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Anyone know where I can get Wyvale decals or who/where to ask that might be able to help? Cheers

I'll mostly be using it round town, there'll be bits of off road riding but nothing meaty. Like the idea of getting some hefty tyres, I'll look into it.

Current ss project: old, no name commuter/mtb, possibly a low end raleigh or something similar but was given it and have never known what it is (or cared tbh). Converted the old geared freewheel to SS but I really need to get a cog with deeper teeth so the chain sits better.

After breathing some life into it I'm starting to love her again. Here's some pics of the story so far...

Langsters were the first really common OTP fixie skidder device. Of course they were hated.

Can't say I follow the logic there. Is it Tit's First Law or summat?

Boring

I admit the steels look kinda cool, but once someone clocks the 'Langster' decal you're done for (no matter what model).

'done for' in what way like?

not at all looks wise, but i relate to him

come on admit it, you've got a big spikey peroxide blond barnet really havn't you?

jambon - what's that pesky lookin cigar munching aardvark called?

So, who would you be or who represents you best in whichever way you think is most appropriate, either boat race wise, skills/lack of, behaviour or woreva????

Me, i'd choose Clark Kent. Superman's bumbling, slightly clumsy and socially inept alter ego.....or in my more tuned in moments maybe HKF.

Looks pretty hot to me and there's a red/white one as well that I cant transplant an image of but it can be seen here. Anyone here riding a steel langster?

• Reynolds 520 steel tubing gives this frame a classic look and that signature steel feel
  
• Timeless steel fork delivers durability and accurate handling while negotiating even the roughest road or track
  
• Sturdy and fast rolling Mavic rims with 32 holes in a sleek finish
  
• 42t alloy track-style crankset delivers efficient power transfer in a cool black finish
  
• Classic 1" quill track stem complements the retro frame
  
• Classic steel track-drop handlebar for the perfect position and look
  
• Old school minimalist saddle with copper rivets offers solid support with retro appeal
  

Cheers lessman, thought I was going a bit batty for a while there wondering how to make best use of this database.

@Eightball - I could only assume CG was referring to the pair he/she's currently sporting.

"There doesn't seem to be a thread"?

Try searching for "trainers" ffs

Carrrm down lad (see last post)

How odd, this thread deffo never came up on a search for 'trainers' (fucking search engine's bollox like).........sorry folks sheepish

Doesn't seem to be such a thread already so let's begin with these beaut's - yeah they is bit lairy I know but given a few rides round town in the rain etc they should get a more healthy worn look about em. Anyway I love the fuckers...now show us yours.

Ok, well either way it'll survive as long as it's given a bit of care and attention. mainly, DO NOT LET IT DRY OUT. Pot contained trees can be very prone to this if not kept a close an eye on and will soon die if left dry. The only other thing really is potting it in decent compost (garden compost from a compost heap is ideal or some Johnn Innes soil based compost e.g. JI No.2) - try not to use soil dug up from the garden if you can help it as it's not really suitable for using in pots. Other than that a potted tree will pretty much look after itself, esp. if you're not bothered about training it in any way - oh yes, you can give it the odd feed if it seems to be growing slowly using something simple like Growmore if you're keen ;) .

Given time even without pruning it will begin to branch more but when young they tend to grow up more than out although cutting the top out will encourage lower growth, as i said earlier.

The other techniques that's used in bonsai to stimulate growth and keep the tree suitable for growing in a relatively small container is root pruning but anyone wanting specific advice on this gimme a shout. Yeah post up a pic of your maple and we should be able to identify it :)

Hi, I'll do my best to pass on some advice. Any pruning, strictly speaking, should be done during the trees' dormant period i.e. from when it drops it's leaves up to the point in spring when the new leaves begin to open. Pruning a tree when it's actively growing is detrimental because it tends to weaken the tree and slows down its growth.

The other thing to bare in mind about bonsai (are you wanting to train the maple into a bonsai?) is that generally speaking trees with very large leaves do not lend themselves very well to the process. As far as purists are concerned one of the things that makes a bonsai a bonsai is that everything should be in proportion so large leaves on a small tree don't work but there is a way around this up to a point. When the tree is in full growth i.e. the leaves are out and looking healthy (now this goes against my advice about not pruning during the growing season but this techinique is Ok to use as long as you've got a healthy tree) what you can do is take a pair of scissors and cut the leaves in half horizontally i.e. strainght across the middle. What will happen over the next few weeks is that the tree will produce a new set of leaves that will be almost half the size of the original leaves and so will look a lot more in keeping with a small tree in pot. Good eh? I've done this successfully with horse chesnut for example.

To answer your other question, yes to achieve some more significant growth it will be necessary to repot into a container aprox half as big again as the previous one. However don't do this though unless you are certain the roots are becomming cramped in their pot (tip the pot upside down and knock the edge of it on a wall or the hard part of your palm til the tree pops out the pot [make sure it doesn't drop on the floor and ruin any branches] and then you can inspect the root system before carefully returning it to its pot. Once you're sure the root system has outgrown the pot or it's beginning to look like there's much more root than soil it's probably time to repot (agan this is best done during the dormant period).

lastly, to encourage the tree to produce more top growth what you can do is cut out the end of the leading branch (this is called the leader for obvious reasons). This will encourage shoots to form lower down and more branches will grow. The other thing you can do is cut the lower branches off at a shoot which is pointing in the direction you want the resulting growing tip to go (it's best from an aesthetic pov to have branches that grow at different angles to one another rather than two branches for example that are growing next to one another going in the same direction). A pair of proper bonsai scissors is best for this cos they don't crush the shoot like normal scissors would or some secateurs.

p.s. I'm wonderimng if it's possible that the tree you have is a London Plane (they have very large leaves too) - check out the pics below and compare it, see what you think.

HTH

For those who aren't going to read those links, the gist is as follows.

The Author finds that inorganic soils are better than organic soils because they do not break down and become compacted with time, and they also allow excess water to drain through them rather than becoming waterlogged. Inorganic soils contain no nutrients but the author claims that organic soils in a small pot become depleted so quickly that this is of no real consequence. I will still need to fertilise the tree whatever the soil type.

Nice one, that's a new on me but I'm always open to something new so cheers for enlightening us on the suitability of clay-based cat litter as a bonsai growing medium.

As an aside I rescued 3 oak trees that had self seeded in my parents garden at the weekend. They are between 1-2feet high and I've put 2 in pots and the other one into a spare bit of garden where it isn't in the way and I'll leave it there to put on some more growth before digging it up again and transferring it to a pot to begin training as a bonsai. I've had some of my best trees this way.

I once found a cotoneaster growing by the side of a flag stone that was part of a sloping path in my old garden and because of the slope over time rain had washed away the soil from the around some of the roots and left an amazing looking set of thick knarled exposed roots. It looked pretty special once I'd potted it up and grown it on a bit and eventually produced the lovely pinky-red flowers and small crimson berries mature cotoneaster (horizontalis) do.

How do I make use of that database when it doesn't list any of the measurements just which combination of components people are running?

Distance between the dropouts is 135mm (this measurement)

BB Width = 68mm

Crank Arm Length required = 170mm

Tyre Size = 26x1.50

I want to go for a 42T chainring with a 16T cog at the back. Do I need to know any other measurements to ensure I buy the right chainset/BB?

I've read somewhere that with 135mm rear dropout spacing a BB length of 113mm would be suitable but is that right? How would I know?

I was thinking about going for this deal: Stronglight 42T chainring with a 113mm (length) BB for a total of £34.99

I'm also gonna buy a SRAM chain

Any help/advice appreciated, thanks.

Hi, yes there is a potential risk of transmitting a virus or some other kind of infection to your tree by including treebark in the potting medium and to be honest there will be very little nutrition in rotten tree bark. The only thing bark is really good for is using as a mulch and that's nothing to do with adding nutrition to the earth it's put on it's about keeping weeds down, keeping moisture in or looking nice.

Cat litter??? Why cat litter? Again it contains no nutrients the tree can utilise and it's far too loose a medium anyway to be able to anchor a tree in unless I'm mistaken (I don't own a cat or have any sort of relationship with cat litter these days so I'm not certain but last time I checked it was course gritty stuff).

Also, any mycorrhiza that is assisting the tree is already on the roots in sufficient quantities not to need the addition of any of the old soil. By all means leave some of the old soil clinging to the roots but transferring any more than that over to the new growing medium serves no purpose whatsoever and will just take up space that could be filled with healthy, nutrient rich compost (and no it's not entirely necessary that everything you use to repot is organic, most proprietary fertilisers are inorganic anyway so that should tell you there's no harm in using inorganic compounds on plants/trees in pots). Best of luck

wax is no good for bonsai

For anyone that's interested there's a great one page summary with pics (link below) of a guy who created a bonsai from a Hawthorn tree he collected from the wild. This is how a lot of bonsai start life and the vast majority of mine were dug up as young trees from gardens where they'd seeded themselves or from woodlands or other wild areas when they were still fairly small.

'Natural' bonsai are formed when a tree seedling grows in a small pocket of earth such as a crevice on a cliff face where it's growth is stunted due to the small growing space and harsh environmental conditions.

http://www.bonsai4me.com/AdvTech/AThawthornprogression.htm

try it outside... trees normally grow there...

There are such things as indoor bonsai i.e. trees or shrubs that are more suited to the warmer and drier air you find in centrally heated houses.