I’m now confused.

My right hand man at work is black (black Caribbean of Bajan origin). I am of mixed Irish/Romany gypsy origin with gingery reddish hair.

The other week a new starter on another floor was told to come up and see either the sales manager or the sales team leader. He asked which ones that was and was told “either the black guy or the ginger one”.

Should we have been offended?

I’m glad he’s out.

As has been said, scumbags in every city get lesser sentences for greater crimes, and the knock on effect to the family certainly serves no purpose.

Given that part of his defence was based on mental incapacity, I think it will be hard for him to get back on active service.

Poundland.

Guess what, they are a pound.

Truvativ Descendant 165mm single ring 36t on main enduro/am bike (140/160 travel)

Shimano Zee 165 single ring 36t on bigger enduro/am bike (170 travel)

Shimano Zee 165 single ring 36t on 29er hardtail.

I live my life by a simple process really, based on whether it is something I can do anything about or not.

Other than that, I don’t take anything too seriously, exercise every single day, even if only for 20 minutes.

Mech hangers
Lots of tubes if you use tubes
If you run tubeless, spare Stans fluid
Lots of brake pads
Gear cables
Lots and lots of money

What we have now is a matter of debate (oh, hey!). But perhaps if by default we gave people the benefit of the doubt rather than just knee-jerking there’d be fewer issues?

There will always be some people who set out deliberately to offend, whether that’s out of ignorance, prejudice or a desire to be noticed. And I’m not talking exclusively about racism etc.

The majority of us offend people by accident. That’s all it is.

Get the serials off the rubber seals and go to your local bearing supplier. Then laugh at the price difference you would have paid had you bought identical parts in a bag with a card topper, making them “special” bearings for MTBs…….

:-)

A better solution might be for the terminally offended and the offended-by-proxy people to stop taking offence where clearly none was intended. I’m more than happy to try and adapt the language I use in order to minimise any possible misunderstandings, but there has to be some benefit of the doubt coming the other way too. Ie, I’ll try not to be offensive, you try not to be offended. Ok?

A million times this. If we all thought like this, we would all get along a little better. Too many people seem to strive to be offended, like its some kind of hobby or something.

^^This. At the end of the day, pretty much anything anyone says to or about anyone could be construed as “offensive”. While we shouldn’t go out of our way to deliberately offend, it’s also worth remembering that we are human beings, we will sometimes get stuff wrong, and 99.9999% of the time, it is easily fixed with a simple “oh, sorry about that” (note not some ridiculous humble grovel) and remembering for next time.

I really struggle with the “professionally offended”, especially when it isn’t even them that are offended, it’s on behalf of someone else. As my grandad used to say “was I talking to you or about you? No, then mind your own business”.

Where do people stand on what some would call “casual racism” in banter between lifelong friends of differing races? Right, wrong, evil, ok?

Reason I ask is because we were talking about it the other week in the pub. I grew up in Luton and a few of us had a little catch up recently – we’ve known each other for 31 of our 35 years – I’m of mixed Irish/english/Romany gypsy blood, one of the guys is of Jamaican parentage, one of Kashmiri parentage, one of Italian parentage. As you’d expect, in the years we have known each other, we’ve experienced lots and had highs and lows, so nothing is taboo in conversation. Anyways, we are at a point in our collective relationship where we all rib each other endlessly about anything & everything. One of the lads jokingly said “can you imagine if someone overheard our banter” and it started me thinking. Would anyone have the right to be offended, or (as one of the others said) “they have no right to be offended as they shouldn’t have been eavesdropping”?

Thoughts? I know where I stand on it.

I’m running Zee and can vouch for it being absolutely spot on.

My recommendations would be Zee brakes, mech, cranks and an XT iSpec shifter, just to keep things a little tidier.

The 4 pot brakes really are something. Scary at first, but then a couple of rides in, you really do reap the benefits of all the extra power.

:-)

Just build walls round places like this.

And fill it with water.

Tear Up MMA in Bristol this time last year – in particular the 90kg Pro fight.

Incredible display of pure athleticism, fantastic technique from both fighters, utterly brutal fight but at the end, still shook hands like gents, despite having torn each other to bits.

This exact thing happened to a mate a few weeks back – will ask him what happened with his agreement then update you :-)

Good point there Northwind.

The thing with Enduro (unlike say XC where there is a pretty standard skinny whippet roadie build!), is the range of physiques competing. You could have an XC rider who has polished up their technical skills being pretty good, or a DH racer who has worked on fitness, or a trail rider getting into racing after years of being just out on the trails.

Each will have very different muscle development from their different riding styles and from a varied physiological start point (ectomorph, endomorph or mesomorph).

Some will be good at “sit & spin” climbing, some will be hulking beasts like Mark Weir who can pull a 38t single ring.

It’s a varied thing and so by definition there’s no hard & fast rule. Take a good hard honest look at how you ride, how often you use the granny, what cadences you can push, how your knees feel at the end of a big ride etc etc.

Oh and if you go 2×10 the C-Guide is great.

Hope my amazing “catch all” and probably quite confusing non-answer helps…….. :-/

Sennheiser HD25’s for clarity.

Sony MDR V700 for more bass.

Both well respected DJ headphones that have been around for a long time. For which read pretty much bomb proof, capable of being driven at huge outputs for sustained periods and not looked after very well.

The Beats by Dre on the other hands are like a plastic toy in comparison.

You want one of these for fire protection in your garage/shed:

http://www.fike.com/products/fsco2.asp

*accidentally* linked to a sensor on the door or a PIR

Selection of heavy cable ties like these close to hand:

http://www.cablecraft-rail.co.uk/tie-width-12-5mm.html

And probably one of these as well for while you wait for the rozzers to arrive, and to help wake the burglars up from their C02 induced sleep:

http://www.farmingsuppliesdirect.com/IW_Products.m4p.pvx?;MULTI_ITEM_SUBMIT

*note: before anyone gets all hand wringing or offended, or talks about the burglars’ “rights”, there is more than a little bit of tongue in cheek about this post. But it would be good if we could eh?

I would reckon if the offers are not as good, then business must be better than it was, as they are not bothered about grabbing new business.

I send out offers on a weekly basis, and the quality if the offer depends on how busy my diary is.

Empty diary, cracking discount offer in a bid to fill it up.

Almost fully booked, not that great an offer as I’m not too bothered.

But I send them out every week regardless as people get used to seeing them and that’s how direct marketing is done best (so I’m told)

^^This.

And yeah, you’re totally right about regular contact. It’s called “conditioning”. Back in the day, you used to have to make an average of 8 contacts to close a sale (for “sale” that could mean order, booking or whatever, but fundamentally is a sale). Nowadays due to information overload, it’s something like 60, so yeah, you need to keep the contact up, hence CRC sending regular things out, even if they aren’t amazing. It keeps you warm to them and keeps you opening their email.

Additionally, they will be classifying and datamining all email campaigns – I’d expect they have some very clever sub categories etc. From the email campaign they can track who opens the email, where they click through to, how long they stay on site, what else they look at etc. All of which is massively valuable data to an online business to plan sales activity and make more profit.

It’s not unknown for CRC to offer a “SALE” price on brands that they own and for parts & bikes that have never previously been on sale – ANYWHERE. That’s simply unfair competition and probably illegal to boot.

I would expect they will have the products in question on sale at their showroom. 28 days, instore, full RRP. That’s fully legal and perfectly fine. While some may call it “unfair” because CRC’s group of companies also include manufacturers and distributors, I’d say it is just good business practice on their part to increase market share in several parts of the chain and so maximise business performance.

I thought the use of “SALES” was governed by legislation.

Provided the product has been sold at the original price for 28 days and there is evidence of it being sold at the higher price, that’s all fully legit. End of the day, a business exists for the primary purpose of making a profit, so price adjustments to meet market trends need to happen.

Anyway, as has been said, lower prices so all good!

I’d say they are just fine.

Working in online sales myself, there are standard trade patterns tied in around people’s paydays – the week before payday is always a slow one, even more so this point in the year, so incentives to drive site traffic and in turn sales are pretty normal.

Go with the Superstar ones. 4 pairs for £22!

Yup – love a good drink with mates.

I’ve run 1×10 all year for Enduro duties, including SuperEnduro. I run a 36 with 11-36 cassette and was fine all season. Depends if you are comfortable pushing a big gear or prefer to sit and spin, in which case a double might be better.

Just get Opera Mini as your browser. Sorted.

Until you get used to them, Zee are horror power.

Then you get used to them and braking uber late. You forget after a bit, then borrow a mate’s bike and get a reminder how phenomenal Zee 4 pots are…….

Can’t remember the name, but rugby legend Austin Healey now has a kit/lifestyle brand.

Looks nice kit. I’d say worth checking…..

:-)

Edukator – yes, so true! Have you checked out Sean McPheat’s website? Pretty amazing….

Yeah this. Zee master cylinder is bigger to create fluid push through. Apparently 10% or so, can’t be sure but definitely took more to fill than xt.

2unfit2ride – the old boiler rooms are mental! less common in the UK now, but in the US they’re still huge.

On a side note “Boiler Room” is still one of my favourite films.

imnotverygood – a scam is when someone cons you illegally. A cold call is not a scam. Equally a cold caller is not a scammer. It’s likely a graduate paying off their uni debt.

As per an earlier post, my right hand man, like me did telesales to fund uni. He’s the most talented and naturally gifted data analyst I have ever met. capable of interpreting data into stuff managers and clients can understand.

But as you would brand him “lowlife”

i’m out

Keep it that way.

Bristol. Bristol. Bristol.

City for work/bars/fun.

10 mins out of town is country – moved here 4 or so years ago and my god its a great place….

:-)

So you are (I hope) well educated and rational of thought? Calm in challenging situations outside your comfort zone? Capable of remaining calm, clear headed and objective? Rational thinker and able to see beyond the immediately obvious?

Your posts in this thread indicate otherwise………..

imnotverygood – can you share your occupation and employer? I’d like to moralise on it……..

” But they choose to work for them. If they
work in a disreputable business why
should I give them any respect at all.”

Did you honestly just say that?

Take it you have always lived in the bosom of parental support and never had to just make ends meet?

Just as big lads go into manual labour to pay bills, so too do articulate kids, until something better comes along.

imnotverygood – tps is outdated, not integrated into dialler systems and as such, redundant.

oldgit – that’s when people are in. Hence the reason call centres hit you……..

imnotverygood – nope, I don’t work in finance.

I learnt lots about focus, putting in 100% effort, watching and learning from people better than me at what I do, dealing with bosses, office politics, and a bunch more.

I genuinely view it as a formative period while I was young.

I also view similar experience on a CV as a badge of honour – if someone can survive that environment, they have real strength of character. You can train skill and knowledge.

Breitling by Bentley.

Classy, refined and beautiful pieces.

Hmmmmmm about the price……..