love that

Ask 20 people to define woke and you’ll get 20 different answers.

As used by the right today they generally mean something along the lines of political correctness gone too far, being hyper sensitive to any perceived injustice, seeing all human interactions as a power struggle between oppressor and oppressed,  or even gay race communism (not my words!)

Personally I think it’s a pretty useless term, it’s too broad, it means different things to different people and insults in general are unproductive.

If it would help the OP understand I could elaborate with some examples of “wokeness” but I have a feeling people would get mad and the thread would be derailed.

I’m much more moderate, a flogging would suffice

This is the thing I was trying to get at, nothing mentioned above is what I would consider ‘true’ socialism to mean.

If were were to consider it as a sliding scale with something like soviet russia at one end and the USA at the other it seems most ‘socialists’ are arguing we should move a little bit more to the soviet side for the benefit of all. This seems a perfectly reasonable argument to me, perhaps socialism has a PR problem.

Thanks to whoever recommended empire of the vampire, I’ve just finished the second book. I had some misgivings because vampire stuff tends to be quite lame but I thoroughly enjoyed it, looking forward to the next book.

For any Mark Lawrence fans his latest book is out tomorrow ‘The book that broke the world’. The first of the series wasn’t IMO the best of his stuff but it’s still very good. Maybe I’m stupid the big twist definitely caught me by surprise.

Dogs are awesome! I don’t have one because I don’t want to deal with their revolting turds. Still great though, truly mans best friend.

I’ve always just taken the gradings to indicate the difficulty level at that specific place. Blue, red, black – easiest, middle, hardest, with no relation to any other place. Are they meant to be consistent across all FC spots? If so it’s news to me.

Someone above mentioned climbing, I’d liken it to indoor bouldering grades. It’s very subjective and depends where you happen to be. A V6 at one place could be wildly different to a V6 somewhere else.

I’ve nothing constructive to add that hasn’t already been said but this thread is very refreshing. Long may it continue.

A good start would be to stop this tribal left vs right squabbling. It’s us vs the political elite and those that fund them. Does anyone really feel represented right now? The right are disenfranchised with the tories who are on track to be annihilated and rightly so. Judging from talk on here and elsewhere the left are already disenfranchised and labour haven’t even got into power yet.

My possibly foolish hope is that enough people realise that we’re all getting screwed no matter who you vote for and that both main parties are completely destroyed.

Milk is cheap because farmers get screwed by supermarkets, they have very little control over the price they get per litre. If you can buy directly from farmers you should and that goes for everything not just milk.

Also the idea that the taste will change because it’s winter so the cows are being fed silage is incorrect. The majority of cows these days are kept inside all year round so will constantly be fed on silage + supplementary feed. The margins are so tight that herds have got bigger and bigger which makes it impractical to bring them in twice a day for milking, a lot also milk three times a day now. I grew up on a ‘traditional’ farm that most people would probably imagine when they think of farming. A small milk herd of around 40, a small flock of sheep, a small beef herd, a couple of pigs, a few chickens wandering around. Those days are long gone. Most milk herds now will be in the many hundreds, go big or go bust.

The milk cows you see out on the fields will be dry cows, that’s the only time most will ever see grass.

Another vote for Joe Abercrombie, Mark Lawrence is also very good.

I’m flattered but sorry I’m currently taken. I’ll be sure to let you know if that changes though.

People who are constantly negative and moan about things. I get the need to vent but it gets rather annoying after a while. If it’s something you can can personally affect then go do something, if not shut up.

Yes I get the irony of me having a moan online about it.

If you think you’d make use of the longer travel bike when not on holiday it sounds like the perfect excuse for new bike time!

My tactic has always been to make it very clear on the first date that half of the weekend is bike riding/whatever hobby I’m into time, no ifs buts or maybes. It’s worked well so far.

Had a great ride yesterday, warm and sunny, birds chirping, trees budding, lovely stuff. Clocks have changed, best day of the year. Winter can piss right off, feeling hyped for a good year!

I prefer my racism to be in a suit and tie

The cynical side of me would say that nike knew exactly what they were doing, they knew it would cause controversy which is ultimately good for them.

The other side is that its a football kit, who cares.

The licence fee is a complete scam IMO.

If you want to pay it that’s completely fine, crack on. Those that don’t shouldn’t be subject to these heavy handed tactics, it’s completely out of order. Imagine if netflix or amazon tried this kind of stuff, they’d be out of business instantly.

I’ve had a very enjoyable evening working through this thread. It’s not monday but metal doesn’t care about your rules!

I used to. Competing against myself on local trails that I’ve ridden many times made them more fun for a while. I ended up getting a bit too into it though, it got to a point where I’d have an enjoyable ride, get home, check strava, find that I hadn’t beaten any of my times and feel deflated. Ended up deleting it.

It did teach me some lessons though. When I concentrated on trying to ride smoothly I was fast. When I tried to ride fast I wasn’t.

Writing this has reminded me of a quote but I can’t remember the source. Slow is smooth, smooth is fast.

I’ve heard this said so many times over the years about Wales and Scotland. I visit both multiple times a year and have never once experienced anything like this, I’ve always found the Welsh and Scottish to be very friendly and welcoming.

Maybe I’ve just been lucky although I sometimes wonder if it’s because I sound very northern rather than a posh southerner.

I’ve enjoyed reading all the replies, some interesting stuff

Good race! Winning run was wild and the big crash was savage. Literally my worst nightmare, hope the rider is ok.

Looks awesome! I’m jealous

I’ve been mulling this over and thinking that maybe rider skill dictates how much impact the bike has.
For a beginner being on a crappy bike vs a modern fancy one is going to make a lot of difference.
For an elite level rider the difference will still be there but much smaller.

My bike is 170/170, I’m probably “overbiked” 75% of the time.

I value downhill performance so I’m happy to work a bit harder on the uphills.

Where it does suck is flatish undulating terrain but I think that’s down to the tyres I run more than anything.

Having one bike is always going to be a compromise, it just depends where your priorities lie. It’s nice having a bike that can do a xc ride one day and downhill the next. Is it optimal at either of those things? not really but it’s far from terrible.

If you’re having fun you’re on the right bike.

I went through a period of using strava locally on trails I’ve ridden hundreds of times.

I’d set a time (on the downhills) using the full suss and then try to match it on the hardtail. When I did I’d take the full suss out again, obliterate the time and repeat.

I’d have to work way harder on the hardtail to match that time, but it also made me better on the full suss.

I think a full suss bike lets you get away with mistakes while the hardtail punishes them.

None of this really answers the question but I would say that my knees would definitely feel it after riding the hardtail.

I think it’d be weird to have not changed at all over 4 years, especially when you throw a pandemic into the mix.

Living through covid changed me a fair bit, I’ve never had much trust in government or media but covid destroyed it completely.

I’m young, healthy, exercise loads and have a good diet. I’d had covid twice before being eligible for a vaccine. My thinking was I’ve had it twice (first time quite ill for a week, second time nothing much) so I don’t need a vaccine.

When explaining my position to others the amount of backlash I experienced was crazy. I was called an anti vaxxer, anti science, selfish, a moron, stupid, a conspiracy theorist, I could go on. I was basically put into a camp with the nutters who think the vaccine was injecting them with nanobots or whatever.

The only argument that made sense to me was to get the vaccination for the wider social good, to stop transmission. It was a strong argument and I was on the fence for a long time. In the end I said no.

I still don’t know if I made the right or wrong choice but I’ll never forget the power of social pressure to comply.

I’m generally pretty level headed but people with zero awareness of their surroundings make me want to go on a murder spree, supermarkets are particularly bad.

Dealing with people who leave their trolley blocking 3/4 of the aisle while they block the rest trying to decide which brand of coffee to buy, chatting to their friend while completely blocking the isle, meticulously packing their shopping and then having a chat with the cashier while there’s a massive line waiting.

I could go on for hours. If there’s ever a news story about a madman going on a rampage with a can beans it was probably me.

I tend to stick to trail centres more during the winter months, slogging through mud gets rather tedious.

Rain is fine, it wont kill you.

There’s a third option which is to resurrect my 456c which I very much enjoyed. The problem is that it felt on the small side then compared to my main bike, which now feels small compared to my current bike. The 456 will probably feel like a bmx.

While typing that I think I talked myself into it, sounds fun.

Someone on here must have that frame sat in a shed, we can negotiate

I’m jealous!

Absolute scumbags! We had some of this round my way a few years ago, someone was stringing wire across trails at neck height.

I should have added that top of the list right now is a production privee shan. I’ve got no idea how they ride but I’ve always lusted after one because they look awesome!

Contact your local tree officer. If it’s dead, dying or dangerous you’ll be able to prune/fell as appropriate.

Very much looking forward to seeing this, one of my favourite books as a young lad. I’m even tempted to go to the cinema for the first time in years.