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I'm careful always to use a protective coating of Lucky Strike on them.

Given EB do other Wiliers and Cycle Surgery list the Wilier Pista at £849, it might be another one to consider. Never ridden one though.

Not an option if he's limited to Edinburgh Bicycle, but agreed that there's definitely better value out there. £489 seems steep for a Plug, for example - a quick google gave me £399 elsewhere and even that seems less of a bargain than one of Mr Biddlebikes's finest Fuji Tracks, which is why I bought one of those instead.

631 is a bit stronger than 531, but yeah, mainly the difference is TIGability as I understand it. My Dave Yates course bike is made of it and is stunningly comfy and not notably bendy (YMMV if you're Mark Cavendish or something).

http://www.reynoldstechnology.biz/downloads/materialcompweb.pdf has some pretty graphs of comparative properties of Reynolds toobs.

If it were me (which of course it isn't) I think I'd go for the Tricross.

+1 to Adidas Minrett - got mine for cheap when they were discontinued and have no complaints except that they're seemingly capable of attracting water molecules from distant puddles into my socks. I use them with Crank Bros, so can't absolutely attest to their Atac-friendly qualities.

Nice vid, dfp. The soundtrack takes me back in a pleasant way too. I miss my Cheetah MS6.

Bad Karma.

Even if they did try to kill me, would it really be distinguishable from business as usual?

Fuckmince. I thought I'd ensmallened that. Sorry!

2008 Fuji Track. Replacement for nicked one. Front brake is 2006 Campagnolo Veloce with Kool Stop salmon pads. Now featuring cutting-edge CrapStencil™ technology in homage to House of Pistard and Woody Guthrie.

Presuming it doesn't instantly fall to bits, it'd be OK. I'm not sure where the advance is on eg my mum's bike, a fifty quid ninetieth-hand Hercules Balmoral with working Sturmey Archer three-speed, though.

Any noobs going for East drinks tomoz?

I might well, if there are signs of other people turning up. If so I'll be the slightly lost-looking chap with the Fuji Track and the large 'tache.

yup.

I think we should have a stopping compo - front brake vs back brake.

Front is for stopping, back is for control.

I've done this in the past (30mph emergency stops in controlled conditions on private land, front-only and rear-only) when I was doing my motorbike license many years ago - you stop a LOT faster front-only. On a bicycle, I'd expect the effect to be greater if anything, since the rider's weight (thrown forward under braking, unloading the rear wheel) makes a greater proportion of the weight of the whole system.

I'm with papa44 - also, consider the situation when you're descending quickly on a geared bike and start to pick a little weave and THEN need to slow slightly for a bend. Do you really want to use the front brake just at that moment? I'd certainly prefer not to.

If I had to pick just one brake to have fitted it'd be the front, but fortunately no one's forcing me to make that decision and having a rear brake (or fixed) is a Good Thing.

IIRC the 'ring is technically a non-speed-limited toll road these days, so you can do round it on anything road-legal you like. Whether cycling on it is all that wise, I don't know. Given the numbers of wannabe Touring Car heroes thrashing ineptly round it I'm not sure I'd want to try, but I'd be interested to hear from anyone who's tried it.

Aye, it was something like that long for me too. The man's a legend though - utterly confidence inspiring, always spots if you're about to fuck up using some sort of ESP. Bring a camera, BTW - the airfield next to his workshop (RAF Coningsby IIRC) is the operational conversion base for the Typhoon, home of the display Typhoons and best of all home to the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight. We also got some Dutch or Norwegian F16s when I was there.

gogo - AFAIK, Dave Yates is the only one in this country. He makes up for this fact by being, in my experience, incredibly good. I'd book another course in an instant if I could justify the money.

involuntary laughbark

People really are amazing stupid about this. Last summer I was overtaken on the Embankment by a guy in a convertible fucking Ferrari with the top down and phone clamped to head. Did he really, really think no one would notice?

I'm glad to report that he got about 200 yards past me, blithely overtook a moto-plod and got yanked.

@Il Ragazzo Morto

You're brave! Having visited Naples a bit I must say it's low on my list of ideal places to cycle (high on the list of places to return to soon though). Palermo would be doable on a bike, I reckon, but Naples...

@Oliver:

I agree with most of what you've said (I used to work for a company that did transport data applications and worked quite closely with TfL so I know the arguments in favour quite well). However, the design of bendy bus used in London was really intended for continental (particularly German) cities with large ring roads with a dedicated uninterrupted bike (EDIT: "bus", not bike sorry) lane. Anyone who has ever watched one trying and failing to make the turn out of Gower St, for instance, and blocking the traffic for several phases of the lights knows that TfL have been over-ambitious in the routes they've given the bendy buses. Problem is that with the Tube PPP having been such a failure, buses are the only area of public transport that has been able to expand its passenger capacity significantly in the past decade, so we're probably stuck with an ever-increasing number of them.

Blasphemy, I know, but do they sell geared racing bikes over at 14? Or is it a HHSB only zone? I know Tour de Ville got some pretty geared bikes but ya know...gotta keep them options open!

Forgot to mention that. The chap behind the counter was clear that their frames could definitely be had with derailleur hangers. Makes sense to me - fond though I am of riding fixed, I'm not sure I'd want a £1500 fixie frame in 953.

I didn't find 48x15 that appalling TBH. Managed to make it from Barmouth to Trawsfynydd in the dark carrying a week's worth of kit (look it up on Google Earth). Not the gearing I'd have chosen but doable and fine around London until soemthing wears out and can be replaced.

+1 to at least calling in at 14.

They have lots of cheerily bright fillet-brazed frames and will do you one to spec according to the very friendly and pleasant red-haired guy behind the counter.

FWIW, when I did the Dave Yates course, he warned me to be very careful of chroming. There are enough acidic cleaning and surface prep agents used that if they're not removed very thoroughly the steel will corrode through horribly under the plating. He has a couple of example forks from restoration jobs showing signs of this and I would not wish to ride on them one little bit.

The exec summary is this: be very sure the place you use is very well used to plating thin, structurally important objects made of steels that corrode easily. If it's a sideline for them, they may well fuck it up with consequences for your face even if the finish looks lovely.