Genius.

@phut

How does it pedal? On ss, you standup a lot and mash. Wouldn’t having pivot around bb bob quite a lot?

An update.

I kind of gave up on budget option – just cannot find anything nearby. Although this one: http://www.on-one.co.uk/c/q/bikes/mountain-bikes/deedar looks ok, but not sure if it can get SS dropouts – waiting for answer from On-One.

Other than that, have explosif & transam on short list, both are about the same price (also instigator is about the same). There are other options in UK, but prefer dealing local due to potential warranty stuff etc.

Transition has 2 year warranty, whereas Kona has lifetime (of owner). No major differences in geo. I guess being CrMo repairs are quite possible, so warranty is not a deal breaker.

Anyone wants to chip-in with first-hand experiences?

Hmmm, tensioners are only ever a stopgap/bodge, at least in my experience. They tend to disintegrate at annoying times.

Now you got me thinking again 🙂

ST on TransAM in 18″ is a tad too long, looks nice though.

Seems there is no budget option (other than that brand-x). Thx everyone for great ideas, will update when I decide which way to go.

Thx, all good options size-wise, but not really on a budget. Will try to find a used one for one of these.

Not really bothered about being SS specific, I’m fine with tensioner.

Looks ok, will check for frame only options (quick search shows only full bike is available).

Any other suggestions?

Search for iDiet here. Lots of sensible advice to be found. Mostly sugar and high-glycemic index carbs.

Whilst I’m more than capable of building a machine myself, why would I bother? I don’t need an all singing all dancing fully RAIDed up conventional server for tonnes of data storage and loads of terminals all connecting at the same time.

RAID is for reliability (ie., one of your disks dies, it keeps going). You can just as well have ‘loads of terminals’ connecting to mini, but that’s besides the point.

The other issue is I have ZERO working knowledge of Linux (well I have a few hours of playing with it and not managing to make it do anything I wanted to!) and whilst I’m mechanically minded, I’m not into using command lines unless I really have to to be honest.

That could be an issue, but there are many tutorials online and setting up basic stuff is no harder than on Mac OSX.

How so higher reliability?

Better HW (mainly ECC RAM, better cooling and good hard disks). And more reliable operating system – have seen quite few freezes/crashes on my MacBook, whereas Linux machines keep going, given that HW is good (ie, no crappy HW with crappy drivers, but this goes for any OS).

Besides, if anything broke inside the Mac Mini they can be stripped and rebuilt in about 5 minutes flat, and it the MoBo went south, it would be covered under warranty.

Sure, and how long would it take for warranty claim to go through? Can you afford the downtime? Having a server with off-the-shelf components means you go into a store, buy a replacement and just fix it. In the meantime, you put the other one into warranty and have it as a spare.

Also, this was also my point about using a Mac mini as the server, as at least one of the terminals would be a Mac Mini too. If the server died for whatever reason, I could swap in the other machine with a clean HDD, and do a full restore from the Server’s backup disc and be up and running again inside a couple of hours tops.

That could work. But take into consideration what other mini is used for. Could it happen that somebody is in the middle of work on it and just grabbing it would not work?

I’m not convinced I need the belt and braces approach when I would have built in redundancy within my setup and the technical knowledge onsite (me) to physically get everything working again. Time is money and all that, and my time is much cheaper than an IT geek who’s come to fix a server I know nothing about!

True, in the end, you have to decide what works best for you.

But I have seen to many ‘consumer’ devices being abused for servers and then wondering why it fails/takes so long to fix.

Just build (or get someone to build it) a server from standard components, ECC RAM, few high-quality disks in RAID and run Linux on top. You can use SSDs (in RAID!) but I wouldn’t bother, I/O should not be an issue in your case.

You will get higher reliability and it will be much easier (and cheaper) to fix when something goes wrong (and it will). Once you get it going, it is not more work to keep it going maintenance wise.

Nothing wrong with mini, it will work, but you have to ask yourself what is the cost of server not being accessible for X period of time (X might be hours or even days in worst cases).

As you figured, do backups of all business data regularly, like each day. rsync is good enough (but not so simple as Time Machine). Also, do not forget to do occasional restore test, at least once per month or two.

Sunline logo thins. Won’t use anything else now.

These are really really good. And cheap. Get them (better get a few) while there is still stock.

This is quick 🙂

Great sugestions. Not sure if whippet can take small drops, its more of an race frame?

I have the white/orange one.
It really looks kind of ‘mushroomy’, but I do not care.

It fits my head perfectly, can wear it all day long, ventilation is good, you get nice breeze on the way down.

Hopefully, did not had misfortune of testing it in serious crash yet (only minor scratches).

I did pay cca 110 pounds (Race model) for it though, would not buy it otherwise (would probably go for urge enduro-o-matic, but didn’t get a change to test it for fit so cannot compare).

Try here:
http://www.wiggle.co.uk/h/option/Vouchers

Well, considering you can buy a 170mm Solo Air, it can be done.
I’m not sure if there is a difference in rod length or similar between 160 and 170, maybe check in spare parts catalog?

I know that 170 can be spaced down to 160…

EDIT: this is for 2011 model

Take a look at this: DGC MOD

I plan to do it in next days on my Float R (spicy frame). Comes out much cheaper than volume spacers from Fox.

Well, if they have to type in percentage discount to get from 33 to 10, it is slightly more complicated than subtracting the two.

EDIT: too late

Vrhnika, 15 km south of ljubljana.

2008 had some (zestys had more), 2009 was supposedly fixed. However, my friends 2010 also cracked very quickly after purchase, mine 2010 is still holding up.

To OP: really too much for 2009 516, I would save some more and get old model new.

Too much.

LBS here (Slovenia) has one 2011 316 for 1650 pounds (this is the last one in large, old stock but all of it was 30% off). I had mine 2010 216 for 1200 new (from Austria), with upgrades it is similarly speced to this years 516 but at much lower price.

Not suggesting that you get it from here, just that you can still get good deals on last years models (which is somewhat improved with tapered headtube and 142 through-axle).

Superstar pads suck balls.

+1

Kevlar lasted only a quarter of formula original sintered, had less stopping power and faded faster. Maybe I was lucky getting some from wierd batch, but now I’m sold on original/SwissTop ones (at least for formula).

If anything, take 1 point from ‘death by presentation’.

Before you even start on presentation, set your goal.
Obviously, you have that covered by ‘This presentation should allow me to get more money from them’ 🙂
So now thing about the content to reach that, and then work on best way to present that. I’ve found the 3 major/3 minor points per presentation as suggested enough – it makes you think about important points.

For me, sintered in Alps area will last for something like 20-30 k of vertical meters. They grab better (once warmed up), they dissipate heat from rotor better and thus fade less. These are very technical descends where you are constantly on brakes lasting for 600-700 vertical meters.

In my experience kevlar/organic fade much much faster (and kevlar from superstar lasts for like 5-8 k vertical meters).

For normal riding where you are not on brakes most of the time, anything will work, but sintered works best for me. This is with 203 mm rotor in front.

Death by PowerPoint from Alexei Kapterev

I actually bought his book, it is a nice read.

Sintered with big rotors (at least in front).

a)
I’ve used Student t-test (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Student’s_t-test – url tag not working for hypen in link). However, sets should be normally distributed to get meaningfully results (among other things).

See wikipedia page, there are hints on what you could use instead.

b) probably, but I prefer to use R (see R-project[/url]) which has these things build-in

Doesn’t camelback also have lifetime on bladders? I remember this when I bought mine (like 4 years ago).

Travel to Sarajevo 🙂

Very nice, although I would never put those tires on 160 travel bike 😉

Whats the deal with coffee? Does it have any purpose in iDiet or is just mentioned due to ‘allowed’ status?
Asking as I do not drink it at all.

Metal pads. SS kevlar did not work for me (4-5000 vertical m vs 20000 for original resin formula). Now run original metal and still going strong (after ~10 000 vm).

Yeah, read the book instead. It is interesting enough to kill time, movie was somewhat disappointing (although watchable). Book gives more detail of his adventures up to the accident.

I really rate “Core Python” by Wesley J Chun

I agree, this is excellent book. But as you said, you need to know the basics.

Another great book for referring to is Python Cookbook. It contains many recipes for all sorts of stuff. Really handy if you know your way around but are not familiar with python libraries themselves.

Dive Into Python[/url] is really good and beginner oriented.

I did not had luck with superstar kevlar on my Formula RX.
Original formula organic pads lasted half of year (~20k vertical meters). Then I’ve tried kevlar ones from superstar, only lasted about a month (3-4k vm). Although I must admit, breaking power-wise, they were fine.

Now run original sintered for few months still going strong with more power than kevlar ones (mostly on long descends when breaks heat-up and organic ones start to lose bite).

Considering what life I got out of kevlar, the original ones are comparable in price. Maybe I got a bad batch, I have no idea. Some of the guys around here are using them and are happy though.

Update: yeah, this is riding in Alps area, so no major mud. Although these is some now in winter, not nearly as much as in UK I would imagine.

Well, Spec Enduro is very popular around here for AM type of Alps rides (located in Slovenia). I ride Spicy which is also quite common.

Body shape and your preference. Some like smaller frames, some larger (for same body size/shape). You also get used to it (if it does not cause pain etc.). I actually prefer smaller frame for climbing (albeit technical) as well (+ 50mm stem, will go to 35 mm).

I found a shop doing all the hope hoops for £260 inc postage!

Where?

si_progressivebikes

We are doing them for £275 posted.

I’ve sent an email yesterday morning regarding postage to Slovenia. Have not received reply yet. I cannot chose Slovenia when I register, thus I’m assuming you do not post here?

Interested in hope hoops as well.

who needs a granny ring?

You, when you come to Slovenia 🙂

I cannot even begin to imagine not using granny myself. I use 20-34 and know people that have 20-36, even though they are very fit. Usual routes are up by 500-1500 meters and then down. Of course, there are XC routes that may not require granny.

Well, its “ok”, I guess. It does hold the bike, but you cannot rotate it, plastic bits are not strong enough to hold it in any other way than what gravity dictates. Some DIY might improve this.