would be happy to buy a collected words when appropriate…

That would be a quite brilliant option for ongoing charity support. And I will miss the totally nailed Grinder reviews too – I already want some of the Vaude shoes from this issue!

I wondered if there was any news on how the treatment was going when reading issue 100 last night :(

**** cancer and thoughts with Jenn and Tom

Email here too. Have to admit I had half been expecting one on the basis of the low numbers of entries showing up on XCRacer anyway – I was anticipating quite a lonely second half of the race!

Hopefully they can get something sorted with the MOD by May, I was really looking forward to getting back the event after missing the last few.

I’m coming to play but so far they are winning the worst organiser of the year award from me. No information sent, all I have to go on is what is on xcracer website, very poor.

I’m crossing my fingers that they remember to show up to run the race :)

It does look not much more than a paint job away from the Viner gravel bike frame they’re selling for the same price.

See also the Viner Mitus and Planet X RT90 road frames. I guess they must at least believe people see some different value in the alternative branding, maybe its just that it doesn’t say Planet X :)

Personally, since I know they’ve just bought the Tomac name, I just see “a Planet X frame”, and I think the paint job on the Viner version is nicer :)

Based on the last time I rode (a few years back now) the course is more rolling than Thetford typically is (a good thing) but not super hilly (also good).

I did the 12h race on a rigid SS, and doing it again this year, so no, not crazy at all :)

Wouldn’t have said Ardent Race or CrossMark fit the “lots of road” requirement – I use them as full on offroad tyres!

I’d have thought things would be starting to get marginal for a true semi slick offroad, but WTB Nanoraptor maybe? Far better than you would expect in slippery conditions and not bad on road.

Or a continental speedking – old school semi slick style, though I’ve not actually used one.

Not much to add to the above. I’ve just reverted my hard tail to SS for winter racing – less to go wrong/wear out and on longer races (e.g. 4h+) I don’t see a big difference in my place in the field.

If anything I think at things like Brass Monkeys venues I’ve ended up doing better on the SS, probably because it forces me to work harder on the climbs!

On the Alfine thing – I have a commuter with one. I wouldn’t take an Alfine anywhere near a race.

Rocky Mountain Instinct in an EVOC bag – I just compress the post.

If necessary I could undo the remote and slide enough hose back to pop the whole post out – I wouldn’t want to have to remove it, due to the amount of swearing involved in installing it. If you do that you would just need to take care to protect the hose from kinking/impact as above.

Oh I agree the comms could have been better. But from the middle of the press release that those links seem to be regurgitating:

“will encompass several styles of riding and is aimed at the entire spectrum of riders, from Cross Country (XC) to Enduro and Downhill”

That’s what I was getting at.

Rotel makes some valid points – certainly I would have loved more timed dh in BPW, and definitely referred to myself as being overbiked – but I think it was pretty clear that it was going to be a mix of up and down from the beginning, anyone thinking it was going to be like T-P wasn’t really paying attention.

I also seem to recall hating the climbs Ash sent us up in T-P (on foot, carrying a bike, hanging onto roots) much more than the climb up Skyline :)

Yup, great week. I’ve even accepted today’s weather since it seems to have helped me gain a few places in the final results :)

Its fair to say I wouldn’t have minded less timed climbing but overall, hats off to Matt for managing to pull it all together and to have it run pretty damn smoothly for a first event (as far as I could tell!). Will be pining for 100s of metres of up when I hit my desk in the morning.

In the middle of the field it was fairly easy to queue at the timing start points and leave a reasonable gap before heading into sections. Still caught a fair few people on longer runs but on the whole passing worked out OK, there were only a couple of times I was held up a bit.

The second, that got hit by the bikes looked like he just didn’t know what to do and was meandering around the corner.

My thoughts exactly. [/quote]

Yup, that’s the one I meant. The first one tried to do something sensible, not sure it was the best option given how much it limited riders options, but the second would have come out of nowhere for the riders that hit it.

Good work by the motor bike, taking out two extra riders for good measure!

chum3 so have the dropped the Timed XC sections and kept the Timed DH Sections?

I’ve not read the info in detail, but there appears to be a mix still, but the portion counting towards “trail king” seems high so it seems a bit biased towards the downhill side.

No stage looked, from a scan, like it would have the 20km timed (40% ish) that the link above suggests, but I took that as a maximum rather than an average anyway.

Looking forward to seeing how it all works out on the ground. As above, will be nice to be riding and not in the office :)

The theory I’ve heard is that the QR lever should be on the brake caliper side – on the basis that if there is any small movement in the axle from braking, it would be concentrated in that dropout and could slowly back the tension off the nut.

As always, theory is not the same as “likely to happen”, but I think Ben from Kinetics did some basic tests that backed the theory up.

The jamming issue that cdoc refers to is the Trek recall isn’t it, which would be a different thing altogether.

(Edit, beaten to the punch)

I’m in, looking forward to it.

Been doing much procrastinating on bike choice as well but I think I’ve settled on trail bike over more XC oriented, since it doesn’t weigh a whole lot more and will definitely be a lot more fun going down.

So I’ll be on the bright orange rocky mountain (unless I change my mind!)

Just picked mine up from the Post Office this morning. Looks like a nicely put together bit of kit based on just poking things around.

The valve cores do have an extended “plunger” that opens up the diaphragm, so in theory letting air out should be OK.

I would be surprised if the extra bag doesn’t come with an additional 23 Kg.

Here you go:

“Each extra bag can be up to the same size and weight as a standard checked bag” (http://www.britishairways.com/en-gb/information/baggage-essentials/extra-overweight-baggage)

In which case as above you need to get some stuff out of the bike bag into the extra bag.

(Also, if you get unlucky they can be picky t**ts at the checkin desk. Travelling with a friend we once had to move 500g from a slightly overweight back to a slightly underweight one. That’s unusual though)

I ordered one on the crowdfunding deal, hopefully showing up soon. Went for it largely as it seemed like a pretty smart if not revolutionary idea. I typically end up with leaks from my Stan’s syringe, and have had normal valves get gummed up with sealant, so if this avoids that then job done for me.

BTW, I don’t think the CO2 thing freezes sealant as such, its that the sealant sets in the absence of air AIUI – which if you think about it, is what you get if you fill your tyre with CO2.

go for IP

IP is a concept, not a “thing”. A patent is just one kind of IP. It sounds like a patent is the right protection in this case, but all the disadvantages are listed already. You can give yourself some protection by looking at copyright etc., depending on what you are actually talking about.

https://www.gov.uk/intellectual-property-an-overview/protect-your-intellectual-property

But as alluded to above your best option may be to just do a decent job of implementation and being first.

[Not an expert but sat through a fair few conversations/seminars about intellectual property and software (which has its own peculiar challenges when it comes to patents)]

If they are not providing any training then if I were you I’d consider approaching your project manager, expressing your concerns and asking for a mentor or programming buddy

This +1, I can see it being quite a frustrating experience if you are getting no support. It would be odd really, given the situation you describe for your team/management to not expect to need to provide this. Even with experience, other peoples input is a useful thing.

As for how long to know if you will “get it” – I think I’ve been doing to too long to be able to offer an opinion!

If I’d seen those Polish 350s before I ordered my last pair of LB rims, I would have definitely gone for it.

As above, I would skip the revolutions personally, and I don’t really buy the “soften the ride” line of thinking that seems to be lurking around carbon wheel builds. I would look at Sapim D-Light or the DT equivalent (can’t recall the name)

Its correct.

If you’re just going to hand it off to some kind of text->speech engine then yes, you would rather hope it would have its own support for numbers.

But if not then yes, you will probably have to roll your own as above

Various built in format options for DateTime.ToString(format), or you can roll your own.

All here : https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/zdtaw1bw%28v=vs.110%29.aspx

Links at the bottom of the page for more info on format strings.

(Edit, but not read closely enough to see if it will do all words as in your example)

I’ve been part of a similar kind of “transaction” before – all company assets transferred to a new entity, and all staff retained in their previous roles.

We also all got the statutory redundancy payment from the government, so on that basis the “Company Y” situation need not have any bearing in your friend’s case. But this was a few years ago, so rules may have changed and the exact legal status may have been different.

If the new job sounds like the place to be, I would go for it, fill in the form for the statutory payout and see what happens – as above, its not huge amounts of money so hardly worth basing decisions on.

What about something with T-shirt length arms, do these exist?

Gore do one – don’t know if it’s still available, could easily seeing it being something that disappeared quickly.

Sleeveless Rain Jacket? Coat offers Bare Arms for Breathability

But although on paper it sounds an expensive week biking, once you see the all inclusive logistics they do it great value for money. Ash and the guys do a pretty darned good job

Very true.

The Frenchies don’t enter as the for the same price they can get flights/hotel and entry for the Reunion Island mega Avalacnhe.

Not sure that’s a particularly direct comparison in terms of the amount of racing though.

I did the first year, so not sure representative my experience is likely to be, but all I recall having to spend out on over the race price was: flight, beer, snacks, 1 tyre, 1 rear mech. So the £2k estimate up there ought to easily cover it unless you live somewhere the flight will be expensive (or you break parts easily, or drink a lot of beer :-))

So mine have arrived safe and sound – their courier isn’t super fast, but 7 days from Spain not awful either.

As others have said, seem 100% legit. If they’re knock offs they have gone to a lot of trouble – e.g. sticker on the box for the euro importer etc.

I can’t open the passenger window from the driver’s side control panel (I can close it though) on my Bosch-wired 2005* 156SW

Snap :) Though to be fair mine feels more like a mechanical than electrical problem – i.e. something snapped and jamming the switch.

My prescription Oakleys came with a case. When I’ve bought sunglasses they have never have come with anything other than the soft bag, but its been a while since I’ve bought any so that could easily have changed.

Not happy about the 28 days gary, other guys had said a couple of weeks. Did you email them after the 15 days were up?

No, I wasn’t in a huge rush. They would have had an email this weekend if I hadn’t got the dispatch notification on Friday.

Measured mine as a whopping 32.2, shimmed with a coke can. Not a problem on a road bike, but would have been completely unusable if it were a mtb frame.

Interesting view point. On the basis that I spend way more time sat down on my road bikes, my personal view would have been the opposite!

I ordered a pair of Oakley Sliver from Bluenty on 7th June, shipping is 7-15 days so should be sent be Tuesday next week (23rd June

Don’t hold your breath too hard – I only just got a shipping email for my order, more like 28 days for me.

we can drop out but we have all agreed that if you drop out you cant come back in,

Sounds like a barrel of laughs :)

A slightly different perspective – regardless of the bike you pick there are likely to be some sections you don’t want to ride, and that may be due to fatigue, skill, seeing someone else hit the deck, weather, whatever. I would just make sure you are confident in deciding when to man up and when to walk, I think the bike will only be a small factor in that decision.

I’m riding for DHC. We had 3 riders in the cat 4 race yesterday who were all up for trying stuff. One of them did similar to you a couple of races ago and nearly made it – he’d be well up for another bash I’m sure.

gary, I’d just crossed the line before you guys finished and was hoping you’d slowed the cat 4 pack a bit in them keeping clear

I think we probably did a bit, from talking to team mates in the cat 4 race there was some confusion about whether they were finishing. And there was also a bit of a mess with us getting into the pit lane.

Yes, looking at the numbers I think it would, it’s just getting people to go with you who’ll put some work in that’s the problem.

I can link you up with some of my team mates who are up for it if you are down there again. The debrief in the pub last night largely revolved around ways to get a break away due to lack of sprint!