Can I GoPro my test?

What happens if you get lost during the independent driving? Is it an automatic fail?

I like this new guy by the way. Bet he can ride better than me too. But that doesn’t take much. Welcome jumperalpine!

Does it really take 20+ lessons?

I just passed my theory test (for the 2nd time) yesterday. I drove in the UK for a year before that on an international license (5 years ago). Moving to London meant I didn’t need a car. Moving out of London I now need to start driving again.

I drove for years in another country and can drive, but 20+ lessons even with practice seems like loads.

What’s Zee shifter like? SLX? Or is it like XT?

I wonder how chuffed the staff at New Street would be if I locked up a cheap bike bag in the bike park?

Very happy. They could call their friendly neighbourhood disposal expert!

If you have children what do you do about your dead partner’s family? You can’t just cut them out.

But then you have to put up with 2 sets of in-laws at Christmas.

^
That guy is wearing double cuffs!

I am not an Iron Maiden fan sadly.

@mudshark I tried your suggestion a while ago, but thin wool jumpers don’t like being stretched over double cuffs. The jumper loses the fight fairly soon and turns into a saggy sack.

Doesn’t it wreck the sleeves on the sweaters?

That’s a really good price for the DPAs. They’re a great fork.

My jacket is a bit too long to wear at my desk. I can’t get away with a hoody and t-shirt I’m afraid.

I’ve ordered some sort of lambswool thingy. Let’s see how it holds up. Wish I could get matey’s mustard yellow jumper and awesome trousers though!

Something like this should do it:

are you an englishman or a euro woofter?

I’m not sure what I count as. Nominally Scottish I think.

I might bring this look back.

Loving the denim on denim too.

Most of my shirts are French cuffed from when I used to work in a warmer office 🙁

A layer would be cheaper than replacing 8-10 shirts.

I was thinking there may be some sort of wide sleeved cardigan with buttons/zip?

plain white t-shirt underneath

I am not American!

I want to avoid resorting to silk knots and barrel cuff conversions.

Waistcoats make me feel like a waiter 🙁

Merino undershirt sounds like a good option. What Merino undershirt for office wear then?

Nothing. Useful to keep bits in when you’re doing trail side repair though.

Oh, I’ve also abused their “no quibble returns policy” a couple of times with no grumbles from them when I ended up not buying. A Whyte 905 and a Norco Aurum. Not sure if that’s still around though. I’ve lost count of the times I’ve hit them up for advice to be honest.

It is just a job for some of the staff though. You just need to learn which ones you need to speak to I guess.

Evans in Chiswick have been pretty good for me.

Went in there with a seized pedal, sorted for free, they’ve lent me tools a few times to sort myself out when I’ve been in a rush. Always helpful when I want to buy road kit. I always regretted not taking their advice and buying some fancy Spesh wheels instead of Hopes because of the spoke availability problems with them.

My only beef is that they didn’t stock decent tubeless tyres. I’m sure that’s now different.

Mech setup link

I had a massive ball ache setting up my E2 front mech yesterday and would not want to do it again.

A friend shortened the chain for me and that improved shifting and the chainline quite a bit.

Even with an E2 there is some fine tuning for derailleur height. The manual makes it look quite black and white, but this is a lie. At the quoted height I had the chain sitting too high on the mech when in the small front/large rear.

Good luck.

I have a 100mm drop reverb on a 350mm post.

Sometimes I wish I had a longer drop so I could run the post further inside the seat tube so I can get the benefit of full lowerage, but still be able to raise it to XC pedalling height.

Hi Ben, you’d not happen to know the length of a normal bolt by any chance? I could maybe have a go at filing one down if I had to.

Cheers for the chaino link, the problem I have is described here:

http://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0230/9291/files/XT_m785_and_SLX_m665_Double_Compatibility_v4.pdf?1310

Cheers!

You get the Sufferfest videos with a Strava Premium subscription.

Cheers. I’ve got both on order and an 11-28 cassette for my spindly post holiday legs so I’m going to have to resize the chain anyway.

How do you track how long you’ve used a chain for when alternating between two?

Anyone care to weigh in?

Anyone had any luck walking into a store and buying one, or is online order the quickest option? I was told they would restock at the weekend, but I’m having trouble getting confirmation.

Telescopic handlebars for when you need to be more gnar!

While we’re at it, telescopic stems too!

Multiple helmets?

Now she’s just showing off.

There is no option to buy an iPhone 6 or 6 plus which is not carrier locked on Apple’s US website. The closest is a phone with no contract, but locked to T-Mobile.

There is a SIM free option for the 5S though.

I am the only person in my social circle whose significant other rides bikes for sport. What is this complaining you speak of?

She is happy cleaning the bike and doing the pre-ride inspections. I keep an eye on the general maintenance and servicing. The only upgrades she has effected are a longer seatpost and wider bars.

I don’t understand how she manages to keep riding without being tempted to upgrade things.

Surely if the design is so good then you don’t need a case?

🙂

Bit worrying if it actually damages things.

Everyone who has used the lockout function on a fork has probably forgotten to disengage them at some point or the other! Ditto for adjustable travel I bet.

I have some DPA forks. They seem to mention the lower setting is for climbing.

Cameron: I will not resign if Scotland becomes independent.

Salmond: Resigned when he couldn’t deliver what he believed in.

Whom do you respect more? I know my answer.

Maybe the sums didn’t add up, but I’m sure they would have worked something out. Several ex-British colonies are now prospering (not that Scotland are a colony) post independence. If they could work out their problems 50 years ago the Scots would have found a way to make it work in this day and age.

Meanwhile at Westminster, more of the same bullstuff.

Probably was locked. I checked the settings to see if there was something going on there, but it wasn’t “intuitive”!

Had a play with a 6 Plus today.

The size looks ludicrous at first, but the more you use it the better it feels.

Disappointments for me coming from an Android phone thinking things would be intuitive:
– The card system to check running applications.
– No automatic rotation when trying to use the phone horizontally to type/browse.

Other disappointments
– The much hyped manual camera mode. You now have exposure control which then fiddles with shutter speed for you. Not really full manual mode like some articles light on substance would have you believe.

Will probably wind up getting one just for a change, and partly to check if Omnifocus integration will change my life like I want to though.

Running short cage with 34T and 11-36 here.

I like it. It looks better, and feels like there’s less mech to foul things.

Does anyone know what the shop stock situation will be like? Thinking about popping into my local Apple Store to have a look at the 6 plus and buy one.

Outlook for Mac and Excel are the worst applications on mine. They regularly give me the beachball, whinge for updates weekly and Excel stalls when cells are copy-pasted over. Not cool.

The Windows VM I run also bloats over time due to the constant updates. Not great when you only have a 128GB SSD to play with.

Welcome to the worst thing you can do to your Mac.