Works fine on the commuter (1×12-24); I’ve set the front mech as low as possible without the chain touching when on lowest cassette gear, and centred (the chain doesn’t actually touch when tested statically; it may when pedalling). This is with a ramped 9-speed middle ring, but onroad rather than off. YMMV, no liability accepted for unplanned deletion of front teeth on stem.

RideByWyre?

One good one that sits in my tool kit and has proved very useful on one occasion (at virtually nil weight) is a tyre patch. If you slash the sidewall a new tube may not be enough (will bulge through). You can buy one from Park for £5. Or, as I did, cut open an old toothpaste tube…

Also, replacement mech hanger. For the first time ever I had my mech removed without permission in the Peaks a couple of weeks ago; conveniently with a spare mech hanger I was underway again in 10mins. Certainly not a life and death situation in this case, but would have royally cr*pped on my day without it!

Not tried it yet, but keep meaning to trial this

http://www.robogeo.com/home/

Would be interested to hear how you get on with it

CP

Granted there were a few cringe-worthy moments (“I’m a student of the law you know!” is particularly ****) and I do not RLJ or agree that any cyclist should. However, the cyclist was fundamentally within his rights to ask some very basic questions of the policeman, and not to simply do whatever he’s told because a bloke in DayGlo tells him to. The police are given very specific powers over the general populace under very specific conditions; one comes with the other – they don’t have carte blanche to do whatever they feel is the right thing.

Cyclist was still a bit of a tool though…

Thanks for the thoughts all, feeling a little happier about it now.

I do find pricing things quite difficult; in this instance it looks like I underpriced both items – at least they sold quickly! I’d gotten trade-in quotes for both items and priced them in excess of that (although by the time I’ve taken off eBay and Paypal fees, it’ll be about the same) My loss is someone else’s gain, and both items were basically collecting dust.

C’est la vie!

Re having sold it twice, I suspect that the two buyers were buying essentially simultaneously; the paypal payments have come through 4secs apart!

Having read through PayPal seller protection it looks pretty watertight so long as I get decent proof of postage/delivery. I always use (and have costed for) Special Delivery, so that should be fine.

We’ll see what happens.

Strictly speaking, it’s the speed of light in a vacuum that is the absolute; the speed of light decreases in anything other than a vacuum (the origin of diffraction effects at air/water interface) and in fact Cerenkov radiation (the blue glow (NOT green!) arising from used nuclear fuel stored under water) arises from high energy beta-particles (electrons) exceeding the local speed of light (ie. in water not vacuum).

It is likely that there is a systematic basis for the apparent observed neutrino behaviour in this case; if Einstein’s General Relativity is proven not to apply in this instance it will be a significant revelation. Having said that, there is a long running breakdown between general relativity and quantum mechanics which has yet to be explained (string/membrane theory attempts, but is very hard to substantiate in any meaningful sense) and the greatest strength of the scientific method is that any theory can be proved incorrect…

The final nail in MBR’s coffin (for me) was a few years ago when a shock review commended the Fox RPWhatEverItWas for having a very wide range of tunability based entirely upon the number of clicks on the dials…

I could have put this down to irony, but the pictured 13yr old who seemed to be responsible was probably too young to have seen Spinal Tap…

IIRC 1967 (or closely thereabouts) was the only year in the 20th century that a UK serviceman didn’t die on active service.

Awesome design, works really well. The fact that you can hold the side of the jug with the burner going full-billy on the bottom is testament to the efficiency of the system.

One word of warning – boiling water you can’t go wrong. If you have anything heavier than that in it (soup, porridge, stew etc) you can very easily put heat into it faster than can be moved away from the heat transfer surface on the bottom, irrespective of how frequently/religiously you stir it… I have a nice singed look to the base of mine now; still works fine though!

Cavendish?

The contest is for Sports Personality[/i] of the year, not Sports Pikey…

Read this obituary, then see how funny it all seems.

http://www.economist.com/node/18111806?story_id=18111806

Thanks Racing Ralph; where is the valve – i’m guessing on the bottom of the damper rod (ie bit that is attached to outer tube by nut)

C

Laddie is 3yrs and regularly uses the pottie; for a while the difficulty was getting him to get off again. He’d happily settle down for a 20-30 minute session, usually as you were about to go out somewhere! I’d second the leaving the door open when you’re using the bathroom; there is also very little cuter than having him sit down next to you with his own copy of Singletrack; he likes to play ‘spot the bike on every page’.

We’ve introduced stickers and sticker books as an inducement/reward, 1 sticker for using the potty but 2 if he tells us he wants to use the potty ahead of time (still v. much the weakness).

As far as gross/embarrassing goes, that would be laddie recently prancing round the bedroom with a fully loaded nappy of pebbles which progressively ‘dribbled’ out of the leg cuff and rolled across the floor. We found/cleaned up all but one, which the dog cleaned up for us…

Dogs are disgusting 🙂

Getting a bit repetitious but:

‘Older’ AyUps for three winters, used fairly frequently for MTB and daily for commuting. I prefer the helmet mounting over the Joystick as I can mount the laps well forward (just above the visor), the batteries on the back and the overall height of the helmet is the same. I run the cable between inside the helmet, and hence no snagging risk.

I’m about to get the light units upgraded with XPG emitters and revised optics; you can get this done by AyUp but requires return to Oz (they reckon 10day turnaround).

I do find they don’t produce the overall levels of light that say Trouties offerings do, however I don’t have ‘shadowing’ problems from mates lights as I’m always too far off the back of the group…

Overall, v. happy.

You Beauty!

Spot on, cheers.

Chris

Last year, my place adopted a ‘make the time up policy’. We already run a flexi-time system, so this tagged onto it quite neatly – the only addition was that you didn’t have to use a ‘flexi day’ entitlement to cover snow absence, just track the hours and make them up.

As dept manager, I got to brief the dept on the policy.

Universally well received.

Thanks Samuri,

My concern is more around the potential for others to access those files as my firewall software is running locally on the two PCs and I don’t know how secure the router and NAS are to external access.

Not really understanding this subject; I just know enough to be paranoid!

Chris

That sounds like a particularly niche trophy, bookend or other ornament in the making!

I keep meaning to make some kind of plinth/mount for my FM2n so that I can have that out on display. I haven’t shot a frame of film in 4 years – it just seems a shame for it to sit in a darkened camera bag.

TJ, one of my reasons for liking Rush so much is that they haven’t stood still or rested on their laurels; their music has constantly evolved, developed and changed. Most fans I know have periods of their work they like less (or even dislike) – I’m actually not that much of a fan of the 2112 era (heresy) and the less said about Hold Your Fire the better. But RTB, Counterparts, S&A (most recently) have been fantastic.

If you’ve ever seen Rush in an interview, pretentious is not the word that springs to mind!

I know I won’t.

R30 tour was good, on floor at NEC so had some atmosphere. Plus it was on my birthday, and seeing Rush live was the culmination of a ~15yr ambition. I’d missed the Roll the Bones tour as I was ill, and when they didn’t tour Europe on Counterparts or Vapor Trails, I figured they’d given up on Europe.

I did find the atmosphere at the S&A tour bad; I was in the stands to the Right side at the NEC. EVERYONE was sitting down; I didn’t see a single person moving in the stands; the floor didn’t look much livelier. I just find it bizarre – I know we’re all getting a bit long in the tooth, but if the band can put on that kind of performance it seems polite to at least display a pulse!

Oh well, there went my self-restraint.

Sheffield, Block C Row 26.

Yipppeeeee!!!!!
😀 😀 😀 😀

The fact that I didn’t get the pre-sale notice from rush.com and that by Friday all good tickets will be gone has nothing to do with my decision.

I did try the link above, but it came back all ‘404 forbidden’!

Any other suggestions?

I’ve been a Rush fan since I was 12. That’s a long time ago. I saw them on the R30 and Snakes & Arrows tours. Unfortunately, I can’t justify £75 a pop right now, and to be honest whilst I *love* Rush’s live performance, I found the audience’s general air of detached boredom at the two shows I’ve attended to be very depressing.

Why would you spend that kind of money to sit in a seat and watch them play on a big screen without even so much as tapping your foot? I can do that in my living room.

Feel very bad that I won’t be seeing them (I feel like I’m letting them down :D), but not this time.

Best deal.

Joplin 3 from CRC for ~£90
Use for ~3months
Main seal blows and dumps oil out of bottom (irrespective of tube/gaiter around top seal)
Return Joplin 3 to importers
Importers kindly replace with OEM Joplin 4…

Had no idea CRC were selling them.

Just emailed this to CRC, FWIW…

————-

Dear CRC,

I am disgusted and horrified to discover that you are willingly retailing the range of PowerBand products marketed by PBUK.

These products have been consistently and repeatedly shown by medical and sports researchers to be no more than a placebo. Selling these products through your website clearly indicates the seriousness with which you take cycling and sports technology and your willingness to relieve your customers of money for precisely nil benefit.

Your retailing of these products will clearly guide my choice of online cycling retailers.

Yours sincerely.

Chris Palmer

I actually had to suggest to a PCSO that he not cycle down the flipping pavement, especially whilst I’m trying to walk up it with a dog and pushchair.

Maybe he was trying to be ‘one with the kids’ or something; some toss ‘outreach’ programme.

Bah.

Thanks for all the feedback chaps – all very useful.

I’m seeing a car this weekend (taken that it’s still available at that point) which ticks the boxes (not the one noted above, that’s gone). As a continuation of the question, what is reasonable to expect by way of warranty from an independent specialist on an £8K car? I’m not expecting the earth, but if it fell apart on the way home, I’d be a little miffed!

Thanks again

Chris

Cheers all,

There's a lot of advice there! A few clarifications…

I'm looking for a Saab 93 1.9TiD Vector 150 Sportwagon (that's a mouthfull!) – more of a 'proper' Saab than the GM900 I'm currently driving (noting that it is still GM, and does share platform with the Vectra). I'm a Saab man – what can I do?

I've had a running search on eBay for the last 6 months, there's not much coming up to be honest. Autotrader lists 18 nationally that meet my criteria, with a shortlist of 3 within 35 mile radius (my starting point).

Those three vary by 1yr in age, 30Kmiles and £500; the one I mentioned above sits in the middle (as it were). Other two dealers appear to be much smaller and less prestige – noting Waderider's comment above, this might be better. In reality this car would likely be the cheapest on the forecourt at the 'prestige' place and frankly I'm not looking to (indirectly) pay for a "relationship" or "experience" with the place; I just want to buy a car!

I'd never intended PXing the current Saab, as BC noted above I'd probably have to pay them! In reality I might get a couple of hundred on eBay (Tax to Jan, MoT to May) but for simplicity the local specialist also breaks Saabs and will probably give me £50-£100 or so – it really doesn't owe me anything at this point!

I was wondering about three things to aim for:
1. Extras, probably decent heavy duty mats, boot liner, towball.
2. Major service, MoT or possibly tyres, although as noted above my long term plan is my local specialist
3. Cash in hand. 5-10% margin suggests something between £400-£800 should be the target?

Yoiks.

I was going to suggest removing the bee, but that is far more impressive.

Why were you coaching in your kitchen? Were you coaching MTB Cooking?

What is the correct wrist angle for a spatula? Eyes Up! Heels Down! Look at the fridge..:0)

Derby BMX track is located in Alvaston park though, which is routinely li up by the gentle glow of burning cars (usually to attract the Fire Brigade to receive a bricking…)

I saw the container at the track after the oiks were done with it; what ever they used it was a proper job…

I have a couple of Mormon friends in the US (I met them in NY State, but they're UT natives and now back in SLC).
Funnily enough, they're just like people (Shock, Horror, Gasp!)
They don't drink alkyhol, caffeinated drinks or smoke tobacco. They don't tend to curse. They are family focussed. Frankly, there's a lot to like; despite my being an ardent atheist!

Early on, Jared and I had a conversation which established that I had no problem with him being Mormon, and he had no issue with my being not!

Sorted from then on.

EDIT. Meant to mention the obvious; they don't practice polygamy; it's been denounced by the mainstream Mormon church for a considerable time. About as relevant to most Mormon's today as slavery is.

You will want to have time to acclimatise your dog to the crate – I'd suggest a couple of weeks. As others have said, place bedding/blankets inside (we have a blanket on top to make it nice and dark) and let the dog discover for itself. Strategically placed biscuits often help.

NEVER COERCE YOUR DOG INTO THE CRATE

NEVER SEND YOUR DOG TO THEIR CRATE AS A PUNISHMENT

Our mutt sleeps in his crate every night and most of the day, he loves it.

Bump

Grassy climbing hell (a bit harsh, but not too much!)

I rode in '08 and you could have tackled the course in either direction and not known which way was intended. Long, hot, boring.

I've been running a pair of the MTB350 wheels for a couple of years; in my experience they come pretty close to breaking Mr Bontrager's famous axim… (Strong, Light, Cheap; pick 2).

I have managed to flat the rear rim, however that was from repeated ham-fisted attempts to cross waterbars at speed on the sligachan trail on Skye. Generally well recommended. In sorting out the rear I swapped over the alloy nipples for brass ones, heavier but easier to maintain.

I might be tempted by a pair of their 'AM' wheels next time; wider rims with a touch more weight.

Cover with E&L insurance costs me ~£260 pa for £4500 worth of bike (2x£1000, 1x£2500). This was cheapest standalone quote I could find. Most were £400+, one or two closer to £1000. I didn't go with M&S simply because my contents wasn't up for renewal; I may do so when it is (E&L is on a lunar monthly policy)

PTFE tape around the D/S BB thread helps to preclude creaks and will protect both threads.

I use a Garmin etrex, and navigate via tracklogs, not routes. The etrex displays the route as a coloured line on the map (you can tweak the colour) and your position as a point with a circle which varys in diameter to show uncertainty (as fix signal varies).

You get to decide whether you are on track or not!