that exactly what ive done piedi. I should now phone up to check that they have and are processing my order. All the benefits of a phone order without the “delivery charge”

Or just stop being paranoid and wait for the parts, unless you need them urgently, in which case visit an LBS!

I thought bumley had got a skatepark then, must upgrade my monitor!

The term ‘Brit’ has never really been seen as offensive, whereas **** has a legacy of nastiness.

True, a fair point, but how far do you take it. Black has also been linked to nastiness. Ginger has. We’re ruling out whole swathes of dictionary because someone else at some point used them offensively.

Problem with things like this, is that someone starts it off, often not really meaning any harm, and the ‘victim’ just thinks ‘oh, sod it, just go along with it, for a quiet life’. Doesn’t necessarily mean they are completely comfortable about it.

While that can happen, I’d be willing to be in most circumstances its not the case.

As seen here, a large selection of people call the prince a “toff” and “upper class”. Considering they are both used as negative terms in todays society, yet they are things that (like people with coloured skin) he cant change. That makes anyone calling him that (especially those in this thread who are intending it unpleasantly) equivalent to racists – class-ist, as it were. Just because its not his race in question doesnt make it any less offensive if used in that manner. I think some people should look closely at their own views!

But I do have a mate, Scottish Kev (self explanatory). I’ve asked him if he minds, and he’s actually quite proud of it. ‘Nae, dinnae worry, eh? Ah’m proud te be Scottish, and it helps me stand out amongst ye English bastards’.

As an Englishman living in Scotland I can honestly say the same, I dont mind being pointed out as the “English bastard”, because I know they dont mean it unpleasantly and they invited me out for a drink! But then I’ve been served by a nice person in Tesco who was perfectly nice until I spoke (in my obviously English accent) and his manner changed completely, despite never using any words – that I found infuriating.

I think this sort of points towards the whole stupidity of claiming words are offensive – they’re not. Its the intent with which they are used that is offensive. To be racist surely it needs to disadvantage or be discriminatory in some way, rather than just be a name. If it were used to cause mental anguish, or somehow make the person seem less valuable then fine, thats racist:
“he’s only a ****, send him into the bullets first”
but thats totally different to here’s bob, our ginger mate.

The problem is that distinguishing between racism and just using certain words is hard, so people assume that anyone using a certain word is racist, but I think thats a cop-out as its the easy route. As sv says, I dont mind being called a brit, or a limey etc – I AM one, and proud of it.

Don’t really care, it’s fairly normal amongst friends to use phrases like that that coming from someone else would offend but coming from a mate is a sign of affection. Find out who released the video in order to cause controversy and put them on trial – its obvious that none of the video content was intended for the general population to see.

MTFU?

I cant really help that :)

That’s why heating can be times to come on before you wake up. Which reminds me, now that my kids are sleeping a bit latre in the morning, ours probably doesn’t need to come on at 4:30 anymore.

I know. Thanks :) Mine actually gets turned down to 15 overnight, but it never comes on.

I dont see the issue – just get out and ride a you would on a geared bike? I used mine on a route I’ve done geared many times and found I did it faster (because I didnt sit and grind in granny) but my heart/lungs nearly fell out doing it. Seems like good training and in theory even if a geared bike did the same route they’d only be “as good”. Downhills are the only place you miss out, which is where technique and maintaining speed can help but not replace the gearing!

Need a flickr or facebook group “who is this”

SoaD, random collection. Not upbeat, loud and shouty.

Tried it against another and it’s the same. Suspect this is why 6-£900 TTs state they can do 10% gradients and normal TTs dont. I’ll just have to use it for endurance training instead of strength.

None of them will be that quiet, the only noise from my tacx is from the drivetrain of the bike and the tyre noise, and thats still enough to reverberate around the flat like I’m hoovering (sounds quiet at low revs but 80+ and its getting loud).

Cant use the SS on the road, find it too restricting. Cant get as fast as I’d like on flats and downs, struggle on some ups. I save it for the offroad and take the full sus out in road form instead for training :)

Marionheck – where ?

Found it, never mind (Braemar to Ballater)

If its ice tyre pressure wont help you a jot. If its a mix of trail and ice then it will!

I believe it’s proportional to the cube of the axle loading, so cars still cause a lot more wear than bikes

Not sure on the exact equation governing it, but I know (or I’ve been told) they dont bother calculating for cars at all.

sfb is right (good god, did I say that?!)

Used to get punctures all the time from glass (broken car window glass) on my old commute, like 3 or 4 a week. I started running conti sport contacts and never got a single puncture in the remaining 3 months I did the commute. I find sealants do nothing on anything other than a thorn puncture, snake bites, glass – all just cut a hole that cant be sealed before the tyre goes flat.

It’ll be moisture getting into them and freezing, not the oil. Suspect it doesnt happen on well maintained ones.

Robots, triple wow.

omg, you’re so young! i’ve been conversing with a child. i feel like a paedo…

*rushes off to have shower*

Oh dear.

if VED were proportional to road wear then 40 tonne wagons would pay £1000000 pa and bikes 10p

Actually you’re not far off, but then cars would get 10p too, as modern roads are designed and constructed considering only the HGV traffic they will encounter as car-caused damage is so minimal it’s considered unimportant.

Bit hard to tell without knowing what was replaced! An 80k service could include a timing belt, which will involve a belt (£20) and some pulleys, possibly a recommended water pump too?
Never trust my car with anyone, seen too many people suffer the dealer/mechanic “forgetting” to change the oil or “forgetting” to bolt wheels back on properly. Or change someones gearbox (yet remarkably having the same mark on the casing and sign of a quick lube change). Only time I’d have someone else do it is if I had to for warranty reasons, and even then I’d check it afterwards.

I thought the alleged point of this tax was to encourage greener choices?!

I think thats your mistake. VED has never had anything to do with greenery, it’s just been manipulated recently to benefit greener vehicles and the people doing so have no brain.

No kids, no rides.

I dont know how the spoke protector could cause the chain to fall off?

Its called chain suicide, often occurs when the chain feels its playing with an uncool rear wheel :) (it cant, I was just saying they’re ugly and do sod all to protect spokes unless your tinkering along at shopping-bike speeds)

uuggghhh my eyes, big plastic dinner plate! Bin it!

Regarding half-link chains, you could just buy a normal chain and use a single KMC half link?

The other doofer, having no spring, is not a better option. The difference in wrapping angle is often TINY and without a spring it cannot take up any slack that may occur during frame and chain flex. More likely, in this case, your frame twisted and took the chain off the gears. I’ve found my crank area twists massively when I stomp to overtake. BB, you’re a similar size to myself, fairly bike-hard IIRC?

why on earth do people need heating on when they are in bed?? that’s what duvets are for.

Because my head and shoulders still poke out of the duvet (or my feet, its one or the other!) and I end up with a stiff neck every morning. Plus when its that damn cold I dont feel like getting out of bed and going to work.

Haven’t used any central heating for 2.5 years. Don’t have a fire either. Jumpers and socks do the job, mayube a hot water bottle when it gets below freezing.

I’m not averse to a little chill, but thats insane.

true. good frame design = good braking. but then why buy a poorly designed frame?

I agree, to some extent, unfortunately my wallet doesn’t, so Ive often found rim brakes gave sub-optimal performance on a frame I could afford!

#My favourite brakes, for feel and control and simplicity, are HS33’s. Bit of a bitch to set up but truly fire and forget. They are a little affected by bad weather but the sheer power (and my vice-like grip) means they stop me in anything! I have had to do some serious brake “boosting” though, front 2mm plate:

and ther rear on my trials bike, 10mm thick, 20mm width all around:

:D

i guess if you’re a 210 lbs lard-arse you need disks. but then if i met you in the flesh your opinion wouldn’t interest me anyway. tubby people are always dumb (but redeem themselves by making me giggle when i see them on a bike..

I’m 210 lbs, not a lard arse and definitely not dumb, but I’ll still make you giggle when you see me on a bike!

Common sense would say no. I might give it a go if I Was riding somewhere flatish and unadventurous. But its not sensible. And it’ll only cost a tenner to get a tig welder to re-weld it in a less than perfect looking way.

the roof, the roof, the roof is on fire….

Whether its cheaper to heat from cold or keep at a level is a very complex problem, different for each house. Heat loss (and therefor cost spent keeping it there) to the outside world is higher with a higher temp differential, so keeping your house hot means you’re throwing more heat out of the window, but on-off heating leaves things like tables, walls etc very cold and IME means you have to heat to a higher temp to overcome the cold downdraughts from the walls to get the same feeling. That said, I was coping with 2 15 min blasts of uncontrolled heating and spending £9 a month. now ive got stat controlled I’m spending £2 a day, which agrees with the physics.

foam never really did it for me. If you’d had niche girls and baby oil I’d have been more inclined to get excited about the photo, though the bearded chap in the background does spoil it for me anyway. :)

If your system is behind a router with its own firewall I’d ignore the firewall software, unless you’re a fan of opening suspicious emails or warez. Switch to avast. Jobs a goodun.

Never liked Vs, their performance was too frame-dependant. Anyway, back on topic;

Check your pads dont overlap the rotor spokes too much. Remove your pads, LIGHTLY sand the surface of them (even just on a brick) until the whole surface is “matte” and not polished. Clean rotor again with meths (meths is residue free TJ) and re-assemble. The only place left to find serious play is your headset or fork bushes, I’d say the fork bushes were less likely to cause the vibrations – I have had headsets do this in a big way.

my lack of death confirms your statement, but it still makes you think!

Only twice have i been caught out by dead, bloated, infested sheep in the stream i was drinking from, way out of sight of where I took the water… :)

Fastest indian. Closely followed by touching the void. Got to love the shelf of broken pistons with “offerings to the gods of speed” in FI.

better take some high-% alcohol, most of my mates would have to take 10 cans of beer each, not fun on a bike :).

I have to say I’d always thought it would be warmer in a tent than an old building.