gravity-slave, can you tell me more about the MTB class races?

The BMX races I've been to have classes by age then by wheel size, so you can race 20", 24" or 26". Sometimes they roll MTBs and cruisers together if there's not enough riders to fill a gate or two.

So regions might be different. Probably best check with riders at your local track for club and race details.

I got my first BMX for my 30th b'day and spent the winter at indoor skate parks. It was amazing. Next summer, gave racing a go. If you do the Midlands regionals, it probably the cheapest form of bike racing you can get. Few quid to enter, practice, 3 motos and a final, I think. I raced Novice 20" and am proud owner of a little plastic cup for 4th in the series, or something equally unimpressive. Had a blast though. Sheffield, Rotherham, Chesterfield all not too far from you if you're near Manchester. Maybe turn up and watch first to gauge how you'd fit in.

The only thing I found is switching from a DH bike to a BMX was pretty hard! The BMX felt jittery and harsh, then swapping back, the DH bike felt like a boat. I spent a few months feeling rubbish on both bikes.

Another option, if you have a hardtail, is to race MTB class at the regionals. Seems like most rounds have them. Hardpack tracks, usually all weather, great winter fitness.

What no Inspirals yet? Or did I miss it?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J-fX0UbpZls&feature=channel

Shaun looks messed up even here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q3svrd9OaIw

Plenty of name checks on this one:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qzaa7EUvbIE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T1i6ocbNgiw

Kingmaker
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uRBOmli-Fwg

Off to build a 90's indie DJ set on my ipod!

Dammit, going to be up for hours after this thread!

Carter were keen cyclists, iirc.

Fruit bat was a roadie and used to get dropped off on the tour and ride the last bit to a gig! I was on one of the Carter vidoes, stage diving. The clip made it on top of the pops!

Bit poppy for my taste but the old school vibe made me remember the Miltown Brothers!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xGIpy3p1LlI

First Manic's song I liked
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uCwxPAjqQxM

Paw – Jessie
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lzJz9TIbjv8

Ministry
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fm4X9yElG9Y

So many more on YouTube…

They are so unsafe, World Cup downhillers signed a petition to keep them on their lids.

Maybe the though process was anything that adds to the risk in the event of a crash is an incentive to stay upright?

Gravity-Slave is clearly winning the corporate speak post count

Just make sure the rest of you line your ducks up before you raise the bar and keep our mission and vision on your radar screen and you'll catch up soon!

The reason for the outage is probably to aid future organic growth by implementizing a new strategic platform, which will require leveraging synergies to keep moving forward.

Me too! Started mtb to get fit for the dry slope race circuit back in '89. Did both until about 95, then ended up going cold turkey from skiing for 8 whole years, while living bikes. Now I'm as into skiing as you can be while living in the UK and see biking as a way to fill the void between ski holidays.

Last season I skied really hard and was pretty surprised how well my legs coped. One thing that helped a lot was pump track laps on a hardtail. Fairly similar leg extension/compression to skiing and great for upper body stability/leg mobility. 15 laps of our pump track gets the ski burn feeling! If you've not got a pump track, try to pump a bmx track.

This is the best I've got of my mate B's Sunday.

Sizing
http://www.sixsixone.com/Information_CyclingSizing.aspx

If you are borderline, consider going smaller as they do stretch and wear in. Baggy knee pads that move on impact are near useless (except as knee warmers).

Your post made me think of this track by 'Dan le Sac versus Scroobius Pip' – hope you like it!

The NC10 can be had for the same price at the one above, is a bit faster but has the smaller 10.2" screen so maybe not right.
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/150183

Custard creams for 49p, that's ASDA Price,

Kids toys made of plastic, that's Fischer Price,

Selling your life stories to the Sun, that's Katie Price.

IGMC…

Sheffield based? Get in touch with these guys:

Home

They are all riders and know their stuff so well worth getting in touch for a quote.

Check out http://www.zenphoto.org/

As long as your server supports it, you unzip, upload, run setup.

From there, simply add a folder of photos to the album folder and they automatically appear in the gallery! Loads of options and upload can be done via FTP or direct through the admin panel from a web interface.

Has anyone service one of superstars BB ?

Yes, I have but I just whacked the bearings out and popped new ones in, didn't look inside I'm afraid!

I used my headset cup removal tool to knock the bearings out. It worked a treat! Superstar was easier to service than Shimano since there was more overlap for the tool to fit on.

Coincidently, the Mrs. has just emailed to say she's got tickets for their Leadmill gig! J, Lou and Murph producing wall to wall noise again. Wicked.

Oddly, only about 15 people moshing at the Junction. Everyone else trying to take (crap) photos on iPhones and Blackberries. Not quite right, somehow!

Just a heads up in case you didn't know, some copies of the latest album have audio problems. Check http://www.dinosaurjr.com for details and free replacement.

My CD had the problem. Swapped. Not much difference really ;-) Still awesome.

I saw them on the Rollercoaster tour with the Mary Chain, Blur and My Bloody Valentine in about '92. That was LOUD!

Saw them again last Thursday at the Cambridge junction (drove down from Sheffield). My Mrs. loves them too and said 'How can 3 people make that much noise!'. J's incessant guitar tuning made me laugh. Tune, whack on effects, cue wall of noise! Could anyone tell?! Freak Scene was the best song of the set by a mile. Amazing.

They are playing Sheffield Leadmill on the 3rd September.

NC10 a bit cheaper, with lots of good reviews – http://www.ebuyer.com/product/150183

I managed to rip the pedal out of my XTR cranks.

Pearce Cycles put an insert in for £15. It's a steel top hat bush rather than a helicoil. Cranks were on my DH bike and it's held up a treat.

http://www.pearcecycles.co.uk/

Only thing to bear in mind is the warranty. Depending on brand, body may only be warrantied in country of purchase but lenses have global warranty. May or may not be an issue but worth checking out.

Also check out http://www.jr.com – B&H is closed on some odd hours, like Saturday, from memory. We were in the area Sat so JR my only option.

I went when it was 2.1 $/£ and JR were happy to see me!

A tenner you say?! Hope this helps…

http://www.gravity-slaves.co.uk/shop/index.php?cPath=42

Check out the Linksys WRT54GL and DD-WRT firmware. Make sure it's the 'L' (for Linux) version so you can update the firmware.

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/103185 – router.

http://www.dd-wrt.com/ for the firmware.

If you can't get the range, repeaters could be a really good option.

Is it relatively simple to setup a home network / itunes hub with one of these boxes?

It was really easy to set up the iTunes server. The hardest bit is setting up the samba shares, but the manual is pretty clear and if you have a linux box then that should be easy.

Install drive, go to web interface, format drive, set up shares.
Copy music into the /public/music/ folder then turn on the iTunes server.

Now all your machines running iTunes on the network can see your shared library.

Unfortunately you can only access linearly, I don't think you can use playlists.

To give an idea of real world speed of the Icybox, I copy DVD's onto there (the entire Video_TS folder) and play back over the network.

The NAS drive can keep up, streaming the DVD folder to 3 different machines at the same time.

It's great as a simple fileserver or back end to a media system. One reason I picked it is that I can chuck it in the cellar and keep the living room clutter free and quiet.

Large file transfers as slow. Copying on to the drive takes a while. One option is to use the one click USB backup system to dump data onto it.

My track pump always read 10-15psi out from my digi gauge….

I've got an Icybox NAS drive plugged into my router and it's pretty good, very pleased with it.
http://www.raidsonic.de/en/pages/products/external_cases.php?we_objectID=5052

It has a built in iTunes server. Turn it on and iTunes on any connected machine automatically finds the shared library.

It more too, there are packages for FTP, webserver, torrents, radio stream ripping (record radio to MP3).

You'll need a hard drive or two for it – check the compatibility as there are some issues.
http://en.nas-4220.org/index.php/Main_Page

I find it a good low power alternative to a server and more flexible than a dedicated external drive.

Main drawback is that while it has gigabit LAN, the processor is the bottleneck so expect 20MB/s instead of 100/1000.

If you've got more money, the Qnap TS-119 or 219 is much faster.

Make sure you get the large one and cut it length ways before toasting, to make big molten hot rectangles. Piddly little squares don't compete.

Nice with Dairylea on.

Strangely, as well as toasted Malt Loaf, I prefer Pop Tarts cold (great energy snack)

Yes, if you've got the land, you've got to build one! Check the videos above, loads of fun.

Equipment needed
– dirt
– spade
– time
– kettle

Be as creative as you can. Make corners tighter than you think so you can pump out of the turn, don't just do straight lines – I want to build a series of chicanes or pumpable berms next – and just keep tweaking until it flows!

Half way round a ride in Whistler, long way from a road….

Associated RC18T?

1/18th scale electric truck. The 1/18th is pretty cool – it's just about useable indoors if you have a big hall, small enough for the garden, tough enough to jump, awesome in the street and great for packing and taking with you.

Not bad out the box but awesome when upgraded to brushless (Xmas present idea already sorted!?), loads and loads of spares and upgrades to keep the thing fun.

Possibly worth a look?

Not pro by a long shot but have sold one or two snaps and lost enough files through failure/stupidity to have a 'system'…

Nikon Transfer can be set to auto-backup your card on download.
I do this so I can have one copy 'archived' as backup and one 'live' to edit/delete leaving backup intact.
I also don't delete the card until I'm sure the transfer has gone OK – I've always got originals to refer to in case I cock it up!

'Live' photos are stored on my NAS drive so I can work from desktop, laptop or view on my TV (through Mac Mini).

NAS is backup up to drive in the PC, usually weekly (1st backup)

PC backup is replicated monthly to removable drive.

This is useful – great for achiving.
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/149269
Drop in a cheap hard drive, fill it up, unplug, stash somewhere safe.

Interested to hear with others do or feedback on my system!

Ghetto wheeljig

I used to see the OS as a tool to let me run my applications but Win7 actually seems to increase my productivity. Loads of features that I like and so far I've found the RC very fast, stable and impressive.

I skipped Vista but Win7 is leagues ahead of XP.

Some tips:

http://www.techradar.com/news/software/operating-systems/50-seriously-useful-windows-7-tips-528483?artc_pg=1

http://lifehacker.com/5254211/windows-7s-best-underhyped-features?skyline=true&s=x

I have one in the cellar than I run when I need to. It's excellent for blow drying a bike when you have to put it away wet! This method has stopped chains going rusty and prevented mould growth down there.

They are also meant to be as, if not more, cost efficient as tumble dryers for drying clothes – you can hang your wet kit on the bars and dry bike and kit together.

They do cost a bit to run but tanking the cellar would be considerably more expensive!

Dry air is also easier to heat than wet air, so they potentially offset some of the running costs against heating bills (and repairing damp problems).

A good site to check out:
http://www.dry-it-out.com/dehumidifiers

Just rounded out a rotor bolt – not happy. Any ideas how to get it out?

Expensive option, but if you are really stuck (and the screw is), some of these and an impact driver do the trick well!
http://www.tooled-up.com/Product.asp?PID=136827

When you've built it, you've got to host a pumptrack pursuit enduro!
Here's the lowdown on the format (scroll down for video):
http://www.gravity-slaves.co.uk/?a=474

Fancy a series?!

Bummer dude

Commiserations – or career suggestion? I doubt he's cute enough to make money from the latter…

;)

Bad news Matt. Enjoy the riding time while you can!

Recommended site:
http://www.caraudiodirect.co.uk/speakers/component.html

Spend as much as you can, get the biggest diameter drivers you can (bust out the jigaw if you have to!) and check the mounting depth on your doors.

Add a 4 channel amp later if at all possible. They will sound much better than direct from the head unit.

Then consider a small sub later if you've got space!

Then…

;-)

What thermostat are you running? I guess it's new if the boiler is but ours made a big difference.

We had a combi with standard 'on/off' bi-metal thermostat and 24 hour timer on the boiler.

Swapped it for a 7 day digital thermostat with hi/lo settings. Stuck boiler on constant and let the thermostat handle it all.

Before house would get hot, overshoot the set temp, get really hot, turn off, get really cold, fire up, run 100% into overshoot again. House got hot/cold/hot/cold. Then at night, it was off or boiling.

The boiler runs less hard and the house is a much more even temp. 19 degrees during the day, 14 degrees at night.

If the room temp is above the 'stat setting, the boiler in 'on' but not running. Less heat change uses less fuel. Imagine cruising at 70 compared to dropping back to 60, accelerating up to 80, dropping back to 60 again, accelerating…

Our gas usage is tracked monthly and our bills dropped significantly. The year on year usage shows a clear step down right when I fitted the new 'stat.

Lovely.

Just need to reprogram it so 19C displays as 22C and the Mrs. will be happy too!