Nope… should make no difference at all, they are close enough to make very little difference. The design of the circuit should mean that it never gets close to seeing that much reverse voltage.

Depends what help you are after…

The NXP BAS16J looks like a similar part… available from Farnell at about 7.5p each.

5-7th of September? Sounds good to me…

And with the speed things are going with our house move, we might have actually moved in locally by then!

Not broken any crockery, but have managed to fracture my skull… so on the off chance that anyone thought falling down the stairs seemed like a sensible, and fun, thing to do, I’d really have to recommend against it!!!

I usually ignore such troll threads, however…….this time 2 weeks ago I was in A&E after a big off at Cathkin. I landed head first, was unconscious

Whereas I spent yesterday in A&E after managing to fall down the stairs in the middle of the night and land on my head… giving myself a fractured skull…

Does this mean I should be thinking of starting to wear a helmet to bed every night?

wrightyson… you mean because that is what the building regs required?

Pretty much any electrical work in a special location requires it, and up until April a kitchen was classed as a special location.

Okay, so plugging transformers into an existing socket does not, but some of the suggestions above involving sticking a spur onto an existing circuit would have been covered… just not anymore it seems!

Was going to post something about Part P of the buiding regs, but just having done a quick search it appears that the kitchen is now no longer a ‘special location’ and so it’s pretty much fair game there!

They seem to have relaxed things quite a bit with the changes, it looks like the only things which are notifiable now are adding new circuits, changing consumer units and work in special locations, which are now within a certain distance of a bath/shower, or a room with a swimming pool/sauna.

Looks like I learnt something today then!

I did this on some 140mm 2009ish Revs and it turned into a bit of a strange one…

Despite all the information I could find, including dimensioned drawings of the two forks, the 140mm dual position Sektor coil spring assembly was approx 20mm shorter than the old air u-turn assembly.

I even ended up on the phone to SRAM tech support, who were next to useless in this, as all I wanted to know was the correct dimensions of the two assemblies and they couldn’t, or wouldn’t, give me the info… all they would tell me was that it was impossible to do the change…

Anyway, in the end I used a length of threaded bar and a threaded spacer to get the extra length and just used an external nut to assemble it into the fork. It might not be the most elegant solution, but it works, and has so far survived a number of trips out, including a trip to the Alps.

One thing to note, the DPC spring does not have a negative spring as part of it, and uses a negative spring in the rebound assembly, but that was dead easy to fit, just make sure you have the right number of spacers under the negative spring.

I seem to remember Dave Turner stating that the long bent needles that they sell are just ordinary long needles which they have bent themselves…

I did think about doing the same, but haven’t bothered and just pop one of the shock bolts out to do the top pivot.

As for the grease gun, I think I bought mine from a local hardware place for not very much money.

She grows joints of pork on her allotment?

I need one of those!

Just to wade in on the side of the Hopes here…

I’ve ridden bikes with Shimano, Formula and Magura brakes before I bought a set of Hopes (M4 front, X2 rear) and I am not sure how they can be described as being under powered… I’ve managed to stop myself on some pretty steep alpine descents with relative ease (and only using one finger braking)…

What I have found is that they have a completely different feel to other brakes I have used, in that they feel far more progressive. The Shimanos I have used feel very on/off compared to the Hopes, the Formulas/Maguras not quite so much, but the Hopes feel like they have almost endless amounts of power as they just seem to stop you faster the more you pull them… this hasn’t always been the case with the others!

Before I bought them I was pondering over a set of XT’s as I am not sure you can beat the power for the price, or maybe a set of Formulas especially with the deals they have on their website, but what swayed it for me in the end, aside from the fact I liked the way they felt, was that I can get every single little piece of the Hope brakes as a spare from only a few (maybe a hundred) miles up the road… now Formula are okay with this, if you can find the parts for sale, often from Italy so I found, Magura the same if you can find the parts for sale… Shimano just seem to only want to sell you either a caliper or a complete lever assembly.

So, I went for the Hopes, and love them!

Oooops… I seem to have waffled.. I blame this very nice Sauv Blanc!

I’m planning on getting there mid-morning, so hoping it’s not going to be too choca-block by then!

Oh, and I’ve just thought… do you still need to buy a permit from the shop?

The BBQ is just down the road in Woking, and Swinley is right on my route, otherwise I probably would have headed over to Leith Hill etc…

Cool, it sounds like it’s worth a spin round then… even if it’s now a follow the signposts job, but at least I won’t get lost this time!!

Thanks folks…

EDIT: And the off-piste stuff is still all allowed?

I got a DPC spring from Petra Cycles[/url] but no idea if they have any X-Firm ones currently.

There was also a place near Donington (donington-moto-warehouse) which was advertising them on eBay as well.

I can heartily recommend the Bulls Head in Repton… who can fault a pub with a pizza oven in the corner and who make their own gellato!

The beers pretty good too…

We’ve got a mahoosive tent for going away for a week or more, but seeing as it comes in about 3 bags we decided that we needed something a little more managable for just the two of us for weekends etc…

We ended up getting a Wild Country Aspect 4, mostly because it was tall enough to stand up in, while still having a relatively small footprint, but mostly because there is a porch area which is big enough to store a couple of bikes in without having to have them in the sewn in groundsheet area.

We found that a lot of tents these days have the entire area inside the tent as sen in groundsheet, which, if you have a bike is just asking for trouble! But finding anything, except the huge tents, which worked for us seemed to be impossible until I stumbled across the Wild Country tent… used it at SSUKG this year down in Dorset and it was spot on…

Looking at the drawings for the Sektor, and the length of the foot bolt which came with it, the end of the spring sits in pretty much the same place in both forks, as does the top cap, with the shoulders of the fork yoke where the spring screws in being around 25mm lower than the crown.

This is re-inforced by a Norco parts catalogue I found which lists the Revs and Sektors as having the same lowers… and I I’d be surprised if the uppers were really any different as well.

I’ve pulled up a few pics of the DPC assembly now, and it looks the same as the one I have here, with about the right number of turns on each spring… I just can’t find an overall length for the assembly which would say if there was a problem or not with it.

Aaaaargh…. again..

As far as I can tell, the spring at the top which gets compressed when the dial is set to minimum is extended…

I did think it might be the overall length of the spring assembly being too short, and having just measured it from top cap to end at 485mm I’m thinking it must be…

Having a look at the forks it looks like it needs to be about 15-20mm longer to give the full 140mm travel.

I’ve also just checked the Revelations a-c measurements against the Sektor, and they are pretty much identical, so I can’t really see much difference to do with that…. so it must be the spring… right?

Anyone?

Also, does anyone know the length of the 140mm DPC spring assembly?

We stayed out in St Jean D’Aulps for our first trip to the Alps last year, and pretty much managed to sort ourselves out by following bits of the VTT route around the area. The maps for this are available from the local tourist information, and also online with bit of searching…

Also there are a couple of books out there, the one we have for this year is the VTT Portes du Soleil vtopo book by Cédric Tassan. It can sometimes be found on Amazon… sometimes not…

Maybe you are just braking too much… ;o)

I did wonder if I had some amazing QR on the bike, but have just checked as it’s still get the same ones it was supplied with… so those with the removable lever.

Would a cable tie work as something to try? Just tie it around the frame and the end of the QR?

I’ve now got two sets of RS forks with far worse stanchion wear than this… and it appears to make next to naff all difference in their performance!

All the important stuff, so compression/rebound or air spring, are held inside the stanchions themselves, so scratches on the outside only mean that some dirt/water might get between them and the bushes, which will increase wear if you don’t pay some attention to them, but it certainly won’t stop them working just fine.

electrical coz i know that mechanical is way harder due to the nature of physics

Hahahahahahahahahahaahahhahahaa…

I’ve got one of the original Road Rat frames and commuted on it for a year or so and never had a problem with the axle slipping… but then I do use a drive side chain tug. Have you tried a drive side chain tug?

I wonder if it’s to do with the drive side forces effectively loosening the QR slightly which then allows the non-drive side to slip under braking.

Also, I only ever used the Tektro brakes on drops, so maybe there is just less braking force from them?

Red wine… whatever the other half bought.. and am not caring after having to paint the skirting boards upstairs!

Nothing to eat yet, but meatballs and stuff in a bit hopefully…

And Wagner on BBC4… look at me being all cultured and stuff! (It’ll never last)

Oh, and just noticed… there looks to be a series of ‘Cycle to the Cinema’ events being held at the Longshaw estate as well… the first is on the 6th June, and they are showing Janapar: Love on a Bike… which looks interesting..

I seem to remember seeing permissive bridelway signs by the toilet block, which would seem to be for that path… but whether it goes all the way into Hathersage I don’t know, but it would seem to be rather silly if it didn’t!

But then again, this is the Peak and pointless bridleways to nowhere do seem to be a speciality sometimes!

Another huge thanks to Charlie for such a cracking weekend, had a fantastic time despite trying to personally drink Swanage dry of cider, and rather regretting it the morning after!

T’other half had a cracking time too, and even Pete the dog appears to have enjoyed himself and is now asleep on the bed.

Obviously, falling off and spannering my arm and shoulder wasn’t part of the plan, neither was faceplanting into the only puddle for miles a few minutes later! But is all added to the shear lunacy of it all, and getting the blackberry vodka from the prize pot for it did help too…

So roll on SSUK next year, and when is the next event for the Dorset One Gear club?:)

DrP… I tried to get her to ride a singlespeed, and I would tell you her response, but I think it might get me banned!

And don’t worry, she’s already decided not to ride on Sunday, so no need for the wirecutters and gaffer tape… just yet!

Me and t’other half are driving down on Friday too, although as we are coming down from Derby, I’ve got no idea what time we’ll actually arrive!

We’ll be the ones with a dog and a one geared bike [whispers] oh, and a geared bike. [/whispers].

T’other half uses Lee Rosy’s in Nottingham and she seems pretty happy with them… nice cafe too..

As with all food, it’s not the reheating that is the problem, it’s the cooling down which is. The reason for this is that you generally reheat stuff and eat it fairly quickly afterwards, so there’s not a great deal of time for any bacteria to multiply etc, whereas left over food can be hanging around for a good while at nice germ breeding temperatures if it’s not cooled quickly enough.

However, saying that, I think the recommended times are something like to fridge temps within 90 mins… so unless the rice has been hanging around at room temperature for ages there really shouldn’t be a problem.

Edit: am now trying to remember exactly what t’other half told me, but I don’t think the bacteria which is the problem with rice is actually killed by the temperatures used in cooking, which is why cooling the rice quickly is important to stop it growing. Also, it’s not the bacteria directly which is the problem, when it is cooled it forms a protective coating around it, which gets thrown off when reheated and it’s this coating which is the horrible bit… or something like that.

Also, you should never really put hot/warm stuff in the fridge as it raises the fridge temperature… rice would probably be okay, but anything much bigger would warm the fridge up a good few degrees while it cools…

I used a nut and bolt to clamp the whole thing together, as I found the biggest problem was the tool being a little too tall to get good leverage without it camming out.

I then used an effing great ring spanner and it came apart with a bit of effort.

Have done a couple this way now…

We’ve been staying here[/url] for the last few years with our pooch.

Can’t rate it highly enough, and Joan, the owner, is just fantastic too… we always get a cake for us, and some treats for the dog every time we stay.

While it’s not right on the coast, the coast is only a few miles away, and in the meantime you have a fantastic view down over Buttermere instead, plus Whinlatter is only a few mins away in the car… and the Kirkstile Inn is just around the corner.

Just about perfect!

Am quite surprised no-one has mentioned his graphic novels… the whole Sandman series being his most famous.

Also, the current adaptation of Neverwhere on Radio 4 is a new one, and pretty darned good as well, but I hadn’t realised that it was originally written as a mini-series for the BBC and then later turned into a novel… still very good.

pdw… my Revo is like having a small sun on the front of my bike when I am going fast. Sure, it’s not so bright when going more slowly, but it’s still plenty bright enough to ride singletrack quickly. It’d be more than enough for commuting.

The company I work for is currently screaming out for qualified electronics/power/fpga engineers, I lose track of the number of vacancies we have, but it’s also a reasonably specialised industry. But I was at a conference last year where one of the main topics of conversation was the lack of talent coming through from the universities compared to how many we actually need!

As for training, the company I work for is relatively small compared to some, although it is part of a much larger group of companies, but training is actively encouraged. I’m currently finishing a short course at the local Uni, and I’m trying to sort out getting some of the younger engineers onto an MSc too. The company has now realised that as we can’t seem to employ people already qualified, we’ll have to make our own!

Did I miss the answers to my earlier post trying to define exactly was is stealing and what isn’t?

Following on from that slightly, I was also wondering whether it’s still stealing if you copy a CD that you own onto your MP3 player of choice… as I don’t know if people are aware, this is also classed as illegal under exactly the same law that would have you for downloading music from t’interweb in the UK at present. Although I do believe the government has proposed a change in the law for this, but only for music, and that it will still be illegal for DVDs and games etc…

Now I do hope none of you naughty people have been doing any of that sort of thing… ;)

zokes – if you record a track off the radio, is that still stealing?

How about if I record a TV program from the telly? Stealing?

Why are these different from dowloading a track from the internet?

Just be aware that there is a night running race happening in the Pines tomorrow night, and so a reasonable amount of singletrack, including some of the red route, is likely to be taped off. If it’s anything like last year, it’ll go right up through the bike park area too…

So if you go, just don’t be surprised to see rather a lot of folks in head-torches running about!