not sure I like them yet.... Sprayed the Fred Salmon booster black as the red looked a bit nasty. Bikes lost some heft and rides really nicely, very happy with it! I'm going to make a half bash ring for my Truvativ Stylo/Shimano Deore cranks and run those instead of the 3 pieces to save some weight, bike should be pretty much spot on for me then!

I got 2 new tyres today as one rear got a screw in it and both were getting pretty old+only had a few more mm left anyway. Feck me my car is quieter now! Had Michelin Primacys before and never realised quite how noisy they were, now have Falken FK453s (asked for 452s but they couldnt find a stockist as they stopped making them) and the cabin noise has dropped loads Now to get the old thing ready for MOT, can't really think of any reason it will fail though luckily...

The trouble is I don't really get a great deal of free time currently, and when I do I want to be actually riding! But yes I guess I will have to do the swap over to see for sure. I have some spare forks, bars, stem and cranks so I could do a quick basic assembly and see how it feels roughly and if it seems to fit ok, then i'll do a proper swap!

I currently have a large Rockrider 6.3 and as much as a I like it, it has always felt a touch too long for me (21 ST, 24" TT) making it a little hard to chuck about when the going gets rough and with the seat down it is still hard to get enough clearance to really manouvre the bike. I bought a medium Giant Trance X5 today (along with some other bits) with the intention of selling it on, however I am considering building it up instead as its a bit smaller (17.5 ST, 22" TT). I'm 6ft 2 and have a short upper body with longish legs (33" inside leg). I'm wondering if I would be better off running the X5 instead of the 6.3 but fear that it may be a little too compact for me being 2" shorter? I currently run a 60mm stem on my 6.3 and still feel a touch stretched, so maybe the trance+an 80mm stem would be about right and effectively be 1" less than what I have now? The X5 seems to also get good reviews, making it more tempting to keep Thoughts? I'd really rather not have the hassle of building it up and then having to take it all apart again but I think that may be my best option right now