I still feel that the world hasn’t really recognised how Ukrainian vengeance is going to be a global project that’s going to go on for years after the war itself is concluded.

The Russian commanders that oversaw the massacres at Bucha and elsewhere will not be allowed to sleep soundly.

Mali is just the start.

Considering how much Hay Russia made over the few Leopards they destroyed in Summer 2023, I think Ukraine is being very careful with its very precious new toys. Esp right now when their arrival is global news.

That said, I’m sure their entire intelligence community is scouring Russian territory looking for gaps in their air defence network so that they can pull off something impressive.

Not sure whether this is a break from.the misery as it’s fairly remorselessly bleak, but it is very well done.

Also, if you like Jeremy Fish’s art, this ones a must

The great irony is that now so many of these ‘True Brit’ nationalist groups a actively funded from overseas.

Used to be Russia pre-2022 but deep-pocketed Right Wing Christian Nationalist groups in the States are now Ol’ Yaxley Lennon’s main sugar daddies.

We also can’t ignore the role of Tiktok (and by extension the Chinese government) actively promoting the most inflammatory content to drive division, this was a major factor in the Gaza protests and I’m sure they’re at it again now.

Considering Russia only started the war with about 50 S400 batteries, that they still need to cover vast swathes of Russia itself and the borderline obscene cost of each one, each one down is a big deal, esp as we can expect to start seeing the F16’s flying missions soon.

Reading around the topic, it looks like one of the reasons the F-16’s have taken so long is that they’re all being refitted in a standardised version so that that can all take current  NATO munitions and can share the vast majority of parts etc.

Whilst the wait has been long there seems to have been a strong desire to ‘get it right first time’ expecially as Russia will be desperate to hunt them down once they arrive.

If Biden decides to relax the limitations on their use and let Ukriane actively go after the Russian aircraft launching those damn 600KG glide bombs from Russian airspace then it really could move the needle as those are a huge problem that Ukriane currently had almost no answer to.

Glad to see John Wick has already been mentioned, pretty much the gold standard of style over substance silly fun action

Also, assuming you haven’t already seen them:

Kung Fu Hustle

Mad Max Fury Road

Smoking Aces

The weld should have no bearing on air retention as the tyre should seal against the tape, not the rim, hence why you can run pinned or sleeved rims tubeless.

Which tape did you use and was it 32mm wide?

If your nipper managed to crump it in 4 runs I’d gently suggest replacing it with a readily available aftermarket rim so that the next time he does it you won’t need to hunt around.

Even it costs you new spokes it should save faff and money down the road.

Sad to see this thread in decline, just as in the real world news agenda.

I’m still very much following it all but., to be frank, there’s no much change in the situation on the ground and I generally only stick my oar in on here if there’s some developments to talk about and I’ve done enough research to be confident that I’m not talking nonsense.

To be fair, in the first few months of this year the discussion on here boiled down to:

• Ukraine is going to have a tough 2024 as it waits for long promised Western assistance to finally arrive.
• Russia’s chances of victory largely ride on a Trump Victory in November and the high likelihood he will cease US aid to Ukraine.
• Essentially both sides are in ‘Survive til 25’ mode.

And it’s unfolded largely as was predicted then.

Even with a 2nd Trump presidency, Ukraine will still enter 2025 far better equipped and prepared than it did 2024 and with strategic capabilities it completely lacked in the first 2 years of the war.

I now think we are looking at 2 potential outcomes.

A: Trump Wins, US aid dries up but enough time has passed for the European assistance programs to finally spool up and they are enough to keep Ukraine in the fight, the stalemate grinds on for at least a few more years.

B: Harris wins and Ukraine, knowing mid-term supplies are not threatened, goes on the offensive in 2025. Eventually forcing Russia to the negotiating table, even if this may only leave Ukraine with some of the territory it wishes to regain.

When the situation changes in any meaningful way I’m sure this place will wake up again.

Credit where credit’s due

Between this and the recent Isla Rowntree interview, GCN seem to be turning a bit of a corner and producing some thoughtful, grown-up content, I think I’ll be paying a bit more attention to their output if this is the new direction of travel under their present ownership.

If you read into the details of what lead up to it Heemeyer was a bit of a tool to put it mildly, kept pushing his luck and trying it on and then couldn’t handle being told that the rules did, in fact, apply to him.

Anyone who works in local government will be wearily familiar with the type.

Of course sober, detailed understanding doesn’t make for many clicks so this hasn’t stopped him from being turned into some kind of right wing libertarian cause célèbre because their analysis of the situation rarely goes deeper than ‘I don’t like paying tax, hence all government bad.’

If everyone behaved like him every district council  in the land would have been bulldozed a hundred times over for entirely justified planning permission refusals.

Yikes!

Can you imagine a candidate in any other (sensible) country saying this and not being immediately binned?

In that room were thousands of Americans who are salivating at the prospect of an authoritarian Christian takeover. He’s a showman, he’s good at giving people what they want to hear and that’s exactly what he was doing.

The problem is much deeper than just Trump, where Trump seems fairly unique is his ability to sell that agenda to the American people, the more the mask slips over the next 4.months the more chance the Harris campaign will have to energise the anti-Trump vote and chip away his more moderate supporters who generally just want lower taxes.

Traditionally a party’s convention where they get to unveil thier candidates and get a week of almost blanket coverage to get their message across marks the high point of thier polling.

The fact that Harris is already rapidly closing the gap and completely shifted the narrative from where where we  were a week ago is remarkable, we also still have almost a month to go before the DNC.

Vance was picked purely as an attack dog to go after Biden, his whole reason for being on the ticket is now gone and his extreme anti-choice stance (he’s far more outspoken on this than Trump) is going to be a real liability against a female candidate.

Its not a done deal by any stretch but suddenly the whole energy of the race has changed and the Democrats are making all the running it’s a complete 180 from a week ago.

I find this is one of the better explanations. Thoughtful and goes right back to the root of it.

https://pod.link/1624704966/episode/0b0e2c363a94280fe0ae576bbefbc526

After a few weeks of GOP triumphalism as they assumed they were marching straight to power it’s quite amusing to watch some of them flip straight to panic mode.

A brief reminder that Musk ‘Came out’ as a Republican just before a story broke about him sexually assaulting an employee.

He knew that the accusations would lose him many of his progressive fans so he decided to get some new ones  ideally ones who have long shown they don’t care much what women have to say.

Same approach as recent RNC attendee Russel Brand but sadly with a lot more cash.

He just wants people to kiss his arse basically.

Look like classic pandemic purchases.

Considering that woman’s reproductive rights are going to be squarely on the ballot this November having a woman (Harris or otherwise) face off with Trump and his rabidly anti-choice VP pick seems somehow right.

Same goes for trump, I suppose.

Trump is primarily running to stay out of prison, if he loses his political following his protection dissapears.

Newsome is the other I have seen mentioned

The awkward thing is that with Harris presumably on the ticket that means that both of them with be from California, which would be almost unthinkable.

American Democracy gets one last roll of the dice.

I really feel for the guy but do feel like he’s done the right thing.

A crap situation all round, he deserved a 2nd term, he was a decent man and a solid president, but age just caught up with him at precisely the wrong moment.

He just put his country before himself , and that should be what he’s remembered for.

Repeated sudden spoke failure under braking?

I’d be getting it fully rebuilt with fresh DT or Sapim spokes.

It might be man maths, but that doesn’t actually strike me as terrible value…

It’s a fair bit cheaper than buying them all separately, basically a ‘bike shop in a box.’

 

 

I wonder how much it’d be if you bought every Park Tool for the ultimate Park Tool Wall.

£9,600

https://www.parktool.com/en-int/product/master-tool-kit-mk-16

Isla is a legend

The original Isla Bikes, the Cervelo R series and the Tern GSD are probably the three most influential bike designs of the 21st century so far.

Oh FFS, the documents case was a slam dunk and they knew it, Judge Cannon is a disgrace to her profession.

Are the potholes fixed yet?

Well council funding has decreased 40% in real terms in the last decade so…. no, probably not.

Last year inflation was roughly 10% but most council tax rises were capped at 2.8% so there’s 7% effective cut right there.

I’m not saying councils are perfect but they are all currently scrabbling to stay out of bankruptcy and the decisions that lead here were made in Westminster, not in city halls.

Confirmation from the local sheriff’s office that the shooter and at least one member of the audience is dead.

Weird response from Secret Service. Take him to the deck behind the podium for a few seconds, then let him stand up again and stay there in full view for all the bleeding and fist pumping rather than bundling him off to the side. Very odd.

Considering the sheer number of armed security in that venue the shooter was probably dead within seconds, hence why they let him back up.

Ignoring all the tempting tin-hat stuff about this being a false flag.

Assuming the shooter is found to be an Anti-Trump lefty this is basically the best possible thing that could have happened to Trump’s campaign, he looks like a damn hero.

Everything about this is bad.

The days of Ebay being full of really nice non-Boost wheels going for chicken feed are over and as very few quality brands still make non-boost 2nd hand prices have crept up again.

So, I’d either go for that Bonty or a DT Swiss X 1900, the DT will be lighter with better long term spares availability but is a bit more expensive.

https://www.freewheel.co.uk/dt-swiss-x-1900-wheel-25-mm-rim-15-x-100-mm-axle-29-inch-front-whdtx1925014f

I’ve moved from.’buds’ to IEMs for durability reasons, the bit I tended to kill was a cable and plug rather than the buds themselves and IEMs  usually have cables that can be replaced.

Currently on Shure SE215’s that can be had online for £40-50 through a Fiio headphone DAC and Amp and very happy with them.

Biden sees it as his life’s mission to defeat Trump, he sees it as his duty, I genuinely think that’s where his head is at and that’s why he’s going to be hugely reluctant to pass the batton and giving him a way to duck out with dignity is going be a really tough needle to thread.

It’s massively unfair, he’s actually lead a genuinely effective and competent administration in very challenging circumstances, he’s earned a 2nd term.

But… it has to happen, he’s clearly in rapid decline, he’s not the man he was even a year ago, he has a great team around him but that’s just not enough and him staying almost guarantees the final ascension of American Fascism (and I do not use that term lightly).

Crap situation all round.

T’was ever thus, time moves on and the utility of skills changes.

If Facebook was around in the 1960’s you know there would have been all these threads bemoaning ‘Young ‘uns today, they can’t even shoe a horse!”

There was a lot of diatribe a few years back about ‘millennials have no DIY skills.’ Somewhat ignoring the fact that thanks to our dysfunctional housing market Millennials are living in rented accommodation much later in life where DIY is either discouraged or outright forbidden.

When skills become useful and available, people learn them.

India has always had a rather freewheeling foreign policy, they don’t really do long term alliances.

Right now it suits them to throw some scraps to Russia in return for very cheap oil but we shouldn’t confuse this with any kind of serious strategic partnership.

Much as it sticks in the craw.

I have fairly weathered STW ‘riding, writing and grinding’one that’s a really nice balance of size and wall thickness, perfect daily driver.

My ‘best’ mug is a glorious hand made earthen ware wolftooth jobbie which is almost too nice to use as I’m terrified of dropping it.

For workshop use its all about the stainless steel Yeti ramblers, nice to always have an object to hand that could be used to fend off a rabid dog if required.

Agreed, they’re not a ‘magic bullet’ by any stretch.

However, they do plug one of the most glaring and difficult to work around holes in Ukraine’s capabilities and they will certainly make a big difference if used wisely.

Just  a shame they couldn’t have been in operation 12 months ago to support the Ukrainian summer offensive.

Probably because MTB’s with 142 back ends all long pre-date Microspline so there’s going to be very little demand for non-boost hubs with that freehub.

My mate had a similar issue where his exact mix of requirements wasn’t available, his LBS rang up Madison and they swapped the freehub over FOC for them to get him the hub he wanted.

All new 350’s are 36 tooth as standard so that hopefully shouldn’t be an issue.