I highly recommend you post pictures of the puppy with her/his new housemates on here to help with the training.

Cracking dogs, lost our 12yo a few weeks ago. Would definitely jump at the chance of another, although it would be likely be me doing the de-training.

samuri – I'm sure this has been discussed before, but that's actually what happens when some shit mechanic puts the cranks on your bike.

105 stuff is great, if it wasn't, you'd have heard lots of people being loud about it.

TBH I'd jump at that 6700 groupo for £530, if I hadn't hidden my wallet from myself.

On the upside, justice was served in Harrod's early attempt to jump start Christmas: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/09/22/harrods_santa/%5B/url%5D.

Gawd blimey, MTFU and carry on wearing baggies until Novemeber.

Spot the weekend warrior.

It's September, time to cover the legs up anyway. Shave them in March.

Does http://www.thebikechain.co.uk/%5B/url%5D work for you? Likely they are both on the same server.

Sack every single one of those who are not willing to go back to work for 8 hours a day, starting Monday. Hire new staff from the large pool of unemployed we have at the moment.

Maybe Maggie should climb out of her David Cameron suit, would get my vote.

Postierich – What is your stance? Strike or get back to work?

Used linux in varoius forms since about 1999, mostly on servers.

Put Ubuntu 9.04 on my mum's new Dell a few months back, has possibly saved me several support visits in comparison to Vista. She gets on with it no bother.

Abolish baggage allowances on flights, and introduce tiered pricing based on body + luggage weight. Would be a lot cheaper for me, and would likely reduce the number of fat, smelly **** farting in the recycled air.

Most of a cars noise comes from the tyres

Only at motorway-like speeds. At, say, less than 40mph, most of the noise is produced by the engine.

Lovely bike! 9 or 10 speed?

IME slightly more expensive chains are easier to keep clean, and won't rust up if left wet overnight, whereas a cheaper chain does. It'll still rust if you're careless.

Can only buy complete cassettes.

The middle cogs on the cassette typically wear down quickest, the small cogs are only loose since it would be impractical to mount such a small diameter on the rivets/carrier that holds the rest of the cogs.

Julian Absalon only uses 3 bolts on his chain rings

I think you mean rotors. Rotors make sense as lots of folk do it, as each is still loaded evenly. Chainrings would be silly, as you would be left with 1/4 of a chainring unsupported. Certainly every photo I've ever seen of his cranksets (XX currently) have all four chainring bolts present.

Awesome film. Was gutted to find out there was a remake.

The head/spider thing is a truly scary creation, and the tribute to it in Toy Story 2 comes off pretty spooky too.

I love the continual obsession on weight by those who will realise very little advantage from a) knowing it and b) being able to lop 1lb or whatever off.

Nick is right on the money – If it's not for racing, then all you need to worry about is whether or not you can portage it without filling your Osteopath's pockets.

Always been really pleased with XTR, anything more always seems overkill.

So MSCs don't break then Nick? Did you see the 2 (or was it 3???) at Dalby…

Really? Who broke theirs?

I know of two failures this year, and both were due to bad setup with the bars spinning and cracking the brakes off the TT.

Been thinking of pulling my subscription for a while now. Each month the mag only lasts an hour at most of easy-paced reading, and most of it is just isn't inspiring.

The race issue was a total crock, I actually wondered if any of the contributors had been to a race in the last ten years.

Bike reviews also getting irritating, last months test of Ti hardtails for fashion monkeys, and this month's test of 4x bikes that made them all sound awful to ride.

Yes, I'd love to contribute, I even have some ideas that are probably worthy of more than just a blog post. Must get round to actually writing those…

MSC Koncept Carbon. 3.5lbs (1600g) including a Fox RP23 as pictured.

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With the right tools and skills it wouldn't be hard to remove that whole machined dropout and replace it with a solid plate version (no cut-out).

Juan – Can you pass that along to your translator. Thanks.

Nick – Your perfect course description IS Aviemore.

OK then people, to stop the bitching on this thread describe your ideal XC course.

Aviemore SXC course, tech climbs, tech descents, and a nuts fast singletrack descent section. Was yesterday, so you all missed it for this year. Adam Craig reckoned it was the best course he had ever ridden in 2007.

Kirroughtree

Actually, because of the constraints of the lap length, it turns out to be pretty flat and dull. The rocky stuff that's in 10 At Kirroughtree just isn't used.

Sim – You seem surprised! Explains why the 'race' edition of the mag a few months back seemed largely out of touch with what's really going on.

Freecaster has been amazing for bring the masses up to date with the new style courses (short, technical), rather than the dirt-crit that people traditionally think of.

but in that heat with that climb

It was 16C, but then, that is heat compared to what we have at the moment.

On a course like that, anyone without the 'skills' is very quickly going to be dropped from any sort of podium contention. DId look like cracking good fun (literally for one US junior who snapped his bars).

Amazed at the amount of riders that don't really seem to able to handle a few rocks!

I imagine if put into a pressure situation where there are thirty riders in front of you, and thirty behind you buzzing your tyre, you're going to feel a bit different about riding those rocks for seven laps while at max-heartrate.

I'm sure you're a real technical god on your 5" trail bike when you have time and composure to tackle stuff.

Conversed with Carlton Reid on twitter, he says if the Middleburn crankset was there, it was well hidden.

aviemoron – You've not met many of the SXC crowd, have you?

Hmm, that's a bit of a showstopper. Look forward to seeing you there.

Wondering if I'll need a mud tyre on the back for the first time since 2001 at Aviemore?

tails – Yes, national federation can enter anyone they like, not like World Cup where you need a certain number of points to race.

Another Gaggia Classic here.

Good tip on the bottomless filter, will go order me one of those.

Barton – Take the bike and do the fun race you big willy!

Anthem X Advanced? Seeing as the Anthem is being discontinued.

Was going to suggest one of these[/url], but it's £50 over you're budget.

Tails – Are you 12?

Lockout just seems to be a natural progression to me, means you get a very responsive shock where you need it, and a solid platform for stomping on as you get to the line etc. Might just be pro-pedal.

Amazed you didn't bail a long time ago Beagy, you sounded like you were having a hard time a few years back.

The 'few' that you talk of might be advocating faster, better scheduled rides to allow them to get back to their new families and commitments. Just a thought.

The club certainly has changed since I rode in it, not many youngsters these days, the kind that are keen to go out every night of the week with anyone. Most have moved on or gained responsibilities (see above).

falkirk-mark – I work in an oil refinery in central scotland

LOL! Are you trying to keep the location a secret?

It sounds like you're not very scientific about tyre pressures, so maybe you've run lower tyre pressures recently? How about going tubeless?

1:

Your mate has a rapid rise mech

2:

your mate has a rapid rise mech

The shifter has no bearing on the shift direction, only the mech does, so the shifters you are looking at will do exactly the same as your current ones.