conti travel contact- awesome tyres, fairly slick, not true crossers (pretty good offroad though) but most importantly for commuting, they have conti’s puncture guarantee, come with free inner tubes and you get a free new tyre+ inner tube if they puncture within a year

here’s a quote from one of the ‘studies’ referred to earlier:

While it must be acknowledged that police casualty reports are prone to under-reporting, particularly of incidents involving lower severity casualties the attractive feature of these data are that by definition they only concern road casualties.

that says quite a lot I think. Its all about the sample taken containing only examples of the point that is being made. Nicholas Taleb explains it a lot better than I could in The Black Swan/Fooled by Randomness, both excellent reads regardless of whether you wear a helmet or not

go on then, I’ll bite.
say you went over the bars and bumped your head at fairly low speed on this:
which outcome is most likely:
A) your head hurts less with a helmet on,
B) the helmet makes no difference or might make injury worse…?

speaking from personal experience of similar offs on rocky trails, I know which answer I’d give 😐

+another recommendation for Tony the Jedi master – I had a session with him a while ago, I’d say its more than worth the outlay to get a 1-1 with him…..
I doubt there’s anyone apart from the very top world riders that would not get a significant improvment from him, particularly the mind game aspect of riding. In my case I had been trying to put too much ‘technique’ into jumps whereas what I needed to know was that I was trying too hard!

I now think about my riding ‘pre jedi’ and ‘post-jedi’, if that makes sense! 😀

yeah quite enjoyed it but for more backroom/team/pain stuff also check out Overcoming, this has some great Voigt stuff in too, though less comedy.

What was interesting to see was the high def lower camera position giving you a real sense of the speed they go at during time trials, and how fast they go uphill when attacking. Its difficult to get a sense of this on TV or from a standing viewpoint on the mountain..

Ahh Cheers- thank goodness for that. I was beginning to get a bit worried if anyone had actually been able to get up the steps bit to the right..
I take it the bit with Cp’s arrow is also less steep/steppy on the way down- I was thinking ‘this isn’t super-easy down either’ before I fell off.

If doing it at work I hope you’ve got a shower- the level of, uh, perspiration is far greater than when out getting a cooling breeze for some reason!

They are great for measured and focused training or intervals- where else can you smash it head down at a constant effort without soon coming across different terrain / traffic lights / junctions etc??

cheers guys, looks like a few good options there!

tis a corker.
Just dont forget to hang a right at about 1.00m into bernaards vid link or you could be getting MASSIVE air!

Apparently NOT a photoshop job either! 😆

cynic-al – Member

I added up the various lengths between the bottom bracket and saddle, and compared with 1.09 x inside leg (one way of getting your saddle height from bb).

831mm!! thats a lot for a 30" leg…..
are you sure you've not multiplied instead of divided?? 😛

I REFER YOU TO THIS!

should be a good start!

"That said, the official document has still not been received in the post,"

so why not say 'oops tree already dead before we got this….'

cheers.

@Wacko,
so did you put the double only 36t on a previous triple xt chainset?

slightly silly question but,
could an 'intermediate trial bodge' be done by just switching middle ring off normal triple to a 36T and using the big ring as a bash guard by just not shifting to it?
any technical reason why this would be fail?

also, I've seen you can get either middle 36t normal or 36t 'double only' rings- does the latter have different fixings, or why would it not work on a switch as noted above? thanks 😐

+1 for AM sprint 350s. bit over budget but they look real nice and hubs are awesome. grams per £ is better than most.

more on budget would be AM victory30, durable enough for CX too apparently…

grammAr nazis- get it right!

(see what I did there?) 😉

anyone else do this yesterday?
was a glorious day for it, somehow race day ended up dry and sunny in between the latest deluges….
was a tough course with a fair old bit of climbing. good day out

"Different Gravy"

as in 'I've seen some good trials riders, but that Danny Macaskill is different gravy'

Just to add a potentially 'explosive' thought- I do admire the (seemingly always non-british) blokes, often along with wives/sisters etc, rather enterprisingly setting up hand car washes on bits of waste ground or disused petrol stations and the like…. cars will always need washing and all that. 😆

not sure if they are working under the iron fist of some evil ringmaster though…

DRAWING YOUR COLLISIONS

perhaps some of the artistic on here could add similar experiences? eg

😆

what Waderider said.

career scroungers are a strain on more than just the benefits system. If (like my past neighbour) you don't need to get up and work for your vodka money, why not have a party most nights blasting your crap music out, using up council env health dept's and coppers' time….

@ junkyard – you may want to look up the correct english usage of 'infer'

ctznsmith – Member

DenDennis isn't National insurance the portion of tax that is 'supposed' to cover 'benefits' under the welfare state?

So you focusing on Income tax ignores £104.6bn 'earmarked' for that purpose.

Does 'Social security benefits' in your post cover state pensions? What proportion of these are pensions?

not sure actually, I'll have to dig the web for more 'facts' but in any case, even if 'benefits' included state pensions, the proportion of payouts compared to combined income tax/nat insurance revenue is surprising…..
What that chart shows perhaps more surprisingly, is the relatively low proportion of corporation tax.

In 2008/09, gross income tax receipts were £152.5 billion. In the same year, social security benefits cost the Exchequer £150.1 billion.

In 2009/10, the Treasury is expecting to take in £140.5 billion in gross income tax receipts. Social security benefits are projected to be £164.7 billion.

cynic-al – Member

Benefits bill is lower than most think – you read the Mail too much.

you might think that wiping out entire income tax revenue, and equating to 25% of ALL tax revenue is 'not much……'

^ oh well, poor you, looks like you're not wanted in their gang!

molgrips – Member

I feel like learning the technique for rolling onto the bonnet of a car and into the window – so when folk cut it fine I can ride into them. Give them the shock of their lives.

indeed. and roll around in 'agony' holding leg like a footballer, whilst "accidentally" scratching the paintwork with cleats…

my most common one, last used on mother blissfully wheeling her kid across road in pushchair without looking is a loud "WAKEY WAKEY!" on passing

THIS
should do you?

more general race info xcracer.com

tell us more about how you are measuring using the scales?

not taking the michael, but you are counting the weight of the bar as well, yes?

leggyblonde – Member

it may be required for stablity to the inner leaf of brickwork on the outside wall (if the loads are high) or be there to provide lateral stability for the other end of the beam.

+1

^this.
think of long brick garden walls that have piers every so often down the length of them- they're not supporting anything above right? so what might they be doing??

why do you think the people who originally knocked through didnt go all the way (as it were)?

Equally, they might have just been ultra cautious- go for it if you're happy!

ahwiles – Member

bikes don't get chainsuck, people do (or something like that).

but do all bikes have the same horizontal width of chainstays close to the BB? I guess some have wider chainstays, arising to the need for more 'caution when shifting/ chain maintenance' required?

I have to say I have had this with my 2010 soul also. Gouged out a fair bit of paint on chainstay behind the granny.
I had switched cranks+bb off my previous marin HT frame, no such issues with that…..
not sure if there are particular cranks / BB setup that cotic recommends or that will give more clearance?

* watches thread with interest **

Not able to look for a video link but did anybody see that tv doc a year or so ago about 4x4s driving kids to school??
The presenter made his point by taking the selfish 'safety' argument to the extreme by getting a full military-spec armoured hummer with all the kit going at about 5 mph down the road with megaphone blasting-
"keep clear- child in transit to school"… raised a few smiles.

SPD SANDALS

PaulD – Member

More important still; is the saddle to pedal platform the same too?

^ this

Or does the person who rides the folder have longer legs?

Big Dummy's is better.

+1

you can also spit out the final word QUOI?!! for extra emphasis

Just to add some 'flavour' of perspective: We really are pretty spoilt in this country.

I sometimes wonder why else would there be an influx of hard working Europeans/foreign nationals… 😐

hence unionised workplaces have better compliance with the law

agreed.

But these guys are asking for a pay rise, not compliance with agreed laws/salaries etc

TJ

Without unions you would be working in unsafe conditions with no holidays nor sick pay and 60 + hr weeks

Historically, yes.
Nowadays don't we have a whole raft of health & safety, working hours, minimum wage, etc etc directives that negate the need for unions?