they obviously didnt teach you anything worthwhile in that degree about probability, statistics or reasoning though

And your point is ?

Yeah but the skills learnt would be even better if used for engineering!!!!!!!!!!!

Better for who ?

Also, so many people study one thing then work in a different area which is also not an ideal use of public funds.

If you think university is just a case of learning facts then you are missing the point. If a good degree will teach you a way of thinking that can be transferred into other areas.

For instance engineering degrees can create good problem solvers. Good problem solvers are useful in areas other than engineering !!!!

There are no DU bush on my CCDB.

It has a spherical bearing and some alloy tophats. It could be worn tophats but they should not wear as they should be clamped up tight and it should run on the bearigs.

i see little point in having 50% of our population as graduates when 50% of jobs are not graduate level.

So higher education is all about jobs and nothing else ? Not about furthering the species and pushing the bounds of human thought ?

Its sad if that all we see education as, is a means to get a better job to earn more money !!!

Yep loved the way Mud X ride, got fed up with them falling apart though.

Might try the 1.8’s if they are available in a stronger sidewall.

I

Are you sure the geometry adjust triangle thing is bolted up correctly.

The bearings on the CCDB are some of the best I have seen. I have bent the mounting pins and the bearings and mountings are still fine !!!

Wouldn’t it be better if there were less graduates, but they had skills that were in demand with employers?

Mine was on a 06 Patriot and as you say fantastic.

Did yours not have bearings rather than bushes ? or are you talking the alloy top hats that fit into the bearings.

Bazzer

If your nervous then I would say Jedi much more than Dirt School.

My wife really got a lot out of a session with him.

Bazzer

Wouldn’t it be better if there were less graduates, but they had skills that were in demand with employers?

Its going to look like I have swapped side now, in truth I can see it from both :-)

Would it not be a shame if we only allowed people to study stuff that employers wanted and had a fiscal value ?

Do we want to live in a world without art or litrature and blue sky science ?

Bazzer

I thought these guys were good, if you are based in central belt scotland that is…..

Jumpy Jump

I have done a day with Jedi and the Dirt School course (Though it was with Rowan in Wales)

They are very different days and you will come out of both better equipped to handle jumps.

If you truly want to spend a day working on jumps rather all aspects of your riding then the Dirt School course provides this. If you want to look at your riding in general Jedi provides that.

Bazzer

The thing with setting up the CCDB is not to panic :-)

It really is quite simple to setup as one control does not change the other like on other shocks. For instance if you adjust the fast compression it does not change the slow compression at the same time. On other shocks you change one you have to go back and change the other.

If you read what the various controls do and then go out and have a play, you can dial it in quite easily.

What I did was to put everything to the recommended settings. Have a ride and to be fair it was pretty good like that.

Then I changed each of the 4 settings one at a time to there extremes, that way I could feel what happened to that control when it went too far in each direction. That way you realised that on some sort of riding each control changed. For instance you will see that slow compression does not really make much difference too a medium drop to flat, but it does to pedalling.

It sounds complicated but in reality in only takes a couple of hours.

Bazzer

It kicks poor people more often and harder than the wealthy. Some people think it is better to try and minimise this and reward the good rather than the privileged.

I am going to put my neck on the line with this next statement :-)

No one in this country is poor, the government and tax payer provides welfare that raises people way beyond what is poor in a global sense.

Bazzer

But there is always going to some people with more advantage than others and some will do better than others. As I said earlier life is not fair. In fact it might be the obssesion with fairness that has lead us to have spent more than we have earnt as a country.

Life kicks some people in the bolocks and sometimes they are the good guys and sometimes they are the bad.

Bazzer

same things applies to state education too, richer kids do better

I went to a crap state school, parents working class loved me lots but never really encouraged me. I have a 1st in Engineering. It can be done, but you have to do it for your self.

Problem is lots of people think its everyone else’s fault they have not done well. “Its my parents fault” , “Its the governments fault” If your not that bright work harder, if you fail try again.

Bazzer

how do we choose the “brightest”?

Simple those with best academic results. University’s offer academic courses so surely that makes sense ?

yes the 11+ was successful iirc bazzer

Not sure what you mean by this ?

Tell that to student who is in hospital and tell her the exam board have not accepted her operation or 3 week stay in hospital for cancer and therefore capped to a 3rd or the student who suffers a bereavement from the loss of their parents. But don’t worry we’ll give you more to pay back…

Just because you’re not affected by government plans or what was great for you makes you inconsiderate to others.

I don’t have kids but I would still consider parents who claim child benefit. Or should I just say no child benefit to anyone and btw I don’t have kids.

Selfishness on this forum is amazing and thank god I didn’t vote for you…I did? ah crap.

I await when you all moan and nobody listens as it doesn’t affect others.

If I am honest I would like to see higher education funded totally including a maintenance grant. But only for people who have proved its is worth funding them.

I would like to see a return of worthwhile apprenticeships, for people who are obviously bright but not suited to the academic nature of university.

As for the rest, shit happens in life, life is not fair. Sometimes things mean we cant take advantage of opportunities, sometimes they are our own fault other times they are out of our control. We just have to get back up and try again and look for the next opportunity.

Bazzer

Because we only get one and the clock is ticking.

Loads of other stuff in life is not fair, but we seem to think finances and Tax should be.

Sorry but this is one topic that really annoys me. A Higher education should be a right for those who earn it, not a privalage for those who can afford it.

Totally agree and charging people who do badly at it seems fair to me.

I don’t have to pay more for a Taxi because I earn more than my mate do I ?

Why should life be fair ?

I think what you pay back should be related to how well you perform at University.

Get a
1st 80% discount on fees.
2:1 60%
2:2 40%
3rd 20%

Fail 0%

Might make people think about if university is right for them in the first place and when they are there an incentive to make the most of it.

Bazzer

Just ordered a Conti GP4 Season.

Can’t believe how quickly that Maxxis got full of little holes !!!

Thanks chaps for all the recommendations and thanks to mieszko for the offer of the voucher.

Bazzer

Yep got so fed up I had to have a look.

I am just amazed at how little miles I have got out of them.

Right did a bit of investigation tonight.

The rim tape and wheel were fine, nothing sharp and nothing inside.

Nothing trapped inside the tyre, but the tyres is sliced up and has lots of puncture holes all over the tyre. I prodded some of the bigger slices to make sure there was no flint etc in them. Must of prodded a bit hard as when I put it back together and pumped it up the tube blew out of one of the cuts.

Its not that old the tyre, probably only done 500-600miles. As I said earlier its a maxxis cormet, its still feels like its got a lot of meat on it, but its obviously shagged.

So what fast rolling bit more puncture proof tyre do people recommend ?

Bazzer

Dirt is OK sometimes, again sounds like a porn mag though :-)

24 hour despatch you pay extra.

And would probably still be cheaper and more reliable than your average LBS !!!

Maybe most shops won’t have what I want, but I recognise that I’m not the core business of the shop and don’t think that as a customer I am the most important person in the world.

I totally agree with that, I know I am not the target market for most bike shops.

So if the LBS is hitting another market and making money from it then the demise is greatly exaggerated :-)

But how long will it be before your target market realise they can buy elsewhere cheaper !!!

Bazzer

Because we could offer something the competition couldn’t.

Its not about offering something different its about offering what they want.

I could not give a stuff if I can walk out of a shop with a pair of RS revs today, I am more than happy to wait 48hrs and them to be delivered to work.

Thing is also Don most shops would probably not have what you wanted in stock anyway so you end up waiting longer than ordering it on the internet anyway and two trips to the shop.

There is no point in getting angry because your business model is out of date. You are not going to change your customers so had better change your business !!!

Bottom line is if you provide a service that customers want and you can make money you will be successful, if you can’t you won’t.

Would we all get upset if Tesco moaned they could not compete with Lidl ?

Bazzer

Elfin’s attitude us exactly why people in this country treat each other like shit, what a shame. Like already said I hope a bigger dog never crosses your path elfin

Si

If you had two suppliers of the same product, would you not as a business man play them off against each other ?

LBS staff instead of getting a face like a bulldog chewing a wasp when someone mentions Wiggle or CRC need to ask the the customer what can they do to add value to the purchase.

You have obviously realised be a standard high street LBS selling the same stuff as everyone else at a higher price than CRC is not a great business model. You sell products that I can’t buy in my local LBS and you sell online.

Bazzer

LBS’s need to remember they are a business, in order to stay in business you need to offer a product/service people want at a price people are prepared to pay. If you don’t you will die is Darwinism in action. What they should not do is blame there customer for the fact they are not competitive any-more.

I owe no more to my LBS than I do to Tesco.

That said I have started using one of my LBS’s and I quite like them :-) I have bought some clothes and shoes etc, but if I had bought the RS revs from them instead of CRC it would have been £150-£200 more expensive, they are nice but not that nice :-)

Bazzer

If it was a problem then picking the bike up by the seat would be a problem !!!

Bazzer

[/quote]Does not compute!

Oops that probably did not make sense. I meant comments about blue trails and body armour. They could be on route to something more gnar :-) !!!

Initially when I watched it I agreed with people thinking stupid woman for stopping in the middle of the trail. Then I watched it again and saw that he had a real good view of the group in front as he approached them and it was obvious they were novice riders. So he should have been a bit more considerate.

As for comments about blue trails, Crank it Up in Whistler is a blue trail (I think) and you can get plenty of air on that. Also they might be riding a blue on there way to a double black diamond of doom.

Bazzer

If you are getting a puncture every ride, it means the tyres is shagged or you happen to be the unluckiest rider ever to ride.

Or the rim tape is moving or not fitted correctly.
Or there is a burr on the inside of the rim.
Or there is some debris inside the tyre.

:-)

if you ride in the new forest, the flinty gravel is a bastard – I’ve fecked plenty of tyres within about 50-100 miles from new

Did the New Forest Sportive 100 on Sunday and got a puncture.

But generally I ride around the South Downs.

I thought this road lark would mean less punctures than mountain biking :-)

Going to take tyres off and check everything out at the weekend. Make sure there is nothing inside and that the rim tape is all in place etc.

I don’t. Seriously,

On some of the roads I ride on they are single car width. Don’t often meet a car. The only way you would get away with not riding in the crap at the edge of the road would be for one of us to turn around or back up into a passing place, cars don’t seem to happy to do that :-)

So I think I have a few things to look at.

Something inside the tyre, if that does not cure it then more puncture proof tyres.

Bazzer

Just a thought here – you say you are new to road bikes. Are you making the mistake of cycling in the gutter?

Not generally, but obviously sometimes you have too. I am however riding on roads with a lot of debris at the moment.

Everything on CwmCarn DH run is rollable, even more rollable after the recent changes.

Bazzer

Just thought I would give credit to CRC.

I emailed them and they sorted the discount out and credited my account :-)

Bazzer

Hmm I bet I have some loose debris in there.

I obviously check the inside of the tyre for thorns/flints etc after getting a puncture, but I bet I have some other crap just floating around in there.

Bazzer

Tyres are pretty new as is the bike and I have had this problem from new.

I have not checked the inside of the rim for burs etc, but I am going to at the weekend. Will make sure rim tape is in place and there are no burrs etc. Its a set of own brand Planet X wheels so not sure what the quality is like.

I think the Cormet is not a cheap tyre either, in fact its more expensive than a Gator skin. But I guess it may not be designed for puncture resistance.