Utter Barbarity, war crimes upon war crimes upon war crimes, t’is the Russian way of war.

TLDR:  Vivè le France!

Mèlenchon is a bit of an arse but he’s in a different league of terrible to the result that was feared.

Great example of what progressives can do if they stop bickering for once.

+1 for LBS if you have a good one, support local jobs etc and you’ll be glad of them if you need a BB faced or some other task that requires a very expensive specialist tool.

Also be aware when buying  from the EU that you may get hit for VAT, duty and customs charges.

Potentially still worth a punt if something  is ridiculously cheap, unavailable in the UK  or unlikely to ever need returning.

Trump is not a great friend of Farage, Trump is not going to give Farage anything for free,

True, but whilst Trump himself wouldn’t piss in Nige’s ear if his brain was on fire, there’s a fairly lucrative potential future for him as a conservative talking head on Fox News and the like.

I’m actually quite comfortable about the Reform result.

They didn’t win loads of seats, but they did win enough that Farage will have 3 other egotistical grifters expecting a slice of the pie and the limelight.

Since Reform is basically ‘Big Nige PLC’ there’s nowhere for an ambitious party MP to go.

So I fully expect a massive bust up and at least 1 resignation or defection by the end of the parliament.

A Conservative friend told me that Britain is being ruled and ruined by “The Blob” and that that is things will not improve after the election. It sounded to me very much like a British variation of the “Deep State” conspiracy in the USA.

That’s precisely what it is, it’s the helpful stock excuse populists use when when they do finally gain control over all the levers of power and can’t get anything done because shouting catchy 3-word slogans doesn’t fly when you actually have to make things happen in office.

Of course the downside of repeatedly hitting this particular button is that it makes your supporters even more conspiratorial and misinformed and makes them that bit more likely to turn on you when someone even nuttier and more conspiratorial (i.e. Reform or MAGA) comes along.

They scream themselves hoarse about liberty when all along they wanted a king.

Ironies upon ironies.

As a councillor we still get plenty of grumbles about bin men being noisy so I imagine these complaints influenced attempts at noise reduction.

I guess they’d prefer we stopped collections and they had a nice, quiet rat infestation instead.

Nobody , I repeat nobody, is to post while dropping the kids off at the pool. Clear?

Well, that’s my STW career over then.

They look absolutely fine.

Assuming the hub’s been assembled correctly then if it’s still slipping I’d look at the Cassette or other factors.

IMPORTANT: Both bearings push out through the non drive side.

Well that’s at least partially answered my question.

Looks like the drive side bearing needs to be unseated and then also pushed through the non-dive side bearing seat in order to extract it.

Which is.. novel.

But does mean if it’s damaged it’s new hub shell time.

I’m also trying to work out how drive side bearing replacement will work as you can’t remove the ring nut to access it.

Except the bit where there’s nowhere secure to store it.

That’s a real shame, if it wasn’t  for that this would almost be a perfect case study for a cargo rig.

I’m a very heavy rider (over 125KG) and run the 54t ratchets for both gravel and MTB with no issues.

But then again, I do keep on top of maintenance and use the correct DT grease.

The higher engagement ratchets are reliable but less tolerant of neglect, give em a clean and a grease a few times a year and they’re generally fine.

Same applies to fast engaging pawl hubs TBH.

The 18 tooth versions are basically as bombproof as hubs get.

Approved!

Apparently he was doing a charity LEJOG for a cancer charity in memory of his recently deceased wife and was trying to bikepack it so that he could maximise the money going to charity.

The Farmer’s an arse and I hope he ends up in court, the cyclist was mildly in the wrong but the response was waaaaaay out of proportion.

The internet needs to find this cyclist and what charity he was cycling to raise money for

This, I’ll drop a few quid in if it can be found and verified.

Donald Trump apparently

The Youtube algorithm seems to have twigged that I’m a middle aged white male with an interest in military history, the great outdoors, barbecuing stuff and with an occasional passing interest in video games.

As a result it constantly hoses my feed with “watch as based sigma male DESTROYS woke SJW with LOGIC” alt-right nonsense. Even creepy Andrew Tate fanboy stuff.

The fact that there appears to be bottomless well of this clap-trap out there and that therefore there must be an audience for it is somewhat depressing.

I’ve run Centrelock for years, always torque’d them up to 40Nm as etched on the lock rings, never had an issue, even as a big lad running 203mm rotors.

YMMV but in my experience, so long as you follow the instructions it’s a lighter, faster to install and remove system.

It’s nearly universal for higher end road/gravel disc brake bikes now so I suspect we’d better get used to it, it’s not going anywhere.

I suspect we’re more likely to get an infuriating third standard than we are to see everyone agreeing on 6-B vs Centrelock…..

…..no SRAM, don’t even think about it I know Centrelock is a Shimano creation but.. NO!

You can also get a Acros headset top cap that allows you to run a normal stem and removes the need for stem cable routing.

It still goes through the headset but it removes the ‘kink’ as it goes around the bar so the dropper and mechanical shifting will work better.

I can see the point of the stem routing if you’re on AXS shifting and dropper so there’s no actual cables running through there, hoses don’t tend to mind tight corners so much.

My first thought was ‘Spinal Tap drummer’ but that still sucks badly she’s great and at 30 she’s not going to get many more shots at Olympic gold.

Poor lass can’t get a break.

He was also an enthusiastic Brexiteer despite having the finance savvy to know what a **** disaster it would be in economic terms.

Disaster for you and I maybe, for the offshore, tax-dodging, regulation-averse, casino capitalist class that funded the leave campaign it’s been great.

The Lib Dems are running a blinder of a campaign!

Thanks!

I must say I had serious doubts about the Ed Davey stunts as they juxtapose quite jarringly with the seriousness with which we treat actual policy but the campaigns teams clearly knew more than I did as it’s helped keep us in peoples’ minds and as a smaller party that’s 80% of the battle. Especially with Farage’s nonsense sucking all the remaining oxygen out of the room.

The decision to concentrate almost all of our limited resources on winnable target seats (mostly in the ‘Blue wall’) also seems to be paying off although I do feel a bit sorry for candidates and activists elsewhere in the country.

Proof of the pudding will be on polling day, it’s not over til’ it’s over.

I still love it that, even when the rest of Scotland basically went almost entirely SNP, Orkney and Shetland remained stubbornly and solidly Lib Dem, just to be awkward.

Personally I don’t see his results as being toxic

His ‘results’ were Brexit, a honking great Tory majority and the most right wing government we’ve had in generations.

I knocked on a lot of doors in 2019, Corbyn came up again and again as.a reason people were voting Conservative.

He may be liked by some on here but electorally with the wider country he was pure poison.

Whether or not you think Starmer has gone too far the other way to compensate is up to you and many of the criticisms are valid. But to think the Labour party would be heading to government now if they still had Corbyn at the helm is willfully ignoring the lessons of the very recent past.

Putin is somehow acceptable, heroic even

Because, put simply  he ‘owns the libs’

*sigh*

Culture wars make fools of us all.

Reforms’ growth actually holds its own risks, especially if it gets a few MPs.

The grifting egomanicacs that tend to be drawn towards leadership roles in populist right wing politics will soon chafe under the yoke of Nige, who doesn’t seem to like sharing the limelight or the funds and the growth of Reform will soon lead to some hilariously vicious  infighting and factionalism.

Of course that’s not to say they can’t truly bugger up the country before that happens, but it’s a matter of when, not if.

Looks like you need a  strategically placed bollard.

Glad you scarded them.off and didnt get too badly hurt, varmits.

Big issue is that you used to have to come to the shows to see the latest kit and grab a bargain on last year’s as the only other option was to wait for articles and adverts in the print mags.

Now the Internet is here those bargains are a click away and you are bombarded with high res, shiny images and in many cases professional video content the moment new stuff launches.

Now Expos need to have another ‘hook’ to bring people in, such as a race (Fort Bill, Ard Rock) a festival with lots of demo options (Malverns), or the chance to schmooze around with the pros (Rouleur Live).

The basic ‘big hall’ show format doesn’t have any of those and they tend to be toe-curlingly expensive to attend, hence why brands are  now staying away.

Lib Dems called for a ceasefire in the 12th of November and have stood by that stance since.

I suspect that Starmer was very nervous about being seen a ‘pro-terrorist’ after such accusations were so stuck so successfully to Corbyn and therefore adopted a the fairly pro-Israeli stance in the immediate aftermath of the Oct 7th atrocities.

Of course now Israeli actions in Gaza over the interveening 6 months have swung the pendulum of public sympathy back in the other direction and, since we don’t seem to like it when our politicians ever change their minds he’s been left on a bit of sticky wicket.

Destabilise and sow doubt/ division.

And his troll farms will be merrily assisting whoever the most divisive parties are in any Western polity, regardless of whether they’re left or right wing.

Or get a bench vice with soft jaws, gently grip the end cap in them with the hub facing up and then hold the rim pull directly up.

If it’s being stubborn try a ‘rolling’ motion to work the cap loose then pull directly up again.

The extra leverage of holding the rim or tyre tends to make cracking them loose a bit easier.

It’s how we deal with stubborn ones in the workshop.

Budleigh Salterton

Handy for The Twilight Rest Home for the terminally short of cash.

I hear room 12 is nice.

That link is NOT safe for work!!!!

It is quite funny though.

Ignore the kit tarts, nowt wrong with a nice straightforward alu trail hardtail, especially one with room for proper sized tyres.

Good choice, may it serve you well.

To be fair the Azov brigade of 2024 is not the Azov brigade of 2014.

Not pretending they’re choirboys but they have worked hard since 2014 to purge the less savoury elements from their structures, they also fought like tigers at the Azovstahl siege so are basically heros to most of Ukraine now.

For those who may be swayed by carping and pearl clutching from Russian outriders regarding this, a brief reminder that Russian maintains an avowedly and openly neo-Nazi formation and, unlike Ukraine, has made zero efforts to reform them.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rusich_Group

that the Tories are presently polling in 5th with 18-25 year olds,

It’s almost as if spending the kast decade increasingly focusing on policies and soundbites that appeal to and benefit brexity pensioners will cost you outside of your core demographic.

The nonsense about national service was just the cherry on top.

I’ve read various takes on Macron’s move and I’ve come away thinking he may have actually played a slight blinder.

Le Pen is basically where UKIP were  in 2010-2015 when they used to do very well in the UK EU elections as they were seem as a ‘safe’ protest vote to poke the sitting government in the eye. Regardless of the fact that their MEP’s once installed were largely incompetent, lazy expenses-hoovers.

Like UKIP they benefit hugely from never having had to actually govern so they can promise the earth and snipe from the sidelines without having a record to defend.

He’s basically called the electorate’s bluff and said ‘so, do you really think you want this lot in charge then?’

If the FN end up with a parliamentary majority they will then actually have to govern and, come the next presidential election  will have a record to be judged on and by that point Macron is betting that the electorate will want the adults back in charge.

If they don’t do well then they loose their ‘we have a mandate, Macron is a dead duck, we are the true voice of France’ shtick they’d otherwise be beating him with for the next few years.

It’s a gamble by any measure but in the situation he was in and in terms of keeping the presidency and executive power out of the hands of the (Russia funded) far right, it might just work.

Scratch one SU-57, Russian Air Defense let a sub-sonic kamikaze drone putter along through over 600KM through Russian airspace and hit one of it’s precious, rare 5th gen fighters.

First 5th gen lost to enemy action ever, that’s got to smart.

Well whatever else happens, Ed Davey seems to be having a fantastic time. Are we sure he isn’t just on holiday?

I must say I find the constant stunts a bit cringey but we’re in a situation where we can release yet another painstakingly researched, fully costed policy that will genuinely improve peoples’ lives and it’ll appear at the bottom of the BBC front page for about a hour if we’re lucky.

All the whilst at the top of the page they breathlessly livestream the minutae of this morning’s reaction to whatever undeliverable fever dream Farage has belched up this morning.

So.. silly stunts to get attention it is then I guess.