Sony HDR-AS15. Just got one. I’d say equivalent of the GoPro Hero3 Silver but without the risk of DOA. PLUS GoPro have been throwing their weight about recently slapping DCMA on reviewer here[/url].
At £185 on Ebay it’s a bargain!

I’ve hated the word ‘steed’ for years.

The last mountain bike magazine I actually bought was about 5 years ago.

I noticed all of the UK magazines recycling articles in about 1993…

MBUK and their ‘amusing’ articles on:
1. cycling underwater
2. cycling out of an aircraft
3. cycling somewhere equally stupid and pointless
4. ad nauseam…

‘Wrecking Crew’ – nicked from Mountain Bike Action as most of the other made up terminology was in the early days and that grew out of the MX scene so the language is from ‘dudes’ who liked to ‘rail’, use ‘body english’ while ‘throttle twisting’ in sunny SoCal. Rad.

‘Stiction’ is useful though. Static Friction. Mountain bike journalists are ‘Stunts’. Stupid C(that’s enough – Ed)

I seem to remember at one point those frames had a ‘lifetime’ warranty. have you still got the receipt?
I broke 2 of the mountain bike versions! Sold the third one before it had time to break!

Is it time to start a new thread:

Rear or roof mounted bike carrier for trains, which is best?

I once used one of those rooftop bike racks that are on some trains. When I got to my destination and remounted, the handlebars and saddle made me feel all tingly. A bit like pins and needles only hotter.

One of these:

Mitsubishi Delica

Reminds me of a TwopTwip (twitter feed)

If you’d like to learn some new cockney swear words…

Simply ride a bicycle into London!

Some good ideas there, thanks.

HTC Desire will be looked into.

Idea: I could sell my Note and get a Desire and have money left to get a tablet.
Any decent 7 inch tablets with wifi, 3g and sd card slots for under £150?

Aaaaaargh! I was saving for a SB95 and now this comes out…

Thing is, if I go for the SB95c I will have to think like a weight weenie. No point in saving 2lb off the frame only to buy cheap, heavy components to put on it. Increases potential final cost exponentially!
Might have to stick to the SB95 and get it in turquoise and choose lightish/durable components. And lose a stone or two of bodyweight. And get fitter.

19.6lb scott scale 29er. done

Have you got any money left to buy a lens cleaning cloth?

I think the reason Retrobikers build garage queens is due to the number of hours (in spotty youth-dom) they spent drooling over unattainable mountain bikes in showrooms only to find thermselves 20 years later with enough cash to buy the object of their desires. But only to find post-build that the bikes ride like crap compared to modern kit. I did it with a Bonty Privateer. Built it, almost killed myself on it trying to ride the same trails as I ride on my modern metal.
The Cannondale wasn’t one of the ‘iconic’ bikes. It’s a bit like finding a mint condition Ford Escort Mark 5. Amazing condition but still mundane.

My garage is littered with tyres. I try and get rid of my surplus decent ones on ebay but I still have about 6 full sets not on bikes ranging from 26″ slicks to 29er knobblies.

I’ve used Pharos parcels. They were one of the first ‘multi-carrier’ parcel services. I rang them up in the early days and spoke personally to the owner and the chief coder, they seemed rather nice and friendly.

What’s 10 feet long and stinks of piss?

Actually, I think I meant false brinelling! The action of sustained vibration that pushes the lubricant away from the contact faces. If you coast over rough surfaces, this will happen. So try and keep the cranks rotating.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/False_brinelling

It’s Collect+ local drop-off for me from now on!

So, the slots are 5mm, 2.5cm and 8cm (and 46cm). But what about interference? We need to know what the clearances need to be. Vernier calipers at the ready! Maybe there’s a market for Teflon coated brown parcel wrapping paper!

No, I’m sort of thinking Fatbike for general riding and full suss for yahooing about.

Well, I went for a Sony HDR-AS15. I managed to find it for £185 on ebay from one of the UK based grey import sellers.
I spent a whole 2 days looking at videos, downloading actual clips, reading reviews.

Main reasons that swung it:
1. No rolling shutter wobble effect
2. Stereo sound capable
3. Slo-mo capable
4. Wifi controllable
5. Built in image stabilisation (720 120 degrees wide angle)
6. It’s Sony (already got one of their cameras – awesome quality)
7. Good low light performance
8. Good price

I shall do a proper off road bumpy test with it as soon as it arrives.

WaS Gary Tank Commander ever shown south of the border ? Do people know what you are referring to?

I think so, I’m sure I watched it while living in Sheffield.

I think someone may have to write a book on this, would make a fortune!

I put a 35 degree track stem (upside down of course!) on my Inbred. I have 470mm rigids and felt the front was a bit low. My head angle may be a bit steep. Does anybody do a crown race spacer?

A village in East Yorkshire toyed with the idea of roadblocking the Milk Race a few years ago. They asked the police what would happen. “You’d be arrested for obstructing the public highway” was the reply.
There’s always some nimby with an axe to grind. The village in question hated Humberside County Council and was a regular hotbed of arseyness.
When I say ‘village’, yes, probably all of the residents!

I have one of these,
2.8L
4wd
V6
Cream leather
Less than £3k at 80,000 miles.
Excellent car if you can stomach the 26mpg. Get one with a sensible engine and you will be happy. Had a newer hire car in 2007, Inverness to Dorset coast, 600 miles, one tank of diesel.
Room enough to sleep in too.

For 26mpg (or more if you keep it under 50mpg – (32mpg is possible…)) you could have one of these:

It’s the LWB model.
4 bikes inside with 4 people in comfort
or
2 people inside sleeping in comfort with 2 bikes inside with them
or
6 people inside in comfort with 2 bikes inside and 4 bikes outside (plus many other combinations).

Wade through 3 ft deep water (keeping carpets dry).
Plough through 2ft deep snow.
Never have trouble getting off muddy fields etc, etc.

Less than 3k for a VERY tidy low mileage one, I paid 1400 quid for a scruffy one with good mechanicals.
The photo there is the one I sold about 5 years ago which by coincidence came up on ebay last week.
Old-school mechanical rotary pump, electrics NOT electronics so not a great deal TO go wrong. High ground clearance so if you need to look underneath it – lie down and wriggle under.

My Avid Juicy 7s are silent, My Code 5s judder like hell but I think it’s the rear brake mount tab flexing! Next frame will be rear post mount I think!

I had coil Lyriks on my Mega. Best forks I ever had. I wish they’d make 29er versions…

I’ve found that you don’t need a compressor (once you have tightened the bead with foam tape – see my previous post above). Just a constant high volume, low pressure air feed. Use one of those crappy 12 volt pseudo tyre compressors for cars or a pump sold for inflating guest mattresses. Do the initial seating inflation without the valve core (I always use Schrader) and constantly turn and tip the wheel and squeeze the tyre to help the rim seat. I inflate like this until I get it seated then quickly switch to a track pump and put about 60 psi in. The bead really pops on at this pressure. Then I quickly whip the pump head off the valve stem and screw in the core, then reflate to 60psi once more. Once you’ve got a decent seal, go for a ride!
This method has worked for me for about the last 10 years. I started with latex carpet adhesive and worked up to Stan’s fluid.

20 inch bmx tube (conti or schwalbe, they have metal stems) slit up the middle. Either cut before mounting with scidssors or cut after with a scalpel or similar. If you don’t need 2 tyre levers and a bit of effort to get tyres on and off, you need a layer of double sided foam tape under the ghetto rimstrip. To keep the rim sealed and ‘tidy’, put a strip of self adhesive rimstrip on first.
If tyre is tight enough, a track pump (with valve core removed from valve to help with airflow) will inflate. Go on a long ride immediately after installing in order to get the fluid into every nook and cranny. Take a pump, the tyres will probably slowly deflate at first.

Still can’t find it, anyone know where I can download?

My Ridgeback has the exact same chainstays, seatstays and strengthening gussets as this: similar.
And a flattened bit, in exactly the same place…

My concern with all these cheap cameras is that low light performance

I looked at the test of the Xdreme HD and it looked pretty good in low light.

I’m in a similar position. I intend to buy one at the end of April.

Thinking of getting a 7dayshop gopro clone but these two are also on my radar:

Xtreme HD

Cubicam[/url]

The Cubicam looks unusual because of it’s screen being on the front.

I’m after good colour reproduction, full HD and reduced (or none!) vibration wavy shutter effects.

I keep looking at Techmoan Youtube to see what he’s found.

I did try making my own: DIY chest cam but gave up as it was too heavy and the camera I used kept switching itself off! Plus, gopro clones started getting cheaper so it wasn’t really worth it anymore. It was fun to try and make though – happy hours spent in the man cave! The bits are currently in a pile in front of me.

Thanks for that correction aracer, I appreciate the enthusiasm. I feel a bit like an oxbridge don (whatever one of those is), so many willing research assistants. Now can you help me with the second pic? I’d like you to go and drink 187 cups of espresso in one go and then report back. Don’t worry about the cost, just send me an invoice after you’ve written up your findings.
Yeeees.

Answer:

Pic 1 is the amount of espresso required to get banned from competing in the Olympics: 6 cups.

Pic 2 is the amount of espresso that would actually kill you: 187 cups.

Well, you bothered to look, type and hit return. A welcome break from bitching about wheel sizes and “my tyres won’t seat” posts.

It amused me at the time.

Just built this to replace a cheapo alloy 29er. Not quite sure how it rides yet but the one it replaced rode great.

Not sure of the weight, not something that bothers me about this particular bike…

search for shop: ‘zhaoxu2009’

I’m also really tempted by the 7dayshop version, anyone bought one?

Hi BB, I lost my spare nose pieces. I never knew they were different sizes though, curse my longsightedness!
I’ve found a new seller though, a shocking price increase over the last pair! Double!

Well, mine finally failed after about 8 months use. The hinged locking nose piece failed as I was using genuine lenses which are a bit larger and put strain on the locking mechanism. Now I’m looking for a replacement frame…

I bought one. Not bad quality, got a remote resistance control. It doesn’t change much from easy to full on though. Still, 50 quid including shipping, can’t complain! Better than sitting on yer bum! I found that pedalling in a higher gear helped to control the resistance. Narrow (40) tyres on my 29er at 80psi.

I try and find a McD, Asda, Tesco or something that’s a little bit off the route and go there.
Spent a lovely half hour hand feeding Starlings at Hemel Hempstead McDs once.