I think it’s definitely time the Labour upper echelons were shaken up a bit, and a lot more people from working class backgrounds were represented in the senior membership. It still is very much an elite group who are really at the top of the party. People like Angela Rayner can only go so far; anyone wanting to get anywhere near power in the Labour party, still needs to play that establishment game. And that’s what lies at the root of Labour’s woes; the senior ranks are far too full of people who have no connection whatsoever with their potential voters and the electorate in general. Perhaps a few more ‘council estate chavs’ are what’s needed, to give Labour that ‘party of the people’ appeal. Because when you’re being outplayed at that game, by an old Etonian rugger bugger, you’ve really lost your way. So maybe it’s time for a ground up rebuild, rather than trying to shore up just the ceiling?

Anyway… what’s Starmer talking about…?

Stuff that other people have been talking about for over a year now? Stuff that many of us have known exists for pretty much ever? Or has he just discovered the internet, bless him?

Here’s a BBC article that’s quite sympathetic to Starmer (there, see, I can do it, so can others), which is a pretty big shift from the blatantly partisan stuff they used to do about Corbyn:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-57321990

It’s nice that he’s got time for shmoozing slebs; personally, I’d rather be down an allotment, but to each their own.

Thing is; I think most of us on here would be well up for some serious discussion and debate. But it seems one individual in particular, is intent only on pouring scorn on anyone who dare have slightly different opinions to himself. The constant barrage of abuse and vitriol, attempting to belittle people be calling them ‘sixth formers’, or insinuating they are ‘conspiracy theorist nutjobs’, and generally insulting many people who genuinely want to create a better society through political campaigning, direct action or even just by giving a shit about others, sucks up a load of oxygen better spent elsewhere. If that’s how Binners wants to play it, fine, we can do that. We can resort to ‘playground’ behaviour, if all we are is just a load of kids, right?

Or he can drop the constant attention seeking crap, and we can go back to having a proper intelligent debate. I’m more than up for that. And I’m sure others are too. Cos one man’s quest for affirmation has got rather stale and boring. Wouldn’t you agree?

Mineral oil is a pretty non-specific term. It covers everything from official oils for brakes/forks, LHM fluid, baby oil and vegetable oils

Er…

I didn’t get this rich through sheer hard work you know…

Oh ok then; the Labour Party! :D

One week only folks…

Or pretend to shout at some nasty men. :D

The canti’s looked amazing, but were s***.

That’s true of all canti brakes though, let’s face it. I remember fitting the original XT V brakes; second ride I went over the bars. :D Night and day difference.

The problem was that Campagnolo wasn’t geared up for OEM manufacturing and the MTB ‘business’ model – Shimano totally dominated the market and killed off the competition (including Suntour) by aggressive pricing and marketing. Also, the Campagnolo ‘purchase’ model was based on enthusiasts buying a frame from a dealer and then building it up with components (like road bikes) whereas you could buy a complete bike from the likes of Specialized with Shimano components for considerably less.

Makes sense. Campagnolo have always been a bit weird when it comes to actual business; yes, they can supply big Tour de France racing teams, but don’t seem to want to actually make money from the significantly larger (or was, at least) MTB market. All a bit ‘exclusive’, a bit like the Apple of the cycling world.

I had a Record OR group BITD. The canti’s looked amazing, but were s***. The chainset is still on a Kona Cindercone pub bike at the in-laws, not been used in 10 years or more, has also got most of an old XTR group set and Hope Hubs. Should probably get it back and flog it as my retirement fund!

Ah, sorry to say, but it’s all utterly worthless. Because everything new is better. Haven’t you read this forum? ;) I’ll pay you the postage to send it to me though, can’t say fairer than that.

Fantastic stuff people. Thanks.

There’s service docs available at https://www.magura.com/en/components/techcenter/ if you have an idea of year?

Yes they’re a bit older but I think there’s info available on them, thanks. Was just wanting to know if they’re worth doing, or ‘beyond economical repair’.

The ‘mineral oil’ thing; it is just LHM fluid with some dye in, isn’t it? I seem to remember something about this from years ago, when a riding buddy had some.

This is what we all remember.

https://www.retrobike.co.uk/threads/1989-swallow-griffon-mbuk-test-bike-finished-page-12.250974/

Nice one Mickr. How can it be 32 years ago? Interesting Noah’s Ark ad…

I remember it, it was very expensive and iirc was quite heavy and didn’t work as well as Shimano or Suntour at the time.
Some of the components looked great eg the cantilevers, but again worked badly. A friend had some of the bullet shifters and they were absolutely terrible.

Ah, right. I never got to actually use any of the kit. But then, I suspect neither did hardly anyone else, as it just didn’t seem to be available anywhere to actually buy. I think Condor had some of it for a short while, but I don’t recall it anywhere else.

The chainsets and rear mechs looked really nice.

They did! The chainsets, particularly. Beautiful, like a sculptured thing. Only the original XTR components came close. I have a set of original XTR M900 mechs; they are such good quality. Which stuff still looked that good. Even lasting half as long would be nice. :(

You can, if it amuses you and your classmates.

Oh it does, It does. As much as, if not more, than calling Corbyn ‘Magic Grandad’ etc, and using terms like ‘comrade’, ‘sixth formers’ etc does with certain other members. Perhaps you should chide them for their childishness also?

‘Rodney and the Plonkers’. I like that, for Armrest and his doting acolytes. :D

Ooh! Can we call Armrest ‘Plonker Rodney’, now? :D

Bless, Billy. You’ve had a very productive morning. Well done you!

At least Corbyn wouldn’t just sit on his arse and do nothing to actually challenge racism…

You may have answered this one yourself.

Lol! True. It was a very painful experience that took all day to set up, with numerous attempts to get the Windows build to load properly, as it then needed ‘updating’ which spannered things, requiring starting all over again. Hateful. Fortunately I only needed it for a short while, then happily deleted it for ever.

No, that’s true. But you can at least make a bit more effort, surely?

Armrest, hilarious

Isn’t it? Genius! :D

Morning, Billy.

So; basically, Armrest should just keep quiet about what he plans to do, announce no policies at all, in order to get elected?

Isn’t that approach the reason why he’s lagging so far behind Boris, and why many people have no idea what he and Labour actually stand for? Please explain how that’s going to work out, because I, and I’m sure most of the Labour party, are dying to know…

Maybe you should try keeping up?

Oh I do, don’t worry. It’s how I know things you don’t.

Read what I said, I think story is hilarious, and now you’ve changed the ending it’s even funnier!

Lol! So funny. The original ‘story’ had a strong whiff of a beef farm about it already, but seeing Binners fall into a trap entirely of his own making, is true comedy gold. Brilliant. :D At least it now means anything Binners claims can be disregarded as ‘made up nonsense’. Good to have that confirmed in writing.

You mean that in the USA the equivalent of groups like Momentum gritted their teeth and joined in with the effort to make sure Joe Biden got elected despite the fact that many saw him as too mainstream, and you can’t see that happening in the UK? Then I agree with you, Labour is too interested in eating itself

Here, it was the Labour right that didn’t bother getting involved with election campaigning like groups such as Momentum. It was literally their job to ‘grit their teeth’, accept the mandate handed down by party members, and get fully behind the party leader at the time. Instead, they spend most of their time trying to smear Corbyn, and undermine the party’s chances at any possible opportunity. Instead of talking to the voters, which is kind of what you’re supposed to do if you want to be elected to represent them, they were talking to the right wing media instead. Obviously the Telegraph, Daily Mail and Spectator are more important than the electorate. Be interested in seeing how Armresters apply their revisionism to that one.

And hasn’t Jo Biden just shown that its best not to go into the detail, but to announce it all when you’ve got elected by not scaring the horses? I see he’s just suspended all the oil drilling licenses in Alaska. I don’t remember hearing about the plan to do that.

Do keep up. That was simply part of his pre-election commitment to reducing US emissions etc as part of the plan to get back on track with the Paris agreement, and it’s simply reversing some of the damage Trump did by totally going against pre-existing Obama-era plans to cut fossil fuel extraction, production and pollution. I’m sure Sleepy Joe will be right on the fact you weren’t informed though; I imagine he has a crack team of people on the case as we speak…

Biden has sanctioned £735 million worth of arms sales to Israel though, so perpetuating that lucrative money stream to the US is obviously of more importance than achieving peace in the region.

Is there any news on running VM Ware virtual machines on M1?

VMs aren’t my thing, but apparently this is a popular subject. You can run Parallels on M1 Macs now, but Google suggests VMware is still some way off. Personally, I cannot understand why you’d ever want to run a different OS, as Macs come with the best OS there is and always has been, but to each their own. I once had to run Windows for some specific bit of software that wasn’t available on Mac, and it wasn’t a pleasant experience.

Kestrel MXZ
Pace RC100
Klein Attitude

Pretty much my fave 3 from the late 80s/early 90s era, the time I was just getting into MTBing. The Kestrel was mad, nothing like it at that time, the Pace was very striking with its square tubing and Magura hydraulic brakes, and the Klein I liked best was actually the even more exotic Adroit, the one with the massive headset, red and orange/yellow fade. I think it came with a Campagnolo Centaur, or possibly Record OR groupset? I seem to remember other versions with Suntour XC Pro too.

I’ve ridden quite a few of the bikes mentioned as other people’s ‘dream’ frames; Mountain Cycle San Andreas and Spooky Metalhead were two standout truly terrible bikes! Well, just not my type of bike anyway. But both left me feeling ‘someone would pay how much for this?’

I think there’s a lot of wisdom in the phrase ‘never meet your heros’.

view from my office window doing my bullshit job

:D Are you a project manager?

I remember trying to edit some video footage about 20 years ago, with an original style iMac DV. A whole hour miniDV tape translated to about 12Gb of data. The iMac had a 20Gb hard drive, but with loads of other apps, files etc on it. I think I used up 19.5Gb. Then it came to outputting the whole project..

It is astonishing just how capable computers really are these days. Hence my own decision that I really don’t ‘need’ the power of a MacPro or similar. Those things are capable of proper professional compositing, 3D special FX etc. I think many people get hung up on ‘power’, without realising that mostly, they will never use their computer to anywhere near its real capabilities. A bit like bikes then…

Blackpool?

You must live somewhere very posh or be very large.

Why do people assume that the only way to deal with racism is through violence? My fighting days are over mate; I left that in the 90s with the BNP etc. Young man’s game. I am very fortunate to now live in an area where, thanks to lefty do-gooders like Jeremy Corbyn, racism and other forms of xenophobia and prejudice aren’t tolerated anywhere. Racists are exposed as cowardly idiots, and either have to change their ways, or **** off.

Slipper-chuckers?

There is an abundance of charity shops, it must be said.

It’s unlikely I’ll ever visit again, as I can’t foresee ever needing to. But I can recommend Old Man Greenwood’s pie, fish and chip shop, as they do excellent freshly baked pies there. do you like pies? You seem like a man who would like a pie. There is a Greggs, but there is little need when OMG’s is far, far superior to that processed muck the popular ‘bakery’ chain produces. Next door to OMG’s is a temperance bar, but that might not be quite your cup of tea. I cannot vouch for the clientele, whether they are racist or not. The Red Lion just up on the corner of Dobbins Lane and Newchurch road was very pleasant though. Rawtenstall also has a ‘Bacup’ road just in case the Main road isn’t working. Geddit? :D One week only folks…

whether Bridges will need to come to East Lancs

Funnily enough, I was in East Lancashire not so long ago, in a place called Rawtenstall, don’t know if you know it. I of course very amusingly translate this as ‘Rotten Stool’, which I think, and I’m sure you’ll agree, is hilarious. Anyway, my fantastic humour aside; I was pleasantly surprised at how reasonably multicultural and integrated it seemed. I’d imagined some sort of neglected backwater full of ‘you ain’t from round ‘ere’ types. No, not at all. There were even a few Guardian reading types, if you know what I mean. Perhaps you might think of moving there Binners, if you’re scared of the locals where you currently live?

On my god. That belly laughing properly tweaked my broken rib. Ouches.

You poor sausage. How did you break it, was it through an act of passive aggression?

I think relocating to a pub which welcomes Guardian readers was a sensible move.

No you’re right. It must have been quite terrifying for Binners, to be surrounded by doddery old gammons. They might have demanded he cut his hair or something.

We clearly need a man of your caliber to come and sort out the whole issue. Someone fearless and intrepid. A superhero, if you will…..

Your existence on this forum is pretty much limited to hurling abuse at people with different political views to yourself, blaming all and sundry for the failures within our society, yet when faced with an issue directly in front of you, are weak and powerless to actually do anything about it. Listen mate; if anyone made any kind of racist comment in any pub I drink in, they’d be needing to find somewhere else to drink. End of.

I can see how someone as weak and ineffectual at actually dealing with anything, like Armrest, appeals to you.

You’re such a card, Binners.

So; the upshot is, that the racists that frequent your local, are still there. Meaning your hissy fit and flounce was completely ineffectual. You’ve ultimately done nothing to actively deal with the racism, and to make your local a place free of racist bigots. And you still have to suffer sitting near racist bigots, when you want to have a pint. Go you.

someone who creates ‘plans’ of pointless work and when that pointless work will be ready

So, bullshit, then? :D

It’s easy to poke fun at Social Media influencers et al and say “bullshit”

A friend’s daughter has been working with a ‘Social Media Influencer’ to help with her business, which was hit badly by CV, not long after she’d started it up. Her business is now thriving, in a sector where many others have failed. I think it’s easy for (especially older) people to not understand how the modern world works, but SMI’s actually play an increasingly important role in our daily lives. How many times have we read a review, or watched a video on a particular product, before making a purchasing decision? I do it all the time. Hardly any larger/important purchase is made without consulting The Internet in some way, and it’s SMI’s who are creating the ‘content’ that helps inform my choices, and those of billions of others. So yes; on the outside it looks like bullshit, to the untrained eye, but the reality for many SMIs is that it’s often down in their spare time from whatever mundane job they need to do in order to survive, and the vast majority make very little money, if any. And many work pretty hard at it; it can be a 60+ hour week for those who are committed to it. And the fact is that many SMI’s do have genuine talent to communicate with others; certainly, the ones that get millions of hits don’t do so without an innate ability to communicate. Anyone who can succeed in an incredibly competitive field, often without any formal training or preparation for such a ‘career’, has my respect, even if I don’t like them or what they have to say or sell. Because it’s mostly young people setting out with a laptop and little or no skills, training etc, and doing it by themselves. It’s pretty brave, to put yourself out there to be exposed to all the potential criticism, abuse etc that many online figures are subjected to, daily. Good luck to them, I say. Haterz just be jell.

Well, I also use PS a fair bit, so have been looking for how it performs on the new machines and many indications suggest it’s better on the M1. This guy has been testing a base model 13″ M1 MBP against other machines, and it performs pretty favourably, especially considering it’s just the 8Gb RAM version, and a fraction of the cost of other machines.

https://photoshopcafe.com/photoshop-new-apple-m1-macbook-pro-13/

I think the M1 native version of Ps is going to be the difference. And once the ‘pro’ Macs emerge, we’ll get a much better picture of how far forward Apple have moved the game.

Last company I worked at was awful. Layed off people on the shop floor that produced product but kept hiring admin staff.

I once worked for an organisation where I was 50/50 ‘shop floor’ and ‘admin’. I got to hear an office announcement that they’d be taking on more admin staff, yet making shop floor staff redundant. At a time when there weren’t enough shop floor staff as it was, and it was in fact the admin staff making the whole thing less efficient and losing money (because most of them were lazy shysters who were doing bullshit jobs). I protested this, and resigned. Only later, did I find I was on the list of redundancies anyway. :D Fortunately I did get my redundancy payout, as the decision had already been made. That company ended up going to the wall because it couldn’t meet demands, because not enough shop floor staff were involved doing the actual production.

To those enjoying their ‘bullshit jobs’; I say enjoy it while you can, and make hay while the sun sines, because if all those kind of jobs end up being ‘outsourced’/automated/made redundant, there will be mass unemployment. The bubble has to burst at some point; CV has meant several people we know are now struggling to find work as freelance whatevers, because many companies have realised they don’t actually need them. These are people who enjoyed decent wages, have large outgoings. We are headed towards an economic crisis the like of which has never been seen, and we are less than ill prepared for it.

And what the hell is a ‘project manager’, actually?

I’d quite like a lignum vitae mallet. They’re pretty expensive, and not common in the ‘Thor’ style head I use, I’m not a carver. Might be a tad heavy though.

was tempted to get an M1 laptop last week as there have been some great refurb deals about, but then some Googling let me to read a couple of MacRumors articles about how the M1X/M2 chips are pretty close now… there’s talk about a 14″ laptop with the new chip that might be revealed at the software event next month, otherwise probably Sept. (Along with new iMacs). Going to wait personally! I think the currently available M1 iMacs do look good though, if they meet your needs.

A friend bought an M1 MacBook Air as an ‘interim’ measure after his MacBook Pro went pop last autumn. He fully intended to buy a new M1/2X MBP when they become available, but has found the MBA so good, he’s not going to need to. Has to do on the fly quick video editing stuff, so you’d imagine a £1000 laptop might not be quite up to the job, but he’s found quite the opposite. Says it’s faster than his old machine, and that was I think quite a recent model, 2018. So I think from what I’ve read/heard, that unless you’re doing some pretty heavy video/3D type work, or anything that requires serious processing power, the current M1 models are probably more than adequate. There’s one review where the reviewer says the new iMac can even handle an 8k video stream, so that is extremely impressive!

I’m now pretty sure I don’t need anything more than the iMac, and that’s going to save me a lot of money. Which I can then spend on other Apple products! :D

Voters? They’re all ****s! Utter ****ing ****s the lot of you!” 😀

–

Wasn’t that your passing shot before the door hit your arse on the way out of your local pub binners?

Have you gone back to say sorry yet?

:D Brilliant.

So you had a hissy fit, then flounced off. Rather than actually having the balls to stand up to racists. Who are still enjoying the pub. What a brave little soldier. Corbyn would wipe the floor with you, and he’s a pacifist!

For me, Corbyn’s “failure” was his lack of commitment to the ambitious of leadership and governorship, and that ambiguity and the lack of engaging in the day to day business of politics…ie a lack of cohesion, visibility, and adaptability ultimately provided uncommitted Labour support with a reason not to vote for him.

Do you actually believe that rubbish? Corbyn was never going to be allowed to succeed, by the people who really run our society; the owners of global corporations, the media barons, and their assorted arse-licking lackeys. As Dazh has said, Corbyn’s leadership exposed the venal scum that infect the Labour party, people who have absolutely zero interest in the needs of ordinary working people, and people for whom politics is just a fun game to play to further their own egotistical ambitions. Corbyn had the overwhelming support of Labour party members, but party members are irrelevant to the self-imposed elite who really control things. It was Blair who sold out Labour’s values and principles, and installed a bunch of sycophantic malleable **** who would do what they’re told to by their lords and masters. There are some people on here who would welcome someone like Blair, but if that’s what you really want, then just stop pretending you ‘care’, and just vote tory. If you do care, then forget Corbyn; the real problem you’ve got to knowledge is right in front of us. Labour needs to be rid of the Blairites and right wing scum and look to it’s working class voter base for new figures to lead the party forward. Otherwise, it’s truly dead.

Yup, I believe that Margret Hodges called him a “**** racist”, not a dirty racist.

Is that the same Margaret Hodge who enjoys wealth and privilege as a result of her family owning a steel company which made millions in apartheid South Africa, from the brutal racist exploitation of black people? Oh, it is. Is that the same Margaret Hodge who promised homes for ‘indigenous people’ when pandering to the kind of people who voted for the BNP? Oh, it is. How inconvenient…