:mrgreen: Squaddies hey! Nothing wrong with being rough!

Nouveau riche have no class though. Class is not something you can just buy :P You can be working class and have some class/taste.

Depends if your a pie eater and how your bike it setup. I can do it on my 32lb Mega when I’m running Mountain Kings….I cannot at all when I’m running a 42a High Roller at the front and a 60a at the back.

hes right you know. I’ve seen ENVE rim stickers on ebay though, so will have a look at the syntaces

Hah, it’s reverse snobbery with the syntaces though…Enve’s are for show as alluded to, Syntaces are for people that are actually discerning. :P

Bling is bad, subtly awesome is the best – buy parts because they are actually going to make a difference to ride characteristics you can feel….people who buy for the name are to be looked down upon like the nouveau riche tasteless scum they probably are. People will expect you to ride like Steve Peat if they see you rocking ENVE’s….do you want to have to live up to that image?

And what would those be? Extortionate replacement costs? Enve’s crash replacement policy means you’re still paying 350 per rim.

More seriously, are you talking about the MX jobs?

Yup, specifically the 35mm or 40mm wide models. Long wait times though, I had to really search to find some 40mm models by using google.de….and I bottled the buy as I don’t think I can afford it until the summer.

The 40mm rims are going to make my previous Flows seem horribly skinny :mrgreen:

$10k

Yes but in the USA/Canada Santa Cruz’s are significantly cheaper…a frame that costs 2000 dollars there usually cost 2000 sterling here, they have a lower cost of living and they earn the same kinds of wages.

They still aren’t sanely priced but the prices are not totally bat shit insane like here.

Want is a strange thing isn’t it? My LTc is utterly fantastic but I want a bronson. My SXs are brilliant but I want ENVE rims. I cannot justify either in terms of skill of cost, but I still want.

If you want to spend lots on rims don’t go with ENVE, the new Syntaces are where it’s at. 900 quid will buy you wheels that are as light as ENVE’s, wider, nearly as stiff, made out of aluminium and they’ll come with a good warranty and crash replacement policy.

Considering some of the guys at mtbnews.de can’t tell the difference in stiffness…the stupidly huge width of them will also actually benefit you at your level of riding as opposed to the benefits the ENVE’s will give you. You’ll be able to run really really low tyre pressures without worrying about tyre roll, without worrying about cracking the rims (you can bend dents out of aluminium) and you’ll get decreased rolling resistance to boot.

P.S This was all “IMO”.

If I had that kind of money I’d go the whole hog…spend even more and be having several different frame prototypes made with different geometry and different levels of stiffness….then I’d chuck the ones I didn’t like away or give them to you guys.

It does look nice, in a kind of….what if my Mega was made out of carbon way.

In fact, I know someone that could do really nice carbon layups for me. I bet I could get a copy of my Mega prototyped in carbon….with my own custom geometry…for the cost of that build.

Marketing these bikes in such a way that makes them such aspirational products that they are worth splurging 9k on is also a great way of earning money in the current climate.

Because the only people that haven’t been hit by the recession are those that can afford to blow that kind of money on something so ridiculous.

The best thing I saw was a review a while back of the new V-10 Carbon that complained it lacked front end feel. Yahhh…..probably something to do with the fact you made the frame, wheels and bars out of carbon….in the name reducing a bit of weight and selling a shiney luxury product.

£9000

Could buy a freaking Kwak 636 for that or be half of the way towards a BMW S1000RR HP4. There’s no way a bicycle should cost that much.

Kwak 636 – comparable suspension in terms of technology to that 9K build, an engine that makes 20,000 rpm, electronics packages derived from WSBK, a chassis that has been designed, redesigned and tested on tracks to get the correct flex. The list goes on.

The reason that Santa Cruz Bronsons start at 4.5k and ends at 9k is because people are willing to spend that on the name, the 650b wheels and the “oooh it’s shiney” carbon factor. These people tend to be roadies who also splurge tens of thousands on ridiculously overpriced Italian road bike frames.

Third season is shaping up to be better than the first two.

There is some middle ground though, there are some quite clearly ridiculous examples of political correctness. I seem to remember the Christmas lights in Oxford being de-Christmastized much to the behest of the local Sikh, Muslim and Jewish population.

That’s not to say political correctness is bad though. On the whole it’s made some wonderful improvements to society.

Again it’s all about the context and language used, I tend to turn off when reading anything with such sensationalist language in the context of ethnic or racial issues. They’re usually designed to inflame tensions.

Nope, doesn’t have the words “Political correctness gone mad” in it. Like the term “‘elf in safety” it’s mostly a term reserved for use by people like Melanie Phillips and Richard Littlejohn…people who are quite possibly suffering from Anosognosia.

Did that paper you linked to trot out the often Daily Mail touted “It’s PC gone mad”. You do tend to find that sentence being used a lot in Daily Fail articles about Christians not getting why they aren’t allowed to discriminate against homosexuals or something to do with Muslims and pork etc

……..North Wales. That bastion of liberal progressive anti-racism lol

Anyhow, the proper old school left wing were often racist.

You still shot yourself in the foot with your post btw.

ust as a hypothetical, if NK did launch a short-range nuclear missile at Seoul, how would the US react?
They can’t do nothing, a ground invasion would surely follow, probably within days.
If they send a large conventional force to invade the north that could be met with a similar response (a similar weapon could do a lot of damage to a naval fleet) The loss of so many troops wouldn’t play well at home.
They can’t really retaliate with a nuclear attack, the NK civilian casualties wouldn’t go down well with the US public, and the wider world public.
Can they topple (assisinate?) the leadership. How? Should they do this before NK attack, is that legal?

Any ballistic missile attack would be intercepted by the Americans, the Yanks and South Korea would respond with surgical strikes against Korean military targets. Their arty would be wiped out as would communications, command bunkers, logistical lines and power stations.

Which would probably result in a full on shooting match for a few months with massive casualties, however the Americans wouldn’t need to use nukes to wipe NK off the map. Satellite based intelligence, U2 spy planes and precision munitions launched from submarines, destroyers, B-2’s, B-1’s, F-18’s, F-22’s etc ad nauseum can do that job.

NK probably won’t attack… the risk is misinterpreting a missile test or other North Korean actions and then starting a full blown war by accident because everyone’s on edge.

It’s not Ad Hom when the paper is barely better than the Daily Fail. If you’d posted the Times then you would have shot yourself in the foot with a .22lr instead of a 40mm bofors canon.

Blah blah blah semantics blah blah blah read between the lines blah blah blah context.

He meant anyone using the term in the context of a race discussion.

P.S. Although you did post a telegraph article so I’d almost be tempted to take it as evidence for a literal interpretation of Rusty’s point.

Let me know if you’d like me to post a nice picture of myself waving a white flag.
You could get it laminated.

Rusty, nice way to take the highroad.

So not only have you forgotten that you said “The only people who really complain about ‘poltical correctness gone mad’ ARE the kind of people who miss the 70’s…” you didn’t even spot where I’d quoted you?

What point were you trying to make then? That Rusty Spanners logic must mean that the spotted dick people are racists because they complained about “political correctness gone mad”. I think this is a completely specious point to make, even totally irrelevant in the context of what we are talking about.

The 15mm axle was the most ridiculous invention the industry created to save a few grams. Should have just stuck with 20mm and then we wouldn’t have all this idiotic fracturing of standards and parts commonality.

HAH! You know what I mean though….even if you have the best of intentions you can still be conditioned to have some prejudice thoughts. The trick is to recognize those feelings and deal with them using rationality and logic.

I’m generally colourblind….I might sometimes…being honest with myself…thanks to the mass media feel a bit shifty if someone of a beardy shaved head persuasion sits next to me with a puffer jacket on whilst riding the underground….the same kind of shifty that I feel if I meet a bunch of pissed up white skinheads walking back home from a night out.

But what I’ve realized is that lot’s of people aren’t colorblind, I’ve felt incredibly uncomfortable sometimes in the presence of international or ethnic students because they’ve let it be known that I must come from a privileged background because I’m white. I might have come from a middle class background but I have a lot of white friends that grew up in sink estates and my parents were living just above the line for periods during my childhood.

My girlfriends parents (she’s Filipino and thank god…. highly educated …..so she saw through her parents crap) wanted her to marry a white guy because they’re seen as having money and power…even if they don’t it gives the impression that you do just by being white. For example, some of her friends in the Oxford Filipino Society instantly assume I’ll love their country because it’s so cheap and I’ll obviously be able to afford huge nights out, blow, hookers, personal chefs, cleaning ladies etc etc.

I find this mildly irritating.

P.S. Anyhooo these are just some of my random thoughts that I’m MULLING on about how I FEEL…. that I’ve typed out loud for you guys. Please don’t take offence to them, intellectually I don’t like treating humans differently so please don’t take anything I say out of context.

I don’t care anymore, whenever these threads come up you either have racists or the anti-racists going mental and no one in between.

Whenever I see discussions about racism on the television or read them in papers…again…it’s the same **** story. Either I see EDL morons on the BBC or I’m reading in the Guardian about how something like Django Unchained is a racist white mans way of making himself feel better about slavery.

When/If I ever have a lot of money, I’ll buy a big **** library plus laboratory in the middle of Alaska and go all hermit on the world.

I’m ambivalent to this whole thread. Equal rights….racism?’ **** equal rights…. there I said it…. **** it because as soon as they’re equal, then some of them….white…black…..all races under the sun… invariably look to worsen their least favorite peoples rights whilst bleating about their own.

Heated threads usually entertain me but I found myself bored to hell by this one.

Yeah just go with the whole hippy option, that way he won’t become repressed later on.

After your beautifully nuanced postings on the long God thread, I’m disappointed.

Welcome to Singletrackworld.com

I wonder if there’s a typical type of person who refuses MMR. Do some people not really understand the potential dangers of having measles?

Hippies and Daily Mail Readers. Opposite ends of the spectrum political spectrum but they all have one thing in common, they’re stupid air heads. These people are a **** disgrace to human intellect.

The really hilarious thing is that there is a statistically insignificant relationship between having the MMR vaccine and having a lower chance of developing autism.

10 quid says it goes hot completely unintentionally

then quite possibly your skills are the limiting factor.

Nahhh that’s what 29ers are for.

Hi Bwaarp/ tomhoward

Spotted that item the other night, wonder how well it would work with most rear mech quoting a range upto 36tooth? Also a bit pricey for just four cassette rings.

Agree that behind the closed doors sram are possibly flat out on other lower spec (and hopefully cost)groupsets.

Well Pinkbike say they work fine with the long cage Zee and X9 rear mechs. However they did state shifting was better with the X9.

40 at the back at 34 up front would give me enough range to drop the double setup on my Mega.

Godzilla, that’s the nicest Patriot build I’ve seen. Good work!

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/General-Lee-11-40-Cassete-Rear-Sprockets-Kit-SRAM-Shimano-SRAM-XX1-Low-Cost-/271171265239?pt=Cycling_Parts_Accessories&hash=item3f231122d7

master cyl

I thought mine were leaking when I bought them new, turns out it was just a bit of oil on top of the diagpragm that get’s out through the little vent holes.

Not had any such thing since I bled them. Shimano’s go wrong as well, just go for what makes you happy.

At the end of the day the Shimano’s are probably better value for money at the SLX to XT end of the range but you can’t get parts for them (eg spare levers or seals) – however they’re so cheap it’s somewhat less of an issue. They’re quite a bit heavier than a set of Race Evo X2’s though and the XTR’s which approach the weight of the Hopes are certainly not good value for money as they’e a disposable throwaway product.

For uk riding a jacket spare jersey food water tube pump and multi tool isnt that much to carry. Throw in a first aid kit and thats still not that much. Guess it depends how far you want to walk while cold and wet.

This. It’s not much effort to carry a spare jacket and base layer – maybe it’s the hiking/climbing side of me coming out but I never do any rides without them.

But hey.

“busy trail center” doesn’t cut it, I’ve ridden past guys who were unconscious by the side of the trail and later found out from riding buddies.

I wouldn’t entirely discount the arsenic theory Zokes, Wolfe-Simon knows her stuff…she’s seems to think she can still prove it…I’m going to wait and see what she produces…..besides the research she did led to an interesting discovery even if her own theory is on the wayside at the moment.

It wouldn’t be the first time an LBS knew **** all about mountain biking.

By old school hopes do you mean C2’s or old Mini’s because the ones we have feel much nicer than SRAM brakes.

What’s the point of talking about brakes you have no experience with? Is the OP buying ancient Hope brakes or their new stuff which is pretty damn good?

You can get matchmaker mounts for Hopes as well if that is really your thing.

Platoon, Good Morning Vietnam, The Thin Red Line and all Quentin Tarrentino films

Ice spikes for the nuclear winter.

My old mans got Race X2 Evos, the race levers are actually more powerful than the tech ones. Nothing but good things to say about them, the same can be said for my Tech Evo V2s.

NK really seems to be poking the dragon asking for instant sunshine over Pyongyang.

Oh well, looking forward to watching videos of F-18’s wiping out armored columns and the yanks generally bulldozing everyone with high explosives north of the border.

Interesting news for once.