Maybe he doesn't like wheel-suckers? 😉

Frustration is wanting a w**k when you are in a Y cast, not missing the postie!

<spits coffee at monitor> Agreed! </spits coffee at monitor> 😉

Further to what Conespanner said, on some Ford hydraulic joints the tapered thread on the pipe is designed to be a one-shot-deal – the act of the threads being tightened plastically deformed the thread to form the seal. If you break the seal and refit it, it may seal, but probably won't. This may or may not be the case for the OP, but I swore for ages at a power steering pump…. and then swore again when I found out what was wrong and how much the new pipe was…. 🙁

…an RS Judy DH had as much buttery smooth travel as anyone would ever need….

Come to think of it when I was running the hot water for the washing up the water did go cold for a few secs and then run hot again.

Not the shower mixer then – as others have said, probably low pressure feed to the boiler.

the rear mech which is quite easy to knock in a crash is over £400.

I believe that rebuild kits will be offered for the rear mech – the guts of it is supposed to be quite robust, so the metal bits that are likely to bend in a crash will be offered individually, or as kits of parts, so you don't have to buy a complete rear mech.

I meant, run a hot tap with the shower OFF – do you still get a temp fluctuation from the tap water?

but the temperature seems to fluctuate quite a lot, basically the hot water keeps dropping out for a few seconds at a time

If it's a decent mixer with a thermostat – no. Does it do the same thing if you just run a hot tap?

…welcome those riders into clubs rather than immediately telling them they're wasting their time with sportives.

Agreed – that's not on, but give it a generation and I think those clubs will die of a kind of 'natural selection'. It looks like RR organisation is moving to local leagues with a central organisation/liason approach to deal with the H+S/Admin/Police, rather than each club individually organising a race-a year. How that will affect the 'machine' by which road racers are produced in clubs, I don't know. I certainly didn't come through the club system (albeit, playing at it a bit at Uni) and am notionally a member of a club currently, but even before children I didn't have the time to ride with them – so my graduation through the early kickings and winning points was very much on my own.

Sportives are supported and allow people to imagine that they're doing something similar to what the TdF riders do

And that's fine as far as it goes…. but if they finish, say, 25% behind the 'winner' and think 'that was alright, I'll have a go at the local evening circuit race', they're still likely to turn up and get a kicking.

Could I enter a road race and not be made a fool of?

Proabaly, but it's not an even effort – took me a few goes to cope with positioning and the constant changes of pace.

If I couldn't race and the only other option was sportives then I'd hang up my road bike

I'm with you there fella. I'm taking a 'racing break' whilst our little'un is small, and in the meantime I've had a crack at a few sportives and don't get what I 'need' from them/just don't get them – if I want to go for a ride, I'll do it and not pay anyone for it thanks.

Pulls up chair…. mine does the same. I've put it down to pads rattling as it stops as soon as the brakes are applied. Everything works/nothing obviously loose and it's not getting worse/better, so have put off looking until the pads need changing.

nice hilly commute to cheltenham

Indeed.

can anyone clarify what you mean by 'grubby'?

Dunno really, it always looks to me like it has the layer of grime of an inner city where you might be expecting Cotswold 'chocolate box' views. Also, as it nestles in the valley, all the industrial bits seem to be in plain view on the roads in and out of town. Might be that I only ever seem to go when it raining/winter and have missed the nice bits 😉

The big difference is down to how much of the stuff a frame maker chooses to use to make the frame

What he said – if it's the whole bike you're weighing, the rest of the 'stuff' connected to it is going to represent >75% of the total weight, so you might want to look elsewhere for some heavy lumps rather than pointing the finger just at the frame.

TBH, I don't know if I'd want to live in Stroud itself (it always feels a bit 'grubby' and cramped to me), but I know people who live in Minchinhampton and Box on the hills to the south of Stroud and that is very pretty indeed.

EDIT: Friend of mine rented this place (or one of the others in the same terrace) for the w/e when she got married in Stroud, which had a lot of character – but would be a 10/15 min drive out of Stroud itself.

http://www.holidaylettings.co.uk/rentals/stroud/112620

getting some lower back pain on climbs and been thinking my bars may be too high.

Also check your saddle height – I spent ages trying to figure out why I was in agony from lower back pain when riding and it turned out the seat post had slipped by 15mm or so. Was enough for my hips to be rocking without noticing it. Put it back up and all was well.

Work colleague looked into it a few weeks ago for his hols and came to the same conclusion and went for the airport car park in the end.

david_r read my mind shocker…… 😉

oh yeah skatepark in Horfield in bristol next to the leisure centre too.

I ride by that one most days and, if the weather is good, it's rammed from the time the schools kick out til sunset.

There's a concrete skate park and ickle pump track at the Peg Hill at the edge of Yate (a bit off your route) which looks good and is hardly used…. it's on this list/google for some pics….

http://www.southglos.gov.uk/NR/exeres/58ca1d66-d8bf-4107-8640-2f65d30a889e

I'm holding out until Alfine 11 arrives, which should allow time to get together the rest of the bits, so pics will be a while…..

If you don't mind it being designed as road stem, I picked up an ITM 'Racer' OS stem, which has symmetric graphics for £9 from CRC

EDIT: Just checked no OS ones left now…..

Hi they only came in yesterday. All pompetamine orders will be fulfilled by the close of play tomorrow

Handy, just ordered mine……

I guess, provided the pre-load torque to fit the pedal is greater than the torque the motor can generate, then you're ok. The prototype shows the shaft drilled for a torque pin (and non threads!), so it probably needs a bit more work to use with normal cranks.

have to oppose the rotation of the pedals and so do more work?

Precisely, the pedal effictively becomes a motor where the shaft is fixed to the crank. If it's got sufficient power to make a difference, it could feel quite funny to use, balancing the normal pedalling forces and reacting the 'motor' forces….

Another vote for the XA's….

Sorry – yes, you are right – and the P2's are around 1kg, though….

That's true – the kinesis forks are ~400g, which compared to a full carbon road fork is a lump….. but compared to the >700g of 700c P2's that they replaced they are positively feather-lite!

If the market is there, I'm sure the weight will come down – much as it did with the original carbon road forks.

Macavity – in that top pic, the aluminium lug as fractured as well. No idea which came first, obv.

Using the DC19's druidh references above on the road – more than 6 months of daily commuting with BB7's and they're sweet.

I'm out then 🙁

No, not insane at all – about what I'd "hoped" – paid north of £300 for some Drillbit frames and lenses (the lenses were the pricey bit for my prescription, thin-ness, coating and optics). Needed a bit of a sit-down before handing over the credit card – very, very nice though now I've got them.

Rough idea of cost? Might be going down that route in the near future….

thesurfbus –

its part of the Command Team Trainer which I don't work on

Wow – some when you say 'simulator' then you're not just talking about simulating the dyanimcs of submarine, but modelling enough of the ops area to model chain-of-command decisions between the crew? Chapeau – very impressive 😉

Put it this way – if you sub-out the production of 2000-ish parts, that is a fixed cost – and assuming you sell them all then you should at least break even. This way someone else has the hastle of sourcing material, developing any NC code required, finishing, quality control etc. All you have to do is pick up the phone and get the best price you can for the finished product.

To do the manufacture yourself – at this stage – will require you to have the headache of all those tasks PLUS the capital cost of the machines and stock material which are still your problem/debt if you sell nothing/the project doesn't come off.

exilegeordie – that's about the size of our living room as well and the (nominal) 5kW from our Harmony 13 covers that easily – in fact keeps most of downstairs warm on all but the coldest days.

As nickjb says – that's pretty thin. Have you thought about waterjet cutting? Aquablast in Gt Yarmouth used to do jobbing work.

EDIT: Doesn't look like they're there any more.

I think it depends on the complexity of the parts you're going to make, the number of axes you need control of, number chucks, size of billet etc etc. You really can chuck as much money as you like at these things. For an industrial 5-axis machining centre you'll be starting at several tens-of-thousands and go up from there. Unless you are planning on multi-year pay-back with continuous production, sub-ing out batch production would be cheaper. IME/O.

Would you be looking to supply the NC code, get them to develop it form 3D model, or work it up from 2D drawings and test the cut-paths?

thesurfbus – sorry, SCC = submarine control console. Seeing the pictures reminds me I've also had a hand in the contoured dock support blocks and the restraint system of the service jetty that's being built to support the Astute boats.

EDIT : supersessions9-2, +1

He shelved his "flagship" environmental policy. The Aussie public like a battler, took it as a sign of weakness and his approval rating went through the floor.

thesurfbus – does the simulator include a realistic/real SCC? I know the 'real thing' very well 😉