😯 It's even worse than Clubbers klein.

If you do update it, though, you should at least do it with loads of modern syncros/salsa type bits. And purple hubs, it NEEDS purple hubs.

Don't put a stick-e on the back. That is all.

Imagine, if you will, a jam jar with a short thread. One of those French ones with the gingham top on it, for example. If you smash the jar, the lid will remain in place but the jar will be broken. If you undo the lid, the jar will be intact and the lid will be off.

Both states will permit the ingress of wasps when taking said jam on a pic-nic.

Now (and this is the bit where the analogy gets clever) because of the short thread it is possible to apply the lid without applying sufficient force to drive it hope as securely as one might like. This is especially easy in the case of rasberry jam, as the pips can rather clog up the threads.

Once the jar has been placed in ones hamper on the way to a pic-nic it is quite conceivable that the motion of the hamper may cause the lid of the jar to be sharply struck by an ill-secured corkscrew. Repeated strikes, such as those occasioned by driving over a cattle grid, may cause the lid to loosen to such a degree that upon opening the hamper at one's destination, one would exclaim "My word, that is not good! My jam, it is potentially exposed to the depredations of vespa vulgaris. That would quite ruin the planned pic-nic".

Happily, though, this dreadful situation can be remedied by re-applying the lid, as the jar is not broken. The wasp is thwarted and the pic-nic is saved.

Similarly the issues one might experience with a DMR Ex-Type crankset are easily remedied. As with the exposure of one's compote to insects, though, it is a fundamentally troubling design flaw. For this reason I myself prefer Tiptree prserves and SLX cranks.

Not great but tough as old boots. The non-drive has a slight tendency to fall off unless you stick on plenty o'threadlock and keep an eye on it.

Not if you intend to ride SPDs the rest of the time and can't ride flats for toffee.

If you CAN ride flats then yes, for the reasons stated above. If you can't then why bother, if you're just looking at typical traily type jumps? It just means that you'll have another load of buttclench fear moments when you get back into SPDs.

Can jump, can't land.

One thing that's giving me trouble at the mo is a jump on a trail that i've done a million times, but is presently a bit worn down as you hit the lip, so there's a nice smooth upslope, but then a couple of inches of treestump sticking out upright at the top.

Now on a regular trail I KNOW my back wheel would just roll over that, legs and tyre would soak it up and i'd carry on in the intended direction, but on a hardtail at least my brain has convinced me that my front wheel will go over, the back will hook up, I will rotate round the rear axle and plant my face in the trail. I just can't get it, I'm going to have to go up there with a spade and sort it out.

You will still need an EPC prior to Exchange of Contracts (the energy efficiency bit) – should be able to get one for £50-80ish

Edit – it's sellers responsibility to supply this, strictly.

Thank you all. I will look again at 819s – though tried some early Mavic UST setup and had more success with MTX & rimstrips, hence now looking at Stans.

rockthreegozy – The MTX are a bit shagged, to be honest, not 100% straight, slightly drilled valve hole and the odd flat spot, but once I've got a quote I'll let you know if they come off neatly and you'd be welcome to em – always happy to recycle. Might be a week or 6 yet though, will probably drop the hubs off for a build whilst off skiing.

Ta again.

6lb hardtail, pointy seatstays, purple?

It's 1993 again and I claim my five pounds.

Same dropouts, gusset cable guides and cable routing my Marin Rocky Ridge frame too. Same factory, I guess.

Gingery meatballs & linguine, Bishops Finger, 10ft Ganja Plant. I heartily endorse all three.

It's all down to perception: Anything that makes you mutter "dear god almighty" and swear that the next bike will be a full suss after you nose off a drop and suddenly find that the head angle feels like -80 degrees, but which has the handling characteristics commonly associated with livestock when going downhill and those of a unicycle going up is probably a LT hardtail.

Cross your hands over when approaching right handers? Try aversion therapy – swap the brakes round?

What on earth is there on the Bristol 12 course that requires even lifting your bum off the saddle, let alone FS? A discarded energy gel wrapper? A twig? My amusingly over-forked Marin is overkill round here.

From experience I can assert that Mr Agreeable's favourite is, in fact, The Good The Bad and the Ugly:

"You see in this world there's two kinds of people, my friend. Those with fig rolls, and those who dig. You dig."

Having recently upgraded an older mac from Tiger I've found it's rather overwhelmed the 1 Meg Ram I have, but that's easily fixed. Aside from a copule of minor glitches with the latest iTunes it's not displayed any tendency to do anything spectacularly stupid yet.

Sorry, I'm just not a poetic soul; Does he mean his arse froze to the runway?

I've just been given a bottle of Balvenie Signature (rather than the usual Doublewood) and it's rather good – bit fuller, very smooth and warm, bit less scenty than Cragganmore, but a similar heather honey thing going on.

PS3 = Bluray media centre. X Box = Microsoft tat. Wii = Ant & Dec.

That was my logic when shopping yesterday, anyway

Bed for the Scraping – Fugazi. Can't beat it when you're knackered and need a bit of a kick up the backside.

So how does "I'm doing a weekly meal plan on this spreadsheet to involve lamb tagine with bager noses" actually provide any practicable advantage to getting a bit of paper and wrting down "500g lamb, rose harissa, onion, loo roll, catfood…" other than the fact that you have an excuse to take your laptop round the supermarket?

Presumably you can actualy remember independently that cillit bang and catfood do not a happy tagine make?

I call mine a "Shopping List".

I got the idea for the name when brain storming a bluesky out of the box ahead of the paradigm futuristismistically pro-innovation enabled nomeculature advancement session. Feel free to use it.

Protection black chilli 2.4s are fine here, and I'm a fat numpty who's used to supertacky minions, i'm just too unfit to keep hauling the things uphill.

I reckon y'all just can't corner.

To contrast S&Js post slightly I'm always quite concerned at the speed that me and well over a ton of slightly homicidal (actually, VERY homicidal – in the words of his owner, an 'he's an evil bugger, that one') horse can get up to on a bridleway.

I'm sure my bikes stopping distance is less and, being a bike, it doesn't actually actively try to kill people. No one seems to mind though.

Bloody hell. Insane.

Top marks.

I'm best man-ing at a wedding. Depending on how the speech goes I may see you at 50 acre, they won't look for me there.

Useful to know.

It's riding bloody nice locally at the moment, get out there before it rains.

PS – Things you weren't expecting No 2: Picnic Bench. Unexpected fallen tree just as you approach the first sharp lefthander.

I realized that every other time I took my norco six out I hurt myself, so now I am become jeycore, mincer of trails. I still crash every 5 minutes, but at significantly lower speed.

I really like Mike Duncan's "History of Rome" but then I'm a nerd.

hat.

The use of Minerva, Neptune and so on in translations of Greek poetry. Idiots.

Garage door kicked in, local scrotes riding £500 xc wheelsets to spar for skins.

Ride in the dry, it's working for me today. It's piddling down out there and by staying in & drinking tea I haven't had a single washout. Not sure if the supertackys are helping or not.

You not see Millar in the tour today? Skidz iz whr itz at, brah.

I’m listening to Anthony Hegarty. Sandra who?

The scene, a field in Somerset, early July: Charge Bikes R&D meeting:

Dirt Jumper 1: “Oi ‘ad some townie come up to I other day I did”
DJ 2: “Ooar? After the festival were it?”
DJ1: “a’s roight, Anywayz, ee sez ‘ ere mate, giz a go in your privy and I’ll give you fifty quid, looked roight desparate ee did.”
DJ2: “Fifty quid? Bloody city folk, pay anything for any old crap ‘ey’ll”
DJ1: “Well that’s what I fort, innit? So I sez seventy five like, and we’ll say no more about it”
DJ2: “Proper job, that. So what are we gonna do with all this scaffolding and that stem you ran into a wall last week then?”

Telegraph Road, Dire Straits.
Awesome.

hip or what?

Nah, he’s normal for Yorkshire.

Good Vibrations, Beach Boys.