Recent comments

If you want lower gears go for it. I recall seeing an article here last year that showed Wiggins Tour bike with a massive cassette on the back and a rear mech put together by the mechanics using an mtb cage to give it the capacity required. Me, I recently installed a deore xt mech so that I could run a 32 on the back - and I'm on a triple.

Just remember to be courteous to the purists pushing their bikes up that 20% as you pass them in the saddle

Do you like Huey Lewis and the news?

Their early work was a little too new wave for my tastes, but when Sports came out in '83,I think they really came into their own, commercially and artistically.

The whole album has a clear, crisp sound, and a new sheen of consummate professionalism that really gives the songs a big boost.

He's been compared to Elvis Costello, but I think Huey has a far much more bitter, cynical sense of humour.

In '87, Huey released Fore, their most accomplished album. I think their undisputed masterpiece is "Hip to be Square", a song so catchy, most people probably don't listen to the lyrics. But they should, because it's not just about the pleasures of conformity, and the importance of trends, it's also a personal statement about the band itself.

Careful just don't get caught in your hotel room with the bike.

Some other key benefits of bringing bikes in after a natural disaster - proven in Sri Lanka after the tsunami. Bikes were in and being used even before the waters had fully subsided, and needed no repairs to infrastructure. Of course the other nice detail is that after a total immersion, unlike an internal combustion engine a bike starts first time, and the bog snorkellers actually prove that bikes can be used underwater as well.

Ironically for the US the Viet Cong demonstrated this really effectively at Da Nang shipping around 50,000 T down the Ho Chi Minh trail with bikes - each bike carrying up to 250Kg and being pushed by the rider, with bamboo extensions to seatpost and handlebar. Supplies delivered rip off bamboo and ride the bike back for more.

You can ship around 200 bikes in a container which would otherwise take just one truck - that's 200 individual delivery systems that can get around broken roads AND you can mobilise the readily available local population (usually available because their workplaces have been destroyed) to work on their local recovery plan.

Bikes don't need fossil fuels, and 2 wins here, you don't waste vital cargo capacity shipping in fuel to power the trucks, and a major security/conflict of interest issue (fuel for generators or transport, and possible theft for black market sale).

Pick the right sort of bike and even bike spares don't become an issue. Relaxed geometry of the Flying Pigeon and similar bikes means they can be ridden with flat (or no tyres), and rod brakes (or coaster brakes) mean no cables breakages to worry about.

Thanks Gkam, got them clocked at £68.70 from fudges.

Want R2C as well but they're just too much.

Want to just get a solid, fast, beast of a machine for minimal expenditure.

TT shifters can be had for £70 at the moment, I have them on the trike, Was looking at R2C, but they are so expensive for all the benefit I would get. http://www.tredz.co.uk/.Sram-500-TT-Aero-Shifters_29923.htm

OR, you can get Dura Ace at the same price http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/Models.aspx?ModelID=34322

I'll keep an eye out for bars

The one difference is they won't have had the tough climbs earlier on, anyway heres my team to tackle tomorrow. It will either work, or it won't, but I do expect Felline and Nava to be ok and be at the finish either way. Cav was incase, and Mezgec as he is cheap and only replaced Di Luca (who I can only see being at the finish if its a sprint anyway). I also axed Nibali, Santambrogio and Uran

Cav
Mezgec
Felline
Navardauskas
Kangert
Pellizotti
Majka
Betancur
Evans

This is the exact reason after a lot of discussion and advise on this board that I decided to stick to clinchers. The benefits just are not worth a daily chore.

As far as I'm aware 3D printing was used only to make some small parts (paws?) not the whole hub.

Can we also please stop this misleading 3D printing "revolution" nonsense?
There is nothing revolutionary, new or magical about it.
It's just one of the ways of making things (with its limitations) but in vast majority of cases uneconomical for anything other than testing and prototyping comparing to e.g. machining.

CapriciousZephyr you nailed it and the ONCE jersey is here:
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=111066838458&ssPage...
I have the very same sitting on my shelf for the sunshine. I also cycled all the way from Manchester to Chester in 1999 to pick up the black TDF version and buy my first ever road kit. On a mountain bike it took 10 hours. I have no idea who on ONCE raced clean or not, I just wanted to be in yellow.

I am amazed this thread is still going! but it seem the 'wear what you want or what inspires you' are clearly in the majority on the road and on this forum. Maybe the naysayers have good reasons (and I am no fan of Murdoch) but there are definitely some that are snobs, you know who you are.
Take a look at the Funicular climb video and you will see all kinds of kit, pro teams, clubs, plain, bmx baggies, skinsuit and good old hoodies. They all rock and the variety adds to the gaiety of the nation. Get yourself down to a sportive and you might beat a few Sky guys but there will be someone else with Fizik written on his arse disappearing in to the distance leaving you in the dust.