I took a screenshot – of course they could be argumentative and say I faked that :)

Don – I suppose what bugs me is they never bothered replying to say sorry. Usually when this happens I get an apology, which is fine.

Yeah, copyright blurb – they’ve gained commercially from having it, though, even though it’s been taken down, doesn’t that count?

Not that I can really be bothered with all the small claims stuff :)

I wonder how he gets it to keep it’s shape? Elastic thread through the middle? I made this a couple of days ago…

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My Sherline setup:

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I’ve got a wee Sherline in the shop – it’s a modelmaking lathe really, but it’s a tough and precise little thing and fine for anything bike-related I throw at it…

Hey, I’ve got a real workshop too! Just got myself a fork bending wotsit and everything.

Coffee and digestives are normal – first time I met him many years ago, he greeted me with “Come in, come in, young man – have a spring onion”.

And there was a big bunch of spring onions sitting on the bench.

:-)

Alastair is a legend in his own lunchtime – I quite often nip out there to use his spoke making machine…

That is a good point, and if I shared the workshop with other people I’d definitely do that. The advantage of this system is that it’s easier to change the layout if tools change.

I used to use some magnetic tool boards – problem is that they magnetise all your tools, which can get annoying especially if there are metal filings about. I now use hook board stuff:

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Russia has (or had many years ago) 3 lane motorways – not three lanes each way, three lanes total. One lane going each direction, and a shared overtaking lane in the middle. You can imagine the fun when two people going opposite directions both try to overtake.

On the other hand, British roads terrify my American relatives. A long time ago, my uncle got so flustered about whether to go left or right at a roundabout that he took the third choice, went straight ahead, and ripped the chassis off the bottom of the car…

I don’t think the Greeks were that daft – they would have had much better measurements – but it could be that it was a number reasonably close to 365-and-a-bit that could also be divided by lots of other numbers. It’s a good number for dividing up into subdivisions.

Babylonians again, isn’t it? And probably universal because it was always easier to go with the existing system instead of inventing a new system when there was no real need.

There are 7 naked-eye-visible astronomical objects that move against the stars – the Sun, Moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn. That could be an explanation.

worked in a papermill!

Reminds me, I need to find someone in a paper mill I can pester for info about restoring this thing I’ve had sitting in the shop for a while:

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It’s the world’s smallest working paper machine – or will be if I can get it working again :-)

Brazed canti bosses onto a frame, stripped and rebuilt a hub gear, and drilled some holes in a brick wall.

Bugger, just realised I was listening to Radio 4 all day. So very middle class, really.

Yes, but that doesn’t explain why there are 360 degrees, each of 60 minutes, each of 60 seconds. If it was sensible, there would be 24 degrees not 360.

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There are a couple of Glasgow taxis with T4CSE and T8CSE.

I don’t think there’s a reason as such, it’s a hangover from the Babylonians’ base-60 numbering system, just like the measurements of time.

One handy thing is that a ship travelling at one knot covers one minute of latitude per hour – but that’s not a reason for it as that’s just a definition of a knot.

Weird, around here it’s mattresses. Always mattresses. On average once a month a bloke (different bloke each time) comes into the shop with a story about some spare memory foam mattresses he happens to have left over in the back of his van.

Aye, Flickr is pretty good…

That’s funny – she seems to have mislaid her baby while strutting down that runway…

“Look on my works ye mighty, and despair?”

Possibly. Or maybe a sign that, despite it all, we achieved something more than trashing the planet then dying off. This is about Voyager, but sums it up:

I think it’s illustrative of how screwed up our priorities are that we put men on the moon and continue to send people into space when there are so many people living in utter poverty.

You could say that about almost anything – we have museums, theatre, sports, subsidised transport, massively subsidised roads, loads of things where the money could have been spent on more basic needs.

Humans need more than their basic needs met. Going to the moon was a way of sticking it to the Russians, but it was also one of the most astounding things that humans have ever done. Millions of years from now, when we’re all gone and all trace of humanity has been wiped from the surface of the Earth, there will still be some bits of metal on the moon saying “we were here”. That’s worth the money.

Had to laugh at that daft romantic notion that slings & carriers are a viable alternative.

Been viable for two years so far :-)

They’re definitely not trendy – you get parents with the latest alloy-wheeled pimp-buggy looking pitingly at you – but I’ve got no inclination to change. Plus, it’s good exercise, and you get properly close to your child.

Do you actually, really need one? We’ve used slings and carriers exclusively, and they’re so much less hassle – no problems fitting it in the car or on a bus, no faffing about folding and unfolding it, no problems getting around shops or other more adventurous places, and saves an awful lot of money…

I was importing Pantours for a while – ran one on my commuting bike for ages. They do work – not like forks, but pretty good at soaking up vibration…

I get mine done by Blurb – excellent quality, and they do quantity discounts…

Ours are 40mm, and tight to one wall. It’s not that the entire lot moves, it’s that one or two edge ones unzip – caused, I think, by running around in circles :-)

The martial arts place I go to has those – seem very tough, no buckling. Only slight issue is with a 10×10 square they creep a bit and unzip. A smaller square probably wouldn’t.

Interesting, Downland Cycles have the same frame jig as me – for years, I’ve thought it was a one-off homebrew one…

oh and marathon plusses on 20″ rims

If you think that’s hard, try the 16″ ones :-)

Pare your kit down to what you really, really need – and it’ll also make you a better builder I think. You can build a perfectly straight frame with no jigs, just a bench vice and a piece of string. Filing miters by hand is a perfect way to understand how the tubes go together. Stuff like that.

Don’t make road stuff. Roadies want a cheap frame with a bling paint job – unless you can do the paint job yourself, you’ll be giving most of the profits to someone else.

Practice, practice, practice. Don’t sell the first few frames you make, ride them yourself or give them to mates.

It’s a hard business to make money at – but it is also incredibly satisfying :-)

Replacing an inner tube when the owner hasn’t bothered to clean the dog muck off the tyre. I’m so glad I don’t do repairs much any more :-)

Apart from that, all fettling is good.

I’ve only ridden one on an indoor test track. A standard SWB recumbent is good fun on singletrack, though, as long as you don’t need to hop the front wheel. Fast and swoopy is good :-)

Not sure if I’ve seen that particular one before, but such ideas crop up regularly. The only things I know of which use a cable are rowbikes:

Ha, I knew I had a book list on my website somewhere – really must organise the website better. Anyhow:

http://www.kinetics.org.uk/html/the_reading_list.shtml

Lots of good books already mentioned – I use:

Paterek (old and new editions – the old edition has lots of handy handwritten stuff)
Talbot
Hadland
Bicycling Science
Mike Burrows’ book
Archibald Sharp

And a bunch of others I’ve forgotten. If you’re in Glasgowe, you’re very welcome to come browse the Kinetics bike book library ;-)

Rear will definitely work. Index spacing is the same between road and MTB for Shimano, quite a few recumbents use MTB rear mechs with Dura Ace bar-end shifters for example.

Front, well, give it a go – I think the spacing might be off using an XT mech, but not absolutely certain.