I assume non of us have been buying anything from CRC/Wiggle at stupidly low prices recently? Can’t imagine the people who manufactured and supplied the below cost items getting their money back?

In the net!

Anyway, businesses going into administration and restructuring happens all the time. In many cases it’s the lesser of two evils and for lots of suppliers it’s better to write-off some/all of the debt and still have a customer to trade with going forward, than to write off some/all of the debt and have no customer to trade with.

The harsh reality is that if any other business is so exposed to one customer that that customer defaulting puts them out of business, they need to have a a good, hard look at their business practices and how they manage risk. Certainly if you’re that exposed to one customer you’d want to think very carefully about extending them credit, and if you do you’d be well advised to have water tight trade credit insurance to protect you if they default. If you haven’t, and they do, then quite frankly it’s on you

Luuurve the fact that there is no frame size choice when you go to place an order. Yep I’ll drop £10,000GBP on a S-Works on the off chance it’s my size. Comedians.

He should have done a ‘Paula Radcliffe’ ride-by on them.

Or a Gary Lineker stealth wipe 🙃

Seems the Ukrainians have managed to hit an aircraft/missile factory too. At least the Russians are calling it what it is this time, though I suspect video evidence has forced their hand.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2023/11/28/russia-ukraine-war-latest-black-sea-fleet-crimea-missiles/

Meanwhile the UA is consolidating its foothold on the left bank of the Dnipro and the storms mentioned above may well have damaged infrastructure critical to supplying the Russians on the southern front, particularly the railway lines

Looks like those pesky Russian workers have been careless with their cigarettes again..

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2023/11/27/russia-ukraine-war-latest-news-drone-attack-kyiv-live/

13. I knew two (and still managed to get one of them wrong). Inspired guesswork, should probably buy a lottery ticket

You could try the likes of music magpie or cex. Bought from both in the past and never had an issue.

As said a few times above, the tyre pressures you’re running are absolutely huge. I’m 110kg and with inner tubes in I’m running 28-30psi on the back and maybe 25 on the front.
And that’s with crashing haphazardly down rocky, rubble strewn descents in the Lakes and the Peaks. Your grip levels are probably not that much different to Bambi on ice skates.

So much, much less psi will make a huuuuuge difference.

Also a better from tyre, though I wouldn’t swap an HR2 for an Ardent. The latter are built more for speed than grip and are strictly for the rear wheel. Look at compound. Worth shelling out for a decent front tyre with a good, relatively soft compound.

Finally pads, pads, pads. After I near as dammit put a stone through my kneecap some years ago I invested in knee and elbow pads. Since then I’ve come down heavily on various bits of horrible terrain, but (touch wood) knees and elbows haven’t felt a thing. Fox Launch Pro are my pads of choice, surprisingly good as an all day pad despite their bulk.

Finally finally, modern geo bikes will make a difference. No need to go £5k for a hardtail though, some incredible bargains from the likes of Ragley at the moment. Though for one bike to do it all I’d also go short travel FS

loved it. And in future when I need to quell the mutiny from below, I know exactly what to do 😃

robertajobbFull Member
“It’d be like us trying to have an intelligent conversation with a dog.”

I find I often get more intelligent dialogue with my Labrador than the majority of the inhabitants of Britain can offer (just look at what the majority watch on TV for proof).

Hmmm, that’s a sample of one though. My Labrador likes to watch Love Island, Police Interceptors and Cash in the Attic. She’s a good listener but doesn’t really have very much that’s at all perceptive to say when it’s her turn to contribute.

She has however mastered paw and lie down, thereby catapulting her into the top 2% worldwide. So on balance your point stands

Meantime, having taken Robotyne, there’s a lot of chatter that the UA is in Novoprokopivka and Verbove. If this is true it means they have got into (and through in places) the first part of the Surovikin line. By all accounts the minefields that we’re causing a lot of the problems are nowhere near as prevalent further South and the Russians are having problems plugging gaps as they don’t have enough reserves, their artillery is getting battered by counter-battery fire and their logistics have and are being HIMARSed.

Fingers crossed this is the beginning of the breakthrough. If the UA can get in behind the Russian defences in meaningful fashion, I can see big changes on the map happening very quickly 🤞

Bridget (on left) having bumped into her feckless father on the street 😃

But will it bring the trail alive..?

Cheers all for your input.

I went down the PayPal gift route as I’ve heard stories of people paying with PayPal, claiming they’ve never received the goods and then getting a PayPal refund. Apparently PayPal tend to side with the buyer and it can be a real pita getting it sorted. More so if it’s across international borders.

Question still stands though, if someone pays direct into my bank account as an international transaction, is there any way they can get that cash back, thereby screwing me in the process. I’m au fait with all the release fee bollix 😃

Little thread resurrection here.

I’ve got a frame for sale on here and Pinkbike. Gentleman from Spain has been in touch, willing to pay by bank transfer. Doesn’t have PayPal (I said PayPal gift or no dice). Notwithstanding the confirmation email bollix, can I get done with an international payment being recalled?

I suspect I already know the answer but would be great if anyone had any insight.

Cheers

That wingfoiling looks epic. Closer to home, saw a bunch doing it last summer in the waters off Red Wharf bay in Anglesey. Looked odd and a bit cumbersome initially, but as soon as the boards rose out of the water they really (and almost literally) started to fly.

Out of interest, which would be easier to learn, kite or wing? I’m assuming wing as you don’t have to learn how to control a kite?

Also, which would be cheaper in terms of cost of equipment? I’m assuming the foil boards won’t come cheap, but are they that much more expensive than a kite board. And does a sail cost more than a kite?

Finally, I’m assuming that the wing is attached in some way to the boarder. Is it easy to drop it out of the wind if it all gets a bit much, like you do with a kite?

Hoping someone can answer these and apologies for partial thread hijack!

I just pushed the button on an XL V1 Aether frame and shock, looking for a do it all FS to replace my XL Mega290 (excellent bike just too much for most of my riding, frame shortly to appear on classifieds) and maybe my hardtail. I’ve test ridden other Bird FS back in the day and always liked their poppiness (is that a word?). Reckon you’ll love the AM9. I was tempted to go for one too, but would’ve been too similar to the 290

Reports coming in that along with other successful (albeit small scale) advances, the Ukrainians have taken the settlement of Klishchiivka South of Bakhmut. This is important as it not only opens up flank attacks into Bakhmut itself, it has also acted as a strong point, protecting the RA Southen flank and means that the UA can push to properly encircle Bakhmut, assuming they can push through Yahidne to the north.

Very early stage chatter though, but significant if true!

Interesting take here.

UKRAINE COUNTER_OFFENSIVE: Reading between the lines. June 28 and we see Ukrainians advances accelerating across a broad number of areas on the front. [Even making Russia state TV]. The strategy has been to force engagement and fix the front while destroying reserve concentrations, HQs, artillery, AD and ammo centers that are behind the lines. The Russians rushed reserve units forward days ago and these have been reduced, destroyed or pushed back in most cases.
Russian losses are breaking monthly and daily records at a time when there is less Russian eqpt to lose and of poorer quality. Detailed reports on locations are not being provided by UKR army due to opsec.
But we know from what is provided and from Russian sources, the war is not going well for Russians. About 80% of the Ukrainian units organized and equipped for the counter-offensive have NOT been committed. These are very well-equipped and highly mobile units. They will attack the seams or gaps opened up or discovered by the initial UKR engaged units.
I sense that we are getting much closer to the day when this will happen and all hell will break loose on the Russian occupiers.

My thinking is broadly in line with this. The mutiny and the subsequent removal of Wagner, disappearance of Surovikin and sacking of his number two, will only accelerate this process. These are interesting (distressing, the Russians really don’t care about their people) stats on the levels of attrition..

Probably not. I guess that leaves two options, consider them collateral damage or don’t go against him in the first place.

Keyser Soze would’ve finished the march on Moscow. Just saying 🤔

Caher Full Member
Aren’t a lot of Chechens fighting for Ukraine too?

Yup. Kadyrov was effectively put into power by Putin and imposed on the Chechens. Lots don’t like/support him and some of them are indeed fighting with the Ukrainians. No idea how many though

Interesting to see what the Chechens will/can do. Most reports have them with approx 5,000 soldiers in the region, a lot of whom are quite lightly armed. Against 25k battle hardened mercenaries with tanks..

In other news, Wagner have apparently reached Yelets which is 120k North of Voronezh and 400k from Moscow..

Prigozhin’s mob have apparently mined the roads from Rostov to Taganrog, one of the primary supply lines of Russian forces to Ukraine. No need for Ukraine to blow up supply dumps if they’re not being dumped in the first place! 😃

Transcript of the discussion/negotiation between Prigozhin, Deputy Defense Minister Yunus-Bek Yevkurov, and Deputy Chief of Staff Vladimir Alexeyev at the Southern Military District’s headquarters in Rostov-on-Don

Prigozhin: They fired at us, and we shot them down.

Yevkurov: You shot them down?

Prigozhin: Shot them down. The third one already. And we’ll shoot them all down, if you keep sending them. Because you’re hitting innocent civilians. You’re destroying civilians — you just blew up a bus with people, and you have no conscience about it.

Yevkurov: First of all, this is the first I’m hearing about this. And let’s not generalize.

Alexeyev: I came to discuss… [unintelligible]

Prigozhin (to Yevkurov): I’m addressing you formally — why are you addressing me informally again?

Yevkurov: I didn’t address you informally.

Prigozhin: Huh?

Yevkurov: I didn’t call you [the formal “you”] “Ty,” I was just saying: let’s not generalize. If you want to be formal.

Prigozhin: Yes, I’m speaking respectfully to you.

Yevkurov: If you say… [unintelligible] But let’s listen, we still need to think — what should we do? [unintelligible]

Prigozhin: Once again: We came here. We want to get the Chief of the General Staff [Valery Gerasimov] and [Defense Ministry Sergey] Shoigu.

Yevkurov: The Chief of the General Staff isn’t [unintelligible].

Alexeyev: (laughs) Take them!

Prigozhin: We’ll remain here until we have them, we’ll blockade the city of Rostov and go to Moscow.

Yevkurov: Then I ask you to withdraw your guys from here… [unintelligible]

Prigozhin: No. Under no circumstances. The guys are staying here.

Yevkurov: No. Well, you’re coming from the perspective…

Prigozhin: We’re not preventing you from commanding your troops.

Yevkurov: You shouldn’t prevent us, of course, [unintelligible], people are dying out there, just like all the others.

Prigozhin: The reason guys are dying is that you’re throwing them into the meat grinder.

Yevkurov: (distracted by his phone ringing)[unintelligible] this question.

Prigozhin: This question isn’t rhetorical. People are dying because you’re throwing them into the meat grinder. Without ammunition, without any thoughts, without any plans.

Yevkurov: (answering phone) Hello?

Prigozhin: You’re just senile clowns.

Alexeyev: What upsets me most is that they’ll be celebrating in Kyiv for at least three days [unintelligible].

Prigozhin: Where?

Alexeyev: In Kyiv.

Prigozhin: It’s not a big deal. A celebration with champagne in Kyiv [happens] when you abandon Krasnyi Lyman, Izyum, and everything else. That’s when they celebrate for a week in Kyiv. But we don’t retreat. And that’s why we came here, to end the disgrace of the country we live in.

Yevkurov: If we’re talking in that kind of…

Prigozhin: That’s number one.

Yevkurov: You started speaking in that tone.

Prigozhin: Well, of course.

Yevkurov: Then what kind of negotiations can we have?

Alexeyev: You understand that not everybody, not everyone flees…

Prigozhin: Listen. One more time. One more time. If we were talking to you all in a normal tone, we wouldn’t have arrived here in tanks. Do you get it?

Man outside of frame: And we wouldn’t have been met with helicopter fire.

Yevkurov: You believe everything you’re doing right now is right. Is that right?

Prigozhin: Absolutely right. We’re saving Russia.

@kimbers

Thats an interesting bit of footage in so far as there is a video of Prigozhin talking with the Russian army commanders in Rostov and he’s berating them for (amongst other things) blowing up a bus and killing civilians. If so that footage would seem to be from the early stages of what is happening

It’s all completely hatstand isn’t it! Footage emerging of trucks being blown up on the M4 highway that leads from Voronezh to Moscow.

Reports that Gerasimov was at army HQ in Rostov when Wagner barrelled in, but escaped and is now holed up in the city. No way of knowing if this is true.

Apparently Prigozhin has spent the last few months stockpiling weapons and ammo for this, despite all his protestations about lack of supply. Seems, it was deliberately timed for a Friday night as most military leadership would be even more hammered than normal.

Apparently the FSB and the border police were told not to let Wagner over the border. But if you’re a detachment of 100 or so guys at a border post and 25,000 heavily armed killers ask to be let through, what you gonna do 🤷‍♂️

Looks like the rocket and/or airforce attack on Wagner (not to mention a few other recent incidents) where pre-emptive strikes. Probably with the aim of getting Prigozhin.

However this plays out, it’s not a knee jerk reaction, it has been planned for some time..

My understanding is that the core group of Wagner fighters are ‘professional’ soldiers who have been brutalised and battle hardened by experience in Syria and Africa, as well as Ukraine. My understanding is that a significant portion of the 25,000 troops that Prigozhin claims to control would fall under this definition.

The convicts were brought in to quite literally be cannon fodder as Wagner pressed the siege of Bakhmut. Prigozhin has admitted to 25,000 Russians dying there (which means the real number is higher), but the vast majority of these were expendable convicts. The ‘real’ soldiers were behind, shooting those who tried to get the hell out and moving forward only once an exploitable breach had been made.

So I guess we can assume he’s got 25k-Ish real soldiers and the majority of Russian soldiers probably don’t want to get killed in what is essentially an argument between different factions of the elite. If the army does stand by, Putin is toast

Wowzers! 😳

I’ve been wondering for a few days now where Prigozhin was going to go. It seemed like he was backing himself / being backed into a corner. Now we know!

Hard to see him doing this without the support – tacit or otherwise – of some of the army guys. Lots of generals thrown under numerous busses by Shoigu and Gerasimov over the last year or so.

I wouldn’t be in the least bit surprised if the Ukrainians at the very least had some awareness that this might / was going to happen.

Prigozhin may be a ****, but he’s not a megalomaniac like Putin. If he gets in I’d expect him to negotiate a favourable withdrawal from Ukraine. He’s only really interested in money. I’m aware this could age badly 😃

As you say, somebody has absolutely smashed it out of the park. And then exited said park, located it and smashed it some more. So it’s all good 😃.

Great cause and a great result!

Congrats to you both, wishing you all the best for the future. Lovely pics btw

Very far from broken indeed. But whilst they were able to put up a good fight in the bocage of Normandy, it is worth bearing in mind that what was broken was their airforce, we had almost total air superiority after D-Day, meaning we could support our ground troops and seriously impact on the Germans’ ability to manoeuvre. Something that the UA definitely don’t have.

This time with text

Reports that those pesky Russians have blown up a dam on the Mokri Yaly river in Donetsk. These reports coincide with a number of other reports about the UA making good progress on the front around Vuhledar.

Progress includes seeming confirmation that Blahodatne has indeed been taken and that a number of other settlements have as well. Seems to me that a significant factor in the Russian defence will be the willingness of their troops to stick around and fight when the excrement really starts to hit the fan. I suspect there will be some units willing to give it a go. But equally there will be others who suddenly remember there was something really important that they needed to do back in Moscow. And an army is only as good as its weakest parts..

Reports that those pesky Russians have blown up a dam on the Mokri Yaly river in Donetsk. These reports coincide with a number of other reports about the UA making good progress on the front around Vuhledar.

Perhaps the thread title should be amended to read Nova Kakhovka Dam blown up by Russians 🧐

Should add that he’s also got some kind of zombie shoot em up game. I dropped the gun and before I knew it the sods were all over me. I absolutely sh@t it and went into a crouch swinging punches all over the place. Needless to say I didn’t last very long. Came off it with heart rate pounding and in a right sweat.

He’s also got a great boxing game. In short they can be very good from an exercise point of view, but the brain is easily tricked into thinking zombies are real 😃

I’m very far from an expert, but I’ll have a crack at the longer reach thingy. As I see it, the steering tube is on an angle that leans in towards the rider. Slacker the fork angle, the more this will be the case. So every spacer means that the bar is starting closer to the rider by a set number of mm. So by removing spacers, the bar is actually farther away from you than it would be with more spacers. In other words it’s not just a factor of rise and sweep, the fact the bar is fastened to the steerer tube lower down will mean that it’s further away. Seems to make sense anyway

My mate has the Oculus Quest, not sure which version/model. It’s amazing. Uses as standalone, not hooked up to a pc. Currently plays a lot of table tennis on it, which is incredibly realistic.

He’s got that ww2 pacific fighter game on it. Had a go and enjoyed it. It’s hard though and got a bit of a crooked neck constantly looking above/behind me trying to work out where the heck those pesky japs were.

You won’t get bored!