Sorry, t®ibal©hief…

But 10/10 for including a picture in your thread! :D

He's got a childish alternative to "poo poo" tattooed on his chest…?

Stevie – Member
Hmmmmm. The court hands down 4 years for these two Joey Deacons[…]

Stevie – less of the "Joey Deacon" stuff please. It's not big or clever, it is insulting, and it marks you as having a mentality fit only for running and screaming in a playground.

I'm a veritable rake and have the same problems with sogginess on the inside of my jacket.

I've tried a Gore XCR jacket which was touted as being the breathableist fabric around – it's been rubbish and I'm not sad that the zip has recently broken. With that jacket I think the outer fabric had a lot to do with it as it was pants at being water-repellent and got mucky very easily (when a breathable fabric is wet or dirty it simply stops being breathable, though is still waterproof).

A North Face HyVent-something-or-other jacket seems to be a little better but I've just bought a Gore Paclite jacket that has proven to be much better, just because it repels water and crud very well, thus remaining breathable.

The other alternative is a jacket that sacrifices a little waterproofing (so more "water resistant" than proof) for breathability thus providing a balance between water coming through and water staying in…

I've been using his "eBay" thing for about seven years now and the bidding and selling has definitely changed a lot in that time as sniping tools (scum scum scum!!!) making bidding largely irrelevant.

I now combine my every-trusty tool of clear photos and a good description with only using Buy It Now – it just works better.

How I yearn for the days when sniping was done manually and had some honour to it…

##### Swinley Snow Warning #####

Forgot to say: beware if you are riding in Swinley as there was still snow on the ground there yesterday:

Hmmm, maybe I'm not of the same caliber of rider as some others, but I went for a ride around yesterday and had a darn fun time. Some sections of trails were truly mashed to ****, but a lot of stuff still rode really well. And I rode through EVERY puddle I could find – why ride around them when they're BEGGING to be splashed through?? :D

Might it come down to choice of bike…? The last few times I've ridden there have been on a rigid singlespeed so the pace has been very different to my days of ploughing through stuff on a full susser a few years ago. Riding rigid means you definitely have to scan and read the upcoming terrain with more care which has the side-effect of making you more aware of sensitive ground. Just a thought…

Anyway, despite being stuck in not-so-lovely-London I would say that Swinley is one of my 'local' rides – it's only an hour from where my mountain bikes live and well worth it.

I've ridden in Swinley many times in the last five or so years (though apart from the very rare occasions that it's been guided, thanks to Gorrick or the mighty C_G, I've just pootled randomly as I still don't know my way around…) and have always come away grinning.

Water ingress you say? Hmmm, interesting. Any idea by which route it got in?

Which hub gear did you use, out of interest? I first had a Rohloff on a mountain bike and it was ace (the rubbish Orange P7 sliding dropouts let it down…)

I had an Alfine for a while but never got around to taking it offroad, it was also ace though.

Not trying to shoot you down in flames, but what issues did you have?

1) you have to break the chainstay to remove/fit a belt
2) you then have to reassemble under tension – which I imagine will need some kind of frame brace…

1. Bikes designed for belt drives have some very easy to use and ingenious ways of opening the rear triangle, my favourite being a very beautiful S&S coupling[/url] fitted into the seatstay.

2. The belts aren't really under a huge amount of tension. When working on some of those Trek city bikes with belts I tried to derail and refit the belt, just for laughs. It was as easy as on a 'normal' singlespeed/IGH bike.

Sorry to piss on your bonfire, BTW… :-)

I found Salsa's Moto Ace bar to be waaaaaay too flexy and have since swapped it for a Surly Torsion Bar.

Ok, not the lightest bar out there but very stiff and they'll never break.

666mm wide too :twisted:

When you simplify it down to the one line stated above, it actually sounds like a fine idea: war is pricey and lives priceless so if such a plan were to work then it's surely a good thing.

Pour money into allied armed forces for not-guaranteed results.

Vs

Pour money into their armed forces to stop them using them.

Two whole days have gone by and no one has used Cannondale's 'Crack 'n' Fail' alias.

Shape up, people, there's insults to throw!

Yeah, snow sucks, but it'll be summer soon.

Now head on over here and tell us why the darn picture is so fricking clever.

Woo hoo. Yet another thread dedicated to those who like to boast about how much more ecclectic and alternative their tastes are than everyone else's.

CaptainFlashheart – Member

Already in the mainstream as well, as Trek have a belt drive commuter out this year.

Sorry CFH, you're a little behind the times there: Trek had two belt drive commuters out last year…

I'm yet another Thorn/Rohloff user and after several years of hub gear ownership I am totally converted. A belt drive seems to make sense but a chain is really not a lot of maintenance, if we're honest. As has been said, they're easy to shorten/lengthen and cheap to replace.

The belt was not that noticable, but engagement seemed quicker.

Interesting… That can't possibly be due to the difference between a chian and a belt, so most likely down to the hub.

Ooh ooh ooh! Am I too late to say "MTFU"??? :D

'ting ting ting ting ting…'

Little bits of gravel pinging off your downtube. Works best with a steel frame and in summer when the little bits of gravel are freeeeeee.

A couple of (downhilling-oriented) friends and I spent ten hours on four trains to get to Machynlleth (pronounced "My C*nt Fluff" apparently) and back to London just to do ClimachX.

We spent what little time we had actually in Wales slogging up the fireroads and BURNING back down the downhill, many times.

It was ace.

If I went back though I'd incorporate it into more of a real ride, as per the above suggestions.

Great idea! Well done. :-)

Sadly, not new. Shimano's instruction manual recommends this method if you haven't got a posh pro-bleed fandongle and it's the method I always use.

I tend to fill it to overflowing (I think the manual might have said that too…) to ensure all the air is out and that there's plenty of fluid for when the reservoir cap goes back on.

Give it a go, as has been said. You won't break anything and it'll probably work!

Surely, surely, surely, if you can't decide, 69 is the answer. To soooo many questions.

Just cos I'm lazy, MBoy, just cos I'm lazy. Cleaning gears and forks is a chore. My post-ride maintenance today consisted of hanging the bike up. Oh yeah. 8)

And anyway, you haven't answered my question!!

want to get one of these to add to my mtb rides.What recommendations?

Wait until summer. They're notoriously bad at handling mud.

I don't get it.

What does it do? Is it a laptop? A phone that doesn't fit in your pocket? How do you type on it? With a keyboard that appears and takes up half the screen? Does it bounce? Does it frisbee? Is it heat-resistant enough to be used as a placemat?

So many questions.

You could try being black for the year. That's one race that it's sadly still a challenge to be in too many parts of the world.

Howdy!

Not sure if this is relevant, but I've a degree in hoticulture and Cytech 3. Camping rules and sharing is what shared houses are all about, and I've lived in a few!

Always up for escaping the Big Smoke, work and the rat race.

When can I start…? :wink:

##### Immature-content warning ######

Went for leetle scouting today in the woods in question to see if I could figure out some sort of route, just in case some unlucky punters should have the misfortune to be following me around next week. :D

Conditions were fair to good – man-made, armoured trails were superb and fast and most stuff is rideable, though some areas are properly sh@tty.

As for actual route-planning, my ailingly ancient GPS was stuck in "will I stay on/won't I stay on" mode the whole time so fug-knows-where I rode today – it was a bit random, but I had fun so hopefully you will too!

I had to head home a bit early though as I medical condition that results in me sufferring from a child-like inability to NOT ride through massive puddles leading to soaking cold feet. Honest, I've got a doctor's note and everything… And as the lake-like puddles were frozen over I defintitely did not pretend to be a nuclear-powered icebreaker navigating the North West Passage. (Read any euphemisms in there that you feel necessary…)

Maybe they could just fug off with this "i" business and just give it a number or proper name like normal companies.

iSheesh.

But Pook, by which strategy did you arrive there??

Don't worry too much about any one thing, and don't beat yourself up. The vast majority of us have to contend with making it through life being basically average at the things we'd like to shine at.

An evening class in photography is accessible, common (in a good way) and valuable.

Given sufficient motivation and time/cash/will to get there, I'd really like to have a go at one of those mountain bike skills courses – more speed!

Good luck, Samuri :-)

I learnt to drive in this baby, all those years ago (sniff :cry: ):

Then crashed this one:

(oops!)

But finally got to get to grips with this MO FO:

Happy days they were!

I've being using a HT2 XT chainset with 'normal' M6 bolts in, rather than the originals, for years now. It's been that long that I can't remember, which is a worry, what happened to the original ones…

Anyway, they're fine. If you've none, your LBS (or hardware shop) will have some and may even saw them down to size for you.

Wouldn't dream of it! But if we are going down that road: I must admit to having to follow the words as I read, but not with my finger…

Lister, result[/url]! Well remembered, thanks dude.

So, should I watch this latest episode of Survivors, bearing in mind that I didn't really rate the first episode…?

Neither.

MTFU and wear shorts, replace the bearings in your headset and spaff the cash on hard liquor.

Have you been drinking, Ivan…?

And Monk, two years?!? Did you have to mouth the words as you followed them with your finger? :wink:

It's a truly terrible remake. Admittedly I've never seen the original but it CANNOT be worse than this latest drivel.

Do. Not. Waste. Your. Time.

Slight hijack: does anyone remember a series a fair few years back on a Survivor-like theme that started with a bunch of people being frozen in a train in a tunnel, then had them being chased by feral dogs and ended with them being crucified…? I remember really enjoying it but have now forgotten what it was called, who was in it and any other details that might help me locate it to watch again. Cheers!

I think it includes 'the movie' which is the feature-length Series 1 pilot but with a spoiler ending. I might be wrong, but the word on the street is NOT to watch it until you've watched everything else.

Sorry, Monk, low-brow all the way here… :D

This was indeed a thinly veiled attempt to provoke Twin Peaks conversation (well done, RichP, you win a piece of fresh huckleberry pie!)

I've recently started watching it properly for the first time (now part way into Series 2, so no spoilers please peeps…!) and it is indeed the best thing I've seen on telly, ever. It as everything from silly slapstick to dark, dark weirdness and it's truly brilliant.

May the Maker (there's an ultra-tenuous/geeky reference right there) strike me down for being so shallow but, hot-diggity-darnit, some of the ladies in that show are beautiful.

Juicy olives, huh? Have you looked in the fridge? That's where i keep mine. Should be easy to find them if there's no beer in there.

Now, has anyone seen my coat?