Thruxton was fun last night – and for once I was reasonably placed going into the sprint, a little confusion as we lapped the cat 4 race helped. But the last lap was a bit too hot for me and I was already cooked as we went into the chicane.

A break will work if you can get people to go with you – the top 2 in the cat 3 race were the remainder of an 8 man break I think.

There was a bloke on a full on high-end time trial bike -but he’d removed the tri bars in an attempt to make it more of a normal bike

I saw a bloke riding on tri bar arm rests, but with the actual extensions removed. I got past as quickly as possible!

Got to walk the climb near Celtic Manor as I arrived there just as everyone realised there were drawing pins around and everyone was stopped and walking. But I didn’t actually see any myself.

My puncture was more embarassing – rolled over the start line to discover my rear had gone flat while sat in the pen :(

Where are mine! Stamps foot and pouts.

I’ve got some very long lived disk wheels with laser spokes – but they were built by Roger Musson. I went more conservative with my own build as I know I didn’t do a brilliant job of building non disk wheels with Revolutions.

Some useful observations on the different Sapim options here, including decisions to mix spokes at the rear (caveat, only scanned it, looks good but may contain urban myth)

Choosing spokes

I used D-light all round on the set I built – no issues so far.

Couldn’t see much real value in the extra cost of CX-Rays, and there were enough murmurs of issues with ultra thin spokes, that D-Lights seemed the sensible compromise. Comp Race sound much the same.

750 start here, someone else chose the optimistic finishing time to get that slot :). I’ll be mincing along in white/blue DHC team kit.

Last time I was in R&R, the shelves were bare (actually an empty Rock n roll box on the shelf) and Helen said the problem was that it had been reclassified as a more hazardous substance and it made the shipping costs uneconomical.

Should be fine, I’ve done the park, ride, train back variant with no trouble. Arguably that’s a better option as you have better use of daylight to accommodate any issues arising and better chance of favourable wind.

It occurred to me earlier that I don’t appear to have been logged out recently …

Thruxton? Sounds like a typical Thruxton scenario :)

Potentially …

The bad days will make the better ones seem sweeter. Or at least that’s what I’m telling myself today.

My tale of woe for the week is sneaking on the the front row of the local crit for that all important good start, only to spin out my rear wheel on a wet manhole just off the line and drop my chain. Straight out the back and chasing only to discover I’m not feeling as fresh as I thought and max HR is at least 10bpm down. Still, I got plenty of cornering practice.

The next race can _only_ be better.

– the login cookie only gets set when you actually log in and expires a set time (say 30 days) after that timestamp, regardless of how often you visit during that time or even if you are visiting a that moment.
– or the session tracking (the bit that ties the login cookie to an actual login) is a bit screwy.
– or they are doing maintenance again and had to take the session database down.

Or some combination of those.

We have enough geeks here to sort this with a bit of coordination from the STW “web team” surely?

Well, as the system I logged into last night is already showing me as logged out, here’s the result of some cookie sniffing in case its helpful.

Ignoring what just look like ad cookies, while in a logged out state I have this:

wordpress_logged_044ac5fc50cc83ccdacd1d7b50e78053 for path /
wordpress_044ac5fc50cc83ccdacd1d7b50e78053 for paths / and /wp-content/plugins
premier_auth

The wordpress ones have a June 4 expiry and the premier_auth, June 1

After logging in, the same wordpress cookies are present with expiry updated to June 12. Was too dim to note down the cookie value before re-logging in.

So looks like a session tracking issue. I see the same thing across 3 different Windows systems I use, on different networks, all running Firefox. Which might sort of point to then possibility of issues of overlapping sessions on the different systems.

Haha, we were wondering whether Kathmandu airport had scales at all anyway!

Heh, that’s what I thought when leaving KTM, they were actually more grumbly about my blatant excess than at Heathrow!

Not had any spoke tension issues with the set I have – the older wide 29er ones on dt240 hubs. They built up really nicely and I don’t recall ever having to touch a spoke and its not like I’ve babied them

I cracked and ordered the Flak Jackets I’ve been eyeing up from Bluenty … I’ll let you know what happens!

I was going to offer the usual “if you have to ask” response, but looks kind of legit (contact details, VAT number etc) and the prices are tempting!

Is it a 142mm thru axle? If so can’t see something like that working – QR hubs are 135mm.

Where do we get a new generation of cantankerous internet curmudgeons from?

You don’t really need to ask that do you [/quote]

Ah, I probably meant “cantankerous but knowledgeable” :)

The instinct seems to fit the if I only have 1 bike role best being good for aggressive riding but also being happy to play as the all day mile muncher.

I’d agree with that – on the basis that its got me wondering what the point of my RM Element is now!

I got a bit of a killer deal on the Instinct BC edition recently.

I only have a handful of rides on it so far. But, those rides did include 3 days in Switzerland at the weekend throwing it over all the rocks I could find and I’m very happy with it. Don’t see the bike being the limiting factor on rides!

Another of my early usenet heroes gone. Like Sheldon, a cyclist you only needed to know by first name

+1. I remember so many “lively” debates unfolding on USENET back in the day, and so many things learned from the knowledge that he, Sheldon and others would share. Where do we get a new generation of cantankerous internet curmudgeons from?

Thank you very much for your donation of £30.00 to the British Red Cross – Nepal Earthquake Appeal Your payment reference is: 70B95480SY566831E

I reckon I’ll royally f*ck it up and end up alive.

Well if anyone can! Good luck with the treatment and staring the thing down again

am i right in thinking i can withdraw a few hundred quid over the course of a week and not get charged withdrawal fees?

You’ll pay (a relatively low rate of) interest on cash withdrawals, depending on the rate they offered you on the card. If you really want to watch every penny you can use internet banking to transfer funds to cover the withdrawals (i.e. minimise the interest earning period)

What we need to know is how come you can’t see anything holding the bike up in your photos

Prop: Stick – cloned out in Photoshop CC

Cos you can never post enough good Keith Bontrager thinking. Its been around for a while, but I don’t think development in bike fitting has done anything to make KOPS more appropriate.

The myth of KOPS

“The KOPS rule of thumb has no biomechanical basis at all. It is, at best, a coincidental relationship that puts the rider somewhere near his or her correct position. It probably grew out of someone’s observations that may successful riders sit on their bicycles with their knees somewhere over the pedal spindle.”

Looks suspiciously like an FM006 (this one from HongFu, for substantially less than PX/Viner, possible layup differences notwithstanding)

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Increase the Q-Factor a further 25mm from the XTR cranks and I’m almost certain you’ll notice a difference for the worse

Sure, and I’d expect it. I was meaning more that I had wiggle room between there and my road cranks plus cleat adjustment to make the Limits not completely barking mad for the road bike.

How much wider are MTB cranks than Roadie ones?

My XTR 970 cranks always feel wide when I switch to them from road riding so I did a quick check on the difference on mine. 169 for the XTR cranks, 144 for my Campag road cranks.

I notice the difference when I switch, and I would guess the pedals increase the delta over and above the basic 25mm, but my legs don’t seem to have dropped off as a result :)

Still sceptical but backed this on the basis of curiosity and price …

Here you go :

I’m sure there must be a dummy one – would be insane to be otherwise and there seem to be lots of pictures of pairs.

The dual sided mode presumably needs one to be a slave to the other and single link to the head unit – so a fair amount more development to support it.

Pants :( Was really looking forward to that after missing it for the last few years. As above though, always a risk there. I seem to recall the original Set2Rise event had a similar problem too.

They have some wibble in the FAQs about test riders finding the wider stance better due to better knee tracking. Smelt a bit like marketing to me.

May go and compare my road bikes with MTBs – I know they’re wider, would be interesting to see how much. But the picture looked like an easy extra 20mm, I’d be surprised if I find that much difference.

Here’s another claiming breakthrough pricing that just popped up in my Twitter feed. Not sure I’m convinced about the impact on Q factor. Crowdfunding from Monday.

http://www.cyclingweekly.co.uk/news/latest-news/british-inventor-creates-revolutionary-affordable-power-meter-167250

https://www.facebook.com/Limitspowermeter

http://limits.technology/%5B/url%5D

No mathematical back up, but I would guess that swapping from paired spoke arrangement could be as much an issue as the rim.

Not looked at it , but this claims to cover spoke calculation for paired spoke arrangements so you could see how much of an issue it might be.

http://www.mrrabbit.net/wheelsbyflemingapplications.php

Gore Oxygen here too. Most breathable jacket I’ve used but obviously it can still get sweaty dependent on how hot you run and its a nice snug fit to avoid the annoying sail effect.

You can get in and around most climbs, some are obviously busier than others. There are pockets of hospitality tents but they certainly don’t dominate.

The last couple of times I have been we went up to Oude Kwaremont. Big screen in the square, beer and good, and a good old scrum to see everyone come by.

We drove as we were on the way home straight from there but I believe there are shuttles laid on from Oudenaarde.

A36 through Salisbury first thing? Good luck :)