What model of frame was it?

Thought for the day, can I organise a school trip to the zoo next week?

🤣 it would be rude not to!!

First I’ve heard of it, and I can’t imagine any one in the education sector has been consulted, but has any teacher heard of an imminent threat to their August?

Our trust CEO warned staff in March that schools might need to be open over summer, but I think that was from a key worker perspective. Not heard anything else, but we normally get expected to introduce major change with no warning and no support from Gov, so nothing would surprise me!

You obviously are not in a trust, but how does the school normally collaborate with the other local primary school and the secondary you feed into? It seems a bit late to be asking these questions now?

I’m not trying to be difficult but, as a Governor, you should be asking the SLT/headteacher why this wasn’t in place a month or so ago. Collaboration, particularly for small schools, is essential I would say. What are other schools using in the area, what are local secondaries using and surely the headteacher has already had those conversations? Also what about the local authority? If you are LA maintained or even a stand-alone academy they should be able to offer advice and support.

Sorry I can’t offer any specific advice as my experience is all secondary, but we are using Teams successfully (I appreciate it doesn’t offer what you are after). Hope you get a suitable solution in place ASAP.

Sounds perfect! Thanks Simon. I’ll ring in a bit.

The only thing I would say is it isn’t clear on the website about the difference in material between the two frames, unless they have changed it since I last looked?

That’s not good from Stanton. Firstly there is no mention of 4130 Sherpa frames on website, so that is mis leading. Secondly £999 for frame is ridiculous. Stanton are getting greedy. I had a 2nd gen Sherpa, and really liked it. Cost me £600 with headset

£999 is for a UK made frame – that is actually cheap for a UK made 853 frame. A Shand will cost you a chunk more than that, even for their standard (non-custom) frames.

Doesn’t it have specific offset rear wheel?

It looks right up my street, but this would put me off. Unnecessary. All other manufacturers get equally short chainstays without resorting to non-standard components.

Orbea Oiz TR?
Intense Sniper Trail?

Link doesn’t work, hopefully this will:

LINK

What’s the betting it, ‘isn’t the driver’s fault’ and gets off with no jail-time? Grrr. Thoughts with families of the deceased and emergency personal who had to deal with aftermath.

A Pinacle Ramin 3+ would be a good frame if you could find one second hand. One to add to the list when hunting on EBay etc. That model has the EBB

Join the queue! I’ve been after one in large for well over 12 months :-(

And now the government had said that schools should reopen but teachers are saying no.

Edit: and yet again nothing positive in your response.

Are they? Unions are saying no, but all schools I know locally were planning to reopen as per Govt original dates, albeit on limited timetables. In our secondary I’m not aware of a single member of staff who has refused to support.

It would require quite a bit of investment and a coordinated, joined up approach from the top down. Neither of these are things that tend to happen in education. In my experience what tends to happen is minimal investment, vague guidance and an expectation that individual schools and individual teachers will just somehow make it work.

This. The Government has issued bucket loads of guidance, on a weekly basis. Headteachers can’t keep up (I work in secondary and personally know 2 primary heads). So many things in schools could be centralised which would save hours of staff time in schools and free up time to spend with students. I work in safeguarding and every year the Govt releases new guidance at the end of August, expecting us to have new policies in place reflecting said guidance from the start of September. In fact Govt could write a generic safeguarding policy that all schools could adapt to their local setting – meaning greater consistency and less paperwork (and yes I have said this t the DfE!).

As usual I would say a Stooge, any version (Mk1-4). All sold out though so it would have to be 2nd hand.

Very positive review of 529 on singletrackworld review section.

Anthems are fast bikes; put quick tyres on the and it won’t be the bike slowing you down.

Specialized Chisel would be perfect but not available frame only in UK.

He is not elected
– He is not a civil servant
– He is not even a member of the Tory party

– Why the hell is is making a statement?

This. He is not accountable to us, the Govt is. Boris should be making a statement and sacking him.

I saw that yesterday – he can certainly fly!

This is where the govt. needs to step up and provide much better support and assistance to schools. I’d hope that this coordination might move forward over the summer break, equipping schools with more advanced home learning capability for a return in September. Am I a dreamer?

I am not aware of ANY support Gov have given schools (other than money for laptops) just pages of guidance which is updated constantly. It’s down to individual schools and academy chains to organise. Even our local authority has been s***. Luckily most heads and staff have proven to be flexible and innovative with lots of coordination between local schools.

Ok, you can get new Trek Superfly frames cheap; new but still have 142 rear.

Or get a used Specialized Chisel, bloody ace xc bikes.

On-one Scandal?

Just say you are a Government advisor….

Have teachers been put on 80% salary yet? Just asking, maybe it’s time if not.

As above they are working. In our school teaching multiple lessons a day on MS Teams, marking and giving feedback. Normal dept meetings being held online, regular e-mails and phone calls to students in their tutor groups, plus on rota for school (including over Easter and half-term) to cover children of key workers and vulnerable children. I’m support staff now (used to be deputy head, now safeguarding lead) and I’m working about 6-7 hours a day at home.

I’ve done big days on both my hardtails recently. Solarismax was ok… But by the end I was struggling to keep up with mates on carbon xx. So second ride I used the carbon Highball. Way easier. The lockout for climbing really makes a difference, especially when I’m getting tired. As does the 3-4 kg weight difference.

What sort of terrain does the Highball cope with?

Sounds like you up need a new short travel 29er FS, rather than a HT.

SC Talboy or Blur
Orbea Occam or Oiz Trail

Etc

Sonder Signal ti is ace I demoed one.

Why do you want a longer seat tube?

Reasonably long legs for my height. Last bike I had with 16.5″ seat-tube I had seat post over max insertion. Yes a rigid post, but I would want to swap between a rigid for bike packing and dropper for trail days. Plus longer seat-tube gives room for a slighter large frame bag.

I love Cotics’s ethos as a brand and the hardtails particularly look lush. I’ve owned a custard Soul and an original Roadrat. But as a xc/trail/bikepacking rider I want an all-rounder; I want to like the Solaris, but I don’t want a stupidly short seat-tube. At 5’10” I love the reach of the medium but want an 18”ish seat-tube. Cy has responded (I think on IG) to a similar comment saying test ride one, and he’s right of course. It just seems all their bikes are getting more gnarr, but I suppose that’s where the market is.

South Korea, who some might say have managed the crisis significantly better than our Gov, have now returned some older students, but with face masks, barriers between students etc. UK Gov guidance to schools is that PPE is not needed, unless a student shows signs of being ill (by which time others will have been infected).

I don’t think the Gov gives a **** about people dying.

Sort of compulsory. You have the choice as a parent, but it is going down as unauthorised absence if the’re not there, but you won’t be fined. Yet.

Like we tell you what to do, but you’re responsible, but we reserve the right to enforce.

Fudge speak

It may vary between each authority, but I work at an academy in the SW and it is us that decide on fines, not the LA. Our heads view is that it is parental choice if kids in Yr 10 attend or not; we will have no choice on coding but I can categorically say that parents will not be fined and any absence during this period would not be used in any future attendance issues.

If the school could provide a home learning schedule then that would be great with clear direction as to what the child should be doing. That has been lacking from our perspective so if it isn’t safe for schools to return and the unions support that then they could support parents in other ways.

That’s a shame; lots of schools locally are putting in place timetabled online lessons every day for all year groups. Most schools I have personal knowledge of also plan to accept the identified groups from 1st or 8th June (not ‘reopen’, as schools have had key worker and vulnerable students in all the time), despite what the unions might be saying.

What makes me cross is Gov saying face masks advised in crowded places (transport, shops) but not in schools/classrooms.

What about maxxis tyres?

Ikon
Ikon Race
Aspen
Aspen Race
Reckon
Reckon Race

Explain?!

You missed out the Ardent Race and Forekaster :-)

I’ve used Ikon F&R on xc bike with great success, added Forecaster on front in winter.
Previously used Aspen (about 6 years ago) – loved on rear – really fast yet still good traction.
Currently running Ardent Race R and Forekaster F – ideally need to swap AR to F and put Ikon or Aspen on rear for summer.

It’s not even like the chosen years will enable most families to go back to work… a fairly simple average kids per family and years between them shows this is as far from enabling most families to return as possible.

Good point.

Looks ace! How tall are you then?

Just a reminder – in case anyone wants to sell their carbon fork….

http://www.gdw.org.uk/

Old race

Used to be some mtb trails round king alfreds tower just up above bruton.

But I’ve not been up in years and don’t remember anything techy just normal XC.

Local club has run some xc races up there.

The Ragley TD1 was rigid-specific. Also the original Genesis Fortitude, which had a slacker (69ish – not that slack now) HTA and lower offset fork to get the trail number and weight balance about ‘right’.

Loved my TD-1, not quite sure why I sold it. Made an awesome ss.

Pinnacle Ramin 3 plus another awesome rigid bike no longer made…

@clink Secondary schools will not be going back (in England) until September. At the moment the plan is for selected PRIMARY school years to go back with an ambition for all primary children if conditions allow. What will the world be like in September – who knows, but trying to work out that now is a pointless exercise

I know – but we are also been asked to have Year 10 in before the end of term. Our biggest issue is that 80% of students are on school buses.

Just read all the new guidance for schools. Apparently face masks for students and staff not necessary. Yet they are deemed advisable for general public when visiting shops, public transport etc. Hmmmm.

Guidance for 15 students in primary classrooms. Having seen some classrooms that will never give social distancing. We worked out that max number of students in some of our secondary classrooms, meeting 2m rule, was about 6 or 7.

Yeah I had a custard yellow one, great bike. I do worry that there is no ‘xc’ bike in range now – Solaris is firmly a trail bike. Or I’m getting old and grumpy!

If anyone bought a frame bundle and doesn’t want the carbon fork I’ll take it off your hands.