That Tactic helmet also has the best safety rating recorded so far for any bike helmet by Virginia Tech: https://www.helmet.beam.vt.edu/bicycle-helmet-ratings.html. That, and the fact that it’s half the price of most similar lids, was enough to encourage me to buy one. I think it might be a little big to fit under my “over helmet” hoods though!

The problem with slavery was not the fact that slaves didn’t get a say in who their owner was you know.

I like this quote, and may well have to steal it for later use.

Thanks :)

Thanks DavidB, and as ever to GrahamS. We do get some good advice from these threads, occasionally. I hear Facebook now have over 60,000 servers, which probably also helps spread the load a little

Facebook do, but PinkBike are running on just the one (at least not counting static content) with a LOT of traffic going through.

Interesting article about that over here: http://radek.pinkbike.com/blog/pinkbike-speed.html

“Your mum is 22:32”

“Enjoyment = (Mountains x Cycling) Squared”
– this one may not be original

“Luckily my girlfriend is easier than my ratio”

“Bodged with pride (and cable ties)”

I saw the Raconteurs in Canada in an old cinema that now a music venue

That wasn’t in the Rickshaw was it? I saw High on Fire there and they were really, really good. Been to a few more gigs there which haven’t quite measured up.

My real contribution to this thread is The Mars Volta though. Absolutely amazingly good live. Saw them in Brixton Academy and I was hanging right near front and centre waiting for them to come on when I got chatting to the guy next to me who proceeded to start passing me a very strong herbal cigarette.
That combined the mean that The Mars Volta’s massive build up become so intense that I had to actually make my way out of the crowd pretty much as they were coming on stage!

Still, even from a giddy perch at the back it was an incredible, intense gig.

My Boardman is 22lbs in SS mode.

That’s about a 2lb drop from standard by removing the gears and swapping out a few other bits (front wheel, saddle, bars). I think the 22lb weight included a set of weighty m520 pedals as well.

It certainly feels very light and responsive, but I’d love to have a ss down in the teens!

There are lots of recipes out there to make up your own if you fancy playing around.

One of my favourite (and very simple) is dates, brown rice syrup and a small amount of powdered caffeine all bunged in a blender. It’s got a great mix of longer and shorter lasting carbs, tastes pretty good, has the kick from caffeine and is fairly healthy.

Although most of the time I find it easier just to go with dates, bananas and flapjack :)

“always avoided the “easy” distributions in favour of having total control over my OS without having to fight for it.”

Bit confused by this. I too have used linux for years, and use some of the more hardcore distros, but you have just as much control over Ubuntu as any other distribution. It’s just that all the fiddly bits are behind a noob friendly veneer.

I might be a bit out of date on Ubuntu stuff to be fair. My impression of easy distros the past was that it was quite a hassle to get around / turn off all the ‘noob friendly’ stuff. Even if the total time to get what I wanted ended up being the same, it felt more annoying than installing the stuff initially.

Similarly with package management systems – last time I looked at RPM or APT based distros the package management was just not as elegant as portage. Actually I haven’t used RPM since around 2001 when it was really, really horrible.

Of course, the faster technology moves and the more different stuff we want from our computers the harder it is to manually configure and understand every part of your OS and so the more appealing ‘easy’ distros look.

better than mac and pc

Except you’re probably running Ubuntu on a PC, and Macs these days are basically PC’s. Damn Microsoft and their attempt to steal the PC moniker for themselves!

I’ve been playing with Ubuntu a bit lately and pretty pretty impressed actually. I’ve been a Linux user for 10 years or more, and always avoided the “easy” distributions in favour of having total control over my OS without having to fight for it.
But, I don’t really have the time to keep up with my knowledge as well these days, and I’m pretty tempted to run Ubuntu on my work machine. It’ll certainly be better than the Windows 7 rubbish I’m running at the moment!

Can’t see these mentioned yet, so a couple of really useful sites for anyone who has got, or is thinking of getting, an ereader of some kind: http://www.gutenberg.org/ and http://manybooks.net/ – both have copyright & cost free books by the thousands. Some surprising stuff turns up out of copyright.

For me I think my ereader has changed the way I deal with books – I think I do now focus a whole lot less on the object of the book itself.
Lately when I’ve picked up a real book I’ve found it kind of annoying – all those flapping pages needing two hands to manage, getting caught on the duvet, etc. And what if I’m near the end of my book – I need to actually carry two books with me when I go out? Hmm.

I’m running on an old bebook reader, which is fine for reading. It would be really nice to have a device with the syncing features so I could pick up where I left off from any device though.
However I wouldn’t be willing to put up with the lock in features of a kindle for that.

Well, that’s not quite true… You can stamp a lower cadence in the 44/11 than you would do in 36/11 for the same speed, which some people do like. You don’t need to spin out a gear to make it useful

Very true. Especially offroad where you’re more likely to be putting your power in via a quick burst of stamping instead of a steady cadence.

I’d still go with double and bash though.

Definitely double and bash. Especially on a bike like the Pitch where you’re more likely to be rolling over steeper things and will really appreciate the bash.

I’m running 36/24 and I think if anything I would be happy going down to a 34 on the front, although I’d only really bother for the extra ground clearance and I do make use of the larger gearing on the road when I have to.

In most situations I could probably just spin my legs faster if needed, but it really depends where you ride.

I did run 36/22 for a while when I first converted but I found there was quite a big gap in the mid range that caused me a fair bit of bother. By contrast I’ve never noticed the lost low gears from a 24 front.

and like many things, it’s satisfying when you get it right.

This is pretty much entirely why I used to do things like H and T shifting when I owned a car that was suitable (and incidentally had a pedal layout that made it easy).

This is because I enjoy driving, and I enjoy the total immersion of the driving experience.

My mr2 was only a 1.6 so the actual speed was never that high, but the work required to keep the engine singing and maintain speed in a smaller car meant that it was all the more immersive an experience and incredibly satisfying when it all came together on a good bit of road.

And by “all coming together” I don’t mean driving like a hooligan – I mean driving at pace, in a controlled manner where you are hyper-aware of all that’s going on around you.
Probably some of the safest driving I’ve ever done.

Incidentally I tried to gently learn left foot braking once on the road, and decided it was definitely not something for me to learn in that environment!

I think I’ve pretty much got it.

Working for a bike industry tech startup, in a technical role. So I get to play with cool new technology and cool new bikes & gear, travel around to loads of big bike events, do the occasional review or article and all with a view of the North Shore mountains from my office.

Plus beer in the fridge. Can’t forget that.

I’ve been a bike guide, it was cool but not something I’d want to do longterm.

Pity it ends at Starbucks , should have been Moguls !

Whatever, clearly should have been the LCC! ;)

Like the look of that bike though! That’s probably the first time I’ve seen a Canadian trials bike that I like. Can’t seem to find any mention of it on Norco’s site though :o/

5000 miles away from family this year, so will probably head to the hills for the day, eat my Christmas lunch from a sandwich bag on a mountain somewhere :)

When back in the UK I do like to try and fit in a sneaky hour or two. It’s one day that you’re highly unlikely to have anyone shout at you for riding cheeky trails, and helps work up an appetite for the afternoon gluttony.

Didn’t see it above so just went to look up the stats on these (need numbers!)

12mm thick and ~400g per pair.

Not bad at all. Depth is awesome, weight is perfectly acceptable. Shame they don’t come in black :)

The Remedy is supposed to be one of the best helmets for all around protection. I picked one up for that reason, as well as the fact it fitted and came with Zombies on it (an important factor).

However, I found that the very round shape of the helmet looked terrible on me and I ended up resenting wearing it. Which isn’t good when you’re riding every day! Mind you, I’ve got pretty skinny shoulders, and don’t wear body armour, so that probably made the bobble head look a lot worse.

I’d avoid MX helmets if possible. Not only are they generally heavier than MTB helmets they’re also designed to withstand very different crashes, so it’s debatable if the protection offered is as good as a helmet designed specifically for MTB.

I’ve gone through some pictures and I can’t pick one ride, can I just nominate the whole year?

A few good ones:

Betws-Y-Coed in April, a weekend were I gained a guiding qualification that would set up my summer

That place in BC that everyone’s always talking about – an awesome days riding with two of my favourite Whistler people and actually some photo’s of me riding!

That there Whistler again, but this one taken after riding The Khyber Pass. One of the most fun descents ever.

One of my first rides in Pemberton. AM capital of the world.

Low (long and slack) please!

If you’re finding clearance issues just hit stuff faster and skim it. Which incidentally a low bb will help with.

Climbing through ruts and rocks can be more of a pain with the low rider it’s true, but I’d rather have the odd strike and feel more of a hero overall.

“monarch crest” trail on the continental divide colorado. Stunning epic scenery, endless singletrack, the highlight (literally in terms of elevation) of 2 weeks there.

I keep being drawn to pictures of Colorado singletrack. I think I’m going to have to go next summer.

For my ride of the year? Way, way too many to even begin to pick one. This is the year that started with an amazing group of riding buddies at home, riding several times a week all over the South West. Then the summer involved moving to Whistler and riding the trails all along the sea to sky.

It’s certainly been a top year for bikes.

Santa Cruz is a very small place in the US

It is quite a small town by population; but it’s quite a small town in California, a place that is at the heart of a huge amount of western pop-culture and as such Santa Cruz punches well above it’s population weight in global recognition.

Plus The Lost Boys was filmed there.

Plus it has the option to export as PDF built in, which is very, very useful.

To be fair here, you did order a “white coffee” (which would normally indicate a filter coffee) and then ask for “double shot” which would indicate an espresso based drink… no wonder the poor girl working there was confused and confirmed your order a couple of times.

I think the reason people have this belief that coffee is so expensive is because they’re ordering espresso based drinks, without really understanding the level of skill required to make one properly**
If you just want a cheap, basic coffee it maybe worth just ordering a filter coffee in future. You’ll probably find it a lot more reasonably priced for your expectations :)

—
**By which I don’t mean to imply that the standard of training and materials supplied to the employees of most coffee chains is likely to make one properly.

Of those with the wildcards can anyone vouch for the fit? I have found sombrio quality good in the past but sizing can be a bit hit n mis. They ususlly come up big for their size but not always (it can depend on year i’ve found). I’m 32-34″, anyone else out there can confirm the mediums are about as advertised for the 2010 wildcards? Or should i size up or down?

I’d go for the medium. I’ve found I had to size up with my Highlines, but the Wildcards are as expected.
I’m 30-32″ and the wearing a Small in the Wildcard.

I’ve got a set of Sombrio Wildcard shorts and (based on about 2-3 weeks of ownership so far) I’d thoroughly reccomend them.

Despite the “freeride” marketing the fit is pretty bang on for me for general trail riding. Length to just over the knees and fabric & fit that look good enough you could almost wear them off the bike as normal shorts. Importantly they seem well built and very waterpoof (more so than my upsettingly expensive Vaude eVent jacket).

If my previous experience with Sombrio shorts is anything to go by they should last as well as they look – I’ve had a set of Highlines that have gone through a lot of riding, during which several sets of Enduras have been consigned to the bin.

Obviously I walked the Templer Way part as it’s a footpath

No pictures to add as it’s been way too wet to risk getting a camera out here today. However, that Maxlight is stunning!

In Canada. I came here on a temporary (1 year) work visa through BUNAC. Had a summer job lined up before coming out, but found my current job while out here via Craigslist and lots of normal job hunt stuff.

Take it shopping with you with the receipt and ask the checkout people very nicely.

I had to do this with a set of shorts that I bought while away from home and had the tag left on.

Well, I would have done, but he asked for 5in travel, not 6in…. And I reckon it would be slightly underforked with a 140mm Fox 32….

oops, I knew there was something obvious I was missing.

Pitch comes with a 140mm fork as standard though.

Fly to Vancouver. Bring your bike.

I’m surprised no-one else has reccomended the Spesh Pitch yet.

That and the Prophet seem to be the most recommended frames in this category.

I do wish Vegetarians & Vegans (and I include myself in the latter) would collectively stop feeling the need to defend the dietary choices of meat eaters.

Humans may once in the past have needed to kill to eat, but we don’t need to anymore. In fact it’s been suggested it would be globally better for people not to.

###

I saw a cattle farm by a roadside in the US over the summer. We continued to drive past it for what felt like miles, just a continuous mass of cows packed into steel fences waiting to die. The whole thing reminded both me and my normally meat eating companion of nothing less than a concentration camp.

You’re not designed

I agree with this bit.

Unfortunately it had to go to pay my rent, but next season will involve something longer, lower and faster :twisted:

“Specialized”

You realise of course that is the iccorect speeling of the wurd?
Unless it was intentional: in which case was far too subtle for this board (but it made me LOL)
Erm, oops. I shall defend myself by pointing out that I am actually living in a country where this is accepted spelling, and that I spend a lot of time reading about Specialized Bikes. Although really it is indefensible.

Actually I clearly spend too much time looking up Spesh stuff, as attempting to type “specialised” required several attempts to not hit the “zee” button ;)

Aren’t “Enduro” and “All Mountain” pretty much interchangeable terms, just born of different cultures? As far as I can remember everything I’ve seen badged as “Enduro” would be what I would consider “All Mountain”.

I must admit, I’ve started finding All Mountain a pretty useful term. It turns out that to a lot of people Cross Country mean lycra, mellow trails and racing. So All Mountain does a good job as short hand for the sort of riding where you need to drop your saddle for the ride back down.

Sure there’s a lot of fragmentation of terms happening, but then mountain biking is becoming ever more specialized!

I should totally be a spin doctor.

Run for government. I'll vote for that!

See you there on Sunday :)

Yep, I did. The first one I *should* have jumped the second I'm not going anywhere near!