Wors – yes, a while ago. IIRC, you buy a ticket in the village for all the ‘attractions’ of which the caves are part of it. They are pretty good, but Wookey Hole is better (though less other ‘things’ to do around it, unless you go into Wells)…. and then I went to NZ for a bit and realised we don’t really ‘do’ caves like they do ;-)

Don’t do what a friend of mine did and fill the gaps with silicone and then try and finish it off with a belt sander. The result was, predictably, not what he was expecting, as I tried to tell before embarking on the project……

When fit: ride up gorge, pootle over to Bath along the top, back to Bristol along the path. Lovely

When not fit (as currently): ride up Burrington Coombe, descend through gorge scaring all and sundry, esp through the steep switchbacks at the bottom. Stop for an ice cream in the village, creep home any way I can :-)

+1 Western Car Radio

http://www.singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/back-to-square-taper-anyone-else-given-up

This may help, or just add further confusion….

BB

If it’s for the pinch bolts that hold on the non-drive side arm, then be careful as the bolts are very short, the forging is quite soft…. and the first one I ever fitted I stripped the thread under, what my highly calibrated hand, thought was a very low torque indeed.

Replaced the standard shimano items with longer stainless steel bolts so they use all of the available thread in the arms and can now do them up as tight as I like/am able. Simples.

If you go over the Avonmouth bridge, along the A403 then over the Severn bridge, you will actually see very little of Bristol at all, only the suburbs and outlying villages that are wedged between the Severn estuary and the M5, so whether cycling through Bristol is pleasant or not is a moot point ;-)

As others have said, if you base this bit of your route on the Avon cycle way, it’s actually a fairly pleasant ride through quiet back lanes – you can make it more direct by adding the busier A/B roads if you need to make up time/get somewhere specific.

As others have said, at that budget, avoid carbon and then either go for something nice and handbuilt, or maybe Ksyrium Equipes or old stock Ksyrium Elites. Had a pair of Elites for 5 or so years and love’um. The only caviats; spokes are murderously expensive and, as with most deep/stiff rims, they can be a bu&&er to true up if you do ding them as the rim is stiff and there aren’t many spokes to pull it back into line.

I’m aware of the facts – my day job involves working on on- and off-shore projects for RR energy. I only mentioned the cars as it the area that many people know. The energy division is one of only two (marine being the other) that is actually making money for the RR group at the moment.

I’t not that they can’t put the effort in – they very much have the resource to do it – they simply don’t want to. Obviously, all of this is reading between the lines, but energy division uses gas turbines built by/based on the aero engines, so there is a commercial driver to carry on using oil/gas powered turbines rather than branching out into new areas(this is mainly as the maintenance contracts on the turbines is FAR more lucrative than the up-front sale and will run on into the future as a revenuw stream for 10+ years).

Another area of my day job involves helping design/optimise oil drill bits and software tools to optimise their use, which has given me an insight into the drivers on the supply-side of the oil business, and the practises that go on there, as well. The more I see, the more it boils my pi$$…. and the more I think I should get out of it and help the guys with the tidal power project…. but it doesn;t pay as well…. so I proabaly won’t…. which just makes me even more depressed :-(

The commuter see’s almost exclusively road miles (Airbourne Carpe Diem frame with mechanical discs, so it gets a very occassional through-the-woods bash when time/conditions permit). As I say, the fact that it’s only a case of undoing the two pinch bolts and you can have access to the BB cups means that I actually do more maintenance with HTII than square taper. I generally take the cups out and clean/regrease every 6 months or so and that seems to have kept it sweet…. to the point that the rear hub bearings are about to die first – go figure! ;-)

No hippie – 30 (something ;-) year old mechanical engineer with a PhD, specialising in lightweight materials for such things.

I have nothing in writing – but do have a friend at the patent office who has told me that this is the case (it’s nothing new – it’s quite common place in pharamceuticals (sic), but with different economic drivers) and another two friends who work for a tidal power generation company that was a spin-off from my Uni dept. They find themselves in the situation where their demonstrator project has been shown to be very successful, so they took some investment capital from the energy division of a large company (best known for making expensive cars and big aero engines) in exchange to access to help with the man power for production engineer the system and some ‘management assistance’. Last time I spoke to them, the company was being driven in a direction that was the polar opposite to the direction they wanted it to go in (i.e. – set up to generate cheap tidal power as effectively as possible) on the grounds that the market is not yet ready for such ambitious technologies – effectively the company will be treated as ‘technology on the shelf’ until such time as it is deemed “ready for market”. You can read that as you like, but they are considering their positions as can’t see any way to fight it from within…..

EDIT: Agreed, drifting off-topic. Sorry.

aracer – the problem with solar at the moment is feeding the electricity to the grid for domestic use where you need to have a constant supply. Same argument with wind. If you use the solar to generate hydrogen when there is sunshine you effectively generate a “storage phase” to the system (like a battery), so assuming there is enough electricy generating capacity overall, you get a more consistent supply of hydrogen, even though there may be vast daily fluctuations in the rate at which it is generated (clouds day/wind stops blowing).

As an aside, tidal would be great for this, as over a day the energy that can be harvested from a given site is fixed, but there are two peaks in energy density and two troughs over any given day.

Hydrogen impact: f*ck all. Generate it using solar, store it pressurised, transport to ‘petrol stations’, fill and go the same (well, similar) to now. All you get out the back is water vapour.

Whay aren’t we doign it already – dunno. Oh, yes, hang on, I do – cause the oil compaines either develop/patent/hide the technologies so it can’t be used without huge licenses equivalent to their current income, or buy out/surpress others workign in the area. It will happen, but the politics means the oil will have to nearly run out first :-(

HTII on three bikes (commuter coming up to it’s 10,000 mile birthday) and never had a problem with any of them. Apart from the Cheese-Rings (TM) issue, the only other problem is the tiny pinch bolts. Had all three frames faced before fitting and they’ve all been fine. As well as the stiffness, I like being able to take the whole thing apart with an allen key…. always seemed to end up with creaking from sqaure taper from making/breaking the interference fit between the cranks and the arms.

EDIT: ^^^ What Peter said… :-)

Doog – Yes, clean one every day… and if it’s really warm on the way to work, rinse it under the tap when I arrive and it’s clean (er/ish) and dry by home time. Agree, the sock smell is to be avoided ;-)

My less-than-fashionable solution to this problem (got bitten a few times on the head during one summer several years ago, with a bad reaction each time) is to wear a bandana under the helmet. It seems to work by stopping the insects getting stuck in the hair and they just slide right through the front vent and out the back. Haven’t been bitten since and that was more than 10 years ago now. Added bonus is the bandana acts like a wicking base layer for your head, which reduces how sweaty the helmet pads get – which is a bonus doing an hours commute each way in summer.

Dislocated my left elbow twice (once in MTB race and then about 7 years later in a road race). First time there was a fracture a well, so was in a cast for about a month before staring physio. This took about another 3/4 weeks before it was strong enough to ride on again and about 4 months in total to get the range of motion I have now back (about 95% of what is was before – still can’t fully extend it, but close enough, and it isn’t as strong as it was). Second time wasn’t as bad in terms of recovery as I knew what to expect.

I – quite literally – feel your pain. Tries to stand up the first time I did and also remember looking down and seeing my lower arm just swinging around, btu the fingers still wiggled! ;-) All-but passed out with the pain and they had to put me under to reset it – the wife says I was still grimacing when they popped it back in, even under the general!

Best of luck – it will be (nearly) as good as new. Just give it time.

You need to work out the frustum of a cone. Haven’t got time to do it now, but the basics are here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frustrum and a bit of goalseek magic in Excel will see you right… probably ;-)

Is this story going to have a happy ending? ;-)

Never had any complaints with Open Pro’s – certainly for the money they are about as good/light as you’ll get. You could prob get away with 28 hole, but it will be more of a faff that getting 32 hole. other than that, it’s all good. As Dylan says, CXP22’s are a bit cheaper, stiffer (deeper section), but weight a good bit more. Neither are a bad choice.

What Clubber said

Given the costs of the Aksiums, you either find a doner rim from someone whose got a wheel whose hub has failed and rebuild it, or get a new wheel (IIRC you can buy Mavic wheels separately from some places – try Parkers -or, as you say, get a 105/Open Pro build). The cost and difficulty of mating a Ksyrium rim to your hub will be as much as buying a new wheel. Last time I was robbed blind… sorry…. bought some Ksyrium spokes they were several quid a go.

Depends – mixture of A&C for me.

<cough> Sorry for the spelling ^^^, it’s been a long afternoon…. </cough>

Listed status adds a whole new dimension. BLoke at work wanted to put a (admittedly, large) wooden, temporary shed in the front garden of his listed property. Planners won’t let him do it as the wood structure is no tin keepign withthe stone building…. and won’t let him put up a stone structure as this won’t be a temporary structure <rolls eyes!!>

On further inspection, it’s not just his house that is listed, but a very large of his village, which is basically as far as he can see from his front door in any direction.

Gave up on the plan on the end, as once he’d asked the question the plannign officer got quite itnerested – the implication beign he worul be back periodically to check such a structure hadn’t ‘magically appeared overnight’ ;-)

And…

http://www.singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/high-end-bike-crime-in-bristol-up-20

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/bristol/8062541.stm

“Those caught got anything from a £250 fine, to a 100-hours community order, to three months’ detention”

Is that really a deterant? <Daily Mail mode> Hanging’s too good for the theiving scum!!! </Daily Mail mode>

Bohngy – I see your profile says you’re in Bristol. I’ve got a basic Elite fluid one sat at home doing nowt. If you want to borrow or buy it (for a nominal amount) to see how you get on with them, then email me and we’ll sort something out.

gshortATeatecDOTcoDOTuk

Fair enough – maybe I’ll wander along to the next one and kick up a fuss! ;-)

I’ve just sold one my bikes to a friend who lives just off the Southmead estate…. I went white with fear when he said his was ‘…just going to leave it outside…’. I’ve educated of what the bare minimum of security will need to be and to be prepared for it go missing fairly swiftly. He doesn’t believe me, so we’ll see who’s right ;-)

Mr A – I’ve seen the signs in our local shops for similar meetings near me (Coombe Dingle/Shirehampton area). Is it worth going/do they do any good…. I know that absolutely nothing will happen unless you do something, but I get the feeling that they end up being just a talking shop where the local bobby ‘…hears your concerns…’ but ‘…budget restrictions prevent any targetted measures…’. Happy to be put right on this.

Yeah, saw that as well this morning. I can’t remember if they said what the 20% increase was compared to (year-on-year, last 10 years etc….) and it was a complete non story in the sense that it was a statement of a statictic followed by a metaphorical shrug of the shoulders in a kind of ‘well, there you go then’ way.

It then went on to repeat the usual mantra about the extra CycleCity money (read: there will be more facilites to park bikes in the open around town, so tea-leaf’s come and get ‘um!!!)

1) yes

2) You don’t sweat less, just go faster! ;-)

A bit left-field, but…. have stayed in this place in one of the bunkhouses. Bar stayed open as long as u like, make as much noise as you like, cheap as chips and the trails started straight from the door. There was camping there as well and, I think, included breakfast in the pub – what’s not to like!

http://www.thecastleinn.co.uk/

Yes, the shed is storage and the ‘workshop’ – i.e., whilst I don’t leave the tools on the bench, it wouldn’t take a genius to work out where they are, so all the kit is there to strip the bike down if they did get in.

I had though about building a lockable area under the bench to keep the tools in to at least slow them down (which I may still do – I custom built the bench from steel box sectionto fit the shed, so any ‘extras’ are but a but a few welds away!! ;-), but if they bought a multi-tool with them, that would be enough to clean most bits off the frame. This is essentially what the alarm is for – if they do get in, hopefully it will deter them from hanging around long enough to start stripping the bikes down as they can’t be walked out of the shed quickly.

My biggest worry is, if they do get in once, but can’t get away with anything they’ll come back again better prepared…

All bikes locked in concrete shed attached to the house with a steel grate over the (small and locked) window. All bikes locked together and then ground anchored to the wall and floor with separate chains locks. To gain access, you need to go through at least two doors, one of which will be a UPVC ‘front door’ style multi-point locking joby and the heavy gauge steel door on the shed which is secured by three pad locks. Oh, and the shed is alarmed as well.

The only downsides:

– The bikes share the shed with the chest freezer and it can be a bit of a chore getting through all the locks in a hurry (wife not best pleased at this! ;-)
– Even at this level, I’m quite paranoid (have been known to ride round the block if there are suspicious lookign scrouts about when I get home etc) and realise that ‘if they want it, they’ll get it’, so the MTB’s generally live in the loft as I’ve not been usung them much, which means they get used even less :-(

2000, 6000 and 7000 can be precipitation hardened (heat treated), the rest can’t

Edit: 7000 series is generally stronger that 2000 and 6000 so MAY not need to be heat treated for a given application, but the strength reduction due to annealing in the heat affected zone is so great that you pretty much have to on a frame where the section thicknesses are so small and all of the welds are ‘critical’ (i.e. – very little redundancy)

If it’s 6000 or 7000 aluminium alloy (historically, if US, likely to be 6000, if Far East 7000, but I digress) they will more than likely be heat treated after welding. This can be done for individual welds with heat blankets, but even then achieving the correct temperautre and soak times to match the material and the welding process is a bit hit and miss.

A while ago, the weld between the BB and the seat tube cracked on my commuter. I know a guy who welds thin section Alu for a living, but can’t do the heat treatment. As I knew the frame was bin fodder, so he ground out and welded up the crack anyway and I ran it again to see how it woudl last. 2 weeks later, the frame was in the bin.

I commute from Coombe Dingle, right the way across the top fo the city and out the other side at Frenchay and on to Yate – about 15 miles each way. In city, it ain’t so bad – it’s usually a case of watching for bad driving (most blood occured when a numpty opened a car door on my – never seen so much red stuff come out of hand before!)

Both times I’ve been to A+E, I was hit from behind, so couldn’t really do anything about it. Worst one was being clipped from behind by a truck doing 50. He didn’t even know he’d done it, so went on his way – I flew threw the air into the verge (luckily). The bike was a complete mess, having fallen under his wheels while I went the other way onto the verge. Took quite a while to get back on the road again after that… :-(

Photobox

Based on my sample of 10 years riding essentially the same commute, my law of averages is roughly:

Take avoiding action due to inconsiderate driving – at least once a day

Have to brake hard/come to a stop stop due to numpty pulling out/pulling in/general stupidity – twice a week

Being the victim of driving so shocking, but not resulting in a collision, that I should give the b*st*rd a piece of my mind – once a month

Collision, or potential collision resulting in minor damage to me/the bike/the ar$ewipe in the cars ear drums – every 9 months to a year

Impact with either car or gound resulting in a few days off work for road rash or a trip to A+E – every 3 to 4 years

I’m due a another trip to A+E :-( Having said that though, based on miles travelled I’ve had far worse injuries racing – one elbow (MTB race) and the same elbow again about 7 years later in a road race… so the daily commute isn’t, relatively, so bad.

Edit: Didn’t see the ‘other thread’ until after all the typing ;-)

It’s unworkable, I know, but I’ve always thought you shouldn’t be able to get a car license until you’ve ridden a motorbike for X-years and only be able to get a motorbike license having cycled for X-years before that. Build up to the skills you need to drive and have an appreciation for other road users from their perspective.