Ben Cooper- pics. That sounds mental

Perthmtb, thank you, exactly what I wanted to know.

I’ve always wondered how they justified the lower emissions on newer diesels and this helps explain at least one factor in that mix.

And where did 100 grams come from? I’ve not seen that mentioned up above.

Agreed, wider rims don’t negate the risk of giving the rims a good thump. I’m not saying I don’t see the point in the system, but at least on the ghetto set up it looks a lot of faff to run a lower tyre pressure.

100 grams is 100 grams, it all adds up, it’s a bad place to have extra weight. I understand though, some bikes and style of riding you won’t give a rats ass about that extra few grams.

I’m sorry, I’ve not heard of this. Is this an eco additive.

What’s the consequences of not running it?

Not helped that I had an off with broken ribs on side and back (and a couple that pealed off on the front too) in between changing bars.

One thing strava is good for is tracking my own riding on trails I run regularly.

I was back to where I was pre bump and bar swap, but importantly I feel comfy and a lot more fluid on the bike.

Bars cut to 730mm, slightly rolled back and one spacer removed.

Happy as a pig in poo. Dh trail times are back to to where they were (in worse conditions)

Thank you for the heads up. Perfect! Got one on the way

I personally feel that’s harsh, when I used to race as a child paying on the day was the only way.
My parents were not well off, but my races were affordable (my requests for kit maybe not so).

Today I don’t think my parents could afford to give me that opportunity over again, which is sad as cycling has given me a lot.

Kids races should be cheap to encourage grass roots, a parents wealth should not be a barrier to this(for at least an introduction and a few races)

Kids strider race was going to cost me 25 pounds for my 4 year old.

15 entry and 10 to hire one of their bikes as he wasn’t ‘allowed’ to use his own frog balance bike.

I told them it was ridiculous and to stick it

That’s quite a lot of extra weight to run lower pressure. I still would not want to offset the weight by using a lighter tyre for fear of rips to sidewalls.

I get it, but it seems weighty and a lot of faff.

I think I’ll just go wider rim for lower pressure

I’d proved to myself that for the type of riding I use my ht for, it’s quicker as a 29″. It feels more lively and it digs into slop.

That said I always thought i was having more fun on the 27.5+!

I’ve just moved the wide rimmed wheels onto the bike I use for uplift/fun days out, so I still have the option to go back to this set up in the spring.

I didn’t feel the love for plus in the current conditions. I’ll try again in the spring but I’ve reverted back to 29″ for now.

Liking the zealous division, but I’m not sold on the trailblazer as a front tyre

Sounds like a plan. Feeling slightly more positive about swinging a leg over the bike again

I’d not really considered shoulder width. This does make some sense as I do feel like my elbows are hyper extended when I’m just pedalling along on the flat.

I am running a short stem, or at least I thought I was (pops off to measure Easton haven stem).

More trial and error then, I’ll go to my local dh trails and run the grips set inboard and see if I find a sweet spot for me. I’m kicking myself really as I was comfy at 710mm and got sucked in.

I’ve got a 2.8 trailblazer and a 2.8 vee Trax fatty that’s surplus to requirements now.

alexhayes1981 at gmail .com

Apologies for minor hijack.

My friend and I rode out on Sunday on a very wet trail.

My Tenn shorts were wet on the rear within a few mins. The front survived well.

My friend in his endura mt500 had a dry bum after 2 hours.

Bandit has a progressive/regressive leverage rate much like my Bronson.

I too had the largest volume spacer to stop it blowing travel and attempting to make it supple in the initial third.

I’m very happy with my corset, took some time to get right and I’ve come down 4 spacer sizes and upped the pressure about 30% I think. Very nice initial breakaway, firm in mid stroke and feels bottomless at the end of travel.

Ryu that must be an absolute animal!

I think the conditions (awful) probably took the gloss off how well it performed.

I did 27 miles in the slop with the purgatory yesterday. It’s an improvement over the trax, but it still doesn’t bite enough in the real slop patches. I locked it up on a couple of very steep descents (could have been conditions with lots of leaves).

Well that proves pikes have a good bit more clearance than revs.

Doesn’t have vittoria’s graphine (sp) compound though. I was looking at this at my lbs in their book. No idea what size it actually blows up to. Needs a guinea pig.

Due to a crank failure I’ve had to drop my absolute black oval. Climbing is certainly harder work without it.

5’7″ medium Bronson. Top tube looks small but for what I use it for I prefer a short bike. They do appear to come up a size too small against other bikes.

Ian, I tried that and it worked well. Just looked odd. Steering felt light, nimble and retained the comfort on the rear.

The trax fatty is the best plus front tyre I’ve found that fits in revs. The purgatory needed a shave to have some clearance but I’ve not tried it in anger yet. Hopefully the schwalbe 2.8 nobby nic/ ‘rr will fit and maybe something from maxxis. They are thin on the ground.

I suppose it depends on the type of mud. We don’t tend to have a plastic clay here. More of a mudstone that’s wet and fine and doesn’t stick/clag up.

I’ve found they haven’t stretched much once inflated.

Go careful on pressure seating the plus tyres. The purgatory has a max pressure rating of 20 psi (which I dismissed rather foolishly as absurd). I wasn’t sure it was seating correctly and took it to 38psi for a moment. It popped off the rim, showing everything in sealant and deafening me in the process. Lesson learnt on that tyre.

Xt, miles nicer than the zee (which was horrid). I went from zee shifter and mech to xt shifter and zee mech. Worth the extra cash.

It doesn’t. Same frame/tyre but a wider rim. No issues in the 100 miles I’ve done. The pinch point on the frame coincides with the sidewall of the tyre where there is no tread, and holds no debris. There is plenty of room elsewhere where the tyre has tread.

I’m with del on this. I’d not want to carry any more than my pack holds. Water capacity is probably the only downside, but you adapt. Both of my bikes can take 2 bottles, and I have another on the bum bag. the reason I’m not using my camelpack is that the weight bouncing on my spine hurts if I’m carrying a lot of water.

This is why I have another bike. My local trails feel a bit boring on a big bike and are far more enjoyable on a shorter travel, light hard tail. Plus, conditions are pretty naff now and keeps the worst of the muck off the bigger bike.

I actually find it protects my rear end from mud quite nicely.

The aerozine x1 uses the same spiderless system as the sram, so you can use none aerozine rings. It’s a very light crank

Chapter 8 traffic signs manual covers signs for roadworks. They are temporary and so less stringent. they should not block the path. Common sense should prevail.

They are the contractor’s to manage and he should be a part of a considerate contractor scheme, the signs are usually Sun contracted out to someone to supply and check them every x hours. Just make a polite enquiry to the council or contractor, they will be moved.

Aracer maybe we have crossed wires again. Cathedral square was an architect lead scheme of about 20x20m. I don’t know of any cycle facilities running through it and by the college side approach its all so congested that there isn’t an easy way to get a cycle link.

Out towards the bridge you no longer give way to the roundabout, but the carriageway is largely unchanged in width (really tight for cycles and 2 vehicles)

In the other direction it’s no longer 2 lanes, its now a wide single with bus bay off carriageway- much safer through that section when I ride in.

Diglis bridges…I had an amusing meeting with British waterways/canals trust over one of the bridges. The scheme wanted to promote cycling through one of their bridges, but they would not allow cycling on their bridge unless it was fully upgraded. They cited it as unsafe.

The 15 cyclists that rode it perfectly well whilst we were there proved that people can behave, give way and be sensible. I’m not sure where that scheme ended up.

Yep way OT, if you had an email address I’d have responded directly.

Well, it can’t have achieved anything as the model deemed 2 lanes straight over and onto the bridge was the requirement, and they do not have it. If that’s it’s business case, it’s failed and will do until the bridge is replaced.

This is a particularly bad example, and really doesn’t help my argument that sometimes things need to be changed that are not foreseen. This issue should have been spotted, it appears to have fallen through the cracks and no one questioned it, maybe thinking Someone else will pick it up. There is of course the definition of the Designer. If the client instructs a certain feature they have a design responsibility too.

No apology needed, I’ve not seen the reports and it would be unwise for me to comment further on what the official line is…

The stage 3 is completed close to opening (which it was) and the issue was noted. This wasn’t done on day 1, and probably didn’t help public perception by leaving the feature open. I believe it was closed asap after the audit noted it as as issue.

This has lead some issues re safety audits that new schmes have to work to. New roads can’t be opened until the stage 3 is completed and signed off.

However, you Cant do a stage 3 audit on a closed road, furthermore you probably can’t build a scheme unless you use your newly constructed areas. Knee jerk reactions creating unusable chicken and egg policies that people are bound to fall foul of drive me a little crazy.

I think a lot of the funds for this cane from S106 developer contributions from surrounding developments and so could not be redirected to another scheme such as finishing the ring road. Hopefully it will all come good in the end with a new bridge.

Like I said I hope for better to come. Cathedral square has not attracted too much criticism from the public, surprisingly given the phasing of this isn’t well sold and the nature that a lot of the off carriageway works are currently temporary..some positive remarks lurking in there too.

Bringing it back ot, that scheme has no cycle features. There was nothing practical that could have been done within the project scope.

I’ll apologise now for lack of quotes, I’m on site and doing this on a mobile is tricky. I’ll try to respond chronologically.

Ok, before I reply let’s agree the design was not fit for purpose in this case (hell I’m not defending that layout), but the engineers involved were not at fault. If procedure is followed there should be a low probability of anything being unsafe.

You get the bigger picture, you know of the bottleneck but the phased approach is not understood by all. Re that bottleneck I believed worcs mp recently proposed that to the minister of transport, although of late the political push does appear to have lost its momentum.

‘re test model. Highway design isn’t the same as a structure built to eurocodes. Human behaviour is involved and sometimes it doesn’t go as assumed and the standards that govern highway design appreciate this. Lots of highway design gets ‘re worked at stage 3 safety audit, and stage 4 too. Humans vary in behaviour.

Most design briefs are lead from a business case, which would have key improvements derived from a transport model. I assume in This case a 2 lane straight over to the bridge with a merge.

No, I would not be happy to promote something that is obviously wrong. Here I believe the brief and business case attempted to deliver something unrealistic that was not strongly challenged.

3 suspended, 2 engineers cleared. Someone was at fault.

Stating the scheme wasn’t audited is not correct.

I can’t say any more (just to reiterate I’m an outsider to this). I agree it’s poor and it should not have happened.

Hopefully it will serve to provide better quality infrastructure to Worcester in future. There is plenty going on, cathedral square, Norton roundabout, Worcester 6 and hopefully the parkway station too.

Crazy legs, that’s the nightmare scenario. You physically could not do anything, and yet people look at you like you just drop kicked a baby.

Re the above, nightmare situation. Those schemes were not sold well, people do not understand building in phases. They see whats been built as having zero improvement, but fail to see a bigger picture.

Nothing there was built that wasn’t to a standard- it just didn’t work in the context it was applied. Big enquiry because of public pressure and 2 very good engineers careers tainted (who I must add have now been cleared).

It’s well documented in standards that road marking is iterative and should be reviewed once traffic is using it, in and around the opening audit. However, public deem changes as failure, incompetence or waste; they fail to understand the correct process.

The public witch hunt by some of the people wanting to make a name for themselves in Worcester in and around election time was embarrassing. Quoting a small amount of knowledge, mis-applied and adding fuel to the fire.

I’m not involved, but I know some of thlthe ins/outs of this. It seriously made me consider who I want to work for and what my liabilities are. Public wanted blood!

It does drive me insane. Most of these ideas are lead by transport planners, whereby ‘computer says yes’ approach, rather than a proper highway designer. A lot of the time the analysis only focusses on the entry, and ignores the format of the exit. They massage the analysis to work, and then give the enviable task of creating a safe and sensible layout back to the highway eng. Hence multiple lane entries leading to pinch points post the junction (because in their analysis it works perfectly as they don’t model the exit…). Obviously, some models are more complex and do look at wider network performance.

Flavour of the month appears to be dual lane exit off a roundabout into a single carriageway. I really do not like these as they are rarely designed to operate correctly.

As above, without that you would have much longer queues. Yes, merging back in is annoying.

Highways are not always done correctly, I check a lot of submissions for the local authority and some ‘designers’ just make sh#t up as they go. I regularly see some corkers.

There is very limited design guidance on cycle infrastructure, most coming from sustrans and not from dft.