openmind

A strong MTB wheel is better than a true MTB wheel. MTB tyres typically are "buckled" more than 2mm anyway so I would not worry unless you think the wheel is structurally unsound.

Get a bike fit. If that's not an option, for your height, go for a L if you are more an cross-country rider or an XL if you favour marathons. (I'm 1.88m, favour XC and ride a L). What complicates things is that one manufacturer's L is another's XL. So really, get a bike fit

Lobby your place of work to have a shower installed.

Take it ... into your own garage. Work on it yourself; nothing more rewarding and you know it's done right. It's just a bicycle, not an F1 race car. What you don't know you can learn right here on da good ol' hub.

It's not a pressure plate, it's a coil of wire in the road surface that is hooked up to the traffic lights. A car has enough metal in it to change the inductance in the coil to a degree that the lights control system can detect. Your bike does not.

Hmm, going by the article alone (I have not read the study) this seems like correlation with low fat intake, not causation. Note that three things changed: less smoking, more veggies and lower fat. We know for sure that smoking causes heart disease, so it could be that on its own. We know more veggies make you healthier so maybe that helped. It's the low fat advice which is being questioned these days (with reason I think and know from personal experience) so it could well be that these Finns had lower heart disease *in spite of* their lower fat consumption given that they smoked less and ate more veggies.

Clean and dry the inside of the tyre and patch the hole with a regular butyl glue patch. Nice big patch and lots of glue.

Your observations are anecdotal - if 90% of the field were riding Schwalbe (which is probably not far off) and you saw 90% of people with flats riding Schwalbe then those tyres did as well as any others. Same for the derailleurs and cranks.

Slime in road tubes generally does not work due to the high pressure - any hole bigger than a gnat's arse and you'll have sealant peeing all over the place. I've had much success with tubeless road tyres. But they're pricey and you need special rims/wheels (e.g. Campag's two-way fit). Maybe try liners - just check them every few months or so as the edges at the end of the liners can puncture a tube over time.

DON"T use latex road tubes! It's not worth it. They are far more prone to tearing than a butyl tube. I speak from front wheel blow-out experience and other occasions where my tubes popped when the bike was parked! If they get nicked by a cracked rim tape or piece of glass they may well rip, causing an immediate loss of all air rather than a gradual controllable loss of a butyl tube. They are also much more expensive than butyl tubes and need more regular top-ups of air. The upside is slightly lower weight, and a supposedly plusher ride with improved puncture resistance as they are supposedly more malleable than butyl tubes. I did not notice these benefits. In my opinion, stay away.

You may just have all your sealant seep out through your sidewalls overnight. It depends on the tyre. Schwalbe non-tubeless-ready generally will hold up well. Give it a whirl, you have nothing to lose but a bit of Stans! If it seeps at first, it may still seal up, after which just add a bit more Stans and ride. You must use Stans of course. Nothing else will do.

That's why I ride 3x10 XT with a stainless steel middle blade (on a carbon body)

The last word on crank length: https://www.stevehoggbikefitting.com/bikefit/2011/06/crank-length-which-one/ FWIW, I'm 94cm inseam and use 180mm cranks on all my bikes.

I disagree - I think they could have done better, especially seeing that there were more markers further up the "wrong" road for the short route. This was not an orienteering event, it was a marathon MTB race. I should not be expected to question every single turn I make or don't make. And there is no need to shout.

There is no way I would have missed that turn if it was in fact marked like that when we went through. Even if I'm in a bunch, I check the markers myself. Jorrie said that he returned to the course after the error and fixed the markers before the B bunch went through, so there must have been something wrong, like a marker knocked over. And he lives in Tulbagh, knows the course and also took the wrong turn during the race! I don't buy your excuse for no bunting - you could have put it up and then removed it once the marathon riders went through. Surely you can expect that a mistake like this can happen when there are more markers further up the "wrong" road for the short route? Also, your markers were not consistent - one moment we are following red boards with white arrows, then yellow with red and then white with black. Then finally after 4 or 5 km's of following the wrong markers, we see a 10km/20km route board indicating that we went wrong. And it was the majority of the bunch that went wrong - not just a few hot headed noobs that were following wheels instead of looking at markers. I'm sorry, but I'm pissed off about this. It was sloppiness that could easily have been prevented, especially in a race as important as this one. Or maybe it's only the pros in the ultra event that matter?

I was also in that A bunch - the route marking in the first few km's were a complete disaster. At least 50 of us took the wrong route, but we were diligently following arrows all the way. I've raced for 25 years and know how to follow a marked course. Why the organisers could not use a little bit of candy tape and common sense and close off the "wrong" routes in those first few dusty and crowded km's is beyond me. If you organise a MTB race and you get only one thing right, it must be the route markings. One bad route marker leading to a balls up like yesterday and the entire event is spoiled. Sure, we had a nice ride in the countryside, but I came to race. This race was supposed to be the highlight of my season. There was no race yesterday - the marathon results are a farce and a charade.

Apparently the 2014 CTD is hugely improved. Google for some reviews.

Erm, a road tyre is a 29 inch tyre.

This should be pinned.

Don't buy clothes online - 40% import duty makes it more expensive than buying local.

He's your mate - if the stuff is "lying around at home", let him have it for a couple of beers.

That's just silly. Maybe you have the time to train loads of junk miles guessing at what will work for you. If you need to make the most of each training session, a little bit of effort crunching the numbers pays huge dividends. I've been racing for 25 years and crunching numbers for the last 5. My best results have been in the last five years, despite my age and far less time to train.

The original Niner EBB slipped. No matter what I did it slipped. I now run gears Apparently the new EBB 2 (biocentric 2) fixed the problem - it has two tensioning bolts instead of one.

Don't fight the wind, let it "blow through you". Try and be calm and smooth. Be quick to gear up and down to match the gusts. Think of riding the gusts like waves. Don't try too hard to stick to your line, but let the wind dictate your position on the road a little (obviously within safe limits - give yourself a bit more space on the road in the wind. Roads with wide shoulders are good.) Don't use deep section wheels. And for goodness' sake, DON"T wear headphones when you ride! It's way more dangerous than not wearing a helmet. The car that will hit you usually comes from behind. Your only defence is your hearing. And riding into a headwind makes it even harder to hear whats going on behind you.

Oh come on .. if he stayed in bed he would have been even safer still. Life is risky and helmets do not make you suddenly invincible.