There’s us and them outside, the legacy population.

The resurgence of concrete blocks being dropped off flyovers!

A bit gimmicky with all the Cape Fear samples but…..

Proxxon

They have been spinning up the wheels on the tops and edges of the jumps, doing donuts on top of jumps to turnaround, smashing into wet parts of the track and powering out making big holes bikes without motors can’t do. Not to mention dragging up thick claggy mud from the surrounding woods and edges of the track onto the hardpack to **** it even more.

Top lads trashing a volunteer built track for mountain bikes!

Logical Progression isn’t really jungle though. Some of the breaks are a bit jungley but lacking the lyrics or loops of reggae / ragga. Bukem was an early junglist I guess but you gotta really think Goldie / Ruffige Cru or perhaps some early Hype sets from back in the day.

If I remember right Logical Progression was a compilation of artists creating distance between the original Jungle sound, with what was initially prefixed Intelligent and later would fall under the Drum and Bass umbrella as we now know it. It was a bit confusing at the time (and now) because some tracks blur the lines, with tech sounding Jungle, like I have posted, often being referred to as Drum and Bass or Intelligent Jungle. Eventually DnB distanced itself from Jungle by mostly dropping the sampled drum breaks, the tuned 808 basslines, Ragga/Dancehall/Reggae influences, settled on faster BPM’s and fragmented into further sub genres.

I’ve not yet posted any of the proto tracks because like the Lockdown Rave thread I wanted to start with the best and strongest examples of the genre, without getting too bogged down by the sub genres, hybrids and disputed terminology. The sort of influential tracks the Goldie, General Levy and Roni Size type audience don’t know about and some of you will have forgotten!

A plague of Sur-Ron **** have **** most of it up.

Always thought of the Garage scene as a downgrade from what preceded it, but the original Double 99 Ripgroove is one of few tunes I was jealous of, a certified banger.

Missed this off my list.

This because……..

Natural progression

Logical Progression, Shirley?

Yes it did cross my mind.

Alu Eccentric

Use 26 inch wheels and you’ve got yourself a nice playful bike with good geometry that works across the board!

Very fast rolling for the grip levels, like a DHR2 but I think I may even prefer them. slightly less grippy/blocky than a Magic Mary but waaaay faster.

High praise if they can mix it with arguably two of the best tyres currently available!

@snotrag – More importantly what are the MSC Grippers like?

being beaten with baseball bats

Are yes, baseball the next American craze to sweep the nation…………Or so they thought, until someone pointed out the millions of bats sold compared to the nonexistent sales of catchers mitts and balls!

the beginning, middle, and end are three very different times of my life

Pretty much this.

In terms of music/culture, the best period was arguably at the beginning, including the bit before in the late eighties! Fresh and exciting, by the end of the decade the seeds had been sown for the corporate product culture we have now. Everything is sponsored by insert corporate company name. Selling out is no longer a thing, backhanders are fronthanders, there’s no shame in being a shill after all who wants to be poor right. If you went abroad other countries were so distinct, you see all the same chains and fashions now!

The 90’s was a very violent time. Some town centres were dangerous places to be at night. Nightclubs and pubs could turn into all out war, bouncers beating people to a cabbage and threating the families afterwards was common, cars got nicked for fun. I witnessed some very disturbing things which are much harder to get away with now!

These sort of things cheer me up. It’s a similar vibe I get at LUBP, all types, all bikes having a good time.

You can definitely buy speed if it’s just storming down typical Peak District bridleways. A very slack 29er with 2 metre wheelbase will get you down faster than lesser bikes. As long as you don’t bottle it, the tyres can stand it, you don’t dump the bike on to the worst lines and compound it with piss poor body movement.

I have seen grown men (you expect it of children), blaming perfectly good bike/components because of inflated views of their skillset and athletic ability, whilst not acknowledging any gained experience between bike/component changes or the fact things were broken or completely different quality to begin with!

Most amateurs, myself included, don’t consistently surf the limits of traction, technique and athletic performance to get meaningful results.

Confidence from optimal setup and a bike that fits well, on a particular day/conditions, on particular terrain and enthusiasm of new often result in internet superlatives from people who aren’t comparing equal things!

Enjoy a video……

Or avoid city centres, which is the whole point of a CAZ

In Greater Manchester’s case it will be all the way out to the county boundary of Derbyshire, including rural and semi-rural areas.

I will agree that I hate changing frame bearings. Bearings and bushes on cars I can beat the crap out of or attack it with fire if I need to.
A bike frame bearing removal you just can’t be anywhere near as brutal.

Exactly.

Seized on freehubs (caused by poor/damaged often unreplaceable seal ring) can be PITA for similar reasons. If you don’t want to replace all the bearings you have to tease it off, otherwise it’s full nuclear and smash the lot out and start again.

Shouldn’t dog walkers only be depicted levitating a foot above the ground, with a halo and accompanied by choirs of angels?

Now now Bin Bins don’t be disrespectful to the new owners of all public spaces.

so worth checking with individual manufacturers eg

All well and good. But, for example, Intel customer service tell you to buy their latest LAN card, when the unsupported drivers work, despite their shady attempts to make it difficult!

I couldn’t give a **** about their corporate disputes!

Spot the difference

Bleepy bassy not lockdown…..

You can use older (not supported) drivers in compatibility mode as long as the OS driver architecture allows for it.

Good to know.

Pretty sure Microsoft changed the driver architecture, think it was from XP to Vista, but can’t remember for certain. For example in XP you had to stop the print spooler service to delete pending print jobs, the same way removing programs was handled when a background service was running. That was changed in subsequent versions and meant any previous drivers didn’t work/had to be updated by the vendor to work within the newer OS.

Spot on. The Polo chassis was mass produced narrow unibody shite (needed top and bottom strut braces for any kind of racing) and the standard brakes are horrifically bad. People used to describe mine as broken, they were/are dangerous in a car that light, easily tuned and fast!

Also the Polo might be stripped out and tuned to it’s limits. Could have a larger charger G60, Eaton or turbo conversion!

Here’s a bit of fun footage of 90’s supercharged power vs 2000’s supercharged power.

Bare in mind the Polo is 1.3L and uses a variation of a centrifugal charger as opposed to Mini’s 1.6L and a twin screw Eaton charger!

Knockhill what a track!

about to pull the trigger on

And rock up. I know it’s tongue in cheek but it’s so shit.

The choice has never been so good

Yup.

However the buyouts, amalgamations and corporate cost cutting will **** some of it up!

X-Fusion Forks – Good to average damping (compared to the latest) but very reliable. A few years back the dampers were very good for the money. Less so now as the competition has improved. The older rear shocks did not have as good a reputation for performance or reliability.

Manitou Forks – Very good damping with what used to be boutique features at the top end! Bushing slop was common and UK support is piss poor to nothing. Rear shocks surprisingly good but in the most basic mono shock form can need regular maintenance (air can resets no parts) to remain consistent.

Sunrace Cassettes – Pretty good. The shifters and mechs less so.

ZTTO – Mixed bag. Dropper levers pretty good but obviously not the best. The generic basic chain guide is sold under various brand names.

Brand X – The dropper is sold under that many different brand names I don’t even know if Brand X Tranz X whatever…… is pretty decent for the money, has a little bit of rotational play, is not maintenance free but usually doesn’t start playing up until about a year or two in!

I’ve heard the Hayes Dominion brakes are very good but haven’t tried them myself!

As above the Chosen/Stans/Halo 120 point engagement hubs have shite sealing and you can’t buy the seal ring that wears out separately, you have to buy the whole freehub WTAF ****

Smaller pullies on supercharged cars deliver the best bang for buck. The cost comes in upgrading the ancillaries!

I came very close to buying a R53 (looked at XKR’s, a supercharged VTEC and mercs) as the spiritual successor to the Polo G40 I used to own. It wasn’t the fastest (stage 4 tuned) but the most fun and characterful car I’ve ever owned, without looking or sounding like a boy racer fart can special. I got offers to buy it all the time and weirdly people used to stop me and the missus (she didn’t have a clue) to ask about it!

Peeps were chucking Eaton chargers in them way back when the scroll G-Laders reached there limits or let go.

Rare beasts supercharged cars but so nice to drive, everyone one should own/try one!

Don’t road bike or commute.

HT for pump tracks, jumping, tamer trails, laid back seafront/town rides etc or when I feel like a bit of fun/smashing my ankles to smithereens when the FS is out of action!

FS trail bike, 160 front, 140 rear, for the nastier DH style trails and rock smashing duties.

Covers me for what I want to do and the trail bike only get’s out of it’s depth at the extremes where I’m out of my depth!

Lol maybe you can ride it flat out, I’m a long long way from that level.

If you did all the features you’re good enough. It’s just a matter of letting it go and touching the brakes as little as possible. It genuinely is one of those trails where the cliché “speed is your friend” fits. You can get away with out and out aggression from the off (sprint into it from the tunnel), the deeper you land the drops the smoother it is. When I’ve got the bit between my teeth it’s one of my favourite trails at BPW.

Good bikes them alloy Transitions, a touch on the heavy side though!

My brother has an alloy Patrol with a Lyric and X2. It’s very stable and confidence inducing, it thumps through just about anything.

Then to insufficient funds which again is droppy! Phew.

It’s got to be one of the most fun (because of how fast you can ride it) but not too intimidating trails in the UK! You can go balls out, no holding back, because the landings are so wide, long and forgiving.

I reckon Watts Occurring is bit underrated as well. It’s like Rim Dingers bigger brother!

She can away and chip shite at herself, I’m enjoying this weather.

The only good thing about bad weather is all the dickheads crawl back under their rocks and have a break from creating problems.

In the last couple of years we have had police at Goyt, Macc Forest and a well known jump spot in the middle of nowhere. Not a single arrest BTW. And now hardly a soul to be seen, it only seems to matter in summer!

When some of the ***** that do this ever get caught, go to court and get sentenced, I hope they have to play “pick up the soap” for a number of years for attempted murder.

You’d like to think so but…….

They usually turn up to court like this:

Then talk about their mental health to a judge of a similar age who lets them off lightly. The same cancer at the heart of British politics both local and national. If it was someone younger, it’d be throw the book at them, bring back the birch, chain gangs and hanging.

Not to worry I’ve got a tonic that will sort it.

Something else I noticed from the early years was the demands for instant attention/response and disproportionate rage people displayed online.

People who work in offices seemed to think you should respond to them instantly or be put on a performance review!

Reviews would go something like this…. Username: MissPinkFluffyWuffy – The product was ordered XXXX and arrived XXXX, one hour later than agreed!!!! As a result my son died and my house burnt to the ground. 1 STAR, although I’d give it ZERO if it was an option. I hope the sellers kids get raped and their family die of cancer. I’m still awaiting a full refund and compensation.

Whilst there are people with genuine grievances, there’s a lot of pathetic drama and arsehole amplification going on!

Why oh why do they do it…

If you think about it for a minute it will become obvious!

Standard eyelet mounted shocks with through bolts usally have the top bolt one way round and the bottom the opposite way to resist undoing.

With trunnion mount you have two bolts either side, so one has to be reverse threaded to resist undoing for the same direction of rotation.

Something like that anyway!

Not completely but I’ve not really bothered with Facebook and never had an account on Twitter. I tried FB out and decided it’s not for me. It encourages people to show off, the tryhards, nosey parkers and petty gossips have a field day!

FB is and was geared up from day one to keep people engaged. I remember when it was new and all the rage, friends and acquaintances thought I was weird not using it. I thought they were weird, constantly checking on it and running off to IT suites to send each other little icons of drinks, while I went to an actual bar and socialised. Unfortunately at the bar, there were some who were constantly distracted by their phones, sporadically starring at their shoes/crotch and felt the need to take pictures of their drinks and surroundings.