As a specialist engineer who recently had a million calls from recruitment people… hardly any of them had the faintest idea about me or the job. If you cant sell the job to me, how are you going to sell me to the company.

No amount of training / coaching / hitting with sticks will make your staff any good if they just want to fill their quota to meet targets

a) are you me in a parallel universe?!?
b) ….nodded along in empathy to every word… :-)

Thanks Jungli – just what I was looking for!

There is a pattern developing here…. :-)

Anyone been in the situation of having to rebuild the rear mech as a result of a fall perhaps. How/spendy/difficult?

…that’s kind of the next question… :-)

Currently running BB7’s, which I woudl swap to the new build, but there is the choice of going hydro with either Di2 or mechanical. Minded to stay with BB7’s for the moment as I have more than enough power/modulation as it is and they are (almost) fit-and-forget.

Wouldn’t work, the hub would just untwist if all the spokes on each side faced the same way (and all on the other side the other way) with the hub ending up at an angle

Agree, you generate a torque across the hub shell, but it won’t be that great and the forces in the hub, spokes and rim would be statically determinant, as the pics demonstrate. Also agree I can’t see a benefit, other than increasing the shear area along the line of the spoke through the spoke flange, but it’s marginal at best at the OP’s spoke angles.

From the pics, kind a looks like the builder bought the wrong size spokes and came up with a way to use them/plough on regardless ;-)

I’m struggling to visualise this – pics? The only way I can think it could be done is if the spoke on one side of the wheel angle one way and the other way on the other side, so the tension in a pair of spokes on either flange balance?

Griff’s – had two done and they were both excellent….. Actually finding the unit is a logic test in itself, but once inside it’s a cool place just to poke around….

http://www.realitymotorworks.co.uk/

Other side of the fence here – got called into a meeting with the three directors yesterday for a confidential chat to say the company is to be wound up in it’s current form. Me/my role/skills/knowledge are critical to several of the key projects, so if I want to choose carry on, then the plan would be for the four of us to go it alone. If I chose to go elsewhere then we would all go our separate ways. They want a decision by Monday morning so they can start the process and make an announcement either way.

Either way, I’ll be OK, but on so many levels I feel like shit, esp walking around knowing all this and my other 6 colleagues have not a scooby what is going on behind the scenes. Bad times :-(

If you can find a 2-part toughened structural epoxy adhesive that doesn’t come in a 5l tub I’m sure that will work (but you may struggle if you want it to be clear, or at least opaque).

I recall, in a previous job, needing to bond a piece of Dexion to a sheet of glass (don’t ask) – IIRC we ended up using 3M 9323 and the joint was so strong, the glass fractured in its plane, leaving a lump of glass still bonded, rather than the adhesive joint to either the Dexion or glass failing. NB: may be overkill…… YMMV……

Van Nic Amazon with whatever flavour of dropouts meets your needs?

EDIT: May not meet the horizontal TT requirement…..

@nemesis – thanks, sounds like a good lead!

@hungry monkey – no probs, thanks anyway.

…shameless Friday bump….

As ever, there are clearly more knowledgeable people than me passing on their wisdom above…..

the only advice I can add is don’t ever buy anything from Carpet Right; a more dishonest and dyfunctional set of clowns masquerading as a customer facing retail business I have yet to find. Used them once when also ‘on a budget’ and will never do it again. As above, for our last carpets went to the local independent shop who were a joy to deal with and turned out to be no more expensive overall, even without factoring in the complete lack of hastle and great customer service..

Hope it works out for you all…. chin up

+1

Waving bye bye to our youngest as they put her under for an MRI was a hell of a 1st b’day present for her…..

Thanks all – c’est tout?

enjoyed all of the songs on the documentary series so far

This is drifting slightly off topic but I have to say I have really enjoyed the Sonic Highways docs and have actively sought the middle set out on Iplayer. Yes, it does stray into being a teeny bit pretentious in places but, on the whole, God bless Dave Grohl for making it!

Should be fine for occasionally building/truing, but you’ll also need a dishing gauge, as I’m assuming the lateral truing guides aren’t self-centering

I have one (or one fo a very similar design from a few model-years ago) and that^^^ pretty much covers it. Fine for the occasional tweak, but if you’re going to be using it a lot then look elsewhere. I’ve trued up quite a few wheels from scratch on it, but the main arms are intentionally flexible to cope with 100mm to 135 mm OLN hubs which means that the whole thing is, er, intentionally flexible! For accurate centring, you do have to measure things up and work out the lateral gauge locations on a per-wheel basis, which is a faff after a while….

Overall then: OK for the money…. Park it is not!

I’m ~38″ chest, so pretty much on the boundary between sizes (IIRC). Went for the S/M – as rocketdog says, they are tight, but the fabric is v. stretchy so the fit seems fine to me.

Funnily enough I bought one on Tuesday (as they are so cheap), it arrived, yesterday, wore it this morning….. and have just ordered a couple more. At the price, I can’t really fault it – does what it says on the tin. My only criticism (alright, maybe I can) is that the sleeves seem really long on the short sleeved one (if that makes senses). Not tried it, but looks like they will be way longer than any short sleeve jersey.

I’ve not read all of the thread, but in a former life, I did quite a lot of FEA for a bike company looking at this very concept :oops: I turned out that balancing the stiffness requirements of the chainstays and top ‘bow’ so that the it worked as a softail and yet have enough strength to not be a wet noodle and fatigue itself to death very quickly was ‘a challenge’! The prototype(s) was a thing of beauty… ;-)

(Before you ask – not telling! This and a lot of other very clever stuff is covered by a comprehensive NDA….. and ongoing access to cheap/free bike bits, which is considerably more important to protect….)

The DTs – assuming you are not him, and this isn’t the most subtle astroturfing I’ve seen….. he looks good – thanks!

Fair enough Cougar :-)

Current IFA, is (by default) a) bosses brother, b) lovely bloke, but hopeless/disorganised and getting more so and c) based on the other side of the country and seems incapable of responding to phone or emails…..

(this is detail is all by way of a shameless bump to the top of the pile again)

footflaps +1. Company would pay my IMechE membership, but I refuse to give the the self-serving and professionally/publically invisible shower of sh!tes anything….. promotes a good office ‘debate’ each year….

Almondsbury Forge – may be pricey, but nice guys and decent showroom….

Report back with how you get on with them there Aksiums – had been holding off getting some do-it-all commute wheels until these came out but, although the price is tempting, I’m struggling to see past the 2kg quoted weight….. and the Ksyrium equiv is a bit too spendy at ~£800 a pair….

this is alarming

On all levels – how it happened/who he was/what it means for Total/etc etc… I’ve heard some fantastic tin-foil hat theories from clients within the industry already!

Give C+A Johnson a ring – they specialise in design and build loft conversions all over Bristol. They have a tame structural engineer, and can bring in an architect if necessary. Try and get Alan to come round and have a look in the first instance – knows his stuff.

The one connected to Mud Dock in Bristol is £2/day to lock up and a locker….

http://www.mud-dock.co.uk/bikeshed/index.html

By way of comparison, I rent a ‘garage’ from Bristol City Council (I lease the concrete pad from them but own the garage on top – they ‘maintain’ the site…. so it is effectively renting a parking a space) for ~£20/month. Renting someones driveway to park on, certainly around North Bristol is ~£5 a day. So the BikeShed price doesn’t look too bad, esp in the centre of town, when you can park, have a locker and a shower for £5/day

After a couple of years of commuting and generally being very abusive towards poor and inconsiderate driving I developed a zen like calm where I no longer cared what other people did so long as they didn’t actually come into contact with me. It was great improved my ride no end

Having it written down like that, rightly or wrongly, I realise I defo fall into this category!

Have a look here….

http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/talk-to-me-about-hub-gears

Yeah, bottom gear is so off the chart, that has skewed the drive ratio to make the most of the rest – if I’m honest I could still prob loose a few teeth from the front ring as I don’t get near the top few gears often as a) the hub is pretty draggy and b) the rest of the bike is quite a lump in full winter mode making it an exponentially increasing effort to wind it up to any speed beyond ~18 mph.

I’ll be interested to hear how you go with Di2 Alfine – have contemplated changing to this some time next year as I’ve clocked up ~10,000k on mine and the Versa shifters are worn out, so rather than replace them with more Versas (or Shimano’s version), Di2 makes a lot of sense for rear wheel changes. The flip-side is I have such a love/hate relationship with the bike (esp the hub) that I’m not massively keen on the expense of Di2 unless it is a step change up from the mechanical version (on that note, I’ve also contemplated a custom Ti frame for the mechanical hub, but can’t get past the feeling that this is just polishing a poo).

EDIT: that all sounds depressingly negative – sorry :-)

55t Alfine Di2 front sprocket

8O

With what rear sprocket? I’ve ended up at 42/20 on my alfine 11 having started out at 44/18 which turned out to be way too big for normal riding – top and bottom gear seem to be a big step from the rest of the range so you should always have ratios-of-last-resort at both ends.

Chapeau – I like that!

Rather than the bit of bottle, I may have been tempted to blow some medium density foam in the tube and then sand it back to the tube surface – as well as giving easily finished surface, this would have added some buckling stability to the inside surface of the (now truncated) tubes. I see why you’ve done it, but I’m kinda with njee that (even if you’d cut out ‘a bit’ of the damaged tube) leaving the fibre whiskers exposed would give you better load transfer into the existing tube. Even in non-bagged/pretty agricultural tube joints the recommendation is to roughly machine the surface to expose the fibres before bonding….

….having said all that, with enough added material, I’m sure it’ll be fine.

Thanks andy

Another option is just get a tablet and a BT keyboard case

That, or something similar, is another option……

Why not a cheap laptop and a tablet for the kids?

Them’s the rules….

Agreed ;-) Let’s ignore the colour for the moment – have seen other colours elsewhere, but this was the first link that came to hand beyond “direct” from aliexpress

Thanks WWW – it’s a fair point that I am starting from a point of relative ignorance having not bought a laptop in ~6 years. At this stage, just looking to get a few real world recommendations before walking into a shop.

I know I said quality over cost, but that’s probably a touch spendy – £500 to £700 bracket would be ideal. Bigger screen compared to that Lenovo would be better, but I realise that is going to drive the price to a greater or lesser extent….

I run 25mm Durano Plus on Aerotrack rims – I came to the same conclusion as you and they are significantly better than Marathons….. but that massive PU layer is always going to compromise the tyre feel.

Something like Gatorskins or Spesh Armadillo’s is probably your next step ‘down’ in terms of puncture resistance, but ‘up’ in terms of tyre feel.

On my commuters, tend to run the Durano’s through the winter, Gatorskins spring/autumn and GP4000 through the summer – will happily prioritise puncture resistance through the depths of winter, but want something racier on sunny summers evening when changing a tube isn’t going to lead to hypothermia…..

These, yes 100 at a time, but they last for ages. Only every repair at home though, just takes spare tubes on the road.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/100-GENUINE-REMA-TIP-TOP-F0-PUNCTURE-REPAIR-PATCHES-15MM-TWO-10G-GLUE-BICYCLE-/161297142294?pt=UK_SportsLeisure_Cycling_BikeLocks_SR&hash=item258e0f1216