TJ – That's because there will be 'efficiency savings' across the board. Simples!

All of them are promising this as far as I can make out. Pie in the sky stuff.

Biscuit Powered – listen mate, your credibility just went out of the window when you chose to confess to supporting UKIP. I don't think a political party which represents the BNP supporters who managed to make it to grammar school, is the answer to Britain's problems.

Er, I never said I 'support' UKIP. It's just that choosing who to vote for is like choosing which turd to eat.

So the Tory government was simply just trying to teach the electorate a lesson they wouldn't forget ?

I never said that either. The alternative is what we have now, which is incentivising and rewarding the wrong economic behaviour at the expense of the prudent.

ernie_lynch..

Yes, I agree with most of that, and I wasn't clear, but I do also agree that making the Bank of england independent was a good thing – as long as you dont tie its hands, fudge indexes and move the goalposts to force them to do your bidding.

As for the bit about repos in the early 90s, well nobody likes to see somebody lose their house, but that's how a free market should work, which flushes out malinvestment and teaches people not to buy into bubbles.

Here's an extract from UKIP's budget manifesto. I'd vote for them if it wasn't just another wasted vote towards Labour getting back in:

10.4 Household borrowing

10.4.1 The other parties usually gloss over the third debt burden facing Britain’s households, even though it is larger than either of the other two items. “Total UK personal debt at the end of October 2009 stood at £1,458bn… Total secured lending on dwellings at the end of October 2009 stood at £1,230bn.”

10.4.2 In other words, the boom in house prices over the last ten years was matched with a corresponding increase in householder indebtedness. Neither of these has served to add to the total real wealth of UK households, but did help sustain an illusion of wealth, which enabled the Labour Party to win its second and third terms in office.

10.4.3 Conversely, the John Major government of 1990 to 1997 allowed the house price bubble of the late 1980s to burst with relatively little government intervention – the number of repossessions did not make for good headlines, but the economy soon shook itself out again and started growing again once prices had bottomed out. This Labour government has decided that the best way out of the recession is to try and keep the house price bubble inflated as long as possible – and there is no reason to assume that an incoming Tory government will behave any differently.

10.4.4 So the government is borrowing money – to be repaid by tomorrow’s taxpayers – at marginal interest rates in excess of five per cent, to inject new capital into banks on which it charges one or two per cent but which banks lend on at four or five per cent; to keep interest rates low via quantitative easing and to guarantee or underwrite around one quarter of all UK mortgage lending via the Special Liquidity Scheme and other measures, merely to prop up house prices.

10.4.5 This is a double deceit on today’s younger homebuyers, who will also be tomorrow’s taxpayers.

btw, I'm far from a Conservative supporter, they're all short-termists as El-bent rightly states

Molgrips – As for the govt mis-handling the economy – tell me exactly why they have done wrong WITHOUT mentioning anything that would have happened anyway (ie credit crunch, recession etc etc) or where any other party would have done exactly the same.

1 – GB made the bank of england independent with a remit to use interest rates to keep inflation at a 2% target

2 – GB created the completely toothless FSA who were asleep at the wheel for the last 10 years

3 – GB in 2003 changed the inflation index for the BOE to target from RPI to CPI (which does not include housing costs) thus forcing the BOE to keep the base rate too low despite an obvious housing bubble that should have been allowed to correct.

4 – 2005 Labour stooges on the MPC outvote Mervyn King and drop the base rate, again allowing the housing bubble to inflate even further.

5 – GB despite being advised otherwise sold off half the country's holding of gold at a decades low price, and announced it well in advance thus driving the price even lower.

6 – GB actually BELIEVING that he had abolished the most basic of business cycles "no more boom and bust", and allowing the biggest bubble in the country's history to be blown up for political ends (cos the dullard UK public feel good when their house is going up in value and will vote for more of the same) despite a pledge not to ("I will not let house prices get out of control").

Sadly it will only be with a few years hindsight that most people will realise what an unmitigated disaster the man has been for the country's economy since the day he took office as chancellor.

In the mean time when he gets kicked out in a couple of months he will take his job at Goldman Sachs or wherever and stand on the sidelines claiming that the next government (who will need to make some tough decisions to start repairing the mess GB has made) are wrecking the recovery.

No such thing as a 'bleed kit' for hopes, just a bottle of DOT 5.1 and a bit of clear tubing to put on the caliper nipple ;)

they will come with it in, pre bled ready to go

90mm

How does driving down the motorway at 70mph grit blast your calipers?

Unless you're travelling to the trails through a sandstorm?

Don't remember the last time I experienced a sandstorm round these parts.

Also see this thread:

http://www.singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/steel-hardtails-other-than-the-2010-soul-that-have-a-replaceable-mech-hanger

Tbh I couldn't fault the Fox fork, was very plush and light and so on, but I did want a 20mm front axle. If the F120 had been 20mm I probably wouldnt have bothered swapping it off.

That said, the Revelation does give the welcome option of that little bit more travel, easily adjustable. Plus bar mounted lockout. I do prefer it.

I think the new ones come with 15mm axle Fox fork anyway?

Yep, bit of wood, a couple of self tappers, couple of washers and a couple of bits of offcut innertube.

Awesome.

Is that the new Ragley frame? :lol:

Mines a Trance X0

I'm 6'2" and it's a Large. Recommended height range on the frame is 5'10" to 6'1" but it feels right to me and I reckon someone 5'10"-5'11" would feel a bit lost on it. I have a 90mm hope stem and I want to try a layback seatpost to maybe get a bit more stretch and see if I like it.

Swapped the Fox F120s off and fitted 20mm Revs (wound to 130). Also removed the stock Crossmax ST wheels and fitted my venerable hope bulb/XM321s (because although the Mavic wheels are light and lovely, they would quickly end up getting trashed and that would be a shame). Also changed the Race Face Deus crankset for Shimano SLX. Fizik Gobi XM saddle.

Not sure what fork/shock pressure I'm running.

Just back from 2 days doing Afan, loving it.

131 types of mech hanger now then? :roll: :lol:

OK – Is there any particular reason you decided to come up with your own design for the mech hanger, rather than designing the dropout to take one of the ~130 different types (discussed in another thread recently) already available?

You don't really need it for durability. We never had trouble with the solid steel ones. The main reason I've gone replaceable on the new Soul is to save weight so I could offset the extra metal in the CEN compliant front end.

Cy – Out of interest – is the hanger on the Soul a custom one, or a more common readily available type? (e.g. interchangeable with Kona/Specialized etc)

I want a replaceable hanger for the same reason I wouldn't buy a car with bumpers that were integral to the bodywork.

Yeah, cos that looks great, I'd be totally satisfied for my ~£400 frame to look like that after having to bend it back to shape for want of a simple replaceable part that all aluminium frames have anyway!

I think that's the root of my desire for a replacable hanger really. Much rather just carry a spare in my camelback like I do with my alu frame so I can effect a full fix on the trail, with no alignment issues or buggered paint job.

Thanks for the suggestions all, decision time then – just how important to me is it?

Patriot LT 2001(ish) is my opinion too, had one just like it around then – and loved it.

Around 2004 they changed to a shock mount that braced against the top tube too, due to issues with this design cracking at the ends of the shockmount plates.

Yep, just up the road in Clevedon here, eyes peeled

That looks bloody nice!

But doesn't the saddle at that angle make your spuds hurt?

Anybody running them with 140mm forks?

Yep, I put Maxle 09 Revelation air U turns on mine but run them at 130, spot on.

new to stw are we?

No, I've been around since long before the forum got nuked, why?

Nothing to do with the high cost economy we have made for ourselves where you cant even put a roof over your head on minimum wage then? Nothing at all to do with the fact that the jobs pay less than the housing benefit they'd get by not working? I mean, you'd have to be stupid to want to work a minimum wage job wouldn't you?

You think the eastern europeans could actually settle in the UK for the wages paid in these minimum wage jobs the programme will focus on? Of course not, they come here for a couple of years and slum it living 10 to a house and hot-bedding then they can go home to their own country's low cost economy and live like kings on the money they've saved. Not surprising they're more prepared to work on those terms is it?

Also it's not really fair to compare a self selecting group of motivated foreigners (who after all have taken it upon themselves to travel across europe to come here and rough it) with local layabouts now is it.

People need to open their eyes and realise the full story.

Presumably the Hammerschmidt has its own custom BB?

Surely if you want to go back to normal you just fit your old external bottom bracket cups with an extra spacer or 2 to make up for the material removed?

Sure, there would be a couple less threads engaged but no biggy I wouldnt have thought.

It's a similar situation to mobile phone chargers. Over the years there have been countless types of connectors at the phone end of all shapes and sizes. WHY? A power connector just needs a + and – contact, plus a couple of USB data pins. I will only buy products with a standard connector on. Thus my phone, MP3 player and satnav all have mini USB on them and any wall charger or standard USB cable lying about will do.

Use a proprietary connector? Sorry, not buying.

At last the manufacturers have got the idea, and are standardising to Micro-USB, albeit for environmental reasons rather than practicality. But availability and interchangeability are the real benefit for the users.

Why not mech hangers? I know they want a captive market, but I'm only going to buy a BETD hanger so they're not getting my money anyway.

More to the point, I've always thought – why isn't there some degree of standardisation of mech hangers?

I mean you have predominantly one type of rear axle, the mech always needs to go in the same place relative to that etc, so is it really necessary to have 130 different types?

I know some frames might have some little dropout design quirk which requires some mech hanger peculiarity or other, and there are a couple of different typers of axle which need to be catered for… but 130 different types??? come on!

As modelled by Mr Tracky Bs and Nike Air Max.

Not wanting to stereotype here but…

These guys can do reproductions if you dont have any luck finding OE ones.

http://slikgraphics.com/products/fork-decals/

shinsplints – do you specifically want the latest model?

I have an XL of the previous model (ive lost track of which mk is which) in met blue and I am considering selling the frame…

Yep, internal spacers. But it doesn't work the other way, ie you cant increase an F90 to 120 by removing spacers

Ive never seen a frame make so much fuss about getting 4" of single pivot travel as that one 8O

Over complication for the sake of it.

These threads discussing plushness, spiking, ground tracking and what not just make me feel sort of inadequate.

I've ridden bikes with loads of different forks and if I'm honest, I struggle to notice the difference between any 2 forks of a similar market level. Is there something wrong with me?

Mainly post-rock for me these days. Mogwai, Slint, Explosions in the Sky, Godspeed you Black Emperor, but Oceansize are my top favourite at the moment.

No, just one.

The other one I will probably use at some point

I have a brand new tube of this (well 2 actually) that you can have for a tenner posted or collect from Bristol area.

Speaking as something of a connoisseur on this subject, I still think the humble and ubiquitous Bourbon is the king of biscuits. Not too fussy, not too plain. Sits in the background not flashy or demanding attention, just getting on with the business of being tasty, satisfying, cheap and plentiful. Just right.

Although having said that, I am also quite fond of those German ones which are like hard rectangular rich teas with a slab of plain chocolate stuck to the bottom. Choco-Leibniz I think they are called. Only problem with them is eating a packet at a time gets costly.

You'd have no excuse for being slower, is that what you're worried about? :P

Mine had a 2 inch section of little broken bone bits in the middle :(

Also I second what Glenh says above, I did mine in Morzine so the Frenchies put me in one of the figure 8 sling things. Bloody uncomfortable at first but you need it to be TIGHT to immobilise you properly.

Apparently they are almost unheard of over here for some reason. Mine healed quickly and nicely aligned though.

I can safely say last night in the bivi was one of, if not THE most uncomfortable I can remember, as well as having Paul (sweetjumps) snoring like a pig next to me all night… then in the morning he tried to say it was me!

Loads of fun all the same.

There's a small issue with getting my headcam footage onto the interweb – the camera itself doesnt have a firewire port on it, and i've lost the docking station which does :oops:. But I'll borrow another camcorder for the transfer or something.

Cheers all!

set of 3 pawl springs about £1.50!

I seen on older hubs they sometimes snap in half where they thin out due to rubbing