Just been in touch with them, hopefully gonna have a test ride soon, might organise a ride on some of their other kit whilst I'm looking at it.

Awesome :D

Wow! Well, I'm not a look at me cock (I think) but I am a materials engineer and like to appreciate the cool and funky engineering solutions new materials offer.

I'm hoping that designers have learnt from previous mistakes and are designing appropriate layups to make the best use of the material properties.

Hmmm. I don't suppose you do demo days in Dorset do you!?

Trouble with Turner and Nicolai is that they look a bit…. ordinary.

Hadge – where are you based?

I have to admit I have been tempted by the 5 spot HL, and the Nicolai's as well, but I think the Mojo is so pretty. The missus might have to find another bed.

oooooooooooooh bad taste right there!

What's the Lopez link?

Not telling till I've bought one.

Hmmmm… It's getting harder and harder not to get one!!!!

That is impressive – I'll have a good look around the forum over at MTBR but it all sounds good from what you have been saying… Looks like I've just found my next bike! At least I have managed to get over my lusting for the RM altitude frame set I nearly bought a month ago!!!!

Haha. I can't make tomorrow – I'm organising a stag do in Copenhagen for Friday and got some preparation to do to make sure the Stag gets the biggest stitch up he can handle (He's a big wimp so I'm hoping to make him a stronger man before he ends up in a pinny for the rest of his life!)

Toasty – see above!

Been out on one Wednesday wobble with the rough riders – seemed like a good gang, but been crazy busy since and finding it hard to get out to explore with them since.

At the moment I am mostly trying to ride to and from work – mixture of foresty off road, road and tracks. But I have done a couple of trips into Wales where I found my Kona Shred fun but shattering! (She's a bit chubby – even with DT EXC's on)

Dave – I live and work around Poole, I don't suppose you are close by?

So by the general consensus I need to email Ibis and cheekily ask for a large one to test ride (Maybe permanently – unless they catch me).

Forgive my ignorance, but who is Hans?

Hmmm… I need to get out and ride one I guess….. Now where on earth am I going to be able to find a demo bike!

daveatextremistsdotcouk – Where are you from?! Not that I would consider a swap leaving my BMX in it's place (It's black so I'm sure it would take a while for you to notice the difference!)

How does it size up? I'm an almost perfectly average 5'11" and seem to teeter on the gap between medium and large in most bikes – medium being slightly to small unless I push seat posts out to the limit and Large feeling a bit unwieldy.

Dom

daveatextremistsdotcouk – Damn you, it appears (at least from what I can make out on the picture) You have EXACTLY the bike I want.

I have to say I would only go for the naked carbon (I am a bit techy myself), it gives me tingles in my spine!!!!

Unfortunately without the magic interest free there is no way I could afford it :( As awesome as the HD is I couldn't afford the initial up front fee :(

I have last years EXC's… They're black lowers.

I'll do you a straight swap if you want!!! :D

– I am not a harbinger of doom! –

However, irrelevent of the riding style if your mate lands on his back wrong once (As could any of us) then it could be end game for his cycling (or worse). If your mate feels like he needs one then he should wear one, I would suspect he'll feel safer doing so and have the confidence to concentrate on his riding and not whether he'll fall off or not, it's a personal choice at the end of the day if you wear safety equipment or not.

But in this case I'd advise for it.

IMO unless you can visibly see any form of cracking, or can hear any unexplained creaking I would say no.

Awesome!

I'm assuming you were assessed for a spinal injury at the scene?

I hope you are feeling better soon.

I mostly ride in a small group or on my own, off-road/trail-way commute to work of about 15 miles. I've had no problems thus far but I am waiting the day where I have a double flat or my cranks fall off about half way!!!

I used to carry allen keys around with me, but they seem to have diminished whilst using them for other jobs around the house, and now I only have a couple of not very useful ones left…

There are so many to choose from as well, my LBS has Giant and Topeak aliens for sale, the topeak looks more capable but is over twice the price, but I think the Giant's will either snap or reach their limitations very quickly.

Harley Davidson seem to make it work.

Here here Surf-Mat. I had huge problems when I tried to fit truck brakes to my bmx. had to mount the calipers ont the frame which reduced steering efficiency significantly also.

Air in the brake lines maybe?

There is a difference between confidence and finesse. One does lead to the other, before you can really learn how to use the brakes effectively you need the confidence they are going to stop you if you leave things a bit late.

It's easier to modulate smaller brakes because you have to apply larger forces at the lever to them to create the same stopping power. It's easier to explain if you consider it is a digital system…. but it might just get boring so I'll merely say more lever forces = more lever movement = more feel.

You have a greater lever acting on the hub with bigger rotors, therefore applying the same amount of frictional force through the brake lever and pads you are applying a greater stopping torque (Force x distance from fulcrum) therefore you need to make smaller/finer movements at the brake lever.

It's not less modulation, it;s harder modulation. You can correctly modulate any brake with the right finesse.

Hamish – that's what I did, tried to collect as much as I could in a cup, used to try and keep my other degreaser in a cup and filter out the crap… But I knocked the cup over. DOH!

It did a bloody good job of the cleaning… Just wondering if I might do any long term damage, made sure I kept it well away from any rubbery or plastic bits.

sorry, I misunderstood what you were asking. So yes, they are using several shed loads!

That's the result of pushing the materials to their limits and beyond.

I don't know the exact composition of the A380's layup (Not even the end customers know that – which is scary really when you think about who will be responsible for repair and maintenance. Bolted aluminium/Titanium reinforcement plates anyone?!), but I would have thought they would be using UD layups in various layers rather than woven mats.

You'll be doing bloody well if you aren't the designer and manage to find out the layup/material specs for the construction! Unsurprisingly these companies are very secretive about such things.

Fair enough.

I could well be wrong.

A380 has a lot, but the dreamliner is where it's at!

frank – The wind industry up until recently were almost exclusively using Glass FRP. (This observation is based on the number of academic articles produced by the industry which were studying fatigue – If you are really interested here is a good place to start! http://www.coe.montana.edu/composites/)

The wind energy industry doesn't give a rats about weight (Generalisation – what I mean is expense is a bigger driver than lightweight + strong), put enough material in and it'll be strong enough.

However aeroplanes have to fly as efficiently as possible. Hence the use of Carbon fibre in MASSIVE quantities (The dream liner is almost completely carbon fibre).

PERSONALLY I believe the blame for the high cost can be planted straight on their doorstep. But that is just my opinion.

I would argue that the frame wasn't perfect and may have had plenty of other knocks. As I said in the previous thread, if they're on their way out you probably wouldn't know until it happens.

****.

Well, this kinda Pi**es all over the argument I was having in another thread!

I'd say that's a good enough correlation!