“I felt sick about it and thought, how could our bike break? He sent the bike back and our engineers quickly realised it wasn’t ours, but you could hardly tell. Ever since then I’ve been rabid to protect the riders and our dealers who are selling the product.”

I’d be really interested to see what response they gave the guy who raised the lawsuit. I suspect it wasn’t “here’s a proper Specialized frame as a replacement”

Forearms. Useful when you’re signalling to turn too….

And possibly on back of calf – doing the job of those pedal reflectors we all ‘should’ have that are ‘the law’ 😕

I am sure the redesign will sort the issue.

Thats the worry – how long is it going to take to get a fix up, retooled and working and enough sets around to replace all those already in action. Couple of months without a bike is a bit much…

Do they have eyelets?

Should be clear from pics.

Was looking at a Boardman mtb (not hybrid but…) in the works bike shed yesterday – looks like it’s got eyelets on the rear dropouts but doesn’t have any way of attaching the mudguard to the seatstays so kinda defeats the purpose of the ones on the dropout. So deffo worth checking if mudguards are a requirement.

Dogs with their heads out of the car window whilst being driven around.

i’ve checked it with gps a couple of times. i sail past a lot of cars on the motorway!

Cop next door reckons the TomTom he’s used in the patrol car is pretty much as accurate as their calibrated speedo. My Nissan speedo is shocking, the Golf is a lot closer to actual speed.

Most sites have other ways of raising revenue, be it either by subscription, or selling your data

No they don’t, that’s just your way of ‘justifying’ it to yourself.

Chiropracter: Oh yes, we can sort that out. It’ll probably take 20 sessions, one per week. Now, what seems to be the problem?

Listen to what jamesmio says.

If you don’t get a move on she’ll be asking for the keys so she can borrow the car.

“No, I can’t take you to University, a few more bits and I’ve nearly finished your balance bike”… 😆

Has an old Rockhopper with an A1 frame and a Stumpjumper with the M4 version.

You’d never be able to tell the difference. IIRC I don’t think there was even much in it weight wise.

Both are still being used and abused by friends I’d sold them on to so fatigue life seems okay for both.

Stick them in a tube – even one you make yourself by rolling a cardboard sheet up.

As long as length + 2x diameter is less than 104cm then it’s classed as a medium parcel. Had the same argument with our post office. Their literature didn’t mention it, but the website states it clearly here.

We got the little ‘un some of these JVC ones with a volume limiter:

from Amazon

If you’re finding Northwave narrow then don’t bother with the Sidis. Unless they do a Mega Diablo

I’m running Spyres at the moment and I was hoping for much more. Been mucking around with new pads and rotors after the initial ‘mheh’ feeling. I personally don’t think they’re much better than my old mini-vees with Swissstop pads.

The benefits will less rim wear and hopefully better performance in the wet, though it’s tricky to compare them against my old cx bike. Deffo underpowered compared to the hardtail but that is rocking a larger front rotor and hydros.

Certainly low-profile to the extent I didn’t need to modify the mudguard stays to get round them.

I’m tempted with a hy/rd to see if that really makes the supposed difference.

As Paladin says.

Just the relative ‘safety’ of driving in a taxi is eye opening 😯

There are two ways of doing things in the world. Mrs Breatheeasys way. And the wrong way.

Though I have discovered a way to annoy her when she’s right. Just saying “Yes, darling” in a kinda resigned way to everything she says is really starting to wind her up proper. It’s the little things that keep a relationship sweet…

iolo – I used to be a bit like you, started flying 2-3 times a week and for some reason got it into my head I was 100 times more likely to have a crash than the guy going once a year on his holidays which seemed to freak me out for quite a while.

I then had an opportunity (pre 9/11 of course) to fly in the cockpit on the jumpseat as the plane was full. Really, if I could, I’d recommend it to anyone (alas, that ain’t gonna happen these days). Much of my fear was just not being in control (I’m a bad car passenger too!) but watching those guys working the plane (and chatting to them) really put much of the fears to bed.

I hate take-off, once I’m up it’s not a problem, even flying through the wake of another jet (that was fun) and a couple of aborted landings.

They know what they’re doing. Just remember that.

Not unreasonable is it ?

For some items the postage will cost more than the item itself.

Not really, they won’t be charged like you or I would when we rock up to the Post Office. Amazon etc. negotiate a price for the annum and the PO will deliver anything that’s given to them.

Sold a set of bars recently, RM wanted 11.96 – cheapest, Hermes was 4.20. I’d far rather use RM, but that’s just not competitive.

That was the conversation I was having with the post master. Apparently (and unbeknown to him as their offical ‘comms’ didn’t have it on) as long as the handlebars are in a tube (i.e. a bit of rolled cardboard) as long as the length plus 2xdiameter isn’t over 104cm then it’s a medium parcel and hence it should have been a lot less than £12 -(that’ll be the ParcelForce 48hr price).

Give him his dues, he did ring up the central office and check the website and only charged me for the cheaper rate. Plus I’m on his ‘platinum support package’ so I can leave a bin bag full of parcels and some cash and he’ll sort it all out when the PO is quiet so I don’t have to wait in the queue or hold anyone else up. I just waltz in sometime later and pick up my change and receipts. 8)

I see a lot of commuter round ours have rear leds mounted into the cradle at the back of the helmet and think they are covered for rear lighting.

Sadly quite a few haven’t noticed when they put their mahoosive rucksacks on and assume the riding position then the led is just covered by the pack rendering it fairly useless.

Back to the point – one flash, one solid for me at the from. And a nice big reflector mounted on the fork brace.

Quick poll – if it’d been a cyclist riding out of a junction and a car hit him/her whilst driving the wrong way down a street would we be saying it’s the cyclists fault for not looking both ways? Or arranging the noose for the car driver?

33.333% Driver who flashed for Merv to pull out.

Driver was presumably in a line of traffic and let Merv in – the cyclist could have been doing a fair lick down that road and might have been not visible when he flashed.

I agree, but make an adjustment to 70/30 for wearing a purple jumper.

I’m adding a 2% adjustment on for Merv as he didn’t mention he fought in two world wars etc.

I’d guess pretty much the same as what thisisnotaspoon says – the only real reason for 650 I can see is that 29er wheels didn’t lend themselves very well to longer travel suspension frames.

The hardtails will come once the initial rush of full bouncers are out.

if the US was more ethical in their espionage

“Hello CIA here, would it be convenient if we bugged your calls? Possibly starting next Monday. Maybe around 3:30? I’ll send round a letter confirming this arrangement with a form you can fill in to opt-out if you feel you don’t want this arrangement in the future.”

I think in this case he just wasn’t paying attention to the road / his car windows still looked pretty condensated on a cold Autumn morning

Ah yes, driver just wiping a little porthole in the steamed up window maybe? Or didn’t bother doing the left hand side of the windscreen?

I followed this old dear today who I’m not 100% convinced could actually see out of the front of the car as it seemed to be steamed up, and she missed a couple of parked cars by inches. Stayed well back from that accident waiting to happen.

I can’t say I liked the couple (I doubt they’d like me..) but they were sensible enough to get a fixed price, and not give up successful jobs to get involved by becoming the “project manager”.
Why do the ppl in these programs ‘insist’ on doing this?

Because it would be really boring if it was just people employ architect, people pay builder, builder builds house, people move in.

Its the mistakes and journey through the build that is the entertainment, not the completed project.

Most dangerous part of my commute is the leafy suburb where the posh private school is. Dodging tiny yummy-mummies in mahoosive Range Rovers they can’t see over, and the odd occasional football randomly stopping to let their son out.

Though come fireworks night it all changes for a couple of days to the sink estate I have to skirt past – always wear glasses for that one just in case of the random firework in my direction 😯

Always been in the ‘split’ camp but since the last round of Post Office package rises I’m starting to think it’s getting close to not being viable. Things like handlebars can be really expensive to post now (yes, other carriers are available).

And you can never guarantee your ‘version’ of Jawbones will take original Oakley lenses (or identical alternatives). I’ve tired putting my Oakley lenses into other fakeleys that mates have with differing success.

I find it pretty depressing that it’s widely accepted that the housing market is over-priced and set for a bubble to burst,

Nah, never going to happen. Too many people have mortage/investment/pension locked into their properties to sell them for 15% less than they bought them for.

There was a guy on here a few years ago telling everyone there was going to be a housing bubble burst and he’d sold his house, was going to rent for a while and buy it back for half the price and the rest of us were complete morons for not doing the same. Prices have steadily risen since….

If you’ve got the sources sorted (and it does by the sound of it) it looks like the Sonos etc. may be a bit of overkill. Maybe you just need some active speakers to play your stuff? Maybe Audioengine?

but have no idea what the differences are between BOSE, B&O, B&W and Sonos.

BOSE – much better stuff out there
B&O – waaay to expensive. Nice and ‘stylish’ though
B&W – actually know what they’re doing
Sonos – the easiest system I’ve ever set up

What do you want your 21st century hifi to do? Is it stream radio/use Spotify? Happy to have a pc/laptop open to stream your music from a hard drive? Fancy going all the way and ripping stuff to a NAS that can stream everywhere?

Got for the top one, just because it look more cool….

Remember batting down the A1 with my uncle when the bonnet of his Ford Capri came up. Suffice to say we both might have needed new underwear after that….

I would think this is due to a lack of investment in new plants. When the utility company have no option to build new plant or repair a significant part of the network due to age the cost of our energy is going to sky-rocket.

Not if Eds plan for a cap on energy prices comes into effect when he becomes PM…

I was a bit surprised that so many wanted more space taken up by car parks

Like what Henry Ford said “If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses.”

Councils get the parking fees. They don’t get a bean from the bus companies. Not in their interest to promote bus lanes really.

You have to close this loop. That and the cost of public transport – even at £1.40 an hour parking it’s cheaper to drive into town with a family of four than get the bus.

Still can’t see Pickles argument – you can’t use cars with cameras, but it’s perfectly okay for the traffic warden to use a camera and do the same job. 🙄

As Glupton says…

But yes, you can run any make of chainset with Campag other stuff. Though, to be fair it doesn’t really soften the blow that much, as next time you’ll be needing the cassette, mechs and shifters (and a new chain anyway too).

And 11 speed will be fine on your 10 speed.

And the Campy fanbois will ridicule you for the sheer indignity of mixing Shim and Campy!

Did something similar many moons ago – a couple of us went to a night class to learn another programming language as a means of improving ourselves. The course was a joke, even down to the lecturer letting us take our exam work home as it was over two sessions. He basically admitted they did the exam so they got some money from the government for eveyone who did the exam.

A recognised ‘certificate’ is going to better on the CV rather than ‘self-taught’ but if you’re realistic (as it sounds like you are) and already in IT then I’d just say go or it yourself – try and block out the same time as the course to do at home.

If you want stuff on the CV then maybe volunteer to do a couple of websites for maybe a local charity etc.

They’ll wear a little quicker but bearing in mind that if you’re driving first thing in the morning to work then it’s not gonna be that hot anyway.

We did so little mileage in the 2nd car last year we’ve just left the winter tyres on all year and never had an issue.

One less trip to a garage is always a good thing in my book…