Congrats Gary. If you are happy to share how many tickets did you buy?

It would have been too much bike for the bimbling that I do nowadays

Just 2 tickets, just have to be in it to win it, etc.

I’m quite intrigued to see how this new fangled geometry works 🙂, but going to have to go hunting for some suitable trails to test it on.

what if he doesn’t claim the ticket? do he have to claim it within a timescale?

Oh, don’t worry, that’s in hand 😉

This will help my “must MTB more” resolution, glad to hear that the raffle has made a decent impact to the fundraising!

More detail here. Including that they were very much in the gym bike market more than cranks.

https://escapecollective.com/stages-cycling-lays-off-entire-workforce/

I’ve built several sets of wheels for MTB and CX/Gravel with LightBicycle rims with no issues. I’m just building some now as it happens – they even come with a glossy user manual now.

Poole or Wareham for easy spinning to the Purbecks.

I’d keep it, but then I’m biased as I have the dive watch version with the internal bezel :)

The Animal watch chat nudged me to dig out my Timpsons lifettime battery warranty – another ti Animal living again, albeit with plenty of scars from being worn while riding and full 90’s look with the strap.

Timpsons will also sell you a lifetime replacement deal – I need to dig mine out and get a new battery in the same ti version as in Alex’s photo.

I think overall the intent of the rules makes sense. Not sure what the goal of this one is though:

Axles shall be 12mm through axles or quick release only

So technically my Open UP which I happily race CX on with CX tyres and non flared bars is out because of its 15mm front axle? 🤔

It doesn’t look as though the website has been updated in ages, I’m still waiting for the GPX file to become available as well, I was hoping that i’d get an e mail in a similar way to the Dirty Reiver.

I emailed them the other day to check I was on their email distribution list as I’d heard nothing since signing up. They said the final info email should be going out around June 7

Can’t believe noone has mentioned my personal peeve here yet : ridged forks 😬

There’s a lot to be said for getting some things done in advance – with PADI I think you can now do the theory, or theory and pool work before finishing up with the open water dives abroad – then you can spend that time in Egypt getting more dive experience.

I did mine in the UK, and while I got some zero visibility and cold water experience, practically the number of dives you need to do to complete the course isn’t going to have a lasting impact on your skills. ie. I still had lots of learning to do when I went away to warmer water!

Maybe just luck but out of maybe 5 trips to Egypt the only time I got hit with an iffy stomach was one time at the airport on the way home. I’ve been with Emperor Divers in Sharm and Hurghada and they have a good reputation, though I’ve not done any courses with them.

Just heard from a mate who lives just off Winchester Rd near the Sports Centre and has been without water since Thursday evening

On the other side of the Avenue. Mine’s been off since Wednesday afternoon. But I have not run out of beer yet 😀😀

Did they have that silly steep climb in it?

Only the less silly steep one this year.

Back end of V50 for me, but at least if felt like I paced it better than Rd1. Relieved that the course seemed to shrug off all the rain, and that the sun came out for our race!

Next question is how on earth do you get CX fit in the space of six weeks?

6 weeks? Luxury 😄. Emergency gym work and turbo-ing here ahead of Wessex League kick off at the beginning of September.

Nice heads up. Not totally sure it can be called a sale though since most of them appear to be second hand/returns.

Ah, I didn’t dig very deep in the details. Its always a mix of new and returns – I guess the new stuff got heavily shopped before it went public. Now, where is DPD with my C65 😎

PSA : Christopher Ward sale has gone public. Typically some very healthy savings if they have something to your taste.

https://www.christopherward.com/sale

Mine was google play, and I got an email from Google about a) the renewal and b) that the introductory price would go up to £39.99

For stocking up with things to bring back, last time I was in Gent we got carried away in here :
https://brewver.com/venues/2723/Dranken-Geers

Ignoring the ridiculous refusal of some to imagine there might be fine reasons to do something like this, >rolls eyes<, I looked into this as we were deep into home working last year. Partly because we anticipated the question arising, and partly because I quite fancied the idea of a few weeks with different riding around me!

We came to the same conclusion as above – as a formal business position you have to end up in a “if you have the right to work there” stance. And then as long as its temporary and you aren’t doing business _in_ the country, then you’re more or less certain to be OK. But UK passport in EU … Brexit computer says no 😞

GA Cycles in Southampton have a v good reputation for their builds. Not sure what their lead times are like right now – they’ve been pretty busy throughout pandemic – but well worth a call.

I had it a month or so ago – 4+ weeks after first Covid jab for me, though googling did find some anecdotal comments about association, equally people get shingles and we’ve all been getting vaccinated.

It was unpleasant enough to get me on the phone to GP rather than just gritting my teeth and getting on . The Dr did mention that they like to get the antivirals started in first 3 days but prescribed anyway, I started at about day 5 so perhaps worth trying to get some. Hard to say if the drugs helped helped but things started to clear up in short order and based on others descriptions it felt like I’d got off lightly. Left over rash now mostly cleared up (3ish weeks from recovery)

Hard to say objectively what the right option would be without more info. Footflaps has given a pretty good view of what it might be like. Some other angles below.

The established company could be a route to a great deal of learning from experienced development teams, or a slow moving mess of legacy systems. Similarly the start up might be a great opportunity to get into an exciting new technology area, or he could inherit a horrific mess from the contractors.

So for me, I’d choose startup – I’ve been in a small company for years and despite a lot of ups and downs, its consistently interesting. I would be looking to qualify the opportunity as others have described in terms of funding, and my ability to deliver it. And go into it eyes open that it could be short lived.

It sounds as though he is going to end up with a great deal of responsibility for the product – is he up for that, and the stress, pressure and hours that might go with it? How does he feel about the possibility of having to get involved in the recruitment side if it goes well and he has to help grow the team? What if

I remember a year at the Kielder 100 where the reason they suggested packing spare disc pads became clear – I wore right through a pad. So the grittiness of your local mud could easily explain different experience to the rest of us.

About 4k miles on my gravel bike – it has 2 sets of wheels but probably 2/3 or more of the mileage is on the 700C set. One rotor replaced due to bending it on a rock, but the other is original and doing fine. Across all bikes, I’ve never replaced a rotor due to wear but pretty sure this would be the set that had seen the most mileage.

Well, Rene Herse are proposing a modern 11s take on a Nivex mech. going to hazard a guess that it will be at the wrong price point for a city/utility bike though :)

https://www.renehersecycles.com/my-pbp-bike-derailleurs/

kinda makes me suspicious over all the great things being said on social media.

Easiest to just assume any social media post is a pointless sample – whether paid or just unsupported opinion. There’s a decent review here – sounds like a genuinely good set of wheels, with the main issue being how noisy you like your hubs

https://cyclingtips.com/2021/02/scribe-aero-wide-42-disc-brake-road-wheelset-review/

A post from earlier this afternoon from a new forum member singing the praises of the Scribes has also disappeared. All very mysterious.

Ah, I wasn’t imagining that particularly astroturfy post then :)

Where do you go to get the battery changed in the Animal watches now

I just go to local Timpsons.

Not best practice, but some useful things to think about in this article:
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/worklab/work-trend-index/hybrid-work

Its annoying, but its been fairly obvious it was going this way for some time now. 3 sets of X series pedals here and pathologically opposed to dumping things that aren’t broken! :(

My current cleats are OK, but planning to try the Zero cleat option at some point. I’ve only seen one post suggesting they worked OK, but can only imagine that it will become more well tested over the next few months

Very nice! I was going to sell my old one but it accidentally became a bit of a lockdown restoration – just needs the forks servicing and its all set for some fun. Originally red when I got it in 1995, then orange, now this rather nice blue.

Surprised at the number of Bontragers popping up, here are mine. Blue one has just been powder coated and got back in working order as a bit of a lockdown project. White one got a disk conversion from Dave Yates a few years back

I expected Leftfield

As a fan of the band and an owner of the bike I’m appalled I never made that connection!

As there’s a bit of Seiko love going on, here’s a little lockdown treat that arrived this week. Planet Ocean homage from MadModWorld, inspired by an eBay link that got posted here a lot of pages back.

Anyone able to tell me where that pic of Jobst Brandt was taken?

Its the Gavia

Just crop the ride to remove the car part?

Spline is definitely different. You used to be able to cobble together a 9 speed cassette to fit that pattern with a cassette from Marchisio, but seems they have gone pop (http://clemenzo.com/en/marchisio).

I _think_ I’ve got a 9sp Marchisio cassette to fit that pattern knocking around if you fancy giving it a go, but pretty sure a couple of key sprockets are pretty worn.

As above, I’ve run a shimano hub/cassette in a campag 9 system and its been OK, may not be true the other way though! Personally I’d probably go looking for a shimano wheel!

I like them – seem better than average to me though I’d agree they still feel a bit pricey. Being able to get a 31 waist makes for a better fit for me. I have a pair of sharps that I really like for something a bit smarter, and some in your face ones that I like for being very orange :)

I can probably sort out a referral code from my account for a discount …

RIP :( Never met him but such an inspiring story