@raify. I have just seen your post. I was riding those trails for the first time this year a couple of weeks ago and had a surprise on nearly every trail! The biggest surprise was on the other side of the hill to the stream gap where a well-made wooden bridge across a ditch after a few jumps was, unknown to me totally destroyed. I was very close to a big moment there.

The thing that doesn’t make sense to me, apart from the senseless destruction that you have already pointed out, is that if this work was carried out by an approved land agent then they should have gone through the correct (and as I understand it) legal process of putting up warning signs prior to the work indicating the closure of each trail. Once the work had been carried out, the trails should have had closed signs put up at each entrance and be clearly blocked. What has been carried out is extremely dangerous as numpties like me have ridden down trails not realising that they have been closed and blocked until coming round a corner. Whoever is behind this has created more danger and damage than any trail building.

I haven’t got any contact details of the guys that built the trails, but I am more than happy to come and lend a hand in re-building when time allows me to. Although it will probably be better once we know that they’re not going to get flattened again though.

I use the Tesla tow bar on mine. Last summer we drove to Morzine with three bikes on the tow bar. Needed four stops to charge which was fine, but it should have been a three-stopper. As Chipps says, driving at too higher speed makes a massive difference to consumption. After I got back I discovered that the bikes and rack that we used totalled over the tow bar weight limit (72kg), so keep that in mind. I have also used a Rock Bros sucker on the roof and had four bikes on the car on a trip last year, although I should have just dragged a parachute behind the car for the same effect on consumption!

I forgot about the time time Lennox Lewis pushed in front of me when queuing for a Burger King in Las Vegas airport. He was lucky I had other things on my mind or I would have kicked his ass.

Tug from Home and Away borrowed a phono lead converter off me once, promised to give it back in the afternoon….

And did as well.

Tug? You know Tug?

Do any of these allow me to move my domain over to their servers and continue with my http://www.technophobe.tv name and the ***@technophobe.tv emails?

Looks like that Google apps doesn’t have a website host option?

1 and 1 I looked at but I wish they would be transparent with their pricing, I don’t want to have a cheap price for one year just to see it skyrocket after 12 months. I was bit confused as to what I got for my money?

Any other recommendations, maybe I should just host it myself, how hard could that be?!!

I had an ML7 for a couple of years. It was a bit disappointing and taught me not to buy a bike without a test ride first!

It had some very good points, it was great in tight singletrack and had good traction on climbs, but that suspension design…Oh my God it was crap! I want some squat when standing up descending to slacken the bike a bit along with some suspension movement too, and I want it not too bob when sitting climbing and it did the opposite. For me I prefer a VPP or good horst link. I’m probably wrong, but that’s my two pence worth!

Luckily no teeth lost, just a nose!!

A man of your years needs a Lifescan[/url] :wink:

Absolutely anyone who makes massive amounts of money from providing people with anything that is day to day essential.

i.e. BT, British Gas, Tesco…etc

Not cool making hundreds of millions of pounds from struggling families and retired people.

Of course, forgot about that. Must be a pretty thick lump of carbon?

The biggest safety issue with open wheeled racing is the open wheels, they are what tend to launch a car in the air. That’s why Indycar have introduced a rear wheel bumper thing, ironically developed by the late great Dan Wheldon.

I’m not sure what strength the gonzo nose would have in an impact, looks like it could just break off anyway?

My company offer a similar service with A/V and automation equipment, and I pay helpers to work on a casual basis too. I don’t generally find a problem with the workers, but have had one or two just not want to be there. I think that most of this is because of the out of hours nature of the work, they agree to work, then find out that there’s something better that they’d rather be doing. As this is an extra income to a full time job they could just not do it and go out with their mates/family instead which may be on their mind? Never really found a solution to this, except to try to give as much notice and planning as possible to make sure everyone is as ready mentally as possible.

If you ever need help with any A/V, automation or lighting stuff then let me know?

I hate riding with dogs on the trails, they always get in the way. I haven’t seen an owner yet that’s able to correctly control their dog.

That iPad system is free because you have to use their card merchant services, so they make their money through every transaction you pass.

Yes expensive is definitely the word!

Nothing wrong with the HD Connectivity stuff, we use it all the time, I just wouldn’t spend less than that.

Distributing multiple HDMI sources to multiple locations can be very tricky. Use CAT6 cable of the highest quality, make sure the cables are run with no other cables (particularly mains power) near it and with no sharp bends.

The HD Connectivity products are a minimum of what we would spec, cheaper extenders may work but it’s more hit and miss. Take in to account the maximum distances that the extenders can be run, even then there can be problems, we have had systems not working on only 20m before because of certain sources and displays. The HD Connectivity extenders will pass IR through for remote control of your source equipment.

Good luck.

I use a KS Lev with the cable poking through the top tube gaps in to the shaft. Looks really neat.

I rode it last night too for the first time, I didn’t stop and cleared it by a mile ‘cos I’m great…

Not really, I had to stop and have a look because it came up a bit unexpectedly! Then I went back and had a crack and I swear the transition jumped up at me as I cased the jump with my back wheel.

So to summarise it’s not Proflex’s fault, it’s the jumps because I couldn’t possibly have jumped it badly. :wink:

One bought a 100mm Reba 29er thinking that one could make it a 120mm fork. One was shocked to find that the max it could go to was 110mm. Yours may be the same.

Lennox Lewis Pushing in front of me in the Burger King queue at McCarren Airport, Las Vegas. That was annoying, he nearly felt my temper. He got away without a pasting from a skinny cyclist that day!!

Could be worse, I’ve been waiting for my wheels to arrive for two weeks. Every time I email to ask where they are I get that same automated/copy and pasted reply. All I’d like to know is when they are going to arrive, even if that’s 2 weeks or 2 months?

I’ve been fairly happy using them before but when things go bad that’s when a good business shows itself…or not!

If it’s a Thompson box then it will more than likely be a power supply failure of some sort. I personally wouldn’t go the Humax route, I have had many customers go down this route. Not one lasted with it for more than 6 months. Sky has the best user interface by a mile.

The Rebas have a 20mm axle so they have as much help as they’re going to get. Maybe I need to be looking at wheels, they flex a bit too?!

Gee, Im 6ft with 33in inside leg and short arms! My 456ti is a little long in the toptube for me, I prefer a shorter toptube. The 18in Evo feels a better fit for me. On both there is a fair amount of seatpost showing.

Bigdug, I’m running a reba…and it’s not about the size of those hills, it’s what you do with them that matters! ;-(

From my experience I’d say that the 456 is soooo much more agile. It’s more ridged and easier to throw into a corner then the Evo, which to me feels just too noodley. I’m not sure if maybe my wheels are to blame a little, they are the same as on my 456, Stans crest rims only the 29er wheels were built by Superstar and do seem a little bit loose in the spoke department on the rear. I don’t know if this is right though?

Head angle is slacker on my 456 too, which surprised me.

For where I ride, which is Surrey hills singletrack and similar trails I’d say the 456 seems to be better so far, but I’m going to give it more time and see.

Just been out on mine today, rides really well. The best 29er I’ve ridden…not sure if I’m keeping it though, I still like my 26er 456ti?

Is 29er for me?

Can I live without the easy rolling nature of 29ers?

Decisions, decisions???

Any sign of those decals and headtube badges yet Brant?

I’ve got to say that I too have no issues with my bike either. Granted I’m running singlespeed at the mo, but I’m quite happy to buy a new front mech as recommended earlier in this thread when I put my gears on. My Geax tyre is a 2.3 and I’m using Crest rims so it is does seem very tall, I’ve only got 26in tyres to compare.

I’m getting used to the handling, this is my first 29er and I still need to decide whether it’s for me or whether I keep my 456ti? I need to decide as I will have to sell one of these but, I’d say that the Titus is winning at the moment. I would really like a dry day to really give it some stick though!

Finished mine today, took it for a quick ride too.

Feels like I’ve just got a big boys bike after outgrowing my 26er! Not sure if that’s a good thing or not at this stage? It certainly feels fun if a little slow steering. I need to drop the front a bit, so flat bars will be a must.

I will put gears on, but it’s just not worth it right now as it’s more about bog snorkeling then MTBing.

I also had trouble with the rear post mount for the caliper, it seems to be about 1-0.5mm too long, I didn’t need to drill anything but the bolts were a bit tight. Also the seat tube is a bit slack, I’ve got three 31.6 seatposts and all had a bit of play round them. I’ve had to really tighten the seatpost clamp to stop slipping.

And some more pics of the tyre clearance with a 2.3.

Yep

My Liteville is great, I’ve had Intense Tracer, BLT and rode lots before deciding on the 301. It’s a great trail bike and pedals well for XC rides, I’ve also had 180mm forks on for the Alps and have done a number of uplift days too. It’s just soooo well designed. And has warrantee for race and DH use.

I don’t know if this helps anyone but here are a couple of pics of how far I got last night. It shows the closeness of the rear tyre, but that is a 2.3.

My dual pull XT front mech defo won’t fit though :cry:

Seems a bit smaller than my 456ti, shorter wheelbase and top tube. Not sure how that will affect its ride, as a 26er I’d think I’ve bought a size too small? Time will tell.

I’m beginning to think you may be right about being OEM.

Yep Wooly, it’s the right bit. I’ve been through all the online manuals to check too.

They have the power bulge.

They are invoiced as a 2012 80mm, 100mm or 120mm travel fork, I only bought them recently.

That’s an option, thanks Northwind.

What about the Lurcher, anyone able to offer a comparison?

I think my 456ti has HA of 69 as it is the Lynsky made one?? Not sure if I can get a slackset in its 1/18th heat tube?

More questions!

If you want some further opinion then I would say this.

1. Go for a known brand like Philips, Osram etc if you can afford to or buy 1 cheapo Chinese lamp and try it. I have had good results with some of the cheaper 12v MR16 LED but less so with the 240v GU10s. I have had some cheapo ones go bang in a very spectacular way. Philips for me has always had the best light output, colour temperature and dimming curve. Which leads to..

2. Use a good quality dimmer designed for low load LED fittings, you will experience flicker and stepped dimming and worse otherwise.

3. Be careful of colour temperature, please don’t go for cool white unless you really need to provide bright light. It will make the room look sterile.

4. Don’t believe the wattage and light output figures, I have seen bright 4w lamps and dull 9w lamps. Also be aware of how inefficient the drivers can be.

Part of my job is to be a lighting designer/integrator doing things like this http://www.flickr.com/photos/technophobe/6877270287/in/set-72157629320303549

The thing is with Home Automation, it has to be customised as everyone lives their lives in a different way, so the importance of various functions of their system are different to each household. You only need to look at some of the Control4 youtube videos to understand that an integrated system can be a powerful tool for controlling your home. But, did I want my house to recognise me coming home so it would alter the lights to my favourite setting and then play my favourite song when I opened the front door? No way, naff!!

My system has very useful functions for how we live our lives, like the front door look e-mails me when my son comes home so I know he is safe. The doors autolock at night, as I am the most forgetful person in the world! The lights in our main rooms switch on at night automatically and track the dusk times as they change, this can be randomised with switch off times for holiday settings. the front doorbell is linked to the system too so that when someone presses it the ding dong comes out of the speakers around the house which is a real help for my wife as her hearing is poor, it also sends me a notification if we are out so we could remotely let someone in….which we could monitor via the CCTV!
Lastly as mentioned earlier it ties all the A/V equipment together so that it all works from one interface. Until I installed my Control4 system my wife and son did struggle with working the cinema system and I would get the odd phone call while I was away, I haven’t had that with Control4 so far.

Whilst each individual technology can be installed in your home for not too much money, getting something that integrates all this technology, and is robust, and easy for all to use will cost a bit.