rolfharris
I’ll be there goign for gold in the men’s pairs.

Better than sandbagging in sport :wink:

njee20 – Smaller mech is less likely to hit rocks, isn’t fugly like the current Shimano SGS mechs, and is a wee bit lighter.

I run GS (Which is medium in shimano land, rather than SGS standard/long) mechs on triples and 11-32t setups, works totally fine. Can’t see the extra 2 links of chain necessary for the 11-34 causing trouble.

Depends. I suppose a steel chainring is hardened.

XTR is better, fact.

Don’t think it shifts better than anything else? You’re kidding yourself.

Chainrings last as long as current XT, longer in fact for the middle ring (Ti harder than steel).

Is it too expensive? If you buy it at retail (or even CRC prices) it totally is at the moment due to the crappy exchange rate. The trick was to buy it when it was cheap, or get fast and get a sponsor ;o) Stockpiling it has also worked out nicely for me.

Other than that, most of what dobo said.

It appears were are posting favourite fyxomatosis images….

MSC Zion Carbon. I know of two sub 25lb builds that are raced DH.

http://www.bikeradar.com/gear/category/bikes/mountain/product/zion-carbon-r-32381

Not sure how well a 10spd chain would last???? I think 9spd will be around for a few more years yet

The same shite was spouted when 9speed first appeared. A 10spd chain is only 0,5mm narrower than a 9spd one, and people don’t seem to have problems running whole ‘cross seasons on them.

Middle opening.

When you open them there’s a grey slidey thing at the top, I think this is for a vent or something, I can’t really see for the blind fitting.

10under doesn’t need the publicity. The limited entries for the first time this year, and have almost sold those out.

The No Fuss team make an amazing job of their events, and rightly have a large following of riders who keep coming back for more. In any business, repeat customers and little marketing output is what you want.

Marketing wise, they do send out emails with offers of free bottles of whiskey, always going to be a winner when it comes to not ending up in the trash.

My dog completely ignores other dogs, and people, he thinks they’re too much hassle or something. Rabbit, deer or birds? They’re fair game for him.

Sounds like some people on here have serious dog-phobia, no doubt driven by the minority of lazy owners with over-boisterous dogs out there.

Rumours for about five years now. Still waiting patiently.

Dougal – that seems extreme – I only need to service mine after very wet rides or immersion.

I sense the sarcasm here, but that’s about once every two weeks in the UK, unless you’re a fair weather fairy.

To the people who claim to have XT hubs for a year and have had no work done on them; Do you only ride in some sort of entirely moisture free environment? I stopped running cup-and cone hubs when I got fed up of re-greasing them every few weeks, and rebuilding wheels when the races were worn out after about a year.

To the people struggling to get bearing in and out of hopes; RTFM and get the proper tools. And a vice.

</rant>

Easy serviceability and awesome warranty.

Check your safety deposit box for large quantities of misappropriated Third Reich gold. You’ll know for sure that way.

Oli Becks was running a 38T ring, and one of those new fancy 12-36 cassettes that all the midget 29er riders have been shouting for.

Prefer keeping all three of my chain rings, just in case. The weight loss is near-silly, though I do fancy the idea of something like 26-36-44 rather than 22-32-44.

Not quite as good as the dude riding off the side of the little stone bridge.

I bought the big Technic Bulldozer as my own Christmas present in 2007, is great fun. Dog doesn’t like it mind, bit like the hoover, very wary of it.

Only a four hour drive, local-tastic!

I’ll blame the heat for my memory loss. Impressed the Epic was that light. You racing this weekend?

njee20 – What Epic do you have? Current S-Works weighs in at 23lbs, owners were seen crying at last BMBS when my bike was weighed.

It has been observed at many gatherings of Edinburgh Uni cycling bods that it will be almost entirely composed of people studying engineering, sciences or medicine. There shall be one arts or social sciences student, who shall be laughed at, and miss out on most of the jokes.

Me – Software engineer (I hate the phrase IT, it’s that thing wot you can study for 14days, and according to the TV ad, get an instant £37k).

Good to see plenty of law types enjoying the golf trails.

dougal are those your riding shoes?

Yeah. The bunions are a bitch, but they make my (yes – shaved) legs look totally killer when I pop into the bakers for pie mid-ride.

For the return to center thumbies you’ll need….

* A pair of the SRAM TT shifters – £160 on CRC. http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/Models.aspx?ModelID=31541
* A pair of pauls thumbie mounts – $50ish on fleabay. http://shop.ebay.com/paul%20thumbies?_nkw=paul+thumbies

Not that cheap really. You also have to put up with 10 speed road kit (Until XX comes out at the end of next year), unless the cable pull is the same as 9spd.

There is some silly stuff on there, especially when you can build a 20.5lb full susser with no silly bits:

Ignore the flat bars, it had risers put on it after the first ride.

What is with expecting free stuff when a mistake is made? Has the mistake cost the original poster income?

I’ve been running a pair of ZTR Olympics laced to AM Classic hubs with revolutions for two years now, no problems at all. Would possibly get hopes next time though, bearing are tiny. Here’s a review of them I wrote a while back: http://douglasfshearer.com/blog/wheel-review-stans-ztr-olympic-rim-american-classic-hubs

Get in touch with the importer, they’re REALLY good at sorting out stuff like this.

crazy-legs – I heard you’d carry a set of risers in gets it was technical.

For an hour? Nothing apart from a bottle and maybe a gel.

Two hours plus? Pump and a tube.

Contain lesbians.

my humble understanding is that the fatigue testing cycles involved in getting a (din?) certification is massive for ‘metal’ frames, whereas you make a frame out of carbon and that fatigue testing cycle is reduced?

The standard is set for bicycle frames, not specifically for any construction method. Steel/alu/carbon/digestives all get the same number of load-cycles on the pedal test (100000), and have to meet the same flex guidelines etc.

Blairadam is also worth a few trips to explore and find the techy stuff: http://www.blairadam.com

A standard hardtail carbon frame, ie not cutting edge unidirectional high modulus carbon or similar will roll out of the doors in Taiwan for between £100-150. Something more decent like a nice Spesh S-works frame might be heading towards the £250 mark. (Might…)

When sprouting, can people please cite sources.

Most bullshit in a thread EVER!

I get the feeling lots of people have bad memories of CF in the ’90s. Modern CF is pretty strong, there was a good discussion about this in the DIN testing thread two or so weeks ago.

The problem with CF failing is that it does so without any warning (no visible cracks etc) and does so in an instant

If it was made of one single piece of CF, rather than hundreds of pieces all laid up. Early carbon frames (Giant MCM etc) had an insane amount of paint on them to protect the CF from getting scratched or gouched by rocks. Modern frames (Ibis mentioned aboved being an exception) don’t have this. A scratch is no longer an issue, as the layup of the carbon is multi-directional and multi-layered, preventing a propagating crack or tear that would cause a catastrophic failure such as you get in aluminium.

The other aspect is what is the advantage of a CF frame? How much of the weight of a nice light bike is the frame? 4 lbs out of 25? so save 1/2 a pound on the frame – does it really matter?

Matters a lot. I’m currently riding a 3.5lb (including shock!!) full-suss frame. That’s lighter than most alloy hardtail frames. So yeah, it does matter if you’re design goal is to make comforts such as FS without the weight penalty usually associated with them.

Maybe at the end of the day it comes down to the XTR chainrings argument: If you’re fat, slow, clumsy, can’t afford to replace it or just don’t want it, vote with your visa card and buy something else.

Best bet for that purpose is Stendec Stantion spray.

The most expensive you could find was £500?

Old news, the plans haven’t involved the existing house for quite some time.

Watched the first episode of the second series, not laughed so hard in a long time. Got hold of the first series and it had the house down. Really well written and produced.

Also enjoying The Big Bang Theory, very funny, especially if you know people like the protagonists.

1 of each type per person, in which you can invest £3600 per year (this will go upto £4000 for 2010/2011 IIRC).

There are two types, standard Cash ISA and a Stocks and Shares ISA, so if you had one of each, you could dave £7200/year tax free.