Buy it when it’s worthless?

No, good desirable cars will retain a decent baseline of value, which if its properly desirable and not just needless luxury it may even increase that baseline. The smart money’s on letting someone else take the daft part of the depreciation curve out of it for you. Its been a while since simply being ‘new’ was synonymous with better, unless one has a particular penchant for vehicles that can be stolen off the driveway in 20 seconds flat without a key for example….

In a world where a Kia Frottage is considered a luxury vehicle, I seriously wouldn’t bother. Am old enough to remember when luxury was a Bentley. Buy something well made at the point it just reaches the bottom of its depreciation curve. Only run what you can afford to fix or replace without it causing a crisis, anything else is a mugs game.

Modern Tv’s may be be amazing but its compensated by 97.6% of anything on TV being rubbish, and maybe on average a handful of films worth watching a year… and one or two streamable series max….

Have rim brakes disappeared on the road? Not up my end. My year 2014 bike is perfect, light/ stiff/ responsive/ comfortable, doesn’t need extra braking… theres something cooler about older road bikes, modern bikes just seem a bit try-hard in comparison. It seems the road bike has gone through the biggest change in the last decade, more so them the mtb which is more of an evolution… but then I had mtb’s 20 years ago that I preferred riding/owning than my modern mtb. An old retro bike that was perfect in its day is still nice to ride now, the roads are mostly still the same, maybe rougher- if you’re not racing then the .37percent aero gain doesn’t matter so much.

….oh, and I never looked at a cable in multi decades of riding and thought that the riding experience would be better if it could only disappear…

Its a mountain bike. With some average kit on it. Which costs £8000. Pass.

Goretex rainshells just don’t last forever. Never have and still don’t, it’s the taping – even hung in a cupboard and not used the tape adhesive will get bored and make a bid for freedom. If you want durable then avoid lightweight. This  means looking for a 70/80Denier outer, think towards a 700g garment like they were back in the day. 400-500 grammers are what is in fashion for performance usp marketing needs but by design can’t be as durable.

Something like the Sprayway Torridon is more Oldskool in intentions and design, well priced.

Pro shell is tougher in the membrane, but if you’re not frequenting rubbing up against abrasive rocks its overkill, and a MRT level Mountain Equipment Kongur/ Changabang is about as indestructible as they get but are silly money.

Rab Latok ‘Mountain’ is good for tough classic style without alpine climbing intentions, and sometimes you can find them on big discount.

Or get a Paramo.

Staff shouldn’t have to put themselves at risk, but they could be issued with tasers, that would be fun.

or would others agree

… sort of, except many of us aren’t bothered with the disc braked road thing either. None of the riding group I grew up with have been suckered into disc brake road, they’d rather scour the bay to find pristine ‘vintage’ (think Colnago C50 with Record10) kit than walk into a store and get routed for 8k for a midrange weighty modern bike. Not an income issue either as all of them can buy whatever they want. I feel much the same about modern mtb’s too, there’s a lot of stuff being marketed that once you’ve got past a level of experience you just know you don’t really need… electronic computer controlled shocks? yeah very good, well done I’ll pass. The simplest bikes are the best bikes in my mind, and they must be user serviceable down to the last nut and bolt… otherwise not that keen.

Is it time…. what took them so long when this stuff was obvious over 15 years ago. Rather than the mindless consequence free consumerism that appears to be normalised now, we could have had a situation where if one had invested in a product, it could be usable 10-20 years down the line.. not made obsolete as soon as the next must have tripe comes along. The best thing about cycling, is that can be an awesome activity to do that is also really low impact, anything that takes it in a direction away from that doesn’t get my vote.

It feels like clunky storyline by Ai, followed by fake visuals by Ai. (That’s probably not the case here but its where its heading based on this). If this is the future for high budget drama, then this is not looking rosy. This couldn’t raise itself up to even lick BoB’s boots.

Ignoring your rules – the greatest of all time is the Fat Chance Yo Eddy.

Taking them into account – Cove Stiffee/ Hummer ? (though not really my department, which is firmly in the above camp)…

Modern bikes may be easier to ride, but they are also mostly boring until you’re going at warp factor 9. Once one gets to a certain level of decrepitude, or have just had that one accident too many… it can be nicer to have a sharper handling bike that still feels balanced when ones more focused on being chilled, rather than trying to throw shapes all the time.

There’s roads up my end that have reached the end of their service life. They haven’t been maintained for over a decade and can be viewed perhaps as a road re-wilding project, returning to their natural state. It’s so bad that some of these roads should be reclassified on the maps to protect those that may be unwary from coming a cropper, or at least there should be signs up advising to venture forwards at ones own risk in admittance of their unmaintained state. With the way the UK economy is heading I don’t expect the complete road rebuilding which would be necessary to return from this state of degradation to be happening any time soon. Get used to it. I own a nice road bike, barely ride it on my local routes- have encountered smoother bridleways than the roads so ride ‘atb’ for most of the year. Road bike is for the few weeks a year when the mud dries and for holidays to the more sophisticated European countries.

15/17 disappointed in myself, let self down, silly mistake was obvious. Will flagellate.

You know that banner at the top of the home page that says Singletrack Forum powered by Chainreaction…

Well that’s another company that won’t ever receive another penny of my money again then…. or anyone else’s by the sound of it.

Its one of lifes great mysteries, like where does that sock go in the washing. Is it something to do with water molecule size vs droplet? There’s a tiny contact patch of a normal ‘V’ lip seal against a rotating race (other seal designs are available) with forces like capillary action at play I’d imagine it’s not that hard for moisture to get behind a seal… or even more so a penetrating lube with surfacing properties designed to do exactly that. The leading edge of a minimal contact seal is flexible enough for small particulates to pass through under pressure. But usually the grittyness felt in a bearing is the result of a tiny amount of moisture entering the system and initiating the corrosive process on the race or balls, once its got going not much will stop it. Which is why its always best to use really good quality bearings, as the materials and surface treatments used will better withstand the inevitable moisture ingress.

I think the way that bearings fail is as you bounce around on the bike the balls flex slightly

errmmm. No they don’t, not the balls in the bearings anyhow.

Ditto Nothing. Really important not to do this, nothing you try to put in will be better than what the bearing is packed with. Best to avoid even directing water at your pivots when cleaning, especially not a pressure washer, try just to wipe off that area – cleaning sprays tend to easily get behind seals and start deteriorating the grease, and you wouldn’t want to run a bearing with gt85 or similar as your only lube.

If you feel the bearings have lost their grease/ feel gritty one can carefully pick the seal, flush out with something like isopropyl alcohol, repack with best grease – stick tape around the end of a pencil jammed in to a powerdrill to spin-up the inner race as can help to relieve the notchiness induced from a normal pivots lack of rotation.

Lachlan Morton ‘GBDuro 2019 – Ef Gone Racing’ on Yourtube Dunn Fell at 16:20  “mumble, mumble, this isn’t bike riding, spent all my biscuits on that hill” etc…..normal.

To add to that… if its windy in the valleys then it can be so windy at the top that you’ll struggle to stay on the bike, especially if the wind is from the East… and those bogs on the East side are of the type that if it’s wet you may go in and never see your shoes again.

If time is of the essence the road will be far quicker, it doesn’t take long to get to Knock after descending down from Hartside. Maybe on a clear windless day after a dry spell one may go the off road route for the adventuring, but conditions like that are not the normal up this end.

If you can find it there was a video of Lachlan Morton going over Dunn Fell heading eastwards into that boggy terrain on what was perhaps the GbDuro lejog event, I seem to remember there was cursing involved…

(Edited as I realised above is talking about a different section of the Pennine Way than initially thought – the other bit of the Pennine way going East to West being a jink further South crossing the head of High Cup Nick from Cow Green Reservior)

There is a path on the North side of Great Dunn Fell leading from Cross Fell but it is the spaced stone slab sort of which is doable on a good mtb but will have you cursing and walking on a laden gravel machine, at least its firm ground though…

… and then there are the tracks from East or North East that lead to the Great Dunn Fell summit – although these are marked on the map they are in no way established paths, go through boggy indistinct undulating ground. Easily navigable as one can always see the golf ball on Dunn Fell, but the sort of terrain where you’re pushing a lot and look back to see the results of your last half hours efforts and see you’ve got nowhere, its a slog and a half of type 2 fun…. it’s the sort of route one does once.

The tarmac road up to Great Dunn Fell is by far the easiest way up… and a proper paved road, but obviously only on the West side, terminating at the summit.

Have been riding carbon frames since the mid 90’s, still have some old frames decades old that would be fine to ride. Probably age the best of any frame material if looked after, nicely inert. My general view is to ride it until its ridden into something solid…. oh, and still having rim brakes would be a plus for a certain mindset.

yeah, this is daft. Buy as few things as possible, might help save the planet.

Another vote for a dino, they are tiny, the wee mans fezza…

The above, just reads like it was ai generated, something to do with the typical structure  Was this the point perhaps? Interesting discussion though, things are going to get weird fairly quickly in all forms of written content. 

(at least in part) to luck

luck… and exploitation, and fraud, and other wrongdoings filed under the conceit of entitlement. Will we become the third country to investigate Barrowman for fraud? And yet we elevate these people. To the clink is the suitable place.

At this point it’s worth pointing out that something like the new volvo 30 electric thing in its highest spec, a car aimed at the school run and tesco’s crowd – by coincidence and not by design will out accelerate a Ferrari from a few decades ago. Reviews have even pointed out that the brakes can’t contain the burden of this speed on its mass. Anyone else feel increasingly unsafe out there given the average standard of driving on display? Which begs the question wether anyone in that industry ever steps back and questions whether just because they can, that they should.

Yeah, am old enough to remember when footpaths were somewhere where we weren’t supposed to ride, and recognised that often this was the case because the delicate ground wouldn’t sustain higher traffic. So when we inevitably did ride them we did it with care, cloak and dagger style and absolutely didn’t publicise it to all and sundry. A new generation of riders just don’t seem to give a toss.

Meanwhile, Vorders and her crew have done the math and worked out that VIP lane contracts as a whole overpaid on stock to the tune of £925 million… of your money.

The protestations about how she didn’t get the money were absolutely laughable!!

Notice how she used the term that her family didn’t benefit from the ‘cash’… well, no, I suppose they don’t make suitcases big enough for all the dough you’ve robbed. Terms they’ll have been told specifically to use for their ambiguity.

Why was the BBC even giving them the opportunity to clear their name with every word advised in advance by their team of lawyers- when the only suitable way this should have been done would have been to televise their prosecution in court, under oath, being grilled by opposition lawyers? Using taxpayers money to attempt to justify grossly profiteering on our taxpayers money. Just reinforces that this country is sick, and this disgusting privileged lot are just the tip of the iceberg from that period. Hope they don’t stop until every penny is clawed back, then give it to some folk who really need it.

That was clearly not the voice of a teenager. Unless they are exceptionally gifted, in which case you would already be aware that they are gifted. Has a style of confidence one would expect at postgrad level or after years of familiarity with the subject matter. Fail it, set them another assignment followed up by a verbal questioning of the subject matter and therein will be your answer.

On a pod listened to they mentioned that Japan were bringing in compulsory checks on employees to be conducted by employers in order to curtail their national rising obesity. Waist sizes will be checked on a yearly basis once the employee is over the age of 40 or so, and support arranged on diet and weight loss if over a certain waist size. That waist size cutoff for men is 33″….

They seem to be designed for petite roadies with matchstick arms and zero upper body muscle, if you own a set of biceps/ shoulders then be prepared to go up 2 or 3 sizes than normal, but then the arms will be comically long. I’m somewhere between M&L in most brands and an XL in Perfetto looks like some kind of techno fetishware, ok for the road but a bit odd for mtb. Functionally brilliant if the fit does suit yr physique though.

Guessing isn’t working too well for you

Alright, I watched it then. It was exactly as I expected. Didn’t learn anything. In fact most of it was well known among outdoor types in the late 80’s, some of the rest of it was just opinion and not very accurate.

One of the worst crashes of many had was the first time discovering the grip properties of that green chalk stuff. Its like hard ice, but worse as its three dimensional- when hit unknowingly the rider doesn’t stand much of a chance. Got to the feet with blood starting to ooze and couldn’t even walk on the stuff on a slope, still have the scar. Once bitten twice shy.

I cant’ be bothered watching the video, but let me guess – another shallow youtuber discovering stuff that was well known 30 years ago and presenting some great revelations based on limited understanding. Marketing gimmick? if you’re 7000+m up a far mountain ridge days from safety with some weather rolling in, what other fabrics would you rather be wearing? At the same time, if you’re doing high energy activity of any sort and keeping a waterproof of any sort on as default then you may be missing the point. That said the latest versions of Gore Pro are different and noticeably better in MVTR than what what came before… having been through every iteration since V1… These fabrics have there place and are market leaders for a reason but not every user will need those capabilities and cheaper alternatives are available.

I have two prescription pairs that cost a bomb but are excellent – they’ve had 5+ years usage, are optically superior to my everyday glasses, and don’t have a scratch on them despite wearing them for mtb and road. Worth every penny. The one thing I do though, that I would recommend to anyone owning these- is to never rub the lens with any cloth without first washing any particles off under a tap (or water bottle if out), to rub the coating when there’s any invisible dirt/ dust on there is asking for trouble.  This is what I do religiously, and it makes them last, and they need to as being prescription they cost 3-4 times the normal price. And never store them away in a pack without first being well protected, preferably in the proper case.

Also, are you sure they are not fakes?

If you have an Ultegra or DA crank, absolutely check all around the spider for cracks on inner and outer faces. 105 level and below is fine, but the two part bonded ones are known to fail  – though Sh will still not acknowledge it. I know so many riders who’ve cranks have snapped just riding along that it’s not even funny… as the face to floor potential is high. Most of them creaked mysteriously around that area before letting go, which is usually assumed to be the BB.