Recently upgraded from XT 2 pot to XT 4 pot. They’re fine, but I think I was expecting more of a night/day difference. They’re not anchors, but maybe have a bit more modulation. TBF, I was also running soft bitey pads on the 2 pots, and the standard Shimano pads aren’t as on/off.

I’m not particularly heavy, but do ride long, steep, techy stuff.

This has happened to me before, same cranks. I found that I just hadn’t torqued them up enough, the recommended values are quite high (50Nm, if I recall). Since then I’ve been wanging them up as tight as I can, and they’ve been fine.

I was thinking the other day…dangerous, I know…

We always associate mental agility with problem solving and thinking exercises, but really, the brain has to work pretty hard to control your body, so should things that improve dexterity/movement also be of benefit? See Tai Chi, above.

I’d push for learning an instrument, it’s a bit of both worlds.

I keep meaning to get one of these printed

FWIW, I attempted to print that and wasn’t happy with the results. It was on a cheapo filament machine though, SLS will likely produce much better results…or even just a finer quality printer.

I suspected printing a mount and attaching to/adapting an existing fender might be a better solution

Just this morning I was thinking about how useful my own printer would be to do a cylindrical light (Lezyne Macro Duo) to GoPro mount adapter.

Metric, please

Mk 1 Helm, but I guess it’s not too different. I have found that mine gradually builds up pressure in the lowers, effectively increasing the spring rate. Poking a small cable tie past the (clean!) seals seems to help.

Hunt are fine, but you can likely do better for the money. I seem to have mangled mine in a variety of unexpected ways. They’re still turning, but only just

Get some Hope hubs built with DT rims

….or, have you seen that Race Face now offer lifetime crash/ride damage warranty on their rims. No idea how much of a pain claiming will be, but it seems pretty comprehensive.

^This is what scares me …. The vitriol that some people spue out on social media is shocking.

Aye, definitely. Social media’s ability to connect village idiots from across the land is staggering. I know it’s just brings the worst out of the keyboard warriors , but still really bothers me.

The one that comes to mind was the stream of bile/support for the driver posted after that infamous video of a bloke pulling a caravan, driving over a cyclist pulling away from a traffic light ?

Obviously to a much less charged extent, but it’s similar to much of the populist finger pointing. Easy, marginalised targets to hang the blame on, instead of addressing the actual issue, which is almost always too nuanced to express in a 280 characters. Politicians lean into it for votes (“stop the boats” – “tax and register bikes” – “remove gender identity from the curriculum” etc). Just more ways to distract from the actual issues or cover hidden agendas. Gets views, sells papers, gets votes.

Realistically, it’s hard to see a way past it. Car dependency is so ingrained in the UK (even worse in North America) that it would take a huge shift to push people to even considering other modes of transport. Classic catch 22: unsafe to cycle – few people cycle – no infra funding etc.

I think there’s always been the anger towards cyclists in one way or another, but social media has definitely exposed us all to comments that might otherwise be kept to themselves. Pretty common to see flippant support for maiming folk on bikes.

Could be ‘Andy01302’ that’s a STW league newbie

Hi, hello. Joined the league late this year. Didn’t realise there was one on!

The obvious answer for Mrs SR is an MSR surely!

I have the little bulb pump one – MSR Trailshot

It’s alright, though takes quite a lot of pumping to get much out. It would be a pain (literally) if you were doing more than a couple of litres in one go. Priming it can also be a bit fiddly. You can use it like a straw, if need be. Easy enough to clean/back wash etc.

A few years back we passed through on a big trip. Hit some of the classics. Lake Bled was beautiful, but busy. If I recall, the castle was just a big gift shop. The valley up near Vogel was also very nice. I think there was some biking to be had in the resort.

The Postojna Caves were incredible, and has ruined Blue John Cavern for me forever.  Predjama Castle is close, and also pretty special, being built into the cliff face.

Ljubljana is a beautiful city, very clean and friendly. Just had a nice time mooching about.

I’d love to go back with a bit more time, have very positive memories of Slovenia.

Local here, some general thoughts:

I’d be inclined to bring your own bikes, if possible. Renting will get expensive very quickly, particularly if you damage anything.

Getting around is a swine without a car, so factor that in.

There are new restrictions on Air B&B type accomodation, so you might find choices are more limited for that type of thing.

Get Trailforks, all but the “secret” trails are marked and well documented on there, to help guage how you feel.

North Shore is fun and accessible, worth it just for the MTB history….but can be a bit rock armoury/sterile. For extra points go and ride Burke Mtn. (my favourite) or Eagle Mtn. over in Coquitlam.

Squamish is easily drivable from Vancouver for day trips. All the classic rock slabs are at Alice Lake, which is good fun and compact. You could stay and spend a few days on the way up to Whistler. Lots of climbing/hiking too, if that’s your bag.

Whistler is a weird place. The bike park is cool, worth a day or 2, but the valley trails are something else. Just unbelievably good. I always have way more fun outside of the park. Likewise, try and have a day or 2 riding in Pemberton.

For 2 weeks, you’d be absolutely spoilt for choice with just those options, I doubt you’d need much more. If you wanted to venture into the mountains, then I’d aim for Kelowna over Kamloops, it’s a much much nicer town with great bike park (Big White/Silver Star) and trail riding.

Proper sad, the music he made and produced (engineered?) were absolutely formative for me.

…we’ll be lucky if I don’t bust out cryin’.

@tjagain ….best to check they’re not taking you to the Van Tan Club 😳

Get down to Deep Cove if you can and head to Honeys Donuts. Think kayak hire is back open again now, which is lovely early morning.

Lynne Canyon is like the free version of Capilano Suspension Bridge. You can get the bus up there easily.

Likewise, the Cleveland Dam and the Capilano river gorge near the hatchery is very cool. Just between Capilano Suspension Bridge and Grouse Mt. gondola (arguably better than both)

I wouldn’t bother with Capilano Suspension Bridge, it’s fine, but it’s mega expensive and not all that exciting.

Out in West Van, Lighthouse Park is cool and very close to one of my favourite bike cafes, Isetta Cafe. A bus runs along Marine Drive.

You can catch the shuttle bus up Seymour and do one of the short hikes out to the viewpoints, like Dog Mountain trail. There will be snow/slush, so microspikes might be a good idea. Maybe check AllTrails for a report, there’s usually one every day or so. Likewise on Cypress (though unsure about bus).

Lonsdale Quay has lots of bars and restaurants and you can get the Seabus over to Downtown, then it’s a pleasant walk along the water towards Stanley park….where you could hire a bike near Denman st. Seawall is One-way for bikes though! If you walk it, it’s about 10km just around the park.

Watch out around the East of Gas Town. It’s not dangerous as such, but it can be quite intimidating. It’s very sad, and significantly worse than anything found in the UK.

Hope you have a good trip!

I think that all sounds lovely. Regrettably, the current system of academy chains don’t favour a rounded education as expensive, non-mandatory-for-GCSE subjects are cut in favour of cheaper ones. Think music, art, DT, even practical elements of sciences. It’s the equipment/materials but it’s also all the support staff and technicians required for prep, support, maintenance etc. Teachers sure as hell don’t have the time to do that.

Progress 8 also damaged the margins of the curriculum. With Maths and English contributing double, and the 2nd tier (mostly science/ humanities) taking up the slack, the 3rd tier subjects become superfluous in terms of their contribution towards the reported performance of a pupil, and hence a school. Why throw money/timetable slots at a range of subjects that won’t help the data look good? Remember, we need the data to look good to keep OFSTED away.

Running a school as a business feels like an odd model and, in relation to the socialist utopia thread, corrupts and directly impacts the quality of the education received. It encourages academies to exclude problem children, rather than support them, as well of narrowing the curriculum and focussing on exam results (also see 3 year GCSE courses) over preparing kids for the wider world with a broad, rich education.

P.s. in before someone says “they should teach taxes/financial planning”…yeah, they do, it takes a couple of sessions and the kids could not care less. Equip the kids with the skills to understand and work these things out later in life, rather than explicitly listing them off.

Lines up closer with ski grading, likewise for N. America (albeit with the extra red).

I’m trying to think of major trail centres with significant orange trails, but drawing a blank. I guess it’s mostly places with DH tracks, so Cwm Carn, Inners, Ae?

Grading is always going to be a very rough guide, so the most important thing is that the message is clear and consistent.

Nice, glad you had fun!

Did you climb up Penny Lane – Good Sir Martin? It really is a work of art.

There are bears, they’ll be waking up around now. If you see one, just be loud, let them know you’re there, give them space and keep clear. If you see/hear cubs, go the other way and keep a keen eye out for mum.

Hi, local here. Moved couple of years ago from the UK.

I’d say that I’d be happy to meet up and show you around…but my frame is currently cracked and unsure when the warranty will appear. If you have any questions though, happy to answer/offer advice.

Both Fromme and Seymour are excellent. I’d say I tend to prefer Seymour if I’m feeling energetic, as the climbs are harder work/more twisty singletrack. Fromme is typically one long fire road (unless you fancy the climbing route, which is great but looooong). Fromme is also a little easier to navigate. Use Trailforks, but beware of the grading systems.

Although the trails are generally harder for the grade, I’d say it’s quite rare that there’s mandatory off-ground time below hard black/double black. Typically the difficulty comes from steep, awkward or high commitment/exposure moves. Think rock chutes, slabs, rooty mess, skinnies, ladders etc. The NSMBA do a good job maintaining the trails, but also ensuring they’re accessible for everyone, often installing with B-lines or ride arounds. Some call is “sanitising”, but they do great work. The riding style is very different to the UK, and you can really see why in the mid 00’s bikes (high, short, big travel) developed to get around the awkward, steppy, chunky trails.

Generally I’d encourage you to pick a few popular trails to ride and have fun/play it by ear. The forests are lovely places to explore and very different to the typical Forestry Commission plantation.

Lastly, watch out for bears. Just make sure you know what to do if you meet one. The black ones are nice….the brown ones (you won’t see one)….less so.

Here in Canada it’s like the wild west. No equivalent of an MOT means cretins can do, or not do, just about whatever they want. Most folk have no idea that their lights are so obnoxious….to be fair, they’re often doing well if they have them on at all 🙄 In wet weather it’s impossible to see through the glare.

Saw some nobhead in a lifted pickup (it’s always a **** pickup) with a full width LED light bar thing above the cab, full whack, driving around downtown. It was like opening the Ark of the Covenant 💀

My kids listen to the Smiths …. well 2 out of 4 anyway

Joyce and Marr?

Ah lovely @pondo

I figured it had been discussed at some point but it’s always nice to ask new questions etc. I’ll be reading those threads tonight

@J-R We is just Mrs Andeh and me. No kids involved. Still, planning on going to the Ghibli museum/Ghibli Park though.

Loads of good suggestions! Cheers

I figured we’d be a bit early for leaves, but we’re planning on heading north for some mountains and countryside anyway. I do a bit of pottery so hoping to get to Mashiko for a nose about.

It’s one and the same…

😔 My main Spotify playlist is called “Entry Level Hipster Bullshit” and I’ve still never successfully managed to get Google to play it through voice controls. Every now and then I be feeling chipper and stir up some hope to give it another go, only to be disappointed with numbing regularity.

Is the Volvo voice control any better than standard Google voice assistant thing on a phone?

“Hay Google, navigate to nearest Tesco”
“OK, I’m Playing Tiësto”
“Oh **** noooooo! Stop! Stop!”

Drives off cliff

Volvo here – great car but…

@Atomizer Damn, it was newer V60s I was looking at. The pre 2019 version does appear to still have knobs 🤔

Urgh, that looks fiendish

@prettygreenparrot I find your belief system fascinating.

There’s a shop in Lincoln, right on steep hill, that sells old aeronautical doodads, controls, knobs, and switches. Every time I walked past I’d think about retrofitting the Fabia with a few.

@perchypanther

oof, that is a sizable knob.

9/10: would twiddle

Get comfy, you’ll be there for hours, @sirromj

This is the start of subscribing to your car…

It’s amazing (and quite sad) that it’s more economical to produce 1 fully loaded trim level and block features, than just not fit the equipment in all models.

The ergonomics of knobs and, to a lesser extent, buttons is just far superior to touchscreens. Windscreen foggy, I know exactly where the knob is, I have touch feedback as to its current position, and I can adjust it without looking.

Sure connecting 1 screen with a ribbon cable is more straightforward, but the user experience is much much worse…in my opinion.

The most powerful country on the planet, armed to the teeth and scared of its own shadow. It’s deeply sad.

When we moved to Canada we had a massive clear-out of stuff. It’s amazing what you accumulate, even in just a few years. However, when you’re paying per kg to air freight stuff, it really makes you re-evaluate what is important or valuable. It was unbelievably stressful, and organising/packing while both of us quarantined with COVID did not help.

I think we could have probably cleared out a bit more, but I guess it was nice to have a potato masher when we arrived 🙄

Yeah, echo what has been said about EB. My brother had a bad experience where he came away with boots too big under their recommendation. He’s been back several times, as additional work is “free”, but they’re either not bothered or can’t sort it.

I went to an actual boot fitter, who glanced at my feet and pretty much told me the boot I needed. They still got me to try a load of others, but I bought the initial recommendation, which was the best. They’ve been bob-on.

New boots will be very cosy, as they pack down and wear in significantly after a week of so of skiing.

Same here. Moved around the world, so don’t have much in the way of in-person mates …but even before that, I’d mostly ride on my own.

Met a few folk since I moved, who I occasionally ride with, but it’s pretty rare I’ll instigate a group ride, will just attend if asked. I don’t mind group rides, nice to chat and race, but usually I find it frustrating in terms of faff or pace or choice of trails or whatever. I find cycling quite meditative, and enjoy doing my own thing, rather than the social side of it.

I try not to think about it too much, makes me a bit sad. My parents don’t have much in the way of friends locally, and I think that’s a detriment to their quality of life 😞

Tubeless is great. That solution sounds messy. Tubeless is great.

Yeah, that Transition is It isn’t it 👌

General rule:

a seat stay that is parallel to, and ideally appears as a continuation of, the top tube – good

Overly curvy/hydroformed tubes – nah

Edit: that Occam has both. The top tube line is not enough to overcome the bendy, and hence: it’s a munter.

Don’t NUX make a nice little headphone amp thing, with all the bells and whistles? Might have a loop feature.

I have a Line6 Pocket POD, which is alright, but ultimately quite clunky to use.